Tennessee is the oldest state and one of the American tribes that lived there are the Chickasaw.Bones and artifacts over 14,000 years old recently turned up in a Tennessee backyard.after the fossils, Native American tribes such as the Cherokee, Creek, and Shawnee appeared. The Spanish explorer Hernando de soto was the first known european to reach Tennessee in 1540. The French and British started fighting for control of the land in the French and British war.(The British were victorious)And won all land east of the Mississippi river, including Tennessee.