Hillabee was an important Muscogee (Creek) town in east central Alabama before the Indian Removals of the 1830s. Hillabee was the center of a cluster of towns and villages, known as the Hillabee complex or, simply, Hillabee. The people living in the Hillabee complex area are sometimes called the Hillabees. That name does not refer to a separate tribe or clan but merely those Muscogees who lived in the Hillabee complex area. The word "Hillabee" comes from the Muscogee language word helvpe /hílapi/, meaning quick or swift, perhaps referring to the streams in the area.