The Cherokee Indians The American Indian History in the Eastern part of the country is always associated with the Cherokee Indian nation. The Cherokee's were by far the largest and most advanced of the tribes when Europeans first arrived and came in contact with Native Americans. There are too many tribes to go over background on every one of them, so I'm going to focus on the Cherokee's since many of their ways and customs are so similar to all the other tribes in the East. When Europeans first arrived in North America, the Cherokees occupied a large expanse of territory in the Southeast. Their homeland included mountains and valleys in the southern part of the Appalachian Mountain ch