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Alabama Indian Tribe, History
Alabama. Perhaps connected with the native word "albina," meaning "to
camp," or alba amo, "weed gatherer," referring to the black drink. Also
called:
Ma'-mo an-ya -di, or Ma'-mo han-ya, by the Biloxi.
Oke-choy-atte, given by Schoolcraft (1851-57), the name of an Alabama
town, Oktcaiutci.
Connections
The Alabama language belonged to the southern division of the
Muskhogean stock, and was perhaps connected with the tongues of the Muklasa and
Tuskegee, which have not been preserved. It was closely related to Koasati and
more remotely to Hitchiti and Choctaw.
Location
The principal historic seat of this tribe was on the upper
course of Alabama River. (See also Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.)
Subdivisions
The Tawasa and Pawokti, which later formed two Alabama towns,
were originally independent tribes (see under Florida), though the former, at
least, was not properly Alabama. The same may have been true of some other
Alabama towns, though we have no proof of the fact.
Villages
Besides the above:
Autauga, on the north bank of Alabama River about the mouth of Autauga Creek
in Autauga County.
Kantcati, on Alabama River about 3 miles above Montgomery and on the same
side.
Nitahauritz, on the north side of Alabama River west of the confluence of
the
Alabama and Cahawba Rivers in Dallas County.
Okchayutci, in Benjamin Hawkins' time (about 1800) on the east bank of
Coosa River between Tuskegee and the Muskogee town of Otciapofa. (See
Hawkins, 1848, 1916.)
Wetumpka, a branch village reported in 1761.
History
Native tradition assigns the origin of the Alabama to a point
at the confluence of Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, but we seem to hear of the
tribe first historically in what is now northern Mississippi west of the
Chickasaw country. This is in the narratives of De Soto's chroniclers, which,
however, do not altogether agree, since one writer speaks of a province of the
name, two others bestow the designation upon a small village, and only Garcilaso
(1723), the least reliable, gives the title Fort Alibamo to a stockade-west of
the village above mentioned, where the Spaniards had a severe combat. While this
stockade was probably held by Alabama Indians, there is no certainty that it
was. The next we bear of the tribe it is in its historic seats above given.
After the French had established themselves at Mobile they became embroiled in
some small affrays between the Alabama and Mobile Indians, but peace was
presently established and thereafter the French and Alabama remained good
friends as long as French rule continued. This friendship was cemented in 1717
by the establishment of Fort Toulouse in the Alabama country and the admission
among them of one, or probably two, refugee tribes, the Tawasa and Pawokti. (See Florida.) About 1763 a movement toward the west began on the
part of those Indians
who had become accustomed to French rule. Some Alabama joined
the Seminole in Florida. Others accompanied the Koasati to Tombigbee River but soon returned to their own country. Still another
body went to Louisiana and settled on the banks of the Mississippi
River, where they were probably joined from time to time by more.
Later they advanced further toward the west and some are still
scattered in St. Landry and Calcasieu Parishes, but the greatest
single body finally reached Polk County, Tex., where they occupy
a piece of land set aside for them by the State. Those who remained
behind took a very prominent part in the Creek-American War and
lost all their land by the treaty of Fort Jackson, 1814, being obliged
to make new settlements between the Coosa and Tallapoosa. They accompanied
the rest of the Creeks to Oklahoma, and their descendants are to be found
there today, principally about a little station bearing the name just
south of Weleetka.
Population
In 1702 Iberville (in Margry, 1875-86, vol. 4, p. 514)
estimated that there were 400 families of Alabama in two villages, and the
English census of 1715 gives 214 men and a total population of 770 in four
villages. These figures must have been exclusive of the Tawasa and Pawokti,
which subsequent estimates include. About 1730-40 there is an estimate of 400
men in six towns. In 1792 the number of Alabama men is given as 60, exclusive of
60 Tawasa, but as this last included Kantcati
the actual proportion of true Alabama was considerably greater. Hawkins,
in 1799, estimated 80 gunmen in four Alabama towns, including Tawasa and
Pawokti, but he does not include the population of Okchaiyutci. (See
Hawkins, 1848.) In 1832 only two towns are entered which may be safely set
down as Alabama, Tawasa and Autauga, and these had a population of 321
besides 21 slaves. The later figures given above do not include those
Alabama who had moved to Louisiana. In 1805 Sibley (1832) states there
were two villages in Louisiana with 70 men; in 1817 Morse (1822) gives 160
Alabama all told in Texas, but this is probably short of the truth. In
1882 the United States Indian Office reported 290 Alabama, Koasati, and
Muskogee in Texas, the larger number of whom were probably Alabama. In
1900 the figure is raised to 470. In 1910 a special agent from the Indian
Office reported 192 Alabama alone. The census of 1910 gave 187 in Texas
and 111 in Louisiana, a total of 298. The 176 "Creek" Indians returned
from Polk County, Tex., in 1930, were mainly Alabama. The number of
Alabama in Oklahoma has never been separately reported.
Connection in which they have become noted
The Alabama attained early literary fame from Garcilaso de la
Vega's (1723) description of the storming of "Fort Alibamo." Their later
notoriety has rested upon the fact that their name became attached to Alabama
River, and still more from its subsequent adoption by the State of Alabama. A
railroad station in Oklahoma is named after them, and the term has been applied
to places in Genesee County, N. Y., and in Polk County, Wis. There is an Alabama
City in Etowah County, Ala., and Alabam in Madison County,
Ark.
Resources:
Notes About the Book:
Source: The Indian Tribes of North America, by John R. Swanton, 1953, Bureau of
American Ethnology, Bulletin 145, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing
has been done, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual
output.
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