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It was like Baltimore, said one visitor to New Ichota, capital of a nation that is no longer visible, though it still exists.

The Cherokee Nation, in what is now Georgia, slightly north of present-day Atlanta.

There were streets, there were buildings, courthouses, schools, a government

center. The Cherokee Nation had a constitution, a Supreme Court. It had a language that was

previously oral in the 1820s, translated into a written form, and a newspaper, the Cherokee

Phoenix was printed. It was not, as some people might think,

merely roaming bands of Indians living in TPs or something like that. It was a civilization,

as people knew it in the 1820s. There would be lots of pressure on this community, but they also had a lot of friends

in the United States and agreements with the federal government, and they'd be okay for a while,

until a discovery was made.

Music I want to take on this topic because I think the view of Native Americans in modern time really falls into two categories.

And one is, in a lot of literature and history, a desire to learn about the stories of Native

Americans, to learn about their culture, to learn about what happened to them. And with that,

maybe a bit of regret that there isn't more of it in the fabric of American life and regret

over things that happened in history. And then there's another school, and that's the

inevitability. In other words, you know, you'll hear things like, well, in Europe,

the Celts or numerous tribes were driven out, numerous places in the world, people were conquered,

there were battles, there were victors, and it was inevitable what would happen.

I kind of understand both points of view, and I also think there's some mixture that can

occur.

You acknowledged that at some point European settlers were going to happen.

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