Research+Paper

Cherokee Indian History Annice Wyatt and Kendall Parks My great, great, great, great grandfather was William "Bill" Birchfield. His name in his tribe was Chief Big Tree. He was born on the Cherokee Indian Reserve in North Carolina. He was born in the time between the 1820's and the 1830's. He was born in time to have to go on the march called the Trail of Tears. The Cherokee’s are orginal residents of the American Southeast region, mainly Georgie, South and North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

The Cherokee’s refer themselves as Tslagi, which means “Principle People." Many theories have proven that the Cherookee name many have been orginally derived from the Choctwa, meaning “Those who live in the mountains” The Cherokee speak a Southern language, which is Polytheistic and is written in a syllabary invented by Sequogah. Because of the polysynthetic nature of the Cherokee language, new and descriptive words in Cherokee are easily constructed to reflect modern concepts. Examples include//ditiyohihi//, which means "he argues repeatedly and on purpose with a purpose," meaning "attorney." Another example is//didaniyisgi// which means "the final catcher" or "he catches them finally and conclusively," meaning "policeman." Many words, however, have been borrowed from the English language, such as // gasoline //, which in Cherokee is // ga-so-li-ne //. Many other words were borrowed from the languages of tribes who settled in Oklahoma in the early 20th century. In each Tribe there are different Governments, and in each tribe the Woman and Men have differnet roles they play. You might think that the woman have the least power, but in Cherokee Indian Tribes that isnt true, the men and woman are equal. The Men’s jobs are to make Political Decisions for Tribes, and to hunt. The Woman’s job is Farming, Property meaning what’s on each tribes property, family, and socail decisions for clans. But at the same time, both genders roles together are: Story Telling, Artwork, Music, and Medicine.

In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area of Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," because of its effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died. In the Cherokee Language the event is called “Nu na da ul tsun y”i (the place where they cried), another term is “Tlo va sa “(our removal).These were not used by Cherokees at the time. The Cherokees were not the only American Indians too emigrate of the Indian Removal efforts. American Indians were not only removed from the American Soutnbut also from the North Midwest, Southwest and Plains regions. The reason why the “Trail of Tears” happened was for discovering gold near Georgia. And when Andrew Jackson was elected Presedent in 1829 his first act was to pass the Indian Removal, and the Trial of Tears ended in 1839.

 John Ross was born October 3, 1790 near Lookout Mountain, NC. In the fall of 1812, John Ross, acting under the command of Col. Gideon Morgan, served as adjutant of the Cherokee Regiment in General Andrew Jackson's Army against the Creek Indians. In 1817, John Ross was elected senator to the National Council of the Cherokee Nation, and from October 1818 until 1826, he served as President of the Cherokee Senate. In 1827, John Ross was Assistant Chief and President of the Convention that adopted the Constitution for the Cherokee Nation. This constitution was the first ever put into effect by any North American Indians. In 1828, John Ross was elected the Principal Chief of the Eastern Cherokee Nation and served in that position until being elected Principal Chief of the United Cherokee Nation in 1839. From 1839 until his death, John Ross was Chief of the United States Cherokee Nation, not merely a commander of an Indian Tribe, but executive head of a civilized nation with which the United States concluded several treaties. John Ross was in Washington, D.C., on business for the Cherokee Nation at the time of his death on August 1, 1866.  Wilma Mankiller was born November 18, 1945. In 1983, Wilma Mankiller was elected deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation, alongside Ross Swimmer. After Swimmer resigned Wilma was appointed to be the first female principal chief of the Cherokee. She was elected in her own campaign in 1987, and re-elected again in 1991, collecting 83% of the votes. In 1995 Wilma decided to not run again because of her health. In 1979 she was involved in a terrible car accident which required multiple sergeries. She had lots of other health problems including myasthenia gravis, a kidney transplant, breast cancer, and lymphoma. She won many awards one of them was the mrs. magazine woman of the year in 1987. She also wrote a book called "A chief and her people" which was an autobiography which then became a national best seller. After her term as Chief she than went on to be a teacher Dartmouth College. In March 2010 Wilma Mankiller was reported to be very ill with Pancreatic Cancer. She died soon after in April 2010.

What I learned from researching this topic was about everything that I know now on Cherokee Indian History. I had no idea what the “Trail of Tears” was or what the Cherokee Indian Tribes were even like. When my Partner and I picked this topic I was a little nervous because I knew 0 knowlede on it, and I was scared that I would really understandthe history. But after looking at about 60 websites I have learned allot from famous Indian Cheifs, to the first Cherokee Indian Tribe. I have learned a lot about Cherokee Indian History by researching this topic. I knew that my great, great, great, great grandfather was a Cherokee Indian but what I didn't know was that he was also the Chief of his Cherokee tribe. I have learned about so many things that I didn't know about Cherokee History before. I had no idea what the trail of tears was, but now I know so much about it and it's really interesting. I didn't think that when I looked up "Cherokee Indian History" so many websites would pop up but it was shocking to see how many did. Like my partner said before that she was nervous about picking this topic, so was I. I knew that my and great, great, great, great grandfather was a Cherokee Indian and I wanted to know more about him and his culture.