part 1
, 1901).
97. Origin of the Yontoñwisas dance (p. 365): This is evidently the one called by Morgan (League of Iroquois, p. 290) the Untowesus. He describes both this and the Oaskanea as a "shuffle dance" for women only. The spelling of the Seneca names in the story is that given in the manuscript.
Not to go after--Morgan, in his work quoted above, asserts that the Iroquois never made any effort to recover those of their people who have been captured by the enemy, choosing to consider them thenceforth as lost to their tribe and kindred. This, if true, is doubly remarkable, in view of the wholesale adoption of prisoners and subjugated tribes by the Iroquois.
Blazing pine knots--Torches of seasoned pine knots are much in use among the Cherokee for lighting up the way on journeys along the difficult mountain trails by night. Owing to the accumulation of resin in the knots they burn with a bright and enduring flame, far surpassing the cloudy glow of a lantern.
Wild potatoes--As is well known, the potato is indigenous to America, and our first knowledge of it came to us from the Indians. Many other native tubers were in use among the tribes, even those which practiced no agriculture, but depended almost entirely upon the chase. Favorites among the Cherokee are the Cynara scolymus or wild artichoke, and the Phaseolus or pig potato, the name of the latter, nuna, being now used to designate the cultivated potato.
Sky people--These spirit messengers are mentioned also in the story of Hatcinoñdoñ (number 94), another Seneca tradition. Every tribe has its own spirit creation.
Must do all this--Every sacred dance and religious rite, as well as almost every important detail of Indian ceremonial, is supposed to be in accordance with direct instruction from the spirit world as communicated in a vision.
98. Ga'na's adventures among the Cherokee (p. 367): This story, from Curtin's Seneca manuscript, is particularly rich in Indian allusion. The purificatory rite, the eagle capture, the peace ceremonial, the ballplay, the foot race, and the battle are all described in a way that gives us a vivid picture of the old tribal life. The name of the Seneca hero, Ga'na', signifies, according to Hewitt, "Arrow" (cf. Cherokee gûni, "arrow"), while the name of the great eagle, Shada'gea, may, according to the same authority, be rendered "Cloud-dweller." The Seoqgwageono, living east of the Cherokee and near the ocean, can not be identified. They could not have been the Catawba, who were known to the Iroquois as Toderigh-rono, but they may possibly have been the Congaree, Santee, or Sewee, farther down in South Carolina. In the Seneca form, as here given, ge (ge`) is a locative, and ono (oñnoñ) a tribal suffix qualifying the root of the word, the whole name signifying "people of, or at, Seoqgwa" (cf. Oyadageono, etc., i. e., Cherokee, p. 186).
Go to water--This rite, as practiced among the Cherokee, has been already noted in the chapter on stories and story tellers. Ceremonial purification by water or the sweat bath, accompanied by prayer and fasting, is almost universal among the tribes as a preliminary to every important undertaking. With the Cherokee it precedes the ballplay and the Green-corn dance, and is a part of the ritual for obtaining long life, for winning the affections of a woman, for recovering from a wasting sickness, and for calling down prosperity upon the family at each return of the new moon.
Get the eagle feathers--The Cherokee ritual for procuring eagle feathers for ceremonial and decorative purposes has been described in number 35, "The Bird Tribes." The Seneca method, as here described, is practically that in use among all the Indians of the plains, although the hunter is not usually satisfied with a single feather at a capture. Among certain western tribes the eagle was sometimes strangled before being stripped of its feathers, but it was essential that the body must not be mangled or any blood be drawn. The Pueblos were sometimes accustomed to take the young eagles from the nest and keep them in cages for their feathers. A full tail contains twelve large feathers of the kind used for war bonnets and on the wands of the Eagle dance.
Stockade--Stockaded villages were common to the Iroquois and most of the tribes along the Atlantic coast. They are mentioned also among the Cherokee in some of the exaggerated narratives of the early Spanish period, but were entirely unknown within the later colonial period, and it is very doubtful if the nature of the country would permit such compact mode of settlement.
Dancers went forward--The method of ceremonial approach here described was probably more or less general among the eastern tribes. On the plains the visitors usually dismount in sight of the other camp and advance on foot in slow procession, chanting the "visiting song," while the leader holds out the red stone pipe, which is the symbol of truce or friendship. For a good description of such a ceremonial, reproduced from Battey, see the author's Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians, in the Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. In this instance the visiting Pawnee carried a flag in lieu of a pipe.
The Cherokee ceremonial is thus described by Timberlake as witnessed at Citico in 1762: 'About 100 yards from the town-house we were received by a body of between three and four hundred Indians, ten or twelve of which were entirely naked, except a piece of cloth about their middle, and painted all over in a hideous manner, six of them with eagles' tails in their hands, which they shook and flourished as they advanced, danced in a very uncommon figure, singing in concert with some drums of their own make, and those of the late unfortunate Capt. Damere; with several other instruments, uncouth beyond description. Cheulah, the headman of the town, led the procession, painted blood-red, except his face, which was half black, holding an old rusty broad-sword in his right hand, and an eagle's tail in his left. As they approached, Cheulah, singling himself out from the rest, cut two or three capers, as a signal to the other eagle-tails, who instantly followed his example. This violent exercise, accompanied by the band of musick, and a loud yell from the mob, lasted about a minute, when the headman, waving his sword over my head, struck it into the ground, about two inches from my left foot; then directing himself to me, made a short discourse (which my interpreter told me was only to bid me a hearty welcome) and presented me with a string of beads. We then proceeded to the door, where Cheulah, and one of the beloved men, taking me by each arm, led me in, and seated me in one of the first seats; it was so dark that nothing was perceptible till a fresh supply of canes were brought, which being burnt in the middle of the house answers both purposes of fuel and candle. I then discovered about five hundred faces; and Cheulah addressing me a second time, made a speech much to the same effect as the former, congratulating me on my safe arrival thro' the numerous parties of northern Indians, that generally haunt the way I came. He then made some professions of friendship, concluding with giving me another string of beads, as a token of it. He had scarce finished, when four of those who had exhibited at the procession made their second appearance, painted in milk-white, their eagle-tails in one hand, and small gourds with beads in them in the other, which they rattled in time to the musick. During this dance the peace-pipe was prepared."--Timberlake, Memoirs, pp. 36-39.
Adair also makes brief mention of the ceremony among the Gulf tribes (Hist. Am. Indians, p. 260), but his account is too badly warped by theorizing to have much value.
Adopt a relative--This seems to point to a custom which has escaped the notice of earlier writers on the eastern tribes, but which is well known in Africa and other parts of the world, and is closely analogous to a still existing ceremony among the plains Indians by which two young men of the same tribe formally agree to become brothers, and ratify the compact by a public exchange of names and gifts.
White wampum--As is well known, white was universally typical of peace. The traditional peace-pipe of the Cherokee was of white stone and the word itself is symbolic of peace and happiness in their oratory and sacred formulas. Thus the speaker at the Green-corn dance invites the people to come along the white path and enter the white house of peace to partake of the new white food.
Held up the belt--As already noted, every paragraph of an ambassador's speech was accompanied by the delivery of a string or belt of wampum to give authority to his words, and to accept the belt was to accept the condition or compact which it typified. On the plains the red stone pipe took the place of the wampum.
Try a race--Public foot races were common among many tribes, more
## particularly in the West among the Pueblos, the Apache, and the
Wichita, either as simple athletic contests or in connection with religious ceremonials. On the plains the horse race is more in favor and is always the occasion of almost unlimited betting.
Throwing sumac darts--The throwing of darts and arrows, either at a mark or simply to see who can throw farthest, is a favorite amusement among the young men and boys. The arrows used for this purpose are usually longer and heavier than the ordinary ones, having carved wooden heads and being artistically painted. They are sometimes tipped with the end of a buffalo horn.
99. The Shawano wars (p. 370): The chief authority as to the expulsion of the Shawano from Tennessee is Haywood (Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, pp. 222-224). The Schoolcraft reference is from Notes on the Iroquois, p. 160, and the notice of the Cherokee-Delaware war from Loskiel, Mission of United Brethren, p. 128, and Heckewelder, Indian Nations, p. 88. The Tunâ'i story is from Wafford; the other incidents from Swimmer.
Shawano--The Shawano or Shawnee were one of the most important of the Algonquian tribes. Their most noted chief was the great Tecumtha. The meaning of the name is doubtful. It is commonly interpreted "Southerners," from the Algonquian shawan, "the south," but may have come from another Algonquian word signifying "salt" (siutagan, sewetagan, etc., from sewan, "sweet, pungent"). Unlike the southern Indians generally, the Shawano were great salt users, and carried on an extensive salt manufacture by boiling at the salt springs of southwestern Virginia, furnishing the product in trade to other tribes. They have thirteen clans--Wolf, Loon, Bear, Buzzard, Panther, Owl, Turkey, Deer, Raccoon, Turtle, Snake, Horse, and Rabbit (Morgan), the clan of the individual being indicated by his name. They are organized also into four divisions or bands, perhaps originally independent allied tribes, viz, Piqua, Mequachake, Kiscopocoke, and Chilicothe. To the second of these belonged the hereditary priesthood, but the first was most prominent and apparently most numerous. The Shawano were of very wandering and warlike habit. Their earliest historical habitat appears to have been on the middle Savannah river, which takes its name from them, but before the end of the seventeenth century we find a portion of them, apparently the main body, occupying the basin of the Cumberland river in Tennessee and the adjacent region of Kentucky. About the year 1692 most of those remaining in South Carolina moved northward and settled upon the upper Delaware river, with their relatives and friends the Delaware and Mahican. These emigrants appear to have been of the Piqua division. Up to about the year 1730 the Shawano still had a town on Savannah river, near Augusta, from which they were finally driven by the Cherokee. From their former intimate association with the Uchee, living in the same neighborhood, some early writers have incorrectly supposed the two tribes to be the same. A part of the Shawano joined the Creek confederary, and up to the beginning of the last century, and probably until the final removal to the West, occupied a separate town and retained their distinct language. Those settled upon the Cumberland were afterward expelled by the Cherokee and Chickasaw, and retired to the upper waters of the Ohio under protection of the Delaware, who had given refuge to the original emigrants from South Carolina. With the advance of the white settlements the two tribes moved westward into Ohio, the Shawano fixing themselves in the vicinity of the present Piqua and Chillicothe about the year 1750. They took a leading part in the French and Indian war, Pontiac's war, the Revolution, and the war of 1812. In 1793 a considerable band settled in Missouri upon lands granted by the Spanish government. As a result of successive sales and removals all that remain of the tribe are now established in Indian Territory, about one-half being incorporated with the Cherokee Nation. In 1900 they numbered about 1,580, viz, in Cherokee Nation (in 1898), 790; Absentee Shawnee of Sac and Fox Agency, 509; Absentee Shawnee of Big Jim's band, special agency, 184; Eastern Shawnee of Quapaw Agency, 93. There are also a few scattered among other tribes. For detailed information consult Drake, Life of Tecumseh; Heckewelder, Indian Nations; Brinton, Lenâpé and Their Legends; American State Papers: Indian Affairs, I and II; Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
100. The raid on Tikwali'tsi (p. 374): Swimmer, from whom this story was obtained, was of opinion that the event occurred when his mother was a little girl, say about 1795, but it must have been earlier.
The locations are all in Swain county, North Carolina. Tikwali'tsi town was on Tuckasegee river, at the present Bryson City, immediately below and adjoining the more important town of Kituhwa. Deep creek enters the Tuckasegee from the north, about a mile above Bryson City. The place where the trail crossed is called Uniga'yata`ti'yi, "Where they made a fish trap," a name which may have suggested the simile used by the story teller. The place where the Cherokee crossed, above Deep creek, is called Uniyâ'hitûñ'yi, "Where they shot it." The cliff over which the prisoners were thrown is called Kala'asûñyi, "Where he fell off," near Cold Spring knob, west of Deep creek. The Cherokee halted for a night at Agitsta`ti'yi, "Where they staid up all night," a few miles beyond, on the western head fork of Deep creek. They passed Kûnstûtsi'yi, "Sassafras place," a gap about the head of Noland creek, near Clingman's dome, and finally gave up the pursuit where the trail crossed into Tennessee, at a gap on the main ridge, just below Clingman's dome, known as Duniya'`tâ`lûñ'yi, "Where there are shelves," so called from an exposure of flat rock on the top of the ridge (see the glossary).
Magic arts--It is almost superfluous to state that no Indian war party ever started out without a vast deal of conjuring and "making medicine" to discover the whereabouts and strength of the enemy and to insure victory and safe return to the departing warriors.
Wait for death--The Indian usually meets inevitable fate with equanimity, and more than once in our Indian wars an aged warrior or helpless woman, unable to escape, has sat down upon the ground, and, with blanket drawn over the head, calmly awaited the fatal bullet or hatchet stroke.
101. The last Shawano invasion (p. 374): This story also is from Swimmer, whose antiquarian interest in the history of these wars may have been heightened by the fact that he had a slight strain of Shawano blood himself. The descendants of the old chief Sawanu'gi and his brothers, originally of Shawano stock, as the name indicates, have been prominent in the affairs of the East Cherokee for more than half a century, and one of them, bearing the ancestral name, is now second chief of the band and starter of the game at every large ballplay.
The cry of an owl--One of the commonest claims put forth by the medicine men is that of ability to understand the language of birds and to obtain supernatural knowledge from them, particularly from the owl, which is regarded with a species of fear by the laity, as the embodiment of a human ghost, on account of its nocturnal habit and generally uncanny appearance. A medicine man who died a few years ago among the Kiowa claimed to derive his powers from that bird. The body of an owl, wrapped in red cloth and decorated with various trinkets, was kept constantly suspended from a tall pole set up in front of his tipi, and whenever at night the warning cry sounded from the thicket he was accustomed to leave his place at the fire and go out, returning in a short while with a new revelation.
Rafts--The Cherokee canoe is hewn from a poplar log and is too heavy to be carried about like the bark canoe of the northern tribes. As a temporary expedient they sometimes used a bear or buffalo skin, tying the legs together at each end to fashion a rude boat. Upon this the baggage was loaded, while the owner swam behind, pushing it forward through the water.
102. The false warriors of Chilhowee (p. 375): This story was given by Swimmer and corroborated by others as that of an actual incident of the old times. The middle Cherokee (Kituhwa) settlements, on the head-streams of the Little Tennessee, were separated from the upper settlements, about its junction with the main Tennessee, by many miles of extremely rough mountain country. Dialectic differences and local jealousies bred friction, which sometimes brought the two sections into collision and rendered possible such an occurrence as is here narrated. On account of this jealousy, according to Adair, the first Cherokee war, which began in 1760, concerned for some time only a part of the tribe. "According to the well-known temper of the Cheerake in similar cases it might either have remained so, or soon have been changed into a very hot civil war, had we been so wise as to have improved the favourable opportunity. There were seven northern towns, opposite to the middle parts of the Cheerake country, who from the beginning of the unhappy grievances, firmly dissented from the hostile intentions of their suffering and enraged countrymen, and for a considerable time before bore them little good will, on account of some family disputes which occasioned each party to be more favourable to itself than to the other. These would readily have gratified their vindictive disposition either by a neutrality or an offensive alliance with our colonists against them" (History of the American Indians, page 248).
Chilhowee (properly Tsû`lûñ'we or Tsû`la'wi) was a noted settlement on the south bank of Little Tennessee river, opposite the present Chilhowee, in Monroe county, Tennessee. Cowee (properly Kawi'yi, abbreviated Kawi') was the name of two or more former settlements. The one here meant was at the junction of Cowee creek with Little Tennessee river, a short distance below the present Franklin, in Macon county, North Carolina. Neither name can be analyzed. The gunstocker's name, Gûlsadi'hi or Gûltsadi'hi, and that of the original owner of the gun, Gûñskali'ski, are both of doubtful etymology.
Great war trail--See historical note 19.
Scalp dance--This dance, common to every tribe east of the Rocky mountains, was held to celebrate the taking of fresh scalps from the enemy. The scalps, painted red on the fleshy side, decorated and stretched in small hoops attached to the ends of poles, were carried in the dance by the wives and sweethearts of the warriors, while in the pauses of the song each warrior in turn recited his exploits in minute detail. Among the Cherokee it was customary for the warrior as he stepped into the center of the circle to suggest to the drummer an improvised song which summed up in one or two words his own part in the encounter. A new "war name" was frequently assumed after the dance (see sketch of Tsunu'lahûñ'ski, page 164). Dances were held over the same scalps on consecutive nights or sometimes at short intervals for weeks together.
Coming for water--The getting of water from the neighboring stream or spring was a daily duty of the women, and accordingly we find in Indian stories constant allusion to ambuscades or lovers' appointments at such places.
To have a ballplay--See note under number 3, Kana'ti and Selu.
103. Cowee town: See the preceeding note.
104. The eastern tribes (p. 378): Delaware--The Delawares derive their popular name from the river upon which, in the earliest colonial period, they had their principal settlements. They call themselves Lena'pe or Leni-lena'pe, a term apparently signifying "real, or original men," or "men of our kind." To the cognate tribes of the Ohio valley and the lakes they were known as Wapanaq'ki, "easterners," the name being extended to include the closely related tribes, the Mahican, Wappinger (i. e. Wapanaq'ki), Nanticoke, and Conoy. By all the widespread tribes of kindred Algonquian stock, as well as by the Winnebago, Wyandot, and Cherokee, they were addressed under the respectful title of "grandfather," the domineering Iroquois alone refusing to them any higher designation than "nephew."
Their various bands and subtribes seem originally to have occupied the whole basin of Delaware river, together with all of New Jersey, extending north to the watershed of the Hudson and west and southwest to the ridge separating the waters of the Delaware and Susquehanna. Immediately north of them, along the lower Hudson and extending into Massachusetts and Connecticut, were the closely affiliated Mahican and Wappinger, while to the south were their friends and kindred, the Nanticoke and Conoy, the former in Delaware and on the eastern shore of Maryland, the latter between Chesapeake bay and the lower Potomac. All of these, although speaking different languages of the common Algonquian stock, asserted their traditional origin from the Delawares, with whom, in their declining days, most of them were again merged. The Delawares proper were organized into three divisions, which, according to Brinton, were subtribes and not clans, although each of the three had a totemic animal by whose name it was commonly known. These three subtribes were: (1) The Minsi or Munsee (people of the "stony country"?), otherwise known as the Wolf tribe, occupying the hill country about the head of the Delaware; (2) the Unami (people "downstream"), or Turtle tribe, on the middle Delaware, and (3) the Unalachtgo (people "near the ocean"?), or Turkey tribe, in the southern part of the common territory. Of these the Turtle tribe assumed precedence in the council, while to the Wolf tribe belonged the leadership in war. Each of these three was divided into twelve families, or embryonic clans, bearing female names. In this connection it may be mentioned that the Delawares now residing with the Wichita, in Oklahoma, still use the figure of a turtle as their distinctive cattle brand.
Of the history of the Delawares it is only possible to say a very few words here. Their earliest European relations were with the Dutch and Swedes. In 1682 they made the famous treaty with William Penn, which was faithfully observed on both sides for sixty years. Gradually forced backward by the whites, they retired first to the Susquehanna, then to the upper Ohio, where, on the breaking out of the French and Indian war in 1754, they ranged themselves on the side of the French. They fought against the Americans in the Revolution, and in the war of 1812, having by that time been driven as far west as Indiana. In 1818 they ceded all their lands in that State and were assigned to a reservation in Kansas, where they were joined by a considerable body that had emigrated to Missouri, in company with a band of Shawano, some years before, by permission of the Spanish government. About the close of the Revolution another portion of the tribe, including most of those who had been Christianized by Moravian missionaries, had fled from Ohio and taken up a permanent abode on Canadian soil. In 1867 the main body of those in Kansas removed to Indian Territory and became incorporated with the Cherokee Nation. A smaller band settled on the Wichita reservation in Oklahoma. The present number of Delawares is, approximately, 1,600, viz: "Moravians and Munsees of the Thames," Ontario, 475; incorporated in Cherokee Nation, 870 (in 1898); on Wichita reservation, 95; Munsee in Kansas and incorporated with Stockbridges in Wisconsin, perhaps 100; Delawares, etc., with Six Nations, in New York, 50.
Of their former allies, the Wappinger and Conoy have long since disappeared through absorption into other tribes; the Mahican are represented by a band of about 530 Stockbridge Indians, including a number of Munsee, in Wisconsin, while about 70 mixed bloods still keep up the Nanticoke name in southern Delaware.
Tuscarora--The Tuscarora, a southern tribe of the Iroquoian stock, formerly occupied an extensive territory upon Neuse river and its branches, in eastern North Carolina, and, like their northern cousins, seem to have assumed and exercised a certain degree of authority over all the smaller tribes about them. As early as 1670 Lederer described the Tuscarora "emperor" as the haughtiest Indian he had ever met. About the year 1700 Lawson estimated them at 1,200 warriors (6,000 souls?) in 15 towns. In 1711 they rose against the whites, one of their first acts of hostility being the killing of Lawson himself, who was engaged in surveying lands which they claimed as their own. In a struggle extending over about two years they were so terribly decimated that the greater portion fled from Carolina and took refuge with their kinsmen and friends, the Iroquois of New York, who were henceforth known as the Six Nations. The so-called "friendly" party, under Chief Blount, was settled upon a small reservation north of Roanoke river in what is now Bertie county, North Carolina. Here they gradually decreased by disease and emigration to the north, until the few who were left sold their last remaining lands in 1804. The history of the tribe after the removal to the north is a part of the history of the Iroquois or Six Nations. They number now about 750, of whom about 380 are on the Tuscarora reservation in New York, the others upon the Grand River reservation in Ontario.
Xuala, Suwali, Sara or Cheraw--For the identification and earliest notices of the Sara see historical note 8, "De Soto's Route." Their later history is one of almost constant hostility to the whites until their final incorporation with the Catawba, with whom they were probably cognate, about the year 1720. In 1743 they still preserved their distinct language, and appear to be last mentioned in 1768, when they numbered about 50 souls living among the Catawba. See Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East, bulletin of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1894.
Catawba--The origin and meaning of this name, which dates back at least two centuries, are unknown. It may possibly come from the Choctaw through the Mobilian trade jargon. They call themselves Nieye, which means simply "people" or "Indians." The Iroquois call them and other cognate tribes in their vicinity Toderigh-rono, whence Tutelo. In the seventeenth century they were often known as Esaw or Ushery, apparently from iswa', river, in their own language. The Cherokee name Ata'gwa, plural Ani'ta'gwa, is a corruption of the popular form. Their linguistic affinity with the Siouan stock was established by Gatschet in 1881. See Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East.
105. The southern and western tribes (p. 382): The Creek confederacy--Next in importance to the Cherokee, among the southern tribes, were the Indians of the Creek confederacy, occupying the greater portion of Georgia and Alabama, immediately south of the Cherokee. They are said to have been called Creeks by the early traders on account of the abundance of small streams in their country. Before the whites began to press upon them their tribes held nearly all the territory from the Atlantic westward to about the watershed between the Tombigby and the Pearl and Pascagoula rivers, being cut off from the Gulf coast by the Choctaw tribes, and from the Savannah, except near the mouth, by the Uchee, Shawano, and Cherokee. About the year 1800 the confederacy comprised 75 towns, the people of 47 of which were the Upper Creeks, centering about the upper waters of the Alabama, while those of the remaining 28 were the Lower Creeks, upon the lower Chattahoochee and its branches (Hawkins). Among them were represented a number of tribes formerly distinct and speaking distinct languages. The ruling tribe and language was the Muscogee (plural, Muscogûlgee), which frequently gave its name to the confederacy. Other languages were the Alabama, Koasati, Hichitee, Taskigi, Uchee, Natchee, and Sawanugi or Shawano. The Muscogee, Alabama, Koasati, Hichitee, and Taskigi (?) belonged to the Muskhogean stock, the Alabama and Koasati, however, being nearer linguistically to the Choctaw than to the Muscogee. The Hichitee represent the conquered or otherwise incorporated Muskhogean tribes of the Georgia coast region. The Apalachi on Appalachee bay in Florida, who were conquered by the English about 1705 and afterward incorporated with the Creeks, were dialectically closely akin to the Hichitee; the Seminole also were largely an offshoot from this tribe. Of the Taskigi all that is known has been told elsewhere (see number 105).
The Uchee, Natchee, and Sawanugi were incorporated tribes, differing radically in language from each other and from the Muskhogean tribes. The territory of the Uchee included both banks of the middle Savannah, below the Cherokee, and extended into middle Georgia. They had a strong race pride, claiming to be older in the country than the Muscogee, and are probably identical with the people of Cofitachiqui, mentioned in the early Spanish narratives. According to Hawkins, their incorporation with the Creeks was brought about in consequence of intermarriages about the year 1729. The Natchee or Natchez were an important tribe residing in lower Mississippi, in the vicinity of the present town of that name, until driven out by the French about the year 1730, when most of them took refuge with the Creeks, while others joined the Chickasaw and Cherokee. The Sawanugi were Shawano who kept their town on Savannah river, near the present Augusta, after the main body of their tribe had removed to the north about 1692. They probably joined the Creeks about the same time as their friends, the Uchee. The Uchee still constitute a compact body of about 600 souls in the Creek Nation, keeping up their distinct language and tribal character. The Natchee are reduced to one or two old men, while the Sawanugi have probably lost their identity long ago.
According to Morgan, the Muscogee proper, and perhaps also their incorporated tribes, have 22 clans. Of these the Wind appears to be the leading one, possessing privileges accorded to no other clan, including the hereditary guardianship of the ancient metal tablets which constitute the palladium of the tribe. By the treaty of Washington in 1832, the Creeks sold all of their remaining lands in their old country and agreed to remove west of the Mississippi to what is now the Creek Nation in the Indian Territory. The removal extended over a period of several years and was not finally accomplished until 1845. In 1898 the citizen population of the Creek Nation numbered 14,771, of whom 10,014 were of Indian blood and the remainder were negroes, their former slaves. It appears that the Indian population included about 700 from other tribes, chiefly Cherokee. There are also about 300 Alabama, "Cushatta" (Koasati), and Muscogee in Texas. See also Hawkins, Sketch of the Creek Country; Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend; Adair, History of the American Indians; Bartram, Travels; The Five Civilized Tribes, Bulletin of the Eleventh Census; Wyman, in Alabama Historical Society Collections.
Chickasaw--This tribe, of Muskhogean stock, formerly occupied northern Mississippi and adjacent portions of Alabama and Tennessee, and at an early period had incorporated also several smaller tribes on Yazoo river in central Mississippi, chief among which were the cognate Chokchuma. The name occurs first in the De Soto narrative. The Chickasaw language was simply a dialect of Choctaw, although the two tribes were hereditary enemies and differed widely in character, the former being active and warlike, while the latter were notoriously sluggish. Throughout the colonial period the Chickasaw were the constant enemies of the French and friends of the English, but they remained neutral in the Revolution. By the treaty of Pontotoc in 1832 they sold their lands east of the Mississippi and agreed to remove to Indian Territory, where they are now organized as the Chickasaw Nation. According to Morgan they have 12 clans grouped into two phratries. In 1890, the citizen population of the Nation (under Chickasaw laws) consisted of 3,941 full-blood and mixed-blood Chickasaw, 681 adopted whites, 131 adopted negroes, and 946 adopted Indians from other tribes, chiefly Choctaws. Under the present law, by which citizenship claims are decided by a Government commission, "Chickasaw by blood" are reported in 1898 to number 4,230, while "white and negro" citizens are reported at 4,818. See also Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend; The Five Civilized Tribes, Bulletin of Eleventh Census.
The Choctaw confederacy--This was a loose alliance of tribes, chiefly of Muskhogean stock, occupying southern Alabama and Mississippi, with the adjacent Gulf coast of western Florida and eastern Louisiana. The Choctaw proper, of Muskhogean stock, occupying south central Mississippi, was the dominant tribe. Smaller tribes more or less closely affiliated were the Mobilian, Tohome, Mugulasha, Pascagoula, Biloxi, Acolapissa, Bayagoula, Houma, with others of less note. It had been assumed that all of these were of Muskhogean stock until Gatschet in 1886 established the fact that the Biloxi were of Siouan affinity, and it is quite probable that the Pascagoula also were of the same connection. All the smaller tribes excepting the Biloxi were practically extinct, or had entirely lost their identity, before the year 1800.
The Choctaw were one of the largest of the eastern tribes, being exceeded in numbers, if at all, only by the Cherokee; but this apparent superiority was neutralized by their unwarlike character and lack of cohesion. According to Morgan, whose statement has, however, been challenged, they had eight clans grouped into two phratries. There was also a geographic division into "Long towns," "Potato-eating towns," and "Six towns," the last named differing considerably in dialect and custom from the others. By treaties in 1820 and 1830 the Choctaw sold all their lands east of the Mississippi and agreed to remove to Indian Territory, where they now constitute the Choctaw Nation. A considerable number of vagrant Choctaw who had drifted into Louisiana and Arkansas at an early period have since joined their kindred in Indian Territory, but from 1,000 to 2,000 are still scattered along the swampy Gulf coast of Mississippi. In 1890 those of pure or mixed Choctaw blood in the Choctaw Nation were officially reported to number 10,211. In 1899, under different conditions of citizenship, the "Choctaw by blood" were put at 14,256, while the adopted whites and negroes numbered 5,150. See also Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend; The Five Civilized Tribes, Bulletin of Eleventh Census.
The Osage--The popular name is a corruption of Ouasage, the French spelling of Wasash, the name used by themselves. The Osage were the principal southern Siouan tribe, claiming at one time nearly the whole territory from the Missouri to the Arkansas and from the Mississippi far out into the plains. Their geographic position brought them equally into contact with the agricultural and sedentary tribes of the eastern country and the roving hunters of the prairie, and in tribal habit and custom they formed a connecting link between the two. Whether or not they deserved the reputation, they were considered by all their neighbors as particularly predatory and faithless in character, and had consequently few friends, but were generally at war with all tribes alike. They made their first treaty with the Government in 1808. In 1825 they ceded all their claims in Missouri and Arkansas, together with considerable territory in what is now Kansas. They have decreased terribly from war and dissipation, and are now, to the number of about 1,780, gathered upon a reservation in Oklahoma just west of the Cherokee and south of the Kansas line.
106. The Giants from the west (p. 391): This may be an exaggerated account of a visit from some warriors of a taller tribe from the plains, where it is customary to pluck out the eyebrows and to wear the hair in two long side pendants, wrapped round with otter skin and reaching to the knees, thus giving a peculiar expression to the eyes and an appearance of tallness which is sometimes deceptive. The Osage warriors have, however, long been noted for their height.
With the exception of Tsul`kalû' there seem to be no giants in the mythology of the Cherokee, although all their woods and waters are peopled by invisible fairy tribes. This appears to be characteristic of Indian mythologies generally, the giants being comparatively few in number while the "little people" are legion. The Iroquois have a story of an invasion by a race of stony-skinned cannibal giants from the west (Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, p. 266). Giant races occur also in the mythologies of the Navaho (Matthews, Navaho Legends), Choctaw (Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend), and other tribes. According to the old Spanish chroniclers, Ayllon in 1520 met on the coast of South Carolina a tribe of Indians whose chiefs were of gigantic size, owing, as he was told, to a special course of dieting and massage to which they were subjected in infancy.
107. The lost Cherokee (p. 391): This tradition as here given is taken chiefly from the Wahnenauhi manuscript. There is a persistent belief among the Cherokee that a portion of their people once wandered far to the west or southwest, where they were sometimes heard of afterward, but were never again reunited with their tribe. It was the hope of verifying this tradition and restoring his lost kinsmen to their tribe that led Sequoya to undertake the journey on which he lost his life. These traditional lost Cherokee are entirely distinct from the historic emigrants who removed from the East shortly after the Revolution.
Similar stories are common to nearly all the tribes. Thus the Kiowa tell of a chief who, many years ago, quarreled over a division of game and led his people far away across the Rocky mountains, where they are still living somewhere about the British border and still keeping their old Kiowa language. The Tonkawa tell of a band of their people who in some way were cut off from the tribe by a sudden inroad of the sea on the Texas coast, and, being unable to return, gradually worked their way far down into Mexico. The Tuscarora tell how, in their early wanderings, they came to the Mississippi and were crossing over to the west side by means of a grapevine, when the vine broke, leaving those on the farther side to wander off until in time they became enemies to those on the eastern bank. See Mooney, Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians, Seventeenth Annual Report Bureau of American Ethnology,
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