TENNESSEE HAD A MAJOR COPPER INDUSTRY

My guess is that this copper is what initially attracted the Cherokee and predecessors there:

http://www.miningartifacts.org/Tennessee-Mines.html

The Pheonicians and others mined their copper in the UP of Michigan.  It was free or float copper.  This copper made its way into the bronze and copper of the middle east.  The alloyed content gives it away in a spectrometry analysis.  The copper of Tennesse had to be mined and then smelted - a much harder process.