Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Mobilian, or Floridian, Indians,

A nation composed of a large number of tribes; ranking next to the Algonquians in the extent of their domain and power when Europeans discovered them. They were superior to most of the Algonquians in the attainments which lead to civilization, and they were evidently related to the inhabitants of Central and South America. The domain of the Mobilians extended along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River, more than 600 miles. It stretched northward along the Atlantic coast to the mouth of the Cape Fear River, and up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio, comprising a large portion of the present cotton-growing States. A greater portion of Georgia, the whole of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, and parts of South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky were included in their territory. The nation was divided into three grand confederacies—viz., Muscoghees, or Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. See these titles respectively.