Native Americans lived in the land that would become Alabama for thousands of years before settlers arrived, including the Creeks, a multiethnic confederacy of tribes descended from the Mississippians whose complex societies had chiefdoms, towns, and an extensive trade network. These cultures left ancient mounds along Butler County's waterways, and projectile points, pottery, and other artifacts have been found throughout the area. Contact with Europeans brought war and disease and contributed to the collapse of Mississippian culture. The Redstick War of 1813-1814 ended with the Creeks ceding 21 million acres to the United States, and resentment over American intrusion and the loss of their lands led to several Creek attacks on local settlers, including the Ogly-Stroud and Butler massacres in Butler County in March 1818. Government-forced removals in the 1830s displaced most of Alabama's remaining Indians to modern-day Oklahoma. Two important Native American trading paths crossed Butler County: one ancient trail later became the Federal Road, was used by Spanish explorers passing through northwestern Butler County in the 16th century, and was followed by William Bartram in the summer of 1775 before settlers poured into the area on the same road in the early 1800s; another path ran between Persimmon and Pigeon Creeks in eastern Butler County near the later-established communities of Midway, Glasgow, Shell, and McKenzie, forming part of an important route between the Gulf Coast and the Creek town of Tukabatchee on the Tallapoosa River, and some of today's county roads follow the same route.