Chapter II: The Maskoki Family (3)

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 their _towns_. From more recent sources it appears that these settlements consisted of smaller groups of cabins clustered together in tribes, perhaps also after _gentes_, 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.

The _Cusha_ Indians, also called Coosa, Coosahs, had settlements on the Cusha creeks, in Lauderdale county.

The _Ukla-faláya_, or "Long People," were settled in Leake county. (?)

The _Cofetaláya_ were 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.

_Sixtowns_ or 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, is _English_), Tallatown, Nashoweya, Bishkon.

_Sukinatchi_ or "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'hta _Agency_ was in Oktibbeha county.

_Cobb Indians_; west of Pearl river.

_Shuqualak_ in Noxubee county.

_Chicasawhay Indians_ on 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.

CHA'HTA TRIBES OF THE GULF COAST.

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 Mobilians_ seem 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. tóbi _white_.

[Footnote 77: "Fish-eaters," from Cha'hta náni, nánni _fish_,
ápa _to eat_. On Turner's map (1827), Nanihaba Island lies at
the junction of Alabama with Tombigbee river, and Nanihaba Bluff
lies west of the junction.]

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.

The _Touachas_ settled by the French upon Mobile bay in 1705, were a part of the Tawasa, an Alibamu tribe mentioned above.[78]

[Footnote 78: Margry V, 457.]

_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 páska _bread_, ókla _people_, the Nahuatl tribal name of the Tlascaltecs being of the same signification: tlaxcalli _tortilla_, from ixca _to 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 Indians_ became 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 (lúktchi _turtle_).

"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. Their name 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 Indians_ appear 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 distant from the sea, in six villages: Margry IV, 119. 120. Are they the Sixtown Indians?

_The Bayogoula Indians_ inhabited 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: shukata _opossum_, 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.

[Footnote 79: Margry IV, 175: "des tambours chychycouchy, qui
sont des calebasses."]

The full form of the tribal name is Bayuk-ókla or _river-tribe, creek-_ or _bayou-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, 2-1/2 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´. The limit 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.

[Footnote 80: Thomas Hutchins, French America, Phila., 1784, p.
40.]

Their language is distinctly stated to have differed from that of the Taensa, IV, 412. 448, and the tribal name, a Cha'hta term for _red_, 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.

[Footnote 81: Pénicaut in Margry V, 395.]

_The country south_ of 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 early period. 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.

[Footnote 82: _Travels_, p. 436: "the bloody field of Schambe";
cf. 400. 414.]

The _Conshac 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.

[Footnote 83: Margry IV, 594. 595. 602.]

[Footnote 84: Thom. Hutchins, French America, p. 83 (1784). B.
Romans, Florida, p. 90.]

The origin of these different acceptations can only be accounted for by the generic meaning of the appellation Conshac. It is the Cha'hta word kánshak: (1) a species of _cane_, 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 CHA'HTA LANGUAGE,

the representative of the western group of Maskoki dialects, differs in its _phonetics_ from the eastern dialects chiefly by the more general vocalic nasalization previously alluded to. Words cannot begin with two consonants; the Creek _st_ is replaced by _sht_, and combinations like _tl, bt, nt_ do 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 _-t_ and _-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 articles _the, 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 _'h_ being 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 verb _to be_ is 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 express _all_ sounds of the language by _signs 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.

[Footnote 85: Published in Proceedings of American Philosoph.
Society, 1870 (56 pages), 8vo.]

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.