in 1776 the Revolutionary war wasn’t the only war the American’s were fighting in. They also fought the Cherokee in 1776 which is referred to as the Cherokee War of 1776 or the Second Cherokee War.

It started when in June, Cherokee forces attacked American settlements in South Carolina and Tennessee. The other colonial government joined and retaliated against the Cherokee and began to burn down Cherokee villages, bringing nearly 2,000 soldiers along with. The Cherokee would fight back, but knew they were no match, and would receive no help from the British. In July of 1777, the Cherokee would sign a treaty to cede some of their land to the newly formed United States.

This week I am writing about the meaning of the Cherokee flag.

It is an orange flag with a white, orange, and green seal in the center. Inside of the seal lies a golden star with 7 points on it. Surrounding the star is leaves and acorns which represent the sacred Cherokee fire. The seal has written on it “Seal of the Cherokee Nation”, and “Sept. 6, 1839” which is when the Cherokee Constitution was singed. Seven yellow stars surround this seal, with each star representing each Cherokee clan. Finally in the top right corner there is a lone black star. This star represents all the lives that were lost along the trail of tears.

Before the horse was introduced to the North America, the Cherokee had many other ways that they made transportation easier. The Cherokee had 3 ways of travel, by foot, by boat, and by dogs.

The Cherokee used boats when it came to long hunting trips that would take too long on foot. They would find a birch tree, and then hollow it out so that people could sit in it. The Cherokee used birch since it was light, and so if they needed to carry the canoe once the river ended, they could easily pick it up.

When the Cherokee traveled on foot, they were usually helped by dogs in which they domesticated. They attached a type of sled to the back of the dog called a travois which would allow the dogs to pull all of the gear and meat that the hunters couldn’t carry themselves.

A study among the Cherokee Nation in 2002 revealed that there were no fluent Cherokee speakers under the age of 40. Soon after, the chief declared a state of emergency, so that efforts would be put in to revitalize their language, since it was estimated their language would die by the end of the next two generations. They started them young, they began by teaching the language to preschool students and eventually moved up through the grades.

The Cherokee Nation is making it a huge priority to bring back their language, since they believe culture lives through their language. They are following the methods that many other tribes and even the native Hawaiian’s used to bring back their language into society. I personally think it is great that the Cherokee people are putting true effort into bringing back their culture so it can carry on for generations to come.

Ever since the settlers came to the America’s they have tried to revoke native nations religious rights, and even tried converting their entire tribes to Christianity. Even the Cherokee were effected by this.

However things have changed, after “The American Indian Religious Freedom Act” of 1978, the Cherokee (and every other tribe), was once again granted the right to practice their own religion freely. But the government still found ways to prevent them from showing their religion. Thankfully the old ways of the past are changing, and they truly can practice their religion. According to apnews.com, last year a school district in Oklahoma finally reversed one of their rules that would prevent Cherokee students from wearing a ceremonial feather at graduation, because that would prevent their religious freedom. I think it is awesome that schools are finally starting to drop their old ways, and now the Cherokee are one step closer to having 100% religious freedom.

This week I will be talking about the three themes that are a part of this blogs title. The Cherokee unfortunately had to suffer all three of these themes

The Cherokee had to deal with culture change not very long after the America’s were discovered. They dealt with civilization, which was a process of non-native citizens coming into their tribal communities and teaching the natives how to live their lifestyle. They were essentially trying to wipe away all the old native traditions.

Ethnic cleansing and diaspora were pretty much happening at the same time with the Cherokee. The non-natives had been trying for a very long time to force the Cherokee out of their homeland, and in the 1830’s they were successful with the passing of the Indian Removal Act. This act would allow the non-natives to remove the Cherokee from their land and make them go along the trail of tears to Oklahoma. This could also be considered ethnic cleansing and even genocide, considering that the non-natives didn’t give the Cherokee the proper resources to be able to survive the harsh winters of the trek, and because of this, thousands of Cherokee people died.

My blog is going to focus on the Cherokee, a tribe originally from the southeastern present-day U.S., but were forced to move to Oklahoma in the 1800’s along the trail of tears.

The Cherokee people are a group of people whose lives revolve around balance. Their religion revolves around balance, and they feel it is their duty to keep that balance. Such ways for them to keep this balance is by performing ceremonies and rituals throughout the year to please the spirits, so that the spirits can help keep things in balance.

The Cherokee seem to be one of the few tribes that were able to survive once Europeans began to colonize on their land. They kind of accepted the fact that the settlers were there to stay, and nothing would make them leave. The Cherokee people would adapt to their new lives, and even went through a process called civilizing, which was pretty much them giving permissions for the non-natives to come in and teach them their ways, and have them move on from the Cherokee traditions and way of life.

Eventually though, the settlers still got their way and got the land the Cherokees lived on. However the Cherokee would not die out, as they would go on a journey to Oklahoma that was later named the trail of tears.