The Cherokees Begin to Assimilate

Hundreds of years before white settlers came to America to create a new nation, Cherokees lived well off the land. Everyone in a Cherokee village could use the surrounding land—no one person owned it. Women did most of the farming, while the men hunted. Cherokee summer houses were made of wooden sticks covered in bark or clay; the winter houses were partially underground and round on top.

When white Americans began settling around them, the Cherokees began to adopt parts of this new culture, like living in wooden houses and owning land. They began to rely on farming more than hunting for their food. Rich Cherokees had plantations worked by hired men and, like white plantation owners, even enslaved black people.