Muskhogean

Muskhogean, one of the stock races of North America, whose domain originally comprised nearly the whole of the present states of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, with parts of Florida and west Tennessee, that is, most of the region between the Atlantic and the lower Mississippi river, and from the Gulf of Mexico to about lat. 36° N. The group takes its name from the Muskhogi (Maskoki), called Creeks by English writers, who were the chief tribe of the Creek confederacy. [Creeks.] The other members of the family were the Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Seminoles, nearly all now at Union Agency, Indian Territory, with collective population over 16,000, besides the extinct or nearly extinct Alibamu, Apalachi, Koasati, Yamacraw and Yamasi. For the surviving nations see under the several entries. t Musk-Ox (Ovibos moschatus), an aberrant member of the Ox family, with affinities to the sheep, as its generic name denotes. It is about the size of the small Scotch cattle, with brown hair nearly a yard long and woolly under-fur (shed in summer). The horns are broad at the base and somewhat like those of the Cape Buffalo. Muskoxen are found in small herds in the western hemisphere between 60° and 83° N. latitude. They feed on grass, moss, lichens, and the young shoots of the willow and pine. No special musk gland is known to account for their musky odour.