Tour Outline:

Introductory notes: Today we will be talking about the indigenous tribes of Georgia and their
interactions with white colonizers. (Pass out you are on native land stickers)
-Muscogee Creek lived in the area that became Atlanta, the name of Creek was given to them by
European traders, shortening of “Indians who live on Ochese Creek”
-Cherokee were able to remain the longest, in North GA
While most memorialization’s of Indigenous tribes speak of them as a vanishing people, they
have not vanished and are still vibrant communities both in western states and Georgia itself.
Therefore, today we will be exploring the lives of Indigenous people.
Ask everyone to share an element of their home that they love (example, we planted an oak tree
in our backyard)

Back up to bridge over Quarry garden

-point out Native plants: Indian Hemlock, American Birch, American Beautyberry, small yellow
lady’s slipper, southern maiden’s hair fern, Christmas fern, Loblolly Pine
-discuss with group how they think these plants can be used
 -Big answers: food: Loblolly pine bark can be emergency food, Canadian hemlock leaves
for tea, American beauty-berry root and leaves for tea in sweat baths for rheumatism, fevers, and
malaria, root tea used for dysentery, stomach aches, root and berry tea used for colic.
Construction: American birch for bows and arrows, containers, and
sealants
Clothes: Canadian Hemlock: tannins in bark used for tanning hide
~walk to cabin~
-have group find native plants on their own and see if they can identify invasive plants
-Information on the Muscogee creeks
-when colonizers arrived, Creeks were a collection of many tribes recently united into a
confederation
-Some traders married into Creek life and lived in Creek villages
-traded enslaved indigenous (in beginning) and deer skin for cloth, kettles, guns
and rum
-escaped enslaved Africans also settled in Creek towns
-fortunes changed after American Revolution when deer trade collapsed (due to population
decline) and Creeks became obstacles to land and more plantations
-State of Georgia pressured Creeks to cede land in 1790, 1802, and 1805
-also pressured Creeks to adopted ranching and farming -> some agreed some did not
-this tension led to the Creek Civil War, or Red Stick War from 1813-1814
-ended when Andrew Jackson killed 800 Creek in battle of Horseshoe Bend. Treaty of
Fort Jackson forced Creek to cede 22 million acres of land (mostly in south GA)
-Muscogee Myth: Night and Day – At the beginning of the world some animals thought it should
be day all the time and some thought it should be night all the time. They could not agree and
decided to have a meeting, asking Bear to preside. Bear proposed that it be night all the time, but
Ground Squirrel said “I see that Raccoon has rings on his tail divided equally, first a dark, then a
light color. I think day and night ought to be divided like the rings on Raccoon’s tail.” The
animals were surprised at the wisdom of Ground Squirrel. They voted for his plan and divided
day and night like the dark rings on Raccoon’s tail, succeeding each other in regular order.
-This shows that communal government was very important to the Muscogee.
Government of the people, by the people, for the people. Ruling by consensus.

~Cabin~
-have the group imagine building this cabin with their families
-assign each person in group a role in construction (related to their home element if
applicable)

-what if one person decided to sell this cabin and land to colonists? (Select a person) And even if
all the rest of you say no, they do it anyway behind your back and then you are forced off of this
land and away from a home you built by the military
-this happened to both the Creeks and Cherokee. In 1825 William McIntosh signed a
treaty at Indian Springs (his hotel) ceding all Creek land in GA for $200,000
-a decade later, in the 1830s it was Major and John Ridge and Elias Budinot of the
Cherokees who signed the Treaty of New Echota (1835) against the rest of the Cherokee
governments wishes (and against principle Chief Ross) ceding the rest of Cherokee land in
Georgia and agreeing to removal
-the Creeks protested that the treaty was invalid and the United States Federal government
agreed, but it became clear that the Georgia State government was going to proceed anyways,
and a year later the Muscogee formally ceded the rest of their land in the treaty of Washington
-the anti-removal faction of the Cherokee led by Ross also mounted resistance, going to the
Supreme Court and claiming the treaty void. The Supreme Court sided with the Cherokee, but
President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce their ruling because he favored indigenous removal
and therefore allowed the Georgia government to proceed as planned. Georgia militia removed
Cherokee from their homes (as they had done with the Creek before them) often forcing them to
leave all their belongings other than the clothes they were wearing behind to be stolen by
colonizers.
-for both the Creeks and Cherokees these ‘treaties’ resulted in a major loss of life and the loss of
their rightful homelands, which have never been restored. William McIntosh and the treaty party
were all murdered for their betrayals to their respective communities.
Ending:
-Indigenous tribes are still here, they have not vanished
-many have been buying back sacred land to revive traditional cultural pracices and
protect their sacred spaces
-we can’t fix what happened, but we do need to recognize that we’re not inheritors and we need
to act in good faith going forward. How can we help?
-if you would like to learn more, please visit the exhibits in the AHC main building, Native
Lands, Gatheround, and Locomotion: Railroads and the Making of Atlanta, also the Quarry
Garden if you want to learn more about Native plants (it is not accessible)
Bibliography:
Syanity. “Muscogee and Cherokee Tribes of Georgia.” About ALA, July 18, 2017.
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/muscogee-and-cherokee-tribes-georgia.
“Culture/History.” Muscogee (Creek) Nation, 2016. https://www.mcn-nsn.gov/culturehistory/.
Welker, Glenn. How Day and Night Were Divided. Indigenous People's Literature, February 8,
1996. http://www.indigenouspeople.net/howday.htm.
Saunt, Claudio. “Creek Indians.” New Georgia Encyclopedia. New Georgia Encyclopedia ,
August 8, 2002. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/creek-
indians.
Denson, Andrew. Monuments to Absence: Cherokee Removal and the Contest Over Southern
Memory. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017
“Plant Database – American Beauty-berry.” Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The
University of Texas at Austin, May 18, 2018.
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=caam2.
“Canadian HemlockTsuga Canadensis.” Canadian Hemlock Tree on the Tree Guide at
arborday.org, 2021. https://www.arborday.org/trees/treeguide/treedetail.cfm?itemID=849.
“Plant Database – Loblolly Pine.” Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of
Texas at Austin, November 15, 2018. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?
id_plant=PITA.
“Plant Database – Paper Birch.” Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of
Texas at Austin, October 15, 2012. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?
id_plant=bepa.