Youtube . . . the towns of the Apalachicola Creeks in the 1700s
The Apalachicola People are the hybrid descendants of one of the most advanced indigenous civilizations north of Mexico. According to their migration legend, long ago, their ancestors landed in the vicinity of Savannah, GA after sailing from South America and mixed with the Uchee nearby then later with Muskogean immigrants. Although they gave their name to a major river in northwestern Florida, they did not move down into Florida until the mid-1700s. During the 1700s and early 1800s, their buildings were sheaved with vertical wooden planks. It is not clear how far back this architectural tradition reaches. An Apalachicola town near Pensacola, Florida was documented by explorer William Bartram in 1776. In 2008, the Perdido Bay Muskogee Creek Tribe of Pensacola, Florida hired me to create a model of an Apalachicola town near Perdido Bay that was visited and drawn by William Bartram in 1776.
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Richard Thornton
President at The Apalache Foundation
Richard Thornton is a professional architect, city planner, author and museum exhibit designer-builder. He is today considered one of the nation’s leading experts on the Southeastern Indians. However, that was not always the case. While at Georgia Tech Richard was the first winner of the Barrett Fellowship, which enabled him to study Mesoamerican architecture and culture in Mexico under the auspices of the Institutio Nacional de Antropoligia e Historia. Dr. Roman Piňa-Chan, the famous archaeologist and director of the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, was his fellowship coordinator. For decades afterward, he lectured at universities and professional societies around the Southeast on Mesoamerican architecture, while knowing very little about his own Creek heritage. Then he was hired to carry out projects for the Muscogee-Creek Nation in Oklahoma. The rest is history.
Richard is the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the KVWETV (Coweta) Creek Tribe and a member of the Perdido Bay Creek Tribe. In 2009 he was the architect for Oklahoma’s Trail of Tears Memorial at Council Oak Park in Tulsa. He is the president of the Apalache Foundation, which is sponsoring research into the advanced indigenous societies of the Lower Southeast.
Latest posts by Richard Thornton (see all)
- What you are never told at New Echota National Historic Landmark - September 23, 2018
- Fall 2018-Spring 2019 POOF Research Project . . . Pre-1700 AD Mound & Stone Architecture Survey of the Nacoochee and Soque Valleys - September 21, 2018
- Once upon a time at a Chevy Chase Christmas Party - September 20, 2018
- News Update: Quapaw and Mandan were at Ocmulgee! - September 18, 2018
- Example of why doing Native American history research is so difficult - September 16, 2018
Your patient attention to detail in your models is quite simply inspirational. And, oh my! Those beautiful “conch” bowls.
I’m in love with the music in the video. May I ask its source and/or how to purchase?
And is Ilape on the map where the Pee Dees were located?
Ilape is believed to have been a 24 mound site on the Watteree River in South Carolina. North Carolina calls the same river, the Catawba. The maps that mention Ilape are not very accurate.
Here is the link to the song on Youtube. There are free programs on the internet for downloading songs from Youtube. Google “Convert MP4 to MP3”
Thanks so much!
And could you refer me to any resources that might be helpful on Creek spirituality? When you talked about it in the radio interview that you recently posted for us, I identified with it immediately. . . .
Yes, there is an excellent book written by Creek scholars entitled, The Creek Spiritual Path.
I’ve tried googling it and haven’t come up with anything. Any suggestions on how to get a copy?
All you have to do is double-click the arrow in the center of the Youtube screen in the article.
Ooops! I meant how to get a copy of The Creek Spiritual Path.
Incredible! The price of the book has shot up to $119 since going out of print. Maybe you can find it cheaper somewhere other than Amazon.com.
https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Path-Way-Muscogee-Creeks/dp/0935626549
Whoa! I want one badly, but not that bad!
The book used to be around $24. It is not a terribly large book and I don’t think that it has color photos.
I found it here: https://www.spdbooks.org/AdvancedSearch/DefaultWFilter.aspx?searchTerm=a+sacred+path&searchButton.x=0&searchButton.y=0
Outstanding & informative-great work.