Settlers versus Natives: The Creek War

The War of 1812 on the frontier was a case of "here we go again" when it came to the machinations of foreign governments pitting Natives against one another to do their fighting for them.  The Natives in this War, though, far from being pawns, were also using the situation to their advantage, taking one last desperate opportunity to gain concessions from the still-young United States government.  The Creek War was a classic case of this, the struggle rising from an internal rift between factions in the Creek Nation, to become part of the overall Southern campaigns of the War of 1812. 

Here's the context on the national stage.  As we know from basic history class in school, the War of 1812 began partly as a response to British impressment of American seamen and interference with American trade on the high seas.  What's not often apparent is that the British still had designs on portions of the American back country, including the Ohio Valley and the Spanish land claims in Florida.  The British were aware, as were the Americans, that Spain was losing the last pieces of its vast colonial empire and that included East Florida (the peninsula portion) and West Florida (the panhandle and coastal Alabama and Mississippi).  The Natives were aware that America was embroiled in yet another war and many leaders took advantage of this situation to galvanize support for driving White settlement out of the Ohio Valley and back over the Appalachian Mountains.  Tecumseh's War (1811-1813) fits into this time period. 

Although several tribes and factions within tribes were all for expelling American settlers from their lands, others were not so sure.  They had reaped some benefit from the proximity of American settlements.  The Southern tribes especially had engaged in agriculture, sent their children to school, intermarried among White settlers and tried to blend with their White neighbors.  A pan-Indian revolt was the last thing they needed or wanted.   They rejected Tecumseh's overtures but still remained uneasy about the number of Settlers coming onto lands given to them by treaty.  Rifts developed between various factions in the Southern tribes, traditionalists versus progressives, and the Creeks were no exception.  The Upper Creeks, who lived mostly in Alabama were generally further removed from White settlement and tended to be traditionalists, while the Lower Creeks, who lived closer to the Florida line, tended to favor cooperation with the Whites.  These factions soon began calling themselves Red Sticks, after the red-painted war clubs of the warriors or the ceremonial sticks used by their medicine men, as opposed to the White stick faction who favored peace. 

Just as Tecumseh and Tenskwata were the leaders of Native resistance in the North, leaders emerged in the Red Stick Creek faction.  William Weatherford, Menawa, and Peter McQueen.  All three men wee of mixed-race ancestry.  Yet they owed their first allegiance to their maternal tribe, the Creeks.  Other Creek leaders, such as William MacIntosh, who was also mixed-race, were equally adamant in their desire to maintain a relationship with the United States.  When MacIntosh and other leaders signed an agreement promising friendship with the United States, the Red Stick Creeks began attacking their towns.  Enter British agents, who were eager to supply the Red Sticks with guns an ammunition if they would turn their attacks toward American settlements.  Enter, as well, Spanish agents who hoped to turn the Red Stick faction toward their own ends in keeping both Britain and the United States out of Florida. 

For the time being, as long as the Creeks fought amongst each other, the American government was content to focus elsewhere.  This changed on July 12, 1813, when a force of American militia intercepted a party of Red Sticks on their way back from Spanish Florida, where they had received weapons from the Spanish agents.  The Americans ambushed the Creeks, who fought back and ultimately prevailed.  America now had an Indian War in the South as well as the wider War with Britain and the continuing war with Tecumseh.  McQueen and Weatherford next turned their attention to Fort Mims, in Alabama.  Their target were the mixed-blood Creeks who had taken refuge with the White settlers at the Fort.  On August 30, 1813, the Red Sticks attacked and burnt Fort Mims, killing 400-500 people including Whites with no Native heritage.  American public sentiment was inflamed and the people demanded that their government do something to help the Settlers in Alabama.  The Red Sticks attacked more forts and panic spread. 

While Washington focused on the wider war and Tecumseh, the Tennessee Governor authorized two militia forces, under Andrew Jackson and Alexander Cocke, to deal with the spreading Creek civil war.  White Stick forces mobilized under William MacIntosh, while the Cherokee and Choctaw voted to join the Americans in their attempts to put down the Creeks.  Georgia was also busy raising a militia.  The Georgia militia began marching first, and ran into a large Red Stick force at Calabee Creek on January 29, 1814.  The Creeks scored a decisive victory and put Georgia out of action in the War.  Contingents from Mississippi, North and South Carolina also participated in skirmishes and burnt Creek villages and crops before returning home.  That left Jackson's and Cocke's Tennessee forces still in the field, augmented with Creek, Choctaw and Cherokee allies. 

Jackson began his advance in October, 1813 and had some initial successes.  Supply and discipline problems, as well as rivalry with his fellow militia leader, Alexander Cocke, hampered his progress.  Jackson persisted until he met the Red Sticks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 2014.  That Battle effectively ended Red Stick resistance.  It also had a personal impact on some of the men involved in it.  Jackson was so impressed by the courage of Red Stick leader William Weatherford that he let him go after the surrender was concluded.  Other Creeks, though, were not impressed by Jackson and not happy that they had lost.  During the talks, one of them lunged at Jackson and was only saved when Cherokee leader Janaluska stepped in and struck the attacker down with a club.  As we've seen, Jackson would refuse to remember the incident later, when Janaluska desperately needed his help. 

For the time being, Jackson was focused on Peter McQueen, who was still in the field and considered the more dangerous of the Creek leaders.  Among the Creek prisoners in tow with his army was Peter's sister, who offered to divulge her brother's whereabouts if Jackson would let the women and children go.  Jackson knew full well she had no intention of keeping her word, but he was glad of the opportunity to be rid of these hangers-on, so he let agreed.  He probably did not notice a certain ten-year-old boy, Billy Powell, McQueen's great-nephew, who would emerge in the years to come as Seminole War leader Osceola. 

Instead, Jackson had other matters on his hands.  He laid down harsh land concession on both factions of the Creeks.  The White Stick Creeks, who expected to be allowed some of the land confiscated from the Red Sticks, were furious but they had no choice except to agree yet another treaty ceding Creek land to White settlement.  The stage was set for further strife in  the Creek Nation and the ultimate windup to Indian Removal.