Archeology through the Lens of the Muscogee People

Misty Penton is the storyteller and tradition keeper for the Muscogee Tribe of Florida, and she’s a bioarcheologist. From their perspective as archeologists, she and her father have uncovered a past that was part of their native heritage. Aspects of that heritage have become muddled over the last couple of hundred years. As European colonists expanded into what would become the United States, they displaced native people. Seminoles and Miccosukees Tribes migrated into the Tallahassee area decades after other native tribes were run out. Later, native groups in the southeast were forced to relocate to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. But not all left. While their communities were shattered, Muscogee traditions were quietly passed down.