Creek Indians

Creek Indians were also known as Muskogee.

The Creek Indians are one of the Five Civilized Tribes.

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 Carolina
 * 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.

Correspondence and Census Records

Census Records


 * Crow Creek, M595, 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

Treaties


 * 1790 August 7, at New York
 * 1796 June 29, at Colerain
 * 1802 June 16, at Fort Wilkinson
 * October 27, 1805,
 * 1805 November 14, at Washington
 * 1814 August 9,
 * March 22, 1816, - Cherokee
 * 1818 October 19, with the Chickasaw, Flint River
 * 1821 January 8, at Indian Spring
 * 1821
 * 1824 February 12, at Indian Spring
 * 1825 June 29, at Broken Arrow - unratified
 * 1826 January 24, at Washington
 * 1827 November 15, at Creek Agency
 * 1832 March 24, at Washington
 * May 9, 1832, Seminole
 * 1833 February 14, at Fort Gibson
 * March 28, 1833
 * June 18, 1833, Appalachicola Band
 * 1835 August 24,  at Camp Holmes, with the Comanche
 * 1838 November 23, at Fort Gibson
 * 1845 January 4,with the Seminole
 * April 1, 1850 - Wyandot
 * 1854 June 13,
 * 1856 August 7, at Washington
 * September 13, 1865, at Fort Smith - unratified
 * 1866 June 14, at Washington

Vital Records


 * Crow Creek Agency, M595, births and deaths 1924-1932, FHL Film: 575783

Important Web Sites

 * Muscogee (Creek) Indians Wikipedia