THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 211 



arts and agriculture than they are. It is no uncommon thing to see a Creek with 

 twenty or thirty slaves at work on his plantation, having brought them from a slave- 

 holding country, from which, in their long journey and exposure to white man's inge- 

 nuity, I venture to say that most of them got rid of one-half of them whilst on their 

 long and disastrous crusade. 



The Creeks, as well as the Cherokees and Choctaws, have good schools and churches 

 established amongst them, conducted by excellent and pious men, from whose example 

 they are drawing great and lasting benefits. — G. C. 



THE CREEK INDIANS.* 



The Creeks are known in their own language as the Muskokee or Muskogee, and 

 occupied originally the greater part of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Their tradi- 

 tions say that they emigrated from the Northwest until they reached Florida, when 

 they fell back to the country between the headwaters of the Alabama and Savannah 

 Rivers. As this was full of small rivers and creeks, it was called by the early settlers 

 the Creek Country, hence the name of the Creek Indians, who, when first known to 

 the whites, were living there. Those remaining in Florida were called the Seminoles, 

 or Isti-semole (wild men). The nation became a confederacy of tribes, speaking 

 other languages, modifying somewhat the original Muskogee, but who, nevertheless, 

 numbered seven-eighths of their whole number. Before a dominant power was es- 

 tablished in the South they were courted by the Spanish, French, and English, and 

 were about equally divided in their allegiance to these nations, but the final success 

 of the English brought them entirety under their influence. "They took an active 

 part in the war of the Revolution against the Americans, and continued their hostil- 

 ities till the treaty concluded at Philadelphia in 1795. They then remained at peace 

 eighteen years ; but at the beginning of the last war with Great Britain a consider- 

 able portion of the nation, excited, it is said, by Tecumseh, and probably receiving 

 encouragement from other sources, took arms without the slightest provocation, and 

 at first committed great ravages in the vicinity of their western frontier. They re- 

 ceived a severe chastisement, and the decisive victories of General Jackson at that 

 time, and some years later over the Seminoles, who had renewed the war, have not 

 only secured a permanent peace with the Southern Indians, but, together with the 

 progress of the settlements, have placed them all under the absolute control of the 

 United States. The Creeks and Seminoles, after some struggles among themselves, 

 have ceded the whole of their territory and accepted in exchange other lands beyond 

 the Mississippi." — Gallatin. 



Twenty-four thousand five hundred and ninety-four were removed west of the Mis- 

 sissippi, only 744 remaining on their old hunting-grounds. At the breaking out of 

 the civil war the Western Creeks numbered less than 15,000. The tribe divided and 

 engaged in pitch battles against each other, the Unionists suffering badly, many flee- 

 ing to Kansas. They were brought together again after the war, and in 1872 num- 

 bered 13,000, on a reservation of over 3,000,000 acres in the Indian Territory. 



By the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1876, they were numbered 

 at 14,000, including 3,000 mixed-bloods, and all wearing citizens' dress and living in 

 good houses. They have 36 school buildings, with an attendance of about 750 pupils. 

 Over $24,000 was expended upon their education. There are 20 churches on the 

 reserve, with a membership among the Creeks of over 3,000. They rank among the 

 first of civilized tribes. — W. H. Jackson, 1877. 



PRESENT LOCATION AND NUMBER. 



Creeks at Union Agency, Indian Territory, August 31, 1885, 14,000. 

 Civilized. Farmers and herders. The agent writes : 



One of the five civilized tribes; the number of full-blood Indians is decreasing. 



* See ' ' A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians ", with a linguistic, historic, and ethnographic intro- 

 duction, by Alhert S. Gatschet. ~No. 4. "Brinton's Library of Aboriginal American Literature," 

 edited by L\ G. Brinton. M. D., etc. Phil., 1884. 



