Part one of a two part series on Indian and White relationships along the Gulf Coast prior to the establishment of the state of Alabama.

From the early 1780s through the Creek War (1813-14), the relationship between whites and Indians in the Old Southwest changed dramatically.  Confrontation over the inhabitation of what had been traditional Native land escalated during that era, culminating in the all-out war from 1813 to 1814 and the subsequent removal of the Creek Nation in the aftermath of the struggle.

There are several key factors that brought about and then exacerbated the tension between the two people groups. Indeed, the fact that the two peoples were often more likely to be of mixed race (white/Indian) and related through blood complicated the situation even more so.

The aggressive nature of the white encroachment on the land traditionally held by Natives was most certainly a factor in the growing animosity that dominated the period from the end of the Revolutionary War until the last shots of the Creek War were fired at Horseshoe Bend in the spring of 1814.

Another factor that could be crucial to understanding the end of Indian dominance in the Old Southwest is the destructive relationship between the Indians and the members of the mercantilist system that supplied them with European-made goods. It is these modern tools, weapons, and household items that came to symbolize, as much as anything else, the end of a time-honored life for the Indians and usher in one dependent on trade with Europeans.

While it can be argued that the products traded for by the Natives improved their ability to provide for themselves, it also changed their relationship with nature. And it is that change that rests at the core of the contention that pitted one Creek faction against another in the Creek War which, in fact, can be viewed as a Creek civil war as much as a war against the encroachment of the European world.

To make matters worse, the use of modern technology by the Native Americans indebted them to white businesses that sold them the items. Thus the Indians were caught in a web of their own desire that over time escalated to need and ultimately created insurmountable financial debt. This was the case along much of the frontier in North America, certainly for the Creeks in the area that would become Alabama.

On the Gulf Coast, Native Americans sought out and found willing trade partners in the Pensacola-based organization of Panton, Leslie & Company, a trade alliance formed in 1783 by a partnership of William Panton, John Leslie and Thomas Forbes.

These Scottish merchants traded extensively with the Indians in the area, including the members of the Creek Nation. The company specialized in the trade of guns, powder, flint, and rum in return for the deerskins supplied by the Indians.

At the time, deerskins were highly sought after in Europe as raw material for hats. As a result, Indians throughout the Old Southwest hunted white-tailed deer to fulfill this need. In fact, they harvested the deer in such numbers that they depleted the populations to dangerously low levels. These numbers in Alabama alone affected the deer population until well into the 20th century.

The commercial hunting of deer also unhinged the relationship that the Indians had previously maintained with their natural environment, and consequently, the relationship of factions within the Creek Nation suffered greatly. At the heart of this was Panton, Leslie & Company and the trade they offered the Indians.