1. Section 2: Indian Nations in Georgia
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
Which Indian nations lived in Georgia and how did they live?

2. Section 2: Indian Nations in Georgia
What peoples do I need to know?
Creek (Muscogee)
Cherokee

3. The Creeks (Muscogee) Originally from American southwest
Spoke Muskogean
Discovered by early European explorers who called them Creeks
Lived along Ocheese Creek (today’s Ocmulgee River)
Lived in italwa and talofa (large villages surrounded by smaller villages) similar to today’s large city and surrounding suburbs

4. Creek (Muscogee) Lifestyle
Village center featured a plaza and rotunda
Games and ceremonies held in plaza
Rotunda was used for council meetings
Wooden huts or log cabins with chimneys surrounded the plaza
Villages, split from larger villages, helped form a confederacy
Raised livestock and successful farmers

5. The Cherokee Lived in northwestern mountain region of the state
Called themselves Awi-yum-wija, which meant “real people” or “principal people”
Tribal Clans: groups of Cherokee who believed themselves related by blood
Two tribal chiefs: one for making war and one for making peacetime decisions
Clans governed on the local level

6. The Cherokee Family
Family lines were traced through the mother, not the father
The mother’s brothers took responsibility for raising her children
Mothers handled most domestic chores; fathers often left home to hunt or trade
Children played games that prepared them for adulthood

7. Cherokee Lifestyle
Built homes on high banks or hills along rivers and streams
Shelters were built from available materials, often plastered on the exterior to keep out rain and cold
Log cabins built for winter living
Fishing and raising crops including maize (corn)
Barter: trading goods and services without use of money was an economic system

8. Cherokee Religious Beliefs
Believed Earth was large island resting on water
“This World”: tribe was at center of the earth
“Upper World”: above This World; clean and pure world; Sun and Moon chief gods
“Under World”: in waters below This World; disorder and change
Deer and birds were honored; bears were not

9. Other Cherokee Lifestyle Practices
Drank ginseng potion to shop bleeding or shortness of breath
Smoked tobacco on ceremonial occasions when seeking the gods’ blessings
Green Corn Ceremony held to give thanks for corn, the most important food source
Followed “Law of Retaliation,” avenging a wrong by getting even; this law helped prevent feuds within a tribe
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