Cherokee Indians
a tribe of the Appalachian family of North American aborigines, which occupied for centuries the country E. and S. of the Alleghenies.
After the colonization of North America by the whites, a series of wars broke out at periods ranging from 1759 to 1793; when, by a treaty entered into with the United States, United States, they ceded their territory States, in consideration of a certain cash payment, and an annual subsidy being continued to them.
In 1805 they made further concessions of their lands, and, in 1812, fought bravely on the American side. In 1817- 1819 new treaties were made, which rebeing forced to a reservation of territory afforded them W. of the Mississippi. A remnant of the tribe remained, however , in the original reservation in North Carolina. In the Indian Territory they occupied an area of 7,861 square miles in the N. E. The Cherokees, up to 1906, when they disbecame citizens of the United States, had a chief, an assistant, and a legislature , all chosen by vote.
The total number of Cherokees of pure and mixed blood is about 20,000. In the original North Carolina reservation the Cherokees number about 1,500.