According to some accounts, before the coming of the Europeans, the Cherokee were forced to migrate to the southern Appalachians from the northwest after a defeat at the hands of the Iroquois and Delaware. Some Delaware traditions also support this, but theIroquois have no memories of such a conflict. While there is probably some historicalbasis, it is difficult to imagine a tribe as large and powerful as the Cherokee being forcedto move anywhere, although they may have lost some territory in the north to theSusquehannock, Erie, or Delaware. Considering their language differences with otherIroquian groups, the Cherokee probably have been a distinct group for a considerableperiod. It seems more reasonable to assume that the Cherokee had occupied theirmountain homeland for a long time before the arrival of the Europeans. At the time of contact, the Cherokee were a settled, agricultural people living inapproximately 200 fairly, large villages. The typical Cherokee town consisted of 30 to 60houses and a large council house. Homes were usually wattle and daub, a circularframework interwoven with branches (like an upside-down basket) and plastered withmud. The entire structure was partially sunken into ground. In later periods, log cabins(one door with smokehole in the bark-covered roof) became the general rule. The largecouncil houses were frequently located on mounds from the earlier Mississippian culture,although the Cherokee themselves did not build mounds during the historic period. Usedfor councils, general meetings, and religious ceremonies, the council houses were also thesite of the sacred fire, which the Cherokee had kept burning from time immemorial. Like other Iroquian peoples, kinship and membership in seven matrilineal clans weredetermined through the mother, although the women's role never achieved the importancethat it enjoyed among the Iroquois League in New York. In most ways, the Cherokeemore closely resembled the Creek a...
