Foreword

Our goal in producing this dictionary was to provide accurate spellings and translations of Muscogee words gathered from interviews with Muscogee and Seminole people in Oklahoma and Florida and from materials found in archives around the country. We hoped in this way to create a reference work that would be of use to both students and native speakers of the language.

The methods used in compiling this dictionary were traditional ones applied in a collaborative way: we gathered a collection of texts, made lists of words based on these texts, and searched the texts and lists for new words, uses, and examples. The resulting material was supplemented by checking and adding words from Loughridge and Hodge's 1890 dictionary, from other vocabulary lists, and by comparing our work to several recent dictionaries of related languages.

Few children today grow up speaking Muscogee; those who do hear it in their homes rarely need to use it and no longer have access to the vibrant speech communities needed for developing mastery of the language. Unless drastic measures are taken, it is likely that the Muscogee language in its current form will disappear in the coming century. We hope that this work will contribute to the efforts of others trying to maintain it.