APALACHEE, a tribe of North American Indians of Musk hogean stock. They have been known since the i 6th century, and formerly ranged the country around Apalachee Bay, Florida. The name is apparently Choctaw, meaning "people on the other side." About 1600 the Spanish Franciscans founded a successful mission among them, but early in the 18th century the tribe suffered de feat at the hands of the British, the mission churches were burnt, the priests killed, and the tribe practically annihilated, more than one thousand of them being sold as slaves.
See Handbook of American Indians, ed. F. W. Hodge (Washington, 1907).