A reassessment of Cherokee identity consciousness during the colonial era: Myth, historiography, and material culture

Anitsalagi (Cherokees) were enthusiastic participants in the colonial era Indian Trade system, which allowed them to incorporate elements of European material culture into their indigenous social and economic systems. Cherokee demand for European manufactures created a major consumer market that bolstered England's colonial economy and created wealth within colonial society. Historiographic assumptions of economic dependency to the contrary, the Cherokees pointedly avoided developing an economic necessity for this trade. Neither did they view European goods as an inherently superior form of technology. Cherokee society exploited this trade primarily for its value as a relationship conduit and an amplifier of leisure opportunities.; Evidence from archaeological data, government records, written observations, linguistics analysis, and indigenous commentary combine with traditional Cherokee storytelling themes to provide insights into the socioeconomic role of this Indian Trade, and the value of its goods in the eighteenth-century Cherokee psyche. Analysis of these data in conjunction with an assessment of the indigenous Cherokee material environment (geological, hydrological, biological) provides a background from which to determine the eighteenth-century Cherokee consumer attitudes and cultural values. From this perspective, a historically accurate intrinsic meaning of and extrinsic motivation for Cherokee consumption patterns and resource management choices emerges.; Examining Cherokee participation through lenses of their attitudes (identity consciousness) and world views (reality) illumines traditional indigenous cultural preferences as the principal motivation for their consumer decision-making. Highlighted most clearly is their selective acquisition of European-manufactured material culture. Cherokee cultural preferences for relationships and social prestige ultimately defined the limited range of foreign merchandise that was considered suitable and desirable for socioeconomic incorporation.