Tennessee Indian People are strong survivors. They have survived past cultural and political genocidal practices that continue
into the present. Many people believe that all Indians from Tennessee were forced to leave on the Trail of Tears in 1838. However,
today, living Indian family members are proof that thousands of Indians escaped the removal, hidden away in areas where they
were hard to find, or hidden within lighter colored or darker colored, mixed-blood Indian families or hidden by sympathetic
non-Indian friends, relatives and neighbors.
A cenus taken in 1851 showed that there were almost 2,000 Indians living within Tennessee and surrounding states that border
Tennessee. Today there are over 40,000 Indian People still living in Tennessee whose ancestors stayed behind in their homelands
despite tremendous odds against their survival.
The Tennessee Indian Family Pages that are linked to on this page are a testimony of our survival. We Are Still Here!