Native Americans: History, Culture, & Tribes: Area Points of Interest

This beautiful sanctuary serves as the headquarters of the Chattanooga Audubon Society and features a Visitor's Center, gift shop, multiple exhibits, including and a timeline museum tracing the human habitation of the property, and the Avian Jewels Egg Collection. As you explore our trails, you may notice that some of the trees are labeled with green signs as part of the Cherokee Arboretum. These signs include their scientific common and Cherokee names, written in the Cherokee syllabary, as well as uses that the Native peoples made of the plants.

Brainerd Mission Cemetery is located in Chattanooga, Hamilton County, Tennessee, adjacent to the 5700 block of Brainerd Road. A mission journal notes the first burial taking place on January 11, 1818. The cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places and is recognized as an official stop on the National Park Service Trail of Tears.

The Passage is a pedestrian link between downtown Chattanooga and the Tennessee River and marks the beginning of the Trail of Tears.

Red Clay State Historic Park encompasses 263-acres of narrow valleys formerly used as cotton and pasture land. The park site was the last seat of Cherokee national government before the 1838 enforcement of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 by the U.S. military, which resulted in most of the Cherokee people in the area being forced to emigrate west.

The Cherokee Removal Memorial Park includes a history wall and visitor's center. The park is located in Meigs County, TN.

The Oconaluftee Indian Village welcome you to join us in the 18th Century to see what life was like for the Cherokee Indians of the North Carolina mountains. Our Cherokee Indian Village is an experience unlike any other, offering an intriguing glimpse into the past.

The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, a property of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, strives to promote the understanding and appreciation of the history of the Cherokee people. The Museum, located on the shores of beautiful Tellico Lake, was built in 1986. It was recently renovated and a new exhibit installed in 2018.

Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park protects the land that was the location of several important historical events that occurred in the late 18th century. Leaving the English colonies, settlers began arriving along the Watauga Old Fields, in search of a new life on what was Cherokee land. John Carter, one of the primary political, military and business leaders of this era, and his son Landon, built a home, the Carter Mansion, three miles from Sycamore Shoals. This structure is the oldest standing frame house in Tennessee and dates back to the mid to late 1770s.

Follow the historic Trail of Tears through Tennessee. Information and a detailed map is provided.