17 Facts About Tuskaloosa

Tuskaloosa was a paramount chief of a Mississippian chiefdom in what is the US state of Alabama.

Tuskaloosa's people were ancestors to the several southern Native American confederacies who later emerged in the region.

Tuskaloosa is notable for leading the Battle of Mabila at his fortified village against the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto.

Tuskaloosa's name, derived from the western Muskogean language elements tashka and losa, means "Black Warrior".

Tuskaloosa was the suzerain of many territories, and of numerous people, being equally feared by his vassals and the neighbouring nations.

Tuskaloosa's province consisted of a series of villages, located mostly along the Coosa and Alabama rivers.

Tuskaloosa was likely the mother of his successor as chief, as the tribe had a matrilineal kinship system.

Tuskaloosa sent an envoy led by his son and several head men to meet the Spanish in Talisi.

Tuskaloosa was as tall as that Tony of the Emperor, our lord's guard, and well proportioned, a fine and comely figure of a man.

Tuskaloosa had a son, a young man as tall as himself but more slender.

The men occasionally feinted toward Tuskaloosa, hoping to frighten him, a technique of manipulation de Soto had used against the Inca Atahualpa at Cajamarca.

The expedition began making plans to leave the next day, and Tuskaloosa relented, providing bearers for the Spaniards.

Tuskaloosa informed de Soto that they would have to go to his town of Mabila to receive the women.

De Soto ordered Tuskaloosa to have his people produced or he would be burned at the stake; the chief said only that the men would be returned at Mabila.

The South Appalachian Mississippian culture Big Eddy phase has been tentatively identified as the protohistoric Province of Tuskaloosa encountered by the de Soto expedition in 1540.

Tuskaloosa told de Soto and his expedition to leave in peace, or he and his allies would force him to leave.

Chief Tuskaloosa's son was found among the dead, although the chief was not.