1. Who were the first Georgians?1

2. The first people to live in Georgia were Native Americans.
The Cherokee
The Creek

3. The Cherokee and Creek
• The Cherokee people lived north of the Chatahoochee River in Georiga. They also lived in Tennessee and North Carolina.
• The Creek people once lived throughout Georgia, but the Cherokees forced them out of the northern Georgia regions.
Regions 3

4. The Cherokee and Creek used things in nature, or natural resources,
to provide everything
that they needed.
Do you use natural resources to supply your needs?
Natural resources 1

5. The Cherokee and Creek Natural Resources
For example, a deer was used for:
• meat for food
• animal fat used like butter
• hide for clothing, shoes, bags, pouches, leggings
• strips of hide or sinew used as in tool making, for rope or string, bow strings
• antlers and bones used for tools like hoes and digging tools, fish hooks, needles, scraping tools
• hooves boiled to make a strong glue and also carved to make special rattles to honor the deer
They used everything - there was very little waste.
Natural resources

6. The Cherokee and Creek Making a Living
• Women farmed and gathered berries, nuts, roots, and other wild plants for food and medicines
• Grew enough food to last two years, in case there were bad growing years
Making a living1
How does your mother make a living? 6

7. The Cherokee and Creek Making a Living
• Women were in charge property and owned the family’s land
• Women were in charge of the family and making social decision for the clan
Making a living1a 7

8. The Cherokee and Creek Making a Living
• Men hunted and fished
• Used bows and arrows for hunting and sometimes blow guns to shoot birds
• Hunted for only what they needed to feed their families
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• Used spears and nets for fishing
Making a living 2
How does your father make a living? 8

9. The Cherokee and Creek Making a Living
• Men were the warriors in times of war
• Men were the chiefs of the villages
• Men made the political decisions for the village
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Making a living 2a 9

10. The Cherokee and Creek Food What foods do you eat?
• Hunted for deer, bear, elk, rabbits, turtles and fish
• Grew corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, okra, sweet potatoes and sunflower seeds as well as herbs and spices
• Gathered berries, nuts, tree bark for tea,
• Dishes they made included cornbread, soups, and stews
What foods do you eat?

11. The Cherokee and Creek Clothing How do your clothes compare to theirs?
• Most clothing was made from deerskin
• Clothes were sewn using needles made of animal bone and strips of animal hide
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• Some items were made of plant fibers, pounded very thin
Clothing 1
How do your clothes compare to theirs? 11

12. Porcupine roach headdress
The Cherokee and Creek
Clothing
Clothing 2
Porcupine roach headdress
Men & Boys
leggings
breechcloth
moccasins
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What clothes do you wear? 12

13. The Cherokee and Creek Clothing Women & Girls
• Wrap around dresses or skirts make of deerskin or plant fibers
• Shirts made of plant fibers
• Deerskin moccasins
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What clothes do you wear?
Clothing 3 13

14. The Cherokee and Creek Homes What does your house look like?
• They built their homes of wattle and daub.
wattle - branches and twigs, woven together
daub - mud used to cover the wattle
• Most had two homes. Their winter homes were about as warm as a log cabin.
Cherokee summer home
Cherokee winter home
What does your house look like?
homes 1

15. The Cherokee and Creek Homes
• The Creeks lived in homes arranged around a common or shared area in a town
• Each home had a small garden outside.
• A town farm was located outside the town for all to work on.
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homes 2 15

16. The Cherokee and Creek Homes What does your community look like?
• The Cherokees lived in settled towns, usually near a river.
• The Cherokee built large 7-sided buildings for special ceremonies.
• Each town had a Lacross field with benches for the spectators.
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Home 3
What does your community look like? 16

17. The Cherokee and Creek Accomplishments
• Had an vast knowledge of natural medicinal plants and herbs. They were very healthy due to this knowledge until faced with European disease which the settlers brought
• Had a highly developed form of government between the Creek Federation. Villages made their own laws, but got together to make laws for the good of all the villages.
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• Talking Feather - at a meeting, only the person holding the feather could speak
accomplishments1 17

18. The Cherokee and Creek Accomplishments
• Were not materialistic - owing things was not important.
• Worked hard together to be sure that everyone in the village had what they needed to survive. Because of this, they had a very closely bonded community and there was very little crime.
accomplishments2

19. The Cherokee and Creek Accomplishments How do you know how to read?
• Later, the Cherokees had a innovative writing system that was invented by a Cherokee named Sequoyah.
•Writing system is a syllabary - each symbol stood for a syllable.
•Read more about Sequoyah and how he created this system.
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accomplishments3
How do you know how to read? 19

20. Posketv (or Green Corn Ceremony)
The Cherokee and Creek
Posketv (or Green Corn Ceremony)
celebration
• Celebration held after the corn
was harvested • Time of peace and forgiveness among people of the town
• Children of the One Fire Ceremony
-4 logs placed in the 4 cardinal
directions
-fire lit in the middle
-each family takes the “new” fire home to their home to begin a new year
• Large feast with many different corn dishes
What holiday do you celebrate in the fall?

21. The Cherokee and Creek Children
Began learning the skills they would need when they were adults:
Girls: learning about wild plants; helping with farming; learning to tan hides; sewing; basket and pottery making
Boys: learned the ways of wild animals and learned hunting skills and to make hunting tools from their grandfathers or uncles (NOT their fathers)
How do you help at home?
Children

22. The Cherokee and Creek Children How do you help at home?
They enjoyed playing games
• stick ball game similar to Lacrosse
• ‘Chunky’-rolling a small stone and throwing spears at where you thought it would stop
• throwing a spear through a rolling hoop
• shooting bows and arrows at targets
• running races and wrestling
•dice game similar to Parcheesi
Children
How do you help at home?

23. How does your life today
The Cherokee and Creek
How does your life today
compare to their lives
long ago?
Look back and compare.
Compare 23