Native Life: The Seven Cherokee Clans

The clan is an important concept in many tribal societies throughout the world.  In many Native societies in North America, the clan was as important as a person's immediate family.  Clan bloodlines, either matrilineal or patrilineal, depending on the tribe, held property and determined inheritance.  They enforced laws against incest and adultery, as well as exacted vengeance for murder, thus exerting powerful social control.  Often, membership in a clan determined who one could or could not marry.  A man could not marry into his mother's, or sometimes his father's clan to prevent inbreeding and incest.  Children were reckoned as belonging to their mother's clan and certain clans traditionally produced war or peace leaders or medicine men.  Through the clan, women could exert as powerful an influence over family and tribal affairs as men.

Misunderstandings about how Native clans functioned produced the Indian Princess or specifically Cherokee Princess stereotype.  Because women controlled land and land inheritance, and exerted wide authority in family and tribal matters, they were often assumed to be some kind of royalty.  Most Native tribes in North America did not have a royal class, though elite status could pass down the generations.  Thus, if an ancestor happened to marry a Cherokee woman who bestowed her status on her children and left them a claim to some property, later generations took to calling her a Princess and the rumors stuck. 

According to the Cherokee Nation website, the seven Cherokee Clans, their subdivisions and traditional responsibilities are as follows:

LONG HAIR: subdivisions, Twister, Wind and Strangers.  Peace chiefs would often come from this clan.  Orphans, prisoners of war and adoptees from other tribes would be adopted into the subdivision of Strangers. 

BLUE: subdivisions, Panther/Wildcat or Bear.  They were responsible for making medicines specific to the protection of children.

WOLF: wolves are known to be fierce protectors.  Thus, war chiefs would often come from the Wolf clan.

WILD POTATO: subdivision, Blind Savannah.  These were the hunters and gatherers, known for their skill in finding the wild potatoes and other foodstuffs and conserving resources. 

DEER: the people of this clan were also noted hunters and trackers.  They were also used as scouts and messengers.

BIRD: subdivisions, Raven, Turtle, Dove and Eagle.  These people were also scouts and messengers, not only between people and villages, but also between the spirit realm and humans.  They collected the feathers used in ceremonies. 

PAINT: these people were known as medicine men and women, harvesting and mixing medicines and officiating at ceremonies.

The clan system functioned until the Cherokee-American War (1775-1794), when migration and disruption broke up some aspects of Cherokee society.  In the early part of the 19th century, some old customs were discontinued, such as blood vengeance and the allowance of patrilineal descent in certain circumstances.