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).