The Cherokee people were first "discovered" by the Europeans during the expedition conducted by Hernando de Soto in 1539-1543. At that time, the Cherokee's territory extended into areas we now call Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, the Carolinas and the Virginias. No one knows exactly how they got there, or how long they had been there, for the answers to those questions are in the realm of myth.

We do know, however, that the Cherokees had developed a complex civilization, with their own language, and a well-balanced system of local (city) governments, each comprised of seven clans, and requiring the participation of both men and women in order to function. At the time the outside world discovered them, the Cherokee people were already quite "civilized."

Today, Cherokees are among the most numerous of the surviving Native Americans. One band of Cherokees, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is at the time of this writing, the second-largest "recognized tribe" in the United States. Whether they are formally enrolled in one of the federally recognized tribes or not, Cherokee descendants can be found almost anywhere in the world.

The written form of the Cherokee language was developed by Sequoyah, who completed his twelve-year work and gave it to the Cherokee people in 1821. For many years following, it is estimated that some 90% of the Cherokees knew their language and its written form. Since 1907, the year Oklahoma gained statehood, that figure has been in steady decline. Today fewer than 10% of the Cherokee people can speak their own language, and fewer still know how to read or write the syllabary.