Editing Muscogee (section)

===Precontact===
[[File:Etowah MoundC 1 HRoe 2012.jpg|right|thumb|[[Etowah Indian Mounds|Etowah Mound C]], was part of a precontact [[Mississippian culture]] site, occupied by ancestors of the Muscogee people from {{Circa|1000}}–1550 CE, in [[Cartersville, Georgia]]]] 
At least 12,000 years ago, Native Americans or [[Paleo-Indian]]s lived in what is today the Southern United States.<ref name=guy_prentice>
{{Cite web
 | url = http://www.nps.gov/history/seac/SoutheastChronicles/NISI/NISI%20Cultural%20Overview.htm| title = Pushmataha, Choctaw Indian Chief
 | access-date = February 11, 2008
 | last = Prentice
 | first = Guy
 | year = 2003
 | publisher = Southeast Chronicles
}}
</ref> Paleo-Indians in the Southeast were [[hunter-gatherer]]s who pursued a wide range of animals, including [[megafauna]], which became extinct following the end of the [[Pleistocene]] age.<ref name=guy_prentice /> During the time known as the [[Woodland period]], from 1000 BC to 1000 AD, locals developed pottery and small-scale horticulture of the [[Eastern Agricultural Complex]].

The [[Mississippian culture]] arose as the cultivation of maize from [[Mesoamerica]] led to agricultural surpluses and population growth. Increased population density gave rise to urban centers and regional [[chiefdoms]]. Stratified societies developed, with [[hereditary]] religious and political elites. This culture flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from 800 to 1500, especially along the Mississippi River and its major tributaries.

The early historic Muscogee were descendants of the [[Mississippian culture]] along the [[Tennessee River]] in modern [[Tennessee]],<ref name=Finger_2001>
{{Cite book| last = Finger| first = John R.| title = Tennessee Frontiers: Three Regions in Transition| title-link=Tennessee Frontiers: Three Regions in Transition | pages = 19| publisher = Indiana University Press| year = 2001| isbn = 0-253-33985-5}}</ref> Georgia, and Alabama. They may have been related to the Tama of central Georgia. Muscogee [[oral history]] describes a migration from places west of the [[Mississippi River]], in which they eventually settled on the east bank of the [[Ocmulgee River]].<ref name="Bartram1794">[[William Bartram]], ''Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws'' (2nd ed.), London 1794, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/travelsthroughno00bart#page/52/mode/2up 52–53]</ref> Here they waged war against other bands of Native American Indians, such as the Savanna, Ogeeche, Wapoo, [[Santee tribe|Santee]], Yamasee, [[Northern Utina|Utina]], Icofan, Patican and others, until at length they had overcome them,<ref>[[William Bartram]], ''Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws'' (2nd ed.), London 1794, p. [https://archive.org/stream/travelsthroughno00bart#page/54/mode/2up 54]</ref> and absorbed some as confederates into their tribe.<ref name="Bartram1794"/>

In the mid-16th century, when explorers from the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] made their first forays inland from the shores of the [[Gulf of Mexico]], many political centers of the Mississippians were already in decline, or abandoned.<ref name=north_ga>
{{Cite web
 | url = http://ngeorgia.com/history/early.html
 | title = Moundbuilders, North Georgia's early inhabitants
 | access-date = May 2, 2008
 | author = About North Georgia
 | date = 1994–2006
 | publisher = Golden Ink
}}
</ref> The region is best described as a collection of moderately sized native [[chiefdom]]s (such as the [[Coosa chiefdom]] on the [[Coosa River]]), interspersed with completely autonomous villages and tribal groups. The earliest Spanish explorers encountered villages and chiefdoms of the late [[Mississippian culture]], beginning on April 2, 1513, with [[Juan Ponce de León]]'s landing in Florida. The 1526 [[Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón]] expedition in [[South Carolina]] also recorded encounters with these peoples.

Muscogee people were gradually influenced by interactions and trade with the Europeans: trading or selling deer hides in exchange for European goods such as muskets, or alcohol.<ref>{{cite book
|title=A New Order of Things. Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733–1816
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|year=1999
|isbn=0521660432
|first=Claudio
|last=Saunt
|pages=38–63
|chapter='Martial virtue, and not riches': The Creek relationship to property
}}</ref> Secondly, the Spanish pressed them to identify leaders for negotiations; they did not understand government by consensus.<ref name=Saunt>{{cite book
|title=A New Order of Things. Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733–1816
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|year=1999
|isbn=0521660432
|first=Claudio
|last=Saunt
}}</ref>{{rp|19–37}}