George Washington Grayson

George Washington Grayson, also known as Yaha Tustunugge (Wolf Warrior), (May 12, 1843 - December 2, 1920) (Muscogee Creek), was a businessman, merchant, rancher, publisher of the Indian Journal, writer, and leader of the Creek Nation during the period when Indian Territory was dissolved to prepare of Oklahoma statehood. Of partial European ancestry, he identified as Creek and supported the nation, working for the proposed State of Sequoyah, to be a Native American state. It did not gain Congressional approval. In 1917, under revised conditions after tribal governments had been dissolved, Grayson was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson as chief of the Creek Nation, serving until his death. He had previously served as the Creek delegate to Congress.

Background George Washington Grayson (his Muskogee name was Yaha Tustunugge, or Wolf Warrior), was named for the first president of the United States; he was born in 1843 in Indian Territory to Jane "Jennie" (Wynne), a mixed-race (métis) Creek woman whose father John Wynne was of Welsh descent and mother Per-cin-ta Harrod was métis Creek, of Coweta town. His father was James Grayson, who was also of mixed-race. James' father was Tulwa Tustunugge, descended from a Scots trader Robert Grierson, who married Sin-o-gee of the Hillabee Town in the Creek Nation in the late 18th century. Grayson in his autobiography stressed his paternal heritage, noting the trader's success. By 1813 Grayson (as his name became spelled) owned a plantation and more than 70 African-American slaves. Through his mother, George Grayson was a member of the Tiger Clan and Coweta Town. Grayson attended an English-language Creek school, Asbury Manual Labor School, and Arkansas College (1858–60), developing a lifelong interest in history and literature. He was fluent in Muscogee and English.

He brokered "the distribution of goods, money, land, and political influence," in a sense related to the traditional role of headman in the tribe. But the dissolution of tribal government under the Curtis Act left the Creek National Council hollowed out by the time Grayson was appointed by the federal government as chief in 1917.

After the tribal government was dissolved under the Curtis Act, Grayson was later appointed as chief by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917, serving until his death in 1920. He supervised the sale of the Creek Capitol to the county government after statehood. Perhaps feeling that tribal life had ended with the dissolution of its government, Grayson ended his autobiography with a history of the process of land allotment. This took place 20 years before his death.

He was the son-in-law of George Washington Stidham.