10 Cherokee Indian Tellico Glass Trade Beads Good Patina

Every buyer will receive 10 Indian trade beads. Tellico PlainsProjectile points found in archaeological surveys of the area document Native American culture here going back over 10,000 years. The nearby Tennessee River and its tributaries provided early transportation and fertile plains. The Unicoi Trail was a footpath used by Creek and Cherokee Indians, for trade, communication, warfare and transportation (a 2-1/2 mile section has been restored for public use and hiking). Remnants of burial/ceremonial mounds and tribal settlements were visible as recently as the 1960s. It is believed that Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto followed the Great War Path into what is now Tellico Plains in the mid 1500s.Early European colonists traded with the Cherokees living in this area. As settlers moved over the mountains from the Carolinas, some were accepted into Cherokee society while others fought over land rights. The Cherokee lifestyle was greatly altered by the colonial settlers, and by the mid 1700s they had abandoned many of the ways of their ancestors. They were British Allies in the French and Indian War; nearby Fort Loudoun was built by the British in 1756 and fortified with British soldiers to protect the Indians from their enemies. Relations between the Cherokee and British deteriorated, and an uneasy peace existed after a rash of attacks, massacres and a crippling smallpox epidemic.Trading BeadsThe first European explorers and colonists gave Native Americans glass and ceramic beads as gifts and used beads for trade with them. The Indians had made bone, shell, and stone beads long before the Europeans arrived in North America, and continued to do so. However, European glass beads, mostly from Venice, some from Holland and, later, from Poland and Czechoslovakia, became popular and sought after by the Indians. The most famous story in American history involving trade beads isn't true. Peter Minuit and his Dutch settlers did not purchase Manhattan Island in 1625 for $24 in beads. As Peter Francis, Jr. demonstrates in a 1986 prize-winning article, "The Beads That Did Not Buy Manhattan Island," the story dates from the nineteenth century and has no historical basis in fact.The availability of glass beads increased, their cost decreased, and they became more widely used by Indians throughout North America. Ceramic beads declined in popularity as glass bead manufacturers came to dominate the market because of their variety of color, price, and supply. At first, glass beads supplemented those made from natural materials, but, in time, glass beads almost completely replaced Indian-made ones.Every buyer will receive 10 Indian trade beads. The material is ceramic terracotta. Good color and patina. From my grandfather's estate. Original period item. The pictures show the variety of beads being sold, your beads may slightly vary from the ones pictured.I combine shipping on all purchases made within 7 days of each other.  Now FREE SHIPPING on all domestic orders!!