Land

• The Cherokee people are the original inhabitants of Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina. European settlers forced the Cherokee to move to Oklahoma along a trail that was later dubbed the "Trail of Tears." Americans referred to the upheaval as the Indian Removal. Some of the people who were relocated escaped and found shelter in the homes of sympathetic settlers, while others hid in the Appalachian hills. Descendants of the original Cherokees live throughout the homelands. Others still live in Oklahoma.
  
  

Name

• The name Cherokee means "speakers of another language." It hails from the Muskogee language, which is the language of the southeastern natives. While fewer people among the Cherokee speak the language today, some people are working on keeping it alive in schools throughout the Cherokee nation. The language is known for complicated verbs and word order. The original name for the Cherokee people was Aniyuwiy, which means "the principal people." Cherokee is pronounced "Tsalagi" in Muskogee.
  
  

Gender Roles

• Traditionally, men and women divided their power equally but had different roles. The men were in charge of war, diplomacy and hunting, while the women handled property, farming and the family. In the past, only men could be war chiefs and women or men could be peace chiefs. Today, women can also be war chiefs. Men traditionally made all the political decisions and women decided social policy. The Cherokee Indians take pride in storytelling, music, art and traditional medicine; both genders participate in them all.
  
  

Clothing

• Men wore breech cloths and leggings, while the women wore poncho blouses crafted out of deerskin or woven fiber. Women also wore wraparound skirts. Deerskin was crafted into moccasins to keep their feet warm, and fir was added to the ankles of the moccasins. After Europeans colonized, Cherokee Indian adopted braided or beaded jackets, long skirts, and cotton blouses. Men traditionally shaved their heads except for scalp locks. They would occasionally wear a porcupine roach headdress which is often made from porcupine hair or moose hair. It would sit on their scalp lock and stretch into the sky.