Red Shoes (ca. 1720 - 1783) was a Muskogean leader of the Tuskegee people in the 18th century. He primarily lived in modern Alabama near Tuskegee at the forks of the

Alabama River The Alabama River, in the U.S. state of Alabama, is formed by the Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers, which unite about north of Montgomery, near the town of Wetumpka. The river flows west to Selma, then southwest until, about from Mobile, it un ...

, but his influence extended well into modern Mississippi. Red Shoes was the son of a Koasati leader also known as Red Shoes and his wife

Sehoy Sehoy, or Sehoy I (died ca. 1730), was an 18th-century matriarch of the Muscogee Confederacy and a member of the Wind clan. She established a dynasty that became influential in the political and economic history of her nation and its relationshi ...

. Since lineage among the Muscogee Confederacy was traced

matrilineally Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...

, Red Shoes, like his mother, was part of the Wind Clan. His parents also had a daughter together, who would have been his full sister. His half-sister, Sehoy Marchand, daughter of

Jean Baptiste Louis DeCourtel Marchand Jean Baptiste Louis DeCourtel Marchand, aka Captain Francois Marchand de Courcelles, was an eighteenth century French officer that served in the French colonies in America, and died after a second tour or duty ending in 1734. Marchand fathered tw ...

was first married to Angus or August McPherson, with whom she had two children, Sehoy McPherson (Sehoy III) and Malcolm McPherson. She later married

Lachlan McGillivray Lachlan McGillivray (–1799) was a prosperous fur trader and planter in colonial Georgia with interests that extended from Savannah to what is now central Alabama. He was the father of Alexander McGillivray and the great-uncle of William McIntos ...

and had three more children, Alexander,

Sophia Sophia means "wisdom" in Greek. It may refer to: *Sophia (wisdom) *Sophia (Gnosticism) *Sophia (given name) Places *Niulakita or Sophia, an island of Tuvalu *Sophia, Georgetown, a ward of Georgetown, Guyana *Sophia, North Carolina, an unincorpor ...

, and Jeanette McGillivray. When his mother died around 1730, Red Shoes' father remarried and had another son who he also named Red Shoes. Alexander McGillivray wrote a letter in 1788, describing the relationship in Creek terms, he called this second son named Red Shoes a "brother to one of my uncles", indicating that they were not of the same matrilineage or clan. Red Shoes died about 1783, as his death was reported by his nephew Alexander in a letter to Governor O'Neill. Written on January 3, 1784, McGillivray stated that his uncle was killed while trying to recover some stolen horses.

References

Muscogee people 1720s births 1783 deaths Year of birth uncertain {{NorthAm-native-bio-stub