The following resources will introduce you to key concepts, names, dates, etc. for Cherokee studies. Use them as starting points in your research or to help you refine your topic.
A Cherokee Encyclopedia by 
The Cherokee Nation by 
The Eastern Band of Cherokees, 1819-1900 by 
Cherokee Americans by 
The Encyclopedia of Native American Religions by 
Encyclopedia of American Indian Literature by There are a number of options for finding a good topic. Make sure your final choice is something interesting to you--it makes the whole process more fun.
Option 1: Read what the scholars are writing. This will give you topic ideas and show you just how narrow topics can be. Look at the bibliographies, which likely have a selection of primary and secondary sources! Try this journal:
Option 2: Read a popular website. These are wonderful for interesting topic ideas and the brief, easy-to-read articles provide wonderful background information. Try this one:
Option 3: Browse books. Search for a larger topic such as Cherokee in the Library Catalog and sort by date to see interesting new research.
Option 4: Look at some primary sources. A letter, diary, personal account, newspaper article, or artifact may inspire topic ideas.
Topic Ideas
The following are topic ideas, arrange by subject. Many of these are too broad for a research project (e.g., Cherokee treaties), but you can search those terms and browse your results for something interesting. Unless, marked with a *, these topics can be found in books and journals by using the Library Catalog and/or the article search box on the library's homepage. Many topics can be found in several or all of the recommended resources on this guide. Topics with a * may have to be broadened to Native Americans or American Indians or searched in another database.
Start by searching the following topics with: Cherokee and
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Anthropology & Archeology
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Art
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Business
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Education
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Health & Medicine
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History
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Language, Communication, and Literature
See also, Cherokee Language Guide. |
Performing Arts
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Politics*
*For current events topics, use local newspapers such as the Cherokee One Feather. |
Criminology, Psychology, and Sociology
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Religion
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Science, Technology, Engineering, Math*
*May need to broaden to Native American rather than Cherokee. |
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Sports & Recreation
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