Indian Assimilation and the Plan for Civilization

Some might be surprised to learn that  assimilation of the Indians by teaching them to farm was the official policy of the Washington Administration.  Since the War Department handled Indian affairs, we come across dozens of writings by Henry Knox and James McHenry  trying to implement policy into action (and keep the peace) through the Indian Agents.   As in most cases at the time, these  Federal appointees were card carrying Federalists, usually with strong Revolutionary War credentials. Agents  were usually assigned to a specific tribe or a group of Tribes.  One of the more accomplished of these frontier diplomats  was Creek Agent, Benjamin Hawkins.  Although the  Creeks (mostly the women) were already fairly accomplished farmers, Hawkins believed their methods to be substandard.  So to demonstrate the western world’s superior agricultural techniques, and perhaps win some hearts and minds along the way, he established the Creek Agency on the Flint River in  Georgia–a model  working farm which featured a blacksmith’s shop, cornfields, an orchard, a tannery, weaver’s shop, smokehouse, slave quarters, and a tavern.  In this letter,  Hawkins requests that “implements of husbandry” intended for the Creeks be forwarded.

–To learn more about Hawkins and the Creeks, see Robbie Ethridge’s Creek County: The Creek Indians and their World.