How Did The Cherokee Influence American Culture

The Cherokee nation has been entwined in American history since the discovery of Columbus. From fighting against the Americans in the Revolutionary war to being forced onto the Trail of Tears in the 1800s, from fighting for their land to their large growth in Oklahoma, the Cherokee have had a long and hard existence. They have been influencing american politics and culture for many years. Throughout their vast history the Cherokee have been a great point of culture and tradition in America.
To grow to the cultural monument that the cherokee are they needed reliable sources of food and sustenance. Being in the southeast the Cherokee had very fertile lands, plentiful hunting, and bountiful fishing. “The economic mainstay of the Southeast Indian …show more content…
Many of the myths and things that Native American tribes share is there interest in animals. The native Americans didn't domesticate many animals at all until the Europeans came to the New World. “Before European colonization, the only domesticated animal in the southeast was the dog” (“Southeast Indian” 2). The Cherokee held animals in high regard. In their myth “How the World was Made” the animals make the world we live in. They believe that animals lived in the sky on a cloud and a water beetle came down and shaped the mud that was the world in the ground. A buzzard came with great wings and as he flew he would come too close to the ground and create large valley and the …show more content…
To thousands of years ago when the Cherokee came across the land bridge to the trail of tears to the growth in Oklahoma this is the Cherokees history. The Cherokee have been around all the way from the stone age to now the modern era. “The Cherokee possessed a variety of stone implements including knives, axes, and chisels. They wove baskets, made pottery, and cultivated corn(Maize), beans, and squash. Deer, bear, and elk furnished meat and clothing” (“Cherokee” 1). Once the Europeans came along to trade many items including muskets or “Boom Boom Sticks”, metal knives and weapons, pastured animals, and the luxurie of cloth. The colonizing of the Europeans also brought the loss of much of the Cherokees land. In 1775 the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals which sold a massive amount of land in central Kentucky to the Transylvania Land Company (Wood 3). This was the first loss of land for the Cherokee and the 1800s they sided with the British against the French then later against the Americans during the Revolutionary War. Since then Andrew Jackson forced the Cherokee off their land in the Southeast on the Trail of Tears to northern Oklahoma. There they has prospered dramatically. The Cherokee had 308,132 people who identified as Cherokees (Hoxie 3). The tribe then made a Government that is much like the American government (“Cherokee” 3). The Cherokee have been flourishing in Oklahoma