The Beginnings of the Creek
Trail of Tears
TODAY, on a hilltop near
Fort Mitchell, Russell County, Alabama, stands a MEMORIAL to the
Creek Indians who lived in the Chattahoochee Valley area until their
forced removal in the mid-nineteenth century. Reached by a gradual
winding path, the great marble monument faces the four directions and
is encircled by five or six large bronze plaques. The plaques contain
the names recorded the 1832 Census of the Creek Nation. A smaller
introductory marble plaque explains:
THE CENSUS
OF 1832 - In 1832, a treaty with the United States
allotted parcels of land to every Indian household in the
Valley. A government census enumerated, according to tribal
towns, every Indian head of household, along with the number
of males, females, and slaves of each family. However, only
four years later, the Indians were forced to leave their
homes and moved their sacred fires west of the Mississippi
River. Their names, as recorded by the census taker, are
listed here. After the census was completed, the Head Chiefs
of the lower Creeks claimed that the names of some Indians
"...were not put down" because they were away
hunting.
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Nearby, an historic marker puts the
Census, and the monument, in historical context:
THE CREEK
TRAIL OF TEARS - Approximately one mile due east of this
marker, back down the Old
Federal Road,
called by frontiersmen and Indians the Three Notched Trail
or the Three Chopped Way, stood Fort Mitchell, an early 19th
century American fort that in 1836 was one of the principal
gathering places for the forced removal of the Creek Indians
from their homes on the Chattahoochee River to the West.
Weakened by starvation, defrauded of their lands and
swindled out of most of their possessions, thousands of
Creeks, including some in chains and shackles, made the
forced journey from Alabama to what is now Oklahoma, where
many of their descendants now live. Alabama also remains the
home of many Creek Indians today.
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This
memorial, located at the
site of the Fort
Mitchell National Cemetery,
on SR 165, 6 miles south of US
431, is well worth a visit for anyone interested in Native American
history and culture, or the history of the Chattahoochee Valley
area.
A final
note: when we visited the
Creek Memorial, we were looking for the name of the Creek Indian who
sold his land to our ancestor,
James
William Boykin. The name in
our records is Tukosayoholo. At the memorial, after going
through some of the thousands of names there, we found the name
Tukkosar Yoholo. The suffix "yoholo," according to
Butch
Fuller, is a title meaning
"singer," and would indicate a ceremonial singer. We looked for a
long time after we found Tukkosar's name, but found no other
names which were closer to Tukosayoholo. Although we don't yet have
proof, it is exhilarating to think we may have found the name of this
Creek man with whom our white ancestor did business, we dare to hope,
in an ethical way not common in those times.