Background information of the Cherokee Indians

 

http://ww2.valdosta.edu/~blely/ebook.html

• Cherokee Indians (Name)- The name Cherokee comes from a Greek word that means "people of a different speech". The Cherokee nation is also the biggest tribal nation in the United States. The Cherokee Indians used to call themselves Aniyunwiya, but they now go by the name Cherokee.
• Language- A majority of the Cherokee Indians speak English but there are also around 20,000 Cherokees that speak the Cherokee Indian language which is also better known as  Tsalagi.
• Population-  There are an estimated 370,000 Cherokees living in all different areas of the world, on reservations as well as off of reservations. The Cherokee Indians reside in many places including Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky.
• Subsistence- The Cherokee Indians were hunters and gatherers. They grew most of there own foods and had many crops. Woman were in charge of gathering, while the man were in charge of the hunting. They still do many of these things today, but not as much.
• Kinship- The Cherokee have many types of kinship including the matrilineal system, the clan system, the matrilocal system, and town councils. These kinship systems are unique because they revolve around women instead of men. When a man and woman got married they would live in the woman's mothers home and if they ever got divorced the man would have to move out. Woman are very powerful in the Cherokee Nation. There are also seven different clans that The Cherokee could belong to, which include Long Hair, Paint, Bird, Wolf, Deer, Blind Savannah, and Holly.
• Marriage and family- When a man and woman get married they live in the woman's house with her family which includes the woman's mother, sisters and their husbands, there children, and unmarried brothers. If the husband and wife get divorced the man is forced to move out of his wives house and into the house of his own mother. When parents divorced the children would always stay with the mother and her family because their culture believes that children are only related to the mother.
• Gender issues- I could not find any issues that the Cherokee had with gender, but I did find the gender roles in the Cherokee nation. Unlike other cultures Cherokee woman were thought of as "warriors" and superior to men in some aspects of their lives. Women run the house in the Cherokee nation. Cherokee woman also controlled their families, had a political voice, and had the opportunity to fight. Cherokee men did more of the dirty work and were more hands on. They built things, hunted, and helped protect their family.  
• Geographic location- There are many residing places for Cherokees around the United States. Most tribes are located in the Southeast, this includes Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Kentucky. (See map on left side of the blog)

References-

Redish, Laura

1998 Native Languages of the Americas. Electronic document,

http://www.bigorrin.org/cherokee_kids.htm, accessed July 15.

 

Miller J.

1998 The Cherokee. Electronic document,

http://www.merceronline.com/Native/native03.htm, accessed July 15.

 

Cherokee Nation

2013 About the Nation. Electronic document,

http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation.aspx, accessed July 15.

 

American Indian Heritage Foundation

2013 Cherokee Indians. Electronic document,

http://indians.org/articles/cherokee-indians.html, accessed July 15.