List of Principal Chiefs of the Cherokee

In the eighteenth century, when the people were primarily organized by clans and towns, they would appoint a leader for negotiations with the Europeans.

In 1868, the Eastern Band of Cherokee, made up of those who had managed to remain primarily in the homelands of North Carolina, created a separate and distinct constitution and formalized the position of Principal Chief.

Their descendants make up the members of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians today, referred to as the EBCI.

In 1906, the US government dismantled the Cherokee Nation's governmental structure under the Dawes Act (except for allowing the tribe to retain limited authority to deal with remaining land issues, a provision that lasted until June 1914).

[2] In 1999, they approved several changes to the constitution, including the removal of the qualifying phrase "of Oklahoma" from their name, leaving it simply "Cherokee Nation".

The range of aboriginal titles were usually translated by the English as "chief," but the Cherokee called their headmen of towns and villages "Beloved Man."

The term "emperor" is placed in quotation marks, since this title was created by British emissary Sir Alexander Cuming; it was not accepted by the tribe as a whole.

They migrated first to the Chickamauga (now Chattanooga, Tennessee) region, then to the "Five Lower Towns" area – further west and southwest of there – in order to continue fighting (see Cherokee–American wars).

Chiefs: Little Turkey was elected First Beloved Man of the Cherokee (the council seat of which was shifted south to Ustanali (later known as New Echota), near what is now Calhoun, Georgia) in the aftermath of the assassination by frontiersmen of Corntassel (also called Cornsilk) and several other leaders.

A sizable faction of the Old Settlers refused to recognize Looney and elected Rogers in his stead, but their efforts to maintain autonomy petered out the next year.

Though a holdout minority of the Old Settlers elected John Rogers as their principal chief, his government never gained further support and soon faded away.

[18] Appointed "Principal Chiefs", many holding the title to serve for a single day, signed documents and performed other pro forma duties as required by the federal government.