Proper noun

Singular Cherokee

Plural Cherokees

Cherokee (plural Cherokees)

1. An indigenous North American people; a member.
2. Its Iroquoian language, still spoken in Oklahoma and North Carolina.
3. A syllabary for the Cherokee language invented by Sequoyah.

The Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ) are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States (principally Georgia, the Carolinas and Eastern Tennessee). Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian-language family. 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 located.

In the 19th century, white settlers in the United States called the Cherokees one of the "Five Civilized Tribes", because they had assimilated numerous cultural and technological practices of European-American settlers. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the Cherokee Nation has more than 300,000 members, the largest of the 563 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States.

Of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes, the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians have headquarters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. They were forcibly relocated there in the 1830s. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is located in Cherokee, North Carolina.

See also:

• Society: Ethnicity: The Americas: Indigenous: Native Americans: Tribes, Nations and Bands: C: Cherokee (48)

• Tsalagi (Cherokee) Literature
  indians.org
  Page includes about 10 traditional Cherokee stories, as well as excerpts from historical speeches. Also links to other Cherokee resources on the Internet.