By 1674, the Southeastern American Indian nations had been in contact with European nations for more than a century and a half. The Indian nations in this area had been skilled farmers for hundreds of years and lived in permanent villages. When the Europeans began their invasion of this area, it was not a wilderness but a heavily populated area whose villages were interconnected with well-traveled trading trails.
The town was the key element of Southeastern Native political organization. In their book Native American Heritage, Merwyn Garbarino and Robert Sasso write:
“Almost all Southeastern people lived in towns along rivers or streams. The towns were arranged in much the same way: residences and public buildings around a plaza, with farmlands in all directions on the outskirts.”
Many of the larger and more important towns and villages were stockaded. The stockades had towers as well as loopholes (slits) for firing at the attacking enemy. The town of Maliba in Alabama, for example, had vertical log walls which were 16 feet high. The log walls were then plastered to give them a smooth appearance. Every 50 yards or so stood a tower which held 7-8 warriors.
The town was the basic political unit among all the Southeastern Indian nations. Folklorist George Lankford in his book Native American Legends: Southeastern Legends: Tales from the Natchez, Caddo, Biloxi, Chickasaw, and Other Nations, writes:
“Each person owed first allegiance to his or her town, which was defined by the sacred fire.”
While there was some variation in actual political structure among the several Southeastern nations, folklorist George Lankford reports:
“They seem to have agreed on the basic notion that politics was mostly a male activity and that a council of elders should make decisions by consensus.”
Town councils were opened with religious ceremonies which reinforced the spiritual ideals of the people. Government leaders were also spiritual leaders. Those participating in a council would drink the black drink at the beginning of the meeting. According to Charles Jones, in his 1873 book Antiquities of the Southern Indians, Particularly of the Georgia Tribes:
“Being a most active and powerful diuretic, its purgative influences were invoked to free their bodies from all hindrance to thought; and thus prepared for careful discussion, they entered upon the consideration of the important matters presented for the action of the council.”
While the European invasion increased warfare in the region, intertribal warfare had been common for hundreds of years. Warfare was an important activity and, even though there were women warriors, it tended to be dominated by men. Unlike European warfare, traditional Indian warfare was not waged to conquer lands or to convert people to a religion. Merwyn Garbarino and Robert Sasso write:
“Warfare was the path to prestige and success. A warrior’s adornment—feathers, body paint, and tattoos—told his feats in battle.”
The great diversity of American Indian cultures in the Southeastern Woodlands is seen in the fact that there were at least four language families—Iroquois, Muskogean, Algonquian, and Siouan—in this area. In addition, there are a number of linguistic isolates—languages which don’t appear to be related to other languages. The linguistic diversity of this culture area is second only to California and the Northwest Coast. Folklorist George Lankford, writes:
“Such linguistic diversity immediately tells us that the Southeast was some sort of international zone created by prehistoric migrations and political events, and we should expect more complexity rather than less.”
English
In 1674, English colonists were interacting with the Southeastern Natives, often forming trading and military alliances.
In the Carolinas, however, the English settlers were very interested in establishing trade with the Indians and, unlike the Spanish traders, they readily supplied the Indians with guns. With the establishment of rice agriculture, the colonists had started using slave labor, turning first to the Indians as their source of slaves and later importing them from Africa.
In their book Indian Wars, historians Robert Utley and Wilcomb Washburn sum up the English approach to Indians by saying:
“The English showed little hesitation about attacking the Indians for whatever reason.”
With regard to English military tactics, Robert Utley and Wilcomb Washburn write:
“The tactics used by the English in their warfare with the Indians crossed the foggy dividing line between strategic deception and outright immorality.”
Westo Indians
The English colonists in Virginia formed an alliance with the Westo Indians in 1674. The Westos had acquired guns through the deerskin trade and were raiding neighboring Indian groups to obtain captives which they sold to the English.
English trader Henry Woodward accompanied the Westos to their palisaded village in South Carolina. According to Alan Briceland, in his chapter in North American Exploration. Volume 2: A Continent Defined:
“Despite the language barrier, he learned a good deal from his hosts about the region’s geography and the locations of other tribal groups.”
As a way of formalizing the new alliance, Woodward was offered a young Indian slave as a gift.
Tomahitan Indians
In Georgia, a party of Tomahitans, which included the English trader Gabriel Arthur, set off in 1674 on the Warriors’ Path through eastern Tennessee and southeastern Kentucky. They attacked a Shawnee village and Arthur was taken prisoner. While Arthur was dressed and painted as a Tomahitan warrior, the Shawnees noted that he didn’t look like an Indian. After making signs to show that he could obtain trade goods for them, Arthur was set free.
Shawnee Indians
In Georgia, British traders from South Carolina encountered the Shawnees living along the Upper Savannah River and called them “Savannah” Indians.
More American Indian histories
Indians 101: American Indians in New England 350 years ago, 1674
Indians 101: American Indians and French explorers 350 years ago, 1673
Indians 101: American Indians and Europeans 350 years ago, 1673
Indians 101: American Indians and the Dutch 400 years ago, 1624
Indians 101: Iroquois Indians and the French 400 years ago, 1624
Indians 201: American Indians and the establishment of Jamestown
Indians 201: The Spanish search for the mythical American Indian cities of Cibola
Indians 101: New Sweden and the Indians