When I put my 2004 chevy tahoe in gear the rear

A few broken ring gear teeth will cause that. BUT it wouldn't go very far till it made a whole lot more noise. The transmission will make lots of noises and can cause the same symptons you are complaining about. If it's 4x4 try and put it in four wheel drive and see what happens, don't drive far, that will help narrow it down between trans and rear end. If it's not 4x4 then if you can, remove the rear drive line, jack up the rear tires so they are off the ground and try and spin the rear pinion drive flange (the thing that the drive line was bolted to). It should spin fairly freely (it will have some drag) if you feel any binding or grinding then the problem is in the rear end.
Report back with your findings so we can better assist you.
P.S. both will be a big job and unless you have experiance working on these type of jobs then it will most likly be best left to someone who know what they are doing.