Creek confederacy and a sketch of the Creek country

Introduction

The Georgia Historical Society having, for some years* been in possession of several manuscript volumes of the late Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, the earliest agent of the United States for Indian Affairs, their examination and publication by the Society, became an object of interest* Accordingly, they were referred to a committee, whose report attested their value, as materials for the early history of Georgia, and especially for that of the confederacy of the Creek or Muscogee Indians, who formerly owned and swayed, the southwestern portion of the State. That report recommended the immediate publication of one of these manuscripts, which the author has called " A Sketch of the Creek Country in the years 1798 and 1799." As a member of the Society, I proposed to superintend this publication, and to defray its expense, as the resources of the Society were already anticipated by the erection of a Library and Historical Hall. The Society did me the honor to accept my proposition.

The Georgia Historical Society has now been in existence for nine years. During that period, it has published two volumes of Collections and Transactions, and the present publication will constitute the first part of the third volume.

The introduction to the first volume, thus alludes to these manuscripts of Mr. Hawkins : " In relation to the department of Indian history, a department so interesting in itself, and so intimately blended with the early settlement of this State, the Society has obtained some very rare and valuable manuscripts, which contain long and minute accounts of the manners and customs of the Indians ; proceedings of Indian agents ; treaties with various tribes ; all greatly augmenting the materials of aboriginal history."

4 Introduction.

The eio-ht volumes of manuscripts, in possession of the Society, attest the industry and enlightened zeal of the author. He has preserved and transmitted to us, his talks and treaties, made with various Indian tribes ; his correspondence with the General Government and with State authorities ; vocabularies of aboriginal languages, and invaluable records of the manners, customs, rites and civil polity of the tribes.

It is reported, that many valuable papers of Mr. Hawkins have been irreparably lost to the world, by the burning of his residence in the Creek country. The present manuscripts, it is supposed, have been preserved by their having been submitted to the Governor of the State, at Milledgeville, for his perusal. Colonel Hawkins was still living in the year 1825. In that year, these volumes were in Savannah, under the charge of Mr. Joseph Bevan, who had been appointed by the General Assembly "to collect, arrange and publish, all papers relating to the original settlement or political history of the State." I learn this fact from a published report of his, made to Governor Troup. At the decease of Mr. Bevan, they were probably returned to the executive department at Milledgeville. At the institution of the Historical Society, a fortunate accident brought these valuable papers to the knowledge of J. K. Tefft, Esq., the corresponding secretary of the Society, and the actual cashier of the Bank of the State of Georgia, at Savannah. At his pressing instance, in favor of the Society, they were solicited and obtained, for the Society's library.

It is a singular fact, unparalleled in this age of printing, that there are five copies existing, of this " Sketch of the Creek Country." The most plausible motive for this curious multiplication of written copies, was the desire of speculators in Indian lands, to learn the topography, resources and character of the Creek country.

In this publication I have used the original manuscript of Mr. Hawkins, which has been attested by Mr. TefTt, who has a wide reputation for his collection of autographs, and for his admirable taste in that department of aesthetics. The writing and condition of the volume, give evidence of its having been written as early as the year 1800.

Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, was for more than thirty years, employed by the Government of the United States, in its intercourse with Indian tribes. The influence which he obtained and exercised among these tribes, is forcibly stated by Mr. Gallatin: " Mr. Hawkins, under the modest name of ' Beloved Man of the Four Nations^ did govern, or, at least, exercise during his life, a considerable influence over the Creeks, Choctaws, and even the Chicasaws and Cherokees." A legitimate curiosity prompts me to trace the public career of a man, who, on the highest authority, rendered efficient and valuable services to his country, for a long series of years.

The first official notice of Mr. Hawkins, presents him as joint commissioner with Andrew Pickens, Joseph Martin, and Lachlan Mcintosh, to negotiate with the Creek Indians, in the year 1785. They concluded the treaty of Galphinton. In the same year, the treaty of Hopewell was concluded with the Cherokees. By the treaty of New York, in 1790, the Creek Indians placed themselves under the protection of the United States, and of no other Power. By the treaty of Galphinton, they had acknowledged themselves to be within the limits of Georgia, and members of the same. These two inconsistent states of political relationship, and which are the origin of all subsequent controversies between the State of Georgia and the Indian tribes, led to the appointment, by General Washington, of three commissioners to treat with the Creek confederacy. Accordingly, he nominated to the Senate, in June, 1795, Benjamin Hawkins, of North Carolina, George Clymer, of Pennsylvania, and Andrew Pickens, of South Carolina, as commissioners for that object.

Mr. Hawkins was at this time, a Senator of the United States, from North Carolina.

In the year 1801, he was appointed by Mr. Jefferson, " principal agent for Indian affairs south of the Ohio," and as joint commissioner with General Wilkinson and Andrew Pickens, he negotiated treaties with the Chicasaws, Choctaws and Natchez.

From that period, he remained as agent of the United States among the Creek Indians, till the year 1816, when at his own request, as shown by his official letters, he was succeeded in that office, by David Brydie Mitchell, of Georgia. Colonel John Crowell succeeded this last agent ; and from a letter of complaint against Crowell, written to the War Department in 1825, by Mr. Hawkins, it appears that he was then living in the Creek nation. I have not been able to learn the time of Mr. Hawkins's decease.

From the several volumes of correspondence, official and private, of Colonel Hawkins, I have made some extracts which very forcibly pourtray the high qualities of his mind, for the government and control of unlettered, semi-civilized tribes. This demands sound judgment and inflexible justice. An apparent indifference towards the women of the tribes, who are the objects of great jealousy, is not an unimportant quality. I have been assured from high authority, that this was one of the sources of Mr. Hawkins's extraordinary influence. In another part cf the world, I have witnessed a like influence acquired by an agent of the United States, over a semi-civilized people. To their minds, it implies a moral superiority over other men, when accompanied by ordinary manly energies. It is a self-control, the more respected by such people, as it is the object of their chief indulgence, and of their liveliest jealousies.

Extract of a letter from Mr. Hawkins to a friend. Cussetuh, Nov. 25, 1797.

A few days ago, whilst I was sorely afflicted with rheumatism, so as not to be able to turn in my blanket, the arrival of the Queen of Tuckabatchee was announced to me. That town is sixty miles distant. I invited herself and her friends, to spend two or three days with me, which they did. Eariy one morning, she came to my bed side and sat down. I awoke, and she accosted me thus :

My visit is to you ; I am a widow ; I have a son so high ; (holding her hand three feet from the ground ;) I have a fine stock of cattle, and I wish them secured for my use and for my son. I know you are the Jsle-chatelige-osetat-chemis-te-chaugo, (the beloved man of the Four Nations,) and my relations are not careful of my interests. If you will take the direction of my affairs, the chiefs have told me you may settle my stock where you please, and it shall be safe. When you go to Tuckabatchee, you will have a home. Perhaps I am too old for you, but I'll do any thing I can for you. I shall be proud of you if you will take me. If you take a young girl into the house I shall not like it, but I will not say one word ; may be I can't love her, but I won't use her ill. I have brought some aus-ce (cassine yupon) for you. I want some clothes for my boy and for myself. You can give them to me, and make the traders take cattle for pay. If you direct them they won't cheat me. I was taken prisoner by the Chickasaws, with my boy, when he was so high (about two feet.) I ran off from them, and was seventeen days in the woods, getting to my nation. I had no provisions when I set out, and was like to perish. When you were in the upper towns last year, I went twice to see you, and dressed myself. You took me by the hand and asked me to sit down. I wanted to speak to you then, but I could not. I said then I would never have an Iste-chate (red man.)

I replied to her, you shall be gratified ; you may return home. I will have your cattle put out at a proper place, and I will take care of them and of your son. If you have any desire to call me cha-e-he, (my husband,) do so ! But you must not forget, I have not yet determined to set up in that capacity in either of the Four Nations. But you are at liberty, as you already have one child, and know the trade, to carry it on under my name, and to choose any assistant you may deem suitable. The children will be mine and I will take care of them and of you.

It is not customary among the Creeks to associate with the women ; and it is a curious fact, that there are white men in the nation who have been here five years, without ever entering an Indian house. I visit them, take them by the hand, talk kindly to them, and eat frequently with them. This day I had four Indian women to dine with me, with some chiefs and white men, a thing, they tell me, unknown before, to either of them. One thing I have noticed, in all I have conversed with, they have a great propensity to call every thing by its name. And, if the concurrent testimony of the white husbands may be relied on, the wcmen have much of the temper of the mule, except when they are amorous, and then they exhibit all the amiable and gentle qualities of the cat.

Extract of a letter to William Faulkner, Esq.

Cussetuh, November 25, 1797.

I am now, and have been in this town, which is on the Chattahoche, among the lower Creek towns, (an hundred and sixty miles from Fort Wilkinson, the residence of Colonel Gaither on the Ocenee,) for more than a month, and much engaged in the duties enjoined on me by my office. It is not necessary to detail to you the difficulties I have encountered daily, in adjusting with these people the differences in the way of a friendly intercourse between them and their neighbors. The men are bred in habits proudiy indolent and insolent ; accustomed to be courted, and to think that they conferred a favor when they were naked, by receiving clothes and comforts from the British agents ; and they will reluctantly and with great difficulty, be humbled to the level of rational life. 1 spend the day at their public places, in conversation ; or at my hut, where I entertain a number ; and the evenings I devote till midnight at the town house, to see their dancing and amusements, or at my hut, studying their language, or making arrangements to decide on disputed property, and adjusting the misunderstandings between the Four Nations. As business increased on me, I found my mind and exertions always ready to rise above it ; or as it would be better expressed, to be equal to my wishes, and even beyond my expectations. In this situation I had one visiter sorely afflictive, a severe attack in my left leg and foot of the gout or rheumatism, for eight or ten nights, sometimes not able to turn in my blankets, yet constantly crowded with visiters, and obliged to attend to the head men and warriors of twelve towns, invited to convene at Cowetuh, a neighboring town.

I have one faithful assistant in Mr. Barnard, one of the interpreters. The white and red men are much indebted to his constant, persevering and honest exertions to do justice to all applicants. It sometimes falls to the lot of one man, though apparently in the humble walks of life, to render more effectual service to his fellow creatures, than thousands of his neighbors. This has been the case with Mr. Barnard. He was a trader in this nation before the war, and remained in it during the whole progress of it, constantly opposing the cruel policy which pressed these people to war with the Americans, and urged their being neutral. He repeatedly risked his life and fortune in the cause of humanity, and he remains to witness that the purity of his actions has given him a standing among the red people, which could not be purchased with money.

I have, since I left you, seen much of the western country, witnessed the downfall of a character whom I highly valued, when I first had the pleasure of knowing you, and seen a check given, I hope an effectual one, to a base system for the destruction of the Four Nations by the E-cun-nau-nux-ulgee, (people greedily grasping after all their lands,) and I have the happiness to know, that I have contributed much to the establishment of the well grounded confidence which the Four Nations have in the justice of the United States ; and this confidence is so well grounded, that the malice or wickedness of the enemies of our Government cannot destroy it.

I may here introduce some of the appellations and epithets applied by the Creek Indians to white men, one of which is used in the foregoing letter.

JE-cun-nau-nux-ulgee : People greedily grasping after the lands of the red men, against the voice of the United States.

Tucke-mico: The Dirt King, applied to Governor Blount of Tennessee. The Cherokee name of this gentleman is 2

Dirt Captain ; and in both nations it arose from their opinion of his insatiate avidity to acquire Indian lands.

Chesse-cup-petun-ne : The Pumpkin Captain ; a name given to Captain Chisholm.

E-cun-nau-au-po-po-hau : Always asking for land. This name was given to Governor Clark of Georgia.

Iste-chate-lige-osetatc-chemis-te-chaugo : The beloved man of the Four Nations ; a name given to Colonel Hawkins.

Iste-chate : Red man.

Istc-hut-ke : White man.

Iste-semole : Wild man ; a Seminole.

Extract of a letter to James Burgess, Creek Interpreter. Cussetuh, November 27, 1797.

I have received your letter of the 14th of this month, in answer to mine of the 30th October. It is the first I have had from you. This letter you send me, I have read with attention ; and if you had not informed me you were sick, I should have supposed you were deranged in mind. Perhaps it is a delirium arising from sickness ; in that case it is a misfortune, not a fault. If I did not believe something of this sort really to affect you, I would let you know, that if you do not know your duty, I know mine.

Whoever heard of your being talked of about what was done at Coleraine ? Nobody but your own imngination ! You were only an interpreter, and I know the Indians never fault them, for doing their duty faithfully. I can tell you another thing. You overrate your standing, when you say the Indians blame you. The fact is they have not blamed }rou, and for a very obvious reason. The Indians do not surfer the white men in their land even to mention, much less to influence them in their treaties.

Another thing. Y^ou talk of Chulapockey, and the complaint of the Indians about it, and the trifle of goods ; that these things must be settled before I leave the land. What do you mean by this stuff? Do you not know the Chulapockey line was settled by Mr. Gillivray and the Indians who went to New York ? Don't you know that this nation appointed agents to go and run the line, and that

Bowles's* coming, prevented it ? Did you not hear the chiefs tell me this publicly at Coleraine ; and did you not know they told the truth ?

What do you mean when you say if the Indians suffer you must suffer 1 Have you not, as it was your duty to do, told them boldly and plainly, what all the interpreters at Coleraine were ordered to do, that the Indians have now nothing to fear. The United States have guarantied their country to them. Did you not hear the plan of government explained at Coleraine, to better the condition of the Indians ? And don't you know I am here to carry that plan into execution ? Don't you know the Indians took part with Great Britain against the United States, and did us much injury ; and that the retaliation on our part is to forgive them, because they were a poor, deluded people ; to enlighten their understandings and to better their condition, by assisting them with tools and implements of husbandry, and teaching them the use of them, by furnishing them with blacksmiths, and spinning wheels, cards, looms and weavers. Where have you been that you have forgotten these things ? Don't you know that we have placed an army, at great expense, to protect the Indians in the enjoyment of their rights, and that we established two stores, to supply the Indians at cost and charges ?

You want me to clear you. Of. what ? Can you clear yourself, if you have not explained these things faithfully to the Indians ? You cannot. You ask me to send you a certificate of what is done here, signed by two or three chiefs. What do you mean by this ? Must Iste-chatelige-osetat-chamis-te-chaugo have a certificate from three Indians ? You are surely dreaming.

One piece of information I can give you. The Indians have appointed seven commissioners to see the line run, agreeably to the treaty of New York, and it will be run just after the new year.

You must visit me about the 25th of next month, at the store on Oconee, there to explain your conduct, and receive you salary.

BENJAMIN HAWKINS.

* This man Bowles, was at one time a portrait painter in Savannah.

THE CREEK CONFEDERACY.

All tradition among the Creeks points to the countrywest of the Mississippi, as the original habitat of those tribes. This universal tradition is confirmed by Du Pratz, Bernard Romans, Adair, Bartram and Hawkins. Our author asserts their migration, on the authority of TusJseloiah Micco, from the forks of Red river, Wcchate-hatche Aufuskee. We may entirely defer to the result of Mr. Gallatin's investigation of this subject, as the most correct. His comprehensive research and powerful analysis, have presented to -the scientific world, all that can be known, perhaps, of that which is involved in the Cimmerian darkness of ante-historical periods. In the second volume of the " Archseologia Americana," he says : " In the year 1732, when Georgia was first settled, the territory of the Creek Confederacy, including at that time the Seminolcs, was bounded on the west by Mobile river, and by the ridge that separates the waters of the Tombigbee, from those of the Alabama ; on the north by the Cherokees, on the northeast by the Savannah, and on every other quarter by the Atlantic and the gulf of Mexico. It is believed, that at the end of the seventeenth century, the Creeks occupied south of the 34th degree of north latitude, the eastern as well as western banks of the Savannah.

" It is not possible to ascertain, when the Confederacy was consolidated to that extent. It now consists of several tribes, speaking different languages. The Muskhogees are the prevailing nation, amounting to more than seven-eights of the whole. The Hitchittees who reside on the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers, though a distinct tribe, speak a dialect of the Muskhogee. The Seminoles or Isty-Semole, (' wild men,') who inhabit the peninsula of Florida, are pure Muskhogees, who have gradually detached themselves from the confederacy, but who were still considered as members of it, till the United Stales treated with them as an independent nation. The name of Seminoles was given to them, on account of their being hunters, and attending but little to agriculture. A vocabulary is wanted, in order to prove conclusively, the identity of their language with the Muskhogee.

" There is some diversity in the accounts given by the Muskhogees of their origin. The chiefs of the delegation, who attended at Washington, in the year 1826, agreed, that the prevailing tradition among them was, that the nation had issued out of a cave near the Alabama river. The Hitchittees said, that their ancestors had fallen from the sky. These modes of speaking, common to several of the tribes, only show that they have lost the recollection of any ancient migration, and that they consider themselves as aborigines.

" The Utchees and the Natchez, who are both incorporated in the confederacy, speak two distinct languages, altogether different from the Muskhogee. The Natchez, a residue of the well known nation of that name, came from the banks of the Mississippi and joined the Creeks less than one hundred years ago. The original seats of the Uchees were east of the Coosa, and probably of the Chattahoochee, and they consider themselves the most ancient inhabitants of the country. It appears certain, that at the beginning of the eighteenth century, they were, at least in part, seated on the western banks of the Savannah. It has already been seen, that in 1736, they claimed the country above and below Augusta. In the year 1715, was that of the signal defeat of the Yamassees (in South Carolina.) The Yamassees were driven across the river, (Savannah,) and it is probable that the Uchees were amongst their auxiliaries, and that weakened by this defeat, they found it safer to remove to a greater distance from the English settlements, towards Flint river," (and Florida.)

" These five languages, the Muskhogee, the Hitchittee, Uchee, Natchez and the Alabama or Coosada, are, it is believed, the only one spoken by the different tribes of the Creek confederacy. '1 he Uchee is the most guttural, uncouth, and difficult to express with our alphabet and orthography, of any of the Indian languages within our knowledge.

" Although partial and transient collisions with the Creeks, occurred subsequently to the settlement of Georgia, no actual war with them took place for near fifty years. They took an active part in that of the Revolution, against the Americans, and continued their hostilities till the treaty concluded at Philadelphia, in 1795. They then remained at peace eighteen years ; but at the beginning of the last war with Great Britain, a considerable portion of the nation, excited, it is said, by Tecumseh, and probably receiving encouragement from other quarters, took arms, without the slightest provocation, and at first committed great ravages. They received a severe chastisement; and the decisive victories of General Jackson, at that time and some years later, over the Seminoles, who had renewed the war, have not only secured a permanent peace with the southern nations, but have placed them all under the absolute control of the United States. The Creeks and Seminoles, after some struggles among themselves, have ceded the whole of their territory, and accepted in exchange, other lands beyond the Mississippi."

Such is the succinct, but comprehensive account of the Creek C onfederacy, by Mr. Gallatin. Bernard Romans, who wrote his book in 1770, says that, " this confederacy, of remnants of tribes, are very cunning fellows. They are a mixture of Cowittas, Talepoosas, Corsas, Apalachias, Conshaes or Coosadas, Oakmulgees, Oconees, Okchoys, Alibamons, Natchez, Wetumkas, Pakanas, Taensas, f hacsihomas, Abekas, and other tribes." Classifying these numerous tribes by the science of philology, they must be reduced to the number of five, as Mr. Gallatin has shown.

They are jealous, says Romans, of their lands, and endeavor to enlarge their territories by conquest, and claiming large tracts from the Cherokees and Choctavvs. They have foiced these two tribes into alliance, and they wish to unite all tribes and languages under one general confederation or commonwealth. As an instance of their jealous policy, it may be related, that in 1764, Messrs. Rea and Galphin, having contracted to supply Pensacola With beef, the Creeks would not allow any other cattle than oxen to pass through their territory.

To my mind, it is evident, that the whole Atlantic coast, from the Mississippi to the country of the Six Nations, in the north, has for centuries past been the theatre of constant revolutions among the aborigines of the soil. Wars, conquests, subjugations, extinctions and productions of new races, migrations and new settlements, I do not doubt, have marked the life of western as well as of eastern nations. On this continent there are no Persepolitan, Etruscan, Egyptian or Runic inscriptions, to attest the rise and decay of nations, their wars, conquests and migrations ; and where no records have been made of such movements among races and tribes, the modern science of comparative philology has detected, by speech, the far distant emigration of tribes of men, with as great certainty, as the comparalivc anatomist detects congeners, among fossil mammals. Thus, the Anglo-Saxon derives his origin through Teutonic and Zend, to Sanscrit in central Asia, with positive certainty.

The historians of Carolina and Georgia, have preserved some slight vestiges of the original inhabitants. The Shawnees appear to have been a peculiarly roving, romantic race. Lawson reports that the Catawbas in Carolina, drove back the Shawnees from the Pedee and Santee rivers. At one time, they were repelled by the Six Nations and retired to the valley of the Ohio. At another, they were found on the Savannah river, which was called Chisketalla fau hatche ; and sometimes Sauvamiogce, the name for Shawanoe. This is the report of Mr. Hawkins. It was called Ismidiga, by the Carolina tribes. My own opinion is, that the river was so called, from the tribe of Savannahs occupying its banks ; who belonged to the great Uchee family. There are many indications however, which favor the settlement of Shawnees on this river.

Hawkins says, that " the village of Sauvanogee, on the waters of Coosa and Tallapoosa, is inhabited by Shawanee. They retain the language and customs of their countrymen to the northwest, and aided them in their late war with the United States. Some Uchecs have settled with them."

Entertaining the suspicion, that these Shawanee were in reality Uchees, I found confirmation in Bartram. He says, " their (Uchees) own national language is radically different from the Muscogulgee tongue ; and is called Savanna or Savannuca, Savanogee. I was told by the traders, that it was the same as the dialect of the Shawanese. The Uchees are in confederacy with the Creeks, but do not mix with them."

The language of the Shawnese is most certainly not like* Uchee ; and this contradiction of the traders I cannot well explain. Yet I have the conviction, that the tribe of Savannahs were Uchees. All travellers concur in assigning to the Uchees great influence in the confederacy ; and Bartram asserts that " they excite the jealousy of the whole Creek union." Palachoocla or Parachoocla, the capital of the confederacy, with two thousand inhabitants, on the waters of the Chattahoochee, is a very ancient Uchee town. There is at this day an old Indian station in Carolina, on the Savannah river, called Parachoola, which is Uchee. Saukechuh, (saltketchers,) where Governor Craven defeated the Yamassees, is most likely to be a Uchee word. Indeed, until the contrary shall be proved by comparative vocabularies, I shall think that the Savannahs, Sevannahs and Uchees, who conquered and expelled the Westos and Stonos, were one people with the Yamassees.

The Yamassees were, in turn, expelled from Carolina by the English, and took refuge in Florida. The Yamacraws belonged to this tribe. The Uchees seem to have been a conquering people, whose tide of success having been checked, flowed back towards the west, and there met the advancing waves of the Muscogee emigration from the west, rolling eastwardly. Policy and self-preservation combined to suggest a coalition. And thus, from these principles, acting upon other nomadic or migrating tribes, may have sprung the powerful Creek or Muscogee confederacy.

The existence of the numerous aboriginal tribes within the borders of the United States will, ere long, belong only to history. The generations of Indians that have passed away since the first English settlements in America, have left no monuments to attest their dominion. There exist in the valleys of the great west, striking evidences of an anterior civilization, which are objects of wonder to the Indians of our day as well as to ourselves. The only vestiges of their creation, that will be left to posterity, are the books of missionaries printed in their idioms, and vocabularies, unsatisfactory but invaluable to science. Too much honor and praise cannot be accorded to those enlightened men, who have devoted themselves to the preservation of these vestiges which are to become the fossil, organic remains of intellectual humanity. Du Ponceau and Gallatin are the two names which stand pre-eminent in this department of scientific labor. The one has closed his honorable career ; the other still devotes, with advancing years, his philosophic mind to these subjects of human and scientific interest. At this moment he is preparing for press a volume of ethnographic investigations in California and New Mexico. The labors of the scholar and historian, will beautifully close the career of the benevolent and disciplined statesman.