EARLY HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS AND 
THEIR NEIGHBORS 
By John R. Swanton 
INTRODUCTION 
The present paper originated in an attempt to prepare a report on 
the Indians of the Creek Confederacy similar to that made in Bulletin 
43 for those along the lower course of the Mississippi River. 1 In this 
study, however, it is still possible to add information obtained from 
living Indians, about 9,000 of whom were enumerated in 1910. 2 But 
when material from all sources had been tentatively brought together 
the amount was found to be so great that it was thought advisable to 
divide the work into two or three different sections for separate pub- 
lication. As our account of the distribution, interrelationship, and 
history of these people is to be gathered rather from documentary 
sources than from field investigations it is naturally the first to be 
ready for presentation. Since it has been compiled primarily for 
ethnological purposes, no attempt has been made to give a complete 
account of the later fortunes of the tribes under consideration, such 
Important chapters in their career as the Creek and Seminole wars 
and the westward emigration belonging within the province of the 
historian strictly so considered. The writer's main endeavor has 
been to trace their movements from earliest times until they are 
caught up into the broad stream of later history in which conceal- 
ment is practically impossible. Although not pretending that this 
work is as yet by any means complete, lie has aimed to furnish some- 
thing in the nature of an encyclopedia of information regarding the 
history of the southeastern Indians for the period covered, and hence 
has usually included direct (plot at ions instead of attempting to 
recast the material in his own words. 
It was found that a satisfactory study of the Creek Indians would 
make it necessary to extend the scope of this work so as to consider all 
of the eastern tribes of the Muskhogean stock as well as the Indians 
of Florida. The Yuchi, on the ethnological side, have been made a 
1 Swanton, Indian Tribes of i in- Lower Mississippi Valley, Bull. 43, Bur. Amer. Ethn., 1911. 
a This includes the Creek and Seminole Indians of Oklahoma, the Seminole of Florida, and the Alabama 
and Koasati of Texas and Louisiana. (Ind. Pop. in the U. S. and Alaska, 1910. Wash., 1915.) 
