Muscogee
Indigenous peoples of the Southeast, forcibly removed in the 1830s.
The Muscogee, also known as the Muscogee Creek or simply Creek, are a group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands in the United States. Their historical homelands are in what now comprises southern Tennessee, much of Alabama, western Georgia, and parts of northern Florida. They are significant as one of the 'Five Civilized Tribes' and for their complex confederated town networks, moundbuilding polities, and forced removal during the Trail of Tears.
Quick Facts
- Group
- Muscogee
- Population
- 2010: self-identified 88,332 alone and in combination
- Popplace
- United States (historically Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, and Tennessee; now primarily Oklahoma and Alabama)
- Rels
- Protestantism, Four Mothers Society, and others
- Langs
- Muscogee, Hitchiti-Mikasuki, and English
- Related
- Yuchi, Muskogean peoples: Alabama, Koasati, Miccosukee, Yamasee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Coushatta, Mascogos, Apalachee and Seminoles
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The ancestors of the Muscogee were part of the Mississippian cultures, building complex cities with earthwork mounds between 800 and 1600 CE. Their confederated town networks were based on a 900-year-old history of farming and town layouts around plazas, ballparks, and square ceremonial dance grounds. Early Spanish explorers encountered them in the mid-16th century, including the de Soto expedition from 1540 to 1543, which brought epidemics and conflict, such as the Battle of Mabila.
Reader's Guide
The Muscogee were the first Native Americans officially considered by the early United States government to be 'civilized' under George Washington's civilization plan, and in the 19th century they were known as one of the 'Five Civilized Tribes' for integrating numerous cultural and technological practices of European American neighbors. Internal divisions led to the Red Stick War (Creek War, 1813–1814), which began as a civil war and enmeshed northern Muscogee bands as British allies in the War of 1812. After the rebellion was put down by General Andrew Jackson, the Muscogee nation was forced to sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, ceding 22,000,000 acres of land. During the 1830s Indian Removal, most of the Muscogee Confederacy were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Today, several federally recognized tribes exist, including the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama, and the Seminole tribes in Oklahoma and Florida, the latter formed in part by Muscogee refugees.
Did You Know?
- The Muscogee language belongs to the Eastern Muskogean branch; the Yuchi language, spoken by some Muscogee, is a linguistic isolate unrelated to any other language.
- The Muscogee were associated with large moundbuilding polities such as Ocmulgee, Etowah Indian Mounds, and Moundville.
- A small group of the Muscogee Creek Confederacy remained in Alabama, forming the federally recognized Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
- The Seminole emerged through ethnogenesis when Muscogee groups moved into Florida between roughly 1767 and 1821 and intermarried with local tribes.
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