Content note: this page discusses forced migration, chattel slavery, racial segregation, rape, and homelessness

Indigenous Period → 1865

Muscogee Creek & Cherokee land:

Muscogee Creek:

• The Muscogee traditionally lived in dalwa, town-sized agricultural settlements
• Their rich cultural, social, and economic traditions included the construction of earthen structures like the Ocmulgee Mounds
• Tribal members were divided over the question of whether to adopt the traditions of European settlers; this conflict was inflamed by settlers in an attempt to destabilize the tribe. Following a civil war in 1813-14 and the Treaty of Indian Springs (1825), most of the tribe’s landholdings were ceded to the United States.
• Muscogee Creek tribal members remaining in the mid 1830s were [forcibly removed](https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal-muscogee/during.html#:~:text=Muscogee Nation Removal%2C 1827–38,they arrived in Indian Territory.) to Oklahoma by foot and barge, resulting in mass casualties.

Cherokee:

• The Cherokee Nation traditionally lived across much of the present-day Southeast and maintained significant trade and transportation networks within their territories.
• Many prominent Cherokee adopted European settler customs, including the development of a written alphabet, drafting of a Constitution, and participation in chattel slavery.
• Some members of the tribe moved to present-day Arkansas in the 1820s, emphasizing the importance of preserving their traditions and culture over integrating into settler culture.
• The Cherokee were forcibly removed to Oklahoma by the United States in the 1830s, like the Muscogee Creek and other tribes.

Colonization and chattel slavery:

Colonization of Georgia:

• Georgia was founded to buffer the prosperous colony of South Carolina from the French, Spanish, and native tribes to the southwest.
• James Oglethorpe founded Savannah in 1733, marking the formal beginning of the Georgia colony. The colony had tight restrictions on property ownership and forbid slavery.
• By the mid 1700s, many of the colony’s initial restrictions were loosened, giving way to large scale plantations.