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Early Catalysts for Change / 49 ners. Some of them think that their sins are forgiven. I have thought more than I did and some times I think that my heart is changed and at other times I am doubtful. I love to think about the Saviour and love to pray to Him, and pray that there may be a survival of religion here:'58 Another letter was sent by Brainerd student Christiana McPherson to the president of the United States: "We heard that the Cherokees were going to send you a mink skin and a pipe. We thought that it would make you laugh; and the Scholars asked our teacher if they might make you a present and she told us that she did not know as there was anything suitable in the whole establishment. Then she looked among the articles of the girls society and told me that I might make you a pocketbook . Will you please to accept it from a little Cherokee girl aged nine years?"59 Elizabeth Taylor wrote from Brainerd to a Miss Abigail [Parker1on June 26, 1828, telling her of Cherokee rituals and dances. After describing conjuring, rainmaking, dances, and other aspects of Cherokee culture, she wrote: "But I have learned that the white people were once as degraded as this people; and that encourages me to think that this nation will soon become enlightened. I hope I feel thankful for the good that missionaries are doing in bringing the word of God to this people."60 Northern sponsors would often "adopt" a child and give it an English name as a symbol of religious and cultural conversion. Although the officers of the mission societies were male, the rank-and-file contributors were primarily women, many of whom formed "cent societies" to fund missionary efforts among the Indians. Cyrus Kingsbury wrote to benefactors in Wilmington, Delaware, describing the progress of one of the sponsored students: "While we heartily congratulate you in your exertions to aid the cause of Missions, & to raise the Cherokees from their state of Moral Darkness to the Glorious light & liberty of the Gospel, we would give you some information:' He proceeded to describe one of their beneficiaries, Thomas Witherspoon, as "somewhat roguish tho not vicious-he makes pretty good proficiency in study."61 Even the "roguish" ones probably adopted new forms of dress. By 1830 most Cherokee women wore cotton or calico dresses in public, and men wore trousers .62 Outward symbols of acculturation did not necessarily signify that the majority of Cherokees had adopted Eurc-American values. Many believed that tribal sovereignty depended on being viewed as civilized. The Cherokee women who wore calico dresses certainly looked radically different from those whom a Seneca war chief described in the eighteenth century. The women, who were in charge of his fate, "each had two snakes tattooed on her lips, with their heads opposite each other, in such way that when she opened her mouth the two snakes opened their mouths also."63 SO/Chapter 2 Cherokee Resistance and Acculturation The civilization program, the loss of hunting lands, missionary efforts, and slavery all destabilized gender relations within the Cherokee Nation. Men's roles were more disrupted than women's because men lost their ability to be hunters and warriors. Because farming was considered "women's work;' the men would have had to radically alter their views of masculinity if they had chosen to become farmers. Therefore, most Cherokee women continued farming ; in addition, they adopted new domestic technologies and continued as mothers. Only a small minority of elite Cherokee women who were slaveholders embraced fully the values of "true womanhood." However, even these women were not willing to give up the ownership of their property. In fact, tribal sovereignty continued to rest on communal ownership of land. Wilma Dunaway persuasively demonstrates that, shortly before removal, the Cherokees had learned new survival strategies in a world economy and that their agricultural production equaled or surpassed that of their white neighbors . They produced corn, hogs, and cattle at levels equivalent to or higher than the 1840 outputs of white settlers in the former Cherokee territory. By 1828 each Cherokee household averaged three horses, one plow, and a spinning wheel, and probably around a third of the households had looms. However, most traditional Cherokee women continued to weave baskets and produce pottery rather than purchase manufactured ones. Through such ecological accommodations as cotton growing, sheep raising, weaving, and spinning, Cherokee women were able to preserve...

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