什么是切罗基人

属於易洛魁族系的北美印第安民族。居住在田纳西州东部和南、北卡罗来纳州西部。在文化方面与克里克人和其他美国东南部印第安人非常相似。他们拥有各种石器、编筐、制陶、种植玉蜀黍、豆类和南瓜。猎鹿、熊、麋等。18世纪末，因战争和条约使切罗斯人得势力和土地大为丧失。在一连串的对美军突袭失败和美国公民移居其地後，他们被迫让出土地以求和或还债。1800年以後，切罗斯人在吸收白人文化方面异常明显︰切罗基人模仿美国政府形式组成自己的政府；采用欧洲人的耕作、纺织、修建等方法；约於1821年由塞阔雅创制并推行音节表之後，几乎已使整个部落无一文盲。1835年左右，当在乔治亚州的切罗基人土地上发现金子後，有人就开始鼓动叫他们搬迁到西部。接下来的是一连串迁徙行动，以哭泣之路达到高峰，造成许多切罗基人在半途死亡，如今他们大部分的後裔住在奥克拉荷马州东部，人数约有两万人。

Cherokee

American Indian people of Iroquoian lineage who inhabited eastern Tennessee and the western Carolinas. Cherokee culture resembled that of the Creek and other Southeastern Indians. They possessed stone implements, wove baskets, made pottery, cultivated corn, beans, and squash, and hunted deer, bear, and elk. Wars and treaties in the late 18th century severely reduced Cherokee power and landholdings. After a series of failed raids against U.S. troops and civilian settlements, land was ceded to attain peace and to pay debts. After 1800 the Cherokee were remarkable for their assimilation of white culture, forming a government modeled on that of the U.S. and adopting European methods of farming and homemaking. Most became literate following the development of a syllabary by Sequoyah. Beginning c. 1835, when gold was discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia, agitation increased for their removal to the West. The ensuing events, culminating in the Trail of Tears, left many Cherokee dead and most of their descendants (today numbering about 200,000) living in Oklahoma.