Native Americans

For my blog this week, I decided to look for tribes whose names I am familiar with: The Cherokee Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

http://www.cherokee.org/

The Cherokee Tribe has several different divisions but for the purpose of this blog I will be concentrating on the particular division who run the website and they are located near Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Unfortunately for the the Cherokee Tribe, they were involved in a particularly dark period of US history, specifically the infamous Trail of Tears. Originally the Cherokees were located in the Southeast (Georgia, Northern Florida and the Carolina's) but in the 1830, President Andrew Jackson authorized the Indian Removal Act and in 1838 more that 3,000 Cherokees were forced out of their homes and off their land and carted off to reservations where many were were held in the prison camps that awaited them. Many thousands died from starvation and disease among other ailments. This is the tragic history that the Cherokees have to live with and many Americans feel guilt over.

Cherokee Nation is very much a modern site and obviously tries to focus more on the positive things. The news feed on the home page talks about how well the tribe is doing and all the success they are having at the moment and it is a very clear cut and well managed site. The Cherokee Tribe are the largest tribe in the US today with an estimated population of 300,000 members, and were known in the 19th century as one of the 'Five Civilized Tribes' meaning that they were one of the few tribes that somewhat assimilated and accepted the European culture that had influenced America. Clearly this is still the case today as they seem to a more 'modern' outlook compared to my other website.

The history section is extensive and encourages those who are not in the know to look through the articles. Even going so far as to list all the Treaties that were made, history is obviously an important point, no matter how broken or tragic it is. I believe that a lot of the website may be aimed at the children of the tribe members and possibly those wanting to become a member. I enjoyed looking through the site and I believe that they are one of the 'success stories' of the Native American Peoples.

My second website focuses on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. On their website they explain that their 'Lakota Nation is comprised of over three million acres with three major waterways including the Missouri River, the Cheyenne River and the Moreau River. The Cheyenne River Reservation is home to the four bands (Tiospaye) of the “Titunwan” People of the Plains: The “Mnikoju” Planters By The Water, “Owohe Nupa” Two Kettle, “Itazipa Cola” Without Bows, and “Siha Sapa” Black Foot.'

http://www.sioux.org/land_flash.php

After the defeat of the Lakota people in the 19th Century, the Great Sioux Reservation was broken up as a result and thus the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe was created. The population of this tribe according to the 2000 Census was an estimated 8,470. Unfortunately, they do not live as well as the Cherokee Tribe as due to the US Government confiscating their land and then damming the Missouri River for electrical power and flood control, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe have restricted access to water making living conditions unbearable in some places.

An interesting side note I'd just like to mention here is that a recent weather related disaster that deeply effected the tribe echoes Hurricane Katrina in that the US Government was extremely slow to respond, despite the fact that a state of emergency was declared. It wasn't until it was specifically highlighted on a television programme that the rest of the US were made aware of it and within two days donations were made. Although no deaths were recorded, the people of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe were without water, heat or power for at least two weeks.

Looking at their website, the Tribe chooses a traditional look rather than a modern one that perhaps reflects their feelings towards modern America and the 'outside' world. The background is a landscape view of what is presumably one of the rivers that runs through their land and tradional Native American music is played along with pictures old and new of who I assume were tribe members. Under 'Our Story' they are keen to point out that it is one that cannot be described in just a few pages on a website. I find it interesting that in their history section, instead of writing their own history, they prefer to give a small blurb and then refer you to other websites (including the God of information, all hail Wikipedia!!) which suggests that maybe they do not have the man power to maintain the website and include all their own information. It's obviously a very small website that tries to keep up in the current market, but compared to the Cherokee, it fails in trying to provide awareness and information on their tribe. Perhaps it is because they are one of the smaller tribes and do not live as well as the Cherokee, but at least they have made the effort and even if they cannot provide their own story, guaranteed that someone else will.