FREE ESSAY ON CHEROKEE INDIAN TRIBE

CHEROKEE INDIAN TRIBE

The Cherokee Indians first lived in Tennessee. The name Indian first came from Christopher
Columbus, who thought that America was part of the Indies, Asia. The first person to come
across Indians was Hernando de Soto, in 1540.
In wintertime the Indian men wore long sleeved shirts, loose -fitting leggings, and
moosehide moccasins. Women wore skin dresses tied at the waist and long, fitted leggings.

Indians would hunt deer, elk, moose and buffalo. They would also eat rabbits, raccoons
and birds. The women would sometimes make a stew with the meat. They also ate berries,
nuts, fruit and beans and corn.
Indian houses were made of stone, wood, skins, twigs and mud. There were wigwams; tipis,
earth and grass covered houses. The tipis were made of buffalo skins. The tipi would
protect the Indians from the cold winters. They always faced the tipi towards the east
because the winds came from the west.
The Indian children liked to have toys, their fathers and grandfathers would make small
bows and arrows, sling shots and bean shooters. The girls liked to string berries to make
a necklace; they made dolls out of grass, pine needles and bark. The boys would practice
target shooting when they were old enough to prepare for when they would hunt.
The Indians worshipped the sun, the wind and the rain. They celebrated places on earth
that were important to the Indian people, such as a mountain, a lake or a valley. The
Indians believed animals including birds were also people, just like the tribes.
Indians knew a great deal about nature, they believed that a job was well done only when
the spirits had been thanked. They had dances and festivals to help make their crops
grow.
Sequoyah was a great Cherokee Indian. Sequoyah was born in 1776 at a village called
Tuskeegee. He was the first man to create a writing system for the Cherokees. Sequoyah
never learned the English alphabet so he began to make up symbols that could make words.

He could not read military orders or write letters home so after the war he made the
symbols. He made 85 symbols that were sounds. He taught his little girl how to make the
symbols.
After 12 years of working on the language he and his daughter showed the syllabary to the
Cherokees. The Cherokee Nation awarded Sequoyah a silver medal for doing such a great job
on the new language.
The Trail of Tears was a terrible time for the Cherokee Indians. Back in 1838 the Army
went to Tennessee and took all the Indians out and had them walk to Oklahoma. A lot of
Indians died because of the terrible time walking and the weather would get really bad.
Over 3,000 Cherokees were taken on the trail of tears. It was a very sad time.