• Students may enjoy interactive ways to learn about the Cherokee Indians.native american image by Joy Fera from Fotolia.com
  
  The Cherokee Indians lived predominantly in Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and the Carolinas. The U.S. military forced them to participate in the Trail of Tears death march in the 1800s, when most of the Cherokee nation was relocated to the "Indian Territory" in Oklahoma, according to All Things Cherokee. Thousands of Cherokees and other Native Americans died during the move. You can engage your students in a number of activities to learn about the Cherokee.
  
  

Cherokee Government

• According to the Cherokee Indian Fact Sheet, two different chiefs led the original Cherokee bands, a war chief and a peace chief. Historically, the tribal council elected the chiefs. In Cherokee tradition, the war chief had to be male, but the peace chief could be female.
  
  Students can decide which qualities might be valuable in both a war chief and a peace chief. Make a list of the qualities on the board, and allow the students to consider various members of the class and elect the classmate they want as their "war chief" and as "peace chief."
  
  

Trail of Tears

• Teach the students about the Trail of Tears, as related in the article by Christina Berry (see reference 3) or in the "Cherokee Messenger" (see reference 4). Have the students map the Trail of Tears, and allow them to dramatize the forced march. Encourage the students to consider how the Cherokee must have felt. Their leaders had become friends with President Andrew Jackson, and then they were forced by the U.S. government to leave their homes and abandon their ancestral lands.
  
  

Native Dances

• Watch video displays of native Cherokee dances. Have the students make drums from oatmeal boxes; in addition, they can fabricate shell shakers and other rhythm instruments to use in keeping time with the dance. Invite them to create the dances. If you know a Cherokee who lives in your area, ask him to come to the class and demonstrate the dances, if he knows them, or to just speak to the class.
  
  

Star Quilts

• Have students look at pictures of Cherokee star quilts, and give them construction paper to create their own star quilt patterns. Collect each of the construction paper samples and put them together to create a large star paper "quilt" constructed of the individual squares. Alternately, you may provide each of the students with a fabric square and crayons or fabric paints. After each student has created her own square, collect the squares to make a class quilt. Stitch each of the squares together and hang for display.
  
  

Traditional Indian Feast

• Prepare some traditional Cherokee foods for the class to sample, such as a cornmeal mush or bread pudding (see resource 2). Ask each student to assist with the preparation of the meal, and invite them to discuss the kinds of animals the Cherokees domesticated for food, the crops they grew and the animals they hunted.