Category: Alabama Native American Tribes

Alabama Native American Tribes

Native American research is extremely difficult and time consuming. Many records do not exist and careless record keeping is evident in many documents. This is not to place blame on others because there were many factors which may have made the process of record keeping near impossible. The most obvious problem is the lack of a written language for most tribes and of course the difficulty of spoken language translations.

Our  list of Native American Tribes who have lived in Alabama has been compiled from Hodge’s Handbook of American Indians, Swanton’s The Indian Tribes of North America,  and research of family and public documents. Some tribes listed may simply be variant spellings for the same tribe.

Begin your research at the Alabama Native American Tribes Index.

All that remains of what was once Tuscumbia Landing are some limestone pilings that once held up the pier.

Tuscumbia Landing | Sheffield Alabama

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Tuscumbia Landing was added to the national historic Trail of Tears on April 15, 2007 and it is where Cherokee and Creek tribes were moved in the 1830’s to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). There are other Trail of Tears sites in nine states but this pristine site on the Tennessee River is rare because Indians were moved by railroad and loaded to boats. The beautiful riverside property is owned by the City of Sheffield and under development by the Port Authority of Tuscumbia Landing. Because local citizens were so hospitable to the migrating Indians, the plan is to build a Welcome Center and invite hundreds of federally recognized tribes for a special day.

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Montevallo-Alabama

Montevallo Alabama

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The area where Montevallo is now was once controlled by the Creek Indians. After being acquired in 1814 Jesse Wilson claimed a small hill on the northern bank of the Shoal Creek and created a homestead there, making it the oldest settlement in Shelby County. Wilson’s friends and family followed afterwards and also settled in the area, and a settlement known as Wilson’s Hill developed on the site. The settlement’s location at almost the exact center of Alabama meant it was considered one of the potential sites for the University of Alabama. In an attempt to encourage the university to choose the site the settlement changed its name to Montevallo, which is Italian for the hill in the valley.

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Tallassee on Henry Timberlake's 1762 "Draught of the Cherokee Country"

Tallassee Alabama

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Tallassee (also “Talassee,” “Talisi,” “Tellassee,” and various similar spellings) is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Blount County and Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Tallassee was the southernmost of a string of Overhill Cherokee villages that spanned the lower Little Tennessee River in the 18th century. Although it receives scant attention in primary historical accounts, Tallassee is one of the few Overhill towns to appear on every major 18th-century map of the Little Tennessee Valley.

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Dog River Plantation, Mobile County, Alabama

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In 1988 the Alabama Department of Transportation proposed replacement of the bridge over Dog River at its confluence with Mobile Bay. It was soon discovered that the south bank at the mouth of Dog River was a historically and archaeologically important site.

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Waterloo Landing On The Trail Of Tears | Waterloo Alabama

Waterloo Landing in Waterloo Alabama

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Waterloo Landing was a departure site for Cherokee who had been evicted from their homes and forced to head west to what is now Oklahoma. Back in 1838 this was the Tennessee River. Today the river has been dammed to create Pickwick Lake. Those leaving from this location would have been traveling by steamboat. All there is to do here is stop and read an historical marker.

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