III.

Culture

The Cherokee economy, like that of other Southeast tribes, was based on intensive agriculture, mainly of corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers. They also grew tobacco. Deer, bears, and elk were hunted with bows and arrows. Smaller game, such as raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, and turkeys, were hunted with long cane-stem blowguns that propelled wood-and-feather darts. For fishing, hooks and lines, spears, and traps were used. Wild plant foods gathered by hand provided another source of nutrition. These foods included roots, greens, berries, and nuts.

The Cherokee were divided into seven matrilineal clans that were dispersed in war and peace moieties (half-tribes). The people lived in numerous permanent villages, typically placed along rivers and streams. Some villages belonged to the war moiety, the rest to the peace moiety. Cherokee families typically had two dwellings: rectangular summer houses with cane and clay walls and bark or thatch roofs, and cone-shaped winter houses with pole frames and brushwork covered by mud or clay. The Cherokee crafted pottery as well as baskets. The Busk, or Green Corn Ceremony, was a time of thanksgiving, forgiveness, rekindling of sacred fires, and spiritual renewal. It was held in mid- to late summer, when the corn was ready for roasting.

In the early 19th century, the Cherokee demonstrated unusual adaptability to Western institutions, both in their establishment of a republican government and their adoption of Western methods of animal husbandry and farming, including the plantation system. Public schools were established and in the 1820s, Sequoyah, a tribal member, invented an 85-character syllabary script for the Cherokee language. Widespread literacy followed almost immediately. In 1827 the Cherokee wrote down their constitution in their native language. In 1828 they published the first Native American newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, which also used the syllabary.