Iroquois prosperous settlements in the 19th century, supporting themselves via farming and the sale of sleds, snowshoes, boats, and baskets. In 1884, about 100 Canadian Iroquois were hired by the British government to serve as river pilots and boatmen for the relief expedition for the besieged General Charles Gordon in Khartoum in the Sudan, taking the force commanded by Field Marshal Wolsely up the Nile from Cairo to Khartoum. On their way back to Canada, the Canadian Iroquois river pilots and boatmen stopped in London, where they were personally thanked by Queen Victoria for their services to Queen and Country. In
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