Okfuskee are a

Muscogee The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsAlabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

, prior to their removal during the 1830s to the

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

Okfuskee County, Oklahoma Okfuskee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, its population was 12,191. Its county seat is Okemah. The county is named for a former Muscogee town in present Cleburne County, Alabama, that in turn was ...

is named for a settlement where members of the tribe formerly lived. The talwa was located on the

Tallapoosa River The Tallapoosa River runs U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 27, 2011 from the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains in Georgia, United States, southward and wes ...

, near Sandy Creek. The town occupied both sides of the Tallapoosa River and it lay at the intersection of two major trade routes, the Upper Trading Path that connected it to Charleston and the Okfuskee Trail that connected it to Savannah. The Upper Trading Path continued toward the west, connecting Okfuskee with the

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classif ...

tribe. In response to the French construction of

Fort Toulouse Fort Toulouse and Fort Jackson are two forts that shared the same site at the fork of the Coosa River and the Tallapoosa River, near Wetumpka, Alabama. Fort Toulouse Fort Toulouse (Muscogee: Franca choka chula), also called Fort des Alibamons a ...

, British traders from the

Province of Georgia A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

occupied a fort in Okfuskee, known as

Fort Okfuskee Fort Okfuskee (also spelled Ofuski or Oakfuskee) was the name of two separate forts built by Great Britain in what is now Tallapoosa County, Alabama. The first fort was built to ensure British trade with the Creek Indians after the French constru ...

, from 1735 to 1743. Traders from the

Province of South Carolina Province of South Carolina, originally known as Clarendon Province, was a province of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776. It was one of the five Southern colonies and one of the thirteen American colonies. The monar ...

built a second Fort Okfuskee that was only occupied in 1744. The

Red Stick Red Sticks (also Redsticks, Batons Rouges, or Red Clubs), the name deriving from the red-painted war clubs of some Native American Creeks—refers to an early 19th-century traditionalist faction of these people in the American Southeast. Made ...

leader

Menawa Menawa, first called ''Hothlepoya'' (c. 1765 – c. 1836-40), was a Muscogee (Creek) chief and military leader. He was of mixed race, with a Creek mother and a fur trader father of mostly Scots ancestry. As the Creek had a matrilineal syst ...

was from Okfuskee.

References

Muscogee Native American tribes in Alabama Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands {{NorthAm-native-stub