Cherokee Indian Culture Summary

The concept of race, according to Rosenberg, has been “entangled with the notion of ‘civilization’” (Rosenberg 316). Past historians studying races tended to compare them through their respective cultural tenets and such methodology was susceptible to establishing a hierarchical construction of race. William Fyffe, although not a historian, proceeds to document the discrepancies and similarities between the Cherokee Indians and the colonials in his letter to his brother. According to Fyffe, the Cherokees valued war and orderly communication amongst one another and these cultural beliefs were rather antithetical to European culture.
Warfare was an integral component of the Cherokee culture and could be considered antithetical to European culture as it permeated into their daily life. The Indians perceived war as their “principle study” and accordingly, their “greatest Ambition” was to “distinguish” themselves by “military actions” (Fyffe 8). Even the elderly, who were far “past the Trade” of combat, make a conscious effort to rouse a “martial ardor” within the
According to Fyffe, the Indians would be “grave and cautious” in their “public assemblies” by hearing the “opposite proposals first” and “never discovering their own sentiments till the last” (6). The Indians also demonstrate the “greatest deference” to the opinions of their elderly and in particular, the youth are all “attentive hearers” who generally “obey their seniors” (6). Contrastingly, Fyffe cites the Europeans as being “ready to talk,” “tell their minds” and “interrupt one another” (6). Such disparate behavior ultimately denotes how antithetical the value of orderly communication was in European