My grandmother was born in a tiny town in South Dakota in 1918 and grew up there, coming to California during the Depression to go to college. She had a wonderful assortment of colorful phrases that I haven’t heard hardly anyone else use, some of which I think were local to where she grew up and some of which were just old-fashioned, and I don’t know which is which.
One of them was “God willing and the creek don’t rise”, used when one is stating one’s intention to do something in the future - ie, if all goes well.
It’s occurred to me lately that the word “creek” there could have two different meanings, though the meaning of the phrase as a whole would be unchanged:
(If) God (is) willing, and the creek (doesn’t) rise - ie, if there are no natural disasters.
(If) God (is) willing, and the Creek don’t rise (up against us) - ie, if the Indians don’t get warlike and kill us all in the meantime.
Now, the Creek tribes are in the southeast, nowhere near South Dakota, and she’s a generation or so too late to have had to deal with Indian uprisings, but she almost definitely got the phrase from somewhere else, so maybe it had migrated north and west?
Does anyone know anything about that phrase? Had you heard it before? Have you got any theories about which (C/c)reek they’re talking about?
Quinion, a fairly respected etymologist, discusses it at: God willing and the creek don’t rise [a]rgues for a mundane origin: the old-time difficulties of travelling on dirt roads that forded rivers and streams; a sudden storm could cause water levels to rise without warning and render the route impassable.‘’
Some cites attribute it to Benamin Hawkins, who died in 1816, and say that he was clearly talking about the Creek Nation. Others say Hawkins was quite friendly with the Creek and never worried about a rebellion. Instead they citemultiple references from around the country. But since all those references came after Hawkins died, it’s possible the original meaning did refer to an uprising, and the saying was later reinterpreted.
My mother used to say it, too, and to the best of my knowledge, no one in her family ever fought Indians.
I have no basis for my assumption it originated in the eastern U.S., particularly in the more rural areas of the Appalachians and Alleghenies, which, I see after looking up how to spell them, appear are part of the Appalachians.
