The Cherokee originally lived in the Great Lakes region, but eventually settled in the southeast in and around present-day South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee (8).
After President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act in 1830, however, many Cherokee were forced to move westwards and settled in present-day Oklahoma. This migration, entitled the Trail of Tears, resulted in the death of over 4,000 Cherokee people. This state presently holds the largest Cherokee population in the country (8).