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Fort Hawkins was a fort built in 1806-1810 in the historic Creek Nation by the United States government under President Thomas Jefferson and used until 1824. Built in what is now Georgia at the fall Line on the east side of the Ocmulgee River, the fort overlooked the sacred ancient earthwork mounds of the Ocmulgee Old Fields, now known as the Ocmulgee National Monument, and the Lower Creek Pathway. A trading settlement and later the European-American city of Macon, Georgia, developed because of the fort. During this period, the fort was important to the Creek Nation, the United States, and the state of Georgia for economic, military, and political reasons. The fort originally had a tall log palisade surrounding a 1- complex. It had living and working quarters as well as two blockhouses on diagonal corners. A replica of the southeast blockhouse was constructed in 1938 after archeological excavations in 1936 showed the appropriate site. It has become an icon of Macon. The Fort Hawkins Archeological Site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is included within the boundaries of the Fort Hill Historic District, also listed on the NRHP. The Fort Hawkins Commission directed archaeological excavations in 2005-2007, which found evidence of a second palisade on the site as well as several large brick buildings. In addition, the work recovered nearly 40,000 artifacts, indicating a more complex history of Native American and European-American interaction than had been known. Historical research by the archeology team has also added to new knowledge about the fort, its characteristics and significance. In 2008 the Commission completed a Master Plan for development of the site, eventually to include reconstruction of the entire fort complex. It will display and interpret the thousands of artifacts found at the site, which represent the many tribes of American Indians and pioneer European Americans whose lives met in the area through complex trading and living relationships. Excavations are continuing at the fort site. == History == Fort Hawkins was built by the United States in 1806 and through 1824, it was a place of "relatively great economic, military, and political importance."〔 For the Creek Nation, it was a center of the deerskin trade with European Americans, who had a trading post or factory there, but for them it was most important as related to their sacred grounds at Ocmulgee Old Fields. This continued to be a significant social and ceremonial center.〔(Daniel T. Elliott, ''Fort Hawkins: 2005-2007 Field Seasons'' ), The LAMAR Institute, Report 124, 2008, p. 1, accessed 30 March 2013〕 The US government used the fort as a military command headquarters on the southeastern frontier, "a major troop garrison and bivouac point for regular troops and state militia in several important campaigns, and a major trade factory for regulating the Creek economy." 〔 President Thomas Jefferson had forced the Creek Nation to cede its lands east of the Ocmulgee River, except for the sacred Ocmulgee Old Fields. The fort was built at the fall line of the river, about a mile uphill, at the end of navigable water from the Low Country to the Piedmont. It was to be a point for the government's "civilization" of the Creek through introduction of European-American farming and cultural practices. To the north of the fort passed the Lower Creek Pathway, which was improved as part of the Federal Road to connect the nation's capital city with the ports of Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana.〔 This change encouraged the travel of many more troops, settlers, and visitors to the area and encroached on the Creek Nation territory.〔 The fort was named for Benjamin Hawkins, who was still serving as the General Superintendent of Indian Affairs (1796–1816) south of the Ohio River, as well as principal US Indian agent to the Creek. A former US Senator from North Carolina, Hawkins had been appointed by President George Washington to deal with the Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw in the larger territory, and helped gain years of peace between the Creek and European-American settlers. He married Lavinia Downs, the daughter of Isaac Downs, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War.〔''Benjamin Hawkins, Indian Agent'', Merritt Pound, University of Georgia Press, 1957.〕 The fort was used during US military campaigns of the War of 1812 against Great Britain. General Andrew Jackson visited the Fort and used it successfully as a staging area for the Battle of New Orleans of 1814-15, as well as during the Creek and Seminole wars. After the frontier moved farther west, the military threat in inland Georgia essentially ceased. Through the treaties of 1825 and 1826 signed with the US, the Creek were forced to move west of the Chattahoochee River the following year.〔 The city of Macon was founded in 1823, and by 1828, the fort was in private ownership.〔 During its active years, Fort Benjamin Hawkins was used as a Georgia Militia headquarters and muster ground. It was a point of interaction with "the US Army, the Creek Nation, the Georgia militia and the Georgia government."〔 The fort helped reinforce Georgia's western frontier until the state took control by getting the Creek removed to the west, while filling much of the land with European-American settlers. Ancient cultures of indigenous peoples had long settled near the river. Evidence of 17,000 years of continuous human habitation has been found at Ocmulgee National Monument.〔( "Ocmulgee National Monument" ), National Park Service, accessed 15 July 2011〕 Historically, Native American peoples from the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole nations; ethnic European Americans from England, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, and Spain; and West African-descended peoples originally speaking numerous languages from a variety of ethnic cultures, were all represented at the fort. Nearly 40,000 artifacts from trading and residence have been found in 21st-century archaeological excavations at the fort site. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fort Benjamin Hawkins」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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