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| Cherokee Nation (historical) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cherokee Nation (historical) |
| Native name | ᏣᎳᎩ ᎠᎹᎾᏗ |
| Settlement type | Indigenous polity |
| Established title | Protohistoric period |
| Established date | c. 16th century |
| Subdivision type | Cultural area |
| Subdivision name | Southeastern Woodlands |
Cherokee Nation (historical)
The Cherokee Nation (historical) was an Indigenous polity of the Southeastern Woodlands whose people inhabited parts of present-day North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina before extensive displacement in the 19th century. Influenced by interactions with Spanish Empire, British Empire, and later the United States, the Cherokee adopted, adapted, and negotiated social, political, and legal institutions amid pressures from settlers, traders, missionaries, and federal agents. Their history intersects with events such as the Yamasee War, the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, and the era of Indian removal under the Andrew Jackson administration.
Archaeological and ethnohistorical research ties Cherokee origins to Mississippian cultural centers such as Chucalissa, Etowah Indian Mounds, and Cahokia while historical contacts involved Spanish expeditions like those of Hernando de Soto and colonial encounters with figures such as James Oglethorpe and William Byrd II. Early European accounts, including reports by John Lawson and Bernard Romans, describe Cherokee towns like Chota, Tuckasegee, and Nikwasi and note kinship with other peoples such as the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Choctaw, and Chickasaw. The Cherokee oral traditions and scholars like James Mooney connect migration narratives to cultural transformation during the protohistoric period and into the colonial era.
Traditional Cherokee society featured matrilineal kinship and clan structures including clans such as the Wolf clan, Deer clan, and Bird clan (sometimes recorded by observers like Samuel Worcester and James Vann). Political life centered on town councils and headmen in red and white towns, exemplified by principal towns like Keowee and Great Tellico, with later centralized institutions emerging around leaders such as Little Turkey, Black Fox (Cherokee chief), and Doublehead. Interactions with the Cherokee Council and later national bodies brought leaders like John Ross (Cherokee chief), Major Ridge, and Elias Boudinot (Cherokee) into diplomacy and factional politics during negotiations over acculturation, sovereignty, and removal.
The Cherokee engaged in land negotiations formalized in treaties including the Treaty of Hopewell (1785), the Treaty of New Echota (1835), and treaties with states such as Georgia (U.S. state), North Carolina, and Tennessee. Pressure from settlers, land companies like the Georgia Land Lotteries, and state officials such as George R. Gilmer intensified conflicts resolved in part through litigation like Worcester v. Georgia and federal policies under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Diplomacy involved agents including Benjamin Hawkins, missionaries like Samuel Worcester, and interpreters such as John Norton (Teyoninhokovrawen), while pan-Indigenous diplomacy connected the Cherokee to councils with the Six Nations and other Southern nations.
The forced removal of Cherokee people—often termed the Trail of Tears—followed contentious processes involving the Treaty of New Echota, enforcement by federal troops under officials such as Winfield Scott, and resistance from Cherokee leaders like John Ross (Cherokee chief). Removal marches passed through locales such as Fort Cass, Ross's Landing (Chattanooga), and along routes converging on Indian Territory near Fort Gibson and Tahlequah. The removal caused high mortality amid winter marches, disease, and inadequate supplies, and produced legal and political responses involving figures such as Martin Van Buren and critics like Davy Crockett and abolitionists who opposed removal policies.
In Indian Territory, Cherokee political life reconstituted through institutions including the reestablished Cherokee Nation (19th century) constitutional government, a written constitution modeled in part on United States Constitution, judicial systems with judges like John Ross (Cherokee chief) involved in governance, and economic enterprises including farms, plantations, and businesses operated by Cherokee leaders such as Stand Watie and Elias Boudinot (Cherokee). The Cherokee engaged in debates over slavery, adopting and contesting policies that mirrored Southern states, producing internal divisions that surfaced during the American Civil War with alignments to the Confederate States of America and the Union (American Civil War), fracturing communities and resulting in guerrilla leaders and generals like Stand Watie.
Cherokee cultural resilience encompassed the Cherokee syllabary created by Sequoyah (George Gist), a vibrant oral tradition recorded by ethnographers including James Mooney and artists such as Esther Hill Hawks who documented ceremonial life like the Stomp Dance and festivals at towns like Echota. Missionary activity by David Brown (missionary), Samuel Worcester, and institutions like the Brainerd Mission introduced Christianity and literacy alongside retention of traditional practices and medicine men and women. The Cherokee language, an Iroquoian tongue related to languages of the Seneca and Onondaga, adapted to print culture through newspapers such as the Cherokee Phoenix edited by Elias Boudinot (Cherokee).
Historical interpretation of the Cherokee Nation (historical) involves scholarship by historians such as William G. McLoughlin, Theda Perdue, and Michael D. Green, debates over sovereignty and recognition involving the United States Supreme Court, and cultural revitalization efforts by descendant communities including the Cherokee Nation (modern), the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Memorialization occurs at sites like Trail of Tears National Historic Trail and museums such as the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, while contemporary legal and cultural disputes reference treaties, federal statutes, and landmark cases including Worcester v. Georgia and ongoing dialogues with institutions like the Smithsonian Institution and universities that curate Cherokee archives and collections.
Category:Cherokee history