The Cherokees have 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 mother's sisters and, the most important and powerful man in a child's life, the mothers brother. This social structure has always (and still does) baffled whites.

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 remarried again. His children, however, remained with their mother and kinsmen.

Clan Membership

It is sometimes said that the Cherokees wore/wear feathers of different colors to indicate their clan membership.

In early literature, reference is made to a total of fourteen clans but was reduced to seven by either combining some clans or eliminating some over time.

The seven clans are frequently mentioned in the sacred formulas used by the Cherokee Indians and in some of the laws issued within the last one hundred years.

The council house was seven-sided and provided seven sections of seats within, giving each clan a section for its representatives within the governmental structure. The seven sections surrounded the sacred fire.