A few notes on the war-customs of the Creeks, which resembled those of
most Southern tribes, may be useful for shedding light on the early
migrations of the people and upon the tactics observed in their
campaigns.
The principal motive for Indian wars being the conquest of scalps,
slaves, plunder and hunting grounds, the Creeks, conscious of their
great power, were not very particular in finding causes for warfare,
and did not even advance specious reasons for declaring war. Thus,
Adair gives as the true cause of a long war between the Creeks and
Cheroki, the killing and scalping of two Chicasa hunters by a Shawano
"brave." This man took refuge among the Cheroki people, and war was
declared to them by the Creeks, because they then had concluded a war
alliance with the Chicasa (History, p. 278).
It is rather improbable that a declaration of war always preceded the
attack, for the advance into the hostile territory was made
clandestinely[103]; but the resolution of starting upon the warpath
was heralded in the towns with great ceremonies. Of these we shall
speak under the heading: Confederacy.
[Footnote 103: The Timucua of Florida declared war by sticking
up arrows in the ground around the town or camp of the enemy on
the evening before the attack (René de Laudonnière, "Histoire
Notable").]
The Creeks of old were in the habit of carrying on their warfare
chiefly in small bodies, like other Indian tribes. Small commands are
better enabled to surprise the enemy or his camps in clandestine or
night attacks, or to cut off hostile warriors, than large ones. There
are instances that the Creeks formed war-parties of four men only.
Their leader was then styled imísi, immíssi or "the one carrying it
for them," this term referring to the battle-charm or war-physic.
War-parties of forty to sixty men are mentioned also.
When warriors started for the "field of honor" in larger or smaller
bodies, they were led by a commander (pakā′dsha) who
simultaneously was an ahopáya or hopáya, "_charmer at a distance_."
Men of this order had, like other warriors, to undergo, while quite
young, a severe course of initiation into manhood, which also
comprised instructions in herb-physicking. To become initiated they
camped away from other people, and had for their only companion the
old conjuror, who for four months initiated them and taught them the
incantations intended to act as charms upon the enemy. To begin with,
a fast of either four or eight days and the eating of certain bitter
weeds was prescribed, to purify the system and to prepare the youth
for a ready comprehension of the objects of tuition. The whole process
was sometimes repeated for another four months, in the spring of the
year following, and differed in every town. The knowledge thus
acquired, it was believed, imparted to the person a full conjuring
power and charmer's influence over the antagonist, and enabled him to
conquer the hostile warriors at a distance (hupá-i) and before
reaching them, or to make them come near enough for easy capture.
When the Great Warrior started on the warpath he gave notice to the
participants where he would strike camp that night, and then set out,
sometimes with one or two men only. A war-whoop and the discharge of
his gun were the signals of his departure, and were responded to by
his followers by acting in the same manner. The other warriors took
their time, and went to rejoin him one or two days after. A man taking
part in a war-expedition was called hú`li-á`la.
A war party always proceeded in Indian file, each man stepping into
the footprints of the foregoing, to prevent the enemy from knowing
their number. This explains also the episode of the legend referring
to the tracks lost in the bottom of the river, q. v.[104] The tracks,
footprints, strokes of hatchets visible on the bark of trees, etc.,
differed in every American tribe. Among the Creeks the last man in the
file often sought to cover the tracks by placing grass upon them. A
considerable force of scouts hovered around the marching file, to
prevent surprises; the leader marched at the head of the file.
[Footnote 104: Milfort, Mém., p. 217. 218. Walking through
watercourses necessarily destroyed all vestiges of a marching
body of warriors.]
The attack was made in true Indian and savage fashion, before
daybreak. The warriors crept up as silently as possible, tried to dart
their missiles from secret spots, and never exposed their bodies to
the enemy when they could cover them by some eminence or rock, tree or
bush. The leader took a position in the rear. The Chicasa Indians
continually taunted the colonial troops upon the fearless but useless
exposure of their men to the battle-fire of the wary Indian braves.
Milfort relates that his men fought nude, because they had noticed
that the fragments of clothing entering the body with the point of the
missile rendered the wound much more dangerous than the missile
itself.
When making prisoners the Creeks habitually spared only the lives of
children, killing mercilessly the adult males and females. They even
burnt many of them at the stake, and Milfort claims that this barbaric
custom was abandoned only through his influence (Mém., pp. 219-220).
The food on which they subsisted, on their expeditions, was pounded
maize, contained in a small bag, which they carried upon their bodies.
The encampments for the night (hápu) were round-shaped, every man
lying in contiguity to another in a circle, and leaving only a small
issue, which was guarded by the commander. After the commander's
signal no one was allowed to move from his place. The same order was
observed when the army halted during the day, and the same arrangement
is conspicuous in the campings of the Southern Dakota tribes, as Iowa,
Ponka, Ugáχpa, etc.
A graphic description of southern war-camps is found in B. Romans,
Florida, p. 65: "A Choctaw war-camp is circular, with a fire in the
centre, and each man has a crutched branch at his head to hang his
powder and shot upon and to set his gun against, and the feet of all
to the fire; a Cherokee war-camp is a long line of fire, against which
they also lay their feet. A Choctaw makes his camp, in traveling, in
form of a sugar loaf; a Chicasa makes it in form of our arbours; a
Creek like to our sheds or piazzas, to a timber-house." The Creek
war-camps in the woods were constructed in such a manner that the
exact number of the party could at once be ascertained.[105]
[Footnote 105: Swan, in Schoolcraft V, 280.]
After their return the warriors placed the scalps in the public
square, or divided them among their acquaintances. Anciently the
privilege of raising the scalp-pole (itu tcháti) belonged to two
tribes only, the Kasíχta and the Kawíta.[106] The cause for this is
shown in our half-mythic migration legend. The tradition that the
custom of scalping was but recently imported among the Creeks from the
Northern Indians was manufactured for a purpose, and invented by many
other tribes also, to appear more human in the eyes of the white
settlers. Scalping and the drying of scalps had been observed in
Florida as early as 1564 by René de Laudonnière.
[Footnote 106: Cf. Hu`li-Wá'hli, and the _name_ of this town.]