Alabama Indian Tribes
Abihka, see Creek Confederacy and Muskogee.
Alabama (See Alabama)
Apalachee. A part of this tribe lived for a time among the Lower Creeks and perhaps in this State. Another section settled near Mobile and remained there until West Florida was ceded to Great Britain when they crossed the Mississippi. A few seem to have joined the Creeks and migrated with them to Oklahoma. (See Florida.)
Apalachicola. Very early this tribe lived on the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee Rivers, partly in Alabama. Sometime after 1715 they settled in Russell County, on the Chattahoochee River where they occupied at least two different sites before removing with the rest of the Creeks to the other side of the Mississippi. (See Georgia.)
Atasi. A division or subtribe of the Muskogee.
Chatot. This tribe settled near Mobile after having been driven from Florida and moved to Louisiana about the same time as the Apalachee. (See Florida.)
Cherokee. In the latter part of the eighteenth century some Cherokee worked their way down the Tennessee River as far as Muscle Shoals, constituting the Chickamauga band. They had settlements at Turkeytown on the Coosa, Willstown on Wills Creek, and Coldwater near Tuscumbia, occupied jointly with the Creeks and destroyed by the Whites in 1787. All of their Alabama territory was surrendered in treaties made between 1807 and 1835. (See Tennessee.)
Chickasaw. The Chickasaw had a few settlements in northwestern Alabama, part of which State was within their hunting territories. At one time they also had a town called Ooe-asa (Wǐ-aca) among the Upper Creeks. (See Mississippi.)
Choctaw. This tribe hunted over and occupied, at least temporarily, parts of southwestern Alabama beyond the Tombigbee. (See Mississippi.)
Creek Confederacy. This name is given to a loose organization which
constituted the principal political element in the territory of the
present States of Georgia and Alabama from very early times, probably as
far back as the period of De Soto. It was built around
a dominant tribe, or rather a group of dominant tribes, called
Muskogee. The name Creek early became attached to these
people because when they were first known to the Carolina colonists
and for a considerable period afterward the body of them which
the latter knew best was living upon a river, the present Ocmulgee,
called by Europeans "Ocheese Creek." The Creeks were early
divided geographically into two parts, one called Upper Creeks, on
the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers; the other, the Lower Creeks, on the lower
Chattahoochee and Ocmulgee. The former were also divided at times into the
Coosa branch or Abihka and the Tallapoosa branch and the two were called
Upper and Middle Creeks respectively. Bartram (1792) tends to confuse the
student by denominating all of the true Creeks "Upper Creeks" and the
Seminole "Lower Creeks." The dominant Muskogee gradually gathered about
them, and to a certain extent under them, the Apalachicola, Hitchiti,
Okmulgee, Sawokli, Chiaha, Osochi, Yuchi, Alabama, Tawasa, Pawokti,
Muklasa, Koasati, Tuskegee, a part of the Shawnee, and for a time some
Yamasee, not counting broken bands and families from various quarters. The
first seven of the above were for the most part among the Lower Creeks,
the remainder with the Upper Creeks. (For further information, see the
separate tribal names under Alabama,
Georgia, and
Florida.)
Eufaula. A division or subtribe of the Muskogee.
Fus-hatchee. A division of the Muskogee.
Hilibi. A division or subtribe of the Muskogee.
Hitchiti. This tribe lived for considerable period close to, and at times within, the present territory of Alabama along its southeastern margin. (See Georgia.)
Kan-hatki. A division of the Muskogee.
Kealedji. A division of the Muskogee.
Koasati. Meaning unknown; often given as Coosawda and Coushatta, and sometimes abbreviated to Shati.
Connections. They belonged to the southern section of the Muskhogean linguistic group, and were particularly close to the Alabama.
Location. The historic location of the Koasati was just below the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers to form the Alabama and on the east side of the latter, where Coosada Creek and Station still bear the name. (See also Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma.)
Villages.
Two Koasati towns are mentioned as having existed in very early times, one
of which may have been the Kaskinampo. (See Tennessee.) At a later period
a town known as Wetumpka on the east bank of Coosa River,
in Elmore County, near the falls seems to have been occupied by Koasati
Indians. During part of its existence Wetumpka was divided into two
settlements, Big Wetumpka on the
site of the modern town of the same name and
Little Wetumpka above the falls of Coosa.
History. It is probable that from about 1500 until well along in the
seventeenth century, perhaps to its very close, the Koasati lived upon
Tennessee River. There is good reason to think that they are the Coste,
Acoste, or Costehe of De Soto's chroniclers whose principal village was
upon an island in the river, and in all probability this was what is now
known as Pine Island. There is also a bare mention
of them in the narrative of Pardo's expedition of 1567 inland Santa Elena,
and judging by the entries made upon maps published
early in the eighteenth century this tribe seems to have occupied the
same position when the French and English made their settlements
in the Southeast. About that time they were probably joined by the
related Kaskinampo. Not long after they had become known to the
Whites, a large part of the Koasati migrated south and established
themselves at the point mentioned above. A portion seems to have remained
behind for we find a village called Coosada at Larkin's Landing in Jackson
County at a much later date. The main body all continued with the Upper
Creeks until shortly after France ceded all of her territories east of the
Mississippi to England in 1763, when a
large part moved to Tombigbee River. These soon returned to their former
position, but about 1795 another part crossed the Mississippi and settled
on Red River. Soon afterward they seem to have split up, some continuing
on the Red while others went to the Sabine and beyond to the Neches and
Trinity Rivers, Tex. At a later date where few Texas bands united with the
Alabama in Polk County,
their descendants still live, but most returned to Louisiana and
gathered into one neighborhood northeast of Kinder, La. The greater part of
the Koasati who remained in Alabama accompanied
the Creeks to Oklahoma, where a few are still to be found. Previous to
this removal, some appear to have gone to Florida to cast in their lot
with the Seminole.
Population. The earliest estimates of the Alabama Indians probably included the Koasati. In 1750 they are given 50 men; in 1760,150 men. Marbury (1792) credits them with 130 men. In 1832, after the Louisiana branch had split off, those who remained numbered 82 and this is the last separate enumeration we have. Sibley (1806) on native authority gives 200 hunters in the Louisiana bands; in 1814 Schermerhorn estimates that there were 600 on the Sabine; in 1817 Morse places the total Koasati population in Louisiana and Texas at 640; in 1829 Porter puts it at 180; in 1850 Bollaert gives the number of men in the two Koasati towns on Trinity River as 500. In 1882 the United States Indian Office reported 290 Alabama, Koasati, and Muskogee in Texas, but the Census of 1900 raised this to 470. The Census of 1910 returned 11 Koasati from Texas, 85 from Louisiana, and 2 from Nebraska; those in Oklahoma were not enumerated separately from the other Creeks. The 134 "Creeks" returned from Louisiana in 1930 were mainly Koasati.
Connection in which they have
become noted. Coosada, a post village
in Elmore County, Ala., near the old Koasati town, and Coushatta, the
capital of Red River Parish, La, preserve the name of the Koasati.
Kolomi. A division of the Muskogee.
Mobile. Meaning unknown, but Halbert (1901) suggests that it may be from Choctaw moeli, "to paddle," since Mobile is pronounced moila by the Indians. It is the Mabila, Mauilla, Mavila, or Mauvila of the De Soto chroniclers.
Connections. The language of the tribe was closely connected with that of the Choctaw and gave its name to a trade jargon based upon Choctaw or Chickasaw.
Location. When the French settled the seacoast of Alabama the Mobile were living on the west side of Mobile River a few miles below the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee.
History. When they make their first appearance in history in 1540 the Mobile were between the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, and on the east side of the former. Their chief, Tuscaloosa, was a very tall and commanding Indian with great influence throughout the surrounding country. He inspired his people to attack the invading Spaniards and a terrific battle was fought October 18, 1540, for the possession of one of his fortified towns (Mabila), which the Spaniards carried with heavy losses to themselves in killed and wounded, while of the Indians 2,500 or more fell. It is probable that the village of Nanipacna, through which a force of Spaniards of the De Luna colony passed in 1559, was occupied by some of the survivors of this tribe. At a later date they may have settled near Gees Bend of the Alabama River, in Wilcox County, because early French maps give a village site there which they call "Vieux Mobiliens." A Spanish letter of 1686 speaks of them as at war with the Pensacola tribe. When the French came into the country, the Mobile were, as stated above, settled not far below the junction of the Tombigbee and Alabaina. After a post had been established on the spot where Mobile stands today, the Mobile Indians moved down nearer to it and remained there until about the time when the English obtained possession of the country. They do not appear to have gone to Louisiana like so many of the smaller tribes about them and were probably absorbed in the Choctaw Nation.
Population. After allowing
for all exaggerations, the number of Mobile Indians when De Soto fought with them must have been very
considerable, perhaps 6,000 to 7,000. Mooney (1828) estimates 2,000 Mobile
and Tohome in 1650, over a hundred years after the great
battle. In 1702 Iberville states that this tribe and the Tohome together
embraced about 350 warriors; warriors; 1725-26 and Boenville (1932, vol.
3, p. 536), gives 60 for the Mobile alone, but in 1730 Regis de Rouillet
(1732) cuts this half. among the Mobile, Tohome and Narrates at about 100.
Connection in which they have become noted.
The Mobile have attained a fame altogether beyond anything which their later numerical importance
would warrant: (1) on account of the desperate
resistance which they offered to De Soto's forces (2) from the
important Alabama city to which they gave their name. There is a
place called Mobile in Maricopa County, Ariz.
Muklasa. Meaning in Alabama and Choctaw, "friends," or "people of one
nation."
Connections. Since the Muklasa did
not speak Muskogee and their name is from the Koasati, Alabama, or Choctaw language, and since they were near neighbors
of the two former, it is evident that they
were connected with one or the other of them.
Location. On the south bank of
Tallapoosa River in Montgomery County. (See Florida and Oklahoma.)
History. When we first hear of the Muklasa in 1675 they
were in
the position above given and remained there until the end of the
Creek-American War, when they are said to have emigrated to Florida in a
body. Nothing is heard of them afterward, however, and
although Gatschet (1884) states that there was a town of the name in the
Creek Nation in the west in his time, I could learn nothing about it when
I visited the Creeks in 1911-12.
Population.-In 1760 the
Muklasa are said to have had 50 men, in 1761, 30, and in 1792, 30. These
are the only figured available regarding their numbers.
Muskogee (See Muskgoee)
Napochi. If connected with Choctaw Napissa, as seems not unlikely, the name means "those who see," or "those who look out," probably equivalent to "frontiersmen."
Connection.-They belonged to the southern division of the Muskhogean proper, and were seemingly nearest to the Choctaw.
Location. Along Black Warrior River.
History. The tribe appears first in the account of an attempt to colonize the Gulf States in 1559 under Don Tristan de Luna. part of his forces being sent inland from Pensacola Bay came to Coosa in 1560 and assisted its people against the Napochi, whom they claimed to have reduced to "allegiance" to the former. After this the Napochi seem to have left the Black Warrior, and we know nothing certain of their fate, but the name was preserved down to very recent times among the Creeks as a war name, and it is probable that they are the Napissa spoken of by Iberville in 1699, as having recently and the Chickasaw. Possibly the Acolapissa of Pearl River and the Quinipissa of Louisiana were parts of the same tribe.
Population. Unknown.
Connection in which they have become noted. The only claim the Napochi have to distinction is their possible connection with the remarkable group of mounds at Moundville, Hale County, Ala.
Natchez. One section of the Natchez Indians settled among the the Abihka Creeks near Coosa River after 1731 and went to Oklahoma a century later with the rest of the Creeks. (See Mississippi.)
Okchai. A division of the Muskogee.
Okmulgee. A Creek tribe and town of the Hitchiti connection. (See Georgia.)
Osochi. Meaning unknown.
Connections. Within recent times the closest connections of this tribe have been with the Chiaha, though their language is said to have been Muskogee, but there is some reason to think that they may have been originally a part of the Timucua. (See below.)
Location. Their best known historic seat was in the great bend of Chattahoochee River, Russell County, Ala., near the Chiaha. (See also Georgia and Florida.)
Villages. The town of Hotalgi-huyana was populated in part from this tribe and in part from the Chiaha. The census of 1832 gives two settlements, one on the Chattahoochee River and one on a stream called Opillike Hatchee.
History. The suggestion that the Osochi may have been Timucua is founded
(1) on the resemblance of their name to that of a Timucua division in
northwest Florida called by the Spaniards Ossachile or Ugachile,
(2) on
the fact that after the Timucua uprising of 1656 some of the rebels "fled
to the woods," and
(3) the later mention of a detached body of Timucua in
the neighborhood of the Apalachicola.
Early in the eighteenth century they
seem to have been living with or near the Apalachicola at the junction of
the Chattahoochee and Flint. From what Hawkins (1848) tells us regarding
them, we must suppose that they moved up Flint River somewhat later and
from there to the Chattahoochee, in the location near the Chiaha above
given. They migrated to Oklahoma with the rest of the Lower Creeks, and
maintained their separateness in that country for a while but were later
absorbed in the general mass of the Creek Population.
Population. The following estimates of the effective male population of the Osochi occur: 1750, 30; 1760, 50; 1792, 50. The census of 1832-33 returned a total of 539, but one of the two towns inhabited by these Indians may have belonged to the Okmulgee.
Pakana. A division of the Muskogee.
Pawokti. This tribe moved from Florida to the neighborhood of Mobile along with the Alabama Indians and afterward established a town on the upper course of Alabama River. Still later they were absorbed into the Alabama division of the Creek Confederacy. (See Florida.)
Pilthlako. A division of the Creeks, probably related to the Muskogee, and possibly a division of the Okchai.
Sawokli. Possibly meaning "raccoon people," in the Hitchiti language, and, while this is not absolutely certain, the okli undoubtedly means "people."
Connections. The Sawokli belonged to the Muskhogean linguistic stock and to the subdivision called Atcik-hata. (See Apalachicola.)
Location. The best known historic location was on Chattahoochee River in the northeastern part of the present Barbour County, Ala. (See Florida and Georgia.)
Villages
Hatchee tcaba, probably on or near Hatchechubbee Creek, in Russell County,
Ala.
Okawaigi, on Cowikee Creek, in Barbour County, Ala.
Okiti-yagani, in Clay County, Ga., not far from Fort Gaines.
Sawokli, several different locations, the best known of which is given
above.
Sawoklutci, on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River, in Stewart
County, Ga.
Teawokli, probably on Chattahoochee River in the northeastern
part of Russell
County, Ala.
History. When first known to the Spaniards the Sawokli were living on Chattahoochee River below the falls. A Spanish mission, Santa Cruz de Sabacola, was established in one section of the tribe by Bishop Calderón of Cuba in 1675, and missionaries were sent to a larger body among the Creeks in 1679 and again in 1681. Most of the Indians surrounding these latter, however, soon became hostile and those who were Christianized withdrew to the junction of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, where they were settled not far from the newly established Chatot missions. The Sawokli appear to have remained in the same general region until 1706 or 1707, when they were displaced by hostile Indians, probably Creeks. At least part lived for a while on Ocmulgee River and returned to the Chattahoochee, as did the residents of many other Indian towns, about 1715, after which they gradually split up into several settlements but followed the fortunes of the Lower Creeks. In the seventeenth century there a have been a detached body as far west as Yazoo River, since a map that period gives a "Sabougla" town there and the name is preserved to the present day in a creek and post village.
Population. In 1738 a Spanish report gives the Sawokli 20 men, evidently an underestimate. In 1750 four settlements are given with more than 50 men, and in 1760 the same number of settlements and 190 men, including perhaps the Tamali, but to these must be added 30 men of Okiti-yakani. In 1761, including the neighboring and probably related villages, they are reported to have had 50 hunters. Hawkins in 1799 gives 20 hunters in Sawoklutci but no figures for the other towns. (See Hawkins, 1848.) In 1821 Young (in Morse, 1822) estimates 150 inhabitants in a town probably identical with this, and, according to the census of 1832-33, there were 187 Indians in Sawokli besides 42 slaves, 157 Indians in Okawaigi, and 106 in Hatcheetcaba; altogether, exclusive of the slaves, 450.
Connection in which. they have become noted.-Sawokla is the name of a small place in Oklahoma, and a branch of this town has had its name incorporated in that of a stream, the Chewokeleehatchee, in Macon County., Ala., and in a post office called Chewacla in Lee County, Ala.
Shawnee. In 1716 a band of Shawnee from Savannah River moved to the Chattahoochee and later to the Tallapoosa, where they remained until early in the nineteenth century. A second band settled near Sylacauga in 1747 and remained there until some time before 1761 when they returned north. (See Tennessee.)
Taensa. This tribe was moved from Louisiana in 1715 and given a location about 2 leagues from the French fort at Mobile, one which had been recently abandoned by the Tawasa, along a watercourse which was named from them Tensaw River. Soon after the cession of Mobile to Great Britain, the Taensa returned to Louisiana. (See Louisiana.)
Tohome. Said by Iberville to mean "little chief," but this is evidently an error.
Connections. They belonged to the southern branch of the Muskhogean linguistic group, their closest relatives being the Mobile.
Location. About MacIntosh's Bluff on the west bank of Tombigbee River, some miles above its junction with the Alabama.
Subdivisions. Anciently there were two main branches of this tribe, sometimes called the Big Tohome and Little Tohome, but the Little Tohome are known more often as Naniaba, "people dwelling on a hill," or "people of the Forks;" the latter would be because they were where the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers unite.
Villages. No others are known than those which received their names from the
and its subdivisions.
History. Cartographical evidence suggests that the Tohome may once have lived on a creek formerly known as Oke Thome, now contracted into Catoma, which flows into Alabama River a short distance below Montgomery. When first discovered by the Whites, however, they were living at the point above indicated. In the De Luna narratives (1559-60) the Tombigbee River is called "River of the Tome." Iberville learned of this tribe in April 1700, and sent messengers who reached the Tohome village and returned in May. In 1702 he went to see them himself but seems not to have gone beyond the Naniaba. From this time on Tohome history is identical with that of the Mobile and the two tribes appear usually to have been in alliance although a rupture between them was threatened upon one occasion on account of the murder of a Mobile woman by one of the Tohome. In 1715 a Tohome Indian killed an English trader named Hughes who had come overland from South Carolina, had been apprehended and taken to Mobile by the French and afterward liberated. A bare mention of the tribe occurs in 1763 and again in 1771-72. They and the Mobile probably united ultimately with the Choctaw.
Population. In 1700 Iberville estimated that the Tohome and Mobile each counted 300 warriors, but 2 years later he revised his figures so far that he gave 350 for the two together. In 1730 Regis de Rouillet estimated that there were 60 among the Tohome and 50 among the Naniaba. In 1758 Governor De Kerlerec estimated that the Mobile, Tohome, and Naniaba together had 100 warriors. (See Mobile.)
Tukabahchee. One of the four head tribes of the Muskogee.
Tuskegee. Meaning unknown, but apparently containing the Alabama term taska, "warrior."
Connections. The original Tuskegee language is unknown but it was probably affiliated with the Alabama, and hence with the southern branch of Muskhogean.
Location. The later and best known location of this tribe was on the point of land between Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, but in 1685 part of them were on the Chattahoochee River near modern Columbus and the rest were on the upper Tennessee near Long Island. (See also Oklahoma and Tennessee.)
Villages. None are known under any except the tribal name.
History. In 1540 De Soto passed through a town called Tasqui 2 days before
he entered Coosa. In 1567 Vandera was informed that there were two places
in this neighborhood near together called Tasqui and Tasquiqui, both of
which probably belonged to the Tuskegee.
By the close of the seventeenth century the Tuskegee appear to have
divided into two bands one of which Coxe (1705) places on an island
in Tennessee River. This band continued to live on or near the Tennessee for a considerable period but in course of time settled among
the Cherokee on the south side of Little Tennessee River, just above
the mouth of Tellico, in the present Monroe County, Tenn.
Sequoya
lived there in his boyhood. Another place which retained this name,
and was probably the site of an earlier settlement was on the
north bank of Tennessee River, in a bend just below Chattanooga,
while there was a Tuskegee Creek on the south bank of Little Tennessee
River, north of Robbinsville, in Graham County, N. C. This band; or the
greater part of it, was probably absorbed by the Cherokee. A second body
of Tuskegee moved to the location mentioned above where the Coosa and
Tallapoosa Rivers come together. It is possible that they first
established themselves among the Creek towns on the Ocmulgee, moved with
them to the Chattahoochee in 1715 and finally to the point just indicated,
for we have at least two documentary notices of Tuskegee at those points
and they appear so situated on a number of maps. It is more likely that
these were the Tuskegee who finally settled at the Coosa-Tallapoosa
confluence than a third division of the tribe but the fact is not yet
established. In 1717 the French fort called Fort Toulouse or the Alabama
Fort was built close to this town and therefore it continued in the French
interest as long as French rule lasted. After the Creek removal, the
Tuskegee formed a town in the southeastern part of the Creek territories
in Oklahoma, but at a later date part moved farther to the northwest and
established themselves near Beggs.
Population. There are no figures for the Tuskegee division which remained on Tennessee River. The southern band had 10 men according to the estimate of 1750, but this is evidently too low. Later enumerations are 50 men in 1760, 40 in 1761, including those of Coosa Old Town, 25 in 1772 and 1792, 35 in 1799. The census of 1832-33 returned a population of 216 Indians and 25 Negro slaves.
Connection in which they haze become noted. The name Tuskegee became applied locally to several places in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, and one in Creek County, Okla., but the most important place to receive it was Tuskeegee or Tuskegee, the county seat of Macon County, Ala. The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for colored people, located at this place, has, under the guidance of the late Booker T. Washington, made the name better known than any other association.
Wakokai. A division or subtribe of the Muskogee.
Wiwohka. A division of the Muskogee made up from several different sources. (See Muskogee.)
Yamasee. There was a band of Yamasee on Mobile Bay shortly after 1715, at the mouth of Deer River, and such a band is entered on maps as late as 1744. It was possibly this same band which appears among the Upper Creeks during the same century and in particular is entered upon the Mitchell map of 1755. Later they seem to have moved across to Chattahoochee River and later to west Florida, where in 1823 they constituted a Seminole town. (See Florida.)
Yuchi. A band of Yuchi seems to have lived at a very early date near Muscle Shoals on Tennessee River, whence they probably moved into east Tennessee. A second body of the same tribe moved from Choctawhatchee River, Fla., to the Tallapoosa before 1760 and established themselves near the Tukabahchee, but they soon disappeared from the historical record. In 1715 the Westo Indians, who I believe to have been Yuchi, settled on the Alabama side of Chattahoochee River, probably on Little Uchee Creek. The year afterward another band, accompanied by Shawnee and Apalachicola Indians, established themselves farther down, perhaps at the mouth of Cowikee Creek in Barbour County, and not long afterward accompanied the Shawnee to Tallapoosa River. They settled beside the latter and some finally united with them. They seem to have occupied several towns in the neighborhood in succession and there is evidence that a part of them reached the lower Tombigbee. The main body of Yuchi shifted from the Savannah to Uchee Creek in Russell County between 1729 and 1740 and continued there until the westward migration of the Creek Nation. (See Georgia.)
Additional Alabama Indian Resources
Alabama Indian Tribes in the 1900 Indian Territory Census
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