Sibley would place this event about 1795,1 and this agrees well with Hawkins's statement that they had left shortly before his time. Stiggins is still more specific. He says: About the year seventeen hundred and ninety-three there was an old Cowassa da chieftain that was called Red Shoes, who was violently opposed to their makeing war on the Chickasaws, and as it was determined on contrary to his will he resolved to quit the nation, so he and a mulatto man who resided with the Alabamas named Billy Ashe headed a party of about twenty families, part Cowasadas and the rest Alabamas, and removed to the Red River and tried a settlement about sixty miles up from its mouth, but on trial they were so annoyed and infested by a small red ant that were so very numerous in that country, that they found it hardly possible to put any thing beyond their reach or destruction, so after living there a few years they removed finally from thence to the province of Texas, on the river Trinity, a few miles from the mouth of said river, where they now live.2 Hawkins thus describes the town occupied by those of the tribe who remained in their old territory as it existed in 1799: Coo-sau-dee is a compact little town situated three miles below the confluence of Coosau and Tallapoosa, on the right bank of Alabama; they have fields on both sides of the river; but their chief dependence is a high, rich island, at the mouth of Coosau. They have some fences, good against cattle only, and some families have small patches fenced, near the town, for potatoes. These Indians are not Creeks, although they conform to their ceremonies; the men work with the women and make great plenty of corn; all labor is done by the joint labor of all, called public work, except gathering in the crop. During the season for labor, none are exempted from their share of it, or suffered to go out hunting. There is a rich flat of land nearly five miles in width, opposite the town, on the left side of the river, on which are numbers of conic mounds of earth. Back of the town it is pine barren, and continues so westward for sixty to one hundred miles. The Coo-sau-dee generally go to market 3 by water, and some of them are good oarsmen. A part of this town moved lately beyond the Mississippi, and have settled there. The description sent back by them that the country is rich and healthy, and abounds in game, is likely to draw others after them. But as they have all tasted the sweets of civil life, in having a convenient market for their products, it is likely they will soon return to their old settlements, which are in a very desirable country well suited to the raising of cattle, hogs and horses; they have a few hogs, and seventy or eighty cattle, and some horses. It is not more than three years since they had not a hog among them. Robert Walton, who was then the trader of the town, gave the women some pigs, and this is the origin of their stock.5 4 In 1832 eighty-two Koasati were enumerated in the old nation." After their emigration west of the Mississippi they formed two towns-Koasati No. 1 and Koasati No. 2. But few now remain 1 See p. 205. 2 Stiggins, MS. 3 The Lib. of Cong. MS. has "to Mobile" inserted here. 4 He was trader there in 1797 when Hawkins describes him as "an active man, more attentive to his character now than heretofore." (Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., IX, p. 169.) He also gives the names of two other traders, "Francis Tuzant, an idle Frenchman in debt to Mr. Panton and to the factory," and "John McLeod of bad character." (Ibid.) Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., III, pp. 35-36. 6 Senate Doc. 512, 23d Cong., 1st sess., IV, p. 267. there who can speak the language. Some of these still remember that a part went to Texas. Stiggins's account above given of the Koasati migration to Louisiana and Texas seems to be considerably abbreviated. There were probably several distinct movements, or at least the tribe split into several distinct bands from time to time. It is very likely that, as in the case of so many other tribes, the Koasati first settled on Red River, but that part of them soon left it. Sibley's account of their movements in Louisiana is more detailed than that of Stiggins. He says: Conchattas are almost the same people as the Allibamis, but came over only ten years ago; first lived on Bayau Chico, in Appelousa district, but, four years ago, moved to the river Sabine, settled themselves on the east bank, where they now live, in nearly a south direction from Natchitoch, and distant about eighty miles. They call their number of men one hundred and sixty, but say, if they were altogether, they would amount to two hundred. Several families of them live in detached settlements. They are good hunters, and game is plenty about where they are. A few days ago, a small party of them were here,' consisting of fifteen persons, men, women, and children, who were on their return from a bear hunt up Sabine. They told me they had killed one hundred and eighteen; but this year an uncommon number of bears have come down. One man alone, on Sabine, during the Summer and Fall, hunting, killed four hundred deer, sold his skins at forty dollars a hundred. The bears, this year, are not so fat as common; they usually yield from eight to twelve gallons of oil, each of which never sells for less than a dollar a gallon, and the skin a dollar more; no great quantity of the meat is saved; what the hunters don't use when out, they generally give to their dogs. The Conchattas are friendly with all other Indians, and speak well of their neighbors the Carankouas, who, they say, live about eighty miles south of them, on the bay, which I believe, is the nearest point to the sea from Natchitoches. A few families of Chactaws have lately settled near them from Bayau Beauf. The Conchattas speak Creek, which is their native language, and Chactaw, and several of them English, and one or two of them can read it a little.2 They may have been on Red River previous to their settlement on Bayou Chicot. Schermerhorn3 states that in 1812 the Koasati on the Sabine numbered 600, but most of these must have left before 1822, because Morse in his report of that year estimates 50 Koasati on the Neches River in Texas and 240 on the Trinity, while 350 are set down as living on the Red River in Louisiana. These last are elsewhere referred to as a band which had obtained permission from the Caddo to locate near them. Whether they were part of the original settlers from lower down the river or had moved over from the Sabine is not apparent. By 1850 most of these had gone to Texas, where Bollaert estimated that the number of their warriors then on the lower Trinity was 500 in two villages called Colête and Batista. All of the Koasati did not leave Louisiana at that time, 1 He is writing from the post of Natchitoches. * Sibley in Annals of Congress, 9th Cong., 2d sess., 1085-86 (1806-7). 3 Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., 2d ser., II, p. 26, 1814. Morse, Rept. to Sec. of War, p. 373. Bollaert, in Jour. Ethn. Soc. London, II, p. 282. however, a considerable body continuing to occupy the wooded country in Calcasieu and St. Landry Parishes. Later the two Texas villages were reduced to one, which in turn broke up, probably on account of a pestilence, part uniting with the Alabama in Polk County, but the greater part returning to Louisiana to join their kindred there. At the present time about 10 are still living with the Alabama. Those in Louisiana are more numerous, counting between 80 and 90, and here is the only spot where the tribe still maintains itself as a distinct people. Their village is in the pine woods about 7 miles northeast of Kinder, Allen Parish, La., and 24 miles north of a flag station called Lauderdale on the Frisco Railroad. Elsewhere very few of this tribe are now to be found who speak pure Koasati uncorrupted by either Creek or Alabama. A band of Koasati probably joined the Seminole, since we find a place marked "Coosada Old Town" on the middle course of Choctawhatchee River in Vignoles's map of Florida, dated 1823. Associated with the Koasati we find an Upper Creek town called Wetumpka, which means in Muskogee "tumbling or falling water.” It must not be confounded with a Lower Creek settlement of the same name, an outvillage of Coweta Tallahassee. It is also claimed that Wiwohka (q. v.) was originally so called. The Wetumpka with which we have to deal was on the east bank of Coosa River, in Elmore County, Alabama, near the falls. At one time there were two towns here, known as Big Wetumpka and Little Wetumpka respectively, the former on the site of the modern town of Wetumpka, the latter above the falls in Coosa River. Possibly this tribe may be identical with the Tononpa or Thomapa, which appears on French maps at the western end of the falls. (See map of De l'Isle, 1732, and De Crenay, 1733.) It is probably represented by the "Welonkees" of the enumeration of 1761, classed with a town which appears to have been the principal town of the Alabama. It is noted by Bartram as one of those speaking the "Stinkard" language-i. e., something other than Muskogee. He places it beside that of the Koasati, and it would seem likely that this indicates the true position of its people, for when the Koasati moved to Tombigbee River Wetumpka accompanied them. On January 16, 1772, Romans passed the remains of the old Weetumpkee settlement," 7 miles above a point which Hamilton identifies as Carneys Bluff,5 on the Tombigbee River. The removal was probably recent, because on April 4 of the same year Taitt visited their town "about one mile E.S.E. from this [Koasati], up the Tallapuse River," and found them 1 Swan in Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, V, p. 262. 2 Plate 5; also Hamilton, Col. Mobile, p. 190. 3 Ga. Col. Docs., VIII, p. 524. 4 3 4 Bartram, Travels, p. 461. • Hamilton, Col. Mobile, p. 284, 1910. engaged in building a new hot house.1 Presumably this was the first to be erected after their return from the Tombigbee. THE MUKLASA They Still another town in this neighborhood not speaking Muskogee was Muklasa. The name means "friends" or "people of one nation" in Alabama, Koasati, or Choctaw, therefore it is probable that the town was Alabama or Koasati, the Choctaw being at a considerable distance. According to the list of 1761 it was then estimated to contain 30 hunters. William Trewin and James Germany were the traders. In 1797 the trader was Michael Elhart, "an industrious, honest man; a Dutchman." Bartram visited it in 1777,5 and in 1799 Hawkins gives the following account of it: 3 Mook-lau-sau is a small town one mile below Sau-va-noo-gee, on the left bank of a fine little creek, and bordering on a cypress swamp; their fields are below those of Sau-va-no-gee, bordering on the river; they have some lots about their houses fenced for potatoes; one chief has some cattle, horses, and hogs; a few others have some cattle and hogs. In the season of floods the river spreads out on this side below the town, nearly eight miles from bank to bank, and is very destructive to game and stock. After the Creek war we are informed that the Muklasa emigrated to Florida in a body. At all events we do not hear of them again, and the Creeks in Oklahoma have forgotten that such a town ever existed. Gatschet says "a town of that name is in the Indian Territory," but nobody could give the present writer any information regarding it. THE TUSKEGEE Many dialects were spoken anciently near the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa. Adair says: I am assured by a gentleman of character, who traded a long time near the late Alebahma garrison, that within six miles of it live the remains of seven Indian nations, who usually conversed with each other in their own different dialects, though they understood the Muskohge language; but being naturalized, they are bound to observe the laws and customs of the main original body.8 Some of these "nations" have already been considered. We now come to a people whose language has not been preserved to the present day, but they are known from statements made by Taitt and Mereness, Trav. Am. Col., pp. 536-537. 1 Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, v, p. 262. Ga. Col. Docs., vш, p. 523. 'Hawkins in Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., Ix, p. 169. 5 Bartram, Travels, p. 444 et seq. 6 Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., III, p. 35. 7 Gatschet, Creek Mig. Leg., 1, p. 138. 8 Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p. 267. Hawkins to have spoken a dialect distinct from Muskogee.' These were the Tuskegee,' called by Taitt northern Indians. On inquiring of some of the old Tuskegee Indians in Oklahoma regarding their ancient speech I found that they claimed to know of it, and I obtained the following words, said to have been among those employed by the ancient people. Some of these are used at the present day, and the others may be nothing more than archaic Muskogee, but they perhaps have some value for future students. lutcu'a, a mug. ki las, to break. aia lito, I will be going; modern form, aibastce'. tcibūksa ktce', come on and go with us! (where one person comes to a crowd of people and asks them to go with him). ili-hu'ko-lutci, hen (-utci, little). talu'sutci, chicken. ilisai'dja, pot; modern form, lihai'a łȧ'ko. apa là, on the other side; modern form, tȧpa'la. wilikȧ'pka, I am going on a visit; modern form, tcukupileidja-lani. 3 The town Tasqui encountered by De Soto between Tali and Coosa was perhaps occupied by Tuskegee. Ranjel is the only chronicler who mentions it, and it can not have impressed the Spaniards as a place of great importance. In 1567 Vandera was informed by some Indians and a soldier that beyond Satapo, the farthest point reached by the Pardo expedition, two days' journey on the way to Coosa, was a place called Tasqui, and a little beyond another known as Tasquiqui. The second of these was certainly, the other probably, a Tuskegee town. It is possible that a fission was just taking place in this tribe. Later in the seventeenth century, when English and French began to penetrate into the region, we find the Tuskegee divided into two or more bands, the northernmost on the Tennessee River. Coxe, who gives their name under the distorted form Kakigue, places these latter upon an island in the river. While they are noticed in documents and on maps at rare intervals (I find the forms Cacougai, Cattougui, Caskighi), the clearest light upon their later history and ultimate fate is thrown by Mr. Mooney in his "Myths of the Cherokee." He says: Another refugee tribe incorporated partly with the Cherokee and partly with the Creeks was that of the Taskigi, who at an early period had a large town of the same name on the south side of the Little Tennessee, just above the mouth of Tellico, Taitt in Trav. in Amer. Col., p. 541; Hawkins, see p. 210. To-day some Indians repeat a tradition to the effect that the Tuskegee are a branch of the Tulsa, but this is evidently a late fabrication based on the friendship which in later years has subsisted between these two towns. This name perhaps contains the Alabama and Choctaw word for warrior, táska. Bourne, Narr. of De Soto, I, p. 111. Ruidiaz, La Florida, II, p. 485. French, Hist. Colls. La., 1850, p. 230. 19th Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 388-389. |