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Cherokee Indians – SC Native Americans

South Carolina SC Native Americans SC Indian Tribes SC Cherokee Indians Under construction: November, 2024

This page refers primarily to the Cherokee people who lived within present-day South Carolina.

Contents

Names – Cherokee Indians

  • Cherokee - pronounced CHER-uh-kee in English - is written using the symbols ᏣᎳᎩ in the tribe's native syllabary, (A syllabary is similar to an alphabet.)

  • Many Cherokee people prefer to be called Aniyvwiya - written ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ - which translates as the "Principal People." Still other refer to themselves as the Keetoowah or Tsalagi.

    Some say it is of Creek origin and means "people of a different speech."
  • Alternate spellings: Ani'-Yun'wiya, Tsalagia, Keetoowah
  • Possible meanings: "People of a different speech" or "The principle people"

SC Territory – Cherokee Indians

Traditional: In 1540, when Hernando de Soto travelled inland from Charleston with 500 conquistadors, the Cherokees primarily inhabited northwestern "Carolina" (which was not split into separate colonies until 1712), as well as parts of northeast Georgia and southeast Tennessee. They lived where the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains meet (1). South Carolina's Cherokee people lived in the "lower towns." By the middle of the seventeenth century, these included Jocassee, Keowee, Seneca, and Toxaway (#). The South Carolina Encyclopedia explains that the tribe's presence in the state was cut short during the Revolutionary War. Most Cherokees sided with the British. After colonists invaded Cherokeee land in Tennessee, surrounding clans retaliated. The author explains:
A multicolony army assembled in 1776 to attack Cherokee towns and food stores. At one Cherokee town in South Carolina, the army destroyed six thousand bushels of corn and the South Carolina government paid this army a bounty for Cherokee scalps. This full-scale assault effectively ended Cherokee participation in the Revolutionary War, and in 1777 the Cherokees ceded most of their South Carolina land. The Cherokees acknowledged the United States in the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785, signed near present-day Seneca. On March 22, 1816, the Cherokees ceded their last strip of land in South Carolina.
The Cherokee resided here for millennia. With the aid of disease and guns, it took European settlers little more than 100 years to eradicate them.

Population – Cherokee Indians

We have not found any figures that represent the population of Cherokee Indians specifically within the boundaries of modern South Carolina. The following figures are regional or national as specified.
  • Pre-Colonial: 30,000

    Upwards of 30,000 Cherokee people lived in the Southeast prior to European arrival. They were the region's largest indigenous group.

  • Early 1700s: 16,000+

    It is estimated that, by the early eighteenth century, little over half of the indigenous population remained. The Cherokee, like all native tribes, were decimated by European diseases, to which they had no immunity, as well as by wars with both neighboring tribes and European settlers. While the Cherokee were considered pacifists in general, they engaged in territorial disputes. Before European colonization, the Indians did not have metal tools or weapons such as guns and swords.

  • 1835: 21,900

    By 1835, 5,000 Cherokees had immigrated to Arkansas. Just under 17,000 remained in the Southeast. That year, after signing the Treaty of New Echota, an additional 1,813 people voluntarily moved westward, largely by river.

  • 1838: 14,000

    In 1838, the Trail of Tears commenced, wherein the US Army forcibly drove an additional 14,000 Cherokee overland to Oklahoma. One-third of this group died along the way or soon after arriving.

  • After 1838: 1,100

    Approximately 1,100 Cherokees escaped forced evacuation by hiding in the hollows of the Appalachian highlands. These survivors eventually coalesced into the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Western North Carolina. Their descendants now live in the Qualla Boundary Reservation, formed in 1878, or nearby areas

  • 1990: 308,000 - check - no source was given for this info -->
  • 2018: 376,000 - nationwide
  • 2024: 450,000 - worldwide

Current Status – Cherokee Indians

The Cherokee people comprise the largest tribe of Native Americans in the United States today, and there are 450,000 members worldwide (#). They have two reservations in Oklahoma and one in North Carolina, and there are smaller bands of Cherokee in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

It may seem odd that the largest concentration of Cherokee people now reside in Oklahoma. After all, the Cherokee Nation was the largest native tribe in the Southeast for thousands of years. Its forced migration resulted from an 1838 congressional vote to eject all native peoples from their ancestral homelands to the arid southwest, a location Congress deemed barren and undesirable for white citizens. (Note: Some Cherokees spread west prior to 1838, including into Oklahoma, but the vast majority remained in the East.)

To enforce this law, the United States Army brutally rounded up Native Americans and forced them to travel 1,500 miles along what is known as the Trail of Tears. The name speaks homage to both the sorrow of the Indian's loss and the suffering incurred along the way. Innumerable people fell to their deaths, starved, or were shot by Calvary mounted on horseback.

The Cherokee are considered an active tribe: The Eastern Band in North Carolina, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (also in Oklahoma) have been recognized by the United States government as sovereign nations. In 1924, all Indians in the United States were granted full US citizenship. As such, they can vote and must pay federal income tax. The vast majority of Indians also pay state income taxes. Only 40% of American Indians live on reservations. Additionally, two Cherokee tribes have been granted recognition by the State of South Carolina. They are:
  • Piedmont American Indian Association, Lower Eastern Cherokee Nation of South Carolina
  • Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois, and United Tribes of South Carolina
Other Cherokee tribes and groups are also active in South Carolina (see list). Cherokee organizations are also active in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Language – SC Cherokee Indians

The Cherokee language represents the only Southeastern member of the Iroquoian language family. Cherokees are believed to have broken from the Iroquois between 3,000 and 3,500 years ago.

Several Cherokee dialects existed in the South by the 1700s. The four main ones are listed here:
  1. The Kituwha dialect is preserved on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina. However, because of European capture and intermarriage between tribes, new pronunciations and words were incorporated. The Cherokees valued speaking multiple languages (1).

  2. The Valley dialect was spoken near the Hiwaseee and Nantahala rivers in Western North Carolina (1). It survives in the Snowbird Community (1) (Graham County, NC) (#).

  3. The dialect spoken southwards to Savannah was called Elati. It is believed to be extinct (1).

  4. The Otali or Overhill dialect arose in the North Georgia and Tennessee mountains. Since this area is closest to the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma, it is the dialect that most closely resembles the one spoken there today (1).
The ancient Cherokee employed an oral language. In 1821, it was translated into written characters by renowned Native scholar Sequoya (pronounced "Seɡʷoja"), who spoke many languages, including English. (His Anglicized name was George Gist or Guess.) The Cherokees were among the first Native American nations to have a written language. This allowed members to read and write. In fact, just 25 years after the Cherokee Nation officially adopted his system, adult literacy among Cherokee adults reached nearly 100%, far surpassing the literacy rate of European immigrants (2).

Importantly, this new means of communication helped reunited the Cherokee Nation, which had been driven apart by attacks and battles with European settlers (3).

Historical Timeline – SC Cherokee History

  • 4,000 years ago, ancestors of The Cherokee migrated from the American southwest to the Great Lakes region. After wars with the Delaware and Iroquois tribes of that area, the Cherokee made a permanent home in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and in South Carolina's foothills.

  • First contact with white traders working in the Appalachian Mountains was made in the 1600s. The Cherokee traded deerskins for hammers, saws, other metal tools, glass, cloth, and firearms.

  • The Cherokee fought 1689-1763 in the French and Indian Wars because of their alliances with the British.

  • In 1821, Sequoyah, a Cherokee warrior and silversmith, introduced a written Cherokee language. Thousands of Cherokee become literate.

  • The first Cherokee Constitution was adopted in 1827.

  • The US Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830. This law forced the Cherokee and all other American Indian tribes to trade their ancestral lands for land in present-day Oklahoma.

  • The Treaty of New Echota was signed in 1835 by a small faction of Cherokees who favored relocation.

  • Many thousands of Cherokee refused to abandon their homes and were forced to leave on foot by the US Army. This march, known as the Trail of Tears, took three to five months during 1838. It was estimated that 13,000 Cherokee started this journey and that at least one-fourth died of hunger and exhaustion. Approximately 1,000 Cherokee escaped the Trail of Tears by hiding and were eventually granted land in western North Carolina. They are now known as the Eastern Band of Cherokees.

  • Today the Cherokee are the largest tribe of Native Americans in the United States. They hold large reservations in Oklahoma and North Carolina, and there are smaller groups of Cherokee in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas.

Clothing – SC Cherokee Indians

  • Men – Loin cloth made of deerskin in summer; leggings, shirts and robes were added in winter. Men commonly decorated their bodies and faces with tattoos or paint.
  • Women – Dresses made of deerskin with long, fringed petticoats underneath. Women rubbed their hair with bear grease and decorated it with red or yellow dust.

Homes – SC Cherokee Indians

The Cherokee have resided in the Southern Appalachians for at least 3,500 years, and it is important to note that building styles evolved over the centuries. Just as modern South Carolina cities feature many building styles – from brick, to clapboard, to stone or tabby – Cherokee towns of different eras may have varied widely.

Santa Elena Indian Village
Painting of Cherokee town in nearby North Carolina
[Courtesy of National Park Service]

Cherokees in South Carolina were forced to abandon almost all of their South Carolina landholdings in 17XX. The last sliver was wrested away in 183X. Although photography was invented in France a decade earlier, we can find no historic images of Cherokee homes in the state from this time. Despite careful research, we can make only educated guesses:

  • Seasonal homes – Cherokee families in South Carolina likely owned two homes each, a summer home and a winter home. Their territory was mild part of the year, but quite cold the other. Snow is not uncommon in the Upstate.

  • Shapes – Homes could be either rectangular in nature or rounded into a hut.

  • Early rectangular homes – Early rectangular homes were built using a technique called wattle and daub. Wattle is an Indian term for the practice of weaving saplings (small trees) and slender branches into a wall. Daub is an Indian word for the practice of filling gaps with mud or clay. Daub, once dried, prevented wind from entering the home. These walls were attached to four poles or posts, each dug or driven into one of the home's four corners. Two additional poles formed a frame for a small door.

  • Late rectangular homes – As colonial families settled along South Carolina's northwestern frontier, the Cherokees were introduced to log cabins and some began to emulate this design by the 1800s. Unlike previous homes, these included windows and stone chimneys.

  • Rounded huts – Research shows that domed huts were also common in Cherokee culture. A hut was constructed of a sapling frame covered by either thatch or long strips of bark. In some paintings that aim to depict historic Cherokee villages, the huts appear to have had holes in the center of the dome for smoke to escape.

  • Doors – As shown in the image below, huts lacked doors, had loosely-woven half-doors, or were guarded by sticks to keep animals out. Early rectangular cabins, based on both modern paintings and modern reconstructions, had solid half-doors. In either case, the doors were short, even though the Cherokee people were not! In fact, Cherokee men were tall compared to other men of the time and often reached six feet.

    Pictures of Cherokee rectangular homes in neighboring North Carolina show that the lower half of the door was made of wood, while the upper half was left open for air flow. This would have been especially important during winter months, when the missing portion would have served as an escape route for smoke. The Cherokee, like many nearby tribes, kept low fires or piles of coal burning through the night. These were placed in the center of their homes, with family members probably sleeping next to the walls to protect themselves from the draft and smoke. Doors were consistently located in the center of a home's front wall.

  • Owned by women – While the Cherokee people were originally a patriarchy, they grew to grant strong rights to women, including as home owners and leaders of clans (i.e., extended families). Homes passed from mother to daughter.

  • Number of homes per village – Estimates consistently report that villages, called "lower towns" in South Carolina, contained between 30 and 60 homes each.

Food – SC Cherokee Indians

  • Farming – Corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, melons, and other crops
  • Fishing – ?
  • Hunting – Bear, deer, and other wild game

  • Cherokee Foodways in South Carolina - learn about what the Cherokee have eaten throughout their history

Culture – Cherokee Indians

  • Matrilineal Society – The Cherokee society was initially patriarchal but, over time, evolved into a a relative matriarchy. Cherokee children took their mother's name. Women also owned their family homes and acted as the leaders of their family clans. That said, polygamy was common, especially among high-ranking men.

    Although priests and chiefs continued to be men, women's voices were valued in both politics and warfare. Despite the common image of fierce male braves, women sometimes fought alongside men and were recognized for their bravery. Elderly women played a particularly important role when it came to offensive and defensive planning. The Cherokee believed that, as wives and mothers, they were intimately knowledgeable about the costs of war.
  • Religion – The Cherokee worshipped the creator, who was called Yo wah or Ye ho waah. Only men served as priests. The Cherokee associated order with good and chaos with evil. Learn more about how Cherokee viewed the Universe
  • Slavery – Tens of thousands of Indians were captured by white settlers and forced into bondage. However, because Indians held vast knowledge of their native lands, they were adept at escape. Thus many settlers sold Indians in Virginia and the other northern states. This became a source of income for settlers, especially in frontier regions like the South Carolina Upstate. The foothills stood at the boundary of the Cherokee's historic – and theoretically legal – territory. Cherokee and whites engaged in constant attacks against each other. Despite their home court advantage, the Indians were ultimately felled by superior weaponry. Indians did exchange commodities like food, fur, and animal hides for knives and guns, but the guns were often inferior. They also had far fewer of them.

    The Cherokee tribe itself enslaved members of enemy tribes who were taken as prisoners of war. Like many tribes, they believed this to be a natural consequence of a soldier's failure to defend himself and his tribe. However, enslavement by Cherokees was temporary. The tribe eventually released their captives or assimilated them as members of their own tribe.
  • Rituals – The Cherokee held several large seasonal festivals, including the Busk or Green Corn Ceremony. This was a celebration of renewal held in late summer when the first corn crop ripened. It was common among other Southeastern tribes as well.

Religion – Cherokee Indians






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