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FEBRUARY 17:

February 17, 1909:  Geronimo (Goyathlay) dies at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

February 17, 1793:  In Pensacola Florida, Creek Chief Alexander McGillivray dies.
 

BACKGROUND:

From http://www.floridahistory.org/floridians...sh/mcgilliv.htm
 
 

ALEXANDER McGILLIVRAY 1759 - February 17, 1793
 

Born Hoboi-Hilr-Miko at Little Tallassie in Alabama on the Coosa River, McGillivray was the son of a Scot trapper Lachlan McGillivray and a half French, half Wind Indian woman, whose father was a French Army Captain. Educated in Charleston, South Carolina, he was a scholar of Latin and Greek. He returned to the Wind clan to help it in its troubles with the U. S. Government.

As a Loyalist to England, he resented much of American Indian policy. He handled trade for the Panton, Leslie & Company in Florida and became a leading spokesman for all the tribes along the Florida-Georgia frontier. In 1790 he got George Washington to support the Treaty of New York, an attempt to pacify the Southern frontier. He became a resident of Pensacola and a member of the Masonic Order.
 

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>From http://www.multied.com/Bio/RevoltBIOS/McGillivaryTimothy.html
 
 

McGillivray, Alexander (1759-1793) Principal Chief of the Creek Indians: McGillivray was of mixed Creek and European ancestry. and became a prominent figure during the Revolutionary War. His father, Lachlan, was well-connected in the trade with Native Americans, allowing Alexander McGillivray to move comfortably in Savannah circles and in the world of Creek civilization. His bilingual skills gained him a job as Assistant Commissary for the British Southern Indian Department at Little Tallassee. After 1777, his mother's influence among her people allowed him to acquire a position leading bands of Upper Creek warriors toward the Georgia frontier in the east and to Pensacola to support British troops fighting there . Once the attacking Spanish troops were pushed back at Pensacola, McGullivray's troops were responsible for changing the fortunes of the battle. In the nineteenth century, McGullivray was depicted as a coward, but such a characterization cannot be substantiated. In 1783, McGullivray was chosen Upper Creek "Head Warrior," and worked for two years to preserve Creek autonomy by playing off various groups against each other, including tribal factions, Spanish officials, American diplomats, Georgia speculators, and his own business partners. A powerful presence for Creeks in the southern frontier, McGullivray served his mother's people until the end of his life, and his death left a vacuum in leadership that was never adequately filled.