How did the Cherokee suffer?

Crowding, poor sanitation, and drought made them miserable. Many died. The Cherokees asked to postpone removal until the fall, and to voluntarily remove themselves. The delay was granted, provided they remain in internment camps until travel resumed.

What problems did the Cherokee face?

Between the stockades, starvation and sickness, and the harsh winter conditions, some 4,000 Cherokees perished, never reaching their new land. Ever resilient, the Cherokee people rebuilt their lives in Indian Territory, along with other tribes who had also been similarly driven away from the southeast.

What happened to the Cherokee natives?

In 1838 and 1839 U.S. troops, prompted by the state of Georgia, expelled the Cherokee Indians from their ancestral homeland in the Southeast and removed them to the Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma.

What disease killed the Cherokee?

Small pox is a communicable disease brought here both by the European and Africans when the slaves came to South Carolina in 1738. The small pox disease wiped out 50% of the Cherokee Nation because they were located on the eastern coast. That would have been about 20,000 people or more that died in a very short time.

How many Cherokee died during removal?

The U.S. Department of War forcibly removes approximately 17,000 Cherokee to Indian Territory (which is now known as Oklahoma). Cherokee authorities estimate that 6,000 men, women, and children die on the 1,200-mile march called the Trail of Tears.

Cherokee Tribe History

How many Cherokee are left?

Today, the Cherokee Nation is the largest tribe in the United States with more than 380,000 tribal citizens worldwide. More than 141,000 Cherokee Nation citizens reside within the tribe's reservation boundaries in northeastern Oklahoma.

How many slaves did the Cherokee have?

Of the Five Tribes, the Cherokees were the largest holder of Africans as chattel slaves. By 1860 the Cherokees had 4,600 slaves. Many Cherokees depended on them as a bridge to white society. Full-blood Indian slave owners relied on the blacks as English interpreters and translators.

How was the Cherokee treated?

Beginning on May 26, 1838, soldiers under the command of General Winfield Scott rounded up the majority of the Cherokee along with 1,500 slaves and free blacks, forced them to leave behind most of their possessions and herded them into wooden stockades and internment camps.

What was Cherokee life like before the Trail of Tears?

Before European contact, Cherokees practiced subsistence-based living; they grew, gathered, and hunted for what they needed for their communities to thrive, not for personal profit or surplus trade. As these practices depended on a flourishing environment, the tribe controlled more land than they lived upon.

Which disease was most devastating to the native peoples?

Smallpox was the disease brought by Europeans that was most destructive to the Native Americans, both in terms of morbidity and mortality. The first well-documented smallpox epidemic in the Americas began in Hispaniola in late 1518 and soon spread to Mexico.

What were the Cherokee known for?

The Cherokee were farming people. Cherokee women did most of the farming, harvesting crops of corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers. Cherokee men did most of the hunting, shooting deer, bear, wild turkeys, and small game. They also fished in the rivers and along the coast.

Were the Cherokee peaceful?

Prior to European settlement of the Americas, Cherokees were the largest Native American tribe in North America. They became known as one of the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes," thanks to their relatively peaceful interactions with early European settlers and their willingness to adapt to Anglo-American customs.

Who kicked the Cherokee out of their land?

President Martin Van Buren sent General Winfield Scott and 7,000 soldiers to expedite the removal process. Scott and his troops forced the Cherokee into stockades at bayonet point while his men looted their homes and belongings. Then, they marched the Indians more than 1,200 miles to Indian Territory.

What are 3 facts about Cherokee?

How did the Cherokees feel about slavery?

The Cherokee "elites created an economy and culture that highly valued and regulated slavery and the rights of slave owners" and, in "1860, about thirty years after their removal to Indian Territory from their respective homes in the Southeast, Cherokee Nation members owned 2,511 slaves."

Did Cherokee ever fight?

Since European contact, Cherokee military activity has been documented in European records. Cherokee tribes and bands had a number of conflicts during the 18th century with Europeans, primarily British colonists from the Southern Colonies.

Did the Cherokee hide from removal?

Some Cherokees Remained Behind

During this removal, more than 300 Cherokee hid in the mountains and escaped arrest. Over a period of years, these Cherokee managed to remain in the area, and eventually were recognized by the U.S. government as the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians in 1868.

What happened to the Cherokee after the removal?

It remains tribal headquarters for the Cherokee Nation today. About 1,000 Cherokees in Tennessee and North Carolina escaped the roundup. They gained recognition in 1866, establishing their tribal government in 1868 in Cherokee, North Carolina. Today, they are known as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

What was the Cherokee family life like?

Cherokee families were based on matrilineal clans. Matrilineal clans are extended family groups with names, tradition, and oral history. Membership in each clan is through the mother: you belong to your mother's clan. To be without a clan was to be without human identity.

What did the Cherokee fight for?

During the Revolutionary War, the Cherokee not only fought against the settlers in the Overmountain region, and later in the Cumberland Basin, defending against territorial settlements, they also fought as allies of Great Britain against American patriots.

What do Cherokee believe about death?

The Cherokee believe that there are four souls in the body, and as such there are four stages of death. The first is the soul of conscious life, which leaves the body immediately after death has occurred. This soul can sometimes be seen as a ghost but is considered Page 3 harmlessand powerless.

How did the Cherokee people resist removal?

As a rebuttal to the illegal signing of the Treaty of New Echota, the Cherokee Nation created an official protest petition in 1836. It was signed by Principal Chief John Ross, Cherokee Nation council members, and 2,174 citizens of the Cherokee Nation.

Did Native Americans own dogs?

The Arrival of Dogs in North America

Dogs were Native American's first domesticated animal thousands of years before the arrival of the European horse. It is estimated that there were more than 300,000 domesticated dogs in America when the first European explorers arrived.

When did the Cherokee free their slaves?

The Cherokee national government freed their slaves in June 1863, the only one of the Five Tribes to do so until after the war, although few slaveholders acknowledged this law.

Is the Cherokee tribe rich?

As one of the biggest tribes in the country, the Cherokees are modestly well-off: The nation has a budget of $350 million for 270,000 citizens. But it doesn't distribute casino earnings to members. Want to join the Cherokee Nation?