The Cherokee are a Native American people whose homeland was in the Appalachian Mountains of the south-eastern United States. In 1821 Sequoyah created a way of writing Cherokee with 86 symbols. In 1838–39 about 16,000 Cherokee were forced west to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears, where thousands died.
the Cherokee quick facts
- The name Cherokee comes from a Muscogee word meaning “people of different speech”.
- In 1650 the Cherokee controlled about 40,000 square miles of the Appalachian Mountains.
- Sequoyah’s syllabary of 86 symbols was finished by 1821.
- The Cherokee Phoenix, first published in 1828, was the first Native American newspaper.
- A few hundred Cherokee escaped removal in 1838, and their descendants live in western North Carolina.
Who are the Cherokee?
The Cherokee are a Native American people whose homeland was in the south-east of what is now the United States. When Europeans arrived, they were one of the largest tribes to be united under one system of government.
The name Cherokee comes from a Muscogee word meaning “people of different speech”. Many Cherokee people prefer their own names, Keetoowah or Tsalagi.
The Cherokee language belongs to the Iroquoian family of languages. To find out about other Native American peoples, read our Native American facts for kids.
The Cherokee homeland
In 1650 there were thought to be about 22,500 Cherokee. They controlled around 40,000 square miles (100,000 km²) of the Appalachian Mountains.
Their land covered parts of what are now Georgia and eastern Tennessee, and the western parts of North Carolina and South Carolina. It was a land of wooded mountains, river valleys and good farmland.
The Cherokee Homeland
- The name Cherokee comes from a word in which people's language?
- Which family of languages does Cherokee belong to?
- Which of these was NOT part of the Cherokee homeland?
- What kind of land did the Cherokee homeland have?
Towns of peace and war
The Cherokee nation was made up of many towns. Some were known as red towns, linked with war. Others were white towns, linked with peace.
The chiefs of the red towns answered to a supreme war chief. The leaders of the white towns answered to a supreme peace chief.
Peace towns could give shelter to people who had done wrong, while war ceremonies took place in the red towns. It was a way of keeping war and peace in balance.
Daily life long ago
When Spanish explorers met the Cherokee in the mid-1500s, the Cherokee used stone tools, including knives, axes and chisels. They wove baskets and made pottery.
They were farmers as well as hunters. They grew corn, beans and squash. Deer, bear and elk gave them meat, and skins for clothing.
Families lived in log cabins with bark roofs. The cabins had no windows, just one door and a hole in the roof to let out smoke. A typical town had between 30 and 60 of these houses.
Every town also had a council house, where people met to talk over important matters. A sacred fire burned inside it.
Cherokee Town Life
- Red towns — Linked with war
- White towns — Linked with peace
- Council house — Where people met to talk over important matters
- Corn, beans and squash — Crops the Cherokee grew
- Deer, bear and elk — Meat, and skins for clothing
- Stone tools — Knives, axes and chisels
The Green Corn festival
One of the most important Cherokee ceremonies was the Green Corn festival, also called the Busk. It celebrated the first crops of the year, and fires were lit anew.
For a farming people, the first corn of the year mattered enormously. It meant that there would be food for the months ahead.
Contact with Europeans
The Spanish, French and English all tried to settle parts of the south-east. By the early 1700s, the Cherokee had chosen the British as their trading partners and allies.
That alliance came at a cost. Wars and treaties took away large areas of Cherokee land. In 1773, for example, the Cherokee and the Muscogee gave up more than two million acres in Georgia to pay off debts.
During the American War of Independence, the Cherokee sided with the British, believing they were more likely to protect Cherokee land. After defeats in 1776, the Cherokee were forced to give up more land in North and South Carolina.
In the early 1800s, many Cherokee adopted the settlers’ ways of farming, weaving and building. They hoped this would help them keep their land.
Corn, Trade and Treaties
- What did the Green Corn festival celebrate?
- By the early 1700s, which people had the Cherokee chosen as trading partners and allies?
- Why did the Cherokee side with the British in the American War of Independence?
- Why did many Cherokee adopt settlers' ways of farming, weaving and building in the early 1800s?
Sequoyah and Cherokee writing
Sequoyah was born around 1775 and grew up in the Tennessee country. He was raised by his Cherokee mother, of the Paint clan, and he never learned to speak, read or write English. He was a silversmith, a painter and a soldier.
He believed that writing gave people power, because it let them store and share knowledge. Around 1809, he began to create a way of writing the Cherokee language.
He tried pictures first. Then he tried symbols for the syllables of spoken Cherokee, adapting some letters from English, Greek and Hebrew. His daughter helped him to pick out the syllables. By 1821 he had a system of 86 symbols, one for each syllable of the language.
A system like this is called a syllabary. It was so easy to learn that almost the whole Cherokee people could read and write within a short time.
In February 1828, the Cherokee Phoenix began publication. It was the first Native American newspaper, and it used Sequoyah’s syllabary. The Cherokee also adopted a written constitution.
The giant sequoia trees of California are named after him.
How Sequoyah Built a Way of Writing
- Born Sequoyah is born around 1775 and grows up in the Tennessee country.
- The idea Around 1809 he begins to create a way of writing the Cherokee language.
- First try He tries using pictures.
- Syllables He switches to symbols for the syllables of spoken Cherokee, with help from his daughter.
- 86 symbols His syllabary is finished, with one symbol for each syllable.
- The newspaper The Cherokee Phoenix, the first Native American newspaper, begins publication using his syllabary.
The Trail of Tears
In 1830, the US Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. It required tribes in the south-east to give up their lands in exchange for land west of the Mississippi River.
When gold was found on Cherokee land in Georgia, the pressure grew. The Cherokee took their case to the US Supreme Court, which ruled that Georgia had no power over them and no claim to their land. But Georgia ignored the ruling, and President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce it.
In December 1835, a small minority of Cherokee signed the Treaty of New Echota. It handed over all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi for $5 million. Most Cherokee rejected it.
In May 1838 the removal began. About 7,000 soldiers under General Winfield Scott forced people from their homes, many at gunpoint. As many as 16,000 Cherokee were held in camps while their homes were looted and burned.
Then they were sent west in groups of about 1,000, most of them on foot. Some groups went by river. Principal Chief John Ross led many of the later groups.
The journey took place through the autumn and winter of 1838–39, and the last groups arrived at the end of March 1839. Food, shelter and clothing were badly short, and the cold made the suffering far worse.
Thousands died. The US National Park Service says more than a thousand died on the way, and perhaps several thousand more died from the effects of the forced move. Encyclopaedia Britannica puts the deaths on the journey at about 4,000. The forced march came to be known as the Trail of Tears.
Laws, Courts and a Treaty
- What did the Indian Removal Act of 1830 require of tribes in the south-east?
- What did the US Supreme Court rule in the Cherokee case?
- Who signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835?
A new home in Oklahoma
The Cherokee were taken to Indian Territory, in what is now north-eastern Oklahoma. There they joined four other tribes that had also been forced out of the south-east: the Muscogee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole.
Each tribe had its own land and its own government, modelled on that of the United States. But as Oklahoma prepared to become a state, much of the land was divided up or opened to settlers. The tribal governments were officially dissolved in 1906, though they carried on in a limited form.
Not everyone left the south-east. In 1838, a few hundred Cherokee escaped into the mountains. They became the roots of the community of several thousand Cherokee who live in western North Carolina today.
True or False: A New Home in Oklahoma
- In Indian Territory the Cherokee joined four other tribes forced out of the south-east.
- Indian Territory was in what is now south-western Texas.
- Each tribe in Indian Territory had a government modelled on that of the United States.
- The tribal governments were officially dissolved in 1906 and completely stopped.
The Cherokee today
Cherokee people now live all over the United States. In the early 2020s, more than a million Americans said they had Cherokee ancestors, and about 225,000 said their ancestry was Cherokee alone.
Cherokee tribal governments carry on today, and many Cherokee people work to keep their language and traditions alive. You can learn about the Cherokee Nation from its own website, cherokee.org.
To learn about another Native American people, read our Miami tribe facts for kids.
Three things people get wrong
The Cherokee did not live in tepees. Long ago they lived in log cabins with bark roofs, in towns with a council house at the centre.
Not all Cherokee were forced west. A few hundred escaped into the mountains in 1838, and their descendants still live in western North Carolina.
Sequoyah did not invent an alphabet. He created a syllabary, in which each of the 86 symbols stands for a whole syllable, not a single sound.
Did you know? Sequoyah never learned to read or write English, yet he created a complete way of writing Cherokee that almost the whole nation learned in a short time.
Try it
Write your name as syllables, such as “Mo-han-na” or “Sam”. How many different symbols would you need? Sequoyah needed 86 to write every syllable in Cherokee.
Knowledge check
What is a syllabary?
Show answer
A way of writing in which each symbol stands for a syllable, like Sequoyah’s 86 Cherokee symbols.
Where were the Cherokee taken on the Trail of Tears?
Show answer
To Indian Territory, in what is now north-eastern Oklahoma.
Frequently asked questions
Where did the Cherokee live?
The Cherokee homeland was in the Appalachian Mountains, in parts of what are now Georgia, eastern Tennessee, and the western parts of North and South Carolina. After 1838 most were forced to Oklahoma.
What did the Cherokee eat?
The Cherokee grew corn, beans and squash, and hunted deer, bear and elk for meat. The Green Corn festival celebrated the first corn of the year.
What kind of houses did the Cherokee live in?
Long ago the Cherokee lived in log cabins with bark roofs, one door, no windows and a smoke hole in the roof. A town had 30 to 60 houses and a council house.
Who was Sequoyah?
Sequoyah was a Cherokee silversmith and soldier, born around 1775, who created a way of writing Cherokee. By 1821 his syllabary had 86 symbols, and almost the whole nation soon learned to read.
What was the Trail of Tears?
The Trail of Tears was the forced removal of about 16,000 Cherokee from their south-eastern homeland to Oklahoma in 1838–39. Thousands died from cold, hunger and disease on the journey or soon after.
Where do Cherokee people live today?
Cherokee people live all over the United States, with many in Oklahoma and several thousand in western North Carolina. More than a million Americans report Cherokee ancestry.
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Cherokee — the Cherokee homeland, towns, daily life, history, removal, Oklahoma and population today
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Sequoyah — Sequoyah’s life and how he created the syllabary
- US National Park Service: Trail of Tears history — the Indian Removal Act, the timing of removal, numbers removed and deaths
- US National Archives: Cherokee removal — the Treaty of New Echota and the records of removal
Cherokee Final Quiz
- Which of these is a name many Cherokee people prefer for themselves?
- What could peace towns do that red towns did not?
- What did Cherokee log cabins NOT have?
- Why did Sequoyah think writing mattered?
- Which language did Sequoyah never learn to speak, read or write?
- Sequoyah adapted some of his symbols from the letters of which languages?
- Which trees are named after Sequoyah?
- What discovery on Cherokee land in Georgia made the pressure to remove them grow?
- Which Principal Chief led many of the later groups west?
- Which kind of home did the Cherokee NOT live in long ago?
