During the 17th century several Spanish
missions were established in the territory of the Apalachee to procure food and
labor for the colony at St. Augustine. The largest, Mission San Luis de Apalachee,
has been partially reconstructed by the state of Florida. The name
"Tallahassee" is a Muskogean Indian word often translated as
"old fields", and it likely stems from the Creek (later called
Seminole) Indians who migrated from Georgia and Alabama to this region in the
late 18th and early 19th centuries. They found large areas of cleared land
previously occupied by the Apalachee tribe. Earlier, the
