"Can you picture this area just a little over 150 to 175 years ago? The Indians that lived here hunted, fished, raised crops and lived a leisurely life. They married, had children and their familes lived as their daddies and granddaddies had lived.

These Creek Indians could feel that something wasn’t right. There were two things these fine people had never heard of: money control and politics. I’m not writing this off the top of my head. You can check history if you’d like, just don’t check glorified history as we see it in the books and movies. Really get down and study what happened. Let’s start with money control.

The white man told these people they didn’t need all this land, if you let me buy it, you can still hunt and fish. The only difference will be that I own it, the white man said, and the Indians didn’t see anything wrong with that. The white man too the prettiest women by promising beads, clothing and horses. These women as a whole were treated as harshly as female slaves. Later they told these Indians they could not hunt, fish or farm the land because they had bought the land and the Indians no longer had any rights to the land they had lived on for hundreds of years."

Get the Story:
Ronald Brantley: Don’t blame the Indians (The Wetumpka Herald 5/19)