The Cherokee Indians are members of an important tribe of North American indians whose first known center was in the southern parts of North America. Currently there are three federally recognized Cherokee tribes: the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, also in Oklahoma.
Location
The Cherokee Indians had many Native American villages spread along the Tennessee River which runs through the Appalachian Mountains. They owned territory that stretched from Virginia and further south. The Cherokee Indians built houses and created villages throughout the area. The Cherokee villages were usually spread miles apart. To travel from one village…
Believed to be a branch of the Iroquois, the Cherokee Nation included approximately 135,000 square miles in North America and extended from the Ohio River in the north to what is now the state of Alabama. In the 1830s and 1840s period, the Indian act came in place, many Cherokee were moved west to a territory that is now the state of Oklahoma. A number gathered in North Carolina where they purchased land and continued to live. Others fled to the Appalachian mountains to keep from being moved west. Many may still live there today.
Wars
In the early 1700s, the Cherokee had been friendly with the British in America. The Cherokees sided with the british in the French and Indian War. Colonial encroachment by settlers provoked them into a two-year war with South Carolina. The land cessions that ended the war, fueled anger that came to a head with the outbreak of the American Revolution.
The Cherokees sided again with the british in the Revolution War. When Cherokee raided the patriots in the summer of 1776, militias responded from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The Cherokee were defeated, their villages raided and burned. Several hundred Cherokee fled to Florida where they were protected by the British. Cherokee leaders sought peace in July 1777. However additional cherokee lands were…
