the cherokee

O’siyo (which means hello). The Cherokee were very interesting people. They may not always be referred to as The Cherokee, they may be referred to as The Tsalagi. But the proper name is Aniyunwiya (which means The People). The first know contact with the Europeans was some time around the 1500’s. It was estimated that the Desoto expedition in the mid 1500s introduced illnesses and other diseases to the Indians. Which wiped out around seventy five percent of their total population. Previous to the contact with the Europeans, Cherokee culture had been rapidly growing and going strong for close to one thousand years. But that would all change in the not so distant future. Around 1710 was the first know trading with the Europeans. Population has varied over the years. Their population was estimated at over 50,000 in the 1670s. But a series of Smallpox and illness in the early 1700s cut that down fifty percent. But then came the Civil War which cut their number down even more. They then...