Long before the white man came to the Americas, the land belonged only to the Indian. The Cherokee lived in what is now the southeastern part of the United States. They were peace-loving farmers who lived in permanent villages. They built homes and public buildings of brick and stone. They had fine plantations.

When the first white men came, the Cherokee copied many of their ways. One Cherokee scholar, Sequoyah, saw how important reading and writing was to the white man. He decided to make a written form of the spoken Cherokee language. At first he tried to make a sign, or symbol, for each word. But that proved impossible - there were just too many words. Then he took the 85 sounds that made up the Cherokee language. Using his own imagination and an English spelling book, Sequoyah invented a sign for each sound. His alphabet proved amazingly easy to learn. Before long, many Cherokee knew how to read and write in their own language. By 1828, the Cherokee were even printing their own newspaper.

In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed a law. It said the government could remove Indians from their lands. The Cherokee would not go. They had lived on their land for centuries. It belonged to them. Why should they go to a strange land far beyond the Mississippi River?

The army was sent to force the Cherokee out. Soldiers surrounded their villages and marched them west at gunpoint. More than 4000 Cherokee died during the terrible march. They called that march "The Trail of Tears." The end of the trail was also the end of the great Cherokee nation.