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What became of the Alabama

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

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In the early Carolina documents there are few references to them, the general name Tallapoosa being used for them and their Creek neighbors on Tallapoosa River. It is curious that the name Alabama does not occur in the list of Creek towns in the census of 1761, but part of them may be included in the following: "Welonkees including red Ground, 70 hunters," the name of the principal Alabama town being "Red Ground" in Hawkins's time.1

Another part of them are, however, represented by the "Little Oakchoys, assigned to Wm. Trewin. " 2 The enumeration of 1750 seems to give Red Ground in the distorted form "Canachequi." In 1777 Bartram visited a town which he calls "Alabama" situated at the junction of the Coosa and
Tallapoosa Rivers, but this seems really to have been Tuskegee.4

Hawkins enumerates four settlements which he believed to be the ancient Alabama, but in fact only the first of these appears to have consisted of true Alabama, the others being probably made up of later additions, which have already been considered (pp. 137-141).

Following is his description of these four places:

1st. E-cun-chate; from E-cun-na, earth, and chate, red. A small village on the left bank of Alabama, which has its fields on the right side, in the cane swamp; they are a poor people, without stock, are idle and indolent, and seldon make bread enough, but have fine melons in great abundance in their season. The land back from the settlement is of thin quality, oak, hickory, pine and ponds. Back of this, hills, or waving. Here the soil is of good quality for cultivation; that of thin quality extends nearly a mile.

2d. Too-wos-sau, is three miles below E-cun-cha-te, on the same side of the river; a small village on a high bluff, the land is good about, and back of the village; they have some lots fenced with cane, and some with rails, for potatoes and ground nute; the corn is cultivated on the right side of the river, on rich cane swamps; these people have a few hogs, but no other stock.

3d. Pau-woc-te; a small village two miles below Too-was-sau, [Note: Also given as 7 miles below the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa] on a high bluff, the same side of the river; the land is level and rich for five miles back; but none of it is cultivated around their houses; their fields are on the right bank of the river, on rich cane swamp; they have a few hogs and horses, but no cattle; they had, formerly, the largest and best breed of hogs in the nation, but have lost them by carelessness or inattention. [Note In 1797 Hawkins states that the trader here was "Charles Weatherlord, a man of infamous character, a dealer in stolen horses; condemned and reprieved the 28th of May."]

4th. At-tau-gee; a small village four miles below Pau-woc-te, spread out for two miles on the right bank of the river; they have fields on both sides, but their chief dependence is on the left side; the land on the left side is rich; on the right side the pine forest extends down to At-tau-gee Creek; below this creek the land is rich. These people have very little intercourse with white people; although they are hospitable, and offer freely any thing they have, to those who visit them. They have this singular custom, as soon as a white person has eaten of any dish and left it, the remains are thrown away, and every thing used by the guest immediately washed. They have some hogs, horses, and cattle, in a very fine range, perhaps the best on the river: the land to the east as far as Ko-e-ne-cuh, and except the plains (Hi-yuc-pul-gee), is well watered, with much canebrake, a very desirable country. On the west or right side, the good land extends about five miles, and on all the creeks below At-tau-gee, it is good; some of the trees are large poplar, red oak, and hickory, walnut on the margins of the creeks, and pea-vine in the valleys.

These four villages have, in all, about eighty gunmen; they do not conform to the customs of the Creeks, and the Creek law for the punishment of adultery is not known to them." [Note: Bossu's account shows clearly that the last statement is erroneous.]

At an earlier period the Alabama had a town still farther downstream which appears in many maps under the name Nitahauritz, interpreted by Mr. H. S. Halbert to mean "Bear Fort." Hawkins mentions the fact that already a body of Koasati had gone beyond the Mississippi.2 He does not say the same of the Alabama, yet we know that that tribe had also begun to split up. In describing the Koasati an account of one of these migrations will be given. From the papers of the British Indian agent, John Stuart, we learn that as early as 1778 bands of Kan-tcati and Tawasa had moved into northern Florida,3 and after the Creek-American war their numbers were swollen very considerably. They did not, however, long maintain a distinct existence. The movement toward the west was of much more importance. It appears that the long association of these Indians with the French, due to the presence of a French post among them, had bred an attachment to that nation among the Alabama equally with the tribes about Mobile Bay, and part of them also decided to move across into Louisiana after the peace of 1763. A further inducement was the almost virgin hunting ground to be found in parts of that colony. That the first emigration occurred about the date indicated (1763) [Note: It may have been a few years later, for John Stuart, the British Indian agent, writes, December2, 1766, that some of these Indians had expressed a desire to settle on the bunks of the Mississippi] is proved by Sibley, writing in 1806, who has the following to say of the Alabama in the State of Louisiana in his time:

"Allibamis, are likewise from West Florida, off Allibami River, and came to Red River about the same time of the Boluxas and Appalaches. Part of them have lived on Red River, about sixteen miles above the Bayau Rapide, till last year, when most of this party, of about thirty men, went up Red River, and have settled themselves near the Caddoques, where, I am informed, they last year made a good crop of corn. The Caddos are friendly to them, and have no objection to their settling there. They speak the Creek and Chactaw languages, and Mobilian; most of them French, and some of them English. There is another party of them, whose village is on a small creek, in Appelousa district, about thirty miles northwest from the church of Appelousa. They consist of about forty men. They have lived at the same place ever since they came from Florida; are said to be increasing a little in numbers, for a few years past. They raise corn, have horses, hogs, and cattle, and are harmless, quiet people."5

In August, 1777, William Bartram visited an Alabama village on the Mississippi 2 miles above the Manchac. He describes it as "delightfully situated on several swelling green hills, gradually ascending from the verge of the river." ' A friend accompanying him purchased some native baskets and pottery from the inhabitants. In 1784 Hutchins found them in about the same place.3 It will be noticed that Sibley does not mention a previous sojourn of either of the parties of Alabama described by him on the Mississippi River, and we are in the dark as to whether they had separated after coming into Louisiana or before. If they came separately it would seem most likely that the Opelousas band was the one settled on the Mississippi. This at any rate was in accordance with the belief of John Scott, the late chief of the Alabama now residing in Texas and the oldest person among them. He informed the writer in 1912 that the name of the old Alabama town on the Mississippi River was Aktcabehale. From there they moved to "Mikiwi'l" close to Opelousas, and from there to the Sabine River, where they formed a new town which received no special name.

There was an Alabama village in Texas called Fenced-in-village a short distance west by south of a mill and former post office called Mobile, Tyler County, Texas.

Next they settled in what is now Tyler County, Texas, at a town which they called Tak'o'sha-o'la ("Peach-tree Town"). This was about 2 miles due north of Chester or 20 miles north of Woodville, Texas. .Their next town was 3 miles from Peach-tree Town and contained a "big house" (i' sa tcuba) and a dance ground, but was unnamed. After a time the Alabama chief decided to move to Pat'ala'ka (said to mean "Cane place") where the Biloxi and Pascagoula lived, and some other Indians went with him. Part, however, returned to Louisiana, where they remained three years. At the end of that time they came back to Texas and formed a village which took its name from a white man, Jim Barclay. They moved from there to the village which they now occupy, which is called Big Sandy village from the name of a creek, although it took some time for the families scattered about in Texas to come in.

According to some white informants the Alabama settled on Red River, moved to Big Sandy village, and perhaps both parties finally united there. A few families, however, still remain in Calcasieu and St. Landry Parishes, Louisiana. The language of all of the Texas Alabama is practically uniform, but the speech of some of the Tapasola clan is said to vary a little from the normal.

The Alabama who had remained in their old country took a prominent part in the Creek war. Indeed Stiggins says that "they did more murder and other mischief in the time of their hostilities in the year 1813 than all the other tribes together."1 After the treaty of Fort Jackson, in 1814, by which all of the old Alabama land was ceded to the whites, the same writer says that part of them settled above the mouth of Cubahatche in a town called Towassee, while the rest moved to a place on Coosa River above Wetumpka. He states that the town belonging to this latter division was Otciapofa, but he is evidently mistaken, because Otciapofa has been pure Creek as far back as we have any knowledge of it. [Note: Still they may have occupied the site of Otciapofa for a time. This place and Little Tulsa were so close together that they were often confounded.] Perhaps the Coosa settlement was that called Autauga in the census of 1832, or it may have contained the Okchaiutci Indians, whose history will be given presently. I have suggested elsewhere that the names of these towns seem to show the part of the tribe which remained with the Creeks to have been the Tawasa. Speaking of the Alabama Indians in his time Stiggins says that, while their chiefs were admitted to the national councils on the same terms as the others, they seldom associated with the Creeks otherwise. After their removal the Alabama settled near the Canadian, but some years later went still farther west and located about the present town of Weleetka, Okla. A small station on the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad just south of Weleetka bears their
name. While a few of these Indians retain their old language if is rapidly giving place to Creek and English. They have the distinction of being the only non-Muskogee tribe incorporated with the Creeks, exclusive of the Yuchi, which still maintains a square ground.

As already noted, one Alabama town received the name, Okchai utci, "Little Okchai," which suggests relationship with the Okchai people, but the origin of this the Indians explain as follows: 
"At one time the Alabama (probably only part of the tribe) had no square ground and asked the Okchai to take them into theirs. The Okchai said, "All right; you can seat yourself on the other side of my four backsticks and I will protect you." They did so, and for some time afterwards the two tribes busked together and played on the same side in ball games. Later on, however, a dispute arose in connection with one of these games and the Alabama separated, associating themselves with the Tukabahchee and hence with the opposite fire clan.

Afterwards those Alabama formed a town which they called Okchaiutci, and to this day Okchaiutci is one of the names given the Alabama Indians in set speeches at the time of the busk. According to my informant, himself an Okchai Indian, the date of this separation was as late as 1872-73, but he must be much in error since we find Okchaiutci in existence long before the removal to Oklahoma. Okchaiutci appears first, apparently, in the census list of 1750, though the diminutive ending is not used. In 1761 the trader located there was William Trewin.1

It is not separately mentioned by Bartram nor certainly by Swan, but is probably intended by the town which he calls "Wacksoyochees." 2

Hawkins gives the following description:
Hook-choie-oo-che, a pretty little compact town, between O-che-au-po-fau and Tus-kee-gee, on the left bank of Coosau; the houses join those of Tus-kee-gee; the land around the town is a high, poor level, with high-land ponds; the corn fields are on the left side of Tallapoosa, on rich low grounds, on a point called Sam-bul-loh, and below the mouth of the creek of that name which joins on the right side of the river. They have a good stock of hogs, and a few cattle and horses; they formerly lived on the right bank of Coosau, just above their present site, and removed lately, on account of the war with the Chickasaws. Their stock ranges on that side of the river ; they have fenced all the small fields about their houses, where they raise their peas and potatoes; their fields at Sam-bul-loh, are under a good fence; this was made by Mrs. Durant, the oldest sister of the late General McGillivray, for her own convenience."2

This town does not appear in the census list of 1832, unless it is one of the two Fishpond towns there given, "Fish Pond" and "Tholl thlo coe." After the removal to Oklahoma it is said to have maintained its separate square for a short time, and, as has been said, its name is retained as a busk designation of all the Alabama.
(Swanton)