Econchattimico's long journey on the Trail of Tears

"They have suffered very much."

by Dale Cox

Econchattimico's Town was sketched in 1838 by a visiting
French nobleman. It stood north of today's Sneads, Florida.

Yesterday's article focused on the forced removal of Econchattimico's and John Walker's bands from their lands in Jackson County, Floria, by U.S. troops under Brig. Gen. Zachary Taylor. Please see Zachary Taylor and the Red Ground King.

Today we continue the story of this humanitarian tragedy with the departure of the Native Americans from Florida and their arrival in Oklahoma, as well as the failure of the United States government to ever pay them for their lost homes and fields.

The following is excerpted from my book: The History Of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years.

-Excerpt-

The people from Econchattimico’s and John Walker’s reserves were joined near the mouth of the Apalachicola River by 34 refugee Creeks who had been captured following their flight from Jackson County earlier in the year. Brought from a concentration camp on Dog Island in the Gulf of Mexico, they brought the total number of men, women, and children in the group to more than 300 souls.

Dog Island is visible on the horizon in this photo taken from
top of the Crooked River Lighthouse at Carrabelle, Florida.
Creek Indian refugees were held there in 1838.

Brig. Gen. Taylor had reservations about the safety of moving more than 300 men, women, and children through the Gulf aboard the steamboat Rodney, so Daniel Boyd contracted two additional vessels, the schooners Octavia and Vesper. After a brief stop in St. Joseph (today's Port St. Joe), the entire party moved on to Pensacola:

We left Pensacola on the 29th ult. and arrived at New Orleans on the 2d inst. At New Orleans we took on board the Rodney the Indians shipped per schooner Octavia and Vespar, and next morning proceeded on our voyage and reached Natchez on the 5th. We remained at Natchez one day in order to procure supplies, and to afford the Indians an opportunity to purchase clothing which they stood very much in need of. To those who had not the means to purchase for themselves I supplied such articles as were absolutely necessary for their comfort on the voyage.

They have suffered very much from sickness. Six have died since we left Chattahoochee and more than twenty are now upon the sick list. The weather has been unusually cold for the season, which has no doubt increased the number of invalids.

The water in the Mississippi River is very low; we lay two days upon a sand bar about twenty five miles above Vicksburg. If the Arkansas River continues as low as it is reported to be at present, I will disembark the Indians at the first convenient point where transportation can be procured and proceed by land to Fort Gibson. [1]

Fortunately for the suffering men, women, and children, the Rodney was able to steam up the Arkansas River as far as Little Rock. The Native Americans transferred there to the steamboat North St. Louis to continue the trip upriver, but the second vessel ran aground at nearby Cadron, Arkansas. [2]

The Arkansas River, seen here at Van Buren,
Arkansas, was too shallow for the steamboat
carrying the Apalachicola survivors and they
had to walk through brutal winter weather.

Left with no choice but to continue overland through bitterly cold conditions, the exhausted emigrants finally reached Fort Gibson in present-day Oklahoma on January 10, 1839. A muster roll prepared that same day revealed that 272 of the original 393 survived the trip. Econchattimico and John Walker were among the survivors, but many of their followers were not. Of the African Americans or Black Seminoles who once lived under the protection of the two chiefs, only one made it to Fort Gibson. [3]

The final tally of emigrants included 126 residents of Walker’s Town, 81 from Econchattimico’s village, 34 refugee Creeks, and 32 holdovers from John Blunt’s band. The latter individuals remained behind on the Apalachicola when their chief and most of his followers left for Texas in 1834. Among the residents of Econchattimico’s town was George Perryman, a well-known figure on the early frontier and the son of former principal Seminole chief Thomas Perryman. [4]

Fort Gibson in what is now Oklahoma was the western end of
the Trail of Tears for the survivors under Econchattimico and
John Walker. 

The little group settled in the eastern edge of the Creek Nation, not far from present-day Muskogee, Oklahoma. They built cabins and started clearing lands for themselves, but their winter arrival did not help them acclimate to the new country. Many died from illness and starvation over the coming months.

Three months after they arrived in today's Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the emigrants submitted a list of claims to the government seeking reimbursement for the value of the property they left behind in Florida. Their claims totaled $3,042.80. The amount may not seem significant but is worth $84,403.67 today (excluding interest). The losses included dozens of cabins, corn cribs, sheds, and acres of crops and fruit orchards. The government also still owed $15,000 to them for giving up their lands and moving west.  The money was still owed 22 years later when the War Between the States or Civil War broke out in 1861. [5]

The new Confederate government entered separate negotiations with the Apalachicolas, treating them as a sixth "civilized tribe" alongside the Creeks, Seminoles, Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. The Confederates secured a separate treaty with them by promising to pay the long overdue claim at the end of the war in exchange for their support and military service. The Apalachicola warriors finally took up arms against the United States, turning out to fight the government that they had tried so long to appease:

The Apalachicola warriors fought on the Confederate side in a
number of engagements west of the Mississippi, including the
bloody Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas.

…The said Apalachicola band remained loyal to the United States, and maintained their peace and friendship unbroken; but in the year 1837 they were induced, by the urgent solicitation of the emigrating agent of the United States, to remove from the country occupied by them in Florida to the Indian country west of Arkansas, leaving the lands…and a large number of horses, mules, cattle, hogs, wagons, and other articles which they could not collect together and carry with them, and which the said emigrating agent persuaded them to leave in his charge, on his promise that the owners should be paid the value of all such their property in money by the agent of the United States on their arrival in the country provided for them on the west side of the Mississippi. [6] 

The Apalachicola chiefs and warriors fought on the side of the Confederacy in numerous battles across the modern states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. They never received the money they were promised. The collapse of the Confederate government ended any remaining hope.

The Apalachicola served in the Creek regiments raised in the Indian Nations during the war and were among the last Confederate soldiers anywhere to give up their arms. Their war finally ended when their commander, Brig. Gen. Stand Watie became the last Confederate general to surrender on June 23, 1865.

-End of Excerpt-

The sites of Econchattamico's and John Walker's reservations in Jackson County are unmarked. Walker's lands were along the Apalachicola River just east of present-day Sneads, Florida. Econchattimico's grounds were north of Sneads along today's River Road. Significant portions of both parcels remain in the hands of the Federal and state governments today.

To learn more about the Trail of Tears in Jackson County, Florida, please consider:

References:

[1] Daniel Boyd to C.A. Harris, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, November 11, 1838.

[2] Arkansas Gazette, November 28, 1838.

[3] J.R. Stephenson, “Muster Roll of a Company Seminole who have emigrated West of the Mississippi River,” January 10, 1839.

[4] Ibid.

[5] J.R. Stephenson to T.H. Crawford, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, March 6, 1839.

[6] Supplementary Article to Treaty between the Confederate States of America and the Creek Nation, July 10, 1861.

Zachary Taylor and the Red Ground King

An Incident of the Trail of Tears

by Dale Cox

Zachary Taylor in 1844.
Library of Congress

The name of Andrew Jackson is most closely associated with the Trail of Tears and the movement of troops through the Apalachicola River valley by a future President. It was not Jackson, however, but Zachary Taylor, who actually implemented the policy of "Indian Removal" in the region. He later became the 12th President of the United States.

Taylor (1784-1850) was an officer of long service when he reached Florida in 1837. He still was a colonel when he led troops at the Battle of Okeechobee on Christmas Day of that year. His service there led the government to elevate him to the rank of brevet brigadier general.

Taylor assumed command of all United States forces in Florida in May 1838. He arrived at Chattahoochee in October of that year to oversee the forced removal of the remaining bands of Apalachicola Creek or Seminole Indians who lived on lands given to them in Jackson County. 

The following is excerpted from my book The History Of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years:

-Excerpt-

Summer houses at Econchattimico's Town on the
Chattahoochee River in Jackson County, Florida.
Comte de Castelnau, 1838.

One of the last accounts of the Native Americans in Jackson County was written during the summer of 1838 by a visiting French nobleman, the Comte de Castlenau. He described Econchattimico ("Red Ground King") as an old man, “bent with age." The chief's ears and the tip of his nose were missing, cut off as punishment for committing adultery. Creek law specified that the cropping of the ears or nose was the proper punishment for the crime, which was a significant breach of the rules of personal conduct by which chief and warriors were expected to abide.

By April 3, 1838, it was widely reported in newspapers around the South that Econchattimico and John Walker had agreed to relocate to the new lands west of the Mississippi. Neither chief wanted to go, but they really had little choice. Walker’s generous offer to let Coahadjo’s refugees stay with him had depleted his village’s food supply, and hunger became a severe issue for his people. Their situation was exacerbated when most of the refugee Creeks fled into the swamps and began attacking isolated farms and settlements. The pressure on the government to remove the last of the Apalachicola bands increased, as did rumors that they were planning to join the war effort:

A Creek warrior of the Apalachicola bands sketched from
 life on the Apalachicola River in 1838.
University of West Florida

The Indians on the Apalachicola river, (Conchatimico’s tribe and those lower down the river) entered some time ago, into a treaty stipulation, to leave Florida on the 20th of this month. Fears are now entertained that they will not move at the time appointed. They are to be paid the money to which the treaty entitles them, on the 15th. The acting governor, in order to prevent them from dispersing, has assembled a force of 300 men, half from Jackson, and half from Gadsden county, to be in readiness to keep them in check. There is also to be one company of regulars present. The removal of the Indians is a duty which has been assigned to Lieut. Boyd, of the army. [1]

There is no evidence that Econchattimico and Walker were planning to take to the woods, but the government reacted to the rumors with considerable force. Colonel Zachary Taylor, now holding the field rank of brigadier general, moved north with a command of regular troops to oversee the removal operation. The Tallahassee Floridian reported his passage through that city in mid-October, accompanied by two companies of dragoons. He also had with him, according to the newspaper, “a chief of the Tallahassees, the son of Neamathla, and his negro interpreter.” 

Taylor and his troops were soon at Econchattimico’s town, where they were joined by Captain E. Backus and a second body of soldiers from the 6th U.S. Infantry. The steamboat Rodney was brought up the Apalachicola River, and on October 20, 1838, the men women and children of the two villages were placed aboard:

Aspalaga in Gadsden County as shown in an 1834 painting.
Notice the Native Americans smoking fish on the near or
Jackson County shore.
University of West Florida

Two companies of mounted men, one of dragoons under the command of Lieut. Lowton, the other infantry commanded by Capt. Backus, crossed the Apalachicola river and were posted in the immediate vicinity of the Indian towns a few days previous to the expiration of the time stipulated in the treaty for the removal of the Indians, the 20th inst. We learn that every preparation had been made by the Indians to take to the woods. Provisions and ammunition were in readiness, and but for the presence of a well disciplined and determined force, and certain nightly amusements got up by the officers and two friendly chiefs of the Tallahassees brought on by General Taylor, their plans would doubtless have been put in execution. On Saturday last they were embarked, to the number of two hundred and eighty men, women, and children, on board the steam boats Izard and Rodney, for their destination in the far west. [2]

By the 21st, the boats were at Aspalaga, where Taylor dispatched a message informing the government that the Native Americans had been removed without incident. From there, the boat continued down the river to its confluence with the Jackson River just north of Apalachicola. Turning off into the latter stream, the Rodney steamed up to Lake Wimico and across to the depot where Florida’s earliest railroad would soon cross the narrow neck of land to the city of St. Joseph:

Zachary Taylor in uniform. He served as the
12th President of the United States in 1849-
1850, dying while in office.
National Archives

The steamer Rodney arrived yesterday at the Depot, having on board 269 of the Indians from Conchatimico and Walker’s Town, on the Apalachicola. These Indians, since the acquisition of Florida, have resided on the Apalachicola river, entirely surrounded by the whites. Their position was mutually inconvenient to both parties, and their removal highly desired by the inhabitant, and the government. They have been paid for their improvements and personal property, and on a day fixed by treaty, they embarked on the steamboat for their western home. The militia and a few regular troops had been ordered out to prevent the Indians from dispersing, or committing any depredations. Too much praise cannot be given to Mr. Daniel Boyd, the emigrating agent, who controlled the movement, for the humanity, energy, and despatch with which this emigration has been conducted. We believe that West Florida is now free from the presence of an Indian. [3]

The claim that Northwest Florida had been cleared of Native Americans was a bit premature. The former members of Coahadjo’s band remained in hiding in the swamps of the Apalachicola, Ochlockonee, and Chipola Rivers, now led by Pascofa and several of his sub-chiefs.

-End Excerpt-

I will write more about the long Trail of Tears journey of Econchattimico, Walker, and their people tomorrow.

You can read more anytime in the book, which is available in both paperback and Kindle formats:

References

[1] Pensacola Gazette, October 14, 1838.

[2] Tallahassee Floridian, October 27, 1838.

[3] St. Joseph Times, October 24, 1838.