Grant Foreman • The Five Civilized Tribes

Capt. James L. Dawson, formerly of the United States army, displaced Logan as Creek Indian agent in June, 1842, and served until July 8, 1844, when he became involved in a difficulty with his bondsman, Seaborne Hill, a trader on the Verdigris, whom he killed with a bowie knife supported by his accomplice, his brother-in‑law, Dr. John R. Baylor.⁠1 Dawson then became a fugitive and James Logan was again appointed agent. Logan was an intelligent observer of the Indians and in his report of 1844 makes interesting comparison of his charges. The Upper Creeks, the recent immigrants of 1836‑37, were in a better condition than the remainder of the tribe; for located at a distance from the settlements of the whites, and also being further removed from the neighborhood

"of their speculative and more civilized neighbors, the Cherokees, makes the importation of whisky into their country a matter of more difficulty; there is consequently less of that pernicious article to be found. They generally live in good hewn log houses; are excellent farmers; are generally more reflective and economical than their brethren of the lower towns; and their females are generally occupied in the domestic occupations of spinning and weaving cotton, of which article a great proportion of what they manufacture is of their own country produce, of which they make nearly sufficient to cloth them. The lands they cultivate are fresh, rich, and, from every account p174 I can obtain, will this year produce them an immense crop of everything they cultivate."⁠2

"The Creeks differ materially from the other large tribes in many respects," said Superintendent Armstrong. "They have not mixed so much with the whites; adhere more rigorously to the customs of their ancestors; have no written laws; and are governed entirely by their chiefs — the people having nothing to do with the making or the execution of the laws."⁠3

"the Upper Creeks care not for the world, and have no idea of what is going on in it; on the contrary the Lower Creeks have a smattering of general intelligence, and occasionally a news paper or an old book may be found among them. . . . The Lower Creeks are agriculturalists. They raise corn and sweet potatoes. I have been told that three of their Negroes can perform as much work as one of ours. Their negroes have to support themselves with clothing and food. To do this they are allowed the Saturday of every week, and after their master's crop is laid by in July, from that time to September, or harvest time. Soon as the fall comes, all the fences fall and everybody rides wherever he may please, though there are thousands of roads running in every direction. Happy people! — no taxes to pay — no law to make them pay their debts. They are not harassed like the whites with the eternal thought of money. . . . We think the Upper Creeks their superiors; they have not degenerated."⁠4

A few more Creek emigrants were brought west at intervals. One hundred and four came in 1846 and in February, 1847, Paddy Carr arrived with his family and eight slaves. The former included his two daughters, Ariadon and Areanne. Their father was a Rhode Islander of the classics and adapted the name of Ariadne to his daughters. He did not remain in the West but returned to Alabama. Refugees who had eluded capture or were detained when the tribe was removed in 1836‑37 were brought from time to time. A contractor named Moses K. Wheat was p175 engaged in collecting these remnants in the winter of 1845‑46 and a company sent off by him in charge of Capt. A. Scale and Leroy Driver arrived at Fort Smith in February, numbering then 150. Wheat wrote the commissioner of Indian affairs that "in Coosa and Talledega counties I collected some 57 in number and put them in charge of the wagoner to carry them to camp, and when on the journey were persuaded to abscond by persons telling them that they were to be chained and carried off and sold as slaves. Genl. Blake writes me that in a scout in Barbour, Henry, Dale, Covington and Pike counties he found considerable but mostly females" held as slaves.⁠5

The condition of these Creeks held in bondage by the whites of Alabama excited the compassion of their tribesmen who were able to do but little for them. The Federal Government seemed indifferent to their condition, but an enterprising Creek named Ward Co‑cha‑my went to their relief. Co‑cha‑my collected sixty-five Creeks whom he embarked on a steamboat at Sizemore's woodyard on the Alabama River and brought by water to Fort Smith, where they arrived June 24, 1848. From there they departed in wagons to join the Creeks in their new home. The next June, forty-four more Creeks were brought west.⁠6 Unfortunately they had traveled through a cholera infested region and brought the disease with them. However, it was confined to Chiaha Town, thirteen of whose members died.⁠7

So badly had the wholesale emigration of the Creeks and Seminole been managed that a band of Apalachicola Indians were brought west and located upon the Creek domain. The Creek chiefs reported their p176 presence on their land and begged the Government to furnish them with food, as they were "in a deplorable condition; a good many of them are naked and have to means by which they can obtain subsistence."⁠8 A band of Spaniards who lived by themselves on an island off the coast of Florida were enticed to Tampa Bay by whites who wished to be rid of them. There they were mingled with the Seminole prisoners with whom they were forced aboard the boats and shipped to the western home of the Seminole Indians. On their arrival in the West the mistake was discovered and as the Indian agents had authority to feed none but Indians they were destitute and hungry and Logan called on the Government to do something for their relief.⁠9

The so‑called union of the tribe in 1839 was by no means an amalgamation of the factions. Throughout their history there was always a line of cleavage between them, though in time their differences yielded slowly to their common necessities. It cannot be said, however, that they actually united under one government and one set of national officers until after the adoption of their constitutional government in 1867; this was forced upon the full-blood element that predominated among the Upper Creeks, by the more enlightened Indians, in many of whom was a considerable strain of white blood.

In 1842 soon after Logan had effected between the factions the beginning of the movement that he fondly hoped was to be a union of the tribe, they were visited by Maj. Indicates a West Point graduate, Class of 1817: a link to his biographical entry in Cullum's Register.

Indicates a West Point graduate, Class of 1817: a link to his biographical entry in Cullum's Register.

Ethan Allen Hitchcock who kept a series of diaries that provide an interesting picture of the Creek p177 Indians.⁠10 The principal chief of the Lower Creeks, he said, was Roley McIntosh, and of the Upper Creeks, Tuckabatche Micco.

"in general Council two principal chiefs preside seated by the side of each other, but Roley McIntosh takes the right and is considered the senior or head chief of the Nation. For local purposes in the Upper Creeks there are four chiefs called Counselling Chiefs one of whom is called the King, who transact the current business of the party subject to the control of the principal Chief whenever the latter thinks proper to interfere, as on important occasions.

"After these are the Chiefs of the different towns. The whole nation is divided into towns having separate names. There may be forty-five towns, each of which has a principal chief or king and a subchief. In each town there are persons called lawyers, from four up to forty and even forty-five, according to the population, whose duty it is to execute the laws; they are subject to the views of the Head Chiefs of the Nation who send them on important missions when necessary. The Lower Creeks have two persons in authority called Light Horse, who are a sort of Sheriffs for the collection of debts with other similar duties and are paid each a salary of $150 a year.

"There is a general council of the nation once a year in the Spring. All of the Chiefs of every grade are permanently in power unless they resign or from misconduct are deposed. The mode of filling a vacancy is assimilated to an election by the people but upon recommendations made by those already in power, to which the popular vote presents scarcely an obstacle.

"The general council for business is composed of the two principal chiefs and the Kings including those of the Towns. These constitute the Aristocratic portion of the government. There is another branch composed of one or two persons elected by each town from among the lawyers with one judge from the upper and one from the lower Creeks which constitute what is called a committee. This has the appearance of a popular branch. Sometimes the number of the committee is increased on important occasions.

"A law generally originates in the Committee; if approved there, it is sent to the principal chiefs for their approval. If approved by the principal chiefs it is a law. But practically the Chiefs made the laws p178 and unmake them. Besides the written laws there are many usages in force which are not written. Their peculiar ceremonies and customs are not written.

"The Lower Creeks have to some extent abandoned their old customs, but the Upper Creeks who are less advanced in civilization, have retained most of their ancient ceremonies and customs."⁠11

Colonel Hitchcock learned that during the first twelve months after the arrival of the emigrant Creeks in 1836 more than 3,500 of them died, exceeding one-fourth of the entire population. One will look in vain through the published official records to find any estimate or mention even of that appalling catastrophe to these helpless people.

The Creeks were regarded as the most powerful tribe on the frontier. Many of them having been engaged in war with the United States and thousands of them forcibly removed from their homes east of the Mississippi, it was natural to expect a spirit of hostility against the Government, but these feelings were subsiding under the influence of Roley McIntosh, a man of undoubted attachment to the Government. The Creeks were becoming interested in the subject of education, but they decided that it was a waste of money to send ten or twelve of their youths to the Choctaw Academy in Kentucky; these young men returning after an absence of several years found themselves in a strange environment, isolated without companions or associates possessing the same advantages they had. Unable to adapt themselves to their surroundings, finding that their education was of no advantage in securing employment, they relaxed into "idle and dissolute habits and too often became a nuisance and curse to the nation."⁠12 The Creeks said that not one of their young men, educated at the Choctaw Academy, had ever done any good after returning to the nation. It required an effort to convince many of the Creeks that education was not to blame for this condition. But to overcome this prejudice, the sending of their youths to the Choctaw Academy was discontinued; efforts were made to set up local schools instead.

After their expulsion from the Creek Nation in the autumn of 1836, there were no missionaries of any denomination for about five years except two or three illiterate preachers. "The darkness of heathenism brooded over the whole land. The wild whoop of the ball players and p179 the savage yells of the stomp dance were heard in all parts of the Nation. A fierce prosecution also was waged in some parts of the Nation against the few praying Indians who still clung to the Gospel, some of whom were whipped most unmercifully for attending religious meetings."⁠13

Upon his appointment for the purpose by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, Rev. Robert M. Loughridge departed from Eutaw, Alabama, November 2, 1842, and traveled horseback 600 miles to the Creek Nation. After some delay the Creek council met to consider his application for leave to establish among them a mission school and to preach to them. Chief Roley McIntosh "as spokesman for all said: 'We want a school, but we don't want any preaching; for we find that preaching breaks up all our old customs — our feasts, ball plays and dances — which we want to keep up'." To which course Mr. Loughridge would not lend himself. Finally a compromise was reached by which it was agreed that if Mr. Loughridge would conduct a school for Creek children he might preach in his school but no where else. Encouraged by Benjamin Marshall that these restrictions might be relaxed as the people became better acquainted with his work, Mr. Loughridge signed a contract, mounted his horse and returned to Alabama to make his final preparations. On December 6, 1842, he was married to Miss Olivia D. Hills of New York, who was teaching school near Selma, Alabama, and soon afterward they set out by steamboat down the Alabama River to Mobile; thence to New Orleans and up the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers they proceeded and arrived at the Verdigris landing February 5, 1843.

"Although the old chief at first had manifested some fears of our religious influence interfearing with their old customs, yet he gave us a cordial welcome, and requested me to locate the mission in his town. This I did and called the station Kowetah, after the name of his town. It was situated about 25 miles northwest of Fort Gibson, and one and one-half miles east of the Arkansas River. There was on the place selected a vacant Indian cabin, 12 × 24 feet, with a dirt floor and covered with clap-boards; connected with it was a small unfenced field and a few fruit trees. For the whole premises I paid the owner ten dollars. p180 As plank could not be had only by hauling a great distance, I had some hired men split out 'puncheons' and floor the house. In this little cabin we lived happily for more than a year, and in this our first child was born.

"As by agreement I could only preach at the Mission Station, my first object was to build a log house to answer the double purpose of a school and a church. As soon therefore as it was ready for use, my wife, June 23, 1843, commenced teaching a school of fifteen or twenty children, and the neighbors were invited to attend preaching there every Sabbath. A few persons only would attend. The outlook was altogether discouraging. The Indians around were friendly, but very shy and irregular in their attendance at the mission; while the most of them were devotedly attached to their old customs and superstitions."

Mrs. Loughridge taught the school three months when the sickly season and inadequacy of the building caused it to be closed.⁠14

Rev. Edmund McKinney and family arrived July 4 to assist in the mission work and a cabin was built for them, but after a few months he departed for Spencer Academy in the Choctaw Nation. During the next autumn and winter Loughridge erected a large log house one-story-and‑a‑half high, with seven rooms, hewed inside and out. Being thus prepared, May 13, 1844, they received eight boys and ten girls and inaugurated the boarding school. The school continued for four months, when the prevailing sickness closed it for a month. It was then reopened and continued until the next July.⁠15 Mr. Loughridge gradually overcame the prejudice of the Indians, who came in larger numbers to hear him preach. Their second child was born September 5, 1845, but they were unable to secure the attendance of the nearest physician who lived at Fort Gibson. Twelve days later at the age of twenty-nine, Mrs. Loughridge died of puerperal fever. "On the hillside, near the Mission, under a large bending oak, we deposited the precious remains of my dear Olivia; there with many others." To relieve the condition of the bereaved family, Miss Nancy Thompson, "an aged missionary lady among the Cherokees," came and took charge of the motherless children and the household.⁠16

p181 In 1846 Rev. Loughridge reported that the people were anxious to have their children educated and that they could not accommodate all who applied for admittance to their mission school. Rev. W. D. Collins and Rev. Thomas Bertholf, Methodist missionaries, came to the Creek Nation in the fall of 1842 and organized a church in December. After holding several camp meetings they called a quarterly conference, where the Creeks, Peter Harrison, Cornelius Perryman, and Samuel Checote, were licensed as local preachers. In 1845 they had in the Methodist organization three local preachers, 16 exhorters, and 175 church members. However, they were obliged to contend with the opposition of some of the chiefs, who feared the Christian religion would destroy their influence. Some of the Indians were "driven from home! tied up and whipt, like slaves!! for no other reason than that they worship God."⁠17

A small neighborhood school was started at Little River Tallassee Town September 6, 1845 by a Methodist missionary named James Essex. A small school had previously been conducted there by a Swiss who did not speak good English and therefore taught the Indian children an incorrect pronunciation which Mr. Essex had some difficulty in correcting. He had some opposition: "The persecuting Creeks have opposed their people in attending the preaching of the gospel; and from good authority I have been informed they have threatened that if they attended the meetings they should have 50 lashes upon their bare backs; and for the second offense, especially if they became religious they should have 50 lashes and one ear cut off; and in fact some of them have talked about cutting my ears off."⁠18

The Author's Notes:

1 Logan offered a reward for the apprehension of Dawson, whom he described as "about five feet ten inches, fine looking, dark complexion, Roman nose, and in all respects a man of genteel appearance." (The Northern Standard (Clarksville, Texas) September 4, 1844, p3, col. 4).

2 Logan to Armstrong, August 20, 1844. Report of commissioner of Indian affairs, 1844. Detailed descriptions of the Creek people in their new home in 1841 are to be found in A Traveler in Indian Territory; the Journal of Ethan Allen Hitchcock, edited by Grant Foreman.

5 Wheat to commissioner, January 20, 1846, OIA, Creek emigration, W 2811. In 1840 information was furnished the secretary of war on this subject. The names of a number of citizens of Irwington including a circuit judge charged with holding Creek Indians as slaves, were given (Davis to Poinsett, June 20, 1840, OIA, Creek File D 522).

6 Report of commissioner of Indian affairs, 1849; Cherokee Advocate, July 10, 1848. Ward Co‑cha‑my who was later to be known as Ward Coachman, was a grandson of Sophia, sister of the great Alexander McGillivray and her husband Ben Durant, a Frenchman of North Carolina. He was well educated and after the forcible emigration of his tribe, until he was 22 years of age, he remained in Alabama at the home of his uncle Lachlan Durant, when he removed to the Indian Territory. It was three years later that he returned to Alabama to rescue his people and take them west. He was an intelligent and popular man and served two years as chief of his tribe.

8 Opothleyaholo and others to Armstrong, March 13, 1840, OIA, Creek file, "Main Canadian." Opothleyaholo sympathized with other Indians in distress. In March, 1840, he reported that "the Head Chief of the Shawnees is now at my house where he has been residing ever since last winter; he starts tomorrow in the Chickasaw Nation in search of his people, where they have been since the War Broke out in Texas; he expects some time this year to bring his people to this nation for the purpose of becoming one of our people, in consequence his people having been so much scattered they have become very poor. The treaty which they made [in 1817] secured to them forever $2,000 a year which amount he says that himself and people have never received the first dollar; therefore you will please represent the case to the government and ask the favor of them to send their annuity to this country with the Creek annuity, for we will by fall become one people" (Opothleyaholo to Armstrong, March 30, 1840, OIA, Creek File "Tuckabatchee").

13 History of Mission Work among the Creek Indians from 1832 to 1888 under the direction of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. by Rev. Robert M. Loughridge (unpublished manuscript).

16 Miss Thompson is celebrated in the annals of all the Creek and Cherokee Indians who had any contact with the Presbyterian schools prior to the Civil War. She was known far and wide for her acts of charity and devotion to those in need. She died in 1881 at the age of ninety-one at Tullahassee Mission, and was buried in the mission cemetery at Park Hill (authority of Mrs. N. B. Moore). Mr. Loughridge later married Mary Avery of Conway, Massachusetts, who came in 1840 to Park Hill where she taught for four years, after which she was obliged by ill health to return to her eastern home. On her marriage she came to the Creek Nation; died at Tullahassee Mission in January, 1850. In 1843 the Creek council passed a law prohibiting Indians and Negroes from attending services where there was preaching (Judge to Crawford, October 22, 1843, OIA, Seminole File J 1173).

17 Collins to Logan, September 18, 1845 (with Logan's report), OIA, A 1911, "Creek Agency."

[ Creek ]

p173 Chapter twelve
Hostility to the Missionaries

The Author's Notes:

[ Creek ]

p173 Chapter twelve Hostility to the Missionaries

The Author's Notes:

p173 Chapter twelve
Hostility to the Missionaries