MUSKHOGEAN STOCK  , a

North American Indian stock . The name is from that of the chief tribe of the Creek confederacy,the Muskogee . It includes the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles and other tribes . Its territory was almost the whole state of Mississippi, western Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, Alabama, most of Georgia, and later nearly all Florida: Muskhogean traditions assign the west and north-west as the original home of the stock., Its history begins in 1527, on the first landing of the Spaniards on the Gulf Coast . The Muskhogean peoples were then settled agriculturists with an elaborate social organization, and living in villages, many of which were fortified (see INDIANS: North American) .