(Alabama) Extract from

The Indian Tribes of North America
by John R. Swanton
Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145-1953
[726 pages-Smithsonian Institution]
(pp. 153-174)

Abihka. see Creek Confederacy and Muskogee.

Alabama. Perhaps connected with the native word "albina," meaning "to camp," or alba amo, "weed gatherer," referring to the black drink.

    Also called:
    Ma'-mo an-ya-di, or Ma'-mo han-ya, by the Biloxi.
    Oke-choy-atte, given by Schoolcraft (1851-57), the name of an Alabama town, Oktcaiutci.

    Connections. —The Alabama language belonged to the southern division of the Muskhogean stock, and was perhaps connected with the tongues of the Muklasa and Tuskegee, which have not been preserved. It was closely related to Koasati and more remotely to Hitchiti and Choctaw.

    Location. —The principal historic seat of this tribe was on the upper course of Alabama River. (See also Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.)

    Subdivisions: The Tawasa and Pawokti, which later formed two Alabama towns, were originally independent tribes (See under Florida), though the former, at least, was not properly Alabama. The same may have been true of some other Alabama towns, though we have no proof of the fact.

    Villages: Besides the above:

      Autauga, on the north bank of Alabama River about the mouth of Autauga Creek in Autauga County.
      Kantcati, on Alabama River about 3 miles above Montgomery and on the same side.
      Nitahauritz, on the north side of Alabama River west of the confluence of the Alabama and Cahawba Rivers in Dallas County.
      Okchayutci, in Benjamin Hawkins' time (about 1800) on the cast bank of Coosa River between Tuskegee and the Muskogee town of Otciapofa. (See Hawkins, 1848, 1916.)
      Wetumpka, a branch village reported in 1761.

    History. —Native tradition assigns the origin of the Alabama to a point at the confluence of Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, but we seem to hear of the tribe first historically in what is now northern Mississippi west of the Chickasaw country. This is in the narratives of De Soto's chroniclers, which, however, do not altogether agree, since one writer speaks of a province of the name, two others bestow the designation upon a small village, and only Garcilaso (1723), the least reliable, gives the title Fort Alibamo to a stockade- west of the village above mentioned- where the Spaniards had a severe combat. While this stockade was probably held by Alabama Indians, there is no certainty that it was. The next we hear of the tribe it is in its historic seats above given. After the French had established themselves at Mobile they became embroiled in some small affrays between the Alabama and Mobile Indians, but peace was presently established and thereafter the French and Alabama remained good friends as long as French rule continued. This friendship was cemented in 1717 by the establishment of Fort Toulouse in the Alabama country and the admission among them of one, or probably two, refugee tribes, the Tawasa and Pawokti. (See Florida.) About 1763 a movement toward the west began on the part of those Indians who had become accustomed to French rule. Some Alabama joined the Seminole in Florida. Others accompanied the Koasati to Tombigbee River but soon returned to their own country. Still another body went to Louisiana and settled on the banks of the Mississippi River, where they were probably joined from time to time by more. Later they advanced further toward the west and some are still scattered in St. Landry and Calcasieu Parishes, but the greatest single body finally reached Polk County, Tex., where they occupy a piece of land set aside for them by the State. Those who remained behind took a very prominent part in the Creek-American War and lost all their land by the treaty of Fort Jackson, 1814, being obliged to make new settlements between the Coosa and Tallapoosa. They accompanied the rest of the Creeks to Oklahoma, and their descendants are to he found there today, principally about a little station bearing the name just south of Weleetka.

    Population. —In 1702 Iberville (in Margry, 1875-86, vol. 4, p. 514) estimated that there were 400 families of Alabama in two villages, and the English census of 1715 gives 214 men and a total population of 770 in four villages. These figures must have been exclusive of the Tawasa and Pawokti, which subsequent estimates include. About 1730-40 there is an estimate of 400 men in six towns. In 1792 the number of Alabama men is given as 60, exclusive of 60 Tawasa, but as this last included Kantcati the actual proportion of true Alabama was considerably greater. Hawkins, in 1799, estimated 80 gunmen in four Alabama towns, including Tawasa and Pawokti, but he does not include the population of Okchaiyutci. (See Hawkins, 1848.) In 1832 only two towns are entered which may be safely set down as Alabama, Tawasa and Autauga, and these had a population of 321 besides 21 slaves. The later figures given above do not include those Alabama who had moved to Louisiana. In 1805 Sibley (1832) states there were two villages in Louisiana with 70 men; in 1917 Morse (1822) gives 160 Alabama all told in Texas, but this is probably short of the truth. In 1882 the United States Indian Office reported 290 Alabama, Koasati, and Muskogee in Texas, the larger number of whom were probably Alabama. In 1900 the figure is raised to 470. In 1910 a special agent from the Indian Office reported 192 Alabama alone. The census of 1910 gave 187 in Texas and 111 in Louisiana, a total of 298. The 176 "Creek" Indians returned from Polk County, Tex., in 1930, were mainly Alabama. The number of Alabama in Oklahoma has never been separately reported.

    Connection in which they have become noted. —The Alabama attained early literary fame from Garcilaso de la Vega's (1723) description of the storming of "Fort Alibamo." Their later notoriety has rested upon the fact that their name became attached to Alabama River, and still more call its subsequent adoption by the State of Alabama. A railroad station in Oklahoma is named after them, and the term has been applied to places in Genesee County, N. Y., and in Polk County, Wis. There is an Alabama City in Etowah County, Ala., and Alabama in Madison County, Ark.

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 (q. v.).

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 is 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 (WÑ-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 here 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 (q. v.).

Fus-hatchee. A division of the Muskogee (q. v.).

Hilibi. A division or subtribe of the Muskogee (q. v.).

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 (q. v.).

Kealedji. A division of the Muskogee (q. v.).

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 fall 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 1600 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 from 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 near where 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 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 River others went to the Sabine and beyond to the Neches and Trinity Rivers, Tex. At a later date a few Texas bands united with the Alabama in Polk County, where 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 mix 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 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. —Coonsada, 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 (q. v.).

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 Rend 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 Alabama. 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 (1928) 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; in 1725-26 Bienville (1932, vol. 3, p. 536), gives 60 for the Mobile alone, but in 1730 Regis de Rouillet (1732) cuts this in half. In 1758 De Kerlérec (1907) estimates the number of warriors among the Mobile, Tohome, and Naniaba 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, and (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."

Muskogee. Meaning unknown, but perhaps originally from Shawnee and having reference to swampy ground. To this tribe the name Creeks was ordinarily applied.

Also called: