The Creek Nation grew out of what was originally considered to be the Creek Confederacy. (A confederacy is a group of connected tribes.) While European settlers called the people “Creek,” the people’s own name for their tribe was Muscogee. They spoke the Mvskoke language. Prior to European colonization of the Americas, Creek people lived in the southeastern region of the United States, in what are now the states of Alabama and Georgia. Their life was centered in towns, and people lived in rectangular houses. One of the main staples of the Creek diet was corn. Women were largely responsible for tending to the gardens while men hunted and fished for food. Eventually, the various tribes comprising the Creek Confederacy formed the Creek Nation.

As is mentioned in Two Roads, the Creek people became known in mainstream white culture as one of the “Five Civilized Tribes.” The Creek and the other four tribes in this arbitrary and prejudicial grouping were given this moniker because they adopted many of the cultural traits introduced by European settlers, the most notable of which included the practice of Christianity and the ordering of a centralized government. Today, the term “Civilized Tribes” is acknowledged to be deeply problematic, biased, and controversial because it inherently supports the prejudicial and disavowed view that white culture is somehow superior to that of Indigenous culture.