Cherokee Food Culture

Food Culture of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians 
The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians is a very proud people. They have gone through many great trials, and have overcome them to be the people that they are today. This tribe is the second largest Indian tribe in the United States, with more than 200,000 members. Almost 70,000 of those still live on seven thousand square miles that covers parts of fourteen counties, with some of those in the northeastern part of Oklahoma. This is a federally-recognized tribe with a form of government called tripartite democratic. 
The first Europeans came through Cherokee in 1540 and lived peacefully with the members. In 1838 the tragic event called the Trail of Tears led to Indian Removals to Indian Territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma. They were forced to travel about 1,000 miles on foot. Many of the people died along the journey. The period between the removal time and the Civil War is called the Cherokee Golden Age, and times were good. 
The Cherokee people were hunters, fishers, farmers and gatherers. The younger men used bows and arrows to kill their meats. Even the skins, bones and antlers were used. The skins were used for trading as well as for clothing and other items. The bones and antlers were used to make tools and other equipment. After the crops were planted, the women, children and older men tended the crops. Plant foods which were either hunted or gathered represented about sixty percent of the diet of the Cherokee people. The main crop was maize (corn), which is harvested in August, the end of the farming season. Many of the crops and meats were preserved by some of the same methods that we use today, with the most traditional methods being drying and burying. 
After European contact, the Cherokee people began the practice of animal husbandry and raising domestic animals. The food availability also changed after this contact. Lumbering, mining and dam building caused fish and game to be scarce. The Europeans also brought things like coffee and sugar. 
Old traditions are retained because of the tribal system. Gathering of foods is not only a survival technique, but also a social activity. The foods eaten and the methods used to prepare the foods are all rooted deeply in culture. In fact, “organized social relationships, religious rituals, and non farming subsistence activities were regulated by the life cycle of the maize plant” (Terry, 1998, p. 19). Many of the stems, leaves and wild roots, such as yellow root and blood root, were also used for medicinal purposes. 
Bear, rabbit, ground hog, raccoon, quail and other birds, possum, trout and other fish, wild boar, squirrel, muskrat, rattlesnake, crows foot, deer, buffalo, turtle, elk, frog legs and crawfish are some of the sources of meat that were hunted by tribal men. The bear fat was rendered for use as grease. Some of the meat was dried or ground into powder for future use. 
Fruits were also a gathered seasonally and eaten or preserved. Some of the fruits that were eaten were huckleberries (wild blueberries), blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries and elderberries. 
Some of the more traditional dishes that are consumed by the Cherokee people are bean bread, fry bread, poke salad, chestnut bread, branch lettuce, bear grass, sochani, honey locust drink, leather breeches (a kind of green bean), hominy, sassafras tea, spicewood tea, ramps, slicks (a type of mushroom), swamp potatoes, wisi (pronounced wishy) mushrooms, butter beans, creases, hickory nuts, bean salad, dandelions, turnip greens, pumpkin, sunflower, squash, collard greens, mustard greens, watercress, sweet grass, mountain salad, dock weed, lamb’s quarters, pig weed, jellico, hominy corn drink, lye dumplings, pinto beans and hickory nut soup. 
Separate studies done by Story and Terry in the 1980’s, found that the Cherokee people have deficiencies in Calcium, Iron, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A and Vitamin C. They also have a high rate of adult onset diabetes as well as lactose intolerance. 
Today, the Cherokee people eat in much the same way that we eat. Their diets include fast foods and highly processed foods. But many of the tribal members still prepare their meals in a similar fashion as their ancestors and continue to eat the traditional foods. It is important for the Cherokee Indian people to pass on their culture to their children. This includes food, as well as language, art skills and celebration styles.