Before & After the Trail of Tears: Stories from a Creek Family
Part 3 — “I Don’t Like White Men Very Much”
Interested in a first-hand account of Native American history, the Trail of Tears, and Oklahoma Indian Territory? One of my first cousins a few generations removed wrote extensive journals detailing my family’s story, as well as the history, experiences, and culture of the Muscogee-Creek tribe.
The Muscogee-Creek Nation was one of the largest and most powerful of the “five civilized tribes” of the southeast U.S.: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, and Creek. His 44 diaries were used as the basis for the book George Washington Grayson and the Creek Nation: 1834–1920. Much of this information is taken from the book, as well as from stories told to me by my father, aunts, and uncles.
The story begins with Robert Grierson, our great x4 grandfather, who was born in Scotland around 1740. He immigrated to the American colonies in the early 1800s with his brothers James, William, and Thomas, and a sister Anna. Coming to make their fortunes in a new land, they were sons of a Scottish clan leader, tracing their lineage back to the times of Robert the Bruce, Scotland’s first king.
One of the brothers, James Grierson, fought on the side of the British in the United States War of Independence and became an infamous villain, who…
