The land that became Tennessee is the ancestral homeland of several Indigenous Nations. During America’s Revolutionary era, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Quapaw, and Seminole peoples lived on the land that became Tennessee. The United States government used treaties to displace Indigenous tribes from their ancestral lands. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which resulted in the forced removal of over 50,000 American Indians to present-day Oklahoma on what came to be known as the Trail of Tears. Several major routes went through Tennessee. In 1924, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted American citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States. 

 

Today, while there are no Tribal reservations in Tennessee, over 20,000 Native Americans live in our state.