essay
Women, men and American Indian policy: the Cherokee response to 'civilization'
negotiators of change : historical perspectives on native american women • New York • Published In 1995 • Pages: 90-114
By: Perdue, Theda.
Abstract
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Cherokees became active in the deerskin trade introduced into the Southeast by Europeans, but by the late 1700s, Euro-Americans were more interested in land than in trading for hides. From the end of the Revolutionary War through the 1830s, the United States pressured the Cherokees to cede more of their land. As Perdue discusses, the Cherokees were at the same time subjected to a 'benevolent' effort on the part of the U.S. to 'civilize' them; that is, to remake them in its image. The Cherokees willingly accommodated certain aspects of American culture, but were still forced to cede their lands in the Southeast and to remove to Indian Territory in the winter of 1838-39. The Cherokees built a new nation in the West, in what is now Oklahoma, while a small number of Cherokees who had avoided removal also reorganized as a tribe and today have a reservation in western North Carolina (p. 90).
- HRAF PubDate
- 2000
- Region
- North America
- Sub Region
- Eastern Woodlands
- Document Type
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Historian
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- Analyst
- John Beierlec; 2006
- Field Date
- no date
- Coverage Date
- 1789-1830
- Coverage Place
- North Carolina, United States
- Notes
- Theda Perdue
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCN
- 94015774
- LCSH
- Cherokee Indians