ABORIGINAL AND EARLY CONTACT CHEROKEE CULTURE

I. Cherokee politics

A. Aboriginal Cherokee were a loose collection of about 60 autonomous towns

B. towns' daily business governed by 2 political hierarchies: Red & White councils

1. Red = war council of young warriors w/ chief
    1. warfare= retaliatory raids
    2. not for territorial conquest or war honors

2. White = peace hierarchy w/ 2 separate councils:
    1. religious leaders &
    2. reps of the 7 matrilineal clans
    3. Whites regulated: religion, agriculture, & ceremony,

C. Both councils were egalitarian

1.-all could come & speak

2. based on consensus

3. final policy left to elders--over 55

D. BUT were deliberative, not legislative bodies

1. couldn't enact binding policies enforced on the group

2. Trader James Adair said of them: "Their darling passion is their liberty to it they sacrifice everything and in the most unbounded liberty they indulge."

E.. Ruled thru informal social control

1. no one had coercive rights over another

F. headmen were elders of influence, not "officials" who could compel behavior 

1. must be polite, controlled, generous, accomplished

2. if tempers flared, then discussion must end

3. and one or the other side withdrew from group

4. anyone who refused to w/draw was ostracized by the entire group

II. Cherokee Social Structure closely linked to political 

A. 7 Matrilineal clans regulated rights to life: 

1. individual rights: 

a. mother can kill infant w/o retaliation 

b. bro can kill bro w/o retaliation

 2. regulated blood feud: if a clan member murdered someone from another clan  

a. "a life for a life" owed to offended clan

 b. unless self-defense, accident not involving neglect

 c. OR could offer restitution of some kind like a scalp or a slave

 3. group rights and responsibilities:

 a. any clan member had to be willing to lay down his/her life for another member

 b. homicide outside of the clan affects the entire clan

 B. AND dealt justice to interpersonal dispute:

  1. restitution for theft or injury was their province

III. Contact w/ whites changed all of this: Assimilation as a solution to contact pressures

A. many Cherokee began to adopt aspects of white material culture over latter part of 18th C

1. beginning w/ trade and evolving into plantation slavery

B. plantation slavery was an outgrowth of an aboriginal institution:

1. Cherokee had slaves aboriginally--they were war captives,

2. but they were not laborers b/c division of labor was sexual--men hunted and women farmed

3. were usually taken to replace lost kinsmen & were usually eventually adopted into the clan

C. as whites moved in greater #s:

1. depleted hunting grounds meant

2. need for more intensive agriculture

D. ALSO soon got involved w/ capturing slaves for the slave market

    1. trade introduced economic inequality

    2. those who got rich on it gradually adopted Anglo agriculture--that is, monocrop market agriculture

    3. Cherokee & white traders also often intermarried & their children--mixed heritage people then often became very influential in society

    John Ross, John Ridge & Elias Boudinott = prime examples of mixed blood leadership (see encyclopedia articles about them)

E. Slave holders were a minority--

    1. only 207 in a nation of about 17,000

    2. never owned a lot of slaves:

    3. 1 man had 110, but most did not have more than 50:

    4. 10 = the average

F. Development of these institutions meant need for greater protection of property and this led to the evolution of a national government

G. ALSO: as pressures for land & skirmishes w/ whites increased during 18th C, some Cherokee saw a need for greater unity

    1. 1751 or so reps from different towns met at Echota to discuss strategy to deal with encroachment of whites

    2. evolved into a national council--at 1st met annually at New Years

3. based on town councils: same structure initially
  1. politeness not coercion was the ethos
  2. but couldn't w/draw if conflict--issues = too important
4. town councils didn't send reps to national
  1. rather were 8 districts which national council designated
  2. men in those districts voted on who went to council

H. Main chiefs who pushed for this: Old Hop & Chief Standing Turkey,

1. saw need for centralized coercive power

2. to control individual members who raided whites

I. the Council created jail & police force to search out trouble makers

1. the police force grew out of Light Horse Brigade

a. that had been formed to recapture stolen horses

b. membership in the group was temporary, task oriented, voluntary

c. acted on behalf of individuals NOT on behalf of the group

d. until 1820, the groups attach themselves to town councils

 e. they they extended the group's powers to capture the horse thieves and "other rogues" on behalf of the entire nation

 2. this a totally new ideal of leadership--a new type of aggression

3. AND this took away clan functions of dispute resolution & justice

 4. gradually, the national council took more power from previous institutions: they even began to allot clan lands

J. The mixed heritage men & wealthy planters controlled new government: although they were in minority

1. b/c their $ won their fellow tribesman's respect

2. and they could deal best w/ whites

3. John Ross, a mixed heritage man, became principle chief

K. Cherokee accommodation was not universally applauded--Traditionalists fought it bitterly 

1. traditional leader, White Path, led an uprising to overthrow the new leaders

2. but was unsuccessful

3. in 1824 chiefs of town of Etowah requested removal of missionaries

b/c missionaries prohibited their converts from attending meetings in the traditional council house rather, wanted them to attend Council at the national govt.

 L. gold discovered on Cherokee lands--more encroachment & skirmishes meant need for greater centralized power

 M. In 1827--after a bitter battle between Traditionalists & mixed heritage people--the Cherokee adopted constitution & declared sovereignty over lands. It contained:  

1. bicameral legislature

2. judicial branch

3. executive branch

4. universal male suffrage

5. Bill of Rights

N. Laws of the Council :  

1. capital punishment to be carried out by tribal council

 2. outlaw infanticide and abortion

 3. penalties for crimes against property

 4. personal debt laws w/ Council having power to confiscate property

 5. Council has the rights to issue permits to cut roads and run ferries

 6.Council issues permits to regulate slave trade

 7. Council defines and punishes vices: drinking and gambling outlawed

O. also est. a state newspaper--The Cherokee Phoenix

1. edited by Elias Boudinott (see article)

2.. was published in Engl. & Cherokee

 3. lang. had been developed by Sequoya

BUT IN 1829 GA STATE LEGISLATURE EXTENDED GA LAW OVER CHEROKEE LANDS:

And the issue of Cherokee sovereignty was suddenly at the forefront of the nation