Chief McIntosh

Word From Wiese

July 15, 2026

1 John 3:18: “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

I love when WFW readers shoot me reactions to the weekly devotions. A few weeks ago, my devotional on Thomas Jefferson’s connection to slavery prompted a bunch. Thank you. One reader pointed me toward another fascinating twist about draft versus final language of the Declaration of Independence. This time, what it said about Native Americans.

As we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, we are discovering that our nation’s founders, like all of us, were complicated human beings.

They wrote words that still inspire us: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Yet history reminds us that even those who proclaimed such ideals often struggled to apply them consistently.

Jefferson’s first draft criticized King George III’s policies for encouraging conflict between Native Americans and colonial settlers. When the Declaration was finalized, that section was condensed into a harsh phrase describing Native Americans as “merciless Indian Savages.” Behind those words lay decades of conflict over land, westward expansion, and competing visions for the future of a young nation. We remember learning in school Washington was a surveyor as a young man, because identifying and securing new land was a pathway to wealth for new Americans.

Therefore, King George III’s Royal Proclamation of 1763, attempting to limit colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains in order to reduce warfare with Native nations, was highly unappreciated by colonists hungry to keep pushing the frontier. Promises made and broken to indigenous nations, yielding varying responses as one can imagine, complicated the relationships between our new nation and the many already thriving on the continent. (It’s thought that over 1,000 distinct indigenous nations existed in North America before European settlers arrived, representing about five million people in the land that would become the U.S.). To have our founding document refer to them as “merciless Indian savages” set a tone at odds with the Declaration’s determination to consider all people equal and no doubt complexified future relationships.

What a story!

Jefferson and the new Americans inspired the world by speaking to self-evident truths of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness as motivation for national independence. Yet pursuit of growth set them on a national course threatening of the independence, liberty, and happiness of the native Americans already here. Lest we cast stones too quickly, we can easily identify in our lives the many times when our stated values don’t find deep resonance in the lifestyle choices we make. As Martin Luther taught, we clearly struggle as both sinners and saints simultaneously, and seek the Lord’s help to live our stories out as Christ would prefer.

At our house, McIntosh Chiefs gear still gets worn from Luke’s and Morgan’s high school days.

But have you ever heard the story behind Chief McIntosh?” Long before Europeans arrived, Fayette County belonged to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, while the Cherokee lived farther north and east. (The Coweta people were also associated with the Creek Nation.) William McIntosh was one of the most controversial leaders connected to this era.

McIntosh was the son of a Scottish trader and a Creek mother and became a respected military leader who fought alongside American forces during the War of 1812 and the Creek War. Later, however, he signed the Treaty of Indian Springs, surrendering all remaining Creek lands in Georgia east of the Chattahoochee River to the United States. The treaty was signed without the approval of the full Creek National Council and violated Creek law. Many Creek people believed McIntosh had placed personal gain above the welfare of his nation. Only a few months later, in April 1825, Creek Law Menders carried out the tribal sentence against him, executing him at his plantation.

Wouldn’t we like to talk to Chief McIntosh to hear how it “all went down”? It had to be difficult growing up trying to balance loyalties and perspectives of two families, peoples and even nations. We know how often our own hearts are torn between two ways of seeing life.

History rarely offers us simple heroes and villains.

Instead, it presents us with people wrestling with competing loyalties, fear, ambition, hope, and flawed judgment. In that sense, they are not so different from us.

As Christians, however, we are called to not just learn history. We are invited to let history help us examine our current pathways. God’s Word reminds us in 1 John 3:18: that while words and speech are really helpful, we need to accompany them with faithful actions bearing truth. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed in word equality as a political ideal. Jesus’ kingdom and the best version of our country’s founding documents call us to enact freedom with fullness and consistency among all peoples.

Perhaps America’s 250th birthday gives us an opportunity not merely to celebrate our past but to grow from it.

We can thank God for the remarkable vision expressed in our founding documents while honestly acknowledging the ways those ideals were not always extended to every neighbor. Such honesty does not weaken our love of country. May it strengthen our commitment to justice, humility, and truth.

After all, every person who has ever walked the soil of Fayette County, from the first Muscogee families to those who arrived generations later, has been created in the image of God. That truth has always been self-evident to the One who made us.

Questions for Reflection

Where do I see a gap between the values I profess and the way I sometimes treat other people?
How can learning the fuller story of our nation’s history help me become a more compassionate follower of Christ today and adept citizen to help our country thrive in our next 250 years?

In Christ’s hope,

Pastor Fritz

Let us pray:

Gracious God, thank you for the blessings of our beloved nation and for the freedoms we enjoy. Give us the humility to celebrate what is good while honestly acknowledging where we have fallen short. Help us to see every person as your beloved child, worthy of dignity, respect, and love…and the courage to enact in policy the values stirring in our hearts. In Jesus’ name, Amen.