page_title: Rome, Georgia
section_title: Native American era
hierarchical_section_title: Rome, Georgia / History / Native American era
context_page_description: Rome is the largest city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Floyd County. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 36,303. It is the largest city in Northwest Georgia and the 19th-largest city in the state.
  Rome was built at the confluence of the Etowah and the Oostanaula Rivers, which together form the Coosa River. Because of its strategic advantages, this area was long occupied by the Creek and later the Cherokee peoples. National leaders such as Major Ridge and John Ross resided here before Indian Removal.
  The city has developed on seven hills with the rivers running between them, a feature that inspired the early European-American settlers to name it for Rome, the longtime capital of Italy and also built on seven hills. It developed in the antebellum period as a market and trading city due to its advantageous location on the rivers, by which it sent the rich regional cotton commodity crop downriver to markets on the Gulf Coast and export overseas.
context_section_description: People of the Mississippian culture are known to have inhabited the area from about 1000 CE. These people are believed to have died off from disease brought by exposure to the Spaniards in the late 16th century. The Cherokee migrated into the Southeast and established themselves in the early 17th century.
  Specifics before the Spanish expeditions in the 16th century are largely unknown, but archeologists have found evidence of thousands of years of indigenous cultures along these rivers. 
  Some debate exists over whether Hernando de Soto was the first Spanish conquistador to encounter Native Americans in the area now known as Rome, but it is usually agreed that he passed through the region with his expedition in 1540. In 1560, Tristán de Luna sent a detachment of 140 soldiers and two Dominican friars north along de Soto's route. They established relations with the Coosa chiefdom, as they recorded assisting the Coosa in a raid against the rebellious province of Napochín, in what is now known as Tennessee. Exposed to new Eurasian infectious diseases, these mound builder peoples suffered high mortality rates, as they lacked immunity; within 20 years the community was abandoned.
  The Creek emerged in the area, one of the major Muscogee-speaking tribes. They occupied a broad territory before being pushed out by Cherokee migrating from Tennessee.
  The Abihka tribe of Creek in the area of Rome later became part of the Upper Creek people. They merged with other Creek tribes to become the Ulibahalis, who later migrated westward into Alabama in the general region of Gadsden. By the mid-18th century, Iroquoian-speaking Cherokee had moved into the area and occupied it. They had moved down from areas of Tennessee, under pressure from settlement by European Americans migrating from eastern territories across the Appalachians.
  A Cherokee village named Chatuga was settled in this area during the late 18th century, in the period of the Cherokee–American wars (1776–94) during and after the American Revolutionary War. The Cherokee referred to this area as "Head of Coosa".  Several Cherokee national leaders settled here, developing plantations, including chiefs Major Ridge and John Ross. In the 20th century, Ridge's home here was preserved as Chieftains House. It has been adapted by the state for use as the Chieftains Museum and is used to represent the history of the Cherokee in this area, especially Major Ridge.
  In the 18th century, a high demand in Europe for American deerskins had led to a brisk trade between Native hunters and White traders. A few White traders and some settlers (primarily from the British colonies of Georgia and Carolina) were accepted by the Head of Coosa Cherokee. These were later joined by missionaries, and then more settlers. After the American War of Independence, most new settlers came from the area of Georgia east of the Proclamation Line of 1763.
  In 1793, in response to a Cherokee raid into Tennessee, John Sevier, the Governor of Tennessee, led a retaliatory raid against the Cherokee in the vicinity of Myrtle Hill, in what was known as the Battle of Hightower.
  In 1802, the United States and Georgia executed the Compact of 1802, in which Georgia sold its claimed western lands (a claim dating to the colonial era) to the United States. In return, the federal government agreed to ignore Cherokee land titles and remove all Cherokee from Georgia. The commitment to evict the Cherokee was not immediately enforced, and Chiefs John Ross and Major Ridge led efforts to stop their removal, including several federal lawsuits.
  During the 1813 Creek Civil War, most Cherokee took the side of the Upper Creek Indians, who were more assimilated and willing to deal with European Americans, against the Red Stick or Lower Creek Indians, who lived more distant from the Whites and maintained strong cultural traditions. Before the Cherokee moved to Head of Coosa, Chief Ridge commanded a company of warriors as a unit of the Tennessee militia, with Chief Ross as adjutant. This Cherokee unit was under the overall command of United States Majo
caption: An 1822 map of Cherokee lands in Georgia
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