His legend led Theodore Roosevelt to describe him as “the most gifted man ever born on Alabama soil.” Born in the Creek village of Little Tallassee near present-day Montgomery, McGillivray was raised in both the Creek culture of his mother and the colonial lifestyle of his father. Though it made him a controversial figure in traditional Creek society, his blending of the power of his mother’s clan with the wealth and privilege of his father’s world made him a consummate politician.