The Native Americans in the Southeastern United States, especially the Eastern Band of Cherokee

In the United States, Native Americans are considered to be people whose pre-Columbian ancestors were indigenous to the lands within the nation’s modern boundaries. These peoples were composed of numerous distinct tribes, bands, and ethnic groups, and many of these groups survive intact today as sovereign nations. The terms Native Americans use to refer to themselves vary regionally and generationally, with many older Native Americans self-identifying as “Indians” or “American Indians.” Younger Native Americans sometimes call themselves “Indigenous People.” 

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during the Early Modern period. Pre-Columbian technically means before Christopher Columbus came to the Americas, but it also means the entire history of indigenous American culture until those cultures were influenced by European culture. The other terms used are Precontact America, Pre-colonial America or Prehistoric America. In the Latin American countries, it is known as Pre-Hispanic.

Most Native American groups had historically lived as hunter-gatherer societies and preserved their histories by oral traditions and artwork. At the time of the first contact, the indigenous cultures were quite different from those of the proto-industrial and mostly Christian immigrants. Some of the Northeastern and Southwestern cultures in particular were matrilineal and operated on a more collective basis that the Europeans were familiar with. Hunter-gatherer or early human society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies, which mainly rely on domesticated species.

The majority of indigenous American tribes maintained their hunting grounds and agricultural lands for use of the entire tribe. Europeans at that time had patriarchal cultures and had developed concepts of individual property rights with respect to land that were extremely different. The differences in cultures between the established Native Americans and immigrant Europeans, as well as shifting alliances among different nations in times of war, caused extensive political tension, ethnic violence and social disruption. Even before the European settlement of what is now the United States, Native Americans suffered high fatalities from contact with European diseases spread throughout the Americas by the Spanish to which they had yet not acquired immunity. Smallpox epidemics are thought to have caused the greatest loss of life for indigenous populations, although estimates of the pre-Columbian population of what today constitutes the United States vary significantly, from 1 million to 18 million.

After the thirteen colonies revolted against Great Britain and established the United States of America, President George Washington and Henry Knox conceived of the idea of “civilizing” Native Americas in preparation for assimilation as United States Citizens. Assimilation became a consistent policy through American administrations. During the 19^th century, the ideology of manifest destiny became integral to the American nationalist movement. Expansion of European-American populations to the west after the American Revolution resulted in increasing pressure on Native American lands, warfare between the groups, and rising tensions.

The Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress on May 28, 1830, during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. The law authorized the president to negotiate with southern Indian tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their ancestral homelands. The act enjoyed strong support from the non-Indian people of the South, who were eager to gain access to lands inhabited by the southeastern tribes. Christian missionaries protested against the law’s passage.

In the early 1800s, the United States government began a systematic effort to remove Native American tribes from the southeast. The Five Civilized Tribes had already been established as autonomous nations in the southeastern United States. The Five Civilized Tribes were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. These are first five tribes that Anglo-European settlers generally considered to be civilized according to their own world view, namely because these five tribes adopted attributes of the colonists’ culture. For example, they adopted Christianity as their religion. These tribes also adopted the notion of a centralized government, literacy, market participation, written constitutions, and intermarriage with white Americans and plantation slavery practices.

The Cherokee Native American tribe are indigenous to the Southeastern United States in what is now Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The Cherokee were one of the tribes who early on adopted many of the Anglo-European cultural and technologies. The Cherokee were the first major tribe to become United States Citizens. The Cherokee are now the largest of the federally recognized Native American tribes. The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation is a recognized tribe of Indians who refused to relocate after the Indian Removal Act was enacted. These Indians were allowed to stay only if they renounced their Cherokee heritage and agreed to assimilation.

The Eastern Band of the Cherokee now live in what is now Western North Carolina in an area that borders the Smokey Mountain National park. Today’s Cherokee who live on the Qualla Boundary, the North Carolina Tribal Lands, are descended from the core ancestors who did not go west on the Trail of Tears. A noted leader of the Cherokee, Tsali, attacked a group of American soldiers. The principal chiefs sent warriors to capture him and his family. He and two of his sons were killed. The rest of his family were absorbed into the Eastern Band.

The Qualla Boundary is territory held as a land trust for the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who reside in western North Carolina. The area is part of the Cherokee’s historic territory. As a trust, the land is technically not a reservation. The Cherokee purchased the land in 1870 and it is now placed under federal protection. Only members who are recognized as Indians of the Eastern Band are allowed to buy, own, and sell the land.

The Cherokee have occupied this area for centuries, having migrated from the Great Lakes area long before the European settlers arrived. During the European expansion, many settlers came in contact and conflict with the Cherokee. Most of the Cherokee were removed from this area and marched along the Trail of Tears to reservations in present-day Oklahoma.