Here is an item outlining the progressive dispossession of the Creeks and Cherokees in the southern USA. It is not a pleasent story but it happened and many died in the process. The detail of how it came about is usually glossed over and it is a tale of chicanery and politics as well. Little credit goes to anyone.
The big problem continues to be concepts such as hunting grounds when hunting has ended and alternative land use becomes possible. It remains the role of the State to determine title and land rights and even if you had not considered yourself a member of such ac State, the reality is that the State acts on behalf of the whole and this means at least the appearance of disposession.
In time it becomes the better deal but resistance to adjustment will usually delay those benefits. Today hunting is barely accepted as a regulated sport and not at all as a life way. It is only unfortunate that the transition was so difficult for all and there is enough guilt to share around. At least we can now read these histories.
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The Surprising Connection between Etowah Mounds, Georgia and Tulsa, Oklahoma
The Creek Confederacy was at the peak of its political influence
and military power in the late 1700s, but in 1785 and 1794, was tricked
out of most of its lands in northern Georgia by federal and state
officials. In early 1785, two Creek mikkos were persuaded to sign a
treaty that had been rejected by both the National Council of the Creek
Confederacy and the United States Congress. In later treaty negotiations
solely between the Cherokee leaders and federal officials vast swaths
of Creek land were given to the Cherokees without the Creeks’ knowledge
and consent.
After the Battle of Long Swamp Creek near the Etowah River in
northwest Georgia in November of 1783, Sour Mush, the defeated chief of a
tiny renegade Cherokee hamlet unilaterally offered a peace treaty which
gave away all Creek lands in Northeast Georgia, but no Cherokee lands.
Sour Mush had moved onto the eastern fringes of Upper Creek territory in
1777, when he was evicted from the Cherokee Nation.
Georgia’s general assembly quickly ratified this treaty and began
awarding Creek lands in northeast Georgia to Revolutionary War veterans
to which the state owed back pay. The Creek National Council bitterly
abjured this fraudulent treaty. The United States Congress refused to
ratify it, because no state had authority under the Articles of
Confederation to sign treaties with Indian tribes. Nevertheless, Colonel
Andrew Pickens, the victorious Patriot commander in the Battle of Long
Swamp Creek invited two minor Creek mikkos in northeast Georgia to his
plantation in South Carolina. The two men, Fat King and Quiet King, were
somehow persuaded to sign the treaty. The two unknowingly signed a
clause, who vague wording could be used to steal even more Creek land.
The US Congress again refused to ratify new treaty on the same
grounds that only the federal government could negotiate with Indian
tribes. In mid-1785, Pickens and some federal agents negotiated with the
Cherokees separately. The Cherokees were offered Upper Creek and
Chickasaw lands in northwest Georgia, south to the Etowah River as
hunting grounds, if they ceded most of their hunting grounds in
Tennessee. The Creek sacred lands around Etowah Mounds were not included
in the hunting grounds. All lands within the Coosa River Basin in the
future state of Alabama were to remain in Creek territory.
The Cherokees agreed, but apparently assumed that they could live in
their hunting grounds. Thousands of Cherokee began moving into Georgia.
Georgia officials were extremely upset, because they wanted fewer
Indians in their state, not another tribe moving in. The situation
remained in limbo for the next seven years until the Constitution was
ratified and a Federal government created. George Washington was elected
president in 1793.
During this era, the ancient town of Lucv Pokv Tulasi [Lü :
chȁ Po : kä Tü : la : she] was located on the Lower Etowah River,
downstream from the ruins of Etowah Mounds. The Itsate Creek words
meant, “Town descended from Etula at the place where the turtles sit.”
Etula was the original Itsate name for Etowah. This was an honorary
title that meant these people were direct descendants of the people, who
built the great mounds on the Etowah River in Georgia.
The Upper Creeks were extremely angry about both white settlers and
Cherokees flooding across their ancestral lands in North Georgia. At
that time, they spoke a dialect of Itsate Creek that mixed in some
Mvskoke (Muskogee) words. They were threatening to go to war against the
State of Georgia and were already dispatched small raiding parties to
burn farmsteads that had been illegally established on Creek Land. It
was an odd situation, because the Creeks considered officials of the
national government to be their friends, so the declaration of war was
only against the governor of Georgia, who they called, Fakke Mikko (Dirt King.)
A highly respected Continental officer from New York, Colonel Marinus
Willett was dispatched by President George Washington as his envoy to
meet with Creek leaders and invite Principal Chief Alexander McGillivray
to meet with Washington at the new national capital in New York City.
He traveled from Andrew Pickens plantation, through the new Cherokee
lands into what is now Alabama to meet with the Creek leaders.
McGillivray did travel to New York and ended up signing a treaty that
gave away Northwest Georgia down to the Etowah River, reserved all
lands south and west of the Coosa and Etowah Rivers for the Creeks. He
also agreed to cede all lands in Northeast Georgia, east of the Oconee
River. At this time, this latter land cession was moot, because it had
already been filled with white settlers. Lucv Pokv Tulasi was forced to
move southward from the Etowah River to the upper basin of the
Tallapoosa River in Georgia
In 1794, the Cherokees were unilaterally given their erstwhile
hunting grounds as a permanent home for the new Cherokee Nation. In
return, they were to cede most of their lands in northeast Georgia and
southeastern Tennessee. Their southern boundary was set at a line that
went through Kennesaw Mountain in present day Cobb County, GA. That was
about 25 miles south of the Etowah River and also grabbed a vast
territory on both sides of the Coosa River to give to the Cherokees .
The Creeks had been snookered again by federal officials.
The leaders of the Creek towns were in a rage. McGillivray was dead,
but no one had authorized him to give away so much land. The United
States had given the Cherokees a vast tract of Creek land that even
McGillivray had not ceded. The Upper Creeks were about to go to war
again with the State of Georgia. General Washington let it be known that
if the Creeks attacked Georgia that now, under the Federal
Constitution, they would be attacking the United States. The Creeks
could expect a disastrous war with all the states.
Seeing how devastated the Cherokees had become because of the 15 year
long Chickamauga War with the United States, the Creeks backed off from
their threats. They agreed to the new southern boundary line in return
for generous cash payments and the promise that they could keep most of
Alabama forever. However, Lucv Pokv Tulasi found itself in Cherokee Territory yet again. The people would have to move.
In 1796, the town of Lucv Pokv Tulase relocated to a fertile
region near modern day Auburn, AL. Very soon, they began speaking a
dialect that was more and more like the Mvskoke of their neighbors. They
changed their honorary title from the Itsate, Tulasi, to the Muskoge, Tvlse.
In 1814, 1818 and1825, mixed-blood Creek mikko, William McIntosh,
gave away all the millions of acres of Creek land in Georgia. During the
1830s, the States of Georgia and Alabama, and often the Federal
government, pressured the Creek Nation to relocate west of the
Mississippi into a region that is now eastern Oklahoma. The 1832 Treaty
of Cusseta ceded all Muscogee land claims in Alabama. The original heart
of the Creek Nation in Georgia was already gone. Many of the former Red
Stick Creeks, who had fought a war with the United States left with
their tribal towns for the Indian Territory in 1832.
Creek families Alabama, who had especially good relations with their
neighbors, were allowed to stay in the East on privately owned tracts
that were allotted to them. They became citizens of Alabama, but in
accepting 1/4th square mile tracts of land, they unknowingly lost their citizenship in the Creek Confederacy.
Between 1832 and 1836, many Creeks in Alabama were swindled out of
their new land allotments. They became homeless, and theoretically were
no longer even considered Creek Indians. War broke out again, as the men
raged at seeing their families starving.
Some Creeks in the tribal town of Lucv Pokv Tvlse were able to hold
on to their land and expressed a willingness to stay in Alabama. These
were primarily Christian Creeks, who had been banished from the tribal
town because of adopting “the white man’s religion.”
Those, who wanted to hold onto tribal traditions had no option, but
to be deported. In a terrible period known as the “Trail of Tears”
entire Creek towns relocated from Alabama to the Indian Territory
(Oklahoma.)
Lucv Pokv Tvsle left in 1836 and after several months of
walking or riding in wagons, they arrived on the Arkansas River, where
Tulsa is today. Of the original group of 630 people of this town in
Alabama, at least 161 people died in route.
In late 1836, the survivors of met under the shade of a Burr (Post)
Oak on a terrace to elect their new town government. In the years that
followed, the people of this town would hold social dances, ceremonial
dances and political meetings near the “Council Oak.” Miraculously, the
tree continued to thrive as the new land was tamed.
The town of Lucha Poka Talse eventually became known to its
white neighbors as Talsa. By the late 1800s, it was predominantly a
non-Creek town and the word had been changed by Southern drawls to
Tulsa. The discovery of oil turned the market town of Tulsa into a
booming city.
In 2009, the Oklahoma Centennial Commission constructed a beautiful
Trail of Tears Memorial on the edge of Council Oak Park. The Council Oak
monument was designed by a Creek sculptor from Oklahoma and Creek
architect from Georgia to symbolize renewed ties between two branches of
the same people, separated by 800 miles for 180 years. It has become a
major tourist attraction in Tulsa.
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