The Creek Nation was a Native American tribe residing in what is today Georgia and Alabama. They were divided into two groups: The Upper Creek, who lived further from the European Americans; and the Lower Creek, who, living closer to the English settlements, more readily adopted European-American ideas and practices. In the years before the French and Indian War (1754-63), the Creek raided their neighbors to capture prisoners to sell at the slave markets in Charleston. During the war itself, they stayed neutral, though many Creek leaders favored the French. They felt little pressure from either the French or the English colonies until after 1763, when Georgia experienced an explosion of its nonnative population. Although affected by disease and warfare, they sustained themselves before the Revolutionary War (1775-83) by playing off the rivalries between Great Britain, France, and Spain. After 1783 they continued this delicate diplomatic dance with the United States added to the mix.

Although the Creek had only limited involvement in the Revolutionary War, independence for the United States marked an important watershed in their history. Alexander McGillivray, who had a Creek mother and a Scottish father, became an important figure in tribal politics and led a pro-British faction that did some damage to the Revolutionaries. John Stuart, a capable agent for the Crown, also convinced some of the Creek to support the British cause. After the war, the Creek started to drive away European Americans who had illegally settled on Creek lands; the Spanish in Florida helped them in their efforts. However, once the United States established an effective central government, the state of Georgia could draw on the resources of the entire nation to fight the Creek. The federal government opened trading posts to encourage the tribe to adopt European-American style farming and culture, which succeeded with the Lower Creek but not with the Upper Creek. A national council replaced the old system of clan government about 1800.

The situation became more tense in the first decade of the 19th century, when the United States built a road through Creek territory, to which many of the tribe objected. When government agents said it was to be used by the army, the Creek responded by saying that it would also bring European Americans into the region, a prediction that proved to be correct. Settlers streamed into Georgia and the Mississippi Territory, demanding more land, and several times the Creek ceded parts of their hunting grounds. By the time the great Shawnee leader Tecumseh visited the Creek in October 1811, many were ready to listen to him. Tecumseh called for a confederation of native peoples to stand against the United States, but the Lower Creek wanted to avoid conflict. In part, their position reflected the fact that much of the Lower Creek leadership were of mixed European-American and Native American ancestry and had adopted much of the European-American culture, though the accommodationists also believed that confronting the United States would bring certain defeat and even more cessions of land. The Upper Creek, however, wanted to assert traditional Creek culture and eagerly responded to the nativist message. This anti-U.S. group came to be known as the Red Sticks.

This division soon broke out into a civil war between the two Creek factions and then into a conflict with the United States known as the Creek War (1813-14). In turn, the Creek War became part of the larger War of 1812 (1812-15). The Treaty of Fort Jackson (1814) ended the Creek War and forced cessations of land from both the Upper Creek and the Lower Creek, even though the latter had fought for the United States. Andrew Jackson said this cession was to cut the Creek off from the Gulf of Mexico to prevent the Spanish or British from helping them in the future. Within a few decades, however, almost all the Creek lands had been seized, and the United States began to move all the Creek west of the Mississippi, a removal to which they finally agreed in the 1830s.

Bibliography:

1) Andrew K. Frank, Creeks and Southerners: Biculturalism on the Early American Frontier (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005)

2) Michael Green, The Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982)

3) Steven C. Hahn, The Invention of the Creek Nation, 1670-1776 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004).

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