William McIntosh (c. 1775 – April 30, 1825),[1] also known as Tustunnuggee Hutke (White Warrior), was one of the most prominent chiefs of the Muscogee Creek Nation between the turn of the 19th-century and his execution in 1825.

McIntosh was executed by his long-time political nemesis Menawa and a large force of Law Menders [clarification needed] in late April 1825.

The majority of Chief McIntosh's descendants migrated to Indian Territory before 1831, when the U.S. federal government began forcibly removing tribes west in the Trail of Tears.

Rebecca married again after her first husband died young, and by 1860 was the wealthiest woman in Texas, owning three plantations with a total of 12,800 acres and 120 enslaved people.

[4][5] Tustunnuggee Hutke (or "White Warrior") was born in the Lower Creek Town of Coweta in present-day Georgia to Scottish-American soldier William McIntosh and to Senoya (also spelled Senoia and Senoy[1]), a Muscogee member of the Wind Clan.

As the Muscogee had a matrilineal kinship system, through which property and hereditary positions were passed, his mother's status determined that of White Warrior.

He commented in letters to President Thomas Jefferson that Muscogee women were matriarchs and had control of children "when connected with a white man.

What he did not understand about the Muscogee 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.

[clarification needed] For generations, Muscogee chiefs had approved their daughters' marriages to fur traders in order to strengthen their alliances and trading power with the wealthy Europeans.

[9]: 27, 233 [10]: 314 [11]: 19, 21  Married around McIntosh's twenty-fifth birthday,[12]: 22  he and Eliza's marriage produced five children: Chillicothe (aka "Chilly"), Jane, Kate, Sallie, and Louis.

[10]: 324  Around the end of the Creek War, McIntosh took a second wife, Susannah Ree (also shown as Roe/Rowe, or Coe), whose heritage is variously given as Cherokee, and full-blooded Muscogee.

The young couple remained with Billy's extended tribal kinsmen in Clayton (Barbour County), Alabama until September 1842, when they began traveling by wagon train with three other Muscogee families bound for Oklahoma.

The Lower Towns, which comprised the majority of the population, were adopting some elements of European-American culture and lived more closely in relation to white settlers on the Georgia frontier.

Some prominent Muscogee sent their sons to eastern universities for their education, and some adopted Christianity; as well as forms of European dress and houses, hence they qualified as one of the "civilized tribes".

They expanded their farms, and many of the Muscogee elite became planters, purchasing enslaved African-Americans to work on plantations in a manner similar to their European-American neighbors.

McIntosh fought in support of General Andrew Jackson and state militias in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, marking the defeat in 1814 of the Red Sticks and the end of the Creek War.

[18] After the wars, European-American settlers were increasingly migrating to the interior of the Southeast from the coastal areas and encroached on the territories of the Muscogee and other Southeastern tribes.

[citation needed] After the War of 1812, the British withdrew and turned over the fort they constructed at Prospect Bluff on the lower Apalachicola River to newly freed African-Americans in the area.

Georgia slaveholders and the U.S. Army called it the "Negro Fort," and worried that the autonomy of the blacks would encourage their own slaves to escape or rebel.

Hawkins was instrumental in gaining Muscogee cessions of land through that period, but he also supported McIntosh's efforts to bring European-American education to the territory by welcoming missionaries who set up schools.

After President James Monroe came to office, in November 1817 his administration appointed David Brydie Mitchell as the U.S. Indian Agent to the Muscogee Creek Nation.

The U.S. provided food and supplies as part of the annuities for the land cessions, especially the 21 million acres the Muscogee were forced to cede following the war.

That year, the Muscogee agreed to another land cession in order to raise money for needed food and supplies, as conditions were still difficult for them.

Historians continue to argue over whether McIntosh ceded the land for personal gain, or because he believed removal was inevitable, and he was trying to achieve some security for the Muscogee Creek Nation.

Historians like Michael Green believe that McIntosh sold away the tribe's birthright and future, describing the treaty as Fraudulent by the standards of any society, concluded in violation of the expressed orders of both interested governments, riddled with bribery, chicanery, and deceit, the treaty illegally acquired for Georgia and Alabama, through the offices of the United States, an enormous amount of land.

"[3] William McIntosh's wives asked for a suit of clothes for his burial, but the killers insisted on throwing the naked corpse into an unmarked grave.

After William's death, his younger half-brother Roley McIntosh advanced to serve as chief of the Lower Creeks until 1859, moving with them to Indian Territory in the 1830s.

[4] Benjamin knew Sam Houston, and in 1833 he and Rebecca moved to Marion County, Texas, on the territory's eastern border, where they developed the Refuge plantation.

The widow Rebecca McIntosh Hawkins married Spire M. Hagerty, who held land and slaves on his Phoenix plantation in Harrison County, Texas.

"[4] To the Memory and Honor of General William McIntosh The Distinguished and Patriotic Son of Georgia whose devotion was heroic, whose friendship unselfish and whose service was valiant.