People of One Fire Collections – Page 5 of 6

Native American History of Campbell County, Georgia

Old Campbell County was located in west central Georgia. The county was named for Duncan G. Campbell, one of the state commissioners present at the signing of the Treaty of Indians Springs in 1825. In 1870 Douglass County was cut off from Campbell, but later renamed Douglas. The original county seat was Campbellton on the Chattahoochee River. However, shortly after the Atlanta & West Point Railroad was laid through the village of Fairburn, Fairburn became the county seat. Campbell was annexed by Fulton County in 1931. All of Fulton County is part of the Atlanta Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA.) … Read more

Native American History of Butts County, Georgia

Butts County is located in central Georgia and is part of the Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA.) It is named after Captain Samuel Butts, who was killed in action during the Creek Civil War (Redstick War.) Its county seat is Jackson. Captain Butts commanded a militia company in the First Brigade of the Georgia Militia, under the command of Brig. Gen. John Floyd. The army consisted of 1,200 Caucasians and 400 Georgia Yuchi. It was attacked at night at Calebee Creek on January 27. 1814. The English word comes from the Creek word Kvlvpe, which means White Oak. The Georgians … Read more

Native American History of Bleckley County, Georgia

Bleckley County is located in central Georgia. It is named after Edward Logan Bleckley (1827 – 1907) – a lawyer and Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. Its county seat is Cochran. Bleckley is the location of the nation’s oldest two year public college, Middle Georgia College. Bleckley County is bordered on the north by both Wilkinson and Twiggs Counties. Laurens County forms its eastern boundary. Dodge County forms its southwestern boundary while Pulaski County forms its southwestern boundary. It is bordered to the west by Houston County. The Ocmulgee River forms a relatively short section of the county’s … Read more

Native American History of Bibb County, Georgia

Bibb County is located in central Georgia and is part of the Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA.) It is named after William Wyatt Bibb (1781 -1820.) Its county seat is Macon. Bibb County contains one of the most important and largest archaeological zones in the United States, the Ocmulgee Bottoms. It is one to two miles (1.6-3.2 km) wide and approximately 12 miles (19.2 km) wide. The Ocmulgee Bottoms was the location of one of the earliest centers of advanced Native American culture north of Mexico and the traditional location where the Creek Indian Confederacy was born. Ocmulgee National … Read more

Native American History of Bay County, Florida

Bay County is located in northwestern Florida. It was named after St. Andrews Bay, when the county was created in 1913. The county seat and largest city in the county is Panama City. Its northern boundary is Washington County, FL. Its northeastern boundary is Jackson County, FL. To the east is Calhoun County, FL; to the west is Walton County, FL and the southeast, is Gulf County, FL. The Gulf of Mexico forms its southwestern boundary. Much of Bay County is characterized by bays, bayous, tidal creeks, tidal marshes, freshwater lakes and freshwater swamps. The Choctawhatchee River flows through the … Read more

Native American History of Bartow County, Georgia

Bartow County located in northwest Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA.) Its county seat is Cartersville. Bartow is named after Colonial Francis S. Bartow, a Confederate officer who was killed in the First Battle of Manassas. Prior to the Civil War, it was named Cass County in honor of General Lewis Cass of Michigan, Secretary of War under President Jackson, Minister to France and Secretary of State under President Buchannan. Cass played a major role in the removal of Cherokee Indians from northwestern Georgia. Most of the buildings in Cassville, the county’s original county … Read more

Native American History of Barrow County, Georgia

Barrow County located in northern Georgia and is part of the Atlanta Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA.) The county seat is Winder. The county is named after David Crenshaw Barrow Jr. (1852 –1929.) Barrow served as the chancellor of the University of Georgia in nearby Athens from 1906 until 1925. Barrow County is bordered on the north by Hall County. On the east is bordered by both Clarke and Jackson Counties. On the south it is bordered by Walton County and southeast by Oconee County. Gwinnett County forms its western boundary. The Oconee Rivers defines the boundary between Barrow and … Read more

Native American History of Barbour County, Alabama

Barbour County is located in the southeast corner of Alabama, immediately west of the Chattahoochee River and the State of Georgia. The county seat is Clayton. The county is named after Jame Barbour, a popular Virginia governor and U. S. Senator. As Secretary of War, Barbour successfully negotiated the removal of the Creek Nation from Georgia. He was also the first national leader to propose creation of an Indian Territory in the West. To the east, Barbour County adjoins Quitman and Stewart Counties, GA. To the south, it adjoins Henry and Dale Counties, AL, plus Clay County, GA. On the … Read more

Native American History of Autauga County, Alabama

It is not known for certain which ethnic group built the many towns with mounds in Autauga County. One possibility is that a branch of the Choctaws lived there, since a swamp in the western part of the county had a Choctaw name, Conchapita. Alternatively, they may have been related to the Alabama Indians who occupied the region in the late 1600s and most of the 18th century. Most of the Alabama’s left with the French in 1763 after France lost the Seven Years War with Great Britain. Members of the Creek Confederacy then moved into the region and absorbed the remaining Alabamas.

Nacoochee Mound, Nation’s First Gold Rush

One of Georgias most beloved landmarks, the Nacoochee Mound, has a fascinating history For generations of Georgians, and now the endless line of Floridians seeking cool nights, the Nacoochee Mound has announced to passersby that they are REALLY in the mountains. It is the gateway to Helen, GA a tiny lumber mill hamlet that was remade into an alpine village and now is an international tourist attraction. One senses that mankind has been in the Nacoochee Valley a long, long time. It has that feeling of a place with history. Its true history will surprise you. There is a Georgia State … Read more

Mysterious Kenimer Mound, Nacoochee Valley, Georgia

Who constructed this five sided landmark and why? Mankind has lived a long time in the beautiful Nacoochee Valley of the Northeast Georgia Mountains; at least 10,000 years. Even after 200 years of being farmed by European settlers, at least a dozen Native American mounds have been identified. In fact, the gateway to the valley is marked by a Creek Indian mound with a nineteenth century gazebo on top. Near the village of Sautee in the Nacoochee Valley is a large five sided hill. Early European settlers noted that the Cherokees had held rituals on this hill during their brief … Read more

Mysterious Fort Mountain, Georgia

When the Scottish, Ulster Scots and English settlers first arrived in eastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia, they discovered a continuous chain composed of hundreds of fieldstone structures on the mountain and hill tops between Manchester, TN and Stone Mountain, GA. Some were merely piles of stones that archaeologists call cairns. Others formed small cylinders. Others were small rings. Still others were complex combinations of concentric rings with some perpendicular walls. At least two appeared to be walled villages. The Cherokees, who had moved into the region during the late 1700s, told the settlers that they didn’t build these structures. Some … Read more

Middle Slave Raid Period 1684-1706

Stark changes occurred during the mid-1680s in the Southeast. There were many movements of population as the intensity of attacks on the Spanish mission by the Westo, Chickmawka’s, Yamassee and pirates intensified. The Rickohockens were completely pushed out of their stronghold at the Peaks of the Twin Otter by Iroquois raids. The Iroquois had obtained firearms first from the Dutch, and now from the English. Many minor ethnic groups and villages in the Carolina’s had disappeared during the previous twenty years due to Rickohocken and Westo slave raids. Now African slaves were much more available, so the emphasis of the … Read more

Master Farmers and Mound Builders

Around 900 AD a massive, five-side mound was constructed near the modern-day village of Sautee. It was at the foot of Yonah Mountain and aligned directly with the longitude of the new town of Ocmulgee, about 145 miles to the south. This mound was not occupied very long. Around 1050 AD astronomer-priests arrived in the Nacoochee Valley from the new town of Etalwa (Etowah Mounds.) They designated a location in the valley where the natural mountain peaks to mark the solstices and equinoxes of the sun. A small mound was constructed at this spot and a hamlet grew up around … Read more

Incessant Warfare

What is seldom understood by the general public, and even some historians, is that the ethnic pattern of the Southeast changed starkly between 1700 and 1776. Even the names of rivers changed to reflect socioeconomic changes. The Tennessee River was originally known as the Calimaco River in the 1600s, which is Itza Maya for “Throne of the King.” In the map above created in 1711 by Edward Crisp, it is labeled the Cusate or Hogeloge River. “Cusate” means “Kusa People” in the Itsati-Creek language. Hogeloge was the name of a branch of the Yuchi’s living in eastern Tennessee. The map … Read more

Glossary of Major Muskogean Ethnic Groups, 1550 AD

From Ancient Roots IV: Muskogean Architecture and Town Planning, by Richard Thornton, 2007 [box]Authors Note I started out with Swanton’s Indians of North America and pulled the names of the Muskogean tribes in the Southeast. I then updated what Swanton said to include information from archaeological studies in the sixty years since Swanton wrote his book. I also included the findings from my own research – particularly in the Southern Highlands and Ocmulgee-Altamaha River Basin. Several people of Creek descent from Georgia, Florida and Oklahoma have subsidized my research, because they thought that the current university texts contained many inaccuracies … Read more

Georgia Gold Rush

Chattahoochee River in the Nacoochee Valley

In 1824 gold was officially “’re-discovered’ in the Dukes Creek area of the Nacoochee Valley. After word was slowly spread around the nation about the large gold deposits by couriers and newspapers, thousands of men from throughout the United States rushed to the Georgia Mountains to seek their fortune. They ignored the fact that the Nacoochee Valley was within the sovereign territory of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee population of the valley probably number no more than a hundred. There was nothing they could do. They were a beaten people. The State of Georgia cleverly solved the problem by sending … Read more

Four Seasons of the Potawatomi

Summertime was when the families of the village lived together in a village.

A visual and written model of the culture and lifestyle of the Potawatomie tribe during the four seasons – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

Fort Toulouse, the Chitimachas and the Natchez Wars

Another war between England and France began in 1718 – the War of the Quadruple Alliance. The French had succeeded in surrounding the British colonies in North America, except for the boundary with Florida. France seemed poised to have most of the Southeastern Indians as allies. These advanced Native American provinces represented the densest indigenous population north of Mexico. However, the British Navy had destroyed French coastal forts and shipping almost at will. France might control the coastline, but the British controlled the seas. Fort Toulouse – 1717 Anticipating more wars with Great Britain and desiring closer trade relations with … Read more

Ethnic Cleansing of the Southeast

This is the story of how the Westo Indians moved from southwestern Virginia to southwestern Georgia and then to Oklahoma. It is also the little known story of the rise of institutionalized slavery in the United States.