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60-660: On the topic of why they exist, the AIAC said "Recognizing the unique cultural and sociological needs of Alabama's "invisible minority", the Legislature specifically charged AIAC to… "…deal fairly and effectively with Indian affairs; to bring local, state, federal resources into focus…for Indian citizens of the State of Alabama; to provide aid…assist Indian Communities…promote recognition of the right of Indians to pursue cultural and religious traditions…" Noting that charge for action, AIAC

120-520: A chance to surrender and instead the Creeks fired on the party offering it. The fighting lasted until sunset. During the battle atrocities took place. In one instance a five-year-old boy was killed with the butt of a musket because "someday the boy would be a warrior." Another person killed an Indian who was just sitting down because he wanted to brag about it. After the fighting was over some soldiers started to cut skin from Indians to make bridle reins. In

180-737: A civil war as the Creek struggled among themselves for their future; after the Lower Creek issued a statement of "unqualified and unanimous friendship for the United States", tensions broke out into violence. Red Sticks attacked the Lower Creek towns. The Red Sticks were backed by the British, who were engaged in the War of 1812 against the United States, and the Spanish, who were trying to retain

240-557: A controversial debate in the community. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma filed suit to prevent this, arguing that the expansion would require excavation and reinterment of remains from an historic Creek burial ground at the site. The tribe made a deal in 2016 to purchase the Margaritaville Resort Casino in Bossier City, Louisiana , which would have been rebranded as a Wind Creek casino. The sale

300-578: A diversionary tactic. Most of their influence with the tribes flowed from the Great Lakes region. That was until Tecumseh visited the Upper Creeks and convinced them to make war against the United States. When incomplete reports of the Creek War reached Vice Admiral Sir Alexander F. I. Cochrane , he was impressed – though he did not know the Creek were in a civil war and that other tribes like

360-653: A foothold in Florida and in territories to the west of the Louisiana Territory . The Red Sticks were involved with the skirmish that become known as the Battle of Burnt Corn . The armed conflict occurred when a group of Red Sticks were attacked by American white militiamen while returning from Florida with arms in 1813. After the initial assault, the Red Sticks regrouped and defeated these troops. While

420-580: A growing reliance on European trade and economy, inner rifts within the Creek Nation, and escalating colonial presence of British, Spanish, and U.S. forces. A faction of Creek traditionalists, known as the Red Sticks , started a rebellion against assimilated Creeks, which resulted in the U.S. government intervening against the Red Sticks. This rebellion is known as the Creek War of 1813-1814 . Among

480-414: A warning that anyone who retreated without being compelled by significant force would be executed. Jackson's army arrived on March 26 and set up camp six miles away near the site of the battle of Emuckfau Creek. The day before, the Creek's commander, William Weatherford, left to be with his pregnant wife, leaving Chief Menewa in charge. Jackson's cavalry, under the command of Coffee, left at 3 a.m. to cross

540-593: Is placed in a liaison/advocacy role between the various departments of governments and the Indian people of our tribal communities. AIAC stands alone to represent the Indian people of Alabama who wish to stand together with their fellow citizens while maintaining their own cultural and ethnic heritage". The commission recognizes the Poarch Band of Creek Indians , the Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama ,

600-520: The Battle of New Orleans six months later. The time in question was one of increasing pressure on Creek territory by European American settlers. The Creek of the Lower Towns, who were closer to the settlers and had more mixed-race families, had already been forced to make numerous land cessions to the Americans. The Red Stick War, more commonly called the Creek War (1813–1814), was essentially

660-1023: The Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama , the Ma-Chis Lower Creek Indian Tribe of Alabama, the Star Clan of Muscogee Creeks, the Cher-O-Creek Intra Tribal Indians, the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians , the Piqua Shawnee Tribe , and the United Cherokee Ani-Yun-Wiya Nation. The AIAC provides many programs, such as Miss Indian Alabama, Native American Business Owner Profile, and the AIAC Scholarship. The legislature specifically charged

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720-600: The Indigenous peoples of North America is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Poarch Band of Creek Indians The Poarch Band of Creek Indians ( / p ɔː r tʃ / PORCH ; ) are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans with reservation lands in lower Alabama . As Mvskoke people, they speak the Muscogee language . They were formerly known as the Creek Nation East of

780-750: The Washoe Tribe . The casino opened in May 2016. In D'Iberville, Mississippi , Wind Creek purchased land for a planned casino development in March 2016. In Pennsylvania, the tribe agreed in March 2018 to purchase Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem for $ 1.3 billion. The sale was approved in May 2019 and the casino was renamed to Wind Creek Bethlehem . In 2012 the tribe announced plans to expand their gaming operations at Hickory Ground in Wetumpka, Alabama. Not all Poarch members supported this expansion, and it remains

840-566: The 1870 U.S. Census of Escambia County, Alabama ; 1900 U.S. Census of Escambia County, Alabama; or 1900 U.S. Special Indian Census of Monroe County, Alabama . Besides being of direct Mvskoke Creek heritage, they must have a minimum blood quantum of 1/4 American Indian blood (equivalent to one full-blooded Creek grandparent) and not be enrolled in any other tribe. There are two distinctions of membership, including tribal enrolled membership and enrolled descendant membership that extends to first generation descendants. Each federally recognized tribe has

900-658: The 1960s and early 1970s throughout the U.S. Calvin McGhee attended the landmark Chicago Indian Conference of 1961, an event that galvanized movements toward Indigenous rights and sovereignty. McGhee was among the delegation that presented the Conference's "Declaration of Indian Purpose" to President John F. Kennedy at the White House in 1961. The Conference, along with other pan-Indian activism, prompted Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, to establish Indian programs outside

960-418: The AIAC to "deal fairly and effectively with Indian affairs; to bring local, state, federal resources into focus...for Indian citizens of the State of Alabama; to provide aid…assist Indian Communities...promote recognition of the right of Indians to pursue cultural and religious traditions..." This Alabama -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article relating to

1020-591: The Bureau of Indian Affairs as part of his War on Poverty after 1963. Poarch Creeks secured federal grants during this era. They established federal job training, Headstart, and Department of Education Title IV Indian Education programs for area Creeks. To fundraise for tribal organizing, the Poarch community advanced several community events, such as the intertribal Thanksgiving Powwow. Despite Mvskoke people not dancing powwow historically, Poarch members took advantage of

1080-851: The Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee joined the Americans. He wanted to strike the Gulf Coast and wanted to use the Indians as a diversion from the Canadian theater. He sent Captain Hugh Pigot who anchored by the mouth of the Apalachicola River on May 10, 1814. They proceeded to give the Indians arms and a small British attachment of men. Pigot then reported to his superiors that he could have as much as 2,800 Creek and Seminoles trained in 8 to 10 weeks. This report would eventually lead to

1140-639: The Creek. With federal forces otherwise engaged in the War of 1812, Georgia , Tennessee , and the Mississippi Territory raised state militias for defense and engaged Native American allies, such as the Cherokee , traditional enemy of the Creek. Historian Frank L. Owsley, Jr. suggests that the state-sponsored military activity in the area likely prevented the British from occupying an undefended Gulf Coast in 1814. General Andrew Jackson commanded

1200-496: The Creeks in the nineteenth century. The group received a favorable judgment; members received sums beginning in 1972 as reparations. Through the lands claims litigation, Bufford Rollins and Eddie Tullis emerged as leaders of the Poarch Creek community. Along with Calvin McGhee, they took part in major events that were happening due to increasing visibility of Indigenous people, nations, and literary and cultural aesthetics in

1260-567: The Fort Mims attack was representative of the overall conflict between the Upper and Lower Towns. Jackson led a force of 3,000 men to Horseshoe Bend (Tohopeka in Creek), from Fort Williams on 14 March. This was after his scouts reported a force of 1,000 Red Stick warriors and their families were living there. Jackson's army had to march over 60 miles of rugged terrain. Before they left he gave out

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1320-421: The Lower Towns were closer to the settlers, had more mixed-race families, and had already been forced to make land cessions to the Americans. In this context, the Red Sticks led a resistance movement against European American encroachment and assimilation , tensions that culminated in the outbreak of the Creek War in 1813. Initially a civil war among the Creek, the conflict drew in United States state forces while

1380-475: The McGhee Reserve. They formed a community near Poarch, Alabama and sustained kinship and cultural ties through a high degree of endogamy within the Creek community. The Poarch Band experienced great poverty and struggled to make ends meet throughout the nineteenth century. Most were small subsistence level farmers and sharecroppers in the latter decades of the century. Like their Mvskoke relatives ,

1440-684: The Mississippi . The Poarch Band of Creek Indians are a sovereign nation of Muscogee (Creek) people with deep ancestral connections to lands of the Southeast United States. Members of the Poarch Band are located mostly in Escambia County and parts of Florida. Since the late twentieth century, they have operated three gaming casinos and a hotel on their lands. This has enabled them to generate revenues to support

1500-520: The Poarch ancestors, the Weatherford and Woods lineages were active participants in the Red Stick rebellion and allied with the traditionalists. Other Mvskoke ancestors of Poarch members fought alongside the U.S. against Creek traditionalists. Because of the conflicts with other Creeks, ancestors of the Poarch Band migrated to lands in the southwest of Creek Nation territory in the early 1800s near

1560-666: 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. He commented in letters to President Thomas Jefferson that Creek women were matriarchs and had control of children "when connected with a white man". Hawkins further observed that even wealthy traders were nearly as "inattentive" to their mixed-race children as "the Indians"; Benjamin Griffith argues that Hawkins failed to understand

1620-467: The Tallapoosa river and cut off the Red Sticks' retreat and prevent reinforcements. Coffee's brigade was made up of 700 mounted infantry and 600 allied Indians. Meanwhile Jackson marched to the breastworks. He had one six-pound and one three-pound artillery piece that started a bombardment at 10:30 a.m. This lasted till noon when Jackson realized that it was having little effect and decided to storm

1680-762: The Tensaw River and the headwaters of the Perdido River. Many of these Creek families remained in Alabama despite the Indian Removal Act of 1830, by which the majority of the tribe ceded their land and were forcibly moved to Indian Territory , west of the Mississippi River . However, several ancestors of Poarch members marched to Oklahoma, including Sam Moniac (Totkvs-Harjo) who was buried at Pass Christian in 1837. Under provisions of

1740-530: The Treaty of Fort Jackson, Poarch Creek ancestors selected four sections of land that would serve as the nucleus of what eventually became known as the Poarch Band of Creek Indian community. These Indian reserves were held subject to federal trust restrictions. The "McGhee Reserve," a 240 acre tract taken by Lynn McGhee became a center of the Creek community. After the Civil War, other Creeks established lands near

1800-530: The Upper Towns of the Creek Confederacy and supported traditional leadership and culture, including the preservation of communal land for cultivation and hunting, while opposing assimilation into European American culture. The Creek had a matrilineal culture, in which a person's place and status were determined by their maternal clan. The Creek of the Lower Towns, who comprised the majority of

1860-405: The assimilation and loss of traditions, led by the chiefs William Weatherford , Menawa , and Peter McQueen of the Upper Towns. The war heightened the hostility between the Creek and the Americans in the Southeast, at a time when Americans had steadily encroached on Creek and other Native American tribes' territories, forcing land cessions under numerous treaties but always demanding more. After

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1920-419: The closer relationship that children in Creek culture had with their mother's eldest brother, closer than with their biological father, because of the importance of the clan structure. Chief of Coweta, William McIntosh was a leader of the Lower Creek. During the Creek War he opposed the Red Sticks and sided with the Americans instead. He joined Andrew Jackson as a Major who was impressed with him. Because he

1980-520: The death of Calvin McGhee in the early 1970s, Eddie Tullis was elected as McGhee's successor. The Band joined the National Congress of American Indians and was active in pan-tribal eastern Indian organizations at the time. With a federal Administration for Native Americans grant, the Band secured funding to research and to write a petition for federal tribal recognition during the 1970s. With

2040-461: The end only thirty-two Americans were killed, and ninety-nine were injured. In contrast only twenty Red Sticks were able to escape, including their leader Menewa. Some of the notable people present at the battle were: Sam Houston, John Coffee, and Andrew Jackson The massacre had significant short-term and long-term effects. Alarmed by the fall of the fort and understanding little of internal Creek tensions, settlers demanded government protection from

2100-471: The first decades of the twentieth century, local governments established segregated schools for Creek Indian children in southwest Alabama. Because of Jim Crow segregation, Creek Indians were denied admittance to area businesses or forced to use segregated facilities in schools, theaters, and medical offices. In the 1930s, the Episcopal Church sent missionaries to assimilate the Creek community under

2160-466: The first tribes to secure federal status through the federal process in 1984. Afterward, the Band was able to have a 229 acre tract taken into trust as a federal Indian Reservation and to re-establish their own government under a written constitution. These lands provide the grounds for the tribal reservation. To be eligible to enroll in the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, people must be descended from one or more American Indians listed on one of three rolls:

2220-455: The fortifications. The first person to scale the fortification was Major Lemuel Montgomery who was promptly shot in the head. The fight for the breastworks was a quick but bloody affair but in the end Jackson's men prevailed. The Red Sticks fell back to their second line of defense, a breastwork of logs and underbrush. The Creeks asked for no quarter while their prophets where saying that it would be worse if they were captured. Jackson offered them

2280-422: The frontier who had become alarmed after the battle that had occurred at Burnt Corn. The fort was poorly guarded and the Red Sticks overwhelmed its defenses on 30 August 1813, killing most of the people who had taken refuge there. Estimates of the number of settlers at Fort Mims at the time of the massacre vary from 300 or so to 500 (including whites, slaves, and Lower Creek). Estimates of survivors have varied; at

2340-547: The group filed a lawsuit for equal education and won their case, several years before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954. Also in the late 1940s, McGhee spearheaded an effort to file a lands claim case with the Indian Claims Commission. He formed a group that became the Creek Nation East of the Mississippi that pursued a case for compensation for lands lost by

2400-543: The guise of aid. Poarch established their own school and worked to secure federal aid for the people. During the Indian New Deal of the 1930s , the Bureau of Indian Affairs , at the urging of the missionaries, sent an investigator to southern Alabama in 1938. Finding that the Poarch Band was clearly a surviving Creek enclave, the Bureau agent recommended educational aid for the community. Coupled with this recommendation

2460-421: The help of anthropologist Tony Paredes per requirements of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Band utilized federal land records, censuses, court records, and school documents to prove they were a surviving and continuous Creek People, eligible for federal tribal status under the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Federal Acknowledgment Process regulations created in 1978. The Band was successful in this effort, being one of

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2520-433: The limited knowledge of Native American history in the United States to gain more funds and visibility for their Nation. The group also worked to formalize its government structures. Emerging from the Indian Claims Commission's petition by the Creek Nation East of the Mississippi in the early 1970s, McGhee, Tullis, and Rollins founded the modern government of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, centered near Poarch, Alabama. After

2580-413: The lives of tribal members and their descendants. The Poarch Band members descend from Muscogee Creek Indigenous peoples of the Upper Towns and Lower Towns who intermarried with Scottish and Irish traders. Because Mvskoke ancestors of Poarch members were matrilineal and matrilocal, settler colonists targeted Mvskoke women to gain land, wealth, and power. Intermarriage was a strategy of assimilation that

2640-620: The lumber and turpentine industries. Jim Crow segregation and other forms of overt racism limited opportunities for economic advancement for group members. Because they had stayed behind and not removed with the main body of the Creek Nation after the 1830s, members of the Poarch Band received no federal aid or recognition of their indigenous status at the tribal level. Poarch families endured these challenges by relying on strong kinship and community ties. These relations have enabled many among them to retain their connection to language and traditions like busk , stompdance , and chinaberry beading. In

2700-518: The militia had provoked the attack, frontier settlers and U.S. officials became alarmed about the Red Sticks' actions on the frontier as a result. The Red Sticks decided to attack the garrison at Fort Mims in the Mississippi Territory (present-day Tensaw , in southwestern Alabama), in an attempt to reduce the influence of the Tensaw Creek who controlled the fort. Also at the fort were intermarried whites, and other settlers and their slaves from

2760-493: The most, about three dozen have been claimed. At least 100 Creek attackers were found dead at the scene of the battle. History graduate student Karl Davis, in a manner contrary to prevailing scholarship at the time, interpreted the attack in a journal article treatment as a punitive expedition specifically directed against the Tensaw, a group of Lower Creek who were "separated from core Creek values." Hence, Davis does not believe

2820-480: The nation was already engaged in the War of 1812 against the British. The term "Red Sticks" (alternatively "Redsticks" or "Red Clubs"), was derived from the name of the two-foot-long wooden war club, or atássa, used by the Creek. The preferred weapon of the Red Stick warriors, this war club had a red-painted wooden handle with a curve at its head that held a small piece of iron, steel, or bone projecting about two inches. The Red Sticks faction came primarily from

2880-485: The population, had adopted more European-American ways; in addition, they had more intermarriage among their women with white traders and settlers, and economic relations with the United States settlers. At the same time, the mixed-race children, such as the chiefs William Weatherford and William McIntosh , were generally raised among the Creek. Benjamin Hawkins , who was first appointed as United States Indian agent in

2940-434: The primary concerns of Red Stick Creeks was the belief that the growing assimilation into European-American practices, including pressures to conform to Christianity and a centralized Creek governance structure , was diminishing the Creek Nation's political strength to maintain authority over their territories and economies. The rebelling Creeks ultimately met their defeat at the hands of Andrew Jackson's enforcements. Among

3000-534: The red-painted war clubs of some Native American Creek —refers to an early 19th century traditionalist faction of Muscogee Creek people in the Southeastern United States . Made up mostly of Creek of the Upper Towns that supported traditional leadership and culture, as well as the preservation of communal land for cultivation and hunting, the Red Sticks arose at a time of increasing pressure on Creek territory by European American settlers. Creek of

3060-676: The right to make its own rules of citizenship. The Poarch Creek Indian Reservation is located in southern Alabama near the city of Atmore, Alabama . Their current tribal chairwoman is Stephanie Bryan. The Poarch Band has several casinos operating under Wind Creek Hospitality, a tribe-owned company. Three of its casinos are located on sovereign tribal land in Alabama: Wind Creek Atmore , Wind Creek Montgomery , and Wind Creek Wetumpka . They have gradually expanded their gaming, resort and entertainment businesses beyond those on their reservation. Beyond its reservation,

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3120-456: The state militias to campaign against the Red Sticks. The U.S. forces finally defeated the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814) on March 27, 1814. His forces killed or captured most of the Creek, but some survivors escaped to Florida, where they joined the Seminoles and continued the resistance to the United States. The war had begun over internal divisions among Creek who resisted

3180-495: The three sisters of corn, beans, and squash were common crops. Along with traditional Creek foods like sofke and corn mush, they supplemented their diet with game and fish largely taken from neighboring public lands. With the coming of the railroad in the late nineteenth century, the lumber and turpentine industries arrived. Large corporations bought public lands, closing access to Creek subsistence practices. Many Creeks became migrant or day laborers to earn wages. They also took jobs in

3240-772: The tribe owns majority stakes in Mobile Greyhound Park in Alabama, and Pensacola Greyhound Park and Creek Entertainment Gretna in Florida. In the Caribbean , the tribe owns two hotel casinos operating under the Renaissance Hotels brand in Aruba and Curacao , which it purchased in October 2017. In Gardnerville, Nevada , the tribe financed and manages the Wa She Shu Casino, owned by

3300-550: The war, the Creek were forced to cede half their remaining lands to the U.S. Within twenty years, they lost the remainder of their lands as a result of the Indian Removal Act , and the forced removal to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River . Some remnant Creek chose to stay in Alabama and Mississippi and become state and U.S. citizens, but treaty provisions to secure their land were not followed, and many became landless. Some Creek migrated to Florida, where they joined

3360-462: Was a joint venture between the City of Foley and the Foley Sports Tourism Complex, developed in conjunction with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians as part of a city-wide sports tourism push. An indoor water park known as Tropic Falls was announced in 2021; the first of the water park's two phases opened in June 2022. Notes Bibliography Red Sticks Red Sticks (also Redsticks , Batons Rouges , or Red Clubs )—the name deriving from

3420-444: Was canceled, however, because of a dispute over licensing payments for the Margaritaville name. In late 2019, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians presented the state of Alabama with a grand bargain that would afford the tribe exclusive rights on casino gambling in exchange for $ 1 billion. The Poarch Band of Creek Indians opened the Park at OWA, an amusement park in Foley, Alabama , on July 20, 2017. The 520-acre (2.1 km ) site

3480-405: Was common across the history of southeastern Indigenous nations in the U.S. Predominant lineages and surnames in the group include the names Weatherford , McGillivray, Durant, McGhee, Moniac, Cornell, Gibson, Colbert, Woods, and Rolin. In the early 19th century, various elements intensified tensions within the Creek Nation leading up to their removal . These elements included geopolitical shifts,

3540-480: Was half-white and, in Jackson's eyes, "civilized" he was able to gain Jackson's trust and when Georgians attacked friendly Creek settlements only McIntosh's complaints made it to the government. His actions in the Creek War mainly joining Jackson alienated him after the war was over in Creek society. By supplying long rifles in trade, England was one of the principal nations (with Spain ) that helped and encouraged Native Americans to fight against America, mainly as

3600-444: Was the decision to not establish a federal Indian reservation for the group. Because of federal funding shortages, no federal Indian aid was provided for the Poarch Band during the 1930s and early 1940s. After World War II, Calvin McGhee, a descendant of Band founder Lynn McGhee, began organizing the Creeks of southern Alabama and northern Florida to pursue land claims and other rights denied to them as Indigenous people. Under McGhee,

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