The Cherokee

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorCollege, Undergraduate February 2008

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The Cherokee, along with the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and the Seminole Indians were known as the Five Civilized Tribes. I am one-eighth Choctaw. One of the policies that the government came up with was the Cherokee people had to move across the Mississippi River to the plains in 1829. Some of the white people and even some of the Indians thought that it would be best for all if the Indians moved farther west so that the Indians could build and develop at their own pace.

Most of the Cherokees were living in log cabins before their forced relocation. The Cherokee were forced on a winter march that was filled with hardships and diseases that killed many of their people. They named this march the "Trail of Tears". Of the sixteen thousand Cherokees that walked the "Trail of Tears", only fourteen thousand survived the trip. Another two thousand died shortly after arriving because of the lack of food and supplies.

One fourth of the Cherokee Nation died because of the forced relocation to Indian Territory that is now known as Oklahoma.

They had a three-part government that they restored after they were finally settled in the Western and Eastern territories of the Great Plains Region of the United States of America. The Cherokees started publishing their own writing once they reached their destination.

The Cherokee people lived in a civilized community. Everyone in this community had a certain responsibility to keep their society going. The Cherokee Indians had their own alphabet.

After they had a chance to rebuild their community, they were able to collect fruits, berries and walnuts and grow stuff like corn and potatoes in the summer months. They also hunted buffalo with bows and arrows and they fished with homemade nets.

Herbs and flowers played an important...