What Were The Egalitarian Beliefs Of The Cherokee Indians?
The Cherokee were horticulturalists supplementing this with foraging. Cherokee were matrilineal, with strict divisions of labor as women working on the gardens and taking care of the children while the men did the hunting and gathering. The plants they planted mostly were corn and beans. The Cherokee were mostly egalitarian and disliked controversy. They believed everything had a spiritual connection and had power, when the men went gathering and hunting the men had to perform rituals to appease the spiritual world. This was due to their belief of harmony needed in the universe. The Cherokee were horticulturists, southeastern United States, were they lived in “an area spanning 124,000 square miles and encompassing what would eventually become
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eight southern states. The area of Cherokee occupation included North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama.” (Anderson: vii). They lived in the Appalachian Mountains, living by the streams and rivers for easy fishing access. The Cherokee were known as the biggest Indian tribe in North America with a peak of 10,000 Cherokee at its peak. (Cokran 1962: 3). In the Cherokee society women did most of the work, the first Europeans who came to North America remarked that the men were lazy and women had to do all the work and were like slaves in their society. This was not the case in Cherokee culture, they had strict jobs for each of the gender, the men and women did intersect at points, but each had their roles. In the time before Europeans women “farmed, made clothes and pottery, wove baskets, cooked, and tended the children” (Anderson: 3). But, this was one of the reasons why women were so powerful in the villages, since they were the ones to raise the future generations of Cherokee. While the men “spent their time hunting, fishing, erecting public and private buildings, and making tools” (Anderson: 3). The Europeans who first came to the Cherokee arrived in the warmer months, summer, when it was time for women to work. The Cherokee had it set up where the men hunted in the colder months, sometimes leaving the village for months at a time, to supplement when the Cherokee were not able to get as much food harvested. The Cherokee supplemented the lack of vegetables with animals they hunted in the area. The Cherokee men also hunted in the Northern areas, such as Kentucky, where the white tailed deer were plentiful. In the Summer time the women grew; corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, and sunflowers. While the primary responsibility fell to women to do the agricultural work, men did help the women by clearing the fields, planting the seeds, and help harvest, but women did the caretaking of the plants. In return the women helped the men clean the animals they brought back from hunting and dressed the skins. The Cherokee has seven clans that they believed that each clan descended from a common ancestor, there were seven clans; Wolf, Deer, Bird, Paint, Long Hair, Blind Savannah and Holly. In the Cherokee society they were matrilineal (Cokran 1962:8). This means that the Cherokee traced their ancestry descent through the mother’s side. The children were not even thought to be related to the father and his family. The most important was always the well-being of the clan you belonged to, this was more important than the Cherokee townships as a whole. The clan was seen as your immediate family, with the tribe as a whole the extended family. The villages were separated in three main communities spanning the Appalachian Mountains, where they are further separated into nine towns then into the individual villages. The Cherokee practiced exogamy, it was forbidden to marry someone within your clan as they are considered your family. If a Cherokee did not have a clan they were seen as nothing, no better than a slave, in the Cherokee’s eyes. The Cherokee were also matrilocal. When the Cherokee man married the husband moved into the wives mother’s home. A typical house hold comprised of “mother, her sisters, her sisters’ children and husbands, and her unmarried brothers” (Perdue 1989: 21). This goes back to their egalitarian outlook on life. The Cherokee saw the women as being the peaceful, bringers of life since they are the ones to have the children, women in Cherokee society had a lot of power and authority in the village and in their home. The Cherokee saw women as those who were essential to the survival of their group. Since the Cherokee got most of their food from the land and since women were mainly in control of the agriculture the women were more powerful in the villages than the men. The Cherokee governing political system was decentralized, there was not a main government for all the Cherokee villages.
Each village had a council, which was democratic, as everybody was equal and could say what was on their minds. There was also a chief who merely started the issues that needed to be discussed and kept the peace during these talks. The council would meet nightly at the council house, which was the largest house in the village. The issues were to be debated by the village people. “The council meetings were nonconfrontational. Discussion was continued until a consensus could be obtained, or if none was possible, the decision was postponed” (Anderson: 5). This type of government goes back to their egalitarian beliefs of everyone being equal. This was also done to avoid controversy and dissent in the group. If someone disagreed with the consensus they would most times back down in order to keep the peace. There were two different kinds of government for each village, there was a white government and a red government. The white government was the government during peace time, there was the white chief who was called the Beloved Man by the Cherokee. Then the red government was the government enacted during the time of war for the Cherokee, their chief was called the Great War Chief. “The Cherokee Peace Chief was in charge of domestic issues and the ceremonial life of the town. The War Chief dealt with matters involving outsiders: not just war, but negotiations, alliances, trade, and other external matters” (Ojibwa 2011). The Chiefs had no real power in the villages, no more than any other Cherokee. The main traits they look for in Chiefs is their generosity and unselfishness. It can also be found that women had a lead role in these council and had chiefs of their own, or were councilors to the male chiefs, in the Cherokee as some women had the name War Woman and Beloved Woman showing they were equal in making decisions as the male chief. Though the
women had different roles than the men had where when the women accompanied the men they were given menial tasks such as water fetching. Although, War Women were given the task of torturing the captives. (Corkran 1962: 8). In the Cherokee women and men were equal though no woman was ever a leader, even woman were allowed to go to war with the Cherokee men. This idea goes back to the subsistence since women work just as hard as the men bringing in the food to the people. Above all else the Cherokee revered the traits of kindness, generosity and sharing. (Garrett and Garrett 2002: 25). The Cherokee hold these values of importance as they believed in keeping the world in harmony, that if you take something from the world then there needs to be a return of equal standing or else bad karma will come after you or someone in your kinship. The Cherokee believed that the land they lived on was the center of the universe. “Cherokees believed that the principle people’s major purpose was keeping the world in harmony and balance.” (Perdue 1989:24). They believed that was their one main job with being in the center of the universe. This idea of harmony in the universe shows itself in their everyday life and their belief on how the animals and plants came about. “Selu and Kana’ti, the providers of vegetables and meat, complemented each other. By hunting, men balanced women, who farmed. Summer, the season for farming, complemented winter, the season for hunting.” (Perdue 1989:24). Everything they did was due to this belief of harmony. In their horticulturalist society with this belief in harmony the Cherokee did not believe in taking more than what was needed. The Cherokee looked down on people who accumulated wealth with food, as they saw this as taking too much from the earth and trying to be better than other Cherokee, which was against their belief in egalitarian. The Cherokee also believed in animism which is giving a spirit, or a soul, to inanimate objects, animals, and plants. With these two beliefs combined they believed if they took more than what was needed the spirits would be angry with the Cherokee and bad things would happen to them, such as disease or droughts. The Cherokee often put on rituals or ceremonies, complete with handmade masks, in order to keep harmony in the universe or to appease the spirits of the animals and plants they have ate. In the Cherokee society women were equal to men, even able to fight with them and have leadership roles. Their society was matrilineal and matrilocal with women having the power domestically. The Cherokee believed in generosity and doing what is best for the village as a whole. The Cherokee was a horticulturalist society with hunting to supplement. They had this kind of subsistence due to their belief in harmony in the universe and animism, taking only what is needed. With this subsistence they believed everyone was equal with women and men working the same amount to bring in food to feed their Cherokee village.
eight southern states. The area of Cherokee occupation included North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama.” (Anderson: vii). They lived in the Appalachian Mountains, living by the streams and rivers for easy fishing access. The Cherokee were known as the biggest Indian tribe in North America with a peak of 10,000 Cherokee at its peak. (Cokran 1962: 3). In the Cherokee society women did most of the work, the first Europeans who came to North America remarked that the men were lazy and women had to do all the work and were like slaves in their society. This was not the case in Cherokee culture, they had strict jobs for each of the gender, the men and women did intersect at points, but each had their roles. In the time before Europeans women “farmed, made clothes and pottery, wove baskets, cooked, and tended the children” (Anderson: 3). But, this was one of the reasons why women were so powerful in the villages, since they were the ones to raise the future generations of Cherokee. While the men “spent their time hunting, fishing, erecting public and private buildings, and making tools” (Anderson: 3). The Europeans who first came to the Cherokee arrived in the warmer months, summer, when it was time for women to work. The Cherokee had it set up where the men hunted in the colder months, sometimes leaving the village for months at a time, to supplement when the Cherokee were not able to get as much food harvested. The Cherokee supplemented the lack of vegetables with animals they hunted in the area. The Cherokee men also hunted in the Northern areas, such as Kentucky, where the white tailed deer were plentiful. In the Summer time the women grew; corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, and sunflowers. While the primary responsibility fell to women to do the agricultural work, men did help the women by clearing the fields, planting the seeds, and help harvest, but women did the caretaking of the plants. In return the women helped the men clean the animals they brought back from hunting and dressed the skins. The Cherokee has seven clans that they believed that each clan descended from a common ancestor, there were seven clans; Wolf, Deer, Bird, Paint, Long Hair, Blind Savannah and Holly. In the Cherokee society they were matrilineal (Cokran 1962:8). This means that the Cherokee traced their ancestry descent through the mother’s side. The children were not even thought to be related to the father and his family. The most important was always the well-being of the clan you belonged to, this was more important than the Cherokee townships as a whole. The clan was seen as your immediate family, with the tribe as a whole the extended family. The villages were separated in three main communities spanning the Appalachian Mountains, where they are further separated into nine towns then into the individual villages. The Cherokee practiced exogamy, it was forbidden to marry someone within your clan as they are considered your family. If a Cherokee did not have a clan they were seen as nothing, no better than a slave, in the Cherokee’s eyes. The Cherokee were also matrilocal. When the Cherokee man married the husband moved into the wives mother’s home. A typical house hold comprised of “mother, her sisters, her sisters’ children and husbands, and her unmarried brothers” (Perdue 1989: 21). This goes back to their egalitarian outlook on life. The Cherokee saw the women as being the peaceful, bringers of life since they are the ones to have the children, women in Cherokee society had a lot of power and authority in the village and in their home. The Cherokee saw women as those who were essential to the survival of their group. Since the Cherokee got most of their food from the land and since women were mainly in control of the agriculture the women were more powerful in the villages than the men. The Cherokee governing political system was decentralized, there was not a main government for all the Cherokee villages.
Each village had a council, which was democratic, as everybody was equal and could say what was on their minds. There was also a chief who merely started the issues that needed to be discussed and kept the peace during these talks. The council would meet nightly at the council house, which was the largest house in the village. The issues were to be debated by the village people. “The council meetings were nonconfrontational. Discussion was continued until a consensus could be obtained, or if none was possible, the decision was postponed” (Anderson: 5). This type of government goes back to their egalitarian beliefs of everyone being equal. This was also done to avoid controversy and dissent in the group. If someone disagreed with the consensus they would most times back down in order to keep the peace. There were two different kinds of government for each village, there was a white government and a red government. The white government was the government during peace time, there was the white chief who was called the Beloved Man by the Cherokee. Then the red government was the government enacted during the time of war for the Cherokee, their chief was called the Great War Chief. “The Cherokee Peace Chief was in charge of domestic issues and the ceremonial life of the town. The War Chief dealt with matters involving outsiders: not just war, but negotiations, alliances, trade, and other external matters” (Ojibwa 2011). The Chiefs had no real power in the villages, no more than any other Cherokee. The main traits they look for in Chiefs is their generosity and unselfishness. It can also be found that women had a lead role in these council and had chiefs of their own, or were councilors to the male chiefs, in the Cherokee as some women had the name War Woman and Beloved Woman showing they were equal in making decisions as the male chief. Though the
women had different roles than the men had where when the women accompanied the men they were given menial tasks such as water fetching. Although, War Women were given the task of torturing the captives. (Corkran 1962: 8). In the Cherokee women and men were equal though no woman was ever a leader, even woman were allowed to go to war with the Cherokee men. This idea goes back to the subsistence since women work just as hard as the men bringing in the food to the people. Above all else the Cherokee revered the traits of kindness, generosity and sharing. (Garrett and Garrett 2002: 25). The Cherokee hold these values of importance as they believed in keeping the world in harmony, that if you take something from the world then there needs to be a return of equal standing or else bad karma will come after you or someone in your kinship. The Cherokee believed that the land they lived on was the center of the universe. “Cherokees believed that the principle people’s major purpose was keeping the world in harmony and balance.” (Perdue 1989:24). They believed that was their one main job with being in the center of the universe. This idea of harmony in the universe shows itself in their everyday life and their belief on how the animals and plants came about. “Selu and Kana’ti, the providers of vegetables and meat, complemented each other. By hunting, men balanced women, who farmed. Summer, the season for farming, complemented winter, the season for hunting.” (Perdue 1989:24). Everything they did was due to this belief of harmony. In their horticulturalist society with this belief in harmony the Cherokee did not believe in taking more than what was needed. The Cherokee looked down on people who accumulated wealth with food, as they saw this as taking too much from the earth and trying to be better than other Cherokee, which was against their belief in egalitarian. The Cherokee also believed in animism which is giving a spirit, or a soul, to inanimate objects, animals, and plants. With these two beliefs combined they believed if they took more than what was needed the spirits would be angry with the Cherokee and bad things would happen to them, such as disease or droughts. The Cherokee often put on rituals or ceremonies, complete with handmade masks, in order to keep harmony in the universe or to appease the spirits of the animals and plants they have ate. In the Cherokee society women were equal to men, even able to fight with them and have leadership roles. Their society was matrilineal and matrilocal with women having the power domestically. The Cherokee believed in generosity and doing what is best for the village as a whole. The Cherokee was a horticulturalist society with hunting to supplement. They had this kind of subsistence due to their belief in harmony in the universe and animism, taking only what is needed. With this subsistence they believed everyone was equal with women and men working the same amount to bring in food to feed their Cherokee village.