the Land Before Alabama: Coosa, Cherokee, Muscogee, and World State

Before Alabama was a state, this land was already home.The Land Before Alabama traces thousands of years of history across the rivers, valleys, and ancient communities of the region that would eventually become Alabama.From the first people and the changing Ice Age landscape to mound centers, long-distance trade, agriculture, Coosa, Cherokee, and Muscogee communities, this book follows the world that existed long before state lines appeared.It explores the rivers that served as highways, the rise of Mississippian political centers, the arrival of Spanish expeditions, the changing Coosa country, Cherokee and Muscogee towns, clans, households, law, trade, warfare, and the tightening borderland of the eighteenth century.The book also examines how archaeology, written records, family tradition, and local legend should be weighed differently when reconstructing the past.Written in clear, evidence-driven prose, The Land Before Alabama is the first volume of The Alabama Frontier Series.History remembers the conquerors. This series remembers everyone else.