Cherokee Princess and Petticoat Government

For the Cherokees, "respect" has always shaped their relationships with each other and with the natural and spiritual worlds. Cherokee towns functioned democratically, with everyone participating: men, women, children and elders. Men’s power as war chiefs, peace chiefs and priests was balanced by women’s power as clan mothers and beloved women. Men’s work as hunters and warriors was balanced by women’s work as farmers, artists, and mothers. Children’s family lineage was determined by their mother’s clan, and the mother’s house and fields passed to her daughters and granddaughters. Marriages could be dissolved by husband or wife, and both were free to remarry. Cherokee women participated in trade, and in all discussions affecting the life of the tribe. A "beloved woman," who was acclaimed by consensus for her outstanding service to the tribe, decided the fate of captives and prisoners; she could decree death, slavery or adoption.

Men from eighteenth-century Europe could not comprehend or accept such a world. They ridiculed the Cherokee’s "petticoat government" while they enjoyed Cherokee women’s sexual freedom. Likewise, Cherokee men and women could not comprehend a society without men and women’s participation. Cherokee women attended every treaty negotiation of the eighteenth century, and sent greeting (as well as baskets and other presents) to European women.

Perhaps Cherokee women were labeled "princesses" because their shocking, unfamiliar power compared only to that enjoyed by European royalty. Hernando DeSoto’s chroniclers described "The Queen" of Cofitachiqui, whose main attribute was her treasure box of pearls, which he coveted. Following DeSoto, eighteenth-century Europeans ascribed royalty to Cherokee men and women, as a reflection of their own society. Nineteenth-century Victorian writers set "Cherokee princesses" in tales of star-crossed lovers who breathless, doomed meeting-penned in overblown prose that sold books and pamphlets to tourists-stuck like legendary glue to places like Blowing Rock, Tallulah Falls, and Nacoochee Mound. Twentieth-century travelers stayed in the "Princess Motel" in Cherokee and continued to hold to these images. Some people today believe that their ancestors were "Cherokee princesses" because of stories handed down in their families.

The revolutionary reality is that Cherokee women were equals with Cherokee men long before any such notion became par of European and American life. Even today, Cherokee women make most of the decisions regarding their households and children. They participate in politics, and they shape their communities by their actions. In fact, Cherokee women have never been the princesses of popular imagination, but in both the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians women have served as principle chief of their nations