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Why Did Native American Settlers Make West Virginia Their Home

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First making Appalachia their home were the Native American people. The Paleo-Indians living around 10,000 B.C. were the first ever known people to make West Virginia their home. After them, West Virginia was lived in by native people until the 17th century. A little before European settlers found their way into the Appalachian Mountains, the Indian people dispersed. Reasons aren’t too clear but it’s reasoned to be due to European disease and tribal conflict. The tribes most often associated with West Virginia are the Shawnee, Delaware, and Cherokee. Also associated were the Iroquoian-speaking groups like the Seneca, Tuscarawas, Susquehannock, and Mingo. There were also multiple non-resident tribes that would pass through the region while …show more content…

There are important reasons for this. Identification with the Cherokee over other Indian tribes is in many cases probably due to the greater familiarity with the Cherokee. They were one of the largest and most powerful tribes in the Southeast and a factor in Western Virginia throughout the frontier era. As for gender, it was culturally easier for Indian women to marry white men than for Indian men to marry white women. Further, most tribes in Appalachia were matrilineal, with descent and inheritance traced through the mother rather than the …show more content…

Surnames often held by Melungeons are common throughout southern West Virginia. The United Cherokee Indian Tribe of West Virginia is a tri-racial group that has members of Cherokee and Eastern Siouan descent. It is a branch of the Buffalo Ridge Cherokee, a tri-racial band in Amherst County, Virginia, whose members can trace their Eastern Siouan ancestry back to the late 1600s. Many of the Native Americans now living in West Virginia are from tribes outside Appalachia, and have come here for the same myriad of reasons that people of other ethnic groups have. Indian mobility increased in the mid-20th century. The Bureau of Indian Affairs began its relocation program in 1954, and more Indians began moving off reservations to other areas. While large concentrations of American Indians remain on the major reservations, especially in the West, others live throughout the country and relocate for employment, retirement, and other

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582 Words | 3 Pages

During the time of English contact, the Algonquian-speaking Powhatan Indians lived in a large portion of Virginia, and specifically the Appomattocks tribe of the Powhatans resided in Central Virginia (“Virginia”). There were over thirty tribes in the Powhatan Chiefdom, led by Chief Powhatan. They lived in a ten-thousand-square-mile area they called Tsenacommacah, and their population in 1607 is estimated to have been around fifteen thousand. Powhatan towns were located on high ground near rivers, which were utilized for food, transportation, and bathing (“The”).

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163 Words | 1 Pages

Dear Mr. Parker, During the 1838 Congress passed a law called the Indian Removal homes from Georgia to Indian Territory. It was a long walk 4,000 thousand of us died from the terrible weather,illness, weakness. After the devastating journey, the Cherokee Indians tried to settle in their new "desert" home. In the new territory, problems developed with the new arrivals, and Cherokees who had already come here.

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303 Words | 2 Pages

Indians had lived in the same areas for many years and had become much more accustomed to being civilized and had even started schools, making laws and becoming farmers. But all of that didn’t matter, there was increasing pressure to open up the area the Indians inhabited so the white men could settle there. The Indian Removal Act stated that all Indians must move to lands west of the Mississippi River, Jackson said the Indians would receive money for the land they lost and that all expenses would be paid for. The act was supposed to be voluntary but they were pressured to go and the tribes that did not go peacefully were forced. While most tribes did go peacefully the Cherokee Indians wanted to fight the Removal Act and took it to the Supreme

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708 Words | 3 Pages

Choctaws take great pride in their tribe. They are known mostly from the fact they were more civilized than most of the tribes in that era. They are a tribe with a solid foundation on, Faith, Family, and Culture. The name “Choctaw” derives from a legend of a

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838 Words | 4 Pages

While the removal act being passed and these tribes were forced to move to the west, but the Cherokee took this to the court in the 1831. They also has support of Anti-Jackson congress members, including Henry Clay and Daniel Webster but they still lost because of the court ruled them as not a foreign nation. But Cherokee still did not stop and ran after another case in the high courts. Worcester was a Christian Missionary who lived with Cherokee and experienced their life like how they live and what they do. He able to succeed his relationship with them and with their culture and opposed of the removal act.

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Between 1830 and 1850, the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, Creek, Seminole and Cherokee peoples were forced to leave their homelands to relocate further west. The Cherokee Nation removal in 1838 (the last forced removal east of the Mississippi) was brought on by the discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia, in 1829, resulting in the Georgia Gold Rush.1 During the Trail of Tears (1838-1839), the Cherokee tribes were moved to the Indian Territory, near the Ozarks. They initially settled near Tahlequah, Oklahoma. This is where the tribes historically settled in 1838 to 1839, after the Indian Removal Act of 1830 passed during the presidency of Andrew Jackson.2 The removal included members of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw

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174 Words | 1 Pages

The Cherokee had several major objections to moving to new locations. The Cherokee wanted to stay instead of moving to a place such as Arkansas because it is “unknown” to them and is already occupied by the Indians. Therefore, the Indians would look at the Cherokee as if they did not belong or be seen as an enemy when the Cherokee meant no harm. Also the Indians were not really supplied by wood and water, which was bad for the Indians because they could not live as agriculturalists, but also bad for the Cherokee because they were worried there was not a lot of land for farming. Furthermore, the Cherokee had major objections because the people around the Cherokees were so different compared to them.

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1733 Words | 7 Pages

The removal of the Cherokee, or more commonly known as the “Trail of Tears,” was a defining American event that left an incredible historical impact. The Cherokee and other Native American tribes were being moved westward by the American government for various reasons such as disputes with white settlers, the desire for the gold on the Cherokee lands, the desire to civilize them and other reasons. However, it was far from a simplistic dispute between whites and Native Americans. There were many whites, including President Jackson, as well as some Cherokee, who supported the policy to move the Indians west. Opponents of the removal also included both whites and Cherokee.

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1080 Words | 5 Pages

It led government officials to demand that the American Indians be removed. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act which made eastern Indians move to reservations in present-day Oklahoma. Georgia forced Cherokees to sell their lands. U.S. soldiers placed families in prison camps and then forced them to walk to territory west of the Mississippi River. About 4,000 of the 18,000 Indians forced to march died, mainly from disease, starvation, and weather.

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554 Words | 3 Pages

Hundreds of Cherokees were moved from their land by white people for selfish reasons. The Cherokee lived in northern Georgia. The Cherokee were not citizens of the American so they couldn't vote. The didn't have any rights. They had a lot of land and access to the rivers and lakes.

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1143 Words | 5 Pages

The Indian tribe that was forced to march were called the Cherokee. They attempted to adopt the Anglo-American culture and practices which included slave holding, western education, and even large-scale farming. By doing this the Cherokee hoped to show white settlers that they were not

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498 Words | 2 Pages

On May 28, 1830, President Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. Native Americans who didn’t want to relocate would become citizens of their home state. The Indian Removal Act separated Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites. free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions.

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One of the biggest and most powerful tribes in South Carolina was the Cherokee tribe. The were also known as the “real people”. THe Cherokee tribe was huge. Just one village could have over 600 people in it, and most of their villages were lined with a thing called palisade surrounding it for protection. Their leaders could be made up of men and women, and either gender could own land.

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1027 Words | 5 Pages

Ranging from the south Alleghenies mountain range all the way down to the south of Georgia and far west of Alabama, lived the Cherokee Indians. They were a powerful detached tribe of the Iroquoian family and were commonly called Tsaragi which translates into "cave people. " This tribe was very prominent in what is now called the U.S, but over time has been split up or run out of their land because of social or political encounters with the new settlers from Europe. Despite the dispersion or the split amongst this tribe, they still obtained their core religious beliefs, practices and ceremonies. Their detailed belief system, fundamental beliefs, significant meanings, and their connection to song and dance make up their religious system.

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825 Words | 4 Pages

The Cherokee, also known as the Tsalagi, are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeast. The word Cherokee comes from the name Choctaw which means ‘those who live in the mountains’. They inhabited Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. The Cherokee were a fascinating tribe with intriguing aspects to their culture.

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