Pocahontas shoulda made Captain John Smith her BoiToi, and sent the rest of his sorry-ass friends packing. I'm just sayin' (as the matrilineal Two-Spirit descendant of the surviving Cherokee of that time).

Time to tell some hard truths about the mental illnesses and Misandrist rackets that drove European powers to savagely attack those they encountered during The (So-Called) Age of Exploration.

This is a safe place to discuss the lore preservation and cross-breeding assimilation techniques used to absorb the inbred shock of all those crazy Euros.

- David

In response to Reply # 0
Fri Jun-12-09 11:49 AM by talidapali

The sad part is that tribes like the Cherokee tried to assimilate with the European culture they encountered, some even became landholders and slave owners in the mid-South like Tennessee and North Carolina and northern Georgia. But, in the end even the "civilized" Cherokee were targeted for removal and their lands were confiscated.

If the Cherokee had banded together with their traditional enemies, like the Creek and certain northern Iroquoian tribes, white settlers would have been in serious jeopardy and probably would have been pushed off the continent altogether at the very beginning of the European settlement. One thing the Cherokees were very good at was warfare, they were one of the most feared nations in the Americas at the time the Europeans first came here along with the Seminole tribe of Florida.

Sequoyah lifted the Cherokee into the realm of a people with a written language of their own by creating the Cherokee syllabary, but that was not enough to save them from the prejudices of the Europeans settlers, who tended to see all native Americans as savages unworthy of inclusion in the emerging American society. They were merely another "problem" to be removed in the ever-Westward expansion of European interests. Once a small gold strike was made in northern Georgia near Dahlonega, the Cherokees' fate was sealed.

I am of the opinion that there was no mental illness that drove white men to the wholesale slaughter of native tribes, it was simple greed and arrogance.

"You can't fix stupid" ~ Ron White
"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

In response to Reply # 1

Tali -

Were you unaware that we won?

; )

- David

In response to Reply # 2
Fri Jun-12-09 12:07 PM by talidapali

Of which "we" do you speak? The Cherokees are still a broken people, half their tribe settled in Oklahoma and half in North Carolina, neither one faring very well on their own. Rampant alcoholism, poverty, under-education, limited futures for their children, depending on gaming to subsidize the tribal economy...the list is long.

There is much still to be done to restore the Cherokee nation to their traditional, rightful place in America and in the history books.

Sorry, this is a sore spot for me, I have family history on BOTH sides of this issue. Cherokee ancestors and a family descendant of Andrew Jackson (Indian fighter and the President responsible for the removal of the Cherokees and the "Trail of Tears").

"You can't fix stupid" ~ Ron White
"I never said I wasn't a brat..." ~ Talidapali

In response to Reply # 3