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DeutschAbihka
Abihka was one of the four mother towns of the Muscogee Creek confederacy. Abihka is also sometimes used to refer to all Upper Creek (or Muscogee) people.
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
The Abihka were the remnants of the 16th century "Chiefdom of Coosa."[1] The bulk of the Natchez people settled with the Abihka after being dispersed by the French in the 18th century.
Etymology[edit]
The name "Abihka" (meaning unknown), is sometimes used to refer to all the Upper Creek peoples.
Territory[edit]
The members of the Abihka were Upper Creek Indians. Their main place of residence was along the banks of the Coosa and Alabama rivers,[2] in what is now Talladega County, Alabama.[3] Besides the town of Abihka, the Creek had established other important towns in their territory: Abihkutchi, Tuckabutche, Talladega, Coweta, and Kan-tcati. Selocta Chinnabby was a famous member of the Abihka Clan.
Ceremonial grounds[edit]
After the removal to the Indian Territory, refugees from the Abihka mother-town established a ceremonial stomp dance ground which they call Abihka (or sometimes, Arbeka). It is located near Henryetta, Oklahoma.[4]
Alice Brown Davis and her husband, George Rollin Davis, operated a trading post, post office, general store and the Bar X Bar ranch in Arbeka until George's death. She succeeded him as postmistress in the 1890s.[5] There is an Arbeka Road in the area.
Notes[edit]
- ^ Waselkov and Smith; Upper Creek Archaeology; p. 244.
- ^ Encyclopedia of North American Indians —Creek (Muskogee); retrieved Sept 8, 2010.
- ^ Isham, Theodore; and Blue, Clark; Creek (Mvskoke) Archived 2010-07-20 at the Wayback Machine "Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture;" retrieved Aug 20, 2012.
- ^ Nabokov and Easton; p. 109.
- ^ Rechenda Davis Bates, "Alice Brown Davis" Archived 2013-06-14 at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed 18 April 2013
References[edit]
- Nabokov, Peter and Robert Easton; Native American Architecture.; New York; The Oxford University Press; 1989; ISBN 978-0-19-506665-4.
- Swanton, John R.; The Indians of the Southeastern United States; United States Government Printing Office; Washington, DC; 1946; p. 81-82.
- Waselkov, Gregory A.; and Smith, Marvin T.; Upper Creek Archaeology; referenced in McEwan, Bonnie G.; edition Indians of the Greater Southeast: Historical Archaeology and Ethnohistory; Gainesville; University of Florida Press; 2000; p. 244.