ABSTRACT
The Cherokee region encompasses most of northeastern Oklahoma, an area historically contested between the Osages and various other peoples prior to its assignment to the Cherokees. The Cherokee region's physical environment is also marked by contrast and division, much like the complex society that adopted it as a new homeland. The Arkansas Valley Lowlands reach from one to a few dozen kilometers outward from the Canadian and Arkansas channels in the south and southwest part of the Cherokee region. The Cherokee region occupies one of the most discernable climatic transition zones in North America, the eastern margin of the Great Plains, where, from east to west, precipitation decreases and climatic variability increases. The Cherokee land tenure system and a relatively low population density promoted dispersed linear settlement along the stream valleys. Better land, good spring water, and crossroads attracted denser settlement in places, and these took on toponyms that referred to the large, rural neighborhoods.
