I am Unoli Edochi. I am a seventh child, the seventh to be born into my Este Cate Diastoke, People of the Red Stick. My clan is Hutalgalgi, the Wind Clan. My people never surrendered to the United States, so we are not an enrolled Native American nation.

My name in English is Wind Walker, Unoli Edochi; it is also my title. I walk between the worlds to intercede for my people. I am Helles-Hayv, a medicine maker. I was born in my Puce’s, grandmother’s barn during a hurricane. The barn was the highest and sturdiest place on our farm, named Bayou La Pos Island.

My ancestors migrated from the west to the east. Our Legends say that when the great flood came, we were placed in the great hole and cared for by the ant people until Nun-Chaha was dry enough for Corn Woman and Lucky Hunter to begin to live on the surface of the world again.

My people were originally from northwest Georgia and northeastern Alabama. My ancestors sided with Tecumseh against the United States in the War of 1813. We were followers of Tenskwatawa, Tecumseh’s brother and a prophet and teacher.

On March 27, 1814, Major General Andrew Jackson's army of 3,300 men attacked Chief Menawa’s 1,000 Red Stick Creek, which caused Chief Tecumseh’s death in 1813 but did not end conflict between the United States and American Indian tribes. In the southeastern Mississippi Territory (central Alabama today), hostile Creeks known as Red Sticks raided settlers, sparking an intratribal war and threatening an alliance with the pro-British Spanish in Florida. (1).

Most of my remaining ancestors fled to South Florida and were absorbed into the Seminoles and the Mikasuki, who spoke the Mysvoke language. The language of the Muskogee Creek People.

My ancestors did not go to Florida. The band which included my ninth Puce, (Grandmother). She was the half-sister of William Weatherford.( William Weatherford, also known after his death as Red Eagle (c. 1765 – March 24, 1824), was a Creek chief of the Upper Creek towns who led many of the Red Sticks actions in the Creek War (1813–1814) against Lower Creek towns and against allied forces of the United States.) (2)

We and my ancestors, were cut off from Florida by Elements of Andrew Jackson’s army so; following a Choctaw warrior we Fled into the Tall Grass swamps of Southwest Louisiana. Our arrival was seventy three years after the Acadians were dropped into the swamps of South Louisiana. We located on Bayou La Pos Island and the surrounding high areas in the Tall saw grass swamp.

We were known to the government of Louisiana. My People settled into the swamps and raided into Spanish South Texas for horses, guns, Ammunition, and other goods that could not be traded for.

I was born in the 1950’s; the exact date is only speculation. Life was difficult in the subsistence farming and hunting of my youth. I enlisted in the U.S. Military, as an officer, at age 16. I served all over the world and was honorably discharged.

My art mediums are Painting, Photography, and Native American Crafts. I cut, polish, and mount stones in the jewelry I make. I make medicine bags, dream catchers, and other crafts in the old way, with the prayers to the Spider Woman who taught my people weaving, sewing, and the medicinal arts.

My art is a reflection of all the things and cultures I have been involved in or visited during my 70 years of life and service.

References:

1. Griffith Jr., Benjamin W. (1988). McIntosh and Weatherford, Creek Indian Leaders (online ed.).

Birmingham, AL: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0817303405. Retrieved March 6, 2017.

Available online.

2. Deer, Sarah (2013). "Muscogee Constitutional Jurisprudence: Vhakv Em Pvtakv". Tulsa Law

Review. 49 (1): 130

3. "Petition 20582202: To the Honbl H M Brackenridge Judge of the Superior Court of West Florida

(BRACKENRIDGE, Henry M.)", Race and Slavery Petitions Project, Escambia County, Florida:

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, August 4, 1822, retrieved February 21, 2018

Thank you for your interest in Red Stick Arts.