Creek Culture Study to Analyze Impacts on Environments

July 2010

The Apalachicola Ecosystems Project (AEP), with support from the National Science Foundation and with a team of researchers including Arizona State Museum’s Dr. Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, will explore the dynamic relationship between humans and their physical and social environments in the Creek town of Apalachicola (1715–1836) in eastern Alabama.

This project will characterize how humans adapt to and, simultaneously, affect their biophysical and social environments over time. Apalachicola is a unique case at which the emigrant and immigrant sites within a single town are well documented. It is one of the most politically important Creek towns and was, according to legend, the site of the origin of the Creek Confederacy.

Sections of two archaeological sites will be excavated—Apalachicola town (1757–1836) and Apalachicola Old Town (1715–1757)—to measure cultural resilience throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The project will couple the archaeological investigations with historical research. Researchers will measure local changes in the biophysical environment through analysis of pollen cores, markers of climate variation, and human-induced changes in the plant and animal communities. In addition, historical records will be used to elucidate broader political climates, alliances, and conflicts.

AEP’s objectives are to (1) investigate how Native Americans maintained social, economic, and ecological viability in the face of substantial and rapid change to the social and biophysical environments, (2) identify the human-caused effects of Creek economic strategies on plant and animal communities, and (3) better understand Native American social, economic, and ecological resilience during the Historic Period.

The work of the Apalachicola Ecosystems Project will be relevant to descendant communities, forest managers, policy makers, environmental historians, anthropologists, culture historians, and ecologists. “AEP will further understanding of how humans have used culture to adapt to and modify their physical environment in this understudied region,” said Dr. Pavao-Zuckerman. “The broader impacts are significant to a wide range of fields in addition to descendant communities. The study of anthropogenic effects on the environment is one of the most important issues facing us today.”

Results and conclusions of this project will be shared when ready.