Cherokees And The Aztecs example essay topic

The Cherokees and the Aztecs were very different people in many ways not only in location but also in ways of living. The Cherokees were southwestern woodland farmers. The Aztecs were also farmers in mesoamerica like the Mayans. The Cherokee lived in a very different climate than the Aztecs and because of the difference they had different crops and food. Crafts The Cherokees made bows and arrows. They also made many different kinds of baskets and pottery.

They made the bows and arrows for hunting and also to protect themselves. The baskets were to store food and to carry things in. The pottery was used to eat out of and they could also trade it to other tribes for food or maybe even horses. The Aztecs did feather working and gold working.

Theymade shields and did art work with the feathers. They held the feathers together with glue made from bat dung. Theymade round objects by what was called the lost-wax method. These gold things were mostly used for decoration and for looks. Housing And Shelter One kind of house by the Cherokees were called teepees. The teepees were made out of logs that are covered with deer or buffalo hide.

They kill and skin the animal and then let the hide dry, they then placed the logs in a cone shape and covered them with the animal hide. They also lived in structures called long houses which were made of wood. All of these houses together were called villages. They had to make their houses easy to put up and take down so they could so they could leave to avoid anything that might bring harm to them.

The Aztec craftsmen lived in huts. They we remade out of a mud-brick type mixture. The Aztec nobles lived in palaces built of white washed stone and had over a hundred rooms. Climate The climate in the area that the Cherokees lived in changes from season to season this is one reason why they had to move all the time.

During the spring time the weather was rainy but warm. The summer time was hot and dry with the occasional rain. Fall was a time of cool and dry weather. With maybe some rain or snow. The winter was pretty harsh it was pretty cold and it was snowy.

The Climate in the area that the Aztecs lived in was hot and dry. Theylived in the desert. It was very hoot and very dry but they knew how to live with it. Geography and Location The Cherokee lived in the southeast part of the United States. They lived in what is now know as Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The terrain they lived in changed from season to season.

During the fall and winter months they traveled a lot so they gather food and hunt so they can take their food with them. During the spring and summer months they settled down and would farm, and they would also hunt the buffalo that would be grassing the fields so they would have food for the harsh winter months. Cherokees would farm most of their food except during the winter months. The Aztecs lived in Mexico around what is now known as Mexico City. Theylived in the Sierra Madre mountains. Clothing Most of the clothes worn by the Cherokee were made out of buffalo or deer skin.

They hunted the buffalo during the summer and would use the hide for blankets and clothes. The deer hide was used to make their clothes, shoes, and many other things. The animals they killed would be completely used up, they used every part of the animal. The Aztecs clothes were made out of animal skin also. Their clothes were not only to cover themselves but they we reused as a way of showing a persons rank, so there were very strict laws on who could wear what.

Crops and Food Cherokees were very good, farmers they could grow corn, potatoes, and many other tasty foods. The warriors of the tribe would be the ones that hunted and fished for food. They would hunt deer, buffalo, and any other game animals. They did not only hunt for food but they also hunted to make shoes and clothes out of the animal hide.

The women and children gathered berries, fruits and another type of food they could find. The Aztec peasants ate mainly maize and beans, sometimes they might trap a duck or a crow in the garden. The richer Aztecs ate turtles and crabs imported from the coast. King Montezuma got to choose from a hundred dishes each day.

They had no eating utensils, everyone even the king used their hands. Food Preparation The Cherokee could hunt food, grow food, and use the sources around them. The Cherokee were great farmers and they are the ones who taught the white people how to farm. They were one of the first people to dry their food so that it would keep fresh longer. The Aztec women would get up every morning and ground maize into flour and boil it into porridge, and flavor it with sage. They also had steamed pancakes stuffed with tadpoles, cactus worms, or fish.

Another favorite was tortillas, dipped in a tomato and hot pepper sauce. Languages The Cherokee language is the second most widely used Native American language, spoken by an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 in Oklahoma and North Carolina. While most Native American languages developed a hieroglyphic writing system, Cherokee is the only Indian language to have produced a syllabary type of alphabet. The Cherokee language split into two main dialects after the Trail Of Tears. Today the Eastern branch of the language is most commonly the one spoken. The Aztecs had no alphabet they simply wrote with pictures and glyphs.

Just as we always write a word the same way they always drew their pictures the same way. An Aztec book looked like a jumble of tiny pictures. Roles Of Women The women of the tribe would take care of the children. They would also get water, collect fire wood, food, and usually they were the ones that made the clothes. The Cherokee women were treated very good compared to most of the other women at this point in time. The Aztec girls would marry at about sixteen and they would marry men about the age of twenty.

Men could have as many wives as he wanted to, but most men settled for one. The women in the Aztec tribe did weaving and things like that but they were not treated as well as the Cherokee women. Medicine The medicine the Cherokee used was mainly herbs and materials from the earth. Each tribe had its own medicine man, which is like a doctor, to take care of the sick people in the tribe. The medicine man was considered to be a very wise man. The Aztecs used over twelve hundred different herbs to cure illness.

Scientific tests show that many of these are very useful for reducing fever and stopping bleeding. Other cures like eating roast lizard for a swollen face did not work so well. The people that did the medical things were mostly the wives and mothers unlike the Cherokee, who had medicine men. Music and Dancing The Cherokee would dance around a big fire to talk to and to please the gods. They would also dance to ask for rain during the droughts and to give then lick before a battle. The music was mostly just chanting and the beating of some drums.

The Aztecs also danced around a big fire to please the gods. They would dance to please the gods so if they needed anything the gods would be happy and they would grant their wish. Government The Cherokee government was a kind of organized government. Each tribe had a chief, a vice chief, and a council of thirty-two members. They pretty much ran the government.

Their law was based more on responsibility for wrongful actions than on the notion of justice. The Cherokee system was ideal for keeping balance and harmony in the spiritual and social worlds. Games The Aztecs played many sacred games. One of their favorite games was called.

It is what netball and basketball evolved from. Nobody really knows how or when the Indians first learned to make rubber sap into a bouncing ball, but the game was played long before the Aztecs came to Mexico. Sometimes they would pass time by gambling. Some people gambled away all of their possessions even their clothes and were forced to sell themselves as slaves. Childbearing Practices Aztec boys did not really start to train as warriors until they were eight years old. At the age of eight they went off to the, the clan's boarding school, to train as warriors.

All boys led a tough life. They learned to be humble and obedient by doing jobs nobody else wanted to do like digging canals, and sweeping the temples. Religion The Cherokee religion was polytheistic (meaning many gods). They had a god for pretty much anything you can think of. Their main god was the god of the sun. Their philosophy was be good to the earth and it will be good to you.

The Aztec believed that they were the chosen people by the gods. They were also polytheistic. They too had many gods. They sacrificed humans to please the gods. They thought they had a debt to pay to the gods because they were created and chosen. Europeans Take Over In 1828 the Europeans took over the Indians land and killed a lot of the Indian population.

This was also the time the Trail Of Tears took place. The trail of tears was caused by the Europeans. Native Americans Status Today Native Americans are equal to everyone else in the United States. Most of them are holding steady jobs and living like normal people but some of them still live on Indian reservations and act like they are old time Indians from long ago.

Indians became United States citizens in 1901.