Red Shoes (died June 1747) was a Choctaw chief who traded with British fur traders based in South Carolina in the 1740s and ignited the Choctaw Civil War. The French countered by arranging the assassination of Red Shoes. He was also known as Red Moccasin and was known in French as le Soulier Rouge.
The Choctaw once laid claim to millions of acres of land and established some 50 towns in present-day Mississippi and western Alabama. Their population was about 20,000 people scattered in these towns or villages.
The peoples who became known as the Choctaws (Chahtas) originally lived as separate societies throughout east-central Mississippi and west-central Alabama and all spoke dialects of the Muskogean language. The nation, in fact, was a league of independent principalities in which the weaker towns were often attached as dependencies to the stronger.
With European contact the world of the Mississippian culture turned upside down and nothing was the same. One leader, Red Shoes, moved to seize the opportunities offered by contact with the Europeans. The French of necessity had intimate dealings with the Choctaw from the time when Louisiana was first colonized, and the relations between the two peoples were usually friendly. But corruption, mismanagement and lack of supply eventually crippled the Native trade of French Louisiana. The hunters came away from the trading table with little to show, sometimes even empty handed, after months of hard work to obtain the deer hides and furs. They were angry and disappointed. They naturally looked elsewhere and found better recompense in the Muscogee and Chickasaw camps of their former enemies. This meant they were actually trading with British colonists who had sent the Chickasaw and Muscogee against them. Their leader, Mingo Tchito, turned a blind eye, but he was infuriated when the French could not supply the customary chief's gifts. These developments led to a pro-British party factions formed among the Choctaw, partly because the prices charged by British traders operating from the Carolinas were lower than those placed upon French goods. This effort was led by noted chief, Red Shoes, and lasted for a considerable time, culminating in his assassination and one of the principal Choctaw towns being burned to the ground before it came to an end with the defeat of the pro-British faction in 1750.
Red Shoes began his adult life as a common warrior. He had no hereditary claim to Choctaw leadership. However, through his exploits as a daring warrior, he earned the distinction of the finest warrior the Choctaws ever produced. In later days it was said; "No one talked of anything but Red Shoes". [1]
As a youth, Red Shoes learned that it was necessary to cooperate with the French if one wanted to escape being enslaved by Chickasaw and Muscogee slave raiding parties. These parties had forced thousands of Natives into slavery in order to sell them to white colonists residing in the Carolinas, killed thousands more and left the survivors to fend for themselves in a burned out, ravaged country. [2]
In the early 1720s the Choctaws waged a fierce war with the Chickasaws, their bitter rivals and enemies. After the taking of many Chickasaw scalps, Shulush Homa stood in Couechitto town and received a new name, Soulouche Oumastabe. Eventually he rose to Red Shoes or war captain of Couechitto. Red Shoes became his name. It was the highest rank a man of common birth could hope to obtain. He was in his twenties when he began his rise to power which paralleled the decline of the head chief of Couechitto, Mingo Tchito and the dismantling of Choctaw power structure. Though both Red Shoes and Mingo Tchito, were equally shrewd, Mingo Tchito lacked his young rival's boldness and willingness to gamble everything. Mingo Tchito always hedged his bets. It was a very dangerous game of survival these two played and Red Shoes emerged as the leader after a series of crisis plagued Couechitto after 1729. Red Shoes did not act defensively nor was he a pawn of the Europeans. When he went over to British colonists it was upon his own terms. He could be treacherous and ruthless, but to be less meant destruction in those dangerous times. [2]
Red Shoes, who hailed from the western division, opened trade with British fur traders based in South Carolina in the 1740s, their delegation being led by notable trader and historian James Adair and ignited the Choctaw Civil War when he killed some French traders. These killings were not wanton. They were in retaliation for wrongs against the Choctaw, possibly including rape and murder. [2] [3]
When the South Carolinians intrigued with Choctaw chief Red Shoes to win his large tribe away from French alliance, the French countered by arranging Red Shoes' assassination.
In June 1747, a pack train bearing British presents from Charles Town approached the Choctaw Nation. Red Shoes took a party to escort the traders to Couechitto. He never returned. On June 23, 1747, he felt sick and made his camp away from the main party keeping only one retainer. The man who volunteered for this duty was the man the French had bribed to kill him. As he slept, that man took out a knife, murdered Red Shoes for the French price on his head, and slipped into the night. [2] [4]
In the aftermath of his assassination, more tragedy ensued as the event sparked the Choctaw Civil War. A substantial number of towns returned to the French, plunging the Choctaw into the ever-widening civil war. 800 warriors died in the ruins of their towns or in the woods where they were hunted down. Rivalries over trade with France and Britain caused the rift in Choctaw society, primarily between the western and eastern divisions, that lasted from 1747 to 1750. [2]
Eastern-division forces allied with France prevailed in the conflict and burned several western-division towns to the ground. Hundreds of Choctaws died during the war, which revealed deep divisions in the confederacy.
Red Shoes had sought much more than personal gain. He had a vision that the Choctaws would benefit from the advantages the Europeans brought without falling under their rule. Retaining his independence, he made his own terms. He adapted, survived and prospered for a time.
Even his death transformed the Choctaw Nation. After the conflict, Choctaw leaders worked to end inter-ethnic animosities and unite their peoples more closely. [5]
Shell Shaker is a novel by LeAnne Howe. The early tale, beginning in 1738 in pre-removal Choctaw Mississippi, tells the story of Red Shoes. This story is paralleled by a modern-day murder mystery also based on a true story.
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes: the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and Jena Band of Choctaw Indians in Louisiana.
The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek or just Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy, are a group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands in the United States. Their historical homelands are in what now comprises southern Tennessee, much of Alabama, western Georgia and parts of northern Florida.
The Chickasaw are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as a member of the Muskogean language family. In the present day, they are organized as the federally recognized Chickasaw Nation.
The Creek War was a regional conflict between opposing Native American factions, European powers, and the United States during the early 19th century. The Creek War began as a conflict within the tribes of the Muscogee, but the United States quickly became involved. British traders and Spanish colonial officials in Florida supplied the Red Sticks with weapons and equipment due to their shared interest in preventing the expansion of the United States into regions under their control.
The Chickasaw Campaign of 1736, also known as the First Chickasaw War, consisted of two pitched battles by the French and allies against Chickasaw fortified villages in present-day Northeast Mississippi. Under the overall direction of the governor of Louisiana, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, a force from Upper Louisiana attacked Ogoula Tchetoka on March 25, 1736. A second force from Lower Louisiana attacked Ackia on May 26, 1736. Both attacks were bloodily repulsed.
The Natchez are a Native American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area in the Lower Mississippi Valley, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi, in the United States. They spoke a language with no known close relatives, although it may be very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek Confederacy. An early American geographer noted in his 1797 gazetteer that they were also known as the "Sun Set Indians".
Mushulatubbee was the chief of the Choctaw Okla Tannap, one of the three major Choctaw divisions during the early 19th century. When the Principal Chief Greenwood LeFlore stayed in Mississippi at the time of removal, Mushulatubbee was elected as principal chief, leading the tribe to Indian Territory.
James Adair was a native of County Antrim, Ireland, who went to North America and became a trader with the Native Americans of the Southeastern Woodlands.
The Cherokee–American wars, also known as the Chickamauga Wars, were a series of raids, campaigns, ambushes, minor skirmishes, and several full-scale frontier battles in the Old Southwest from 1776 to 1794 between the Cherokee and American settlers on the frontier. Most of the events took place in the Upper South region. While the fighting stretched across the entire period, there were extended periods with little or no action.
The Chickasaw Wars were fought in the first half of the 18th century between the Chickasaw allied with the British against the French and their allies the Choctaws, Quapaw, and Illinois Confederation. The Province of Louisiana extended from Illinois to New Orleans, and the French fought to secure their communications along the Mississippi River. The Chickasaw, dwelling in northern Mississippi and western Tennessee, lay across the French path. Much to the eventual advantage of the British and the later United States, the Chickasaw successfully held their ground. The wars came to an end only with the French cession of New France to the British in 1763 according to terms of the Treaty of Paris.
William Clyde Thompson was a Texas Choctaw-Chickasaw leader of the Mount Tabor Indian Community in Texas and an officer of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. After moving north to the Chickasaw Nation in 1889, he led an effort to gain enrollment of his family and other Texas Choctaws as Citizens by blood of the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory. This was at the time of enrollment for the Final Roll of the Five Civilized Tribes, also known as the Dawes Rolls, which established citizenship in order for the nations to be broken up for white settlement and to allot communal tribal lands to individual Indians. The Choctaw Advisory Board opposed inclusion of the Texas Choctaw as well as the Jena Choctaws in Louisiana, as they had both lived primarily outside of the Choctaw Nation. Thompson's case eventually went to the United States Supreme Court to be decided where he and about 70 other Texas Choctaws who had relocated to Indian Territory ultimately had their status restored as Citizens by Blood in the Choctaw Nation.
The Yowani were a historical group of Choctaw people who lived in Texas. Yowani was also the name of a preremoval Choctaw village.
Martin Luther Thompson was a Texas Choctaw leader and rancher who along with his relatives, William Clyde Thompson (1839–1912), Robert E. Lee Thompson (1872–1959) and John Thurston Thompson (1864–1907), led several families of Choctaws from the Mount Tabor Indian Community in Rusk County, Texas to Pickens County, Chickasaw Nation, I.T.
The Choctaw in the American Civil War participated in two major arenas—the Trans-Mississippi and Western Theaters. The Trans-Mississippi had the Choctaw Nation. The Western had the Mississippi Choctaw. The Choctaw Nation had been mostly removed west prior to the War, but the Mississippi Choctaw had remained in the east. Both the Choctaw Nation and the Mississippi Choctaw would ultimately side with the Confederate States of America.
The Cherokee have participated in over forty treaties in the past three hundred years.
The Cherokee people of the southeastern United States, and later Oklahoma and surrounding areas, have a long military history. Since European contact, Cherokee military activity has been documented in European records. Cherokee tribes and bands had a number of conflicts during the 18th century with Europeans, primarily British colonists from the Southern Colonies. The Eastern Band and Cherokees from the Indian Territory fought in the American Civil War, with bands allying with the Union or the Confederacy. Because many Cherokees allied with the Confederacy, the United States government required a new treaty with the nation after the war. Cherokees have also served in the United States military during the 20th and 21st centuries.
The Natchez revolt, or the Natchez massacre, was an attack by the Natchez Native American people on French colonists near present-day Natchez, Mississippi, on November 29, 1729. The Natchez and French had lived alongside each other in the Louisiana colony for more than a decade prior to the incident, mostly conducting peaceful trade and occasionally intermarrying. After a period of deteriorating relations and warring, Natchez leaders were provoked to revolt when the French colonial commandant, Sieur de Chépart, demanded land from a Natchez village for his own plantation near Fort Rosalie. The Natchez plotted their attack over several days and managed to conceal their plans from most of the French; colonists who overheard and warned Chépart of an attack were considered untruthful and were punished. In a coordinated attack on the fort and the homesteads, the Natchez killed almost all of the Frenchmen, while sparing most of the women and enslaved Africans. Approximately 230 colonists were killed overall, and the fort and homes were burned to the ground.
The Mount Tabor Indian Community is a cultural heritage group located in Rusk County, Texas. There was a historical Mount Tabor Indian Community dating from the 19th century. The current organization established a nonprofit organization in Texas in 2015.
The Choctaw Civil War was a period of economic and social unrest among the Choctaw people that degenerated into a civil war between 1747 and 1750. The war was fought between two different factions within the Choctaw over what the tribes's trade relations with British and French colonists should be. Hundreds of Choctaw died in the war and the pro-French faction retained their influence within the Choctaw nation.
Piomingo was a Chickasaw chief and diplomat. President George Washington and Piomingo considered themselves to be friends. He was a signatory to the Chickasaw Treaty of Hopewell. Piomingo received a presidential peace medal from Washington for his loyalty to the US.