Editing Middle Tennessee (section)

===Native Americans===
Throughout the past 10,000 years, a number of different [[Native Americans in the United States|Native]] peoples are believed to have inhabited what is now Middle Tennessee. The region is believed to have been rich in [[game (hunting)|game]] animals favored by [[Last Glacial Period|Ice Age]] [[hunter-gatherer]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Satz |first=Ronald |title=Tennessee's Indian Peoples |url=https://archive.org/details/tennesseesindian0000satz |url-access=registration |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |location=[[Knoxville, Tennessee]] |pages=3–4 |isbn=978-0-87049-285-3 |year=1979 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> During the [[Mississippian period]] (1000–1600 AD), Native Americans established [[chiefdom]]s and constructed numerous earthwork mounds in the region, such as [[Mound Bottom]] in [[Cheatham County, Tennessee|Cheatham County]] and the [[Castalian Springs Mound Site|Castalian Springs]] site in [[Sumner County, Tennessee|Sumner County]].<ref name=pp811/> By the late 17th century, for unknown reasons, there were few Native Americans left in Middle Tennessee, but the [[Cherokee]] and the [[Chickasaw]] claimed the region as their hunting grounds.<ref>{{harvp|Satz|1979|p=14}}</ref> Natives that had occupied what is now Middle Tennessee prior to this time may have died as a result of new infectious diseases indirectly introduced by European explorers.<ref name=pp811>{{harvp|Satz|1979|pp=8-11}}</ref>