Principal people is an apt designation for this tribe, as they held land in what is now four Southern states, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Tennessee. Their hunting range stretched across Kentucky and into the Ohio River valley, which brought them into conflict with other powerful tribes including the Iroquois and Shawnee. In the South, they were rivals and sometimes allies of the Creek, whose range bordered Cherokee land in Georgia. The Cherokee are an Iroquoian-speaking people whose legends tell of having migrated from the Great Lakes Region, though exactly when or why is unclear. In 1657, English chronicles tell of having to oust an incoming Native group called "Rickahokans" from the Falls of the James, near Richmond. Were these people the Cherokee on their way further south? No one knows for certain. Some English traders began to deal with the Cherokee as such in the 1680's but it wasn't until the expedition of English peace emissary Henry Timberlake in 1761 that the world got an extensive description of the Cherokee before contact with White settlers obliterated much of their ancient ways.
Throughout the eighteenth century, Cherokee society was founded on matrilineal lines, with children taking their mother's clan and ascribing their status from hers. Women held important positions in Cherokee society, holding their own women's councils and with the War Women, Beloved Women or Ghigaus having a right to sit on the men's council and make the final decision on war and/or the disposition of prisoners. Because of the importance of women, people have gotten the notion that their great-grandmother was a Cherokee princess. However, the Cherokee did not practice royalty. Chiefs were hereditary, as they had to be connected to a powerful clan that traditionally appointed chiefs, including the principal chief, but not in the sense that Europeans used to dealing with royalty or nobility understood it. Each man aspired to leadership within the Cherokee Nation had to prove his right through deeds in war, hunting, diplomacy and other endeavors. The last full-blooded Cherokee Principal Chief appointed through the hereditary system was Pathkiller (1749-1827). After his death, the Cherokees appointed or elected a Principal Chief, many of whom were mixed race. The traditional clan system was abolished in the early 19th century, though clan membership is still part of the Cherokee culture.
The Cherokee could be fierce warriors with anyone who encroached on their lands, whether it be other Native tribes or White settlers. However, they were also peaceful neighbors if treated with dignity and respect. Like most Iroquoian people, they were farmers who grew maize, squash and beans to sustain themselves in addition to hunting and fishing. Their administrative network was divided among the Lower Towns, in South Carolina, the Middle Towns, in Georgia and North Carolina, and the Upper or Overhill Towns in Tennessee. They were quick to assimilate aspects of European culture. Cherokee dress evolved from the traditional Woodlands styles to buckskin shirts and breeches which most people now associate with frontiersmen such as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. In reality, these men and others who spent time on the frontier copied them from the Cherokee, including the coonskin cap. Later, Cherokee men adopted European dress, with the exception of a blanket-style coat and turban, much as Sequoyah is often pictured as wearing.They adapted in other ways, too. Cherokee farmers prospered, and some elite families owned plantations with slaves. They reformed their traditional government to an elective system mirroring that of the new United States, with their own court system and later printing. Elite status boys were sent to White schools for an English education. Nor were the Cherokee opposed to mixed-race marriage and many immigrants, particularly Scots, intermarried with Cherokee, mostly women since it was the woman's clan and status that prevailed. Thus, many Cherokee leaders of the 19th century, such as John Watts, John Ridge, John Ross, James Vann and others had significant mixed-race ancestry.
Throughout the 19th century, the Cherokee sided with first the French and then the British, trying to hedge their bets as to which Colonial power would protect their precious hunting ranges from Settlers and other tribes. Ultimately, none proved able to stop the flow of White settlement into the Southern colonies and across the Appalachian Mountains. The Cherokee fought a long-running war with White settlers (1776-1795), in an effort to stop encroachment on their hunting range but to no avail. In the early 19th century, some Cherokee chose to voluntarily emigrate to Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma to get ahead of advancing White settlement. They became the nucleus of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee, receiving federal recognition in 1950.
But more tragedy was to come. For all their assimilation and desire to work with their White neighbors rather than against them, the Cherokee had incurred the jealousy of Settlers who coveted their land, believing that prosperous farms must be the result of exceptionally fertile land, not hard work. Some leaders believed that ceding land and voluntarily emigrating was the best way. Others wanted to stay and fight. The resulting rift brought, as it did to many tribes at this time, a bitter civil war and ultimately a blood feud the effects of which are still fresh today. The Cherokee fought their battle against Indian Removal in the Courts, taking their case to the United States Supreme Court several times and receiving rulings which declared Indian Removal unconstitutional. However, a minor gold strike in Georgia sealed the fate of the Cherokee as Georgia began removals on its own. The Cherokee took those cases to court and won them, too.Despite this, the Jackson administration insisting on removing the Cherokee, along with members of the other Southeastern tribes. Jackson said that Chief Justice John Marshall had made his decision, "now let him enforce it. Burn 'em out and they'll go!" Leaders such as John Ross dickered with the government, gaining the right to supervise the removal of their people in 1838-1839. Despite careful planning, conditions during the wintertime removal were harsh and over 4,000 of the 12,000 people who made the trek died. These Cherokees became the basis of the modern Cherokee Nation, which received federal recognition in 1976.
The Eastern Band Cherokee, living in North Carolina, tried another approach. Working through connections with sympathetic Whites, such as trader and later Principal Chief William Holland Thomas, who was a lawyer, too, they were able to purchase a large tract of land which became Qualla Boundary, the nucleus of the Eastern Band Cherokee in North Carolina today. As the land wasn't owned by Natives, who by law couldn't own land, it was owned by Whites who could allow Natives to live on it if they wished. Later, the federal government took the land in trust for the Eastern Band and gave them federal recognition as a tribe. Some heartbroken Cherokee, who couldn't take the trek to Oklahoma or who became too homesick to stay, drifted back to North Carolina to remain on what was left of their land and their descendants remain today.
All three recognized tribes eventually prospered, setting up farms, schools, businesses, newspapers, court and governance systems and the like. Though they make some incoming through gaming and tourism, most Cherokee also support themselves through their own labor and ingenuity, as did their ancestors in the Southeast. It's a heritage to be proud of.
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