“. . . this distant and isolated post:” Fort Tombecbé and Frontier Community

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Recent Colonial Archaeological Research in the American Midcontinent" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The French established Fort Tombecbé in present-day Alabama in 1736 to secure their alliance with the Choctaws and to more firmly establish their presence in a region vulnerable to English takeover. During the following twenty-seven years, hundreds of Choctaws visited the fort to trade and confer, and they eventually established a town nearby. Historic documents and archaeology suggest that Fort Tombecbé and its surrounding landscape were a nexus for multiple ethnic groups and nations, a place for negotiating colonial and Native identities. While traditionally studied as reactionary pawns of political decisions and events occurring hundreds and thousands of miles distant, Tombecbé’s inhabitants and neighbors conducted daily lives as responses to the demands of basic survival and local alliances.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Recent Colonial Archaeological Research in the American Midcontinent   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39119.0