Native Americans are also known as the indigenous people of the United States or the American Indians. In America, there are over 500 federally recognized tribes. Native American tribes were nomad people who constantly moved following their herds. The nomads comprised the Great Plains tribe which included the Blackfoot who lived in Northern plains of America, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche. They also comprised the Iroquois Indians who lived in New York. Today a significant number of Native America live in Chicago, Tucson, Phoenix, Houston, New York City and Los Angeles. In this paper, the Cherokee Indians will be analyzed and discussed at different levels.
From the current theory, the Cherokee are indigenous people from Southeastern woodlands. They were mostly concentrated at the in the Southwestern part of Northern Carolina, top of western South Carolina, Southeastern Tennessee and northeastern Georgia while some reside in west cost of United States.
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The factors that fueled the migration of the Cherokee tribe include the economic migration which was caused by Dust Bowl during the great depression, availability of job during the Second World War and the program of Indian relocation.
The Carolina camp was preserved by the federal government as Reservations for the Cherokee Nations. Originally the camp of Cherokee was located at Rockingham near Wentworth town.In California, almost half of the land was reserved for the Native Americans. In addition to that, due to the land assignment, some land was sold to non-native Americans and others have been severely fragmented.
After American Revolution, the United States thought that Native Americans were equal but and had inferior society and a policy was formulated for the process of civilization of Native Americans. Several rules were implemented which included; impartial justice, regulating buying of preserved lands, promoting of commerce, punishing those who violated Native American’s rights and presidential authority. In the 18th century, the United States supported educating the Native Americans starting with children and the adults.
Currently, there are three federally recognized Cherokee tribes which include the Eastern band of Cherokee Indians who now live in North Carolina, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and the united Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma. The Cherokee Indians adopted the European-American democratic form of government since they wanted to retain their lands. They had a form of government in which they elected the principal chief, senate and house representatives. Later in the Cherokee established a supreme court where they extended citizenship to the children, men and women. Currently the modern Cherokee Nation have expanded in economic growth, equality among people and prosperity.
To gain the tribal membership and services of a Cherokee, one is required be enrolled by lineal descent from the Dawes Rolls where the descendants are enrolled Cherokee as members of the tribe. The Eastern Cherokee requires one to have a minimum of one-sixteenth of Cherokee blood quantum from the ancestors while the Keetoowah required one-quarter of Keetoowah blood quantum. The qualification for the enrollment is based on the percentage of the Native American blood of an individual who needs to be recognized. In addition to that, one can use documents from the ancestors for the registration. In Cherokee tribes, both men and women have some level of making decision within the tribe. For example, women owned the entire family’s properties. The Cherokee tribe speak southern Iroquoian language which is written in syllabary.
Many words have been borrowed from other languages such as English to make Cherokee easer. For example, the Cherokee language is taught and the community urged to use the language at home. In addition to that, Cherokee Preservation Foundation invested in opening schools, giving training to teachers and developing the cultural Indian language among the people.
References
Forster, P., Harding, R., Torroni, A., & Bandelt, H. J. (1996). Origin and evolution of Native American mtDNA variation: a reappraisal. American journal of human genetics , 59 (4), 935.
Torroni, A., Schurr, T. G., Cabell, M. F., Brown, M. D., Neel, J. V., Larsen, M., ... & Wallace, D. C. (1993). Asian affinities and continental radiation of the four founding Native American mtDNAs. American journal of human genetics , 53 (3), 563.
