The disconnected remarks on the Alibamu Indians which we find in the
documents and chronicles represent them as early settlers on Alabama
river, at a moderate distance from the confluence of Coosa and
Tallapoosa rivers. In our legend they are introduced among the four
tribes contending for the honor of being the most ancient and
valorous.
D. Coxe, Carolana, p. 24 mentions their tribal name in the following
connection: "On Coussa river[50] are the Ullibalies[51], Olibahalies,
Allibamus; below them the Tallises." Allen Wright derives Alibamu
(also written Allibamous, Alibami, Albámu, incorrectly Alibamon) from
Cha'hta: álba _thicket_ and áyalmu, _place cleared_ (of trees,
thickets): álba ayamúle _I open_ or _clear the thicket_. If this
derivation is correct, the name, with its generic definition, could
apply to many localities simultaneously. Let us hear what Sekopechi or
"Perseverance," an old man of that tribe, related to Agent Eakin
concerning their early migrations and settlements. (Schoolcraft,
Indians I, 266 sqq):
[Footnote 50: Anciently Coosa, Coussa river was a name given to
our Coosa river, as well as to its lower course below the
junction of Tallapoosa, now called Alabama river. Wright's Ch.
Dictionary has: alua _a burnt place_.]
[Footnote 51: In the report of the Fidalgo de Elvas, Ullibahali,
a walled town, is not identical with Alimamu. Ullibahali is a
name composed of the Alibamu: óli _village, town_ and the
Hitchiti: báhali _down stream_, and _southward_, which is the
Creek wáhali _South_.]
"The Great Spirit brought the Alabama Indians from the ground between
the Cahawba and Alabama rivers, and they believe that they are of
right possessors of this soil. The Muscogees formerly called
themselves Alabamians ("thicket-clearers"?), but other tribes called
them Oke-choy-atte, "life."[52] The earliest oral tradition of the
Alibamu of a migration is, that they migrated from the Cahawba and
Alabama rivers to the junction of the Tuscaloosa (?) and Coosa rivers,
where they sojourned for two years. After this they dwelt at the
junction of the Coosa and Alabama rivers, on the west side of what was
subsequently the site of Fort Jackson. It is supposed that at this
time they numbered fifty effective men. They claimed the country from
Fort Jackson to New Orleans for their hunting grounds."
[Footnote 52: Oktchóyi is the Cha'hta term for _living, alive_.]
Whatever may be the real foundation of this confused narrative, it
seems that the Alibamu reached their later seats from a country lying
to the west or southwest, and that they showed a preference for
river-junctions, for this enabled them to take fish in two rivers
simultaneously. Another migration legend of this tribe, as related by
Milfort, will be given and accounted for below.
Biedma relates that H. de Soto, when reaching the "Alibamo province,"
had to fight the natives entrenched within a palisaded fort (fuerte de
Alibamo, Garc., de la Vega) and the Fidalgo of Elvas: that the
cacique of Chicaça came with the caciques of Alimamu and of
Nicalasa,[53] whereupon a fight took place. But that Alibamo province
lay _northwest_ of Chicaça town and province, and was reached only
after passing the Chocchechuma village on Yazoo river; it was probably
not the Alibamu tribe of the later centuries. In the report of Tristan
de Luna's expedition no mention is made of the Alibamu Indians, though
it speaks of "Rio Olibahali."
[Footnote 53: Gallatin, Syn. p. 105, proposes to read Nita-lusa,
_Black Bear_.]
In 1702 five French traders started with ten Alibamu natives from
Mobile, for the country where the tribe resided. They were killed by
these guides when at a distance of ten leagues from the Alibamu
village, and M. de Bienville, then governor of the French colony,
resolved to make war on the tribe. He started with a force of seventy
Frenchmen and eighteen hundred Indian auxiliaries; the latter deserted
after a march of six days, and finally the party was compelled to
return. A second expedition, consisting of Frenchmen only, was not
more successful, and had to redescend Alabama river in canoes. Mr. de
Boisbriand, the leader of a third expedition, finally succeeded in
destroying a camp of Alibamu, sixty-five miles up the river, in
killing the inmates and capturing their women and children, who were
given to the Mobilians, their allies.[54] This action was only the
first of a series of subsequent troubles.
[Footnote 54: Relation of Pénicaut, in Margry V, 424-432.]
An alliance concluded by the Alibamu with the Mobilians did not last
long, for in 1708 they arrived with a host of Cheroki, Abika and
Kataba Indians, in the vicinity of the French fort on Mobile Bay,
where Naniabas, Tohomes and Mobilians had settled, but were foiled in
their attack upon the Mobilians through the watchfulness of the tribe
and of the French colonists. The whole force of their aggressors and
their allies combined was estimated at four thousand warriors (_id._,
Margry V, 477-478; cf. 427).
In 1713, after the Alibamu had made an inroad into the Carolinas with
a host of Kataba and Abika Indians, their confederates, the head-chief
of the first-named tribe besought the French commander at Mobile bay
to erect a fort in his own country. The offer was accepted, and the
tribe was helpful in erecting a spacious fort of about three hundred
feet square, on a bluff overlooking the river, and close to their
village (_id._, Margry V, 510-511). This fort, built near the junction
of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, was called Fort Toulouse, and by the
British colonists Fort Albamu, or Alebama garrison.
When Fort Toulouse was abandoned in 1762, some Alibamu Indians
followed the French, and established themselves about sixty miles
above New Orleans, on Mississippi river, near the Huma village. Th.
Hutchins (1784), p. 39. estimates the number of their warriors settled
there at thirty. Subsequently they passed into the interior of
Louisiana, where some are hunting and roving in the woods at the
present time. The majority, however, settled in Polk county, in the
southeastern corner of Texas, became agriculturists, and about 1862
numbered over two hundred persons. Some Alibamu reside in the Indian
Territory. Cf. Buschmann, Spuren d. azt. Spr., p. 424.
The former seats of the tribe, near the site of the present capital,
Montgomery, are described as follows:
Colonel Benj. Hawkins, United States Agent among the Creeks, saw four
Alibamu towns on Alabama river, below Koassáti. "The inhabitants are
probably the ancient Alabamas, and formerly had a regular town."
(Sketch of the Creek Country, pp. 35-37, 1799.) The three first were
surrounded by fertile lands, and lay on the eastern bank of Alabama
river. Their names were as follows:
Ikan-tcháti or "Red Ground," a small village, with poor and indolent
inhabitants.
Tawássa or Tawasa, three miles below Ikan-tcháti, a small village on
a high bluff. Called Taouacha by the French, cf. Tohome. The Koassáti
word tabasa means _widower, widow_.
Pawókti, small town on a bluff; two miles below Tawássa.
A′tagi, a village four miles below the above, situated on the
western bank, and spreading along it for two miles. Also written
At-tau-gee, Autaugee, Autobi. Autauga county is named after it.
These Alibamu could raise in all about eighty warriors; they did not
conform to Creek custom, nor did they apply the Creek law for the
punishment of adultery. Although hospitable to white people, they had
very little intercourse with them. Whenever a white person had eaten
of a dish and left it, they threw the rest away, and washed everything
handled by the guest immediately. The above towns, together with
Oktchoyúdshi and Koassáti were, upon a decree of the national council
at Tukabatchi, November 27th, 1799, united into one group or class
under one "warrior of the nation." The dignitary elected to that post
of honor was Hu`lipoyi of Oktchoyúdshi, who had the war titles of
hádsho and tustĕnúggi. (Hawkins, pp. 51. 52.) Cf. Witumka.