Forging a Cherokee-American Alliance in the Creek War: From Creation to Betrayal

by Susan M. Abram

Overview

Explores how the Creek War of 1813–1814 not only affected Creek Indians but also acted as a catalyst for deep cultural and political transformation within the society of the United States’ Cherokee allies

The Creek War of 1813–1814 is studied primarily as an event that impacted its two main antagonists, the defending Creeks in what is now the State of Alabama and the expanding young American republic. Scant attention has been paid to how the United States’ Cherokee allies contributed to the war and how the war transformed their society. In Forging a Cherokee-American Alliance in the Creek War, Susan M. Abram explains in engrossing detail the pivotal changes within Cherokee society triggered by the war that ultimately ended with the Cherokees’ forced removal by the United States in 1838.
 
The Creek War (also known as the Red Stick War) is generally seen as a local manifestation of the global War of 1812 and a bright footnote of military glory in the dazzling rise of Andrew Jackson. Jackson’s victory, which seems destined only in historic hindsight, was greatly aided by Cherokee fighters. Yet history has both marginalized Cherokee contributions to that conflict and overlooked the fascinating ways Cherokee society changed as it strove to accommodate, rationalize, and benefit from an alliance with the expanding American republic. Through the prism of the Creek War and evolving definitions of masculinity and community within Cherokee society, Abram delineates as has never been done before the critical transitional decades prior to the Trail of Tears.
 
Deeply insightful, Abram illuminates the ad hoc process of cultural, political, and sometimes spiritual transitions that took place among the Cherokees. Before the onset of hostilities, the Cherokees already faced numerous threats and divisive internal frictions. Abram concisely records the Cherokee strategies for meeting these challenges, describing how, for example, they accepted a centralized National Council and replaced the tradition of conflict-resolution through blood law with a network of “lighthorse regulators.” And while many aspects of masculine war culture remained, it too was filtered and reinterpreted through contact with the legalistic and structured American military.
 
Rigorously documented and persuasively argued, Abram’s award-winning Forging a Cherokee-American Alliance in the Creek War fills a critical gap in the history of the early American republic, the War of 1812, the Cherokee people, and the South.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780817388515
Publisher:	University of Alabama Press
Publication date:	11/15/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Susan M. Abram teaches history at Western Carolina University and Southwestern Community College. Her publications include “Real Men: Masculinity, Spirituality, and Community in Late Eighteenth-Century Cherokee Warfare” in New Men: Manliness in Early America and “Cherokees in the Creek War: A Band of Brothers” in Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War and the War of 1812.

Read an Excerpt

Forging a Cherokee-American Alliance in the Creek War

From Creation to Betrayal

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By Susan M. Abram

UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS

Copyright © 2015 The University of Alabama Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8173-8851-5

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CHAPTER 1

REAL MEN

Cherokee Masculinity, Honor, and Spirituality Connected to Warfare

Soldiers, troops, militia, warriors — all these words evoke images in our minds of men who are strong, protective of others, loyal to their own, and deadly. Today we are surrounded by images associated with violence and war, including graphic video games depicting battles against all kinds of opponents, actual and imagined; real-time depictions instantly available through this age's global communications from the fronts of real wars; and other deadly conflicts. It is understandably hard to imagine what war was like in a time before the technical military weaponry of today, which can fly drones from the safety of a control room thousands of miles from the action or gather reconnaissance using satellites orbiting the earth. In order to understand how it used to be, how wars were conducted in the past, and how they shaped the world today, we must endeavor to grasp the significance of war to the societies that engaged in the almost constant combat of the past.

In an analysis of modern Native American warfare, author Tom Holm made a distinction between early Euro-American-style warfare and that of American Indians. While societies of European extraction fought for political and economic gains, Holm persuasively maintained that American Indian groups attached a strong physical and spiritual component to their conduct as avengers in war. This functioned to empower and intensify tribal identity. Besides acting to strengthen communal and tribal solidarity, Native warfare prepared future political and civil leaders. At the same time, war deeds and acts of valor provided stepping-stones for young males to become accomplished men. Consequently, Holm emphasized that warfare provided the "ultimate feeling of liberation and the greatest expression of being a male," agreeing with journalist William Broyles Jr.'s article about "Why Men Love War."

As anthropologists R. Brian Ferguson and Neil L. Whitehead noted in War in the Tribal Zone: Expanding States and Indigenous Warfare: "States have difficulty dealing with peoples without authoritative leaders and with constantly changing group identity and membership. All expanding states seek to identify and elevate friendly leaders. They are given titles, emblems, and active political and military support. ... At the same time, however, a leader must exist within the constraints of local social organization. ... The kind of authority that actually emerges also depends on the prior political organization of the native people and the nature of the contact process." Accordingly, they argued, war is a primary expression of a relationship between a state presence, here meaning the United States, and an indigenous group, the Cherokees, that can occur as they align to fight against another tribal group (in this instance, the Red Stick Creeks). Ferguson and Whitehead recognized that this results when one tribe responds to its "own perceived interests in the changing circumstances" of its geopolitical space.

Keeping this in mind, this study will explore the transformation of Cherokee males into warrior-soldiers now allied to the United States, their recent former enemy. My examination of this process supports the idea that the "militarization of entire communities ... brought about new alliances and the appearance of completely new militarized groups among both the indigenous and colonizing peoples." An example of this is the Cherokees' reorganization of their war structure to complement that of the US military. This action represented not assimilation, I argue, but rather a resilience of the Cherokee tradition and its innovative versatility to meet the challenges arising from a rapidly changing geopolitical world. Though the new Cherokee military structure seemed to mirror that of American troops, the Cherokee warriors and their leadership nevertheless continued to honor the war traditions of their ancestors. The Cherokee officers continued to represent ancient "red" war leadership as they balanced the diplomatic and martial skills necessary to serve under the command of the US military.

The Cherokee war organization subsequently continued its traditional holistic connection with its Cherokee communities. Defense, honor, glory, and masculine expression, all of which could result in elevation in status or rank, remained a vital part of a Cherokee warrior's psychological motivation. As was customary, Cherokee males used the Red Stick War to become real men by proving themselves to be capable warriors. While fulfilling their masculine duty of protecting their families, clans, and tribe, at the same time this martial group earned the esteem of their peers.

Like in many societies past and present, Cherokee males used warfare to accomplish a variety of goals. On a personal level, they used warfare as a vehicle to become men. These warriors then earned various martial titles over the years to become even greater men. Older, experienced warriors held more esteemed ranks and had higher status than those who were younger, untried, or less experienced. According to British lieutenant Henry Timberlake, two classes of Cherokee military men existed during the British American colonial era: the warriors of rank and, of course, males who had yet to prove themselves through war deeds, such as returning with an enemy's scalp. It was the call to war that presented the exhilarating opportunities to procure military titles, for "it is by scalps they get all their war-titles," noted another visitor to the Cherokees during this time, trader James Adair.

Thus fighting and shedding the blood of their enemies were not only vehicles for passage into Cherokee manhood, but ways to rise in warrior rank to become even greater men. Cherokee men earned titles through their martial accomplishments, and Cherokee leaders saw to it that the bestowing of these laurels occurred in the public sphere of the town square or townhouse. In this way, the approval of the community's membership endorsed the actions taken in war. The public recognition of these warriors served to validate the manhood achieved through war deeds and acknowledged these "real" men as the embodiment of ultimate masculinity.

On the communal or tribal level, the main reason for going to war was to retaliate for a perceived wrong or threat. This action was directly linked to a sense of honor, sacred duty, and spiritual belief for both the warriors and their people. War, with its fundamental role in shaping Cherokee culture, was a potent historical process through which selective cultural adaptation took place over time, along with the formation of a national identity. War served as the "principal study" or "beloved occupation" of Cherokee men and touched the lives of all members of Cherokee communities at one time or another. Warfare was a complex institution that promoted leadership, brotherhood, and community, while it also validated gender roles. Not only did participation in certain activities associated with war encourage and uphold gendered expectations, it also promoted Cherokee values in other considerable ways.

Warfare was not merely reflective of a culture of violence. When examined in depth, it becomes obvious that it also expressed spiritual power, honor, and communal and clan values. As one scholar keenly observed, Native Americans used spiritual power to help them achieve their goals in war. Spiritual resources could be tapped "in order to acquire power" and "to become part of that power." So, for example, Cherokee warfare included the concept of spiritual warfare, which included ritual maiming. When his physical body was disfigured, the enemy became degraded and unworthy. This replicated the damage inflicted on an opponent's soul. Scalping was a direct assault against the "soul of conscious life," which resided at the top of the head. By preventing the enemy from reaching spiritual fulfillment, scalping allowed Cherokee men to prove their worth through martial success.

The Cherokee manner of engagement with the enemy was usually short, since both parties emptied their guns straight away and flew into hand-to- hand combat. As comrades fell, battles quickly turned into rescue operations as the war parties sought to keep their casualties from succumbing to the mutilating scalping knife of the enemy or, worse, enslavement, which usually guaranteed torture. At the same time, a push to retrieve the scalps of any fallen foes dominated each group's actions. The Cherokee war party spared no body from mutilation through slashing or dismemberment if it could safely do so. It was the collection of scalps as the treasured "trophies of honour" that guaranteed war titles and advancement as real men.

Most Cherokee men chose to earn and express their manhood through participation in this model. Other activities connected to or that expressed warlike actions that allowed Cherokee men to display their masculine competence included stickball and hunting. Demonstrations in any of these activities were viewed as manly expressions, though warfare was by far the most dangerous and hence the most rapid way to achieve recognition of manhood and acknowledgment as a worthy community member.

Still, warfare is not something that we can separate from any society's other institutions or value systems. The process of making war reveals the beliefs and sentiments of a particular society and is not simply an expression of inherent violent behavior. So, in this instance, Cherokee warrior culture reflected many of the beliefs, values, and traditions of the society. This was not merely a culture of violence, though the towns and tribes throughout the Southeast were both perpetrators and victims of violent actions.

Cherokee youths grew up seeing many facets of warfare, and their elders could easily inculcate them into its secular and sacred customs. Training and esoteric instruction prepared young men for future successes and responsibilities in war. Once ready, a male youth usually impatiently waited for a chance to become a full-fledged, or real, man by participating in warfare to protect the living and to honor the dead of his people. Geopolitical conflicts between the Cherokees and their neighbors provided ample opportunities. Adair, an early trader in the Southeast, was impressed by this enough that he noted "nothing but war-songs and war-dances could please them, during this flattering period of becoming great warriors."

For the most part, Cherokee warfare and its effects on Cherokee society as depicted in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century accounts revealed only a partial picture of warrior culture. Written by outsiders, including traders, missionaries, soldiers, and other travelers to Cherokee communities, these contemporary records provided a glimpse of individual and communal warfare actions over time. Though some accounts may have been inaccurate to some extent, Cherokee gatekeepers have corroborated a great deal. For example, during the removal era, playwright, songwriter, and Cherokee advocate John Howard Payne used many Cherokees to compile information on the history and culture of the tribe, as did the Reverend Daniel S. Butrick, who further contributed a great deal to Payne's knowledge. Butrick credited Thomas Smith (Shield Eater), Thomas Nutsawi, and Thomas Pridget, all Cherokees, with providing the vast amount of material that he recorded for posterity. It is important to remember that no one account can totally express the complexities and variations of Cherokee war actions or rituals. Yet the essence of their belief in the importance of war and its gendered responsibilities in their society remains evident.

Honor through war actions was often required by Cherokee tradition. Cherokee blood law required that the nearest male clan relation avenge or reconcile the "crying blood" of kin stolen into captivity or killed. Clan honor was at stake although such acts perpetrated by outsiders were also a communal responsibility. Should the avengers fail, their relative's ghost was doomed to never rest and would remain nearby, leaving the community vulnerable to sickness or bad luck. This "kindred duty of retaliation" resulted in a cyclic process of war raids in an attempt to satisfy the time-honored perpetual practice of give-and-take with their enemies.

As geopolitical threats intensified with European colonization in the mid-eighteenth century, Cherokee war councils became more than just town-by-town affairs. The larger, more organized war councils occasionally involved hundreds of men representing many towns. Beginning with the Anglo-Cherokee War, this meant that more towns in the various regions of the Cherokee territory came together for a common cause — to fight a mutual enemy. Hence, by the 1760s Cherokee localism and regionalism were being tested as warfare with the British did not recognize just certain towns or regions of Cherokees as a threat and often involved all of them. This meant that Cherokee warfare had to change, and evolve it did.

Practices associated with warfare were important in Cherokee society and correspondingly had a profound influence on Cherokee culture. Though warfare was viewed as "a test of manhood," some historians have erroneously claimed that it was "not a means to social status or political influence." Clearly, just the opposite was true. As stated earlier, the Cherokees' occupation of war was a complex institution with gendered expectations, spiritual dimensions, and communal values. War made participants of all Cherokees, leaving no community exempt. Cherokee warriors were "ready always to sacrifice every pleasure and gratification, even their blood, and life itself, to defend their territory and maintain their rights." The military institution connected Cherokees to the sacred, social, and political dimensions of Cherokee society. The Cherokee warrior organization was not only a path to manhood, but served as an avenue to increased social status and political influence. In addition, the next few decades surrounding the events of the American Revolution see the defense of Cherokee territory taking priority over the ideological premise and sacred obligation associated with traditional blood revenge as a rationale for war.

This did not occur overnight of course. The movement away from war as primarily a sacred gendered act had slowly begun alongside the European thirst for empire. And although the Cherokees continued many war practices, several things in Cherokee society would change to reflect the changing nature of warfare.

CHAPTER 2

CHEROKEE WAR, LEADERSHIP, AND POLITICS

From the Chickamauga Era to Lighthorse Law

"The whole business of Indian life is war and hunting," British Southern Indian superintendent John Stuart proclaimed after the end of the Seven Years' War and the Anglo-Cherokee War. A mere forty years later this statement was no longer true because by the end of the eighteenth century, the Cherokees faced a realignment of their economy, a reformulated national government, and new conceptions of masculine power after suffering two devastating wars in the Southeast. With the decline of the once lucrative Indian deerskin trade, an escalation of white land hunger, and the American expulsion of the British after the Revolutionary War, Cherokee society now faced multiple crises that would culminate in significant changes involving Cherokee communities, warfare, leadership, and gender.

Some of the most transformative events began in 1775, with the destructive and divisive Cherokee War followed by the Chickamauga War, and the changes culminated with the reunification of the Lower and Upper Towns of the Cherokee Nation in 1808. The constant warring that took place between 1775 and 1794 commenced when a faction of Cherokees separated from the powerful Overhill, or Upper Towns, region at the end of a failed Cherokee campaign to assist the British in the American Revolution. This group, led by the minor war chief Dragging Canoe, was a direct consequence of a tribal dispute over how to deal with white encroachment. The dissenters, soon known as the Chickamaugas, waged war against white trans-Appalachia settlements for nearly twenty years. In addition, many headmen and warriors from other towns throughout the Cherokee country sympathized and often joined this resistance group's raids. This constant warring resulted in breakdowns of the civil government, the ceremonial cycle, and other traditional aspects of Cherokee culture. Male validation and status seeking increasingly revolved around war activities, since there was little time for men to hunt, let alone to play ball games, in these demanding times. This perpetual state of warfare also disrupted traditional religious observances and individual spiritual practices. When peace eventually returned, the Cherokees were forced to redefine themselves. They sought to become a centralized political entity while rebuilding their transformed communities.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Forging a Cherokee-American Alliance in the Creek War by Susan M. Abram. Copyright © 2015 The University of Alabama Press. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Real Men: Cherokee Masculinity, Honor, and Spirituality Connected to Warfare 2. Cherokee War, Leadership, and Politics: From the Chickamauga Era to Lighthorse Law 3. Toward the Clouded and Dark Path: The Road to War 4. Cherokees in the Creek War: A Band of Brothers 5. Postwar Challenges and American Betrayal: Cherokee Conflict and Community Crisis Conclusion Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

"Rather than concentrating on the generational or class divisions that other historians have used to explain factionalism among nineteenth-century Cherokees, for example, Abram calls attention to the experiences of the warrior-headmen and the impact of war on the competing visions of the future they developed for their people. Consequently, Abrams work provides a perspective that will supplement Joel W. Martin's Sacred Revolt: The Muskogees' Struggle for a New World, Gregory Evans Dowd's A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815, and other studies of the Creek conflict."
—Journal of Southern History

"Forging a Cherokee-American Alliance in the Creek War [is] a tightly argued monograph that begins in the lead-up to the Creek War with a fascinating discussion of the importance of warfare to Cherokee men and ends with the political fallout from the Creek War. . . . Abram employs a formidable array of methodologies—from ethnography to new social history—to make a case for the Creek War and its importance for the fate of the Cherokee Nation. . . . Abram has written a highly readable and compelling book that draws on a number of methodological approaches to craft a book that . . . makes a bold argument and is a welcome addition to Cherokee studies."
—H-AmIndian, a division of H-Net, Humanities and Social Sciences Online

“Abram’s Forging a Cherokee-American Alliance in the Creek War reveals how Cherokee military contributions in the Creek War served as a microcosm of changes in the larger Cherokee society and its leadership. Abram skillfully traces the involvement of the Cherokees in the Creek War, the ways in which their constructions of masculinity were adjusted, and the legacy of the engagement for the structure of tribal leadership. She also poignantly recounts the eventual betrayal of the Cherokees by the American government, especially Andrew Jackson, and their eventual removal from the southeast.”
—Carolyn Johnston, author of Cherokee Women in Crisis: Trail of Tears, Civil War, and Allotment, 1838-1907 and editor of Voices of Cherokee Women


“Forging a Cherokee-American Alliance in the Creek War is the first full-length treatment of the Cherokee involvement in the Creek War of 1813-1814. Abram tells a detailed and dynamic story—one that should greatly enrich the literature of Cherokee history of the early nineteenth century. Academics and those with a general interest in Cherokee history will find Abram’s work both stimulating and rewarding.”
—Tom Kanon, author of Tennesseans at War, 1812-1815: Andrew Jackson, the Creek War, and the Battle of New Orleans

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