“Until humans began to domesticate plants and animals about ten thousand years ago, all human societies were hunter-gatherers.” Now in the twenty first century everyone can buy their food easily, you can just drive to a local store and buy your food for the day. Although that wasn’t really the case for tribe in the 1800s. Every tribe had to survive off of their hunting and gathering skills. A group of men would have to hunt for their food while some women would also help getting food by planting. It was different for all tribes, like the Cherokees.
The cherokees were identified to be one of the most socially and cultured advanced of the Native American tribes. They originally settled in the southeast portions of the United States. After migrating south from the Great Lake region they settled in North and South Carolina, georgia, and Tennessee. During the 1830s and 1840s, period of the indian removal Act, the cherokees were then moved west which would leave them in what is now called Oklahoma in 1835. When they were in the southeast their hunting and gathering was remarkably diverse.
The diversity of the land made it easy for the cherokee to harvest and hunt a variety of things. Men, women and even some kids would all have their own role. The men would head out to grasslands or forest to hunt for large prey like deer, buffalo, elk, fish and sometimes bears. Women would also go to grasslands or forest to gather grapes, nuts, and wild onions. The rivers made the surrounding land very fertile which is why the women were successful at farming and harvesting beans, squash, sunflowers and most importantly corn. Women cherokee would teach the girls all of the home and gardening skills while some boys went hunting and fishing with their fathers.
The most popular weapons that they used were spears, tomahawks, battle hammers and blow guns. Spears were more commonly used when fishing but was also used to hunt bigger animals and sometimes even warfare. The arrowheads would be made out of flint because it was hard and very easy to chip and make sharp edges with. Tomahawks and hammers would be from rocks with the correct overall shape. They would sharpen one edge and then grinding and groove by using other hard stones. The groove was made so that it can be tied with a handle of leather rawhide.
Blowguns were usually used for small game for rabbits, birds, or doves. Although they were occasionally used for warfare as well. They were ranged from three to nine feet in length. The dart were made out of hardwood the end of a dart was fitted with thistledown to form a seal which helped to center the dart in the blow gun. When the blow guns were going to be used for warfare the darts were generally poisoned. Venomous snakes were to strike a spoiled meat and then the dart would be pushed into the meat to absorb the venom and sometimes they would also coat the dark with venomous plant extract.
