Nicolls' Outpost was the smaller and more northern of two forts built by British Lt. Col. Edward Nicolls during the War of 1812., bringing the cannon along. Georgia militia, other U.S. forces, and the faction of the Creek allied with the U.S. were preparing upriver for a battle. News of the treaty ending the war, which reached both sides in February 1815, prevented the battle from taking place. The British abandoned both of its forts on the Apalachicola, leaving them in the hands of the blackCorps of Colonial Marines that Nicolls had trained, and of Red Stick CreekNeamathla and his warriors.
Council of 1815
Before abandoning the Fort, an important council took place there on March 10, 1815. The meeting was between Red Stick Creek leaders Neamathla, Francis the Prophet, Peter McQueen, and more than 30 other Native Americans, and Lt. Col. Nicolls and four other British officers, passing through on their way to British ships to return them to other British colonies or to England. "The council included representatives from towns or groups of Lower Creeks, Red Sticks, Miccosukee, Alachua, Yuchi and Choctaw. Languages spoken included Hitchiti, Yuchi, and Choctaw. In short, a wide range of cultures was combining into the group that we know today as Seminoles." In retrospect, this was the founding of the Seminoles, a loose alliance of various groups of Native American refugees in Spanish Florida, although they did not set up a central authority, which was "extremely difficult for the United States military to understand.... The political and social complications at play in the developing Seminole Nation were utterly incomprehensible to American settlers and officials." The person who did understand them, Indian agent Hawkins, died in 1816. The Treaty of Ghent stated that Native Americans were to be restored "all possessions, rights and privileges which they may have enjoyed, or been entitled to in 1811". The meeting was to point out to the British that having assisting them, the Creeks faced even greater hostility from the Americans. They claimed to be subjects of Britain, and asked British assistance in recovering their lands.
The most important outcome of the meeting was the little-known Treaty of Nicolls' Outpost. In it, the Creeks promised allegiance to Great Britain, which in turn accepted them as subjects of the British empire. The hope was that Britain would provide them with protection against the United States, so they could recover the land taken since 1811, more specifically that taken in the Treaty of Fort Jackson, which they, the Red Stick Creeks, had not signed and which, they claimed, did not apply to them. Nicolls, a champion of Native American rights, created this treaty on his own initiative, without authorization. The outcome was the famous trip of Francis the Prophet to London, together with Nicolls, to seek "recognition and assistance" from Great Britain. The British government, in no way interested in further conflict with the United States, summarily rejected the Treaty, sent Francis home, and chastised Nicolls.
