A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. 1 / With a Linguistic, Historic and Ethnographic Introduction

by Albert S. Gatschet

An interesting point in early Creek history is the settlement of Cheroki Indians in Georgia, and their removal from there through the irruption of the Creeks. W. Bartram, Travels, p. 518, in describing the mounds of the country, states "that the region lying between Savanna river and Oakmulge, east and west, and from the sea coast (of the Atlantic) to the Cherokee or Apalachean mountains (filled with these mounds) was possessed by the Cherokees since the arrival of the Europeans; but they were afterwards dispossessed by the Muscogulges, and all that country was probably, many ages preceding the Cherokee invasion, inhabited by one nation or confederacy (unknown to the Cherokees, Creeks) ... etc." In another passage he gives a tradition of the Creeks, according to which an ancient town once built on the east bank of the Okmúlgi, near the old trading road, was their first settlement in these parts after their emigration from the west.

The topographic names from the Cheroki language throughout Georgia testify strongly to the presence of Cheroki Indians in these countries. The tracts on the Okóni and Okmúlgi are nearer to the seats of the Élati Cheroki than the Creek settlements on Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, where Cheroki local names occur also.

The legend reported by C. Swan (Schoolcraft V, 259) that the Creeks migrated from the northwest to the Seminole country, then back to Okmúlgi, Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers, deserves no credit, or applies to small bodies of Indians only.

From an ancient tradition John Haywood[130] relates the fact (pp. 237-241) that when the Cheroki Indians first settled in Tennessee, they found no other red people living on Tennessee river, except a large body of Creeks near the influx of Hiwassee river (and some Shawanese on Cumberland river). They had settled "at the island on the Creek path," meaning a ford of the Great Tennessee river, also called "the Creek crossing," near the Alabama State border. At first they lived at peace with them, but subsequently attacked them, to drive them out of the country. By stratagem they drew them from their island, with all the canoes in their possession, to a place where others lay in ambush for them, engaged them in battle, took away their canoes to pass over to the island, and destroyed there all the property of the tribe. The enfeebled Creeks then left the country and went to the Coosa river.

The Broad river, a western affluent of Savannah river, formed for many years the boundary between the Cheroki and the eastern Creeks. It figures as such in Mouson's map of 1773.

The Creeks remained under the influence of the British government until after the American Revolutionary war, and in many conflicts showed their hostility to the thirteen states struggling for independence. Thus they acted in the British interest when they made a night attack on General Wayne's army, in 1782, led by Guristersigo, near the Savannah river. An attack on Buchanan's station was made by Creek and Cheroki warriors near Nashville, Tenn., in 1792. Treaties were concluded with them by the United States at New York, August 7th, 1790, and at Coleraine, Georgia, June 29th, 1796. An article of these stipulated the return of captured whites, and of negro slaves and property to their owners in Georgia. Trading and military posts were established among them, and an agent of the Government began to reside in one of their towns. Further cessions of Creek lands are recorded for 1802 and 1805.

Instigated by the impassionate speeches of Tecumseh, the Sháwano leader, the Upper Creeks, assisted by a few Yuchi and Sáwokli Indians, revolted in 1813 and massacred the American garrison at Fort Mimms, near Mobile bay, Alabama, on August 30th of that year. General A. Jackson's army subdued the revolt, after many bloody victories, in the battle of the Horse-Shoe Bend, and by taking Pensacola, the seaport from which the Spaniards had supplied the insurrection with arms. A peace treaty was concluded on August 9th, 1814, embodying the cession of the Creek lands west of Coosa river. Surrounded as they were by white settlements on all sides, this revolt, known also as the Red Stick War, was the last consequential sign of reaction of the aboriginal Creek mind against civilizing influences.

Previous to the departure from their lands in the Gulf States to the Indian Territory (1836-1840), scattering bands of the Creeks joined the Seminoles in 1836, while others took arms against the United States to attack the border settlements and villages in Georgia and Alabama. These were soon annihilated by General Scott. The treaty of cession is dated April 4th, 1832, and the lands then granted to them in their new homes embraced an area of seven millions of acres. On October 11th, 1832, the Apalachicola tribe renewed a prior agreement to remove to the west of Mississippi river, and to surrender their inherited lands at the mouth of the Apalachicola river. Only 744 Creeks remained east of the Mississippi river.

At the outbreak of the Secession war, in 1861, the Creeks separated into two hostile parties. Chief Hopó`li yahóla with about 8000 Creeks adhered firmly to the Union cause, and at the head of about 800 of his warriors, aided by auxiliary troops, he defeated the Confederate party in one engagement; but in a second action he was defeated, and with his followers fled into Kansas. Both rencontres took place in the territory of the Cheroki Indians, in November and December, 1861.

The statistic dates of the Creek population given before B. Hawkins' time are mere estimates. In 1732 Governor Oglethorpe reported 1300 warriors in eight towns of the Lower Creeks (Schoolcraft V, 263. 278), and in 1791 all the Creek "gun-men" were estimated to number between 5000 and 6000; the same number is given for these in the census of 1832 (Schoolcraft V, 262 sqq.; VI, 333), living in fifty-two towns, the whole population being between 25,000 and 30,000. In the same year the Cha'hta population was conjectured to amount to 18,000 (Schoolcraft VI, 479). The Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1881 gives a Creek population of 15,000, settled upon 3,215,495 acres of land; one half of these are tillable, but only 80,000 acres were cultivated during that year by these Indians.