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Creek War Customs And Tactics
A few notes on the
war-customs of the Creeks, which resembled
those of most Southern tribes, may be useful
for shedding light on the
early migrations
of the people and upon the tactics observed
in their campaigns.
The principal motive
for Indian wars being the conquest of
scalps, slaves, plunder and hunting grounds,
the Creeks, conscious of their great power,
were not very particular in finding causes
for warfare, and did not even advance
specious reasons for declaring war. Thus,
Adair gives as the true cause of a long war
between the Creeks and
Cheroki, the killing
and scalping of two Chicasa hunters by a
Shawano "brave." This man took refuge among
the Cheroki people, and war was declared to
them by the Creeks, because they then had
concluded a war alliance with the
Chicasa
(History, p. 278).
It is rather improbable
that a declaration of war always preceded
the attack, for the advance into the hostile
territory was made clandestinely1; but the
resolution of starting upon the warpath was
heralded in the towns with
The Creeks of old were
in the habit of carrying on their warfare
chiefly in small bodies, like other Indian
tribes. Small commands are better enabled to
surprise the enemy or his camps in
clandestine or night attacks, or to cut off
hostile warriors, than large ones. There are
instances that the Creeks formed war parties
of four men only. Their leader was then
styled imíssi, immíssi or "the one carrying
it for them," this term referring to the
battle-charm or war-physic. War parties of
forty to sixty men are mentioned also.
When warriors started
for the "field of honor" in larger or
smaller bodies, they were led by a commander
(pakā’dsha) who simultaneously was an
ahopáya or hopáya, "charmer at a distance."
Men of this order had, like other
warriors,
to undergo, while quite young, a severe
course of initiation into manhood, which
also comprised instructions in herbphysicking. To become initiated they
camped away from other people, and had for
their only companion the old conjuror, who
for four months initiated them and taught
them the incantations intended to act as
charms upon the enemy. To begin with, a fast
of either four or eight days and the eating
of certain bitter weeds was prescribed, to
purify the system and to prepare the youth
for a ready comprehension of the objects of
tuition. The whole process was sometimes
repeated for another four months, in the
spring of the year following, and differed
in every town. The knowledge thus acquired,
it was believed, imparted to the person a
full conjuring power and charmer's influence
over the antagonist, and enabled him to
conquer the hostile warriors at a distance
(hupá-i) and before reaching them, or to
make them come near enough for easy capture.
When the Great Warrior
started on the warpath he gave notice to the
participants where he would strike camp that
night, and then set out, sometimes with one
or two men only. A war-whoop and the
discharge of his gun were the signals of his
departure, and were responded to by his followers by acting in the same manner. The
other warriors took their time, and went to
rejoin him one or two days after. A man
taking part in a war-expedition was called
hu li-a la.
A war party always
preceded in Indian file, each man stepping
into the footprints of the foregoing, to
prevent the enemy from knowing their number.
This explains also the episode of the legend
referring to the tracks lost in the bottom
of the river, q. v.2 The tracks, footprints,
strokes of hatchets visible on the bark of
trees, etc., differed in every American
tribe. Among the Creeks the last man in the
file often sought to cover the tracks by
placing grass upon them. A considerable
force of scouts hovered around the marching
file, to prevent surprises; the leader
marched at the head of the file.
The attack was made in
true Indian and savage fashion, before
daybreak. The warriors crept up as silently
as possible, tried to dart their missiles
from secret spots, and never exposed their
bodies to the enemy when they could cover
them by some eminence or rock, tree or bush.
The leader took a position in the rear. The
Chicasa Indians continually taunted the
colonial troops upon the fearless but
useless exposure of their men to the
battle-fire of the wary Indian braves. Milfort relates that his men fought nude,
because they had noticed that the fragments
of clothing entering the body with the point
of the missile rendered the wound much more
dangerous than the missile itself.
When making prisoners
the Creeks habitually spared only the lives
of children, killing mercilessly the adult
males and females. They even burnt many of
them at the stake, and Milfort claims that
this barbaric custom was abandoned only
through his influence (Mem., pp. 219-220).
The food on which they
subsisted, on their expeditions, was pounded
maize, contained in a small bag, which they
carried upon their bodies.
The encampments for the
night (hápu) were round-shaped, every man
lying in contiguity to another in a circle,
and leaving only a small issue, which was
guarded by the commander. After the
commander's signal no one was allowed to
move from his place. The same order was
observed when the army halted during the
day, and the same arrangement is conspicuous
in the campings of the Southern Dakota
tribes, as Iowa, Ponka, Ugáχpa,
etc.
A graphic description
of southern war camps is found in B. Romans,
Florida, p. 65: "A Choctaw war camp is
circular, with a fire in the centre, and
each man has a crutched branch at his head
to hang his powder and shot upon and to set
his gun against, and the feet of all to the
fire; a Cherokee war-camp is a long line of
fire, against which they also lay their
feet. A Choctaw makes his camp, in
traveling, in form of a sugar loaf; a
Chicasa makes it in form of our arbors; a
Creek like to our sheds or piazzas, to a
timber-house. The Creek war-camps in the
woods were constructed in such a manner that
the exact number of the party could at once
be ascertained.3
After their return the
warriors placed the scalps in the
public
square, or divided them among their
acquaintances. Anciently the privilege of
raising the scalp-pole (itu tcháti) belonged
to two tribes only, the Kasiχta
and the Kawita.4 The cause for this is
shown in our half-mythic migration legend.
The tradition that the custom of scalping
was but recently imported among the Creeks
from the Northern Indians was manufactured
for a purpose, and invented by many other
tribes also, to appear more human in the
eyes of the white settlers. Scalping and the
drying of scalps had been observed in
Florida as early as 1564 by Rene de Lau-donniére.
Footnotes:
- The
Timucua of
Florida declared war by sticking up arrows
in the ground around the town or camp of the
enemy on the evening before the attack (Rene
de Laudonniere, " Histoire Notable"). great
ceremonies. Of these we shall speak under
the heading:
Creek Confederacy.
- Milfort, Mm., p. 217.
218. Walking through watercourses
necessarily destroyed all vestiges of a
marching body of warriors.
- Swan, in Schoolcraft
V, 280.
- Cf. Hu li-Wá’hli, and
the name of this town.
Back to: Creek
Government
Notes About Book:
Source: Gatschet, Albert S., A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians.
Pub.
D.G. Brinton, Philadelphia, 1884.
Notes about Online Publication: This manuscript has been ocr'd and heavily
edited. Many of the Native American words have been reproduced as clearly as
online publication will allow us, but not all are exactly the way they were in
the original work. The structure of this manuscript has been changed to allow
better online presentation.
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