Benjamin+K

Name of person: Billy Wetherford

Born:1780

Hometown:Coosauda

Best Known For:Leadership

Biography: Billy Wetherford was a great leader and fought for others. He was a Legendary Creek Warior. William Weatherford was born near the Upper Creek towns of Coosauda a Koasati Indian Town, now Coosaduda and Hickory Grounds, to Sehoy III, a high-status woman of the Wind Clan "Hutalgalgi", and Charles Weatherford, a Scots trader. His mother was of Creek, French and possibly Scottish descent. As the Creek were a matrilineal culture, Sehoy III's children were absorbed into the tribe despite their European ancestry. Her clan status, the same as her male clan relatives, secured the status of her children. Property and inheritance were passed through the maternal line. Because he belonged to the same clan, a boy's maternal uncle was more important to his upbringing than his biological father. Benjamin Hawkins, first appointed as United States Indian agent in the Southeast and then as Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the territory south of the Ohio River, lived among the Creek and Choctaw, and knew them well. He commented in letters to President Thomas Jefferson that Creek women were matriarchs and had control of children "when connected with a white man. Hawkins further observed that even wealthy traders were nearly as "inattentive" to their mixed-race children as "the Indians". What he did not understand about the Creek culture was that the children had a closer relationship with their mother's eldest brother than with their biological father, because of the importance of the clan structure.

Interesting Facts: //Lamochattee//, or "Red Eagle," learned traditional Creek ways and language, as well as English from his father. As a young man, he acquired a plantation in the Upper Creek territory, where he owned slaves, planted commercial crops, and bred and raced horses. He generally had good relations with both the Creek nationals and European Americans for years, but worried about the increasing number of the latter, who were encroaching on Creek land. The Creek of the Lower Towns were becoming more assimilated, but the traditional elders and the people of the Upper Creek towns were more isolated from the European-American settlers. They kept more traditional ways and opposed the new settlements. Weatherford and other Upper Creek leaders resented the encroachment of settlers into their traditional Creek territory, principally in what the United States of America called the Mississippi Territory, which included their territory in present-day Alabama. After the Americans improved the Trading Path as the National Road in 1811, more Americans settlers came into the hunting territory and lay claim to their own homesteads. Although various bands of Creeks, especially in the Upper Creek, resisted in a number of armed conflicts, most of the more assimilated Lower Creek towns were forced to make land concessions in 1790, 1802, and 1805.

Quotes: //**#1The oak tree is not afraid of its own power, and doesn’t care what you think about it. You**// are the one who is intimated by it. //**The tree is fully expressed. #2**// //**It’s just a journey, your path-don’t be afraid. Be in the flow.**// //**Be afraid of not changing.**//#3 //**Do you know why you are fascinated with the stars?**// //Because you came from them.//

References: The book Red Eagle: A Legendary Creek Warrior [|www.RizMirza.com]and []