The Cherokees in Virginia

The Cherokees in Virginia is part of the Virginia Indians page.

The Cherokees played an active part in the early history of Virginia. They lived in the southern Appalachian mountains, including the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, southwestern Virginia and parts of the Cumberland Basin. The Cherokees and the Tuscaroras were branches of the Iroquois. The Cherokees formed a large tribal group which stretched through North Carolina to the borders of Virginia. One explanation of the meaning of the word, "Cherokee" was from the word, "Cheera" which means fire in Cherokee. They called their warriors, "sons of fire." Another suggested origin for Cherokee is from the word, Tsa-ra-gi, which means cave people.

History tells us that the explorer, Fernando de Soto, visited the Cherokees during his expedition, probably around 1540. After DeSoto's visit, the Spaniards had copper mines in Cherokee country as late as 1690.

The Cherokees had a settlement history of over a thousand years in North Carolina before the first colonists came to America. The English colonists may have had their first contact with the Cherokee in 1654. The English had defeated the tribes of the Powhatan Confederation. The colonists were alarmed to find that a large band of Indians had settled at the falls of the James River where Richmond now stands. Although historians differ in their opinions on the identity of these Indians, Cherokee traditions identify the band as Cherokees. The colonists with their Pamunkey allies attacked the band but were defeated. The Virginians then made a peace offering to the Indians.

In 1673 a Virginia trader, named Abraham Wood, sent two men to trade with the Cherokees at their capital, Chota, on the banks of the Little Tennessee River. One of the men, James Needham, was killed by his Indian guide on a return trip to the capital. Gabriel Arthur, the second trader, lived with the Cherokees and joined them in raiding the Spanish in Florida and Shawnee towns on the Ohio River. He was discovered by the Shawnee and returned to the Cherokees.

An Irish trader, Cornelius Dougherty, was a trader in one of the Cherokee towns in 1690.

Links cited:
Cherokee History
McClung Museum. Archaeology and Native Peoples of Tennessee

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