Nativistic Creeks, motivated by spiritual revitalization to reject European ways, came to be called Red Sticks, or less commonly, Red Clubs, because of the traditionally colored war sticks that they distributed and carried into battle during the Creek War of 1813-1814.
Indians of the Southeast, particularly the Creeks, drank a tea made from the brewed leaves of Yaupon Holly. This naturally caffeinated beverage was used during ceremonies and important social meetings. The tea was thought to have purifying properties and, although not naturally an emetic, was often used for medicinal purging. The European settlers who had knowledge of the tea referred to it as "Black Drink" because of its rich color.
In the late 1820's, gold was discovered within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation, prompting a gold rush. Already suffering from unrelenting encroachment, the news of gold brought an even greater influx of settlers, who illegally squatted on and mined land within the Cherokee Nation. As Georgia's desire to rid itself of the Cherokees grew, it not only did little to keep citizens of Georgia from raiding Cherokee land but actually imposed a crackdown on the Cherokees themselves. Georgia proclaimed it illegal for Indians to mine their own property and established a military presence in the Cherokee Nation to enforce the law and punish Cherokees who disobeyed it.
During the era of removal, the Cherokee Nation brought two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to combat Georgia's extension of oppressive laws over their country. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia was brought before the court when Georgia tried and executed a Cherokee man named George Tassel (or Corn Tassel), expressing total disregard for Cherokee sovereignty. Georgia refused to obey a summons, and in 1831 Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the court had no jurisdiction in the matter because the Cherokee Nation was not truly a state in the Constitutional sense. Worcester v. Georgia was brought before the court because the state had imprisoned missionaries who resided in the Cherokee Nation for refusing to sign loyalty oaths to Georgia. In 1832, Marshall ruled that Georgia's actions were illegal because the state had no authority to extend its laws over an Indian nation. Georgia ignored the court's ruling, and President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce it.
During the Second Seminole War, Secretary of War Joel R. Poinsett (1837-1841) ordered that several hundred Shawnee, Delaware, Kickapoo, Sauk, Fox, and Choctaw Indians be recruited to assist white armies in capturing the Seminoles.
George M. Troup, Governor of Georgia (1823-1827), was the cousin of Creek leader William McIntosh.
Andrew Jackson adopted an orphaned Creek boy whose family members were killed by Jackson's own troops during the Creek War (1813-1814).
A state known as Franklin, governed by John Sevier, existed from 1784 to 1788. Franklin was composed of counties that were originally part of North Carolina, and when Franklin was dissolved, it became part of Tennessee.
Cherokee Chief John Ross returned from negotiations in Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1835 to find his own home occupied by strangers. The Georgia Guard, in accordance with the state's land lottery system, had confiscated Ross's estate and given it to the new owner.
Jackson's troops cut off the noses of dead Red Stick Creek warriors after the Battle of Tohopeka (Horseshoe Bend), 1814, in order to count the bodies. Some sources also report that white troops stripped the skin from the bodies of slain Creek warriors and braided it into belts and bridles.
Francis Scott Key, poet and author of the Star-Spangled Banner, was sent to Alabama by President Andrew Jackson in 1833 to assist in the removal of the Creek Indians.
The Cherokee Phoenix, which began publication in 1828, was the first bilingual newspaper in the United States and the first to be published by a Native American group in a native language.
John C. Calhoun, as Secretary of War (1817-1825), established the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1824. Calhoun's position in government did not prevent his involvement in a gold rush, beginning in the late 1820's, that compromised the Cherokee Nation. While Vice President of the United States (1825-1832), he operated a hotel in Auraria, Georgia. Calhoun also owned a lucrative gold mine in north Georgia during his tenure as a South Carolina senator (1832-1843, 1845-1850).
The Cherokee syllabary, created by Sequoyah from 1809-1821, is the only writing system ever invented by a single individual.
In 1835, John Howard Payne visited with John Ross while he was passing through the Cherokee Nation. During Payne's stay with the chief, the Georgia Guard stormed into Ross's house and arrested the two men. It is said that one of the guards hummed the tune to Payne's Home, Sweet Home, unaware of the composer's identity, as Payne and Ross were being marched to prison.
William Augustus Bowles, who occasionally lived among the Seminoles and Lower Creeks, caused strife in the Creek Nation by attempting to usurp political control of the nation from Creek leader Alexander McGillivray. In the 1790's, Bowles gained the support of some Creeks and Seminoles who were not in favor of McGillivray's policies. He proclaimed himself "Director General of the Creek Nation" and presented himself as a Creek official on a "diplomatic" trip to Britain. Bowles was captured by the Spanish shortly after raiding the trade store of Panton, Leslie & Co. at Fort St. Marks in 1800.
In 1786, Georgia commissioners held two Creek chiefs - Neha Micco (the Fat King) and Hopoithle Micco (the Tame King) - hostage while attempting to negotiate for further land cessions.
On a diplomatic visit in 1811, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh promised the Creeks that he would stomp his feet and cause the earth to tremble upon his arrival in Detroit. According to some accounts, an earthquake struck the Creek Nation in December of that year, fulfilling Tecumseh's promise.
The word "Creek" was the shortened name given by English traders to Native Americans living on Ochese Creek in central Georgia and widely applied to native inhabitants throughout the Southeast.
The Trail of Tears began in 1838 when the Cherokees were forced from their homes and imprisoned in removal forts. Approximately one-fourth of the Cherokee population perished during removal, and due to unsanitary and harsh conditions at the removal stockades, many of these people died before the marches began.
Sequoia National Park in California was named in honor of Sequoyah, the inventor of the Cherokee syllabary.
Red Stick Creek leader William Weatherford (Red Eagle) voluntarily surrendered himself to Andrew Jackson shortly after the Red Sticks were defeated at the decisive Battle of Tohopeka (Horseshoe Bend), 1814. When Weatherford learned that Jackson had called for his capture, he went to Fort Jackson to give himself up. According to some accounts, General Jackson was so astonished by Weatherford's manner and eloquence that he allowed him to leave unharmed.
"Hightower" is a corruption of the Cherokee word, "Etowah" or "I'tawa'".
While in command of U.S. troops in Florida during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), Zachary Taylor (later President of the United States, 1849-1850) used dogs to hunt down the Seminoles.
Ross's Landing was the name given to the area on the Tennessee River where Cherokee Chief John Ross operated a business in the early 1800's. This commercial center developed into the present-day city of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
During the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), a delegation of Cherokees journeyed to Florida under the direction of Chief John Ross to assist in negotiations between Seminole warriors and the U.S. Army. A debacle resulted in which U.S. military personnel arrested Seminole leaders who met them under a flag of truce.
David B. Mitchell, U.S. Agent to the Creeks (1817-1821) and Governor of Georgia (1809-1813, 1815-1817), was accused of involvement in African slave smuggling when he was serving as Creek Agent. Attorney General William Wirt reported on the matter to the President and Congress, and Mitchell was subsequently dismissed from duty by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun.
Influential Cherokee leader James Vann owned a large brick mansion and plantation in the Cherokee Nation (near present-day Chatsworth, Georgia). After his death, Vann's son Joseph increased the family's wealth, and in 1819, President James Monroe was a guest at the Vann home. During the removal era, Vann and his family were forced from their estate.
After the close of the War of 1812, British troops evacuated a fort at the mouth of the Apalachicola River in Florida, leaving the fully armed garrison in the control of their Indian and African allies. It remained a stronghold for runaway slaves and southeastern Indian resistance for more than a year. In 1816, U.S. forces, prompted by the complaints of slave-owning settlers and under the orders of General Andrew Jackson, attacked the fort and killed or captured most of its occupants. The fort was known as the "Negro Fort" and Fort Gadsden was built upon its ruins.
General Elijah Clarke was the father of Georgia Governor John Clark (1819-1823).
Influential Cherokees Elias Boudinot (the original editor of the Cherokee Phoenix), Major Ridge and his son John Ridge were killed by fellow Cherokees in 1839 for signing the 1835 Treaty of New Echota. Because this small faction of influential leaders illegitimately agreed to cede the Cherokee Nation's land east of the Mississippi River, and in so doing, accelerated the Cherokees' forced removal, angered opponents, possibly encouraged by Chief John Ross, sought revenge.
John Rollin Ridge, the son of Cherokee leader John Ridge, became a writer, and he is credited with authoring the first Native American novel. As a boy in 1839, he was witness to the execution of his father.
Although the Treaty of Ghent was concluded on December 24, 1814 and ratified February 17, 1815, fighting continued in the Southeast among the British, Americans, various Indian groups and escaped African slaves. When the British departed in the Spring of 1815, hostilities among the other groups persisted, particularly along the border of Florida, and culminated in the First Seminole War (1817-1818).
Creek leader William McIntosh was executed on April 30, 1825 by fellow Creek warriors because he had unlawfully signed the 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs. The cession he made violated a Creek law that forbade any further sale of Creek territory.
In October of 1837, Osceola, the famous Seminole warrior, was captured by the subterfuge of General Thomas S. Jesup who had invited the leader to attend peace negotiations under a flag of truce. Osceola was imprisoned at the Castillo de San Marcos (Fort Marion) in St. Augustine, Florida. He was subsequently transferred to Fort Moultrie, South Carolina where he died from illness in early 1838. It is reported that the physician who attended at the warrior's death removed Osceola's head ostensibly for scientific research before his body was interred at the fort.
Osceola's name is a derivation of the Muskogean (Creek) war title Asi Yoholo, meaning "Black Drink Cryer". This name may have been traditionally associated with the cryer or singer who performed at ceremonial gatherings in which Yaupon Holly tea (Black Drink) was consumed. Osceola's English name was William (Billy) Powell.
In 1858, after the end of the Third Seminole War, only a few scattered bands of Seminoles, amounting to a couple hundred people, remained in Florida. The Seminole communities in Florida had been destroyed and depleted by decades of war with the U.S. and forced emigration to the Oklahoma territory.
Mary Musgrove Matthews Bosomworth (a.k.a. Coosaponakeesa), a Creek woman of mixed heritage, acted as an interpreter for General James Oglethorpe during the founding of the Georgia Colony. With her large land holdings and several trading posts, for a time she was considered the wealthiest woman in Georgia.
Compiled by Angela Pulley and Tara Hottenstein