Muscogee County GaArchives News.....Creek Indians Left Rich Heritage April 16, 1978 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 August 29, 2007, 3:51 pm Ledger-Enquirer (Special Sesquicentennial) April 16, 1978 Creek Indians Left Rich Heritage By Katherine McDuffie Modern Living Assistant Editor Chattahoochee - Yuchi - Coweta - Muscogee -Upatoi. You need only to think about these names to be reminded whose home this area once was - that of the proud Creek Confederacy of Indian tribes. This had been their home and the home of their ancestors as close as archaeologists can estimate far 10,000 years. The people who were these people's ancestors had been here since 500 B.C. But the Indians were not here in 1827 when the Georgia legislature in Milledgeville created the town of Columbus. Shortly before they had been driven from their homes on the eastern shores of the Chattahoochee River into Alabama. They left behind imprints of their rich heritage, not just in names but in tangible evidence -as archaeological finds which has became an invaluable record of the area's history. Why were they driven out? Georgia had been claiming all the lands to. the Chattahoochee River since 1802. In 1825, the U.S. Government forced a treaty on the Creeks ceding the remainder of their lands between the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers to the U.S. This was the Treaty of Indian Springs. The land was surveyed and most of it sold off in the lottery system. But a 10- mile square section called the Coweta Reserve (Coweta Town had been the capital of the Creek Confederacy) and made up mostly of Muscogee County was reserved for Georgia. Part of this site became Columbus. What were these people like, the Yuchis, the Hitchiti, the Muskogees, the Shawnees, the different racial stacks which made up the 20,000 individuals of the Creek Confederacy? A definitive picture of the Indians comes from Joe Mahan of Columbus, Ph.D., and one of the South's most respected authorities on the subject. Mahan, executive director af Westville, the 1850s village near Lumpkin, Ga., was at one time a history professor at the University of Georgia and also director of education and research at the Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts, today called The Columbus Museum of Arts and Sciences. At the museum most of his research had to do with the Southeastern Indians. Mahan says the Indians who inhabited the Columbus area in the 19th century were basically farmers who lived In villages. They produced most of the food and necessities of life, still following the traditional patterns of agriculture of their people, using the hoe and the spade. They had, however, become dependent upon the American pattern of economy because they purchased manufactured goods from the white traders. This gradual Americanization process had begun in the 18th century when the traders from South Carolina and. Virginia brought them cheap cloth, gunpowder, axes, cooking pots and other dishes which were better for Indian use than anything they could make. It was also cheaper as it was easier to hunt deer for their skins than it was to make these things. There were also such things as salt, sugar and rum for which the Indians depended on the traders. Because of these, factors and their contacts with the Europeans and Americans (beginning In the 1700s) the Indians adopted many of the white man's ways. As a consequence, they lost much of their economic independence. The Indians had also adapted their building styles to the American-type house. These ranged from log cabins, to fairly substantial frame houses, sometimes brick. There is an example of a Yuchi house at Westville, a history in itself of the Indian houses. Starting as a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor, it was added to in stages, becoming a two-story dwelling of the plantation-plain type with two sheds in the back and. a porch across the front. The last part of the house was added in 1825. The Indians copied the dress style of the white man to a large degree. They tended to wear breechcloth and leggins as they didn't like the White man's trousers. They also wore turbans and plumes. The Creeks were not warlike, except when provoked. Their religion was one of peace, non-warlike. Developed for many thousands of years, it was based on the worship of a sky- dwelling diety, called the "breath master." He was the creator, or God, the giver of life and abundance. The Creeks still observe their one big annual religious festival. Called Green Corn ceremony, It is still observed in Oklahoma where the descendants live. The eight-day ceremony takes place at the time of the full moon in July. During the. eight days the various families live in temporary arbors around the sacred square. They kindle the new fire and make offerings of maize. No fresh com is eaten until the ceremony has been performed. The ceremony has been likened to an old-time Southern camp meeting. The Creek's medical practices, based a great deal on the use of herbs, was rather sophisticated for the times. They had the reputation of being able to disinfect wounds and help them heal more rapidly than did their white counterparts. Living in sparsely settled villages, most of them sent their children to mission schools, particularly the wealthier ones. One famed Indian, Alexander McGillivray, son of a Scot trader and Indian mother, was educated in Scotland at the insistence of his father. McGillivray later became chief of the Creek Confederacy. .. Another famous Indian from this area was of Scottish descent, Chief William McIntosh, the son of a Scot trader, Lachian, and an Indian mother. He became chief of one of the elements of the Creek Confederacy. He signed the Indian Springs Treaty and was murdered by conservative Indians who said he had sold them down the river. Other well-known Indians of the Creeks were Chief Paddy Carr and Chief Little. Prince. Carr, a wealthy Indian, owned Broken Arrow plantation In Oswitchee, just south of Phenix City. Prince, an elderly chief of the Creeks, was friendly to the whites and led the ,group which greeted Revolutionary War hero Lafayette on his visit to the area in 1826. Despite the friendliness of some of the Indians there was a law passed shortly after Columbus was incorporated which forbade the Indians to visit the town after dark. This prevailing feeling perhaps had much to do with why the Indians did not play a prominent role in the early days of Columbus. Their politics were traditional. Each village had its own chief. The chief had to belong to a certain clan and had to have enough prestige to be chosen. The title was not necessarily handed down from father to son. Prestige was particularly required with the Yuchis because in their tribe the title of chief was inherited from one's mother - the chief's oldest sister's son was in line of first succession - unless he was found unfit. Following the Creek War of 1836, the Indians were forcibly removed to what is now Oklahoma. They were finally allotted their own lands in the 1890s. Today, many of them are farmers and still own their lands. They live mainly around Tulsa, Sapulpa, Muskogee and Ocmulgee. The descendants of the Creeks return occasionally to the home of their ancestors. They have come back here as tourists, visitors, in the army at Fort Benning and to be honored. They have also helped researchers, such as Mahan, learn about the past. Special Sesquicentennial Supplement 1 Ledger-Enquirer, Sunday, April 16, 1978 Page S11 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/newspapers/creekind2336gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 8.1 Kb