Creek Confederacy: the Koasati (Coushatta)

Just as the Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples were composed of several different tribes, the Muscogee or Creek were not a single people, but rather many different tribes ranged throughout the Southeast.  Throughout much of the frontier period, they were loosely grouped into an alliance called by Whites the Creek Confederacy, but each tribe was its own unit and decided for itself in matters of territory and how to deal with White encroachment on their lands.

The Koasati or Coushatta were one of the tribes encountered by Hernando de Soto in 1539-1543.  Like other tribes in the area, they were grouped into towns and subsisted on hunting an agricultural diet of maize, beans and squash.  The Spanish referred to them as Coste, and their neighbors included the Chiaha, Chiska, Yuchi, Tasquiqui and Tali.  Due to pressure from White encroachment, they migrated to Alabama, where they established Nickajack Town, which we've already run across.  They eventually migrated to the Tennessee/Alabama borderline.  During the American Revolution and afterward they allied with other Creek tribes, tending to the Upper Creek or Red Stick view of keeping their own traditions as opposed to assimilating to European ways.  They often allied with another Muscogean people, the Alabama, with whom their language was mutually intelligible. 

Over time, some Coushatta chose to migrate to Lousiana and Texas to be free of White interference.  Others remained in Alabama, where they experienced removal with the rest of the Creek people in 1830.  Today, there are three federally-recognized tribes, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas and the Oklahoma-based Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town.