To determine the extent of the lands inhabited or claimed by the Yuchi in de Soto's time, is next to impossible. At a later period they lived on the eastern side of the Savannah river, and on its western side as far as Ogeechee river, and upon tracts above and below Augusta, Georgia. These tracts were claimed by them as late as 1736. John Filson, in his "Discovery etc. of Kentucky" vol. II, 84-87 (1793), gives a list of thirty Indian tribes, and a statement on Yuchi towns, which he must have obtained from a much older source: "Uchees occupy four different places of residence, at the head of St. John's, the fork of St. Mary's, the head of Cannouchee and the head of St. Tillis.[5] These rivers rise on the borders of Georgia and run separately into the ocean." To Cannouchee answers a place Canosi, mentioned in Juan de la Vandera's narrative (1569); the name, however, is Creek and not Yuchi. Hawkins states that formerly Yuchi were settled in small villages at Ponpon, Saltketchers and Silver Bluff, S. C., and on the Ogeechee river, Ga. In 1739 a Yuchi town existed on the Savannah river, twenty-five miles above Ebenezer, which is in Effingham county, Georgia, near Savannah City (Jones, Tomochichi, p. 117; see next page).
From notices contained in the first volume of Urlsperger's "Ausführliche Nachricht," pp. 845. 850-851, we gather the facts that this Yuchi town was five miles above the Apalachicola Fort, which stood in the "Pallachucla savanna," and that its inhabitants celebrated an annual busk, which was at times visited by the colonists. Governor Oglethorpe concluded an alliance with this town, and when he exchanged presents to confirm the agreement made, he obtained skins from these Indians. Rev. Boltzius, the minister of the Salzburger emigrants, settled in the vicinity, depicts their character in dark colors; he states "they are much inclined to Robbing and Stealing," but was evidently influenced by the Yámassi and Yamacraw in their vicinity, who hated them as a race foreign to themselves. Of these he says, "these Creeks are Honest, Serviceable and Disinterested."[6]
The reason why the Yuchi people gradually left their old seats and passed over to Chatahuchi and Flint rivers is stated as follows by Benj. Hawkins, United States Agent among the Creeks in his instructive "Sketch of the Creek Country" (1799).[7]
In 1729, "Captain Ellick," an old chief of Kasí'hta, married three Yuchi women and brought them to Kasí'hta. This was greatly disliked by his townspeople, and he was prevailed upon to move across Chatahuchi river, opposite to where Yuchi town was in Hawkins' time; he settled there with his three brothers, two of whom had intermarried with Yuchis. After this, the chief collected all the Yuchi people, gave them lands on the site of Yuchi town, and there they settled.
Hawkins eulogizes the people by stating that they are more civil, orderly and industrious than their neighbors (the Lower Creeks), the men more attached to their wives, and these more chaste. He estimates the number of their warriors ("gun-men"), including those of the three branch villages, at about two hundred and fifty. These branch towns were Intatchkálgi, "beaver-dam people";[8] Padshiläíka, "pigeon roost"; and Tokogálgi, "tad-pole people", on Flint river and its side creeks; while a few Yuchi had gone to the Upper Creeks and settled there at Sawanógi. Yuchi, the main town, lay on the western bank of Chatahuchi river, on a tributary called Yuchi creek, ten and one-half miles below Kawíta Talahássi, and two miles above Osutchi. Another water course, called "Uchee river," runs from the west into Oklokoni river, or "Yellow Water," in the southwestern corner of the State of Georgia. Morse, in his list of Seminole settlements (1822), mentions a Yuchi town near Mikasuki, Florida.
The main Yuchi town on Chatahuchi river was built in a vast plain rising from the river. W. Bartram, who saw it in 1775, depicts it as the largest, most compact, and best situated Indian town he ever saw; the habitations were large and neatly built, the walls of the houses consisted of a wooden frame, lathed and plastered inside and outside with a reddish clay, and roofed with cypress bark or shingles. He estimated the number of the inhabitants at one thousand or fifteen hundred. They were usually at variance with the Maskoki confederacy, and "did not mix" with its people, but were wise enough to unite with them against a common enemy (Travels, pp. 386. 387).
The early reports may often have unconsciously included the Yuchi among the Apalachi[9] and Apalatchúkla. Among the chiefs who accompanied Tomochichi, miko of the Yamacraw Indians, to England in 1733, was Umphichi or Umpeachy, "a Uchee chief from Palachocolas."[10]
William Bartram, who traveled through these parts from 1773 to 1778, and published his "Travels" many years later,[11] calls them "Uche or Savannuca," which is the Creek Sawanógi, or "dwellers upon Savannah river." This name Savannuca, and many equally sounding names, have caused much confusion concerning a supposed immigration of the Sháwano or Shawnee Indians (of the Algonkin race) into Georgia, among historians not posted in Indian languages. Sawanógi is derived from Savannah river, which is named after the prairies extending on both sides, these being called in Spanish sabana. Sabana, and savane in the Canadian French, designate a grassy plain, level country, prairie, also in Span. pasture extending over a plain; from Latin sabana napkin. It still occurs in some local names of Canada and of Spanish America. But this term has nothing at all in common with the Algonkin word sháwano south, from which are derived the tribal names: Sháwano or Shawnee, once on Ohio and Cumberland rivers and their tributaries; Chowan in Southern Virginia; Siwoneys in Connecticut; Sawannoe in New Jersey (about 1616); Chaouanons, the southern division of the Illinois or Maskoutens.
These tribes, and many others characterized as southerners by the same or similar Algonkin names, had no connection among themselves, besides the affinity in their dialects, which for the Chowans is not even certain. The tradition that Sháwanos existed in Upper Georgia, around Tugĕlo, and on the head waters of the large Georgia rivers, requires therefore further examination. Milfort, in his Mémoire (pp. 9. 10) states that lands were obtained from "les Savanogués, sauvages qui habitent cette partie (de Tougoulou)," for the plantation of vineyards, about 1775. The name of the Suwanee river, Florida, and that of Suwanee Creek and town, northeast of Atlanta, Georgia, seem to contain the Creek term sawáni echo. By all means, these names cannot serve to prove the presence of the Sháwano tribe in these eastern parts, but a settlement of Sháwanos, also called Sawanógi, existed on Tallapoosa river, where they seem to have been mixed with Yuchi.[12]
A. Gallatin, "Synopsis of the Indian Tribes," p. 95, mentions a tradition, according to which "the ancient seats of the Yuchi were east of the Coosa, and probably of the Chatahuchi river, and that they consider themselves as the most ancient inhabitants of the country." Of which country? If the whole country is meant, which was at the dawn of history held by Maskoki tribes, the name of the Yazoo river may be adduced as an argument for the truth of this tradition, for yasu, yashu is the Yuchi term for leaf and any leaf-bearing tree, even pines (from yá, wood, tree), and Kawíta has been mentioned above. From a thorough comparative study of the Yuchi language, the Maskoki dialects and the local nomenclature of the country, we can alone expect any reliable information upon the extent and the area of territory anciently held by the Yuchi; but at present it is safest to locate their "priscan home" upon both sides of Lower Savannah river.