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What became of the Tuskegee

Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121

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The [Tuskegee] town [on the Coosa] appears in the census estimates of 1750.2 In the enumeration of 1761 we find "Tuskegee including Coosaw old Town" with 40 hunters.4 The name does not occur in Bartram's list, but, as I have said elsewhere, it appears to be the town which he calls Alabama.s Hawkins (1799) has the following to say regarding it:

"Tus-kee-gee: This little town is in the fork of the two rivers, Coo-sau and Tal-la-poosa, where formerly stood the French fort Toulouse. The town is on a bluff on the Coosau, forty-six feet above low-water mark; the rivers here approach each other within a quarter of a mile, then curve out, making a flat of low land of three thousand acres, which has been rich canebrake; and one-third under cultivation in times past; the center of this flat is rich oak and hickory, margined on both sides with rich cane swamp; the land back of the town, for a mile, is flat, a whitish clay; small pine, oak, and dwarf hickory, then high pine forest. There are thirty buildings in the town, compactly situated, and from the bluff a fine view of the flat lands in the fork, and on the right bank of Coosau, which river is here two hundred yards wide. In the yard of the town house there are five cannon of iron, with the trunions broke off, and on the bluff some brickbats, the only remains of the French establishment here. There is one apple tree claimed by this town now in possession of one of the chiefs of Book-choie-oo-che [Okchaiyutci]. [Note: The Lib. Cong. MS. has " Hook-choie."]

"The fields are the left side of Tal-la-poo-sa, and there are some small patches well formed in the fork of the rivers, on the flat rich land below the bluff. The Coosau extending itself a great way into the Cherokee country and mountains, gives scope for a vast accumulation of waters, at times. The Indians remark that once in fifteen or sixteen years, [Note: The Lib. Cong. MS. has "fifteen or twenty years.] they have a flood, which overflows the banks, and spreads itself for five miles or more [Note: The Lib. Cong. MS. has " five or six miles."] in width, in many parts of A-la-ba-ma. The rise is sudden, and so rapid as to drive a current up the Tal-la-poo-sa for eight miles. In January, 1796, [Note: The Lib. Cong. MS. hiis " 1795."] the flood rose forty-seven feet, and spread itself for three miles on the left bank of the A-la-ba-ma. The ordinary width of that river, taken at the first bluff below the fork, is one hundred and fifty yards. The bluff is on the left side, and forty-five feet high. On this bluff are five conic mounds of earth, the largest thirty yards diameter at the base, and seventeen feet high; the others are smaller. It has been for sometime a subject of enquiry, when, and for what purpose, these mounds were raised; here it explains itself as to the purpose; unquestionably they were intended as a place of safety to the people, in the time of these floods; and this is the tradition among the old people. As these Indians came from the other side of the Mississippi, and that river spreads out on that side for a great distance, it is probable, the erection of mounds originated there; or from the custom of the Indians heretofore, of settling on rich flats bordering on the rivers, and subject to be overflowed. The name is E-eun-li-gee [language], mounds of earth, or literally, earth placed. But why erect these mounds in high places, incontestably out of the reach of floods? From a superstitious veneration for ancient customs.

"The Alabama overflows its flat swampy margins, annually; and generally, in the month of March, but seldom in the summer season. The people of Tuskogee have some cattle, and a fine stock of hogs, more perhaps
than any town of the nation. One man, Sam Macnack [Sam Moniack], a half breed, has a fine stock of cattle. He had, in 1799, one hundred and eighty calves. They have lost their language, and speak Creek, and have adopted the customs and manners of the Creeks. They have thirty-five gun men."5

After their removal west the Tuskegee formed a town in the southeastern part of the nation. Later a portion, consisting largely of those who had negro blood, moved northwest and settled west of Beggs, Okla., close to the Yuchi. 
(Swanton)