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The northern parts of Mississippi State contain the earliest homes of the warlike tribe of Chicasa Indians which historical documents enable us to trace.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.