David Moniac

David Moniac (December 1802 – November 21, 1836) (Creek) was an American military officer and in 1822 was an early Native American graduate of the United States Military Academy. A Creek with some Scots ancestry, who was related to major Creek leaders on both sides of his family, Moniac was the first cadet to West Point from the new state of Alabama. Moniac resigned his commission in 1822 to manage his clan's property in Alabama, where he developed a cotton plantation.

In the Second Seminole War in 1836, Moniac was commissioned as a captain and selected to command a Creek volunteer cavalry unit, the only Native American among the officers. He was killed at the Battle of Wahoo Swamp. In the 1990s, his remains were transferred from a local cemetery to the newly established Florida National Cemetery for military veterans, a few miles away.

David A. Moniac, as he was sometimes recorded, was the son of Sam Moniac and Elizabeth Weatherford, both mixed-race Creek. His mother was believed to be the sister of the Creek leader William Weatherford and David was the grand-nephew of Alexander McGillivray, an important Creek chief on his mother's side. The Creek had a matrilineal kinship system, so David was considered to be born into his mother's Wind Clan and gained his social status there. David's maternal uncle would have been more important to his upbringing than his father. The Moniac family lived in present-day Montgomery County, Alabama, near the unincorporated community of Pintlala. His father served with the U.S. forces in the Creek War, as he was allied with the Lower Creek who were more assimilated. They defeated the Red Sticks.

At this time, the United States was encouraging assimilation of the Creek and other tribes of the Southeast to European-American ways. They became known as the Five Civilized Tribes, for they adopted many aspects of US culture.

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