Iroquois in ancient times, settling in the backcountry of the Southeast United States, including what is now Tennessee. In 2010, more than 45,000 enrolled Six Nations people lived in Canada, and about 80,000 in the United States. The most common name for the confederacy, Iroquois, is of somewhat obscure origin. The first time it appears in writing is in the account of Samuel de Champlain of his journey to Tadoussac in 1603, where it occurs as "Irocois". Other spellings appearing in the earliest sources include "Erocoise", "Hiroquois", "Hyroquoise", "Irecoies", "Iriquois", "Iroquaes", "Irroquois", and "Yroquois", as the French transliterated the term into
Cherokee word for Cherokee. Many theories, though none proven, abound about the origin of the name "Cherokee". It may have originally been derived from the Choctaw word "Cha-la-kee", which means "people who live in the mountains", or Choctaw "Chi-luk-ik-bi", meaning "people who live in the cave country". The earliest Spanish transliteration of the name, from 1755, is recorded as "Tchalaquei". Another theory is that "Cherokee" derives from a Lower Creek word "Cvlakke" ("chuh-log-gee"). The Iroquois Five Nations based in New York have historically called the Cherokee "Oyata'ge'ronoñ" ("inhabitants of the cave country").Also the word Cherokee means “people of different speech.” Anthropologists