The Cherokee Tribe in the United States - Research Paper Example

? Section/# The Cherokee: A Discussion and Analysis The Cherokee tribe, like so many other tribes throughoutthe United States, is one that does not have a definitively well understood history prior to its engagement with Europeans. However, regardless of the relative lack of understanding that exists with regards to the history of the Cherokee people, the following analysis will seek to trace several of the theories of where this people originally hailed from, the cultural and historical elements that helped to define them, the impacts of European contact, and the subsequent development and evolution of the tribe as a unique function of the way that it interacted with the people and cultures around it. Although a great deal of emphasis has been placed upon the interaction between Europeans and Native Americans, the reality of the fact is that rather than approaching this issue from the split standpoint of understanding that two separate entities existed at each and every juncture, a far more effective means of interpretation has to do with the melding of culture and the means through which unique dynamics in the Cherokee experience came to be evidenced as a result of the process of acculturation. Firstly, it must be understood that the geographic representation of the Cherokee people was mainly concentric within the now modern states of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. As a function of this level of geographic representation, the Cherokee people have oftentimes been referred to as those who lived in the mountains by contemporary Indian tribes. Interestingly, whereas many other Native American tribes were defined as nomadic, the Cherokee people could be defined as “semi-nomadic” (Emerald, 2012, p. 44). This is due primarily to the fact that individual branches of the tribe tended to inhabit specific regions, and cultivate crops. These crops included but were not limited to squash, beans, sunflowers, and different types of corn. So great was the emphasis upon agriculture that the Cherokee put forward that the introduction of a specific hybrid of corn was developed as a result of their agricultural endeavors. To specific theories exist with regards to the ultimate origin of the Cherokee tribe. Due to the fact that the Cherokees native-language was determined by linguists and anthropologists as uniquely Iroquoian, the most prominent theory suggests that the Cherokee tribe migrated from the Great Lakes region approximately 500 to 700 years prior to first contact with the Europeans (Chambers, 2013, p. 26). The ultimate purpose for this migration is little known; however, myths and legends exist with regards to the fact that other Iroquois nations banished this particular group of individuals from the Great Lakes regions. The subsequent removal and forced exodus led this tribe to inhabit a region that few other native peoples wanted; namely the Appalachian mountain range. A secondary theory that exists with regards the origin of the Cherokee people posits the belief that this particular tribe of Native Americans was an offshoot of the mound building Native Americans that inhabited parts of Mississippi. However, further ethnological and anthropological work, as well as a great deal of archaeological analysis has revealed the fact that this particular theory does not have a high level of evidence to support it. Moreover, the secondary theory promotes an understanding that the Cherokee people had been living within the region of the southeastern states for a period of over 1000 years; a fact that no direct archaeological evidence that is thus far been uncovered and/or analyzed denotes (Blackburn, 2013, p. 16). The first contact with Europeans was with an expedition led by Hernando De Soto. As such, like so many of the contacts initially made with Europeans, relations were friendly and ultimately somewhat profitable to both sides (Greg & Wishart, 2012, p. 11). The Native Americans received traded goods in exchange for raw material, guidance, and furs. Yet, as the realities of colonization of the New World began to set in, the Cherokee people came in less contact with the Spanish and a greater level of contact with the British. As such, the British sought to utilize the Cherokees as a buffer against Spanish colonialism within Florida and throughout portions of the southeast. Not surprisingly, a series of trade cooperation soon began to develop between the Cherokee and the British as well as a level of land agreement that specifically forbade further settlement of designated Cherokee lands. Not surprisingly, the ability of such a treaty to address the litany of different stakeholders within the colonies and the perennial demand for further access to cheap and available land was not effective in protecting the rights of the Cherokee people. As such, encroachment and continual destruction of guaranteed lands and rights was a perennial process that this particular tribe was forced to accept; beginning as early as the late 16th century. However, a fundamental mistake is oftentimes been made with regards to understanding the plight of Native Americans within the United States. Ultimately, many scholars have come to an understanding of the fact that the Native Americans were a separate and distinct people; somehow virgin and untouched by the impacts of early acculturation. However, even a cursory review into family history, genetics, and/or the makeup of society beginning in the late 16th century and extending into the current era denotes the fact that a great deal of Cherokee intermarriage and cultural integration took place. A very high percentage of people that reside within the area of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee can trace their lineage back to a full blooded Cherokee individual at some point in their family tree. Whereas it is of course true that acculturation and intermarriage took place within a litany of different tribes, the level of acculturation and intermarriage that place within the Cherokee tribe was perhaps highest of all of the Native American tribes that were exposed to European and eventual American colonization of their lands and integration within their culture. A very clear example of this acculturation, and the forced nature by which it took place, it can be denoted that the George Washington appointed what was termed as “Indian agent” George Hawkins, as a means of “civilizing” the South Eastern American Indians (Smith, 2010, p. 88). The ultimate purpose behind this was not only as a means of integrating them with the current society, it was most certainly also contingent upon seeking to strengthen the defenses of the United States and provide a joint identity between two otherwise very dissimilar groups of people. Although this process was engaged with good intentions, the sociological ramifications of seeking to actively force these individuals away from their native culture and demand and integration with the newer culture. As a direct result of this level of acculturation, the history of the Cherokee, as compared to the joint history of the colonial experience and the means through which individuals within this tribe identified themselves as compared to “the other” is somewhat different than many other tribal experiences within the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Sadly, the remaining members of the Cherokee tribe, those that had not yet become fully acculturated into the society and maintained a distinct and individualized Cherokee representation of identity, were eventually removed from their southeastern lands and forced out West onto what has now become known as “the Trail of tears” (Hancock, 2013, p. 3). Scholarship remains split with regards to the ultimate intent of this Trail of tears. Many individuals are of the opinion that it was specifically planned to take place during the coldest months of the years with the ultimate intention of getting the numbers of these tribes and performing something of a passive genocide of their members. Others denote the fact that it was merely another example of the continued repression of tribal rights and an ignorance or abrogation of the existing treaties that had been signed that helps to guarantee the Cherokees the lands that they had been given. As has happened with so many Native American Indian tribes over the past several decades, slow but steady cultural shifts and the pervasive powers of globalization began to erode the tribal identity that many Cherokee members had with their respective cultural group. Whether it was the removal from the land that they originally occupied, further removal to reservations, and the hardships of cultural loss/drain that European customs and culture has effected upon them, the Cherokee have fared no better than a litany of other Native Americans who have seen their culture and way of life utterly dismantled and destroyed by a systematic hardships forced upon them by those who claim to have “settled” the United States (Vick, 2010, p. 9). A recent resurgence in Native American pride and the necessity to preserve the remaining rituals and beliefs that the Cherokee people had so long revered has come to exist in many parts of the United States. As such, funding from state and federal entities is currently directed at making these cultural realties a core part of the way in which further education and/or monetary aid is administered. Although these impacts have gone a long way in helping to promote a further level of appreciation and pride in the old ways, it is still unknown as to whether or not such efforts can work in the long run and undue many of the pressures and allure that a “modern” lifestyle has to offer. References Blackburn, M. (2012). Return to the Trail of Tears. (Cover story). Archaeology, 65(2), 53-64. Chambers, I. (2013). A Cherokee Origin for the ‘Catawba’ Deerskin Map ( c .1721). Imago Mundi, 65(2), 207-216. doi:10.1080/03085694.2013.784564 Emerald, C. (2012). The Cherokee Nation vs. The State of Georgia. Cherokee Nation vs. The State of Georgia, 1. Gregg, M. T., & Wishart, D. M. (2012). The price of Cherokee removal. Explorations In Economic History, 49(4), 423-442. doi:10.1016/j.eeh.2012.07.005 HANCOCK, J. (2013). Shaken Spirits. Journal Of The Early Republic, 33(4), 643-673. SMITH, K. (2010). "I Look on You… As My Children": Persistence and Change in Cherokee Motherhood, 1750-1835. North Carolina Historical Review, 87(4), 403-430. Vick, R. (2011). Cherokee Adaptation to the Landscape of the West and Overcoming the Loss of Culturally Significant Plants.American Indian Quarterly, 35(3), 394-417. Read More