Using Primary Sources in the Classroom: Creek Indian War,
1813-1814 In the early part of the sixteenth century, white
explorers who visited the territory now forming the southeastern
United States found it occupied by tribes of American Indians
who had lived there for centuries. The Creek, Cherokee,
Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Indians saw the land they
inhabited become an object of desire for the visitors.
Inevitably, this interest in the southeastern Indian land caused
contention, conflict, and the eventual forced removal of the
tribes to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. As white
settlers began to move into the region at the start of the
nineteenth century, the Creeks became increasingly hostile. Many
did not wish to adopt the ways of whites as government agents
urged them to do under a new Indian policy instituted by
President George Washington. Indian agents were supposed to
instruct Indians how to plow, raise cotton, weave, spin, care
for domestic animals, and become skilled in carpentry or