Peter McQueen

Peter McQueen (c. 1780 – 1820) was a Creek Indian chief, prophet, trader and warrior from Talisi (Tallassee, among the Upper Towns in present-day Alabama.) He was one of the young men known as Red Sticks, who became a prophet for expulsion of the European Americans from Creek territory and a revival of traditional practices. The Red Sticks attracted a majority of the population in the Upper Towns in the early nineteenth century. From open conflict with the Lower Towns in the Creek War, the Red Sticks were drawn into conflict with the United States after being attacked by territorial militia.

The Red Sticks were defeated by Colonel Andrew Jackson with state militias, Creek and Cherokee warriors at Horseshoe Bend in 1814. McQueen survived to retreat into Florida, along with other Creek warriors. There he joined the recently formed Seminole and continued resistance to United States forces during the First Seminole War.

Peter McQueen was the son of a high-status Creek woman and a Scots-Irish fur trader, as was typical of many mixed-race alliances between Native Americans and European Americans in the American Southeast in those years. He was born in the Talisi area (now Tallassee, Alabama). Both cultures considered such marriages or unions as strategic alliances, as the traders brought goods of both practical use and prestige, and offered entree to European society.

As the Creek culture was matrilineal, McQueen derived his social status from his mother's family and clan. He identified as Creek. Traditionally, for a Creek boy, his maternal uncles were more important than his biological father, as the eldest uncle would introduce him to men's ways and the men's societies of his clan and tribe.

Influenced by the thought of the Shawnee prophet Tenskwatawa and his brother, the chief Tecumseh, McQueen was one of several young Creek prophets who envisioned the expulsion of the European Americans from Indian lands. They were angered by the failure of Big Warrior and other assimilated Creek headmen to be more responsive to their people. The traditional lines of communication had been disrupted by Benjamin Hawkins, the US Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Southeast, who lived among the Creek. McQueen became aligned with the Red Stick faction of the Upper Creek, who were trying to resist assimilation and to restore traditional culture and religion.

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