Language Of The Month

Cherokee is the language spoken by the Cherokee people, an Indigenous people whose ancestral lands make up what is now the southeastern United States. Before contact with Europeans settlers, Cherokee tribes operated independently, but land was communally shared by the entire tribe. The Cherokee Nation today is based in Tahlequah, Oklahoma where the Cherokee people were forced to relocate to in 1838 after a violent movement of forced removal, known today as the “Trail of Tears.” Today, there are three federally recognized Cherokee tribes; The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and Cherokee Nation.