Indian Chiefs 3
INDIAN
CHIEFS
(continued)
(Kindly contributed by William
C. Bell)
McINTOSH,
WILLIAM, Creek chief,
born at Coweta, Creek nation, probably about 1775, was the son of
Captain William McIntosh, of the British army and a
full blood Creek woman. Nothing is known of his early life, only
it may be inferred from the fair education which he had acquired and his
proficiency in the English language that he must have passed much
of it in association with white people. A tradition states that he could
even speak some Gaelic, an evidence of his mingling in boyhood or
youth with Scotch Highlanders somewhere in Georgia. He first
appears in history as one of the signers of the treaty of Washington
November 14, 180S. After this, nothing is known of his history until April,
1813, when he sent a band of warriors to Tuckabatchie to assist the
Upper Creek authorities in arresting Little Warrior and his
associates, who had committed some murders at the mouth of the Ohio
in February, 1813. The murderers were all put to death. For this action,
and on account of his sympathy for the Americans, sentence of death
was passed upon him by the hostile Creeks. At the same time six other
chiefs were condemned to death. In the fall of that year he appears as the
leader of a band of Cowetas in the army of General John Floyd.
He was at the battle of Atossee, November 14, 1813, and, General
Floyd in his report states that McIntosh and his braves fought
in this battle "with an intrepidity worthy of any troops." He
also distinguished himself at the battle of the Horseshoe, where
General Jackson in his report speaks of him as "Major McIntosh."
Note from Carol: McIntosh
is shown here as painted from life by Charles Bird King for "The
McKenney-Hall Picture Gallery of American Indians".
His name appears as one of the signers of the
treaty of Fort Jackson, August 9, 1814. He was also a signer of the
treaty of the Creek Agency, Georgia, January 22, 1818. After
this, at the head of a force of Creek Warriors he joined General
Jackson in Florida for service against the Seminoles.
He was commissioned general and placed in command of all the Indian troops,
together with a company af Tennessee cavalry. In this short Seminole
war, "he signalized himself by various acts of gallantry."
General Jackson, in his report of the fight at Econafinnah,
says: "On the morning of the 12th (April, 1818), near Econfinnah,
or Natural Bridge, a party of Indians were discovered
on the margin of a swamp, and attacked by General McIntosh, and about
fifty Tennessee volunteers, who routed them, killing thirty-seven
warriors, and capturing six men and ninety-seven women and children; also
recapturing a white woman who had been taken at the massacre of Scott.
The friendly Indians also took some horses, and about five hundred
head of cattle from the enemy, who proved to be McQueen's party."
Another official report states that General McIntosh in this fight
killed with his own hand three of the enemy and captured one. General
Thomas Woodward with five other white men was with General McIntosh
in this fight, in which the white woman, Mrs. Stuart, was rescued.
She had been a captive since November 30, 1817. General Woodward thus
describes this affair, generally known as "McIntosh's fight."
"Shortly after the firing commenced, we could hear a female voice in
the English language calling for help, but she was concealed from our view.
The hostile Indians, though greatly inferior in number to our whole
force, had the advantage of the ground, it being a dense thicket, and kept
the party that first attacked at bay until General McIntosh arrived
with the main force. McIntosh, though raised among savages, was a
General; yes, he was one of God's make of Generals. I could
hear his voice above the din of fire-arms--'Save the white woman! Save the
Indian women and children!' All this time Mrs. Stuart was between
the fires of the combatants. McIntosh said to me. 'Chulataria
Emathla, you, Brown and Mitchell, go to that woman.' (Chulataria
Emathla was the name I was known by among the Indians.) Mitchell
was a good soldier and a bad cripple from rheumatism. He dismounted
from his horse and said, 'Boys, let me lead the way.' We made the charge
with some Uchees and Creeks but Mitchell, poor fellow,
was soon left behind, in consequence of his inability to travel on foot.
I can see her now, squatted in the saw-palmetto, among a few dwarf
cabbage trees, surrounded by a group of Indian women. There I saw Brown
kill an Indian, and I got my rifle-stock shot off just back of the lock.
Old Jack Carter came up with my horse shortly after we cut off the
woman from the warriors. I got his musket and used it until the fight
ended."
General McIntosh was mainly instrumental in negotiating the treaty
of January 8, 1821. This treaty was certainly illegal, for it was made by
a party representing only one-tenth of the nation, and to be legal it should
have had the consent of the whole nation, assembled in public council. While
the Creeks submitted to it, they became alarmed at this cession of
their domain. As far back as 1811, in the council held at Broken Arrow,
they had enacted a law, forbidding, under the penalty of death, the cession
of land, except by the chiefs of the nation and ratified in full council.
Rendered uneasy by this and other acts of General McIntosh, this
law was formally re-enacted at Polecat Springs in 1824.
In their progress in agriculture and education the Creeks were becoming
more and more appreciative of the value of their lands, and consequently
were more and more reluctant to part with them. The treaty of Indian
Springs of February 12, 1825, made in defiance of the national law,
was the fatal mistake of General McIntosh, and he had to pay the
penalty. The Creek nation was greatly excited by this treaty, and
in due time, a secret council of the Upper Creeks convened, and at
it one hundred and seventy men were appointed to take the life of McIntosh.
They received minute instructions as to their marching, place of camping,
and the manner of the execution, and ere long were on their way to the Chattahoochee
River, on the west bank of which, near Coweta, stood the house
of McIntosh. There are several versions, differing in details, as
to the manner in which General McIntosh was killed in the early morning
of April 30, 1825.
Pickett's version is undoubtedly the most trustworthy, and with the
omission of such circumstances as the escape of Chilly McIntosh and
the burning of an outhouse, which occurred before the attack on the main
house, it is here given:
"In the meantime, the principal body of the assailants had surrounded
the main building, and the lightwood being immediately kindled, torches
were applied to the sides, and under it. The flames threw a bright light
over the yard, and exhibited to the astonished family of McIntosh the
approaching conflagration of the houses, and the hideous forms of those
who were to murder them. They frequently shouted with much exultation, McIntosh,
we have come, we have come. We told you, if you sold the land to the Georgians,
we would come.'
"McIntosh, upon the first discovery of the assailants, had barricaded
his front door, and stood near it when it was forced. He fired on them,
and at that moment, one of his steadfast friends, Tona Tustinungee,
fell lifeless upon the threshold. His body was riddled with balls. McIntosh
then retreated to the second story, with four guns in his hand, which he
continued to discharge from a window. He fought with great courage, and,
aware that his end was near, determined to sell his life as dear as possible.
He was at this time the only occupant of the burning house, for his two
wives, Peggy and Susannah, who had been dragged into the yard,
were heard imploring the savages not to burn him up, but to get him out
of the house,, and shoot him, as he was a brave man, and an Indian like
themselves. McIntosh now came down to the first story, and was received
with salutes of the rifle, until, being pierced with many balls, he fell
to the floor, was seized by the legs, and dragged down the steps to the
ground. While lying in the yard, and while the blood was gushing from his
wounds, he raised himself on one arm, and surveyed his murderers with looks
of defiance. At that moment, an Ocfuskee Indian plunged a long knife,
to the hilt, in the direction of his heart. He brought a long breath, and
expired. The party, after this, plundered the houses, killed the stock,
and committed other depredations, as described in the public papers of that
day."
It may be added that on the same day and very soon after General McIntosh's
death, his son-in-law, Sam Hawkins, was killed at his own residence
by a party of warriors detailed for that purpose.
The best and most charitable commentary upon the inducements which prompted
General McIntosh to defy the law of his nation and thus incur its
deadly penalty, was written by Colonel Thomas L. McKenney, who says:
"He propably foresaw that his people would
have no rest within the limits of Georgia, and perhaps acted with
an honest view to their interests. The intercourse he had enjoyed with
the Army of the United States, and the triumph of their arms over
the desperate valour of the Indians, which he had witnessed at
Autossee, the Horseshoe, and in Florida, induced him
to believe he would be safe under the shadow of their protection, even
from the vengeance of his tribe. But there were, besides, strong appeals
to his cupidity, in the provisions of the treaty of the Indian Springs,
and in its supplements. By one of these, the Indian Spring; reservation
was secured to him; and by another it was agreed to pay him for it twenty-five
thousand dollars. Moreover, the second article of the treaty provided for
the payment to the Creek Nation, of four hundred thousand
dollars. Of this sum he would of course have received his share. Such inducements
might have been sufficiently powerful to shake a virtue based upon a surer
foundation than the education of a heathen Indian could afford. Besides
this, he was flattered and caressed by the Commissioners, who were
extremely eager to complete the treaty, and taught to believe he was consulting
the ultimate advantage of the nation. These considerations, in some measure,
remove the odium from his memory. But it must still bear the stain which
Indian justice affixes to the reputation of the chief who sells, under
such circumstances, the graves of his fathers."
General McIntosh is
represented as a tall, finely formed man, with polished manners, which he
had acquired from contact with the more refined of the white people and
from association with army officers on the Southern frontier. He
was the owner of a number of negro slaves. whom he treated kindly, and possessed
considerable wealth.
General McIntosh had a half-brother on his father's side, named Rolin
or Rolla, and a
half-brother on his mother's side, named Hogey, often called Hogey
McIntosh, who was a full blooded Indian. He had two wives, named Peggy
and Sussanah, one of whom was a Creek, the other a Cherokee,
but in the lack of records, it cannot be decided to which nationality each
one respectively belonged. His Creek children were two sons, Chilly,
who succeeded him in the chieftainship, and Lewis, and three daughters,
Jane, Hetty, and Lucy. Jane was the oldest daughter. She first
married Billy Mitchell, a son of the Creek agent David
B. Mitchell; she next married Sam Hawkins, whose death has already
been noted. She then married Paddy Carr, but left him and went to
Arkansas Territory at an early day. General McIntosh had only
one Charokee child, a daughter, who married Ben Hawkins, a
brother of Sam. Ben was killed years afterwards in Texas.
The McIntosh family has ever been distinguished in the Creek
Nation, prominent in church, state and military affairs. Several
of them were Confederate field officers. The blood of the McIntosh
clan thus shows that it was born to command, even when mingled with the
wild blood of the Muscogee Indian.
General McIntosh wrote an official report on the affair of: Econfinnah,
which has the distinction of being the first report of this character ever
written by an American Indian.
Nearly all the fighting of the first Seminole war was done by General
McIntosh's command. They were mustered out of service on April 24. (Parton's
Life of Jackson, vol. ii, p 463.) A summary of their campaign is thus recorded
by D. B. Mitchell, the Creek agent: "When McIntosh
and his warriors were mustered at Fort Mitchell, he divided his
force, and with that part which he retained under his own command, he descended
the Chattahoochee on its western bank, and on reaching the town called
Red Ground, encountered their chief and warriors this affair he took
fifty-three warriors, and one hundred and thirty women and children. The
chief made his escape with a few warriors. Colonel Lovett, with the
rest of the warriors, mustered at Fort Mitchell, descended the Chattahoochee
on the eastern bank, and General McIntosh crossing the river below
the fork, the two detachments united on their march to Mickasuky,
where they joined General Jackson. At Mickasuky the Indians
had generally fled, and but few were found at the town. On the march to
Suwany, McIntosh, with his warriors, encountered about two hundred of
the hostile party, under Peter McQueen, of whom he killed thirty-seven,
and made six warriors and one hundred and six women and children prisoners.
The next enemy thee engaged were the negroes of Sauwanee, amounting
to about two hundred and fifty, of whom eleven or twelve were killed, and
three made prisoners. The Indians of this part of the country fled
before the army, and here ended the Seminole campaign, as far as
the Indians were concerned."
(Drawing)
WILLIAM McINTOSH
A Lower Creek Chief born at Coweta
in the present Russell County; massacred at his home in
Carroll County, Georgia March 31, 1825.
(American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol.
i, p. 749.)
References.--McKenney and Hall's Indian Tribes of North America (1854),
vol. 1, pp. 129-133; American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. 1, pp.
699-701; American State Papers, Indian
Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 841, 843, 852; Pickett's History of Alabama (Owen's
Edition, 1900), pp. 519, 558; Woodward's Reminiscences of the Creek or
Muscogee Indians (1859), pp. 50, 54, 55, 114; White's Historical Collections
of Georgia (1855), pp. 170-173; Handbook of American Indians (1907), part
2, p. 782; Spark's Memories of Fifty Years (1872), pp. 467-473; and Alabama
Historical Reporter, vol. 3, No. 7, July, 1855; and Parton's Life of Andrew
Jackson (168,1), vol. ii, pp. 4.59, 460.
MENAWA, Creek Chief, born probably
at Okfuskee, about 1766, died in the Creek Nation west,--but
year of death not known. He was a half-breed, but neither history nor tradition
preserved the name of his white father. He was noted in early life for his
annual horse stealing., exploits on the Cumberland frontier in Tennessee,
but seldom shedding the blood of the settlers, except when he met with resistance.
He received, in consequence of these raids, the name of Hopothla,
said by McKenney and Hall to mean crazy war hunter. The stealing,
of horses by Hopothla must not be ascribed solely to a spirit of
adventure. He had evidently inherited the commercial instincts of his white
progenitors, and these horses added largely to his wealth. After a few years,
he gave up these inroads into Tennessee, largely adopted some of
the ways of civilized life and became a wealthy man. He owned large herds
of cattle, great numbers of hogs, and several hundred horses.
He owned a store, filled with various articles of merchandise suited for
Indian life, which he bartered to his people for the products of the chase.
He was known to drive to Pensacola, a hundred horses, loaded with
peltries and furs. By the time af the outbreak of the Creek war of 1813,
Menawa, the name by which he was now known, was one of the wealthiest
Indians of the Upper Towns.
When Tecumseh visited the Creeks in 1811, Menawa was
the second chief of the Okfuskee town. He entered heart and soul
into Tecumseh's schemes, influenced to this action, in a measure,
by his hatred of General McIntosh, who, he knew, in case of war,
would be on the side of the Americans. While Menawa was the war chief
of his people in the Creek war, the head chief was a medicine man,
in whose supernatural powers the ignorant Creeks placed the most
implicit confidence. Menawa himself was not exempt from this superstition.
He fought in several battles of the Creek war, but is best known
from his connection with the battle of the Horse-Shoe. The medicine
man assured the Creeks, fortified on this consecrated ground, that
the Americans would attack them in the rear, in the place where it
was swept by the river.
Menawa, just
before the battle, posted his warriors in accordance with this prophecy.
General Jackson at once saw that the vulnerable point of the horse-shoe
was the breastwork in front extending across the isthmus. He at once
rapidly moved forward his cannon, and with them made breaches, in the breastwork,
towards which the ennesseans made an impetuous charge. Menawa saw
the fatal mistake he made by heeding the false prophet; in his furious wrath,
he struck him dead, and then, at the head of his Okfuskee braves,
dashed forth over the breastwork against the Tennesseeans. The battle
which ensued, terminating in the death of near one thousand Creek warriors,
has often been described. When it ended, about sunset, Menawa, desperately
wounded, lay unconscious amid a heap of the dead. When he recovered, and
the darkness grew deeper, the love of life prompted him to escape from the
fatal field. He crawled to the river, found a canoe, floated in it down
the river to near the camp where the women and children were hidden prior
to the battle. The canoe was seen by some of the women, Menawa
was taken from it, and sent to an appointed rendezvous on Elkahatchee
Creek, where he was joined by other unhappy survivors of the battle.
Three days were passed by them in the mourning
for their dead, in which no one ate, drank or permitted his wounds to be
dressed. This over, it was resolved that each one should retire to his own
home, and then make his own peace with the victors. Their wounds were then
dressed, and all, except Menawa, went away to follow out the plan
agreed upon in their council. Such is the story of the escape of Menawa
from the battlefield of the Horse-Shoe, as related by McKenney
and H by Pickett, but may be reconciled with the incidents in
Woodward's version of Menawa's making use of a woman's dress
while lying wounded on the field. Pickett's statement that Menawa,
while lying in the river, breathed through the long joint of a cane, one
end of which projected above the water, records something that no human
being can do, and this statement, made perhaps in a quizzical mood by
Menawa himself, was palmed off upon Pickett's credulity.
In short, Pickett's version must be rejected.
Menawa's wounds kept him in his retreat until after the close of
the war. He then sought his old home in Okfuskee, but found everything
swept away by the war, and he was now indeed a very poor man. According
to one authority he and his people made their homes near the falls of the
Catawba for more than a year after the war. He regained his health,
reassumed his old time leadership over the Okfuskee people, and again
was an influential man in the Creek nation. Like the majority of
his people, he was opposed to any cessions of land. In 1825, in the excitement
following the treaty of Indian Springs, a secret council was held,
in which a party of chiefs and warriors were appointed to carry into execution
the national law by putting to death General William McIntosh, who,
in violation of this law, had presumed to make a cession of land at Indian
Springs. Menawa was one of these National executioners. In after
years, he regretted his share in this affair, saying that he would freely
lay down his life, if by; so doing, he could bring back to life Billy
McIntosh. He was one of the delegates that went to Washington
to remonstrate against the treaty of Indian Springs. His conduct
during the negotiations was calm and dignified, for he was a gentleman in
appearance and manners.
In 1835 he sent his oldest son to serve against the Seminoles in
Florida. In 1836 he was among the first Creeks to offer his
services against his insurgent countrymen, and in combination with Opothleyaholo,
he marched with his braves against the hostile town of Hatchechubbee.
On this occasion he wore a full American uniform and "affected the
conduct of a civilized leader, whose object was to prevent the effusion
of blood." This shows a great evolution in his mental and moral attitude,
from that of the savage chief in 1814 to a military leader, imbued with
the ideas of civilization, in 1836. Menawa was opposed to the emigration
of the entire Creek Nation, but wished that certain reservations,
to be held in perpetuity, should be granted to such individuals as wished
to remain in the ceded territory. Such a reservation was granted to him
in consideration of his past services. But scarcely was it granted when
"by some strange inadvertence or want of faith, he was ordered to join
the emigration camp." He went west with his people, but there is no
record of his life in the new country, not even when and where he died.
In 1894, Miss Hannah Monahwee, the granddaughter of the chief Menawa,
was the matron of the Wetumpka National Labor School in the Creek
Nation, Colonel William Robison, Superintendent. Monahwee is
another form of writing Monawa.
References.--McKenney and Hall's Indian Tribes of North America (1854),
vol. ii, pp. 97-105; Pickett's History of Alabama (Owen's Edition, 1900),
p. 590; Woodward's Reminiscences of The Creek, or Muscogee Indians (1859),
pp. 43, 116, 117, 168.
MISTEPEE.--A Seminole Creek boy who made several trips with
delegations to Washington where in 1826 his portrait was painted.
He married a Hillibee-Creek woman in the Nation in Alabama
and went with one of the early parties to the allotted lands in the West.
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