Georgia Archives – Page 41 of 50

Creek Indian Research

Creek Indians, A confederacy forming the largest division of the Muskhogean family. They received their name form the English on account of the numerous streams in their country. During early historic times the Creek occupied the greater portion of Alabama and Georgia, residing chiefly on Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, the two largest tributaries of the Alabama river and on the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers. Read more about the Creek Tribe History. Creek Indian Biography Biography of General William Augustus Bowles Biography of General William Mcintosh Biography of General Alexander McGillivray Creek Indian Chiefs and Leaders Benjamin Hawkins (hosted at About … Read more

Creek Tribe

Yoholo-Micco. A Creek Chief, from History of the Indian Tribes of North America

Creek Indians. A confederacy forming the largest division of the Muskhogean family. They received their name form the English on account of the numerous streams in their country. Where did the Creek Indian tribe live? During early historic times the Creek occupied the greater portion of Alabama and Georgia, residing chiefly on Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, the two largest tributaries of the Alabama river and on the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers. They claimed the territory on the east from the Savannah to St. Johns river and all the islands, thence to Apalachee Bay, and from this line northward to the … Read more

Choctaw Genealogy

Choctaw Eagle Dance, George Catlin, 1845-8

Think you have Choctaw in your ancestry? This page will provide some background history and locations the tribe resided in as well as the rolls and census they were enumerated on.

Chickasaw Tribe

Chickasaw Indians. An important Muskhogean tribe, closely related to the Choctaw in language and customs, although the two tribes were mutually hostile. Aside from tradition, the earliest habitat traceable for the Chickasaw is north Mississippi. Their villages in the 18th century centered about Pontotoc and Union counties, where the headwaters of the Tombigbee meet those of Yazoo river and its affluent, the Tallahatchie, about where the De Soto narratives place them in 1540, under the name Chicaza. Their main landing place on the Mississippi was at Chickasaw Bluffs, now the site of Memphis, Tennessee, whence a trail more than 160 … Read more

Chickamauga Tribe

Chickamauga Indians (Tsǐkăma’gi, a word apparently of foreign origin and probably Shawnee, Creek, or Chickasaw). The name given to a band of Cherokee who espoused the English cause in the war of the Revolution and moved far down on Tennessee River, establishing new settlements on Chickamauga Creek, in the neighborhood of the present Chattanooga.

Cherokee Tribe

1830 Map of Cherokee Territory in Georgia

“Cherokee Tribe – Access Genealogy” provides a comprehensive overview of the Cherokee people, including their history, language, and clans. The text explores their origins, their forced removal westward on the “Trail of Tears,” and the establishment of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. It also highlights notable figures like Sequoya, who developed a Cherokee syllabary, and William H. Thomas, who advocated for the Eastern Band’s right to remain in North Carolina. The website offers numerous links to additional resources for those seeking more in-depth information about the Cherokee.

Seminole Indian Tribe

The term semanóle, or isti simanóle, signifies separatist or runaway, and as a tribal name points to the Indians who left the Creek, especially the Lower Creek settlements, for Florida, to live, hunt and fish there in entire independence. The term does not mean wild, savage, as frequently stated; if applied now in this sense to animals, it is because of its original meaning, “what has become a runaway”: pínua simanóle wild turkey (cf. pín-apúiga domesticated turkey), tchu-áta semanóli, antelope, literally, “goat turned runaway, wild,” from tchu-áta, ítchu háta goat, lit., “bleating deer.” The present Seminoles of Florida call themselves … Read more

The Creek Indian Trails

A correct and detailed knowledge of the Indian trails leading through their country, and called by them warpaths, horse trails, and by the white traders “trading roads,” forms an important part of Indian topography and history. Their general direction is determined by mountain ranges and gaps (passes), valleys, springs, watercourses, fordable places in rivers, etc. The early explorers of North American countries all followed these Indian trails: Narvaez, Hernando de Soto, Tristan de Luna, Juan del Pardo, Lederer and Lawson, because they were led along these tracks by their Indian guides. If we knew with accuracy the old Indian paths … Read more

Wakokai Tribe

The readily interpretable nature of this name, which signifies “heron breeding place,” suggests that the Wakokai were not an ancient Creek division; but not sufficient evidence has been found, traditional or other, to suggest an origin from any one of the remaining groups. Notice might be taken in this connection of the river Guacuca (Wakuka) crossed by the De Soto expedition just after leaving the Apalachee country. Their first historical appearance is probably on the De Crenay map of 1733, which represents them on Coosa River below the Pakan tallahassee Indians. Wakokai is now reckoned as a White town, but … Read more

Population of the Southeastern Indians

The population of an Indian tribe at any early period in its history can not be determined with exactness. In the case of the Creeks we have to consider not only the Muskogee or Creeks proper, but a number of tribes afterwards permanently or temporarily incorporated with them, and the problem is proportionately complicated. Fortunately we are helped out by a considerable nmnber of censuses, some of which were taken with more than usual care. The Cusabo tribes were always small, even at the time of their first intercourse with the Spaniards and French, but we have no data regarding … Read more

Tamali Tribe

It is in the highest degree probable that this town is identical with the Toa, Otoa, or Toalli of the De Soto chroniclers, the –lli of the last form representing presumably the Hitchiti plural –ali. Be that as it may, there can be little question regarding the identity of Tamałi with the town of Tama, which appears in Spanish documents of the end of the same century and the beginning of the seventeenth. In 1598 Mendez de Canço, governor of Florida, writes that he plans to establish a post at a place “which is called Tama, where I have word … Read more

Tamahita Tribe

In 1673 the Virginia pioneer Abraham Wood sent two white men, James Needham and Gabriel Arthur, the latter probably an indentured servant, in company with eight Indians, to explore western Virginia up to and beyond the mountains. They were turned back at first “by misfortune and unwillingness of ye Indians before the mountaines that they should discover beyond them”; but May 17 they were sent out again, and on June 25 they met some “Tomahitans” on their way from the mountains to the Occaneechi, a Siouan tribe. Some of these came to see Wood, and meanwhile the rest returned to … Read more

Sawokli Tribe

The earliest home of the Sawokli of which we have any indication was upon or near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, probably in the neighborhood of Choctawhatchee Bay. Thus Barcia refers to “the Provinces of Pancacola, Sabacola, and others, upon the ports and bays of the Gulf of Mexico,” and the position above given agrees very well with that assigned to them, under the name “Sowoolla,” upon the Lamhatty map. In a letter written in the year 1680 Gov. Cabrera of Florida says: The Cazique Saucola, distant forty leagues from Apalache, came [to the Apalache missions] and three … Read more

Seminole Indian History

The history of the Seminole is very well known in outline, and much has been written regarding our famous Seminole War; yet it is evident that much remains to be said, on the Indian side at least, before we can have a clear understanding of the Seminole society and Seminole history. The name, as is well known, is applied by the Creeks to people who remove from populous towns and live by themselves, and it is commonly stated that the Seminole consisted of “runaways” and outlaws from the Creek Nation proper. A careful study of their history, however, shows this … Read more

Shawnee Indian Tribe

The earliest known home of the Shawnee was on Cumberland River. From there some of them moved across to the Tennessee and established settlements about the Big Bend. As we have seen, Henry Woodward was a witness, in 1674, to what was probably the first appearance of members of the tribe on Savannah River. Although he represents them as settled southwest of that stream near the Spaniards, it is more likely that the individuals whom he met belonged on the Cumberland, had been to St. Augustine to trade with the Spaniards, and were on their return home. Shortly afterwards a Shawnee … Read more

Osochi Tribe

I have registered my belief that the origin of the Osochi is to be sought in that Florida “province” through which De Soto passed shortly before reaching the Apalachee. The name is given variously as Uçachile, Uzachil, Veachile, and Ossachile. Since the Timucua chief Uriutina speaks of the Uçachile as “of our nation,” while the chief of Uçachile is said to be “kinsman of the chief of Caliquen,” it may be inferred that the tribe then spoke a Timucua dialect. If this were really the case it is strange that, instead of retiring farther into Florida with the rest of the … Read more

Oconee Tribe

In addition to two groups of Muskhogean people bearing this name it should be noticed that it was popularly applied by the whites to a Cherokee town, properly called Ukwû‛nû (or Ukwû‛nĭ), but the similarity may be merely a coincidence. Of the two Creek groups mentioned one seems to be associated exclusively with the Florida tribes, while the second, when we first hear of it, was on the Georgia river which still bears its name. The first reference to either appears to be in a report of the Timucua missionary, Fareja, dated 1602. He mentions the “Ocony,” three days’ journey … Read more

Okmulgee Tribe

Muskogee Tribes

The dominant people of the Creek Confederacy called themselves and their language in later times by a name which has become conventionalized into Muscogee or Muskogee.

Kasihta Tribe

The honorary name of this tribe in the Creek Confederacy was Kasihta lako, “Big Kasihta.” According to the earliest form of the Creek migration legend that is available – that related to Governor Oglethorpe by Chikilli in 1735 – the Kasihta and Coweta came from the west “as one people,” but in time those dwelling toward the east came to be called Kasihta and those to the west Coweta. This ancient unity of origin appears to have been generally admitted down to the present time. According to John Goat, an aged Tulsa Indian, they were at first one town, and … Read more