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The Cherokee Indians

The Cherokee Indians


The American Indian History in the Eastern part of the country is always
associated with the Cherokee Indian nation. The Cherokee's were by far the
largest and most advanced of the tribes when Europeans first arrived and came in
contact with Native Americans. There are too many tribes to go over background
on every one of them, so I'm going to focus on the Cherokee's since many of
their ways and customs are so similar to all the other tribes in the East.
When Europeans first arrived in North America, the Cherokees occupied a
large expanse of territory in the Southeast. Their homeland included mountains
and valleys in the southern part of the Appalachian Mountain chain. Their
territory stretched from North Carolina to Virginia to Tennessee, South Carolina
and Alabama. They spoke a dialect of Iroquoian language and their ancestral
relatives (the Iroquois) occupied much of the Northeast cultural area.
The name Cherokee was probably given to them by outsiders since the word
Cherokee means, "people of different speech." The name the Cherokee's had for
themselves was Ani-yun-wiya which means, "real people."
Villages were placed along rivers and streams so they could take
advantage of the rich black soil for farming. Corn was their main source of food,
along with wild plants and roots that were common to their homeland. They used
spears, traps, and fishing lines with hooks to catch many different kinds of
fish. They also used an interesting method of poisoning an area of water to kill
the fish and gather them up as they floated to the surface.
The Cherokees were also skilled hunters. They hunted large animals, such
as deer and bear, with bows and arrows. They covered themselves in entire
deerskins, antlers and all, and used deer calls to lure the animals to them.
They also hunted small game with blowguns that were accurate from up to 60 feet
away.
The products of their hunts were not only used for food, but for
clothing as well. They...