From our broad valleys and rolling hills to the rugged
mountains deep in the heart of Northwest Georgia, Native Americans called
this land home for 80 centuries. Aboriginal Archaic Indians lived here
before 6200 B.C. Woodland Indians
proliferated, growing crops and hunting wild game. Moundbuilders
of the Mississippian culture spread to North Georgia up the rivers that
feed the Gulf of Mexico beginning in 900 A.D..
The last cultural development of the Moundbuilders may
have given way to a loose-knit Confederacy known as the Creek
Indians. Their cultural history says they came from the west to
inhabit the land in Northwest Georgia. They would share the land with
the Cherokee, who were
being forced west by the encroachment of European settlers further east.
The Cherokee would be last great cultural development in Northwest Georgia
before their removal in a tragic event known today as "The
Trail of Tears."
Chieftains Trail is a unique combination of sites throughout
our region that highlights the history of these First Americans. Nowhere
else has so much of our Native American heritage been preserved than
here in Northwest Georgia, what the Cherokee called, "The Enchanted
Overview of Northwest Georgia's