/cher"euh kee', cher'euh kee"/ , n. , pl. Cherokees , ( esp. collectively ) Cherokee for 1.
1. a member of an important tribe of North American Indians whose first known center was in the southern Alleghenies and who presently live in North Carolina and Oklahoma.
2. the Iroquoian language of the Cherokee, written since 1822 in a syllabic script invented for the language by Sequoya.