Tennessee's Indigenous Geography

Abstract

Popular narratives and public history institutions purposefully or incidentally erase Native contributions to Tennessee’s geography. However, the settlement and mapping of Tennessee was built on Native precedents. White settlers followed Native settlement patterns and early Tennessee maps often utilized Native sources, guides, or mapmakers in their creation without attribution. This thesis reinserts Native voices into the white settlement and mapping of Tennessee. The first chapter examines Native cartography, Native geographies of power, and Native ground across North America. The second discusses the historiographies of Native history, Native cartography, and the Trans-Appalachian frontier in which this thesis interacts. The third chapter uses the frameworks and techniques outlined in the first two chapters to study Native contributions to the settlement and mapping of Tennessee. The final chapter makes recommendations for public historians to improve interpretation of Native history and colonial-era maps in the context of decolonizing their institutions.