I'm surprised no one has written anything about the Cherokees since their territories once covered a large part of the southeastern U.S. So here is a little introduction to the Tslagi nation as it was before the Trail of Tears.

The Cherokees or as some prefer, Tslagi, are a branch of the Iroquois nation. They have been in North Carolina for at least the past one thousand years. At the time of the arrival of the Europeans in this land, they lived throughout the southern Appalachians in the areas that are now both North and South Carolina, northern Georgia, southwestern Virginia and especially the Cumberland area of Tennessee, Kentucky and northern Alambama.

Their communities were small, made up of anywhere from 30 to 60 houses and a council house at the center. They settled near fertile lands and river valleys because they were agriculture-based with some hunting and trading. The dwellings were sunken slightly into the earth for stability and made of wood frameworks woven with vines or flexible branches like willow, then covered by a layer of mud. Later they lived in log cabins.

The council house at the center of the village was sometimes built on a mound, but that mound would have existed from an earlier (Mississippi?) culture because the Tslagi did not build mounds themselves. This council house always had seven sides, one for each of the Cherokee clans. It was the meeting place and also housed the sacred fire which burned forever.

In a matriarchal soceity, the men and women are equal. There were two chiefs, Peace Chief and War Chief.