A few notes on the war-customs of the Creeks, which resembled those of most Southern tribes, may be useful for shedding light on the early migrations of the people and upon the tactics observed in their campaigns.
The principal motive for Indian wars being the conquest of scalps, slaves, plunder and hunting grounds, the Creeks, conscious of their great power, were not very particular in finding causes for warfare, and did not even advance specious reasons for declaring war. Thus, Adair gives as the true cause of a long war between the Creeks and Cheroki, the killing and scalping of two Chicasa hunters by a Shawano "brave." This man took refuge among the Cheroki people, and war was declared to them by the Creeks, because they then had concluded a war alliance with the Chicasa (History, p. 278).
It is rather improbable that a declaration of war always preceded the attack, for the advance into the hostile territory was made clandestinely[103]; but the resolution of starting upon the warpath was heralded in the towns withgreat ceremonies. Of these we shall speak under the heading: Confederacy.
The Creeks of old were in the habit of carrying on their warfare chiefly in small bodies, like other Indian tribes. Small commands are better enabled to surprise the enemy or his camps in clandestine or night attacks, or to cut off hostile warriors, than large ones. There are instances that the Creeks formed war-parties of four men only. Their leader was then styled imísi, immíssi or "the one carrying it for them," this term referring to the battle-charm or war-physic. War-parties of forty to sixty men are mentioned also.
When warriors started for the "field of honor" in larger or smaller bodies, they were led by a commander (pakā′dsha) who simultaneously was an ahopáya or hopáya, "charmer at a distance." Men of this order had, like other warriors, to undergo, while quite young, a severe course of initiation into manhood, which also comprised instructions in herb-physicking. To become initiated they camped away from other people, and had for their only companion the old conjuror, who for four months initiated them and taught them the incantations intended to act as charms upon the enemy. To begin with, a fast of either four or eight days and the eating of certain bitter weeds was prescribed, to purify the system and to prepare the youth for a ready comprehension of the objects of tuition. The whole process was sometimes repeated for another four months, in the spring of the year following, and differed in every town. The knowledge thus acquired, it was believed, imparted to the person a full conjuring power and charmer's influence over the antagonist, and enabled him to conquer the hostile warriors at a distance (hupá-i) and before reaching them, or to make them come near enough for easy capture.
When the Great Warrior started on the warpath he gave notice to the participants where he would strike camp that night, and then set out, sometimes with one or two menonly. A war-whoop and the discharge of his gun were the signals of his departure, and were responded to by his followers by acting in the same manner. The other warriors took their time, and went to rejoin him one or two days after. A man taking part in a war-expedition was called hú`li-á`la.
A war party always proceeded in Indian file, each man stepping into the footprints of the foregoing, to prevent the enemy from knowing their number. This explains also the episode of the legend referring to the tracks lost in the bottom of the river, q. v.[104]The tracks, footprints, strokes of hatchets visible on the bark of trees, etc., differed in every American tribe. Among the Creeks the last man in the file often sought to cover the tracks by placing grass upon them. A considerable force of scouts hovered around the marching file, to prevent surprises; the leader marched at the head of the file.
The attack was made in true Indian and savage fashion, before daybreak. The warriors crept up as silently as possible, tried to dart their missiles from secret spots, and never exposed their bodies to the enemy when they could cover them by some eminence or rock, tree or bush. The leader took a position in the rear. The Chicasa Indians continually taunted the colonial troops upon the fearless but useless exposure of their men to the battle-fire of the wary Indian braves. Milfort relates that his men fought nude, because they had noticed that the fragments of clothing entering the body with the point of the missile rendered the wound much more dangerous than the missile itself.
When making prisoners the Creeks habitually spared only the lives of children, killing mercilessly the adult males and females. They even burnt many of them at the stake, and Milfort claims that this barbaric custom was abandoned only through his influence (Mém., pp. 219-220).
The food on which they subsisted, on their expeditions, was pounded maize, contained in a small bag, which they carried upon their bodies.
The encampments for the night (hápu) were round-shaped, every man lying in contiguity to another in a circle, and leaving only a small issue, which was guarded by the commander. After the commander's signal no one was allowed to move from his place. The same order was observed when the army halted during the day, and the same arrangement is conspicuous in the campings of the Southern Dakota tribes, as Iowa, Ponka, Ugáχpa, etc.
A graphic description of southern war-camps is found in B. Romans, Florida, p. 65: "A Choctaw war-camp is circular, with a fire in the centre, and each man has a crutched branch at his head to hang his powder and shot upon and to set his gun against, and the feet of all to the fire; a Cherokee war-camp is a long line of fire, against which they also lay their feet. A Choctaw makes his camp, in traveling, in form of a sugar loaf; a Chicasa makes it in form of our arbours; a Creek like to our sheds or piazzas, to a timber-house." The Creek war-camps in the woods were constructed in such a manner that the exact number of the party could at once be ascertained.[105]
After their return the warriors placed the scalps in the public square, or divided them among their acquaintances. Anciently the privilege of raising the scalp-pole (itu tcháti) belonged to two tribes only, the Kasíχta and the Kawíta.[106]The cause for this is shown in our half-mythic migration legend. The tradition that the custom of scalping was but recently imported among the Creeks from the Northern Indians was manufactured for a purpose, and invented by many other tribes also, to appear more human in the eyes of the white settlers. Scalping and the drying of scalps hadbeen observed in Florida as early as 1564 by René de Laudonnière.
The Creek confederacy, or "league of the Muscogulgee" was a purely political organization connecting the various and disparate elements, which composed it, for common action against external aggression. It had no direct influence on thesocialorganization of the tribes, and the most appropriate term for this, and other Indian confederacies as well, is that of war-confederacy, war-league or symmachy. In Creek the Maskoki confederacy is called ísti Maskóki imitihalátka.
To call thisloose assemblageof towns and tribes a military democracy, in the sense that the majority of the votes decided a question brought before the people in a manner that was binding for the citizens, is entirely wrong and misleading, for Indians regard their actions subject to their own decisions only, or, at the utmost, to those of their individualgens. Every Creek town or individual could go on the warpath or stay at home, in spite of any wish or decree issued by the chiefs or assembled warriors. The young warriors, anxious to obtain fame and war-titles, joined the war-parties on the call of a leader. In questions of war unanimity was seldom attained in the council of a town, much less in the whole nation; "it is not recollected by the oldest man, that more than one-half of the nation went to war at the same time or 'took the war-talk.'"
"When the míko and his councillors are of opinion that the town has been injured, the Great Warrior lifts the war-hatchet, átăsi, against the offending nation. But as soon as it is taken up, the míko and his council may interpose, and by their prudent counsels stop it, and proceed to adjust the misunderstanding by negotiation. If the Great Warrior persists and 'goes out,' he is followed by all who are for war."
These words, quoted from the "Sketch" of the UnitedStates agent, B. Hawkins, plainly show, that theinitiativefor war rested with the civil authority, and not with the military. But it is possible that Hawkins speaks of white or peace-towns only, and not of the red towns (p. 72). He continues as follows:
"Peace is always determined on and concluded by the míko and councillors, and peace-talks are always addressed to the cabin of the míko. In some cases, where the resentment of the warriors has run high, the míko and council have been much embarrassed."
All this proves that every town had the privilege to begin warfare for itself, independent of the confederacy, provided that the civil government consented to the undertaking. This fact plainly shows the perfect independence of the Indian tribe from the war-confederacy, and forms a striking contrast to our ideas of a centralized state power. In some instances the Creek towns left their defensive position to act on the offensive principle, but they were not sustained then by the Maskoki confederacy.
The chief of the confederacy had to advise only, and not to command; he was of influence only when endowed with superior talent and political ability. The chief and principal warriors had annual meetings in the public square of some central town, on public affairs; they drank ássi, exchanged tobacco, and then proceeded to debate. Time and place of these conventions were fixed by a chief, and the space of time between warning and that of assembly was called "broken days." Major C. Swan, after whose report this passage is quoted (Schoolcraft V, 279) states that the title of the chief of the confederacy was thegreat beloved man, while Milfort, who was himself invested with the charge of great warrior of the nation, styles him "Le Tastanégy ou grand chef de guerre," adding, however, that in his time he was the highest authority incivil and militaryaffairs (Mémoire, Note to p. 237). The English, French and Spaniards frequently called him theEmperorof the Upper and Lower Creeks, a term which is not entirely misapplied when taken in its original sense of "military commander," theimperatorof the Romans.
At a later period the meeting of the confederacy usually took place at Tukabatchi, which had become the largest community. From the above it results, however, that the Creeks had nocapitaltown in the sense as we use this term. Col. B. Hawkins, who attempted to introduce some unity among the towns for the purpose of facilitating the transaction of business of the nation, and their intercourse with the United States Government, proposed various measures, as the classing of the towns into nine districts; these were adopted at Tukabatchi by the chiefs of the nation, on November 27th, 1799.[107]
The small degree of respect which the Creek towns paid to international treaties (sitimfátchita) or other solemn engagements made with the whites, as sales of territory, etc., is another proof for the looseness of the "powerful Creek confederacy." After giving a list of six influential headmen of different towns, Major C. Swan declares that a treaty made with these chiefs would probably be communicated to all the people of the country, and be believed and relied upon (Schoolcraft V, 263). Subsequent events have shown this to be founded on a misapprehension of the Indian character, which is that of the most outspoken individuality.
Major C. Swan, who only traveled through the country to leave it again, makes the following interesting statement concerning the political and social status of the disparate tribes composing the Creek confederacy (1791; in Schoolcraft V, 259. 260):
"Their numbers have increased faster by the acquisition of foreign subjects than by the increase of the original stock. It appears long to have been a maxim of their policy to give equal liberty and protection to tribes conquered bythemselves, as well as to those vanquished by others, although many individuals taken in war are slaves among them, and their children are called of the slave race, and cannot arrive to much honorary distinction in the country, on that account."
All the Creektowns, viz., the more populous settlements, had laid out a square-shaped piece of ground in or near their central part. It contained the only public buildings of the town, the great house and the council-house, and, as an appurtenance, the play-ground. The square was the focus of the public and social life of the town; its present Creek name, intchúka `láko, is taken from the "great house" as its principal portion.
From the eighteenth century we possess three descriptions of the square and the ceremonies enacted in it, which are entering into copious details; that of W. Bartram, describing the square of Átasi town (about 1775); that of C. Swan, describing that of Odshi-apófa, or the Hickory Ground (1791), and last, but not least, the description of the square at Kawíta, by B. Hawkins (1799). All the towns differed somewhat in the structure of the great house and of the council-house, but in the subsequent sketch we shall chiefly dwell upon those points in which they all seem to agree. Public squares still exist at the present time in some of the pure-blood towns of the Creek nation, Indian Territory, and the busk, in its ancient, though slightly modified form, is annually celebrated in them. The ground-plan of the square at the Hickory Ground is represented in Schoolcraft's Indians V, 264.
Of other buildings destined for public use I have found no mention, except of granaries or corn-cribs, which were under the supervision of the míko.
Thegreat house, tchúku `láko, also called "town-house," "public square," like the square in the midst of which it was placed, was formed by four one-story buildings of equalsize, facing inward, and enclosing a square area of about thirty feet on each side.[108]They were generally made to face the east, west, north and south.
These buildings, which had the appearance of sheds, consisted of a wooden frame, supported on posts set in the ground and covered with slabs. They were made of the same material as their dwelling houses, but differed by having the front facing the square open, and the walls of the back sides had an open space of two feet or more next to the eaves, to admit a circulation of air. Each house was divided into three apartments, separated by low partitions of clay, making a total of twelve partitions. These apartments, called cabins (tópa) had three[109]seats, or rather platforms, being broad enough to sleep upon; the first of them was about two feet from the ground, the second eight feet above the first, and the third or back seat eight feet above the second. Over the whole of these seats was spread a covering of cane-mats, as large as carpets. They were provided with new coverings every year, just before the busk; and since the old covers were not removed, they had in the majority of the squares eight to twelve coverings, laid one above the other. Milfort states that each cabin could seat from forty to sixty persons (Mémoire, p. 203).
Caleb Swan, who, in his above description of the cabins in the square, copied the original seen at Odshi-apófa or Little Talassie, where he stopped, differs in several particulars, especially in the allotment of the cabins to the authorities, from Hawkins, who resided in Kawíta. Swan assigns the eastern building to the beloved men, the southern to the warriors, the northern to the second men, etc., while the western building served for keeping the apparatus for cooking black drink, war physic, and to store lumber. According toHawkins, the western building, fronting east, contained the míkos and high-ranked people; the northern building was the warriors'; the southern that of the beloved men, and the eastern that of the young people and their associates. "The cabin of the great chief faces east," says Milfort, p. 203, "to indicate that he has to watch the interests of his nation continually." The three cabins of the míkalgi or old men, facing west, are the only ones painted white, and are always ornamented with guirlands (at Kawíta). On the post, or on a plank over each cabin, are painted the emblems of the gens to which it is allotted; thus the buffalo gens have the buffalo painted on it.
From the roofs were dangling on the inside heterogeneous emblems of peace and trophies of war, as eagles' feathers, swans' wings, wooden scalping knives, war clubs, red-painted wands, bunches of hoops on which to dry their scalps, bundles of a war-physic called snake-root (sínikain Cheroki), baskets, etc. Rude paintings of warriors' heads with horns, horned rattlesnakes, horned alligators, etc., were visible upon the smooth posts and timbers supporting the great house. In the "painted squares" of some of the red or war-towns the posts and smooth timber were painted red, with white or black edges, this being considered as a mark of high distinction. Other privileged towns possessed a covered square, by which term is meant a bridging over of the entrance spaces left between the four buildings by means of canes laid on poles.
In the centre of the area of the "great house" a perpetual fire was burning, fed by four logs, and kept up by public ministrants especially appointed for the purpose. The inside area is called impaskófa, "dedicated ground."
The "square" was hung over with green boughs, in sign of mourning, when a man died in the town; no black drink was then taken for four days. When an Indian was killed who belonged to a town which had a square, blackdrink had to be taken on the outside of the square, and every ceremony was suspended until the outrage was atoned for. To each great house belonged a black drink cook, and from the young warriors two or three men were appointed to attend to those who took this liquid every morning; they called the townspeople to this ceremony by beating drums (C. Swan).
After the close of their council-meeting in the council-house, the míko, his councillors and warriors repaired to the chief's cabin in the "great house." They met there every day, drank the ássi or black drink, continued deliberations on public and domestic affairs, attended to complaints and redressed them; then conversed about news while smoking, or amused themselves at playing "roll the bullet" in a sort of ten-pin alley. The name of this game is `li-i tchallítchka. Bartram, p. 453, states that the chief's cabin at Átasi was of a different construction from the three other buildings.
But besides being the central point of the town for all meetings of a public character, the great house was the festive place for the annual busk and the daily dance; it occasionally served as a sleeping place for Indians passing through the town on their travels. The special locations allotted to the persons in authority and the gentes on the cabin-sheds are described under the heading: The annual busk.
Thecouncil-houseor tchukófa `láko stood on a circular mound or eminence, in close contiguity to the northeast corner of the "great house." It is variously called by travelers: hot-house, sudatory, assembly-room, winter council-house, mountain-house,[110]or, from its circular shape, rotunda. Its appearance is generally described as that of a huge cone placed on an octagonal frame about twelve feet high, and covered with tufts of bark. Its diameter was from twenty-five to thirty feet, and in the larger towns the building couldaccommodate many hundred persons.[111]Its perpendicular walls were made of thick posts, daubed with clay on the outside. Contiguous to the walls, one broad circular seat, made of cane-mats, was going around the structure on the inside, and in the centre the fire was burning on a small elevation of the ground. The fuel consisted of dry cane or dry pine slabs split fine; and, as if it were to give a concrete image of the warming rays of the sun, these split canes were disposed in a spiral line which exhibited several revolutions around the centre. No opening was provided for the escape of the smoke or the admission of fresh air, and the building soon became intolerably hot; but at dance-feasts the natives danced around the fire in the terrible heat and dust, without the least apparent inconvenience.[112]
The council-house served, to some extent, the same purposes as the "great house," but was more resorted to in the inclement season than in summer. Every night during winter the old and young visited it for conversation or dance, and in very cold weather the old and destitute went there to sleep. In all seasons it was the assembly-room of the míko and his counsellors for deliberations of a private character; there they decided upon punishments to be inflicted, as whipping etc., and entrusted the Great Warrior with the execution of the sentences. Previous to a war-expedition the young men visited the hot-house for four days, prepared and drank their war-physic, and sang their war- and charm-songs under the leadership of conjurers.[113]Milfort was installed into the charge of "Great Warrior of the Nation" in the Kawíta council-house by solemn orations, the smoking of the pipe,the drinking of the ássi-decoct and other ceremonies,[114]and then conducted to the "great house."
When the natives gathered in this structure for sweating, either for promoting their health or as a religious ceremony, they developed steam by throwing water on heated stones, then danced around the fire, and went to plunge into the chilling waves of the river flowing past their town.
Theplay-groundoccupied the northwestern angle of the public square, and formed an oblong segment of it, of rather irregular shape. It was made distinct from the rest of the square by one or two low embankments or terraces; in its centre stood, on a low circular mound, a four-sided pole or pillar, sometimes forty feet high. A mark fastened on its top served at appointed times as a target to shoot at with rifles or arrows. Around the pole the floor of the yard was beaten solid.
The play-ground, tă′dshu in Creek, was called by the white traders chunkey-yard, chunk-yard, from the principal game played in it. This game, the chunkey- or tchungke-game, consisted in throwing a pole after thechunke, a rounded stone which was set rolling upon its edge. Cf. Adair, Hist., p. 401. 402. There was also a sort of ball play in use among the Creeks and many other Indian tribes, by which a ball (púku) was aimed at an object suspended on the top of a high pole, or, as it is played now, at the top of two twin poles (puk-ábi), called sometimes "maypoles." In summer time dances were also performed in this yard, and Bartram saw "at the corner of each farther end a slave-post or strong stake, where the captives that are burnt alive are bound."[115]
The solemn annual festival held by the Creek people of ancient and modern days is the púskita, a word now passed into provincial English (busk); its real meaning is that ofa fast. In the more important towns it lasted eight days; in towns of minor note four days only, and its celebration differed in each town in some particulars. The day on which to begin it was fixed by the míko and his council, and depended on the maturity of the maize crop and on various other circumstances. Its celebration took place mainly in the "great house" of the public square, and from Hawkins' description, who saw it celebrated in Kasiχta,[116]we extract the following particulars:
In the morning of thefirst daythe warriors clean the area of the great house and sprinkle it withwhitesand, at the time when the black drink is being prepared. The fire in the centre is made by friction, very early in the day, by a ministrant especially appointed for the purpose, called the fire-maker. Four logs, as long as the span of both arms, are brought to the centre of the area by the warriors, and laid down end to end, so as to form a cross. Each end of this cross points to one of the cardinal points of the compass. At the spot where the logs converge, the new fire is kindled and the logs are consumed during the first four days of the púskita. The women of the turkey gens dance the turkey-dance, pínua opánga, while the powerful emetic pā′ssa is being brewed. It is drank from noon to mid-afternoon, after which the tadpole-dance, tokiúlka opánga, is danced by four males and four females, who are called the tokiúlka ortadpoles. In the evening the men dance the dance of the híniha: híniha opánga, and continue it till daylight.
Thesecond daybegins with the performance of the gun-dance, ítch'ha opánga, danced by females about ten o'clockin the forenoon.[117]At noon the men approach the new fire, rub some of its ashes on the chin, neck and belly, jump head foremost into the river, and then return to the great house. Meanwhile the females prepare the new maize for the feast, and the men on arriving rub some of it between their hands, then on their face and breast, after which feasting begins.
Thethird daythe men pass by sitting in the square.
On thefourth daythe women rise early to obtain a spark of the new fire; they bring it to their own hearths, which were previously cleaned and sprinkled with sand, and then kindle their fires on them. When the first four logs are consumed, the men repeat the ceremony of rubbing the ashes on their chin, neck and belly, and then plunge into water. Subsequently they taste salt and dance the long dance, opánga tchápko.
Thefifth dayis devoted to the bringing in of four other logs, which are disposed and kindled as aforementioned, and then the men drink ássi.
On thesixthandseventh daythe men remain in the "great house."
The ceremonies of theeighthorlast dayin the square and outside of it are of a peculiarly impressive character. Fourteen species of physic plants are placed in two pots containing water, then stirred and beaten up in it. After the aliktchálgi or conjurers have blown into the mixture through a small reed, the men drink of the liquid and rub it over their joints till afternoon. The names of the medical plants were as follows:
1. míko huyanī′tcha.2. tóla or sweet bay.3. atchína or cedar (the leaves of it).4. kapapáska, a shrub with red berries.5. tchul'-íssa; signifies: "pine-leaves."6. aták`la lásti, a shrub with black berries.7. tútka hílissua, the "fire-physic."8. tchúfi insákka áfaga, "rabbit-basket-string," a vine-like plant resembling the strawberry plant.9. tchúfi mási, a species of cane.10. hílissua hátki, the "white physic"; abbrev. hílis'-hátki.11. tútka tchókishi, a moss species.12. u-i láni, "yellow water": the Jerusalem oak.13. oktchanátchku, a rock-moss.14. kóha lowági "switch cane, limber cane."
1. míko huyanī′tcha.
2. tóla or sweet bay.
3. atchína or cedar (the leaves of it).
4. kapapáska, a shrub with red berries.
5. tchul'-íssa; signifies: "pine-leaves."
6. aták`la lásti, a shrub with black berries.
7. tútka hílissua, the "fire-physic."
8. tchúfi insákka áfaga, "rabbit-basket-string," a vine-like plant resembling the strawberry plant.
9. tchúfi mási, a species of cane.
10. hílissua hátki, the "white physic"; abbrev. hílis'-hátki.
11. tútka tchókishi, a moss species.
12. u-i láni, "yellow water": the Jerusalem oak.
13. oktchanátchku, a rock-moss.
14. kóha lowági "switch cane, limber cane."
To these plants the modern Creeks add, as a fifteenth one, the pā′ssa; cf. below.
Then another singular mixture is prepared, of which the ingredients must have been of symbolic significance: Old maize cobs and pine burs are placed in a pot and burned to ashes. Four girls below the age of puberty bring ashes from home, put them in the pot, and stir up all together, after which the men mix white clay with water in two pans. One pan of the wet clay and another of the ashes are brought to the míko's cabin, the other two to that of the warriors, who rub themselves with the contents of both. Two men appointed to that office then bring flowers of "old man's tobacco," ísti atchúli pákpagi, prepared on the first day of the busk, in a pan to the míko's cabin, and a particle of it is given to every person present. Upon this the míko and his councillors walk four times around the burning logs, throwing some of the "old man's tobacco" into the fire each time they face the east, and then stop while facing the west. The warriors then repeat the same ceremony.
At the míko's cabin a cane having two white feathers on its end is stuck out. At the moment when the sun sets, a man of the fish gens takes it down, and walks, followed by all spectators, toward the river. Having gone half way, he utters the death-whoop, and repeats it four times before hereaches the water's edge. After the crowd has thickly congregated at the bank, each person places a grain of "old man's tobacco" on the head and others in each ear. Then, at a signal repeated four times, they throw some of it into the river, and every man, at a like signal, plunges into the water, to pick up four stones from the bottom. With these they cross themselves on their breasts four times, each time throwing one of the stones back into the river and uttering the death-whoop. Then they wash themselves, take up the cane with the feathers, return to the great house, where they stick it up, then walk through the town visiting.
The mad dance, opánga hádsho, is performed after night-fall, and this terminates the long ceremony.
The celebration of the púskita had a favorable influence upon the minds of the people, for it was a signal of amnesty, absolving the Indian of all crimes, murder excepted, and seemed to bury guilt itself in oblivion. All former quarrels and hatred were forgotten and man restored to himself and to the community. Indians renewing past quarrels after this solemn festival, were severely reprimanded by others. This change of mind was symbolized by the custom of the women of breaking to pieces all the household utensils of the past year, and replacing them by new ones; the men refitted all their property so as to look new, and it was considered extremely disgraceful, even for the most indigent, to eat any of the new maize before the annual busk (Sketch, pp. 75-78).[118]
The foregoing sketch would be incomplete without the addition of another account of a four days' puskita, which C. Swan witnessed at Odshi-apófa, near the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers; it explains and amplifies many of the incidents related by Hawkins.
The account inserted in Swan's article (Schoolcraft, Indians V, 267. 268) is signed "Anthony Alex. M'Gillivray," who was then a chief of the nation, and related by marriage to Milfort. We gather from his statements, that at Odshi-apófa or "Hickory Ground," which is awhitetown also, the "priest, or fire-maker of the town" had the privilege of determining the days of the busk, and that in doing so he was led by the ripening of the maize-crop and by the growth of the cassine-shrub. At the break of thefirstday he went to the square, unattended by others, dressed inwhiteleather moccasins and stockings, with awhitedressed deer-skin over his shoulders, and produced there the new fire, by the friction of two dry pieces of wood. When the spark was blazing up, four young men entered the area at the openings of its four corners, each holding a stick of wood; they approached the new fire with high reverence, and placed the ends of their sticks to it "in a very formal manner." Then four other young men came forward in the same manner, each holding an ear of the newly-ripened Indian corn, which the conjurer took from them and with formalities threw into the fire. Then four other men entered the square in the same manner, carrying branches of the new cassine, some of which the priest threw into the fire, the rest being immediately parched and cooked for ceremonial use. The mysterious jargon which he muttered during this ceremonial act was supposed to form a conversation with the great "master of breath."
The male population having in the meantime gathered in the cabins, the prepared black drink is served to them, and sparks of the new fire are carried and left outside the buildings for public use. The women bring it to their homes, which they have cleaned and decorated the day before for the occasion by extinguishing the old fires and removing their ashes throughout the town. They are forbidden to step into the square, but dance with the children on its outside. On thesecondday the men take their war-physic,a decoction of the button-snake root, in such quantities as would produce strong spasmodic effects. Thethirdday is spent by the older men in the square, in taking black drink, etc., by the young men in hunting or fishing for the last day of the festival. The females pass the first three days in bathing, and it is unlawful for the males to touch any of them even with the tip of the finger. Both sexes are compelled to abstain rigidly from any food, especially fromsalt. Thefourthday all classes congregate in the "great house" promiscuously; the game killed on the previous day is given to the public, and the women are cooking the provisions brought in from all sides, over the new fire. After this convivial day the evening dances conclude the annual festivity. Any provisions left over are given to the "fire-maker."
Less circumstantial descriptions of this curious ceremony, which is frequently called from analogy the "green corn dance," are contained in Adair's History, Argument VIII, in Bartram, Travels, pp. 507. 508, in Milfort and many other writers. It appears from all that the busk is not a solstitial celebration, but a rejoicing over the first fruits of the year. The new year begins with the busk, which is celebrated in August or late in July. Every town celebrated its busk at a period independent from that of the other towns, whenever their crops had come to maturity.
Religious ideas were connected with the festival, for the benefits imparted to mankind by the new fruits were the gifts of the sun, which was symbolized by the fire burning in the centre of the square. The new fire meant the new life, physical and moral, which had to begin with the new year. Everything had to be new or renewed; even the garments worn heretofore were given to the flames. The pardon granted to offenders gave them a chance to begin a new and better course of life. It was unlawful to pass between the fire in the area and the rising sun, for this would have interrupted the mystic communication existing between thetwo. The rigorous fasting observed also fitted the people to prepare for a new moral life, and made them more receptive for the supernatural; the convivial scene which closed the busk typified the idea that all men, whether low or high, are born brethren. The black drink was the symbol of purification from wickedness, of prowess in war and of friendship and hospitality.
Although the ritual of the busk differed in every Creek tribe, many analogies can be traced with well-known customs among the Aztec and Maya nations, whose "unlucky five days" at the year's close equally terminated with rejoicings, as the precursors of a new life.
Abundant material for the study of ethnography is on hand for the earlier and later periods of the Creek nation; but here we have to restrict ourselves to some points which are especially adapted to the illustration of the migration legends. The relation of husband to wife and family being the foundation of all tribal, social and political life, should certainly be treated as fully as it deserves, but in this context only incident notes can be given on this subject.
Condition of Females.—Although succession among all Maskoki tribes was in the female line, the females occupied a subordinate condition among the Creeks, and in their households were subjected, like those of other Indians, to a life of drudgery. Divorces were of frequent occurrence.
On the first days of the busk females were not permitted to enter the area of the square, nor were they admitted to the council-house whenever the men were sitting in council or attending to the conjurer's performances. The women were assigned a bathing place in the river-currents at some distance below the men. It is also stated that a woman had the privilege of killing her offspring during the first lunation after the birth, but when she did so after that term she wasput to death herself.[119]This may have been the practice in a few Creek tribes, but it is doubtful that such was the general law in all, except in regard to illegitimate offspring.
The occupations of Creek women are described by Cpt. B. Romans, p. 96 (1775), in the following succinct form:
"The women are employed, besides the cultivation of the earth, in dressing the victuals, preparing, scraping, braining, rubbing and smoaking the Roe-skins, making macksens of them, spinning buffaloe wool, making salt, preparing cassine drink, drying thechamæropsandpassiflora, making cold flour for traveling, gathering nuts and making their milk; likewise in making baskets, brooms, pots, bowls and other earthen and wooden vessels."
Initiation.—Indian parents bring up their children in a manner which better deserves the name of training than that of education. They think children become best fitted for future life when they can, for a certain period of their ages, roam around at will and act at their own pleasure. They do not reprobate or punish them for any wanton act they may commit; hence the licentiousness of both sexes up to the time of marriage, and the comparative want of discipline among warriors on their expeditions. But the boys were taught to harden their constitutions against the inclemencies of the seasons and the privations in war, and this result they most successfully attained by the so-calledinitiation, and also by continued bodily exercise before and after that solemn period of their lives. B. Romans (1775) sketches the training of the Creek youths in the following words (p. 96): "Creeks make the boys swim in the coldest weather; make them frequently undergo scratching from head to foot, through the skin, with broken glass or gar-fish teeth[120], so as to make them all in a gore of blood, and then wash them with cold water;this is with them thearcanumagainst all diseases; but when they design it as a punishment to the boys, they dry-scratch them,i. e., they apply no water after the operation, which renders it very painful. They endeavor ... to teach them all manner of cruelty toward brutes," etc.
This sort of treatment must have been abundantly productive of rheumatism and other affections, though we have many instances of Creek Indians reaching a high age. Of theinitiationwhich the Creek boys underwent before attaining their seventeenth year, B. Hawkins gives a full and circumstantial account, which shows that superstitions had entered into the customs of private life of the Creeks as deeply as they had into those of other Indian tribes.
The ceremony of initiating youth into manhood, says B. Hawkins[121], is usually performed at the age from fifteen to seventeen, and is called puskita (fasting), like the busk of the nation. A youth of the proper age gathers two handfuls of the sowátchko plant, which intoxicates and maddens, and eats this very bitter root for a whole day, after which he steeps the leaves in water and drinks from this. After sunset he eats two or three spoonfuls of boiled grits.[122]He remains in a house for four days, during which the above performances are repeated. Putting on a new pair of moccasins (stillipaíχa), he leaves the cabin, and during twelve moons abstains from eating the meat of young bucks, of turkey-cocks, fowls, peas and salt, and is also forbidden to pick his ears and to scratch his head with his fingers, but must use a small splinter to perform these operations. Boiled grits—the only food allowed to him during the first four moons—may be cooked for him by a little girl, but on a fire kindled especially for his own use. From the fifth month any person may cook for him, but he has to serve himself first, using one pan and spoon only. Every new moon hedrinks the pā′ssa or button-snake root, an emetic, for four days, and takes no food except some boiled grits, húmpita hátki, in the evening. At the commencement of the twelfth lunation he performs for four days the same rites as he did at the beginning of the initiation, but on the fifth he leaves the cabin, gathers maize-cobs, burns them to ashes, and with these rubs his whole body. At the end of the moon he elicits transpiration by sleeping under blankets, then goes into cold water, an act which ends the ceremony. The herb medicines are administered to him by the ísti pakā′dsha `láko or "great leader," who, when speaking of him, says: pusidshedshē′yi sanatchumitchä′tchä-is,[123]"I am passing him through the physicking process repeatedly," or: náki omálga imaki`lä′dshäyi sá`lit ómäs, tchí, "I am teaching him all the matters proper for him to think of." If he has a dream during this course of initiation, he has to drink from the pā′ssa, and dares not touch any persons, save boys who are under a like course. This course is sometimes shortened to a few months, even to twelve days only, but the performances are the same.
The purpose of the initiation of boys, corresponding to the first-menstruation rites of females, was the spiritual as well as the physical strengthening of the individual. While the physical exposures and privations were thought to render him strong in body and fearless in battle, the dreams coming upon him, in consequence of the exhaustion by hunger and maddening by all sorts of physic, were supposed to furnish him visions, which would reveal to him enchanting views for future life, material riches and the ways to acquire them, the principles of bravery and persistence, the modes of charming enemies and game at a distance, of obtaining scalps, and prospects of general happiness and of a respected position in his tribe.[124]
Commemorative Beads.—To perpetuate the memory of historical facts, as epidemics, tribal wars, migrations, the Creeks possessed the pictorial or ideographic writing, the material generally used for it being tanned skins. Besides this, which was common to the majority of Indian tribes of North America, Milfort (pp. 47-49) mentions another mode of transmitting facts to posterity, which shows a certain analogy with the wampum-belts of the Iroquois and Algonkin tribes.
It consisted of strings of small beads, in shape of a narrow ribbon (banderole) or rosary (chapelet). The beads are described as being similar to those calledCayenne pearlsin Milfort's time, varying in color, the grains being strung up one after the other. The signification of each bead was determined by its shape and the position it occupied in its order of sequence. Only the principal events were recorded by these beads, and without any historic detail; hence a single string often sufficed to recall the history of twenty or twenty-five years. The events of each year were kept strictly distinct from the events of any subsequent year by a certain arrangement of the grains, and thus the strings proved reliable documents as to the chronology of tribal events. The oldest of the míkalgi (les chefs des vieillards) often recounted to Milfort, who had risen to the dignity of "chief warrior" in the nation, episodes of early Creek history, suggested to them by these "national archives."
Many old traditions of historic importance must have been embodied in these records; but the only one given by Milfort, referring to the emigration of the Creeks from their ancient cave-homes along Red river, is so mixed up with incredible matter, that the fixation of the events, as far as then remembered, must have taken place many generations after the arrival of the Creeks in their Alabama homes. Milfort himself, at the head of two hundred Creek men, undertook an expedition to that renowned spot, to gratify himself and his companions with the sight of the place itselffrom which the nation had sprung forth, and all this solely on the strength of the belief which these bead-strings had inspired in his companions.
Further notices on Creek ethnology may be found inB. F. French, Hist. Collect. of Louisiana, III, 128-139, in the "Notes;" also in Urlsperger's "Nachricht," Vol. I, chapter 5, 859-868, a passage describing especially Yámassi customs.
To offer a history of the Creek tribe from its discovery down to our epoch to the readers does not lie within the scope of this volume, and for want of sufficient documents illustrating the earlier periods it could be presented in a fragmentary manner only. But a few notes on the subject, especially on the Oglethorpe treaties, will be of interest to the reader.
In the year following their departure from the West Indies (1540), the troops led by H. de Soto traversed a portion of the Creek territory, taken in its extent as known to us from the end of the eighteenth century. De Soto's presence is proved by the mention of Creek tribes bearing Creek names in the reports of his three chroniclers. The most circumstantial report in topography is that of the Knight of Elvas. He states that de Soto's army usually marched five to six leagues a day in peopled countries, but when passing through deserted lands proceeded faster. From Chiaha H. de Soto reached Coste in seven days. From Tali, probably contiguous to Coste, he marched for six days, through many towns, to Coça, arriving there July 26th, 1540. Leaving this town after a stay of twenty-five days, he reached Tallimuchase on the same day, Ytava on the next, and had to remain there six days, on account of a freshet in the river. Having crossed the river he reached Ullibahali town, fortified by a wooden wall, and on the next day stopped at a town subject to the lord of Ullibahali, to reach Toasi the day after. Thenhe traversed the Tallise "province," peopled with many towns, and entered the great pueblo of Tallise on September 18th, to stay there twenty days. Many other towns were visible on the opposite side of the "maine river," on which Tallisi[125]stood. On leaving this pueblo he reached Casiste on the same day, and Tuscalusa, whose chief was lord of many territories, after another march of two days. From there Piache, on a great river, was reached in two days, and Mavila in three days from Piache. De Soto arrived in Mavila on October 18th, and the whole distance from Coça to Tuscalusa is computed by the Knight of Elvas at sixty leagues, the direction of the route being from north to south. In this particular Biedma differs from him.
The villages of Chiaha (Chisca, Ychiaha, China, var. lect.) and of Coste (Costehe, Acostehe) provinces were fortified and stood on river-islands. This latter circumstance makes it probable that they lay on Tennessee river, and hence were held by Cheroki Indians. Tali is either the Creek term talidry,exsiccated, or the Cha'hta talirock. Coça, then in a flourishing condition, is the town of Kúsa. Talli-muchasi, or "Newtown," near Coça, is clearly a Creek term, and so is Ytava, Itáwa, which I take for the imperfectly articulated itálua,tribe. Toasi is, I think, the town of Tawasa, which was one of the Alibamu villages, q. v., and lay on the southern shore of the Alabama river.
Tallisi is undoubtedly Talua-hássi, "old town," but which one of the numerous settlements of this name it may have been is now impossible to determine. Casiste resembles Kasí'hta, but cannot have been Kasíχta on Chatahuchi river, for de Soto reached Tuskalusa or "Black Warrior," which I take to be a town on the river of that name, within two days from Casiste, traveling west.[126]Piache, if Creek, could beapi-údshilittle pole,small tree. Garcilaso de la Vega states that Tascalusa was on the same river (?) as Tallisi and below it. The documents of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries frequently give names of localities and tribes to the local chiefs, as was done here in the case of Tascalusa, Mavila, Alimamu and others. Chíaha is a Cheroki name, and is explained elsewhere as "place of otters." Some modern critics believe that de Soto's army did not cross the mountains into what is now North Carolina and Tennessee, the "over-hill" seats of the Cheroki people, but only skirted the southern slope of the Apalachian ridge by passing through Northern Georgia west into Northern Alabama, and then descending Coosa river. In order to determine de Soto's route in these parts, we have to decide first, whether the days and directions of the compass noted by his chroniclers deserve more credence than the local names transmitted in cases when both form conflicting statements. The names of localities could not be pure inventions; they prove by themselves, that tribes speaking Creek or Maskoki proper were encountered by the adventurous leader in the same tracts where we find them at the beginning of this nineteenth century. It follows from this that the Creek immigration from the west or northwest, if such an event ever occurred within the last two thousand years, must have preceded the time of de Soto's visit by a long lapse of time. Thus the terms itálua, talófa, talássi belong to the Creek dialect only; had H. de Soto been in a country speaking a Hitchiti dialect, he would have heard, instead of these, the term ókli, and instead of tálua mútchasi: ókli himáshi.[127]
In 1559 another Spanish leader, Tristan de Luna, disembarked in or near Mobile bay, then went north in quest of gold and treasure, reached Nanipacna, or "pueblo Santa Cruz de Nanipacna," and from there arrived, after experiencingmany privations and trials, among the Coças, who were then engaged in warfare with the Napochies (naⁿpissa? cf. Chicasa). He made a treaty of alliance with the Coças, and deemed it prudent to return. The distance from Coça to Nanipacna was twelve days, from there to the harbor three days' march.[128]
In 1567 Captain Juan del Pardo set out from St. Helena, near Charleston Harbor, S. C., on an exploration tour with a small detachment, following partly the same aboriginal trail which had guided de Soto through the wastes of Georgia and the Cheroki country. On leaving the banks of the Tennessee river, he turned south, touching Kossa, a sort of a capital (evidently Kúsa), then Tasqui, Tasquiqui and Olitifar. These are the only names of places mentioned by his chronicler, Juan de la Vandera (1569), which refer to the Creek country. Tasquiqui cannot be anything else but Taskígi, near the junction of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers.
From the beginning of the eighteenth century the French, Spanish and Britishcolonistsendeavored to win over the tribes of the confederacy to their interests. The Spaniards established in Northern Florida paid honors to the "emperor of the Cowetas," therewith hoping to influence all the Lower and Upper Creeks, and in 1710 received Kawíta delegates with distinction at St. Augustine. After the conflict with the Spaniards the British established Fort Moore for trading purposes among the Lower Creeks. In 1713 chiefs of the Alibamu, Koassáti and other tribes visited the French colony at Mobile, entered into friendly relations, invited them to construct Fort Alibamu, also called Fort Toulouse, near Odshi-apófa, q. v., and were helpful in erecting it. The French entertained a small garrison and a trader's post there, and subsequently the fort was called Fort Jackson.
The first Britishtreatywith the Creeks was concluded by James Oglethorpe, Governor of the Carolinas. He set out May 14th, 1733, from Charleston, his residence, and on May 18th met in council the representatives of the Lower Creek tribes at Savannah. During the meeting many facts of interest were elicited. The Creeks then claimed the territory extending from the Savannah river to the Flint river, and south to St. Augustine, stating that their former number of ten tribes had been reduced to eight. Wikatchámpa, the Okóni míko, proclaimed that his tribe would peaceably cede to the British all lands not needed by themselves. The Yamacraw chief Tomochichi, then banished from one of the Lower Creek towns, spoke in favor of making a treaty with the foreigners, and Yahóla `láko, míko of Kawíta, allowed Tomochichi and his relatives "to call the kindred, that love them, out of each of the Creek towns, that they may come together and make one town. We must pray you to recall the Yamasees, that they may be buried in peace among their ancestors, and that they may see their graves before they die; and our own nation (of the Lower Creeks) shall be restored again to its ten towns." The treaty of land-cession, commerce and alliance was signed May 21st, and ratified by the trustees of the colony of Georgia, October 18th, 1733. It stipulated a cession of the lands between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers, and of some islands on the Atlantic coast, to the British; it further stipulated promises to enter into a commercial treaty at a later date, to place themselves under the general government of Great Britain, to live in peace with the colonies, to capture runaway slaves and deliver them at Charleston, Savannah or Palachukla garrison for a consideration. The treaty was confirmed by pledges on the side of the Creeks, which consisted in a bundle of buckskins for each town, whereas the English made presents of arms, garments, etc., in return. The Indians expressed a desire of receiving instruction through teachers, and the success obtainedin concluding this first treaty was mainly attributed to the influence of Tomochichi upon his fellow-countrymen. The eight tribes represented were Kawíta, Kasíχta, Ósutchi, Chíaha, Hítchiti, Apalatchúkla, Okóni, Yufála. The "two lost towns" were certainly not those of the Sáwokli and Yuchi, although these do not figure in the list. Only one of the headmen signing the treaty of 1733 figures in the prooemium of our legend (written in 1735): "Tomaumi, head warrior of Yufála, with three warriors;" he is identical with Tamókmi, war captain of the Eufantees (in 1735). Chekilli is not mentioned.
The above treaty is printed in: Political State of Great Britain, vol. 46, p. 237 sqq; extract in C. C. Jones, Tomochichi, pp. 27-37.
Although encouraged by this first successful meeting with the Creeks, the colonists knew so well the fickleness of the Indian character that they were distrustful of the steadiness of their promises, and thus sought to renew the friendly relations with them as often as possible.
A convention was arranged with the chiefs of the Lower Creeks at Savannah in 1735, during which the legend of the Kasiχta migration was delivered, but it does not appear whether any new treaty stipulations were mooted or not at that meeting.
Just after his return from England, Governor Oglethorpe again came to Savannah on October 13th, 1738, to meet in council the míkos of Chíaha, Okmúlgi, Ótchisi and Apalatchúkla, who were accompanied by thirty warriors and fifty-two attendants. They assured him of their firm and continued attachment to the crown, and notified him that deputies of the remaining towns would come down to see him, and that one thousand warriors of theirs were at his disposal. They also requested that brass weights and sealed measures should be deposited with the míkos of each town, to preclude the traders settled among them from cheating.
On the 17th of July, 1739, Oglethorpe with a large retinue started to meet the Creeks in their own country, at Kawíta. He traveled up Savannah river to the Yuchi town, twenty-five miles above Ebenezer, then followed the inland trail, for two hundred miles, without meeting any Indians. The council lasted from August 11th to 21st, and terminated in a treaty, by which the towns renewed their "fealty" to the king of Great Britain, and confirmed their cessions of territory, while Oglethorpe engaged that the British should not encroach upon their reserved lands, and that their traders should deal fairly and honestly with the Indians. The towns on Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers participated in the treaty.[129]
It may be regarded as a consequence of this compact, that Creek warriors joined the British as auxiliaries in the expedition against St. Augustine in 1742.
Important and detailed information on the relations of the Creeks and all other Southern tribes with the British and French settlers of colonial times may be found in the documents preserved at the State Paper Office, London. The contents of such papers as relate more especially to South Carolina are hinted at in numerous abstracts of them given in a catalogue inCollections of South Carolina Historical Society, Vols. I, II, Charleston, 8vo (Vol. II published in 1858); cf. II, 272. 297-298. 315-317. 322, etc. Compare also W. de Brahm's writings, mentioned in: Appendices.
An incomplete and unsatisfactory, though curious list of the elements then (1771) composing the Maskoki confederacy and of itswestern alliesis contained in B. Romans, East and West Florida (p. 90). The passage first alludes to the Seminoles as allies, and then continues: "They are a mixture of the remains of the Cawittas, Talepoosas, Coosas, Apalachias, Conshacs or Coosades, Oakmulgis, Oconis, Okchoys, Alibamons, Natchez, Weetumkus, Pakanas, Taënsas, Chacsihoomas,Abékas and some other tribes whose names I do not recollect."
An interesting point in early Creek history is the settlement ofCherokiIndians in Georgia, and their removal from there through the irruption of the Creeks. W. Bartram, Travels, p. 518, in describing the mounds of the country, states "that the region lying between Savanna river and Oakmulge, east and west, and from the sea coast (of the Atlantic) to the Cherokee or Apalachean mountains (filled with these mounds) was possessed by the Cherokees since the arrival of the Europeans; but they were afterwards dispossessed by the Muscogulges, and all that country was probably, many ages preceding the Cherokee invasion, inhabited by one nation or confederacy (unknown to the Cherokees, Creeks) ... etc." In another passage he gives a tradition of the Creeks, according to which an ancient town once built on the east bank of the Okmúlgi, near the old trading road, was their first settlement in these parts after their emigration from the west.
The topographic names from the Cheroki language throughout Georgia testify strongly to the presence of Cheroki Indians in these countries. The tracts on the Okóni and Okmúlgi are nearer to the seats of the Élati Cheroki than the Creek settlements on Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, where Cheroki local names occur also.
The legend reported by C. Swan (Schoolcraft V, 259) that the Creeks migrated from the northwest to the Seminole country, then back to Okmúlgi, Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers, deserves no credit, or applies to small bodies of Indians only.
From an ancient tradition John Haywood[130]relates the fact (pp. 237-241) that when the Cheroki Indians first settled in Tennessee, they found no other red people living on Tennesseeriver, except a large body of Creeks near the influx of Hiwassee river (and some Shawanese on Cumberland river). They had settled "at the island on the Creek path," meaning a ford of the Great Tennessee river, also called "the Creek crossing," near the Alabama State border. At first they lived at peace with them, but subsequently attacked them, to drive them out of the country. By stratagem they drew them from their island, with all the canoes in their possession, to a place where others lay in ambush for them, engaged them in battle, took away their canoes to pass over to the island, and destroyed there all the property of the tribe. The enfeebled Creeks then left the country and went to the Coosa river.
The Broad river, a western affluent of Savannah river, formed for many years the boundary between the Cheroki and the eastern Creeks. It figures as such in Mouson's map of 1773.
The Creeks remained under the influence of the British government until after the American Revolutionary war, and in many conflicts showed their hostility to the thirteen states struggling for independence. Thus they acted in the British interest when they made a night attack on General Wayne's army, in 1782, led by Guristersigo, near the Savannah river. An attack on Buchanan's station was made by Creek and Cheroki warriors near Nashville, Tenn., in 1792. Treaties were concluded with them by the United States at New York, August 7th, 1790, and at Coleraine, Georgia, June 29th, 1796. An article of these stipulated the return of captured whites, and of negro slaves and property to their owners in Georgia. Trading and military posts were established among them, and an agent of the Government began to reside in one of their towns. Further cessions of Creek lands are recorded for 1802 and 1805.
Instigated by the impassionate speeches of Tecumseh, the Sháwano leader, the Upper Creeks, assisted by a few Yuchi and Sáwokli Indians, revolted in 1813 and massacred theAmerican garrison at Fort Mimms, near Mobile bay, Alabama, on August 30th of that year. General A. Jackson's army subdued the revolt, after many bloody victories, in the battle of the Horse-Shoe Bend, and by taking Pensacola, the seaport from which the Spaniards had supplied the insurrection with arms. A peace treaty was concluded on August 9th, 1814, embodying the cession of the Creek lands west of Coosa river. Surrounded as they were by white settlements on all sides, this revolt, known also as the Red Stick War, was the last consequential sign of reaction of the aboriginal Creek mind against civilizing influences.
Previous to the departure from their lands in the Gulf States to the Indian Territory (1836-1840), scattering bands of the Creeks joined the Seminoles in 1836, while others took arms against the United States to attack the border settlements and villages in Georgia and Alabama. These were soon annihilated by General Scott. The treaty of cession is dated April 4th, 1832, and the lands then granted to them in their new homes embraced an area of seven millions of acres. On October 11th, 1832, the Apalachicola tribe renewed a prior agreement to remove to the west of Mississippi river, and to surrender their inherited lands at the mouth of the Apalachicola river. Only 744 Creeks remained east of the Mississippi river.
At the outbreak of the Secession war, in 1861, the Creeks separated into two hostile parties. Chief Hopó`li yahóla with about 8000 Creeks adhered firmly to the Union cause, and at the head of about 800 of his warriors, aided by auxiliary troops, he defeated the Confederate party in one engagement; but in a second action he was defeated, and with his followers fled into Kansas. Both rencontres took place in the territory of the Cheroki Indians, in November and December, 1861.
The statistic dates of the Creek population given before B. Hawkins' time are mere estimates. In 1732 GovernorOglethorpe reported 1300 warriors in eight towns of the Lower Creeks (Schoolcraft V, 263. 278), and in 1791 all the Creek "gun-men" were estimated to number between 5000 and 6000; the same number is given for these in the census of 1832 (Schoolcraft V, 262 sqq.; VI, 333), living in fifty-two towns, the whole population being between 25,000 and 30,000. In the same year the Cha'hta population was conjectured to amount to 18,000 (Schoolcraft VI, 479). The Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1881 gives a Creek population of 15,000, settled upon 3,215,495 acres of land; one half of these are tillable, but only 80,000 acres were cultivated during that year by these Indians.
of Maskoki is a harmonious, clearly vocalized form of speech, averse to nasalization. In forms it is exceedingly rich, but its syntax is very simple and undeveloped. An archaic form, called the female language, exists outside of the common Creek, and mainly differs from it in the endings of the verbs.
Creek possesses all sounds of the general Maskoki alphabet; but here and in Hitchiti the gutturals g, k, χ are often pronounced with the tongue resting upon the fore or alveolar part of the palate. The alternating processes observed here also occur in most other Indian and illiterate languages: tch, dsh alternate with ts, ds, h with k, χ; g with the other gutturals, b with p, d with t, ā with e, o with u. The accent shifts for rhetoric and syntactic causes, and many unaccented syllables are pronounced long. In the pronunciation of the natives there is a sort of singing modulation, which likes to lengthen the last syllables of a sentence.[131]Syllables not final generally terminate in a vowel.
The nominal inflectionshows but three cases: The first in -i (or -a, -o, -u), which may be called absolute;[132]the subjective case in -t, -it (-at, -ut), and the objective in -n, -in (-an, -un). The absolute case, when used as a vocative, often lengthens or strongly accentuates the last syllable. The suffix -n indicates the direct and indirect object, and also sometimes the locative case. Diminutives are formed by means of the suffix -odshi, -udshi.
Substantive.The substantive noun does not inflect for number except in a few terms designating persons which form a plural in -agi, -aki: míkochief, míkagichiefs, to be distinguished from míkalgiclass from which chiefs are chosen; húnanwaman, hóktiwoman; hunantági, hóktagi. It is the archaic form of -akīs, the verbal ending of third person plural of certain verbal inflections. Cf. -a`li in Hitchiti.
The suffix -algi, though sometimes used as a plural suffix, designates collectivity: u-ikaíwaspring of water, u-ikaiwálkiplace with water-springs, and u-ikaiⁿálkipeople living at the springs; alíktchaconjurer, alíktchalgiconjurers as one body,taken in a body.
The parts of speech being but imperfectly differentiated, tenses can be expressed in nouns by adding suffixes: míkochief, mikotáti, míko-ō′māone who was,has been chief; míko-ta`lánia future chief; adsulagitátithe defunct forefathers.
Adjectivesform a real plural by appending the suffix -agi, -aki to the base. This applies, however, only to a limited number of adjectives, like: