As much as possible our people assimilated into the white populace and claimed to be “Black Dutch” or some other type of European to explain their slightly darker color. Since nearly all work was done outdoors, most people had a tan anyway. However, most of us remember stories of our family members who always wore large straw hats and long sleeves in the summer because they did not want to become any darker than they already were.

During the early gatherings of our people, old stories or “legends” were told, crafts were demonstrated, and those who still knew a few words of the Cherokee language shared it with all. We struggled then and struggle now to preserve our history and culture. Everyone brought “covered dishes” to those gatherings and we enjoyed the pleasure of potluck dinners. It was wonderful to fellowship with others who shared the common bond. Friendships that were developed early on have lasted to this day.

Soon it was realized that we should have a “name” and become a more formalized group. At a meeting in Opelika, Alabama on March 16, 1980 the name, “ECHOTA” was chosen. The Phoenix was chosen as our symbol since we were rising from the ashes of our burned villages and forced removal, to join and reclaim that which was almost lost to us.

To conform to the standards of today’s world, corporation papers were filed and we became a legal, legitimate entity. By-Laws were written as well as a Mission Statement. A tribal newsletter was started and it has grown from one page to ten pages.

We immediately entered into a four-year struggle to establish an Indian Affairs Commission that would represent all the tribes in the state and to gain “State Recognition”. This became a reality with the passage of the Davis-Strong Act in 1984. In the meantime, we were researching our genealogy, history, traditional dress, dances, games, crafts and language.

A dance team was formed and practiced relentlessly. Progress was slow and not without its trials and tribulations. Birthing pains are never easy.

As tribal membership grew, Clans began to form and meetings were held in many areas of the state. The dance team became the largest in the state and performed an average of twice a month in Alabama and adjoining states, at its peak. The Team finally ceased their activities after about ten years when there were not enough drummers and dancers to continue.

Progress continued and six Indian Education Programs were implemented across North Alabama. One tribal member was elected to the State Legislature, one as State Auditor and on to the State Democratic Executive Committee. Many of our children have earned scholarships and four members have written books.

The tribe bought nineteen acres of land in St. Clair County in 1990 and has recently purchased fifty acres in Cullman County. In February 2002, the tribe was gifted with ten acres on Smith Lake. Plans are to build a Cultural Center that will include a museum, library, gift shop, meeting rooms, kitchen, a vault to store artifacts and a Tribal Office Complex on the fifty-acre site. Additional plans include the possibility of a campground, bathhouses, refreshment stand and Festival grounds. We also hope to become involved in agribusiness to provide income for the Tribe and jobs for our people. Everyone looks forward to having a central office and a permanent gathering place.

It is the spirit of survival and perseverance that brought us together and gave us the strength to reclaim our heritage. It is that same spirit that leads us on the path the Creator has given us – the path of opportunity to finally make ourselves known for who we are. This spirit also gives us the firm resolve to preserve our heritage, make opportunities for our people in education, job training and health services and make every effort to walk in harmony and balance on Mother Earth by protecting the environment. One ancient Indian proverb tells us to: “Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents; it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

Since earliest contact with European explorers in the 1500’s, the Cherokee has been recognized as the most advanced among the American Indian Tribes. With a culture that thrived for 500 years in the Southeastern part of this Country, the Cherokees developed and progressed in their own way by watching and learning from their non-Indian neighbors. The Cherokee had developed a system of government and a cultural society that matched the most “civilized” at the time. The Cherokee are the only race of people in recorded history who are known to have developed an alphabet or syllabary and learned to read and write in one generation. It is this progressive lifestyle that gave the remnants of those left behind the endurance and ambition to preserve the culture, even when it had to be done in secret.

The Tribe holds Pow Wows or Festivals each year for the purpose of having a gigantic “family reunion”, and to share our culture with the general populace. We now have another dance team that performs at Festivals and special events and we are extremely proud to have so many young people on the team, for they are the future of our people.

There are seven Clans within the tribe and each Clan has their own agenda as far as their activities are concerned.

The Governing Body of the Tribe consists of a Principal Chief, a Tribal Chairman, a Recording Secretary, a Membership Secretary, a Records Keeper, a Treasurer and a six member tribal Council.

With the opening of a tribal office on our land in Falkville, AL, we hope to take some of the load off the many volunteers who have served in the above positions for so many yeas. Our people will have someone to answer questions and offer assistance and referrals. Also of great importance the Tribe will finally have a permanent address.

The Mission Goals of the tribe are still geared to the education of our people, the preservation of our culture and the protection of the environment. We believe that we are the keepers of seven generations. This has been the Cherokee belief throughout history.

by Dan Fulenwider

The Black Warriors' Path, shown on several early maps, recorded historically by General John Coffee, and written about and traveled by the famous frontiersman Davy Crockett, is an important part of the history of present-day Cullman County.

An ancient Indian trail, the Black Warriors' Path began at Melton's Bluff, located at the head of Elk River Shoals on the south bank of the Tennessee River near Florence, Alabama. Melton's Bluff was the first town established in present-day Lawrence County. It was laid out by General Andrew Jackson, who owned land there and served as the county seat while Alabama was a territory. Melton's Bluff was named for John Melton, an Irishman who married a Cherokee Indian girl and settled among the Cherokees.

In her "Letters From Alabama", Anne Newport Royall told of her stay in Melton's Bluff in January of 1818.

According to Royall, the bluffs at Melton's Bluff were:

Royall also described seeing General Andrew Jackson at Melton's Bluff.

According to early documents, several military crossings took place at Melton's Bluff during the Creek Indian War.

Leaving Melton's Bluff, the Black Warriors' Path traveled southeast through present-day Lawrence County, proceeding east of Courtland, through the Oakville Indian Mound, just west of Oakville, and entered present-day northwest Cullman County west of the Battleground Community.

In Cullman County, the old Indian trail traveled through Battleground, just west of West Point, through Spring Hill, Grandview, Dodge City, and exited the county near Arkadelphia at the old Baltimore Ford, on the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River.

Several historic events took place on the Black Warriors' Path in Cullman County. In 1813, Creek Indians massacred several hundred pioneers at Fort Mims, near Tensaw, in south Alabama. As a result, General Andrew Jackson marched into Alabama with an army of men to fight what became known as the Creek Indian War. In October of 1813, General Jackson, while camped south of Huntsville, Alabama, dispatched Colonel John Coffee and 800 men to hunt for a war party of Creek Indians, Once of Colonel Coffee's men was the famous frontiersman Davy Crockett.

Colonel Coffee and Crockett crossed the Tennessee River to the north of Ditto's Landing, located south of Huntsville, and traveled to the head of Elk River Shoals. In his report to General Jackson, Colonel Coffee wrote:

"I proceeded to cross the river at the upper end of the shoals, all my efforts failed to produce a pilot. I took with me one of John Melton's sons, who said he knew not the road, he showed me a path that had been reputed the Black Warriors' Path..."

Davy Crockett wrote that while crossing the Tennessee River at Melton's Bluff, several of the horses became stuck in the rocky crevices and had to be left there while the military command moved on to their destination.

Coffee and Crockett and the 800 Tennessee Volunteers marched down the old Indian trail through present-day Cullman County, crossed the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River at what became known as the old Baltimore Ford, then turned west on another Indian trail known as the Black Warrior Road. This trail led to a large Creek Indian village known as Black Warrior Town, located at the confluence of the Sipsey River and the Mulberry Fork. Arriving at Black warrior Town, Coffee's men pillaged and burned the village after finding it deserted. Taking the Creeks' corn, dried beef and beans, Coffee and Crockett marched up the Black Warrior Road through Blount Springs, Bangor, Bear Meat Cabin (Blountsville), and Summit to General Jackson's camp at Warrenton, near Gunter's Landing (Guntersville). During this expedition, Colonel Coffee's men carried few supplies and did not manage to forage very well. Davy Crockett often provided his fellow Tennessee Volunteers food with his backwoods tracking skills and his quick rifle.

After the construction of Fort Mitchell in 1811 on the Chattahoochee River in present-day Russell County, Alabama, the Black Warriors' Path became known as Mitchell Trace. The old trail became a post road connecting Fort Hampton, a Cherokee/Chickasaw Indian outpost located near the forks of Elk River and the Tennessee River in Limestone County, to Fort Mitchell, a Creek outpost. Fort Mitchell was named after David Brady Mitchell, an Indian agent.

After General Andrew Jackson's army defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (near present-day Alexander City, Alabama), the Creeks ceded their land to the United States at the Treaty of Fort Jackson in 1814.

Fort Mitchell played a major role during the final days of the Creek Indian Removal during the 1830s. By 1835, many Creek Indians had been removed west or were in he process of being removed from Alabama. The Cherokee "Trail of Tears" took place in 1838-39. The Choctaw and Chickasaw also faced removal to the west. In December of 1835, a detachment of Creek Indians traveled from south Alabama up the old Black Warriors' Path through present-day Cullman County during the Creek Indian removal. Led by Lieutenant Edward Deas, the Creeks traveled twelve miles a day, from Wetumpka to Tuscumbia, where they were put on boats to continue the trip west. In September of 1836, another party of Creek Indians followed the Black Warriors' Path through present-day Cullman County during removal.

Later, on April 30, 1863, the Civil War troops of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Union Colonel Abel D. Streight followed the old Black Warriors' Path through the county and fought two major battles on the trail in what is now Cullman County, during the Forrest-Streight Raid.

The Black Warriors' Path/Mitchell Trace was the most historic road to pass through Cullman County.

The Black Warriors' Path intersected with another major Indian trail, the High Town Path, at the Battleground Community in Cullman County. The High Town Path went from Chickasaw Bluffs (Memphis, Tennessee) to Charles Town (Charleston, South Carolina). The trail was named for an Indian village called High Town, located at present-day Rome, Georgia. This trail followed the Old Corn Road and old 31 Highway through Cullman County. The High Town Path, shown on early maps, was one of the most famous Indian trails in the Southeastern United States. The trail was 1,000 miles long and completely crossed the Southeastern United States in an east-west direction.
In the Turkey Town Treaty of 1816, which ceded land from both the Chickasaws and the Cherokees, the High Town Path was used as the southern boundary for the land cession of both Indian nations. Turkey Town was located just northeast of present-day Gadsden, Alabama.

Early settlers moving into present-day Cullman and surrounding counties from east Tennessee and north Georgia often traveled the High Town Path into the area.
These two Indian trails were heavily used for centuries by Indians in prehistoric times and were later used as hunting and trading routes. Today, parts of the old trails are paved and are still in use in Cullman County. Many residents who live along the old trails are unaware of what took place on the roads in front of their homes during those long ago days .

The High Town or Ridge Path ran in an east-west direction along the mountain ridges avoiding lowlands and creek crossings. The path followed the continental divide through Lawrence County and into Mississippi. The Leola Road and Ridge Road in Lawrence County represents the most accurate route of the High Town Path through Lawrence County. The High Town Path was listed as the boundary of the Chickasaw Nation. The Little Okfuskee-Chickasaw Nation Path, from the Chattahochee River through Little Okfuskee and Flat Rock, joined the High Town Path and lead to Copper Town in the Chickasaw Nation.