Indigenous Representation: Perseverance and Hope to Alabama’s Indignity
Story & Photos by: Pon Peterson
Do you refer to Native Americans as Indians? Do you think Native Americans are extinct?
In Alabama, there are 22,491 Native Americans — the total population of Alabama is 5,197,720. However, this wasn’t always the case, in Alabama, an estimated 50 million Native Americans lived before European contact, a number that quickly started to drop due to diseases, massacres and forced relocations.
Alabama was home to many tribes like the Musogean (Alibamu), Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Koasati tribes. These tribes lived on the land, built villages and developed cultural traditions that still exist today.
However, the 1830 Indian Removal Act signed into law by President Andrew Jackson led to the forced relocation of tens of thousands of Indigenous people, also known as the Trail of Tears.
Despite centuries of colonization and steps to erase Indigenous culture, the Native Americans survived.
“It was a holocaust. We were your neighbors…attending churches with you [European descendants],” according to Amy Bluemel.
Bluemel is an enrolled member with the Chickasaw people. She is also a stomp dancer, storyteller and an artist.
Indigenous survival is a crucial part of Alabama’s history, according to journalist and author Harold Jackson.
The Poarch Creek Indians is the only federally recognized tribe in Alabama. The Poarch Creek Indians have been in Alabama for thousands of years. They were able to avoid being removed from their home. As of today, Alabama recognizes nine tribes. They include the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama, Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama, Ma-Chis Lower Creek Indian Tribe of Alabama, Star Clan of Muscogee Creeks, Cher-O-Creek Intra Tribal Indians, MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians, Piqua Shawnee Tribe and the United Cherokee Ani-Yun-Wiya Nation.
Indigenous people across Alabama are working to reclaim their stories and presence. Whether it’s through their language, advocating for accurate education or creating space in state policies or media. Representation in museums, school curriculum and community programs are growing.
Seth Penn, an Indigenous conservationist, political activist and member of the Cherokee tribe of Northeast Alabama, said that he spends his time “trying to use my knowledge and my connections to my community to help spread awareness and to help inform even the people who don’t know or don’t want me to exist.”
Compared to other states, Alabama has one of the lowest Native American populations, representing only 0.44% of the population.
“It felt almost nonexistent,” Kandis Reyes, who is a member of the Klamath tribe, said. She lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for eight years with her husband before moving back to the Northwest. One thing she said she noticed while living in Alabama, however, was people being confused about the differences between Native Americans and Indians.
“November was about to come up, you know it was gonna be Native American Heritage Month, and I was thinking I would love to do something to honor any Native students at the school. I was telling the PTA president, and she said, ‘Oh I don’t think we have any Indian students here, and I said, ‘OK, I’m new but you know it’s an important month. I would love to honor them if we do have any Native Americans students,’ and the president said, ‘Yea, the only one that comes to mind is Raj, who is Indian from India.’ It was just such a moment for me like, wow, there’s such a disconnect with Native American identity and what that even looked like,” Keyes said.
For many Indigenous people in Alabama, it’s hard to find a place to meet people that look like themselves. People that share the same experiences, the same traditions and the same holidays.
Penn said “a lot of people either think they’re no Natives here, they’ve all been removed to Oklahoma or if they do know there’s Natives here, they only think of one of the tribes, when in reality there’s nine tribes.”
Regalia is the traditional clothing of individual tribes. It is adorned and decorated by what’s important to each tribe and it can also speak to whether a male or female is married or unmarried.
Whether they have reached puberty, if they hold a special place in a certain religion within the tribe, it communicates who a person is and what tribe they’re from.
“I really try to explain Regalia, I explain why it’s not a costume. A costume is what you wear when you are pretending to be Batman, but Regalia is what you wear when you are representing your people,” Bluemel said.
Several organizations in Alabama are dedicated to supporting Indigenous communities and raising awareness. The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians, one of the state recognized tribes, operates programs in health, culture and education for their people. Nonprofits like the Alabama Indigenous coalition provide platforms for Native voices and advocacy for tribal sovereignty, environmental justice and cultural preservation.
Universities are also beginning to collaborate with Native groups on research and education initiatives.These efforts are vital to repairing past harms and ensuring Native Americans have the resources and respect they deserve. The Alabama Indian Affairs Commission gives Indigenous communities representation at the state capital in Montgomery. It helps promote program funding and help the nine tribes that are recognized. These organizations are crucial in playing a part in resilience and Indigenous sovereignty.
“Save Chandler Mountain initiative has been an effort of environmental activism to prevent Alabama power from building a dam around Chandler and on Chandler Mountain that will destroy sacred ancestral sites of multiple tribes but also affect the current residents,” Penn said.
Indigenous representation reflects the full story of Alabama — past, present and future. Native Americans have lived on the land before it became a state, and their culture, languages and histories continue to shape Alabama even to this day.
“We didn’t get the right to practice our religion until 1978, and I was 12,” Bluemel said. “Yet, many Indigenous voices are still overlooked in policy, education, and public life.”
By understanding and uplifting Native perspectives, Bluemel said Alabama residents can help ensure a more accurate, inclusive and just narrative for all the communities.
“We are here, we are still here.”