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For centuries, the Muscogee Indians controlled areas in the American southeast. In their language, the name referred to the flood-prone ground on which they lived, and a similar convention was applied when the European explorers found them living on the banks of creeks and streams: the Europeans called them the Creek Indians. B y that time, in the 1600s, the Creek controlled most of the area that would later become Georgia and Alabama. As such they were described as the most powerful Indian nations of the age, but in fact, the organizational structure of the Creek was unlike other Indian nations. Less a nation than a confederacy, they continually accepted as members, and married into, new tribes.

In early Creek history, the basic social unit was the clan. Made up of families, the clan had a distinct identity, starting with its name, which was taken from an animal. Membership in a dan determined a persons social...