Twisting Air

• Published in: Native south (Lincoln, NE) Vol. 13; pp. 60 - 93
• Main Author: Garrison, Tim Alan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lincoln University of Nebraska Press 01.01.2020
• Subjects: American history; Archaeology; Archives & records; Clouds; Historical text analysis; Native North Americans; Storms; Tornadoes; United States > US; Georgia; North America
• ISSN: 1943-2569; 2152-4025

Because of the particular construction of residential and civic buildings in the prccolonial Native South, archaeological evidence of the destructive storms is essentially nonexistent for that period. In his giant volume, he includes tables identifying the storms reported in each American slate for the years from 1880 lo 1991, including those that impacted Ihe homelands of Nalive southerners and their post-removal residences in Indian Territory/Oklahoma, or what we might call Ihe Greater South. [...]one can easily conclude that such storms must have impacted Native lives in earlier, more unevenly documented limes, even if we lack specific dates, locations, and accounts of those events.· Some of the difficulty in finding storms in the archives lies in the absence of the word "tornado" from any document, Indigenous or otherwise, until the seventeenth century (when it appeared in Spanish naval accounts). [...]those chasing tornadoes in the documentary record of colonial and early American history have to look more broadly for references to large wind events or major storms, especially ones where witnesses comment on fallen trees or damaged structures.·' Reports of such storms in southern Indian Country do exist, but few of the mention Nalive casualties or damage to their homes. According to one source, on March 28, 1810, "one of the most violent tornadoes, perhaps ever witnessed in Georgia" struck the Creek Agency office.