I was always told of my Cherokee heritage but have no idea if it’s true. We are the Howdyshell’s from Virginia (Shenandoah Valley)
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All Things Cherokee is an online resource for Cherokee genealogy information, history, culture, and art.
There were never any significant Cherokee settlements within the area that now represents the state of Virginia. There were some early tribal claims that extended north into Virginia and what is now West Virginia and Kentucky, but this represented hunting grounds and territory that small groups might foray into from time to time, on a limited basis. It also represented territory that other tribes laid claim to as well (it was just that Cherokees could project more military power and be recognized by European powers as controlling that territory, and most importantly, they could enter into treaties to cede land). It was never heavily settled even though it was claimed on a map as “Cherokee territory” at one time. Around the mid-1700s to about 1775, Cherokee settlement pattern looked like this [see map in top center]:
http://www.palmettohistory.org/exhibits/cherokee/2a-CHEROKEEPEOPLE.htm
However, even this was a shrinking land base. By 1775, land cessions had extinguished all Cherokee claims within the state. Cherokee raids and skirmishes took place in extreme southwest Virginia through the 1770s (especially supported by the British) and into the 1780s and early 1790s. However, the very last raid by a Cherokee war party in Virginia took place in 1794. There were no known clusters of Cherokees living in any concentrated numbers prior to full land cessions and only a few scattered families would be of mixed ancestry from individual Cherokees that had moved away from Cherokee territory and communities further south and intermarried with Anglos subsequently.
Despite the prevalence of stories of “Cherokee blood” found in families with Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky roots, they are usually exaggerated, false, or sometimes represent distant Indian ancestry coming from non-Cherokee tribes.
There is also no way to determine any particular heritage without more specific details about establishing family lineage and ancestry. A single surname, received via straight paternal lines of descent, represents a sliver of your overall heritage or ancestry. Also, surnames are almost always useless in establishing a particular ethnic connection. For example, a person named Smith might be from a White, Black, or Indian background. And this also doesn’t mean that everyone with the surname Smith is related or descended from the same ancestral stock.
At this point, all you could do with this query is a quick surname search on the main Cherokee rolls and see if it shows up at all. In this case, it doesn’t, which means it is not a surname associated with the tribe. But, that is a very superficial or cursory review of the name itself. I’d recommend you establish a family tree and go back as far back as you can with supporting documents and records and see where your ancestors came from, and what society they were a part of. Good luck!