The first known settlers of modern Nashville were Native Americans of the Mississippian culture from 1000 to 1400 CE. They grew crops, made earthen mounds, and painted pottery. Then they disappeared. Man-made mounds can be found all over Tennessee. By the 1600’s there were four Native American tribes living in Tennessee: The Cherokee (East Tennessee), The Creek (southern part of Middle Tennessee), The Chickasaw (West Tennessee), and The Shawnee (Middle Tennessee). Middle Tennessee was used as hunting land. Native American tools and weapons were made of stone or wood. They did not believe in owning land, they wore clothing of animal skins, and their main weapon was the bow and arrow. They did not have a written language. Many of the mounds were documented during the Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in the Tennessee River Valley prior to the flooding of the lands with the development of dams by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the 1930’s. The Frank H. McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville hosts a permanent exhibit of the Archaeology and Native Peoples of Tennessee, the Geology and Fossil History of Tennessee, and the WPA Archaeology Photo Archive.
Contact: Frank H. McClung Museum
1327 Circle park Drive
Knoxville, TN 27996-3200
865/974-3827
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_in_the_Civil_War
http://www.academicinfo.net/nativeammeta.html
http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/students/4_history_1
http://www.shgresources.com/tn/history/
http://tennessee.gov/tsla/history/military/tn1812.htm
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tennessee/index.htm
http://www.tncia.org/tn-fed-tribes.html
http://www.tngenweb.org/tnfirst/
http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/permex/archaeol/archaeol.htm
http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/