The Red Stick Rebellion of 1813 was fought in response to the gradual ebbing away of Creek territory by treaties made with the United States. While there remains some question as to the severity of the Indian attacks, American authorities were concerned enough to divert a significant force away from the mainland invasion by British forces to combat the threat. Like many indigenous leaders before him, the principal leader of the opposition forces, Red Eagle, took up arms against the influx of white citizens into Creek territory. Where once there had been a balance, with both sides trading and having scant interaction, now missionaries were changing the structure of Creek culture and, in the opinion of some, undermining their society. Maligned by the American authorities and viewed as a warmonger, Red Eagle risked his life in surrendering to Andrew Jackson in 1814. Surprisingly, however, the general did not imprison his enemy and promised an amiable settlement. Red Eagle was allowed to return to his people and was even granted safe passage through the American lines. The battlefields were quiet, but Jackson was biding his time.
In August of 1814, Red Eagle and several other Creek leaders gathered at Ft. Jackson in Alabama to certify the end of hostilities between the Creek Nation and the United States. Although the articles of the treaty of Ft. Jackson provide for the protection of loyal Creek villages and territories, a total of 26 million acres was ceded to the United States—representing a third of Creek territory in Georgia and Alabama. In this massive land cession was territory that belonged to both the Red Sticks and the White Sticks. Rather than allow the assembled chiefs to sign away their heritage, many Creek deserted their own territory and moved into the northern part of Florida, where they joined with the Seminole Nation. It was here, in Spanish Florida, that the next series of conflicts with Native American states began. Those Creek who remained faced a far more insidious plot by the American government. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which located the remaining Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw Choctaw, and Seminole villages to reservation lands in Oklahoma Territory. While treaties were still required to make this mass relocation “legal,” American agents would find ways to convince native leaders to sign away their people’s heritage.
As for those Creek who refused to see their land in white hands, they moved south and continued their resistance. Until they withdrew, the British supported the displaced Creek and their new Seminole allies with weaponry. At the end of the War of 1812, however, their supply lines ran dry. As their countrymen to the north faced an uncertain future, the band of Creek settlers assisted the Seminole in the first of three wars of resistance against the Americans. In Florida, the Creek and Seminole fortified their borders and looked to the Spanish government for sanctuary. At this point in history, Spain controlled much of Florida and U.S. law did not apply. While the American government sought a diplomatic solution regarding the purchase of Florida, many factors conspired to necessitate a military solution. In addition to a series of small border skirmishes, the Creek and Seminole villages in Florida were becoming a safe haven for runaway slaves from the United States. Fear of slave uprising and renewed hostilities with indigenous tribes along the Georgia border gave American leaders like Secretary of War John C Calhoun significant cause to send troops in the region in 1816. By 1817, the First Seminole War had begun.
Sources:
Mark C Carnes, Ed, U.S. History. (New York: MacMillan Library Reference, 1996).
Kenneth C. Davis, Don’t Know Much About History. (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2003).
Gilbert Legay, Atlas of Indians. (Hauppage: Barron’s, 1995)
Marilyn Miller and Marian Faux, Eds., American History Desk Reference. (New York: MacMillan, 1997).
Carl Waldman, Atlas of the North American Indian. (New York: Checkmark Book, 2000).
