Cherokee

The Cherokee are an Indigenous people whose homelands are in the southeastern United States. Today, three federally recognized Cherokee nations preserve distinct governments, communities, and cultural traditions.

Cherokee language: An Indigenous language of the Iroquoian family, spoken historically by Cherokee communities. It carries a distinctive written tradition and remains a focus of revitalization.
Sequoyah: A Cherokee silversmith who created the Cherokee syllabary in the early nineteenth century. His writing system enabled Cherokee-language literacy without adapting an alphabet.
Cherokee Nation: A federally recognized Cherokee nation headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. It is the largest of the three federally recognized Cherokee nations.
Cherokee Phoenix: A newspaper founded in 1828 by the Cherokee Nation, published in English and Cherokee. Its early issues documented Cherokee political life amid escalating pressure for removal.
Cherokee syllabary: A writing system created by Sequoyah in which symbols represent syllables. Its adoption transformed Cherokee literacy and print culture.
John Ross: A Cherokee political leader who served as principal chief for much of the nineteenth century. He led resistance to removal and guided the nation through displacement and rebuilding.
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians: A federally recognized Cherokee tribe based in western North Carolina. Its members descend largely from Cherokee people who remained in the Southeast.
Cherokee Freedmen: Descendants of enslaved people held by Cherokee citizens and of people freed under the 1866 treaty. Their citizenship struggles reveal how emancipation and treaty obligations shaped Cherokee governance.
Trail of Tears: The forced removal of Indigenous peoples from the southeastern United States, especially the Cherokee, in the 1830s. The Cherokee removal became a defining episode in the history of dispossession.
Elias Boudinot (Cherokee editor): A Cherokee editor and political figure who founded the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Native American newspaper. The newspaper gave Cherokee political arguments a public voice in English and Cherokee.

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