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William Weatherford
William Weatherford, also known after his death as Red Eagle (c. 1765 – March 24, 1824), was a Creek warrior of the Upper Creek towns who led many of the Red Sticks actions in the Creek War (1813–1814) against Lower Creek towns and against allied forces of the United States.
One of many mixed-race descendants of Southeast Indians who intermarried with European traders and later colonial settlers, William Weatherford was of mixed Creek, French, and Scots ancestry. He was raised as a Creek in the matrilineal nation and achieved his power in it, through his mother's prominent Wind Clan (as well as his father's trading connections[not verified in body]). After the war, he rebuilt his wealth as a slaveholding planter in lower Monroe County, Alabama.[not verified in body]
William Weatherford was born in 1781 (Griffith Jr. analysis), near the Upper Creek towns of Cusseta. It is near the current Cusseta, Georgia, and was then a Koasati Indian town, near Hickory Ground (current Wetumpka, Alabama).[citation needed] His mother was Sehoy III, a "daughter of a Tabacha chieftain" and from "the most powerful and privileged of all the Creek clans," the Wind Clan (in Muscogee, the Creek language, Hotvlkvlke ). His father, Charles Weatherford, was a red-haired Scots trader and friend of the chieftain, and had married Sehoy III after the death of her first husband, Tory Col. John Tate, in the summer of 1780. Sehoy III was of mixed Creek, French and possibly Scottish descent.[citation needed] As the Creek had a matrilineal kinship system, Sehoy III's children were considered born into her clan. Charles Weatherford had a trading post near the Creek village, built a plantation, raised thoroughbred horses for racing, and contributed to his family as a trader.[citation needed]
Benjamin Hawkins, first appointed as United States Indian agent in the Southeast and then as Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the territory south of the Ohio River, lived among the Creek and Choctaw, and knew them well.[citation needed] He commented in letters to President Thomas Jefferson that Creek women were matriarchs and had control of the children "when connected with a white man." Hawkins observed that almost all of the traders, some wealthy, were likewise as "inattentive to their children as the Indians". As Griffith explains (based on John R. Swanton), the lack of fatherly concern was not an "unnatural indifference," given the Creek culture and clan kinship system, and which established a closer relationship of children to their mother's eldest brother (more so than with their biological father).[verification needed][relevant?]
As a boy William Weatherford was called "Billy"[citation needed]. After he showed his skill as a warrior, he was given the "war name" of Hopnicafutsahia, or "Truth Teller."[citation needed] He was the great-grandson of Captain Jean Marchand, the French commanding officer of Fort Toulouse, and Sehoy I, a Creek of the Wind clan.On his mother's side, he was a nephew of the mixed-race Creek chief, Alexander McGillivray, who was prominent in the Upper Creek towns.[citation needed]
Through his mother's family, Weatherford was a cousin of William McIntosh, who became a chief of the Lower Creek towns.[citation needed] The Lower Creek, who comprised the majority of population, lived closer to the European Americans and had intermarried with them, adopting more of their ways, as well as connecting to the market economy.[citation needed]
Weatherford learned traditional Creek ways and language from his mother and her clan, as well as English from his father. As a young man, he acquired a plantation in the Upper Creek territory, where he owned slaves, planted commercial crops, and bred and raced horses as did his father. He generally had good relations with both the Creek nationals and European Americans for years. He worried about the increasing number of the latter, who were encroaching on Creek land.
The Creek of the Lower Towns were becoming more assimilated, but the traditional elders and the people of the Upper Creek towns were more isolated from the European-American settlers. They kept more traditional ways and opposed the new settlements. Weatherford and other Upper Creek leaders resented the encroachment of settlers into their traditional Creek territory, principally in what the United States of America called the Mississippi Territory, which included their territory in present-day Alabama.
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William Weatherford
William Weatherford, also known after his death as Red Eagle (c. 1765 – March 24, 1824), was a Creek warrior of the Upper Creek towns who led many of the Red Sticks actions in the Creek War (1813–1814) against Lower Creek towns and against allied forces of the United States.
One of many mixed-race descendants of Southeast Indians who intermarried with European traders and later colonial settlers, William Weatherford was of mixed Creek, French, and Scots ancestry. He was raised as a Creek in the matrilineal nation and achieved his power in it, through his mother's prominent Wind Clan (as well as his father's trading connections[not verified in body]). After the war, he rebuilt his wealth as a slaveholding planter in lower Monroe County, Alabama.[not verified in body]
William Weatherford was born in 1781 (Griffith Jr. analysis), near the Upper Creek towns of Cusseta. It is near the current Cusseta, Georgia, and was then a Koasati Indian town, near Hickory Ground (current Wetumpka, Alabama).[citation needed] His mother was Sehoy III, a "daughter of a Tabacha chieftain" and from "the most powerful and privileged of all the Creek clans," the Wind Clan (in Muscogee, the Creek language, Hotvlkvlke ). His father, Charles Weatherford, was a red-haired Scots trader and friend of the chieftain, and had married Sehoy III after the death of her first husband, Tory Col. John Tate, in the summer of 1780. Sehoy III was of mixed Creek, French and possibly Scottish descent.[citation needed] As the Creek had a matrilineal kinship system, Sehoy III's children were considered born into her clan. Charles Weatherford had a trading post near the Creek village, built a plantation, raised thoroughbred horses for racing, and contributed to his family as a trader.[citation needed]
Benjamin Hawkins, first appointed as United States Indian agent in the Southeast and then as Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the territory south of the Ohio River, lived among the Creek and Choctaw, and knew them well.[citation needed] He commented in letters to President Thomas Jefferson that Creek women were matriarchs and had control of the children "when connected with a white man." Hawkins observed that almost all of the traders, some wealthy, were likewise as "inattentive to their children as the Indians". As Griffith explains (based on John R. Swanton), the lack of fatherly concern was not an "unnatural indifference," given the Creek culture and clan kinship system, and which established a closer relationship of children to their mother's eldest brother (more so than with their biological father).[verification needed][relevant?]
As a boy William Weatherford was called "Billy"[citation needed]. After he showed his skill as a warrior, he was given the "war name" of Hopnicafutsahia, or "Truth Teller."[citation needed] He was the great-grandson of Captain Jean Marchand, the French commanding officer of Fort Toulouse, and Sehoy I, a Creek of the Wind clan.On his mother's side, he was a nephew of the mixed-race Creek chief, Alexander McGillivray, who was prominent in the Upper Creek towns.[citation needed]
Through his mother's family, Weatherford was a cousin of William McIntosh, who became a chief of the Lower Creek towns.[citation needed] The Lower Creek, who comprised the majority of population, lived closer to the European Americans and had intermarried with them, adopting more of their ways, as well as connecting to the market economy.[citation needed]
Weatherford learned traditional Creek ways and language from his mother and her clan, as well as English from his father. As a young man, he acquired a plantation in the Upper Creek territory, where he owned slaves, planted commercial crops, and bred and raced horses as did his father. He generally had good relations with both the Creek nationals and European Americans for years. He worried about the increasing number of the latter, who were encroaching on Creek land.
The Creek of the Lower Towns were becoming more assimilated, but the traditional elders and the people of the Upper Creek towns were more isolated from the European-American settlers. They kept more traditional ways and opposed the new settlements. Weatherford and other Upper Creek leaders resented the encroachment of settlers into their traditional Creek territory, principally in what the United States of America called the Mississippi Territory, which included their territory in present-day Alabama.