The Creek Frontier 1540 1783

The Creek Frontier, 1540–1783 is the first complete history of an American Indian tribe in the colonial period. Although much has been written of the Spanish, French, and British explorations in North America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, little has been known of the Indian tribes that explorers such as De Soto and De Luna encountered. The Creek Indians, who occupied Alabama, Georgia, and much of northern Florida from the earliest days of Spanish exploration to shortly after the American Civil War, were a power to be reckoned with by Spain, France, and Britain in their efforts to gain control of that area. Always hostile to Spain, the Creeks were natural allies with the British, but they used other Europeans to further their interests. When they gave up their neutral position to ally themselves with the British against the American patriots, the Creeks found themselves completely at the mercy of their victorious enemies. Stressing Creek political institutions and diplomacy, this volume offers the most complete story of the rapacious “Queen” Mary Musgrove, and the rise to leadership of Alexander McGillivray. Creek Indian personalities of old emerge to share history’s spotlight with the wigged governors they struggled with in order to maintain autonomy for their people.