The Cherokee lived spread throughout present-day Georgia, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. (Redish & Lewis) Many lived in the south portion of the Appalachian Mountains (Birchfield), or they purused their agricultural lifestyle in the eastern woodlands of the aforementioned states (Brinkley).

The Cherokee were stationary people who lived in thatched-roof houses made from rivercane and plaster. They got these materials from the rivers their villages were usually built near.  Their villages often also had palisades, or reinforced walls, around them. (Redish & Lewis)

The Cherokee were agricultural, and produced crops such as corn, squash, beans, and sunflowers. They also made very good quality pottery and pipes, which they traded (Redish & Lewis).  They used the land over and over again, so they could remain permanantly settled.

There were different bands of Cherokees spread out across early America, and each was run by two chiefs: one of war, and one of peace, each of which was elected by a tribal council. War chiefs were always male, but peace chiefs could be female or male. (Redish & Lewis)

Cherokee men and women had roughly equal duties in their tribe and culture.  Men were responsible for war, hunting, political decisions, and diplomacy, while women were responsible for family, social decisions, farming, and property. The men were chiefs, while the women owned the land. Both men and women contributed to and played an acitve role in things such as traditional medicine, art, music, and storytelling. (Redish & Lewis)

Cherokee religion was very complex and ritualistic. They had many ceremonies, which they considered sacred (Redish & Lewis), and many symbols or words with significant meanings, such as the numbers 4 and 7, which appear in many stories and myths. The number 4 represents "familial forces" and the four cardinal directions, while the number 7 can represent the "seven clans of the Cherokke" and the highest level of purity and sacredness. (Cherokee Nation)

The Cherokee participated in significant trade with other tribes from the Southeast, who valued their pipes and pottery.  They had very bipolar relationships with the Chickasaws, Creeks, and Shawnees, fighting with them sometimes, and other times, being their allies. (Redish & Lewis)

Oral tradition, or the passing on of stories, was an important part of Cherokee culture. One story stated that the Cherokee migrated to North America from an island in the ocean, which promptly sank into the sea upon their departure from it. (Birchfield)

The Cherokee traded with Hernando de Soto and the Europeans he brought with him or who cam after him, acquiring guns for themselves, with which they fought against neighboring tribes and unpleasant Europeans during the 1700s. (Brichfield)