Tag Archives: Cherokee

Thanksgiving

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The First Thanksgiving, by Jennie A. Brownscombe, courtesy Pilgrim Hall Museum

The Thanksgiving holiday does not have the same significance for Native Americans as it does generally for others in this country. The fact that European pilgrims survived their first harsh winter boded ill for native peoples who suffered death, disease, and cultural disintegration at their hands. However, many Native American tribes incorporated gratitude into everyday life, often thanking plants and other living things for giving themselves to human use. Many tribes also had specific times and occasions for which they specifically took time out to express gratitude, such as mid-winter and harvest time.

Among others, the Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Yuchi, and Iroquois tribes celebrated the Green Corn Festival, which marked the beginning of the first corn harvest. It was a time to thank Mother Earth and all living things for providing food  and other usable items that made life good. Most Native Americans had various harvest ceremonies with the same purpose in mind. The Iroquois particularly formalized times of thanksgiving, which would include a special Thanksgiving Address. A speaker was chosen to give thanks on behalf of all the people. The thanksgiving prayer then offered gratitude to the Creator for the earth and the living things upon it. The prayer could be quite long, encompassing specific things the speaker wanted to call special attention to, like birds, rivers, medicinal grasses and herbs, wind, rain, sunshine, the moon and stars, and so on.

For many Native Americans, gratitude intersected with the spirituality they brought to daily life. Ceremonies simply formalized the gratitude they typically expressed on a smaller scale every day.

Harvest Dance, Santo Domingo Pueblo, 1910, courtesy Library of Congress

Sugar-Making Among the Indians in the North, 19th century illustration

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Onward, Civilization

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Presbyterian Missionary Kate McBeth and Nez Perce Students, late 19th Century, courtesy Idaho Historical Society

Besides encouraging native peoples to take up farming, white settlers believed that introducing Christianity would help “civilize” Indians (see last post). Federal policy encouraged missionaries to enter Indian territories to spread both the gospel and white culture. By the 1820s, missionaries were active as far west as Oklahoma, and by the 1850s, had established churches, schools, and mission stations among the Cherokee, Comanche, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and many other native peoples. The government  did not always observe a strict separation of church and state, since they considered Christian missionaries effective ambassadors of white culture, and actively encouraged their involvement in reservation life. In 1869, federal officials instituted the Peace Policy, a church-led assimilation program based out of reservations. These and similar efforts fell in line with the prevailing notion that America held a unique position in the world because of its Christian, democratic roots, and needed to spread its ideals across the continent.

For the most part, missionaries were undoubtedly convinced that their work would better both the physical and spiritual lives of Indians, and Native Americans did not always reject Christianity out of hand. Various Native American belief systems held commonalities with Christianity, and Native Americans tended to be spiritually inclusive. As a result, they could accept appealing parts of Christianity without rejecting their own traditional belief systems. In unfortunate contrast, Christian missionaries wanted Native Americans to abandon their heritage and culture completely. This adversarial stance guaranteed that Native Americans would suffer almost continually for practicing their own religion.

Reverend Arthur on Horseback With His Three Children, courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

Chief Black Horse Shaking Hands With Missionary, Promising Friendship, between 1880 and 1910, courtesy Library of Congress

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Indians and Slaves

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The Five Civilized Tribes

Indian Territory may have seemed a world away from the slave-holding South, but slavery was introduced there in 1830. Some of the slaves who ran away from southern slave states were received as free people by tribes in the Territory. However, all tribes except the Seminole eventually began to buy slaves. In the 1830s, about 3,000 African-Americans lived in Indian Territory. Most of them were slaves.

Indian farmers used slaves to help them cultivate their crops. Some masters had large tracts of land, but most Indians were subsistence farmers who worked as hard as their slaves. In the 1830s and 1840s, slaves came with Indians who were removed from the their eastern lands. The Cherokee held about 1,500 slaves, the Chickasaw Nation about 1,200, and the Creek Nation about 300. There were about 8,000 slaves held by Indians by the time of the Civil War. After the war, tribes abolished slavery.

Slaves of Indians, 1893, courtesy Library of Congress

John Taylor (African-American) and Dick Charlie (Ute), 1880-1910?, courtesy Library of Congress

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Black Indians

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Black Indians

Black Indians

Native Americans in the Five Civilized Tribes sometimes owned African slaves. The Cherokee freed their slaves in 1866 and gave them full tribal citizenship. These former slaves were called tribal Freedmen.

Many Freedmen lived as Native Americans through the ensuing years, having adopted their culture and languages.

Today, Freedmen face roadblocks in tribal enrollment, since proving their bloodline depends upon the 1906 census called the Dawes Roll, which excluded Freedmen. This proof of bloodline is very important, since it is required to qualify for a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. The CDIB and tribal membership entitles the holder to Native American monies and benefits.  

Black Indian Family

Black Indian Family

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Captive Workers

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The Nation Robbing An Indian Chief of His Wife, courtesy www.johnhorse.com

The Nation Robbing An Indian Chief of His Wife, courtesy www.johnhorse.com

The slave trade was not confined to Africans in the early history of the U.S. In the 1700s, for instance, the Cherokee  raided other tribal territories and carried off prisoners who became their slaves. When they did not retain slaves for themselves, they sold them to traders.

In 1713, the South Carolina Assembly asked the Cherokee for help in conflicts with the Tuscaroras. Cherokee warriors obliged, and captured or killed about 1,000 of their enemy. Their captives were later sold at the auction block.

Colonial Slave Market

Colonial Slave Market

Women and children were far more likely to be captured and held as slaves than men, who were more apt to be killed in battle. Sometimes a woman or child would be ransomed back to freedom, but this was not typical. At least 2,000 Indians were slaves in South Carolina during colonial times.

Renard (Fox) an Indian Slave, circa 1732

Renard (Fox) an Indian Slave, circa 1732

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A Working Society

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Navajo Woman at Work on Blanket, (between 1890-1920), courtesy Library of Congress

Navajo Woman at Work on Blanket, (between 1890-1920), courtesy Library of Congress

Like most other societies, Native Americans usually incorporated well-defined gender roles within their various groups. Men hunted, fought in battle, negotiated treaties and agreements, and made decisions about moving.  Men were chiefs, medicine men, and priests, though women could also take on these roles at times.

Women raised children, farmed if the society were agricultural, tanned skins and preserved food. Though their home-making roles were similar to white women’s, Native American women typically had more power. In Cherokee society, women owned land. Plains Indians traced their lineage through their mothers. Iroquois women controlled their families and could initiate divorce, and Blackfoot women owned the tipi in which their families lived. One important difference between Native American and white societies was the respect women received for their contribution to the home.

Returning War Party, courtesy Library of Congress

Returning War Party, courtesy Library of Congress

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Canton Asylum’s First Patients

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On January 10, 1903, the superintendent at St. Elizabeths hospital in Washington, D.C. received permission to release its Indian patients to the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians in South Dakota. The first patients were:

Chu-rah-rah-he-kah; Pawnee from the Ponca Agency; suffering from chronic mania

Joseph D. Marshall; Sioux from the Rose Bud Agency; suffering from chronic epileptic dementia

Miguel Maxcy; Mesa Grande froom the Carlisle Indian School; suffering from chronic meloncholia

Robert Brings Plenty; Sioux from the Pine Ridge Agency; suffering from chronic epileptic dementia

John Woodruff; Sioux-Mulatto from the Pine Ridge Agency; suffering from chronic meloncholia

Arch Wolf; Cherokee transferred from the penitentiary at Brooklyn New York; suffering from acute melancholia

These patients arrived at the Canton Asylum under escort of Dr. J.E. Toner, who received $157.71 reimbursement for expenses.

Train, circa 1900, courtesy Library of Congress

Train, circa 1900, courtesy Library of Congress

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