University of Virginia Library

Histories

General History of James Roane Gregory

Barbara Cox is a descendent of James Roane Gregory. These texts are of two types, histories and correspondence. The histories follow the pattern of those published above.

The correspondence includes letters Gregory sent to two prominent Indian Territory figures, Emmet Starr and Pleasant Porter. It is included because of the light it sheds on Gregory's concepts of American Indian history and culture.

Starr was a native of the Cherokee Nation who graduated from the Cherokee Male Seminary before attending Barnes Medical College in St. Louis . He practiced medicine for five years in the Nation, but gave up that profession to take up his monumental work on Cherokee genealogy and history.

After serving in the Confederate Creek Regiment during the Civil War, Porter reorganized the Creek school system and was a delegate to Washington . He served his people in various ways before becoming Principal Chief in 1899, a post he held until his death in 1907.

1. Euchees of the Creeks

The Euchee tribe of the Creek Indian is a distinct family of Indians from all the other eastern tribes. They differ in habits, language and appearance from all their surrounding neighbors, with a possible slight exception in the manner of saying "no," "none," and the single guttural sound of "eauh" for "yes." All evidence point to the Pacific coast to locate the cousins and tribal families of the Euchees, among the Tin-nay nations, who are composed of the Apache, Navajo, and Hupi tribes of the southwest part of the United States . Extending northward on the Pacific coast and mountains are the Kotenay, Nehane, Sekane and Tututenay tribes, who, with some other tribes, are classified as the Athabascan tribes. Mr. Mooney, and also Grinnell, describes these western tribes so well in their histories that anyone acquainted with the Euchees can recognize the western origination of these people, as they themselves prove by distinguishing individuals as the Te-nay in common with the Athabascan tribes of the west.

The Euchees are a brave, war-like tribe. Physically they are moderately well developed being more of a lank sinewy structure than any of their neighbors, excepting possibly the mountain Cherokees. We have been told by the old folks who knew the Euchees when they were wild, savage Indians, that it was a common thing for a Euchee to start in the morning on the track of a deer, his only weapon being a knife, and would run down the deer and kill it with his knife before evening. The tribe was once strong and a powerful nation on the Savanna, Chattahoochee , Tennessee and Suwannee rivers of the southeast. They had no allies. They fought every tribe within reach of them, and braver men than they never lived. They were unconquerable. They are the only tribe that ever got the best of the Chickasaws in battle. They were the warriors that drove the Sioux from their eastern home. Then finally the semi-civilized Muskogees (or Creeks, as they were afterwards called), came from the west along the Gulf coast, fighting all opposition to their progress, when the greatest war the Euchees ever engaged in ensued. After a protracted struggle for several years' duration the Euchees lost so heavily they retired from before these new enemies. Yet for four generations they continued desultory warfare, until at a great council of the Muskogee or Creek tribe the question of exterminating the entire Euchee tribe was considered by the council and recommended by two of the three Espokokee towns of the Creek nation. The third Espokokee town, known as the Cussehtah town, interceded for the lives of the remnant of the Euchees. This being done in regular order and according to the laws and customs of the Creek nation, it was granted by the council, as the Cussehtah town was the Espokokee peace town of the nation. This town had legal authority to command the peace, even with the enemy.

The Euchees were formally notified of this action by the Creek council and were taken by the hand of peace and friendship and led to the entrance of the boundary mounds of the Cussehtah sacred ground of the town square, thus becoming full-fledged citizens of the Great Cussehtah Town of the Creek nation. They were requested in common with all other members of the town, by poll tax labor to keep the Cussehtan Temple of the Sacred Fire in repair. This tax was required of all young male members of the town, including those of other bands who were intermarried, unless exempted by special privileges known only to the town Tus-ke-he-ne-ha. Hence, thus was the story started by ignoramuses about the Euchees once having been the slaves of the Creeks. This labor meant, at most, only about two days in the year, with plenty to eat and entertainment, dances, and ball plays, a plug of chewing tobacco, with a black junk bottle of whisky and with a ki-yi-whoop, homeward he would go, the little pessel-tail pony carrying the drunk and happy rider, with an extra haversack full of bear steak and big bean dumplings, home to the little shaved head Euchee, who, that morning, made faces and grimaces at the great Cussehtah king who rode by the split log cabin. Yes, and they shot blunt arrows at the lazy sofky dog that was following the pony heels of his majestic master. The boys whooped "kella hun-no-wah, ko see-ya" as the king rode on, paying no attention to trifles below the dignity of a king and his sofky dog.

It is a pity every Indian, white man and Negro in the Territory are not as free and happy today as those people were in that day. No, the Euchees were never slaves of the Creeks. They never asked quarter of the Creeks and probably would have gone down fighting to the last, if the Creek council had decided to exterminate them. Among them we find some of the able men of the Creek nation of today. It was a Euchee chief by the name of Timpoochee Bairnard [sic] that received the gold medal from the Congress of the United States , through recommendation of General Jackson being the "bravest of the brave" during the British war of 1812-14.

There were 590 Euchees in the Creek nation at the last Creek census, they having in the last few years decreased rapidly. This decrease seems to be largely due to a new habit they have learned of drinking Jamaica ginger, which is prepared principally of wood alcohol, and which is destroying a great many lives in this Territory.

The Euchees, like the Osages, strongly adhere to their old customs. They are like wild quails, hard to domesticate. The Euchee is by nature a hunter and a great lover of the wild mountains and forests. Their language is very limited. The Euchee is not a man of words but a man of deeds.

Published in the Indian Journal, Eufaula, I.T., April 26, 1901

2. Creek Indian Migration Record

Ispahihtca,[*] a former chief of the Creek Nation, of the Kasihta town, told the following version of the Creek Indian Migration Legend to James Roane Gregory. Mr. Gregory repeated the legend to John R. Swanton in May of 1912. Mr. Swanton included the legend in his "42nd Annual Report" to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, entitled "Social Organization and Social Usages of Creek Indians," pages 53-55, 1924-1925. A copy was found in the "Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 73" in the Oklahoma Historical Library, Oklahoma City .

Some people anciently lived together in the West. In course of time they became so evil that they could find nothing pure in the world except the sun, and they determined to travel eastward to find the place from whence it came. On the way they became separated into three bodies. The first of these were called Chickasaw because on the morning when they were to set out they were the first to see the sun rise and said Tcika ha'sa (hitcika hasa), "See the sun!" The second body said to the first Kohasita, ("Ko" is not the usual word meaning "where?" but is probably an exclamatory particle.) 'Where is the sun?' from which circumstance they received the name Kasihta. The Chickasaw moved first, the Kashihta following them, but the third body of people had some difficulty in passing around a brier thicket and were left a long distance behind, so that the parties in advance began to call them Ko-aoita, 'Those that are following us,' whence the Coweta.

During their travels these tribes came to a great river which they crossed, and presently the Chickasaw entered upon a beautiful country whre ther were small prairies abundantly supplied with strawberries and other wild fruits and having deep pools of water. Then the Chickasaw did not want to go any farther and said that they did not care where the sun came from So they settled in that country, while the remaining bands held on their course. By and by the Kasihta, who were still in advance, crossed a river smaller than the first. On the other side they raised a mound, leaving a great chamber in the center in which to fast and purify their bodies. They left their women, children, and other noncombatants there and went on toward the east.

Afterward, the Coweta arrived on the opposite side of the river and sent word over that they intended to cross and kill everyone in the place because the Kasihta warriors had not waited to have them join in the expedition. But among the Kasihta women was one who had a magic white stone or pebble, the mate to which was in the keeping of her husband among the warriors. By means of this stone she informed him of the serious state of affairs, and the Kasihta warriors immediately retraced their steps, cut switches, and, passing over to the Coweta warriors, whipped them severely. But they did not strike them with a weapon of war. They then told the Coweta to take charge of the mound, and, gathering together their own noncombatants, they went eastward once more.

After the Kasihta had left, the Coweta made medicine and went inside of the great mound in order to purify them selves, but while they were there a Cherokee war party attacked the camp. Great was their surprise, however, when the Coweta warriors poured up from the bowels of the earth, and the Cherokees were defeated with great slaughter. From this circumstance the Coweta town became the Great War town of the Creek Nation. Then the Kasihta sent back for the Coweta but, without waiting for them to catch up, continued in the same direction as before. Presently they reached a country populated by naked people who would attack them and then run off. The naked people did this repeatedly until they at length ran into a dense fog. The Kasihta followed them, and emerging on the other side, found them selves on the shore of the ocean from which the fog had arisen. Unable to go farther they camped where they were, and in the morning saw the sun rise out of the sea. They concluded that was why it was bright and pure. By and by the Coweta came up, and the two peoples agreed that the country from which they had started was so far off that they would not return to it. So they remained where they were, fought with the inhabitants of the land, and brought them under their own system of laws.

In curse of time no people were left willing to resist them, and they longed for someone with whom to fight. Hereupon Coweta challenged Kasihta to a game of ball in order to obtain revenge for having been beaten with switches by the latter. The custom of having ball contests originated at this time and in this manner and has continued to the present day. Now arose the division between the war towns and the peace towns. The war towns have separated from the Coweta and the peace towns from the Kasihta, except in the cases of towns which have been brought in from outside. These have usually been brought in by the peace towns, and hence are generally white.

(Transcribed by Barbara Cox.)

3. Early Creek History

The meaning of the name Is-te-cm-us-suk-c-kee, abbreviated to Mus-ko-kee, or Muskogee, means the "People of the Holly Leaf Confederacy," referring to a shrub found in the Southern States near the Gulf coast known as the "Gulf Holly." The old-time Creeks had considerable knowledge of the medicinal virtues of the various plants and herbs of the "Old Nation" in the East -- Georgia, Alabama , and Florida . This medicinal science covered the entire scope of their existence for healing the sick, for counteracting evil omens and for purifying their bodies during their council deliberations, on their hunting expeditions and war campaigns of invasion within an enemy's territory. The holly leaf was a medicine used by them to purify their bodies during religious ceremonies of the feasts, fasts, and festivals of the first fruits, sometimes called "The Green Corn Dance." "Usseh" is what they termed this medicine, hence it is said Osceola derived his name by being a great drinker of this "Usseh."

"Em-us-suk-c-kee" is of the same character of construction as the name Uh-chay-la-o-kee, which, abbreviated is rendered Cha-lo-kee, hence is derived the name of "Cherokee" -- the people of the five confederacies being of two distinct national names of one linguistic construction.

A great many names have been lost to the Mus-ko-gee language by their emigration to a colder climate than is that of their former homes east of the Mississippi . Many changes were made in their customs and old-time usages after their removal west. Very few Muskogess live who know that If-too-mic-coo was their name for the magnolia tree, which means "king of trees." Very few remember the legends of the Su-wa-nee fairires, who, with shouts of derisive laughter, mocked the lost and bewildered victims of their rude sports, whom they had led astray by the Su-wa-nee River to the trembling morasses of the great O-kee-fin-o-kee wilderness. Hence, the name of the Su-wa-nee ("Echo') River, and the Okefinokee ('shaking water") Swamp.

It is a long time since we old Creeks, as small children, watched the snow-white locks of the octogenarian as he placed his right hand behind his ear so as to enable him to listen to the Eolian harps away off to the Eastern twilight shades, as evening's dark mantle was gently thrown over Earth. We listened in childish awe while he told the story of the "Tul-lee-has-see" over again -- the story of the Deserted Village . And then the wild songs and moans told him of the suicide of the whole Ya-mo-see Nation in the Pasguella bay. They had exhausted every means in their power to save their nation from an unhappy extinction until at last all hopes vanished and they knew that they were powerless. 'Twas then that they determined to die bravely, and together. Arrayed in their brightest -- hued dance costumes, and singing their happiest songs, they danced out into the deep waters, surrendering the free liberty of their lives to the Great Spirit, and were every one drowned. It is said after darkness comes each evening, for all time, the messenger of the Great Spirit sing in response to the songs of the Ya-ma-sees- the sweetest, strangest music ever heard by mortal man. This is heard on Pasguella bay, any evening, for a short while just at dusk.

When the Mus-ko-gees, or Creek Indians were first found by the European explorers and historians they were the most powerful Nation of Indians in the Southeast of the main continent of America, and were among the most advanced tribes in civilization. This high state of civilization can be accounted for by their having had an excellent code of moral laws which protected their social conditions. They had laws of marriage and divorce. Any infringement upon these laws was punished by cutting off the ears of the first offense, cutting off the nose for the second and death for the third offense. A grown man who did not do his share of work in the corn field was denied the right to family relations.

The Creeks' art in engraving wood was remarkable. They understood the art of weaving cloth, for which they used a species of silk-weed bark fiber. They kept historic and religious records by strands of beads which by their variety were arranged so as to convey information. This art was not generally taught, but was entrusted to a class of professors who were bound by the laws of the Nation to reveal the truth, for if they should add to or take away any part of the subject of this bead history they would suffer the penalty of death.

Yet, alas, they failed to understand the true extent of their power and civilization. They were fleet of foot and as strong as the old Roman warriors. Their arrows pierced the armor of the Spanish invaders. Yet, with all this, their ancient glory is gone forever, and a new world has opened up for them. Kind reader, will you bear with us the faith that the Creek Indians will meet the present and the future with that glorious courage that is their inheritance from the Past which they have survived.

(Published in Sturm's Statehood Magazine, pages 86-87, 1905; Oklahoma Historical Society. Transcribed by Barbara Cox)