The Muscogee were not a single tribe, but several bands of Natives linked together by a common language and common heritage. They were descendants of the Mississippian mound builders and their society, highly structured and based on the town system, reflected that. Like their closely related neighbors, the Chickasaw and Choctaw, the Muscogee were agricultural, their main crop being corn. Their religious ceremonies centered in part around making sure that there was a plentiful corn harvest every year. The Green Corn Dance held every spring performed several functions. It was a ceremony of renewal and contrition for past misbehavior. It ensured a plentiful corn crop, and it was also the time when young men came of age and received their adult names. Or, men who had earned the right received war names and honorifics. The ceremony was based around rituals involving the Black Drink, a sacred beverage made of the Yaupon Holly. Chants or Yahola were associated with the drink, known as Asi. We can guess were this is headed. In or around 1822, a young man who proved exceptionally good at these chants would receive a name that still resonates today, Osceola or literally, Asi-Yahola, the Black Drink Singer.
Muscogee bands spread from what is now Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. Because they were first encountered living near the Savannah River and/or other creeks and rivers, White settlers referred to this group of Natives as Creeks and the name stuck. Like most Natives, disease and warfare with tribes and White settlers caused population decline and social upheaval. Many of the Muscogean peoples banded together for mutual aid and defense. This was the rise of the Creek Confederacy. Some of the tribes associated with this Confederacy included the Alabama, Chiaha, Coosa, Cowetta, Coushatta, Hitchiti, Tuckabatchee, Yuchi and several others. Their basic social unit was the town, with four towns being considered as Mother Towns, Abika, Coosa, Tuckabatchi and Cowetta. They were further subdivided into the Lower Towns and Upper Towns. These subdivisions would become important, with the Lower Towns generally being more agreeable to coexistence with Settlers.Each village was headed by a micco, who had several advisors or assistants. There were also medicine men and a leading warrior (tastanagi or Tastanagi thlucco) who could be both commander and town constable, keeping order at important ceremonies. The family unit was the clan. Clans controlled the property, policed the behavior of their members and determined who was eligible to marry whom. Clans were matrilineal, with property and status determined through the mother. Some clans were known for certain things. Wind clan was known for its leaders. McGillivray, Weatherford, William McIntosh and Josiah Francis came from this clan. Bird clan became known for its warriors and lawgivers, Osceola is believed by both of his modern biographers to have hailed from Bird Clan.
Initially, the Muscogee were loyal to the English, in response to raids and encroachment by the Spanish or by other tribes fleeing the Spanish and/or French. The Muscogee developed a lucrative trade in deerskins, which many English and Scottish traders found quite lucrative. The fathers of McGillivray, Weatherford, McIntosh and William "Billy" Powell were all traders. Later, under McGillivray's guidance, the Lower Creek would become allied with the new United States government. Creek warriors would fight alongside William Henry Harrison against the Shawnee of Tecumseh's Confederacy, and later with Andrew Jackson against fellow Creek in the Creek war. While the Lower Towns viewed coexistence with the United States as the best path forward, their fellows in the Upper Towns, known as Red Sticks because of the colors of their battle clubs, weren't so convinced. The Creek War of 1813-14 was a civil war amongst the Muscogee tribes that ballooned into part of the southern campaign of the War of 1812.
The Creek were under pressure by various Administrations to cede more land and leave for the west. Though the National Council forbade individual chiefs from signing away rights to more land, William McIntosh defied that order in 1821 and again in 1825. He would ultimately pay with his life for this betrayal. Despite the efforts of Opothleyahola and other Creek leaders with the Treaty of Washington in 1826, they lost thousands of acres of land in Georgia and Alabama. After the Indian Removal law was passed in 1830, pressure increased on the Creek to move. Many fled to Florida to join the Seminoles, Hitchitis and Miccosukees. Others were forcibly removed to Oklahoma in 1834. Only remnants of Muscogean people still remain in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana, where some have gained state recognition as tribes.
Once in Oklahoma, the Creek people faced the immediately problem of finding enough food to stay alive. Though they had been expert farmers for centuries, they weren't granted seed or farming implements, and forced to live off of reservations rations, which often were not provided. The grandson of Ethan Allen, Maj. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, wrote several scathing reports on the conditions endured by Natives in Oklahoma. During the Civil War, the Creek and Seminole were vulnerable to raids by Confederates, and pro-Confederate Cherokee, a traditional enemy. In 1861, Opothleyahola would lead his warriors and their families on an epic journey from Oklahoma to Kansas known as the Trail of Blood on Ice. It would be too much for elderly Opothleyahola, who died soon after the journey from both deprivation and disease.
Today, the Muscogee Creek Nation is the largest federal entity representing the rights of the Muscogee people. There are other Muscogee tribes and tribal towns with federal and state recognition in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Alabama.
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