Part of the Muskogean language family, Muskogee (Creek) is closely related to Cherokee and Choctaw. Together, these three languages account for the majority of native publications appearing in the United States before 1900. Muskogee was historically spoken in what is now southern Tennessee, Alabama, western Georgia, and northern Florida. Since the forcible removal of the Muskogee nation to Indian Territory in the early 1830s, the majority of speakers have lived in east-central Oklahoma. Creek is conventionally written in Latin letters. During the nineteenth century, most publications used a transliteration system based on one developed by Congregationalist-Presbyterian missionary Cyrus Byington (1793–1868) for the Choctaw language in the 1820s. Although the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions published a pamphlet including hymns in Muskogee as early as 1835, such texts prepared by white missionaries were less popular than works produced by native hymnodists and translators. Several collections of Muskogee hymns were published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with some songs, like “Hesaketvmeset Likes,” possibly dating to the time of removal. The canon of Muscogee sacred music plays an important role in contemporary language revitalization efforts.

—Erin Fulton