Starnes Digital
The historical marker in Mountain Brook Village mentions the Native American tribes who hunted on the land for thousands of years before settlers arrived in the 1800s. Photo by Savannah Schmidt.
As Thanksgiving approaches, we remember that we live on the lands of Native Americans who, for generations before colonization, guarded the nature of this place. In her 1989 book “A History of Mountain Brook, Alabama, and Incidentally of Shades Valley,” author Marilyn Davis Barefield details the innovations, cultures and families of the indigenous people of this area.
The land of Mountain Brook sustained the Creek, Cherokee and Choctaw tribes for 8,000 to 10,000 years. The waters of Shades Valley also offered game.
“Mudtown” was the settlement spot of many Native Americans who hunted in the Mountain Brook area, approximately a mile from the city limits, where Old Caldwell Mill Road meets the Cahaba River.
Their tribal lands were overrun by settlers when the Creeks made a treaty with the federal government in the early 1800s, opening up territories like Mountain Brook in 1815.
While many settlers characterized Native Americans as uncivilized or primitive, evidence suggests that settlers copied their languages and habits.
By the Mississippian Period, tribes had developed into nations and had mastered farming, hunting and trade. “Alabama” comes from the Choctaw word for “Vegetation Gatherers,” which befits the resource-rich territory. The name for the Cahaba River comes from the Choctaw “oka,” meaning “water,” and “aba,” meaning “above.”
A marker in the middle of Mountain Brook Village on Cahaba Road reminds us of the people whose loss connects with our ability to live and work there today.
