Circa 40,000–15,000 BC: People migrate to North America from Asia at irregular intervals by way of the Bering Land Bridge.
10,000-8,000 BC: Paleo-Indian Period – People were nomadic and hunt large animals for food. They also eat small game and wild plants. Continuous occupation from 10,000 BC has been documented at Williams Island near Chattanooga, Tenn. Artifacts and hunting camps were found at high elevations throughout the southern Appalachians. Ancient Cherokee tales describe hunts of the mastodons that once foraged through the upland spruce and fir. Pottery began as early as 9,000 BC.
8,000-1,000 BC: Archaic Period – People move from big-game hunting to small-game hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants. Basketmaking began as early as 7,500 BC.
Circa 3,000 BC: People begin to use certain sites for permanent habitation, develop interregional trade, and increase significantly in population.
1,000 BC–1600 AD: Woodland Period – People adapted to the environment, developed agriculture, planted corn, built permanent homes, used ceremonial and effigy mounds.
900-1600 AD: Mississippian Period – Some Eastern American Indians built flat-topped pyramidal mounds. Other American Indians shared trade and culture with Mississippian peoples throughout the Southeast and perhaps Mexico. The Cherokee, Catawba and Cheraw lived in villages with agriculture and trade.
1524: A Spanish expedition commissioned by Lucas Vásques de Ayllón meets American Indians in a place the Indians call Chicora, between the Cape Fear and Santee rivers in what is now North Carolina. A Spanish colony called Rio Jordan is established but abandoned within a few years. Also during this time, Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano meets Indians in the Cape Fear and Outer Banks regions of North Carolina.
1540: A Spanish expedition led by Hernando De Soto explores western portions of present-day North Carolina. De Soto and his men visit Indian communities, introducing smallpox and other diseases.
1566–1567: Spanish explorer Juan Pardo leads an expedition through what is now Western North Carolina. Pardo is well-received by the Cherokee, and visits the Catawba, Cheraw, Wateree and Saxapahaw as well. The Spanish soldiers establish Fort San Juan.
1600s: The Cherokee controlled 140,000 square miles throughout eight present-day Southern states when Europeans began arriving in 1600s (western sections of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, east to middle Tennessee, small southwest area in Virginia, small southeast area in Kentucky, small northeast area in Alabama)
1650: Catawba and Iswa united
1669-1670: John Lederer, a German-born physician, led three expeditions to explore the Blue Ridge Mountains and Carolina Piedmont. He scaled the Appalachian ranges, searching for passes through which traders and settlers might travel. He writes of the Cheraw and Cherokee.
1670: British began to colonize South Carolina. The Catawba allied themselves with the new settlers for protection against their traditional enemies, most notably the Cherokee.
1673: John Needham and Gabriel Arthur went up an Indian trail through Hickory Nut Gap to the Swannanoa River to set up trade with the Cherokee. This led to a century of trading between the Cherokee and British agents. This is approximately U.S. 74 through Bat Cave and Gerton.
1700: Cherokee begin deerskin trade with colonial settlers; using Indian path to Charleston, S.C. Saluda Trail follows approximately the old U.S. 25.
1700: Surveyor John Lawson began a thousand-mile journey through the Carolina colony (North and South Carolina). In 1709, he publishes “A New Voyage to Carolina.” The book describes flora and fauna and groups of Indians he visited over a decade (Cherokee, Cheraw, Catawba). Lawson also publishes a map.
1711: Catawba fought with the British against the Tuscarora of North Carolina.
1715: Catawba and Cheraw joined with other tribes and fought against the colonists during the Yemassee War.
1715: Maj. George Chicken led an English expedition against the Cherokee, went as far as Murphy.
1721: Cherokee give up land in South Carolina, the first land cession the tribe makes to Europeans. The treaty also regulates trade and sets a boundary between the tribe and European settlers.
1726–1739: The Cheraw (Saura) Indians, whose number has dwindled to less than 100, merge with the Catawba.
1730: Cherokee leaders visit London and confer with the king. They pledge friendship to the English and agree to return runaway slaves and to trade exclusively with the British.
1735: Cherokee had “64 towns and villages, populous and full of children,” with an estimated population of 16,000, including 6,000 fighting men.
1736: The North Carolina colony establishes an Indian Trade Commission to regulate trade with native peoples.
1738–1739: A smallpox epidemic decimates the Indian population in North Carolina, especially in the east. The population of the Catawba decreased to a few hundred. The epidemic decreases the number of Cherokee by 50 percent.
1738-1768: James Adair, an Englishman, lived and traded among the southeastern Indians for more than 30 years. Adair’s written work was first published in England in 1775.
1740: Waxhaw Indians, decimated by smallpox, abandon their lands in present-day Union County and join the Catawba.
1750s: Armed conflicts arise between the Cherokee and colonists, who continue to expand areas of settlement farther west in violation of treaties.
1754–1763: England and France fight the French and Indian War. The British and French make allies of Indian tribes.
1758: The Cherokee help the British military in campaigns against the French and Shawnee Indians, including in Virginia. The Cherokee decide to change sides after ill treatment by the English, and they return home, where they eventually attack North Carolina colonists.
1759: Young Cherokee warriors begin raiding border settlements in retaliation (clan revenge).
1759: Another smallpox epidemic devastates the Catawba, reducing the tribe by half.
1760: An act of assembly permits North Carolinians serving against Indian allies of the French to enslave captives. In February, Cherokee attack Fort Dobbs, built near the Yadkin River north of present-day Statesville as a refuge for settlers and “friendly” Indians, and also attack white settlements near Bethabara and along the Yadkin and Dan rivers.
June 1760: An army of British regulars and American militia led by Col. Archibald Montgomerie destroys Cherokee villages in South Carolina, but is defeated by the Cherokee at Echoe. Two months later, Cherokee capture Fort Loudoun (in present-day Tennessee), kill 29 soldiers and take the remainder prisoner.
1761: Col. James Grant and a Highlander regiment of 2,600 men enter WNC to drive out the Cherokee. The regiment, incurring heavy losses, drove the Cherokee “into recesses in the mountains, burned their granaries, laid waste to their fields and pushed the frontier 70 miles west.” They destroyed 15 Cherokee villages. British reached Franklin and Murphy.
1761: Chief Attakullakulla negotiates a treaty with South Carolina.
1761-62: Three Cherokee leaders – Ostenaco, Cunne Shote and Woyi – go to London with British Lt. Henry Timberlake and meet with King George III.
1763: English King George III issues a proclamation that defines the western edge of settlement. This “proclamation line” through Western North Carolina is meant to separate Indians and colonists.
1763: The Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years’ War in Europe and the French and Indian War in North America. British victory in the French and Indian War ends the need for the British to use the Cherokee as a buffer between the British and the French. Colonists begin moving into Cherokee land.
1763: South Carolina established a 15-square-mile reservation for the Catawba.
1767, May 18-June 13: British Royal Gov. Tryon left from Salisbury to the Cherokee hunting grounds with about 100 people to “run a line between the Frontiers of North Carolina and the Cherokee Hunting Grounds.” This is when Tryon Mountain in Polk County was named for him. He was in today’s Polk County. The dividing line: “where the easterly and westerly waters divide.”
1776-1783: Catawba fight with the colonists in the Revolutionary War against the British and Cherokee.
Late March 1776: The Hannon family in Polk County was killed. Three children, the only witnesses, survive. Settlers state American Indians killed them.
May 1776: Cherokee village councils discuss going to war against the American colonists. The Cherokee decide to fight to protect the existence of their society. The British have promised to protect the tribe from encroachments by colonial settlers.
June 1776: Cherokee raid white settlements in Watauga County and South Carolina.
Summer 1776: Capt. Thomas Howard with local militia left the Block House to retaliate against the Hannon attack. There was a skirmish (surprise attack) at Warrior or Round Mountain (top of mountain near Saluda) with less than 20 Cherokee. This old Indian trail is now called Howard Gap Road.
Late July 1776: Gen. Griffith Rutherford with 2,400 frontiersmen invades Cherokee country, destroying 32 towns and villages. He is joined by Col. Andrew Williamson with South Carolina troops and Col. William Christian with Virginians. Men, women, children and livestock were killed. Some Cherokee women and children were taken as slaves. Cherokee prisoners and wounded were executed.
1777, July 20: The Treaty of Long Island of Holston was signed. The Cherokee cede territory east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and along the Watauga, Nolichucky, Upper Holston and New rivers (east of Kingsport and Greeneville, Tenn.). Another treaty line is drawn that follows the same line of the treaty drawn in 1767 with British Gov. Tryon.
1783: The new state of North Carolina, ignoring earlier treaties, declares lands open for settlement as far west as the Pigeon River.
1785: Settlers begin filing claims for land in today’s Henderson County.