- Menawa
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Menawa 
Born Menawa Residence Alabama Nationality Muscogee Occupation Tribal chief Menawa (born c. 1765-d. c. 1835), was a Muscogee (Creek) chief and military leader, known as Great Warrior. Like many of the Creek leaders of his era, his mother was Creek and his father was mostly Scots ancestry, a fur trader. As the Creek had a matrilineal system of descent and leadership, his status came from his mother's clan.
He grew up among the Upper Creek and was part of the "Red Sticks", a group that opposed assimilation and worked to revive traditional practices. He led forces during the Creek Wars (1813-1814) and survived the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. To carry out punishment for a blood crime, in 1825 Menawa led 200 warriors in an attack on the home of chief William McIntosh, who had signed the 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs, without the consent of the National Council. They killed him, burned his mansion, and confiscated his property, including 100 slaves and livestock. Menawa died during the trek of removal to Indian Territory.
Contents
Early life and education
He was born Hothlepoya, meaning "Crazy Trouble Hunter," at the village of Oakfuskee, at the located on the Tallapoosa River in present-day Alabama. The site is now covered by the lower part of Lake Martin, created by a dam.
His mother was a high-status Creek woman and his father a mostly Scots fur trader; such strategic alliances were common, as both cultures believed they benefited. He was reared within the Creek tribe and gained his status from his mother's clan. Her eldest brother would have acted as his mentor, teaching him men's ways and introducing him to the men's societies.
Career
When Hothlepoya became second chief of Oakfuskee, he was given the name Menawa (Great Warrior), in the American Indian tradition of naming related to major life passages.
During the Creek War (1813-1814), he was one of the principal leaders of the "Red Sticks" or Upper Creeks, who worked to revive traditional practices and resisted assimilation. What began as a civil war within the tribe, where strong divisions had arisen with the Lower Creek. It evolved into the Red Sticks fighting as allies of the British and against the United States during the War of 1812.
Menawa was second in command at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814 at the end of the Creek War. He was wounded seven times during the battle, but he escaped and survived his wounds.
After the war, Menawa continued to oppose the European-American encroachment on Creek lands. Lower Creek chiefs had ceded town lands in 1790, 1802 and 1804. In 1825, Chief William McIntosh, a Lower Creek, was one of several chiefs who signed the Treaty of Indian Springs with the US, ceding most of the remaining Creek land east of the Mississippi River. The tribe had been under severe pressure from Georgia, but the Upper Creek, the majority, continued to oppose such cessions. The Creek National Council had passed a law declaring it a capital crime, and declared the signers of the 1825 treaty to be traitors. It ordered their execution.[1]
On April 30, 1825, Menawa led a party of 120-150 lawmenders from towns of the ceded land; they executed chief William McIntosh, and Etommee Tustunnuggee, who had alienated communal Creek land without the consent of the National Council. They burned down McIntosh's mansion at Indian Springs, and confiscated his 100 slaves, livestock and produce. Later that day they caught Samuel and Benjamin Hawkins, his sons-in-law and also signatories to the treaty. They hanged Samuel and shot Benjamin, but he escaped.[1]
In 1826, Menawa was a member of the Creek National Council, led by Opothleyahola, that went to Washington D.C., to protest the Treaty of Indian Springs. The Creek leaders signed the Treaty of Washington (1826) with the US government, which nullified the Treaty of Indian Springs. In this new treaty, the Creek ceded land to Georgia—in compensation, they received an immediate payment of $217,660 and a perpetual annuity of $20,000. The state of Georgia ignored the new treaty and worked to evict the Creek from their lands.
Menawa was among the hundreds who died during the general removal of the Creek. His burial place is unknown.
References
- ^ a b [http://books.google.com/books?id=9ORecl5zNlgC&q=William+McIntosh#v=onepage&q=Menawa%20&f=false Michael D. Green, The Politics of Indian Removal: Creek Government and Society in Crisis, University of Nebraska Press, 1985, pp. 96-97, accessed 14 September 2011
External links
- Miriam Fowler, "Menawa, A Chief of the Upper Creeks", Rootsweb
- "Treaty With The Creeks, Jan. 24, 1826", Digital Library, Oklahoma State University
Categories:- Native American leaders
- Muscogee people
- People of the Creek War
- American people of Scottish descent
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