INTRODUCTION. THE INDIANS OF ALABAMA. THE Indians found in Alabama by the earliest European explorers were not unlike those of later times. They were of a reddish or cinnamonbrown complexion. The men were for the most part athletic and well proportioned, and many of the women were handsome. Both sexes wore mantles made of the inner bark of trees and of a species of flax, and they adorned themselves with ornaments of shells and pearls, sometimes arranged in the form of bracelets. Many wore moccasins which were made of dressed deerskin. They usually painted their faces and bodies; some punctured themselves with needles of bone, and then rubbed in a sort of indelible ink. They dressed their heads with feathers of eagles and other birds. The string was The bow was the most formidable of their weapons. of deer's sinews, and the arrows were made of hardened cane with heads of hard wood, fish-bone, or flint. There are probably few boys in Alabama, outside the cities, who have not seen an Indian arrow-head. Shields were made of wood, split canes, or hides. There were wooden spears, with points of flint or fish-bone, and war clubs, both oval and edged. How well the natives could use such weapons, even the armored Spaniards were made to feel. In their social customs the early Indians did not differ much from their successors and descendants two centuries later. They drank a sort of tea known to the colonists as the "black drink." Feasts, bow shooting, ballplaying, and dancing were among their amusements. Their houses and towns, though rude, were apparently somewhat better than those of the Indians of more recent years. It seems to have been a common practice to build the houses of the chiefs on mounds of considerable height. In Mauvila the houses fronted on a large public square, and the town was encompassed by a high wall, built of tree trunks, plastered with mud. Generally each family possessed a winter house, daubed inside and outside with clay, and another, more open, for the summer. BOW, ARROWS, CLUB, Besides the building of houses and the making of weapons, canoes, and clothing, the principal industries were hunting, fishing, and a simple form of agriculture. The fertile soil made quick returns. Peas, beans, squashes, pumpkins, and corn were grown. Persimmons were made into cakes. Corn was pounded in mortars. In digging they used rude hoes made of fish-bones or wood. The planting was done chiefly by women. The sun was an object of worship, and the moon and certain stars were regarded with great reverence. In several places temples were found, filled with the bones of the dead. The religious ceremonies were curious and fantastic. But for our purposes it will be best to study the Indians of Alabama, not at this early time, but some two hundred years later, when white men had begun to make settlements among them. For this later period we have sources of information more various and far more trustworthy than the narratives of the Spanish expedition. At the outset, however, we are confronted with the question whether the same races which De Soto found were still inhabiting the lands along the Alabama River in the eighteenth century. The two answers to this question can be considered more intelligently when we have taken a view of the various tribes as they existed at the later period. The Indians who from the time of the first European settlements played a part in the history of the lands embraced in the present limits of Alabama may be treated as belonging to four geographical groups. These were the Cherokees, the Chickasaws, the Choctaws, and the Creeks. Roughly speaking, these four divisions correspond to the four corners of the State. The Cherokees, whose principal seats were in northern Georgia, eastern Tennessee, and the western parts of the two Carolinas, occupied only the northeastern corner of Alabama. The extreme northwestern corner was occupied by the Chickasaws, who also possessed THE INDIANS OF ALABAMA. 11 The middle and the northern portion of what is now Mississippi. southern parts of Mississippi and the western and southwestern parts of Alabama belonged to the Choctaws. The Creeks held the eastern half of LOCATION OF INDIAN TRIBES. (Adapted from Gatschet.) the State, south of the Cherokee country, and their domains extended into Georgia. It is impossible, however, to fix with accuracy the boundaries of these four "nations." Only the Creeks had their principal seats in Alabama, and they occupied a larger share of its territory than any of the others. The region south of the Tallapoosa and between the Alabama and the Chattahoochee was a waste hunting ground. I. THE CHEROKEES. Tsálagi is the correct form of the Indian name of the Cherokees. They had no kinship with the other Indians of Alabama, and spoke a different language. They were, however, brought into frequent contact with the Creeks, whose territory joined the lands of the Cherokees on the south from the Savannah River to the Black Warrior. The Cherokee territory lay on both sides of the lofty mountains of the Appalachian system. The towns of the upper or "overhill" branch lay on the head waters of the Tennessee. The lower Cherokee settlements were on the head waters of the Georgia rivers and along the Coosa and Tennessee Rivers in northeastern Alabama. Some of these towns were visited by De Soto; and there is no reason to doubt that the Cherokee Indians were inhabiting the region at that time. In the eighteenth century the "nation" became involved in war with the English settlers on the Atlantic coast, but ordinarily the Cherokees were friendly to the English. The English traders visited their towns, and through them made journeys to the Indian settlements in Alabama. The Cherokee warriors are described as fine specimens of manhood, surpassing most Indian races in height. In color they were, according to a traveller who visited them in 1778, somewhat lighter than the Creeks. They had a custom of slitting and stretching their ears by a process that must have been extremely painful; and they shaved off all the hair of their heads except a small patch at the back. Their hands and feet were small. Some of the women, we are told, were very attractive in appear ance. The Cherokees were extremely fond of dancing and of ball-playing. Their burial rites were peculiar. When it was apparent that a sick man could not recover, they prepared his grave, anointed his hair, and painted his face; and when he died they buried the body immediately. His guns, bows, and household utensils were buried with him. Sometimes a heap of stones was raised to commemorate one who had died away from home and whose bones could not be recovered. Each passer-by added a stone to the pile. The Cherokees were a warlike race and they frequently made incursions upon neighboring tribes. Honor and praise were always given to the valorous, and high social station was gained by great achievements in war. In most of their customs, however, the Cherokees resembled their neighbors the Creeks, who will be described at greater length. THE INDIANS OF ALABAMA, 13 II. THE MUSCOGEE FAMILY-CHICKASAWS AND CHOCTAWS. Passing from the Cherokees, we may say of the remaining Indians of Alabama that with the exception of a few tribes, which will be mentioned, they had one bond of connection. The great bulk of them belonged to a certain group of tribes, called the Maskoki or Muscogee family. The basis of this grouping is kinship of languages or dialects. In other respects the Indians of Alabama showed considerable diversity. The Choctaws and Creeks were unlike in appearance and were frequently at war with each other. But there was an affinity of the several dialects, which may be illustrated by considering the forms a particular word assumes in each. For example, the word for chief in Choctaw is mingo; in Chickasaw, minko; in Creek, miko; in Alabama, miko; in Coosawda, miku. But the Muscogee tribes were not confined to Alabama. They held a commanding position in the Gulf States, extending from Florida and eastern Georgia to the Mississippi River and beyond it. The most important tribes, however, were represented in Alabama. The name Maskoki itself means an individual of the Creek nation, the most powerful tribe of the entire group. The plural form of the name is Maskokalgi, and the word is usually written Muscogulgee by English writers. For the purpose of clearness, scientists call the Muscogees proper Creeks, and · give the name Maskoki to the whole language-family to which the Creeks belong. The tribes of the Muscogee group were characterized by fine qualities of body and mind, and played a great part in Indian history. In their wars with the whites they were formidable antagonists, but, like other Indian tribes, they never firmly combined against the foreign foe. The best fighters of all the tribes were the Chickasaws. Their reputation for bravery was maintained in many wars. When the Spanish explorer De Soto was in their country they attacked his camp at midnight, terrified his army, destroyed his baggage, and burned the town in which he was quartered. Two hundred years later the French fared no better at their hands. In their contests with the neighboring Indian tribes they were usually victorious. The Choctaws, the Cherokees, and even the powerful Creeks had reason to respect their prowess. They went on many warlike expeditions to the north and west, and their hunting grounds extended as far northward as the Ohio. They excelled also in the chase. So expert were they in tracking that |