Chicasakuíshtopanther,Cha'htakuítchitokóedomestic cat,káto (Spanish)ístolarge,tchítoiskitinúsasmall,iskitinĕhúshibird,fúshi
The Chicasa trade language also adopted a few terms from northern languages, as:
píshulynx, from Odshibwē pishīu; also an Odshibwē totem-clan.piakíminapersimmon, changed in the French Creole dialect toplaquemine.shishikushigourd-rattleordrum, Margry IV, 175.sacacuyawar-whoop, la huée.
píshulynx, from Odshibwē pishīu; also an Odshibwē totem-clan.
piakíminapersimmon, changed in the French Creole dialect toplaquemine.
shishikushigourd-rattleordrum, Margry IV, 175.
sacacuyawar-whoop, la huée.
Lewis H. Morgan published in hisAncient Society(New York, 1877). p. 163, a communication from Rev. Chas. C. Copeland, missionary among the Chicasa Indians, on the totemicgentesobserved 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. sháwiracoon; 2. IshpániSpanish; 3. míngoRoyal; 4. huskóni; 5. túnnisquirrel; 6. hotchon tchápaalligator; 7. nashóbawolf; 8. tchú'hlablackbird.
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 orSpanishgens; míngos or chiefs could be chosen from this gens only, and were hereditary in the female line; shă-é orracoongens; second chiefs or headmen were selected from it; kuishto ortigergens; ko-intchūsh orcatamountgens; náni orfishgens; íssi ordeergens; halóba or? gens; foshé orbirdgens; huⁿshkoné orskunkgens, the least respected of them all.
Spáne orSpanishgens; míngos or chiefs could be chosen from this gens only, and were hereditary in the female line; shă-é orracoongens; second chiefs or headmen were selected from it; kuishto ortigergens; ko-intchūsh orcatamountgens; náni orfishgens; íssi ordeergens; halóba or? gens; foshé orbirdgens; huⁿshkoné orskunkgens, 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.
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,crawfishis 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).
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,crawfishis 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 villagesinhabited 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, meansspy,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."
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 warwith 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 onfertile 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 settledwestof 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 onBayou 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) orkinships, 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 orfires, 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.
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.
Thelegendsof 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 theirmythic originfrom 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 inthe 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 ared man, came down from above, and alighting near the centre of the Choctaw nation, threw up a large mound or hill, called Nanne Wayah,stoopingorsloping 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 todeath. 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 simultaneouscreationof 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 theirtowns. From more recent sources it appears that these settlements consisted of smaller groups of cabinsclustered together in tribes, perhaps also aftergentes, 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.
TheCushaIndians, also called Coosa, Coosahs, had settlements on the Cusha creeks, in Lauderdale county.
TheUkla-faláya, or "Long People," were settled in Leake county. (?)
TheCofetaláyawere 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.
Sixtownsor 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, isEnglish), Tallatown, Nashoweya, Bishkon.
Sukinatchior "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'htaAgencywas in Oktibbeha county.
Cobb Indians; west of Pearl river.
Shuqualakin Noxubee county.
Chicasawhay Indianson 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.
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 Mobiliansseem 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. tóbiwhite.
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.
TheTouachassettled 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 páskabread, óklapeople, the Nahuatl tribal name of the Tlascaltecs being of the same signification: tlaxcallitortilla, from ixcato 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 Indiansbecame 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 (lúktchiturtle).
"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. Theirname 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 Indiansappear 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 distantfrom the sea, in six villages: Margry IV, 119. 120. Are they the Sixtown Indians?
The Bayogoula Indiansinhabited 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: shukataopossum, 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 orriver-tribe,creek-orbayou-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´. Thelimit 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 forred, 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 southof 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 earlyperiod. 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.
TheConshac 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 beaccounted for by the generic meaning of the appellation Conshac. It is the Cha'hta word kánshak: (1) a species ofcane, 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 representative of the western group of Maskoki dialects, differs in itsphoneticsfrom the eastern dialects chiefly by the more general vocalic nasalization previously alluded to. Words cannot begin with two consonants; the Creekstis replaced bysht, and combinations liketl,bt,ntdo 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-tand-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 articlesthe,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'hbeing 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 verbto beis 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 expressallsounds of the language bysigns 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.
The Creek Indians or Maskoki proper occupy, in historic times, a central position among the other tribes of their affiliation, and through their influence and physical power, which they attained by forming a comparatively strong and permanent national union, have become the most noteworthy of all the Southern tribes of the United States territories. They still form a compact body of Indians for themselves, and their history, customs and antiquities can be studied at the present time almost as well as they could at the beginning of the nineteenth century. But personal presence among the Creeks in the Indian Territory is necessary to obtain from them all the information which is needed for the purposes of ethnologic science.
There is a tradition that when the Creek people incorporated tribes of other nations into their confederacy, these tribes never kept up their own customs and peculiarities for any length of time, but were subdued in such a manner as to conform with the dominant race. As a confirmation of this, it is asserted that the Creeks annihilated the Yámassi Indians completely, so that they disappeared entirely among their number; that the Tukabatchi, Taskígi and other tribes of foreign descent abandoned their paternal language to adopt that of the dominant Creeks.
But there are facts which tend to attenuate or disprove this tradition. The Yuchi, as well as the Naktche tribe andthe tribes of Alibamu descent[86]have retained their language and peculiar habits up to the present time, notwithstanding their long incorporation into the Creek community. The Hitchiti, Apalatchúkla and Sawokli tribes, with their branch villages, have also retained their language to this day, notwithstanding their membership in the extensive confederacy, a membership which must have lasted for centuries; and in fact we cannot see how the retention of vernacular speech could hurt the interests of the community even in the slightest way. There were tribes among the Maskoki proper, which were said to have given up not only their own language, but also their customs, at a time which fell within the remembrance of the living generation. Among their number was the Taskígi tribe,[87]on the confluence of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, whose earlier language was probably Cheroki. But, on the other side, a body of Chicasa Indians lived near Kasíχta in historic times, which during their stay certainly preserved their language as well as their traditional customs. From Em. Bowen's map it appears that Chicasa Indians also lived on Savannah river (above the Yuchi) for some time, and many Cheroki must have lived within the boundaries of the consolidated Creek confederacy. The more there were of them, and the nearer they were to their own country, the more it becomes probable that they preserved their own language and paternal customs. The existence of Cheroki local names amid the Creek settlements strongly militates in favor of this; we have Etowa, Okóni, Chiaha, Tamá`li, Átasi, Taskígi, Amakalli.
In the minds of many of our readers it will ever remain doubtful that the Creek tribes immigrated into the territories of the Eastern Gulf States by crossing the Lower Mississippi river. But there is at least one fact which goes to show thatthe settling of the Creeks proceeded from west to east and southeast. The oldest immigration to Chatahuchi river is that of the Kasíχta and Kawíta tribes, both of whom, as our legend shows, found the Kúsa and the Apalatchúkla with their connections,in situ, probably the Ábiχka also. If there is any truth in the Hitchiti tradition, the tribes of this divisioncame from the seashore, an indication which seems to point to the coast tracts afterwards claimed by the Cha'hta. All the other settlements on Chatahuchi river seem younger than Kasíχta and Kawíta, and therefore the Creek immigration to those parts came from Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers. At one time the northern or Cheroki-Creek boundary of the Coosa river settlements was Talatígi, now written Talladega, for the name of this town has to be interpreted by "Village at the End," itálua atígi. If the name of Tallapoosa river, in Hitchiti Talepúsi, can be derived from Creek talepú`lastranger, this would furnish another indication for a former allophylic population in that valley; but `l rarely, if ever, changes into s. The Cheroki local names in these parts, and east from there, show conclusively who these "strangers" may have been.
It appears from old charts, that Creek towns, or at least towns having Creek names, also existed west of Coosa river, as on Canoe creek: Litafatcha, and on Cahawba river: Tálua hádsho, "Crazy Town," together with ruins of other villages above this.
The towns and villages of the Creeks were in the eighteenth century built along the banks of rivers and their smaller tributaries, often in places subject to inundation during large freshets, which occurred once in about fifteen years. The smallest of them contained from twenty to thirty cabins, some of the larger ones up to two hundred, and in 1832 Tukabatchi, then the largest of all the Creek settlements, harbored 386 families. Many towns appeared rathercompactly built, although they were composed of irregular clusters of four to eight houses standing together; each of these clusters contained a gens ("clan or family of relations," C. Swan), eating and living in common. The huts and cabins of the Lower Creeks resembled, from a distance, clusters of newly-burned brick kilns, from the high color of the clay.[88]
It will be found appropriate to distinguish between Creek towns and villages. Bytownsis indicated the settlements which had a public square, byvillagesthose which had none. The square occupied the central part of the town, and was reserved for the celebration of festivals, especially the annual busk orfast(púskita), for the meetings of chiefs, headmen and "beloved men," and for the performance of daily dances. Upon this central area stood the "great house," tchúka `láko, the council-house, and attached to it was a play-ground, called by traders the "chunkey-yard." Descriptions of these places will be given below.
Another thoroughgoing distinction in the settlements of the Creek nation was that of theredorwar townsand thewhiteorpeace towns.
Theredorkipáya towns, to which C. Swan in 1791 refers as being already a thing of the past, were governed bywarriors only. The termredrefers to the warlike disposition of these towns, but does not correspond to our adjectivebloody; it depicts the wrath or anger animating the warriors when out on the war-path. The posts of their cabin in the public square were painted red on one side.
The present Creeks still keep upformallythis ancient distinction between the towns, and count the following among the kipáya towns:
Kawíta, Tukabátchi, `Lá-`láko, Átasi, Ka-iläídshi, Chiáha,Úsudshi, Hútali-huyána, Alibamu, Yufala, Yufala hupáyi, Hílapi, Kitcha-patáki.
The white towns, also called peace towns, conservative towns, were governed bycivil officersor míkalgi, and, as some of the earlier authors allege, were considered as places of refuge and safety to individuals who had left their tribes in dread of punishment or revenge at the hand of their pursuers. The modern Creeks count among the peace towns, called tálua-míkagi towns, the following settlements:
Hitchiti, Okfúski, Kasíχta, Ábi'hka, Abiχkúdshi, Tálisi, Oktcháyi, Odshi-apófa, Lutchapóka, Taskígi, Assi-lánapi or Green-Leaf, Wiwúχka.
Quite different from the above list is the one of the white towns given by Col. Benj. Hawkins in 1799, which refers to the Upper Creeks only: Okfúski and its branch villages (viz: Niuyáχa, Tukabátchi Talahássi, Imúkfa, Tutokági, Atchinálgi, Okfuskū′dshi, Sukapóga, Ipisógi); then Tálisi, Átasi, Fus'-hátchi, Kulúmi. For this list and that of the kipáya towns, cf. his "Sketch," p. 51. 52.
The ancient distinction between red and white towns began to fall into disuse with the approach of the white colonists, which entailed the spread of agricultural pursuits among these Indians; nevertheless frequent reference is made to it by the modern Creeks.
Segmentation of villages is frequently observed in Indian tribes, and the list below will give many striking instances. It was brought about by over-population, as in the case of Okfúski; and it is probable that then only certain gentes, not a promiscuous lot of citizens, emigrated from a town. Other causes for emigration were the exhaustion of the cultivated lands by many successive crops, as well as the need of new and extensive hunting grounds. These they could not obtain in their nearest neighborhood without warring with their proprietors, and therefore often repaired to distant countries to seek new homes (Bartram, Travels, p. 389).The frequent removals of towns to new sites, lying atshortdistances only, may be easily explained by the unhealthiness of the old site, produced by the constant accumulation of refuse and filth around the towns, which never had anything like sewers or efficient regulations of sanitary police.
The distinction between Muscogulge andStincardtowns, explicitly spoken of in Wm. Bartram's Travels (see Appendices), refers merely to the form of speech used by the tribes of the confederacy. This epithet (Puantsin French) may have had an opprobrious meaning in the beginning, but not in later times, when it simply served to distinguish the principal people from the accessory tribes. We find it also used as a current term in the Naktche villages.
Bartram does not designate as Stincards the tribes speaking languages of another stock than Maskoki, the Yuchi, for instance; not even all of those that speak dialects of Maskoki other than the Creek. He calls by this savorous name the Muklása, Witúmka, Koassáti, Chíaha, Hitchiti, Okóni, both Sáwokli and a part of the Seminoles. He mentions thetownsonly, and omits all thevillageswhich have branched off from the towns.
The present Creeks know nothing of such a distinction. Although I do not know the Creek term which corresponded to it in the eighteenth century, it is not improbable that such a designation was in vogue; for we find many similar opprobrious epithets among other Indians, as Cuitlateca or "excrementers" in Mexico; Puants or Metsmetskop among the Naktche[89]; Inkalik, "sons of louse-eggs" among the Eskimo; Kā′katilsh or "arm-pit-stinkers" among the Klamaths of Southwestern Oregon; Móki or Múki, "cadaverous, stinking," an epithet originally given tooneof the Shínumo or Móki towns for lack of bravery, and belonging to the Shínumo language: múkidead.
The plural forms: tchilokóga and tchilokogálgi designatein Creek persons speaking another than the Creek language; tchilókäsI speak an alien language. "Stincards" would be expressed in Creek by ísti fámbagi. Of all the gentes of the Chicasa that of theskunkor hushkoni was held in the lowest esteem, some of the lowest officials, as runners, etc., being appointed from it; therefore it can be conjectured that from the Chicasa tribe a term like "skunks," "stinkards," may have been transferred and applied to the less esteemed gentes of other nations.
In this alphabetic list of ancient Creek towns and villages I have included all the names of inhabited places which I have found recorded before the emigration of the people to the Indian Territory. The description of their sites is chiefly taken from Hawkins' "Sketch," one of the most instructive books which we possess on the Creeks in their earlier homes. Some of these town names are still existing in Alabama and Georgia, although the site has not unfrequently changed. I have interspersed into the list a few names of the larger rivers. The etymologies added to the names contain the opinions of the Creek delegates visiting Washington every year, and they seldom differed among each other on any name. The local names are written according to my scientific system of phonetics, the only change introduced being that of the palataltchforch.