Alabama Indian Tribes

The following tribes at one time are recorded in history as having resided within the present state of Alabama. If the tribe name is in bold, then Alabama is the primary location known for this tribe, otherwise we provide the tribes specifics as it pertains to Alabama and then provide a link to the main tribal page.

  • Abihka Indians
    See Creek Confederacy and Muskogee.
  • Alabama Indians
  • Apalachee Indians
    A part of this tribe lived for a time among the Lower Creeks and perhaps in this State. Another section settled near Mobile and remained there until West Florida was ceded to Great Britain when they crossed the Mississippi. A few seem to have joined the Creeks and migrated with them to Oklahoma.
  • Apalachicola Indians
    Very early this tribe lived on the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee Rivers, partly in Alabama. Sometime after 1715 they settled in Russell County, on the Chattahoochee River where they occupied at least two different sites before removing with the rest of the Creeks to the other side of the Mississippi.
  • Atasi Indians
    A division or subtribe of the Muskogee.
  • Chatot Indians
    This tribe settled near Mobile after having been driven from Florida and moved to Louisiana about the same time as the Apalachee.
  • Cherokee Indians
    In the latter part of the eighteenth century some Cherokee worked their way down the Tennessee River as far as Muscle Shoals, constituting the Chickamauga band. They had settlements at Turkeytown on the Coosa, Willstown on Wills Creek, and Coldwater near Tuscumbia, occupied jointly with the Creeks and destroyed by the Whites in 1787. All of their Alabama territory was surrendered in treaties made between 1807 and 1835.
  • Chickasaw Indians
    The Chickasaw had a few settlements in northwestern Alabama, part of which State was within their hunting territories. At one time they also had a town called Ooe-asa (Wǐ-aca) among the Upper Creeks.
  • Choctaw Indians
    This tribe hunted over and occupied, at least temporarily, parts of southwestern Alabama beyond the Tombigbee.
  • Creek Confederacy
  • Eufaula Indians
    A division or subtribe of the Muskogee. (see Yufera)
  • Fus-hatchee Indians
    A division of the Muskogee.
  • Hilibi Indians
    A division or subtribe of the Muskogee.
  • Hitchiti Indians
    This tribe lived for considerable period close to, and at times within, the present territory of Alabama along its southeastern margin.
  • Kan-hatki Indians
    A division of the Muskogee.
  • Kealedji Indians
    A division of the Muskogee.
  • Koasati Indians
  • Kolomi Indians
    A division of the Muskogee.
  • Mobile Indians
  • Muklasa Indians
  • Muskogee Indians
  • Napochi Indians
  • Natchez Indians
    One section of the Natchez Indians settled among the the Abihka Creeks near Coosa River after 1731 and went to Oklahoma a century later with the rest of the Creeks.
  • Okchai Indians
    A division of the Muskogee.
  • Okmulgee Indians
    A Creek tribe and town of the Hitchiti connection.
  • Osochi Indians
  • Pakana Indians
    A division of the Muskogee.
  • Pawokti Indians
    This tribe moved from Florida to the neighborhood of Mobile along with the Alabama Indians and afterward established a town on the upper course of Alabama River. Still later they were absorbed into the Alabama division of the Creek Confederacy.
  • Pilthlako Indians
    A division of the Creeks, probably related to the Muskogee, and possibly a division of the Okchai.
  • Sawokli Indians
  • Shawnee Indians
    In 1716 a band of Shawnee from Savannah River moved to the Chattahoochee and later to the Tallapoosa, where they remained until early in the nineteenth century. A second band settled near Sylacauga in 1747 and remained there until some time before 1761 when they returned north.
  • Taensa Indians
    This tribe was moved from Louisiana in 1715 and given a location about 2 leagues from the French fort at Mobile, one which had been recently abandoned by the Tawasa, along a watercourse which was named from them Tensaw River. Soon after the cession of Mobile to Great Britain, the Taensa returned to Louisiana.
  • Tohome Indians
  • Tukabahchee Indians
    One of the four head tribes of the Muskogee.
  • Tuskegee Indians
  • Wakokai Indians
    A division or subtribe of the Muskogee.
  • Wiwohka Indians
    A division of the Muskogee made up from several different sources.
  • Yamasee Indians
    There was a band of Yamasee on Mobile Bay shortly after 1715, at the mouth of Deer River, and such a band is entered on maps as late as 1744. It was possibly this same band which appears among the Upper Creeks during the same century and in particular is entered upon the Mitchell map of 1755. Later they seem to have moved across to Chattahoochee River and later to west Florida, where in 1823 they constituted a Seminole town.
  • Yuchi Indians
    A band of Yuchi seems to have lived at a very early date near Muscle Shoals on Tennessee River, whence they probably moved into east Tennessee. A second body of the same tribe moved from Choctawhatchee River, Fla., to the Tallapoosa before 1760 and established themselves near the Tukabahchee, but they soon disappeared from the historical record. In 1715 the Westo Indians, who I believe to have been Yuchi, settled on the Alabama side of Chattahoochee River, probably on Little Uchee Creek. The year afterward another band, accompanied by Shawnee and Apalachicola Indians, established themselves farther down, perhaps at the mouth of Cowikee Creek in Barbour County, and not long afterward accompanied the Shawnee to Tallapoosa River. They settled beside the latter and some finally united with them. They seem to have occupied several towns in the neighborhood in succession and there is evidence that a part of them reached the lower Tombigbee. The main body of Yuchi shifted from the Savannah to Uchee Creek in Russell County between 1729 and 1740 and continued there until the westward migration of the Creek Nation.

Collection:
Swanton, John R. The Indian Tribes of North America. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 145. Washington DC: US Government Printing Office. 1953.

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20 thoughts on “Alabama Indian Tribes”

  1. Jeffery Richardson

    I have been trying to prove my Indian heritage for a while without resolve. I will have to do a more detail review of my history in order to have what you need. However, if you can teach me the concept and what I need to do then that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

  2. Hmm…

    My research suggests otherwise. However, I largely rely upon Federal Records and not so much on the state histories constructed at the behest of the American Historical Association’s call for Papers in 1885 or so.

    I realize not everything is located in Government documentation despite the fact that it is observed as official.

    However, after studying the various household accounts and stories that sometimes appear to be created solely for entertainment purposes – some of these accounts have been used as official history and actually taken for historical facts despite the underlying obvious parody involved at the time that the very tall tale was committed from ink to paper.

    Paper holds most anything.

    Chief Darby Weaver
    The Tribal Leader

  3. How can I find out about what tribe my great grandmother was in bc I was told by my mother an grandmother that my great grandmother was a Cherokee princess but I don’t know her name an I don’t know my grandmothers maiden name please help me bc I really would like to know

  4. I am trying to find out about my Indian heritage. My mother told me we have some Indian blood but doesn’t know where it comes from. Her family has features similar to native Americans. She has some dementia. Her name Della Udelphia Steelman Adams. Maiden name Steelman. Her mother’s maiden name Pope. They lived around Giles Co ,Maury Co and Moore Co in Tennessee.Her grandparents were Albert Jackson Pope and Ada B Scroggins Pope and George Henderson Steelman and Priscilla Warren Steelman please help

    1. Lavena Deann Powell

      Try visiting those areas where they lived at to get more information..Record it..Write it down..Also visit The National Archives in there hometown..You can call but better results in person

    2. Karen Kelsey Kelley

      I am 66yo. My parents died when I was young. We lived in NW Alabama, Colbert & Lauderdale County. My family always talked about how our dad would say his Grandmother was full blooded Indian. I do not know which tribe, I was 6 when he passed and 9 yrs later mom passed. My dad was born in Loretta TN Lawrence County. I have traced his Indian Grandmother who also lived in Loretta via census, etc. The story from people in that area say that she was lost on the “Trail of Tears” and was found on Shoals Creek in Lawrence County, TN and taken in by the Riddle Family in Loretta. Later she married the Loretta Postmaster. Her name was Mary J. English born 1845 married 1863 to William Albert Cleveland who lived in Loretta TN. Mary died in 1911. Wm Albert died 1921. Both are buried in the Loretta Cemetery. Also the house they lived in Loretta is still there & has been made into the Cleveland Historical House est 1890. They had 8 children, one was My Grandmother Alousin Mozella Cleveland (Kelsey) (aka or called: Mozie/Rosie). She also looks Indian in the one picture I have of her. Rosie my dad’s mom married his dad, Charles Eli Denver Kelsey in 6/9/1892 in TN. Her name written there is Rose Ella Cleveland. I have one picture of Mary English Cleveland & she definitely looks indian with the high check bones and petite build & brown skin. My dad also looked Indian, black hair, reddish dark skin with Blue eyes. What I don’t understand is: in all census & documents,Mary English is listed as white and born in Lauderdale County, AL. Also under where parents from, it lists Lauderdale County, AL. But I can not find her Birth Certificate, her parents names or where she is of Indian decent?? And just don’t know where to go from here?? I would like to have these last few questions answered to complete this family research and to leave as a legacy for my Grandchildren & Great Grands. If anyone can lead me from here I would appreciate it. Thank you!

  5. Could you tell me my genealogy. My name is Amber Elizabeth Hendon. My mother’s name is christy louise Kennedy
    And my dads is William Charles Hendon the 2nd. From west point ms

  6. hello how are you my father was mobile cherokee. irby ralph white b 1934 in collinsville alabama his mother was vilma anna bell cook from there also b 1906 she was mobile cherokee i contacted the researchers they claim there was no such tribe thank you i just want to clerify my heritage thank you

    1. Lavena Deann Powell

      Contact the tribe or go to there hometown and visit neighbors for mor information and visit National Archives..do not call better to visit

    2. Alan take time and visit Mount Vernon Ala., Sercy Hospital is there, and the Cherokee Indians were taken / held there after being captured. Sercy Hospital at that time was used as a military fort which held many captured Cherokee Indians.

  7. I am trying get more info the family of Mourning White Dove her 2nd husband was Russell Porter Palmer my 15th cousin I think her 1st husband was called Mancill she was 3rd Gt Grandmother of Elvis Presley

  8. Hi my Name is Sherron (Jones)Gosnell, my dad said he was 3 quarters Cherokee indiand, and my mom said she had Blackfoot Indian in her, my maiden Name is Jones , my dad was Billie Jones his dad was Charles Richard Jones, and his mom was Artheina Keel she was called Betty and she was a midwife, my mom was Loria Dick her mom was Lorie ,Loria, Lore McDonald and moms dad was James Franklin Dick, I be leave our ancestors are from William Jones, and and The first John Jones from Wales, and David Jones

    1. Your Dad was definitely not 3/4 Cherokee. Going through your family tree to 1800, there is nothing to suggest any Native ancestry at all. It likely is not true.

    2. Lavena Deann Powell

      Contact those tribes direct and visit National Archives in there hometown where there from..Also for more information visit there old neighbor hood to get more information

  9. Hi, I’m trying to trace my Indian heritage, I believe I’m part cherokee and Creek. How would I find out about it?

    1. Hi, I’m trying to trace my Indian heritage. My grandmother, Amelia (aka Armelia) Harris (aka Williams) was a full blooded Creek Indian. She was named after her mother. My great grandmother married Love Duflo Harris (or Duflo Love Harris) – not sure of spelling of his name because he was adopted by the Harris family.
      I believe my great great grandmother’s name was Polly.
      My grandmother was taken from her parents and stayed with a medicine woman named Elizabeth Williams and her family. My grandmother never seen her real family again.

    2. Lavena Deann Powell

      Gather all information you have on paper..Contact tribes direct by google or visit where your ancestors origanate from and speak to neighbors..Record that information..Also you can visit the National Archives where there from..You might find out they had land also

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