A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. 1 / With a Linguistic, Historic and Ethnographic Introduction

by Albert S. Gatschet

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.

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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.	Seminole.	Hitchiti.	Apalachi.	Mikasuki.
Warrior	táska	táska	tastenukíha	tastanóki	taskáya	taskáya	hú′li-tipi	taskaia	tasikiá'hli
Woman	ohóyo	ehó, ihó		téyi	hókti	hókti	täígi		taiki
Foot	íyi	iyi	i-pát'ha	i-pát'ha	íli	ili	i-paláshi	ia, ya	ili-palasi
Village, town	támaha	ókla	óla	óla	tálofa	tálofa	ókli	tófun (obj. case)	ókli
Chief	míngo	mínko	míko	míku	miko	miko	miki		miki
House	tchúka	tchúka	ishá	ísa	tchú'ku	tchûku	tchíki	tchíka	tchíki
Knife	báshpo	bushpo			isláfka	islátka	iskalafki		iskalafki
Canoe	píni	píni			pi`lúdshi	pi`lódshi(dim)	pi`lótsi, pi`li		pi`lódshi (dim)
Fire	lúak	lúak	íti	tigba	tútka	tútka	íti		íti
Water	óka, uk'ha	óka	óki	óki	o-íwa, u-íwa	o-íwa	óki		óki
Earth, land	yákni	yák'ne	iháni	iháni	íkana	íkana	yákni		yákni
Stone, rock	táli	tále	táli	táli	tcháto	tcháto	táli		tale
Wood	íti	iti	itu	ítu	itu	ítu	ahí		a`li
Sun	háshi	hashé	hasie	hási	hási	hási	hási		hasi
Moon	háshi	hashé nenaká	hasi-nissi	ni′la hási	hás-'lisi		has-ótali	hitok (month)	has-otali
Thunder	hilóha	hilóha	tonokóχha	winei'hká	tinítki	tinítki	tonuká'htchi		tonokatchi
Pine	tíak	tíak	tchúye	tchùye		tchóli			tchoyi
Maize	ántchi	tántchi	tchasié	tchási	ádshi, átchi	ádshi	áspi		áspi
Grass	háshuk	háshuk	ássi	páhi	páhi	páhi			páhi
Bear	níta	nita	níkta	nikta	nok'húsi	nokose	noχū'si		nókosi
Deer	issi	íssi	ítchu	idshu	ítchu	ítcho	itchi		itchi
Bird	húshi	fushé	fósi	fosi	fúsua	fosua, fúswa	fosi		fusi
Fish	naní	nanné	'lá`lu	'lá`lu	'lá`lu	'la`lu	'lá`li		'lá`li
Good	atchúkma	atchúkma	kanóasu	káheno, kánu	hi`li	hi`li	hí`li		hí`li
White	háta, tóbi	tohobi	hátka	hátga	hátki	hátki	hátgi		hatki
Red	húmma	hómma	húmma	húmma	tcháti	tcháti	kitistchi		kitiski
Black	lúsa	lósa	lótcha	lúdsa	lásti	lásti	lódshi		lútchi
All	móma	oklunhá	wayamúlu	wayili	omálga	omálga	lápki	ámali, ilúngta	lápki
One	atcháfa	tcháffa	tchafáka	tchafáka	hámgin	hámgin	`lámin		'lámin
Two	túklo	tókolo	tokoló	túglo	hokólin	hokólin	túklan		tóklan
Three	tutchína	totchéna	tut'tchína	tutchínan	tut'tchínin	tut'tchinin	tutchínan	tusa	tot'tchínan
Four	úshta	oshtá	ostáka	ostákan	óshtin	óshtin	sitákin		tchitákin
Five	ta`lápi	ta`lápe	ta`lápi	tsahupága	tcha'hkípin	tcha'hki′pin	tchákgipan		tcha′hkípin
Six	hanáli	hannále	hánali	ahanna′lin	ipákin	ipákin	ipagin		ipákin
Seven	untúklo	ontokló	hontók'lo	hontóklun	kolapákin	kolapákin	kolapákin		kolapákin
Eight	untotchína	ontutchéna	hontot'tchina	undetsínan	tchinapákin	tchinapákin	tusnapákin		tosnapákin
Nine	tchakáli	tchakále	ibitchá'hkali	pitchakálin	ostapàkin	ostapákin	ustapakin		ostapákin
Ten	pokóli	pokóle	pokóli	pokóle	pálin	pálin	pokólin		pokólin
To see	pisa	píssa	hitchas	hitchus	hídshita	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]

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.

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.

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].

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).

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]

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.

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]

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]

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."

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, 1½ 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):

"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."

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."

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.

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]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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]

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."

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]

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]

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.

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]

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]

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:

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, Histor. Collect, of La., III, 128-139.

The legends of the Cha'hta speak of a giant race, peaceable and agricultural (nahúllo)[71], and also of a cannibal race, both of which they met east of the Mississippi river.

The Cha'hta trace their mythic origin from the "Stooping, Leaning or Winding Hill," Náni Wáya, a mound of fifty feet altitude, situated in Winston county, Mississippi, on the headwaters of Pearl river. The top of this "birthplace" of the nation is level, and has a surface of about one-fourth of an acre. One legend states, that the Cha'hta arrived there, after crossing the Mississippi and separating from the Chicasa, who went north during an epidemic. Nanna Waya creek runs through the southeastern parts of Winston county, Miss.

Another place, far-famed in Cha'hta folklore, was the "House of Warriors," Taska-tchúka, the oldest settlement in the nation, and standing on the verge of the Kúshtush[72]. It lay in Neshoba county, Mississippi. It was a sort of temple, and the Unkala, a priestly order, had the custody or care of it. The I′ksa A′numpule or "clan-speakers" prepared the bones of great warriors for burial, and the Unkala went at the head of the mourners to that temple, chanting hymns in an unknown tongue.[73]

The curious tale of the origin of the Cha'hta from Náni Wáya has been often referred to by authors. B. Romans states that they showed the "hole in the ground," from which they came, between their nation and the Chicasa, and told the colonists that their neighbors were surprised at seeing a people rise at once out of the earth (p. 71). The most circumstantial account of this preternatural occurrence is laid down in the following narrative.[74] "When the earth was a level plain in the condition of a quagmire, a superior being, in appearance a red man, came down from above, and alighting near the centre of the Choctaw nation, threw up a large mound or hill, called Nanne Wayah, stooping or sloping hill. Then he caused the red people to come out of it, and when he supposed that a sufficient number had come out, he stamped on the ground with his foot. When this signal of his power was given, some were partly formed, others were just raising their heads above the mud, emerging into light,[75] and struggling into life.... Thus seated on the area of their hill, they were told by their Creator they should live forever. But they did not seem to understand what he had told them; therefore he took away from them the grant of immortality, and made them subject to death. The earth then indurated, the hills were formed by the agitation of the waters and winds on the soft mud. The Creator then told the people that the earth would bring forth the chestnut, hickory nut and acorn; it is likely that maize was discovered, but long afterward, by a crow. Men began to cover themselves by the long moss (abundant in southern climates), which they tied around their waists; then were invented bow and arrows, and the skins of the game used for clothing."

Here the creation of the Cha'hta is made coeval with the creation of the earth, and some features of the story give evidence of modern and rationalistic tendencies of the relator. Other Cha'hta traditions state that the people came from the west, and stopped at Nani Waya, only to obtain their laws and phratries from the Creator—a story made to resemble the legislation on Mount Sinai. Other legends conveyed the belief that the emerging from the sacred hill took place only four or five generations before.[76]

The emerging of the human beings from the top of a hill is an event not unheard of in American mythology, and should not be associated with a simultaneous creation of man. It refers to the coming up of primeval man from a lower world into a preëxistent upper world, through some orifice. A graphic representation of this idea will be found in the Návajo creation myth, published in Amer. Antiquarian V, 207-224, from which extracts are given in this volume below. Five different worlds are there supposed to have existed, superposed to each other, and some of the orifices through which the "old people" crawled up are visible at the present time.

The published maps of the Cha'hta country, drawn in colonial times, are too imperfect to give us a clear idea of the situation of their towns. From more recent sources it appears that these settlements consisted of smaller groups of cabins clustered together in tribes, perhaps also after gentes, as we see it done among the Mississippi tribes and in a few instances among the Creeks.

The "old Choctaw Boundary Line," as marked upon the U. S. Land Office map of 1878, runs from Prentiss, a point on the Mississippi river in Bolivar county (33° 37´ Lat.), Miss., in a southeastern direction to a point on Yazoo river, in Holmes county. The "Chicasaw Boundary Line" runs from the Tunica Old Fields, in Tunica county, opposite Helena, on Mississippi river (34° 33´ Lat.), southeast through Coffeeville in Yallabusha county, to a point in Sumner county, eastern part. The "Choctaw Boundary Line" passes from east to west, following approximately the 31° 50´ of Lat., from the Eastern boundary of Mississippi State to the southwest corner of Copiah county. All these boundary lines were run after the conclusion of the treaty at Doak's Stand.

The Cusha Indians, also called Coosa, Coosahs, had settlements on the Cusha creeks, in Lauderdale county.

The Ukla-faláya, or "Long People," were settled in Leake county. (?)

The Cofetaláya were inhabiting Atala and Choctaw counties, settled at French Camp, etc., on the old military road leading to Old Doak's Stand; General Jackson advanced through this road, when marching south to meet the English army.

Pineshuk Indians, on a branch of Pearl river, in Winston county.

Boguechito Indians, on stream of the same name in Neshoba county, near Philadelphia. Some Mugulashas lived in the Boguechito district; Wiatakali was one of the villages. "Yazoo Old Village" also stood in Neshoba county.

Sixtowns or English-Towns, a group of six villages in Smith and Jasper counties. Adair, p. 298, mentions "seven towns that lie close together and next to New Orleans", perhaps meaning these. The names of the six towns were as follows: Chinokabi, Okatallia, Killis-tamaha (kílis, in Creek: inkílisi, is English), Tallatown, Nashoweya, Bishkon.

Sukinatchi or "Factory Indians" settlement, in Lowndes and Kemper counties. Allamutcha Old Town was ten miles from Sukinatchi creek.

Yauana, Yowanne was a palisaded town on Pascagoula river, or one of its affluents; cf. Adair, History, 297-299. 301. He calls it remote but considerable; it has its name from a worm, very destructive to corn in the wet season. French maps place it on the same river, where "Chicachae" fort stood above, and call it: "Yauana, dernier village des Choctaws." "Yoani, on the banks of the Pasca Oocooloo (Pascagoula)"; B. Romans, p. 86.

An old Cha'hta Agency was in Oktibbeha county.

Cobb Indians; west of Pearl river.

Shuqualak in Noxubee county.

Chicasawhay Indians on river of the same name, an affluent of the Pascagoula river; B. Romans, p. 86, states, that "the Choctaws of Chicasahay and the Yoani on Pasca Oocooloo river" are the only Cha'hta able to swim.

It may be collected from the above, that the main settlements of the Northern Cha'hta were between Mobile and Big Black river, east and west, and between 32° and 33° 30´ Lat., where their remnants reside even nowadays.

CHA'HTA TRIBES OF THE GULF COAST.

In the southern part of the Cha'hta territory several tribes, represented to be of Cha'hta lineage, appear as distinct from the main body, and are always mentioned separately. The French colonists, in whose annals they figure extensively, call them Mobilians, Tohomes, Pascogoulas, Biloxis, Mougoulachas, Bayogoulas and Humas (Oumas). They have all disappeared in our epoch, with the exception of the Biloxi, of whom scattered remnants live in the forests of Louisiana, south of the Red river.

The Mobilians seem to be the descendants of the inhabitants of Mauvila, a walled town, at some distance from the seat of the Tuscalusa chief, and dependent on him. These Indians are well known for their stubborn resistance offered in 1540 to the invading troops of Hernando de Soto.

Subsequently they must have removed several hundred miles south of Tuscalusa river, perhaps on account of intertribal broils with the Alibamu; for in the year 1708 we find them settled on Mobile Bay, where the French had allowed them, the Naniaba and Tohome, to erect lodges around their fort. Cf. Alibamu. On a place of worship visited by this tribe (1702), Margry IV, 513.

The Tohome, Thomes, Tomez Indians, settled north of Mobile City, stood in the service of the French colony, and adopted the Roman Catholic faith. Besides the Naniaba[77] and Mobilian Indians, the French had settled in their vicinity a pagan Cha'hta tribe from the northwest and an adventitious band of Apalaches, who had fled the Spanish domination in Florida. We are informed that the language and barbarous customs of the Tohomes differed considerably from those of the neighboring Indians. Their name is the Cha'hta adjective tohóbi, contr. tóbi white.

In 1702 they were at war with the Chicasa. Their cabins stood eight leagues from the French settlement at Mobile, on Mobile river, and the number of their men is given as three hundred. They spoke a dialect of the Bayogoula. Cf. Margry IV, 427. 429. 504. 512-14. 531. The Mobilians and the Tohomes combined counted three hundred and fifty families: Margry IV, 594. 602.

The Touachas settled by the French upon Mobile bay in 1705, were a part of the Tawasa, an Alibamu tribe mentioned above.[78]

The Pascogoula, incorrectly termed Pascoboula Indians, were a small tribe settled upon Pascogoula river, three days' travel southwest of Fort Mobile. Six different nations were said to inhabit the banks of the river, probably all of Cha'hta lineage; among them are mentioned the Pascogoulas, Chozettas, Bilocchi, Moctoby, all insignificant in numbers. The name signifies "bread-people," and is composed of the Cha'hta páska bread, ókla people, the Nahuatl tribal name of the Tlascaltecs being of the same signification: tlaxcalli tortilla, from ixca to bake. Cf. Margry IV, 154-157. 193. 195. 425-427. 451. 454. 602.

A portion of these Indians may have been identical with the Chicasawhay Indians, and with the inhabitants of Yauana.

The Biloxi Indians became first known to the whites by the erection of a French settlement, in 1699, on a bay called after this tribe, which is styled B'lúksi by the Cha'hta, and has some reference to the catch of turtles (lúktchi turtle).

"We thought it most convenient to found a settlement in the Bilocchy bay; ... it is distant only three leagues from the Pascoboula river, upon which are built the three villages of the Bilocchy, Pascoboula and Moctoby." Margry IV, 195; cf. 311. 451. We also find the statement that the Bayogoulas call the Annocchy: Bilocchy (pronounced: Bilokshi), Margry IV, 172. Pénicaut refers to their place of settlement on Biloxi bay in 1704 in Margry V, 442. On their language cf. Margry IV, 184; quoted under Chicasa, q. v.

Later on they crossed the Mississippi to its western side, and are mentioned as wanderers on Bayou Crocodile and its environs (1806), which they frequent even now, and on the Lake of Avoyelles.

The Mugulashas (pron.: Moogoolashas) were neighbors of the French colonists at Biloxi bay, and a people of the same name lived in the village occupied by the Bayogoulas. Mougoulachas is the French orthography of the name. Their name is identical with Imuklásha or the "opposite phratry" in the Cha'hta nation, from which Muklásha, a Creek town, also received its name. In consequence of this generic meaning of the term this appellation is met with in several portions of the Cha'hta country.

Previous to March 1700, there had been a conflict between them and the Bayogoulas, in which the latter had killed all of the Mugulashas who were within their reach, and called in families of the Colapissas and Tioux to occupy their deserted fields and lodges. Cf. Margry IV, 429., Boguechito Indians, Bayogoula and Acolapissa.

The Acolapissa Indians appear under various names in the country northwest to northeast of New Orleans. They are also called Colapissa, Quinipissa, Quiripissa, Querepisa, forms which all flow from Cha'hta ókla-písa "those who look out for people," guardians, spies, sentinels, watching men. This term refers to their position upon the in- and out-flow of Lake Pontchartrain and other coast lagoons, combined with their watchfulness for hostile parties passing these places. It is therefore a generic term and not a specific tribal name; hence it was applied to several tribes simultaneously, and they were reported to have seven towns, Tangibao among them, which were distant eight days' travel by land E. N. E. from their settlement on Mississippi river. Cf. Margry IV, 120. 167. 168. Their village on Mississippi river was seen by L. d'Iberville, 1699-1700, twenty-five leagues from its mouth (IV, 101). Their language is spoken of, ibid. IV, 412. At the time of Tonti's visit, 1685, they lived twenty leagues further down the Mississippi than in 1699-1700. They suffered terribly from epidemics, and joined the Mugulashas, q. v., whose chief became the chief of both tribes; Margry IV, 453. 602. On "Colapissas" residing on Talcatcha or Pearl river, see Pani, p. 44. The Bayogoulas informed d'Iberville in 1699, that the "Quinipissas" lived fifty leagues east of them, and thirty or forty leagues distant from the sea, in six villages: Margry IV, 119. 120. Are they the Sixtown Indians?

The Bayogoula Indians inhabited a village on the Mississippi river, western shore (Margry IV, 119. 155), conjointly with the Mugulashas, sixty-four leagues distant from the sea, thirty-five leagues from the Humas, and eight days' canoe travel from Biloxi bay.

Commander Lemoyne d'Iberville graphically describes (Margry IV, 170-172) the village of the Bayogoula with its two temples and 107 cabins. The number of the males was rather large (200 to 250) compared to the paucity of women inhabiting it. A fire was burning in the centre of the temples, and near the door were figures of animals, the "choucoüacha" or opossum being one of them. This word shukuasha is the diminutive of Cha'hta: shukata opossum, and contains the diminutive terminal -ushi. Shishikushi or "tambours faits de calebasses," gourd-drums, is another Indian term occurring in his description,[79] probably borrowed from an Algonkin language of the north. A curious instance of sign language displayed by one of the Bayogoula chiefs will be found in Margry IV, 154. 155.

The full form of the tribal name is Bayuk-ókla or river-tribe, creek- or bayou-people; the Cha'hta word for a smaller river, or river forming part of a delta is báyuk, contr. bōk, and occurs in Boguechito, Bok'húmma, etc.

The Húma, Ouma, Houma or Omma tribe lived, in the earlier periods of French colonization, seven leagues above the junction of Red river, on the eastern bank of Mississippi river. L. d'Iberville describes their settlement, 1699, as placed on a hill-ridge, 2½ leagues inland, and containing 140 cabins, with about 350 heads of families. Their village is described in Margry IV, 177. 179. 265-271. 452, located by degrees of latitude: 32° 15´, of longitude: 281° 25´. The limit between the lands occupied by the Huma and the Bayogoula was marked by a high pole painted red, in Cha'hta Istr-ouma (?), which stood on the high shores of Mississippi river at Baton Rouge, La.[80] Their hostilities with the Tangipahoa are referred to by the French annalists, and ended in the destroying of the Tangipahoa town by the Huma; Margry IV, 168. 169. Cf. Taensa. A tribe mentioned in 1682 in connection with the Huma is that of the Chigilousa; Margry I, 563.

Their language is distinctly stated to have differed from that of the Taensa, IV, 412. 448, and the tribal name, a Cha'hta term for red, probably refers to red leggings, as Opelúsa is said to refer to black leggings or moccasins.

They once claimed the ground on which New Orleans stands, and after the Revolution lived on Bayou Lafourche.[81] A coast parish, with Houma as parish seat, is now called after them.

The country south of the Upper Creek settlements, lying between Lower Alabama and Lower Chatahuchi river, must have been sparsely settled in colonial times, for there is but one Indian tribe, the Pensacola (páⁿsha-ókla or "hair-people") mentioned there. This name is of Cha'hta origin, and there is a tradition that the old homes, or a part of them, of the Cha'hta nation lay in these tracts. On Escambia river there are Cha'hta at the present time, who keep up the custom of family vendetta or blood revenge, and that river is also mentioned as a constant battle-field between the Creeks and Cha'hta tribes by W. Bartram.[82] When the Cha'hta concluded treaties with the United States Government involving cessions of land, they claimed ownership of the lands in question, even of some lands lying on the east side of Chatahuchi river, where they had probably been hunting from an early period. A list of the way-stations and fords on the post-road between Lower Tallapoosa river and the Bay of Mobile is appended to Hawkins' Sketch, p. 85, and was probably written after 1813; cf. p. 83. This post-road was quite probably an old Indian war-trail traveled over by Creek warriors to meet the Cha'hta.

The Conshac tribe, the topographic and ethnographic position of which is difficult to trace, has been located in these thinly-inhabited portions of the Gulf coast. La Harpe, whose annals are printed in B. F. French, Histor. Coll. of Louisiana, Vol. III, states (p. 44) that "two villages of Conshaques, who had always been faithful to the French and resided near Mobile Fort, had been driven out of their country because they would not receive the English among them (about 1720)." The Conshacs and Alibamu were at war with the Tohome before 1702; cf. Margry IV, 512. 518. L. d'Iberville, in 1702, gives their number at 2000 families, probably including the Alibamu, stating that both tribes have their first settlements 35 to 40 leagues to the northeast, on an eastern affluent of Mobile river, joining it five leagues above the fort. From these first villages to the E. N. E. there are other Conshac villages, known to the Spaniards as Apalachicolys, with many English settled among them, and 60 to 65 leagues distant from Mobile.[83] Du Pratz, who speaks of them from hearsay only, places them north of the Alibamu, and states that they spoke a language almost the same as the Chicasa (Hist. p. 208). "A small party of Coussac Indians is settled on Chacta-hatcha or Pea river, running into St. Rose's bay, 25 leagues above its mouth."[84] On the headwaters of Ikanfina river, H. Tanner's map (1827) has a locality called: Pokanaweethly Cootsa O. F.

The origin of these different acceptations can only be accounted for by the generic meaning of the appellation Conshac. It is the Cha'hta word kánshak: (1) a species of cane, of extremely hard texture, and (2) knife made from it. These knives were used throughout the Gulf territories, and thus d'Iberville and du Pratz call by this name the Creek Indians or Maskoki proper, while to others the Conchaques are the Cusha, Kúsha, a Cha'hta tribe near Mobile bay, which is called by Rev. Byington in his manuscript dictionary Konshas, Konshaws. That the Creeks once manufactured knives of this kind is stated in our Kasí'hta migration legend.

THE CHA'HTA LANGUAGE,

the representative of the western group of Maskoki dialects, differs in its phonetics from the eastern dialects chiefly by the more general vocalic nasalization previously alluded to. Words cannot begin with two consonants; the Creek st is replaced by sht, and combinations like tl, bt, nt do not occur (Byington's Grammar, p. 9). In short words the accent is laid upon the penultima.

The cases of the noun are not so distinctly marked as they are in the eastern dialects by the case-suffixes in -t and -n, but have often to be determined by the hearer from the position of the words in the sentence. But in other respects, case and many other relations are pointed out by an extensive series of suffixed or enclitic syllables, mostly monosyllabic, which Byington calls article-pronouns, and writes as separate words. They are simply suffixes of pronominal origin, and correspond to our articles the, a, to our relative and demonstrative pronouns, partly also to our adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions. They form combinations among themselves, and supply verbal inflection with its modal suffixes or exponents. Adjectives possess a distinct plural form, which points to their origin from verbs, but in substantives number is not expressed except by the verb connected with them, or by means of separate words.

There are two classes of personal pronouns, the relative and the absolute (the former referring to something said previously), but the personal inflection of the verb is effected by prefixes, the predicative suffix 'h being added to the end of each form in the affirmative conjugation. Only the first person of the singular is marked by a suffix: -li (increased by 'h: -li'h). The lack of a true substantive verb to be is to some extent supplied by this suffix -'h. Verbal inflection is rich in tenses and other forms, and largely modifies the radix to express changes in voice, mode and tense. The sway of phonetic laws is all-powerful here, and they operate whenever a slight conflict of syllables disagreeing with the delicate ear of the Cha'hta Indian takes place.

Of abstract terms there exists a larger supply than in many other American languages.

Several dialects of Cha'hta were and are still in existence, as the Sixtown dialect, the ones spoken from Mobile bay to New Orleans, those heard on the Lower Mississippi river, and that of the Chicasa. The dialect now embodied in the literary language of the present Cha'hta is that of the central parts of Mississippi State, where the American Protestant missionaries had selected a field of operation.

Rev. Cyrus Byington (born 1793, died 1867) worked as a missionary among this people before and after the removal to the Indian territory. He completed the first draft of his "Choctaw Grammar" in 1834, and an extract of it was published by Dr. D. G. Brinton.[85] His manuscript "Choctaw Dictionary," now in the library of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, fills five folio volumes, contains about 17,000 items (words, phrases and sentences), and was completed about 1833. The missionary alphabet used by him, which is also the alphabet of Cha'hta literature, is very imperfect, as it fails to express all sounds of the language by signs for each, and entirely neglects accentuation. The pronunciation of Cha'hta is so delicate and pliant that only a superior scientific alphabet can approximately express its peculiar sounds and intonations.

Cha'hta has been made the subject of linguistic inquiry by Fr. Müller, Grundzüge d. Sprachwissenschaft, II, 232-238, and by Forchhammer in the Transactions of the Congrès des Américanistes, 2d session, 1877, 8vo.; also by L. Adam.

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