The printing press of the Cherokee Advocate in the 1800s, which first printed a Br'er Rabbit story (the Tar Baby) Why is he called Br'er Rabbit? Br'er Rabbit is short for "Brother Rabbit". He's a rabbit who tricks people. But sometimes he gets tricked himself! Br'er Rabbit is a lot like the African [...]
Charles II of England Oliver Cromwell tried to leave his job as Lord Protector to his son Richard when he died in 1658, but Richard was so useless that two years later Parliament invited Charles I's son, Charles II, to come be king in England after all: historians call this the Restoration, because it restored the [...]
American revolution: English soldiers search a settler's house (1770s) Why did the Americans revolt? In 1763 AD England won the French and Indian War against France (which had been fought mainly in North America), and so the English-speaking settlers on the East Coast could stop worrying that they were about to be taken over by France. Algonquin [...]
Iroquois history: Trade beads made in Venice in the 1600s and traded in North America Iroquois trade for beads and knives When the first European traders came to the north Atlantic coast, about 1600 AD, the Iroquois were very interested in trading with them. People sold the Dutch traders lots and lots of beaver furs to make hats with, and [...]
Rock Art from Utah, about 1700 AD In the 1700s AD, most of North America was still under the control of native people. Because Pueblo people and the Navajo had taken Spanish invaders' horses and traded them north, they and the Sioux, Ute, Blackfoot, and other Plains Indians did very well. Hunting bison was much easier on horseback than it had been on foot. And [...]
Hernando De Soto Europeans: Hernando de Soto In 1540 AD Cherokee people met European men for the first time. A Spanish man named Hernando De Soto was exploring the East Coast of North America with a group of Spanish soldiers. Soon he arrived at Cherokee towns. Cherokee leaders welcomed the foreigners diplomatically, even though they must have known [...]
Juan de Onate, the first Spanish governor, marked this rock in New Mexico to show he had been there (1605). Throughout the 1500s, the governments of North America were a lot like they had been before 1500. But two important things changed. One was that the Spanish settlers in the south-west set up a government there. [...]
Algonquin people with wool blankets In the 1600s, most people still dressed the same as they had before, in deerskins. But in the south-west, Pueblo and Navajo people began to buy wool clothing from the Spanish settlers. Europeans produced a lot of wool to sell, so they wanted to sell it to Americans. The wool clothes were cheaper than deerskin, [...]
A Cherokee house in the 1800s In the late 1600s AD, Cherokee people were still building their towns about the way they had built them before the Europeans arrived. We have a good description from an English trader called James Needham. He visited the Cherokee town of Chota in 1673. (I have modernized the language) "The [...]
Cherokee arrowhead In the Late Woodland and Mississippian period, about 500 AD to 1500 AD, Cherokee men fought a lot of wars with their neighbors, especially against the Creek and the Chocktaw men. When Cherokee men were fighting their enemies, they tied strips of otter skin around their heads, upper arms, and legs below the knees, to show that they [...]
