Editing Cullman County, Alabama (section)

==History==
This area was inhabited for thousands of years by varying cultures of indigenous peoples. The historic [[Cherokee]] and [[Choctaw]] lived here at the time of European encounter, with the Cherokee moving in after the American Revolutionary War and in response to pressures from northern areas. Their settlements in Alabama were known as the Lower Towns.

People claiming descent from Cherokee who remained in the county after [[Indian Removal]] in the 1830s, organized as the "[[Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama]]" in the 1980s. The tribe [[State recognized tribe|was recognized by the state]] in 1984 but is not [[Federally recognized tribes|federally recognized]]. It claims 22,000 members in the state, mostly in northern Alabama.<ref name="aiac">{{cite web|url=http://aiac.state.al.us/tribes.aspx|title=Tribes Recognized by the State of Alabama|author=Alabama Indian Affairs Commission|access-date=February 9, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150618225536/http://www.aiac.state.al.us/tribes.aspx|archive-date=June 18, 2015}}</ref>

Cullman County was organized on January 24, 1877 from Blount, Morgan, and Winston counties. The act of establishment named March 6, 1877, as the day that residents would select the location of their county seat. The election pitted two towns, Cullman and Milner against each other. In the March 1877 election, Cullman defeated its rival and became the county seat.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clements |first=John |title=Alabama Facts: A Comprehensive Look at Alabama Today County by County |publisher=Clements Research H, Inc |year=1991 |location=Dallas, Texas |pages=305 |language=English}}</ref> 

The county was organized by primarily by [[German American]] immigrants who had moved down from Cincinnati, Ohio. They founded an agricultural community and sought to create an agricultural revolution in what had been a frontier area, in the best traditions of innovation in the New South. However, hard geographical and social realities clashed with the often impractical vision of colonizer John G. Cullmann. His Germans, with their traditional work ethic and willingness to experiment with such new products as wine and strawberries, tried to make practical changes in southern farming. The Germans were outnumbered by more traditional families from neighboring regions, who replicated the traditional southern [[cotton]] culture.

On April 27, 2011, Cullman was hit by the [[2011 Cullman tornado]], which took place during the [[2011 Super Outbreak]].