Learning about the Cherokee

Assignment #2


Word Count: 579

Having had nothing but a “bare bones” teaching of Native American history, while attending the all-white public school in the all-white city I grew up in, I was completely riveted when reading this lesson.

It was as if the scales fell off my eyes and I could “see beyond the box” for the first time in my life. In my reading of it, I experienced a full range of emotions…shock, disgust, horror, sadness … all tinged with tiny bits of hope.

Overall, however, it just plain hurt to read of the continual pompous acts of discrimination by those in power and read of the abject suffering of those who were essentially thought of as being “less than human.”

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As I read the lesson, I became increasingly angered by the continual treaties that were forced upon the Native Americans. They always seemed to include the loss of more and more land. Yes, they were given things they needed in exchange for the land, but by the end of the 1700’s when the United States came into being, they had ceded a huge amount of land to the British, and others.

I found it interesting that French were favored above the English, mainly because they were less authoritative and actually showed some respect for the Cherokee people. The British have always been known to want control…to be in charge. I think it is disgusting that they insisted the Cherokee trade only with them.

I was also disgusted and angry at the conniving British who, after selecting an “emperor” to represent the tribe in all future deals, also escorted seven Cherokee to England to swear allegiance to the crown, before the King. How reprehensible! That just completely infuriated me.

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Learning of the devastating toll from Small Pox saddened me greatly. I cannot begin to fathom the huge loss of life, caused in part due to the disease itself, and partly due to the numbers of people who took their own life when they were afflicted with this terrible illness.

The epidemic left the Cherokee reeling. Even the priests were profoundly affected when they could not bring about healing for this strange, new disease. Many came to believe that the tribe was being punished for adopting the ways of the white man.

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Sadly, the middle of the 1700’s saw an alarming increase in the loss of life for the Cherokee as they battled with the colonists and the British, who still seemingly wanted absolute control of them. Considering the Cherokee had previously occupied the lands which would some day become the United States, it is disturbing how the Colonials literally forced the Cherokee to either submit or fight.

The results were always the same…promises were made but were never honored. More and more land was ceded, with empty assurances that no more would be required. This was an ongoing Cherokee nightmare, as was the continual destruction of Cherokee towns by the colonials.

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When the United States officially became a nation in the 1780’s, new challenges would arise for the Cherokee. Overall, however, nothing particularly positive would result. Would it ever change?

All throughout the reading of this lesson, I kept hoping beyond hope that things would get better for the Cherokee. Instead, that hope kept diminishing as over and over again I read of one defeat after another…all imposed so needlessly upon other human beings by people who felt superior to them.

“All are different, but all are the same”