Cherokee Diplomacy

European and Cherokee cultures converge in Virginia in the 1700s. June 15, 2009

Transcript

Lloyd Dobyns: Hi, Welcome to Colonial Williamsburg Past and Present. This is Behind the Scenes.

Harmony Hunter: Welcome to the podcast. I’m Harmony Hunter, filling in for Lloyd Dobyns. Today my guest is Dr. Duane King, who is director of the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Duane, you’re here today to talk to us about Cherokee diplomacy of the 18th century, and several delegations of Cherokee who actually traveled to Williamsburg in the 18th century for some negotiations.

Harmony: So what are they negotiating for?

Duane King: Primarily for land. Between 1721 and 1835, there was 36 land cessions, which reduced this once-vast Cherokee territory that encompassed parts of eight states down to nothing. Even by the 1760s and 1770s, Cherokee leaders were beginning to realize that the desire for land on the part of the whites was insatiable, and that eventually, the Cherokees would be required to give up all of the land they owned.

Harmony: Can you tell me a little bit about the Cherokee as a tribe, as a people: where they were from, who they were?

Duane: At the time of European contact, there were about 22,000 Cherokees living in 60 to 70 towns in the South Appalachian area.

Harmony: So they were from the Carolinas, the Tennessee area?

Duane: Well the Cherokee territory encompassed parts of eight present states: the Virginias, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Beginning in 1721, there was pressure on the Cherokees to cede land for white settlement.

Harmony: Tell me about the character of the Cherokees. What made them such excellent warriors?

Duane: Well traditionally, the role of males in Cherokee society was that of hunting and protecting the tribal boundaries. So, young men gained status through accomplishments in warfare.

So, during the 1750s, when there were hundreds of warriors on the Virginia frontier, many of these warriors were rising through the ranks of Cherokee society, becoming the leaders of the Cherokee nation.

Harmony: Some of the reading that I did suggested that Cherokees, as a tribe, valued war above peace. How would you respond to that?

Duane: They called warfare “the beloved profession.” But it was warfare different than what was known in Europe at the time. In Europe, the powers of Europe raised great armies and they marched in formation and they fought battles in formation.

Warfare on the frontier, particularly for the Native Americans, was a different kind of warfare. It wasn’t a warfare of conquest, but it was a warfare of supremacy through heroic deeds in battle.

Harmony: Can you tell me how the alliance with the British came about?

Duane: In 1730, they had signed a peace treaty with Great Britain, promising to help defend the British Empire against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It wasn’t until the French and Indian war broke out in 1750s that the Cherokees were actually called upon to help fight against the enemies of the British crown.

So, during most of the 1750s, the British and the Cherokees were pretty staunch allies. But in 1758, the peace broke down when Cherokee veterans returning to their homes in Tennessee were killed by Virginia frontiersmen. Their families took revenge on white settlements in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Harmony: I’m thinking about the way that Europeans understood government, and the way the organization of their society might have colored the way that they viewed Cherokee society, which was so different from their own.

Can you tell me about the fundamental differences between European society and Cherokee society, and how that might have affected the way that their negotiations worked?

Duane: The British viewed Native Americans as the antithesis of Europeans, throughout the historic period. If Europeans were oppressed politically, Native Americans were free, and autonomous. I think to a certain extent, the Cherokees also viewed the British as being the antithesis of the Cherokees.

There were a lot of things the Cherokees didn’t understand about European society and about European government. They did not understand, for example, why there were no women in European governments. When Attakullakulla addressed the legislature in South Carolina, the first question he asked was, “Where are your women?” Because there were none present.

The Cherokees also didn’t understand how governments could impose their will over ordinary citizens. Because in Cherokee society, there was no draft, there was no mechanism to force people to fight in battle. They either did so because they wanted to, or they went home. But in European society and European armies, if someone deserted, they would be shot.

Cherokees on the Virginia frontier did not understand why men would be beaten with whips for using profanity, for simply expressing their opinion about something, because in the Cherokee language, there was no profanity. In Cherokee society, no one would be punished for expressing their opinion about anything.

So there were a lot of contradictions, a lot of misunderstandings that arose during this time period when Cherokees were fighting alongside British colonists. The Cherokees didn’t understand why you had to eat at prescribed times during the day. They wanted to eat when they were hungry. The British eventually came around to providing food whenever Cherokees were hungry, and found that they didn’t eat any more than anyone else did.

Harmony: I like the contrast that’s happening in this time period: this colony of Britain is undergoing a huge change and a huge shift in identity to become an independent country. And parallel to that, big changes are happening within the Cherokee tribe, and Cherokee culture as a consequence of their contact with whites.

Duane: I think one thing that I am very cognizant of is the fact that the Cherokee nation was a sovereign nation with a sovereign government. It was a sovereign government before the United States was a sovereign government.

During the 1760s, and up until the time of the American Revolution, the Cherokee nation was conducting international diplomatic relations as a separate sovereign government, controlling a large expanse of land in North America.

But it was a time of great change in Cherokee society. As more and more manufactured goods came into the Cherokee nation, traditional items began to disappear. Cherokees were also becoming very aware that the whites whose settlements, until recently, had been along the Atlantic seaboard, were moving inward. There was pressure being put on Cherokees to cede land to accommodate more European settlements.

Harmony: Dr. King, thank you for being with us today.

Duane: Thank you.

Lloyd: That’s Colonial Williamsburg, Past and Present this time. Check back often; we’ll post more for you to download and hear. We like hearing from you, leave your feedback at history.org/podcasts.


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