Cherokee

North Americaother subsistence combinations

Map
expand_more Description

The Cherokee are an Iroquoian-speaking people aboriginally occupying the southern Appalachians of North America. Western North Carolina was the heart of their farming/hunting lands but they also lived in portions of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia. In 1838-1839 a major portion of the Cherokee were forcedly removed from their homeland by the United States government to the present state of Oklahoma along the infamous “Trail of Tears.” In the early twenty-first century there are two main groups of Cherokee--the Oklahoma Cherokee are the larger group and are known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and United Keetoowah Band; the Eastern Band is considerably smaller. Based on self-identification in the 2000 census, the Cherokee are the largest Native American group in the United States.

Identifier
Region
  • North America
Subregion
  • Eastern Woodlands
Subsistence Type
  • other subsistence combinations
Samples
Countries
  • United States
External Links