Cultural Impacts: Native Americans in America and Europeans Among the Cherokee
Although most people are familiar with how the Native Americans adopted white man’s culture and became Americanized, many are not aware of what we borrowed from the Indians. Native Americans affected virtually every aspect of our lives today, including language, government, literature, recreation, medicine, hygiene, and food. Europeans influenced Cherokee politics and society and threatened their entire belief system. Their influence also brought dramatic changes in population size, settlement patterns and men’s and women’s traditional roles. Although some European influences were positive, most were negative, and much of traditional Cherokee culture has been lost forever.