so the story i just heard is that orriginally, the colonists that where establishing america had the technology of the wheel... great. the thing that wasnt great was that these wheels were often smallish in nature and were prone to get caught in ruts and the like. so the cherokee indians said, and i quote... "hey, you stupid bastards, try this wheel we have been developing; its bigger and allows for much easier traversing of the uneven ground!" and so the larger wheel became common place and eventually, jeep ended up paying an homage to the great indian tribe by calling one of their vehicles after them. so, is this true??

 

Not at all. In 1973, Jeep went with the Cherokee name to convey both ruggedness and civility in one package. The reason was due to the Cherokee Indians' reputation of being a very tough and rugged people group. The civility part came from them being called one of the "5 civilized tribes" by European settlers.

 

Yep, that's what I've always heard as well. And I come from a family of Jeep owners since the 70s.

 

Now did the Donner Party have something to do with Chevy naming the Tahoe? Lewis and Clark had the Ford Explorer named after them.

 

That's weird.