Alexander McGillivray, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetAlexander McGillivray
Muscogee leader
Date of Birth: 15-Dec-1750
Date of Death: 17-Feb-1793
Profession: tribal chief
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius 
About Alexander McGillivray
- Alexander McGillivray, also known as Hoboi-Hili-Miko (December 15, 1750 – February 17, 1793), was a Muscogee (Creek) leader.
- The son of a Muscogee mother and a Scottish father, he had skills no other Creek of his day had: he was not only literate but educated, and he knew the "white" world and merchandise trading well.
- These gave him prestige, especially with European-Americans, who were glad to finally find a Creek leader they could talk to and deal with.
- (Prior to contact with Europeans, the Creek did not have leaders or rulers in the European sense.) He used his role as link between the two worlds to his advantage, not always fairly, and became the richest Creek of his time. McGillivray was literate and his "voluminous" correspondence has survived.
- In many cases his letters are the only source for events in his life, and they naturally present him in a very good light.
- Recent historians have taken issue with the heroic status he had in earlier histories. McGillivray's status among the Creeks, who did not customarily have a single leader, was controversial and sometimes resented.
- His chief asset to insure he was seen as a leader was his ability to hand out gifts to the Creeks from both Britain and Spain.
- He was the most "Anglicized" of Creeks, and built solid houses, planted orchards, and ran a plantation (and owned about 60 slaves), which made him suspect.
- That he knew English well, was literate, and was experienced in the trading world also gave him influence, if not prestige.
- Yet as the illiterate Creek gradually became aware of his duplicity in the Treaty of New York (1790) and other matters, there "began a process that would culminate in the Redstick War." "Not surprisingly, the struggle began in the era of Alexander McGillivray."
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