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| Introduction |
|---|
| Section 1: Begin Here |
| Section 2: Secondary Sources |
| Section 3: Primary Sources |
| Section 4: Biography |
| Section 5: Genealogy |
| Section 6: Finding Pictures |
| Section 7: Further Research |
Introduction......the Creek Indians
Just what do we mean by the Creeks? According to scholar Michael D.
Green in the introduction to his The Creeks: A Critical Bibliography:
"The Creek Nation was a confederacy--an alliance of separate and independent tribes that gradually became, over a long period, a single political organization. Through most of its history, however, the Confederacy was a dynamic institution, constantly changing in size as tribes, for whatever reason, entered the alliance or left it. ... This fluctuating population base...has confounded the attempts of historians and anthropologists to generalize about the Creeks. One can be clear or correct, but rarely both."
Another name for the Creeks is Muscogees. Muscogee is also the name of the language of the largest group within the Creeks. Other groups spoke Alabama, Koasiti, Hitchiti, Natchez, Yuchi, and Shawnee. Often when people refer to speaking Creek or to the Creek language, they mean Muscogee, but it's not always clear which language they are referring to. Seminole is the name for one group which eventually left the Confederacy and became regarded as a separate tribe.
This bibliography is definitely NOT a complete list of works on Creek Indians. It is intended both to help those interested in the tribe and its history get started with their research and to provide information of interest to more advanced researchers. However, the emphasis is historical, biographical and genealogical; no works specifically on such ethnographic subjects as religion and folklore are included (although material on these topics will be found in many of the publications listed). See the section "Further Research" at the end of this document for more widely focused bibliographies
Many of these entries have been reprinted numerous times and by various publishers; I make no effort to list all the various issue dates. Do distinguish between a "reprint" and a "revised edition." "Revised" normally indicates that the text has been reworked, corrected and updated. A reprint simply contains the text as originally published.
This is primarily a "bibliography" of printed and archival works with a selection of Internet sites, many of which provide access to the full text of source materials. See the Internet sites in Section 1 below for many more links.
GO TO: [Top] [Sec. 1: Begin Here] [Sec. 2: Secondary Sources] [Sec. 3: Primary Sources] [Sec. 4: Biography] [Sec. 5: Genealogy] [Sec. 6: Finding Pictures] [Sec. 7: Further Research]
Section 1: Begin Here......
Note that some of these titles place the Creeks in the context of the
whole Southeast. Corkran and Debo have been the books to start with for
an overview of the span of Creek history, but they should be supplemented with later research.
Among the Creeks. Carol Middleton's page has information for both historians and genealogists. Internet at: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cmamcrk4/index.html.
Brown, Virginia Pounds and Laurella Owens. The World of the Southern Indians. Birmingham, Ala.: Beechwood Books, 1983. Chap. 6 (p. 80-99) is an excellent introduction for young students to Creek lifestyles with a detailed line drawing of a village. The short historical section focuses on the Creek War and five biographical sketches.
Corkran, David H. The Creek Frontier, 1540-1783. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967.
Debo, Angie. The Road to Disappearance: a History of the Creek Indians. (Civilization of the American Indian Series, v. 22) Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941. This book has been reissued a number of times and each time Debo corrected earlier errors, the last time in 1987 when she was 92.
Ethridge, Robbie. Creek Country: The Creek Indians and Their World. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. Beginning with the arrival of Benjamin Hawkins in Creek County in 1796, Ethridge describes in detail the lives, culture, and natural environment of the Creeks in the period before the Creek civil war.
Green, Michael D. The Creeks. (Indians of North America) New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990. One of a series of excellent introductory books on various tribes.
Hahn, Steven C. The Invention of the Creek Nation, 1670-1763. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. This scholarly well written account uses a vast amount of material from British, French, and Spanish sources to elucidate the point of view of the Creek participants in events. Hahn's focus on the importance of clan ties and the emphasis on collective decisions is an important one. Fundamental reading.
Hudson, Charles. The Southeastern Indians. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1976. A general overview combining history and cultural information, this is organized by topic rather than by tribe.
Lewis, Thomas M. N. and Kneberg, Madeline. Tribes That Slumber: Indians of the Tennessee Region. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1958. Focuses on prehistoric culture. Intended, according to the preface, "for students, for amateur archaeologists..."
Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. Internet at: http://www.mcn-nsn.gov/ .
O'Donnell, James H. III. The Georgia Indian Frontier,1773-1783. Georgia Commission for the National Bicentennial Celebration and Georgia Dept. of Education, 1975. Meant for schools, but an interesting quick overview.
Piker, Joshua. Okfuskee, a Creek Indian Town in Colonial America. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2004. This first community study of a Creek town breaks ground in many ways and is an important example of how a study of the "local" can be used to shed light on a much wider history.
Poarch Band of Creek Indians. Homepage of the Alabama tribe. Internet at: http://pci-nsn.gov/westminster/index.html .
Saunt, Claudio. A New Order of Things: Property, Power and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733-1816. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Michael Green described this book as "the best interpretation of eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Creek and Seminole history extant".
Wright, J. Leitch Jr. Creeks and Seminoles: Destruction and Regeneration of the Muscogulge People. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.
____. The Only Land They Knew: the Tragic Story of the American Indians in the Old South. New York: Free Press, 1981.
Wright, Muriel H. A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1951.
GO TO: [Top] [Sec.1: Begin Here] [Sec.2: Secondary Sources] [Sec.3: Primary Sources] [Sec.4: Biography] [Sec.5: Genealogy] [Sec.6: Finding Pictures] [Sec.7: Further Research]
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