Apalachicola Indians (meaning: possibly people on the other side). A Hitchiti town formerly situate on the west bank of lower Chattahoochee River, Alabama, a short distance below Chiaha, nearly opposite the present Columbus, Georgia. Formerly one of the most important Hitchiti settlements, it had lost its importance by 1799. It was a peace town and received the name Talua-hlako, ‘great town’. Bartram states that about 1750 it was moved up the river, and that the people spoke the Hitchiti dialect. In the abbreviated form Palatchukla the name is applied to part of Chattahoochee River below the junction with Flint River. Hodgson 1 states that “Palachookla,” the capital of the confederacy, was a very ancient Uchee town, but this statement may be due to confusion with the later Apalachicola on Savannah River, South Carolina The name Apalachicola was also frequently used by both Spaniards and French in the 18th century to include all the Lower Creeks then settled on Chattahoochee River.
Citations:
- Hodgson, introd. to Hawkins, Sketch[↩]