Cherokee Religious Traditions
CHEROKEE RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS. The Cherokee, an Iroquoian-speaking people, refer to themselves as Aniyvwiya, "the Real People," or as Anitsalagi, their traditional name. Today, they comprise the largest Native American group in the United States. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, approximately 281,060 people identify as being of Cherokee descent, and 260,000 of those are federally recognized tribal members. Over 230,000 Cherokee are citizens of the Cherokee Nation, located in Oklahoma. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, in North Carolina, has approximately 12,000 members and the United Keetoowah Band has about 16,000. Cherokee citizens can be found living throughout the United States as well as within the jurisdictional boundaries of the Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
The Cherokee originally occupied territory now comprising Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. In response to American expansionism, groups of Cherokee began emigrating to Arkansas Territory as early as 1810. In 1817 the U.S. government finalized the first treaty that called for cessions of Cherokee land in exchange for a tract of land in Arkansas for those who voluntarily emigrated west. Nineteen years later, in 1836, the U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of New Echota, which authorized the removal of the Cherokee.
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