The Muskogee Creeks originated in the North Carolina Mountains!

by Richard L. Thornton, Architect and City Planner

In the previous article, we told you that there are NO surviving migration legends for the Muskogee-speaking peoples. We have something even better . . . Colonial Period maps, eyewitness accounts and the landscape of the Southeastern United States today.

All of the names of the Muskogee-speaking tribal members of the Creek Confederacy can be found in the names of rivers, mountains or places in the region around Asheville, Hendersonville, Brevard and Franklin, NC. The chroniclers of the De Soto and Pardo Expeditions in the 1500s, plus English explorer, Richard Brigstock, in 1653 called the Muskogees, Cofita, which means “Mixed People.”

That’s right, Cofitachequi in South Carolina was also a Muskogee province! So also, were the Cheraw, who had a Muskogee name and lived in towns with Muskogee names. The Lumbee Tribe today contains the descendants of these Muskogee provinces.

Late 17th century maps by French Royal Cartographer, Guillaume De L’Isle, showed the Cofita occupying this region of North Carolina and a large wedge of South Carolina. Seventeenth century French ethnologist, Charles de Rochefort, wrote that the Cofitas began moving down into Florida Francaise (Georgia and South Carolina) because the climate became too cold to produce adequate corn crops. This temporary climatic change is documented by meteorologists. It was called the Little Ice Age and ended in the early 1800s.

During the remainder of July 2023, we will begin mixing in articles on the location of indigenous tribes in the Southeastern United States in 1500 AD. We will also continue publishing pretty pictures of the Nacoochee Valley in 1500 AD. That is appropriate, because until around 1700 AD, the Nacoochee Valley in Northeast Georgia was THE metropolis of the region. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Apalache, which gave the Appalachians their name, but also was a nursery for several federally-recognized tribes today.

During the latter half of the 20th century, bureaucrats in the Washington, DC offices of the Department of the Interior produced a series of maps, which claimed to show the traditional locations of federally-recognized tribes. This was done without any attention being given to Colonial Period maps and seemed to be based more on politics rather than facts. These maps also left out many indigenous peoples, who either disappeared or merged with other tribes.

This might seem to be trivial mistakes since that was then and this is now, but . . . these bogus maps are used repeatedly for establishing federal and state policies toward the nation’s archaeological sites. One of those maps was used by the US Forest Service to block access to the Track Rock Terrace Complex by National Geographic Magazine writers and photographers. They also determine where large federally-recognized tribes can establish new branch reserves or smaller tribes in Oklahoma may relocate, if they wish to return to the homeland.

I have an extensive collection of precise photocopies of colonial period maps, superior to almost all university libraries in the Southeast. My master’s thesis in urban and regional planning at Georgia State University focused on the analysis and use of historic maps. You will find these articles quite surprising!

Until then . . .