Were originally one of the Muskhogan tribes of the gulf region and members of the great Creek confederacy.
In 1703, shortly after the onset of Queen Anne's War, English agents incited them to decoy and ambush a small French Party. The French avenged the death of their countrymen by paying the Choctaws and Chickasaws a bounty for Alabama scalps. However the French governor Bienville quickly made his peace with them and subsequently visited several Alabama towns in 1714.
By the end of the century with increasing encroachment from white settlers, the Creek confederacy was no longer the force it had once been. Frustrated by their inability to keep back the advancing Georgian settlers, the Alabamas crossed the Mississippi (along with the Coushattas) into Spanish territory and eventually settled in Texas.
Their descendants live today on a small reservation outside Livingston, given to them by President Sam Houston. This was turned over to the state of Texas after the 2nd World War, as a result of the termination laws passed by the 83rd Congress.