PART IV

Another question in our family tree is, “Do we have INDIAN BLOOD?  The answer is maybe probably most likely.  The facts of who and when is cloudy, but Joanna Creech is the likely candidate to be partially Indian.

The Creech family was of Indian descent.  They were originally from North and South Carolina where they occupied entire towns.  Creech was more than a family name; it was more of a tribe name, they were all of Choctaw descent.  They migrated to Georgia in the 1810s.  The first Creech to migrate to Dale County Alabama was Richard and his sons Henry and David and his son Noah Creech around 1820.

In 1870, Moses Creech (born 1820 in Georgia) lived in Sylvan Grove.  Moses Creech was Joanna’s father (Peter’s wife Joanna).  Moses had four other children; Fanny born 1867, Moses 1869, Mark born 1856 and Rachel born 1857.  Fanny Creech was the name that caught my eye.  Because there was also a white female named Fanny Creech living in Sylvan Grove in 1870.  The white Fanny Creech was born in 1848 and married to John Creech who was born in 1844.  I think Uncle Moses named his daughter after his Master’s wife; this type of naming happened a lot during and after slavery.  I also believe the white John and Fanny Creech were of Indian decent.  A little known fact is that Indian tribes owned negro/black slaves and in 1870, there was at least three cities made up entirely of Black Indians.  Another little known fact, not all slaves were negro/black, some (a couple) slaves were white, of German and Irish decent working off a debt, called servitude.  Once the debt was paid off, the servitude ended.

The Indian Nations and the US Government were not always on speaking terms in the 1800s.  Between 1836 and 1840, the Indians in Alabama and Georgia were grouped together (rounded up like cattle) by the US Government and marched to Oklahoma.  This was known as the Trail of Tears and the Indians were known as the Creek Nation, a misleading term because the Creek Indians were made up of 10 to 15 tribes (the southern tribes around Dale County were Apalachicola, Hitchiti, Okmulgee, Sawokli, Chiaha, Osochi and Yuchi).  They were also part of a more domineering tribe called the Muskogee Indians of Southeastern Alabama.  They lived upon the rivers and creeks named Chattahoochee and Ocmulgee.  The Europeans called them the "Ocheese Creek hence the name Creek).  A little known fact is that some Indians avoided the Trail of Tears (they went into hiding, got real reclusive and territorial) and remained in Alabama, they occupied whole towns.  Before the Trail of TEARS, there was about 30 to 50 entire cities in Alabama made of Indians.  One such city was Maningham Butler County.

I looked for the Kennedy, Jones, Creech and Snell Indian connection.  There is a connection but the connection is a little grey and unrecorded.  My Grandmother, Leanna Kennedy, husband Mike Warmack was part Indian (about 25 to 50 percent).  My Grandfather’s name has three basic spelling; Warmack, Wormack, Womack.  The city of Maningham was mainly made up of Womack in 1870.

Stay tuned more to come…

Brian Clark