After the Revolutionary War, new waves of American settlers poured into Georgia. Invention of the cotton gin in 1793 greatly accelerated their desire for rich river bottomland.  Most of the Creek Indians, who had always been excellent farmers, adapted quickly to a cotton-based economy. Nevertheless, those who coveted their lands saw them as obstacles to "progress" and pressed the federal government to remove all Indians to areas west of the Mississippi River. In response, the Creek Council passed a law providing the death penalty for anyone ceding land without their authority.

The Creeks were divided. Many, including Chief William McIntosh, remained loyal to the United States government, believing voluntary removal was the only way their people would escape complete annihilation.  Others became militant, preferring to remain in their homeland and pursue their traditional way of life. Civil war broke out between the two factions. Traditionalist "Red Stick" warriors attacked several loyalist Creek towns. An armed band returning from Spanish Florida was attacked by Alabama settlers.  The Indians retaliated at Fort Mims and the federal government sent troops to intervene. Andrew Jackson with Georgia militia, federal troops, and a force of volunteers, including Creek allies, laid waste to the Creek Nation.  

The "Red Sticks" were crushed when over 500 warriors were killed at the battle of Horseshoe Bend. Afterwards, the federal government took some 22 million acres of Creek land bordering Spanish Florida.In 1825, the infamous Treaty of Indian Springs, ceding the last Creek lands in Georgia, led to the assassination of Chief William Macintosh by his own people. Though the treaty was declared illegal by the federal government, Georgia authorities disagreed and continued to press for removal.  Less than a century after General James Ogle established the city of Savannah, the Creeks were forced out of the state. Some joined Seminole relatives in Florida; many moved into Alabama. About 1,300, mostly members of the Macintosh faction, resettled to the valley of the Arkansas River in "Indian Territory," now the state of Oklahoma, on lands given them in perpetuity under the government’s removal program.

Voluntary removal proved too slow for the ever-growing tide of settlers and the government stepped up its efforts to get the Creek chiefs to sign removal treaties. In 1832, Indian delegates signed a treaty giving up part of their lands in Alabama.  Each Indian family received 320 acres and each chief 640 acres. The families could stay on their allotments or sell them and move west at government expense lands where they were promised autonomy.  Deceit and violence followed immediately. Unscrupulous land agents defrauded Indians, who were not allowed to testify in Alabama courts. Creek farms were burned and families physically forced from their land.  Homeless, demoralized bands roamed the countryside, foraging to keep from starving, but refusing to leave the neighborhood of their former homes.  Some of the displaced Indians lashed back by killing white settlers and destroying cabins, barns and crops.  

Thus began the so- called Creek War of 1836 which ended in July of that year when about 2,500 Creeks, including several hundred warriors in chains, were marched on foot to Montgomery. Crowded onto barges during the extreme heat of July, they were pushed by steamboats down the Alabama River, beginning their forced removal to a new homeland in Indian Territory. During the summer and winter of 1836-early 1837, over 14,000 Creeks made the three-month journey to Oklahoma, a trip of over 800 land miles and another 400 by water.  Most left with only what they could carry.  An observer was moved to write:

The government’s promise to protect the families of the Indians serving in the army during the Seminole War was forgotten. They, too, were driven from their homes.  By March 8, 1937 nearly 4,000 of these Creeks were rounded up into camps to await the arrival of their husbands, brothers and fathers. Many became sick and died before the warriors arrived during September. Finally, in October they were herded to New Orleans where they were placed on nine "rotten, old, and unseaworthy" steamboats for the trip up the Mississippi.  One writer reported:  "The crammed condition of the decks and cabins was offensive to every sense and feeling."  During the trip, one steamboat collided with a ship and was cut in half, killing 311 Creeks.

Still, all of the Creeks had not emigrated. Surrender was demanded even of those who years earlier had intermarried and were living with the Cherokee. To escape capture, they fled to the forests where officers found them "miserable and impoverished." Others were hunted out of the Chickasaw Nation in Mississippi.  Some, mostly children, were held by whites in bondage as slaves.More than 3,500 Creeks died along this "Trail of Tears."  Survivors arrived at their destination in pitiful condition and many died soon after.  The once-mighty Creek Nation was down, but its spirit was not destroyed. Despite continued hardships, its citizens carved a new life for themselves in Oklahoma. Today, their descendants remain a proud and sovereign people.

                                                                                                                               Text by Sylvia Flowers

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