242 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



ing in numbers. To the extent that there are characteristics typical 

 of rural mountain people, they retaia them. The generalizations to 

 be drawn do not include comments from these people. 



These three categories of Whites express somewhat different 

 attitudes toward the Cherokee; some are more critical of certain 

 "Indian traits" than others are. Yet, they are in substantial agree- 

 ment on most points. Typical of all these people is a certainty that 

 there is an Indian way of behaving. This behavior, they argue, is 

 different from the way White people comport themselves. Indians, 

 they say, are sexually promiscuous (although, they state some of the 

 Whites in the hills are, too). Indians are inclined to be dirty and 

 shiftless. They have large families which they are unable to support, 

 and they constitute a drain on the county's financial resources. They 

 are "devils when they are drunk." They live from day to day with 

 no planning for the future. In spite of such stereotypic pronounce- 

 ments, some respondents add that they are not all this way. 



The observer is not made acutely conscious of race prejudice or 

 discriminatory activity. All the local community schools now have 

 Indian pupils or will admit them. Nevertheless, many Whites 

 imply that they have some reservations about Indian- White marriages 

 except in the cases where the Indian spouse is nearly White and is 

 prosperous. The farmers appear to be more race conscious than the 

 others. "No matter how White some of them get, Indian ways will 

 crop out," is a sentiment often expressed by farmers. 



The Government is blamed by almost all of the respondents for 

 the deplorable state of the Indians. As a result of Federal inter- 

 vention and protection, the Indians have been drained of initiative. 

 Because of the Government, they are lazy and look to a benevolent 

 and paternalistic agency for support. Some add to this beUef the 

 opinion that Indians are naturally perverse and that the combination 

 has produced this "sorry mess." 



IDEAL TYPES 



I have reviewed the development of a heterogeneous society from 

 one which, in 1838, was almost homogeneous. Changes in Indian 

 inheritance, occupation, and land use were described. It is now 

 necessary to examine the covert and less tangible aspects of the way 

 of Ufe of the people. In the pages to foUow, I shall present representa- 

 tive portraits of typical Cherokees to illustrate Thomas' postulated 

 continuum. The reader will recall that one of the tasks of this investi- 

 gation is an appraisal of the accuracy of the typology. Is it suffi- 

 ciently precise to depict the diversity among the people at Cherokee? 



