You come from powerful people,’ ” he said. “What I tell my kids is that: ‘You come from royalty. And although the Spaniards who colonized the area saw the tribal leaders, called mekko, as chiefs, they’re actually kings, Coser said. His last name hails from the Coosa region, which was one of the biggest chiefdoms in the Southeast, straddling what is now Georgia and Alabama. Although Thanksgiving harks back to a tumultuous history for Indigenous people, Coser doesn’t let tragedy define his Muscogee (Creek), Choctaw and Chickasaw lineage, or the Mashpee Wampanoag ancestry his three sons and daughter also have from their mother’s side.