Bending Their Way Onward

Christopher D. Haveman is an assistant professor of history at the University of West Alabama. He is the author of Rivers of Sand: Creek Indian Emigration, Relocation, and Ethnic Cleansing in the American South (Nebraska, 2016).

• List of IllustrationsList of MapsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart 1. The Voluntary Emigrations 1827-18361. The First McIntosh Party, 1827-18282. The Second McIntosh Party, 18283. The Third Voluntary Emigrating Party, 18294. Chilly McIntosh’s Emigrating Party, 18335. The Fourth Voluntary Emigrating Party, 1834-356. The Fifth Voluntary Emigrating Party, 1835-36Part 2. The Forced Removals, 18367. Removal of the First Detachment of Creek Prisoners, July 1836-August 18368. Second Detachment of Creek PrisonersPart 3. The Coerced Relocations, 1836-379. Detachments 1-610. Detachment 111. Detachment 212. Detachment 313. Detachment 414. Detachment 515. Detachment 6Part 4. The Refugee Removals, 183716. The Removal of the Refugee Creeks in the Cherokee and Chickasaw CountriesPart 5. The Voluntary Self-Emigrations and Reunification Emigrations, 1831-7717. The Reunification EmigrationsNotesBibliographyIndex

"Fast earning a reputation for being one of the most insightful historians of the Native South, Haveman (Univ. of West Alabama) adds to his impressive record of scholarship with what amounts to the best single volume yet published of annotated primary sources on Creek Indian removal. . . . An invaluable collection of archival documents that will be welcomed by professional historians and advanced undergraduate and graduate students."-G. D. Smithers, Choice "Muscogee genealogists, as well as scholars of Native America and removal, will find Bending Their Way Onward an excellent and useful addition to their libraries."-Robert M. Owens, Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education "Bending Their Way Onward is an immense complement to studying the removal era of the Muscogee Creek Indians from Alabama. The sheer number of documents contained in this book is outstanding. Haveman gives a glance on the physical, emotional, and mental tolls the Muscogee people had to endure during their removals from 1827 to 1837. . . . These documents and other sources may give a more accurate look into the removal of the Muscogee Nation."-Savannah Waters, Chronicles of Oklahoma “Bending Their Way Onward explores the messy day-to-day process of physically moving thousands of Indians off their lands and orchestrating the accompanying administrative challenge. These documents complicate and humanize the process without excusing or vindicating the agents involved or reducing the Creeks to passive victims. Many of the documents are eye-opening.”-Andrew K. Frank, Allen Morris Associate Professor of History at Florida State University and author of Creeks and Southerners: Biculturalism on the Early American Frontier“No such collection currently exists for the Creek Indians. Most histories of the removal era devote copious space to the historical context, while the actual process of removal seems to have attracted less scholarly attention. The documents themselves, however, are intrinsically interesting. The muster rolls will be of enduring value to demographers as well as to modern-day Muscogee (Creek) Indians interested in genealogy and history.”-Steven C. Hahn, professor of history at St. Olaf College and author of The Invention of the Creek Nation, 1670–1763