In the latter portion of the seventeenth century the Shawnees, or a
portion of them, had their villages on the Cumberland, and to some
extent, perhaps, on the Tennessee also. They were still occupying that
region as late as 1714, when they were visited by M. Charleville, a
French trader, but having about this time incurred the hostility of the
Cherokees and Chickasaws they were driven from the country. Many years
later, in the adjustment of a territorial dispute between the Cherokees
and Chickasaws, each nation claimed the sole honor of driving out the
Shawnees, and hence, by right of conquest, the title to the territory
formerly inhabited by the latter. The Chickasaws evidently had the best
of the controversy, though some concessions were made to the Cherokees
in the matter when the United States came to negotiate for the purchase
of the controverted territory.