The Lower Muskogee Creek Tribe is a state-recognized Creek Nation tribe located in Southwest Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

. It is part of the Creek Nation located east of the Mississippi. The Principal Chief (Mico) is Vonnie McCormick and the tribe maintains the Tama Tribal Town on a small reservation

Indian reservation

An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...

 in Whigham, Georgia

Whigham, Georgia

Whigham is a city in Grady County, Georgia, United States. The population was 631 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Whigham is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land....

. The tribal leadership offers regular educational classes to members and the public to learn more about Muskogee culture and language

Creek language

The Creek language, also known as Muskogee or Muscogee , is a Muskogean language spoken by Muscogee and Seminole people primarily in the U.S. states of Oklahoma and Florida....

.

On January 27, 1825 the Indian Removal Act

Indian Removal Act

The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830.The Removal Act was strongly supported in the South, where states were eager to gain access to lands inhabited by the Five Civilized Tribes. In particular, Georgia, the largest state at that time, was involved in...

 was signed, calling for the removal of all Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 Tribes in Georgia. In the following years, most of the Muskogee people were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

. Those who stayed hid in swampy, less desirable areas; fled to Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 and joined the Seminole

Seminole

The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...

 tribe; or moved frequently to avoid capture. Laws limiting the rights of the Muskogee people were not officially removed until 1980.

Georgia adopted a "Resolution Recognizing the Lower Muskogee Creek Tribe" on March 16, 1973. It read, in part:

"...NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE that this body hereby recognizes the Muskogee-Creek Indian Tribe East of the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 in the State of Georgia as a tribe of people...

Proclamations recognizing the Creeks as a tribe have been made by recent Georgia Governors, including Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

, Joe Frank Harris

Joe Frank Harris

Joe Frank Harris is an American conservative Democratic politician who served as the 78th Governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1983 to 1991....

 and Zell Miller

Zell Miller

Zell Bryan Miller is an American politician from the US state of Georgia. A Democrat, Miller served as Lieutenant Governor from 1975 to 1991, 79th Governor of Georgia from 1991 to 1999, and as United States Senator from 2000 to 2005....

.

The Georgia Commission of Indian Affairs was formed by Executive Order on May 9, 1977. The Order provided for the appointment of the members of the Commission, and recognized the Lower Muskogee Creek Tribe-East of the Mississippi, Inc. as a legal entity.