Unlike most reservations, the Cherokee Nation owned fee simple title to its lands, and they were not held in trust by the United States. In exchange, the Cherokee Nation (and the other Five Tribes) gave the United States parts of its western territory that were then organized into Oklahoma Territory. After the American Civil War, the United States promised the Cherokee Nation 'a permanent homeland' in an 1866 treaty.
Main article: Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)Īfter Cherokee removal on the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee Nation existed in Indian Territory. These are Adair, Cherokee, Craig, Delaware, Mayes, McIntosh, Muskogee, Nowata, Ottawa, Rogers, Sequoyah, Tulsa, Wagoner, and Washington counties. Headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation has a reservation spanning 14 counties in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma. As of 2023, over 450,000 people were enrolled in the Cherokee Nation.
The tribe also includes descendants of Cherokee Freedmen, Absentee Shawnee, and Natchez Nation. It includes people descended from members of the Old Cherokee Nation who relocated, due to increasing pressure, from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokee who were forced to relocate on the Trail of Tears.
The Cherokee Nation ( Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ Tsalagihi Ayeli or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ Tsalagiyehli), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States.
