Adoptee: Lyncoya Jackson of the Creek (c1811-1828)

Andrew Jackson's name and legacy has left a trail of bitterness through history.  He gained fame partly for his actions in the Creek War 1813-14, campaigned for the Presidency on a platform of Indian Removal, and enforced removal of most Natives from east of the Mississippi with a cruelty bordering on genocide.  Yet, there was another side to this complex character. 

Sometime during the Creek War, sources differ on whether it was after the battles of either Tallusahatchee, Talladega or Horseshoe Bend, or maybe during one of the many raids on villages which took place during that war, a baby or toddler turned up.  Sources differ on how old he was or how he was found.  Some state that he was located alive under the body of his dead mother.  Others that he was found toddling around, hungry and crying.  At any rate, he was picked up and taken to Andrew Jackson.  Jackson had the child named Lincoya, though why he chose the name or what it means now is obscure.  He sent the boy home to his wife Rachel with instructions that the child was to be raised as a "pett" to their other adopted son, Andrew Jackson, Jr.

For reasons unknown now, the Jacksons had never been able to have children.  Instead, they took in several children from relatives and friends.  Nor was the baby Lincoya the only Native child taken in by the Jacksons.  There were others, though their histories and eventual outcomes are lost to us.  Andrew Jackson, Jr., was the biological son of Rachel's brother Samuel, who had several children already and struggled to provide for them all.  Whatever Jackson meant by calling Lincoya a pet, Rachel had her own ideas about how motherless children should be raised.  Lincoya was given the same upbringing as Andrew, Jr.  He and Andrew, Jr., shared a room, went to school together, ate and played together like brothers do.  There is no indication that Lincoya was treated as anything less than a member of the growing brood of children under Rachel's care. 

As he grew older, though, Lincoya began to realize he was different.   He yearned for his Native people and apparently ran away to try and join them several times, but without success.  He always returned to the Jacksons and, from what is known, treated them with respect as his parents.  Whether he knew the part his adoptive father had played in the beginning of the end for Muscogee/Creek society, or what he felt about that aren't matters of record.  Jackson wanted to send Lincoya to West Point, but that never happened.  Again, sources differ on why that failed to come through.  It wasn't due to Lincoya's Native heritage.  Other Native men, including mixed-race Creek David Moniac, were accepted and graduated from the Academy.  Some sources indicate hat Jackson had political enemies who blocked any attempt at appointment.  However, the Hermitage website suggests that Lincoya himself declined the honor.  Schooling and discipline were always hard for him so that may have been a part of his thinking.  Did he also wonder if he would have to fight his own people, no one knows. 

Jackson didn't force the issue and instead apprenticed Lincoya to a saddle maker.  He seemed to like the work and was on his way to a productive adult life.  Then tragedy struck.  He became ill with tuberculosis, declined rapidly and died.  He is buried on the Hermitage estate.  Although Jackson would be elected President in 1828, he would suffer another blow.  Rachel would die weeks before they were due to leave Tennessee to head to Washington, D.C.  Jackson attended his inaugural in mourning dress, obviously for his wife.  Did he also spare a thought for the boy he'd raised, we'll never know.  Lincoya's people weren't spared in the dark days ahead, also being forced to leave the last of their homeland behind.