118-652: The Albany Municipal Auditorium is a multi-purpose auditorium located in downtown Albany, Georgia , U.S. The 965-seat, classic style auditorium includes an orchestra level, as well as first and second balconies and it was listed as "Municipal Auditorium" on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior in 1975. The auditorium is part of a sports, entertainment and convention complex that also includes
236-399: A humid subtropical climate , abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps. Albany receives well above the national average amount of precipitation. Much of this comes in the form of heavy showers and thunderstorms. According to "Cities Ranked and Rated" (Bert Sperling and Peter Sander), Albany reports thunder on 86 days per year. This is more than twice the national average. At the 1860 U.S. census ,
354-434: A matrilineal kinship system, with children considered born into their mother's clan, and inheritance was through the maternal line. The Wind Clan is the first of the clans. The majority of micos have belonged to this clan. Britain, France, and Spain all established colonies in the present-day Southeastern woodlands. Spain established Jesuit missions and related settlements to influence Native Americans. The British and
472-447: A tustunnuggee or ranking warrior, the principal military adviser. The heles hayv or medicine maker officiated at various rituals, including providing black drink , used in purification ceremonies. The most important social unit was the clan . Clans organized hunts, distributed lands, arranged marriages, and punished lawbreakers. The authority of the micos was complemented by the clan mothers, mostly women elders. The Muscogee had
590-416: A 13.1-mile (21.1 km) half marathon. The full race is ranked as one of the top Boston Marathon qualifiers in the country, with almost 20% of all marathon finishers qualifying. The annual Mardi Gras Street Festival takes place in downtown Albany the first weekend of March. Starting at noon and running until midnight, the festival coincides with the marathon and half marathon. Elected officials include
708-499: A 900-year-old history of complex and well-organized farming and town layouts around plazas, ballparks, and square ceremonial dance grounds. The Muscogee Creek are associated with multi-mound centers, such as the Ocmulgee , Etowah Indian Mounds , and Moundville sites. Precontact Muscogee societies shared agriculture, transcontinental trade, craft specialization, hunting, and religion. Early Spanish explorers encountered ancestors of
826-401: A Muscogee woman. In Muscogee culture, unmarried Muscogee women had great freedom over their own sexuality compared to European and European-American counterparts. Under the customs of Muscogee matrilineal society, their children belonged to their mother's clan. With the exception of McGillivray, mixed-raced Muscogee people worked against Muscogee Creek interests, as they understood them ; to
944-477: A Yamasee band that remained allies of Britain, allowed John Musgrove to establish a fur-trading post. His wife Mary Musgrove was the daughter of an English trader and a Muscogee woman from the powerful Wind Clan, half-sister of 'Emperor' Brim. She was the principal interpreter for Georgia's founder and first Governor Gen. James Oglethorpe , using her connections to foster peace between the Creek Indians and
1062-600: A building or structure in the U.S. state of Georgia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a property in Georgia on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Albany, Georgia Albany ( / ɔː l ˈ b ɪ n i / awl- BIH -nee ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia . Located on the Flint River , it
1180-575: A death sentence against George Washington 's Indian agent Benjamin Hawkins , who won the loyalty of the Lower Creeks. He built a tiny navy, and raided Spanish ships in the Gulf of Mexico , and, in 1800, declared war on Spain, briefly capturing the presidio and trading post of San Marcos de Apalache before being forced to retreat. Although a Spanish force that set out to destroy Mikosuki got lost in
1298-662: A group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands in the United States . Their historical homelands are in what now comprises southern Tennessee , much of Alabama , western Georgia and parts of northern Florida . Most of the Muscogee people were forcibly removed to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma ) by the federal government in the 1830s during the Trail of Tears . A small group of
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#17328024663271416-684: A logistics base on the eastern outskirts of Albany. During the 1950s and 1960s, so many white servicemen and associated workers arrived that the city briefly became majority white for the first time since 1870. In 1960, the population of Albany reached 50,000 people. During 1961–1962, African Americans in Albany played a prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement (see the Albany Movement ). They led protests and non-violent demonstrations to end segregation of public facilities, gain
1534-441: A mayor and six city commissioners , each of whom serves a four-year term. The commissioners are elected from single-member districts . An appointed city manager acts as the chief administrative officer . The city has been governed by a city commission and city manager since January 14, 1924. The city government places responsibility for specific features into several departments. The Dougherty County School System operates
1652-613: A member of the Georgia House of Representatives in his earlier years. After his legislative service, Styles sold the Albany newspaper in 1876 and returned to Atlanta. While integral to the economic life of the town, the Flint River has flooded regularly. It caused extensive property damage in 1841 and 1925. The city has also been subject to tornadoes . On February 10, 1940, a severe tornado hit Albany, killing eighteen people and causing large-scale damage. On April 11, 1906,
1770-422: A new brewery. The decline in military bases and railroad restructuring nationwide both led to job losses in the Albany area. Much of the remaining white population moved to suburbs and newer housing out of the city, which became majority African American in the 1970s. Struggling with a poor economy, in 1988 Albany made national headlines as the "Murder Capital of America", with the highest murder rate per capita in
1888-609: A paper aligned with the Democratic party viewpoint to the Atlanta market, one supporting his constitutional reconstruction ideals. Styles moved from Albany to Atlanta, and on May 9 he announced that he had obtained the necessary financial backing to purchase the Daily Opinion . On June 16, 1868 the new Democratic daily (as he described it) printed its first edition, under the name The Constitution . Styles' tenure at
2006-478: A public non-profit institution of Alabama, has taught classes both in-class and online in Albany. Troy's Albany site has classes in criminal justice, psychology and various general studies, along with offering other undergraduate and master's degree programs online. Dougherty County Public Library operates the public libraries serving Albany. Southwest Georgia Regional Airport (ABY) is a non-hub commercial service airport with service to Atlanta by Endeavor Air ,
2124-751: A regional carrier for Delta . Both UPS and DHL use the airport as a sorting facility. In 2010, a master plan was completed. It recommended moving forward with the Replacement Terminal Project. Creek people The Muscogee , also known as the Mvskoke , Muscogee Creek or just Creek , and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( pronounced [məskóɡəlɡi] in the Muscogee language ; English: / m ə s ˈ k oʊ ɡ iː / məss- KOH -ghee ), are
2242-539: A sense of Muscogee nationalism and centralize political authority, struggling against village leaders who individually sold land to the United States. He also became a wealthy landowner and merchant, owning as many as sixty black slaves. In 1784, he negotiated the Treaty of Pensacola with Spain, recognizing Muscogee control over 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km ) of land claimed by Georgia, and guaranteeing access to
2360-899: A shortening of Ocheese Creek (the Hitchiti name for the body of water known today as the Ocmulgee River ), and broadly applies to all of the Muscogee Confederacy, including the Yuchi and Natchez . In 1704, Irish colonial administrator James Moore led the Carolina militia and Ochese Creek and Yamasee warriors on a series of raids against Spanish missions in the Florida interior during Queen Anne's War . These raids captured thousands of Spanish-allied Indians, primarily Apalachee , who were sold into slavery in Carolina and
2478-456: A special emissary, Col. Marinus Willet , who persuaded him to travel to New York City, then the capital of the U.S., and deal directly with the federal government. In the summer of 1790, McGillivray and 29 other Muscogee chiefs signed the Treaty of New York , on behalf of the 'Upper, Middle and Lower Creek and Seminole composing the Creek nation of Indians,' ceding a large portion of their lands to
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#17328024663272596-713: A system of five learning centers, fourteen public elementary schools, four public middle schools, three public high schools, and one alternative school. All schools are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the Georgia Accrediting Commission (GAC). The system had an enrollment in 2009–2010 of 15,838 students being taught by 1,070 teachers and 198 support and administrative personnel. The following schools have distinctions: Several private schools provide primary and secondary education, including: The city
2714-731: Is best described as a collection of moderately sized native chiefdoms (such as the Coosa chiefdom on the Coosa River ), interspersed with completely autonomous villages and tribal groups. The earliest Spanish explorers encountered villages and chiefdoms of the late Mississippian culture , beginning on April 2, 1513, with Juan Ponce de León 's landing in Florida. The 1526 Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón expedition in South Carolina also recorded encounters with these peoples. Muscogee people were gradually influenced by interactions and trade with
2832-566: Is located at the Thronateeska Heritage Center in the former railroad station . After the war, Carey Wentworth Styles moved to Albany and founded the newspaper Albany News . In the early years following the war, Styles, like Tift, took great exception to the Radical Reconstruction program then in force, and advocated for a more moderate response based on his interpretation of Georgia's rights under
2950-606: Is the seat of Dougherty County , and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in Southwest Georgia , it is the principal city of the Albany metropolitan area . The city's population was 68,089 in 2020. It became prominent in the nineteenth century as a shipping and market center, first served by riverboats . Scheduled steamboats connected Albany with the busy port of Apalachicola, Florida . They were replaced by railroads . Seven lines met in Albany, and it
3068-474: Is the location of Albany State University , founded as a pre-collegiate school in 1903. African Americans in the South had been intent since emancipation in gaining education and, by the turn of the 20th century, most were literate, as documented by W. E. B. Du Bois in his history, Black Reconstruction (1930). Albany State is notable as one of the few historically black colleges and universities to be part of
3186-751: Is today the Southern United States. Paleo-Indians in the Southeast were hunter-gatherers who pursued a wide range of animals, including megafauna , which became extinct following the end of the Pleistocene age. During the time known as the Woodland period , from 1000 BC to 1000 AD, locals developed pottery and small-scale horticulture of the Eastern Agricultural Complex . The Mississippian culture arose as
3304-604: The Atlanta Constitution would be brief. Unable to pay for his portion of the purchase, when the sale of his Albany News fell through, Styles was forced to surrender his interest in the paper to his joint venture partners. Styles returned to Albany as editor of the News . In 1872, he was elected to the Georgia Senate , representing Augusta and surrounding communities, in an ironic turn of events, having killed
3422-814: The 1811 comet and the New Madrid earthquakes , the Upper Towns of the Muscogee, supported by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh , actively resisted European-American encroachment. Internal divisions with the Lower Towns led to the Red Stick War (Creek War, 1813–1814). Begun as a civil war within Muscogee factions, it enmeshed the Northern Muscogee bands as British allies in the War of 1812 against
3540-523: The Alabama and Mississippi area. The areas were inhabited by historic Muscogee Native Americans . De Soto brought with him a well-equipped army. He attracted many recruits from a variety of backgrounds who joined his quest for riches in the Americas . As the de Soto expedition's brutalities became known to the indigenous peoples, they decided to defend their territory. Chief Tuskaloosa led his people in
3658-652: The Albany Civic Center and the Veterans Park Amphitheater . Designed by architect A. Ten Eyck Brown , the Albany Municipal Auditorium was built in 1915 to replace an old wooden auditorium used for Chautauqua programs. The auditorium was host to many talents of the music world, the stage and television, including an Irving Berlin musical road show in the 1920s. In the 1950s and 1960s, telethons were held in
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3776-537: The American Community Survey of 2022, its racial and ethnic makeup was 75% African American, 19% White, 1% Asian, 2% multiracial, and 3% Hispanic or Latino of any race. At the 2022 American Community Survey, the city had a median age of 34.7. There was an average of 2.3 persons per household and 27,608 housing units. Approximately 33% were married couples, 19% non-family households, 40% female households, and 7% male households. An estimated 36% of
3894-655: The Battle of Mabila , where the Native Americans were defeated. However, the victory came at great cost to the Spanish campaign in loss of supplies, casualties, and morale. The expedition never fully recovered. Because of endemic infectious diseases carried unknowingly by the Europeans, but new to the Muscogee, the Spanish expedition resulted in epidemics of smallpox and measles, and a high rate of fatalities among
4012-635: The Carnegie Library , created by matching funds from the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie , was opened downtown. Originally a segregated facility under Jim Crow laws, it was not open to African Americans until after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . It functioned as a library through 1985. In 1992, after renovation, the building was reopened as the headquarters of the Albany Area Arts Council. In 1912,
4130-678: The Chattahoochee . French Canadian explorers founded Mobile as the first capital of Louisiana in 1702, and took advantage of the war to build Fort Toulouse at the confluence of the Tallapoosa and Coosa in 1717, trading with the Alabama and Coushatta . Fearing they would come under French influence, the British reopened the deerskin trade with the Lower Creeks, antagonizing the Yamasee, now allies of Spain. The French instigated
4248-556: The Cherokee , Upper and Lower Creeks, Chickasaw and Choctaw . Bowles' first act was declaring the 1796 Second Treaty of San Ildefonso , which drew the boundary between the U.S. and West Florida , null and void , because the Indians were not consulted. He denounced the treaties Alexander McGillivray had negotiated with Spain and the U.S., threatening to declare war on the United States unless it returned Muscogee lands, and issuing
4366-641: The Constitution . Styles backed "constitutional reconstruction" advanced by Benjamin H. Hill and sought support for the idea from the national Democratic party . While on a trip to Atlanta in May 1868, to meet with Democratic party leaders, Styles took measure of the contemporary Atlanta newspapers, and found them lacking. Styles believed them to be little more than organs for the Radical Republican reconstruction agenda. He resolved to bring
4484-601: The Coosa , Tallapoosa and Alabama rivers, were Tuckabatchee , Abhika , Coosa (Kusa; the dominant people of East Tennessee and North Georgia during the Spanish explorations), Itawa (original inhabitants of the Etowah Indian Mounds ), Hothliwahi (Ullibahali), Hilibi, Eufaula , Wakokai, Atasi, Alibamu , Coushatta (Koasati; they had absorbed the Kaski/Casqui and the Tali ), and Tuskegee ("Napochi" in
4602-638: The Indian Removal Act , and the United States made treaties to extinguish Creek and other Native American land claims in the Southeast. The U.S. Army forcibly removed most of the native peoples to Indian Territory , lands west of the Mississippi River . European-American settlement began with Nelson Tift of Groton, Connecticut , who took land along the Flint River in October 1836 after Indian removal . Tift and his colleagues named
4720-580: The Mississippian culture along the Tennessee River in modern Tennessee , Georgia, and Alabama. They may have been related to the Tama of central Georgia. Muscogee oral history describes a migration from places west of the Mississippi River , in which they eventually settled on the east bank of the Ocmulgee River . Here they waged war against other bands of Native American Indians, such as
4838-589: The North Carolina back-country after the Battle of King's Mountain . He seized Augusta in March 1780, with the aid of an Upper Creek war-party, but reinforcements from the Lower Creeks and local white Loyalists never came, and Georgia militia led by Elijah Clarke retook Augusta in 1781. The next year an Upper Creek war-party trying to relieve the British garrison at Savannah was routed by Continental Army troops under Gen. 'Mad' Anthony Wayne . After
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4956-772: The Poarch Band of Creek Indians of Alabama, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana , and the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas are federally recognized. Formed in part originally by Muscogee refugees, the Seminole people today have three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma , Seminole Tribe of Florida , and Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida . At least 12,000 years ago, Native Americans or Paleo-Indians lived in what
5074-474: The Red Stick War , began as a civil war within the Muscogee Nation, only to become enmeshed within the War of 1812 . Inspired by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh (to whom 19th-century writers attributed fiery speeches that he "must have said") and their own religious leaders, and encouraged by British traders, Red Stick leaders such as William Weatherford (Red Eagle), Peter McQueen , and Menawa won
5192-466: The University System of Georgia . Albany Technical College is part of the Technical College System of Georgia and teaches post-secondary vocational and occupational training subjects. Georgia Military College (GMC) has a site at this campus and conducts some classes here. Albany is a site location of Troy University , one of many satellites which Troy has established throughout the Southeastern United States. For more than 20 years, Troy University,
5310-828: The Yamasee War , remnants of the 'mission Indians,' and escaped African slaves. Their name comes from the Spanish word cimarrones , which originally referred to a domestic animal that had reverted to the wild. Cimarrones was used by the Spanish and Portuguese to refer to fugitive slaves—" maroon " emerges linguistically from this root as well—and American Indians who fled the Europeans. In the Hitchiti language, which lacked an 'r' sound, it became simanoli , and eventually Seminole. Many Muscogee Creek leaders, due to intermarriage, have British names: Alexander McGillivray , Josiah Francis , William McIntosh , Peter McQueen , William Weatherford , William Perryman, and others. These reflect Muscogee women having children with British colonists. For instance, Indian agent Benjamin Hawkins married
5428-422: The deerskin trade ) and Indian slaves . The Spanish and their "mission Indians" burned most of the towns along the Chattahoochee after they welcomed Scottish explorer Henry Woodward in 1685. In 1690, English colonists built a trading post on the Ocmulgee River , known as Ochese-hatchee (creek), where a dozen towns relocated to escape the Spanish and acquire English goods. The name "Creek" most likely derived from
5546-473: The indigenous peoples . These losses were exacerbated by the Indian slave trade that colonists conducted in the Southeast during the 17th and 18th centuries. As the survivors and descendants regrouped, the Muscogee Creek Confederacy arose as a loose alliance of Muskogee-speaking peoples. The Muscogee lived in autonomous villages in river valleys throughout present-day Tennessee , Georgia , and Alabama , speaking several related Muskogean languages . Muskogee
5664-473: The "old chiefs" of the Creek national government. They were emboldened when Tecumseh rallied his followers and joined with a British invasion to capture Fort Detroit in August 1812. In February 1813, a small party of Red Sticks, led by Little Warrior, was returning from Detroit when they killed two families of settlers along the Duck River , near Nashville . Hawkins demanded that the Muscogees turn over Little Warrior and his six companions. Instead of handing
5782-429: The Air Force closed all its operations at the base, which was transferred to the U.S. Navy and renamed Naval Air Station Albany. NAS Albany was used as the shore base of nearly all the Navy's RA-5C Vigilante twin-jet, carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft. In 1974, the base was closed and the property was returned to the city. In 1979, the Miller Brewing Company purchased part of the old naval base's property to build
5900-403: The British built Fort King George at the mouth of the Altamaha River . As the three European colonial powers established themselves along the borders of Muscogee lands, the latter's strategy of neutrality allowed them to hold the balance of power. The colony of Georgia was created in 1732; its first settlement, Savannah , was founded the following year, on a river bluff where the Yamacraw ,
6018-463: The British firm Panton, Leslie & Co. which controlled the deerskin trade, while making himself an official representative of Spain. In 1786, a council in Tuckabatchee decided to wage war against white settlers on Muscogee lands. War parties attacked settlers along the Oconee River , and Georgia mobilized its militia. McGillivray refused to negotiate with the state that had confiscated his father's plantations, but President George Washington sent
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#17328024663276136-541: The East Gulf coastal plain , on the banks of the Flint River . The city is 78 mi (126 km) southeast of Columbus , 151 mi (243 km) south of Atlanta , 45 mi (72 km) south of Americus , 93 mi (150 km) southwest of Macon , 39 mi (63 km) west of Tifton , 73 mi (117 km) northwest of Valdosta , 88 mi (142 km) north of Tallahassee , Florida , 70 mi (110 km) east of Eufaula, Alabama , and 84 mi (135 km) east of Dothan, Alabama . As of 2010 ,
6254-600: The Eastern Muskogean branch of the Muscogean language family . These languages are mostly mutually intelligible. The Yuchi people today are part of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation , but their Yuchi language is a linguistic isolate , unrelated to any other language. The ancestors of the Muscogee people were part of the Mississippian Ideological Interaction Sphere , also known as Mississippian cultures . Between 800 and 1600 CE, they built complex cities with earthwork mounds with surrounding networks of satellite towns and farmsteads. Muscogee confederated town networks were based on
6372-406: The Europeans: trading or selling deer hides in exchange for European goods such as muskets, or alcohol. Secondly, the Spanish pressed them to identify leaders for negotiations; they did not understand government by consensus. After Cabeza de Vaca , a castaway who survived the ill-fated Narváez expedition , returned to Spain in 1537, he told the Court that Hernando de Soto had said that America
6490-429: The Federal Road. In 1806, Fort Benjamin Hawkins was built on a hill overlooking the Ocmulgee Old Fields , to protect expanding settlements and serve as a reminder of U.S. rule. Hawkins was disheartened and shocked by the outbreak of the Creek War , which destroyed his life work of improving the Muscogee quality of life. Hawkins saw much of his work toward building a peace destroyed in 1812. A faction of Muscogee joined
6608-420: The Flint River crested at 35 feet (11 m) above its bed and flooded parts of the city. Because of such flooding, the city has decided against redeveloping areas along the riverfront floodplain for commercial or residential purposes. This area is being improved for other uses, with a riverfront walkway and a new aquarium built over a tributary creek. On January 2 and 22, 2017, violent tornadoes passed through
6726-454: The French opted for trade over conversion. In the 17th century, Franciscan friars in Spanish Florida built missions along Apalachee Bay . In 1670, English colonists from Barbados founded Charles Town (modern-day Charleston), the capital of the new colony of Carolina . Traders from Carolina went to Muscogee settlements to exchange firearms , gunpowder, axes, glass beads, cloth and West Indian rum for white-tailed deer pelts (as part of
6844-444: The Hitchiti Muscogee chieftain William Perryman , and later used this union as the basis for his claim to exert political influence among the Creeks. In 1781, a 17-year-old Bowles led Muscogee forces at the Battle of Pensacola . After seeking refuge in the Bahamas , he travelled to London. He was received by King George III as 'Chief of the Embassy for Creek and Cherokee Nations'; it was with British backing that he returned to train
6962-498: The Indians adopted the practice of private property, built homes, farmed, educated their children, and embraced Christianity, these Native Americans would win acceptance from white Americans." Washington's six-point plan included impartial justice toward Indians; regulated buying of Indian lands; promotion of commerce; promotion of experiments to civilize or improve Indian society; presidential authority to give presents; and punishing those who violated Indian rights. The Muscogee would be
7080-410: The Lower Creeks nominally allied with Britain after the 1779 Capture of Savannah . Muscogee warriors fought on behalf of Britain during the Mobile and Pensacola campaigns of 1780–81 , where Spain re-conquered British West Florida . Loyalist leader Thomas Brown raised a division of King's Rangers to contest Patriot control over the Georgia and Carolina interior and instigated Cherokee raids against
7198-508: The Muscogee Creek Confederacy remained in Alabama, and their descendants formed the federally recognized Poarch Band of Creek Indians . Another Muscogee group moved into Florida between roughly 1767 and 1821, trying to evade European encroachment, and intermarried with local tribes to form the Seminole . Through ethnogenesis , the Seminole emerged with a separate identity from the rest of the Muscogee Creek Confederacy. The great majority of Seminole were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory in
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#17328024663277316-551: The Muscogee as pirates to attack Spanish ships. In 1799, Bowles formed the State of Muskogee , with the support of the Chattahoochee Creeks and the Seminoles . He established his capital at Miccosuki , a village on the shores of Lake Miccosukee near present-day Tallahassee . It was ruled by Mico Kanache, his father-in-law and strongest ally. Bowles envisioned the State of Muskogee , with its capital at Miccosuki , encompassing large portions of present-day Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, and incorporating
7434-491: The Muscogee in the mid-16th century. The Muscogee were the first Native Americans officially considered by the early United States government to be "civilized" under George Washington 's civilization plan . In the 19th century, the Muscogee were known as one of the " Five Civilized Tribes ", because they were said to have integrated numerous cultural and technological practices of their more recent European American neighbors. Influenced by Tenskwatawa 's interpretations of
7552-439: The Muscogee that the comet signaled his coming. McKenney reported that Tecumseh would prove that the Great Spirit had sent him by giving the Muscogee a sign. Shortly after Tecumseh left the Southeast, the sign arrived as promised in the form of an earthquake. On December 16, 1811, the New Madrid earthquake shook the Muscogee lands and the Midwest . While the interpretation of this event varied from tribe to tribe, one consensus
7670-473: The Muscogee to side with the British, but like many tribes, they were divided by factionalism, and, in general, avoided sustained fighting, preferring to protect their sovereignty through cautious participation. During the American Revolution , the Upper Creeks sided with the British , fighting alongside the Chickamauga (Lower Cherokee) warriors of Dragging Canoe , in the Cherokee–American wars , against white settlers in present-day Tennessee . This alliance
7788-453: The Pan-American Indian movement of Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh , rejecting accommodation with white settlers and adaptation of European-American culture. Although Hawkins personally was never attacked, he was forced to watch an internal civil war among the Muscogee develop into a war with the United States. A comet appeared in March 1811. The Shawnee leader Tecumseh , whose name meant "shooting star", traveled to Tuckabatchee , where he told
7906-407: The Savanna, Ogeeche, Wapoo, Santee , Yamasee, Utina , Icofan, Patican and others, until at length they had overcome them, and absorbed some as confederates into their tribe. In the mid-16th century, when explorers from the Spanish made their first forays inland from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico , many political centers of the Mississippians were already in decline, or abandoned. The region
8024-420: The Spanish governor at Pensacola . The Red Sticks fled the scene, and the U.S. soldiers looted what they found, allowing the Red Sticks to regroup and retaliate with a surprise attack that forced the Americans to retreat. The Battle of Burnt Corn , as the exchange became known, broadened the Creek Civil War to include American forces, and was interpreted as a good omen, showing that in fact the Creeks could defeat
8142-413: The United States, while the Southern Muscogee remained US allies. Once the northern Muscogee Creek rebellion had been put down by General Andrew Jackson with the aid of the Southern Muscogee Creek, the Muscogee nation was forced to sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson , which ceded 22,000,000 acres of land to the US, including land belonging to the Southern Muscogee who had fought alongside Jackson. The result
8260-461: The United States. Other cities have since taken that title. Some late twentieth-century floods have been extreme. In 1994, a severe flood was caused by rainfall from Tropical Storm Alberto ; it killed 14 people and displaced 22,000. The state supported a $ 150 million renovation of the Albany State University campus to repair storm damage and complete upgrades. New housing was built on the south side of town to replace what had been destroyed. In 1998,
8378-410: The Upper Creeks to raid the Lower Creeks. In May 1718, the shrewd Emperor Brim , mico of the powerful Coweta band, invited representatives of Britain, France, and Spain to his village and, in council with Upper and Lower Creek leaders, declared a policy of Muscogee neutrality in their colonial rivalry. That year, the Spaniards built the presidio of San Marcos de Apalache on Apalachee Bay . In 1721,
8496-731: The West Indies. A decade later, tensions between colonists and Indians in the American Southwest led to the Yamassee War of 1715–17. The Ochese Creeks joined the Yamasee, burning trading posts, and raiding back-country settlers, but the revolt ran low on gunpowder and was put down by Carolinian militia and their Cherokee allies. The Yamasee took refuge in Spanish Florida , the Ochese Creeks fled west to
8614-479: The airfield was reactivated and upgraded with runways for a U.S. Air Force base. It was named Turner Air Force Base . The Air Force used this base for heavy bomber jets, such as the B-52 Stratofortress . A number of other Air Force units were also housed at this base. Among them were the 1370th Photomapping Group, and refueling and maintenance functions. In 1951, the U.S. Marine Corps established
8732-409: The area, claiming several lives and destroying mobile home parks in the process. On October 10, 2018 Hurricane Michael , the first major hurricane (Category 3+) to directly impact Georgia since the 1890s, plowed through South Georgia leaving widespread devastation in its path. Albany is located at (31.582273, −84.165557), within Southwest Georgia . It lies in a belt of historically rich farmland in
8850-491: The auditorium. These telethons attracted Hollywood stars to Albany, including most of the cast of Bonanza , Wagon Train , The Virginian and starlet Jayne Mansfield . The auditorium was abandoned in 1972 and stood vacant for years. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 25, 1974. Restoration of the auditorium started in 1986. In 1990, the Albany Symphony Orchestra reopened
8968-518: The city acts as a hub for commerce in southwest Georgia. On December 17, 2008, Cooper Tire and Rubber, one of Albany's largest employers, announced plans to close the local manufacturing facility. Approximately 1,400 employees at the plant were projected to lose their jobs. As a result of the Great Recession , unemployment remained higher in Albany than the country average. In 2012 Albany continued to add more new jobs while other portions of
9086-579: The city is surrounded by pecan groves, pine trees , farms and plantations, almost none of the population is employed in agriculture. It has become heavily industrialized, and most business is conducted on a multinational scale. The city developed on both sides of the Flint River. Health care, education and the Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany are the largest employers. Manufacturing , transportation, and retail trade are also important foundations of Albany's economy, and
9204-576: The city of Albany had been a member of the Arbor Day Foundation 's Tree City USA Program for 23 years. Tree-lined streets are common, with large, mature oaks and other native trees. The city has a tree ordinance, and a certified arborist on staff. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Albany has
9322-490: The city population was married. Among its relatively young population, the city had a median household income of $ 39,422 with a per capita income of $ 22,115. More than 60% of the population earned less than $ 50,000 annually, and 27% earned from $ 50,000 to $ 100,000 a year. Of the population, 33.8% lived at or below the poverty line, and 55% of children under age 18 are considered to be in poverty. Approximately 15% of adults 65 and older were considered in poverty. Today, although
9440-586: The city's population was 1,618. Its population has increased to a historic high of 78,122, before experiencing a decline to 69,647 at the 2020 United States census . Racially and ethnically, Albany forms a part of the Black Belt . The racial and ethnic composition in 2020 was 74.59% Black or African American , 19.71% non-Hispanic white , 0.13% Native American , 0.73% Asian , 0.02% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander , 2.47% other or multiracial , and 2.36% Hispanic or Latino of any race. According to
9558-405: The colonial settlements, traveling periodically to Pensacola and the Georgia trading posts to unload their skins and pick up more trade goods. As Andrew Frank writes, "Terms such as mixed-blood and half-breed, which imply racial categories and partial Indianness, betray the ways in which Native peoples determined kinship and identity in the eighteenth- and early-nineteen-century southeast." With
9676-641: The contrary, in many cases, they spearheaded resistance to settler encroachment on Muscogee Creek lands. That they usually spoke English as well as Mvskoke , and knew European customs as well, made them community leaders; they "dominated Muskogee politics". As put by Claudio Saunt : These offspring of mixed marriages occupied a different position in the economy of the Deep South than did most Creeks and Seminoles. They worked as traders and factors . ... By virtue of their ancestry and upbringing, they had greater cultural, social, linguistic, and geographic ties to
9794-616: The cultivation of maize from Mesoamerica led to agricultural surpluses and population growth. Increased population density gave rise to urban centers and regional chiefdoms . Stratified societies developed, with hereditary religious and political elites. This culture flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from 800 to 1500, especially along the Mississippi River and its major tributaries. The early historic Muscogee were descendants of
9912-443: The de Luna chronicles). The most important leader in Muscogee society was the mico or village chief. Micos led warriors in battle and represented their villages, but held authority only insofar as they could persuade others to agree with their decisions. Micos ruled with the assistance of micalgi or lesser chiefs, and various advisers, including a second-in-charge called the heniha , respected village elders, medicine men, and
10030-582: The deerskin trade and protecting Spanish Florida from further British encroachment. Ca. 1750 a group of Ochese moved to the neutral zone, after clashing with the Muskogee -speaking towns of the Chattahoochee , where they had fled after the Yamasee War . Led by Chief Secoffee ( Cowkeeper ), they became the center of a new tribal confederacy, the Seminole , which grew to include earlier refugees from
10148-582: The downtown U.S. Post Office and courthouse building opened. Other federal projects have been important to the city and region. In 1937, Chehaw Park was constructed as a part of a New Deal program under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression . Major changes came with the expansion of military facilities in the city, secured by the powerful Southern Block in Congress. A U.S. Army Air Corps training base
10266-542: The early 1960s as activists worked to regain voting and other civil rights. Railroad restructuring and reduction in the military here caused job losses, but the city has developed new businesses. Albany is located in a region which was long inhabited by the Creek Indians , who called it Thronateeska after their word for " flint ", the valuable mineral found in beds near the Flint River. They used it for making arrowheads and other tools. In 1830, U.S. Congress passed
10384-623: The end of the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years' War ) in 1763, France lost its North American empire, and British-American settlers moved inland. Indian discontent led to raids against back-country settlers, and the perception that the royal government favored the Indians and the deerskin trade led many back-country white settlers to join the Sons of Liberty . Fears of land-hungry settlers and need for European manufactured goods led
10502-550: The federal government and promising to return fugitive slaves, in return for federal recognition of Muscogee sovereignty and promises to evict white settlers. McGillivray died in 1793, and with the invention of the cotton gin white settlers on the Southwestern frontier who hoped to become cotton planters clamored for Indian lands. In 1795, Elijah Clarke and several hundred followers defied the Treaty of New York and established
10620-514: The first Native Americans to be "civilized" under Washington's six-point plan. Communities within the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole tribes followed Muscogee efforts to implement Washington's new policy of civilization. In 1796, Washington appointed Benjamin Hawkins as General Superintendent of Indian Affairs dealing with all tribes south of the Ohio River . He personally assumed
10738-427: The first U.S. president, and Henry Knox , the first U.S. Secretary of War, proposed a cultural transformation of the Native Americans. Washington believed that Native Americans were equals as individuals but that their society was inferior. He formulated a policy to encourage the "civilizing" process, and it was continued under President Thomas Jefferson . Noted historian Robert Remini wrote, "[T]hey presumed that once
10856-585: The late 1830s, where their descendants later formed federally recognized tribes . Some of the Seminole , with the Miccosukee moved south into the Everglades , resisting removal. These two tribes gained federal recognition in the 20th century and remain in Florida. The respective languages of all of these modern-day branches, bands, and tribes, except one, are closely related variants called Muscogee, Mvskoke and Hitchiti-Mikasuki , all of which belong to
10974-518: The marauders over to the federal agents, Big Warrior and the old chiefs decided to execute the war party. This decision was the spark which ignited the civil war among the Muscogee. The first clashes between Red Sticks and the American whites took place on July 21, 1813, when a group of American soldiers from Fort Mims (north of Mobile, Alabama ) stopped a party of Red Sticks who were returning from West Florida , where they had bought munitions from
11092-567: The new colony. In 1735, Georgia constructed Fort Okfuskee near Oakfuskee to compete with French trade with the Creeks at Fort Toulouse. The deerskin trade grew, and by the 1750s, Savannah exported up to 50,000 deerskins a year. In 1736, Spanish and British officials established a neutral zone from the Altamaha to the St. Johns River in present-day Florida, guaranteeing Native hunting grounds for
11210-631: The new town Albany after the capital of New York; noting that New York's Albany was a commercial center located at the headwaters of the Hudson River , they hoped that their town near the headwaters of the Flint would prove to be just as successful. It proved to be nowhere near as prosperous. Alexander Shotwell laid out the town in 1836, and it was incorporated as a city by an act of the General Assembly of Georgia on December 27, 1838. Tift
11328-539: The renovated auditorium, performing a Gala Concert with Albany native Ray Charles . The Albany Municipal Auditorium is the home of the Albany Symphony Orchestra. The auditorium hosts the Deerfield-Windsor School 's annual all-student Spring Musical, Ballet Theatre South's (formerly Albany Ballet Theater) annual production, the annual Andersonville Theological Seminary graduation ceremony and various concerts and stage plays. This article about
11446-543: The right to vote, and advance social justice. Assisted by activists from SCLC , CORE , SNCC , and the NAACP , African Americans and supporters took a stand to fight segregation through nonviolence. The city repealed its Jim Crow laws in 1963, but African Americans did not recover the ability to exercise their voting rights until Congress passed enforcement authority with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . In 1967,
11564-477: The role of principal agent to the Muscogee. He moved to the area that is now Crawford County in Georgia . He began to teach agricultural practices to the tribe, starting a farm at his home on the Flint River. In time, he brought in slaves and workers, cleared several hundred acres, and established mills and a trading post as well as his farm. For years, Hawkins met with chiefs on his porch to discuss matters. He
11682-530: The short-lived Trans-Oconee Republic . In 1790, the Muscogee and Choctaw were in conflict over land near the Noxubee River . The two nations agreed to settle the dispute by ball-play. With nearly 10,000 players and bystanders, the two nations prepared for nearly three months. After a day-long struggle, the Muscogee won the game. A fight broke out and the two nations fought until sundown with nearly 500 dead and many more wounded. William Augustus Bowles
11800-407: The state were trying to stem the tide of unemployment. Albany has a skilled workforce, makes continual upgrades to its infrastructure, and has improvements in public safety, such as its ISO fire rating of 2. It has numerous economic development initiatives, such as an Opportunity Zone, which offers a $ 3,500 tax credit per job created. City races include a 26.2-mile (42.2 km) full marathon or
11918-722: The support of the Upper Creek towns. Allied with the British, they opposed white encroachment on Muscogee lands and the "civilizing programs" administered by Indian agent Benjamin Hawkins , and clashed with many of the leading chiefs of the Muscogee Nation, most notably the Lower Creek Mico William McIntosh , Hawkins' most powerful ally. Before the Muscogee Civil War began, the Red Sticks attempted to keep their activities secret from
12036-467: The swamps, a second attempt to take San Marcos ended in disaster. After a European armistice led to the loss of British support, Bowles was discredited. The Seminole signed a peace treaty with Spain. The following year, he was betrayed by Lower Creek supporters of Hawkins at a tribal council. They turned Bowles over to the Spanish, and he died in prison in Havana, Cuba two years later. George Washington ,
12154-450: The war and his support for segregation afterward made him compatible with Georgia's white elite. This area was developed for cotton cultivation by planters, who used numerous enslaved African Americans to clear lands and process the cotton. As a result of the planters' acquisition of slave workers, by 1840 Dougherty County's majority population was black, composed overwhelmingly of slaves. The market center for cotton plantations , Albany
12272-530: The war ended in 1783, the Muscogee learned that Britain had ceded their lands to the now independent United States. That year, two Lower Creek chiefs, Hopoithle Miko (Tame King) and Eneah Miko (Fat King), ceded 800 square miles (2,100 km ) of land to the state of Georgia. Alexander McGillivray led pan-Indian resistance to white encroachment, receiving arms from the Spanish in Florida to fight trespassers. The bilingual and bicultural McGillivray worked to create
12390-411: The whites. On August 30, 1813, Red Sticks led by Red Eagle William Weatherford attacked Fort Mims , where white settlers and their Indian allies had gathered. The Red Sticks captured the fort by surprise, and carried out a massacre, killing men, women, and children. They spared only the black slaves whom they took as captured booty. After the Indians killed nearly 250–500 at the fort, settlers across
12508-477: Was a center of trade in the Southeast. Albany is part of the Black Belt , a geological formation of soil conducive to cotton growth. An extensive area in the Southern geographical area of the United States. From the mid-20th century, it received military investment during World War II and after, that helped develop the region. Albany and this area were prominent during the civil rights era, particularly during
12626-593: Was a weakening of the Muscogee Creek Confederacy and the forced cession of Muscogee lands to the US. During the 1830s Indian Removal , most of the Muscogee Confederacy were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory . The Muscogee (Creek) Nation , Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town , Kialegee Tribal Town , and Thlopthlocco Tribal Town , all based in Oklahoma, are federally recognized tribes. In addition,
12744-611: Was born into a wealthy Maryland Tory family, enlisting with the Maryland Loyalists Battalion at age 14 and becoming an ensign in the Royal Navy by age 15. Cashiered for dereliction of duty after returning too late to his ship at Pensacola , Bowles escaped north and found refuge among the Lower Creek towns of the Chattahoochee basin. He married two wives, one Cherokee and the other a daughter of
12862-598: Was broken into pieces; and most of the Indians thought that the Great Spirit, angry with the human race, was about to destroy the world. The Muscogee who joined Tecumseh's confederation were known as the Red Sticks. Stories of the origin of the Red Stick name varies, but one is that they were named for the Muscogee tradition of carrying a bundle of sticks that mark the days until an event occurs. Sticks painted red symbolize war. The Creek War of 1813–1814, also known as
12980-579: Was built near Albany on land owned by the city and leased to the Air Corps for $ 1 a year. Construction of the base and airfield by the Army Corps of Engineers began on March 25, 1941. After being used during World War II, the airfield was temporarily deactivated between August 15, 1946, and September 1, 1947. After the beginning of the Cold War and the founding of the U.S. Air Force in late 1947,
13098-405: Was in a prime location for shipping cotton to other markets by steamboats . In 1858, Tift hired Horace King , a former slave and bridge builder, to construct a toll bridge over the river. King's bridge toll house still stands. Already important as a shipping port, Albany later became an important railroad hub in southwestern Georgia. Seven lines were constructed to the town. An exhibit on trains
13216-455: Was orchestrated by the Coushatta chief Alexander McGillivray , son of Lachlan McGillivray , a wealthy Scottish Loyalist fur-trader and planter, whose properties were confiscated by Georgia. His ex-partner, Scots-Irish Patriot George Galphin , initially persuaded the Lower Creeks to remain neutral, but Loyalist Capt. William McIntosh led a group of pro-British Hitchiti , and most of
13334-557: Was responsible for the longest period of peace between the settlers and the tribe, overseeing 19 years of peace. In 1805, the Lower Creeks ceded their lands east of the Ocmulgee to Georgia, with the exception of the sacred burial mounds of the Ocmulgee Old Fields . They allowed a Federal Road linking New Orleans to Washington, D.C. to be built through their territory. A number of Muscogee chiefs acquired slaves and created cotton plantations, grist mills and businesses along
13452-656: Was spoken from the Chattahoochee to the Alabama River . Koasati (Coushatta) and Alibamu were spoken in the upper Alabama River basin and along parts of the Tennessee River . Hitchiti was spoken in several towns along the Chattahoochee River and across much of present-day Georgia. The Muscogee were a confederacy of tribes consisting of Yuchi , Koasati , Alabama , Coosa , Tuskegee , Coweta , Cusseta , Chehaw (Chiaha), Hitchiti , Tuckabatchee , Oakfuskee , and many others. The basic social unit
13570-496: Was the "richest country in the world". Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the first expedition into the interior of the North American continent. De Soto, convinced of the "riches", wanted Cabeza de Vaca to go on the expedition, but Cabeza de Vaca declined his offer because of a payment dispute. From 1540 to 1543, de Soto explored through present-day Florida and Georgia , and then westward into
13688-561: Was the city's leading entrepreneur for decades. An ardent booster, he promoted education, business, and railroad construction. During the Civil War he provided naval supplies and helped build two ships. He opposed Radical Reconstruction inside the state and in Congress, and was scornful of the Yankee carpetbaggers who came in. Historian John Fair concludes that Tift became "more Southern than many natives." His pro-slavery attitudes before
13806-695: Was the town ( idalwa ). Abihka , Coosa , Tuckabutche , and Coweta are the four "mother towns" of the Muscogee Confederacy. Traditionally, the Cusseta and Coweta bands are considered the earliest members of the Muscogee Nation. The Lower Towns , along the Chattahoochee River (before 1690 and after 1715), and farther east along the Ocmulgee , Oconee , and Savannah River rivers (between 1690 and 1715), were Coweta, Cusseta (Kasihta), Koloni, Tuskegee, Chiaha , Hitchiti , Oconee, Ocmulgee, Apalachicola, and Sawokli . The Upper Towns, located on
13924-581: Was universally accepted: the powerful earthquake had to have meant something. The earthquake and its aftershocks helped the Tecumseh resistance movement by convincing, not only the Muscogee, but other Native American tribes as well, that the Shawnee must be supported. The Indians were filled with great terror ... the trees and wigwams shook exceedingly; the ice which skirted the margin of the Arkansas river
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