Mondo's NAT # 026

Native American Tribe series.

You can off road or hike to location. Off road trail is difficult and high clearance and good 4x4 will be needed. More info on the trail is at: http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php?id=104. Searching for a full size ammo can.

Alibamu

Nestled deep in the Big Thicket of East Texas lies Texas' oldest Reservation, home of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas. Its location is on a 4,600+ acres of virgin timberland called home by some 500 members of the tribe. Once separate entities, they are both members of the Upper Creek Confederacy of Indians and are of the Muskogean Nation and their languages similar to the Muskogean dialect. The two tribes migrated from southeastern United States (Alabama and Mississippi) and were closely related before they came to Texas.

The first documentation of either tribe came in 1541 during the Hernando De Soto expedition. In search of new territory for Spain farther west of the East Coast, De Soto and his party encountered the Alabama Tribe in the Mobile Bay area. Upon leaving this region, De Soto explored further north, encountering several other tribes prior to locating the Coushatta Tribe on the Tennessee River. Each encounter with the different tribes were similar; a member of the expedition often stole a valuable good and the tribes would retaliate though De Soto prevailed as the tribes were not as well equipped as the Spaniards.

Until the 1700's, no other documentation is known about either tribe or where they ventured. However, in 1714, French settlers located the Alabama Indians near the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers in Alabama. Their immediate neighbors were the Coushatta Indians. The French decided this would be the ideal place to establish a fort for settlers and trading with the local natives. Ft. Toulouse was erected outside the Alabama villages where these Indians often served as the middleman for trading since they were known for their peacemaking and negotiating while the Coushatta would serve to protect or attack when needed. Therefore, hostility occurred rarely in this region.

The end of the French and Indian War resulted in the defeated French relinquishing all of its claims to the United States, including Ft. Toulouse. The settlers abandoned the area and migrated south to Mobile Bay to board their ships. Members of the Alabamas decided they would follow their friends as opposed to encountering the English settlers. Members of the Coushattas as well as the Pakanas followed suit. However, not every Tribal member made this journey, eventually partaking of the Trail of Tears after the Creek Wars were over and land was ceded to the United States.

Those Indians who followed the French ventured as far south as possible as they were entering Choctaw territory. The Alabamas and the Choctaws had mutual respect for each other; however, the Alabamas were also careful not to provoke them. It is believed the French gave some families safe journey by ship into Spanish Lousiana; however, not all were able to do so and they skirted the coast of Mississippi to reach this new territory. Some Coushattas attempted to venture through northern Alabama and Mississippi but eventually turned back upon encountering Choctaw warriors.
In 1805, approximately 1,000 Alabamas came to Tyler County's Peach Tree Village. The Coushattas were already in East Texas, having arrived into the Big Thicket area sometimes after 1795. Their inter-tribal friendship became even stronger as they roamed and hunted this new land together.

THE LEGEND OF THE TWIN MANIFESTATIONS

The Great Spirit had bestowed upon man the priceless gift of free will of which each individual makes his own choice between "good" and "evil" - this is a fundamental teaching of the Alabama-Coushatta.

This symbol of the twin water-fowls represents the Alabama-Coushatta Tribes. The Creator is symbolized by what has come to be called the egg, the seed, or the cell. In a sense, each has come to be understood as the "womb of creation."

The four diamond-shaped symbols issuing from the mouth indicate the four elements: air, fire, water, and earth - all which make life possible. Yet, from the last one, a sprout emerges signifying a new beginning. The design symbolizes the four directions, the four seasons, the four phases of man, and all things appearing in multiples of four.

This symbol also represents the Twin Manifestations, or the two wise ones to come, as foretold in the many legends of North, South, and Central American Indian cultures that will unite the people as one.

The Twin Manifestations are also viewed as the positive and negative elements of polarities: day and night, sky and earth, life and death, man and woman, yin and yang, alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, etc. Each is seen as apart of the necessary rhythm of the Circle of Life as it is known throughout creation.

The seven feathers and black points on either side are a representation of the seven sacred fires and the seven ceremonial pipes. Seven times seven is forty-nine, at which time a man or woman is recognized, after having survived all tests and difficulties and proven through deed the wisdom of his or her spiritual power.