SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 133 Anthropological Papers, No. 23 The Eastern Cherokees By WILLIAM HARLEN GILBERT, Jr. 169 1 CONTENTS PAGE Preface 175 Introduction 177 Description of the present society 177 The environmental frame 177 General factors 177 Location 178 Climatic factors 182 Inorganic elements 183 Flora and fauna 184 Ecology of the Cherokees 186 The somatic basis 193 History of our knowledge of Cherokee somatology 193 Blood admixture 194 Present-day physical type 195 Censuses of numbers and pedigrees 197 Cultural backgrounds 198 Southeastern traits 198 Cultural approach 199 Present-day Qualla 201 Social units 20 The town 201 The household 202 The clan 203 Economic units 209 Political units 215 The kinship system 216 Principal terms used 216 Morgan's System 227 Kinship distinctions 227 Lineages 235 Preferential mating 238 Familiarity and respect 245 Kinship behavior of pairs 249 General social features 254 Birth and childhood 254 Marriage and adulthood 255 Sickness and death 256 The dance 257 Specific dances 259 The ball game 268 Other games 269 Integration of the present society 272 The functions of the present-day traits 272 Functioning of the family. 272 Functioning of the clan 278 Functioning of the dances - 281 Functions of the kinship usages 281 Social sanctions 284 Magical formulas or prayers - -- 286 171 1 172 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 133 Integration of the present society—Continued. The functions of the present-day traits—Continued. page Functions of the formulas 287 Love formulas 289 Disease formulas 292 Other formulas 297 Mythology and its function 301 Summary of the present-day culture 304 Social opposition 304 Social solidarity and reciprocity 306 Social integration 309 The former society 313 Introduction 313 Theories of origins 313 Early historical records 315 Payne-Butrick Manuscripts data 319 The white organization 321 Officials 321 Major ceremonies 325 Ceremonial procedures 327 Yearly cycles 336 Ball play 337 Marriage 338 Education 34 Treatment of disease 342 Mythology and beliefs • 344 Sacredness and uncleannesses 345 The red organization 348 Officials 348 War procedure 350 Military tactics 353 Return from war 354 Other war features 355 Structure and function of the former society 356 Alternation of war and peace 356 Symbolism of the ceremonies—social cohesion 358 Social change 360 The evidence of change 360 Economic change 360 Political change^ 363 Ceremonial change 367 Major trends 370 Conclusion 371 Appendix A. Chronologically arranged data summary on Cherokees 373 Appendix B. Outline of Cherokee culture 374 Appendix C. Material culture of the Cherokees 385 Appendix D. Cultural traits of the Cherokee (Payne) 388 Bibliography 402 . ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES PAGE 13. 1, Cherokee terrain 2, Cherokee eagle dance 414 14. 1, Cherokee ball game, tackle. 2, Cherokee ball game, intermission. 414 15. 1, Cherokee ball game, foul. 2, Wiliwesti's artifacts 414 16. 1, John Driver family. 2, Four women of Big Cove 414 17. 1, Sampson Owl, ex-chief and interpreter. 2, Sampson Ledford, informant, Graham County 414 FIGURES 36. The Cherokee settlements, 1762-76 (map) 179 37. The Cherokee settlements, 1825-30 (map) 180 38. The Cherokee Indian Reservation, N. C, 1937 (map) 180 39. Diagram of the spheres of tribal activity 187 40. Western Cherokee kinship: Male ego (after Morgan) 217 41. Cherokee kinship consanguines: Male ego 218 42. Cherokee kinship consanguines: Female ego 219 43. Cherokee kinship affinities 220 44. Eastern Cherokee kinship consanguines: Male ego (after Morgan) 222 45. Eastern Cherokee kinship consanguines: Female ego (after Morgan),. 223 46 Eastern Cherokee kinship affinities (after Morgan) 229 47. Western Cherokee kinship consanguines: Male ego (after Morgan) _.. 230 48. Western Cherokee kinship consanguines: Female ego (after Morgan).. 231 49. Western Cherokee kinship affinities (after Morgan) 232 50. Father's matrilineal line 234 matrilineal line 236 51. Mother's . — 52. Mother's father's matrilineal line 237 53. Father's father's matrilineal line 238 54. Balance of marriage exchanges between clans 279 55| Seating in the Cherokee Council House (diagram) 355 TABLES 1. Clan names of the Cherokees i._- 205 2. Survey of clan aflBliations of family heads of Eastern Cherokee house- holds 206 3. Representative numbers of the members of the various clans among family heads in each town 207 4. Comparative table of kinship terms of the Cherokee 228 5. Dances of the Cherokee 267 6. Cherokee kinship 275 7. Elements in Cherokee myths 302 8. Principles of Cherokee social organization 312 9. Culture changes as gleaned from comparison of Cherokee omens in 1836 and 1932 368 173 PREFACE This study is the result of 2 years' research on the Cherokee In- dians of North Carolina. Field work with this band was made possible by a grant from the Department of Anthropology of the University of Chicago in 1932 and was carried out in two visits from September to December of that year. The village of Big Cove was made the type of the whole reserva- tion because it was the most conservative district of the region. The data from Big Cove was later checked by material collected from the other five towns of the Eastern Cherokee Reservation. The purpose of the field survey was to obtain a fairly complete description of the existing society of the Cherokees. The data col- lected consisted in the main of descriptions of persons, households, land tenures, genealogies, clan memberships, places of residence, and the terms and behavior included in the kinship system. The author endeavored to enter into the social life of the people as fully as possible. By virtue of living at the home of the chief informant, who was also the head man of the village, he was able to follow the daily round of activities and participate frequently in the native dances and games. In this way a better understanding of the spirit of Qierokee affairs was obtained than might have been acquired through the method of having the informant come to some strange and unfamiliar surroundings for questioning. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the assistance of many kind friends. Invaluable aid was rendered in the field by native Cherokees, notably Will West Long, the councilman at Big Cove, and ex-Chief Sampson Owl. Aid was also rendered by local white officials, in particular Miss Louvica Wyman, Superintendent R. L. Spalsbury, Farm Agent A. M. Adams, and Chief Clerk J. L. Walters. Elsewhere, Dr. J. R. Swanton, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, furnished the original stimu- lus for this study and many subsequently helpful suggestions; Drs. F. Olbrechts, F. Speck, and the late J. N. B. Hewitt, as students of the Troquoian-Cherokee field, made helpful comments ; and, at Chicago, in- dispensable aid was rendered in the final organization of the materials by Prof. A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and by Drs. Fay-Cooper Cole, Robert Redfield, and Fred. R. Eggan. 175 THE EASTERN CHEROKEES By William Harlen Gilbert, Jr. INTRODUCTION The Cherokees of the Southeastern United States were a tribe of great importance in early colonial times. Much has been recorded concerning their merciless wars with the white settlers, yet they remain today a tribe about which little is definitely known so far as social organization is concerned. The various ethnologic observa- tions on the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and other Southeastern tribes have been summarized and systematized by J. E. Swanton (1928), so that we have today a generalized picture of social organi- zation in the Southeast. The Cherokees have remained outside of this picture. The present study is concerned with two very definite problems: 1. The outlining of the present social organization of the Cherokee in its formal and integrative aspects, 2. The portrayal of the historical changes in this social organization so far as they can be gleaned from past records of Cherokee culture. A third possible problem arises in connection with the classifying of social structures in the Southeast and the relating of Cherokee social organization to these. Consideration of this problem will be deferred, for reason of its magnitude, to a later time. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT SOCIETY THE ENVIRONMENTAL FRAME GENERAL FACTORS The natural environment of a people is divisible into several sets of influences, depending on the type of material concerned. The terrain, climate, minerals, plants, and animals are all conceivable as types of unified influences helping to give order to a people's culture. The fac- tors arising from the terrain comprise such characteristics as the sur- face configuration of the land, the distribution of surface water in riv- ers, lakes, or ponds, the sites of settlements, trails, and the human orbit of activities. 177 ;; 178 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. i:;.". The general locus of the Cherokee tribe was by States—western North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia; the north of Georgia and Alabama ; all but the western parts of Tennessee and parts of Kentucky adjoining Tennessee.^ The eastern part of the Cherokee domain was part of the Southern Piedmont Province, a gen- tly rolling plateau dissected by rejuvenated streams with valleys from 50 to 150 feet deep. Numerous monadnocks and isolated peaks rear their heads over the surrounding areas. This was the territory com- prised in the Lower Settlements. The central area of the Cherokees, comprising the Kituhwa (Middle) and the Valley Settlements, was the heart of the tribe. This area lay within the Blue Ridge Province and comprised the slopes of the Unakas or Great Smokies (with spurs such as the Snowbird and Balsam ranges) and the numerous coves and flat-bottomed valleys nestling to the south of the main range. Finally, on the north and west lay the Overhill, or Tennessee Settlements, in the Appalachian Great Valley Province with river valleys from 50 to 500 feet deep, in a region predominantly of a gently rolling character.