Book Description:
In Chief William McIntosh: A Man of Two Worlds, author George Chapman has illustrated the dilemma of one of the key figures in the history of the Creek Indians. Torn between the incessant demands of the U. S. government and the equally insistent voices of his fellow Creeks, McIntosh struggled to find a peaceful resolution to their ongoing disputes over land and homeplace. Chapman has gone back to family records and historical documents in order to trace the story of this man who was truly of two worlds the son of a Scottish army captain and his wife, a Creek Indian princess. Chief William McIntosh grew to be a man of means and ambition, but he nonetheless held a realistic view of the Creeks' options as presented to them by the U. S. government in the early nineteenth century. The story of Chief William McIntosh is also the story of the Creek Indians as they tried to hold on to land that had been theirs for generations. The friendly Creeks fought side by side with Americans against rebel Creeks, only to be rewarded with a demand by the government for more land. As principal chief of the Lower Creek Nation, McIntosh was forced to make impossible choices, which, for him and his family, led to tragic consequences. Acre by acre, treaty after treaty, the Creeks lost vast holdings in Georgia and Alabama. Chief William, who understood the white man more clearly than did his full blooded Indian brothers, could see the folly of resistance, along with the inevitability of the white man's eventual domination of the Creeks' territory. But however controversial his actions may have been, there can be no doubt that he acted in accordance with his view of what was best for his people, the Creek Indians.
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