Digital Alabama (/article/alabama-native-american-tribes/creek-indian-trobe/page/2)
The US policy of discrimination against Native Americans was made official with the Indian Removal Act of 1830. It was the first time the United States government resorted to coercion, mostly in the cases of two tribes, The Cherokee and the Seminole, as means of securing compliance. The Removal Act was not in itself coercive, since it would only allow the president to negotiate with tribes that were long the East side of the Mississippi on a basis of payment for their lands. It called for improvements in the East and more land West of the Mississippi River. In carrying out the law, resistance was met with military force.
When Alabama was first established as part of the Mississippi Territory in the early nineteenth century, the vast majority of the land belonged to the Creek Indian Confederacy, and most of the Native American towns in Alabama were inhabited by the Creeks. These towns were significant political and tribal centers, but they were much more important as places of personal identity for the Native Americans who were born in them.
The Creek Nation was divided among the group known as the Upper Creeks, who occupied territory along the Coosa, Alabama, and Tallapoosa rivers in central Alabama, and the Lower Creeks, who occupied the areas along the lower Chattahoochee, Ocmulgee, and Flint rivers in southwestern Georgia.
Both groups resided in those areas from the early seventeenth century until the Indian removal era of the 1830s.
Creek Indian towns and settlement patterns were recorded in the accounts of travelers who visited them. Some early writers, such as James Adair, David Taitt, William Bartram, and Benjamin Hawkins, provided detailed accounts of what they witnessed when traveling through Creek territory.
The US policy of discrimination against Native Americans was made official with the Indian Removal Act of 1830. It was the first time the United States government resorted to coercion, mostly in the cases of two tribes, The Cherokee and the Seminole, as means of securing compliance. The Removal Act was not in itself coercive, since it would only allow the president to negotiate with tribes that were along the East side of the Mississippi on a basis of payment for their lands. It called for improvements in the East and more land west of the Mississippi River. In carrying out the law, resistance was met with military force.
Despite the fact that they were able political and economic partners of the colonial and early U.S. government, the Creeks suffered the same fate as their fellow southeastern tribes, and many of them were forced from their lands in the 1830s. Creek culture is kept alive in Alabama among the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, based in Escambia County.
On August 21, 1793, he and his party murdered a Mrs. Baker, a widow, and all her family except a daughter, named Elizabeth. They brought her to Coosada, where she was forced to be an eye-witness of the dance around the scalps of her family.
He was chief of the Atossees, and commanded the hostile Creeks at the battle of Burnt Corn, fought March 27, 1813. It is not known in what other battles he was engaged during the war. After its close, he settled near Polecat Spring, and there built a little town called Thlopthlocco.
Gun Merchant was one of the four great medal chiefs of the Upper Creeks created at the Congress in Pensacola in June 1765. This chief of Okchaiyi first came into prominence after the massacre of the traders.
His native name has been written with a variety of spellings in English: Hilis, Hildis, and Hidlis. His last name is found as Hadgo, Hadsho, and Haya. There are also combined forms found, such as Hillishago and Hillishager. “The English always referred to him as Hidlis Hadjo.” In a letter, Andrew Jackson called him “Hillishageer”.
One of the great medal chiefs, the speaker of the Nation at the National Council
Míko or Micco (Tustenuggee = chief leader) Tukabatchi Míko of the Upper Creeks
Chief of Creek Indian Nation
Big Warrior was not of full Muscogee blood, but was a descendant of a Piankashaw Indian, and he made no little boast of this northern Indian blood. His first recorded appearance in public life was at the treaty of Coleraine in June, 1796.
Timpoochee Barnard was the chief of the Yuchi Indians, a constituent tribe of the Creek Nation, and served as a member of the Creek National Council. His father was Timothy Barnard, a well-known and highly respected trader to the Creek Nation who also served as interpreter for U. S. agent Benjamin Hawkins.
CAPTAIN ELICK
Creek Chief. The few general facts of the early life of this Lower Creek chief, as given by himself, are that he had lived so long among the white people that he looked upon himself as much a white as a red man; that the white people had given him the name he bore, Captain Aleck, and that he had always lived in friendship with the English. Apart from these statements, an evidence of Captain Aleck’s association with white people is the letter A, the first letter of Aleck, which he adopted as his mark in signing his name. That Captain Aleck had always been a true friend of the English is borne out by all the recorded facts extant of his history. He showed his loyalty by his actions.
U.S. and Cherokee troops under Brigadier General James White, following the orders of Major General John Hartwell Cocke, massacred the Hillabee Creek towns along the Tallapoosa River in present-day Cherokee County, AL.
Indian Villages in Alabama
ALABAMA INDIAN VILLAGES, TOWNS AND SETTLEMENTS INDEX PAGE
Alabama has been the home of indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Over 100 Indian villages and towns have been identified and research leads to believe there are many more not yet identified. Our research is ongoing therefore you must consider there is much more to do and take into consideration that our information is incomplete and may contain errors. Research of historical documents is our primary source of information. Much of the information is followed-up with boots-on-the-ground research – but not all.
Barbour County is a county Alabama. As of the 2010 census, the population was 27,457. Its county seat is Clayton Alabama. Its name is in honor of James Barbour, who served as Governor of Virginia.
The Abihka were the remnants of the 16th century “Chiefdom of Coosa.” A remnant of the Natchez people settled with the Abihka after being dispersed by the French in the 18th century.