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Mobile Indian Tribe History
Mobile
(meaning doubtful). A Muskhogean tribe whose early home was probably
Mauvila, or Mavilla, supposed to have been at or near Choctaw Bluff on
Alabama river, Clark County, Ala., where DeSoto, in 1540, met with fierce
opposition on the part of the natives and engaged in the most obstinate
contest of the expedition. The town was then under the control of
Tascalusa probably an Alibamu chief. If, as is probable, the Mobiln
tribe took part in this contest, they must later have moved farther south,
as they are found on Mobile bay when the French began to plant a colony at
that point about the year 1700. Wishing protection from their enemies,
they obtained permission from the French, about 1708, to settle near Ft
Louis, where space was lotted them and the Tohome for this purpose.
Little is known of the history the tribe. In 1708 a
large body of Alibamu,
Cherokee, Abihka, and
Catawba warriors descended Mobile
river for to purpose of attacking the French and the Indian allies, but
for some unknown reason contented themselves with destroying a few huts of
the Mobilians. The latter, who were always friendly to to French, appear
to have been Christianized soon after the French settled there. In 1741
Coxe wrote that the chief city of the once great province of Tascaluza, "Mouvilla,
which the English call Maubela, and the French Mobile, is yet being, tho'
far short of its former grandeur." At this date the Mobilians d Tohome
together numbered 350 families. Mention is made in the Mobile church
registers of individual members the tribe as late as 1761, after which are
lost to history as a tribe. For subsistence they relied almost wholly on
agriculture. Clay images of men and women and also of animals, supposed to
be objects of worship by this people, were found by the French.
The so-called Mobilian trade language a corrupted
Choctaw jargon used for purposes of intertribal communication among all
the tribes from Florida to Louisiana, extending northward on the
Mississippi to about the junction of the Ohio. It was also known as the
Chickasaw trade language.
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opinions of the Webmasters of the site.
Handbook
of American Indians, 1906
Index of Tribes or Nations
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