Choose one (1) Native American tribe residing within the continental United States (Lower 48 states) at the time of first European contact. Research various aspects of the chosen tribe’s culture or...

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The Cherokees: A History of Socio-Cultural and Political Evolution
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Abstract
The paper is going to discuss about the history of the Cherokee people, how their life was in the
pre-Columbian era, how their way of life changed drastically after the intrusion of the
Europeans, and how their socio-economic and political life was jeopardized both by the invasion
of the Europeans and by the establishment of the United States as a new country. The paper will
also discuss about how the Cherokees in the face of great cultural dilemma managed to ca
y on
with their native language and conventions and how in spite of being devastated by the policies
of forceful removal from their native lands they ultimately survived to claim equal rights and
social status in the 21
st
century America.
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The early Cherokees constituted the largest of all southern tribes with an estimated
population of 25,000 but this was the number that prevailed before the a
ival of the European
explorers (“Cherokee History in the North Carolina Mountains and Beyond”, n.d.). They were
elieved to be a
anch of the Iroquois and their dwelling places included “approximately
135,000 square miles in North America and extended from the Ohio River in the north to what is
now the state of Alabama in the south” (“Cherokee History in the North Carolina Mountains and
Beyond”, n.d.). Today 9,000 Cherokees specifically belonging to the Eastern Band of Cherokee
Indians dwells on “57,000 acres in North Carolina Mountains known as Qualla Boundary, and on
smaller parcels to the west. A much larger population of Cherokee belong to the Cherokee
Nation, a self-governing tribe of over 200,000 members, which is centered on 7,000 square miles
in northeastern Oklahoma” (“Cherokee History in the North Carolina Mountains and Beyond”,
n.d.). The history of the Cherokee tribe is one of the most interesting yet conflict-filled one.
Inclined to ca
y on with their unique culture, tradition and belief system, the Cherokees had to
face immense struggles and had to ultimately succumb to the myriads of devastations that were
ought along with the intrusion of the whites in the American mainland. But although they
su
endered before some of the major invasions, it was never easy for any of the invaders to
cause their extinction.
A flourishing history of the Cherokee people can be traced back in the pre-Columbian
era. In the pre-Columbian era the Cherokee people were primarily hunters and traders and their
hunting grounds were spread extensively to a wide region. In the concerned period the
“Cherokee lived in the area that is now
oadly western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and
northern Georgia; although their hunting grounds and their trading routes were much further
afield than that” (“The Cherokee People”, n.d.). It is noteworthy that since the pre-Columbian era
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the Cherokee people developed their distinct way of life and it can be interesting to learn that in
the pre-Columbian era the Cherokee society tended to be a democratic one in which the
Cherokees “shared decision-making and endeavored to reach democratic consensus on issues.
Thiers was a matriarchal society, with land being handed down through the women of the tribe”
(“An Ancient People”, n.d.). Moreover, in the pre-Columbian era...