Seven Clans of Cherokee Society

The seven-clan system, along with many other developments around the number seven, contributed to making the Cherokee distinctive from the many other Native American tribes. The sacred number seven permeates Cherokee legends, beliefs, and customs including the seven sided council house, the sacred fire which was kindled with seven different kinds of wood, the seven directions and the seven Cherokee festivals.

The Cherokee had a matrilineal society, a social system in which their descent was traced strictly through their mother's side of the family. In the Cherokees' matrilineal kinship system a person received his mother's clan at birth and retained this clan for life, and his only kinsmen were those who could be traced through her; that is her mother's mother, mother's sisters, the children of the mother's sisters and, the most important and powerful man in a child's life, the mother's brother. The primary responsibility for discipline and instruction in hunting and warfare rested not with the child's father but with his maternal uncle. Not even the right of the father to stay in the home was certain because Cherokee women owned the dwellings.  If the husband was ousted from the home, he simply returned to the residence of his clan until he married again. His children, however, remained with their mother and kinsmen.

Clan affiliation was inherited through the mother's line and marriage within this clan was strictly forbidden by law.  From the individual's perspective, four of the clans were the most important:
       (1) one's own clan (which was also one's mother's and maternal grandmother's),
       (2) one's father's clan(which was also one's paternal grandmother's),
       (3) maternal grandfather's clan and
       (4) paternal grandfather's clan

Individuals were prohibited from marrying into the first two clans, but were encouraged to marry into either the maternal grandfather's clan or paternal grandfather's clan.
As the household was the basic unit of the Cherokee social organization, residence was matrilocal (home of the wife's kin group), therefore, a newly married couple lived with the wife's family. The clan provided many important functions including care for orphans and the destitute, hospitality for visiting clan members from other towns and, most important, the avenging of wrongs committed against other clan members. Clan membership was essential to one's existence as a human being within a Cherokee society because of the protection of the kinship system. A Cherokee's clan determined a person's political alignment and his role in society. Kinship, through the law of the clans, governed social relationships, dictated possible marriage partners, designated friends, designated enemies, and regulated behavior through the system such as which kinsmen had to be respected and with which kinsmen one could be intimate.

Since kinship was matrilineal, Cherokee women probably decided the matter of adoption and often had the power to determine the fate of captives. Clans were not obligated to adopt captives, however, captives were less likely to leave the Cherokees once they were adopted into a particular clan. Captives not adopted into the clan system were, if not killed, made to be of slave status.

The slave (atsi-nahsa-i) was considered an "anomaly", that is defined as a physical human but not able to live as human because of no clanship. Rather than banish or kill them, the Cherokees supported them, recognizing that people did exist outside their kinsip system. These captives functioned as deviants in the Cherokee society. The clan which adopted a captive became liable for his misdeeds as well as responsible for avenging wrongs done to him. To be without a clan in Cherokee society was to be without rights, even the right to live. A captive who was not adopted faced a distressing and unpredictable future.
The Seven Clans were groups in which each kept his clan membership for life; some were closely related, and others more distantly related. Since clan membership was determined at birth, it was only natural that the child belonged to the clan of the mother since she was certain of her birth child whereas the identity of the father might, in some cases, be less certain.

If a member of a clan needed help in any matter, his clan would take care of him, and if a clan member was injured or killed by a member of another clan, his clan was responsible for revenge. No such thing as a feud would evolve, because it was understood among all clans that revenge would be taken in the event of injury or death, and the recipient clan of the revenge usually considered it justified. The type of revenge permitted could be determined by the clansmen who were selected to carry it out. There were often times when the clan of the offender would perform the revenge on a selected member of their clan to eliminate the possibility of an innocent sufferer. All crimes such as theft of religious objects, assault on a priest, arson, treason, witchcraft, homicide, incest, stealing from the dead and intermarrying within a clan were all punishable by death.

The blood revenge was usually performed by an older male of the victim's clan if it could not be taken by the oldest brother. It was considered a disgrace if revenge was not taken. The Cherokees believed that revenge must be taken in order to free the soul of the victim and to let it pass from this world to the next. It was the practice to avenge the victim by taking the life of the murderer himself, however, a close relative of the murderer could satisfy the revenge. When a clan member was visiting other nearby or distant towns, he was still considered family, and the law of blood revenge held true in any location.

The Cherokees' attitude toward things which strayed from a general rule can best be seen in their belief system and the way in which it categorized nature. Instead of trying to obscure or to deny the existence of those things which could not easily be classified, the Cherokees paid special attention to them. In the Cherokee society, three categories of animate things occupied the world: Human beings, Plants and Animals. Cherokees did not ignore the human characteristics of plants and animals; they magnified them, and they became major figures in the Cherokees' myths and legends, such as the bear, deer, snake and bird. The Cherokees did not view abnormalities as causes for fear but as subjects of profound interest, and by emphasizing the exceptions of their categories they strengthened their system of classification. Some of the clan names that are still used today have the names of animals that are used in many myths and legends.

The knowledge of a person's clan is important for many reasons. Historically, and still today among Cherokee traditionalists, it is forbidden to marry within your clan. Clan members are considered brother and sisters. In addition, when seeking spiritual guidance and doctoring, it is necessary to name your clan.  Seating at ceremonial stomp dances is by clan, as well.

Ages ago, back in the long ago times our ancestors found out that occasionally the Earth Mother experiences a catastrophe that for all practical purposes wipes out civilization, and those that survive are too busy with survival to pass on all knowledge, resulting in a major loss of knowledge within two generations. So they decided to break the people into groups, and make each group responsible to gather, develop, maintain, and pass on certain types of knowledge. So that perhaps at least a few from each group would survive to pass the knowledge on. Knowledge for which a group was assigned responsibility was not limited to that group, but often existed through out. It was just the responsibility of a certain group to maintain, develop, and teach certain knowledge!