Introduction
The Cherokee are among the native Indians found in North America. They initially occupied the mountainous regions of North America and they were ordinary hunters and gatherers although they did practice minimal farming in order to supplement the food they obtained through hunting and gathering. This can be deduced from the work of Thornton et al (1990) who points out that ‘the aboriginal Cherokee environment indicates abundant food supply. The Cherokee had various wild plants at their disposal, had cultivated food and they had access to abundant animal life e.g. the bear and the buffalos’.
This environment with plenty resources enabled them to lead a very comfortable and steady life dictated by their culture. As a tribal group they did not have a formal structured social, political, and economic organization and any other structures that are present in a complex society. As a tribal group they did not have a political leader and there was no private ownership of property and they shared all other characteristics of any tribal group which befits the term ‘primitive.
All these changed once the white settlers invaded their land. The changes which were introduced to the culture of Cherokee by the Europeans are the one which served as the gate towards modern civilization and this argument will be carried all along my essay. Civilization can be described as a very complex culture whereby the society has a very complex social structure and organizations and people are engaged in very different economic and cultural activities. Some people are producers while others are consumers and there is a well established political structure with one head at the top.
Discussion
The Cherokee did not change their cultural way of doing things out of will, rather it was in response to the changes that were being forced to them by the western European settlers who wanted to occupy their land. Changes in their cultural fabric were as a result of relocation to other regions which were different from the mountain environment and this called for new ways of adaptation, new lethal diseases such as small pox which could not be cured using their traditional methods and introduction of market economy an new political alignments which were taking place in the 18th and 19th century.
Political alignment saw unending wars between the Europeans i.e. Spain, England, and France as they tried to take control of the natives land. Cherokee men were recruited as soldiers and this means that they acquired guns and as we shall see later this marked the beginning of civilization. Also the flow of information from the elders to the youth was cut and their culture begun to disintegrate because the young people were not present.
The Cherokee learned the art of combat war from the Europeans and they used the same tactics later on to attack their neighbors in the frontiers. This are still characteristic of civilization and in the modern era the most economically and politically powerful countries continue too attack the poor ones in order to gain access to their natural resources.
Contacts with the white introduced market economy to the Cherokee and their involvement in this market called for a change from traditional lifestyle to a new lifestyle. The Cherokee exchanged deer and bear skin and fur with the Europeans and later on they became employees of the traders. This trade adversely affected their environment because they had to kill more animals in order to get enough in order to meet the demand from the Europeans.
As employees the Cherokee duty was to travel to the interior and bring back items of trade to the traders who settled along major trade routes. Involvement of the in trade enabled them to acquire trading skills and one has to recall that exchange of goods and serviced drives the market economy and the Cherokee were sure going that way.
McLoughin (1986) also highlights the same issue when he argues that ‘obtaining guns was the mark of a radical transformation of the traditional way of life’. According to him ‘the Cherokee thus moved from foragers life to a mobile, free trade market economy with heavy reliance on European trade goods and alliances’.
This was bad for the Cherokee because reliance on European goods means that they had forgotten their traditional ways of obtaining resources from the environment and thus they created a good room for the Europe to impose her ways on them. In addition the Cherokee intensified their farming practices because there was a prospect of a good market for their produce and at the same time they could acquire better farming implements from the whites such as hoes and animal driven plows.
Apart from farm implements farming goes along with domestication of animals and thus at the end of the day the Cherokee developed more interest in domesticated animals in favor of the wild animals which they used to hunt. The Europeans also are believed to have introduced new type of crops mostly new fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes and watermelons McLoughin (1986). One can note that these new crops were not meant to benefit the Cherokee, rather they were meant for consumption by the settlers since they could easily obtain them through trade.
Cherokee political structure was also altered by the Europeans. Traditionally there was not post for an overall community leader among them but for conveniences the Europeans needed some on who could communicate to them on behalf of the community. They therefore had to create such a post in the community. McLoughin (1986) reports that ‘finding that the Cherokee had no national chief or political unit, the English tried to create a ‘‘king’’ to unite them.
In 1721, the governor of south Carolina met with 37 Cherokee chiefs and persuaded them to make Wrosestawasatow their king’. This in essence means that a formal political structure was being introduced to the Cherokee and it remained up to date. In modern civilization we have one individual who leads his state and makes decision on behalf of his or her followers. The head of the state is elected by the people themselves.
Turning on to the other side of the discussion it is important to note that ‘civilization’ per se would not have taken place among the Cherokee if they were allowed to retain their ancestral land because according to my own opinion they were already civilized. I have quoted the term because it is always defined from a very ethnocentric point of view mostly as a result of our ignorance. In order to understand people’s culture the elements of comparison have to be dropped. I believe that the Cherokee were civilized in their own capacity because they had fully mastered their environment and this enabled them to extract resources from the environment without destroying it. Their relationship with the environment was guided by their strict cultural teachings because environment was part of their religious life.
Ehle, McLoughin and West writing in different books shows us s that the Cherokee did not have anything such as written laws, formal court and police system yet the society was not in chaos. As a tribal group the Cherokee had mastered the art of living harmoniously and all decisions that affected the community was made by the society members as a group collectively. Their decisions were further enforced by their religious and other cultural teachings which were passed on from one generation to the next. This traditions were century’s old and I believe that given a room they could still be functioning up to date.
Conclusion
In conclusion it won’t be wrong to say that civilization of the Cherokee was brought about by the changes that took place in their cultural landscape between 18th and 19th century. They were forced by the white farmers to relocate to very different religions and this new environment called for a change of culture in order to ensure their survival. They also learned how to trade and slowly they were integrated in to the world economy which has its own rules and regulations that are different from the Cherokee ways of life.
These changes cannot be solely taken as the only acceptable means to civilization because culture generally is adaptive and therefore the Cherokee culture would have remained relevant to them as wrong as it enabled them meet their daily needs. Culture also changes with time as a way of adjusting to the existing conditions in the environment.
References
Ehle, J. E. (1997): The Rise and fall of the Cherokee Nation. Anchors Books.
McLoughin, W. G. (1986): Cherokee Renascence in the new republic. Princetone University press.
Sturgis, H. A (2007): The Trails of tear and Indian removal. Greenwood Publishing Group
Thornton R., Snipp, C. M. and Breen, N (1990): The Cherokee: A population History. The University of Nebraska Press.
West, E. (1999): Trails of Tears. Western National Park Association.