The Cherokee (/ˈtʃɛrəkiː/; Cherokee Ani-Yuwiya (ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ or ᏣᎳᎩ) are a Native American tribe indigenous to the Southeastern United States (principally Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina). They speak Cherokee, an Iroquoian language. In the nineteenth century, historians and ethnographers recorded their oral tradition that told of the tribe having migrated south in ancient times from the Great Lakes region, where other Iroquoian-speaking peoples were.