My childhood home town was Tallassee, Alabama, from the Creek Indian town variously spelled as Talsi, Talisi, and other variations. The Creeks were also known as the Muskogees, which is undoubtedly where the Oklahoma town of Muskogee gets it's name, as Oklahoma is where the Alabama Creeks went on the Trail of Tears. Tecumseh visited Talisi to recruit the Creeks into his war federation against the whites, and an account of his speech to them at the Great Council Oak, a few miles south of present day Tallassee, was given by an early Indian trader named Sam Dale. Tecumseh was disappointed at their refusal to join his efforts and stated that when he returned home he would stomp his feet and cause the earth to tremble. The New Madrid earthquake of 1811 caused many of the Creeks to take up arms, only to be defeated at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend by Andrew Jackson resulting in their expulsion from Alabama on the Trail of Tears. Horseshoe Bend is about 20 miles north of my childhood home in Tallapoosa County.
It is interesting to me how the history of Tecumseh can tie together such widely separated areas as Ohio, Alabama, and Oklahoma,, and undoubtedly other places as well.
It is interesting to me how the history of Tecumseh can tie together such widely separated areas as Ohio, Alabama, and Oklahoma,, and undoubtedly other places as well.
