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===From Indigenous cultural center to incorporation=== [[File:Downtown columbus, georgia 1880.jpg|left|thumb|[[Downtown Columbus, Georgia|Downtown]] in 1880]] This was for centuries the traditional Homelands of the Muscogee (Creek) people who thrived along the rivers of the Southeast and whose ancestors were the mound-builders of the Archaic, Woodland and Mississippian eras. Two major cultural centers, "Mother Town" Coweta and "Daughter Town" Cusseta, straddled the Chattahoochee River here. The Lower Muscogee who lived mostly on the east side of the river, eventually assimilated to European ways more than their Upper Muscogee cousins on the west side. Pressure from land-hungry immigrants resulted in the 1827 Land Lottery which distributed Georgia's Muscogee lands to hopeful settlers. The 1830 Indian Removal Act signed by President Andrew Jackson was the final act which forced both Lower and Upper Muscogee off their ancestral lands. Locally, some 15,000 Muscogee were rallied at nearby Fort Mitchell and removed west to Oklahoma a bayonet point with little more than the clothes on their backs. Approximately one-third did not survive the journey. Today's modern Muscogee Nation comprises 4700 square miles of land in Eastern Oklahoma. It is a sovereign nation of 100,000 citizens with deep cultural ties to their ancient ancestral lands in the Southeast. Founded in 1828 by an act of the [[Georgia Legislature]], Columbus was situated at the beginning of the navigable portion of the Chattahoochee River and on the last stretch of the [[Federal Road (Creek lands)|Federal Road]] before entering Alabama. The city was named for [[Christopher Columbus]]. The plan for the city was drawn up by Dr. Edwin L. DeGraffenried, who placed the town on a bluff overlooking the river. [[Edward Lloyd Thomas (surveyor)]] was selected to lay out the town on 1,200 acres. Across the river to the west, where Phenix City, Alabama, is now located, lived several tribes of the Creek and other Georgia and Alabama indigenous peoples. Most Creeks moved west with the 1826 [[Treaty of Washington (1826)|Treaty of Washington]]. Those who stayed and made war were forcibly [[Indian Removal|removed]] in 1836.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bernholz|first1=Charles D.|last2=Heidenreich|first2=Sheryl|date=October 2009|title=Loci sigilli and American Indian treaties: Reflections on the creation of volume 2 of Kappler's Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2008.09.003|journal=Government Information Quarterly|volume=26|issue=4|pages=605β611|doi=10.1016/j.giq.2008.09.003|s2cid=18792265 |issn=0740-624X}}</ref> The river served as Columbus's connection to the world, particularly enabling it to ship its commodity cotton crops from the [[plantations in the American South|plantations]] to the international cotton market via [[New Orleans]] and ultimately [[Liverpool]], England. The city's commercial importance increased in the 1850s with the arrival of the railroad. In addition, [[textile]] mills were developed along the river, bringing industry to an area reliant upon agriculture. By 1860, the city was one of the more important industrial centers of the South, earning it the nickname the [[Lowell, Massachusetts|Lowell]] of the South, referring to an important textile mill town in Massachusetts.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Manganiello |first1=Christopher J. |title=Southern Water, Southern Power : How the Politics of Cheap Energy and Water Scarcity Shaped a Region |date=2015 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill |isbn=9781469623306 |page=23}}</ref>
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