I.

Introduction

Creek (people), Native Americans of the Muskogean language family, living in the Southeast culture area, and a confederacy of tribes. The native name for the most powerful Creek band was Muskogee (or Muscogee). Another powerful group was the Hitchiti. These groups, along with a number of other groups, came to be referred to as Creek by early English traders because their villages were usually situated on rivers and creeks.

The Creek occupied most of what is now Georgia and Alabama, as well as parts of northern Florida, eastern Louisiana, and southern Tennessee. They are sometimes discussed as two main branches: the Upper Creek, who lived mostly in Alabama, and the Lower Creek, who lived mostly in Georgia. Creek bands were united in a loose confederacy, known historically as the Creek Confederacy. This confederacy also included two other Muskogean-speaking peoples, the Alabama (Alibamu) and Coushatta. The Seminole of Florida were an 18th-century offshoot of mostly Creek.

II.

History

Archaeological evidence indicates that the Creek were descended from the Mississippian mound-building peoples of the region (see Mound Builders). The first Europeans to encounter them were the Spanish; an expedition led by Hernando de Soto reached their territory in 1540. In the 18th century the Creek Confederacy was dominant throughout much of the Southeast, with a likely population of about 30,000. Over the years, peoples from a number of other tribes, such as the Natchez, Yamasee, Yuchi, and Shawnee, lived among the Creek and were absorbed by them, as were a number of former African American slaves.

The Creek had early trading ties with the British and battled the French and their Choctaw allies in a series of colonial conflicts. During the American Revolution (1775-1783) the Creek again supported the British. They signed a peace treaty with the United States in 1790, but in 1813, encouraged by the British, they again took up arms against the Americans in what became known as the Creek War (1813-1814). This began with an attack led by William Weatherford, also known as Red Eagle, at Fort Mims in present-day Alabama, in which a large number of frontier settlers were killed (see Fort Mims, Massacre of). Federal and state troops led by General Andrew Jackson completely crushed the Creek uprising in a brief but bloody campaign. The Creek were then compelled to sign a treaty that surrendered more than half of their ancestral territory.

In 1830 the Indian Removal Act formalized the U.S. government’s policy of relocating eastern tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River. By 1832 Creek leaders had sold all their remaining territory in exchange for new lands in the Indian Territory (in present-day Oklahoma). However, many Creek people refused to leave their homeland, and in 1836 and 1837 the U.S. Army forced them to march to the Indian Territory; several thousand Creek died from hunger, exposure, and disease along the way or soon after their arrival. In Oklahoma the Creek became known as one of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes, along with the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole, because they adopted many Euro-American customs, including a system of government similar to that of the United States. Most of the Creek supported the Confederacy in the American Civil War (1861-1865).

III.

Customs

The Creek lived in villages consisting of rectangular pole-framed houses, with clay-covered walls and slanted and peaked bark-covered roofs. The houses were arranged in a rectangle around a central space, or plaza, where a cone-shaped ceremonial lodge stood, often elevated on an earthen mound. The plaza was reserved for public events, such as the annual renewal and thanksgiving festival known as the Green Corn Ceremony. Some villages, known as red towns, were designated for war ceremonies, and others, called white towns, for peace ceremonies. Each village had a micco, or chief, who was advised by the Beloved Men, a council of elders. Priests also played an important part in village life. Families were organized into clans, or groups of families related by a common ancestor. Descent was matrilineal (traced through the female line). Creek women cultivated corn, squash, beans, and other crops, and the men hunted and fished. Like many other tribes of the Southeast, the Creek were heavily tattooed and ornamented.

IV.

Contemporary Life

In the 2000 U.S. census about 40,000 people identified themselves as Creek only; an additional 31,000 people reported being part Creek. Modern-day Creek prefer to be known as Muskogee or Muscogee. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, based in Okmulgee, has striven to preserve traditional customs; this group is still allied with Alabama and Coushatta peoples. Other Creek descendants maintain tribal identity in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.