The Cherokee Nation consisted of the Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ —pronounced Tsalagi or Cha-la-gee) people of the Qualla Boundary and the southeastern United States;[3] those who relocated voluntarily from the southeastern United States to the Indian Territory (circa 1820 —known as the "Old Settlers"); those who were forced by the Federal government of the United States to relocate (through the Indian Removal Act) by way of the Trail of Tears (1830s); and descendants of the Natchez, the Lenape and the Shawnee peoples, and, after the Civil War and emancipation of slaves, Cherokee Freedmen and their descendants.

The nation was recognized as a sovereign government; because the majority of its leaders allied with the Confederacy, the United States required a new peace treaty after the American Civil War, which also provided for emancipation of Cherokee slaves.

In the late 19th century, Congress passed the Dawes Act, intended to promote assimilation and extinguish Indian governments, but it exempted the Five Civilized Tribes.

It provided for the distribution of tribal lands to individuals and also gave the federal government the authority to determine who were members of each tribe.

[4] Cherokee people, who were living in Indian Territory in 1901, were granted United States citizenship by virtue of a federal act (31 Stat.

The people lived in towns located in scattered autonomous tribal areas related by kinship throughout the southern Appalachia region.

The break-away Chickamauga band (or Lower Cherokee), under War Chief Dragging Canoe (Tsiyugunsini, 1738–1792), had retreated to and inhabited a mountainous area in what later became the northeastern part of the future state of Alabama.

Americans introduced pig and cattle raising, and these animals replaced deer as the principal sources of meat.

The Americans supplied the tribes with spinning wheels and cotton-seed, and men were taught to fence and plow the land.

These leaders advocated acculturation of the people, formal education of the young, and introduction of European-American farming methods.

A select few students were chosen to be educated at the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions school in Connecticut.

Lastly, the Cherokee Nation adopted a written constitution in 1827 that created a government with three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.

The Constitution of the reunited Cherokee Nation was ratified at Tahlequah, Oklahoma on September 6, 1839, at the conclusion of "The Removal".

At this time, one-third of the remaining Native Americans left voluntarily, especially because the act was being enforced by use of government troops and the Georgia militia.

Although The Treaty of New Echota was not approved by the Cherokee National Council nor signed by Principal Chief John Ross, it was amended and ratified in March 1836, and became the legal basis for the forcible removal known as the Trail of Tears.

Two prominent Cherokee, John Ross and Stand Watie were slaveholders and shared some values with Southern plantation owners.

This split was due to the Union's and Southern state's involvement of the Trail of Tears, which complicated the nation's political outlook.

[15] The new treaty established peace and requiring them to emancipate their slaves and to offer them citizenship and territory within the reservation if the freedmen chose to stay with the tribe, as the US had done for enslaved African Americans.

The area was made part of the reconstruction of the former Confederate States overseen by military officers and governors appointed by the federal government.

[5]: 220 [6]: 12  The Cherokee Nation entered an allotment agreement in 1902, which provided that each tribal citizen would receive forty acres as a homestead, which was untaxable and inalienable (ineligible to be sold) for twenty-one years, and seventy acres of surplus land which was inalienable for five years.

[17]: 162  In response to these actions, the leaders of the Five Civilized Tribes sought to gain approval for a new State of Sequoyah in 1905 that would have a Native American constitution and government.

The federal government occasionally designated chiefs of a provisional "Cherokee Nation", but usually just long enough to sign treaties.

[20] As the shortcomings of the arrangement became increasingly evident to the Cherokee, a demand arose for the formation of a more permanent and accountable tribal government.

[citation needed] The Cherokee Nation was divided into nine districts [1] named Canadian, Cooweescoowee, Delaware, Flint, Goingsnake, Illinois, Saline, Sequoyah, and Tahlequah (capital).

[27] The Anishinaabe-speaking Swan Creek and Black River Chippewa bands were removed from southeast Michigan to Kansas in 1839.

In 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which granted citizenship to all freedmen in the Confederate States, including those held by the Cherokee.