From Peachtree to Kennesaw

The year is 1820. A man traveling from what is now downtown Atlanta through land that would become Cobb County would encounter scenery that is much different from today, though some of the names might sound familiar.

Setting out from the Muscogee Creek village at Standing Peachtree, he would make his way along the Peachtree road–a footpath cut through the underbrush over the centuries. Instead of cement and glass, the skyline would consist of trees and hilltops, thick and green and devoid of kudzu.

If our traveler were going northeast, he might pass the beaver ruin. Instead, he crosses the Chattahoochee at the shallow ford. In doing so, he leaves Creek territory and enters the Cherokee Nation.

 A full day’s walk will bring him to the Cherokee town of Kennesaw.

Most of us probably have a misconception of what such a Native American settlement looked like; our imaginations are populated by plains Indians in teepees. But the Cherokee lived in houses–although what passed for a house could vary greatly, from simple earthen huts to rectangular longhouses built out of split timbers.

Near some of the houses would be a winter house, or hot house, built so low to the ground that one would have to crawl inside. Here, in the coldest winter months, coal fires were kept burning and friends gathered close in the warmth, passing the long days telling stories, carving and smoking.

Entering Kennesaw, our traveler would see the townhouse–a large, circular building with a conical roof, shingled with tree bark, rising 20 to 30 feet in the air. The townhouse was the community gathering place, used for everything from dancing to discussing politics. Outside of the townhouse would be a level patch of earth for outdoor gatherings and stickball games.

Most striking to our modern eyes would be the appearance of the Cherokee people. By 1820, the Cherokee had frequently mixed with European settlers so that their appearances varied, from the full-blooded Cherokee with tanned skin and black hair to those with so much Scotch-Irish blood that they had red hair and freckles.

Clothing was colorful. In traditional dress, men favored a loose-fitting tunic called a hunting shirt, and either homespun pantaloons or deerskin leggings. Girding the shirt would be a belt of deerskin with intricate beadwork. They often wore turbans. In colder weather, they wore their blankets as cloaks or tied them in a sash, much like the Scottish tartan.

The Cherokee language was from the Iroquois family and was distinct from that of the neighboring Creeks. According to oral histories, the Cherokee people migrated to the Southeast from the Great Lakes region, home of the other Iroquois-speaking tribes, during the 13th Century. They were not the first people to inhabit the Southeast; the Mississippian ancestors of the Creeks, for instance, built the first mounds at Etowah.

But the Cherokee called themselves the “First People,” or Tsalagi.  The American colonists considered them one of the “Five Civilized Tribes,” because they had adopted many European customs and practices. Indeed, by the 1820s, many Cherokee dressed and lived much like white Americans, in some cases even owning plantations and slaves.

This contact with white men led a Cherokee silversmith named Sequoyah to decide that the First People needed a written language. Around 1809, Sequoyah, who spoke no English, began work on the Cherokee Syllabary, a system different from an alphabet in that each character stood for a syllable rather than a sound. The syllabary was completed in 1820, marking the first time in recorded history that an illiterate people had created a functional writing system.

Having such a writing system may have helped the Cherokee to hold onto their culture. Among Native American tribes, they have been the most successful in doing so, even in the face of near extermination. As early as 1802, the United States government was laying plans to remove and relocate the Cherokee from Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. They found their excuse in 1828 when gold was discovered in Dahlonega.

The rest is a bitter history.

Today, the journey from Peachtree to Kennesaw takes about a half an hour by car. The elk, bison and puma are gone, and the Indian trails paved over. Occasionally we may catch a glimpse of Cherokee in the features of someone we meet, or we may carry their genes ourselves. The clearest reminders that the First People once lived here are place names.

For more on the Cherokee Nation and its culture, both modern and historical, visit http://www.cherokee.org.