When Spanish explorers first visited Tennessee , led by Hernando de Soto in 1539 − 43 , it was inhabited by tribes of Muscogee and Yuchi people . Possibly because of European diseases devastating the native tribes , which would have left a population vacuum , and also from expanding European settlement in the north , the Cherokee moved south from the area now called Virginia . As European colonists spread into the area , the native populations were forcibly displaced to the south and west , including all Muscogee and Yuchi peoples , the Chickasaw , and Choctaw . From 1838 to 1839 , nearly 17,000 Cherokees were forced to march from " emigration depots " in Eastern Tennessee , such as Fort Cass , to Indian Territory west of Arkansas . This came to be known as the Trail of Tears ; as an estimated 4,000 Cherokees died along the way
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Clarksville, Tennessee