USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 3
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THE MUSKHIOGEAN FAMILY.
In the country which now constitutes the extreme Southern States of the United States east of the Mississippi River, dwelt the
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Muskhogean family of the North American Indians. The principal tribes of this family were: the Creeks, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws and the Seminoles. Although members of the same family, there were many distinet dissimilarities in both their physical and mental characteristics. All of the tribes were fond of agriculture, and they all lived in villages of comfortable log houses. Their villages that were exposed to attack from an enemy were protected by pali- sades. They were all brave warriors, but the Choetaws were dis- posed to fight entirely in self-defense, while the Creeks and the Chickasaws were inclined to engage in offensive wars. The Creeks and the Choctaws. each, had a confederacy, with smaller tribes attached thereto. These eonfederacies were political organizations erected on kinship, real or fictitious, and the principal object of the confederation was mutual defense. The Muskhogean people num- bered 50.000 when first known to the white men.
THE CREEKS.
Of the four tribes of the Muskhogean family. the Creeks have been regarded as the leader. Their name was given them by the English on account of the numerous small streams of water in the country they occupied. They first came in contact with the white race when De Soto invaded their country in 1540. At that time they held the greater portion of Alabama and Georgia, and had their chief villages on the Coosa, Tallapoosa, Flint and Chatta- hoocha rivers. The Creeks became treaty allies of the English colonists in the Apalachee wars of 1703-08. and from that time were the faithful friends of the colonists of South Carolina and Georgia, with two exceptions, but were bitter foes of the Spaniards. They were allies of the British Government in the Revolutionary War. In 1790 they made a treaty of peace with the United States, but in 1812 were seduced by England's emissaries, broke the treaty and committed a number of bloody outrages upon the white inhabitants of Georgia, Alabama and Florida. The British sent Tecumseh. the celebrated Shawnee chief, in the spring of 1812 from Ohio to the Creeks and other Indian tribes of the South to enlist their support in the war against the United States. Tecumseh used his savage eloquence with telling effeet, reminding his kindred of the South of the seizing of their lands by the whites, ealled attention to the eon- tinued encroachments of the pale faces and to the diminution and probable destruction of the Indian race. The Creeks and Seminoles
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History of Tazewell County
were infuriated by Teeumseh's appeals, and in September, 1812. began war against the white inhabitants of the South. They were soon overawed by General Andrew Jackson, who marehed against them with twenty-five hundred Tennessee volunteers. Incited by British agents. the Indians renewed their war against the whites in 1813. About four hundred inhabitants in the most exposed situa- tions on the Alabama River gathered at Fort Mimms for protection. The Indians made a surprise attack upon the fort at noon on the 30th of August, 1813. There were about six hundred warriors who were led by their chief. Weatherford. The whites were driven into the houses, the torch was applied to the buildings, and most of those who escaped the flames became victims of the tomahawk. Only seventeen persons escaped to carry the news of the frightful disaster to other stations.
General Jackson and other military leaders began ruthless war against the Creeks. desolated their country and killed two thousand of their warriors. After two years of desultory war the Indians were brought into subjection. but continued to give trouble to the white people of the surrounding country until they were removed to the Indian Territory in 1836. At the time of their removal they numbered 24.591. The Creek Nation is now a part of the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma; and in 1916 the nation numbered 18,774. Of these 11.965 are Creeks by blood, while 6.809 are freedmen, descendants of the negro slaves the Creeks took with them when they were sent to the Indian Territory.
THE CHOCTAWS.
When first known to Europeans the Choctaws were occupying Middle and Southern Mississippi, and their territory extended at one time east of the Tombigbee River. as far as Dallas County. Georgia. The meaning of the name Choctaw is unknown, but is believed to signify a separation. that is. separation from the Creeks and Seminoles who were once united with the Choetaws as one tribe. As before stated. they were a branch of the Muskhogean family, and were the leading agriculturists of the Southern Indians. The Choetaws were a very brave people, but their devotion to agri- culture seems to have led them to go to war in most instances on the defensive. From the narratives of De Soto's expendition, it is known that the Spanish explorer came in contact with the Choctaws
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in 1540. He had several very fierce encounters with these Indians and found them splendid fighters.
About the year 1700 the Choctaws became very friendly with the French, who were then settling colonies at Mobile, and New Orleans. Although they were of their own kindred the Choctaws were constantly engaged in war with the Creeks and Chickasaws. In 1786 they acknowledged their allegiance to the United States; and rendered the Government very efficient service in the war with England in 1812, and also in the Creek war. Although they were given special privileges by Georgia, that State going so far as to invest them with citizenship, they gradually emigrated beyond the Mississippi River and finally settled in the Indian Territory. In the Civil War they east their fortune with the Confederate States, but after that war was ended renewed their allegiance to the United States. They are now one of the principal nations of the American natives living in Oklahoma, and one of the members of the Five Civilized Tribes Confederation of that State. According to the 1916 report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. the Choctaw Nation numbers 26,828. They are divided as follows: By blood 17,488; by intermarriage 1,651; Mississippi Choctaw 1,660; freed- men 6,029, the latter, as in the case of the Creeks, being the descend- ants of slaves owned by the Choctaws at the close of the Civil War.
THE CHICKASAWS.
From their traditions we learn that the Chickasaws were closely related to the Choctaws both by blood and language. Notwith- standing this fact, the two tribes were very hostile and were con- stantly engaged in armed conflict. According to their traditions the Chickasaws and Choctaws came originally from the West, and settled east of the Mississippi River. Fernando De Soto and his ill-fated followers found them there in 1510 and passed the winter of 1540-41 in the country of these Indians. The Spaniards had many encounters with them and greatly terrorized the poor natives ; ' but in the spring of 1541 the Chickasaws inflicted a very heavy blow to De Soto and his followers. The Spaniards undertook to force the natives to accompany their expedition as guides and baggage- carriers. They refused to be thus enslaved, burnt De Soto's camp and their own villages, and concealed themselves in impenetrable swamps. Forty of the Spaniards perished in the conflagration and a large part of their baggage was destroyed.
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The Chickasaws were from the earliest times noted for their courage and independent spirit ; and were almost incessantly fighting some of the neighboring tribes. They had wars with the Choctaws, the Creeks, the Cherokees, the Shawnees, and even with the Iroquois. The latter onee invaded their territory and the invading band was almost destroyed. The Chickasaws were always the bitter foe of the French, this feeling of enmity being encouraged by the English traders and intensified by an alliance of the French with the Choc- taws. In 1736 they defeated the French in several battles, and successfully resisted an attempt to conquer them in 1739-40.
In 1786 the United States established friendly relations with the Chickasaws by a treaty, which is known as the treaty of Hope- well; and they gave valuable assistance to the white inhabitants in the Creek War of 1813-14. Early in the nineteenth century the Chickasaws eeded a part of their territory in consideration of certain annuities provided for them by the Federal Government, and a por- tion of the tribe moved to Arkansas. In 1832-34 the remainder, numbering about 3,600 ceded the 6,642,000 acres which they still elaimed cast of the Mississippi, removed to the Indian Territory, and became incorporated with the Choetaw Nation. By a treaty made in 1855 their lands were separated from those of the Choc- taws, and they acquired thereby their present very valuable holdings in Oklahoma. In the war between the States, 1861-65, the Chicka- saw Nation gave its support to the Confederate Government, as they owned a number of negro slaves and were in entire sympathy with the Southern people. The tribe is now one of the Five Civilized Tribes Confederation in Oklahoma. They numbered 10,966 in 1916, divided as follows: By blood 5,659; by intermarriage 645; freed- men, 4,662. The freedmen are the descendants of the slaves held by the Chickasaws when slavery was abolished by President Lin- eoln.
THE SEMINOLES.
There were several small tribes that were offshoots of the larger tribes of the Muskhogean family ; but the Seminole is the only tribe, in addition to the three already mentioned, that is of sufficient his- torie importance to be considered by the writer. The Seminoles were originally a vagrant branch of the Creeks, and the name, Seminole, signifies wild or reckless. They moved from the Lower Creek towns on the Chattahoochee River to Florida after the Apala-
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chee tribe. also a branch of the Muskhogean family, was driven from that country. The Apalachces were friendly to the Spaniards ; and the English Government of Carolina sent an expedition against the Spaniards and Appalachees in 1703. The army of Governor Moore was composed of one company of white soldiers and one thousand Indian allies, mostly Creeks. They invaded the Apala- chee's country and destroyed their towns, fields and orange groves, killed 200 of the Apalachee warriors and made captives of 1,400 of the tribe, who were made slaves. The following year the English and Indians made a second invasion and totally destroyed the Apala- chee tribe in Florida. The Seminole branch of the Creeks took possession of the territory formerly occupied by the Apalachee tribe. While Florida remained under Spanish rule, the Seminoles were very hostile to the United States. They were identified with the Creeks in support of the British in the Revolutionary War and the war with England in 1812. Still later, through British influence, they gave the Federal Government a great deal of trouble. This was during the first administration of President Monroe. The Seminoles began to make violent attacks upon the white settlers in Florida ; and General Andrew Jackson, who had already become famous as an Indian fighter, was sent there with general and ample powers to suppress the hostiles. British emissaries were going among the Indians, and were inciting them to the commission of frightful outrages upon the whites. With an army composed of eight hundred regulars, one thousand Georgia militia, the same number of Tennessee volunteers, and fifteen hundred friendly Creek Indians, General Jackson entered upon his task of crushing the Seminole uprising. He accomplished his purpose so effectually that Spain abandoned its claim to the territory, and in 1823 ceded Florida to the United States.
In 1832 the United States made a treaty with a part of the Seminole chiefs, which provided for the removal of the whole tribe to a section west of the Mississippi. Osceola, one of the chiefs of the tribe, and who afterwards became famous, persuaded his people to repudiate the treaty and refuse to vacate their homes in Florida. This provoked a war with the United States which lasted for eigh- teen years. Though but a very small band of the Seminoles, lead by the fearless Osceola, were engaged in it, the war cost the United States thousands of lives and twenty millions of dollars. At the conclusion of the war, Osceola having finally been made a captive.
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History of Tazewell County
the greater part of the tribe was located on a reservation on the borders of Arkansas. The story of the long confinement of Osceola in the old fort at St. Augustine, and his refusal to go out with the other Indians who made their eseape, is full of pathos and romance.
In the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the year 1916, it is stated that 574 Seminoles still live in Florida. The men are reported to be splendid specimens of physical manhood by persons from this section of Virginia who make visits in the winter
The above is a portrait of Osceola, and is made from a print fur- nished the author by the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution. In 1835 he was treacherously seiged by General Jesup, and made a prisoner, while holding a conference under a flag of truce. Broken in spirit from brooding over the manner in which he had been betrayed. he died a prisoner in Fort Moultrie, Florida, in January, 1838.
to the Land of Flowers. From the same report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs it is learned that the Seminoles exist as a separate nation in Oklahoma, and is a member of the confederacy of the Five Civilized Tribes. They number, 3,127 souls, of whom 986 are ealled freedmen. being the descendants of former negro slaves.
THE SIOUX OR SIOUN FAMILY.
When the Europeans began to plant colonies on the eastern coasts of the North American Continent there were several large and powerful nations of the American aborigines then oeeupving that portion of the United States which lies west of the Mississippi
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River. The largest and best known tribe of the Siouan family is the Dakotas, now commonly called the Sioux. They exercised dominion over a vast territory that extended from the Arkansas River at the South to the country of the Eskimo in the North; and reached westward from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Moun- tains. There were several principal and a number of subordinate tribes of the Dakotas, with different languages, customs, and social organizations. The first time the Sioux ever came in contact with the white man was when De Soto reached the Quapaw villages in Eastern Arkansas. The Quapaw were a subordinate tribe of the Dakotas. One of the chroniclers of the De Soto expedition relates that one portion of the Quapaw tribe was found living in a strongly fortified village, which he said was, "very great, walled and beset with towers." He also says: "Many loopholes were in the towers and walls, a great lake came near into the wall. and it entered the ditch that went around about the town. wanting but little to environ it. From the lake to the great river (Mississippi) was made a weir by which the fish came into it." This report is pronouneed by American investigators a very great exaggeration, as is also the statement: "And in the town was a great store of maiz and great quantity of new in the fields. Within a league were great towns. all walled."
The Dakotas were first met by the French explorers in 1640. near the headwaters of the Mississippi River; and in 1689 Nicholas Perrot took possession of their country for France. In subsequent wars the French drove them down the Mississippi and they located on the plains of the Missouri. During the Revolution and the War of 1812, the Dakotas were the allies of the British.
The social organization of this nation was originally based upon the plan of groups or bands, of which there was a large number. Each group had a chief who was selected by the members thereof and was chosen for the position because of his personal fitness. His authority was controlled and limited by the band, and he could do but little in matters that affected its interests, without the consent or approval of the members. Marriage outside the group was encouraged, for the purpose of introducing new blood, and polygamy was commonly practiced.
After the United States acquired the territory occupied by the Dakotas. or Sioux. frequent treaties were made with these Indians; by which extensive and valuable boundaries of land were ceded to
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the United States. Nearly all of these treaties were indifferently observed by the Federal Government, and several wars with the Sioux resulted. The last war with these Indians was fought in 1876. Rich discoveries of gold were made in the Black Hills, the greater part of which region belonged by treaty to the Sioux. A desperate and greedy horde of white gold-hunters and adventurers rushed into the Black Hills, regardless of the wishes and rights of the Sioux. This so enraged the Indians that, under the leadership of Sitting Bull, they broke away from their reservations, roamed through Wyoming and Montana, burned houses, stole horses, and killed all persons who offered resistance. The National Government took immediate steps to force the Indians back to their reservations, sending out for that purpose a large force of regulars under Gen- erals Terry, Crook. Custer. and Reno. Sitting Bull and his three thousand warriors had been driven back against Bighorn Mountain and River. and Generals Custer and Reno were sent forward with the Seventh Cavalry to locate the enemy. These generals divided their forces into two columns and separated. Sitting Bull had prepared an ambush and led Custer and his small body of cavalry into a position where they were forced to charge the large force of Indians. This was on the 25th of June. 1876. In the bloody battle General Custer and every man in his command was killed.
After the battle, the Indians separated into two parties. Sitting Bull was in command of the western party, and was overtaken and attacked and routed by General Miles. A large number of the Indians surrendered. but the remainder of the band, with their chief, escaped to Canada. They remained there until 1881, when Sitting Bull returned with his band to the United States, and under promise of amnesty surrendered at Fort Buford. He was confined at Fort Randall until 1883. In 1888 the Government tried to buy the lands of the Sioux, but under the influence of Sitting Bull they refused to sell. He organized a Ghost dance on the reservation, which meant another revolt. A demand was made for his arrest, and when an attempt was made by some of his people to rescue him he was shot and killed by Sergeants Red Tomahawk and Bullhead of the Indian police, on December 15th, 1890.
The great body of the Sioux had been persuaded to return to their reservation in 1880. They ceded a part of their lands to the United States in 1889. About 17.000 of this formerly fierce and
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unruly nation are now living quietly, under Government supervision, on their reservation in South Dakota.
THE COMANCHES.
Sonth of the Dakotas lived and roved the wild and fierce Comanches. They were one of the Southern tribes of the Shoshone family and the only one of that group that lived exclusively on the plains. Philologists affirm that from their language and traditions it is evident they are an offshoot from the Shoshones of Wyoming. Both of these tribes have practically the same dialect, and have always maintained the friendliest relations toward each other. They originally occupied, or rather roamed over, the territory now embraced in the States of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and possibly parts of other adjacent States. When they first became known to Europeans they lived in the regions between the upper Brazos and Colorado, on one side, and the Arkansas and Missouri on the other. The Comanches were great nomads, were constantly moving abont, and lived in tents that were covered with buffalo skins and that were portable. Their great delight was hunt- ing the buffalo, and they were acknowledged the best horsemen of the plains. Originally they were divided into twelve distinct divisions or bands. Only five of these are now said to be in existence,
The Comanches disliked the Spaniards very much and were constantly at war with them when the Spanish Government con- trolled Mexico. They were very friendly with Americans until they were driven from their hunting grounds in Texas by the settlers in that State. In 1835 they made their first treaty with the United States, and by a treaty, known as the treaty of Medicine Lodge, made in 1867, they agreed to settle on a reservation between the Washita and Red Rivers in Southwestern Oklahoma. But the Indians failed to comply with this treaty until 1875, when they consented to setttle on the reservation. Until that time the Comanches were a constant menace to the settlers in Western and Northwestern Texas. The 1916 report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs shows that the Comanche tribe in Oklahoma numbers 1,568 persons, who are leading a quiet and orderly life.
THE PACIFIC COAST INDIANS.
West of the Rocky Mountains, in that section of the United States called the Pacific States, lived what have been named by
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History of Tazewell County
some historians the Nations of the Plains. When the Spaniards extended their discoveries up the Pacific coast and made settlements in California there were about 150,000 aboriginal inhabitants then living in that State. At the present time there are a little more than 15,000 located in California. The majority of them are living as squatters on the land of white citizens or of the Government. while others are on land allotted them by the Government, and some own the land they occupy.
The Indians the white men found on the Pacific coast were divided into a large number of groups, with at least twenty-one linguistie families, or about one-fourth of the entire number found in North America. Of these the Shoshonean and Yuman at the South, and the Athapasean and Klamath at the North, were the principal families. These families were, each, divided into a number of subordinate tribes or units; and they occupied all the Pacific Slope from Lower California up to and into British Columbia.
The California aborigines are among the least known of the groups or tribes of the race that inhabited the North American Con- tinent. They were a timid and indolent people, and the white men experienced very little trouble in depriving them of their lands. The various tribes had no social organizations, and culturally were, per- haps, the rudest and simplest of the several nations of the American race that lived on the continent. They gave no attention whatever to agriculture, but subsisted entirely on fish and game and a wild vegetable dict. Their main vegetable food consisted of different varieties of acorns, and seeds which they gathered from grasses and herbs.
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs states in his 1917 report that there are 15.362 Indians living in California. 6,612 in Oregon, and 11,181 in Washington, or a total of 33,155 in the three Paeifie Coast States. Historians and investigators have not suggested any specifie eause for the singularly large reduction of the Indian poput- lation of California. It may be that two reasons can be reasonably assigned for this peculiar condition, migration and depletion from contaet with the evil habits of white men.
THE CHEROKEES.
When the first white settlers eame and built their eabins in Taze- well the Cherokees and Shawnees were rival elaimants of the terri- tory now embraced in the bounds of the county; and of the entire
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Clinch Valley. In fact, both tribes asserted title to all the territory that lies between the Clinch Valley and the Ohio River. Therefore the writer deemed it appropriate to say very little about the Chero- kees and Shawnees, until after all other tribes to be chronicled were disposed of. I have made diligent effort to procure all information obtainable about the Cherokees and the Shawnees, so as to be pre- pared to write a complete but condensed narrative of these two tribes whose history is so interwoven with that of the pioneer set- tlers. A number of histories have been carefully studied. the Bureau of American Ethnology has been consulted, and correspondence conducted with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. From these best known sources the most reliable information has been procured and is now used.
The philologists and archeologists who have made the most recent investigations of the traditions and life of the aboriginal inhabitants of America designate the Cherokees as a powerful detached tribe of the Iroquoian family who came originally from the North and settled in the Alleghany region. They first became known to men of the white race when De Soto eame in contact with them in 1540. At that time they were oeeupying the entire moun- tain region of the Southern Alleghanies. in Southwest Virginia, Western North Carolina and South Carolina, Northern Georgia, Eastern Tennessee, and Northeastern Alabama, and made claim to territory in Virginia and Kentucky that reached as far as the Ohio River and as far east as the Peaks of Otter. George Bancroft, the eminent American historian and statesman, in his splendid history of the United States, thus speaks of the Cherokees and the beautiful country they inhabited:
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