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This article highlights the importance of social hierarchy among the North American Indians, aspects of which have been largely overlooked so far. It seeks to identify fundamental characteristics of the functioning of hierarchy, based on an analysis of colonial sources dealing with the Muscogee (Creek) and neighbouring groups in the 18th century. This work intends to open comparative perspectives in the political anthropology of North America, and to point out the relevance of this discussion in interpreting the history of these societies in the 18th and 19th centuries.