God Willing and the Creek Don't Rise

There is a new documentary on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by Spike Lee with this title, and I was curious as to the origin of this very very Southern phrase. I assumed, as do a lot of folks, that it was an archaic Southern reference in regards to flooding, perhaps one of those slogans that arose in response to the historic flooding of the Mississippi River in 1927.
The phrase in fact goes back quite a ways further; back to the days when the Creek Indian nation was a primary competitor to the impending hegemony of the oncoming Anglo-American invasion of the Southeast. It is an ironic case of semantic drift, and considering the relevance it has to our newly found forgotten, it is worth recalling its very disparate origins. I am humbly reprinting the following from Knol.....

If someone says, “God willing and the Creek don’t rise” they’re looking to achieve a goal. When they use this phrase, it means that they will achieve their goal as long as there are no outside forces of which they have no control preventing them from doing just that.



Origin:

The first time this phrase was known to be in print it was written by a man named Benjamin Hawkins in the late 18th century. Hawkins was a politician in the late 18th century and early 19th century as well as an Indian diplomat. This was back in the day where American Indians and the white settlers were constantly fighting for the land in the United States. While in the south, Hawkins was requested by the President of the United States to return to Washington. In his response, he was said to write, “God willing and the Creek don’t rise.”
Benjamin Hawkins capitalized the work “Creek”. Therefore, it is deduced that what he was referring to was not a body of water at all, but instead was the Creek Indian tribe. The Creek Indians were also known as the Muscogee tribe which were located in the southeastern region of the United States (Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Oklahoma). Since the Creek Indians were prevalent in the area where he was located, Hawkins knew that there was a great risk of the Creek Indians attacking.
This figure of speech is not only still used today, but the phrase is also in the lyrics of a 2008 song by the country music group Little Big Town. The song is called “Good Lord Willing” and the lyrics in the song say, “Good lord willing and the Creek don’t rise” instead of “God willing and the creek don’t rise”.