I.

Introduction

Creek (people), Native Americans of the Muskogean language family, living in the Southeast culture area, and a confederacy of tribes. The native name for the most powerful Creek band was Muskogee (or Muscogee). Another powerful group was the Hitchiti. These groups, along with a number of other groups, came to be referred to as Creek by early English traders because their villages were usually situated on rivers and creeks.

The Creek occupied most of what is now Georgia and Alabama, as well as parts of northern Florida, eastern Louisiana, and southern Tennessee. They are sometimes discussed as two main branches: the Upper Creek, who lived mostly in Alabama, and the Lower Creek, who lived mostly in Georgia. Creek bands were united in a loose confederacy, known historically as the Creek Confederacy. This confederacy also included two other Muskogean-speaking peoples, the Alabama (Alibamu) and Coushatta. The Seminole of Florida were an 18th-century offshoot of mostly Creek.