To offer a history of the Creek tribe from its discovery down to our
epoch to the readers does not lie within the scope of this volume, and
for want of sufficient documents illustrating the earlier periods it
could be presented in a fragmentary manner only. But a few notes on
the subject, especially on the Oglethorpe treaties, will be of
interest to the reader.
In the year following their departure from the West Indies (1540), the
troops led by H. de Soto traversed a portion of the Creek territory,
taken in its extent as known to us from the end of the eighteenth
century. De Soto's presence is proved by the mention of Creek tribes
bearing Creek names in the reports of his three chroniclers. The most
circumstantial report in topography is that of the Knight of Elvas. He
states that de Soto's army usually marched five to six leagues a day
in peopled countries, but when passing through deserted lands
proceeded faster. From Chiaha H. de Soto reached Coste in seven days.
From Tali, probably contiguous to Coste, he marched for six days,
through many towns, to Coça, arriving there July 26th, 1540. Leaving
this town after a stay of twenty-five days, he reached Tallimuchase on
the same day, Ytava on the next, and had to remain there six days, on
account of a freshet in the river. Having crossed the river he reached
Ullibahali town, fortified by a wooden wall, and on the next day
stopped at a town subject to the lord of Ullibahali, to reach Toasi
the day after. Then he traversed the Tallise "province," peopled with
many towns, and entered the great pueblo of Tallise on September 18th,
to stay there twenty days. Many other towns were visible on the
opposite side of the "maine river," on which Tallisi[125] stood. On
leaving this pueblo he reached Casiste on the same day, and Tuscalusa,
whose chief was lord of many territories, after another march of two
days. From there Piache, on a great river, was reached in two days,
and Mavila in three days from Piache. De Soto arrived in Mavila on
October 18th, and the whole distance from Coça to Tuscalusa is
computed by the Knight of Elvas at sixty leagues, the direction of the
route being from north to south. In this particular Biedma differs
from him.
[Footnote 125: Italisí, var. lect.]
The villages of Chiaha (Chisca, Ychiaha, China, var. lect.) and of
Coste (Costehe, Acostehe) provinces were fortified and stood on
river-islands. This latter circumstance makes it probable that they
lay on Tennessee river, and hence were held by Cheroki Indians. Tali
is either the Creek term tali _dry, exsiccated_, or the Cha'hta tali
_rock_. Coça, then in a flourishing condition, is the town of Kúsa.
Talli-muchasi, or "Newtown," near Coça, is clearly a Creek term, and
so is Ytava, Itáwa, which I take for the imperfectly articulated
itálua, _tribe_. Toasi is, I think, the town of Tawasa, which was one
of the Alibamu villages, q. v., and lay on the southern shore of the
Alabama river.
Tallisi is undoubtedly Talua-hássi, "old town," but which one of the
numerous settlements of this name it may have been is now impossible
to determine. Casiste resembles Kasí'hta, but cannot have been
Kasíχta on Chatahuchi river, for de Soto reached Tuskalusa or "Black
Warrior," which I take to be a town on the river of that name, within
two days from Casiste, traveling west.[126] Piache, if Creek, could
be api-údshi _little pole, small tree_. Garcilaso de la Vega states
that Tascalusa was on the same river (?) as Tallisi and below it. The
documents of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries frequently give
names of localities and tribes to the local chiefs, as was done here
in the case of Tascalusa, Mavila, Alimamu and others. Chíaha is a
Cheroki name, and is explained elsewhere as "place of otters." Some
modern critics believe that de Soto's army did not cross the mountains
into what is now North Carolina and Tennessee, the "over-hill" seats
of the Cheroki people, but only skirted the southern slope of the
Apalachian ridge by passing through Northern Georgia west into
Northern Alabama, and then descending Coosa river. In order to
determine de Soto's route in these parts, we have to decide first,
whether the days and directions of the compass noted by his
chroniclers deserve more credence than the local names transmitted in
cases when both form conflicting statements. The names of localities
could not be pure inventions; they prove by themselves, that tribes
speaking Creek or Maskoki proper were encountered by the adventurous
leader in the same tracts where we find them at the beginning of this
nineteenth century. It follows from this that the Creek immigration
from the west or northwest, if such an event ever occurred within the
last two thousand years, must have preceded the time of de Soto's
visit by a long lapse of time. Thus the terms itálua, talófa, talássi
belong to the Creek dialect only; had H. de Soto been in a country
speaking a Hitchiti dialect, he would have heard, instead of these,
the term ókli, and instead of tálua mútchasi: ókli himáshi.[127]
[Footnote 126: For Casiste compare Kósisti, a term appearing in
Creek war-titles; its signification is unknown.]
[Footnote 127: When stopping at Ullibahali, he was in the
country of the Alibamu, for óla, úla is the term for _town_ in
their dialect. Cf. p. 85 (Note).]
In 1559 another Spanish leader, Tristan de Luna, disembarked in or
near Mobile bay, then went north in quest of gold and treasure,
reached Nanipacna, or "pueblo Santa Cruz de Nanipacna," and from there
arrived, after experiencing many privations and trials, among the
Coças, who were then engaged in warfare with the Napochies
(naⁿpissa? cf. Chicasa). He made a treaty of alliance with the
Coças, and deemed it prudent to return. The distance from Coça to
Nanipacna was twelve days, from there to the harbor three days'
march.[128]
[Footnote 128: Cf. Barcia, Ensayo, p. 37. The report is almost
entirely devoid of local names, which alone could give
indications upon the route traveled over.]
In 1567 Captain Juan del Pardo set out from St. Helena, near
Charleston Harbor, S. C., on an exploration tour with a small
detachment, following partly the same aboriginal trail which had
guided de Soto through the wastes of Georgia and the Cheroki country.
On leaving the banks of the Tennessee river, he turned south, touching
Kossa, a sort of a capital (evidently Kúsa), then Tasqui, Tasquiqui
and Olitifar. These are the only names of places mentioned by his
chronicler, Juan de la Vandera (1569), which refer to the Creek
country. Tasquiqui cannot be anything else but Taskígi, near the
junction of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers.
From the beginning of the eighteenth century the French, Spanish and
British _colonists_ endeavored to win over the tribes of the
confederacy to their interests. The Spaniards established in Northern
Florida paid honors to the "emperor of the Cowetas," therewith hoping
to influence all the Lower and Upper Creeks, and in 1710 received
Kawíta delegates with distinction at St. Augustine. After the conflict
with the Spaniards the British established Fort Moore for trading
purposes among the Lower Creeks. In 1713 chiefs of the Alibamu,
Koassáti and other tribes visited the French colony at Mobile, entered
into friendly relations, invited them to construct Fort Alibamu, also
called Fort Toulouse, near Odshi-apófa, q. v., and were helpful in
erecting it. The French entertained a small garrison and a trader's
post there, and subsequently the fort was called Fort Jackson.
The first British _treaty_ with the Creeks was concluded by James
Oglethorpe, Governor of the Carolinas. He set out May 14th, 1733, from
Charleston, his residence, and on May 18th met in council the
representatives of the Lower Creek tribes at Savannah. During the
meeting many facts of interest were elicited. The Creeks then claimed
the territory extending from the Savannah river to the Flint river,
and south to St. Augustine, stating that their former number of ten
tribes had been reduced to eight. Wikatchámpa, the Okóni míko,
proclaimed that his tribe would peaceably cede to the British all
lands not needed by themselves. The Yamacraw chief Tomochichi, then
banished from one of the Lower Creek towns, spoke in favor of making a
treaty with the foreigners, and Yahóla `láko, míko of Kawíta, allowed
Tomochichi and his relatives "to call the kindred, that love them, out
of each of the Creek towns, that they may come together and make one
town. We must pray you to recall the Yamasees, that they may be buried
in peace among their ancestors, and that they may see their graves
before they die; and our own nation (of the Lower Creeks) shall be
restored again to its ten towns." The treaty of land-cession, commerce
and alliance was signed May 21st, and ratified by the trustees of the
colony of Georgia, October 18th, 1733. It stipulated a cession of the
lands between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers, and of some islands on
the Atlantic coast, to the British; it further stipulated promises to
enter into a commercial treaty at a later date, to place themselves
under the general government of Great Britain, to live in peace with
the colonies, to capture runaway slaves and deliver them at
Charleston, Savannah or Palachukla garrison for a consideration. The
treaty was confirmed by pledges on the side of the Creeks, which
consisted in a bundle of buckskins for each town, whereas the English
made presents of arms, garments, etc., in return. The Indians
expressed a desire of receiving instruction through teachers, and the
success obtained in concluding this first treaty was mainly
attributed to the influence of Tomochichi upon his fellow-countrymen.
The eight tribes represented were Kawíta, Kasíχta, Ósutchi, Chíaha,
Hítchiti, Apalatchúkla, Okóni, Yufála. The "two lost towns" were
certainly not those of the Sáwokli and Yuchi, although these do not
figure in the list. Only one of the headmen signing the treaty of 1733
figures in the prooemium of our legend (written in 1735): "Tomaumi,
head warrior of Yufála, with three warriors;" he is identical with
Tamókmi, war captain of the Eufantees (in 1735). Chekilli is not
mentioned.
The above treaty is printed in: Political State of Great Britain, vol.
46, p. 237 sqq; extract in C. C. Jones, Tomochichi, pp. 27-37.
Although encouraged by this first successful meeting with the Creeks,
the colonists knew so well the fickleness of the Indian character that
they were distrustful of the steadiness of their promises, and thus
sought to renew the friendly relations with them as often as possible.
A convention was arranged with the chiefs of the Lower Creeks at
Savannah in 1735, during which the legend of the Kasiχta migration
was delivered, but it does not appear whether any new treaty
stipulations were mooted or not at that meeting.
Just after his return from England, Governor Oglethorpe again came to
Savannah on October 13th, 1738, to meet in council the míkos of
Chíaha, Okmúlgi, Ótchisi and Apalatchúkla, who were accompanied by
thirty warriors and fifty-two attendants. They assured him of their
firm and continued attachment to the crown, and notified him that
deputies of the remaining towns would come down to see him, and that
one thousand warriors of theirs were at his disposal. They also
requested that brass weights and sealed measures should be deposited
with the míkos of each town, to preclude the traders settled among
them from cheating.
On the 17th of July, 1739, Oglethorpe with a large retinue started to
meet the Creeks in their own country, at Kawíta. He traveled up
Savannah river to the Yuchi town, twenty-five miles above Ebenezer,
then followed the inland trail, for two hundred miles, without meeting
any Indians. The council lasted from August 11th to 21st, and
terminated in a treaty, by which the towns renewed their "fealty" to
the king of Great Britain, and confirmed their cessions of territory,
while Oglethorpe engaged that the British should not encroach upon
their reserved lands, and that their traders should deal fairly and
honestly with the Indians. The towns on Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers
participated in the treaty.[129]
[Footnote 129: Cf. C. C. Jones, Tomochichi, pp. 113-119.]
It may be regarded as a consequence of this compact, that Creek
warriors joined the British as auxiliaries in the expedition against
St. Augustine in 1742.
Important and detailed information on the relations of the Creeks and
all other Southern tribes with the British and French settlers of
colonial times may be found in the documents preserved at the State
Paper Office, London. The contents of such papers as relate more
especially to South Carolina are hinted at in numerous abstracts of
them given in a catalogue in _Collections of South Carolina Historical
Society_, Vols. I, II, Charleston, 8vo (Vol. II published in 1858);
cf. II, 272. 297-298. 315-317. 322, etc. Compare also W. de Brahm's
writings, mentioned in: Appendices.
An incomplete and unsatisfactory, though curious list of the elements
then (1771) composing the Maskoki confederacy and of its _western
allies_ is contained in B. Romans, East and West Florida (p. 90). The
passage first alludes to the Seminoles as allies, and then continues:
"They are a mixture of the remains of the Cawittas, Talepoosas,
Coosas, Apalachias, Conshacs or Coosades, Oakmulgis, Oconis, Okchoys,
Alibamons, Natchez, Weetumkus, Pakanas, Taënsas, Chacsihoomas, Abékas
and some other tribes whose names I do not recollect."
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.
[Footnote 130: John Haywood, the Natural and Aboriginal History
of Tennessee (up to 1768). Nashville, 1823.]
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.