HUM 221: 2nd paper, assignment sheet, due April 13 (note change of due date)

HUM 221: Native American Cultural Expression
Pete Ellertsen, instructor pellertsen@sci.edu
Spring Semester 2009

Cherokee heritage and values – documented essay

Drawing your evidence from the video Cherokee: The Principal People we watched in class; the Cherokee websites that we have visited in class and/or are linked to the Hogfiddle blog; and the writing of Gogisgi (Carroll Arnett), write a documented essay in which you discuss traditional Cherokee values, the ways the Cherokee people have adapted those values to changed conditions through history, how they maintain those values in the present and what other Americans can learn from them. Length: 1,000-1,250 words (4-5 pages). Document your sources using signal phrases in the text that refer all quotations, both direct and indirect, to a Works Cited list in correct MLA style. You must address the questions below. Due in class Monday, April 6 13.

The Cherokee are known as a very adaptable people, who arguably went further than any other American Indian tribe in adopting the white man’s ways, including a written alphabet, the Christian religion, a constitution and legislative, executive and judicial institutions modeled after the U.S. government, but their history is one of struggle. How well did a “civilized” outlook serve them in their dealings with white Americans during the 1800s, and later as increasing numbers of tourists visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during the 1900s?

At the same time, harmony and balance have always been important traditional Cherokee values. How well have the Cherokee people been able to maintain them as their culture has changed through history? Referring to Gogisgi’s poetry and his essay in Here First, how important would you say harmony, balance and traditional values are to him? How well are writers like Michael and J.T. Garrett able to communicate these values to non-Indians?

How well are the Cherokee able to preserve their traditional heritage in 21st-century America? What, in your opinion, can we learn from the Cherokee, their culture and their experience?