Creek Indian

Creek Indian. The Creek Indians once lived in the rich lowland valleys of Alabama and Georgia. They hunted deer, bear, otter, and raccoon, and planted corn, beans and pumpkins.

Religion was important to the Creek. They believed in the spirits of streams, rocks, and trees. They imagined that dwarfs, giants, and goblins controlled their lives. Many taboos were connected with eating and drinking. For example, the Creek did not eat the flesh of clumsy animals because they believed the eater would take to the animal’s qualities.

Creek Indian towns were beehives of activity. Creek Indian leader met daily in the public square to discuss war, plan religious ceremonies, or merely talk among themselves.

Boys played ball or practiced with bow and arrow. Men hollowed out blowguns, wove fishing nets, and made canoes, digging sticks, and stone hoes. Women made clay pots, wove baskets, fashioned shirts, leggings, and moccasins, and prepared food.

The Creek Indian was organized into about 50 clans. Every Creek child was a member of his mother’s clan. Creek Indian was not permitted to marry persons in the same clan.
Each town was built around a public square. The square was made up of four buildings facing the cardinal’s points of the compass. Near the southwest corner of the square stood the chunkey yard, where the Creek Indian played lacrosse. At the northwest corner was the hot house, where winter dances were held.

The dwellings were not arranged in a pattern around the square. They were scattered in the forest. A chief might have four-room dwelling patterned after the public square. But most of the Creek Indian lived in rectangular frame houses. Some were plastered smooth with red clay. Many were covered with roofs of cypress bark. As late as 1777 almost 20,000 Creek lived in about 50 separated towns on the Chattahooche, Flint, Coosa and Tallaposa rivers.

The Creek Indian towns, were organized in a league called the Creek Confederacy. Representatives from all the towns met once each year. They listened to complaint, talked of war and peace, and planned for the future.

The Spanish explorer, Hernando de Soto was the first European to travel in the Creek Indian country. Traders, missionaries, soldiers and settlers followed him. In the 1700`s French and English fur traders bought thousand of deer, otter, and beaver skins from the Creek Indian in exchange for guns, needles, knives, cloth and brandy.

The Creek Indian adopted many European customs. They dressed in red and blue cotton cloth. They began to use the gun as well as the blowguns and bow and arrow. Creek maiden married French soldiers. This led to the breakdown of the rigid clan system.
As white settlers moved into the Creek country, the Indians were driven from the land. During the years 1813 and 1814, the Red Stick, a Creek people, revolted against the United States. This was the famous Creek Indian war, in which General Andrew Jackson played an important role. Defeated, the Red Stick and other Creek Indian had to give up much of their land in Georgia and Alabama.

But the final blow came between 1836 and 1840, when the Creek Indian were forced to move to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). During the march to Oklahoma and in the early years there, about half the Creek Indian died. A once proud people were almost destroyed. Today about 13,000 Creek Indian lived in Northeastern Oklahoma.