Editing Cherokee (section)

===17th century: English contact===
In 1657, there was a disturbance in [[Virginia Colony]] as the ''Rechahecrians'' or ''Rickahockans'', as well as the Siouan ''[[Manahoac]]'' and ''[[Nahyssan]]'', broke through the frontier and settled near the Falls of the James River, near present-day [[Richmond, Virginia]]. The following year, a combined force of English colonists and [[Pamunkey]] drove the newcomers away. The identity of the ''Rechahecrians'' has been much debated. Historians noted the name closely resembled that recorded for the ''Eriechronon'' or ''Erielhonan'', commonly known as the [[Erie tribe]], another Iroquoian-speaking people based south of the Great Lakes in present-day northern Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chattanoogan.com/2016/1/21/316430/Lost-Nation-of-the-Erie-Part-1.aspx|title=Lost Nation of the Erie Part 1|website=www.chattanoogan.com|date=January 21, 2016|first=Chuck|last=Hamilton|access-date=April 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123232302/http://www.chattanoogan.com/2016/1/21/316430/Lost-Nation-of-the-Erie-Part-1.aspx|archive-date=January 23, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>  This Iroquoian people had been driven away from the southern shore of [[Lake Erie]] in 1654 by the powerful [[Iroquois]] Five Nations, also known as ''[[Haudenosaunee]]'', who were seeking more hunting grounds to support their dominance in the beaver fur trade. The [[anthropologist]] Martin Smith theorized some remnants of the tribe migrated to Virginia after the wars ([[#refSmith1987|1986:131–32]]), later becoming known as the [[Westo]] to English colonists in the Province of Carolina. A few historians suggest this tribe was Cherokee.<ref>Conley, ''A Cherokee Encyclopedia'', p. 3</ref>

Virginian traders developed a small-scale trading system with the Cherokee in the Piedmont before the end of the 17th century. The earliest recorded Virginia trader to live among the Cherokee was Cornelius Dougherty or Dority, in 1690.<ref>Mooney, ''Myths of the Cherokee'' p. 31.</ref><ref>Lewis Preston Summers, 1903, ''History of Southwest Virginia, 1746–1786'', p. 40</ref>