The Cherokee People
July 24, 2015



The extensive and highly educational Wikipedia article below presents detailed information about Cherokee cultural elements including marriage rules, slave ownership and alignment with both the South and the North in the Civil War, relationship to freedmen, rules for admittance into the Cherokee tribe, a beautiful physical description of the Cherokee written in the early days of white association with them, a number of notable Cherokees, Cherokee writing samples, and prehistory/history back to their arrival in Appalachia from the Iriquois area of the Great Lakes. An official Cherokee website presents more archaeological information.

They did cultivate plants for food and medicine, so they were not simple hunter-gatherers even before the whites came, bringing many new cultural elements. The Cherokee adopted those advances widely, from government forms to the development of their own written language. See Sequoyah in www.encyclopedia.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoyah and www.biography.com/people/sequoyah-41074. Sequoyah was a Cherokee blacksmith who sat down and dreamed up his own alphabet for the Cherokee language in 1809, which was quickly adopted by the Cherokees and by whites. He then traveled for the next 40 years, teaching his writing method. That may be one reason that the language has survived, unlike too many other American Indian tongues. A biography of Sequoyah was presented on A&E during this last year. For information on Cherokee medicine, see this article: Cherokee ethnobotany,
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.






http://www.amonsoquathbandofcherokee.org/cherokee-archaeology.html

CHEROKEE ARCHAEOLOGY

Cherokee Archaeology, by David G. Moore,Western Office,NC Division of Archives and History, Asheville, NC

THIS IS AN OFFICIAL SOVEREIGN AMONSOQUATH BAND OF CHEROKEE GOVERNMENT SPONSORED WEB SITE
PAGE MAINTAINED BY: Rainbow Eagle Woman. Current version, 2015

The history of the Cherokee Indians abounds with tales of military prowess and political intrigue in the 18th and 19th centuries, by which time their culture had been irreversibly altered by the advancing Anglo-American frontier. But the written history of the Cherokees actually begins with the 16th century accounts of the Spanish explorers Hernando DeSoto and Juan Pardo and the story of Cherokee prehistory is the subject of ongoing archaeological investigations.

Archaeologists have traced Cherokee culture back to nearly 500 years before DeSoto first met them in the southern mountains. The Pisgah phase, generally dated to between AD 1000 and AD 1500, is the name assigned by archaeologists to prehistoric Cherokee culture in western North Carolina. (A phase consists of a pattern of sites which exhibit close similarities in site structure and artifactual remains). Pisgah sites are located throughout the southern Appalachian region but are most common in western North Carolina, especially along the French Broad and Pigeon rivers and their tributaries.

Excavations at the Warren Wilson site (3lBn29) and the Garden Creek site (3lHwl) by the Research Laboratories of Anthropology, UNC-Chapel Hill, provide much of the evidence for our understanding of Pisgah culture. The Warren Wilson site is located on the Warren Wilson College campus, east of Asheville. The site is situated adjacent to the Swannanoa River and consists of a small palisaded village covering about three acres. The Garden Creek site is located on the Pigeon River west of Canton, and consists of two distinct village areas of about five acres each and three earthen mounds.

Pisgah villages ranged in size from about one acre to more than five acres and typically included houses situated around an open plaza and encircled by a palisade (stockade). Houses were constructed with upright wooden posts. They were generally square or slightly rectangular in shape and usually about 20 feet on a side. Wall coverings included bark and, perhaps, daub. House plans are determined by the identification of posthole patterns in the soil. Each posthole indicates the location of a single wooden post and patterns become discernible as each excavation unit is cleaned and mapped. The multiple palisades may represent the growth of the village over a period of time.

Although Pisgah sites have been found in many different settings the villages are most often located on the larger alluvial valleys where soils were most suitable for horticultural practices. The Pisgah folk grew maize, beans, squash, and gourds but their diet was by no means limited to these domesticated crops. Studies of carbonized plant remains from hearths, trash pits, and other village features show that wild plant foods including nuts, fruits, seeds, and greens were important components of the Pisgah diet. These studies, combined with the analysis of animal bone from the same features, indicate that the Pisgah people practiced a generalized subsistence pattern. While cultigens (domesticated plants) were important, wild plant foods and animals probably contributed equally to the overall diet.

Investigations at the Garden Creek site have provided additional evidence for the social, ceremonial, and political aspects of Pisgah culture. The two village areas are larger than the Warren Wilson site and both have associated earthen mounds which served as platforms on which civic/ceremonial structures were built. Two of the three mounds were apparently constructed prior to the Pisgah phase, though one of these was probably utilized during that time. Construction for the third mound was initiated during the Pisgah phase; however, its original form was that of a semisubterranean (partially below ground), earth-covered structure called an earth lodge. At a later date a second earth lodge was constructed adjoining the first and eventually both were covered with earth and capped with a clay mantle.

Not all Pisgah sites included mounds and it is likely that their presence at Garden Creek indicates it may have served as a central town with respect to social and political alliances and ceremonial activity.

The material culture of the Pisgah folk is represented by wide variety of artifacts fashioned from clay and stone, as well as bone, shell, and wood. Pisgah ceramics included jars and bowls, many with distinctive collared rims, that were usually decorated with stamped patterns impressed by carved wooden paddles. Other clay artifacts included pipes, small gaming discs, and beads. A variety of stone was used to make tools. Chert and quartz provided raw material for chipped tools like small triangular arrow points, drills, and scrapers while granite and gneiss were ground smooth and polished to make celts (axes) and chisels. Other stone artifacts included pipes, gorgets, hammerstones, mortars, and gaming stones. Mica was quarried and cut for ornaments. Beads and gorgets were also made from animal bone and marine shell. The walls of the conch shell were cut to form circular gorgets, often incised with a stylized snake design. The conch was also used to make ear pins, beads, and ceremonial bowls. The shell artifacts were normally associated with human burials.

Following the Pisgah is the Qualla phase (AD 1500 - AD 1850). Qualla is identified with the historic period Cherokee Indians. Because of similarities of artifact styles, house and village structure and burial patterns it is quite clear that the Pisgah folk were direct ancestors of the Cherokee people. However, it is also likely that other peoples (from east Tennessee and north Georgia) also contributed to the historic period Cherokee culture.

The first written record of the Cherokee comes from the accounts of Spanish explorers Hernando DeSoto and Juan Pardo who met the Cherokee in 1540 and 1567, respectively. Though the accounts provide little information on Cherokee culture they are valuable for understanding the political geography of the Cherokee and their neighbors. It is not until the mid-17th century that the historic records begin to record the Cherokees in any detail. By 1690 numerous records describe the activities of travellers and traders among the Cherokee.

In the early 1700's the British (South Carolina) government defined five Cherokee groups. In east Tennessee, the Cherokee lived along the Tellico and Little Tennessee rivers, in what were called the Overhill Towns. The Lower Towns were found in north Georgia, on the Tugalo, Keowee and upper Savannah rivers. Three divisions were present in North Carolina, including the Middle Towns, located on the headwaters of the Little Tennessee River; the Valley Towns, on the Hiwassee and Valley rivers; and the Out Towns on the Tuckaseegee and Occonoluftee rivers. The 18th century saw the Cherokees continually embroiled with their Indian neighbors and the governments of the frontier populations, first with the British Colonial and French governments and ultimately with the United States government. It was a period of shifting alliances formed to protect their lands and preserve trading relations. The Cherokees were often more favorably disposed towards the French, who were less interested in land than in trade; however, the Cherokee often found themselves allied with the English against their traditional enemies such as the Tuscarora and Creek Indians in the early 1700's.

In 1730 Sir Alexander Cuming embarked on a mission to secure Cherokee allegiance to the British. Cuming met with several Cherokee chiefs at the Town of Nequassee where he convinced them to submit to English rule. This first official treaty also established Chief Moytoy of Tellico (Overhill) as emperor and leader of the Cherokee Nation. (Today all that remains of the town of Nequassee is the large earthen mound preserved next to the Little Tennessee River within the city limits of Franklin in Macon County). By mid-century the Cherokee were drawn inexorably into regular and necessary trade with the British. However, the Cherokee continued to suffer the encroachment of the colonial frontier, leading to intermittent but sustained hostilities, particularly during the French and Indian War. The war had disastrous consequences for the Cherokee. In 1769 a large English force under Colonel Archibald Montgomery marched on and destroyed all 15 of the Middle Towns.

The wars' end served only to increase the numbers of settlers coming into Cherokee territory and by the time of the Revolution the Cherokee were rather easily persuaded to assist the English by attacking American frontier settlers. The Americans answered with armies directed at the Cherokees. In 1776 General Griffith Rutherford led a North Carolina militia against the Middle, Valley, and Out Towns while South Carolina forces attacked Lower Towns. Finally, a Virginia force destroyed the Overhill Towns. Sporadic actions occurred for the duration of the war and the end of the war saw additional land lost and the further disintegration of Cherokee political and social boundaries. In less than 60 years most of the Cherokees were forcibly removed from what remained of their homelands on the infamous Trail of Tears.





Cherokee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cherokee (/ˈtʃɛrəkiː/; Cherokee Ani-Yunwiya (ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ) are a Native American tribe indigenous to the Southeastern United States (principally Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina). They speak Cherokee, an Iroquoian language. In the 19th century, historians and ethnographers recorded their oral tradition that told of the tribe having migrated south in ancient times from the Great Lakes region, where other Iroquoian-speaking peoples were.[4]

By the 19th century, European settlers in the United States called the Cherokee one of the "Five Civilized Tribes", because they had adopted numerous cultural and technological practices of the European American settlers. The Cherokee were one of the first, if not the first, major non-European ethnic group to become U.S. citizens. Article 8 in the 1817 treaty with the Cherokee stated Cherokees may wish to become citizens of the United States.[5] According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the Cherokee Nation has more than 314,000 members, the largest of the 566 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States.[6] In addition, numerous groups claiming Cherokee lineage, some of which are state-recognized, have members who are among those 819,000-plus people claiming Cherokee ancestry on the US census.

Of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes, the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (UKB) have headquarters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The UKB are mostly descendants of "Old Settlers," Cherokee who migrated to Arkansas and Oklahoma about 1817. They are related to the Cherokee who were forcibly relocated there in the 1830s under the Indian Removal Act. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is on the Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina, and are descendants of those who resisted or avoided relocation.[7] In addition, there are numerous Cherokee heritage groups throughout the United states, such as the satellite communities sponsored by the Cherokee Nation.

Name[edit]
The Cherokee refer to themselves as Ani-Yunwiya (ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ), which means "Principal People."

Many theories—though none proven—abound about the origin of the name "Cherokee". It may have originally been derived from the Choctaw word Cha-la-kee, which means "those who live in the mountains", or Choctaw Chi-luk-ik-bi, meaning "those who live in the cave country."[8] The earliest Spanish rendering of the name "Cherokee," from 1755, is Tchalaquei.[9] Another theory is that "Cherokee" derives from a Lower Creek word, Cvlakke ("chuh-log-gee").[10] The Iroquois in New York have historically called the Cherokee Oyata’ge'ronoñ ("inhabitants of the cave country").

Tsalagi (ᏣᎳᎩ) is sometimes misused as a name for the people; Tsalagi is actually the Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ) word for the Cherokee language.[11]

Origins[edit]

Great Smoky Mountains
There are two main theories of Cherokee origins. One is that the Cherokee, an Iroquoian-speaking people, are relative latecomers to Southern Appalachia, who may have migrated in late prehistoric times from northern areas, the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee nations and other Iroquoian-speaking peoples. Another theory is that the Cherokee had been in the Southeast for thousands of years.

Researchers in the 19th century recorded conversations with elders who recounted an oral tradition of the Cherokee people's migrating south from the Great Lakes region in ancient times.[4] They may have moved south into Muscogee Creek territory and settled at the sites of mounds built by the Mississippian culture. During early research, archeologists mistakenly attributed several Mississippian culture sites to the Cherokee, including Moundville and Etowah Mounds.

Pre-contact Cherokee are considered to be part of the later Pisgah Phase of Southern Appalachia, which lasted from circa 1000 to 1500.[12] Despite the consensus among most specialists in Southeast archeology and anthropology, some scholars[who?] contend that ancestors of the Cherokee people lived in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee for a far longer period of time.[13] During the late Archaic and Woodland Period, Indians in the region began to cultivate plants such as marsh elder, lambsquarters, pigweed, sunflowers and some native squash. People created new art forms such as shell gorgets, adopted new technologies, and followed an elaborate cycle of religious ceremonies. During the Mississippian Culture-period (800 to 1500 CE), local women developed a new variety of maize (corn) called eastern flint corn. It closely resembled modern corn and produced larger crops. The successful cultivation of corn surpluses allowed the rise of larger, more complex chiefdoms with several villages and concentrated populations during this period. Corn became celebrated among numerous peoples in religious ceremonies, especially the Green Corn Ceremony.

Early cultures[edit]

Much of what is known about pre-18th-century Native American cultures has come from records of Spanish expeditions. The earliest ones of the mid-16th-century encountered people of the Mississippian culture, the ancestors to later tribes in the Southeast such as the Muscogee (Creek) and Catawba. Specifically, in 1540-41, a Spanish expedition led by Hernando de Soto passed through what was later characterized as Cherokee country based on historical encounter by English colonists. De Soto's expedition visited villages in present-day western Georgia and eastern Tennessee, recording them as ruled by the Coosa chiefdom. It is now considered to be an ancestral chiefdom to the Muscogee Creek people. The Spanish recorded a Chalaque nation as living around the Keowee River where North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia meet.[14] Some of this work was not translated into English and made available to historians until the 20th century, and alternative views had developed related to limited understanding by English colonists of historic Native American cultures in the Southeast. In addition, the dominance of English colonists in the Southeast led to a discounting of Spanish sources for some time.

The American writer John Howard Payne wrote about pre-19th-century Cherokee culture and society. The Payne papers describe the account by Cherokee elders of a traditional two-part societal structure. A "white" organization of elders represented the seven clans. As Payne recounted, this group, which was hereditary and priestly, was responsible for religious activities, such as healing, purification, and prayer. A second group of younger men, the "red" organization, was responsible for warfare. The Cherokee considered warfare a polluting activity, and warriors required purification by the priestly class before participants could reintegrate into normal village life. This hierarchy had disappeared long before the 18th century.

Researchers have debated the reasons for the change. Some historians believe the decline in priestly power originated with a revolt by the Cherokee against the abuses of the priestly class known as the Ani-kutani.[15] Ethnographer James Mooney, who studied the Cherokee in the late 1880s, was the first to trace the decline of the former hierarchy to this revolt.[16] By the time of Mooney, the structure of Cherokee religious practitioners was more informal, based more on individual knowledge and ability than upon heredity.[15]

Another major source of early cultural history comes from materials written in the 19th century by the didanvwisgi (ᏗᏓᏅᏫᏍᎩ), Cherokee medicine men, after Sequoyah's creation of the Cherokee syllabary in the 1820s. Initially only the didanvwisgi adopted and used such materials, which were considered extremely powerful in a spiritual sense.[15] Later, the syllabary and writings were widely adopted by the Cherokee people.

Unlike most other Indians in the American Southeast at the start of the historic era, the Cherokee spoke an Iroquoian language, an indication of migration from another area. Since the Great Lakes region was the core of Iroquoian-language speakers, scholars have theorized that the Cherokee migrated south from that region. This is supported by the Cherokee oral history tradition. According to the scholars' theory, the Tuscarora, another Iroquoian-speaking people who inhabited the Southeast in historic times, and the Cherokee broke off from the major group during its northern migration.

Other historians hold that, judging from linguistic and cultural data, the Tuscarora people migrated South from other Iroquoian-speaking people in the Great Lakes region in ancient times. In the 1700s, the Tuscarora left the Southeast and "returned" to the New York area by 1722 because of harsh warfare in the southern region. The Tuscarora were admitted by the Iroquois as the Sixth Nation of their political confederacy.[17]

Linguistic analysis shows a relatively large difference between Cherokee and the northern Iroquoian languages. Scholars posit a split between the groups in the distant past, perhaps 3500–3800 years ago.[18] Glottochronology studies suggest the split occurred between about 1,500 and 1,800 BCE.[19] The Cherokee have claimed the ancient settlement of Kituwa on the Tuckasegee River, formerly next to and now part of Qualla Boundary (the reserve of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) in North Carolina, as the original Cherokee settlement in the Southeast.[18]

History[edit]

Main article: Cherokee history

17th century: English contact[edit]

In 1657, there was a disturbance in Virginia Colony as the Rechahecrians or Rickahockans, as well as the Siouan Manahoac and Nahyssan, broke through the frontier and settled near the Falls of the James, near present-day Richmond, Virginia. The following year, a combined force of English and Pamunkey drove the newcomers away. The identity of the Rechahecrians has been much debated. Historians noted the name closely resembled that recorded for the Eriechronon or Erielhonan, commonly known as the Erie tribe. This Iroquoian people had been driven away from the southern shore of Lake Erie in 1654 by the powerful Iroquois Five Nations. The anthropologist Martin Smith theorized some remnants of the tribe migrated to Virginia after the wars (1986:131–32). Few historians suggest this tribe was Cherokee.[20]

Virginian traders developed a small-scale trading system with the Cherokee in the Piedmont before the end of the 17th century; the earliest recorded Virginia trader to live among the Cherokee was Cornelius Dougherty or Dority, in 1690.[21][22] The Cherokee sold the traders Indian slaves for use as laborers in Virginia and further north.[23]

American colonist Henry Timberlake described the Cherokee people as he perceived them in 1761:

The Cherokees are of a middle stature, of an olive colour, tho' generally painted, and their skins stained with gun-powder, pricked into it in very pretty figures. The hair of their head is shaved, tho' many of the old people have it plucked out by the roots, except a patch on the hinder part of the head, about twice the bigness of a crown-piece, which is ornamented with beads, feathers, wampum, stained deers hair, and such like baubles. The ears are slit and stretched to an enormous size, putting the person who undergoes the operation to incredible pain, being unable to lie on either side for nearly forty days. To remedy this, they generally slit but one at a time; so soon as the patient can bear it, they wound round with wire to expand them, and are adorned with silver pendants and rings, which they likewise wear at the nose. This custom does not belong originally to the Cherokees, but taken by them from the Shawnese, or other northern nations.

They that can afford it wear a collar of wampum, which are beads cut out of clam-shells, a silver breast-plate, and bracelets on their arms and wrists of the same metal, a bit of cloth over their private parts, a shirt of the English make, a sort of cloth-boots, and mockasons (sic), which are shoes of a make peculiar to the Americans, ornamented with porcupine-quills; a large mantle or match-coat thrown over all complete their dress at home...[24]

18th century[edit]

Further information: Cherokee military history

The Cherokee gave sanctuary to a band of Shawnee in the 1660s, but from 1710 to 1715 the Cherokee and Chickasaw, allied with the British, fought Shawnee, who were allied with the French, and forced them to move northward.[25] Cherokee fought with the Yamasee, Catawba, and British in late 1712 and early 1713 against the Tuscarora in the Second Tuscarora War. The Tuscarora War marked the beginning of a British-Cherokee relationship that, despite breaking down on occasion, remained strong for much of the 18th century. With the growth of the deerskin trade, the Cherokee were valuable trading partners, since deer-skins from the cooler country of their mountain hunting-grounds were of a better quality than those supplied by lowland tribes that were neighbors of the English colonists.

In January 1716, Cherokee murdered a delegation of Muscogee Creek leaders at the town of Tugaloo, marking their entry into the Yamasee War. It ended in 1717 with peace treaties between the province of South Carolina and the Creek. Hostility and sporadic raids between the Cherokee and Creek continued for decades.[26] These raids came to a head at the Battle of Taliwa in 1755, present-day Ball Ground, Georgia, with the defeat of the Muscogee.

In 1721, the Cherokee ceded lands in South Carolina. In 1730, at Nikwasi, a former Mississippian culture site, a Scots adventurer, Sir Alexander Cumming, crowned Moytoy of Tellico as "Emperor" of the Cherokee. Moytoy agreed to recognize King George II of Great Britain as the Cherokee protector. Cumming arranged to take seven prominent Cherokee, including Attakullakulla, to London, England. There the Cherokee delegation signed the Treaty of Whitehall with the British. Moytoy's son, Amo-sgasite (Dreadful Water), attempted to succeed him as "Emperor" in 1741, but the Cherokee elected their own leader, Cunne Shote (Standing Turkey) of Chota.[27]

Political power among the Cherokee remained decentralized, and towns acted autonomously. In 1735 the Cherokee were estimated to have sixty-four towns and villages, and 6,000 fighting men. In 1738 and 1739 smallpox epidemics broke out among the Cherokee, who had no natural immunity. Nearly half their population died within a year. Hundreds of other Cherokee committed suicide due to their losses and disfigurement from the disease.


After the Anglo-Cherokee War, bitterness remained between the two groups. In 1765, Henry Timberlake took three of the former Cherokee adversaries to London to help cement the newly declared friendship.
From 1753 to 1755, battles broke out between the Cherokee and Muscogee over disputed hunting grounds in North Georgia. The Cherokee were victorious in the Battle of Taliwa. British soldiers built forts in Cherokee country to defend against the French in the Seven Years' War, called the French and Indian War in North America. These included Fort Loudoun near Chota. In 1756 the Cherokee were allies of the British in the French and Indian War. Serious misunderstandings arose quickly between the two allies, resulting in the 1760 Anglo-Cherokee War. King George III's Royal Proclamation of 1763 forbade British settlements west of the Appalachian crest, as his government tried to afford some protection from colonial encroachment to the Cherokee and other tribes. The Crown found the ruling difficult to enforce with colonists.[28]

In 1771–1772, North Carolinian settlers squatted on Cherokee lands in Tennessee, forming the Watauga Association.[29] Daniel Boone and his party tried to settle in Kentucky, but the Shawnee, Delaware, Mingo, and some Cherokee attacked a scouting and forage party that included Boone's son. The American Indians used this territory as a hunting ground; it had hardly been inhabited for years. The conflict sparked the beginning of what was known as Dunmore's War (1773–1774).

In 1776, allied with the Shawnee led by Cornstalk, Cherokee attacked settlers in South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina in the Second Cherokee War. Overhill Cherokee Nancy Ward, Dragging Canoe's cousin, warned settlers of impending attacks. Provincial militias retaliated, destroying over 50 Cherokee towns. North Carolina militia in 1776 and 1780 invaded and destroyed the Overhill towns. In 1777, surviving Cherokee town leaders signed treaties with the states.

Dragging Canoe and his band settled along Chickamauga Creek near present-day Chattanooga, Tennessee, where they established 11 new towns. Chickamauga Town was his headquarters and the colonists tended to call his entire band as the Chickamauga. From here he fought a guerrilla war against settlers, which lasted from 1776-1794. These are known informally as the Chickamauga wars, but this is not an historians' term. The first Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse, signed November 7, 1794, finally brought peace between the Cherokee and Americans. In 1805, the Cherokee ceded their lands between the Cumberland and Duck rivers (i.e. the Cumberland Plateau) to Tennessee.

Scots (and other Europeans) among the Cherokee in the 18th century[edit]
The traders and British government agents dealing with the Southern tribes in general, and the Cherokee in particular, were nearly all of Scottish extraction, especially from the Highlands. A few were Scots-Irish, English, French, even German (see Scottish Indian trade). Many of these men married women from their host people and remained after the fighting had ended; some fathered children who would later become significant leaders among the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast.[30]

Notable traders, agents, and refugee Tories among the Cherokee included John Stuart, Henry Stuart, Alexander Cameron, John McDonald, John Joseph Vann (father of James Vann), Daniel Ross (father of John Ross), John Walker Sr., John McLemore (father of Bob), William Buchanan, John Watts (father of John Watts Jr.), John D. Chisholm, John Benge (father of Bob Benge), Thomas Brown, John Rogers (Welsh), John Gunter (German, founder of Gunter's Landing), James Adair (Irish), William Thorpe (English), and Peter Hildebrand (German), among many others. Some attained the honorary status of minor chiefs and/or members of significant delegations.

By contrast, a large portion of the settlers encroaching on the Native American territories were Scots-Irish, Irish from Ulster of Scottish descent, a group who also supported the Revolution. But Scots-Irish also comprised Loyalists in the backcountry; for example, Simon Girty).

19th century[edit]

Acculturation[edit]

The Cherokee lands between the Tennessee and Chattahoochee rivers were remote enough from white settlers to remain independent after the Chickamauga Wars. The deerskin trade was no longer feasible on their greatly reduced lands, and over the next several decades, the people of the fledgling Cherokee Nation began to build a new society modeled on the white Southern United States.

George Washington sought to 'civilize' Southeastern American Indians, through programs overseen by the Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins. He encouraged the Cherokee to abandon their communal land-tenure and settle on individual farmsteads, facilitated by the destruction of many American Indian towns during the American Revolutionary War. The deerskin trade brought white-tailed deer to the brink of extinction, and as pigs and cattle were introduced, they became the principal sources of meat. The government supplied the tribes with spinning wheels and cotton-seed, and men were taught to fence and plow the land, in contrast to their traditional division in which crop cultivation was woman's labor. Americans instructed the women in weaving. Eventually Hawkins helped them set up blacksmiths, gristmills and cotton plantations.

The Cherokee organized a national government under Principal Chiefs Little Turkey (1788–1801), Black Fox (1801–1811), and Pathkiller (1811–1827), all former warriors of Dragging Canoe. The 'Cherokee triumvirate' of James Vann and his protégés The Ridge and Charles R. Hicks advocated acculturation, formal education, and modern methods of farming. In 1801 they invited Moravian missionaries from North Carolina to teach Christianity and the 'arts of civilized life.' The Moravians and later Congregationalist missionaries ran boarding schools, and a select few students were educated at the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions school in Connecticut.

In 1806 a Federal Road from Savannah, Georgia to Knoxville, Tennessee was built through Cherokee land. Chief James Vann opened a tavern, inn and ferry across the Chattahoochee and built a cotton-plantation on a spur of the road from Athens, Georgia to Nashville. His son 'Rich Joe' Vann developed the plantation to 800 acres (3.2 km2), cultivated by 150 slaves. He exported cotton to England, and owned a steamboat on the Tennessee River.[31]

The Cherokee allied with the U.S. against the nativist and pro-British Red Stick faction of the Upper Creek in the Creek War during the War of 1812. Cherokee warriors led by Major Ridge played a major role in General Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Major Ridge moved his family to Rome, Georgia, where he built a substantial house, developed a large plantation and ran a ferry on the Oostanaula River. Although he never learned English, he sent his son and nephews to New England to be educated in mission schools. His interpreter and protégé Chief John Ross, the descendant of several generations of Cherokee women and Scots fur-traders, built a plantation and operated a trading firm and a ferry at Ross' Landing (Chattanooga, Tennessee). During this period, divisions arose between the acculturated elite and the great majority of Cherokee, who clung to traditional ways of life.

Around 1809 Sequoyah began developing a written form of the Cherokee language. He spoke no English, but his experiences as a silversmith dealing regularly with white settlers, and as a warrior at Horseshoe Bend, convinced him the Cherokee needed to develop writing. In 1821, he introduced Cherokee syllabary, the first written syllabic form of an American Indian language outside of Central America. Initially his innovation was opposed by both Cherokee traditionalists and white missionaries, who sought to encourage the use of English. When Sequoyah taught children to read and write with the syllabary, he reached the adults. By the 1820s, the Cherokee had a higher rate of literacy than the whites around them in Georgia.


Photograph -- Cherokee National Council building, New Echota

In 1819, the Cherokee began holding council meetings at New Town, at the headwaters of the Oostanaula (near present-day Calhoun, Georgia). In November 1825, New Town became the capital of the Cherokee Nation, and was renamed New Echota, after the Overhill Cherokee principal town of Chota.[32] Sequoyah's syllabary was adopted. They had developed a police force, a judicial system, and a National Committee.

In 1827, the Cherokee Nation drafted a Constitution modeled on the United States, with executive, legislative and judicial branches and a system of checks and balances. The two-tiered legislature was led by Major Ridge and his son John Ridge. Convinced the tribe's survival required English-speaking leaders who could negotiate with the U.S., the legislature appointed John Ross as Principal Chief. A printing press was established at New Echota by the Vermont missionary Samuel Worcester and Major Ridge's nephew Elias Boudinot, who had taken the name of his white benefactor, a leader of the Continental Congress and New Jersey Congressman. They translated the Bible into Cherokee syllabary. Boudinot published the first edition of the bilingual 'Cherokee Phoenix,' the first American Indian newspaper, in February 1828.[33]

Removal era[edit]
See also: Thomas Jefferson and Indian Removal

Tah-Chee (Dutch), A Cherokee Chief, 1837
Before the final removal to present-day Oklahoma, many Cherokees relocated to present-day Arkansas, Missouri and Texas.[34] Between 1775 and 1786 the Cherokee, along with people of other nations such as the Choctaw and Chickasaw, began voluntarily settling along the Arkansas and Red Rivers.[35]

In 1802, the federal government promised to extinguish Indian titles to lands claimed by Georgia in return for Georgia's cession of the western lands that became Alabama and Mississippi. To convince the Cherokee to move voluntarily in 1815, the US government established a Cherokee Reservation in Arkansas.[36] The reservation boundaries extended from north of the Arkansas River to the southern bank of the White River. Di'wali (The Bowl), Sequoyah, Spring Frog and Tatsi (Dutch) and their bands settled there. These Cherokees became known as "Old settlers."

The Cherokee, eventually, migrated as far north as the Missouri Bootheel by 1816. They lived interspersed among the Delawares and Shawnees of that area.[37] The Cherokee in Missouri Territory increased rapidly in population, from 1,000 to 6,000 over the next year (1816–1817), according to reports by Governor William Clark.[38] Increased conflicts with the Osage Nation led to the Battle of Claremore Mound and the eventual establishment of Fort Smith between Cherokee and Osage communities.[39] In the Treaty of St. Louis (1825), the Osage were made to "cede and relinquish to the United States, all their right, title, interest, and claim, to lands lying within the State of Missouri and Territory of Arkansas..." to make room for the Cherokee and the Mashcoux, Muscogee Creeks.[40] As late as the winter of 1838, Cherokee and Creek living in the Missouri and Arkansas areas petitioned the War Department to remove the Osage from the area.[41]

A group of Cherokee traditionalists led by Di'wali moved to Spanish Texas in 1819. Settling near Nacogdoches, they were welcomed by Mexican authorities as potential allies against Anglo-American colonists. The Texas Cherokees were mostly neutral during the Texas War of Independence. In 1836, they signed a treaty with Texas President Sam Houston, an adopted member of the Cherokee tribe. His successor Mirabeau Lamar sent militia to evict them in 1839.

Trail of Tears

During the first decades of the 19th century, Georgia focused on removing the Cherokee's neighbors, the Lower Creek. The Georgia Governor George Troup and his cousin William McIntosh, chief of the Lower Creek, signed the Treaty of Indian Springs (1825), ceding the last Muscogee (Creek) lands claimed by Georgia. The state's northwestern border reached the Chattahoochee, the border of the Cherokee Nation. In 1829, gold was discovered at Dahlonega, on Cherokee land claimed by Georgia. The Georgia Gold Rush was the first in U.S. history, and state officials demanded that the federal government expel the Cherokee. When Andrew Jackson was inaugurated as President in 1829, Georgia gained a strong ally in Washington. In 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, authorizing the forcible relocation of American Indians east of the Mississippi to a new Indian Territory.

Andrew Jackson said the removal policy was an effort to prevent the Cherokee from facing extinction as a people, which he considered the fate that "the Mohegan, the Narragansett, and the Delaware" had suffered.[42] But, there is ample evidence that the Cherokee were adapting modern farming techniques. A modern analysis shows that the area was in general in a state of economic surplus and could have accommodated both the Cherokee and new settlers.[43]

The Cherokee brought their grievances to a US judicial review that set a precedent in Indian Country. John Ross traveled to Washington, D.C., and won support from National Republican Party leaders Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Samuel Worcester campaigned on behalf of the Cherokee in New England, where their cause was taken up by Ralph Waldo Emerson (see Emerson's 1838 letter to Martin Van Buren). In June 1830, a delegation led by Chief Ross defended Cherokee rights before the U.S. Supreme Court in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia.

In 1831 Georgia militia arrested Samuel Worcester for residing on Indian lands without a state permit, imprisoning him in Milledgeville. In Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that American Indian nations were "distinct, independent political communities retaining their original natural rights," and entitled to federal protection from the actions of state governments that infringed on their sovereignty.[44] Worcester v. Georgia is considered one of the most important dicta in law dealing with Native Americans.

Jackson ignored the Supreme Court's ruling, as he needed to conciliate Southern sectionalism during the era of the Nullification Crisis. His landslide reelection in 1832 emboldened calls for Cherokee removal. Georgia sold Cherokee lands to its citizens in a Land Lottery, and the state militia occupied New Echota. The Cherokee National Council, led by John Ross, fled to Red Clay, a remote valley north of Georgia's land claim. Ross had the support of Cherokee traditionalists, who could not imagine removal from their ancestral lands.

Photograph -- Cherokee beadwork sampler, made at Dwight Mission, Indian Territory, 19th century, collection of the Oklahoma History Center.

A small group known as the "Ridge Party" or the "Treaty Party" saw relocation as inevitable and believed the Cherokee Nation needed to make the best deal to preserve their rights in Indian Territory. Led by Major Ridge, John Ridge and Elias Boudinot, they represented the Cherokee elite, whose homes, plantations and businesses were confiscated, or under threat of being taken by white squatters with Georgia land-titles. With capital to acquire new lands, they were more inclined to accept relocation. On December 29, 1835, the "Ridge Party" signed the Treaty of New Echota, stipulating terms and conditions for the removal of the Cherokee Nation. In return for their lands, the Cherokee were promised a large tract in the Indian Territory, $5 million, and $300,000 for improvements on their new lands.[45]

John Ross gathered over 15,000 signatures for a petition to the U.S. Senate, insisting that the treaty was invalid because it did not have the support of the majority of the Cherokee people. The Senate passed the Treaty of New Echota by a one-vote margin. It was enacted into law in May 1836.[46]

Two years later President Martin Van Buren ordered 7,000 Federal troops and state militia under General Winfield Scott into Cherokee lands to evict the tribe. Over 16,000 Cherokee were forcibly relocated westward to Indian Territory in 1838–1839, a migration known as the Trail of Tears or in Cherokee ᏅᎾ ᏓᎤᎳ ᏨᏱ or Nvna Daula Tsvyi (The Trail Where They Cried), although it is described by another word Tlo-va-sa (The Removal). Marched over 800 miles (1,300 km) across Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas, the people suffered from disease, exposure and starvation, and as many as 4,000 died.[47] As some Cherokees were slaveholders, they took enslaved African Americans with them west of the Mississippi. Intermarried European Americans and missionaries also walked the Trail of Tears. Ross preserved a vestige of independence by negotiating for the Cherokee to conduct their own removal under U.S. supervision.[48]

In keeping with the tribe's "blood law" that prescribed the death penalty for Cherokee who sold lands, Ross's son arranged the murder of the leaders of the "Treaty Party". On June 22, 1839, a party of twenty-five Ross supporters assassinated Major Ridge, John Ridge and Elias Boudinot. The party included Daniel Colston, John Vann, Archibald, James and Joseph Spear. Boudinot's brother Stand Watie fought and survived that day, escaping to Arkansas.

In 1827, Sequoyah had led a delegation of Old Settlers to Washington, D.C. to negotiate for the exchange of Arkansas land for land in Indian Territory. After the Trail of Tears, he helped mediate divisions between the Old Settlers and the rival factions of the more recent arrivals. In 1839, as President of the Western Cherokee, Sequoyah signed an Act of Union with John Ross that reunited the two groups of the Cherokee Nation.

Eastern Band[edit]

Photograph -- Cól-lee, a Band Chief, painted by George Catlin, 1834

The Oconaluftee Cherokee of the Great Smoky Mountains were the most conservative and isolated from European-American settlements. They rejected the reforms of the Cherokee Nation. When the Cherokee government ceded all territory east of the Little Tennessee River to North Carolina in 1819, they withdrew from the Nation.[49] William Holland Thomas, a white store owner and state legislator from Jackson County, North Carolina, helped over 600 Cherokee from Qualla Town obtain North Carolina citizenship, which exempted them from forced removal. Over 400 Cherokee either hid from Federal troops in the remote Snowbird Mountains, under the leadership of Tsali (ᏣᎵ),[50] or belonged to the former Valley Towns area around the Cheoah River who negotiated with the state government to stay in North Carolina. An additional 400 Cherokee stayed on reserves in Southeast Tennessee, North Georgia, and Northeast Alabama, as citizens of their respective states. They were mostly mixed-race and Cherokee women married to white men. Together, these groups were the ancestors of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and some of the state-recognized tribes in surrounding states.

Civil War

The American Civil War was devastating for both East and Western Cherokee. The Eastern Band, aided by William Thomas, became the Thomas Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders, fighting for the Confederacy in the American Civil War.[51] Cherokee in Indian Territory divided into Union and Confederate factions, with most supporting the Confederacy.

Stand Watie, the leader of the Ridge Party, raised a regiment for Confederate service in 1861. John Ross, who had reluctantly agreed to ally with the Confederacy, was captured by Federal troops in 1862. He lived in self-imposed exile in Philadelphia, supporting the Union. In Indian Territory, the national council of those who supported the Union voted to abolish slavery in the Cherokee Nation in 1863, but they were not the majority slaveholders and the vote had little effect on those supporting the Confederacy.

Reconstruction and late 19th century

After the Civil War, the US government required the Cherokee Nation to sign a new treaty, because of its alliance with the Confederacy. The US required the 1866 Treaty to provide for the emancipation of all Cherokee slaves, and full citizenship to all Cherokee freedmen and all African Americans who chose to continue to reside within tribal lands, so that they "shall have all the rights of native Cherokees."[52] Both before and after the Civil War, some Cherokee intermarried or had relationships with African Americans, just as they had with whites. Many Cherokee Freedmen have been active politically within the tribe.

The US government also acquired easement rights to the western part of the territory, which became the Oklahoma Territory, for the construction of railroads. Development and settlers followed the railroads. By the late 19th century, the government believed that Native Americans would be better off if each family owned its own land. The Dawes Act of 1887 provided for the breakup of commonly held tribal land into individual household allotments. Native Americans were registered on the Dawes Rolls and allotted land from the common reserve. The US government counted the remainder of tribal land as "surplus" and sold it to non-Cherokee individuals.

The Curtis Act of 1898 dismantled tribal governments, courts, schools, and other civic institutions. For Indian Territory, this meant abolition of the Cherokee courts and governmental systems. This was seen as necessary before the Oklahoma and Indian territories could be admitted as a combined state. In 1905, the Five Civilized Tribes of the Indian Territory proposed the creation of the State of Sequoyah as one to be exclusively Native American, but failed to gain support in Washington, D.C.. In 1907, the Oklahoma and Indian Territories entered the union as the state of Oklahoma.

By the late 19th century, the Eastern Band of Cherokee were laboring under the constraints of a segregated society. In the aftermath of Reconstruction, conservative white Democrats regained power in North Carolina and other southern states. They proceeded to effectively disfranchise all blacks and many poor whites by new constitutions and laws related to voter registration and elections. They passed Jim Crow laws that divided society into "white" and "colored", mostly to control freedmen. Cherokee and other Native Americans were classified on the colored side and suffered the same racial segregation and disfranchisement as former slaves. They also often lost their historical documentation for identification as Indians, when the Southern states classified them as colored. Blacks and Native Americans would not have their constitutional rights as US citizens enforced until after the Civil Rights Movement secured passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s, and the federal government began to monitor voter registration and elections, as well as other programs.

Marriage[edit]

Before the 19th century, polygamy was common among the Cherokee, especially by elite men.[59] The matrilineal culture meant that women controlled property, such as their dwellings, and their children were considered born into their mother's clan, where they gained hereditary status. Advancement to leadership positions were generally subject to approval by the women elders. In addition, the society was matrifocal; customarily, a married couple lived with or near the woman's family, so she could be aided by her female relatives. Her oldest brother was a more important mentor to her boys than was their father, who belonged to another clan. Traditionally, couples, particularly women, can divorce freely.[60]

It was unusual for a Cherokee man to marry a European-American woman. The children of such a union were disadvantaged, as they would not belong to the nation. They would be born outside the clans and traditionally were not considered Cherokee citizens. This is because of the matrilineal aspect of Cherokee culture.[59] As the Cherokee began to adopt some elements of European-American culture in the early 19th century, they sent elite young men, such as John Ridge and Elias Boudinot to American schools for education. After Ridge had married a European-American woman from Connecticut and Boudinot was engaged to another, the Cherokee Council in 1825 passed a law making children of such unions full citizens of the tribe, as if their mothers were Cherokee. This was a way to protect the families of men expected to be leaders of the tribe.[61]

In the late nineteenth century, the US government put new restrictions on marriage between a Cherokee and non-Cherokee, although it was still relatively common. A European-American man could legally marry a Cherokee woman by petitioning the federal court, after gaining approval of ten of her blood relatives. Once married, the man had status as an "Intermarried White," a member of the Cherokee tribe with restricted rights; for instance, he could not hold any tribal office. He remained a citizen of and under the laws of the United States. Common law marriages were more popular. Such "Intermarried Whites" were listed in a separate category on the registers of the Dawes Rolls, prepared for allotment of plots of land to individual households of members of the tribe, in the early twentieth-century federal policy for assimilation of the Native Americans.

Language and writing system

The Cherokee speak a Southern Iroquoian language, which is polysynthetic and is written in a syllabary invented by Sequoyah (ᏍᏏᏉᏯ).[62] For years, many people wrote transliterated Cherokee or used poorly intercompatible fonts to type out the syllabary. However, since the fairly recent addition of the Cherokee syllables to Unicode, the Cherokee language is experiencing a renaissance in its use on the Internet.


Photograph -- Sequoyah's syllabary in the order that he originally arranged the characters.

Because of the polysynthetic nature of the Cherokee language, new and descriptive words in Cherokee are easily constructed to reflect or express modern concepts. Examples include ditiyohihi (ᏗᏘᏲᎯᎯ), which means "he argues repeatedly and on purpose with a purpose," meaning "attorney." Another example is didaniyisgi (ᏗᏓᏂᏱᏍᎩ) which means "the final catcher" or "he catches them finally and conclusively," meaning "policeman."

Many words, however, have been borrowed from the English language, such as gasoline, which in Cherokee is ga-so-li-ne (ᎦᏐᎵᏁ). Many other words were borrowed from the languages of tribes who settled in Oklahoma in the early 20th century. One example relates to a town in Oklahoma named "Nowata". The word nowata is a Delaware Indian word for "welcome" (more precisely the Delaware word is nu-wi-ta which can mean "welcome" or "friend" in the Delaware Language). The white settlers of the area used the name "nowata" for the township, and local Cherokees, being unaware the word had its origins in the Delaware Language, called the town Amadikanigvnagvna (ᎠᎹᏗᎧᏂᎬᎾᎬᎾ) which means "the water is all gone from here", i.e. "no water".

Other examples of borrowed words are kawi (ᎧᏫ) for coffee and watsi (ᏩᏥ) for watch (which led to utana watsi (ᎤᏔᎾ ᏩᏥ) or "big watch" for clock).

The following table is an example of Cherokee text and its translation:
ᏣᎳᎩ: ᏂᎦᏓ ᎠᏂᏴᏫ ᏂᎨᎫᏓᎸᎾ ᎠᎴ ᎤᏂᏠᏱ ᎤᎾᏕᎿ ᏚᏳᎧᏛ ᎨᏒᎢ. ᎨᏥᏁᎳ ᎤᎾᏓᏅᏖᏗ ᎠᎴ ᎤᏃᏟᏍᏗ ᎠᎴ ᏌᏊ ᎨᏒ ᏧᏂᎸᏫᏍᏓᏁᏗ ᎠᎾᏟᏅᏢ ᎠᏓᏅᏙ ᎬᏗ.[63]
Tsalagi: Nigada aniyvwi nigeguda'lvna ale unihloyi unadehna duyukdv gesv'i. Gejinela unadanvtehdi ale unohlisdi ale sagwu gesv junilvwisdanedi anahldinvdlv adanvdo gvhdi.[63]

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)[63]


Treaties and government

 See this website for a chart presenting a summary of important structural and governmental changes from 1794 to 1999.

After being ravaged by smallpox, and pressed by increasingly violent land-hungry settlers, the Cherokee adopted a European-American Representative democracy form of government in an effort to retain their lands. They established a governmental system modeled on that of the United States, with an elected principal chief, senate, and house of representatives. On April 10, 1810 the seven Cherokee clans met and began the abolition of blood vengeance by giving the sacred duty to the new Cherokee National government. Clans formally relinquished judicial responsibilities by the 1820s when the Cherokee Supreme Court was established. In 1825, the National Council extended citizenship to the children of Cherokee men married to white women. These ideas were largely incorporated into the 1827 Cherokee constitution.[65] The constitution stated that "No person who is of negro or mulatto [sic] parentage, either by the father or mother side, shall be eligible to hold any office of profit, honor or trust under this Government," with an exception for, "negroes and descendants of white and Indian men by negro women who may have been set free."[66] This definition to limit rights of multiracial descendants may have been more widely held among the elite than the general population.[67]


Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, led by Chief Michell Hicks, hosts over a million visitors a year to cultural attractions of the 100-square-mile (260 km2) sovereign nation. The reservation, the "Qualla Boundary", has a population of over 8,000 Cherokee, primarily direct descendants of Indians who managed to avoid "The Trail of Tears".

Attractions include the Oconaluftee Indian Village, Museum of the Cherokee Indian, and the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual. Founded in 1946, the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual is country's oldest and foremost Native American crafts cooperative.[70] The outdoor drama Unto These Hills, which debuted in 1950, recently broke record attendance sales. Together with Harrah's Cherokee Casino and Hotel, Cherokee Indian Hospital and Cherokee Boys Club, the tribe generated $78 million dollars in the local economy in 2005.


United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians

The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians formed their government under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and gained federal recognition in 1946. Enrollment into the tribe is limited to people with a quarter or more of Cherokee blood. Many members of the UKB are descended from Old Settlers – Cherokees who moved to Arkansas and Indian Territory before the Trail of Tears.[71] Of the 12,000 people enrolled in the tribe, 11,000 live in Oklahoma. Their chief is George G. Wickliffe. The UKB operate a tribal casino, bingo hall, smokeshop, fuel outlets, truck stop, and gallery that showcases art and crafts made by tribal members. The tribe issues their own tribal vehicle tags.[72]


Relations among the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes[edit]

The Cherokee Nation participates in numerous joint programs with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. It also participates in cultural exchange programs and joint Tribal Council meetings involving councilors from both Cherokee Tribes. These are held to address issues affecting all of the Cherokee People.

The administrations of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians and the Cherokee Nation have a somewhat adversarial relationship. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians interacts with the Cherokee Nation in a unified spirit of Gadugi.[citation needed]

The United Keetoowah Band tribal council unanimously passed a resolution to approach the Cherokee Nation for a joint council meeting between the two Nations, as a means of "offering the olive branch", in the words of the UKB Council. While a date was set for the meeting between members of the Cherokee Nation Council and UKB representative, Chief Smith vetoed the meeting.[citation needed]


Contemporary settlement

Cherokees are most concentrated in Oklahoma and North Carolina, but some reside in the US West Coast, due to economic migrations caused by the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression, job availability during the Second World War, and the Federal Indian Relocation program during the 1950s–1960s. Cherokees constitute over 2% of population of three largely rural communities in California–Covelo, Hayfork and San Miguel, one town in Oregon and one town in Arizona.[citation needed] Destinations for Cherokee diaspora included multi-ethnic/racial urban centers of California (i.e. the Greater Los Angeles and SF Bay areas), and they usually live in farming communities, by military bases and other Indian reservations.[74]

See also the Albuquerque Cherokee Nation Township (Cherokee Nation) about the Cherokee community of Albuquerque, NM.