1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Muskhogean Stock

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16794051911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 19 — Muskhogean Stock

MUSKHOGEAN STOCK, a North American Indian stock. The name is from that of the chief tribe of the Creek confederacy, the Muskogee. It includes the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles and other tribes. Its territory was almost the whole state of Mississippi, western Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, Alabama, most of Georgia, and later nearly all Florida; Muskhogean traditions assign the west and north-west as the original home of the stock. Its history begins in 1527, on the first landing of the Spaniards on the Gulf Coast. The Muskhogean peoples were then settled agriculturists with an elaborate social organization, and living in villages, many of which were fortified (see Indians: North American).