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Cherokee

Also known as Ani-Yunwiya, Cherokees, Cherokee Indian

The Cherokee ( , ; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their ancestral homelands, living in towns along river valleys in what is now southwestern North Carolina, southeastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, parts of western South Carolina, northern Georgia, and northeastern Alabama, with hunting grounds extending into Kentucky. Together, these lands encompassed approximately 40,000 square miles.

AI overview

The Cherokee are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern United States who historically lived in towns along river valleys across what is now the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama, controlling approximately 40,000 square miles of ancestral territory. They are significant as one of the major Indigenous nations of the Southeastern Woodlands whose ancestral homelands and way of life were central to the region before European colonization.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Ethnic group.popplace: United States California: large ethnic diaspora community, 22,124 registered tribal citizens North Carolina: 16,158 (0.2%) Oklahoma: 102,580 (2.7%) – extends to nearby Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri South Carolina: 3,428 Canada: 11,620 Residents of Canada identified as having Cherokee Ancestry in the 2016 Canadian Census.
Ethnic group.rels: Christianity, Cherokee spiritual beliefs, Animism, Kituhwa, Four Mothers Society
Ethnic group.langs: English, Cherokee
Ethnic group.image: Henry Inman - Sequoyah - Google Art Project.jpg
Ethnic group.image_caption: Sequoyah, creator of the Cherokee syllabary as painted by Henry Inman, 1830
Ethnic group.population: 316,049 enrolled tribal citizens (Eastern Band: >13,999, Cherokee Nation: 288,749, United Keetoowah Band: 14,300) 819,105 claimed Cherokee ancestry in the 2010 Census

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Population: 299862
Image: Henry Inman - Sequoyah - Google Art Project.jpg

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Commons category: Cherokee

Sources (3)

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~76 min read

Article

45 sections

Contents

Etymology
Origins
Homelands
Agriculture
Early culture
Linguistic studies
Other sources of early Cherokee history
History
17th century: English contact
18th century
Scots (and other Europeans) among the Cherokee in the 18th century
19th century
Acculturation
Removal era
Trail of Tears
Eastern Band
Civil War
Reconstruction and late 19th century
Tribal land jurisdiction status
Population history
Culture
Spirituality
Cultural institutions
Marriage
Ethnobotany definition
Gender roles
Slavery
Funeral rites
Language and writing system
Treaties and government
Treaties
Government
Modern Cherokee tribes
Cherokee Nation
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians
Relations among the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes
Contemporary settlement
Membership controversies
Tribal recognition and citizenship
Cherokee Freedmen
See also
Notes
References
External links

The Cherokee language belongs to the Iroquoian language family. In the 19th century, the ethnographer James Mooney recorded an oral tradition describing the Cherokee as having migrated southward in ancient times from the Great Lakes region, an area historically associated with other Iroquoian peoples. More recent linguistic and archaeological scholarship has proposed an earlier origin. Anthropologist Thomas R. Whyte, writing in 2007, suggested that the proto-Iroquoian language likely originated in the Appalachian region and that the divergence between Northern and Southern Iroquoian languages began approximately 4,000 years ago.