Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)

Common card · No. 228265

The Cherokee Nation (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ, romanized: Tsalagi Ayeli) was an autonomous tribal government of the Cherokee people that existed from 1794 to 1907. Often referred to as "The Nation" by its inhabitants, the government was centered first at New Echota in present-day Georgia and, after removal to Indian Territory, at Tahlequah. In 1827 the Nation adopted a written constitution with legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and in 1832 the United States Supreme Court affirmed in Worcester v. Georgia that the Cherokee Nation was a "distinct political community" in which state laws had no force. The Nation encompassed the Cherokee of the southeastern United States; the "Old Settlers" who had relocated voluntarily to Indian Territory beginning around 1820; those forcibly removed along the Trail of Tears in the 1830s; and incorporated peoples including the Natchez, Lenape, and Shawnee. After the American Civil War, in which most Cherokee leaders allied with the Confederacy, a new...

Read on Wikipedia · Image John Cary, Public domain