Editing Tennessee (section)

===Pre-European era===
The first inhabitants of Tennessee were [[Paleo-Indians]] who arrived about 12,000 years ago at the end of the [[Last Glacial Period]]. Archaeological excavations indicate that the lower Tennessee Valley was heavily populated by Ice Age [[hunter-gatherer]]s, and Middle Tennessee is believed to have been rich with [[Game (hunting)|game animal]]s such as [[mastodon]]s.{{sfn|Satz|1979|pp=3–4}} The names of the cultural groups who inhabited the area before European contact are unknown, but archaeologists have named several distinct cultural phases, including the [[Archaic period in the Americas|Archaic]] (8000–1000 BC), [[Woodland period|Woodland]] (1000 BC–1000 AD), and [[Mississippian culture|Mississippian]] (1000–1600 AD) periods.<ref>{{cite web |title=Archaeology & the Native Peoples of Tennessee |url=http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/permanent/native/index.shtml |publisher=[[McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture]] |access-date=June 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120702205050/http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/permanent/native/index.shtml |archive-date=July 2, 2012 |location=Knoxville, TN}}</ref> The Archaic peoples first domesticated dogs, and plants such as [[Cucurbita|squash]], [[Maize|corn]], [[gourd]]s, and [[sunflower]]s were first grown in Tennessee during the Woodland period.{{sfn|Satz|1979|pp=4–8}} Later generations of Woodland peoples constructed the first mounds. Rapid civilizational development occurred during the Mississippian period, when Indigenous peoples developed organized [[chiefdom]]s and constructed numerous ceremonial structures throughout the state.{{sfn|Satz|1979|pp=6–11}}

Spanish conquistadors who explored the region in the 16th century encountered some of the Mississippian peoples, including the [[Muscogee|Muscogee Creek]], [[Yuchi]], and [[Shawnee]].{{sfn|Satz|1979|pp=8–11}}{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|pp=16–17}} By the early 18th century, most Natives in Tennessee had disappeared, most likely wiped out by diseases introduced by the Spaniards.{{sfn|Satz|1979|pp=8–11}} The Cherokee began migrating into what is now eastern Tennessee from what is now Virginia in the latter 17th century, possibly to escape expanding European settlement and diseases in the north.{{sfn|Satz|1979|pp=34–35}} They forced the Creek, Yuchi, and Shawnee out of the state in the early 18th century.{{sfn|Satz|1979|pp=34–35}}{{sfn|Corlew|Folmsbee|Mitchell|1981|p=18}} The Chickasaw remained confined to West Tennessee, and the middle part of the state contained few Native Americans, although both the Cherokee and the Shawnee claimed the region as their hunting ground.{{sfn|Satz|1979|p=14}} Cherokee peoples in Tennessee were known by European settlers as the [[Overhill Cherokee]] because they lived west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.{{sfn|Finger|2001|p=26}} Overhill settlements grew along the rivers in East Tennessee in the early 18th century.{{sfn|Satz|1979|pp=44–45}}