The indigenous history of the Shoals is foundational
In January 1917, an elderly African American woman named Elvira Shoals sat on the porch of her small Oklahoma home and recalled a life that had begun nearly a century earlier near Tuscumbia, Alabama. Born into slavery around 1817, Elvira…
On June 21, 1838, a Cherokee man known as Chicken was killed after jumping from a moving railroad car about a mile outside Tuscumbia, Alabama. He was among hundreds of Cherokee being transported west during the forced removal now remembered…
August 15, 1891 Gentlemen: We have been digging up prehistoric men for about a week, thick skulled fellows. Today we discovered a skull in place that ante-dates the others by a “long spell.” I have been making measurements but am…
Thousands of people in Florence cross Cypress Creek every day. Its name appears on road signs, maps, businesses and neighborhoods throughout the city. If you’re from Florence, you’ve heard of it, but more than two centuries ago, the creek was…
By 1829, the Cherokee Nation in the Southeast was under enormous pressure. Georgia was pushing to extend its authority over Cherokee lands, white settlers were moving into disputed territory, and the federal government was moving steadily toward a policy of…
Just south of where the Natchez Trace bridge spans the Tennessee River lies Koger Island, a landscape rich with history, both ancient and antebellum. The island is named after William and Martha Koger, prominent figures in the region’s history, whose…
An Ideal Location for a City — Florence* In the beginning of the world, so the Cherokees said, a beautiful water sprite, the Goddess of the Tennessee, was imprisoned by the Great Spirit beneath the rushing waves of Muscle Shoals.…
A tale of an Indian mound on the bank of the Tennessee river at Florence, Alabama. This mound is centuries old, and one of the largest and most impressive left by the North American Indians. Waumanona Waumanona, brave young chieftain,…