I descend from the Creek, or Muskogee, also spelled Mvskoke, people, who originally lived in Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas. By the Revolutionary War, most of us were pushed out of the Carolinas. By the 1830s, the US government had pushed most of us West to Indian Territory, which is now called Oklahoma.
However, here and there Muskogee families escaped the army and remained in Georgia, Alabama and Florida. My family fled to Mississippi.
Most Americans have spoken Muskogee words (or from closely related Muskogean tongues) without realizing it: Talladega, Tallahasee, Tallahatchee, Tuscaloosa, Tuscambia, Tuskegee, Biloxi, Alabama, Eufala, Okefonokee and Osceola; all place names in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi or Florida. Muskogee is not a foreign language, it is an American language. It just isn't English.
Andrew Jackson made a name for himself invading the Creek country, helping him get elected president and being memorialized on the US twenty dollar bill.
Several of the neighboring Native peoples are close relatives of the Muskogee/Creek. Such as the Seminoles of Florida, Oklahoma, the Bahamas, Texas and Coahuila, Mexico. (The wars scattered us pretty far and wide) The Choctaws and Chickasaws speak Muskogean languages (as classified by the experts). There's also the Alabama-Cousahatta of Louisiana and Texas, and the Houma people of Louisiana. There are two large Creek communities in California, and a Seminole group near Toronto, Ontario. My apologies if I left out anybody.
By far the largest group of Muskogees is in Oklahoma, with about 50,000 members. They just opened their own college. For years they've had a Baptist college, called Bacone. They Muskogee Creeks also have established their own health service, and bus service.
Country singer Merle Haggard helped spread our name with his song "Okie from Muskogee."
