During the early 1800s, he was one of the principal leaders of the "Red Sticks" or Upper Creeks, who worked to revive traditional practices and resisted assimilation to European-American ways. He emerged to lead warriors in the Creek War (1813–1814), which began as a civil war among the Creek people, where strong divisions had arisen with the Lower Creek, who comprised the majority of the population. During this period, the British were already at war against the United States during the War of 1812. They supported the Red Sticks' resistance to United States settlers' incursions into their territory.