Cherokee+Questions

These questions will help guide you through the article, “[|Maintaining Balance: The Religious World of the Cherokee]” and encourage you to think critically about the text. The questions ask you to consider how Cherokee religious beliefs may have affected interactions with the Europeans who arrived in the early 1700s.

Maintaining Balance: The Religious World of the Cherokee

 * 1) Why do we know quite a bit about the Cherokee culture?
 * 2) Describe the following and indicate what inhabited each area:
 * 3) Middle World
 * 4) Upper World
 * 5) Under World
 * 6) Explain one way the Cherokees might show that they were part of their environment.
 * 7) How would a loss in the balance of nature cause problems?
 * 8) How does the story “The Origin of Disease and Medicine” exhibit the belief in the balance of nature?
 * 9) Describe one of the rituals that the Cherokee performed to help maintain that balance.
 * 10) What did the Europeans think about the rituals and festivals when they made contact with the Cherokee?
 * 11) How do you think the beliefs of the Cherokee were a reflection of the way they lived?
 * 12) Why do you think the Europeans had a difficult time understanding the beliefs and views of the Cherokee and other Native American cultures?
 * 13) How might that have influenced the relationship between the Europeans and Native Americans in the early days of exploration and settlement of what is now the United States?