Born in 1798 in Tuckabatchee town in present-day Alabama,
Opothleyohola first served nationally as the speaker for Big
Warrior, the principal chief of the Upper Creek. After Big
Warrior's death in 1825, Opothleyohola served as "prime minister
or Chief Councillor of the Nation." In 1825, acting as the
speaker for the Upper Creek, Opothleyohola traveled to Indian
Springs, Georgia, to warn William McIntosh against ceding all
Creek land in Georgia and portions of land in Alabama to the
federal government. McIntosh disregarded these warnings and
signed the Treaty of Indian Springs (1825), for which he was
later executed. In addition, the treaty was a removal document
that set aside land in present-day Oklahoma in exchange for the
ceded land. Opothleyohola and a delegation of Creek headmen
traveled to Washington and were successful in overturning the
Indian Springs Treaty. The Creek agreed to a revised treaty in
1826 that restored their Alabama lands; however, under heavy
pressure from the Americans, the Creek were