Creeks and Southerners examines the families created by the hundreds of intermarriages between Creek Indian women and European American men in the southeastern United States during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Called “Indian countrymen” at the time, these intermarried white men moved into their wives’ villages in what is now Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. By doing so, they obtained new homes, familial obligations, occupations, and identities. At the same time, however, they maintained many of their ties to white American society and as a result entered the historical record in large numbers.

 

Creeks and Southerners studies the ways in which many children of these relationships lived both as Creek Indians and white Southerners. By carefully altering their physical appearances, choosing appropriate clothing, learning multiple languages, embracing maternal and paternal kinsmen and kinswomen, and balancing their loyalties, the children of intermarriages found ways to bridge what seemed to be an unbridgeable divide. Many became prominent Creek political leaders and warriors, played central roles in the lucrative deerskin trade, built inns and taverns to cater to the needs of European American travelers, frequently moved between colonial American and Native communities, and served both European American and Creek officials as interpreters, assistants, and travel escorts. The fortunes of these bicultural children reflect the changing nature of Creek-white relations, which became less flexible and increasingly contentious throughout the nineteenth century as both Creeks and Americans accepted a more rigid biological concept of race, forcing their bicultural children to choose between identities.

Andrew K. Frank is an assistant professor of history at Florida Atlantic University. He is the author of The Routledge Historical Atlas of the American South.

“While Frank skillfully contextualizes his story within Creek and colonial history, his focus is on the people who, like Cornell, were Creeks and white southerners. . . . Elegantly written, impeccably organized, and deeply researched in English and Spanish sources, Creeks and Southerners is a welcome addition to the booming field of pre-removal Creek history.”—Kathleen DuVal, Western Historical Quarterly

"Frank has significantly expanded our knowledge about how the endurance of clan and village life in one southeastern Indian society shaped intercultural relations over a long span of time."—Daniel H. Usner, Jr., American Historical Review

"An interesting source for studying the effects of early biculturalism."—Denver Westerners Roundup

"Creeks and Southerners is a sophisticated, well-written account of Creek society in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.  Frank draws on many fascinating frontier characters to the larger forces forging a new social landscape around them."—Gregory A. Waselkov, Alabama Review

"Creeks and Southerners provides useful insight into the formation of Creek identity.  It would be useful to historians studying European-Native American relations or Creek history. . . . Frank's story offers a good deal of insight into the various conflicts and increasing tensions that ended with forced Indian removal."—Jeremy Pressgrove, Southern Historian

“This insightful and well-researched volume analyzes the common ground between the Muscogees and white Americans in a shared environment and persuades readers to think about mixed-blood Creeks who participated in two cultures at the same time.”—Donald L. Fixico, Montana: The Magazine of Western History

“Frank compiles useful details on Creek kinship structures during the late colonial period and these, in turn, enable him to explain the intimate connections that linked them—to a point—with their Anglo-American neighbors.”—H-Net Book Reviews H-Florida

“Andrew Frank’s book stands as a valuable addition to the scholarship on the Creek Nation in pre-removal times. While others debate when the Creek Confederacy began, Frank uses the analysis of biculturalism and kinship along the Creek frontier to shed light on how the confederacy gradually emerged over time. This approach provides a thorough understanding of how culture and kinship affected internal and external relations such as trade and alliances. Creeks and Southerners is a nice contribution to the literature on the history of the southeastern Indians.”—Rebecca Seaman, Journal of Southern History