A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. 1

Chapter II: The Maskoki Family (1)

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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.

* * * * *

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:

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]

[Footnote 39: By this same name the Algonkins designated many
other Indians hostile to them; it appears in Nottoway,
Nadouessioux, etc.]

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.

[Footnote 40: Prof. J. B. Dunbar, who composed an interesting
ethnologic article on this tribe, thinks that Pani is a true
Pani word: páriki _horn_, meaning their scalp lock; Magazine of
American History, 1880 (April number), p. 245.]

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.

[Footnote 41: Cf. Buck. Smith, Coleccion de Documentos ineditos,
I, p. 15-19 (Madrid, 1857).]

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.

[Footnote 42: Description of Carolina, London, 1707. The Yámassi
then lived about eighty miles from Charleston, and extended
their hunting excursions almost to St. Augustine.]

[Footnote 43: Gallatin, Synopsis, p. 84, recalls the
circumstance that Poketalico is also the name of a tributary of
the Great Kanawha river. This seems to point to a foreign origin
of that name.]

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).

[Footnote 44: Verbified in tchayámassïs: I am friendly, liberal,
generous, hospitable.]

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]

[Footnote 45: Cf. Jones, Tomochichi, p. 31.]

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.

[Footnote 46: This adjective is found verbified in
isimanōlăidshit "he has caused himself to be a runaway."]

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]

[Footnote 47: Cf. Proceed. Am. Philos. Society of Phila., 1880,
pp. 466, 478.]

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]

[Footnote 48: Wm. Bartram, Travels, p. 97. 179. 190-193. 216.
217. 251. 379-380. The name Cuscowilla bears a curious
resemblance to the Chicasa town Tuskawillao, mentioned by Adair,
History, p. 353. Cf. also Okóni, in List of Creek Settlements.]

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."

[Footnote 49: Perhaps from the Hitchiti term a-útilis "_I build
or kindle a fire_."]

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, 1-1/2 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).

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A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. 1Chapter II: The Maskoki Family (1)

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