nd other southeastern tribes, including the celebrationof the Busk, or Green Corn festival. Agriculture relied heavily on the "three sisters" (corn,beans, and squash), supplemented by hunting and the gathering of wild plants. Cherokeevillages were largely independent in daily matters, with the whole tribe only comingtogether for ceremonies or times of war. Leadership was divided according thecircumstances: "red" chiefs during war and "white" chiefs in times of peace. The Cherokee were the only Iroquian-speaking member of the five Civilized Tribes of thesoutheast United States. Although it is difficult to ascertain what privilege in treatmentthey received for being classified as "civilized", their achievements were remarkable andaccomplished almost entirely through their own efforts. During the early 1800s, theCherokee adopted their government to a written constitution. They established their owncourts and schools, and achieved a standard of living that was the envy of their whiteneighbors. Particularily noteworthy was the invention of written language by Sequoyah(George Gist) in 1821. Utilizing an ingenious alphabet of 86 characters, almost the entireCherokee Nation became literate within a few years. A Cherokee newspaper, the Phoenix,began publication in the native language in February, 1828. Prominent Cherokees are toonumerous to list but include Senator Robert Owen and Will Rogers. Despite all they haveendured, the Cherokee level of education and living standard ranks among the highest ofall Native American tribes.The Desoto expedition is believed to have made the first European contact in 1540 whenthey met the "Chalaque" on the Tennessee River. Although Pardo revisited the area in1566 and the Spanish maintained a small mining and smelting operation in the area until1690, the Cherokee's location in the interior mountains kept them relatively isolated untilafter the settlement of Virginia in 1609. By 1629 English traders had worked th...
