Forging a Cherokee-American Alliance in the Creek War: From Creation to Betrayal

By Susan M. Abram

Explores how the Creek War of 1813–1814 not only affected Creek Indians but also acted as a catalyst for deep cultural and political transformation within the society of the United States’ Cherokee allies

The Creek War of 1813–1814 is studied primarily as an event that impacted its two main antagonists, the defending Creeks in what is now the State of Alabama and the expanding young American republic. Scant attention has been paid to how the United States’ Cherokee allies contributed to the war and how the war transformed their society. In Forging a Cherokee-American Alliance in the Creek War, Susan M. Abram explains in engrossing detail the pivotal changes within Cherokee society triggered by the war that ultimately ended with the Cherokees’ forced removal by the United States in 1838.
 
The Creek War (also known as the Red Stick War) is generally seen as a local manifestation of the global War of 1812 and a bright footnote of military glory in the dazzling rise of Andrew Jackson. Jackson’s victory, which seems destined only in historic hindsight, was greatly aided by Cherokee fighters. Yet history has both marginalized Cherokee contributions to that conflict and overlooked the fascinating ways Cherokee society changed as it strove to accommodate, rationalize, and benefit from an alliance with the expanding American republic. Through the prism of the Creek War and evolving definitions of masculinity and community within Cherokee society, Abram delineates as has never been done before the critical transitional decades prior to the Trail of Tears.
 
Deeply insightful, Abram illuminates the ad hoc process of cultural, political, and sometimes spiritual transitions that took place among the Cherokees. Before the onset of hostilities, the Cherokees already faced numerous threats and divisive internal frictions. Abram concisely records the Cherokee strategies for meeting these challenges, describing how, for example, they accepted a centralized National Council and replaced the tradition of conflict-resolution through blood law with a network of “lighthorse regulators.” And while many aspects of masculine war culture remained, it too was filtered and reinterpreted through contact with the legalistic and structured American military.
 
Rigorously documented and persuasively argued, Abram’s award-winning Forging a Cherokee-American Alliance in the Creek War fills a critical gap in the history of the early American republic, the War of 1812, the Cherokee people, and the South.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Release date: Nov 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9780817388515

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FORGING A CHEROKEE-AMERICAN ALLIANCE IN THE CREEK WAR

FORGING A CHEROKEE-AMERICAN ALLIANCE IN THE CREEK WAR

From Creation to Betrayal

Susan M. Abram

The University of Alabama Press

Tuscaloosa

The University of Alabama Press

Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487–0380

uapress.ua.edu

Copyright © 2015 by the University of Alabama Press

All rights reserved.

Inquiries about reproducing material from this work should be addressed to the University of Alabama Press.

Typeface: Baskerville and Plantagenet Cherokee

Manufactured in the United States of America

Cover illustration: Broken Trust, painting by John Daniel Dee Smith, Eastern Band of Cherokee Nation, 1991, from the permanent collection of the Cherokee Heritage Museum and Gallery; photograph by Dr. R. Michael Abram, used by permission

Cover design: Emma Sovich

∞

The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Abram, Susan M.

     Forging a Cherokee-American alliance in the Creek War : from creation to betrayal / Susan M. Abram.

     pages cm

     ISBN 978-0-8173-1875-8 (hardback) — ISBN 978-0-8173-8851-5 (ebook)

   1. Creek War, 1813–1814. 2. Creek War, 1813–1814—Campaigns. 3. Cherokee Indians—Government relations—History. 4. Cherokee Indians—History—19th century. 5. Cherokee Indians—History—18th century. I. Title.

      E83.813.A27  2015

      975.00497557—dc23

2015007047

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Real Men: Cherokee Masculinity, Honor, and Spirituality Connected to Warfare

2. Cherokee War, Leadership, and Politics: From the Chickamauga Era to Lighthorse Law

3. Toward the Clouded and Dark Path: The Road to War

4. Cherokees in the Creek War: A Band of Brothers

5. Postwar Challenges and American Betrayal: Cherokee Conflict and Community Crisis

Conclusion

Appendix

Notes

Bibliography

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Map of Horseshoe Bend National Military Park

2. Map of the Former Territorial Limits of the Cherokee ‘Nation of’ Indians

3. John Ross, Cherokee principal chief

4. Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Fought March 27, 1814

5. Major Ridge

6. The Whale’s rifle

7. Engraving on The Whale’s rifle

8. Beaded bandolier bag

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is an act of love for me—love for my topic, for the Cherokee people (past and present), and for all those who have supported my remarkable journey of discovery and interpretation. I long had wanted to explore the Cherokee participation in the Creek War.

My interest in Cherokee history began when my husband and I went on our honeymoon to Cherokee, North Carolina, and the surrounding Great Smoky Mountains. We fell in love with the area and its people, eventually moved there, collected the largest contemporary collection of Cherokee arts and crafts in the world, placed it into a museum setting, and raised a family.

Working at the Cherokee Heritage Museum and Gallery only increased my hunger to know more and to pose questions to explore. For instance, why is the only thing presented about how Cherokees’ participation in the Creek War affected them offered in a dramatized version of the Cherokee removal, Unto These Hills? Why do most books barely mention the Cherokee involvement in the war that helped to propel Andrew Jackson to the presidency, where he then encouraged Indian removal? I read widely, but I could only gather bits and pieces, disjointed facts sprinkled throughout the literature. There had to be more.

With her encouragement and enthusiasm, southeastern Indian scholar Kathryn E. Holland Braund further inspired my quest. Her support throughout this process has been invaluable, and I am appreciative. I also thank Thomas A. Foster, who incorporated a version of chapter 1 called Real Men: Masculinity, Spirituality, and Community in Late Eighteenth-Century Cherokee Warfare, into his New Men: Manliness in Early America (New York: New York University Press, 2011). I appreciate Tom’s inclusion of the Cherokee perspective in this gender study.

I want to express my appreciation to William L. Anderson, the editor in chief of the Journal of Cherokee Studies, and Kristofer Ray, the editor of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly, and Ann Toplovich, the executive director of the Tennessee Historical Society, for working with me to publish articles that emerged while I was writing this book. They kept me focused and had many wonderful suggestions. Two of the articles are the bases for chapters in this book: Shedding Their Blood in Vain: Cherokee Challenges after the Redstick War, Journal of Cherokee Studies 28 (2010): 31–59; and ‘To Keep Bright the Bonds of Friendship’: The Making of a Cherokee-American Alliance during the Creek War, Tennessee Historical Quarterly 71 (Fall 2012): 229–257.

A version of another chapter in this book was published as Cherokees in the Creek War: A Band of Brothers, in Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War and the War of 1812, edited by Kathryn E. Holland Braund (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2012), 122–145. This essay was the result of a symposium on the Creek War and the War of 1812 sponsored by the wonderful group of scholars from Auburn’s Department of History; the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, with Jay Lamar and her energetic and competent staff; and all the great people at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park and the National Park Service. Being included in such a prestigious group of scholars encouraged me to complete this book as the commemoration of the Cherokee participation in the Creek War began in the fall of 2013.

Other individuals graciously assisted me throughout the research and writing process. I would like especially to thank Ove Jensen, a former park ranger at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park (and now the park director at Fort Toulouse-Jackson Park), Alabama, and the rest of the staff, who gave me access to the park’s records. I spent many a humid Alabama weekend exploring the park, getting a feel for the battle and the people who fought and died there. Those hikes with time for solitary reflection will always be precious to me.

I am grateful to Donna Cox Baker, history acquisitions editor at the University of Alabama Press, for offering encouragement and astute direction. The editorial staff, including Jon Berry and Merryl Sloane, made this book better with their guidance, suggestions, and keen eyes. In addition, no acknowledgment would be complete without recognizing the many archivists and librarians who selflessly assisted in my research, including those at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery; the Georgia Archives, Morrow; the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC, particularly the staff working in the Old War series of Military Records, and the regional facility in Morrow, Georgia; the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville; and archivist George Frizzell in Western Carolina University’s Special Collections, and the wonderful librarians and archivists at Auburn University and the University of Oklahoma.

I wish to thank Kathryn Braund for her discerning recommendations for images. Her assistance has been invaluable. Others who helped with images include Meredith McLemore and Debbie Pendleton of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery; Heather Tassin and the staff at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park, along with Superintendent Doyle W. Sapp; and Michelle Maxwell of the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I also wholeheartedly thank James Louis Arrow Smith and the rest of the family of Eastern Band Cherokee artist John Daniel Smith, who signed his artwork as Dee, for permission to use Broken Trust on the cover of the book. I do this in tribute to a very talented artist whom we all loved and greatly miss.

Finally, I dedicate this book with love to my husband, Dr. R. Michael Abram, and our children, Christa and Wade, and their precious families for all the delightful moments we have shared. You have never wavered in your support and love. Without each and every one of you, I could not have done this.

INTRODUCTION

As the United States commemorated the bicentennial of the War of 1812, scholars became aware that they needed to remember the southern theater of the conflict. Particularly, they needed to pay closer attention to the Creek War of 1813–1814. Although historians were aware of this civil war between federally affiliated Creeks and their Red Stick counterparts, they tended to gloss over it to focus more extensively on the climactic battle of the southern theater: New Orleans in early 1815. Those who have delved into the Creek War have traditionally used it as a vehicle to examine the roles of white leaders, or to chronicle the origins of Andrew Jackson’s meteoric rise to national prominence after his decisive victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814.¹

It is the intention of this study to reveal the importance of the Creek War in shaping Cherokee affairs both during and after the event. When they have been mentioned in the historic literature, the Cherokee actions in the war have been treated cursorily. It is my purpose to correct this glossing over of critical events and their momentous consequences for the Cherokees. This study, therefore, will examine the motivation of the Cherokee warriors who joined the US military campaign and the significance they placed on this joint operation. In addition, this book will demonstrate how Cherokee leadership sought to embrace the American civilization policy by adapting their men’s traditional perception of the warrior’s role to meet the expectations and demands of their American allies. By doing so, the Cherokees hoped that their service would stand as a testament to their fidelity and their commitment to the civilization program and would reinforce the worth of their presence. This study reveals how their military contributions in the Creek War both encouraged and manifested changes in the larger Cherokee society and its leadership.

The Cherokees greatly contributed to the American victory in the Red Stick Creek War. Up until now, most historians have belittled or even ignored the contributions and sacrifices of these American allies. Scholars have viewed the events from a variety of perspectives while disregarding those of the Cherokees. This has left several important questions unaddressed. What did their military participation represent? Why did individual Cherokee men choose to fight? How did this joint venture forge future Cherokee leaders? And how were their efforts and achievements received by the US government and by the American soldiers they fought alongside?

One reason that the Cherokees chose to fight alongside the United States in the Red Stick War is related to the idea that indigenous warfare in proximity to an expanding state is probably related to that intrusion.² With this in mind, the following chapters will explore the relationship between the groups involved in the war and the effects of the war’s outcome on the Cherokees as the United States looked to its own needs and ambitions in expansion and provided security against foreign threat, even at the cost of minimizing the contributions of former allies, who quickly became viewed as expendable obstacles to these goals.

Earlier scholars explained the Creek War as only an appendage of the War of 1812 with Great Britain. In one example an author claimed that the US campaign against the Red Stick Creeks was scarcely more than a series of raids until the ultimate engagement in March 1814 at Horseshoe Bend. The author’s sole focus, however, was on how the war provided support to the founding fathers’ system for national defense, which they painstakingly forged for the young United States.³ This meant that the United States did not rely upon a standing army but placed its faith in state and territorial militias. Though the author’s treatment of Andrew Jackson’s campaign Down the Coosa is an accurate account of Tennessee’s military thrust, which supposedly broke the Red Stick resistance at Horseshoe Bend, he, like many writers before him, ignored the essential role of the Cherokees.⁴

In other past examples, writers focusing on Cherokee studies considered the early nineteenth-century Cherokees to be a civilized tribe that was assimilating to white culture. It was their contention that the outcome of the war forever altered the frontier and thus America’s history. They discussed the events from an American perspective, and some sought to identify the Creek viewpoint. Yet if they did not entirely forget the Cherokees in their discussions, most included them only with the most superficial consideration. Most failed to recognize Cherokee participation at all, other than to casually append the warriors to Jackson’s troops. While occasionally pointing out that some Cherokee troops aided the Americans, little detail has been forthcoming except for a slightly better accounting of their more familiar participation during the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.⁵ One scholar even cynically stated that the Cherokees did not save the day for Jackson though grudgingly admitted that they did enable Jackson’s trap to close completely.⁶

In one of the classic studies of this time period, Struggle for the Gulf Borderlands: The Creek War and the Battle of New Orleans, historian Frank L. Owsley Jr. skillfully wove the Red Stick War into the larger War of 1812. He emphasized how the successful war in the southern theater against the Red Sticks and the later critical Gulf Coast battle at New Orleans, which saw the defeat of the invading British forces, brought the future president Andrew Jackson to America’s attention.⁷ Of course, Owsley concentrated on American troops’ actions in suppressing the armed rebellion of the Red Sticks, essentially leaving out the actions of Cherokee troops.

Though written almost thirty years earlier, Robert S. Cotterill’s The Southern Indians: The Story of the Civilized Tribes before Removal remains one of the best overall treatments of the events that led to the numerous Indian removals of the 1830s. He devoted a chapter to the Creek War and discussed the Creek, Cherokee, and Choctaw roles in the hostilities. Recognizing that this began as a civil war among Creek factions, Cotterill competently expanded on the skirmishes and battles that culminated at Horseshoe Bend. Yet, inexplicably, he claimed that there are many indications that the full-blood Cherokees were . . . apathetic to the war.⁸ This is especially odd and exasperating considering that a review of his sources reveals that he accessed what used to be known as the Retired Classified Files at the National Archives as a primary source of information, which emphatically refutes his statement, as this book will unequivocally demonstrate. It is evident that he did not check the Cherokee Muster Rolls housed in this Old War section, which has provided evidence that disproves this notion. In addition, disappointingly, Cotterill failed to provide any details about specific engagements in which the Cherokees fought, other than to casually mention their presence as if they were mere impotent shadows. This book will correct this misinterpretation and provide explicit information about Cherokees’ involvement in the several campaigns of the war, placing them solidly in the center of the action.

Other classic studies only focused on the well-documented Battle of Horseshoe Bend, either barely mentioning the other battles of the Red Stick War or entirely bypassing them, such as one of the early standards on the subject, Judge C.J. Coley’s The Battle of Horseshoe Bend.⁹ Written in 1952, this short essay discussed the battle while concentrating on its legendary white heroes, including General John Coffee, Ensign Sam Houston, Major Lemuel Montgomery, and, of course, General Jackson. To Coley’s credit, he did render some justice to the Indians by at least mentioning the famous Shawnee Tecumseh, who journeyed into Creek country seeking allies, and Menawa, a Red Stick leader who survived the war. Nevertheless, this author blatantly misinformed his readers that the gallant frontiersman David Crockett participated in the Horseshoe Bend battle, which is entirely false, though he did serve in the war both earlier and later. As for the Cherokees there, Coley limited their presence to two sentences: they swam the Tallapoosa River for canoes and fired the Red Stick village to create a diversion so Jackson could make his frontal attack.¹⁰ Even though these two facts are correct, his fleeting treatment of Cherokee actions completely buried their relevance to the outcome of the battle.

Sixteen years later, another article told a similar though more extensive story of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. James W. Holland, like Coley, viewed the war through an American-centric lens. Calling the Creek War America’s forgotten war, Holland stressed that the big story of Horseshoe Bend was how historical forces in the present state of Alabama forged a future American president, Andrew Jackson.¹¹ Holland did provide more information about the origins of the war and its various conflicts prior to the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, while acknowledging the actions of the Georgia and Mississippi Territory militias in addition to those of Jackson’s Tennesseans.¹² He recognized that the conflict began as a Creek civil war and discussed several important Red Sticks, including Peter McQueen, William Weatherford, Josiah Francis, Menawa, and High Head Jim. Yet while he was more inclusive about Jackson’s opponents, Holland’s references to any Cherokee contributions during the war were superficial, vague, and indifferent; he perfunctorily remarked on their role in guarding forts and occasionally alluded to their presence at some of the military engagements prior to Horseshoe Bend. Yet, in all fairness, his treatment of that crucial battle did some justice to the Cherokees under their white officer, Colonel Gideon Morgan. Holland succinctly described their assault on the rear of the fortified Red Stick encampment and subsequent procurement of prisoners.¹³ I expound further on these incidents in this study to reveal the import of Cherokee actions in the events.

Numerous authors of specialized Cherokee studies also have failed to examine how the Red Stick War played a part in shaping Cherokee history, creating a huge void in our knowledge and understanding of the Cherokees within the larger disciplines of southern and American history. Still, some scholars incorporated some notable discussion in their books. For instance, one of the best treatments of the Cherokee role in the war appeared in William G. McLoughlin’s seminal study Cherokee Renascence.¹⁴ He devoted an entire chapter to the Creek War and provided an outline of Cherokee actions under Jackson.¹⁵ Yet, disappointingly, McLoughlin merely used this narrative to springboard into an exploration of the division shortly after the war between those Cherokees who voluntarily emigrated west and the nationalists who stayed behind to resist the growing American sentiment that favored forced Indian removal in the nascent Jacksonian Age.

Another Cherokee study took a similarly sympathetic look at an even later political fracture between two leading Cherokee nationalists, Major Ridge and Principal Chief John Ross (Cooweescoosee, Guwisguwi), during the removal crisis. Major Ridge and his few supporters signed the unauthorized Treaty of New Echota with the US government in 1835, which ceded all eastern Cherokee land in exchange for land in the western Indian Territory. Ross and the majority of the Cherokee Nation adamantly refused to acknowledge the Treaty Party’s illicit actions and legally fought removal all the way to the US Supreme Court. Decidedly sympathetic to the Ridge perspective, author Thurman Wilkins paid tribute to Ridge and some other Cherokee warriors in an early chapter covering the Creek War.¹⁶ He acknowledged that both Ridge and Ross served well at this time, resulting in their firm establishment as Cherokee public servants in the postwar period.

In the seminal biography of John Ross, early chapters included some discussion of his role as adjutant for the Cherokee troops during the Creek War and as a business partner of Timothy Meigs, a son of Cherokee Indian agent Return Jonathan Meigs. Author Gary Moulton declared that Ross earned his wealth from the lucrative government contracts that the business procured during the war. He also provided a more detailed account of the Cherokees’ role in the war by incorporating their attack against the Red Stick Hillabee towns and Cherokee warrior The Whale’s heroic crossing of the Tallapoosa River at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.¹⁷ Once again, we only get enticing glimpses into the real Cherokee participation in these events. This study will correct this foggy view and provide details about these central incidents. I examine both the particulars of specific events in the war and the changes in the military structure of the Cherokee actions.

The severity of the later Cherokee removal eclipsed all challenges and traumas to the Cherokee people, and yet the events leading up to this horrible time were integral to it and should not be ignored. War leaders stepped into civil leadership at the conclusion of armed hostilities. Surrounded by a mostly unsympathetic white nation, tribal elders placed their trust in these younger veteran warriors’ energy to fight a now political war to maintain Cherokee sovereignty. This new generation had not only proven themselves in battle but had earned the respect of their fellow white officers, adeptly serving as liaisons between the two cultures. The warrior-soldiers became the new embodiment of leadership, representing the Cherokee people in the myriad crises postwar and up to their forced removal.

While this book ameliorates some of the bare spots in the recorded history of the Cherokees and the Red Stick War, I hope that subsequent studies will augment our knowledge of how a new Cherokee military structure and the passing of Cherokee civil leadership to a younger generation led to the sustained fight against removal in the 1830s.

1

REAL MEN

Cherokee Masculinity, Honor, and Spirituality Connected to Warfare

Soldiers, troops, militia, warriors—all these words evoke images in our minds of men who are strong, protective of others, loyal to their own, and deadly. Today we are surrounded by images associated with violence and war, including graphic video games depicting battles against all kinds of opponents, actual and imagined; real-time depictions instantly available through this age’s global communications from the fronts of real wars; and other deadly conflicts. It is understandably hard to imagine what war was like in a time before the technical military weaponry of today, which can fly drones from the safety of a control room thousands of miles from the action or gather reconnaissance using satellites orbiting the earth. In order to understand how it used to be, how wars were conducted in the past, and how they shaped the world today, we must endeavor to grasp the significance of war to the societies that engaged in the almost constant combat of the past.

In an analysis of modern Native American warfare, author Tom Holm made a distinction between early Euro-American-style warfare and that of American Indians.¹ While societies of European extraction fought for political and economic gains, Holm persuasively maintained that American Indian groups attached a strong physical and spiritual component to their conduct as avengers in war. This functioned to empower and intensify tribal identity. Besides acting to strengthen communal and tribal solidarity, Native warfare prepared future political and civil leaders. At the same time, war deeds and acts of valor provided stepping-stones for young males to become accomplished men.² Consequently, Holm emphasized that warfare provided the ultimate feeling of liberation and the greatest expression of being a male, agreeing with journalist William Broyles Jr.’s article about Why Men Love War.³

As anthropologists R. Brian Ferguson and Neil L. Whitehead noted in War in the Tribal Zone: Expanding States and Indigenous Warfare: States have difficulty dealing with peoples without authoritative leaders and with constantly changing group identity and membership. All expanding states seek to identify and elevate friendly leaders. They are given titles, emblems, and active political and military support. . . . At the same time, however, a leader must exist within the constraints of local social organization. . . . The kind of authority that actually emerges also depends on the prior political organization of the native people and the nature of the contact process.⁴ Accordingly, they argued, war is a primary expression of a relationship between a state presence, here meaning the United States, and an indigenous group, the Cherokees, that can occur as they align to fight against another tribal group (in this instance, the Red Stick Creeks). Ferguson and Whitehead recognized that this results when one tribe responds to its own perceived interests in the changing circumstances of its geopolitical space.⁵

Keeping this in mind, this study will explore the transformation of Cherokee males into warrior-soldiers now allied to the United States, their recent former enemy. My examination of this process supports the idea that the militarization of entire communities . . . brought about new alliances and the appearance of completely new militarized groups among both the indigenous and colonizing peoples.⁶ An example of this is the Cherokees’ reorganization of their war structure to complement that of the US military. This action represented not assimilation, I argue, but rather a resilience of the Cherokee tradition and its innovative versatility to meet the challenges arising from a rapidly changing geopolitical world. Though the new Cherokee military structure seemed to mirror that of American troops, the Cherokee warriors and their leadership nevertheless continued to honor the war traditions of their ancestors. The Cherokee officers continued to represent ancient red war leadership as they balanced the diplomatic and martial skills necessary to serve under the command of the US military.

The Cherokee war organization subsequently continued its traditional holistic connection with its Cherokee communities. Defense, honor, glory, and masculine expression, all of which could result in elevation in status or rank, remained a vital part of a Cherokee warrior’s psychological motivation. As was customary, Cherokee males used the Red Stick War to become real men by proving themselves to be capable warriors. While fulfilling their masculine duty of protecting their families, clans, and tribe, at the same time this martial group earned the esteem of their peers.

Like in many societies past and present, Cherokee males used warfare to accomplish a variety of goals. On a personal level, they used warfare as a vehicle to become men. These warriors then earned various martial titles over the years to become even greater men. Older, experienced warriors held more esteemed ranks and had higher status than those who were younger, untried, or less experienced. According to British lieutenant Henry Timberlake, two classes of Cherokee military men existed during the British American colonial era: the warriors of rank and, of course, males who had yet to prove themselves through war deeds, such as returning with an enemy’s scalp. It was the call to war that presented the exhilarating opportunities to procure military titles, for it is by scalps they get all their war-titles, noted another visitor to the Cherokees during this time, trader James Adair.⁷

Thus fighting and shedding the blood of their enemies