Creek Indians

Creek Indians were also known as Muskogee.

The Creek Indians are one of the Five Civilized Tribes.

Their cultural area is the Southeast United States.

Linguistic group: Muskogean

Federal Status: Recognized

Clans: Wind, Bird, Alligator, Bear

Original homeland: along the banks of the Alabama, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Flint, Ocmulgee, and Chattahoochee Rivers, In the Gerogia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Tennessee

Creek Indians trace their ancestry through the female line. The children belong to the same clan as their mother. Clan members were closely related so they had to marry someone from a different clan than his or her own.

Brief Timeline
1540: First contact Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto

1703-08: Creeks were allies of the English in the Apalachee wars.

1813-1814: Creek Wars, General Andrew Jackson, in command of some of the forces

1796-1816: Benjamin Hawkins, was the federal agent to the Creeks

1816: after the death of Benjamin Hawkins, President James Madison appointed David B. Mitchell, a former governor of Georgia. He undermined the Creeks' sovereignty and initated acts to take all of their lands in Georgia.

1836-1837: removed from Georgia and Alabama to eastern Oklahoma. Some were taken by a southern route to New Orleans and then by steamboats (Monmouth) up the Mississippi River to Arkansas. The Monmouth collided with the Trenton more than 300 Creeks drowned. During removal 3,500 died of the 15,000.

November 25, 1785: Treaty at Hopewell, South Carokina

June 29, 1796: Coleraine, Georgia

August 9, 1814: Fort Jackson, Alabama

January 22, 1818: Creek agency on Flint river

January 8, 1821 / February 12, 1825: Treaty of Indian Springs negotiated by Creek leader William McIntosh. He was later (1825) executed by the Creek Nation for the deed.

January 24, 1826: Washington D.C.;Creeks would sell their land. Ratified April 22, 1826

March 24, 1832: Treaty that the United States would remove intruders.

November 23, 1838: Ft. Gibson

Additional References to the History of the Tribe
Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Creek tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods. Additional details are given in John Swanton's The Indian Tribes of North America.

Records
Agency Records

Correspondence and Census Records

Census Records

M595- Crow Creek 1886-92 FHL Film 575779, 1983-1905 FHL Film: 575780, 1906-1920 FHL Film: 575781, 1921-1929 FHL Film: 575782, 1930-1933 FHL FIlm 575783, 1934-1942 FHL Film: 575784

Enrollment Records


 * Dawes Commission Enrollment Records

Vital Records


 * Crow Creek (M595) births and deaths 1924-1932 FHL Film: 575783

Important Web Sites

 * Muscogee (Creek) Indians Wikipedia