SWANTON] INlDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTEiRN UNITED STATES 79 



by the new republic in the southern part of its territory, the Creek 

 War of 1813-14. As in most other struggles of this kind, the Indians 

 did not fight as a unit. The Lower Creeks, Talladega Creeks, and at 

 least one important Tallapoasa town either remained at home or sided 

 actively with the whites. Immediately after this, difficulties developed 

 with the Seminole Indians and, although the greater part of them 

 lived in Spanish territory, Andrew Jackson invaded their lands and 

 destroyed some Seminole towns. This is called the First Seminole 

 War, and took place in 1817-18. Possibility of Spanish interference 

 in the relations between Americans and Indians came to an end with 

 the purchase of Florida by the United States in 1821. (Crane, 1928 ; 

 Milling, 1940.) 



Settlement in the territories immediately west of the Mississippi 

 River by American colonists after these lands had been acquired pre- 

 sented few difficulties, partly because French and Spanish settlements 

 had been made there and the rights of such settlers were, of course, 

 guaranteed, partly from their relative remoteness from the populous 

 States of the Atlantic seaboard whence most of the new colonists were 

 coming, and partly because such tribes as had not already been rooted 

 out were very small and occupied only small amounts of very poor 

 land. East of the Mississippi, however, the greater part of the good 

 land back from the coast was occupied by five tribes so large and 

 powerful that they were usually known as nations. They represented 

 the remnants of most of those peoples responsible for the mound- 

 building cultures of the east-central United States, and had acquired 

 size and stability under semicivilized economic conditions in prehistoric 

 times, both of which were increased by the acquisition of smaller units 

 after white contact and as a result of white pressure itself. Clashes 

 between these nations and hordes of land-hungry and property-hungry 

 whites from the seaboard States and from Europe were inevitable, 

 and they became particularly frequent after American energies were 

 released by the conclusion of the second war with Great Britain. 



It was not long, indeed, before an insistent clamor arose to have 

 the Indian occupants removed to other territories west of the Missis- 

 sippi, a clamor participated in to some extent by friends of the Indians 

 themselves who were witnesses of the debauchery and general demor- 

 alization to which the red men were exposed by proximity to frontier 

 white settlements, often frequented by the most lawless elements. 



The history of the negotiations leading up to the removal of these 

 Indians and the story of the removal itself have been adequately told 

 by Foreman and Milling, and all constitutes a disgusting and disgrace- 

 ful chapter in our national life. Had the men in authority in the sev- 

 eral States and in Washington been possessed of that passion for justice 

 and that far-sighted wisdom wliich the situation demanded, the removal 



