Category: April 2023

CREEK CHIEF TUSTUNNUGGEE HUTKE (WILLIAM MCINTOSH) EXECUTED

Born circa 1775 near Tuetumpla (now Alabama), McIntosh’s Creek name meant “White Warrior.” His mother was Lower Creek of the Wind Clan from which leaders are usually chosen. Raised traditionally by his mother’s brothers, he also spent time with his Scottish father near Savannah learning to read, write & speak English. William earned a rank of Brigadier General fighting for Andrew Jackson against the Upper Creek “Red Sticks” in the War of 1812. A successful & wealthy businessman, he had 3 wives each living in her own home on a nearby plantation.  After McIntosh & other Creek chiefs ceded lands to the U.S. in 1821, the National Creek Council (NCC), in 1824, made it a capital offense to sell further Creek property. Seeing the inevitable loss of Creek lands, he & 8 other chiefs signed the fraudulent (and later rejected) Treaty of 1825 at the Indian Spring Hotel ceding all Creek lands in Georgia on February 12, 1825 (for which McIntosh was paid $200,000). As a result, he was executed at the order of the NCC.  

Sources: “American History: Creek Indian Chief William McIntosh,” electricscotland.com.  Retrieved 9/28/2021, Creek Indian Chief William McIntosh (electricscotland.com)
Wikipedia
Sketch: Thomas Loraine McKenney (1785-1859) & James Hall (1793-1868), circa 1836-44. Public Domain. Source: From History of the Indian Tribes of North America, with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Principal Chief. Embellished with One Hundred and Twenty Portraits, from the Indian Gallery in the Department of War, at Washington. Philadelphia: F.W. Greenough, 1838-1844. University of Cincinnati Libraries Digital Collections.