Chiaha

35°57′14″N 83°29′47″W / 35.95383°N 83.49644°W / 35.95383; -83.49644

The now-submerged site of Zimmerman's Island, where ancient Chiaha was located

Chiaha was a Native American chiefdom located in the lower French Broad River valley in modern East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. They lived in raised structures within boundaries of several stable villages. These overlooked the fields of maize, beans, squash, and tobacco, among other plants which they cultivated.[1] Chiaha was at the northern extreme of the paramount Coosa chiefdom's sphere of influence in the 16th century when the Spanish expeditions of Hernando de Soto and Juan Pardo passed through the area. The Chiaha chiefdom included parts of modern Jefferson and Sevier counties, and may have extended westward into Knox, Blount and Monroe counties.[2]

The Spanish explorers' accounts of Chiaha provide a rare first-hand glimpse of life in a Dallas phase Mississippian-era village. The Dallas culture, named after Dallas Island near Chattanooga, where its distinct characteristics were first observed, dominated much of East Tennessee between approximately 1300 and 1600 AD.[3] Both the de Soto and Pardo expeditions spent several days at Chiaha's principal village.

In addition, the Pardo expedition constructed a fort nearby called San Pedro. This was one of five forts constructed in the interior west of Joara,[4] the largest Mississippian-era site in modern North Carolina. Pardo constructed his largest fort there first, known as Fort San Juan. All but one of his soldiers were killed by the Native Americans in 1568, and the Spanish did not attempt further colonization in the interior.

The peoples suffered high mortality from infectious diseases carried by the Europeans. Historians believe this resulted in political realignments and the rise of the Cherokee and Creek tribes in these areas. By the time English explorers arrived here in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Chiaha area was dominated by the Cherokee.[5]

  1. ^ The Editors of Salem Press (October 2000) [1995]. Rasmussen, R. Kent (ed.). American Indian Tribes. Salem Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-89356-063-8. Archived from the original on 2011-06-18. Retrieved 2009-05-18.
  2. ^ Charles Hudson, The Juan Pardo Expeditions: Explorations of the Carolinas and Tennessee, 1566-1568 (Tuscaloosa, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 2005), 104.
  3. ^ Gerald Schroedl, Mississippian Culture, The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2009. Retrieved: 9 February 2013.
  4. ^ Beck, Robin A. Jr.; Moore, David G.; Rodning, Christopher B. (2006). "Identifying Fort San Juan: A Sixteenth-Century Spanish Occupation at the Berry Site, North Carolina" (PDF). Southeastern Archaeology. 25 (1): 65–77. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
  5. ^ Samuel Cole Williams, Early Travels in the Tennessee Country, 1540-1800, Johnson City, TN: The Watauga Press, 1928