History 1301
March 3, 2015

Cherokee Voices; Writing Assignment

This book is about the journey the Cherokees had before establishing formal ties with Great Britain in 1730. They had a rocky relationship with the Europeans and Americans, but established grounds for disagreement over trade practices, regional control, and the complicated loyalties among the various Indian tribes and European powers. Over the years, the Cherokees struggled to maintain their prehistoric traditions as the tribe was assimilated into the white man’s culture.
The Cherokees adjusted to the arrival of Europeans and Americans by adapting new methods such as weaving, which the Europeans taught the Native Americans how to grow cotton that could later on by dyed with different plants to produce colored thread. The thread was woven into clothing and blankets. Another adjustment the Native Americans handled was ownership of the land. They had an opposite view on land ownership compared to the Europeans, because they believed that the land belonged to everyone and it was to be used and shared. But unlike, the Europeans believed that they owned the land and that each landowner was the only people that would have access to the use of the land. Transportation was also an adjustment the Cherokees adapted to, horses and cattle were introduced by the Europeans, which made it easier to hunt and move around. Another big adjustment was trading, the Europeans wanted the fur and leather that could only be found in North America. So the Native Americans would bring furs to the trading posts, in exchange for new products such as wheat flour for baking, cloth for making clothes and rifles for hunting. Consequently guns were a huge adjustment to hunting because of the efficiency and less time it took. An example from the book about the trading procedures “During the mid- eighteenth century, trade between the British and the Cherokees was at its peak. The British commissioned several traders in the Creek and Cherokee Nations to trade rifles, woolens, tools, and other European goods for skins.” (The Price of a White Shirt, 1751-53. Page 15). In conclusion of how the Cherokees adjusted to the arrival of the Europeans and Americans was good at first but later went downhill because of the loss of their roaming ways of life, devastating outbreaks of disease in exchange for a few rifles and cloth.
The Cherokees had no control over the ownership of the land, like stated previously they strongly believed that the land were to be shared and be available for everyone and anyone. But the Europeans had a strong opposite belief, which resulted in the Native Americans losing all use of the land in North America. Also, traditions, customs and