Fort Jackson, Alabama
The site of the signing of the
Treaty of Fort Jackson is now
a historic site in Alabama.
The Arkansas River
Thousands of Creeks were
carried up the Arkansas by
boat until shallow water
forced them to walk.
Creek Trail of Tears - Historic Sites & Points of Interest
The Creek Trail of Tears - Historic Sites & Points of Interest
The Creek Trail of Tears
A memorial symbolizing the ceremonial fire of the
Creek Nation now stands at the Chattahoochee
Indian Heritage Center in Fort Mitchell, Alabama.
Forced Removal of the Creeks
Although they had occupied lands in the
modern states of Alabama and Georgia for
hundreds of years, the people of the Creek
Indian Nation were driven west by the U.S.
Army in 1836 and 1837.

The road that would lead to the Trail of Tears
for the Creeks began 23 years earlier when a
civil war erupted in their nation. The Creek
War of 1813-1814 spilled over to the whites
and ended when three American armies
invaded the Creek lands.

The destruction of the last major Creek
fighting force at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend
in 1814 resulted in the Treaty of Fort Jackson.
The agreement was imposed on the nation
by Major General Andrew Jackson and  
stripped vast areas of Alabama and Georgia
from the Creeks.

Other treaties followed until by 1836 there
was dramatic pressure on the Creek people
to abandon their last Alabama homes and
move to present-day Oklahoma.

The Hitchiti and Yuchi branches of the nation
resisted, sparking the Creek War of 1836.
After a spring of bloody fighting, this last
major attempt by the Creeks to save their
lands was crushed.

U.S. soldiers and state militia troops
rounded up thousands of Creek men,
women and children, herding them into
concentration camps. Then, in large parties
and with little more than the clothes on their
backs, they were driven west on the Trail of
Tears.

The Creek Trail of Tears included travel by
both land and water. Its easternmost point
was Fort Mitchell in Alabama and it ended at
Fort Gibson in Oklahoma. There the
unfortunate people stopped were given one
blanket per family before being abandoned
on the lands reserved for them in the West.

Men, women and children died on the Trail of
Tears and contemporary accounts describe
how their bleached bones could be seen
along the route for years to come. The
wholesale removal of the Creeks was one of
the greatest tragedies in American history.

The magnitude of the atrocity becomes
inconceivable when it is noted that the
Cherokeee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and
Seminole people were driven west at the
same time. Tens of thousands of people
died and most of the survivors were deprived
of almost everything they owned.
Fort Gibson, Oklahoma
This frontier fort was the final
stop on the Trail of Tears for
thousands of Creek men,
women and children.
The Creek Pocahontas
Milly Francis, the woman
known even in her own time
as the Creek Pocahontas,
was among those who
traveled the Creek Trail of
Tears.
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Copyright 2012 & 2014 by Dale Cox
All rights reserved.

Last Updated: March 22, 2014
To learn more about sites and events
associated with the Creek Trail of Tears,
please follow the links below:
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A Remarkable Story of the Trail of Tears