Henry Timberlake - Legacy

Legacy

Timberlake's primary legacy is the journal he kept while living with the Cherokee. Published in 1765, the volume was likely released posthumously. The journal is of importance both as an ethnological study, as it contains detailed descriptions of various facets of Cherokee society, and as a historical account, as it gives insight into Cherokee political decision-making and the tribe's early reactions to the encroaching European colonists.

Along with methods of warfare, Timberlake described Cherokee agricultural and hunting habits, religious beliefs, birth and death rites, and marital habits. He described Cherokee government as a "mixed aristocracy and democracy," with chiefs chosen on the basis of merit. The journals also contain information regarding Cherokee methods for building canoes and dwellings, and the general size and form of Cherokee summer and winter houses. Timberlake's description of the Cherokee councilhouse— the central structure in a typical Cherokee village— has aided archaeologists in the location of such structures at modern excavation sites.

Timberlake's map, entitled "A Draught of the Cherokee Country," accompanied the journal. On it he located all the Cherokee villages on the lower Little Tennessee River and provided important demographic information about village sizes, populations, and leaders. Modern studies have generally confirmed that Timberlake's map was remarkably accurate. The journal, simply entitled Memoirs, and his map of the Overhill Cherokee country have been reprinted several times. Timberlake's Memoirs remains one of the best contemporary accounts of the 18th-century Cherokee.