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The Cherokee Essays

Good Essays

“THE CHEROKEE”

This report will examine the interaction and effects of the European culture clashing with the Native American culture when these new people [Europeans] came to a land and decided to take what they thought was theirs. Discussed will be who these people were and are, their way of life, and how they lived then and now. This paper will explain the “religious bigotry, cultural bias, and materialistic view” (Perdue and Porter 7) the Europeans had that conflicted with the naturalistic and simple view these people called The Cherokee had.
The Cherokee called themselves “Ani’-Yun’wiya” translated as “Principle People.” (Perdue 13) Their native language was Iroquoian. …show more content…

Women tended the crop's majority of the time. Men helped some in the fields by “clearing fields, planting, and harvesting” but the work was mainly one of the many chores that women had. “Their favorite food was corn”(Perdue 16) but the majority of their crops depended on the "three sister’s (corn, beans, and squash) and also “supplemented by hunting and the gathering of wild plants.” (Sultzman 2) Interestingly they planted their beans with their corn and let the vines from the beans travel up the stalks of corn. The beans which “produce nitrogen” which was a fertilizer for the corn plus the usage of the fertile ground near the rivers. Also grown were sunflowers, pumpkins, and other types of vegetables. (Sultzman 2) The winter months were the men's turn to gather food for the families. This was the time for hunting game such as turkey and deer. They also depended on fish from the rivers as a staple in their diets. They consumed bread from the cornmeal they made from the corn, which had beans and chestnuts in the dough as ingredients.
In the year of 1540 is when things for the “Principal People” began to change. During this time “Hernando de Soto, a Spanish conquistador, passed through Cherokee territory on his exploration” for gold and silver mines. (Perdue 27) There has been known encounters with Native Americans from the time of 1492 through the ages, but they were pretty sporadic in their encounters. It was not

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