Hillabee was an important Muscogee (Creek) town in east central Alabama before the Indian Removals of the 1830s.
110-611: Hillabee was the center of a cluster of towns and villages, known as the Hillabee complex or, simply, Hillabee. The people living in the Hillabee complex area are sometimes called the Hillabees. That name does not refer to a separate tribe or clan but merely those Muscogees who lived in the Hillabee complex area. The word "Hillabee" comes from the Muscogee language word helvpe /hílapi/, meaning quick or swift, perhaps referring to
220-434: 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
330-447: 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
440-401: 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
550-477: 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
660-659: A class put on by the Seminole nation at Seminole State College to try and reintroduce the Muscogee language to students in elementary and high school in several schools around the state. The phoneme inventory of Muscogee consists of thirteen consonants and three vowel qualities , which distinguish length , tone and nasalization . It also makes use of the gemination of stops , fricatives and sonorants . There are four voiceless stops in Muscogee: /p t t͡ʃ k/ . /t͡ʃ/
770-575: 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
880-414: A neighboring consonant is coronal or in closed syllables. However, /ɑ/ will generally not centralize when it is followed by /h/ or /k/ in the same syllable, and /o/ will generally remain noncentral if it is word-final. Initial vowels can be deleted in Muscogee, mostly applying to the vowel /i/ . The deletion will affect the pitch of the following syllable by creating a higher-than-expected pitch on
990-532: A result of a contraction, as the result of a neighboring nasal consonant, or as the result of nasalizing grade, a grammatical ablaut , which indicates intensification through lengthening and nasalization of a vowel ( likoth- 'warm' with the nasalizing grade intensifies the word to likŏ: th-os-i: 'nice and warm'). Nasal vowels may also appear as part of a suffix that indicates a question ( o:sk-ihá: 'I wonder if it's raining'). There are three phonemic tones in Muscogee; they are generally unmarked except in
1100-539: 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
1210-899: 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
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#17327871383361320-399: A single sentence at once, such as the direct object, indirect object, and adverbial nouns. Despite the distinction in verbal affixes between the agent and patient of the verb, the clitic -t marks subject of both transitive and intransitive verbs. In some situations, case marking is omitted. This is especially true of sentences with only one noun where the role of the noun is obvious from
1430-442: A sonorant in the same syllable. Therefore, when syllables are created (often from suffixation or contractions) in which a long vowel is followed by a sonorant, the vowel is shortened: In Muscogee, there are three diphthongs, generally realized as [əɪ ʊj əʊ] . Both long and short vowels can be nasalized (the distinction between acces and ącces below ), but long nasal vowels are more common. Nasal vowels usually appear as
1540-456: 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
1650-451: A syllable, the velar /k/ is realized as the uvular [ q ] or [ ɢ ] . For example: There are four voiceless fricatives in Muscogee: /f s ɬ h/ . /f/ can be realized as either labiodental [ f ] or bilabial [ ɸ ] in place of articulation . Predominantly among speakers in Florida, the articulation of /s/ is more laminal , resulting in /s/ being realized as [ ʃ ] , but for most speakers, /s/
1760-453: A verb in a clause marks that the verb's subject is the same as that of the next clause. The clitic -n marks that verb's subject is different from the next clause. In some languages, a special form of the noun, the genitive case , is used to show possession . In Muscogee this relationship is expressed in two quite different ways, depending on the nature of the noun. A body part or family member cannot be named in Muscogee without mentioning
1870-459: Is a Muskogean language spoken by Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole people, primarily in the US states of Oklahoma and Florida . Along with Mikasuki , when it is spoken by the Seminole, it is known as Seminole . Historically, the language was spoken by various constituent groups of the Muscogee or Maskoki in what are now Alabama and Georgia . It is related to but not mutually intelligible with
1980-704: 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 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
2090-400: Is a voiceless palatal affricate and patterns as a single consonant and so with the other voiceless stops. /t͡ʃ/ has an alveolar allophone [ t͡s ] before /k/ . The obstruent consonants /p t t͡ʃ k/ are voiced to [b d d͡ʒ ɡ] between sonorants and vowels but remain voiceless at the end of a syllable . Between instances of [ o ] , or after [o] at the end of
2200-458: Is a voiceless apico-alveolar fricative [ s ] . Like /k/ , the glottal /h/ is sometimes realized as the uvular [ χ ] when it is preceded by [o] or when syllable-final: The sonorants in Muscogee are two nasals ( /m/ and /n/ ), two semivowels ( /w/ and /j/ ), and the lateral /l/ , all voiced . Nasal assimilation occurs in Muscogee: /n/ becomes [ ŋ ] before /k/ . Sonorants are devoiced when followed by /h/ in
2310-731: 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
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#17327871383362420-623: Is less common than the Mikasuki language. The most distinct dialect of the language is said to be that of the Florida Seminole, which is described as "rapid", "staccato" and "dental", with more loan words from Spanish and Mikasuki as opposed to English. Florida Seminole Creek is the most endangered register of the Muscogee language. Muscogee The Muscogee , also known as the Mvskoke , Muscogee Creek or just Creek , and
2530-600: Is the stative verbs , which express no action, imply no duration, and provide only description of a static condition. In some languages, such as English, they are expressed as adjectives. In Muscogee, the verbs behave like adjectives but are classed and treated as verbs. However, they are not altered for the person of the subject by an affix , as above; instead, the prefix changes: Prefixes are also used in Muscogee for shades of meaning of verbs that are expressed, in English, by adverbs in phrasal verbs . For example, in English,
2640-429: Is the second person singular ending for verbs. Wiketv means "to stop:" the verb for "you are stopping" may be written in Muscogee as wikeckes or wiketskes . Both are pronounced the same. The -eck- transliteration is preferred by Innes (2004), and the -etsk- transliteration has been used by Martin (2000) and Loughridge (1964). While vowel length in Muscogee is distinctive, it is somewhat inconsistently indicated in
2750-751: 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
2860-523: 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
2970-655: 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
3080-456: The Battle of Tallushatchee and Battle of Talladega . A large number of Hillabee Creeks fought General Andrew Jackson 's forces at Talladega. They were badly defeated and sued for peace, which Jackson granted on 17 November 1813. One day later the Hillabee villages were attacked by troops under General William Cocke , who did not know about the peace. The villages of Little Oakfusky and Genalga were completely destroyed. Then main town of Hillabee
3190-678: 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
3300-556: 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
3410-601: 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
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3520-840: The Federal Road , which connected Milledgeville , to Mobile , and was originally an Indian trail called the Three Notch Road . Part of the Weogulfga-Oakfuskee Trail near Hillabee was widened and became known as the Chapman Road. 33°4′48″N 85°53′26″W / 33.08000°N 85.89056°W / 33.08000; -85.89056 Muscogee language The Muscogee language ( Muskogee , Mvskoke IPA: [maskókî] in Muscogee), previously referred to by its exonym , Creek ,
3630-651: The Mississippi River , with most forced into Indian Territory . The language is today spoken by fewer than 400 people, most of whom live in Oklahoma and are members of the Muscogee Nation and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma . Muscogee is widely spoken among the Muscogee people. The Muscogee Nation offers free language classes and immersion camps to Muscogee children. The College of
3740-580: 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
3850-639: The Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( pronounced [məskóɡəlɡi] in the Muscogee language ; English: / m ə s ˈ k oʊ ɡ iː / məss- KOH -ghee ), are 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
3960-589: 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
4070-506: 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 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
4180-652: 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
4290-638: 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
4400-694: 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 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
4510-887: 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
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4620-485: 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
4730-525: 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
4840-641: 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
4950-585: The (approximately) equivalent sounds using familiar English words and the IPA : There are also three vowel sequences whose spellings match their phonetic makeup: As mentioned above, certain consonants in Muscogee, when they appear between two sonorants (a vowel or m , n , l , w , or y ), become voiced . They are the consonants represented by p , t , k , c , and s : In addition, certain combinations of consonants sound differently from English, giving multiple possible transcriptions . The most prominent case
5060-595: 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 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
5170-571: 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 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
5280-521: 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 ,
5390-583: 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
5500-619: The Creek Confederacy's territory. Its population probably peaked after the Creek War (1813–14), then declined. Creek settlement in the area ended with the forced removal of the Muscogee people during the 1830s. During the Creek War , part of the War of 1812 , the Muscogee (Creek) people were divided. Those who fought against the United States were known as the Red Sticks . The Hillabee people had been Red Stick allies until
5610-515: 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
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#17327871383365720-560: 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
5830-571: 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
5940-444: 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
6050-498: 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
6160-410: 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
6270-401: 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 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,
6380-415: The Muscogee Nation offers a language certificate program. Tulsa public schools, the University of Oklahoma and Glenpool Library in Tulsa and the Holdenville, Okmulgee, and Tulsa Muscogee Communities of the Muscogee Nation offer Muscogee Creek language classes. In 2013, the Sapulpa Creek Community Center graduated a class of 14 from its Muscogee language class. In 2018, 8 teachers graduated from
6490-551: 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
6600-622: 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 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,
6710-463: 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 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
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#17327871383366820-439: 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
6930-473: 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
7040-453: 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
7150-407: 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
7260-420: 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
7370-410: 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,
7480-415: 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
7590-417: The area is in southern Clay County and northern Tallapoosa County , north of Alexander City . The present-day villages of Millerville and Bluff Springs lie within the former Hillabee complex area. The Hillabee complex, focused along the Hillabee and Enitachopco Creeks, dates back at least to the late 17th century. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries the complex lay in the approximate center of
7700-405: 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
7810-582: 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
7920-616: 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
8030-443: 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
8140-468: 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
8250-623: 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
8360-550: 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
8470-566: The first (1860) grammar of the Muscogee language, persisted in the Hichiti , Muscogee proper, and Koasati languages at least into the first half of the 20th century. The forms of Muscogee used by the Seminoles of Oklahoma and Florida are separate dialects from the ones spoken by Muscogee people. Oklahoma Seminole speak a dialect known as Oklahoma Seminole Creek. Florida Seminole Creek is one of two languages spoken among Florida Seminoles; it
8580-514: 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
8690-427: 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
8800-702: The junction of several important trading trails, notably the Oakfuskee Trail (Upper Creek Trading Path), the Weogulfga-Oakfuskee Trail, and the Cussetta Trading Path. After the 1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson the United States and white settlers build or improved a number of roads crossing Creek lands. Roads that crossed the Hillabee area included the McIntosh Road (also called the Georgia Road), which connected Coweta to Talladega ,
8910-565: The linguistic orthography: high (marked in the linguistic orthography with an acute accent : á , etc.), low (unmarked: a , etc.), and falling (marked with a circumflex : â , etc.). The traditional Muscogee alphabet was adopted by the tribe in the late 1800s and has 20 letters . Although it is based on the Latin alphabet , some sounds are vastly different from those in English like those represented by c , e , i , r , and v . Here are
9020-425: The locations are actually nouns. These are possessed just like parts of the body and family members were above. Claudio Saunt , writing about the language of the later 18th century, said that there were different feminine and masculine versions, which he also calls dialects, of the Muscogee language. Males "attach[ed] distinct endings to verbs", while Females "accent[ed] different syllables". These forms, mentioned in
9130-518: 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
9240-419: The nasal vowels /ĩ ɑ̃ õ ĩː ɑ̃ː õː/ (in the linguistic orthography, they are often written with an ogonek under them or a following superscript "n"). Most occurrences of nasal vowels are the result of nasal assimilation or the nasalizing grade, but there are some forms that show contrast between oral and nasal vowels: The three short vowels /i ɑ o/ can be realized as the lax and centralized ( [ɪ ə ʊ] ) when
9350-567: 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
9460-487: The new initial syllable. Furthermore, initial vowel deletion in the case of single-morpheme, short words such as ifa 'dog' or icó 'deer' is impossible, as the shortest a Muscogee word can be is a one-syllable word ending in a long vowel ( fóː 'bee') or a two-syllable word ending with a short vowel ( ací 'corn'). There are three long vowels in Muscogee ( /iː ɑː oː/ ), which are slightly longer than short vowels and are never centralized. Long vowels are rarely followed by
9570-488: The other primary language of the Muscogee confederacy, Hitchiti - Mikasuki , which is spoken by the kindred Mikasuki, as well as with other Muskogean languages. The Muscogee first brought the Muscogee and Miccosukee languages to Florida in the early 18th century. Combining with other ethnicities there, they emerged as the Seminole . During the 1830s, however, the US government forced most Muscogee and Seminole to relocate west of
9680-408: The pattern subject–object–verb . The subject or object may be a noun or a noun followed by one or more adjectives . Adverbs tend to occur either at the beginning of the sentence (for time adverbs) or immediately before the verb (for manner adverbs). Case is marked on noun phrases using the clitics -t for subjects, and -n for non-subjects. The clitic -n can appear on multiple noun phrases in
9790-527: The personal marking on the verb. Case marking is also omitted on fixed phrases that use a noun, e.g. "go to town " or "build a fire ". In Muscogee, a single verb can translate into an entire English sentence. The root infinitive form of the verb is altered for: Some Muscogee verbs, especially those involving motion, have highly irregular plurals: letketv = to run, with a singular subject, but tokorketv = to run of two subjects and pefatketv = to run of three or more. Another entire class of Muscogee verbs
9900-420: The possessor, which is an integrated part of the word. A set of changeable prefixes serves this function: Even if the possessor is mentioned specifically, the prefix still must be part of the word: Toskē enke = Toske's hand. It is not redundant in Muscogee ("Toske his_hand"). All other nouns are possessed through a separate set of pronouns . Again, even though the construction in English would be redundant,
10010-438: The proper way to form the possessive in Muscogee must include the correct preposition: Toskē em efv = Toske's dog. That is grammatically correct in Muscogee, unlike the literal English translation "Toske his dog". A final distinctive feature, related to the above, is the existence of locational nouns . In English, speakers have prepositions to indicate location, for example, behind , around , beside , and so on. In Muscogee,
10120-537: 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
10230-544: The same syllable and results in a single voiceless consonant: All plosives and fricatives in Muscogee can be geminated (lengthened). Some sonorants may also be geminated, but [hh] and [mm] are less common than other sonorant geminates, especially in roots. For the majority of speakers, except for those influenced by the Alabama or Koasati languages, the geminate [ww] does not occur. The vowel phonemes of Muscogee are as follows: There are three short vowels /i ɑ o/ and three long vowels /iː ɑː oː/ . There are also
10340-530: 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
10450-402: The streams in the area. Hillabee and its satellite villages were located along Little Hillabee Creek and Enitachopco Creek where they join to form Big Hillabee Creek. Villages within the complex, along these streams, included Echoseis Ligau, Enitachopko, Lanudshi Apala, and Oktasassi. Nearby towns and villages associated with Hillabee include Oakfuskee , Little Oakfuskee, and Atchinalgi. Today
10560-722: 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
10670-467: 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 ,
10780-552: The traditional orthography. The following basic correspondences can be noted: However, the correspondences do not always apply, and in some words, short /a/ is spelled a , long /iː/ is spelled e , and short /o/ is spelled o . Muscogee words carry distinctive tones and nasalization of their vowels. These features are not marked in the traditional orthography, only in dictionaries and linguistic publications. The following additional markers have been used by Martin (2000) and Innes (2004): The general sentence structure fits
10890-461: The verb to go can be changed to to go up , to go in , to go around , and other variations. In Muscogee, the same principle of shading a verb's meaning is handled by locative prefixes: Example: However, for verbs of motion, Muscogee has a large selection of verbs with a specific meaning: ossetv = to go out; ropottetv = to go through. Clauses in a sentence use switch-reference clitics to co-ordinate their subjects. The clitic -t on
11000-530: 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
11110-411: 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
11220-516: Was attacked. The Creeks, who thought they were at peace, were completely surprised and gave little resistance. During the attack 64 Creek were killed, 29 wounded, and 237 taken captive and sent to Fort Armstrong , near Turkeytown . Feeling betrayed, the Hillabees returned to the Red Stick alliance and remained bitter enemies of the Americans for the rest of the war. The complex was located near
11330-611: 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
11440-541: 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
11550-455: 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
11660-487: 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
11770-656: 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
11880-496: 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
11990-695: 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
12100-581: 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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