The Cherokee Indians - Tsalagi

The first native peoples arrived in the Smoky Mountains about A.D. 1000. They were believed to have been a branch of the Iroquois, later to be called Cherokee, who moved south from Iroquoian lands in New England. Consisting of 7 clans, the Cherokee Nation stretched from the Ohio River into South Carolina. The Eastern Band of the Cherokee lived in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, believed to be the sacred ancestral home of the Cherokee Nation.

The Cherokee Indians can trace their history back more than one thousand years. Their society was based on hunting, trading, and agriculture, living in towns until they encountered the first Europeans in 1540, when Spanish explorer Hernando de Sota led an exploration through Cherokee territory. By the time European explorers and traders arrived, Cherokee lands covered a large part of what is now the southeastern United States.