Question regarding Native Americans

[7mm08]

I don't have access to any land but I enjoy looking at what you guys find. My question is 1. What was the predominant tribe in TN? All Cherokee?
2. What was the estimated population of Native Americans in TN at its peak and when was that?


Thank you

 

[Patrick H]

Someone else will have to confirm:
I believe Creek were in TN and The Swanee. The Swanee migrated from Florida to Pennsylvania over a long protracted period of time. They were never large in numbers and migrated due to Indian wars.

 

[Antler Daddy]

In a recent podcast, it was said that the Spanish introduced a virus that wiped out 95% of all native Americans prior to English arriving.

 

[Crow Terminator]

The Cherokee were the newer people to Tennessee. It is thought that they originally came from the Iroquoi indians and moved south and fought/conquered the lands of other Indians in east TN, NC, and north Georgia that were here long before them. They just happened to be here at the time the Spanish and European people started venturing in. I recommend a book called Tribes that Slumber for a good generalized history of natives in Tennessee.

 

[KTS]

I have quite a few books on Native Americans and "Tribes That Slumber" is one of the very best.

 

[Teacher]

I am Chickasaw, andb there were large numbers of Chickasaw in Northern Alabama and Southern Tennessee.

 

[Lt.Dan]

My wife is Ojibwe but she's not from around here

 

[19_A_CPT]

There were also Choctaw in West Tennessee

https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/e...st Tennessee,any other Native American group.

 

[Acorn]

 

[7mm08]

View attachment 228631

That is perfect! I never knew.

Thank you.

 

[Lost Lake]

I don't have access to any land but I enjoy looking at what you guys find. My question is 1. What was the predominant tribe in TN? All Cherokee?
2. What was the estimated population of Native Americans in TN at its peak and when was that?


Thank you

The Cherokee were relative newcomers to Tennessee at European contact. They are an Iroquoian people who migrated here from the Great Lakes region, and brutally established a stronghold in East Tennessee, the western Carolinas, and north Georgia by pushing out other Native people.

The Shawnee lived in northern Kentucky, and the Chickasaw in southwestern Tennessee. Neither of the three tribes occupied middle Tennessee and Kentucky on a permanent basis, as they all fought over it as a super rich hunting ground and agreed on no permanent occupation. That's one reason why settlement here was relatively easy at first, because it was not permanently occupied by NA's.

At European settlement, the NA's didn't even know who built the Woodland and Mississippian mounds, and had no knowledge of the Paleo and Archaic people of our region who came thousands of years before them.

Edit to add that the historic tribes as we know them were only in existence for a few hundred years. The people who were before them and that they most likely descended from have little known history or only archaeological evidence of their existence.

 

[Crow Terminator]

That map is only accurate to as of about the 1700s. Aka the European "contact" era. There were people here long before then.

 

[DayTrader]

Having dated a beautiful Cherokee woman, I came to understand there are no "native" Americans.

People either migrated from the north and the south or landed from elsewhere via boat, but no one was "native" to the US.

And, then they proceeded to remove each other so they could assure their own survival.

All people groups do this to other people groups. (Africans selling captured competing tribes into slavery is just one example.) It's called survival at the beginning and then becomes a wealth thing, then a power thing and ends as a lazy weak apathetic third generation out thing before it implodes and another group takes over.

 

[killingtime 41]

I come from the smackahoe tribe.

 

[7mm08]

Thank you guys for all the info. Really informative and interesting. I know if I owned farmland I would be in this inner circle !!!

 

[tickweed]

I come from the smackahoe tribe.

Im slapahoe

 

[FTP]

Let's stop referring to them as "Native Americans"
We know they came across the land bridge known as the Bering Straight.
Let's correctly refer to them as the "Original Immigrants"

 

[mike243]

My wife is Ojibwe but she's not from around here

Went to Ojibwe elementary school in Mt Cleamons Mi when I was a little kid

 

[Long Bullet]

My Cherokee name given at birth ….
Long Bullet
Mother's family Murphy NC
Dad's family Snowbird NC

 

[knightrider]

I would be descendant of the cumberland gap stubbys

 

[hillbillredneck]

Interesting thread…appreciate the suggestion on the book

 

[swampbadger]

There were also Choctaw in West Tennessee

https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/e...st Tennessee,any other Native American group.

I knew choctaws were prevalent in MS and presumed they were in west TN as well

 

[DayDay]

Two books by Charles Mann that I found interesting:

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

They don't address the Tennessee or the OP specifically.

1491 gives insight into North and South America civilizations before smallpox and other diseases from Europe took their toll on the population. 1493 provides information on the changes that took place around the world once North American and South America became a part of the rest of the world (again?).