Mobile

The French In Alabama And Mississippi

History of Alabama and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period

After the Spanish invasion of De Soto, to which allusion has so often been made, our soil remained untrodden by European feet for nearly a century and a half. At the end of that long and dark period it became connected with the history of the distant dark period it became connected with the history of the distant French possessions of Canada, which were contemporaneous with the oldest English colonies in America. For more than fifty years the French fur traders of Canada, associated with the enterprising Jesuit Fathers, had continued to advance southwestward upon the great lakes, discovering new … Read more

Natchez, Mobilians, Chatots, Thomez and Tensas

History of Alabama and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period

In 1718, the French West India Company sent, from Rochelle, eight hundred colonists to Louisiana. Among them was a Frenchman of intelligence and high standing, named Le Page Du Pratz, who was appointed superintendent of the public plantations. After a residence of sixteen years in this country, he returned to France, and published an interesting work upon Louisiana. 1721: Du Pratz was often at Mobile, and about the period found living, in that vicinity, a few small tribes of Indians, whom we will now describe. The Chatots were a very small tribe, who composed a town of forty huts, adjoining … Read more

Mobile Indians

Mobile Tribe: 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. Mobile 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. Mobile 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. Mobile History. … Read more

Mobile Tribe

Mobile Indians (meaning doubtful). A Muskhogean tribe whose early home was probably Mauvila, or Mavilla, supposed to have been at or near Choctaw Bluff on Alabama river, Clark County, Alabama, where DeSoto, in 1540, met with fierce opposition on the part of the natives and engaged in the most obstinate contest of the expedition. The town was then under the control of Tascalusa  probably an Alibamu chief. If, as is probable, the Mobile tribe took part in this contest, they must later have moved farther south, as they are found on Mobile bay when the French began to plant a … Read more

Mobile Tribe and Tohome Tribe

So far as our information goes, the first white men to have dealings with the Indians of Mobile Bay were probably the Spaniards under Pinedo. Pinedo was sent out by Garay, governor of Jamaica, in the year 1519, to explore toward the north, and he appears to have coasted along the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico from the peninsula of Florida to Panuco. In the description of this voyage in the Letters Patent we read that after having covered the entire distance “they then turned back with the said ships, and entered a river which was found to … Read more

Condition of the Alabama Indians in 1890

Total Indian Population As Of June 1, 1890 Reservation Indians, not taxed (not counted in the general census): Males…….149 Females….235 Total………384 Indians self-supporting, taxed (counted in the general census): Males…….338 Females….421 Total………759 Grand Total 1,148 The civilized (self-supporting) Indians of Alabama, counted in the general census, number 759, 338 males and 421 females, and are distributed as follows: Autauga County, 116 Escambia County, 173 Mobile County, 4023 other counties with 8 or less in each, 68. The mode of life of these Indians is akin to that of their neighbors of small property. Among them are the descendants of Creek, … Read more