My dna says I'm likely Sa'ami, but they said it was of Finnish descent on my mother's side. Too strange as her mother was Cherokee.
They moved West. They then relocated East all the way to the Carolinas in the late 1500 to early 1600 period.
This sort of movement was fairly typical in North America since local climates can change abruptly and make life intolerable. (You have undoubtedly visited Europe and discovered they don't really have weather reports).
Anyway, the Spanish had a fort in South Carolina where they held prisoners of war seized in their Mediterranean wars with the Turkish empire.
It was common for the prisoners to escape to the Cherokee, and sometimes beyond. It was a common belief that Turkish was spoken on the American East Coast back then since every tribe had a Turkish speaking former POW.
The POWs actually came from everywhere the Turks held territory. That included the Balkans, portions of Southern Poland, Ukraine, etc. It is conceivable that more than one silly Sa'ami, on a Finnish or Swedish boat, sailed up the Volga too far, and right into the hands of the Turks.
So, yes, you could very well have a Cherokee ancestor who had a forebear who was a Sa'ami.
Another possibility here is that a Sa'ami serving on a whaling boat simply jumped ship and ran off with the Cherokee.