Check out a newer (2020) updated version of this post on my new blog: Way Back When Wednesday: The Cherokee Nation
Did you know that November is Native American heritage month?
Well, it is!
Since 1990, November has been federally recognized as Native American Heritage Month. It’s interesting that the month distinguished as Native American heritage month is also the month that holds a day that most Native Americans use as a day of remembrance and mourning, Thanksgiving, see my post on the First Thanksgiving here. I have always been incredibly interested in Native American history and even took a course specifically dedicated to it in college.
I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about the Cherokee Tribe of Cherokee, North Carolina, which we recently visited. They have a rich and incredibly sad history as most tribes do. The Cherokee were part of the Iroquois lineage, which is interesting because the Iroquoian tribes were one of the Cherokee’s traditional enemies. They were one of the only politically integrated tribes at the time of European colonization. The tribe controlled nearly 400,000 square miles including what is now eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
France, Spain, and England all tried to colonize the South Eastern part of North America including on Cherokee lands. The tribe chose the British to align themselves with during the French and Indian War of 1754-63 mostly because enemy tribes sided with the French. Although the Native Americans resented the new British power and presence in America after their defeat of the French, the natives resented colonist encroachment on their land even more. Not to mention, the British constructed 2 forts on the Cherokee lands during the war without Cherokee permission or knowledge.
Engraving by Isaac Basire of Seven Delegates To London in 1730 n.d. These Cherokee Indians accompanied Sir Alexander Coming to England, 1730.
The colonists viewed Native Americans as pawns of the King; however, in truth, they were fighting for their independence and to protect their homelands during the American Revolution. As the Revolutionary War loomed in North America the Cherokee decided to support the crown hoping for the enforcement of boundary laws. However, as Britain often did, when colonizing a new land – they began to destroy Native American villages with their Scorched Earth Policy. The policy was a military tactic that aimed to destroy anything of use to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from a location.
After several failed attacks on colonist strongholds, the Cherokee power was broken. The Cherokee sued for peace and for the low, low price of gigantic tracts of their land in North and South Carolina; they got it! They had peace for a little over 2 years when they became involved in more Revolutionary War drama. This led to them having to give up additional lands. When the Revolutionary War ended the Cherokee adapted very quickly.
The Cherokee are known for their assimilation to American culture and even formed a government based on the new American system. They adopted colonial farming and housing, as well as, a written Constitution. That didn’t really matter to the colonists when gold was discovered in Georgia on Cherokee land. Colonists demanded that the Cherokee were removed from their land. Fair, right?
The Cherokee fought against their removal for a long time but after multiple court cases, there were some within the tribe that became divided on the removal. The cause was the signing of the Treaty of New Echota in 1835(Calloway). Some of the Cherokee who had resisted the removal efforts began to feel that they had little alternative. And in all honesty, they truly didn’t have an alternative, because in 1838 federal troops rounded up the Cherokee people and placed them in internment camps before they were moved west (Calloway).
The ethnic cleansing of the Cherokee nation by the U.S. Army, 1838. This painting, The Trail of Tears, was painted by Robert Lindneux in 1942. | Public Domain
That move west was on the Trail of Tears. Over 3,000 Native Americans died on this march west. Many of the Cherokee died on the Trail of Tears, a soldier who was present for the Trail of Tears march described it saying “I fought through the civil war and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by thousands, but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew” (Calloway). The Cherokee were one of the many Eastern tribes that were moved to the west. After all of that, the Cherokee also had to deal with strange lands in the west.
“The Trail of Tears, ” painted by Max D. Standley displaced in R. Michelson Galleries.
Some of the Cherokee were able to avoid the forced march west and continued their lives in North Carolina as part of the Eastern Cherokees. The western tribe was able to reconstruct its government and established churches. Where the Cherokee were once again known as the civilized Native Americans.
See, it’s a sad history, as most Native American history is and I feel it’s something that we need to be more educated about in general. If I hadn’t seen a random post on Instagram I never would have known that November is Native American heritage month. It’s given no media attention what so ever. It’s an important part of our history and one that needs to be remembered.
References
Calloway, Colin G. First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History, Fourth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012.
“Cherokee,” Encyclopedia Britannica, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cherokee-people
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