Creek
Creek was a Native American nation. They are sometimes called the Muscogee Confederacy.
Contents
History
The Creek nation descends from the Mississippian culture. They migrated east, conquered many tribes, and absorbed many of these distinct nations into a confederacy. Through this process, the Creek nation came to encompass a diverse ethnicity and a massive territory.
The Creek nation was centered in the Georgian river system. The settlement of Hitchiti moved between the Ocheese (now Ocmulgee) and Chattahoochee Rivers. Two of the mother towns, Coweta and Cusseta, were also on the Chattahoochee. The third, Tulabatchee, was on the Tallapoosa; the last, Abihka, was in the basin formed by the Coosa and Alabama Rivers.
Tuskaloosa organized the defense against the Spanish conquistadors. The battle of Mabila was ultimately a pyrrhic victory for the Spanish, and further expeditions stalled. Mabila itself was massacred and burned. The Choctaw confederacy emerged shortly thereafter in this region, likely from the remnants of the Mabila settlements joining local tribes.
The Creek nation became highly interconnected by trade with Florida, especially Pensacola.
The state of Alabama established a land re-allocation scheme. Creek families were approached with 'treaties' to cede land, which would then be distributed by a lottery to settlers. Their own lots would then be recorded as legal in the state. Importantly though, the state had also passed laws barring Creeks from testifying in a court of law. Squatters seized lands, debts were falsified, and many Creeks were forced to surrender their payments. Federal agents and marshalls who intervened were charged as criminals in the state.
Red Eagle organized a traditionalist paramilitary known as the Red Sticks. With Spanish arms, in the context of the War of 1812 and Tecumtha's War, The Red Stick War erupted. Jackson was charged with eliminating the Red Sticks. The war ended with the Treaty of Fort Jackson, which ceded all territories to the United States. This led to a mass migration into Spanish Florida and the emergence of the Seminole nation.
Some Creek tribes were pulled into the First Seminole War when it began in 1817. Following defeat, Neamathla (Eneah Emathla) was forced to cede claims to all Floridan territory, including Tallahassee.
In 1824, the Creek nation established a central government in the National Council. William !McIntosh, a general from the Red Stick War, became a prominent statesman among them.
The First Treaty of Indian Springs in 1821 sold all tribal land east of the Flint. The Second Treaty in 1825 sold all land east of the Chattahoochee. The National Council declared these treaties to be criminal; !McIntosh among other conspirators were seized and executed. Opothleyahola led a delegation and renegotiated the terms in the Treaty of Washington of 1826. Troup however refused to recognize the new treaty and ordered the state militia to begin seizing the land.
Waves of Creek began to emigrate in 1835.
The state of Georgia provoked the Creek War by invading Alabama with their state militia. Jesup was initially charged with command, but he was soon reassigned to the Second Seminole War; Scott succeeded him. Neamathla and his brother Eneah Micco led the vastly outnumbered Creek forces. Furthermore, Opothleyaholo was coerced into offering some number of Creek warriors to aid the U.S. in removing "rebels".
Following defeat, the militant Creeks were seized, placed in manacles and chains, and forced to walk to Montgomery. They were subsequently exiled to Oklahoma, shipped up the Mississippi. The remaining Creeks were then removed under threat of similar treatment.
Composition
As a result of the geographic vastness of the Creek nation's territory, the ethnic diversity within the confederacy, and increasing Spanish and American encroachment, the Creek nation was governed as loosely connected tribes.
There were cultural distinctions between the Upper Creek, who were more traditionalist and gave greater support to the Red Sticks, and Lower Creeks, who had more frequent interaction with the Spanish and English.
The tribe has never been formally disestablished, as reaffirmed in Sharp v. Murphy in 2020. As a result, the federally recognized Muscogee Nation holds the same jurisdictions, claims, and rights afforded to the Creek upon removal in the 1830s.