Cherokee Indians perform a traditional dance for tourists in the Cherokee reservation in western North Carolina, part of the traditional homeland which also included parts of South Carolina, Tennessee Georgia and Alabama. The Cherokee are the largest indigenous group of the southeastern USA. Beginning around 1835, when gold was discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia, agitation increased for their removal to the West. The ensuing events culminated in the Trail of Tears , which began in 1838 and left some 4,000 Cherokee dead as they travelled to a reservation in Oklahoma. People claiming sole Cherokee descent numbered some 281,000 in the 2000 U.S. census.The current population in their traditional land either resisted deportation or returned later.(Australfoto/Douglas Engle)

Cherokee Indians perform a traditional dance for tourists in the Cherokee reservation in western North Carolina, part of the traditional homeland which also included parts of South Carolina, Tennessee Georgia and Alabama. The Cherokee are the largest indigenous group of the southeastern USA. Beginning around 1835, when gold was discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia, agitation increased for their removal to the West. The ensuing events culminated in the Trail of Tears , which began in 1838 and left some 4,000 Cherokee dead as they travelled to a reservation in Oklahoma. People claiming sole Cherokee descent numbered some 281,000 in the 2000 U.S. census.The current population in their traditional land either resisted deportation or returned later.(Australfoto/Douglas Engle)