什麼是切羅基人

屬於易洛魁族系的北美印第安民族。居住在田納西州東部和南、北卡羅來納州西部。在文化方面與克里克人和其他美國東南部印第安人非常相似。他們擁有各種石器、編筐、製陶、種植玉蜀黍、豆類和南瓜。獵鹿、熊、麋等。18世紀末，因戰爭和條約使切羅斯人得勢力和土地大為喪失。在一連串的對美軍突襲失敗和美國公民移居其地後，他們被迫讓出土地以求和或還債。1800年以後，切羅斯人在吸收白人文化方面異常明顯︰切羅基人模仿美國政府形式組成自己的政府；採用歐洲人的耕作、紡織、修建等方法；約於1821年由塞闊雅創制並推行音節表之後，幾乎已使整個部落無一文盲。1835年左右，當在喬治亞州的切羅基人土地上發現金子後，有人就開始鼓動叫他們搬遷到西部。接下來的是一連串遷徙行動，以哭泣之路達到高峯，造成許多切羅基人在半途死亡，如今他們大部分的後裔住在奧克拉荷馬州東部，人數約有兩萬人。

Cherokee

American Indian people of Iroquoian lineage who inhabited eastern Tennessee and the western Carolinas. Cherokee culture resembled that of the Creek and other Southeastern Indians. They possessed stone implements, wove baskets, made pottery, cultivated corn, beans, and squash, and hunted deer, bear, and elk. Wars and treaties in the late 18th century severely reduced Cherokee power and landholdings. After a series of failed raids against U.S. troops and civilian settlements, land was ceded to attain peace and to pay debts. After 1800 the Cherokee were remarkable for their assimilation of white culture, forming a government modeled on that of the U.S. and adopting European methods of farming and homemaking. Most became literate following the development of a syllabary by Sequoyah. Beginning c. 1835, when gold was discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia, agitation increased for their removal to the West. The ensuing events, culminating in the Trail of Tears, left many Cherokee dead and most of their descendants (today numbering about 200,000) living in Oklahoma.