Some time during the 1800s the indigenous peoples of the United States lost the right to call themselves “American Indians.” That privilege is now claimed exclusively by federal and state governments. Creek Indians living along the middle Chattahoochee River have long dreamed of the day when they can proudly celebrate their ethnic identity with the blessings of the State of Alabama. That day may come soon.
Phenix City, AL– Mankind has lived along the Chattahoochee River for a long, long time. Archaeologists have found Clovis spear points in this region that date back 12,000 years. Older artifacts may lay deeper in the soil. Fossilized remains of extinct Ice Age animals such as mastodons, giant sloths and giant bison have also been found in the Chattahoochee Basin.
The Chattahoochee River begins on the slopes of Georgia’s highest mountain, Brasstown Bald, near the North Carolina state line. It then flows southwestward through an ancient fault until it reaches the northern edges of Columbus, GA and Phenix City, AL. There, it descends 400 feet (122 m) in elevation down a series of waterfalls and shoals, until the waters reach the Gulf Coastal Plain, south of these cities. The Chattahoochee then flows almost due south. Near the juncture of the states of Alabama, Georgia and Florida, the Flint River meets the Chattahoochee. Their confluence is named the Apalachicola River. The Apalachicola continues southward until it joins the Gulf of Mexico.
Native Americans found the Lower Chattahoochee Basin to be an ideal habitat because of the bounty of fish, turtles and freshwater mollusks in its waters and the herds of bison, deer and elk that roamed its banks. It was one of the earliest locations where humans settled down in permanent villages and experimented with the cultivation of indigenous plants.
Abercrombie Mounds site
The area around Phenix City and Columbus was one the first locations where the Southeastern Ceremonial Mound Culture began. Around 900 AD, newcomers paddled up the Chattahoochee River and established an important trading center, known today as the Abercrombie Mounds. They soon were cultivating corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, pumpkins and indigenous sweet potatoes in large fields that stretched along the river. They built several mounds. One was a large five sided mound next to the river.
Researchers are currently examining the evidence that these newcomers were Itza Maya Commoners or merchants, who left their homeland to the south, after it was ravaged by volcanoes, earthquakes and a severe drought. These refugees apparently followed the channel of the Chattahoochee River all the way to its headwaters in the Nacoochee Valley of northeast Georgia. There was a town named Itsate (meaning Itza Maya People) in the Nacoochee Valley and near Brasstown, NC, when the first Anglo-American settlers reached there.
Archaeologists Arthur Kelley and Joe Caldwell of the University of Georgia found several artifacts in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley that appeared to be locally made replicas of Mesoamerican art. There are many Maya and Totonac words in the Itsate (Hitchiti-Creek) language. The largest Abercrombie mound was identical to the five-sided earthen mounds built by Itza-te Mayas in southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize.
The town site around the Abercrombie mounds was occupied most of the time period between 900 AD and 1600 AD. No more construction occurred on the mounds after then, but in the 1700s, an increasingly important town in the Creek Indian Confederacy developed there. After the French & Indian War, this town became the capital of both the Koweta Branch of the Creeks and the entire Creek Confederacy. It remained the capital of the Creek Confederacy until 1836, when the Creek tribal government relocated to the Indian Territory, now the State of Oklahoma.
The Abercrombie Mounds Site is an important archaeological zone and the oldest know “Mississippian” Culture site in Alabama. While the State of Alabama has invested much research and revenue into the younger Moundville archeological zone near Tuscaloosa, it has largely ignored the town site on the Chattahoochee River. This is in inexplicable contrast to the efforts of the neighboring state of Georgia, which has preserved New Echota, the last capital of the Cherokee Nation, as a major tourist attraction, even though the Cherokees are not indigenous to Georgia, and New Echota was only occupied for seven years. Meanwhile, a significant portion of the principal Abercrombie Mound has been destroyed by the Chattahoochee River as floods shifted its channel. Vast quantities of valuable artifacts and most likely human remains, have been washed downstream.
The Koweta Creeks
The origins of the Koweta Branch of the Creek Indians are believed to be near the mountainous headwaters of the Little Tennessee River in the extreme northeastern tip of Georgia and adjacent areas of North Carolina. There are over a dozen large mounds in this valley. The oldest, near Franklin, NC, is known to North Carolinians as the Coweeta Mound, which dates from about 200 AD or earlier. The original name for this ethnic group was Kowi-te, which means “Mountain Lion People” in the Itsate (Hitchiti-Creek) Language.
Apparently, they expanded their territory to include much of the Chattahoochee River Basin in the centuries before the arrival of Spanish explorers in the 1500s. After joining the Creek Confederacy the Kowi-te became known as the Kvwetv (Koweta) by Muskogee-speaking Creeks. The Kowetas grew to become the most important division of this confederacy. On most French and British maps of the early 1700s the word Cohuita or Coweta is used instead of Creek Indian.
Soon after the Colony of Georgia was founded in 1732, British officials traveled to the capital of the Kowetas to sign a peace treaty with the entire Creek Nation. In 1754, an army composed solely of soldiers from the capital of Koweta defeated the entire Cherokee Nation, thus quickly ending the 40 year long Creek-Cherokee War. The Koweta army destroyed all of the Cherokee villages and towns in northeastern Georgia and the southern portion of western North Carolina. They reoccupied all their land in North Carolina that had been absorbed by the Cherokees in 1715.
The Koweta leaders even dispatched commando squads to Charleston, SC that assassinated 25 Cherokee chiefs. The Cherokee chiefs were there pleading with the British to send Redcoats to protect the remaining Cherokee towns from the Kowetas. This last act was the final revenge for the assassination in 1715 AD by the Cherokees of all the leaders of the Creek Confederacy, while they were asleep and attending a peaceful diplomatic conference at the invitation of the Cherokees.
The capital of Koweta was abandoned in 1836 after the Creek government went on the Trail of Tears. However, thousands of Creeks in Georgia and Alabama elected to accept individually owned farm tracts and state citizenship, instead of relocating to the west. Their newly arrive Anglo-American neighbors called them Kawita Creeks. There was extensive pressure on those Creeks, who stayed behind to assimilate into the mainstream culture. The response of most Creeks was to publically accept Anglo-American cultural practices, but secretly practice their ancient traditions within the privacy of their homes or out in the woods.
In the late 20th century, Creek descendants living in Russell County, AL and its environs began strengthening their ancient cultural ties that had remained hidden from public view for 150 years. Over time, this socialization evolved into a tribal organization. In 2004 the Kawita Creek Tribe became legally incorporated.
The Kawita Creeks next sought recognition as a Native American tribe by the State of Alabama. Local officials in Russell demanded that the tribe promise not to either have a reservation, own real estate or perform public ceremonies, as a condition for the Creeks being recognized as Creeks. Thus, a completely illogical political situation was created by non-Indians that equated absence of any Native American cultural practices, in return for being officially labeled Native Americans.
Some prominent Russell County officials and civic leaders have continued to oppose location of a Creek Tribe in their county since 2004. According to leaders of the Kawita Creek Tribe, several of their most vociferous opponents are direct descendants of real estate speculators, who stole land reserves given to “Friendly” Creek households by the federal government in gratitude for their assistance to the United States during the War of 1812 and Red Stick War. At the time, the "Friendly" Creeks were considered heroes by their white neighbors.
The surrealistic nature of local opposition to efforts to grant recognition for "Friendly" Creek Indians becomes readily apparent when related historic preservation activities in the region are considered. With the assistance of the State of Alabama and local organizations, the National Park Service established Fort Mitchell National Historic Landmark in 1990. The fort has been reconstructed and is promoted by regional economic development organizations as a focus of heritage tourism oriented to Creek Indian History!
Fort Mitchell was the major center for forcibly deporting Creek Indians from Alabama to Indian Territory during the Trail of Tears. It also played a nefarious role in Georgia’s secret pogroms against its own Creek citizens up until just before the Civil War. Hundreds of Georgia Creek families, living on farms that they legally owned, were intermittently raided by militia groups or sheriff’s posse’s, then marched at bayonet point to Fort Mitchell. The families were treated as common criminals and not given any compensation for their properties. They were then marched or shipped in chains to eastern Oklahoma.
A bill has been placed before the Alabama State Legislature that will grant state recognition to the Kawita Tribe. It seems to have a much better chance of passing than past efforts. Many state legislators are finally seeing the economic development potential of establishing a major center for heritage tourism across the Chattahoochee River from one of Georgia’s largest cities. The “Friendly Creek” Indians of East Central Alabama may just bring greater prosperity to their region, despite all the obstacles that have been put in their path.
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