<P> The name was not commonly used for the whole mountain range until the late 19th century . A competing and often more popular name was the "Allegheny Mountains", "Alleghenies", and even "Alleghania ." In the early 19th century, Washington Irving proposed renaming the United States either "Appalachia" or "Alleghania". </P> <P> In northern U.S. dialects, the mountains are pronounced / æpəˈleɪtʃənz / or / æpəˈleɪʃənz / . The cultural region of Appalachia is pronounced / æpəˈleɪʃ (i) ə /, also / æpəˈleɪtʃ (i) ə /, all with a third syllable like "lay". In southern U.S. dialects, the mountains are called the / æpəˈlætʃənz /, and the cultural region of Appalachia is pronounced / ˈæpəˈlætʃ (i) ə /, both with a third syllable like the "la" in "latch". This pronunciation is favored in the "core" region in central and southern parts of the Appalachian range . The occasional use of the "sh" sound for the "ch" in the last syllable in northern dialects was popularized by Appalachian Trail organizations in New England in the early 20th century . </P> <P> Native American hunter - gatherers first arrived in what is now Appalachia over 16,000 years ago . The earliest discovered site is the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Washington County, Pennsylvania, which some scientists claim is pre-Clovis culture . Several other Archaic period (8000--1000 BC) archaeological sites have been identified in the region, such as the St. Albans site in West Virginia and the Icehouse Bottom site in Tennessee . In the 16th century, the de Soto and Juan Pardo expeditions explored the mountains of South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia, and encountered complex agrarian societies consisting of Muskogean - speaking inhabitants . De Soto indicated that much of the region west of the mountains was part of the domain of Coosa, a paramount chiefdom centered around a village complex in northern Georgia . By the time English explorers arrived in Appalachia in the late 17th century, the central part of the region was controlled by Algonquian tribes (namely the Shawnee) and the southern part of the region was controlled by the Cherokee . The French based in modern - day Quebec also made inroads into the northern areas of the region in modern - day New York state and Pennsylvania . By the mid 18th century the French had outposts such as Fort Duquesne and Fort Le Boeuf controlling the access points of the Allegheny River valley and upper Ohio valley after exploration by Celeron de Bienville . </P> <P> European migration into Appalachia began in the 18th century . As lands in eastern Pennsylvania, the Tidewater region of Virginia and the Carolinas filled up, immigrants began pushing further and further westward into the Appalachian Mountains . A relatively large proportion of the early backcountry immigrants were Ulster Scots--later known as "Scotch - Irish"--who were seeking cheaper land and freedom from Quaker leaders, many of whom considered the Scotch - Irish "savages". Others included Germans from the Palatinate region and English settlers from the Anglo - Scottish border country . Between 1730 and 1763, immigrants trickled into western Pennsylvania, the Shenandoah Valley area of Virginia, and western Maryland . Thomas Walker's discovery of Cumberland Gap in 1750 and the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 lured settlers deeper into the mountains, namely to upper east Tennessee, northwestern North Carolina, upstate South Carolina, and central Kentucky . Between 1790 and 1840, a series of treaties with the Cherokee and other Native American tribes opened up lands in north Georgia, north Alabama, the Tennessee Valley, the Cumberland Plateau regions, and the Great Smoky Mountains along what is now the Tennessee - North Carolina border . The last of these treaties culminated in the removal of the bulk of the Cherokee population (as well as Choctaw, Chickasaw and others) from the region via the Trail of Tears from 1831 until 1838 . </P>

Which state listed below was located in the southeast native american cultural region