A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. 1
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Title: A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. 1
Author: Albert S. Gatschet
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MIGRATION LEGEND OF THE CREEK INDIANS, VOL. 1 ***
Owing to the absence of the Author on official duties in the Indian
Territory, the Map which should accompany this volume has not been
prepared. It will therefore be issued with the second volume.
BRINTON'S LIBRARY OF
ABORIGINAL AMERICAN LITERATURE.
NUMBER IV.
A
MIGRATION LEGEND
OF THE
CREEK INDIANS,
WITH A LINGUISTIC, HISTORIC AND ETHNOGRAPHIC INTRODUCTION,
BY
ALBERT S. GATSCHET,
OF THE U. S. BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY, WASHINGTON, D. C.
VOLUME I.
Νᾱφε καὶ μέμνας' ὰπιστεῑν
ᾰρθρα ταῦυτα τῶν φρενῶν.
_Epicharmus._
PHILADELPHIA:
D. G. BRINTON.
1884.
PREFATORY NOTE.
In the present work, Mr. Gatschet has carried out a much needed
investigation. The tribes who inhabited the watershed of the north
shore of the Mexican Gulf must always occupy a prominent place in the
study of American Ethnology, as possibly connecting the races of North
and South America, and those of the Valley of the Mississippi with
those of Anahuac and Mayapan.
Years ago the general editor of this series stated, in various
publications, the problems that region offers, and on finding the
remarkable legend of Chekilli, translated it and published it, as
pointing to a solution of some of the questions involved. This legend
has, at his request, been taken by Mr. Gatschet as a centre around
which to group the ethnography of that whole territory, as well as a
careful analysis of the legend and its language.
The first volume contains the general discussion of the subject, and
closes with the Creek version of the Legend and its translation. The
second will contain the Hitchiti Version, the Notes, and Vocabulary.
One statement of the author, overlooked in the proof reading, seems of
sufficient importance to be corrected here. The _Choctaw Grammar_ of
the late Rev. Cyrus Byington was published _complete_, and from his
_last revision_ (1866-68), not as an extract from his first draft, as
stated on page 117. The full particulars are given in the Introduction
to the Grammar.
THE EDITOR.
PREFACE.
The present publication proposes to bring before the public, in
popular form, some scientific results obtained while studying the
language and ethnology of the Creek tribe and its ethnic congeners.
The method of furthering ethnographic study by all the means which the
study of language can afford, has been too little appreciated up to
the present time, but has been constantly kept in view in this
publication. Language is not only the most general and important help
to ethnology, but outside of race, it is also the most ancient of all;
ethnologists are well aware of this fact, but do not generally apply
it to their studies, because they find it too tedious to acquire the
language of unlettered tribes by staying long enough among them.
The help afforded to linguistic studies by the books published in and
upon the Indian languages is valuable only for a few among the great
number of the dialects. The majority of them are laid down in
phonetically defective missionary alphabets, about which we are
prompted to repeat what the citizens of the young colony of Mexico
wrote to the government of Spain, in Cortez's time: "Send to us pious
and Christian men, as preachers, bishops and missionaries, but do not
send us scholars, who, with their pettifogging distinctions and love
of contention, create nothing but disorder and strife."[1] In the same
manner, some Creek scholars and churchmen agreed five times in
succession, before 1853, upon standard alphabets to be followed in
transcribing Creek, but, as Judge G. W. Stidham justly remarks, _made
it worse each time_. To arrive at trustworthy results, it is therefore
necessary to investigate the forms of speech as they are in use among
the Indians themselves.
[Footnote 1: Quotation, _ad sensum_, from Bernal Diaz' "Historia
verdadera."]
Very few statements of the Kasi'hta migration legend can be made
available for history. It is wholly legendary, in its first portion
even mythical; it is of a comparatively remote age, exceedingly
instructive for ethnography and for the development of religious
ideas; it is full of that sort of _naïveté_ which we like so much to
meet in the mental productions of our aborigines, and affords striking
instances of the debasing and brutalizing influence of the
unrestricted belief in the supernatural and miraculous. Of the
sun-worship, which underlies the religions of all the tribes in the
Gulf territories, only slight intimations are contained in the
Kasi'hta legend, and the important problem, whether the Creeks ever
crossed the Mississippi river from west to east in their migrations,
seems to be settled by it in the negative, although other legends may
be adduced as speaking in its favor.
Owing to deficient information on several Maskoki dialects, I have not
touched the problem of their comparative age. From the few indications
on hand, I am inclined to think that Alibamu and Koassáti possess more
and Cha'hta less archaic forms than the other dialect-groups.
From Rev. H. C. Buckner's Creek Grammar, with its numerous defects, I
have extracted but a few conjugational forms of the verb isita _to
take_, but have availed myself of some linguistic manuscripts of Mrs.
A. E. W. Robertson, the industrious teacher and translator of many
parts of the Bible into Creek.
The re-translation of the legend into Creek and Hitchiti is due to
Judge G. W. Stidham, of Eufaula, Indian Territory, who in infancy
witnessed the emigration of his tribe, the Hitchiti, from the
Chatahuchi river into their present location. My heartfelt thanks are
also due to other Indians, who have materially helped me in my
repeated revisions of the subject matter embodied in these volumes,
and in other investigations. They were the Creek delegates to the
Federal government, Chiefs Chicote and Ispahidshi, Messrs. S. B.
Callaghan, Grayson and Hodge.
I also fully acknowledge the services tendered by the officers of the
U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, as well as by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton and by
General Albert Pike, who placed the rich shelves of their libraries at
my disposition. In the kindest manner I was furnished with scientific
statements of various kinds by Messrs. W. R. Gerard, C. C. Royce and
Dr. W. C. Hoffmann.
THE AUTHOR.
_Washington, August, 1884._
CONTENTS.
_FIRST PART._
PAGE
THE SOUTHERN FAMILIES OF INDIANS 9
_I. Linguistic Groups of the Gulf States._
Timucua, 11. Calusa, 13. Tequesta, 15. Kataba, 15. Yuchi, 17.
Cheroki, 24. Arkansas, 29. Taensa, 30. Tangipahoa, 34. Naktche,
34. Tonica, 39. Adai, 41. Pani, 42. Shetimasha, 44. Atákapa, 45.
Bidai, 47. Koroa, 47. The Westo and Stono Indians, 48. The
Linguistic Map, 49.
_II. The Maskoki Family._
The Common Maskoki Language, 53. The Name Maskoki, 58. Tribal
Divisions; the Yamassi, 62. Yamacraw, 65. Seminole, 66.
Apalachi, 74. Mikasuki, 76. Hitchiti, 77. The Hitchiti Dialect,
80. Alibamu, 85. Koassáti, 89. Chicasa, 90. Tribes on the Yazoo
River, 97. Cha'hta, 100. The Cha'hta Language, 116.
_III. The Creek Indians._
Creek Settlements, 120. List of Towns, 124. The Indian Pathways,
151. The Creek Government, 152. Tribal Divisions and Gentes,
153. Civil Government, 156. The Warrior Class, 158. War Titles,
160. War Customs, 164. Organization of the Confederacy, 168. The
Public Square, 171. The Annual Busk, 177. Further Ethnographic
Notes, 183. Creek History, 188. The Creek Dialect, 198. Lexical
Affinities, 212.
_SECOND PART._
_The Kasi'hta Migration Legend._
Indian Migration Legends, 214. Migration Legends of the Creek
Tribes, 222. Tchikilli's Kasi'hta Legend, 235. The Text, 237.
The Translation, 244.
A MIGRATION LEGEND OF THE CREEK INDIANS.
FIRST OR GENERAL PART.
THE SOUTHERN FAMILIES OF INDIANS.
The early explorers of the Gulf territories have left to posterity a
large amount of information concerning the natives whom they met as
friends or fought as enemies. They have described their picturesque
attire, their curious, sometimes awkward, habits and customs, their
dwellings and plantations, their government in times of peace and war,
as exhaustively as they could do, or thought fit to do. They
distinguished tribes from confederacies, and called the latter
kingdoms and empires, governed by princes, kings and emperors. But the
characteristics of race and language, which are the most important for
ethnology, because they are the most ancient in their origin, are not
often alluded to by them, and when the modern sciences of anthropology
and ethnology had been established on solid principles many of these
southern races had already disappeared or intermingled, and scientific
inquiry came too late for their investigation.
A full elucidation of the history and antiquities of the subject of
our inquiries, the Creeks, is possible only after having obtained an
exhaustive knowledge of the tribes and nations living around them. The
more populous among them have preserved their language and remember
many of their ancestors' customs and habits, so that active
exploration in the field can still be helpful to us in many respects
in tracing and rediscovering their ancient condition. Three centuries
ago the tribes of the Maskoki family must have predominated in power
over all their neighbors, as they do even now in numbers, and had
formed confederacies uniting distant tribes. Whether they ever crossed
the Mississippi river or not, the Indians of this family are as
thoroughly southern as their neighbors, and seem to have inhabited
southern lands for times immemorial. The scientists who now claim that
they descend from the mound builders, do so only on the belief that
they must have dwelt for uncounted centuries in the fertile tracts
where Hernando de Soto found them, and where they have remained up to
a recent epoch. In the territory once occupied by their tribes no
topographic name appears to point to an earlier and alien population;
and as to their exterior, the peculiar olive admixture to their
cinnamon complexion is a characteristic which they have in common with
all other southern tribes.
My introduction to the Kasi'hta national legend proposes to assign to
the Creeks: (1) their proper position in the Maskoki family and among
their other neighbors; and (2) to describe some of their ethnologic
characteristics. The material has been divided in several chapters,
which I have in their logical sequence arranged as follows:
Linguistic families traceable within the Gulf States.
The Maskoki group; its historic subdivisions.
The Creek Indians; tribal topography, historic and ethnographic
notices, sketch of their language.
I. LINGUISTIC GROUPS OF THE GULF STATES.
In the history of the Creeks, and in their legends of migration, many
references occur to the tribes around them, with whom they came in
contact. These contacts were chiefly of a hostile character, for the
normal state of barbaric tribes is to live in almost permanent mutual
conflicts. What follows is an attempt to enumerate and sketch them,
the sketch to be of a prevalently topographic nature. We are not
thoroughly acquainted with the racial or anthropological peculiarities
of the nations surrounding the Maskoki proper on all sides, but in
their languages we possess an excellent help for classifying them.
Language is not an absolute indicator of race, but it is more so in
America than elsewhere, for the _large number_ of linguistic families
in the western hemisphere proves that the populations speaking their
dialects have suffered less than in the eastern by encroachment,
foreign admixture, forcible alteration or entire destruction.
Beginning at the southeast, we first meet the historic Timucua family,
the tribes of which are extinct at the present time; and after
describing the Indians of the Floridian Peninsula, southern extremity,
we pass over to the Yuchi, on Savannah river, to the Naktche, Taensa
and the other stocks once settled along and beyond the mighty Uk'hina,
or "water road" of the Mississippi river.
TIMUCUA.
In the sixteenth century the Timucua inhabited the northern and middle
portion of the peninsula of Florida, and although their exact limits
to the north are unknown, they held a portion of Florida bordering on
Georgia, and some of the coast islands in the Atlantic Ocean, as Guale
(then the name of Amelia) and others. The more populous settlements of
these Indians lay on the eastern coast of Florida, along the St.
John's river and its tributaries, and in the northeastern angle of the
Gulf of Mexico. Their southernmost villages known to us were
Hirrihigua, near Tampa Bay, and Tucururu, near Cape Cañaveral, on the
Atlantic Coast.
The people received its name from one of their villages called
Timagoa, Thimagoua (_Timoga_ on De Bry's map), situated on one of the
western tributaries of St. John's river, and having some political
importance. The name means _lord, ruler, master_ [atimuca "waited
upon (muca) by servants (ati)];" and the people's name is written
Atimuca early in the eighteenth century. We first become acquainted
with their numerous tribes through the memoir of Alvar Nuñez Cabeça de
Vaca, the three chroniclers of de Soto's expedition, and more fully
through Réné de Laudonnière (1564). Two missionaries of the Franciscan
order, Francisco Pareja (1612 sqq.) and Gregorio de Mouilla (1635),
have composed devotional books in their vocalic language. De Bry's
_Brevis Narratio_, Frankfort a. M., 1591, contains a map of their
country, and engravings representing their dwellings, fights, dances
and mode of living.
A few words of their language (_lengua timuquana_ in Spanish) show
affinity with Maskoki, others with Carib. From 1595 A. D. they
gradually became converted to Christianity, revolted in 1687 against
their Spanish oppressors, and early in the eighteenth century (1706)
were so reduced in number that they yielded easily to the attacks of
the Yámassi Indians, who, instigated by English colonists, made
incursions upon their villages from the North. Their last remnants
withdrew to the Mosquito Lagoon, in Volusia County, Florida, where the
name of the Tomoco river still recalls their tribal name.
In 1564, Réné de Laudonnière heard of five head chiefs (paracusi) of
confederacies in the Timucua country, and from Pareja we can infer
that seven or more dialects were spoken in its circumference. The five
head chiefs, Saturiwa, Holata Utina, Potanu, Onethcaqua and Hostaqua
are only tribal names (in the second, Utina is the tribal
appellation), and the dialects, as far as known, were those of
Timagoa, Potanu, Itafi, the Fresh-Water district, Tucururu, Santa
Lucia de Acuera, and Mocama ("on the coast"). The last but one
probably coincided with that of Aïs.
The _Aïs Indians_, who held the coast from Cape Cañaveral, where the
Spaniards had the post Santa Lucia, to a lagoon once called
Aïsahatcha (viz., _Aïs river_), were considered as a people distinct
from the Timucua. They worshiped the sun in the shape of a stuffed
deer raised upon the end of a high beam planted in the ground; this
gave, probably, origin to their name Aïs, for B. Romans interprets
Aïsahatcha by _Deer river_ (itchi, itche _deer_, in Creek and
Seminole). Their territory formed the northern part of the "province"
of Tequesta. Cf. B. Romans, East and West Florida (New York, 1775),
pp. 2. 260. 273. 281. Herrera, Dec. IV, 4, 7. Barcia, Ensayo, p. 118.
CALUSA.
The languages spoken by the Calusa and by the people next in order,
the Tequesta, are unknown to us, and thus cannot be mentioned here as
forming separate linguistic stocks. I simply make mention of these
tribes, because they were regarded as people distinct from the Timucua
and the tribes of Maskoki origin.
The Calusa held the southwestern extremity of Florida, and their
tribal name is left recorded in Calusahatchi, a river south of Tampa
bay. They are called Calos on de Bry's map (1591), otherwise Colusa,
Callos, Carlos, and formed a confederacy of many villages, the names
of which are given in the memoir of Hernando d'Escalante Fontanedo
(Mémoire sur la Floride, in Ternaux-Compans' Collection XX, p. 22;
translated from the original Spanish). These names were written down
in 1559, and do not show much affinity with Timucua; but since they
are the only remnants of the Calusa language, I present the full list:
"Tampa, Tomo, Tuchi, Sogo, No (which signifies 'beloved village'),
Sinapa, Sinaesta, Metamapo, Sacaspada, Calaobe, Estame, Yagua, Guaya,
Guevu, Muspa, Casitoa, Tatesta, Coyovea, Jutun, Tequemapo, Comachica,
Quiseyove and two others in the vicinity. There are others in the
interior, near Lake Mayaimi--viz., Cutespa, Tavaguemue, Tomsobe,
Enempa and twenty others. Two upon the Lucayos obey to the cacique of
Carlos, Guarunguve and Cuchiaga. Carlos and his deceased father were
the rulers of these fifty towns." Fontanedo states that he was
prisoner in these parts from his thirteenth to his thirtieth year;
that he knew four languages, but was not familiar with those of Aïs
and Teaga, not having been there.
One of these names is decidedly Spanish, Sacaspada or
"Draw-the-sword"; two others appear to be Timucua, Calaobe (kala
_fruit_; abo _stalk, tree_) and Comachica (hica _land, country_).
Some may be explained by the Creek language, but only one of them,
Tampa (itímpi _close to it, near it_) is Creek to a certainty; Tuchi
resembles tútchi _kidneys_; Sogo, sá-uka _rattle, gourd-rattle_, and
No is the radix of a-no-kítcha _lover_, anukídshās _I love_, which
agrees with the interpretation given by Fontanedo. Tavaguemue may
possibly contain the Creek táwa _sumach_; Mayaimi (Lake), which
Fontanedo explains by "_very large_," the Creek augmentative term
máhi, and Guevu the Creek u-íwa _water_.
The Spanish orthography, in which these names are laid down, is
unfitted for transcribing Indian languages, perhaps as much
so as the English orthography; nevertheless, we recognize the
frequently-occurring terminal -esta, -sta, which sounds quite like
Timucua. There are no doubt many geographic terms, taken from
Seminole-Creek, in the south of the peninsula as well as in the north;
it only remains to determine what age we have to ascribe to them.
The Calusa bore the reputation of being a savage and rapacious people,
and B. Romans (p. 292) denounces them as having been pirates. He
informs us (p. 289), that "at Sandy Point, the southern extremity of
the peninsula, are large fields, being the lands formerly planted by
the Colusa savages;" and that "they were driven away from the
continent by the Creeks, their more potent neighbors." In 1763 the
remnants, about eighty families, went to Havannah from their last
possessions at Cayos Vacos and Cayo Hueso (hueso, _bone_), where
Romans saw the rests of their stone habitations (p. 291); now called
Cayos bajos and Key West.
On the languages spoken in these parts more will be found under the
heading "Seminole."
TEQUESTA.
Of the Tequesta people on the southeastern end of the peninsula we
know still less than of the Calusa Indians. There was a tradition that
they were the same people which held the Bahama or Lucayo Islands, and
the local names of the Florida coast given by Fontanedo may partly
refer to this nationality.
They obtained their name from a village, Tequesta, which lay on a
river coming from Lake Mayaimi (Fontanedo in Ternaux-C., XX, p. 14)
and was visited by Walter Raleigh (Barcia, Ensayo, p. 161). The lands
of the Aïs formed the northern portion of the Tequesta domains, and a
place called Mocossou is located there on de Bry's map.
This extinct tribe does not seem to have come in contact with the
Creeks, though its area is now inhabited by Seminoles.
KATABA.
The Kataba Indians of North and South Carolina are mentioned here only
incidentally, as they do not appear to have had much intercourse with
any Maskoki tribe. The real extent of this linguistic group is
unknown; being in want of any vocabularies besides that of the Kataba,
on Kataba river, S. C., and of the Woccons, settled near the coast of
N. C., we are not inclined to trust implicitly the statement of Adair,
who speaks of a large Kataba confederacy embracing twenty-eight
villages "of different nations," on Santee, Combahee, Congaree and
other rivers, and speaking dialects of the Kataba language. The
Waterees, seen by Lawson, probably belonged to this stock, and the
Woccons lived contiguous to the Tuscarora-Iroquois tribe.
The passage of Adair being the only notice on the extent of the Kataba
language found in the early authors, excepting Lawson, I transcribe it
here in full (History, pp. 224. 225): "About the year 1743, the nation
(of the Katahba) consisted of almost four hundred warriors, of above
twenty different dialects. I shall mention a few of the national names
of those who make up this mixed language; the _Kátahba_ is the
standard or court dialect--the _Wateree_, who make up a large town;
_Eenó, Charàh_, ||_-wah_, now _Chowan, Canggaree, Nachee, Yamasee,
Coosah_, etc. Their country had an old waste field of seven miles
extent, and several others of smaller dimensions, which shows that
they were formerly a numerous people, to cultivate so much land with
their dull stone axes, etc."
After Charàh a new page begins, and the _-wah_ following, which has no
connection with what precedes, proves that there is a printer's
lacune, perhaps of a whole line. Eenó is given by Lawson as a
Tuscarora town;[2] Charàh is the ancient Sara, Saura, Saraw or Sarau
mentioned by Lederer and others. The "Nachee" certainly did not speak
a Kataba language, nor is there much probability that the Yámassi did
so. By the Coosah are probably meant the Indians living on
Coosawhatchee river, South Carolina, near Savannah. Adair, in his
quality as trader, had visited the Kataba settlements personally.[3]
[Footnote 2: Reprint of 1860, pp. 97. 100. 101. 383.]
[Footnote 3: Cf. B. R. Carroll, Histor. Collect. of S. C., II,
p. 243. Lawson states that the Congaree dialect was not
understood by the Waterees and Chicarees.]
Pénicaut, in his "Relation,"[4] mentions a curious fact, which proves
that the alliances of the Kataba extended over a wide territory in the
South. In 1708, the Alibamu had invited warriors of the Cheroki, Abika
and Kataba (here called _Cadapouces, Canapouces_) to an expedition
against the Mobilians and the French at Fort Mobile. These hordes
arrived near the bay, and were supposed to number four thousand men;
they withdrew without inflicting much damage. More about this
expedition under "Alibamu," q. v.
[Footnote 4: Margry, _Découvertes_, V, 477.]
YUCHI.
None of all the allophylic tribes referred to in this First Part stood
in closer connection with the Creeks or Maskoki proper than the Yuchi
or Uchee Indians. They constituted a portion of their confederacy from
the middle of the eighteenth century, and this gives us the
opportunity to discuss their peculiarities more in detail than those
of the other "outsiders." They have preserved their own language and
customs; no mention is made of them in the migration legend, and the
Creeks have always considered them as a peculiar people.
General Pleasant Porter has kindly favored me with a few ethnologic
points, gained by himself from Yuchi Indians, who inhabit the largest
town in the Creek Nation, Indian Terr., with a population of about
500. "In bodily size they are smaller than the Creeks, but lithe and
of wiry musculature, the muscles often protruding from the body. Their
descent is in the male line, and they were once polygamous. It is a
disputed fact whether they ever observed the custom of flattening
their children's heads, like some of their neighbors. They call
themselves _children of the Sun_, and sun worship seems to have been
more pronounced here than with other tribes of the Gulf States. The
monthly efflux of the Sun, whom they considered as of the female sex,
fell to the earth, as they say, and from this the Yuchi people took
its origin. They increase in number at the present time, and a part of
them are still pagans. Popularly expressed, their language sounds
'like the warble of the prairie-chickens.' It is stated that their
conjurers' songs give a clue to all their antiquities and symbolic
customs. They exclude the use of salt from all drugs which serve them
as medicine. While engaged in making medicine they sing the above
songs for a time; then comes the oral portion of their ritual, which
is followed by other songs."
Not much is known of their language, but it might be easily obtained
from the natives familiar with English. From what we know of it, it
shows no radical affinity with any known American tongue, and its
phonetics have often been noticed for their strangeness. They are said
to speak with an abundance of arrested sounds or voice-checks, from
which they start again with a jerk of the voice. The accent often
rests on the ultima (Powell's mscr. vocabulary), and Ware ascribes to
them, though wrongly, the Hottentot _cluck_.
The numerals follow the decimal, not the quinary system as they do in
the Maskoki languages. The lack of a dual form in the intransitive
verb also distinguishes Yuchi from the latter.
The earliest habitat of the Yuchi, as far as traceable, was on both
sides of the Savannah river, and Yuchi towns existed there down to the
middle of the eighteenth century.
When Commander H. de Soto reached these parts with his army, the
"queen" (señora, caçica) of the country met him at the town Cofetaçque
_on a barge_, a circumstance which testifies to the existence of a
considerable water-course there. Cofetaçque, written also Cofitachiqui
(Biedma), Cofachiqui (Garcilaso de la Vega), Cutifachiqui (consonants
inverted, Elvas) was seven days' march from Chalaque (Cheroki)
"province," and distant from the sea about thirty leagues, as stated
by the natives of the place. There were many ruined towns in the
vicinity, we are told by the Fidalgo de Elvas. One league from there,
in the direction up stream, was Talomeco town, the "temple" of which
is described as a wonderful and curious structure by Garcilaso. Many
modern historians have located these towns on the middle course of
Savannah river, and Charles C. Jones (Hernando de Soto, 1880; pp. 27.
29) believes, with other investigators, that Cofetaçque stood at
Silver Bluff, on the left bank of the Savannah river, about
twenty-five miles by water below Augusta. The domains of that "queen,"
or, as we would express it, the towns and lands of that confederacy,
extended from there up to the Cheroki mountains.
The name Cofita-chiqui seems to prove by itself that these towns were
inhabited by Yuchi Indians; for it contains kowita, the Yuchi term for
_Indian_, and apparently "Indian of our own tribe." This term appears
in all the vocabularies: kawíta, _man, male_; kohwita, ko-ita, plural
kohino'h, _man_; kota, _man_, contracted from kow'ta, kowita; also in
compounds: kowĕt-ten-chōō, _chief_; kohítta makinnung, _chief of a
people_. The terms for the parts of the human body all begin with ko-.
The second part of the name, -chiqui, is a term foreign to Yuchi, but
found in all the dialects of Maskoki in the function of _house_,
_dwelling_, (tchúku, tchóko, and in the eastern or Apalachian
dialects, tchíki) and has to be rendered here in the collective sense
of _houses, town_. Local names to be compared with Cofitachiqui are:
Cofachi, further south, and Acapachiqui, a tract of land near
Apalache.
The signification of the name Yutchi, plural Yutchihá, by which this
people calls itself, is unknown. All the surrounding Indian tribes
call them Yuchi, with the exception of the Lenápi or Delawares, who
style them Tahogaléwi.
But there are two sides to this question. We find the local name
Kawíta, evidently the above term, twice on middle Chatahuchi river,
and also in Cofetalaya, settlements of the Cha'hta Indians in Tala and
Green counties, Mississippi. Did any Yuchi ever live in these
localities in earlier epochs? Garcilaso de Vega, Florida III, c. 10,
states that Juan Ortiz, who had been in the Floridian peninsula
before, acted as interpreter at Cofitachiqui. This raises the query,
did the natives of this "capital" speak Creek or Yuchi? Who will
attempt to give an irrefutable answer to this query?
The existence of a "queen" or caçica, that is, of a chief's widow
invested with the authority of a chief, seems to show that Cofetaçque
town or confederacy did not belong to the Maskoki connection, for we
find no similar instance in Creek towns. Among the Yuchi, succession
is in the male line, but the Hitchiti possess a legendary tradition,
according to which the first chief that ever stood at the head of
their community was a woman.
To determine the extent of the lands inhabited or claimed by the Yuchi
in de Soto's time, is next to impossible. At a later period they lived
on the eastern side of the Savannah river, and on its western side as
far as Ogeechee river, and upon tracts above and below Augusta,
Georgia. These tracts were claimed by them as late as 1736. John
Filson, in his "Discovery etc. of Kentucky" vol. II, 84-87 (1793),
gives a list of thirty Indian tribes, and a statement on Yuchi towns,
which he must have obtained from a much older source: "Uchees occupy
four different places of residence, at the head of St. John's, the
fork of St. Mary's, the head of Cannouchee and the head of St.
Tillis.[5] These rivers rise on the borders of Georgia and run
separately into the ocean." To Cannouchee answers a place _Canosi_,
mentioned in Juan de la Vandera's narrative (1569); the name, however,
is Creek and not Yuchi. Hawkins states that formerly Yuchi were
settled in small villages at Ponpon, Saltketchers and Silver Bluff, S.
C., and on the Ogeechee river, Ga. In 1739 a Yuchi town existed on the
Savannah river, twenty-five miles above Ebenezer, which is in
Effingham county, Georgia, near Savannah City (Jones, Tomochichi, p.
117; see next page).
[Footnote 5: The present Satilla river; falsely written St.
Illa, Santilla, St. Tillie.]
From notices contained in the first volume of Urlsperger's
"Ausführliche Nachricht," pp. 845. 850-851, we gather the facts that
this Yuchi town was five miles above the Apalachicola Fort, which
stood in the "Pallachucla savanna," and that its inhabitants
celebrated an annual busk, which was at times visited by the
colonists. Governor Oglethorpe concluded an alliance with this town,
and when he exchanged presents to confirm the agreement made, he
obtained skins from these Indians. Rev. Boltzius, the minister of the
Salzburger emigrants, settled in the vicinity, depicts their character
in dark colors; he states "they are much inclined to Robbing and
Stealing," but was evidently influenced by the Yámassi and Yamacraw in
their vicinity, who hated them as a race foreign to themselves. Of
these he says, "these Creeks are Honest, Serviceable and
Disinterested."[6]
[Footnote 6: Extract from Rev. B's Journal; London, 1734, 12mo,
p. 37.]
The reason why the Yuchi people gradually left their old seats and
passed over to Chatahuchi and Flint rivers is stated as follows by
Benj. Hawkins, United States Agent among the Creeks in his instructive
"Sketch of the Creek Country" (1799).[7]
[Footnote 7: Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, vol.
III, part first, pp. 61-63 (Savannah, 1848).]
In 1729, "Captain Ellick," an old chief of Kasí'hta, married three
Yuchi women and brought them to Kasí'hta. This was greatly disliked by
his townspeople, and he was prevailed upon to move across Chatahuchi
river, opposite to where Yuchi town was in Hawkins' time; he settled
there with his three brothers, two of whom had intermarried with
Yuchis. After this, the chief collected all the Yuchi people, gave
them lands on the site of Yuchi town, and there they settled.
Hawkins eulogizes the people by stating that they are more civil,
orderly and industrious than their neighbors (the Lower Creeks), the
men more attached to their wives, and these more chaste. He estimates
the number of their warriors ("gun-men"), including those of the three
branch villages, at about two hundred and fifty. These branch towns
were Intatchkálgi, "beaver-dam people";[8] Padshiläíka, "pigeon
roost"; and Tokogálgi, "tad-pole people", on Flint river and its side
creeks; while a few Yuchi had gone to the Upper Creeks and settled
there at Sawanógi. Yuchi, the main town, lay on the western bank of
Chatahuchi river, on a tributary called Yuchi creek, ten and one-half
miles below Kawíta Talahássi, and two miles above Osutchi. Another
water course, called "Uchee river," runs from the west into Oklokoni
river, or "Yellow Water," in the southwestern corner of the State of
Georgia. Morse, in his list of Seminole settlements (1822), mentions a
Yuchi town near Mikasuki, Florida.
[Footnote 8: See below: List of Creek Settlements.]
The main Yuchi town on Chatahuchi river was built in a vast plain
rising from the river. W. Bartram, who saw it in 1775, depicts it as
the largest, most compact, and best situated Indian town he ever saw;
the habitations were large and neatly built, the walls of the houses
consisted of a wooden frame, lathed and plastered inside and outside
with a reddish clay, and roofed with cypress bark or shingles. He
estimated the number of the inhabitants at one thousand or fifteen
hundred. They were usually at variance with the Maskoki confederacy,
and "did not mix" with its people, but were wise enough to unite with
them against a common enemy (Travels, pp. 386. 387).
The early reports may often have unconsciously included the Yuchi
among the Apalachi[9] and Apalatchúkla. Among the chiefs who
accompanied Tomochichi, miko of the Yamacraw Indians, to England in
1733, was Umphichi or Umpeachy, "a Uchee chief from Palachocolas."[10]
[Footnote 9: Cf. Gallatin, Synopsis, p. 95.]
[Footnote 10: Chas. C. Jones, Tomochichi, pp. 58. 83.]
William Bartram, who traveled through these parts from 1773 to 1778,
and published his "Travels" many years later,[11] calls them "Uche or
Savannuca," which is the Creek Sawanógi, or "dwellers upon Savannah
river." This name Savannuca, and many equally sounding names, have
caused much confusion concerning a supposed immigration of the
Sháwano or Shawnee Indians (of the Algonkin race) into Georgia, among
historians not posted in Indian languages. Sawanógi is derived from
Savannah river, which is named after the prairies extending on both
sides, these being called in Spanish sabana. Sabana, and savane in the
Canadian French, designate a grassy plain, level country, prairie,
also in Span. pasture extending over a plain; from Latin sabana
_napkin_. It still occurs in some local names of Canada and of Spanish
America. But this term has nothing at all in common with the Algonkin
word sháwano _south_, from which are derived the tribal names: Sháwano
or Shawnee, once on Ohio and Cumberland rivers and their tributaries;
Chowan in Southern Virginia; Siwoneys in Connecticut; Sawannoe in New
Jersey (about 1616); Chaouanons, the southern division of the Illinois
or Maskoutens.
[Footnote 11: Published Philadelphia, 1791.]
These tribes, and many others characterized as _southerners_ by the
same or similar Algonkin names, had no connection among themselves,
besides the affinity in their dialects, which for the Chowans is not
even certain. The tradition that Sháwanos existed in Upper Georgia,
around Tugĕlo, and on the head waters of the large Georgia rivers,
requires therefore further examination. Milfort, in his Mémoire (pp.
9. 10) states that lands were obtained from "les Savanogués, sauvages
qui habitent cette partie (de Tougoulou)," for the plantation of
vineyards, about 1775. The name of the Suwanee river, Florida, and
that of Suwanee Creek and town, northeast of Atlanta, Georgia, seem to
contain the Creek term sawáni _echo_. By all means, these names cannot
serve to prove the presence of the Sháwano tribe in these eastern
parts, but a settlement of Sháwanos, also called Sawanógi, existed on
Tallapoosa river, where they seem to have been mixed with Yuchi.[12]
[Footnote 12: Cf. List of Creek Towns, and Pénicaut, in B.
French, Hist. Coll. La., new series, p. 126; Force, Some Notices
on Indians of Ohio, p. 22.]
A. Gallatin, "Synopsis of the Indian Tribes," p. 95, mentions a
tradition, according to which "the ancient seats of the Yuchi were
east of the Coosa, and probably of the Chatahuchi river, and that they
consider themselves as the most ancient inhabitants of the country."
Of which country? If the whole country is meant, which was at the dawn
of history held by Maskoki tribes, the name of the Yazoo river may be
adduced as an argument for the truth of this tradition, for yasu,
yashu is the Yuchi term for _leaf_ and any _leaf-bearing tree_, even
_pines_ (from yá, _wood, tree_), and Kawíta has been mentioned
above. From a thorough comparative study of the Yuchi language, the
Maskoki dialects and the local nomenclature of the country, we can
alone expect any reliable information upon the extent and the area of
territory anciently held by the Yuchi; but at present it is safest to
locate their "priscan home" upon both sides of Lower Savannah river.
CHEROKI.
Intercourse between the Creek and the Cheroki Indians must have taken
place in prehistoric times, as evidenced by local names, and more so
by Cheroki terms adopted into the Creek language.
The Cheroki, or more correctly, Tsálagi nation is essentially a hill
people; their numerous settlements were divided into two great
sections by the watershed ridge of the Alleghany mountains, in their
language Unéga katúsi ("_white, whitish mountains_"), of which even
now a portion is called "Smoky Mountains." Northwest of that ridge lay
the Cheroki villages of the _Overhill settlement_, Ótari, Ótali ("_up,
above_"), along the Great and Little Tennessee rivers and their
tributaries, while southeast of it, in the mountains of North Carolina
and on the head waters of the Georgia rivers, extended the towns of
the _Lower Cheroki_, or Erati (in Cheroki élati, _below, nether_).
There were also a number of Cheroki villages in the northern parts of
Alabama State, and du Pratz distinctly states, that the "Chéraquies"
lived east of the Abé-ikas.[13] While calling a person of their own
people by the name of Atsálagi, in the plural Anitsálagi, they
comprise all the Creeks under the name of Kúsa, from Coosa river, or
more probably from the ancient, far-famed town of the same name:
Agúsa, Kúsa, Gúsa, _a Creek person_; Anigúsa, _the Creek people_; Gúsa
uniwoní'hsti, _the Creek language_.
[Footnote 13: Le Page du Pratz, Hist. de la Louisiane, II, p.
208 sq. (Paris, 1758): "A l'est des Abé-ikas sont les
Chéraquis."]
The Cheroki language was spoken in many dialects before the people
emigrated to the lands allotted to them in the northeastern part of
the Indian Territory, and even now a difference may be observed
between the Western Cheroki and the Eastern or Mountain Cheroki, which
is the language of the people that remained in the hills of Western
North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee.[14] Mr. Horatio Hale has
recently demonstrated the affinity of Cheroki with the Iroquois
stock;[15] Wendát and Tuscarora form other dialectic branches of it,
showing much closer relation to the Iroquois dialects of Western New
York than Cheroki. Thirty-two terms of the Keowe dialect (Lower
Cheroki), taken down by B. Hawkins, are embodied in an unpublished
vocabulary, which is in the possession of the American Philosophical
Society in Philadelphia.[16] Another ancient dialect is that of Kitówa
or Kitúa; this is the name by which the Cheroki are known among
several northern tribes, as Delawares and Sháwano (cf. below); it was
also the name of a secret society among the Cheroki, which existed at
the time of the Secession war.
[Footnote 14: The Mountain Cheroki are centering around
Quallatown, Haywood county, N. C., and an United States agent is
residing in their country. Their population is about 1600;
others live in Northern Georgia.]
[Footnote 15: H. Hale, "Indian Migrations, as evidenced by
language." American Antiquarian, vol. V, pp. 18-28 and 108-124
(1883).]
[Footnote 16: The name Keowe is taken from a narcotic plant used
for catching fish, which grew in the vicinity of that village.]
The Cheroki Indians are bodily well developed, rather tall in stature
and of an irritable temper, flashing up easily. In the eighteenth
century they were engaged in constant wars, and from their mountain
fastnesses made sallies upon all the surrounding Indian tribes. The
Iroquois or "Northern Indians" attacked them in their own country, as
they also did the Kataba and Western Algonkins. A warlike spirit
pervaded the whole Cheroki nation, and even women participated in
their raids and fights.[17]
[Footnote 17: Lieut. H. Timberlake, Memoirs (London, 1765), pp.
70. 71. Urlsperger, Nachricht, I, p. 658, where they are called
"Tzerrickey Indianer." D. Coxe calls them Sulluggees.]
Wm. Bartram states, that the Cheroki men had a lighter and more olive
complexion than the contiguous Creek tribes, adding that some of their
young girls were nearly as fair and blooming as European women. H.
Timberlake, who visited a portion of their villages (on Great
Tennessee river) in 1762, represents them as of a middle stature,
straight, well built, with small heads and feet, and of an olive
color, though generally painted. They shaved the hair of their heads,
and many of the old people had it plucked out by the roots, the
scalp-lock only remaining. The ears were slit and stretched to an
enormous circumference, an operation which caused them incredible pain
and was adopted from the Sháwano or some other northern nation. The
women wore the hair long, even reaching to the knees, but plucked it
out from all the other parts of the body, especially the looser part
of the sex (Memoirs, pp. 49-51). Polygamy then existed among them.
They erected houses extending sometimes from sixty to seventy feet in
length, but rarely over sixteen in width, and covered them with narrow
boards. Some of these houses were two stories high, and a hot-house or
sudatory stood close to every one of these capacious structures. They
also made bark canoes and canoes of poplar[18] or pine, from thirty to
forty feet long and about _two_ feet broad, with flat bottoms and
sides. Pottery was made by them of red and white clay (_Ibid._, pp.
59-62).
[Footnote 18: The term for _poplar_, tsíyu, is also the term for
_canoe_ and for _trough_.]
The male population was divided into a class of head-men or chiefs,
recruited by popular election, the selection being made among the most
valorous men and the best orators in their councils; and in two
classes of "yeomen": the "warriors" and the "fighting men," these
being inferior to the warriors.
Distinction in reward of exploits was conferred through the honorary
titles of Outacity, "man killer," Kolona, "raven" and "Beloved," names
to which parallels will be found among the Creeks. (_Ibid._, pp. 70,
71.)
Seven clans or gentes exist among the Cheroki, and many of them
observe to the present day the regulations imposed by the gentile
organization. They will not marry into their own gens or phratry, for
instance. The totems of these gentes (anatáyaⁿwe, _gens, clan_)
were obtained in 1880 from Mr. Richard Wolf, delegate of the people to
the United States government, as follows:
1. Aniweyahiá anatáyaⁿwe, _wolf_ gens, the most important of
all.
2. Ane-igilóhi anatáyaⁿwe, _long hair_ gens.
3. Anigodegē′we, the gens to which Mr. Wolf belongs. They can
marry into all gentes, except into the _long hair_ clan, because
this contains their "_aunts_" (ä`loki).
4. Anitsī′skwa, _bird_ gens.
5. Aniwō′te, _paint_ gens; (wō′te, wo′de, _clay_; aniwō′ti,
_paint_).
6. Anigo-ulé, anikulé, _acorn_ gens.
7. Anisahóne, _blue_ gens.
Besides the fact that gentes Nos. 2 and 3 belong to one phratry, the
other phratries and their names were not remembered by the informant.
The prefix ani- marks the plural of animate beings.
The list of totemic gentes printed in Lewis H. Morgan, Ancient
Society, p. 164, differs from the above in giving ten gentes, two
being extinct, and one or two being perhaps phratries and not
gentes:--
1. _Wolf_, aniwhíya. 2. _Red paint_, aniwóte. 3. _Long prairie_,
anigätagáni'h. 4. _Deaf_ (a bird), dsuliniana. 5. _Holly tree_,
anisdásdi. 6. _Deer_, anikáwi'h. 7. _Blue_, anisahókni. 8. _Long
hair_, anikalóhai. 9. _Acorn_, anidsúla (extinct). 10. _Bird_,
anidséskwa (extinct).
The names of several Cheroki towns are mentioned by the historians of
de Soto's expedition, which traversed a portion of their country; by
Adair, Timberlake and by Wm. Bartram, who has left a long list of
their settlements.
The rare publication: Weston (Pl. Chas. Jennett), Documents connected
with the History of South Carolina, London, 1856, 4to, contains an
article by de Brahm, which gives an ethnologic sketch and many other
particulars of the Southern Indians, and especially refers to the
Cheroki (pp. 218-227). The English-Cheroki war, from February to
August, 1760, is narrated pp. 208-213.
The tradition that the Cheroki, or rather a portion of them, were
found living in caves, is substantiated by the appellation
"Cave-dwellers," given to them by the Northern Indians. The Comanches
call them Ebikuita; the Senecas, Uyáda, cave-men; the Wendát,
Uwatáyo-róno, from uwatáyo, which in their language means "_hole_ in
the ground, _cave_;" the Sháwano call them Katowá, plural Katowági;
and the Delawares by the same name, Gatohuá (Barton, Appendix, p. 8:
Gattóchwa). This refers to Kitówa, one of their towns previously
mentioned. Caves of the old Cheroki country were examined by
archæologists, and some of them showed marks of former occupation,
especially caves in Sullivan and Hawkins counties, Tennessee. This
reminds us of the Troglodytæ and Mandritæ of ancient times, of the
Cliff-Dwellers on Upper Colorado river, New Mexico, and of other
American tribes, which lived in caves. Thus a Shasti tribe, the
Weohow, are reported to have received this name from a "stone house"
or rock dwelling situated in their country, east of Shasta River and
south of the Siskiyou Mountains.[19]
[Footnote 19: Cf. Ind. Affairs' Report, 1864, p. 120.]
Lists of the ancient Cheroki towns will be found in W. Bartram's
Travels, p. 371-372 (forty-three), in H. Timberlake (his map is also
reproduced in Jefferys' Topography of N. A., an atlas in fol., 1762),
and in J. Gerar W. de Brahm, Hist. of the Prov. of Georgia, Wormsloe
1849, fol., p. 54.
ARKANSAS.
None of the numerous Algonkin tribes lived in the immediate
neighborhood of the Maskoki family of Indians, but of the Dakotan
stock the Arkansas (originally Ákansā--the Akansea of Father
Gravier), dwelt in close proximity, and had frequent intercourse with
this Southern nation.
Pénicaut relates[20] that the French commander, Lemoyne d'Iberville,
sailed up the Mississippi river, and sixty leagues above the mouth of
the Yazoo found the mouth of the Arkansas river; eight leagues above,
on the same western shore, was the nation of the Arkansas, and in
their town were two other "nations," called Torimas and Kappas. By
these warlike and hunting tribes he was received in a friendly manner.
The men are described as stout and thick-set (gros et trapus), the
women as pretty and light-complexioned. Imahao, another Arkansas
village, is mentioned in Margry IV, 179. The affluent of the
Mississippi on which the Arkansas were settled was, according to D.
Coxe, Carolana, p. 11, the Ousoutowy river: another name for Arkansas
river.[21]
[Footnote 20: Margry, P., Découvertes et Etablissements des
Français dans l'ouest et dans le Sud de l'Amérique
Septentrionale, Paris, 1876, etc., V, 402.]
[Footnote 21: cf. D. Coxe, Carolana, pp. 11. 13.]
From Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, who makes a special study of all the Dakota
tribes, I obtained the following oral information, founded on his
personal intercourse with individuals of the Káppa tribe:
"Ákansa is the Algonkin name by which the Kápa, Quápa were called by
the eastern Indians, as Illinois, etc. They call themselves Ugáχpa
and once lived in four villages, two of which were on Mississippi, two
on Arkansas river, near its mouth: Their towns, though now transferred
to the Indian Territory, northeastern angle, have preserved the same
names:
"1. Ugaχpáχti or 'real Kápa.' Ugáχpa means 'down stream,' just
as O′maha means 'up stream.'
"2. Tiwadímaⁿ, called Toriman by French authors.
"3. Uzutiúhe, corrupted into O′sotchoue, O′sochi, Southois by
the French authors. Probably means: 'village upon low-land
level.'
"4. Taⁿwaⁿzhika or 'small village;' corrupted into Topinga,
Tonginga, Donginga by the French.
"The Pacaha 'province' of de Soto's historians is a name inverted from
Capaha, which is Ugáχpa. The form Quápa is incorrect, for Kápa (or
Kápaha of La Salle), which is abbreviated from Ugáχpa."
In 1721 LaHarpe saw three of their villages on the Mississippi river,
and noticed snake worship among these Indians.
TAENSA.
I. THE NORTHERN TAENSA.
On account of the recent discovery of their consonantic language,
which proves to be disconnected from any other aboriginal tongue
spoken in North America, a peculiar interest attaches itself to the
tribe of the Taensa Indians, whose cabins stood in Tensas county,
Louisiana, bordering east on Mississippi river. The Tensas river, in
French _Bayou Tensa_, which joins the Washita river at Trinity City,
after forming a prodigious number of bends, and flowing past a
multitude of artificial mounds, still keeps up the memory of this
extinct tribe.
In March 1700, the French commander L. d'Iberville calculated the
distance from the landing of the Natchez to that of the Taensas,
following the river, at about 15-1/2 leagues, and in the air-line,
11-1/4 leagues. That Taensa landing, at the foot of a bluff nine
hundred feet high (150 _toises_), was about 32°5´ Lat., while
d'Iberville, trusting his inaccurate methods of measuring, located it
at 32°47´ Lat. (Margry IV, 413).
The tribe occupied seven villages at the time of d'Iberville's visit,
which were distant four leagues from the Mississippi river, and
grouped around a semi-circular lake, probably _Lake St. Joseph_. One
hundred and twenty of these cabins were extending for two leagues on
the lake shore, and a "temple" was among them. The missionary
Montigny, who visited the locality about the same epoch, estimated the
population of that part of the Taensa settlement which he saw at 400
persons. "They were scattered over an area of eight leagues, and their
cabins lay along a river."
The seven villages visited by d'Iberville constitute _one town_ only,
as he was told. This means to say that they formed a confederacy. A
Taensa Indian, who accompanied him, gave their names in the Chicasa
trade language, or, as the French called it, the Mobilian jargon
(Margry IV, 179).
1. Taënsas; from Cha'hta taⁿdshi _maize_.
2. Ohytoucoulas; perhaps from úti _chestnut_; cf. utápa
_chestnut eater_. For -ougoula, cf. p. 36.
3. Nyhougoulas;
4. Couthaougoulas; from Cha'hta uk'hátaχ _lake_.
5. Conchayon; cf. Cha'hta kónshak _reed, species of cane_.
6. Talaspa; probably from ta`lapi _five_, or ta`lepa _hundred_.
7. Chaoucoula; from Cha'hta issi _deer_, or hátche _river,
water-course_.
In the Taensa Grammar and Vocabulary of Haumonté, Parisot and Adam
(Paris, 1882), the name by which the people called itself is
Hâstriryini "_warriors, men, tribe_;" cf. p. 91: hâstri _to fight_,
_make war_; hâstrir _warrior, man_; hâstriryi _people, tribe_; but
Tensagini also occurs in the texts, which would point to an extensive
maize culture.
The Taensa were sun worshipers, and had a temple with idols and a
perpetual fire. When d'Iberville sojourned among them, lightning
struck their temple and destroyed it, upon which the mothers
sacrificed their infants, to appease the wrath of the incensed deity,
by throwing them into the burning edifice (Margry IV, 414, etc.; V,
398). The people then rubbed their faces and bodies with _earth_.
Nothing definite is known about their gentes, phratries and totems.
Several French authors represent them as speaking the Naktche language
(which is untrue) and as being of the same nation.[22] D'Iberville
states that their language differed from that of the Huma tribe.
[Footnote 22: Grammaire et Voc. Taensa, _Introd._, pp. xii. xiv.
Compare also Margry, _Déc. et Etabl._, I, 556-557, 566-568,
600-602, 609-610, 616; IV, 414. Their temple, described by le
Sieur de Tonty (traveling with la Salle in 1682) in French,
Hist. Coll. of La., I, pp. 61. 64.]
The remnants of a tribe called Mosopellea, probably of
Illinois-Algonkin origin and previously residing west of the "Isle of
Tamaroa," on western shore of Mississippi river, joined the Taensa,
and were met there in 1682 by Tonti. They had been almost annihilated
by the Iroquois.[23]
[Footnote 23: Margry I, 610. Mosopolea, _ibid._ II, 237;
Monsopela, on the map in D. Coxe, Carolana.]
The Taensa had, at one time, formed an alliance with the Koroa, then
on Yazoo river, and another with the Arkansas Indians.
The Taensa grammar speaks of a northern and of a southern, more
polished dialect, but does not locate them topographically. The only
word of Taensa which I have found to agree with any other language, is
ista _eye_; it also occurs in Southern Dakotan dialects.
II. THE SOUTHERN TAENSA.
In early colonial times a portion of the Northern Taensa, driven from
their homes on the Taensa river by the rage of the Chicasa, fled to
the Mobilians. The French settled them on the western side of Mobile
bay, below Fort St. Louis, and thirty miles above Fort Condé, which
stood on the site of the present city of Mobile.[24] The French called
them "les petits Taënsas" in contradistinction to the "great (or
northern) Taënsas," on Mississippi and Taensa rivers. About the middle
of the eighteenth century one hundred of their cabins stood _north_ of
the French fort St. Louis, and also north of the Tohome Indian
settlement. The Taensa were then speaking their native language and,
besides this, a corrupt Chicasa dialect, called the Mobilian language
by the French.[25] Subsequently they must have removed from there to
the eastern channel, for Bartram, Travels, pp. 401. 403, describes
Taensa there as a "pretty high bluff, on the eastern channel of the
great Mobile river, about thirty miles above Fort Condé, or city of
Mobile, at the head of the bay ... with many artificial mounds of
earth and other ruins." During the wars of 1813-15 the adjacent
country is called the "Tensaw country."
[Footnote 24: At that time they were warring unsuccessfully
against the Huma (1713); Pénicaut (in Margry V, 508. 509) saw
them at Manchac.]
[Footnote 25: T. Jefferys, Hist. of French Dominions in America;
London, 1761; I, p. 162, sq.]
It is not unlikely that these Taensa were identical with the "petits
Taënsas" seen by Lemoyne d'Iberville at the Huma town in March 1700,
and described by him as migratory, but living most of the time at
three days' distance west of Huma, and then warring against the
Bayogoulas. They gained their sustenance by hunting, though buffaloes
were scarce in their country, and were men of a fine physique (Margry
IV, 408). In 1702 they defeated the Bayogoulas and burnt their village
on Mississippi river; the Bayogoulas fled to the French fort on that
river, then commanded by Mr. St. Denis. If identical with the Taensa
on Mobile river, these fights of theirs must have occurred during
their passage from the North to the bay of Mobile.
III. THE TANGIPAHOA.
A third tribe, which may have stood in some connection with the two
tribes above, are the _Tangipahoa Indians_ settled in various places
east of New Orleans, especially on Tangipahoa river, in southeastern
Louisiana. A French author states that they formed one of the seven
villages of the Acolapissa. The name is written in different ways, and
is interpreted by Gov. Allen Wright as "those who gather maize
stalks," from táⁿdshe _maize_; ápi _stalk, cob_; áyua _they gather_.
Pénicaut defines the name differently, for he states (Margry V, 387)
"we found (northwest of Lake Pontchartrain) a river, Tandgepao, which
in the Indian signifies '_bled blanc_.'" The Taensapaoa tribe, on the
river of the same name, is referred to in Bartram, Travels, p. 422;
cf. p. 423. We have no notice concerning the language spoken by this
tribe, which was, perhaps, incorporated into the Cha'hta living now
around New Orleans; thus we are unable to decide whether they spoke
Cha'hta, like the other Acolapissa, or another tongue. The Tangibao
tribe was "destroyed by the Oumas," as stated in a passage of Margry
(IV, 168); by which is meant, that they were scattered and their
tribal connection disrupted.
NAKTCHE.
Of the Lower Mississippi tribes the most powerful and populous was
that of the Naktche, settled at the beginning of the eighteenth
century in nine villages on and about St. Catherine creek (Lúkfi-ákula
in Cha'hta: "_clay-digging place_," to daub houses with), in a
beautiful and fertile country. This stream wends its way first south,
then west, in a semi-circular course, around the present city of
Natchez, Mississippi, and runs at an average distance of three to
four miles from it. Other Naktche villages existed in its vicinity.
Náktche is the correct form of the tribal name, though this people
appears to have called itself by some other appellation. Natchez is
the old-fashioned plural adopted from French orthography; we might
just as well write Iroquoiz, Islinoiz or Adayez, instead of the
terminal -s now designating the plural in French. The Cheroki Indians
call a Nache, Natche or Náktche person A′noχtse, A′nnoχtse,
the people or tribe Anínoχtse, shortened into Ani`htse, which proves
that a guttural has been elided from the present form of the name.
Isalakti, from whom Albert Gallatin obtained a vocabulary of the
language, called himself a Nahktse, not a Natche chief.
The name is of Shetimasha origin, I have reasons to assume. Náksh in
that language means _one that is in a hurry, one running_, náksh
así,[26] abbrev. náksh _warrior_; and the earliest French explorers
may have heard that name from the Shetimasha Indians settled on the
Mississippi, where Bayou Lafourche, also called the river of the
Shetimasha, branches off from it. Should the name belong to the
Chicasa trade language, we might think of the Cha'hta adverb: naksika
_aside, away from_, referring to the site of the Naktche villages at
some distance from the great "water-road," the Mississippi river.
[Footnote 26: Literally, "a hurrying man." In the sign language
of the Mississippi plains, the sign for _fighting_ or _battle_
is the same as for _riding a horse_.]
The Naktche tribe owes its celebrity and almost romantic fame to
several causes: their towns were populous, the government more
centralized than that of the surrounding native populations; the
French settled in their vicinity, and hence their authors have left to
posterity more information concerning their confederacy than
concerning other tribes; their stubborn resistance to French
encroachments gave them a high reputation for bravery; their religious
customs, centering in a highly developed sun-worship, made of them an
object of curious interest and far-going ethnologic speculation for
the white colonists, whose views on the Naktche we must receive with
the utmost caution.
L. d'Iberville reports, that at the time of his visit (March 1699) the
villages of the Naktche made up _one town_ only, and formed a complex
of contiguous villages called Théloël or Thécoël[27] (Margry IV, 179).
[Footnote 27: The handwriting of this name is indistinct, but in
the sequel, wherever this name is mentioned, Margry prints it
Théloël. There can scarcely be any doubt of its identity with
Thoucoue, the seventh village in the list.]
The annalist Pénicaut, who visited these parts in 1704, states that
the nine villages were situated in a delightful country, swarming with
buffaloes, drained by rivulets and partly wooded. The village or
residence of the head chief, _the Sun_, lay one league from the
Mississippi river, and three other villages were on a brook, at a
distance of half a league from each other. He alludes to their human
sacrifices, the frequency of infanticide, and gives descriptions of
their temple, perpetual fire, their "_marche des cadavres_" and
articles of dress. The house of the Sun was large enough to contain
four thousand persons; he had female servants called _oulchil tichon_,
and thirty male attendants ("laquais") or _loüés_, the Allouez of
other chroniclers. Mother-right prevailed among them (Margry V,
444-456).
The Taensa guide, who accompanied d'Iberville to the Naktche tribe in
1699, furnished him a list of the nine villages, their names being
given in the Chicasa trade language. I presume that they are given in
the topographical order as they followed each other on St. Catharine
creek, from its mouth upward, since the "Nachés" village or residence
of the Sun was distant one league only from the Mississippi river. We
are not acquainted with the names given to these villages in the
Naktche language. The etymologies of the Cha'hta language were
obtained from Allen Wright; the suffixed word -ougoula is the Cha'hta
ókla _people, tribe_.
1. Nachés;
2. Pochougoula; "_pond-lily people_," from Cha'hta pántchi
_pond lily_.
3. Ousagoucoulas; "_hickory people_," from Cha'hta û′ssak,
óssak _hickory_.
4. Cogoucoulas; "_swan people_," from ókok _swan_.
5. Yatanocas;
6. Ymacachas; almost homonymous with the Arkansas village
Imahao, mentioned above.
7. Thoucoue; probably identical with Théloël (cf. above) and
the Thioux of later authors.
8. Tougoulas; "_wood_ or _forest people_" from iti _wood_.
9. Achougoulas; "_pipe people_," from ashunga _pipe_,
literally, "the thing they smoke from;" cf. shúngali _I
smoke from_.
Although these names are considerably frenchified in their
orthography, the meaning of some admits of no doubt. When I visited
Natchez city in January 1882, I was informed that the White Apple
village, called Apilua (Vpelois) and mentioned by Le Page du Pratz, is
supposed to have existed twelve to fifteen miles southeast of the
city. The White Earth village and the village of the Meal were other
settlements of theirs. Owing to incessant rains, I could not explore
the sites to their full extent, but found a flat mound south of St.
Catharine's creek, with a diameter of thirty-two feet and perfectly
circular, which lay at the same distance from the Mississippi as given
above for the residence of the Sun. Col. J. F. H. Claiborne's _History
of Mississippi_, vol. I, 40-47, gives valuable extracts from French
archives, pointing to the real sites of the Naktche habitations. The
colossal mound of Seltzer-town stands but a short distance from the
creek alluded to, and is fourteen miles from Natchez city to the
northeast.
The settlement of the French on the heights of Natchez, the growing
animosity of the natives against the intruders, the three successive
wars, the massacre of the colonists in November, 1729, and the final
dispersion of the tribe in February 1730, are well-known historic
facts and need not be repeated in this volume. The disorganized
warriors retreated with their families to different parts of the
country. One party fled across Mississippi river to some locality near
Trinity City, La., where they entrenched themselves, but were
attacked, defeated and partly captured by a body of French troops two
years later. Another party reached the Chicasa country and was granted
a home and protection by that tribe; but the revengeful French
colonists declared war upon the hospitable Chicasa for sheltering
their mortal enemies, and invaded their lands by way of the Yazoo
river in 1736, but were compelled to retreat after suffering
considerable loss. Fort Tombigbee, constructed in 1735, served as a
second base for the French operations. Further French-Chicasa wars
occurred in 1739-40 and in 1748.[28]
[Footnote 28: Cf. Adair, History, p. 354 sqq. On Fort Tombigbee,
_ibid._, pp. 285, 291.]
Later on, we find their remnants among the Creeks, who had provided
them with seats on Upper Coosa river, and incorporated them into their
confederacy. They built a village called Naktche, and a part of them
went to reside in the neighboring Abikúdshi town. Naktche town lay, in
B. Hawkins' time (1799), on a creek of the same name, joining Coosa
river sixty miles above its confluence with Tallapoosa river, and
harbored from fifty to one hundred warriors (Hawkins, p. 42). A number
of Naktche families, speaking their paternal language, now live in the
hilly parts of the Cheroki Nation, Indian Territory.
A body of Indians, called by French and English writers Thioux and
Grigras, remained in the vicinity of the Natchez colony after the
departure of the Naktche Indians, who had been the ruling tribe of the
confederacy. It is doubtful whether these two divisions were of
foreign or of Naktche origin, though the latter seems improbable. The
Grigras were called so on account of a peculiarity in their
pronunciation; it probably referred to what the French call
_grasseyer_, and the Canadian French _parler gras_.[29] Eleven Sháwano
were once brought to the villages as captives, and were known there as
"Stinkards," "Puants," terms which served to interpret the Naktche
term métsmetskop _miserable, bad, wretched, inferior_.
[Footnote 29: It is stated that the Thioux were a small body of
Indians, reduced in numbers by the Chicasa, and then
incorporated by the Naktche; their language possessed the sound
R. If this latter statement is true, their language was neither
of the Naktche nor of the Maskoki or Dakota family. In
conversation the Grigras often used this word _grigra_, which
also implies the use of the articulation R. Cf. Le Page du
Pratz, IV, chap, ii, sect. 1; Jefferys, French Dom. in America,
p. 162, and what is said of the Sháwano under Yuchi, p.]
The scanty vocabularies which we possess of the Naktche language
contain a sprinkling of foreign terms adopted from the Chicasa or
Mobilian. Two languages at least were spoken before 1730 in the
Naktche villages; the Naktche by the ruling class or tribe; the other,
the Chicasa or trade language by the "low people;" and hence the
mixture referred to. Du Pratz gives specimens of both. Naktche is a
vocalic language, rich in verbal forms, and, to judge from a few
specimens, polysynthetic to a considerable degree in its affixes.
TONICA.
Migratory dispositions seem to have inhered to the Tonica or Tunica
tribe in a higher degree than to their southern neighbors, for in the
short lapse of two centuries we see them stationed at more than three
places.
In a letter addressed by Commander Lemoyne d'Iberville to the Minister
of the French Navy, dated from Bayogoulas, February 26th, 1700, he
states that an English fur-trader and Indian slave-jobber had just
visited the Tonica, who are on a river emptying into the Mississippi,
twenty leagues above the Taensa Indians, at some distance from the
Chicasa, and 170 leagues from the Gulf of Mexico. When d'Iberville
ascended the Yazoo river in the same year, he found a village of this
tribe on its right (or western) bank, four days' travel from the
Natchez landing. Seven villages were seen upon this river, which is
navigable for sixty leagues. The Tonica village, the lowest of them,
was two days' travel from Thysia, the uppermost (Margry IV, 180. 362.
398; V, 401). La Harpe mentions the establishment of a mission house
among the Tonica on Yazoo river.[30]
[Footnote 30: French, Hist. Coll. III, 16; cf. Margry V, 525.
The names of these villages to be given under Chicasa, q. v.]
In 1706, when expecting to become involved in a conflict with the
Chicasa and Alibamu Indians, the Tonica tribe, or a part of it, fled
southward to the towns of the Huma, and massacred a number of these
near the site where New Orleans was built afterwards (French, Hist.
Coll. of La., III, 35). The "Tunica Old Fields" lay in Tunica county,
Mississippi State, opposite Helena, Arkansas. Cf. Cha'hta.
They subsequently lived at the Tonica Bluffs, on the east shore of the
Mississippi river, two leagues below the influx of the Red river. T.
Jefferys, who in 1761 gave a description of their village and chief's
house, states that they had settled on a hill near the "River of the
Tunicas," which comes from the Lake of the Tunicas, and that in close
vicinity two other villages were existing (Hist. of French Dominions,
I, 145-146).[31] Th. Hutchins, Louisiana and West Florida, Phila.,
1784, p. 44, locates them a few miles below that spot, opposite Pointe
Coupée and ten miles below the Pascagoulas, on Mississippi river. So
does also Baudry de Lozières in 1802, who speaks of a population of
one hundred and twenty men.
[Footnote 31: This was probably the place where Le Page du Pratz
saw them (about 1720 or 1725): "vis-à-vis de la Rivière Rouge,"
II, 220-221.]
In 1817, a portion of the tribe, if not the whole, had gone up the Red
river and settled at Avoyelles, ninety miles above its confluence
with the Mississippi. A group of these Indians is now in Calcasieu
county, Louisiana, in the neighborhood of Lake Charles City.
A separate chapter has been devoted to this tribe, because there is a
strong probability that their language differed entirely from the rest
of the Southern tongues. Le Page du Pratz, l.l., in confirming this
statement, testifies to the existence of the sound R in their
language, which occurs neither in Naktche nor in the Maskoki dialects
or Shetimasha (II, 220-221). We possess no vocabulary of it, and even
the tribal name belongs to Chicasa: túnnig _post, pillar, support_,
probably post of territorial demarcation of their lands on the Yazoo
river. The only direct intimation which I possess on that tongue is a
correspondence of Alphonse L. Pinart, who saw some Tonica individuals,
and inferred from their terms that they _might_ belong to the great
Pani stock of the Western plains.
ADÁI.
Of this small and obscure Indian community mention is made much
earlier than of all the other tribes hitherto spoken of in this
volume, for Cabeça de Vaca, in his _Naufragios_, mentions them among
the inland tribes as Atayos. In the list of eight Caddo villages,
given by a Taensa guide to L. d'Iberville on his expedition up the Red
river (March 1699), they figure as the Natao (Margry IV, 178).
The Adái, Atá-i, Háta-i, Adayes (incorrectly called _Adaize_) seem to
have persisted at their ancient home, where they formed a tribe
belonging to the Caddo confederacy. Charlevoix (Hist. de la Nouvelle
France, ed. Shea VI, p. 24) relates that a Spanish mission was founded
among the Adaes in 1715. A Spanish fort existed there, seven leagues
west of Natchitoches, as late as the commencement of the nineteenth
century. Baudry de Lozières puts their population at one hundred men
(1802), and Morse (1822) at thirty, who then passed their days in
idleness on the Bayou Pierre of Red river. Even at the present time
they are remembered as a former division of the Caddo confederacy, and
called Háta-i by the Caddo, who are settled in the southeastern part
of the Indian Territory.
A list of about 300 Adái words was gathered in 1802 by Martin Duralde,
which proves it to be a vocalic language independent of any other,
though a few affinities are traceable with the Pani dialects. The
orthography of that vocabulary cannot, however, be fully relied on.
The original is in the library of the American Philosophical Society,
in Philadelphia. Rob. G. Latham, in his "Opuscula; Essays, chiefly
philological," etc., London 1860; pp. 402-404, has compared Adahi
words with the corresponding terms of other North American languages,
but without arriving at a definite result.
PANI.
The great family of Pani Indians has, in historic times, extended from
the Platte river southward to the Gulf of Mexico. From the main stock,
the Sanish or Arikari have wandered on their hunting trips north to
the Middle Missouri river, while the Pani, in four divisions, had the
Platte and its tributaries for their headquarters. The southern tribes
are the Witchita, the Towákone or Three Canes, who speak the Witchita
dialect, the Kichai and the originally Texan tribes of the Caddo and
Waco (Wéko, in Spanish: Hueco.)[32]
[Footnote 32: Cf. R. G. Latham, Opuscula, p. 400, who was the
first to hint at a possible affinity of Caddo to Pani.]
The Pani family was too remote from the Maskoki tribes to enter in
direct connection with them. Some of the southern septs had
intercourse with them, mainly through the French colonists. Fights
between Caddos and Cha'hta are recorded for the eighteenth century.
The Pani family is mentioned here simply because the legendary caves
from which the Creek nation is said to have sprung lay on Red river,
within the limits of the territory held by some of the southern Pani
nations.
When L. d'Iberville ascended the western branch of the Red river, now
called Red river (the eastern branch being Washita or Black river), in
March 1699, he saw and visited eight villages of the Caddo connection.
His Taensa guide named them as follows:
Yataché; called Yátassi by Americans.
Nactythos; they are the Natchitoches.
Yesito;
Natao; the Adái above.
Cachaymons;
Cadodaquis; full form, Cado-hadatcho or "_chief tribe_."
Natachés;
Natsytos.
The Cachaymons and the Cadodaquis had been previously visited by
Cavelier de la Salle, when returning from the Cenys, in the central
parts of Texas.[33]
[Footnote 33: Cf. Margry IV, 178. 313. 409.]
The Caddo confederacy consists of the following divisions or tribes,
as given me by a Caddo Indian in 1882:
Kado proper; kádo means _chief, principal_.
Anadáko, Anadāku; also Nandako.
Ainai, Ayenai; also Hini, Inies upon an affluent of Sabine
river; identical with the Tachies (Sibley). From this tribal
name is derived _Texas_, anciently Tachus, Taxus.
Natchidosh, Nashédosh; the Natchitoches.
Yátassi.
Anabaidaítcho, Nabádatsu; the Nabedatches, who are nearly
extinct now.
Nátassi; identical with the Natachés above.
Nakúhĕdōtch, Nakohodótse; the Nagogdoches.
Assine, Assíni; the Asinays of French explorers.
Hadaí; the Adái, Adáye, q. v.
Yowā′ni, now in Texas.
A′-ish; a few of these are now living in Texas, called Alish,
Eyish by former writers.
The Caddo relate, as being the mythical origin of their nation, that
they came from a water-sink in Louisiana, went westward, shoved up
earth by means of arrow-heads, and thus made a mountain. The totems of
their gentes once were, as far as remembered, _bear_ ná-ustse,
_panther_ kö′she, _wolf_ tá-isha, _snake_ kíka, _wild-cat_ wadó,
_owl_ néa, ó-ush.
When Milfort passed through the Red river country about 1780, the
Caddo, whom he describes as fallacious in trading, were at war with
the Cha'hta (Mémoire, p. 95).
In 1705 some Colapissa from the Talcatcha river, four leagues from
Lake Pontchartrain, settled upon the northern bank of this lake at
Castembayouque (now Bayou Castin, at Mandeville), and were joined, six
months after, by a party of "Nassitoches," whom famine had driven from
their homes on Red river.[34]
[Footnote 34: Pénicaut, in Margry V, 459-462.]
SHETIMASHA.
These natives once dwelt in numerous settlements clustering around
Bayou Lafourche, Grand river (or Bayou Atchafalaya), and chiefly
around Grand Lake or Lake of the Shetimasha. All that is left of
them--about fifty-five Indians, of a parentage strongly mixed with
white blood, reside at Charenton, St. Mary's Parish, on the
southwestern side of the lake, though a few are scattered through the
forests on Grand river. They call themselves _Pántch pínunkansh_, "men
altogether red." The name Shetimasha, by which they are generally
known, is of Cha'hta origin, and means "they possess (imásha) cooking
vessels (tchúti)." Their central place of worship was three miles
north of Charenton, on a small inlet of Grand Lake. They worshiped
there, by dances and exhaustive fasting, their principal deity,
Kút-Nähänsh, the "mid-day sun."
They were not warlike, and never figured prominently in colonial
history. When a portion of the tribe, settled on Bayou Lafourche, had
murdered Mr. Saint-Cosme, a Naktche missionary descending the
Mississippi river in 1703, they were attacked by the colonists and
their Indian allies. The war ended with a speedy submission of the
savages. They called the Naktche Indians their brothers, and their
myths related that their "Great Spirit" created them in the country of
that people, and gave them laws, women and tobacco. The Cha'hta
tribes, who attempted to deprive them of their native land, made
continual forays upon them during the eighteenth century.
These Indians were strict monogamists. The chieftaincy was a life-long
office among them. The chiefs lived in lodges larger than those of the
common people, and their tobacco pipes were larger than those of the
warriors. The foreheads of the children were subjected to the
flattening process.[35]
[Footnote 35: Of these Indians I have given an ethnographic
sketch in: Transact. Anthropolog. Society of Washington, 1883,
Vol. II, pp. 148-158.]
Their language is extremely polysynthetic as far as derivation by
suffixes is concerned, and there are also a number of prefixes. For
the pronouns _thou_ and _ye_ a common and a reverential form are in
use. The faculty for forming compound words is considerable, and the
numerals show the decimal form of computation.
ATÁKAPA.
To close the list of the linguistic families encircling the Maskoki
stock, we mention the Atákapa, a language which has been studied but
very imperfectly. This tribe once existed upon the upper Bayou Tèche
northwest and west of the Shetimasha, north and northwest of the
Opelousa Indians, and from the Tèche extended beyond Vermilion river,
perhaps down to the sea coast. The Atákapa of old were a well-made
race of excellent hunters, but had, as their name indicates, the
reputation of being anthropophagists (Cha'hta: hátak, hattak _person_,
ápa _to eat_). At first, they suffered no intrusion of the colonists
into their territory and cut off expeditions attempting to penetrate
into their seats. During the nineteenth century they retreated toward
the Sabine river. The name by which they call themselves is unknown;
perhaps it is Skunnemoke, which was the name of one of their villages
on Vermilion river, six leagues west of New Iberia. Cf. Th. Hutchins
(Phila., 1784).
The scanty vocabulary of their language, taken in 1802, shows clusters
of consonants, especially at the end of words, but with its queer,
half-Spanish orthography does not appear to form a reliable basis for
linguistic conclusions. A few words agree with Tónkawē, the
language of a small Texan tribe; and according to tradition, the
Karánkawas, once the giant people of Matagorda bay, on the Texan
Coast, spoke a dialect of Atákapa. These three tribes were, like all
other Texan tribes, reputed to be anthropophagists. In extenuation of
this charge, Milfort asserts that they "do not eat men, but roast them
only, on account of the cruelties first enacted against their
ancestors by the Spaniards" (p. 90). This remark refers to a tribe,
also called Atákapas, which he met at a distance of five days' travel
west of St. Bernard bay.
We have but few notices of expeditions sent by French colonists to
explore the unknown interior of what forms now the State of Louisiana.
One of these, consisting of three Frenchmen, was in 1703 directed to
explore the tribes about the river de la Madeleine, now Bayou Tèche.
The two men who returned reported to have met seven "nations" there;
the man they lost was eaten by the natives, and this misfortune
prompted them to a speedy departure. The location seems to point to
the territory of the Atákapa.[36]
[Footnote 36: Pénicaut, in Margry V, 440.]
The enumeration of the southern linguistic stocks winds up with the
Atákapa; but it comprises only the families the existence of which is
proved by vocabularies. Tonica and the recently-discovered Taensa
furnish the proof that the Gulf States may have harbored, or still
harbor, allophylic tribes speaking languages unknown to us. The areas
of the southern languages being usually small, they could easily
escape discovery, insomuch as the attention of the explorers and
colonists was directed more toward ethnography than toward aboriginal
linguistics.
The southern tribes which _I suspect_ of speaking or having spoken
allophylic languages, are the Bidai, the Koroa, the Westo and Stono
Indians.
BIDAI.
Rev. Morse, in his Report to the Government (1822), states that their
home is on the western or right side of Trinity river, Texas,
sixty-five miles above its mouth, and that they count one hundred and
twenty people. In 1850 a small settlement of five or six Bidai
families existed on Lower Sabine River.
The Opelousas of Louisiana and the Cances of Texas spoke languages
differing from all others around them.[37]
[Footnote 37: American State Papers, I, pp. 722-24.]
KOROA.
The earliest home of this tribe, which figures extensively in French
colonial history, is a mountainous tract on the western shore of
Mississippi river, eight leagues above the Natchez landing. They were
visited there, early in 1682, by the explorer, C. de la Salle, who
noticed the compression of their skulls (Margry I, 558. 566). They
were a warlike and determined people of hunters. In 1705 a party of
them, hired by the French priest Foucault to convey him by water to
the Yazoos, murderously dispatched him with two other Frenchmen
(Pénicaut, in Margry V, 458). A companion of C. de la Salle (in 1682)
noticed that the "language of the Coroa differed from that of the
Tinsa and Natché," but that in his opinion their manners and customs
were the same (Margry I, 558).
Koroas afterward figure as one of the tribes settled on Yazoo river,
formerly called also River of the Chicasa, and are mentioned there by
D. Coxe, Carolana (1742), p. 10, as Kourouas. They were then the
allies of the Chicasa, but afterward merged in the Cha'hta people, who
call them Kólwa, Kúlua. Allen Wright, descended from a grandfather of
this tribe, states that the term is neither Cha'hta nor Chicasa, and
that the Koroa spoke a language differing entirely from Cha'hta.[38] A
place Kolua is now in Coahoma county, probably far distant from the
ancient home of this tribe. The origin of the name is unknown; the
Cha'hta word: káⁿlo _strong, powerful_, presents some analogy in sound.
[Footnote 38: This is corroborated by the fact that the sound R
did exist in the Koroa language: Jefferys (1761), I, 163.]
THE WESTO AND STONO INDIANS
lived in the vicinity of the English colony at Charleston, South
Carolina. Their predatory habits made them particularly troublesome in
1669-1671 and in 1674, when they had to be repulsed by an army of
volunteers. The Stonos must have lived north of the colony, or on the
upper course of some river, for, in 1674, they are described as
"coming down" (Hewat, Histor. Account of S. C. and Ga., London 1779;
I, 51. 77). Stono Inlet is the name of a cove near Charleston. Both
tribes also met with disastrous reverses at the hands of the Savannah
Indians, probably the Yámassi (Archdale). They are both mentioned as
having belonged to the Kataba confederacy, but this does not by any
means prove that they spoke Kataba or a dialect of it. As to the name,
the Westo Indians may be identified with the Oustacs of Lederer (who
are reported as being at war with the Usherees), and with the Hostaqua
of René de Laudonnière, who mentions them as forming a confederacy
under a paracusi in the northern parts of the "Floridian" territory.
Possibly the Creek word ō′sta _four_, in the sense of "four
allied tribes," has given origin to this tribal name (ostáka in
Alibamu).
The affinity of the extinct Congaree Indians, on Congaree river, is
doubtful also; Lawson relates that they did not understand the speech
of the Waterees and Chicarees. Cf. Kataba. Owing to the inactivity of
the local historians, our ethnographic information on the North and
South Carolina Indians is extremely meagre and unsatisfactory.
REMARKS TO THE LINGUISTIC MAP.
The linguistic map added to this volume is an attempt to locate, in a
general way, the settlements pertaining to the Indians of each of the
linguistic stocks of the Gulf States, as far as traceable in the
eighteenth century. Some of them, as the Timucua and Yámassi
settlements, are taken from dates somewhat earlier, while the location
of the Atákapa tribe is known to us only from the first decennium of
the nineteenth century. The marking of the linguistic areas by dots,
pointing to the tribal settlements, answers much better the purpose
than the coloring of large areas, which conveys the erroneous
impression that the population was scattered all over a certain
country. This will do very well for densely populated countries, or
for tracts inhabited by roving, erratic Indians, whom we meet only on
the west side of the Mississippi river. The Gulf States' Indians were
no longer in the condition of pure hunting tribes; they had settled in
stationary villages, and derived the main part of their sustenance
from agriculture and fishing.
The location of the Chicasa, Cheroki, Seminole and Caddo (Pani) tribes
were not indicated with that completeness which the subject requires.
The northwest corner of the map shows the tracts occupied at present
in the Indian Territory by tribes of Maskoki lineage.
II. THE MASKOKI FAMILY.
Among the various nationalities of the Gulf territories the Maskoki
family of tribes occupied a central and commanding position. Not only
the large extent of territory held by them, but also their numbers,
their prowess in war, and a certain degree of mental culture and
self-esteem made of the Maskoki one of the most important groups in
Indian history. From their ethnologic condition of later times, we
infer that these tribes have extended for many centuries back in time,
from the Atlantic to the Mississippi and beyond that river, and from
the Apalachian ridge to the Gulf of Mexico. With short intermissions
they kept up warfare with all the circumjacent Indian communities, and
also among each other. All the various dispositions of the human mind
are represented in the Maskoki tribes. We have the cruel and lurking
Chicasa, the powerful and ingenious but treacherous and corruptible
Cha'hta, the magnanimous and hospitable, proud and revengeful Creek,
the aggressive Alibamu, the quarrelsome Yámassi, and the self-willed,
independent Seminole, jealous of the enjoyment of his savage freedom
in the swamps and everglades of the semi-tropical peninsula.
The irresolute and egotistic policy of these tribes often caused
serious difficulties to the government of the English and French
colonies, and some of them constantly wavered in their adhesion
between the French and the English cause. The American government
overcame their opposition easily whenever a conflict presented itself
(the Seminole war forms an exception), because, like all the Indians,
they never knew how to unite against a common foe.
The two main branches of the stock, the Creek and the Cha'hta Indians,
were constantly at war, and the remembrance of their deadly conflicts
has now passed to their descendants in the form of folklore. The two
differ anthropologically in their exterior, the people of the western
or Cha'hta branch being thick-set and heavy, that of the eastern or
Creek connection more lithe and tall. Prognathism is not frequent
among them, and the complexion of both is a rather dark cinnamon, with
the southern olive tinge. The general intelligence of this gifted race
renders it susceptible for civilization, endows it with eloquence, but
does not always restrain it from the outbursts of the wildest passion.
Among the tribes of the Maskoki family, we notice the following
ethnographic practices: the use of the red and white colors as symbols
of war and peace, an extensive system of totemic gentes, the use of
the Ilex cassine for the manufacture of the black drink, the erection
of artificial mounds, the belief in a deity called "Master of Life,"
and original sun-worship. The eastern tribes all had an annual
festival in the town square, called a _fast_ (púskita in Creek), and
some traces of it may be found also among the western connection. In
the eastern and western branch (also among the Naktche people) the
children belong to the gens of the mother, a custom which differs from
that of the Yuchi and dates from high antiquity. No instances of
anthropophagy are recorded, but the custom of scalping seems to have
been indigenous among them. The early Timucua scalped their enemies
and dried the scalps over their camp-fires. The artificial flattening
of the foreheads of male infants seems to have prevailed in the
western branch only, but some kind of skull deformation could be
observed throughout the Gulf territories. The re-interment of dead
bodies, after cleaning their bones from the adhering muscles several
months after death, is recorded more especially for the western
branch, but was probably observed among all tribes in various
modifications.
None of the customs just enumerated was peculiar to the Maskoki
tribes, but common throughout the south, many of them being found in
the north also. They were mentioned here only, to give _in their
totality_ a fair ethnographic picture of the Maskoki nationality.
The genealogy of the Maskoki tribes cannot be established on
anthropological, that is racial, characteristics; these Indians
formerly incorporated so many alien elements into their towns, and
have become so largely mixed with half-castes in the nineteenth
century, that a division on racial grounds has become almost
impossible.
Hence, the only characteristic by which a subdivision of the family
can be attempted, is that of _language_. Following their ancient
topographic location from east to west, we obtain the following
synopsis:
_First branch, or Maskoki proper._ The Creek, Maskokálgi or Maskoki
proper, settled on Coosa, Tallapoosa, Upper and Middle Chatahuchi
rivers. From these branched off by segmentation the Creek portion of
the Seminoles, of the Yámassi and of the little Yamacraw community.
_Second, or Apalachian branch._ This southeastern division, which may
be called also _a parte potiori_ the Hitchiti connection, anciently
comprised the tribes on the Lower Chatahuchi river and, east from
there, the extinct Apalachi, the Mikasuki, and the Hitchiti portion of
the Seminoles, Yámassi and Yamacraws.
_Third, or Alibamu branch_ comprised the Alibamu villages on the river
of that name; to them belonged the Koassáti and Witumka on Coosa
river, its northern affluent.
_Fourth, Western or Cha'hta branch._ From the main people, the
Cha'hta, settled in the middle portions of the State of Mississippi,
the Chicasa, Pascagoula, Biloxi, Huma and other tribes once became
separated through segmentation.
* * * * *
The strongest evidence for a community of origin of the Maskoki tribes
is furnished by the fact that _their dialects belong to one linguistic
family_. The numerous incorporations of foreign elements have not been
able to alter the purity of their language; the number of intrusive
words is very small, and the grammar has repelled every foreign
intrusion. This is the inference we draw from their best studied
dialects, for with some of them, as with Ábika, we are not acquainted
at all, and with others very imperfectly. The principal dialects of
the family greatly differ from each other; Cha'hta, for instance, is
unintelligible to the Creek, Koassáti and Hitchiti people, and the
speech of each of these three tribes is not understood by the two
others. When Albert Gallatin published his vocabularies of Cha'hta and
Creek, he was uncertain at first whether they were related to each
other or not. On the other side, the difference between Cha'hta and
Chicasa, and between Creek and Seminole, is so insignificant that
these dialects may be considered as practically identical. The degree
of dialectic difference points approximately to the date of the
separation of the respective communities, and untold centuries must
have elapsed since the two main branches of the family were torn
asunder, for Cha'hta differs about as much from Creek as the literary
German does from Icelandic.
THE COMMON MASKOKI LANGUAGE.
Although the dialects of Maskoki do not now diverge from each other
more than did the Semitic dialects two thousand years ago, the time
when they all had a common language, or, in other words, the time
preceding the separation into four divisions must lie further back
than eight or ten thousand years. We cannot expect to reconstruct the
parent Maskoki language spoken at that time but very imperfectly,
since the oldest text known to exist in any of the dialects dates from
A. D. 1688 only. An approach to its reconstruction could be attempted
by carefully comparing the lexicon and grammatic forms of the dialects
presently spoken, and an individual acquainted with them all, or at
least with their four representatives, might also compose _a
comparative grammar_ of these dialects as spoken at the present epoch
of their development, which would reveal many points concerning the
ancient or historic shape of the language once common to all these
tribes.
What the Maskoki dialects presently spoken, _as far as published_,
have in common, may be stated in a general way in the following
outlines:
_Phonetics._--The dialects possess the sound f and the palatalized l
(`l), but lack th, v and r, while nasalization of the vocalic element
is more peculiar to the western than to the eastern divisions. There
is a tendency to pronounce the _mutes_ or checks by applying the
tongue to the alveolar part of the palate. The phonetic system is as
follows:
EXPLOSIVES: BREATHS:
Not aspirated. Aspirated. Spirants. Nasals. Trills.
Gutturals k g χ h
Palatals tch, ts dsh, ds y ń `l
Linguals k′ g′ sh l
Dentals t d s n
Labials p b f w m
_Vowels_:--i, e, ā, a, o, u; with their long and nasalized sounds.
The syllable is quite simple in its structure; it consists either of a
vowel only, or begins with one consonant (in the eastern division with
one or two), and ends in a vowel. Deviations from this rule must be
explained by phonetic alteration, elision, etc. The frequent
occurrence of homonymous terms forms a peculiar difficulty in the
study of the dialects.
_Morphology._--No thorough distinction exists between the different
parts of speech, none especially between the nominal and the verbal
element. The fact that all adjectives can be verbified, could be
better expressed as follows: The adjectives used attributively are
participles of attributive verbs and inflected for number like these,
their so-called plural being the plural form of a verb. This we
observe in Iroquois, Taensa and many other American languages; it also
explains the position of the adjective _after_ the noun qualified.
Some forms of the finite verb represent true verbs, while others, like
the Creek forms, with tcha-, tchi-, pu-, etc., prefixed, which is the
possessive pronoun, are nominal forms, and represent _nomina agentis_
and _nomina actionis_. The three cases of the noun are not accurately
distinguished from each other in their functions; substantives form
diminutives in -odshi, -osi, -usi, etc. The distinction between
animate and inanimate gender is not made in this language family; much
less that between the male and the female sex. The possessive pronoun
of the third person singular and plural (im-, in-, i-) is prefixed in
the same manner to substantives to indicate possession, as it is to
verbs to show that an act is performed in the interest or to the
detriment of the verbal subject or object. The Cha'hta alone
distinguishes between the inclusive and the exclusive pronouns _we,
our, ours_. A dual exists neither in the noun nor in the pronoun,
but in most of the intransitive verbs. The numerals are built upon the
quinary system, the numeral system most frequent in North America. The
verb forms a considerable number of tenses and incorporates the
prefixed object-pronoun, the interrogative and the negative particle;
it has a form for the passive and one for the reflective voice. By a
sort of reduplication a distributive form is produced in the verb,
adjective and some numerals, which often has a frequentative and
iterative function. The lack of a true relative pronoun and of a true
substantive verb is supplied in different ways by the various
dialects; the former, for instance, by the frequent use of the verbal
in -t. Derivatives are formed by prefixation and suffixation, many of
the derivational being identical with inflectional affixes in these
dialects.
Although Maskoki speech, taken as a whole, belongs to the
agglutinative type of languages, some forms of it, especially the
predicative inflection of the verb and the vocalic changes in the
radicals, strongly remind us of the inflective languages. Words,
phrases and sentences are sometimes composed by syncope, a process
which is more characteristic of the agglutinative than of the
inflective type, and is by no means confined to the languages of
America.
In the following _comparative table_ I have gathered some terms of
Maskoki which coincide in two or more of the dialects. The table may
be helpful for giving a general idea of the lexical differences
existing between the dialects explored:
------------+----------+------------+-------------+-----------+-----------
| Cha'hta. | Chicasa. | Alibamu. | Koassáti. | Creek.
------------+----------+------------+-------------+-----------+-----------
Warrior |táska |táska |tastenukíha |tastanóki |taskáya
Woman |ohóyo |ehó, ihó | |téyi |hókti
Foot |íyi |iyi |i-pát'ha |i-pát'ha |íli
Village,town|támaha |ókla |óla |óla |tálofa
Chief |míngo |mínko |míko |míku |miko
House |tchúka |tchúka |ishá |ísa |tchú'ku
Knife |báshpo |bushpo | | |isláfka
Canoe |píni |píni | | |pi`lúdshi
Fire |lúak |lúak |íti |tigba |tútka
Water |óka, uk'ha|óka |óki |óki |o-íwa, u-íwa
Earth, land |yákni |yák'ne |iháni |iháni |íkana
Stone, rock |táli |tále |táli |táli |tcháto
Wood |íti |iti |itu |ítu |itu
Sun |háshi |hashé |hasie |hási |hási
Moon |háshi |hashé nenaká|hasi-nissi |ni′la hási |hás-'lisi
Thunder |hilóha |hilóha |tonokóχha |winei'hká |tinítki
Pine |tíak |tíak |tchúye |tchúye |
Maize |tántchi |tántchi |tchasié |tchási |ádshi, átchi
Grass |háshuk |háshuk |ássi |páhi |páhi
Bear |níta |nita |níkta |nikta |nok'húsi
Deer |issi |íssi |ítchu |idshu |ítchu
Bird |húshi |fushé |fósi |fosi |fúsua
Fish |naní |nanné |'lá`lu |'lá`lu |'lá`lu
Good |atchúkma |atchúkma |kanóasu |káheno,kánu|hi`li
White |háta, tóbi|tohobi |hátka |hátga |hátki
Red |húmma |hómma |húmma |húmma |tcháti
Black |lúsa |lósa |lótcha |lúdsa |lásti
All |móma |oklunhá |wayamúlu |wayili |omálga
One |atcháfa |tcháffa |tchafáka |tchafáka |hámgin
Two |túklo |tókolo |tokoló |túglo |hokólin
Three |tutchína |totchéna |tut'tchína |tutchínan |tut'tchínin
Four |úshta |oshtá |ostáka |ostákan |óshtin
Five |ta`lápi |ta`lápe |ta`lápi |tsahupága |tcha'hkípin
Six |hanáli |hannále |hánali |ahanna′lin |ipákin
Seven |untúklo |ontokló |hontók'lo |hontóklun |kolapákin
Eight |untotchína|ontutchéna |hontot'tchina|undetsínan |tchinapákin
Nine |tchakáli |tchakále |ibitchá'hkali|pitchakálin|ostapàkin
Ten |pokóli |pokóle |pokóli |pokóle |pálin
To see |pisa |píssa |hitchas |hitchus |hídshita
------------+----------+------------+-------------+-----------+-----------
------------+--------------+---------------+----------------+-------------
| Seminole. | Hitchiti. | Apalachi. | Mikasuki.
------------+--------------+---------------+----------------+-------------
Warrior |taskáya |hú′li-tipi |taskaia |tasikiá'hli
Woman |hókti |täígi | |taiki
Foot |ili |i-paláshi |ia, ya |ili-palasi
Village,town|tálofa |ókli |tófun(obj. case)|ókli
Chief |miko |miki | |miki
House |tchûku |tchíki |tchíka |tchíki
Knife |islátka |iskalafki | |iskalafki
Canoe |pi`lódshi(dim)|pi`lótsi, pi`li| |pi`lódshi(dim)
Fire |tútka |íti | |íti
Water |o-íwa |óki | |óki
Earth, land |íkana |yákni | |yákni
Stone, rock |tcháto |táli | |tale
Wood |ítu |ahí | |a`li
Sun |hási |hási | |hasi
Moon | |has-ótali |hitok (_month_) | has-otali
Thunder |tinítki |tonuká'htchi | |tonokatchi
Pine |tchóli | | |tchoyi
Maize |ádshi |áspi | |áspi
Grass |páhi | | |páhi
Bear |nokose |noχū'si | |nókosi
Deer |ítcho |itchi | |itchi
Bird |fosua, fúswa |fosi | |fusi
Fish |'la`lu |'lá`li | |'lá`li
Good |hi`li |hí`li | |hí`li
White |hátki |hátgi | |hatki
Red |tcháti |kitistchi | |kitiski
Black |lásti |lódshi | |lútchi
All |omálga |lápki |ámali, ilúngta |lápki
One |hámgin |`lámin | |'lámin
Two |hokólin |túklan | |tóklan
Three |tut'tchinin |tutchínan |tusa |tot'tchínan
Four |óshtin |sitákin | |tchitákin
Five |tcha'hki′pin |tchákgipan | |tcha′hkípin
Six |ipákin |ipagin | |ipákin
Seven |kolapákin |kolapákin | |kolapákin
Eight |tchinapákin |tusnapákin | |tosnapákin
Nine |ostapákin |ustapakin | |ostapákin
Ten |pálin |pokólin | |pokólin
To see |hidshita |hitchígi |pitcha |hidshíki
------------+--------------+---------------+----------------+-------------
The Chicasa of this comparative table is from a vocabulary taken by G.
Gibbs (1866); the Seminole and the Mikasuki from Buckingham Smith's
vocabularies printed in the Historical Magazine (Morrisania, N. Y.)
for August, 1866, and in W. W. Beach's: Indian Miscellany, Albany
1877, p. 120-126. The latter differs but little from the Mikasuki of
G. Gibbs, in the linguistic collection of the Bureau of Ethnology in
Washington. The few words of Apalachi were drawn from the missive
sent, A. D. 1688, to the king of Spain, to be mentioned under
"Apalachi"; the Koassáti terms I obtained in part at the Indian
training school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, partly from Gen. Alb.
Pike's vocabularies, which also furnished the Alibamu terms.
Readers will perceive at the first glance that Cha'hta is practically
the same language as Chicasa, Creek as Seminole and Hitchiti as
Mikasuki. Alibamu forms a dialect for itself, leaning more toward
Cha'hta than Creek. The southeastern group holds a middle position
between Cha'hta and Creek. As far as the queer and inaccurate Spanish
orthography of Apalachi enables us to judge, this dialect again
differs somewhat from Hitchiti and Mikasuki. It will be well to
remember that in Indian and all illiterate languages the sounds of the
same organ-class are _interchangeable_; thus, a word may be
_correctly_ pronounced and written in six, ten, or twelve different
ways. Tcháto _rock, stone_ can be pronounced tchátu, tchádo, tchádu,
tsáto, tsátu, tsádo, tsádu, etc. This explains many of the apparent
discrepancies observed in the comparative table, and in our texts
printed below.
A comparative study of the existing Maskoki vocabularies would be very
fruitful for the ethnographic history of the tribes, and likely to
disclose the relative epochs of their settlement, if those that we
have now could be thoroughly relied on. In the comparative table
subjoined I have received only such terms that answer to this
requisite.
There are terms which occur in all dialects in the same or nearly the
same form, as hási _sun_, ítchu, íssi _deer_, ófi, ífa _dog_, the
terms for _chief, black, yellow, bird, snake, buffalo, turtle, fox_
(also in Cheroki: tsu'hlá), the numerals and the personal pronouns;
they must, therefore, have been once the common property of the still
undivided, primordial tribe. The fact that the words for _chief_
(míki, míngo, míko), for holá'hta, and for _warrior_ (táska, taskáya),
agree in all dialects, points to the fact that when the tribes
separated they lived under similar social conditions which they have
kept up ever since. The terms for _maize_ disagree but apparently, and
seem to be reducible to one radix, atch or ash; the terms for _dog_
agree in all dialects--hence, the Maskoki tribes planted maize and
kept dogs before, probably many centuries before they separated; and
the term ífa went over from them to the Timucua. The word for
_buffalo_, yánase, is the same in all dialects, and was probably
obtained from the North, since the term occurs in Cheroki also (yá'hsa
in Eastern Cheroki). The name for _salt_, hápi, a mineral which had a
sacrificial importance, is found also in Yuchi in the form tápi, but
Creek has ók-tchanua, Hitchiti: ok-tcháhane. The term for _tobacco_
agrees in all divisions of the stock (haktchúmma), except in the Creek
branch, where it is called hítchi, hídshi. This weed is said to have
received its Maskoki names from a similarity of the top of the green
plant with the phallus, which is called in Alibamu and Hitchiti:
óktchi or áktchi.
THE NAME MASKOKI; ITS USE AND SIGNIFICATION.
Maskóki, Maskógi, isti Maskóki, designates a single person of the
Creek tribe, and forms, as a collective plural, Maskokálgi, the Creek
community, the Creek people, the Creek Indians. English authors write
this name Muscogee, Muskhogee, and its plural Muscogulgee. The first
syllable, as pronounced by the Creek Indians, contains a clear, short
a, and that the name was written Muscogee and not Mascogee, is not to
be wondered at, for the English language, with its surd, indistinct
and strongly modified vocalization, will convert the clearest a into a
u. Whether the name Maskoki was given to the Creeks before or after
the incorporation of the towns speaking other languages than theirs,
we are unable to tell, but the name figures in some of the oldest
documents on this people. The accent is usually laid on the middle
syllable: Maskóki, Maskógi. None of the tribes are able to explain the
name from their own language.
The Cheroki call a Creek Indian Kúsa, the nation Ani-kúsa, probably
because Kúsa was the first Creek town they met, when coming from their
country along Coosa river, Alabama. But why did the English colonists
call them _Creek_ Indians? Because, when the English traders entered
the Maskoki country from Charleston or Savannah, they had to cross a
number of streams and creeks, especially between the Chatahuchi and
Savannah rivers. Gallatin thought it probable that the inhabitants of
the country adjacent to Savannah river were called Creeks from an
early time (Synopsis, p. 94). The French settlers rendered the term
Lower Creeks by "Basses-Rivières."
The Wendát or Hurons call the Creek people Ku-û′sha, having obtained
the name from the Cheroki. The Foxes or Utagami call one Creek man
U'mashgo ánene-u, the people U′mashgohak. B. S. Barton, New Views
(1798), Appendix p. 8, states that the Delawares call the Creeks
Masquachki: "swampland."
Caleb Swan, who wrote a report on the Creek people in 1791, mentions
(Schoolcraft V, 259) a tradition current among them, that they
incorporated the Alibamu first, then the Koassáti, then the Naktche,
and finally the Sháwano. In his time the Sháwano had four towns on the
Tallapoosa river, and other Sháwano (from the northwest) increased
their population every year by large numbers. One of these towns was
called Sawanógi, another Kanhatki. A Muscogee creek is near Columbus,
running into Chatahuchi river from the east. "Muskhogans" inhabited
the tract north of Pensacola.
The term is not derived from any known Maskoki word. If oki _water_
formed a component part of it, it would stand first, as in the
Hitchiti geographic terms Okĕlákni "_yellow water_," Okifenóke
"_wavering, shaking waters_," Okmúlgi "_bubbling water_," Okitchóbi
"_river_," lit. "_large river_." We are therefore entitled to look out
for a Sháwano origin of the tribal name, and remember the fact that
the Creek Indians called the Sháwano and the Lenápe (Delawares) their
grandfathers. It will be appropriate to consult also the other
Algonkin languages for proper names comparable with the one which
occupies our attention.
The Sháwano call a Creek person Humásko, the Creek people Humaskógi.
Here the hu- is the predicative prefix: _he is, she is, they are,_ and
appears often as ho-, hui-, ku-. Thus Humaskógi means "_they are
Masko_", the suffix -gi, -ki being the plural ending of the animate
order of substantives in Sháwano. A word masko is not traceable at
present in that language, but muskiégui means _lake, pond_,
m'skiegu-pki or muskiégu-pki _timbered swamp_, musk'hánui nepí _the
water_ (nepí) _rises up to, surrounds_, but does not cover up.
Miskekopke in Caleb Atwater's vocabulary (Archæol. Americ. I, p. 290),
signifies _wet ground, swamp_. Rev. Lacombe's Cree or Knisteno
Dictionary gives: maskek _marsh, swamp, trembling ground_ unsafe to
walk upon; Maskekowiyiniw _the Maskegons_ or _Bogmen_, a tribe of
Crees, also called Maskekowok, who were formerly Odshibwē Indians, but
left Lake Superior to join the Crees; their name forms a striking
parallel to our southern Maskoki. Rev. Watkins' Cree Dictionary, with
its English, unscientific orthography, has muskāg, muskāk _swamp,
marsh_; Muskāgoo _Swampy Indian, Maskegon_; Muskāgoowew _he is a
Swampy Indian_. Here the predicative suffix -wew is placed after the
noun, while hu- of Sháwano stands before it. The Odshibwē Dictionary
of Bishop Baraga has máshkig, plur. máskigon _swamp, marsh_; Mashki
sibi _Bad River_; a corrupt form standing for Mashkigi sibi _Swamp
River_. In Abnáki we have meguä'k _fresh water marsh_, maskehegat
_fetid water_.
The Sháwano word for _creek, brook, branch of river_ is methtékui;
Sháwano often has th where the northern dialects have s (thípi
_river_, in Potawat. and Sauk: sibe, in Odshibwē: sibi) and hence
the radix meth- is probably identical with mas- in maskek.
The country inhabited by the Maskoki proper abounds in creek bottoms
overflowed in the rainy season, as the country around Opelíka
"_swamp-site_" (from Creek: opílua, apílua _swamp_, läíkita _to be
stretched out_), Opil-`láko "_great swamp_," west of the above
(Hawkins, p. 50) and many other places rendered uninhabitable by the
moisture of the ground. The countries of the Cha'hta and Chicasa also
formed a succession of swamps, low grounds and marshes. In view of the
fact that no other general name for the whole Creek nation was known
to exist save Maskoki, and that the legend and the chroniclers of de
Soto's expedition speak of single tribes only, we are entitled to
assume this foreign origin for the name until a better one is
presented. Another instance of an Algonkin name of an Indian
nationality adopted by the Maskoki is that of isti Natuági, or the
"_enemies creeping up stealthily_," lit., "_snake-men_," by which the
Iroquois, or Five Nations, are meant.[39]
[Footnote 39: By this same name the Algonkins designated many
other Indians hostile to them; it appears in Nottoway,
Nadouessioux, etc.]
In this publication I call the Maskoki proper by the name of Creeks
only, and have used their name on account of the _central_ location
and commanding position of the Maskoki proper, to whom this
appellation properly belongs, to designate _the whole Cha'hta-Maskoki
family of Indians_.
It will also be remembered that several of the larger communities of
American Indians are known to the white population exclusively
through names borrowed from other languages than their own, as, for
instance, the Kalapúya of Oregon, who call themselves Amē′nmei,
Kalapúya (anciently Kalapúyua) being of Chinook origin, and the Pani,
whose name is, according to J. H. Trumbull, taken from an Algonkin
dialect, and means _lungy, not bellicose, inferior_, while their
own name is Tsaríksi tsáriks "_men of men_."[40] Foreign names have
also been given to the smaller tribes of the Shetimasha and Atákapa,
names which are of Cha'hta origin; v. supra. The Patagonian and
Argentinian tribes are mostly known to us under Chilian names, and the
Aimboré or Nkrä′kmun of Brazil we know only under the Portuguese
name Botocudos.
[Footnote 40: Prof. J. B. Dunbar, who composed an interesting
ethnologic article on this tribe, thinks that Pani is a true
Pani word: páriki _horn_, meaning their scalp lock; Magazine of
American History, 1880 (April number), p. 245.]
THE TRIBAL DIVISIONS OF THE MASKOKI FAMILY.
YÁMASSI.
As early as the latter half of the sixteenth century, a tribe speaking
a Maskoki language was settled on the shores of the Atlantic ocean, on
lands included at present in the State of South Carolina, and from
these shores they extended to some distance inland. In that country
René de Laudonnière in 1564 established a fortification in Port Royal
Bay, called Charlefort, and the terms transmitted by him, being all of
Creek origin, leave no doubt about the affinity of the natives,
yatiqui _interpreter_, tola _laurel_, Olataraca, viz.: holá'hta `láko,
nom. pr. "_the great leader_." Shortly after, the Spanish captain Juan
Pardo led an expedition (1566-67) through the countries along Savannah
river, and the local names found in the report made of it by Juan de
la Vandera (1569) also point to the presence of a people speaking
Creek established on both sides of that river:[41] Ahoya "_two
going_"; Issa Cr. ídshu "_deer_"; Solameco, Cr. súli miko "_buzzard
chief_"; Canosi, Cr. ikanō′dshi "_graves are there_"--the name of
Cannouchee river, Georgia.
[Footnote 41: Cf. Buck. Smith, Coleccion de Documentos ineditos,
I, p. 15-19 (Madrid, 1857).]
After the lapse of a century, when British colonists began to settle
in larger numbers in these parts, a tribe called Yámassi (Yemasee,
Yamasee, Yemmassaws, etc.) appears in the colonial documents as
settled there, and in the maritime tracts of Georgia and Eastern
Florida. Thus G. R. Fairbanks, History of St. Augustine (1858), p.
125, mentions the following dates from Spanish annals: "The Yemasees,
always peaceful and manageable, had a principal town, Macarisqui, near
St. Augustine. In 1680 they revolted, because the Spaniards had
executed one of their principal chiefs at St. Augustine; and in 1686
they made a general attack on the Spaniards, and became their mortal
enemies."
The inroads of the Yámassi, in Cr. Yamassálgi, made in 1687 and 1706
upon the christianized Timucua have been alluded to under "Timucua"
(p. 12).
The English surveyor Lawson, who traveled through these parts in 1701,
calls them Savannah Indians, stating that they are "a famous, warlike,
friendly nation of Indians, living at the south end of Ashley river."
(Reprint of 1860, p. 75.) Governor Archdale also calls them
_Savannahs_[42] in 1695; hence they were named like the Yuchi, either
from the Savannah river, or from the savanas or prairies of the
southern parts of South Carolina. The Yuchi probably lived northwest
of them. A few miles north of Savannah city there is a town and
railroad crossing, Yemassee, which perpetuates their tribal name.
Another ancient authority locates some between the Combahee and the
Savannah river, and there stood their largest town, Pocotaligo.[43]
Hewat (1779) states that they possessed a large territory lying
backward from Port Royal Island, in his time called Indian Land (Hist.
Acc., I, 213). Cf. Westo and Stono Indians, p. 48.
[Footnote 42: Description of Carolina, London, 1707. The Yámassi
then lived about eighty miles from Charleston, and extended
their hunting excursions almost to St. Augustine.]
[Footnote 43: Gallatin, Synopsis, p. 84, recalls the
circumstance that Poketalico is also the name of a tributary of
the Great Kanawha river. This seems to point to a foreign origin
of that name.]
They had been the staunchest Indian supporters of the new British
colony, and had sent 28 men of auxiliary troops to Colonel Barnwell,
to defeat the Tuscarora insurrection on the coast of North Carolina
(1712-13), when they suddenly revolted on April 15th, 1715, committed
the most atrocious deeds against helpless colonists, and showed
themselves to be quite the reverse of what their name indicates
(yámasi, yámassi, the Creek term for _mild, gentle, peaceable_[44]).
Among their confederates in the unprovoked insurrection were Kataba,
Cheroki and Congari Indians. Wholesale massacres of colonists occurred
around Pocotaligo, on Port Royal Island and at Stono, and the number
of victims was estimated at four hundred. A force of volunteers,
commanded by Governor Craven, defeated them at Saltketchers, on Upper
Combahee river, southern branch, and drove them over Savannah river,
but for a while they continued their depredations from their places of
refuge (Hewat, Histor. Acc., I, 213-222).
[Footnote 44: Verbified in tchayámassïs: I am friendly, liberal,
generous, hospitable.]
Names of Yámassi Indians mentioned at that period also testify to
their Creek provenience. The name of a man called Sanute is explained
by Cr. sanódshäs _I encamp near_, or _with somebody_; that of
Ishiagaska (Tchiagaska?) by íka akáska _his scraped_ or _shaved head_;
or issi akáska _his hair (on body) removed_. At a public council held
at Savannah, in May 1733, a Lower Creek chief from Kawíta expressed
the hope that the Yámassi may be in time _reunited to his people_; a
fact which fully proves the ethnic affinity of the two national
bodies.[45]
[Footnote 45: Cf. Jones, Tomochichi, p. 31.]
In Thomas Jeffery's Map of Florida, which stands opposite the
title-page of John Bartram, Descr. of East Florida, London, 1769, 4to,
a tract on the northeast shore of Pensacola bay is marked "Yamase
Land."
A tradition is current among the Creeks, that the Yámassi were reduced
and exterminated by them, but it is difficult to trace the date of
that event. W. Bartram, Travels, p. 137, speaks of the "sepulchres or
tumuli of the Yamasees who were here slain in the last decisive
battle, the Creeks having driven them to this point, between the
doubling of the river (St. Juan, Florida), where few of them escaped
the fury of the conquerors.... There were nearly thirty of these
cemeteries of the dead," etc.; cf. _ibid._, p. 183. 516. Forty or
fifty of them fled to St. Augustine and other coast fortresses, and
were protected by the Spanish authorities; p. 55. 485. 390.
After the middle of the eighteenth century the name Yámassi disappears
from the annals as that of a distinct tribe. They were now merged into
the Seminoles; they continued long to exist as one of their _bands_
west of the Savannah river, and it is reported "that the Yemasi band
of Creeks refused to fight in the British-American war of 1813."
All the above dates permit us to conclude that, ethnographically, the
Yámassi were for the main part of Creek origin, but that some foreign
admixture, either Kataba or Yuchi, had taken place, which will account
for the presence of their local names of foreign origin. The
Apalachian or Hitchiti branch of the Maskoki family must have also
furnished elements to those Yámassi who were settled southwest of
Savannah city, for that was the country in which the Apalachian branch
was established.
YAMACRAW.
This small tribe is known only through its connection with the young
British colony of Savannah and the protection which its chief,
Tomochichi, extended over it. This chief, from some unknown reason,
had separated from his mother tribe of Apalatchúkla town, and went to
reside upon a river bluff four miles above the site of Savannah city.
He subsequently visited England and its court with Esquire Oglethorpe
(in 1733), and died, about ninety-seven years old, in 1739, highly
respected by his Indians and the colonists. The Yamacraw Indians, who
had followed him to the Savannah river, consisted mainly of
disaffected Lower Creek and of some Yámassi Indians.
The Creeks cannot give any account of the name Yamacraw, and the R,
which is a component sound of it, does not occur in any of the Maskoki
dialects nor in Yuchi. Cf. Chas. C. Jones, Historical Sketch of
Tomo-chi-chi, mico of the Yamacraws. Albany, 1868, 8vo.
SEMINOLE.
The term semanóle, or isti simanóle, signifies _separatist_ or
_runaway_, and as a tribal name points to the Indians who left the
Creek, especially the Lower Creek settlements, for Florida, to live,
hunt and fish there in entire independence. The term does not mean
_wild, savage_, as frequently stated; if applied now in this sense
to animals, it is because of its original meaning, "what has become a
runaway": pínua simanóle _wild turkey_ (cf. pín-apúiga _domesticated
turkey_), tchu-áta semanóli, _antelope_, literally, "goat turned
runaway, wild," from tchu-áta, ítchu háta _goat_, lit., "bleating
deer."[46] The present Seminoles of Florida call themselves
Ikaniú-ksalgi or "Peninsula-People" (from íkana _land_, niúksa, for
in-yúksa _its point, its promontory_, -algi: collective ending);
another name for them is Tallaháski, from their town Tallahassie, now
capital of the State of Florida. The Wendát or Hurons call them
Ungiayó-rono, "Peninsula-People," from ungiáyo _peninsula_. In Creek,
the Florida peninsula is called also Ikan-fáski, the "Pointed Land,"
the Seminoles: Ikanafáskalgi "people of the pointed land." The name
most commonly given to the Seminoles in the Indian Territory by the
Creeks is Simanō′lalgi, by the Hitchiti: Simanō′la'li.
[Footnote 46: This adjective is found verbified in
isimanōlăidshit "he has caused himself to be a runaway."]
Indians speaking the Creek language lived in the south of the
peninsula as early as the sixteenth century. This fact is fully proved
by the local names and by other terms used in these parts transmitted
by Fontanedo (in 1559, cf. Calusa): seletega! "_run hither!_" now
pronounced silítiga, silítka, abbrev. from isilítka; isilítkäs _I run
away_, lit., I carry myself away, off; lítkäs _I am running_. Silítiga
is now used as a personal name among the Creeks.
We have seen that a portion of Fontanedo's local names of the Calusa
country are of Creek origin, and that another portion is probably
Timucua. The rest of them, like Yagua and others, seem to be of
Caribbean origin, and a transient or stationary population of Caribs
is mentioned by Hervas, _Catalogo de las lenguas_ I, p. 386 as having
lived in the Apalachi country.[47]
[Footnote 47: Cf. Proceed. Am. Philos. Society of Phila., 1880,
pp. 466, 478.]
The hostile encounter between Creeks and Calusa, mentioned by Romans
(cf. Calusa), probably took place about A. D. 1700, but the name
Seminole does not appear as early as that. Previous to that event the
Creeks seem to have held only the coast line and the north part of
what is now the area of Florida State. A further accession resulted
from the arrival of the Yámassi, whom Governor Craven had driven into
Georgia and into the arms of their enemies, the Spaniards of Florida,
after suppressing the revolt of 1715 in which they had participated.
The Seminoles of modern times are a people compounded of the following
elements: separatists from the Lower Creek and Hitchiti towns;
remnants of tribes partly civilized by the Spaniards; Yámassi Indians
and some negroes. According to Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country
(1799), pp. 25. 26, they had emigrated from Okóni, Sáwokli, Yufála,
Tamá`la, Apalatchúkla and Hitchiti (all of which are Lower Creek
towns), being invited to Florida by the plenty of game, the mildness
of the climate and the productiveness of the soil. The Seminoles
mentioned by him inhabited the whole peninsula, from Apalachicola
river to the "Florida Point," and had the following seven towns:
Semanóle Talahássi, Mikasuki, Witchotúkmi, Alachua, Oklawáha `láko,
Talua-tchápk-apópka, Kalusa-hátchi. Some of the larger immigrations
from the Creek towns into those parts occurred: in 1750, after the end
of the Revolutionary war, in 1808 and after the revolt of the Upper
Creeks in 1814.
When Wm. Bartram traveled through the Seminole country, about 1773, he
was informed that Cuscowilla, a town on a lake of the same name and a
sort of Seminole capital, had been built by Indians from Okóni old
town, settled upon the Alachua plains: "They abdicated the ancient
Alachua town on the borders of the savanna, about fifty miles west
from the river San Juan, and built here, calling the new town
Cuscowilla. (About 1710) they had emigrated from Oconee town, on the
Oconee river, on account of the proximity of the white people." They
formerly waged war with the "Tomocos (Timucua), Utinas, Calloosas,
Yamases" and other Florida tribes.[48]
[Footnote 48: Wm. Bartram, Travels, p. 97. 179. 190-193. 216.
217. 251. 379-380. The name Cuscowilla bears a curious
resemblance to the Chicasa town Tuskawillao, mentioned by Adair,
History, p. 353. Cf. also Okóni, in List of Creek Settlements.]
The Seminoles were always regarded as a sort of outcasts by the Creek
tribes from which they had seceded, and no doubt there were reasons
for this. The emigration included many of the more turbulent elements
of the population, and the mere fact that many of them spoke another
dialect than the Maskoki proper (some belonging to the Hitchiti or
southeastern division of the family) is likely to have cast a shadow
upon them. The anecdote narrated by Milfort (Mémoire, p. 311-317)
furnishes ample proof of the low esteem in which the Seminoles were
held by the Creeks. But, on the other side, emigration was favored by
the Creek communities themselves through the practice observed by some
of their number to send away a part of their young men to form branch
villages, whenever the number of the inhabitants began to exceed two
hundred. Several towns will be found in our "List of Creek
Settlements," in which the process of segmentation was going on upon a
large scale in the eighteenth century.
The Seminoles first appear as a distinct politic body in American
history under one of their chiefs, called King Payne, at the beginning
of this century. This refers more particularly to the Seminoles of the
northern parts of what is now Florida; these Indians showed, like the
Creeks, hostile intentions towards the thirteen states during and
after the Revolution, and conjointly with the Upper Creeks on
Tallapoosa river concluded a treaty of friendship with the Spaniards
at Pensacola in May, 1784. Although under Spanish control, the
Seminoles entered into hostilities with the Americans in 1793 and in
1812. In the latter year Payne míko was killed in a battle at Alachua,
and his brother, the influential Bowlegs, died soon after. These
unruly tribes surprised and massacred American settlers on the Satilla
river, Georgia, in 1817, and another conflict began, which terminated
in the destruction of the Mikasuki and Suwanee river towns of the
Seminoles by General Jackson, in April, 1818. After the cession of
Florida, and its incorporation into the American Union (1819), the
Seminoles gave up all their territory by the treaty of Fort Moultrie,
September 18th, 1823, receiving in exchange goods and annuities. When
the government concluded to move these Indians west of the Mississippi
river, a treaty of a conditional character was concluded with them at
Payne's Landing, in 1832. The larger portion were removed, but the
more stubborn part dissented, and thus gave origin to one of the
gravest conflicts which ever occurred between Indians and whites. The
Seminole war began with the massacre of Major Dade's command near
Wahoo swamp, December 28th, 1835, and continued with unabated fury for
five years, entailing an immense expenditure of money and lives. A
number of Creek warriors joined the hostile Seminoles in 1836.
A census of the Seminoles taken in 1822 gave a population of 3899,
with 800 negroes belonging to them. The population of the Seminoles in
the Indian Territory amounted to 2667 in 1881 (Ind. Affairs' Rep.),
and that of the Florida Seminoles will be stated below. There are some
Seminoles now in Mexico, who went there with their negro slaves.
The settlements of the Seminoles were partly erratic, comparable to
hunters' camps, partly stationary. The stationary villages existed
chiefly in the northern parts of the Seminole lands, corresponding to
Southern Georgia and Northern Florida of our days. A very instructive
table exists of some of their stationary villages, drawn up by Capt.
Young, and printed in Rev. Morse's Report on the Indians of the United
States (1822), p. 364. This table however includes, with a few
exceptions, only places situated near Apalachicola river (east and
west of it), in Alabama, Georgia and Florida; the list was probably
made at a time when Florida was still under Spanish domination, which
accounts for the fact that the county names are not added to the
localities. Many of these towns were, in fact, Lower Creek towns and
not belonging to the Seminole proper, all of whom lived east of
Apalachicola river, mostly at some distance from it. Seminole and
Lower Creek were, in earlier times, often regarded as identical
appellations; cf. Milfort, Mém., p. 118.
The remarks included in parentheses were added by myself.
LIST OF SEMINOLE SETTLEMENTS.
Micasukeys--(In eastern part of Leon county, Florida).
Fowl Towns--Twelve miles east of Fort Scott (a place "Fowl
Town" is now in Decatur county, Georgia, on eastern shore of
Chatahuchi river).
Oka-tiokinans--Near Fort Gaines (the Oki-tiyákni of our List of
Creek Settlements; Fort Gaines is on Chatahuchi river, Clay
county, Georgia, 31° 38´ Lat.)
Uchees--Near the Mikasukey.
Ehawhokales--On Apalachicola (river).
Ocheeses--At Ocheese Bluff (Ocheese in southeast corner of
Jackson county, Florida, western shore of Apalachicola
river; cf. List).
Tamatles--Seven miles from the Ocheeses. (Cf. Tamá`li, in List
of Creek Settlements.)
Attapulgas--On Little river, a branch of Okalokina (now
Oklokonee river, or "Yellow Water," from óki _water_, lákni
_yellow_, in Hitchiti; the place is in Decatur county,
Georgia. From ítu-púlga, _boring holes into wood_ to make
fire: púlgäs _I bore_, ítu _wood_).
Telmocresses--West side of Chatahoochee river (is Tálua
mútchasi, "Newtown").
Cheskitalowas--West side of Chatahoochee river (Chiska talófa
of the Lower Creeks, q. v.)
Wekivas--Four miles above the Cheskitalowas.
Emussas--Two miles above the Wekivas (Omussee creek runs into
Chatahuchi river from the west, 31° 20´ Lat.; imússa
signifies: _tributary, branch, creek joining another
water-course_; from the verb im-ósäs).
Ufallahs--Twelve miles above Fort Gaines (Yufála, now Eufaula,
on west bank of Chatahuchi river, 31° 55´ Lat.)
Red Grounds--Two miles above the line (or Georgia boundary;
Ikan-tcháti in Creek).
Etohussewakkes--Three miles above Fort Gaines (from ítu _log_,
hássi _old_, wákäs, _I lie on the ground_).
Tattowhehallys--Scattered among other towns (probably tálua
hállui "upper town").
Tallehassas--On the road from Okalokina (Oklokonee river) to
Mikasukey (now Tallahassie, or "Old City," the capital of
Florida State).
Owassissas--On east waters of St. Mark's river (Wacissa, Basisa
is a river with a Timucua name).
Chehaws--On the Flint river (comprehends the villages planted
there from Chiaha, on Chatahuchi river).
Tallewheanas--East side of Flint river (is Hótali huyána; cf.
List of Creek Settlements).
Oakmulges--East of Flint river, near the Tallewheanas.
From reports of the eighteenth century we learn that in the south of
the Floridian peninsula the Seminoles were scattered in small bodies,
in barren deserts, forests, etc., and that at intervals they assembled
to take black drink or deliberate on tribal matters. It is also stated
that in consequence of their separation the Seminole language had
changed greatly from the original Creek; a statement which is not
borne out by recent investigations, and probably refers only to the
Seminole towns speaking Hitchiti dialects.
By order of the Bureau of Ethnology, Rev. Clay MacCauley in 1880
visited the Seminoles settled in the southern parts of the peninsula,
to take their census and institute ethnologic researches. He found
that their population amounted to 208 Indians, and that they lived in
five settlements to which he gave the following names:
1. Miami settlement; this is the old name of Mayaimi Lake, and
has nothing in common with the Miami-Algonkin tribe.
2. Big Cypress, 26° 30´ Lat.
3. Fish-eating Creek, 26° 37´; head-chief Tustenúggi.
4. Cow Creek, fifteen miles north of Lake Okitchóbi.
5. Catfish Lake, 28° Lat. The late Chipko was chief there, who
had been present with Osceola at the Dade massacre in 1835.
Traces of languages other than the Seminole were not discovered by
him.
In December 1882 J. Francis Le Baron transmitted to the Smithsonian
Institution a few ethnologic notices and a vocabulary obtained from
the Seminole Indians of Chipko's (since deceased) band, which he had
visited in March 1881 in their village near Lake Pierce. The dialect
of the vocabulary does not differ from Creek in any appreciable
degree. On marriage customs and the annual busk of these Indians he
makes the following remarks: "They do not marry or intermix with the
whites, and are very jealous of the virtue of their women, punishing
with death any squaw that accepts the attentions of a white man. Some
Seminoles exhibit a mixture of negro blood, but some are very tall,
fine-looking savages. Their three tribes live at Chipko town, near
Lake Oketchobee, and in the Everglades. They have a semi-religious
annual festival in June or July, called the green corn dance, the new
corn being then ripe enough to be eaten. Plurality of wives is
forbidden by their laws. Tom Tiger, a fine-looking Indian, is said to
have broken this rule by marrying two wives, for which misdemeanor he
was banished from the tribe. He traveled about one hundred miles to
the nearest tribe in the Everglades, and jumped unseen into the ring
at the green corn dance. This procured him absolution, conformably to
their laws."
We have deemed it appropriate to dwell at length on the history,
topography and peculiar customs of the Seminoles on account of their
identity with the Creek Indians, the main object of this research. We
now pass over to the Southeastern or Apalachian group of Maskoki.
APALACHI.
The Hitchiti, Mikasuki and Apalachi languages form a dialectic group
distinct from Creek and the western dialects, and the people speaking
them must once have had a common origin. The proper names Apalachi and
Apalatchúkli are now extinct as tribal names, but are of very ancient
date. The auriferous ledges of the Cheroki country were said to be
within "the extreme confines of the Apalachi province" (Fontanedo,
1559), and the Apalachi found by Narvaez was fifteen days' march north
of Aute,[49] a roadstead or harbor on the Gulf of Mexico, though the
Indians had stated to him that it lay at a distance of nine days'
travel only. The "province" of Apalachi probably included the upper
part or the whole of the Chatahuchi river basin, and on account of the
ending -okla in Apalatchúkla, its origin must be sought in the Cha'hta
or Hitchiti dialect. Rev. Byington explains it by _helping people_,
_allies_, in the Cha'hta apălătchi ókla, but the original form
of the name is Apalaχtchi ókli, not apálatchi; -χtchi is a
Hitchiti suffix of adjectives, and apálui in that dialect means "_on
the other side of_." Hence the adjective apálaχtchi: "those
(_people_ ókli) on the other side, shore or river."
[Footnote 49: Perhaps from the Hitchiti term a-útilis "_I build
or kindle a fire_."]
The town of Apalachi, on Apalache bay, must be kept clearly distinct
from the town of Apalachicola, or Apalatchúkla, about fifty miles
further west, on the river then called by the same name.
Apalachi town was north of Apalachi bay, the principal port of which
is now St. Marks. This was probably the place after which "Apalache
provincia" was named in de Soto's time; Biedma, one of his historians,
states (in Smith, Docum. ined., I, 48. 49), that "this province was
divided by a river from the country east of it, having Aguile as
frontierstown. Apalachi has many towns and produces much food, and
(the Indians) call this land visited by us Yustaga." This river was
probably the St. Mark's river. Both names are also distinguished as
belonging to separate communities in Margry IV, 96. 117 (1699) and IV,
309. The western "Palachees" are laid down on the map in Dan. Coxe,
Carolana, on Chatahuchi river, the eastern "Palachees" on a river in
the northeast angle of the Gulf of Mexico; north of the latter are the
Tommachees (Timucua). At present, a northwestern affluent of Okoni
river, in Upper Georgia, is called Apalache river.
Apalatchúkla, a name originally belonging to a _tribe_, was in early
times transferred to the river, now Chatahuchi, and from this to all
the towns of the Lower Creeks. An instance of this is given by L.
d'Iberville, who states (Margry IV, 594. 595) that in 1701 a
difficulty arose between the Apalachicolys and the Apalachis on
account of depredations committed; that the Spanish call those Indians
Apalachicolys, the French Conchaques, and that they counted about 2000
families--an equal number of men being ascribed to the Apalachis, who
were under Spanish rule.
The name of the tribe and town was Apalatchúkla, also written
Pallachucla, Palachicola. This town was on the western bank of
Chatahuchi river, 1-1/2 miles below Chiaha. In early times its tribe
was the most important among the Lower Creeks, adverse to warfare, a
"peace or white town," and called by the people Tálua `láko, _Great
Town_. Like the town Apalachi, the inhabitants of this town spoke a
dialect resembling Hitchiti very closely. Apalachicola river is now
the name of Chatahuchi river below its junction with the Flint river.
More about this town in the: List of Creek Settlements.
Later in the sixteenth century the boundary between the Timucua and
the _Apalachi_ lands is stated to have been on or near the Vacissa
river; Ibitachuco or _Black Lake_ being the eastern Apalachi boundary,
the westernmost town of the Timucua being Asile (Ausile, Oxilla).
In 1638 the Indians of Apalachi made war against the Spanish
colonists. Although the governor of Florida had but few troops to
oppose, he marched against them and daunted their aggressiveness
(sobervia) by forcing them to a disastrous retreat and following them
into their own country (Barcia, Ensayo, p. 203).
In 1688 a number of Apalachi chiefs (caciques) addressed a letter of
complaint to Charles the Second, king of Spain (†1700), concerning the
exactions to which their former governors had subjected them, and
other topics relating to their actual condition. The towns mentioned
in the letter are San Luis de Apalachi, Ibitachuco, Pattali, Santa
Cruz, Talpatqui, Vasisa, San Marcos. The original, with its Spanish
translation, was reproduced in a fac-simile edition in 1860 by
Buckingham Smith (fol.), and other documents written in Apalachi are
preserved in the archives of Havana, the seat of the archbishopric, to
which Apalachi and all the other settlements comprised within the
diocese of St. Helena belonged.
Christianized Apalachis, who had been frequently raided by Alibamu
Indians, fled in 1705 to the French colony at Mobile, where Governor
de Bienville gave them lands and grain-seed to settle between the
Mobilian and Tohome tribe; cf. Pénicaut in Margry V, 461. 485, where
their religious festivals and other customs are described. Like the
Apalachis, the tribe of the heathen Taouachas had quitted the Spanish
territory for being harassed by the Alibamu, and fled southwest to the
French, who settled them on Mobile river, one league above the
Apalachis (1710; in Margry V, 485-487). Some Cha'hta refugees had been
settled at the "Anse des Chactas," on Mobile bay, the year preceding.
In the nineteenth century the last remnants of the Apalachi tribe were
living on the Bayou Rapide, in Louisiana, and about A. D. 1815 counted
fourteen families.
MIKASUKI.
"Miccosukee" is a town of Florida, near the northern border of the
State, in Leon county, built on the western shore of the lake of the
same name. The tribe established there speaks the Hitchiti language,
and must hence have separated from some town or towns of the Lower
Creeks speaking that language.
The tribe was reckoned among the Seminole Indians, but does not figure
prominently in Indian history before the outbreak of the Seminole war
of 1817. It then raised the "red pole" as a sign of war, and became
conspicuous as a sort of political centre for these Southern
"soreheads." The vocabularies of that dialect show it to be
practically identical with that of Hitchiti town. Cf. the comparative
table, p. 56. More notices on this tribe will be found under: Seminole.
HITCHITI.
The Hitchiti tribe, of whose language we present an extensive specimen
in this volume, also belongs to the southeastern group, which I have
called Apalachian.
Hitchiti town was, in Hawkins' time, established on the eastern bank
of Chatahuchi river, four miles below Chiaha. The natives possessed a
narrow strip of good land bordering on the river, and had the
reputation of being honest and industrious. They obtained their name
from Hitchiti creek, so called at its junction with Chatahuchi river,
[and in its upper course Ahíki (Ouhe-gee); cf. List] from Creek:
ahítchita "_to look up_ (the stream)." They had spread out into two
branch settlements: Hitchitúdshi or Little Hitchiti, on both sides of
Flint river, below the junction of Kitchofuni creek, which passes
through a county named after it; and Tutalósi on Tutalosi creek, a
branch of Kitchofuni creek, twenty miles west of Hitchitúdshi
(Hawkins, p. 60. 65). The existence of several Hitchiti towns is
mentioned by C. Swan in 1791; and Wm. Bartram states that they "speak
the Stincard language." There is a popular saying among the Creeks,
that the ancient name of the tribe was Atchík'hade, a Hitchiti word
which signifies _white heap_ (of ashes).
Some Hitchiti Indians trace their mythic origin to a fall from the
sky, but my informants, Chicote and G. W. Stidham, gave me the
following tale: "Their ancestors first appeared in the country by
coming out of a canebrake or reed thicket (útski in Hitchiti) near the
sea coast. They sunned and dried their children during four days, then
set out, arrived at a lake and stopped there. Some thought it was the
sea, but it was a lake; they set out again, traveled up a stream and
settled there for a permanency." Another tradition says that this
people was the first to settle at the site of Okmulgi town, an ancient
capital of the confederacy.
The tribe was a member of the Creek confederacy and does not figure
prominently in history. The first mention I can find of it, is of the
year 1733, when Gov. Oglethorpe met the Lower Creek chiefs at
Savannah, Ga., to conciliate their tribes in his favor. The "Echetas"
had sent their war-chiefs, Chutabeeche and Robin with four attendants
(Ch. C. Jones, Tomochichi, p. 28). The Yutchitálgi of our legend, who
were represented at the Savannah council of 1735 by "Tomehuichi, dog
king of the Euchitaws," are probably the Hitchiti, not the Yuchi. Wm.
Bartram calls them (1773) "Echetas" also.
The dialect spoken by the Hitchiti and Mikasuki once spread over an
extensive area, for local names are worded in it from the Chatahuchi
river in an eastern direction up to the Atlantic coast. To these
belong those mentioned under "the name Maskoki," p. 58.
According to Wm. Bartram, Travels, pp. 462-464, the following towns on
Chatahuchi river spoke the "Stincard" language, that is a language
differing from Creek or Muscogulge: Chíaha (Chehaw), Hitchiti
(Echeta), Okóni (Occone), the two Sáwokli (Swaglaw, Great and Little).
From this it becomes probable, though not certain, that the dialect
known to us as Hitchiti was common to them all. The Sáwokli tribe,
settled in the Indian Territory, have united there with the Hitchiti,
a circumstance which seems to point to ancient relationship.
Like the Creeks, the Hitchiti have an ancient _female_ dialect, still
remembered and perhaps spoken by the older people, which was formerly
the language of the males also. The woman language existing among the
Creek Indians is called by them also the _ancient_ language. A
thorough study of these archaic remnants would certainly throw light
on the early local distribution of the tribes and dialects of the
Maskoki in the Gulf States.
HUNTER'S SONG.
The following ancient hunting song may serve as a specimen of the
female dialect of Hitchiti; the ending _-i_ of the verbs, standing
instead of _-is_ of the male dialect, proves it to be worded in that
archaic form of speech. Obtained from Judge G. W. Stidham:
Hántun talánkawati ā′klig; éyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap'hú!
aluktchabakliwáti ā′klig; éyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap'hú!
aluktigonknawáti ā′klig; áyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap'hú!
aluk'hadshá-aliwati ā′klig; éyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap'hú!
hántun ayawáti ā′klig; áyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap'hú!
Somewhere (the deer) lies on the ground, I think; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
It is raising up its head, I believe; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
It attempts to rise, I believe; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
Slowly it raises its body, I think; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
It has now risen on its feet, I presume; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
At every second line of this song the singer kicks at a log, feigning
to start up the deer by the noise from its recesses in the woods. The
song-lines are repeated thrice, in a slow and plaintive tune, except
the refrain, which is sung or rather spoken in a quicker measure, and
_once_ only. For the words of the text and of the refrain, cf. the
Hitchiti Glossary.
THE HITCHITI DIALECT
of the Maskoki language-family is analogous, though by no means
identical with the Creek dialect in its grammatic outlines. Many
points of comparison will readily suggest themselves to our readers,
and enable us to be comparatively short in the following sketch.
The female dialect is an archaic form of Hitchiti parallel to archaic
Creek; both were formerly spoken by both sexes. Only the common form
(or male language) of Hitchiti will be considered here.
PHONETICS.
The _phonetic system_ is the same as in Creek, except that the sonant
mutes, b, g, are more distinctly heard (d is quite rare). The
processes of alternation are the same in both dialects. Many vowels of
substantives are short in Creek, which appear long in Hitchiti: ă′pi
_tree_: H. ā′pi; hă′si _sun, moon_: H. hā′si; nĭ′ta _day_: H. níta
etc.
MORPHOLOGY.
_Noun._ The case inflection of the substantive, adjective, of some
pronouns and of the nominal forms of the verb is effected by the
suffixes: -i for the absolute, -ut for the subjective, -un for the
objective case: yáti _person_, yátut, yátun; náki _what, which_,
nákut, nákun. A few verbals inflect in -a, -at, -an; for instance,
those terminating in -hunga.
The diminutive ending is the same as in Creek: -odshi, -udshi.
To the Creek collective suffix -algi corresponds -a'li, which is, in
fact, the third person of a verbal plural: míki _chief_, miká'li _the
class of chiefs_ and: "_they are chiefs_." Maskóki: Maskoká'li _the
Creek people_; fápli'hitchi wind, fápli'htcha'li _wind clan, wind gens_.
Hitchiti has a greater power of verbifying substantives than Creek:
míki _chief_, mikólis _I am chief_; tchóyi _pine-tree_, tchóyus _it is
a pine tree_.
There is no real substantive verb in the language, and adjectives,
when becoming verbified, are turned into attributive verbs, as in
Creek: wánti _strong, hard_; tsawántus _I am strong_; wántus _he, it
is strong, hard_; wántatik _not strong_; wántigus _he is very strong_;
wántatis he is not strong; wanta'hlátis _he is not strong at all_.
The gradation of the adjective is expressed either by the attributive
verb, to which isi-, is- is prefixed, or in some other ways
syntactically:
Kúdsuni tchátu-kunáwun isínwantûs _iron is harder than silver_.
ukitchúbi okilósi ihayuχkíki o'latíwats a _lake is deeper
than a river_; lit. "to river the lake in its depth does not
come up." This may also be expressed: okilósi (u)kitchóbi
isihayuχkúwats; lit. "a lake (than) a river more-deepens."
yá hali'hlósăka lápkun uⁿweíkas _this boy is the tallest_;
lit. "this boy all surpasses in height."
yát yákni tchäíh'-apiktchaχáyus _this is the highest
mountain_; lit. "this ground-high stands ahead."
The numeral has two forms for the cardinal number: one used
attributively, and another, abbreviated from it, used exclusively for
counting; there are, outside of this, forms for the ordinal, for the
distributive, and for the adverbial numeral. The list of the numerals
is as follows:
_Cardinals._ _Ordinals._ _Distributive._ _Adverbial._
1 `lámin `láhai'h índshuatki `láhamin a`la'hmi
"_beginning_."
2 túklan tukā′ satóklaka tuklákan satúkla'h
3 tutchínan tutchi satotchínaka tutchinákan atutchína'h
4 sitákin síta'h isítagika sitahákin asítagi
5 tchaχgípan tchá'hgi istchaχgípaka tchaχgipákan atsá'hgipi
6 ípagin ípa isipágaka ipahákan isípagi
7 kulapákin kúlapa iskulapákika kulapáhakan iskulapáki
8 tusnapákin tusnapá istusnapákika tusnapáhakan istusnapáki
9 ustapákin ustapá isustapákika ustapáhakan isustapáki
10 pokólin pukú ispokólika pukúlakan ispukúli
20 pokóli túklan ispokol-túklaka pokó-tukúlakan ispukúli-túklan
100 tchúkpi `lámin istchukpi-`lámika tchukpi-`lámakan istchukpi-`lámin
_Folded four times_ is expressed by the cardinal: po`lótki sítaki;
_folded eight times_: po`lótki tusnapákin.
The _personal pronoun_ appears in different forms: subjective
absolute; subjective prefixed to verbs and objective pronoun.
Subjective absolute: Subj. prefixed: Objective:
_I_ ā′ni tcha-, am-, an-, a- tcha-
_thou_ tchí'hni tchi- tchi-
_he, she, it_ í'hni im-, in-, i-
_we_ pú'hni pu-, po- pu-
_ye_ tchi'hnitáki tchi-, inverted: ítch- tchi-, w. suffix
_they_ i'hnitáki im-, in-, i-
ánāli (usually ánalut) _myself_, 2 s. tchí'hnāli, 3 s.
í'hnāli; pú'hnāli _ourselves_, 2 pl. tchi'hnālitáki, 3 pl.
i'hnalitáki.
_The possessive pronoun._
_my_ am-, an-, a- tcha-, inverted: atch-
_thy_ tchi-, tchi-, inverted: itch-
_his, her, its_ im-, in-, i- im-, in-, i-
_our_ pú'hni, pu- pun-, pu-, po-
_your_ tchíχtchi, tchi- tchi-, with suffix
_their_ im-, in-, i- i- etc., with suffix.
tchálbi _my hand_ or _hands_, tchílbi, ílbi; púlbi _our hand_
or _hands_, tchílbuχtchi, ílbi.
ántchiki _my house_ or _houses_; tchíntchiki, íntchiki;
púntchiki, tchíntchigoχtchi, íntchigoχtchi.
_Demonstrative pronouns_: ma, mût, mûn (Cr. ma); yá, yát, yán
or yûn (Cr. hía); yákti, yáktut, yáktun (Cr. ása); má'hmali
_the same_.
_Demonstr.-relat. pronoun_: náki, nákut, nákun _which, what_.
_Interrogative pronouns_: nó`li? nó`lut or nó`lut i? nó`lun or
nó`lun i? _who?_ náki? nákut? nákun? _which? what?_ nákon
i? _what is it_?
_The Hitchiti verb_ equals the Creek verb in the abundance of
inflectional forms. In order to show the inflection of a verb (or
rather a part of it), going parallel to the one chosen as the Creek
paradigm, we select ísiki _to take, to carry_; áwiki being used when
a plurality of objects is concerned; Creek: ísita, tcháwita.
ísilis _I take_, 2 s. ísitskas, 3 s. ísis; 1 pl. ísikas, 2 pl.
isátchkas, 3 pl. ísa`li.
áwalis _I take_, pl. of obj., 2 s. awitskas, 3 s. áwas; 1 pl.
áwikas, 2 pl. áwatskas, 3 pl. áwa`lis.
í'hsilis _I took_ a short time ago (Cr. ísayanks); á'hwalis.
ísānis _I took_ several days ago (Cr. isāímatas); also _I
had taken_; áwānis.
ísiliktas _I have taken_ many years ago (Cr. īsáyantas);
áwaliktas.
ísilālis _I shall take_ (Cr. isá`lis); áwalālis.
ísis! pl. ísitis! _take it_! ā′wis! ā′witis! (or ā'watis!)
ísiχtchi _having taken, holding in one's hands_; áwiχtchi.
í'hsik (object) _taken_, part. pass.; á′hwak.
ísigi, ísiki _to take, the taking_; áwigi, áwiki.
ísi, ísut, ísun _one who takes, carries_; áwi, áwut, áwun.
isihúnka, -at, -an _one who took, has taken_; awihúnka, -at, -an.
isáhika, -at, -an _one who is going to take_; awáhika, -at, -an.
From this verb ísiki, áwiki the language does not form any passive,
reciprocal, reflective and causative voice, but employs verbs from
other radices instead. The interrogative and negative inflection is as
follows:
ísatas _I do not take_, 2 s. ísitskatis, 3 s. ísitis; 1 pl.
isíkatis, 2 pl. isátskatis, 3 pl. (?); áwatas _I do not
take_, pl. of obj., awítskatis etc.
ísilus? _do I take_? 2 s. ísitskus? 3 s. ísus? 1 pl. ísigō?
2 pl. ísatskō? 3 pl. (?). áwalus? _do I take_? etc.
isatä′sōs? _do I not take_? 2 s. isitskatibōs? 3 s. isitísōs?
1 pl. isikatíbōs? 2 pl. isatskatíbōs? 3 pl. (?). awatä′sōs?
_do I not take_? etc.
A form for the 3. pl. was remembered by none of my informants, who
state that the Hitchiti render it by a circumscriptive sentence.
A specimen of the objective or compound conjugation of the verb _I
strike_, batā′plilis, runs as follows:
_I strike thee once_ tchibatáplilis, _repeatedly_ tchibátaspilis
_I strike him, her once_ batā′plilis batáspilis
_ye_ tchibatap'hólilis tchibatas'hópilis
_them_ batas'húpilis batas'húpilis
_He, she strikes me once_: tchábataplis, _repeatedly_: tchabátaspis
_thee_ tchíbataplis tchibátaspis
_him, her_ batáplis batáspis
_us_ púbataplis pubátaspis
_ye_ tchibatap'hólis tchibatas'hópis
_them_ batáspis batas'hópis
The same verb _to strike_ gives origin to the following _genera
verbi_, each appearing under two different forms, and all being quoted
in the present tense of the declarative mode, affirmative voice:
_Active_: batā′plilis _I strike_ (now) _by one blow_
batā′spilis _I strike_ (now) _by several blows_
_Passive_: tchabátapkas _I am struck once, by one blow_
tchabátaspkas _I am struck more than once_ (obsolete)
_Reciprocal_: itibatáplikas _we strike each other once_
itibatáspigas _we strike each other repeatedly_
_Reflective_: ilbatā′plilis _I strike myself by one blow_
ilbatáspilis _I strike myself by several blows_
_Causative_: bataplídshilis _I cause to strike once_
bataspídshilis _I cause to strike repeatedly_.
_Postpositions_ govern the absolute case of the noun just as
they do in Creek:
kónut tchígi í-aχnun i-aulídshis _the skunk stays under the
house_.
sáwut áhi ígapun untchóχolis _the racoon sits on the top of
the tree_.
ótaki labáki _near_ or _around an island_.
ótagi apálu-un _on the other side of the island_.
yántuntun hitchkátigan _beyond sight_, is an instance of a
postposition figuring as preposition, and is connected with
the objective case of a noun. It is not a real postposition,
but an adverb used in this function.
ALIBAMU.
The disconnected remarks on the Alibamu Indians which we find in the
documents and chronicles represent them as early settlers on Alabama
river, at a moderate distance from the confluence of Coosa and
Tallapoosa rivers. In our legend they are introduced among the four
tribes contending for the honor of being the most ancient and
valorous.
D. Coxe, Carolana, p. 24 mentions their tribal name in the following
connection: "On Coussa river[50] are the Ullibalies[51], Olibahalies,
Allibamus; below them the Tallises." Allen Wright derives Alibamu
(also written Allibamous, Alibami, Albámu, incorrectly Alibamon) from
Cha'hta: álba _thicket_ and áyalmu, _place cleared_ (of trees,
thickets): álba ayamúle _I open_ or _clear the thicket_. If this
derivation is correct, the name, with its generic definition, could
apply to many localities simultaneously. Let us hear what Sekopechi or
"Perseverance," an old man of that tribe, related to Agent Eakin
concerning their early migrations and settlements. (Schoolcraft,
Indians I, 266 sqq):
[Footnote 50: Anciently Coosa, Coussa river was a name given to
our Coosa river, as well as to its lower course below the
junction of Tallapoosa, now called Alabama river. Wright's Ch.
Dictionary has: alua _a burnt place_.]
[Footnote 51: In the report of the Fidalgo de Elvas, Ullibahali,
a walled town, is not identical with Alimamu. Ullibahali is a
name composed of the Alibamu: óli _village, town_ and the
Hitchiti: báhali _down stream_, and _southward_, which is the
Creek wáhali _South_.]
"The Great Spirit brought the Alabama Indians from the ground between
the Cahawba and Alabama rivers, and they believe that they are of
right possessors of this soil. The Muscogees formerly called
themselves Alabamians ("thicket-clearers"?), but other tribes called
them Oke-choy-atte, "life."[52] The earliest oral tradition of the
Alibamu of a migration is, that they migrated from the Cahawba and
Alabama rivers to the junction of the Tuscaloosa (?) and Coosa rivers,
where they sojourned for two years. After this they dwelt at the
junction of the Coosa and Alabama rivers, on the west side of what was
subsequently the site of Fort Jackson. It is supposed that at this
time they numbered fifty effective men. They claimed the country from
Fort Jackson to New Orleans for their hunting grounds."
[Footnote 52: Oktchóyi is the Cha'hta term for _living, alive_.]
Whatever may be the real foundation of this confused narrative, it
seems that the Alibamu reached their later seats from a country lying
to the west or southwest, and that they showed a preference for
river-junctions, for this enabled them to take fish in two rivers
simultaneously. Another migration legend of this tribe, as related by
Milfort, will be given and accounted for below.
Biedma relates that H. de Soto, when reaching the "Alibamo province,"
had to fight the natives entrenched within a palisaded fort (fuerte de
Alibamo, Garc., de la Vega) and the Fidalgo of Elvas: that the
cacique of Chicaça came with the caciques of Alimamu and of
Nicalasa,[53] whereupon a fight took place. But that Alibamo province
lay _northwest_ of Chicaça town and province, and was reached only
after passing the Chocchechuma village on Yazoo river; it was probably
not the Alibamu tribe of the later centuries. In the report of Tristan
de Luna's expedition no mention is made of the Alibamu Indians, though
it speaks of "Rio Olibahali."
[Footnote 53: Gallatin, Syn. p. 105, proposes to read Nita-lusa,
_Black Bear_.]
In 1702 five French traders started with ten Alibamu natives from
Mobile, for the country where the tribe resided. They were killed by
these guides when at a distance of ten leagues from the Alibamu
village, and M. de Bienville, then governor of the French colony,
resolved to make war on the tribe. He started with a force of seventy
Frenchmen and eighteen hundred Indian auxiliaries; the latter deserted
after a march of six days, and finally the party was compelled to
return. A second expedition, consisting of Frenchmen only, was not
more successful, and had to redescend Alabama river in canoes. Mr. de
Boisbriand, the leader of a third expedition, finally succeeded in
destroying a camp of Alibamu, sixty-five miles up the river, in
killing the inmates and capturing their women and children, who were
given to the Mobilians, their allies.[54] This action was only the
first of a series of subsequent troubles.
[Footnote 54: Relation of Pénicaut, in Margry V, 424-432.]
An alliance concluded by the Alibamu with the Mobilians did not last
long, for in 1708 they arrived with a host of Cheroki, Abika and
Kataba Indians, in the vicinity of the French fort on Mobile Bay,
where Naniabas, Tohomes and Mobilians had settled, but were foiled in
their attack upon the Mobilians through the watchfulness of the tribe
and of the French colonists. The whole force of their aggressors and
their allies combined was estimated at four thousand warriors (_id._,
Margry V, 477-478; cf. 427).
In 1713, after the Alibamu had made an inroad into the Carolinas with
a host of Kataba and Abika Indians, their confederates, the head-chief
of the first-named tribe besought the French commander at Mobile bay
to erect a fort in his own country. The offer was accepted, and the
tribe was helpful in erecting a spacious fort of about three hundred
feet square, on a bluff overlooking the river, and close to their
village (_id._, Margry V, 510-511). This fort, built near the junction
of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, was called Fort Toulouse, and by the
British colonists Fort Albamu, or Alebama garrison.
When Fort Toulouse was abandoned in 1762, some Alibamu Indians
followed the French, and established themselves about sixty miles
above New Orleans, on Mississippi river, near the Huma village. Th.
Hutchins (1784), p. 39. estimates the number of their warriors settled
there at thirty. Subsequently they passed into the interior of
Louisiana, where some are hunting and roving in the woods at the
present time. The majority, however, settled in Polk county, in the
southeastern corner of Texas, became agriculturists, and about 1862
numbered over two hundred persons. Some Alibamu reside in the Indian
Territory. Cf. Buschmann, Spuren d. azt. Spr., p. 424.
The former seats of the tribe, near the site of the present capital,
Montgomery, are described as follows:
Colonel Benj. Hawkins, United States Agent among the Creeks, saw four
Alibamu towns on Alabama river, below Koassáti. "The inhabitants are
probably the ancient Alabamas, and formerly had a regular town."
(Sketch of the Creek Country, pp. 35-37, 1799.) The three first were
surrounded by fertile lands, and lay on the eastern bank of Alabama
river. Their names were as follows:
Ikan-tcháti or "Red Ground," a small village, with poor and indolent
inhabitants.
Tawássa or Tawasa, three miles below Ikan-tcháti, a small village on
a high bluff. Called Taouacha by the French, cf. Tohome. The Koassáti
word tabasa means _widower, widow_.
Pawókti, small town on a bluff; two miles below Tawássa.
A′tagi, a village four miles below the above, situated on the
western bank, and spreading along it for two miles. Also written
At-tau-gee, Autaugee, Autobi. Autauga county is named after it.
These Alibamu could raise in all about eighty warriors; they did not
conform to Creek custom, nor did they apply the Creek law for the
punishment of adultery. Although hospitable to white people, they had
very little intercourse with them. Whenever a white person had eaten
of a dish and left it, they threw the rest away, and washed everything
handled by the guest immediately. The above towns, together with
Oktchoyúdshi and Koassáti were, upon a decree of the national council
at Tukabatchi, November 27th, 1799, united into one group or class
under one "warrior of the nation." The dignitary elected to that post
of honor was Hu`lipoyi of Oktchoyúdshi, who had the war titles of
hádsho and tustĕnúggi. (Hawkins, pp. 51. 52.) Cf. Witumka.
KOASSÁTI.
The ancient seat of this tribe was in Hawkins' time (1799), on the
right or northern bank of Alabama river, three miles below the
confluence of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers. Coosada, Elmore county,
Alabama, is built on the same spot. "They are not Creeks," says
Hawkins (p. 35), "although they conform to their ceremonies; a part of
this town moved lately beyond the Mississippi, and have settled
there." G. W. Stidham, who visited their settlement in Polk county,
Texas, during the Secession war, states that they lived there east of
the Alibamu, numbered about 200 persons, were pure-blooded and very
superstitious. Some Creek Indians are with them, who formerly lived in
Florida, between the Seminoles and the Lower Creeks.
Their tribal name is differently spelt: Coosadas, Koösati, Kosádi,
Coushatees, etc. Milfort, Mém. p. 265, writes it Coussehaté. This
tribe must not be confounded with the Conshacs, q. v.
From an Alibamu Indian, Sekopechi, we have a statement on the
languages spoken by the people of the Creek confederacy (Schoolcraft,
Indians, I, 266 sq.): "The Muskogees speak six different dialects:
Muskogee, Hitchitee, Nauchee, Euchee, Alabama and Aquassawtee, but all
of them generally understand the Muskogee language." This seems to
indicate that the Alibamu dialect differs from Koassáti, for this is
meant by Aquassawtee; but the vocabularies of General Albert Pike show
that both forms of speech are practically one and the same language.
Historic notices of this tribe after its emigration to western parts
were collected by Prof. Buschmann, Spuren d. aztek. Sprache, p. 430.
Many Koassáti live scattered among the Creeks in the Creek Nation,
Indian Territory, at Yufála, for instance.
_Witumka_, on Coosa river, spoke, according to Bartram, the "Stincard"
language, and was a town of the Alibamu division. Cf. List of Creek
Settlements.
CHICASA.
The northern parts of Mississippi State contain the earliest homes of
the warlike tribe of Chicasa Indians which historical documents enable
us to trace. Pontotoc county was the centre of their habitations in
the eighteenth century, and was so probably at the time of the
Columbian discovery; settlements of the tribe scattered along the
Mississippi river, in West Tennessee and in Kentucky up to Ohio river,
are reported by the later chroniclers.
In the year 1540 the army of Hernando de Soto crossed a portion of
their territory, called by its historians "Chicaça provincia," and
also visited a town of this name, with a smaller settlement
(alojamiento) in its vicinity named Chicaçilla.
Two rivers anciently bore the name of "Chicasa river," not because
they were partially or exclusively inhabited by tribes of this
nationality, but because their headwaters lay within the Chicasa
boundaries. This gives us a clue to the topographic position of the
Chicasa settlements. Jefferys (I, 153), states that "Chicasa river is
the Maubile or Mobile river, running north and south (now called Lower
Alibama river), and that it takes its rise in the country of the
Chicasaws in three streams." When L. d'Iberville traveled up the Yazoo
river, the villages on its banks were referred to him as lying on "la
rivière des Chicachas."[55]
[Footnote 55: Margry IV, 180.]
The most lucid and comprehensive account of the Chicasa _settlements_
is found in Adair's History.
James Adair, who was for several years a trader among the Chicasa,
gives the following account of their country and settlements (History,
p. 352, sq.): "The Chikkasah country lies in about thirty-five degrees
N. Lat., at the distance of one hundred and sixty miles from the
eastern side of the Mississippi ... about half way from Mobille to the
Illinois, etc. The Chikkasah are now settled between the heads of two
of the most western branches of Mobille river and within twelve miles
of Tahre Hache (Tallahatchie).... In 1720 they had four contiguous
settlements, which lay nearly in the form of three parts of a square,
only that the eastern side was five miles shorter than the western,
with the open part toward the Choktah. One was called Yaneka, about a
mile wide and six miles long ...; another was ten miles long ... and
from one to two miles broad. The towns were called Shatara,
Chookheereso, Hykehah, Tuskawillao, and Phalacheho. The other square,
Chookka Pharáah or "the long-house," was single and ran four miles in
length and one mile in breadth. It was more populous than their whole
nation contains at present ... scarcely 450 warriors." From Adair's
text it appears that the three towns were but a short distance from
the fortified places held by them at the time when he composed his
History (published 1775). They were about Pontotoc or Dallas counties,
Mississippi.
The Chicasa settlements are referred to in detail by B. Romans, East
and West Florida, p. 63: "They live in the centre of an uneven and
large nitrous savannah; have in it one town, long one mile and a half,
very narrow and irregular; this they divide into seven (towns), by the
names of Melattaw 'hat and feather,' Chatelaw 'copper town,'
Chukafalaya 'long town,' Tuckahaw 'a certain weed,' Ashuck hooma 'red
grass.' Formerly the whole of them were enclosed in palisadoes."
Unfortunately, this list gives only five towns instead of the seven
referred to.
D. Coxe, Carolana (1741) says, when speaking of the Tennessee river
(p. 13. 14): "River of the Cusates, Cheraquees or Kasqui river ...; a
cataract is on it, also the tribe of the Chicazas." An early French
report alludes to one of their villages, situated thirty leagues
inward from a place forty leagues above the mouth of Arkansas river.
"From Abeeka to the Chickasaw towns the distance is about one hundred
and fifty-nine miles, crossing many savannahs;" B. Romans, E. and W.
Florida, p. 313.
Through all the epochs of colonial _history_ the Chicasa people
maintained their old reputation for independence and bravery. They
were constantly engaged in quarrels and broils with all their Indian
neighbors: sometimes with the cognate Cha'hta and with the Creeks, at
other times with the Cheroki, Illinois, Kickapu, Sháwano, Tonica,
Mobilians, Osage and Arkansas (Kapaha) Indians. In 1732 they cut to
pieces a war party of the Iroquois invading their territory, but in
1748 coöperated against the French with that confederacy. J. Haywood,
in his Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee (1823), p. 240,
alludes to a tradition purporting that the Chicasa had formerly
assisted the Cheroki in driving the Shawanese from the Cumberland
river; the Cheroki desired war, and attacked the Chicasa shortly
before 1769, but were utterly defeated by them at the "Chicasa Old
Fields," and retreated by way of Cumberland river and the Cany Fork.
On the authority of chief Chenubbee, the same author states (p. 290)
that a part of the Chicasa established themselves on Savannah river,
opposite Augusta, but that misunderstandings with the Creeks made them
go west again. In 1795 the Chicasa claimed the land opposite Augusta,
and sent a memorial to the United States Government to substantiate
that claim. Another fraction of the tribe, called the Lightwood-Knots,
went to war with the Creeks, but were reduced by them, and have lived
with them in peace ever since. These facts seem to have some reference
to the settlement of a Chicasa band near Kasíχta, and east of that
town; cf. Kasí'hta.
Pénicaut mentions an intertribal war between them and the Cha'hta, and
relates a case of treason committed by a Cha'hta chief in 1703.[56] A
war with the Creeks occurred in 1793, in which the Americans stood on
the Chicasa side.
[Footnote 56: Margry V, 433 sqq.]
The policy of the Chicasa in regard to the white colonists was that of
a steady and protracted enmity against the French. This feeling was
produced as well by the intrigues of the British traders residing
among them as by their hatred of the Cha'hta, who had entered into
friendly relations with the French colonists, though they could not,
by any means, be called their trusty allies. By establishing fortified
posts on the Yazoo and Little Tombigbee rivers,[57] the French
threatened the independence of these Indians, who began hostilities
against them in 1722, near the Yazoo post, and urged the Naktche to a
stubborn resistance against French encroachments. They sheltered the
retreating Naktche against the pursuing French,[58] besieged the
commander Denys at Fort Natchitoches, though they were repulsed there
with considerable loss, defeated the French invading their country at
Amalahta (1736), at the Long House, or Tchúka faláya (Adair, p. 354),
and other points, and in the second attack of 1739-40 also baffled
their attempts at conquering portions of Chicasa territory.
[Footnote 57: The site once occupied by Fort Tombigbee is now
called Jones' Bluff, on Little Tombigbee river. Cf. Dumont in B.
F. French, Histor. Coll. of La., V, 106 and Note.]
[Footnote 58: Adair, History, p. 353, asserts that the real
cause of the third Naktche-French war lay in the instigations of
the Chicasa. On the causes and progress of the hostilities
between the French and the Chicasa, cf. pp. 353-358. They
attacked there his own trading house, cf. p. 357. Cf. also
Naktche, in this vol., pp. 34-39.]
The relations of these Indians with the United States were regulated
by a treaty concluded at Hopewell, 1786, with Pio mico and other
Chicasa chiefs. Their territory was then fixed at the Ohio river on
the north side, and by a boundary line passing through Northern
Mississippi on the south side. They began to emigrate to the west of
Arkansas river early in this century, and in 1822 the population
remaining in their old seats amounted to 3625. Treaties for the
removal of the remainder were concluded at Pontotoc creek, October
20th, 1832, and at Washington, May 24th, 1834.
After their establishment in the Indian Territory the political
connections still existing between them and the Cha'hta were severed
by a treaty signed June 22d, 1855. The line of demarcation separating
the two "nations," and following the meridian, is not, however, of a
binding character, for individuals of both peoples settle east or west
of it, wherever they please (G. W. Stidham).
No plausible analysis of the _name_ Chicasa, which many western
tribes, as well as the Chicasa themselves, pronounce Shikasa,
Shíkasha, has yet been suggested. Near the Gulf coast it occurs in
many local names, and also in Chickasawhay river, Mississippi, the
banks of which were inhabited by Cha'hta people.
In language and customs they differ but little from their southern
neighbors, the Cha'hta, and must be considered as a northern branch of
them. Both have two phratries only, each of which were (originally)
subdivided, in an equal manner, into four gentes; but the
thorough-going difference in the totems of the 8-12 gentes points to a
very ancient separation of the two national bodies.
The Chicasa _language_ served as a medium of commercial and tribal
intercourse to all the nations inhabiting the shores of the great
Uk-'hina ("water road"), or Lower Mississippi river. Jefferys (I,
165), compares it to the "lingua franca in the Levant; they call it
the vulgar tongue." A special mention of some tribes which spoke it is
made by L. d'Iberville[59]: "Bayagoula, Ouma, Chicacha, Colapissa show
little difference in their language;" and "The Oumas, Bayogoulas,
Theloël, Taensas, the Coloas, the Chycacha, the Napissa, the Ouachas,
Choutymachas, Yagenechito, speak the same language and understand the
Bilochy, the Pascoboula." As we have seen before, three of the above
tribes, the Naktche portion of the Théloël settlements, the Taensa and
the Shetimasha had their own languages, but availed themselves of the
Chicasa for the purposes of intertribal barter, exchange and
communication. The most important passages on this medium of trade are
contained in Le Page du Pratz, _Histoire_ (II, 218. 219): "La langue
Tchicacha est parlée aussi par les Chatkas (sic!) et (corrompue) par
les Taensas; cette langue corrompue est appelée _Mobilienne_ par les
Français," etc., and in Margry V, 442, where Pénicaut alleges to have
studied the languages of the Louisiana savages pretty thoroughly for
five years, "surtout le Mobilien, qui est le principal et qu'on entend
par toutes les nations." Cf. the article Naktche.
[Footnote 59: Margry IV, 412 and 184.]
A few terms in which Chicasa differs from main Cha'hta are as follows:
Chicasa kuíshto _panther_, Cha'hta kuítchito
kóe _domestic cat_, káto (Spanish)
ísto _large_, tchíto
iskitinúsa _small_, iskitinĕ
húshi _bird_, fúshi
The Chicasa trade language also adopted a few terms from northern
languages, as:
píshu _lynx_, from Odshibwē pishīu; also an Odshibwē totem-clan.
piakímina _persimmon_, changed in the French Creole dialect to
_plaquemine_.
shishikushi _gourd-rattle_ or _drum_, Margry IV, 175.
sacacuya _war-whoop_, la huée.
Lewis H. Morgan published in his _Ancient Society_ (New York, 1877).
p. 163, a communication from Rev. Chas. C. Copeland, missionary among
the Chicasa Indians, on the totemic _gentes_ observed by him. Copeland
states that the descent is in the female line, that no intermarriage
takes place among individuals of the same gens, and that property as
well as the office of chief is hereditary in the gens. The following
list will show how considerably he differs from Gibbs' list inserted
below:
_Panther phratry_, kóa. Its gentes: 1. kó-intchush, _wild cat_; 2.
fúshi, _bird_; 3. nánni, _fish_; 4. issi, _deer_.
_Spanish phratry_, Ishpáni. Its gentes: 1. sháwi _racoon_; 2. Ishpáni
_Spanish_; 3. míngo _Royal_; 4. huskóni; 5. túnni _squirrel_; 6.
hotchon tchápa _alligator_; 7. nashóba _wolf_; 8. tchú'hla
_blackbird_.
Further investigations will show whether the two gentes, Ishpáni and
mingo, are not in fact one and the same, as they appear in Gibbs'
list. This list is taken from a manuscript note to his Chicasa
vocabulary, and contains nine "clans" or iksa, yéksa:
Spáne or _Spanish_ gens; míngos or chiefs could be chosen from
this gens only, and were hereditary in the female line;
shă-é or _racoon_ gens; second chiefs or headmen were
selected from it; kuishto or _tiger_ gens; ko-intchūsh or
_catamount_ gens; náni or _fish_ gens; íssi or _deer_ gens;
halóba or? gens; foshé or _bird_ gens; huⁿshkoné or
_skunk_ gens, the least respected of them all.
An account in Schoolcraft, Indians I, 311, describes the mode of
tribal government, and the method by which the chiefs ratified the
laws passed. Sick people, when wealthy, treated their friends to a
sort of donation party (or pótlatch of the Pacific coast) after their
recovery; a custom called tonshpashúpa by the tribe.
TRIBES ON THE YAZOO RIVER.
Along the Yazoo river existed a series of towns which seem to have
been independent at the time of their discovery, but at a late period,
about 1836, were incorporated into the Chicasa people. Some were
inhabited by powerful and influential tribes, but it is uncertain
whether any of them were of Maskoki lineage and language or not.[60]
During the third Naktche-French war, the Yazoo tribes suffered
considerably from attacks directed upon them by the Arkansas Indians.
The countries along Yazoo river are low and swampy grounds, subject to
inundations, especially the narrow strip of land extending between
that river and the Mississippi.
[Footnote 60: I have treated of some of these tribes (Tonica,
Koroa) in separate articles. Moncachtape said to du Pratz, that
the Yazoo Indians regarded the Chicasa as their elders, "since
from them came the language of the country."]
The Taensa guide who accompanied Lemoyne d'Iberville, up the Yazoo
river in March 1699, enumerated the villages seen on its low banks in
their succession from southwest to northeast, as follows (Margry IV,
180):
1. Tonica, four days' travel from the Naktche and two days'
travel from the uppermost town, Thysia. Cf. Tonica, p. 39 sqq.
2. Ouispe; the Oussipés of Pénicaut.
3. Opocoulas. They are the Affagoulas, Offogoula, Ouféogoulas
or "Dog-People" of the later authors, and in 1784 some of
them are mentioned as residing eight miles above Pointe
Coupée, on W. bank of Mississippi river.
4. Taposa; the Tapouchas of Baudry de Lozière.
5. Chaquesauma. This important tribe, written also Chokeechuma,
Chactchioumas, Saques'húma, etc., are the Saquechuma visited
by a detachment of de Soto's army in their walled town
(1540). The name signifies "red crabs." Cf. Adair, History,
p. 352: "Tahre-hache (Tallahatchi),[61] which lower down is
called Chokchooma river, as that nation made their first
settlements there, after they came on the other side of
Mississippi.... The Chicasaw, Choktah and also the
Chokchooma, who in process of time were forced by war to
settle between the two former nations, came together from
the west as one family," etc. Cf. B. Romans, p. 315. _Crab,
crawfish_ is sóktchu in Creek, sáktchi in Hitchiti.
[Footnote 61: A large northern affluent of Yazoo river, in
northern parts of Mississippi State.]
6. Outapa; called Epitoupa, Ibitoupas in other documents.
7. Thysia; at six days' canoe travel (forty-two leagues) from
the Naktche. They are the Tihiou of Dan. Coxe (1741).
Pénicaut, who accompanied d'Iberville in this expedition, gives an
account of the Yazoo villages, which differs in some respects from the
above: Going up the river of the Yazoux for four leagues, there are
found on the right the villages inhabited by six savage nations,
called "les Yasoux, les Offogoulas, les Tonicas, les Coroas, les
Ouitoupas et les Oussipés." A French priest had already fixed himself
in one of the villages for their conversion.[62]
[Footnote 62: Cf. Margry V, 401 and Note.]
D'Iberville was also informed that the Chicasa and the Napissas formed
a union, and that the villages of both were standing close to each
other. The term Napissa, in Cha'hta naⁿpissa, means _spy, sentinel,
watcher_, and corresponds in signification to Akolapissa, name of a
tribe between Mobile Bay and New Orleans, q. v. Compare also the
Napochies, who, at the time of Tristan de Luna's visit, warred with
the Coça (or Kusa, on Coosa river?): "Coças tenian guerra con los
Napochies"; Barcia, Ensayo, p. 37.
D. Coxe, Carolana, p. 10, gives the Yazoo towns in the following
order: The lowest is Yassaues or Yassa (Yazoo), then Tounica, Kouroua,
Samboukia, Tihiou, Epitoupa. Their enumeration by Baudry de Lozière,
1802, is as follows: "Yazoos, Offogoulas, Coroas are united, and live
on Yazoo river in one village; strength, 120 men. Chacchioumas,
Ibitoupas, Tapouchas in one settlement on Upper Yazoo river, forty
leagues from the above." Cf. Koroa.
Another Yazoo tribe, mentioned at a later period as confederated with
the Chicasa are the Tchúla, Chola or "Foxes."
Yazoo is not a Cha'hta word, although the Cha'hta had a "clan" of that
name: Yā′sho ókla, Yáshukla, as I am informed by Gov. Allen
Wright.[63] T. Jefferys (I, 144) reports the Yazoos to be the allies
of the "Cherokees, who are under the protection of Great Britain." He
also states that the French post was three leagues from the mouth of
Yazoo river, close to a village inhabited by a medley of Yazoo,
Couroas and Ofogoula Indians, and mentions the tribes in the following
order (I, 163): "Yazoo Indians, about 100 huts; further up, Coroas,
about 40 huts; Chactioumas or "red lobsters", about 50 huts, on same
river; Oufé-ouglas, about 60 huts; Tapoussas, not over 25 huts."
[Footnote 63: Cf. article on Yuchi, p. 24.]
CHA'HTA.
The southwestern area of the Maskoki territory was occupied by the
Cha'hta people, and in the eighteenth century this was probably the
most populous of all Maskoki divisions. They dwelt in the middle and
southern parts of what is now Mississippi State, where, according to
early authors, they had from fifty to seventy villages; they then
extended from the Mississippi to Tombigbee river, and east of it.
The tribes of Tuskalusa or Black Warrior, and that of Mauvila, which
offered such a bold resistance to H. de Soto's soldiers, were of
Cha'hta lineage, though it is not possible at present to state the
location of their towns at so remote a period.
On account of their vicinity to the French colonies at Mobile, Biloxi,
New Orleans, and on other points of the Lower Mississippi, the Cha'hta
associated early with the colonists, and became their allies in Indian
wars. The French and British traders called them Têtes-Plattes,
Flatheads. In the third French war against the Naktche a large body of
Cha'hta warriors served as allies under the French commander, and on
January 27, 1730, before daylight, made a furious onslaught on their
principal village, killing sixty enemies and rescuing fifty-nine
French women and children and one hundred and fifty negro slaves
previously captured by the tribe (Claiborne, Mississippi, I, 45. 46).
In the Chicasa war fourteen hundred Cha'hta Indians aided the French
army in its attack on the Chúka p'háraah or Long-House Town, as
auxiliaries (Adair, History, p. 354).
They continued friends of the French until (as stated by Romans,
Florida, p. 74) some English traders found means to draw the eastern
party and the district of Coosa (together called Oypat-oocooloo,
"small nation") into a civil war with the western divisions, called
Oocooloo-Falaya ("long tribe"), Oocooloo-Hanalé ("six tribes"), and
Chickasawhays, which, after many conflicts and the destruction of East
Congeeto, ended with the peace of 1763.
The Cha'hta did not rely so much on the products of the chase, as
other tribes, but preferred to till the ground extensively and with
care. Later travelers, like Adair, depict their character and morality
in very dark colors. In war, the Cha'hta east of the Mississippi river
were less aggressive than those who resided west of it, for the policy
of keeping in the defensive agreed best with their dull and slow
disposition of mind. About 1732, the ordinary, though contested
boundary between them and the Creek confederacy was the ridge that
separates the waters of the Tombigbee from those of the Alabama river.
Their principal wars, always defensive and not very sanguinary, were
fought with the Creeks; in a conflict of six years, 1765-1771, they
lost about three hundred men (Gallatin, Synopsis, p. 100). Claiborne
mentions a battle fought between the two nations on the eastern bank
of Noxubee river, about five miles west of Cooksville, Noxubee County,
Mississippi. Charles Dobbs, the settler at the farm including the
burying-ground of those who fell in that battle, opened it in 1832,
and found many Spanish dollars in the graves. It was some three
hundred yards northeast of the junction of Shuqualak creek with the
river. A decisive victory of the Cha'hta took place at Nusic-heah, or
Line creek, over the Chocchuma Indians, who belonged to the Chicasa
connection; the battle occurred south of that creek, at a locality
named Lyon's Bluff.[64]
[Footnote 64: Claiborne, Mississippi, Appendix, I, p. 485. 486.]
Milfort establishes a thorough distinction between the northern and
the southern Cha'hta as to their pursuits of life and moral character.
The Cha'hta of the northern section are warlike and brave, wear
garments, and crop their hair in Creek fashion. The southern Cha'hta,
settled on fertile ground west of Mobile and southwest of Pascogoula,
are dirty, indolent and cowardly, miserably dressed and inveterate
beggars. Both sections could in his time raise six thousand warriors
(p. 285-292). The mortuary customs, part of which were exceedingly
barbaric, are spoken of with many details by Milfort (p. 292-304);
their practices in cases of divorce and adultery (p. 304-311) are
dwelt upon by several other writers, and were of a revolting
character.[65]
[Footnote 65: Cf. B. Romans, E. and W. Florida, p. 86-89.]
No mention is made of the "great house" or "the square" in Cha'hta
towns, as it existed in every one of the larger Creek communities, nor
of the green corn dance. But they had the favorite game of chunké, and
played at ball between village and village (B. Romans, p. 79. 80). The
men assisted their wives in their agricultural labors and in many
other works connected with the household.[66] The practice of
flattening the heads extended to the male children only; the Aimará of
Peru observed the same exclusive custom.
[Footnote 66: B. Romans, p. 86. He describes education among the
Cha'hta, p. 76. 77; the sarbacane or blow-gun, p. 77.]
The collecting and cleaning of the bones of corpses was a custom
existing throughout the southern as well as the northern Indians east
of Mississippi river, and among some tribes west of it. Every tribe
practiced it in a different manner; the Cha'hta employed for the
cleaning: "old gentlemen with very long nails," and deposited the
remains, placed in boxes, in the bone houses existing in every
town.[67] Tombigbee river received its name from this class of men:
itúmbi-bíkpi "coffin-maker." The Indians at Fort Orange or Albany
(probably the Mohawks) bound up the cleaned bones in small bundles and
buried them: De Vries, Voyages (1642) p. 164; the Nanticokes removed
them to the place from which the tribe had emigrated (Heckewelder,
Delawares, p. 75 sq.) Similar customs were observed among the
Dakota-Santees, Shetimashas and several South American tribes.
Captain Smith mentions the quiogozon or burial place of Virginia
chiefs.[68]
[Footnote 67: B. Romans, p. 89. 90.]
[Footnote 68: Cf. Lawson, History of Carolina (Reprint 1860), p.
297. More information on Cha'hta burials will be found in H. C.
Yarrow, _Indian mortuary customs_; in First Report of U. S.
Bureau of Ethnology, 1879-1880; especially p. 185.]
The Cha'hta also had the custom, observed down to the present century,
of setting up poles around their new graves, on which they hung hoops,
wreaths, etc., for the spirit to ascend upon. Around these the
survivors gathered every day at sunrise, noon, sunset, emitting
convulsive cries during thirty to forty days. On the last day all
neighbors assembled, the poles were pulled up, and the lamentation
ended with drinking, carousing and great disorders.[69]
[Footnote 69: Missionary Herald of Boston, 1828 (vol. xxiv) p.
380, in an article on Religious Opinions, etc., of the Choctaws,
by Rev. Alfred Wright.]
The Chicasa are not known to have settled _west_ of the Mississippi
river to any extensive degree, but their southern neighbors and
relations, the Cha'hta, did so at an early epoch, no doubt prompted by
the increase of population. The Cha'hta emigrating to these western
parts were looked at by their countrymen at home in the same light as
the Seminoles were by the Creeks. They were considered as outcasts, on
account of the turbulent and lawless elements which made up a large
part of them.
On the middle course of Red river Milfort met a body of Cha'hta
Indians, who had quitted their country about 1755 in quest of better
hunting grounds, and were involved in frequent quarrels with the
Caddos (p. 95).
The French found several Cha'hta tribes, as the Bayogoula, Huma and
Acolapissa, settled upon Mississippi river. In the eighteenth century
the inland Shetimasha on Grand Lake were constantly harassed by
Cha'hta incursions. About 1809 a Cha'hta village existed on Washita
river, another on Bayou Chicot, Opelousas Parish, Louisiana. Morse
mentions for 1820 twelve hundred Cha'hta Indians on the Sabine and
Neche rivers, one hundred and forty on Red river near Nanatsoho, or
Pecan Point, and many lived scattered around that district. At the
present time (1882), encampments of Biloxis, who speak the Cha'hta
language, exist in the forests of Louisiana south of Red river.
The Cha'hta nation is formally, though not locally, divided into two
íksa (yéksa) or _kinships_, which exist promiscuously throughout their
territory. These divisions were defined by Allen Wright as: 1.
Kasháp-úkla or kashápa úkĕla (ókla) "part of the people;" 2. Úkla
iⁿhulá'hta "people of the headmen."
Besides this, there is another formal division into three ókla,
districts or _fires_, the names of which were partly alluded to in the
passage from B. Romans:
ókla fálaya "long people";
áhepat ókla "potato-eating people";
ókla hánnali "Sixtown people," who used a special dialect.
The list of Cha'hta gentes, as printed in Lewis H. Morgan, _Ancient
Society_,[70] stands as follows:
[Footnote 70: Published New York, 1877. pp. 99. 162.]
_First phratry:_ kúshap ókla or Divided People. Four gentes: 1.
kush-iksa, _reed gens_. 2. Law okla. 3. Lulak-iksa. 4. Linoklusha.
_Second phratry:_ wátaki huláta or Beloved People, "people of
head-men": Four gentes: 1. chufan íksa, _beloved people_. 2. iskuláni,
_small (people)_; 3. chito, _large (people)_; 4. shakch-úkla,
_cray-fish people_.
Property and the office of chief was hereditary in the gens.
As far as the wording is concerned, Morgan's list is not satisfactory,
but being the only one extant I present it as it is.
Rev. Alfred Wright, missionary of the Cha'hta, knows of six gentes
only, but states that there were two great families who could not
intermarry. These were, as stated by Morgan, the reed gens and the
chufan gens. Wright then continues: "Woman's brothers are considered
natural guardians of the children, even during father's lifetime;
counsel was taken for criminals from their phratry, the opposite
phratry, or rather the principal men of this, acting as accusers. If
they failed to adjust the case, the principal men of the next larger
division took it up; if they also failed, the case then came before
the itimoklushas and the shakch-uklas, whose decision was final. This
practice is falling in disuse now." A business-like and truly judicial
proceeding like this does much honor to the character and policy of
the Cha'hta, and will be found in but a few other Indian communities.
It must have acted powerfully against the prevailing practice of
family revenge, and served to establish a state of safety for the
lives of individuals.
More points on Cha'hta ethnography will be found in the Notes to B. F.
French,
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