CHEROKEE (cher'o-ke). This tribe, of Iroquoian lineage, is one of the largest in the United States. They inhabited the southern Alleghanies, where the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee adjoin. Their name seems to be of Muskogi origin and to mean "cave people." Encountered by De Soto in 154o, they first came into contact with the British in the latter half of the 17th century. They fought on the British side in the Ameri can Revolution, refusing to make peace until ten years after its termination. White settlement pressing in upon them, part of the tribe withdrew beyond the Mississippi, but the remainder, in 1820, formed a government modelled on that of the United States and soon after adopted the alphabet, or rather syllabary, invent ed by one of their half-bloods, Sequoyah. In 1838 the nation was reunited in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, where they were recognized as one of the "five civilized tribes" and set up their capital at Tahlequah, their government remaining effective until 1906, when all Cherokees became United States citizens. Their original numbers were about 15,00o, making them one of the larg est tribes in North America. Admixture of white and negro blood, and adoption of aliens of all three races, as well as vigour of the Cherokee stock, have doubled this number.
The Cherokee were divided into seven matrilineal clans. Their general culture was similar to that of the tribes of Muskogi (q.v.) stock to the south. See Royce, Bur. Am. Ethn. Rep. V. (1887); Mooney, ibid. xix. (1902).