William Weatherford - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

William Weatherford was born near the Upper Creek towns of Coosauda (a Koasati Indian Town, now Coosada) and Hickory Ground (Wetumpka), to Sehoy III, a high-status woman of the Wind Clan ("Hutalgalgi"), and Charles Weatherford, a Scots trader. His mother was of Creek, French and possibly Scottish descent. As the Creek were a matrilineal culture, Sehoy III's children were absorbed into the tribe despite their European ancestry. Her clan status, the same as her male clan relatives, secured the status of her children. Property and inheritance were passed through the maternal line. Because he belonged to the same clan, a boy's maternal uncle was more important to his upbringing than his biological father.

Benjamin Hawkins, first appointed as United States Indian agent in the Southeast and then as Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the territory south of the Ohio River, lived among the Creek and Choctaw, and knew them well. He commented in letters to President Thomas Jefferson that Creek women were matriarchs and had control of children "when connected with a white man." Hawkins further observed that even wealthy traders were nearly as "inattentive" to their mixed-race children as "the Indians". What he did not understand about the Creek culture was that the children had a closer relationship with their mother's eldest brother than with their biological father, because of the importance of the clan structure.

As a boy William ("Billy") Weatherford was called Lamochattee, or Red Eagle, by other Creek. After he handled himself well as a warrior, he was given the "war name" of Hopnicafutsahia, or "Truth Teller." He was the great-grandson of Jean Baptiste Louis DeCourtel Marchand, the French commanding officer of Fort Toulouse and his wife Sehoy, a Creek of mixed race. He was also a nephew of the Creek chief, Alexander McGillivray, who was prominent in the Upper Creek towns.

Weatherford was a cousin of William McIntosh, a chief of the Lower Creek towns, through his mother's family. The Lower Creek, who comprised the majority of population, had some generations of intermarriage with European Americans and were adopting more of their ways, as well as getting connected to the market economy.