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            Auburn University - University Relations
                         (334) 844-9999
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5/11/95                 Mitch Emmons

AU ARCHAEOLOGISTS RACING AGAINST TIME TO DISCOVER STATE'S PAST

      AUBURN -- High school students and others interested in learning 
more about Alabama's native American heritage have a unique opportunity 
to join Auburn University and University of Alabama archaeologists this 
summer in a race against time to excavate a 17th century Creek Indian town.
      The Alabama Museum of Natural History's Expedition which will run 
from June 18 through July 15, provides an opportunity for those 
interested in history, science or archaeology to participate in a 
week-long dig at one of the state's best preserved Creek settlements -- 
the town of Fusihatchee, located on the Tallapoosa River in Elmore County.
      "This village offers one of the last chances to study the 
evolution of Creek society," said John Cottier, an associate professor in 
AU's Department of Sociology and one of the archaeologists leading the 
expedition. "Most of the dozen or so other Creek Indian towns in this 
state have already been destroyed by development. In 100 years, 
archaeologists won't be able to do what we're doing now."
      Cottier and Craig Sheldon, a professor of archaeology at AU at 
Montgomery, have been excavating the 12-acre Fusihatchee site for the 
past 10 years. 
      "We've been doing  research on the historic Creek Indians of 
Alabama over the last 12 to 15 years," Cottier said. 
      To date, only about two acres in the center of the town have been 
thoroughly excavated, and Cottier says the race to complete the dig is 
one against time and progress.
      "Even as we speak, this site is being destroyed by a commercial 
sand and gravel operation," he said.
      Fusihatchee, first occupied by the Creeks in the 1600s, grew into 
one of the major Creek settlements in Alabama, with a peak population of 
about 200 within the town proper and perhaps as many as 700 in the 
surrounding area, Cottier says. The town was burned during the Creek 
Indian War of 1814 by Gen.  Andrew Jackson's army following the battle of 
Horseshoe Bend. Because its residents had evacuated just ahead of the 
advancing army, many artifacts were left behind which Cottier says is 
creating one of the largest collections of Creek Indian artifacts in the 
United States.  
      The Creek's first contact with Europeans occurred during the 
mid-16th century.  They established trade with the early French and 
English explorers. Cottier says records indicate there were periods when 
the Europeans lived with the Indians in Fusihatchee, and this contact 
heavily influenced the Creek's society.
      "We are looking at the way the Creek Indians organized their 
communities and how this organization changed as a result of European 
contact," he said. 
      Archaeologists have found the remains of five council houses, 
each about 50 to 70 feet in size, and artifacts ranging from stone 
implements to glass beads, brass and other metal European-influenced 
items. As a result, they have learned much about this large native 
American population whose influences continue to identify  Alabama in the 
names of places like Opelika, Chewalkla, Eufaula, Notasulga; Lochepoka -- 
even the state's name, itself.
      "This area of Alabama we now find ourselves in is filled with 
Creek Indian place names," Cottier said. "This was the Creek nation until 
the 1830s.
      Cottier says while Fusihatchee was an organized community, its 
society was already deteriorating by the time of its destruction.
      "Fusihatchee was an organized community in every sense," he said. 
"These council houses served the same function as today's city hall and 
community centers."
      Its economy was largely agriculturally based, and across the 
river from the town were large corn fields, says Cottier.
      "But toward the end of the inhabitance of Fusihatchee, the 
society was really coming apart," he said. "We've found that the earlier 
residents (before European influence) had better-built homes and much 
more traditional lifestyles."
      After contact with the Europeans, Cottier says the Creeks tried 
to imitate what they saw. 
      "House construction was more simplified and of a temporary 
nature," he said. "Glass beads and brass ornaments replaced shells that 
had been used for making necklaces and bracelets, and pottery became less 
ornate."
      This is the 17th year the Alabama Museum of Natural History has 
offered the summer Expedition program. Each year, students have a chance 
to participate in an archaeological dig in a different part of the state. 
This is the second time Fusihatchee has been selected.
      Cost of the program is $200 per week for members of the Alabama 
Natural History Society and $225 for nonmembers. The fee includes food, 
tents and scientific equipment.
      For more information about the Expedition, contact the Alabama 
Museum of Natural History at 205/348-9473 or 205/348-0534.
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may95:AU-creektown
CONTACT: Cottier, 334/844-2835