Cherokee Indians were early settlers of the area around Ringgold. Red Clay, Tennessee was the Cherokee seat of government from 1832 to 1838 and is located about sixteen miles northeast of Ringgold.  New Echota, Georgia, the previous Cherokee capital, is about thirty miles south of Ringgold. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Scotch-Irish families emigrated from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia to settle in parts of northwest Georgia.

In 1803 the Cherokee Nation agreed with the Federal Government to construct a Federal Highway that would join Knoxville and Savannah; passing through the area of present day Ringgold, Georgia. Road construction started immediately and when the federal government ran out of money in 1804, the state of Georgia contributed $5,000 to its completion.  The Treaty of Tellico was made between the United States and the Cherokee Nation and was signed by the Cherokee in regards to the road when construction was completed in 1805.  The Federal Highway ran from Ringgold southeast to Tate, then on a more easternly route to Athens. Portions of the road are still visible.