Chiaha

Chiaha is a Native American chiefdom located in the lower French Broad River valley in modern East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States.

They live in raised structures within boundaries of several stable villages.

These overlook the fields of maize, beans, squash, and tobacco, among other plants that they cultivate.

Chiaha is the northern extreme of the paramount Coosa chiefdom's sphere of influence in the sixteenth century when the Spanish expeditions of Hernando de Soto and Juan Pardo pass through the area.

The Chiaha chiefdom includes parts of modern Jefferson and Sevier counties, and may extend westward into Knox, Blount and Monroe counties.

The Spanish explorers' accounts of Chiaha provide a rare first-hand glimpse of life in a Dallas Phase Mississippian-era village.

The Dallas culture, named after Dallas Island near Chattanooga where its distinct characteristics are first observed, dominates much of East Tennessee between approximately 1300 and 1600.

Both the de Soto and Pardo expeditions spend several days at Chiaha's principal village.

The Pardo expedition constructs a short-lived fort nearby called San Pedro, but by the time English explorers arrive in the area in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Chiaha area is largely uninhabited and dominated by the Cherokee.

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