William "Red Eagle" Weatherford was a Creek (Muscogee) Native American who led the Creek War offensive against the United States. Like many of the high-ranking members of the Creek nation, he was a mixture of Scottish and Creek Indian. His "war name" was Hopnicafutsahia, or "Truth Teller," and was commonly referred to as Lamochattee, or "Red Eagle," by other Creeks. During the Creek Civil War, in February 1813, Weatherford reportedly made a strange prophecy that called for the extermination of English settlers on lands formerly held by Native Americans. He used his "vision" to gather support from various Native American tribes.

William "Red Eagle" Weatherford was a Creek (Muscogee) Native American who led the Creek War offensive against the United States. Like many of the high-ranking members of the Creek nation, he was a mixture of Scottish and Creek Indian. His "war name" was Hopnicafutsahia, or "Truth Teller," and was commonly referred to as Lamochattee, or "Red Eagle," by other Creeks. During the Creek Civil War, in February 1813, Weatherford reportedly made a strange prophecy that called for the extermination of English settlers on lands formerly held by Native Americans. He used his "vision" to gather support from various Native American tribes.

Alabama. 1812. The southwestern frontier of the young United States spans hundreds of miles between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains. The region is home to dozens of Native American tribes, American settlers, and the soldiers of Spain, France, England, and the USA. It is a melting pot unseen since the Persian Empire. On the banks of the Coosa River, William Weatherford manages brisk business from his trading post. He is the son of a Scottish military man, who served under George Washington, and a Creek Princess from the sacred Deer family. He moves through both worlds, native and European. He is known as Red Eagle among his Creek brothers. He commands respect. He is the sinew that holds his community from the brink of conflict. But as Red Eagle and his family steer the course of peace, rivals tussle for control of the land. A series of slights pushes the Creek Nation into standing their ground against the power-hungry Governor of the Alabama. When Red Eagle declines to choose sides, his side is chosen for him. With his wife and child murdered and his home burned to the ground. Red Eagle takes command of the Creek forces. He leads a strategic guerilla war of resistance that paralyzes the Governor and forces the US Government to call in General Andrew Jackson to quell the conflict. Through years of battle, Red Eagle commands Jackson's respect, but the radical factions of his own men - led by his half-brother, the Prophet Josiah - create dissent in his victory plan. As attrition hits both sides and the rivers of Alabama run red with the blood of citizens, how far will Red Eagle go to see peace in his homeland again? When does revenge become folly? When does the past become a dream you cannot return to? How can one man save his people from total destruction? This is the story of William Weatherford. The greatest warrior Andrew Jackson ever faced.

Based on a handwritten manuscript more than 150 years old, Creek Indian History is a primary resource containing accounts of significant Indian/white encounters in early Alabama history--from the Indian perspective. Written in the early 1800s by George Stiggins, the son of a Creek mother and a white father, this volume recounts the origins and ways of life of the tribes of the Creek Confederacy and their viewpoints on such key events of the Creek War as Burnt Corn and Fort Mims. Stiggins was William Weatherford's brother-in-law, and thus his explanation of Weatherford's controversial role in the Creek War has special value. William Wyman's notes and introduction put the Stiggins account in historical perspective and traces its circuitous route to publication.

Historians have traditionally viewed the Creek War of 1836 as a minor police action centered on rounding up the Creek Indians for removal to Indian Territory. Using extensive archival research, John T. Ellisor demonstrates that in fact the Second Creek War was neither brief nor small. Indeed, armed conflict continued long after peace was declared and the majority of Creeks had been sent west. Ellisor’s study also broadly illuminates southern society just before the Indian removals, a time when many blacks, whites, and Natives lived in close proximity in the Old Southwest. In the Creek country, also called New Alabama, these ethnic groups began to develop a pluralistic society. When the 1830s cotton boom placed a premium on Creek land, however, dispossession of the Natives became an economic priority. Dispossessed and impoverished, some Creeks rose in armed revolt both to resist removal west and to drive the oppressors from their ancient homeland. Yet the resulting Second Creek War that raged over three states was fueled both by Native determination and by economic competition and was intensified not least by the massive government-sponsored land grab that constituted Indian removal. Because these circumstances also created fissures throughout southern society, both whites and blacks found it in their best interests to help the Creek insurgents. This first book-length examination of the Second Creek War shows how interethnic collusion and conflict characterized southern society during the 1830s.

Portrays William Weatherford, who rejected his Scots and French ancestry and embraced his Creek heritage, describes his fight against white encroachment in Georgia, and reflects on his spiritual influence.

Red Sticks, White Sticks and the war in Alabama The Creek Indian War, also known as the Red Stick War, took place between 1813-1814 and has been considered by many historians as part of the War of 1812. The Creek-or Muscogee-Indians of Alabama were effectively waging a civil war among themselves. One militant faction, the so called Red Sticks, proposed an aggressive return to the traditional life of their forebears and an end to treaties with and concessions to pioneer settlers represented by the United States government. The White Sticks, opting for peace, inevitably took the opposing view. Although the conflict began as one between the indigenous Indians, American forces, under the soon to be famous Andrew Jackson among others, were drawn into the conflict because much of the animosity was focussed on pioneer settlements. The conflict started in the usual manner of American Indian Wars-with the murder of settler families. The inevitable revenge and retribution that followed-and an escalation of the kind of merciless savagery the Americans had come to expect-culminated in the massacre of 500 settlers, friendly Indians, mixed blood Creeks and soldiers at Fort Mims in an attack led by the Red Stick war leader, Red Eagle. Other forts were also attacked. Panic spread through the region exacerbated by the inability of the Federal government to provide ready aid since it was engaged against the British and their Indian allies to the east. As a consequence much of the fighting was undertaken by militias from Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi supported by White Stick allies. National hero, Davy Crockett, also served in this conflict. The war ended in a victory for the Americans and put Andrew Jackson on a path to the presidency and the White House. It was a disaster for the entire Creek Indian tribe-irrespective of their allegiances-who paid for the conflict through the confiscation of vast tracts of their traditional lands. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.

The following book is a biography and portrait of the life of William Weatherford, also known after his death as Red Eagle. He was a Creek chief of the Upper Creek towns who led many of the Red Sticks actions in the Creek War against Lower Creek towns and against allied forces of the United States. One of many mixed-race descendants of Southeast Indians who intermarried with European traders and later colonial settlers, William Weatherford was of mixed Creek, French, and Scots ancestry. He was raised as a Creek in the matrilineal nation and achieved his power in it, through his mother's prominent Wind Clan. After the war, he rebuilt his wealth as a slaveholding planter in lower Monroe County, Alabama.