782 



MACllSTTOSH, WILLIAM MACKINAW 



[b. a. e. 



the head of the minority party that ac- 

 quiesced in the proposed emigration to 

 Indian Ter. As such lie frequently 

 visited Washington to treat with officials 

 regarding the transfer of lands and ac- 

 quitted himself as a capable man of busi- 

 ness. — Stanley, Portraits Am. Inds., 13, 

 1852. 



Macintosh, William. A mixed-blood 

 Creek, son of a Scotch trader and an 

 Indian woman. The United States, in 

 consideration of the relinquishment by 

 Georgia of the Mississippi territories, en- 

 gaged in 1802 to extinguish -the Indian 

 titles to lands within the borders of the 

 state as early as could be peaceably done 

 on reasonable terms. A cession was pro- 

 cured in 1805 l>y which millions of acres 

 of Creek lands were transferred to Georgia. 

 The people of the state constantly clam- 



WILLIAM MACINTOSH. 



ored for the fulfilment by the Govern- 

 ment of its compact, and the Creeks, 

 alarmed at the prospective wholesale 

 alienation of their ancient domain, on 

 the motion of ^Macintosh made a law 

 in general council in 1811 fiirbidding the 

 sale of any of the remaining land under 

 penalty of dedh. Macintosh, who by 

 his talents and address had risen to be 

 chief of the Lower Creeks, led the Creek 

 allies of the Americans in the war of 1812 

 with the rank of major and took the chief 

 part in the massacre of 200 of the hostile 

 Creeks, who were surprised at Atasi on 

 Nov. 29, 1813. He was prominent also 

 in the final battle with the hostiles, Mar. 

 27, 1814, when, at Horseshoe Bend, Ala., 

 nearly a thousand warriors were exter- 

 minated. A large part of the territory of 



the conquered tribe was confiscated and 

 opened to white settlement. In 1818 more 

 lands were acquired by treaty, and in 1821 

 the fifth treaty was negotiated by Georgian 

 citizens acting on behalf of the United 

 States, with Macintosh, who was in the 

 pay of the whites, and a dozen other 

 chiefs controlled by him, while 36 chiefs 

 present refused to sign and made clear to 

 the commissioners the irregularity of a 

 cession arranged with a party represent- 

 ing only a tenth of the nation, which to 

 be legal must have the consent of the 

 entire nation assemljled in council. After 

 an attempt made by Macintosh to con- 

 vey more land in 1823 the law punishing 

 with death any Creek who offered to 

 cede more land was reenacted in 1824, 

 when 15,000,000 acres had already been 

 transferred and 10,000,000 acres remained 

 in possession of the Creeks, who had so 

 advanced in education and agriculture 

 that they valued their lands far more 

 highly than before. In the beginning of 

 1825 Georgian commissioners, working 

 upon the avarice of ]\IacIntosh, induced 

 him and his followers to set their names 

 to a treaty ceding what remained of the 

 Creek domain. Although Secretary John 

 C. Calhoun had declared that he would 

 not recognize a treaty in which the chiefs 

 of the Creek nation did not acquiesce, 

 President Monroe laid it before the Senate, 

 and after the accession of President 

 Adams it was approved. The Creeks did 

 not rise in rebellion, as was expected, but, 

 in ac(?ordance with the tribal law already 

 mentioned, formal sentence of death was 

 passed on Macintosh, and was executed 

 on INIay 1, 1825, bj' a party of warriors 

 sent for that purpose, who surrounded 

 his house and shot him anda companion 

 as they tried to escape. Macintosh was a 

 signer of the treaties of Washington, Nov. 

 4, 1805; Ft Jackson, Ala., Aug. 9, 1814; 

 Creek Agency, Ga., Jan. 22, 1818; In- 

 dian Springs, Ga., Jan. 8, 1821, and Feb. 

 12,1825. ^ (j. M.) 



Mackinaw. ( 1 ) A sort of bateau or large 

 fiatboat formerly much used by traders 

 and others; also called Mackinaw boat. 

 (2) A heavy blanket, also known as 

 Mackinaw blanket, formerly an im- 

 portant item of western trade. (3) A 

 coarse straw hat. (4) A species of lake 

 trout {Salrelinus itamaycnsJi), also termed 

 Mackinac trout. The word which has 

 assumed all these meanings is the place 

 name Mackinac, applied to the famous 

 trading post between L. Huron and 

 L. Michigan. Mackinaw, representing 

 the Canadian French iMackinac, is iden- 

 tical with makindk, the word for 'turtle' 

 in Chippewa and closely related dialects 

 of Algonquian; said also to be a reduction 

 of Michilimackinac (q. v.), a corruption 

 of an earlier mitchi makinak, signifying 



