The Cherokees And Their Chiefs

In this newly researched and synthesized history of the Cherokees, Hoig traces the displacement of the tribe and the Trail of Tears, the great trauma of the Civil War, the destruction of tribal autonomy, and the Cherokee people's phoenix-like rise in political and social stature during the twentieth century.

In this newly researched and synthesized history of the Cherokees, Hoig traces the displacement of the tribe and the Trail of Tears, the great trauma of the Civil War, the destruction of tribal autonomy, and the Cherokee people's phoenix-like rise in political and social stature during the twentieth century.

Chiefs of Nations: First Edition: The Cherokee Nation 1730 to 1839-109 years of Political Dialogue and Treaties brings to light an abundance of uncharted and detrimental facts that serve as testimonial changing the history of the Cherokee Nation. Covering the Colonial period with new and fresh accounts taken directly from the Colonial records to the onset of the federal period with the United States, as recorded in the minutes of the 1st to 17th congress; Chiefs of Nations radiates to the publics need for truth and realistic coverage between the United States and Indian Nations; once governed by traditional governments-populating the entire continent, of the United States of America. Both technical and dramatic, Chiefs of Nations, unlike other books such as, Browns Old Frontiers, Cherokee Tragedy, The Cherokees, Trail of Tears (The rise and fall of the Cherokee Nation): Chiefs of Nations, discovers the actual causes that led to the acts and resolves of Congress, for the expansion of the Southeastern States and Territories-into the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations boundaries. Populated with fully quoted documents from the Federal Records and unedited Treaties, Chiefs of Nations, reveals the shocking truth: exposing the contentions between rival factions and the development of an insurgent political party in 1825, that ultimately gained control of the Cherokee Nation, and released claim to all their remaining lands in 1835.

Theda Perdue examines the roles and responsibilities of Cherokee women during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a time of intense cultural change. While building on the research of earlier historians, she develops a uniquely complex view of the effects of contact on Native gender relations, arguing that Cherokee conceptions of gender persisted long after contact. Maintaining traditional gender roles actually allowed Cherokee women and men to adapt to new circumstances and adopt new industries and practices.

Of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians the Cherokees were early recognized as the greatest and the most civilized. Indeed, between 1540 and 1906 they reached a higher peak of civilization than any other North American Indian tribe. They invented a syllabary and developed an intricate government, including a system of courts of law. They published their own newspaper in both Cherokee and English and became noted as orators and statesmen. At the beginning the Cherokees’ conquest of civilization was agonizingly slow and uncertain. Warlords of the southern Appalachian Highlands, they were loath to expend their energies elsewhere. In the words of a British officer, "They are like the Devil’s pigg, they will neither lead nor drive." But, led or driven, the warlike and willful Cherokees, lingering in the Stone Age by choice at the turn of the eighteenth century, were forced by circumstances to transfer their concentration on war to problems posed by the white man. To cope with these unwelcome problems, they had to turn from the conquests of war to the conquest of civilization.

The Cherokees, the most important tribe in the formative years of the American Republic, became the test case for the Founding Fathers' determination to Christianize and "civilize" all Indians and to incorporate them into the republic as full citizens. From the standpoint of the Cherokees, rather than from that of the white policymakers, William McLoughlin tells the dramatic success story of the "renascence" of the tribe. He goes on to give a full account of how the Cherokees eventually fell before the expansionism of white America and the zeal of Andrew Jackson.

The Cherokees, by similarity of language, have been determined to be a branch of the great Iroquoian family of Indians. They are believed to have emigrated to the Southern Appalachians about the Thirteenth Century. They found the country occupied by various branches of the Muscogee or Creek people, who inhabited the Tennessee River valley to upper East Tennessee and North Carolina; and the headwaters of Tugaloo and Chattahoochie Rivers in Georgia and South Carolina.The Muscogee or Creek Indians are believed to have emigrated from Mexico to the mouth of the Mississippi about the year 1200 AD. The word Muscogee means Mexco-ulgae, Mexican People.Intermittent warfare, lasting through several centuries, was waged for possession of the mountainous country. Eventually, the Creeks, Kusatees, and Uchees, all of Muscogee blood, were forced to the southward. The Shawnees, who occupied Middle Tennessee, were forced northward into Ohio. The Cherokees, by right of conquest, claimed all the mountainous section now embraced in East Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and North Georgia. They claimed in addition as their hunting grounds, Middle Tennessee and Kentucky. De Soto, who traversed the Cherokee country in 1540, found them in substantially the same location as during the English period of settlement. The Cherokees had dealings with Virginia as early as 1689. Their principal affairs, however, were handled by the English through the Colony of South Carolina, and it is from the South Carolina records that we get the first mention of Cherokee chiefs. De Soto visited numerous Cherokee towns, but failed in every instance to mention the name of the chief. The original Cherokee settlement was the old town Kituwah, at the junction of Ocona Lufty and Tuckasegee Rivers. The tribe was from the earliest times divided into seven clans, and a few of the town-names indicate that each clan may have originally occupied a separate village. The seven clans were, Ani-gatugewa, Kituwah People; Ani-kawi, Deer People; Ani-waya, Wolf People; Ani-Sahani, Blue Paint People; Ani-wadi, Red Paint People; Ani-Tsiskwa, Bird People; and Ani-Gilahi, Long Hair People.

Drawing on a wide range of sources, this book exposes Andrew Jackson's failure to honor and enforce federal laws and treaties protecting Indian rights, describing how the Indian policies of "Old Hickory" were those of a racist imperialist, in stark contrast to how his followers characterized him, believing him to be a champion of democracy. Early in his career as an Indian fighter, American Indians gave Andrew Jackson a name-Sharp Knife-that evoked their sense of his ruthlessness and cruelty. Contrary to popular belief-and to many textbook accounts-in 1830, Congress did not authorize the forcible seizure of Indian land and the deportation of the legal owners of that land. In actuality, U.S. President Andrew Jackson violated the terms of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, choosing to believe that he was not bound to protect Native Indian individuals' rights. Sharp Knife: Andrew Jackson and the American Indians draws heavily on Jackson's own writings to document his life and give readers sharp insight into the nature of racism in ante-bellum America. Noted historian Alfred Cave's latest book takes readers into the life of Andrew Jackson, paying particular attention to his interactions with Native American peoples as a militia general, treaty negotiator, and finally as president of the United States. Cave clearly depicts the many ways in which Jackson's various dishonorable actions and often illegal means undermined the political and economic rights that were supposed to be guaranteed under numerous treaties. Jackson's own economic interests as a land speculator and slave holder are carefully documented, exposing the hollowness of claims that "Old Hickory" was the champion of "the common man."