The introduction to “Creeks and Southerners” by Andrew K. Frank (2005) tells of Andrew Brissert, who in 1783 got in trouble with the Spanish authorities in Pensacola. He and his wife had come to buy some food supplies and sell two African American slaves. He was arrested for being “dressed and painted as an Indian” and suspected of being a spy.
The thing was, he was an Indian. He was born in England, spoke English, and except for his paint and dress acted like an Englishman, but he was also a Creek. His Creek family back in Fushatchee (150 miles to the north-northeast of Pensacola) objected to his arrest and threatened to retaliate if he wasn’t returned to his home. Eventually the Spaniards gave in.
If the Creeks claimed that Brissert was one of their own, the Spaniards were in no position to disagree. Race, culture, and language, they reluctantly conceded, had deceived them.”
There were many other people like Brissert.
“In villages in what is now Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, many of the ealry American newcomers recognized their newly obtained Creek obligations even as they held what appeared to be European American economic and social practices. They held and sold African slaves and participated in the annual Green Corn Ceremony. They herded cattle and fenced their lands, while they partook of the ritual black drink and painted their skin. They held positions in Europrean trading firms, even as they catered to the interests of their wives’ clans. They spoke English, Spanish, or French wihle also interpreting it into Muskogee, Alabama, and Hitchiti. Their behavior and appearances defied simple identification.
After reading about Brissert, I looked through my photos to see if in April 2006 I had taken any of Fushatchee. Amos Wright’s book, “Historic Indian Towns in Alabama, 1540-1838,” gives several historical references to several locations for the town. One location that has been the subject of archaeological work is on the north bank of the Tallapoosa River, near the mouth of Chubbehatchee Creek.
In checking my maps from that ride, I saw that I had even made a note of it on the day I rode to Tuckabatchee. I didn’t ride down to the mouth of the creek. My maps didn’t show that there was a route to that location, though now I see that DeLorme shows some sort of road. It could very well be a lane on private property. I contented myself to take photos near where County Road 4 crosses the creek, a couple of miles from the Tallapoosa.
The location of the above photo of a bare chimney is probably the closest I got to the village site as the crow flies.
It’s not too far from the Mitchell Creek Grocery. County Road 4 continues along to the right of the store, and in a larger version of this photo you can see where the land drops down to the creek bottom on this side of the horizon.
Why does it say Mitchell Creek rather than Chubbehatchee Creek? And why is the road to the left of the store called Mitchell Creek Road? So far I haven’t been able to find a Mitchell Creek on any of my maps. Was it just another name for Chubbehatchee Creek? Another case of dual identify, if you will? (Of course, identity means more than just the name for something, but that’s often part of it. Andrew Brissert, who very likely knew this location before the store and road were built here, may very well have had a Creek name to go with his English name, but Frank’s book doesn’t mention it.)
I certainly didn’t know about the Andrew Brissert story when I rode here on April 3, 2006, but I must have known something of Fushatchee that I have since forgotten. I recall riding up out of the valley and then realizing almost too late that I had better stop to at least get a photo looking back at it.
I worked at Fusihatchee. You were very close. The coordinates to the center of the village would be approximately:
32.431411,-86.1023
Looks like I had been a lot closer than I had known. I somehow thought the village had been closer to the river.
Did you work with the archaeology team that was there?