Apalachee Indians Talimali Band
The Apalachee Indians Talimali Band is one of several cultural heritage organizations of individuals who identify as descendants of the Apalachee people. The historical Apalachee were a Muskogean language–speaking tribe who lived at the Florida-Georgia border north of the Gulf of Mexico until the beginning of the 18th century.
The Apalachee Indians Talimali Band is one of more than 400 unrecognized tribes. This organization is neither a federally recognized tribe nor a state-recognized tribe.
This group is not to be confused with the Apalachee Indian Tribe in Alexandria, Louisiana, another unrecognized organization claiming Apalachee identity who also submitted a letter of intent to petition for federal recognition in 1996, or the Talimali Band of Apalachee Indians, another nonprofit organization that is based in Pineville, Louisiana.
Nonprofit organizations
In 2022, the Apalachee Indians Talimali Band incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, based in Stonewall, Louisiana.Troy Kerry is the organization's principal officer.
Status
The Louisiana Office of Indian Affairs oversees state–tribal relations, and there are 11 state-recognized tribes in Louisiana Four federally recognized tribes are headquartered in Louisiana. State and Federal Recognition of Tribes serves as a tool to identify tribal communities that can exist as sovereign entities under the Trust Responsibility and is not a declaration of a tribe's historical legitimacy.In 2019, Senator Gerald Long introduced Louisiana Senate Concurrent Resolution 9, titled "Recognizes the Apalachee Indians' Talimali Band as a tribe in the state of Louisiana," which died in committee that same year.
This organization tried and failed to gain state recognition from Louisiana in 2022.
Regarding the band's attempts to receive state recognition, Louisiana State Senator Louie Bernard stated: "All of us have this lingering thing that we’ve had forever, that anybody that seeks recognition and in this fashion has another motive in mind. And we all know what that is. But I guess I’m just naive enough to believe that some of these tribes really are not interested in that. They are interested solely in having the pride of having been recognized by their state as who they say they are."