How did the Cherokees come to be known as one of the five “civilized” tribes?
The Cherokees were one of the tribes that the United States government focused on in its attempt to “civilize” the Indians. And indeed, in the 19th century – and I think even today – most people consider the Cherokees to be the great success story of the “civilization” policy. The Cherokees were able very quickly to transform, at least on a superficial level, their culture. They welcomed missionaries, who established schools. Many of their children went to those schools and began to learn to read and write in English. The Cherokees developed a system for writing their own language. A Cherokee named Sequoya is responsible for this. In the late 1820s, the Cherokees began publishing a bilingual newspaper. They wrote a constitution that was patterned after that of the United States. The Cherokees made many accomplishments that led their supporters to proclaim them to be “civilized Indians.” How do the Cherokees respond to American pressures and the ‘civilization’ policy? In the early 19th
