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."