A narrative of the African Creek community

Through the eyes of three different boys, three linked novellas explore the tumultuous times beginning with the secession of South Carolina and leading up to the first major battle of the Civil War.

Reconstructing the human and natural environment of the Creek Indians in frontier Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, Robbie Ethridge illuminates a time of wrenching transition. Creek Country presents a compelling portrait of a culture in crisis, of its resiliency in the face of profound change, and of the forces that pushed it into decisive, destructive conflict. Ethridge begins in 1796 with the arrival of U.S. Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins, whose tenure among the Creeks coincided with a period of increased federal intervention in tribal affairs, growing tension between Indians and non-Indians, and pronounced strife within the tribe. In a detailed description of Creek town life, the author reveals how social structures were stretched to accommodate increased engagement with whites and blacks. The Creek economy, long linked to the outside world through the deerskin trade, had begun to fail. Ethridge details the Creeks' efforts to diversify their economy, especially through experimental farming and ranching, and the ecological crisis that ensued. Disputes within the tribe culminated in the Red Stick War, a civil war among Creeks that quickly spilled over into conflict between Indians and white settlers and was ultimately used by U.S. authorities to justify their policy of Indian removal.

Do you like scavenger hunts? How do you tell if creek water is clean and healthy? Join Lucas and his sister as they act like scientists looking for certain kinds of stream bugs (aquatic macroinvertebrates) that need clean, unpolluted water to survive. What will they find as they turn over rocks, pick up leaves and sort through the mud? Read along to find out if their creek gets a passing grade.

"In pursuit of economic growth, the United States and other developed countries are testing the tolerance of the natural world. The results include the loss of valuable ecosystems, global climate change, and the degradation of the planet's ability to support life. Journalist William Becker argues that our mission in the 21st century should be to fix what we have broken in the natural world and to enlist healthy ecosystems in our pursuit of economic and physical security. Becker begins by sounding an alarm about the inability of the dams and levees we built over the last century to handle the severity of sea-level rise and record floods we see today. The Creeks Will Rise delves into some of the historical and philosophical underpinnings that have led to the climate change situation we now find ourselves in. Becker fearlessly takes on the fossil fuel industry, holding it accountable for the enormous contribution it has made to climate change. He also includes recommendations for solutions as well as specific advice and resources for anyone working toward resolving the climate crisis"--Publisher's website.

An Indian perspective into native and Euroamerican diplomacy in the South First published in 1939, McGillivray of the Creeks is a unique mix of primary and secondary sources for the study of American Indian history in the Southeast. The historian John Walton Caughey's brief but definitive biography of Creek leader Alexander McGillivray (1750-1793) is coupled with 214 letters between McGillivray and Spanish and American political officials. The volume offers distinctive firsthand insights into Creek and Euroamerican diplomacy in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi in the aftermath of the American Revolution as well as a glimpse into how historians have viewed the controversial Creek leader. McGillivray, the son of a famous Scottish Indian trader and a Muskogee Creek woman, was educated in Charleston, South Carolina, and, with his father's guidance, took up the mantle of negotiator for the Creek people during and after the Revolution. While much of eighteenth-century American Indian history relies on accounts written by non-Indians, the letters reprinted in this volume provide a valuable Indian perspective into Creek diplomatic negotiations with the Americans and the Spanish in the American South. Crafty and literate, McGillivray's letters reveal his willingness to play American and Spanish interests against one another. Whether he was motivated solely by a devotion to his native people or by the advancement of his own ambitions is the subject of much historical debate. In the new introduction to this Southern Classic edition, William J. Bauer, Jr., places Caughey's life into its historiographical context and surveys the various interpretations of the enigmatic McGillivray that historians have drawn from this material.

After Joshua Olowe earned his bachelor's degree in 1978, he took part in the compulsory National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) program in Nigeria. Along with his teaching partner, Samuel, Joshua served for one year in the Koloama District in the Niger Delta area as an English teacher. But though he set out to make a difference in the lives of members of the community, he encountered debilitating setbacks. Filled with rich detail and intense emotion, Marooned in the Creeks tells one man's story of navigating the challenges, joys, and opportunities of being a social and geographic transplant into an unfamiliar world. Olowe shares how his work within the small Ijaw community of Ukubie along the Akpoi creek offered him firsthand knowledge of the hardship and travails these people endured, and mirrored his own strategies and struggles he adopted to survive. Despite disliking his post and having no chance to relocate, Olowe decided to make the best of the situation. He formed an incredibly close bond with the place and the people, and found attitudes far different from his own. He details his confrontations with the school principal, his love affair with the intriguing Ebitonye, and the strange inner workings of the village itself. A compelling narrative, Marooned in the Creeks reveals how a single eye-opening experience can forever change our perception on life.

Heart of the Creeks is only one of the many stories that should emerge from this part of the world that has witnessed so much crisis.

Until the most unacceptable, primitive, massively bungled and rigged elections of 2007, which most observers agree was the worst and most shameful of its type anywhere, the world hardly realized that nowhere in sub-Saharan Africa have ordinary citizens been so disappointed, abused and severely traumatized by their leaders than in Nigeria. And nowhere in Nigeria are the people more brutalized, marginalized and oppressed by the leaders than in the Niger Delta. As we remember the human tragedy that was Rwanda and now glued to the sad and despicable images of Darfur, the world must also pause to see the riveting and equally disturbing images that are emerging from the Niger Delta. In the Creeks of Fire is the inside story of a people as they try to emancipate themselves from a terribly broken down Nigerian system. The people in the center of this struggle for justice and freedom have become simply known as the militants of the Niger Delta. The world cannot help but listen to their plight and the voices of those they are fighting for. The rippling effects of this struggle may touch you directly or indirectly wherever you live. And that's both the sad and powerful reality of humanity's inter-connectedness.