The CreeksThe Cherokees were not the only tribe pressured into moving to the Southwest. To their west and south lay over twenty thousand members of the Muscogee Confederation of tribes. The powerful Creeks comprised the vast majority of this people, along with smaller numbers of Natchez, Alabamas, Koasatis, and Euchees. Historian Gaston Little recounted the fearsome reputation of the Creeks: “The Creek men were tall and slender and their women were well-formed and beautiful. Bravery was a characteristic among the Creeks, whose warriors defeated in battle all the surrounding tribes. The Creeks were considered during colonial times to be the most powerful of the southern tribes”. The Creeks and their related tribes lived across wide expanses of Alabama and southern Georgia. In addition to their martial vigor, they were accomplished farmers and possessed a sophisticated system of governance. On local matters the latter consisted of leaders who each governed a town. A two-house legislative body, meanwhile, governed the nation. Big trouble loomed, however, both from within and without for the Creeks. Two major factions—the Upper Creeks and Lower Creeks, first so referenced by the English-comprised the Creek Confederation. These names evolved from the brutal Yamasee War of 1715 to 1717 in which the Creeks, Choctaws, and other Southeastern tribes fought a war of extermination with colonial South Carolina, seeking to expel the English from the region. Many of these Indians had earlier conspired with the English in an unholy slave trade involving Indians from weaker tribes. The tainted parties fell out with one another as the colonists grew stronger and wealthier and their Indian collaborators grew increasingly indebted to them. As described by anthropologist Jack M. Schultz, war ensued after English traders also began to enslave their Indian allies and families as payment for their debts. During the Yamasee War, the Upper Creeks lived mainly to the west of the Chattahoochee River in present-day Alabama and refrained from fighting the Carolinians. The Lower Creeks lived along and to the east of the Chattahoochee and, along with the Yamasees, spearheaded the Indian effort. (Though appearing on maps west and east, respectively, the colonial perspective of the era, with communities narrowly strung along the Atlantic Coast, looked outward to the west from the east. Thus, the more remote western environs then appeared higher, or upper, on maps and the nearer regions lower.) Creeks in a pre-removal Georgia village. Extended families or clans lived in clusters of cabins or teepees
Read the entire Oklahoma story in John J. Dwyer's Media The Oklahomans: The Story of Oklahoma and Its People volume 1 of a 2-part series on the 46th state and the people who make this state very special. |
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
John Dwyer's Oklahoma HistoryAuthor John Dwyer takes us on a voyage through time, to discover Oklahoma is ways we've never fully understood. The hardbound pictorial of volume 1 is available for a limited time at up to 40% off, using this link.
Archives
January 2024
Novelist and Oklahoma native Ralph Ellison said, "You have to leave home to find home", an apt description of the journey of John Dwyer, author and general editor of The Oklahomans. The Dwyer family roots were firmly transplanted from Ireland to Oklahoma by John's great-grandfather and grandfather, the latter who settled in Oklahoma City in 1909, just two years after Oklahoma achieved statehood. Although born in Dallas, TX, John was relocated to Oklahoma when his widowed mother returned to her home when he was two years old.
It would be on Oklahoma soil that his mother instilled in him his love for history, and coupled with his unusually creative imagination, it soon became apparent that John not only liked to hear great stories of legend and history, but to make up his own as well. It would be out of a sense of divine purpose that he would use that creativity in response to a higher calling in the years to come. John began a career in journalism during his high school days when he served in a variety of roles, including news and sports reporter, for the Duncan Banner, a daily newspaper in his small Oklahoma hometown. He was the youngest sports editor in the newspaper's history by the time he attended the University of Oklahoma on a journalism scholarship. He graduated in 1978 with a bachelor of arts and sciences degree in journalism. Dwyer further developed his journalistic skills in radio as a play‐by‐play football and basketball announcer for several radio stations. He won the coveted position of sports director for the University of Oklahoma's 100,000 watt KGOU‐FM radio station. For seven years, he provided live, on‐air reports to America's largest radio networks of University of Oklahoma college football games. Except for a year in England during 6th grade, John lived in the Sooner State for 28 years before returning to Dallas in 1986 to attend Dallas Theological Seminary where he earned his Master of Biblical Studies. While there, Dwyer worked part time on the sports staff of The Dallas Times Herald, which at the time owned one of the five largest circulations of any daily newspaper in Texas. It was in Texas that he also met and married his wife Grace in 1988 and settled down to start his family. In the spring of 1992, Dwyer and his wife founded the Dallas‐Fort Worth Heritage newspaper, which would grow to a circulation of 50,000 per month at the time of its sale, after nearly a decade, to new owners. The Heritage pioneered innovative features such as full color photography and graphics, an expansive web site, a cluster of informative daily radio programs, and an aggressive, uncompromising brand of investigative news reporting unprecedented for contemporary news publications holding an orthodox Christian worldview. In 2006, at the urging of his family and the Oklahoma Historical Society, John returned to Oklahoma to tackle the colossal task of writing "The Oklahomans," which was endorsed as an official project of the Oklahoma Centennial Commission. He has completed volume 1 (Ancient‐Statehood) and a portion of volume 2 (Statehood‐Present), which releases in November 2018. He is now an Adjunct Professor of History and Ethics at Southern Nazarene University. He is former history chair at Coram Deo Academy, near Dallas, Texas. His books include the non‐fiction historical narrative "The War Between the States: America's Uncivil War" (Western Conservatory), the novel "When the Bluebonnets Come" (Bluebonnet Press), the historical novels "Stonewall" and "Robert E. Lee" (Broadman & Holman Publishers), and the upcoming historical novels "Shortgrass" and "Mustang" (Oghma Creative Media). John and Grace have one daughter and one grandson and live in Norman, Oklahoma. They are members of the First Baptist Church of Norman, where they serve in a variety of teaching, mission, and other ministry roles. Categories |