The first written references to the Alabamas, dated 1541, relate the contacts of the explorer Hernando De Soto with these Indians, probably in the future state of Mississippi. While the French were establishing themselves at Mobile, they became involved in skirmishes with the Alabama and Mobile tribes. The Alabama River and the state of Alabama were named for the Alabama Indians. Over time the French and then the English encroachment forced the Alabamas to migrate west. In the 1780s Alabamas and Coushatta Indians began moving across the Sabine River into Spanish Texas. Alabamas and Coushattas had been moving into the Big Thicket region of Spanish Texas since the 1780s. There they found an awesome junglelike wilderness that covered most of the area between the Sabine and Brazos rivers. Both tribes prospered in the Big Thicket and in 1809 the combined population of Alabamas and Coushattas within seventy miles of Nacogdoches totaled approximately 1,650. When the majority of tribes were removed from Texas to Indian territory in Oklahoma, the Alabama and Coushatta were permitted to remain. The Alabamas were granted 1,280 acres in 1854 by the Texas Congress, but no provision was ever made for the Coushatta Tribe. Some Coushattas, through marriage or by special permission from the Alabama Tribe, came to live on the original land grant. Many others moved to an area near Kinder, Louisiana, where some are still living today. In 1859, the Coushatta Tribe joined the Alabama Tribe on their small Reservation.

The Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation is a great web site and you can learn about the modern Alambama-Coushatta Indians.

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