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Better known as the Creek by whites, the Muscogee are also known as the Mvskoke, Muskogee, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy.

The English referred to them as Creek due to the abundance of rivers, creeks, and streams in their lands, and that name for them stemmed from the 18th-century British usage of Ocheessee Creek Indians for those who then inhabited the area along the Ocheessee River, which is now known as the Ocmulgee River. Tribal members prefer Muscogee or Muskoke. In summary, non-natives might know them as the Creek, but they call themselves the Muscogee. We will use both names intermittently, with a preference for Muscogee.

Historically, the Creeks inhabited the Southeastern Woodlands area of southern Tennessee, western Georgia, parts of northern Florida, and much of Alabama.

For most of Georgia's colonial period, the Muscogee outnumbered the European colonists and enslaved Africans combined and occupied more land. It wasn't until the 1760s that the Muscogee became a minority population in Georgia.

The Creek were considered one of the "Five Civilized Tribes," which included the Creek, the Cherokee, the Chickaway, the Choctaw, and the Seminole. These tribes were considered civilized by European Americans because they had adopted some of the attributes of Anglo-American culture, such as Christianity, literacy, central governments, written constitutions, market participation, intermarriage with whites, and slavery practices, including the purchase of enslaved Africans. The Creek were not nomadic. Rather, they were farmers who grew crops of corn, beans, squash, melons, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes.

The Five Civilized Tribes maintained stable political relations with European Americans. Nevertheless, as more and more white settlers came into the area, this stability broke down. When war broke out between the U.S. military and the Red Stick faction of the Creek Nation in the early 1800s, a series of raids were launched against white settlements. The Creeks divided, some fighting against the United States, while others formed alliances with the federal government.

Cooperation and diplomacy didn't save the Muscogee from being subjected to the Indian Removal policies that began in the 1830s. When Andrew Jackson became president, he ordered the forcible removal of the Muscogee to a designated "Indian Territory" in what later became Oklahoma. While most of the Muscogee were removed from their homeland, small numbers were able to avoid removal from Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.

Descendants of those who remained in the Southeast later formed the federally recognized Poarch Band of Creek Indians, whose reservation is in Atmore, near Mobile Alabama. Other Muscogee made their way to Florida, where they live in undocumented ethnic villages. Other Muscogee descendants are scattered throughout the southeastern United States.

Descendants of the larger group of Muscogee, who participated in the "Trail of Tears," settling in Oklahoma, formed the Muscogee Nation, also known as the Muscogee Creek Nation, a federally-recognized tribe headquartered in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Its reservation lands span Creek, Hughes, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, McIntosh, Muskogee, Tulsa, and Wagoner counties.

The Muscogee Nation is the largest of the federally recognized Muscogee tribes. The Muskogean-speaking Alabama, Koasati, Hitchiti, and Natchez people are also enrolled in this nation, as are the Algonquian-speaking Shawnee and Yuchi, although the latter two groups are descended from different language families and cultures than the Muscogee.

Other federally recognized Muscogee groups include the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town, Kialegee Tribal Town, and Thlopthlocco Tribal Town of Oklahoma; the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, and the already mentioned Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama.

Creek Freedmen is a term used to refer to emancipated Creeks of African descent who were slaves of Muscogee Creek tribal members prior to Emancipation. Freedmen who wanted to remain in the Creek Nation in Indian Territory, with whom many had blood relatives, were granted citizenship in the Creek Nation. This term also applies to their descendants in the United States.

However, in 2001, the Creek Nation changed its membership rules to require all members to prove descent from persons listed as "Indian by Blood" on the Dawes Rolls, and the Creek Freedmen have sued against this decision.

The Muscogee language (maskókî) is a Muskogean language spoken by Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole people. When it is spoken by a Seminole, it is known as Seminole. Historically, the language was spoken by constituent groups of the Muscogee or Maskoki in what is now Alabama and Georgia. It is related, but not mutually intelligible with the other primary language of the Muscogee Confederacy, Hitchiti-Mikasuki.

 

 

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