Thomas Kunkel
History 111
Cherokee Women
The Cherokee Indian Nation has been one of the greatest and largest Native American nations in United States history. The Cherokee society underwent many changes and transformations during the 18th and 19th centuries. Changes were seen in the Cherokee’s government, economy, politics, and society. These changes were largely due to the introduction of the horse to the Cherokee. The horse can be a significant symbol of change in Cherokee society. Horses changed the status of males in Cherokee society in a number of ways. Men in the Cherokee Nation faced new roles in society and were able to do things they had never done before.
Cherokees were able to hunt in a way that they have never hunted before using the horse. According to Frank Gilbert Roe, a renowned author, “the Indian was no longer a half starved skulker creeping up on foot to his kill…. He was transformed into a daring buffalo hunter, able to hunt a year’s worth of food in a single day”. Indians were now able to hunt more sufficiently and quickly. Instead of being gone for days on end trying to hunt and find herds, men were gone for a day and came back with a month’s worth of food. This allowed men to spend more time with the tribe and allowed men to be at home more with their wives and children. Usually, while the men were gone hunting, women were tending to the crops and doing chores around the village. Now that men were not gone for weeks hunting, men were able to help out with the tasks that women were usually doing. Men and women started performing equal work within the village. Originally, women were seen as the ones who did the work in the village. The horse allowed men to become equal with the women in Cherokee Society.
The introduction of the horse caused trading to increase drastically in the Cherokee Nation. Horses allowed the Cherokee to trade with Europeans. Indians could now ride to trading posts and carry a good amount of goods to trade….