Opothleyahola

Opothleyahola
Born	Opothle Yahola c. 1778 [1] Tuckabatchee town (Elmore County, Alabama)
Died	March 22, 1863(1863-03-22) (aged 85) Quenemo in Osage County, Kansas
Resting place	near Fort Belmont in Woodson County, Kansas
Residence	Alabama
Nationality	Muscogee
Other names	Laughing Fox
Occupation	Tribal chief
Religion	Native

Opothleyahola, also spelled Opothle Yohola, Opothleyoholo, Hu-pui-hilth Yahola, and Hopoeitheyohola, (about 1798 – March 22, 1863) was a Muscogee Creek Indian chief, noted as a brilliant orator. He was a speaker of the Upper Creek Council. He led Creek forces against the United States government during the first two Seminole Wars. During the American Civil War, he was among the minority of Creek who supported the Union.

Early life and education

Opothleyahola was born about 1780 at Tuckabatchee, the Creek capital of the Upper Creek Towns, located in present-day Montgomery County, Alabama. The Upper Creek Towns' population comprised the majority of the nation.^[2] His name literally translated means 'child', 'good', 'whooper' or 'good speaker'. Langguth says the name could be translated as "...good shouting child."^[3] According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History, his father was Davy Cornell, a mixed-blood Creek and an unidentified full-blood Creek woman.^[2] While he was of European and Creek ancestry, as he was born to a Creek mother, he was fully part of the tribe. It had a matrilineal system of property holding and descent, making the mother's clan the determining one for the status of her children. Traditionally, her brothers were more important than the biological father in rearing the children. For instance, a maternal uncle would teach a boy men's roles, and introduce him to men's societies. The historian Angie Debo found evidence suggesting that the boy's father was David Evans, a trader of Welsh descent. He may have taught him English and literacy, or sent him to school.

Lower Creek leaders had made treaties with the state of Georgia to cede former hunting lands in 1790, 1802 and 1804. The Creek had lost use of the land for hunting because of encroachment by settlers. They began to adopt more farming practices in order to survive. Under pressure from Georgia and its settlers, they also had more relationship with Benjamin Hawkins, the US Indian agent.

The differences between the Upper Creek and Lower Creek broke out into violence in 1812 in what was at first a civil war. The Red Sticks of the Upper Creek wanted to revive traditional culture and religion, and resisted assimilation, as well as the land cessions.^[2] Opothleyahola is believed to have allied with the British against the US forces as early as the War of 1812.

He was among the Red Sticks in the Creek War of 1813-1814, which ended with defeat by General Andrew Jackson commanding a large allied force at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. At that time, Opothleyahola swore his allegiance to the Federal government.

Leader of the Creek

Later the young man developed as an influential and eloquent speaker who utilized his skills for his people first and foremost. He was selected as a speaker for the chiefs, which was a distinct political role on the National Council. He became a wealthy trader and owned a 2,000-acre (8 km²) plantation near North Fork Town. As did other Creek and members of the Five Civilized Tribes, he purchased African-American slaves as workers for his plantation. Opothleyahola joined the Freemasons and accepted Christianity to become a Baptist.

Alarmed by land cessions made by chiefs of the Lower Towns without tribal consensus, the National Council of the Creek Confederacy enacted a law that made further land cessions a capital offense. In 1825, William McIntosh and several Lower Creek chiefs signed the Treaty of Indian Springs with the US, which gave up most of the remaining Creek lands in Georgia for payment and removal to west of the Mississippi River.

Opothleyahola supported the death sentence passed by the National Council against McIntosh and other signatories of the 1825 Treaty. The chief Menawa led 200 warriors to attack McIntosh at his plantation. They killed him and another signatory chief, and burned down his mansion.

Creek elders realized that they would need experienced negotiators to present their case to Federal authorities. While Opothleyahola was a persuasive speaker, he was not fluent in the English language. They turned to the Cherokees for assistance. Major Ridge, a Cherokee leader, recommended that the Creeks retain his son, John Ridge and David Vann, two young, well-educated men to travel with Opothleyahola and prepare his negotiating positions.^[4]

The Creek National Council, led by Opothleyahola, went to Washington, DC to protest the illegality of the 1825 treaty. President John Quincy Adams was sympathetic. The US government and the chiefs made a new treaty with more favorable terms, the Treaty of Washington (1826).^[5]

But Georgia officials began forcibly removing the Indians from lands which it claimed under the 1825 treaty. In addition, the state ignored the 1832 US Supreme Court ruling in Whitmire v. Cherokees that the state's legislation to regulate activities within American Indian territories was unconstitutional.

When the Alabama legislature also moved to abolish tribal governments and extend state laws over the Creek people, Opothleyahola appealed to the administration of President Andrew Jackson. He had already signed the 1830 Indian Removal Act and wanted the Creek to move west. Given no relief, the Upper Creek signed the Treaty of Cusseta on March 24, 1832, which divided up Creek lands into individual allotments. They could either sell their allotments and receive funds to remove to Indian Territory, or stay in Alabama as state and US citizens and submit to the state laws.

In 1834, Opothleyahola traveled to Nacogdoches, Texas, to try to purchase communal land for his people. After he had paid landowners $20,000, pressure from both the Mexican and American governments forced Opothleyahola to abandon the idea.^[5]

In 1836, Opothleyahola, commissioned as a Colonel by the U.S. government, led 1,500 of his warriors against the rebellious Lower Creek who had allied with Seminole in fighting the white occupation. Soon after, the US Army rounded up the remaining Southeast Indian peoples and forced their emigration to Indian Territory, on what was known as the "Trail of Tears." In 1837, Opothleyahola led 8,000 of his people from Alabama to lands north of the Canadian River in the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma.

Civil War

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Opothleyahola refused to form an alliance with the Confederacy, unlike many other tribes, including many of the Lower Creeks. Runaway slaves, free blacks, Chickasaw and Seminole Indians began gathering at Opothleyahola's plantation, hoping to remain neutral in the conflict between the North and South. On August 15, 1861, Opothleyahola and tribal chief Micco Hutko contacted President Abraham Lincoln to request help for the loyalists. On September 10, they received a positive response stating the United States government would indeed assist them. The letter directed Opothleyahola to move his people to Fort Row in Wilson County, Kansas, where they would receive asylum and aid.^[6]

On November 15, Confederate Col. Douglas H. Cooper, a former US Indian Agent, led 1,400 men, including pro-Confederate Indians, northward to convince Opothleyahola and his followers to support the Confederacy or to "drive him and his party from the country." Believing the promises that the Federal government would provide assistance, Opothleyahola led his band (including Seminole under Halleck Tustenuggee) toward Kansas. Along the way, they fought three battles against their pursuers. At Round Mountain,^[7] Opothleyahola's forces drove back the Confederates to Fort Gibson.

In December, they suffered a tactical loss at Chusto-Talasah^[8] and a crushing defeat at Chustenahlah. He lost an estimated 2,000 of his 9,000 followers from the battles, disease, and bitter winter blizzards during their ill-fated trek to Fort Row. The fort lacked adequate medical support and supplies. The refugees were moved to Fort Belmont, where conditions were still intolerable. The majority of the Creek had only the clothes on their backs and lacked proper footwear and shelter. Many more perished, among them Opothleyahola's daughter.^[9]

Opothleyahola died in the Creek refugee camp near the Sac and Fox Agency at Quenemo in Osage County, Kansas on March 22, 1863.^[2] He was buried beside his daughter near Fort Belmont in Woodson County, Kansas.^[10]

References

• Downing, David C. A South Divided: Portraits of Dissent in the Confederacy. Nashville: Cumberland House, 2007. ISBN 978-1-58182-587-9
• Meserve, John Bartlett (December 1931). "Chronicles of Oklahoma". Chronicles of Oklahoma 9 (4): 439. Retrieved 2012-02-25. 
• White, Christine Schultz and White, Benton R., Now The Wolf Has Come: The Creek Nation in the Civil War, Texas A & M University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-89096-689-3.
• U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 70 volumes in 4 series. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1880-1901. Series 1, Volume 8, Part 1.
• Woodson County history

Notes