Editing Cherokee (section)

====Acculturation====
The Cherokee lands between the [[Tennessee River|Tennessee]] and [[Chattahoochee River|Chattahoochee]] rivers were remote enough from white settlers to remain independent after the [[Cherokee–American wars]]. The [[deerskin trade]] was no longer feasible on their greatly reduced lands, and over the next several decades, the people of the fledgling [[Cherokee Nation (19th century)|Cherokee Nation]] began to build a new society modeled on the white Southern United States.
[[File:Major ridge.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Portrait of Major Ridge in 1834, from ''[[History of the Indian Tribes of North America]]''.]]

[[George Washington]] sought to 'civilize' Southeastern American Indians, through programs overseen by the [[Indian Agent]] [[Benjamin Hawkins]]. He encouraged the Cherokee to abandon their communal land-tenure and settle on individual farmsteads, which was facilitated by the destruction of many American Indian towns during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. The [[deerskin trade]] brought [[white-tailed deer]] to the brink of extinction, and as pigs and cattle were introduced, they became the principal sources of meat. The government supplied the tribes with [[spinning wheel]]s and cotton-seed, and men were taught to fence and plow the land, in contrast to their traditional division in which crop cultivation was woman's labor. Americans instructed the women in weaving. Eventually, Hawkins helped them set up smithies, gristmills and cotton plantations.

The Cherokee organized a national government under Principal Chiefs [[Little Turkey]] (1788–1801), [[Black Fox (Cherokee chief)|Black Fox]] (1801–1811), and [[Pathkiller]] (1811–1827), all former warriors of [[Dragging Canoe]]. The 'Cherokee triumvirate' of [[James Vann]] and his protégés [[Major Ridge|The Ridge]] and [[Charles R. Hicks]] advocated acculturation, formal education, and modern methods of farming. In 1801 they invited [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] missionaries from [[North Carolina]] to teach [[Christianity]] and the 'arts of civilized life.'  The Moravians and later [[Congregationalist]] missionaries ran boarding schools, and a select few students were educated at the [[American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions]] school in [[Connecticut]].

In 1806 a [[Federal Road (Cherokee lands)|Federal Road]] from [[Savannah, Georgia]], to [[Knoxville, Tennessee]], was built through Cherokee land. Chief [[James Vann]] opened a tavern, inn and ferry across the [[Chattahoochee River|Chattahoochee]] and built a [[Chief Vann House Historic Site|cotton-plantation]] on a spur of the road from [[Athens, Georgia]], to [[Nashville]]. His son [[Joseph Vann|'Rich Joe' Vann]] developed the plantation to {{convert|800|acre|km2}}, cultivated by 150 slaves. He exported cotton to England, and owned a [[steamboat]] on the [[Tennessee River]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2726&hl=y |title=New Georgia Encyclopedia: Chief Vann House |publisher=Georgiaencyclopedia.org |date=September 23, 2005 |access-date=April 17, 2010 |archive-date=October 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021100719/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2726&hl=y |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Cherokee allied with the U.S. against the nativist and pro-British [[Red Stick]] faction of the Upper Creek in the [[Creek War]] during the [[War of 1812]]. Cherokee warriors led by [[Major Ridge]] played a major role in General [[Andrew Jackson]]'s victory at the [[Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814)|Battle of Horseshoe Bend]]. Major Ridge moved his family to [[Rome, Georgia]], where he built a [[Chieftains (Rome, Georgia)|substantial house]], developed a large plantation and ran a ferry on the [[Oostanaula River]]. Although he never learned English, he sent his son and nephews to New England to be educated in mission schools. His interpreter and protégé Chief [[John Ross (Cherokee chief)|John Ross]], the descendant of several generations of Cherokee women and Scots fur-traders, built a plantation and operated a trading firm and a ferry at Ross' Landing ([[Chattanooga, Tennessee]]). During this period, divisions arose between the acculturated elite and the great majority of Cherokee, who clung to traditional ways of life.

Around 1809 [[Sequoyah]] began developing a written form of the Cherokee language. He spoke no English, but his experiences as a silversmith dealing regularly with white settlers, and as a warrior at Horseshoe Bend, convinced him the Cherokee needed to develop writing. In 1821, he introduced [[Cherokee syllabary]], the first written syllabic form of an American Indian language outside of [[Mesoamerican scripts|Central America]]. Initially, his innovation was opposed by both Cherokee traditionalists and white missionaries, who sought to encourage the use of English. When Sequoyah taught children to read and write with the syllabary, he reached the adults. By the 1820s, the Cherokee had a higher rate of literacy than the whites around them in Georgia.

[[File:New Echota.jpg|thumb|left|Cherokee National Council building, [[New Echota]]]]

In 1819, the Cherokee began holding council meetings at New Town, at the headwaters of the [[Oostanaula River|Oostanaula]] (near present-day [[Calhoun, Georgia]]). In November 1825, New Town became the capital of the Cherokee Nation, and was renamed [[New Echota]], after the [[Overhill Cherokee]] principal town of [[Chota (Cherokee town)|Chota]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ngeorgia.com/ang/New_Echota_Historic_Site |title=New Echota Historic Site |publisher=Ngeorgia.com |date=June 5, 2007 |access-date=April 17, 2010 |archive-date=April 24, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100424015315/http://ngeorgia.com/ang/New_Echota_Historic_Site |url-status=dead }}</ref> Sequoyah's syllabary was adopted. They had developed a police force, a judicial system, and a National Committee.

In 1827, the Cherokee Nation drafted a Constitution modeled on the United States, with executive, legislative and judicial branches and a system of checks and balances. The two-tiered legislature was led by Major Ridge and his son [[John Ridge]]. Convinced the tribe's survival required English-speaking leaders who could negotiate with the U.S., the legislature appointed [[John Ross (Cherokee chief)|John Ross]] as Principal Chief. A printing press was established at New Echota by the [[Vermont]] missionary [[Samuel Worcester]] and Major Ridge's nephew [[Elias Boudinot (Cherokee)|Elias Boudinot]], who had taken the name of his [[Elias Boudinot|white benefactor]], a leader of the [[Continental Congress]] and [[New Jersey]] Congressman. They translated the Bible into [[Cherokee syllabary]]. Boudinot published the first edition of the bilingual '[[Cherokee Phoenix]],' the first American Indian newspaper, in February 1828.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-611&hl=y |title=New Georgia Encyclopedia: Cherokee Phoenix |publisher=Georgiaencyclopedia.org |date=August 28, 2002 |access-date=April 17, 2010 |archive-date=May 12, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512150654/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-611&hl=y |url-status=dead }}</ref>