Native Americans whose ancestors were forced out of the Southeast almost 200 years ago are back for a festival with a name that sums up its purpose: “We have come back.”
Butch McIntosh, left, leads the Muscogee Nation Honor Guard during the opening of a two-day festival in Oxford, Ala., on Friday, April 8, 2022. The Muscogee name for the event is"Reyicepes," or"We have come back," signifying an attempt by the nation to re-establish a presence in the Southeast nearly 200 years after ancestors were forced out of the region to make way for white settlers. OXFORD, Ala.
Once among the largest groups in the Southeast, the Muscogee territory included parts of the present-day states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The tribe's last major fighting force was defeated by U.S. troops at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend about 55 miles south of Oxford in 1814, leading to its eventual expulsion from the region.
With about 96,000 enrolled citizens and headquarters in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, the tribe is now one of the largest in the United States. Groups of Muscogee have made trips to the Southeast to reconnect with the region in recent years, including visits to the Horseshoe Bend battlefield, now a historic site, and Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park in Macon, Georgia, Butler said.
While a group from the Muscogee Nation visited the park in 2016 after it opened, most citizens haven't.