All about the ancient tribes
Tribal governments were effectively dissolved in 1906 but have continued to exist on a limited basis. Creek descendants numbered more than 76,000 in the early 21st century.
How many people did the Creek tribe have?
Today, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation is located in Oklahoma and has land claims in the Florida panhandle. The Tribal headquarters is located in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and the tribe has approximately 44,000 tribal members.
Although Creeks continued to emigrate from Alabama in small, family-sized detachments into the 1840s and 1850s, government-sponsored removal ended officially in 1837 and 1838. Between the McIntosh party emigration in 1827 and the end of removal in 1837, more than 23,000 Creeks emigrated from the Southeast.
Summary and Definition: The Creek tribe, aka the Muskogee, descended from the mound builders located in the Mississippi River valley. The people moved across the southeast and established large, organised settlements in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida.
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation, rebranded in May of 2021 as simply the Muscogee Nation, is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Creek Confederacy, a large group of indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands.
Creek, Muskogean- speaking North American Indians who originally occupied a huge expanse of the flatlands of what are now Georgia and Alabama.
Encouraged by President Andrew Jackson, the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The act called for Indian Nations to give up their lands in the East and move west of the Mississippi. President Andrew Jackson to Congress, “On Indian Removal,” December 6, 1830.
McIntosh Inn In 1825 McIntosh signed the Treaty of Indian Springs with the U.S. government at the hotel; he was murdered three months later by angry Creeks who considered the agreement a betrayal.
The Trail of Tears The Indian-removal process continued. In 1836, the federal government drove the Creeks from their land for the last time: 3,500 of the 15,000 Creeks who set out for Oklahoma did not survive the trip. By 1838, only about 2,000 Cherokees had left their Georgia homeland for Indian Territory.
The Muscogee language (Muskogee, Mvskoke IPA: [maskókî] in Muscogee), also known as Creek, is a Muskogean language spoken by Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole people, primarily in the US states of Oklahoma and Florida.
Between 1830 and 1850, about 100,000 American Indians living between Michigan, Louisiana, and Florida moved west after the U.S. government coerced treaties or used the U.S. Army against those resisting. Many were treated brutally. An estimated 3,500 Creeks died in Alabama and on their westward journey.
Cherokee, North American Indians of Iroquoian lineage who constituted one of the largest politically integrated tribes at the time of European colonization of the Americas. Their name is derived from a Creek word meaning “people of different speech”; many prefer to be known as Keetoowah or Tsalagi.
Creek spirituality encompasses awareness of spiritual beings, both good and bad. Participants believed that spirits exist alongside people and can send and receive messages from people to guide and inform them. Creeks have ongoing, though not constant, relationships with loved ones and others who have died.
The Muscogee people survived the difficulties of removal because of their strong culture and will to live.
The English called the Muscogee the “Creek”, probably due to the large amount of rivers, creeks, and streams in their lands. The English further divided the Muscogee into the Upper Creek (living along the Coosa and the Tallapoosa rivers) and the Lower Creeks (living along the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers).