Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

Deborah A. Young

American Intercontinental University

Abstract

The Cherokee people have been said to span across two nations; and another saying is that the Cherokee are two nations divided, and have been in existence over 150 years. The two are United Keetoowah Band and they inhabit Oklahoma, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The reason for the two is a major part of the Cherokee history. Here we will explore some of the ways the Cherokee lived, how even how being called Indians came about. We will look at the culture, history and so forth.

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The pre Columbian history of the Eastern Band Cherokee Indian that mainly settled in Ohio in 1654 when a disturbance in Virginia Colony broke through the frontier and settled near the falls of the James near present day Richmond Virginia. And then a year later they were driven away. (The anthropologist Martin Smith theorized some remnants of the tribe migrated to Virginia after the wars (1986:131-32)). Fewer historians suggest this tribe was Cherokee somewhere before 1836 as that is when they purchased the Osage lands in 1836 which is known as the "buffer 'tract east of the Osage reservation. The Cherokee paid five hundred thousand dollars for it, but never occupied it. And is now known as the Cherokee Neutral Lands. The tract was ceded in 1866 to the United States to be sold for the benefit of the tribe.

The majority of the research that I have done on the Cherokee links them to the Spanish in the 18th century, a lot of the culture that is directly linked to the Cherokee is healing, being priestly their religious activities, money was made in a number of ways beading and food that had been hunted they used and sold the pelts for profit as well as using them for clothing and their signature item moccasins.

The Cherokee believed in sustaining order so this is what they searched for they had a complex belief system and many of the elements remain today, although evolved and modified it is still a major part of their beliefs. They also have certain numbers four and seven that are used in their ceremonies, myths and stories. Four represents all of the familiar forces and the four cardinal directions, east, west, north, and south. Seven represents the height of purity and sacredness a difficult level to reach. Also the owl and the cougar play a part in meaning that these were the only two that could hold the highest levels. The pine, cedar, spruce, holly and laurel attained this level and play an important role in Cherokee ceremonies. With cedar being the most sacred of these.

The Indigenous peoples of Americas

The Chickamauga Wars (1776 - 1794). These were raids and ambushes and some full scale frontier battles which were an addendum to the Cherokee struggle against encroachment of American from former British colonies. They fought all the way until the end of the American Revolution, as well as 1786 they fought with as members of the western confederacy organized by Shawnee chief Tecumseh to repulse European American settlers