Extracts from the Indian Tribes of North America by John R
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MUSKOGEE-CREEK AFFILIATION MUSKOGEE-CREEK AFFILIATION Extracts from The Indian Tribes of North America by John R. Swanton Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145—1953 726 pages—Smithsonian Institution pp. 153-174) MUSKOGEE-CREEK AFFILIATION Abihka, see Creek Confederacy and Muskogee. Acuera. Meaning unknown (acu signifies "and" and also "moon"). Connections.—This tribe belonged to the Timucuan or Timuquanan linguistic division of the Muskhogean linguistic family. Location.—Apparently about the headwaters of the Ocklawaha River [in Florida]. Towns: (See Utina.) History.— The Acuera were first noted by De Soto in a letter written at Tampa Bay to the civil cabildo of Santiago de Cuba. According to information transmitted to him by his officer Baltazar de Gallegos, Acuera was "a large town . where with much convenience we might winter," but the Spaniards did not in fact pass through it, though, while they were at Ocale, they sent to Acuera for corn. The name appears later in Laudonnière's narrative of the second French expedition to Florida, 1564-65 (1586), as a tribe allied with the Utina. It is noted sparingly in later Spanish documents but we learn that in 1604 there was an encounter between these Indians and Spanish troops and that there were two Acuera missions in 1655, San Luis and Santa Lucia, both of which had disappeared by 1680. The inland position of the Acuera is partly responsible for the few notices of them. The remnant was probably gathered into the "Pueblo de Timucua," which stood near St. Augustine in 1736, and was finally removed to the Mosquito Lagoon and Halifax River in Volusia County, where Tomoka River keeps the name alive. Population.— This is nowhere given by itself. (See Utina.) Aguacaleyquen, see Utina . Ais. Meaning unknown; there is no basis for Romans' (1775) derivation from the Choctaw word "isi" (deer). Also called: Jece, form of the name given by Dickenson (1699). Connections.—Circumstantial evidence, particularly resemblance in town names, leads to the conclusion that the Ais language was similar to that of the Calusa and the other south Florida tribes. (See Calusa.) It is believed that it was connected with the Muskhogean stock. Location.—Along Indian River on the east coast of the peninsula. Villages: – The only village mentioned by explorers and geographers bears some form of the tribal name. History.—Fontaneda (1854) speaks of a Biscayan named Pedro who had been held prisoner in Ais, evidently during the sixteenth century, and spoke the Ais language fluently. Shortly after the Spaniards made their first establishments in the peninsula, a war broke out with the Ais, but peace was concluded in 1570. In 1597 Governor Mendez de Can¸o, who traveled along the entire east coast from the head of the Florida Keys to St. Augustine, reported that the Ais chief had more Indians under him than any other. A little later the Ais killed a Spaniard and two Indians sent to them by Can¸o for which summary revenge was exacted, and still later a difficulty was created by the escape of two Negro slaves and their marriage with Ais men. Relations between the Floridian government and these Indians were afterward friendly but efforts to missionize them uniformly failed. An intimate picture of their condition in 1699 is given by the Quaker Dickenson (1803), who was ship-wrecked on the coast farther south and obliged, with his companions, to travel through their territory. They disappear from history after 1703, but the remnant may have been among those who, according to Romans (1775), passed over to Cuba in 1763, although he speaks of them all as Calusa. Population.—Mooney (1928) estimates the number of Indians on the southeastern coast of Florida in 1650, including this tribe, the Tekesta, Guacata, and Jeaga, to have been 1,000. As noted above, the Ais were the most important of these and undoubtedly the largest. We have no other estimates of population applying to the seventeenth century. In 1726, 88 "Costa" Indians were reported in a mission farther north and these may have been drawn from the southeast coast. In 1728, 52 "Costa" Indians were reported. Connection in which they have become noted.—The Ais were noted as the most important tribe of southeastern Florida, and they were probably responsible for the fact that the water course on which they dwelt came to be called Indian River. Alabama. Perhaps connected with the native word "albina," meaning "to camp," or alba amo, "weed gatherer," referring to the black drink. Also called: Ma'-mo an-ya-di, or Ma'- mo han-ya, by the Biloxi. Oke-choy-atte, given by Schoolcraft (1851-57), the name of an Alabama town, Oktcaiutci. Connections. — The Alabama language belonged to the southern division of the Muskhogean stock, and was perhaps connected with the tongues of the Muklasa and Tuskegee, which have not been preserved. It was closely related to Koasati and more remotely to Hitchiti and Choctaw. Location. — The principal historic seat of this tribe was on the upper course of Alabama River. (See also Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.) Subdivisions: – The Tawasa and Pawokti, which later formed two Alabama towns, were originally independent tribes, though the former, at least, was not properly Alabama. The same may have been true of some other Alabama towns, though we have no proof of the fact. Villages: Besides the above: Autauga, on the north bank of Alabama River about the mouth of Autauga Creek in Autauga County. Kantcati, on Alabama River about 3 miles above Montgomery and on the same side. Nitahauritz, on the north side of Alabama River west of the confluence of the Alabama and Cahawba Rivers in Dallas County. Okchayutci, in Benjamin Hawkins' time (about 1800) on the cast bank of Coosa River between Tuskegee and the Muskogee town of Otciapofa. (See Hawkins, 1848, 1916.) Wetumpka, a branch village reported in 1761. History. — Native tradition assigns the origin of the Alabama to a point at the confluence of Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, but we seem to hear of the tribe first historically in what is now northern Mississippi west of the Chickasaw country. This is in the narratives of De Soto's chroniclers, which, however, do not altogether agree, since one writer speaks of a province of the name, two others bestow the designation upon a small village, and only Garcilaso (1723), the least reliable, gives the title Fort Alibamo to a stockade- west of the village above mentioned- where the Spaniards had a severe combat. While this stockade was probably held by Alabama Indians, there is no certainty that it was. The next we hear of the tribe it is in its historic seats above given. After the French had established themselves at Mobile they became embroiled in some small affrays between the Alabama and Mobile Indians, but peace was presently established and thereafter the French and Alabama remained good friends as long as French rule continued. This friendship was cemented in 1717 by the establishment of Fort Toulouse in the Alabama country and the admission among them of one, or probably two, refugee tribes, the Tawasa and Pawokti. (See Florida.) About 1763 a movement toward the west began on the part of those Indians who had become accustomed to French rule. Some Alabama joined the Seminole in Florida. Others accompanied the Koasati to Tombigbee River but soon returned to their own country. Still another body went to Louisiana and settled on the banks of the Mississippi River, where they were probably joined from time to time by more. Later they advanced further toward the west and some are still scattered in St. Landry and Calcasieu Parishes, but the greatest single body finally reached Polk County, Tex., where they occupy a piece of land set aside for them by the State. Those who remained behind took a very prominent part in the Creek-American War and lost all their land by the treaty of Fort Jackson, 1814, being obliged to make new settlements between the Coosa and Tallapoosa. They accompanied the rest of the Creeks to Oklahoma, and their descendants are to he found there today, principally about a little station bearing the name just south of Weleetka. Early in the eighteenth century the Pawokti, and perhaps some other Alabama bands, lived near Apalachicola River [in Florida], whence they were driven in 1708. After the Creek-American War a part of the Alabama again entered Florida, but they do not seem to have maintained an independent existence for a very long period. Population. — In 1702 Iberville (in Margry, 1875-86, vol. 4, p. 514) estimated that there were 400 families of Alabama in two villages, and the English census of 1715 gives 214 men and a total population of 770 in four villages. These figures must have been exclusive of the Tawasa and Pawokti, which subsequent estimates include. About 1730- 40 there is an estimate of 400 men in six towns. In 1792 the number of Alabama men is given as 60, exclusive of 60 Tawasa, but as this last included Kantcati the actual proportion of true Alabama was considerably greater. Hawkins, in 1799, estimated 80 gunmen in four Alabama towns, including Tawasa and Pawokti, but he does not include the population of Okchaiyutci. (See Hawkins, 1848.) In 1832 only two towns are entered which may be safely set down as Alabama, Tawasa and Autauga, and these had a population of 321 besides 21 slaves. The later figures given above do not include those Alabama who had moved to Louisiana. In 1805 Sibley (1832) states there were two villages in Louisiana with 70 men; in 1917 Morse (1822) gives 160 Alabama all told in Texas, but this is probably short of the truth.