Indian Chiefs 2

INDIAN CHIEFS
(continued)

(Kindly contributed by William C. Bell)


MILLY, DAUGHTER OF HILLIS HADJO 1

We have already commented on the beautiful display of feminine loveliness in the character of Pocahontas; but that instance is not without a parallel. We quote the following incident from the Baltimore American:--

"The committee on Indian Affairs, in the late House of Representatives, reported a bill allowing a pension for life to Milly, an Indian woman, of the Creek tribe, daughter of the celebrated prophet and chief Francis, who was executed, by order of General Jackson, in the Seminole war of 1817-18. The subject was brought to the notice o~ the committee by the Secretary of War, in the instance of Lieut. Col. Hitchcock, who communicated the particulars of the incident upon which the recommendation of the favour of the government was founded.

"Milly, at the age of sixteen, when her nation was at war with the United States, and her father was one of the most decided and indefatigable enemies cf the white people, saved the life of an American citizen, who had been taken prisoner by her tribe. The captive was bound to a tree, and the savage warriors, With their rifles, were dancing around him, preparatory to putting him to death. The young Indian girl, filled with pity for the devoted prisoner, besought her father to spare him; but the chief declined to interfere, saying that the life of the prisoner was in the hands of his captors, whose right it was to put him to death. She then turned to the warriors, and implored them to forbear their deadly purpose. But she was repulsed; and one of them, much enraged, told her that he had lost two sisters in the war, and the prisoner must die. Her intercession, however, continued. She persevered in entreaties, and used all the arts of persuasion which her woman's nature suggested; and finally succeeded in saving his life, on condition that the young white man should adopt the Indian dress, and become one of the tribe.

"It appears from the information communicated by Col. Hitchcock, that sometime after this event the white man sought his benefactress in marriage, but she declined, and subsequently married one of her own people. Her husband is now dead. Her father was put to death in the war of 1817-18, and her mother and sister have since died. She is now friendless and poor, residing among her people in their new country, near the mouth of Verdigris river. She has three children (a boy and two girls), all too young to provide for themselves, and consequently dependent upon their mother for support.

The committee thought that the occasion presented by this case was a suitable one, not only to reward a meritorious act, but also to show the Indian tribes how mercy and humanity are appreciated by the government. The grant of a pension, with a clear exposition of the grounds of its allowance, would have a salutary influence, it was believed, upon savage customs in future. A bill was accordingly reported, to allow to Milly a pension of ninty-six dollars per annum, or eight dollars per month, for life."




1 From "History of the Indian Tribes of North America" by McKenney & Hall, pp. 193-194.


GUN MERCHANT, Creek chief.--This chief of Okchaiyi first came into prominence after the massacre of the traders on March 14, 1760. Twelve days after this affair, while staying at Muklasa, he, in the name of the headmen of the Upper Creeks and some refugee traders present, sent a talk to Governor Ellis in which he expressed the hope that the Governor would not think that this affair was a concerted plot of the nation in general, that if it had been a concerted affair, not a single trader would have ever got to his own country; that the traders present knew what uneasiness it gave the Indians; and he wished the Governor to believe that the Indians had no malice in their hearts, and their only wish was that a good understanding and friendship might be renewed with the white people. The deeds were done by a few young men and the headmen were not privy to it, and he hoped that traders would be allowed to return to the Nation.

The Governor sent a talk in reply in which he stated the Creeks must inflict capital punishment on the murderers, and that the trade would be renewed when it was safe to do so, but that first the Creeks in every town must select some powerful person to take charge of the traders and their goods; otherwise no traders would venture their persons and goods among them; and the traders must pay a yearly consideration to these guardians. Some weeks after the Governor sent another talk into the Nation. Gun Merchant was at Okfusky when the talk came there. He commented on it largely as a good talk and that they ought to quench the fire while in their power to do so. At his suggestion, the Indians went forth, gathered up the bones of the traders, wrapped them in white deer skins and buried them. Another evidence of Gun Merchant's fair dealing occurred early in 1761. The store of a trader named Henderson among the Upper Creeks was robbed. This, coming to the ears of Gun Merchant, he interposed to prevent further mischief, and at the same time took two traders and their goods under his protection. Governor Wright was so appreciative of this action that he sent a special talk to Gun Merchant. But the obligations of the traders and their guardians were not altogether well observed. Gun Merchant in a talk of April 30, which he sent to Governor Wright, says: "There was a Man appointed to look after the Traders in each town--some performed it, others did not, and that the said Headmen were to be paid for their Trouble; this Talk was given out last year by Joseph Wright from Governor Ellis; but we see no Rewards for it yet; there are others that go Guards to the Pack Horses and get nothing for this Trouble, which make the Young People indifferent of going down."

Gun Merchant was one of the four great medal chiefs of the Upper Creeks created at the Congress in Pensacola in June, 1765. After this there is no further record relating to his career.


References.--The Colonial Records of Georgia, vol. viii, pp. 32?, 348, 421, 423, 514, 543, 544; Mississippi Provincial Archives, vol 1, p. 210.


ISAACS, CAPTAIN of Tourcoula, Coosada chief, born conjecturally about 1765. He received his English name from an Indian trader, who died at an advanced age in Lincoln county, Tennessee. No facts are preserved of his life, until 1792, when he was one of the Creek chiefs that were in the habit of making raids upon the Cumberland settlers in Tennessee. On August 21, 1793, he and his party murdered a Mrs. Baker, a widow, and all her family except a daughter, named Elizabeth. They brought her to Coosada, where she was forced to be an eye-witness of the dance around the scalps of her family. But she was soon fortunate in finding a friend in the noted trader, Charles Weatherford, who lived on the east side of the Alabama River, opposite Coosada. He ransomed her, placed her in charge of his wife, where she remained until restored to her friends. After the treaty of Coleraine, made in 1796, Captain Issacs became a friend to the United States. He was the only chief at the great Council held at Tuckabatchee in the fall of 1811, that refused to take the talk of Tecumseh. General Woodward very erroneously states that Captain Issacs went north with Tecumseh and that on his way back home, he was associated with Little Warrior in the murders committed in February, 1813, near the mouth of the Ohio. Official records show that Captain Issacs never went north with Tecumseh, nor afterwards to Tecumseh, and that he had nothing to do with those murders, living in all those times at his home in the Nation. Furthermore, from his persistent loyalty to the whites. he was one of the seven prominent chiefs whose deaths had been decreed by the hostile faction in the early summer of 1813. Captain Issacs met his fate in June, himself, a nephew and three of his warriors, being killed at the same time by the Red Sticks. His wife was a daughter of General McGillivray, but apart from this, there is no
further record of his family.


References.--Pickett's History of Alabama (Owen's Edition, 1900), pp. 425, 512, 519;
American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. i, p. 487; Woodward's Reminiscences of the Creek or Muscogee Indians (1859), pp. 36, 37.


LEDAGIE --An Upper Creek Chief who was later associated with the Trading Post at Jacksonville, the County seat of Benton, now Calhoun County. This man was a signer of the 1839 Cession Treaty and was made an allotment under that agreement. A marker in the town square at Jacksonville is to hi.s memory.

(Drawing)
LEDAGIE
A Creek Chief who resided in the present Calhoun County, Alabama region. A commemorative
marker to this man is at Jacksonville.




LITTLE PRINCE, or Tustenuggee Hopqui, Creek chief.--History and tradition are both utterly silent as to the early life of this chief, who lived at Broken Arrow and was for many years speaker of the Lower Creeks. The first notice of him is in 1780. In the spring or summer of this year, the Indian Agent, John Tate, who was stationed at the Hickory Ground, raised a large number of warriors, for the British service from all the Upper Creek towns, except from the Tallassees and the Natchez, and with them marched to the Creek towns on the Chattahoochee. Here he was reinforced by a band of Lower Creeks under Little Prince. The combined Indian forces, all under the command of Tate, began their march to Augusta to the aid of Colonel Thomas Brown, in command of that post. Near the head springs of Upatoy creek, Tate became deranged, was brought back to Coweta, where he died and was buried. After his death, all the Upper Creeks returned except the Tuckabachees under Efa Tustenuggee, or Davy Cornells. He and Little Prince resumed the march with their warriors, numbering two hundred and fifty, arrived at Augusta and were there when the place was besieged by Colonel Elijah Clark. In the fighting that ensued, the Creeks lost seventy men,--a loss showing the high grade of their fighting qualities. After the abandonment of the siege and the retreat of the Americans, Colonel Brown first hung some of the most prominent Americans and then delivered the remainder into the hands of the Indians, who, in revenge for their slain warriors, put them to the most torturing and protracted deaths, by cuts, blows, scalpings and burnings. The memories of Colonels Brown and Grierson, the commanding officers of the post, justly deserve to be held in eternal opprobrium for these enormous atrocities. Those familiar with Indian character and history know that the chief has but little real control over his warriors. What he accomplishes is mainly by dint of persuasion. How much Little Prince favored or disapproved of the actions of his warriors at Augu charitable conjecture in regard to his colleague, Efa Tustenuggee, who is described by General Woodward as being 'the most hostile and bitter enemy the white people ever had."

So far as known, the Augusta campaign was the only military service ever performed by Little Prince. He was one of the signers of the treaty of Coleraine in 1796. He ever after continued friendly to the American government. He was too old for military service during the Creek War of 1813, but was active in sending his warriors into the field. And for his share in the execution of Little Warrior and his party in the spring of 1813, he was one of the seven chiefs formally condemned to death by the war party. He continued to be the head chief of the nation and speaker of the lower towns until his death in 1832. His grave is yet pointed out on Broken Arrow creek.


References.--American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. i, pp. 845, 849, 857; American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. ii, p 839, 840; Pickett's History of Alabama (Owen's Edition, 1900), pp. 519; Woodward's Reminiscences of the Creek or Muscogee Indians, pp. 35, 59; McCrady's History of South Carolina, 1775-1780, pp. 734-739; Jones' History of Georgia, vol. 2, pp. 455-459.


GEORGE LOWERY.--A cousin of Sequoyah and second chief of the eastern Cherokees under John Ross, commonly known as Major Lowrey. His native name was Agili (he is rising) possibly a contraction of an old personal name Agin-Agio-li. He joined Ross in steadily opposing all attempts to force his people to move from their eastern lands and later after this had been accomplished he was chief of a council of the eastern Cherokees at the meeting held in 1839 to fuse the eastern and western divisions into the present Cherokee Nation.


(See Handbook of American Indians, Part I, pp. 770. )


MALATCHEE, Malahchee or Malachi, Creek chief, born about 1711, as in May, 1740, he claimed
to be nearly thirty years old, was the son of Bream of Coweta, the head chief of the Muscogees. Bream had an elder son, named Auletta, who, in July, 1721, went to Charleston to hold a talk with Governor Nicholson, and to make up their differences. Malatchee was still a youth at the time of the death of Bream, his father. The chief power was then put into the hands of Chigillie, Chickeley or Chikilee, apparently a brother of Bream, until Malatchee should arrive at years of maturity. In 1736 a school for the instruction of Creek children, under the charge of the Rev. Benjamin Ingram, was inistration of the affairs of his people. Malatchee was at once proclaimed and saluted Supreme Chief of the Creek Nation. A document setting forth this act was immediately prepared by Bosomworth, signed by the chiefs and attested by some Englishmen present. Malatchee requested that a copy should be sent to the King of England and that due record should be made of the original. Bosomworth's object in this matter, and its unpleasant results, are fully given by Colonel C. C. Jones in his History of Georgia. In 1752 the Creeks had a quarrel with the Cherokees, in which the former committed some outrages, among others scalping an English trader. On Governor Glen's demand for satisfaction, Malatchee with a hundred warriors visited Charleston. After a talk by the Governor, Malatchee made a talk in which he apologized for the conduct of the Creeks, and the whole affair was satisfactorily adjusted. Malatchee's talk has been preserved by Hewatt, the South Carolina historian. On the fifth day of November, 1754, six days after he was inducted into the office as Captain-General and Governor in Chief of the Province of Georgia, Governor John Reynolds sent a talk to Malatchee in which he assured him that he would use every means to preserve the good understanding that then existed between the King's subjects of Georgia and the Creek Nation. That it would be have an opportunity of shaking hands with him, and talking with him face to face. That he would notify him when it would be proper for him to come to Savannah, where he would be able to give him a further testimony of his love and friendship. "In the meantime, I wish you, your wives and children health and prosperity, assuring you that I am your loving friend and
brother."

Malatchee died in 1755. This date is based upon a statement made by his son Togoulki or Thougoulskie (the Young Twin ), at the Augusta Congress of 1763, that his father had been dead eight years. This fixes 1755 as the year of his death. The American Indians, from time immemorial, universally held to the custom of burying all movable property in the grave,with the deceased. After long persuation by the traders, the Cherokees, by the middle of the eighteenth century, had, in a great measure, given up this custom. Malatchee, whether influenced by white people, or whether it was the result of his own thinking, certainly had advanced ideas on this subject. Adair writes: "Except the Cherokee, only one instance of deviation, from this ancient and general Indian custom occurs to me: which was that of Malahche, the late famous chieftain of the Kowwetah war-town of the lower part of the Muskogee country, who bequeathed all he possessed to his real, and adopted relations,--being sensible they would be much more useful to his living friends, than to himself during his long sleep: he displayed a genius far superior to the crowd." Malatchee was succeeded in the chieftainship by his son, Tougulki, or as frequently known, "Young Twin." For a few years before actually assuming the office, Tougoulki's uncle, Sampiaffi, acted as his guardian.


References.--Year Book of Charleston, S. C. (1894), p. 339; The Colonial Records of Georgia, vol. 4, pp. 565, S66, 561; Adair's American Indians (1775), p. 178; Hewett's History of South Carolina, vol. i, pp. 173-178; Jones' History of Georgia, vol. i, pp. 327-331, 392, 399; The Colonial Records of Georgia, vol. 7, p. 24; Ibid, vol. 21, p. 22.


McINTOSH, CHILLY.--A Creek chief. After his brother, William, was slain by Menewa for having betrayed the Creeks by "selling the graves of their ancestors," he became the head of the minority party that acquiesced in the proposed emigration to Indian Ter. As such he frequently visited Washington to treat with officials regarding the transfer of lands and acquitted himself as a capable man of business.--Stanley, Portraits Am. Inds., 13, 1852.


(Handbook of American Indians, Vol. 1, p. 781.)


McGILLIVRAY, ALEXANDER, diplomat and merchant, was born probably at Fort Toulouse, or in the town of Taskigi, one half mile below the fort, and died February 17, 1793, at Pensacola, Fla.; son of Lachlan and Sehoy (Marchand) McGillivray, the former a native of Dunmaglass, Scotland, who, at the age of sixteen, came to the Carolinas, joined a party of Indian traders, is first known as an Indian trader on the Chattahoochee River, probably at Coweta, in 1735, who after the Revolution embarked for his native land, leaving his wife and children, his plantation and worldly possessions, in the hopes that they might be allowed to fall into their possession, but all of his property was seized and they were left in destitute circumstances, the latter a half breed Creek woman; grandson of Captain Marchand and wife, a full blood Creek woman of the Wind Tribe, the former was killed at Fort Toulouse in 1722. Alexander McGillivray was educated at Charleston, S. C. In 1784 he was known as the emperor of the Creeks and Seminoles and negotiated the treaty with Spain at Pensacola. He visited President Washington at New York in 1790 and was appointed agent of the United States, with rank of brigadier-general. Shortly afterwards the King of Spain appointed him superintendent general of the Creek Nation for Spain. At the same time he was a member of the firm of Panton's, merchants of Pensacola. His principal residence was at Little Talasi, five miles above the present site of Wetumpka on the Coosa River, on what is now known as the Rose plantation. His plantation on Little River was known as "cowpen" and still another was at Hickory Ground, on the left bank of the Coosa two miles above Fort Toulouse, and below the present site of Wetumpka. He had three wives and left three children, Alexander, Jr., and two daughters. Last residence: Little Talasi, on the Coosa River.


McQUEEN, PETER, Creek Chief, born probably 1780, and on Line Creek in Montgomery County, Alabama, was the son of James McQueen and a Tallassee woman. James McQueen was a Scotchman, born, it is said in 1683, deserted from a British vessel at St. Ausgustine in 1710, went to the Creek Mims, as it contained many of their white and half-breed antagonists at Burnt Corn, and to some fort in the fork of the Tombigbee and Alabama. Fort Mims was accordingly unanimously selected, and after twenty days' discussion, Fort Sinquefield was the fort selected in the fork. McQueen was a prominent chief at the massacre of Fort Mims. He seems not to have been present at the battle of the Horse-Shoe. After this defeat, he and his two brothers-in-law, John and Sandy Durant, placed themselves for a short time with their people on the headwaters of Line Creek. Thence they went to Florida. Owing to the confusion of the times, McQueen left his negroes in the Creek Nation, which were unjustly appropriated by some half-bloods. that were American partisans. He afterwards made a vain effort to have them sent to him in Florida. With these grievances it could hardly be otherwise that McQueen was by no means averse to reviving the war. General Thomas Woodward writes of meeting him and Josiah Francis at Fort Hawkins near the close of 1817. The two chiefs were there trading and their meeting with their old acquaintance, Woodward, was entirely friendly. Very soon after this, the fugitive Creeks and Seminoles were at open war against the Americans, and Peter McQueen was recognized as the head leader. The war of 1818 in Florida known in history as the first Seminole war, was fought almost solely by the friendly Indians under General William McIntosh against the Red Stick Creeks and Seminoles under Peter McQueen. There was very little fighting done by the Americans. The most notable fight was on April 12, 1818, at Econfinnah, in which McQueen was defeated with the loss of thirty-seven men killed, and six men and ninety-seven women and children capture of cattle. McIntosh's loss was three men killed and four wounded. At the close of the Florida war McQueen took refuge on a barren island. on the Atlantic side of Cape Florida, where he soon after died. After his death his widow returned to the Creek Nation and married Willy McQueen, a nephew of Peter, and became the mother of two daughters, Sophis and Muscogee, and two or three sons. Her children by Peter were a son, James, and three daughters, Milly (Malee), Nancy and Tallassee.


References.--Pickett's History of Alabama (Owen's Edition 1900), 517, 521; Meek's Romantic Passages in Southeastern History (1854), pp. 544, 547; American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. i, pp. 847, 849, 851, 852, 857; American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. i, pp, 682, 683, 700, 749; Woodward's Reminiscences of the Creek, or Muscogee Indians (1857), pp. 9, 21, 25, 42, 44. 48, 97, 110, 153; Parton's Life of Jackson (1861), vol. ii, pp. 447, 449; Buell's History of Jackson (1894), vol. ii, pp. 127; Halbert and Ball's Creek War (1895), pp. 125-149.


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