Welcome to the Indian Nation-Indian Territory Division of the Oklahoma Archives.

Cherokee

The anglicized form of Tsalagi, which history spells dozens of ways. The accepted meaning is 'cave people'. The Cherokee were woodlands people living in the Appalachians and other parts of the south.

They once held all lands in the Virginias, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. Word of gold mines stirred interest among the English who first mentioned the 'Cherakae' in 1674.  Acquiring firearms in 1700, the tribe became more warlike, leading frontier wars sparked by European colonization. By the mid-18th century, the Cherokee had a remarkably advanced civilization, including a constitution and a democratic form of government. Nearly all owned horses; many were planters and traders, owning homes, cattle and even slaves.  Mission schools, laws and America's first Indian newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix (printed in both Cherokee and English), were established.

The nation had reached its height in the East in 1828 when Georgia began moving to expel them. In 1838-39, they were brutally removed to Indian Territory, suffering the tragic loss of a fourth of their people along the Trail of Tears to the West.

Thirteen counties in northeast Oklahoma comprise the Cherokee Nation: Adair, Cherokee, Deleware, McIntosh, Muskogee, Sequoyah, Mayes, Craig, Nowata, Rogers, Tulsa, Washington and Ottawa.

Linda Simpson-Assistant Archivist/Indian Nations-Indian Territory

If you have any cemetery records, bible records, deeds, applications for citizenship in the Cherokee Nation, etc, that pertain to the Cherokee Nation, please send them to us as an attachment in e-mail to Donna Dreyer. Please be sure to identify that it is for the Cherokee Nation. It also needs to be a plain text file, no HTML and no images. This ensures that everybody will be able to read it, no matter what kind of web browser. Here is a help file.

The information found below has been submitted to The USGenWeb Archive Project. It is offered free to all who visit. The ownership - copyright stays with the submitter. Please read and respect the copyright on all submittals.

Please read the Guidelines.