LONESOME HISTORIC SITE

2006 TN-96  •  Burns, TN 37029  •  206-953-2766

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Station 8: Native Americans

Native Americans lived in the area around Lonesome. During the 1700s and early 1800s, white settlers and the United States government made treaties with the Chickasaw and the Cherokee. These Native Americans Indians lost most of their territory in Tennessee by the 1820s. 

Most Cherokees already living in Tennessee stayed in Tennessee. They did their best to fit in with the white settlers. They began to wear the clothing of the white settlers as well as learning to speak English. They also began to live in log homes, and they adopted Christianity as their religion.

The white settlers and the United States government wanted the Cherokee’s land in Tennessee and wanted the Cherokees and the other tribes in Tennessee to move west of the Mississippi River.

The president from Tennessee, Andrew Jackson, wanted to remove the Native American tribes to the West. While he was president, the United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Bill of 1830. The forced removal of Cherokees from their land in Tennessee began in 1838. Over 18,000 Cherokees were moved west of the Mississippi River via The Trail of Tears.
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Compare ways individuals and groups on this farm lived to the way the Native Americans in this area lived.

Construct a timeline to depict the presence of Native Americans in the area we call Tennessee.