The Cherokees had a housecleaning of fake Indians a few years back. Due to Indian benefits lots of blacks claimed to be Cherokee as they were allowed to do when they got their freedom from Cherokee slave masters.
https://www.npr.org/2011/09/19/140594124/u-s-government-opposes-cherokee-nations-decision
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/36394
Did you know that “Cherokee” is derived by the whites from the Muskogee Creek word “Tsalagi”???
Tsalagi meant “people of a different speech”...
The older name for the tribe was “AniYunYiya” which meant “principle people”...