Although Kindred denied Ethan’s statement that the natives were inherently lazy, he had to admit that they were comparatively indolent when compared with the white settlers, with their long workdays and constant striving to produce as much food and fiber as possible for their own use or sale. While the Indian women tended the crops, cooked, or cared for children, the men spent most of their time hunting, trapping, sleeping, and training for combat. By the standards of the settlers, the natives paid little attention to comfortable or secure shelter. Even their more permanent homes were much smaller and more loosely constructed than those of the whites, little more than lean-tos made of limbs, grass, and deerskins. Kindred noticed that several times a year those closest to the river were flooded with water more than a foot deep.

The Creeks had a matrilineal society, with all members of a clan related to one ancestress through her female descendants, although on some rare occasions an outsider could be adopted. The clans were named for animals, aspects of nature, or even plants, such as Wolf, Turkey, Deer, Bear, Wind, Fox, or Potato. Loyalty to the clan, or family, was the most important aspect of life, more so than to the tribe, village, or anything else. Members of a clan lived close to one another, often within the same compound, and one of the Wolf clan would likely stay with his clan brothers when visiting in another village, but would be forbidden to marry a girl from a Wolf family. Children of both sexes were considered to be progeny of the mother and members of her clan, with sons trained by the mother’s oldest brother. The husband and father, who was not a member of the clan, performed this service in his sister’s family.

Among white settlers who were objective in their attitude toward the Indians, the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Catawba, and Choctaw people were known as the “five civilized tribes” of the southeast. This opinion was shaped primarily because they were less warlike and depended more on agriculture and the requisite permanence of village sites than the more mobile tribes of the north and west, who moved frequently to accommodate the changing hunting seasons. Few white settlers could detect any significant differences among the Indians, except for some minor clothing habits, and had little interest in learning more about the natives. The immediate neighbors of the Pratts and Morrises were Upper Creeks, whose lands were near the undefined border with the Cherokee nation that controlled most of north Georgia. Kindred learned that there had been a long history of military conflict between the Indians, but there was relative peace now as they faced a common enemy, the constantly encroaching white settlers.

•  •  •