Chiahaa

Chiaha was a fortified Indigenous town on a river island in the Appalachian country. Maize fields lined the banks, and its people belonged to a network of Mississippian communities connected with the powerful chiefdom of Coosa to the south. The town's setting between branches of the river gave it a natural measure of protection as well as access to fertile ground.

Hernando de Soto's expedition reached Chiaha in 1540 after crossing the mountains. The inhabitants supplied food while the Spaniards rested their exhausted horses, but relations broke down when de Soto demanded women. The people withdrew to a nearby island; a negotiated truce supplied the expedition with porters, but no women. Juan Pardo's expedition visited the region a generation later and established a small Spanish fort, which did not survive the subsequent Indigenous resistance.