page_title: Cherokee history
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Cherokee history / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: Tah-Chee (Dutch), A Cherokee Chief
context_page_description: Cherokee history is the written and oral lore, traditions, and historical record maintained by the living Cherokee people and their ancestors. In the 21st century, leaders of the Cherokee people define themselves as those persons enrolled in one of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes: The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, The Cherokee Nation, and The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians. The first live predominantly in North Carolina; the latter two tribes are based in Oklahoma. The Cherokee people have extensive written records, including detailed genealogical records, preserved in the Cherokee language, the Cherokee syllabary, and in the English language.
context_section_description: The Cherokees organized a national government led by Principal Chiefs Little Turkey (1788–1801), Black Fox (1801–1811), and Pathkiller (1811–1827).
  The seat of the Upper Towns was at Ustanali (near Calhoun, Georgia), also the titular seat of the Nation. Former warriors James Vann and his protégés The Ridge (formerly known as Pathkiller) and Charles R. Hicks, made up the "Cherokee Triumvirate" and the dominant leaders, particularly of the younger, more acculturated generation. These leaders had had more dealings with European Americans and tended to favor acculturation, formal education, and their methods of farming.
  Facing removal, members of the Lower Cherokee, who lived in areas of the Piedmont of North Carolina and Georgia, were the first to move west. Remaining Lower Town leaders, such as Young Dragging Canoe and Sequoyah, were strong advocates of voluntary relocation in order to preserve the Cherokee people, as they believed that the increasing number of European-American settlers, backed by the military of the US, were too much to resist.
caption: Tah-Chee (Dutch), A Cherokee Chief, 1837.  Published in History of the Indian Tribes of North America.
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