The Southeastern Indian Tribes, Creek Nation and Creek Tribes - A Historical Overview

In our series on the 10 Native American Tribes of the Southeast, 4 of the 7 remaining federally recognized Indian Tribes are of Creek Indian origin: the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Miccosukee Indian Tribe of Florida, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, and the Poarch Creek Tribe of Alabama.
(Read Part 2 and Part 3 of our 3-part Historical Overview of the Southeastern Creek Tribes and Creek Nation)

The Creek Confederacy

In the late 18^th Century the territory of the Creek Confederacy was from the Oconee River near present day Macon, Georgia to the Tombigbee River in Alabama near present-day Mobile, Alabama. At this time 73 towns ranging in size from as few as 10 to 20 families to more than 200 families occupied the Creek Confederacy. There were 48 Upper Creek towns and 25 Lower Creek towns with around 20,000 people in total.

By the end of the 18^th Century, Indians still occupied and claimed much of the interior south, and the Creeks in particular owned most of this including  what later became known as the “cotton belt.” With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States now owned what became known as the Mississippi Territory which included most of the Creeks’ western lands, along with the major port cities of New Orleans, Mobile and Pensacola. This area was originally recognized as Indian Lands but the U.S. government hoped and planned to eventually acquire these lands from the Indians and open them to American settlement.

Throughout the 18^th Century southeastern Indians were deeply involved in the deerskin trade, one of the main economic activities in the interior south until the late 18^th Century. Indian men were no longer subsistence hunters, they had become commercial hunters, selling their pelts to European traders in exchange for European manufactured items. Hundreds of thousands of deerskins were shipped out of Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, Pensacola and New Orleans.

An important historical factor played into the deerskin trade that brought a favorable position to the southeastern Indians, especially the Creeks. At this time the three European rivals, Spain, Great Britain and France had claims on eastern and southeastern North American lands. But none of the three had a sufficient military to maintain and fortify their borders. In reality the three European nations only controlled small toeholds on the coasts; Indian groups lived in and controlled most of the interior lands. Therefore the Europeans spent much of their time and efforts courting Indian alliances through trade agreements.  In this way, the southeastern Indians negotiated their place in the modern, end of the 18^th Century world economic system. What would come next would bring drastic changes.