The Cherokee traditionally lived in the southeastern region of what is now the United States, especially in the southern Appalachian Mountains.

Traditional Cherokee homeland

  • Their core homelands were in present-day:
    • Southwestern North Carolina.
* Southeastern Tennessee.

* Northern Georgia.

* Northeastern Alabama.
  • This area included the Blue Ridge and other Appalachian mountain areas, with river valleys and fertile bottomlands where they built towns and farmed.

Later relocation to the West

  • In the 1830s, many Cherokee were forced west along the Trail of Tears to what became Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), where large Cherokee communities still live today.
  • Some Cherokee remained in their ancestral mountain homelands, forming what is now the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in western North Carolina.

Today

  • Major Cherokee communities today include:
    • Cherokee Nation and United Keetoowah Band in Oklahoma.
* Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in the Qualla Boundary area of western North Carolina.

In short: the Cherokee originally lived in the southern Appalachians of the southeastern U.S. , and many were later relocated to present-day Oklahoma, where large Cherokee nations are now based.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.