A More Perfect Union

The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Clovis Points

Clovis Points

The Early Paleoindian subperiod is characterized by Clovis and related projectile point forms, relatively large lanceolate (lance-shaped) points with nearly parallel sides, slightly concave bases, and single or multiple basal flutes (channels) that rarely extend more than a third of the way up the body.

Courtesy of the University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology

Flint Projectile Points

Flint Projectile Points

Commonly referred to as "arrowheads," these flint projectile points from the Archaic Period would have been used as spear tips or knives.

Courtesy of Ocmulgee National Monument, National Park Service

Suwannee Points

Suwannee Points

The Middle Paleoindian subperiod features smaller unfluted lanceolate projectile points such as the Suwannee types, among others.

Courtesy of the University of Georgia Laboratory of Archaeology

Sequoyah

Sequoyah

This hand-colored lithograph of Sequoyah (also called George Gist or George Guess), the legendary creator of the Cherokee syllabary, was made in 1833 after an oil portrait by Charles Bird King as part of a series depicting Native American leaders.

From The Indian Tribes of North America, by T. L. McKenney and J. Hall

William McIntosh

William McIntosh

Charles Bird King's portrait of William McIntosh (ca. 1825). In 1825 McIntosh negotiated and signed the Treaty of Indian Springs, signing away all Creek lands in Georgia and thereby defying most of the reforms that he had encouraged and the laws that he had helped write.

Image from Archives and Rare Books Library, University of Cincinnati Libraries, McKenney and Hall: History of the Indian Tribes Collection.

Tomochichi

Tomochichi

As a principal mediator between the native Creek (Muscogee) and English settlers during the first years of Georgia's settlement, Tomochichi (left) contributed to the establishment of peaceful relations between the two groups. His nephew, Toonahowi, is seated on the right in this engraving, circa 1734-35, by John Faber Jr.

Creek Indian Painting

Creek Indian Painting

This copy of a Creek "hieroglyphick painting" was made in the 1770s by Bernard Romans. Romans was a British surveyor and engineer who worked in Florida during the 1770s. He made many notes on the Creeks.

Chief Vann House

Chief Vann House

The home of Cherokee chief James Vann was located north of the Moravian Mission at Spring Place. Invited by Vann and other Cherokee leaders, the Moravians provided a school for Cherokee children and housed 114 students between 1804 and 1833.

Taloney Mission

Taloney Mission

The Taloney Mission (later Carmel Mission) was founded by the Georgia Presbyterians in Pickens County along Talking Rock Creek. The Presbyterians established and ran a number of mission schools throughout Georgia from 1817 to 1833. The remains of the Taloney Mission were photographed between 1930 and 1960.

Etowah Complicated Stamped Pottery

Etowah Complicated Stamped Pottery

This type of pottery originated in northwestern Georgia and is found in small quantities throughout the state. It is from the Middle Mississippian subperiod.

Courtesy of Mark Williams

Stallings Island Site Pottery

Stallings Island Site Pottery

Stallings Island, located in the Savannah River eight miles upstream from Augusta, is best known for its very early pottery, a technological development that predated the advent of farming in Georgia by several millennia. Pictured are sherds of the punctated fiber-tempered pottery, ca. 3,800-3,500 years ago. The sherd on top is actually 11 centimeters wide.

Courtesy of Kenneth E. Sassaman

Creek Indians

Creek Indians

A brief conflict between the United States and Creeks in 1836 ended with U.S. troops, assisted by Georgia and Alabama militia, rounding up Creeks and forcibly sending them to Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

Reprinted by permission of The Granger Collection, New York