The Cherokee Nation held a substantial presence in the southern Appalachian Mountains, including current day North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Prior to white men making contact with the Cherokee Indians, the Cherokee Indians were a successful and prosperous agricultural people. However, as stated by the eMuseum @ Minnesota State University (ND), “In less than 30 years the Cherokee underwent the most remarkable adaptation to white culture of any Native American people” (para. 2). Nevertheless, Cherokee assimilation, which is still occurring today, was not and is not a simple occurrence. Cherokee Indians face segregation, discrimination, and the Cherokee experienced a loss of life that bordered genocide during the Cherokee’s re-colonization within the United States. Even today, the Cherokee Nation must cope with environmental injustice, institutional discrimination, and the dual labor market in addition to their own discrimination against others. Numerous failures and successes riddle the historical and current journey of the Cherokee Nation because of the injustices this group has and continues to face as well as the group’s ability to persevere and overcome.

The first English contact with the Cherokee occurred in 1654. According to Paige (2006), the Cherokee Indians were stereotyped, by white colonists, as members of the “Five Civilized Tribes,” while most other tribes where grouped as “wild and savage” (para. 1). The Cherokee Indians were seen as civilized because they quickly adopted many of the white man’s customs and practices. Documented journals often recall seeing Cherokee homes as comfortable and well stocked with the white man’s goods such as table clothes, decorations, utensils, and other civilized wares. By 1828, the Cherokees were far from “nomadic savages” instead they had “assimilated many European-style customs” such as roads, schools, and churches along with a “system of representational government” (Golden Ink, 1996). The Cherokees even adopted the practice of enslaving African Americans. Additionally, the Cherokees traded goods readily with the white man, developed a written language, and never lost a war against the white man but rather entered into several treaties and participated in the white man’s wars with one another. For these reasons, Cherokee Indians were able to sign several treaties successfully with the white colonists ensuring the Cherokee Indians’ safety and land preservation.

Unfortunately, white colonists broke most of the agreements they had with the Cherokee Indians by moving on to the Cherokee owned lands and disrespecting or overturning Cherokee laws, traditions, and cultures. One of the worst violations occurred in 1838 on the “Nunna Daul Tsunny,” known now as The Trail of Tears. This event occurred with white armies forcing Cherokees to relocate to Oklahoma onto a reservation because of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 that ultimately disregarded an earlier Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Cherokee Indian’s right to remain on their land. The Trail of Tears resulted in over 4,000 deaths—a near genocide of the Cherokee Nation.

Cherokees suffered extreme segregation in America. Not only were white man’s shared resources, such as water fountains labeled “Black,” White,” and “Indian,” put into place to segregate Indians from the white man but the land itself was divided. American government forced Indians to reside on land completely separated from the newly appointed white man’s land. Today the Cherokee hold the reserved land, which equates to 2% of American soil, sacred. Furthermore, Cherokees continue to fight to maintain the reserved land and to regain ownership of more land on the grounds of the white man’s illegal acquisition.

Additionally, Cherokees continue to suffer the effects of dual labor markets, environmental justice issues, institutional discrimination, and discrimination against others. “The lack of personal resources, such as a higher education, represents the most formidable barrier to American Indians seeking greater socioeconomic equality in American society” (Snipp, 1988, 11). The result of a poor education system is often low paying jobs in the informal economy, such as selling Indian wares in rest stops and on street corners. The Cherokee Nation also suffers greatly from environmental justice issues both because of American regulations that seemingly ignore Cherokee rights and because of internal decisions made by elected chiefs agreeing to environmentally unsound practices for money. Institutional discrimination is another issue affecting the Cherokee Nation. Equal rights for Cherokees who remain on their reservations are lacking in areas of welfare, education, criminal justice, and housing. Unlike the institutional discrimination faced by most minority groups in the United States, Cherokees face this discrimination as a whole rather than individually because of the Cherokees dual status as a sort of separate nation residing under both their laws and the laws of the United States. Institutional discrimination from American law affects the ability of Cherokee laws to provide equal rights and opportunities to individuals within the tribe. For example, Cherokees “lack the resources valued in the job market because they have been isolated from the American mainstream by choice and circumstance” (Snipp, 1988, 12). Ironically, the Cherokees also discriminate against other minority groups such as outlawing gay marriages and employing “discriminatory policies to prevent black members from receiving tribal benefits—and to strip [black members] of the right to vote in tribal elections” (Staples, 2003, para. 3). Though many Cherokees have assimilated to American culture, many have remained on the reservation. For those that remain on the reservation, a history of poverty and economic deprivation continues because of various forms of discriminatory practices by the United States government, American people, and the Cherokee Nation itself.

References:

C. Matthew Snipp, "On the Costs of Being American Indian: Ethnic Identity and Economic Opportunity" (June 1, 1988). Institute for Social Science Research. Volume IV. 1988-89 - Conference on Comparative Ethnicity: The Conference Papers, June 1988. Paper 25.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/issr/volume4/25

eMuseum @ Minnesota State University. (ND). Cherokee. Retrieved March 28, 2008, from http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/northamerica/cherokee.html

Paige Joseph, (2006). Native American Cherokee Indians. Native Languages of the Americas. Retrieved March 28, 2008, from
http://www.native-languages.org/composition/cherokee-indians.html

Snipp, C. Mathew. (1988). On the costs of being American Indian: Ethnic identity and economic opportunity. Institute for Social Science Research, 4 (25), 1-14. Retrieved March 30, 2008, from eScholarship Repository database.

Staples Brent, (2003). When racial discrimination is not just black and white. The New York Times. Retrieved March 30, 2008, from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2D9103BF931A2575AC0A9659C8B63