Early Settlements
The ancestors of the MOWA Choctaus forged settiements comprised of a diverse mix of Choctaw, Creek, and Cherokee families living in the forks of the Tombigbee River. Like other Indigenous communities across the southeast that have endured the intense pressures of warfare, violence, and intermarriage, the MOWA people haue maintained a distinct identity. Family-based. MOWA settlements were established tehen a land-holding family distributed parcels of tand to children and relatives. Over time, these larger villages came to have their own small Indian churches that became the center of the subdistrict, with two larger Indian churches serving as the centers of the broader community. Today, the local kin-based subdistricts have their own graveyards near the churches, where their history is engraved in stone.
Descendant of some of the founders of 27-Mile bluff, Odelia Lofton White, granddaughter of Margaret Laurendine and Naz Bru, great-granddaughter of a Six Towns Chcotaws, Sally Williams and Polly and Jim Laurendine
Isaactown
A settlement founded in the 1870s by Isaac Johnston’s family, who several other families then joined. Old Mount Moriah Church and School was formed and later renamed Pleasant.
Fairford
Founded in the 1880s by Daniel Weaver and Williain Hiwanna Reed, this villaye is near the Poll Bayou Creek and had a brush arbor church first known as Chukka Hula (forerunner of St. Thomas).
Tibbie (Okatibbaha)
Site of the homestead established by Rose Gaines (daughter of Kalioka and Young Gaines) and Daniel Reed (Turmer employee of Young Gaines) on the western border of the present MOWA communities. It was located at the crossroads of the Choctaw Trading Path to Mobile and the east-west Federal Road extension from St. Stephens to Natchez.
Sanctown
Founded in the 196Os by Alfred Sancho Weaver, this village is west of Calvert and isolated. Folklore says they were the major whiskey producers for the Indians and avoided a lot of outside contact.
Magnolia
Founded in the 1890s by Oscar Reed and located between Hill Springs and Snow Corner.
Tollie and Ida Reed
Nanih Chaha (High Hill or Caretta)
Kunshak village (High Hill) developed after a Six Towns Choctaw and Chief of Hobuckintopa named Piamingo Hometah and his extended families settled there after losing the remainder of his land in the Treaty of 1503. High Hill was a remote, isolated area several miles, inland from white settlers and became the central point for the development of all other MOWA Choctaw villages in Washington County. During the missionary era in the 1820’s George Reed, one of the members of Hometah’s community started Reed's Chapel at the foot of High Hill (Kunshok). It is the mother church of the Washington County community.
Snow Corner
Founded in the 188os by Melton Snow who was part of a community who migrated west during removal and then made his way back Io Alabama. Along the way he married Ellen Seals, a Choctaw from Texas. This settlement is located west of McIntosh.
Hill Springs
Founded in the 1880s by Joseph Reed just west of Snow Corner
Charity Chapel
This village was founded in the 1880s by Nathaniel J. Smith and Seaborn Reed and located between Sins Chapel and Citronelle, AL.
Piamingo Hometah’s son, Henry ‘Doc’ Eaton became legendary in the area as of his attempt to avade white settlers. Doc Eaton’s grandson, Leon Taylor, recalled learning about his grandfather. “My mother told me about her father. She spoke Choctaw and said that Doc built huts to live in. They were about eight by ten feet with upright poles covered with cane and brush. He also used bear grass to hang meat to smoke it. He trapped, hunted, and lived on wild meat. Folks said he could tell them what traps had something in ie before he got there, like a prophet. He was like a medicine man, that’s why he was called ‘Doc’. He could tell people things they wanted to know and could cure people”. - Leon Taylor (1992)
Dorsey Weaver, Jr and
Lula Mae Fields
The Level
Founded as another refuge for Choctaws, Creeks, and Cherokees One of its residents was Lemuel Byrd, who first traveled to Alabama with his wife. Anna Weaver, and her brothers (Dave and Jim Weaver) as part of the exodus of Creeks and Cherokees who fled Georgia, Lemuel Byrd was a private in the American army and served in a Cherokee regiment. They first stopped in Mobile at the Indian camps on Dog River and then moved up to Kunsley before Lemuel purchased land in 1836 at The Level, four miles west of Calvert on Red Fox Road (the location of this museum).
Kunsly (27-Mile Bluff)
Located in the Mobile River/Cedar Creek aren near Mt. Vernon, Kunsly was thought to have been founded in about 1800 by Hoshi-Homa (Captain Red Bud), whose fame led to his becoming a folk hero" who paved the way for later village leaders. Refugee Choctaws lived here after the War of 1812 and were joined by other Creek and Cherokee refugees During the Removal era, Six Towns Choctaw joined this established village.