APALACHICOLA

This name seems to have been applied originally to a small group of tribes or towns speaking the Hitchiti language and living on the lower course of the Chattahoochee, but the Spaniards used it in a loose way for the Lower Creeks just as the French used the name of the Alabama for the Upper Creeks. However, in documents of 1675 and 1686 the word is applied to a single town, and later it is connected either with a town or a small group of towns. In 1690 two Franciscan monks were sent into the Apalachicola territory to begin missionary work, but the Coweta chief would not allow them to remain. In 1706 and 1707 Indians in alliance with the English, probably Creeks or Yuchi, attacked the Apalachicola and allied tribes which were then living on and near the Apalachicola River, scattering some and carrying off others. The narrative of these expeditions, preserved through the testimony of an Indian named Lamhatty and rescued by the late David I. Bushnell, Jr., gives the names of four towns or tribes which seem to have constituted the Apalachicola Nation at that time. These were Ephippick, Aulédly, Socsósky, and Sunepáh. They were settled cn Savannah River below the Apalachee at a place later known as the Palachocolas or Parachocolas Fort, nearly opposite Mount Pleasant. In 1716, as a consequence of the Yamasee War, they moved back to their old country in company with bands of Shawnee and Yuchi, but established their own town at the junction of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, at a place long afterward known as Apalachicola Fort. Their chief at that time was named Cherokeeleechee, or "Cherokee Killer," a man who conducted many raids against the frontiers of South Carolina. Not many years later a part moved north to join the Lower Creeks and settled on the west side of the Chattahoochee just below a sharp turn which it makes to the east. Cherokeeleechee and the remainder of the people joined them a little later, and even after that the town was moved again a mile and a half higher up the river. According to Bartram, who gives us this information, the second removal would have taken place about 1757. He also tells us that fragments of the tribe moved east and south, some of them adding their strength to the nascent Seminole. According to one tradition, the Creek Confederation was initiated through a treaty of peace between the Muskogee and Apalachicola, and the importance of this town was indicated by the name Tålwa łako, or "Big Town," which they gave to it. It seems to have been the original White town of the Lower Creeks, as stated by Hawkins, until its place was taken by Kasihta. After their removal from the country, most Apalachicola settled near the present Okmulgee, Okla.

Apalachicola population.-The Apalachicola who were placed on Savannah River numbered in 1715, just before the outbreak of the

Yamasee War, 214, including 64 warriors, in 2 villages. Later censuses give the following numbers of warriors: 105 in 1738 (in 2 villages of 60 and 45 respectively); more than 30 in 1750; 60 in 1760; 20 in 1761; 100 in 1792 (including the Chiaha); and a total population of 239 in 1832-33 (in 2 settlements). (See Timucua.)

АТАКАРА

By the French this name was applied to all of the bands of the Attacapan linguistic family of Powell except the Opelousa, Bidai, and one or two other tribes in Texas of which they had no knowledge, but as the term Akokisa, used by Spanish writers for those Atakapa on the lower Trinity River and on Trinity and Galveston Bays, has become current in Texas literature, I have considered the Texas Atakapa under that head. Besides the Opelousa, which will be considered separately, there were bands of Indians of this tribe on Vermilion Bayou, on Mermentou River, on the lakes near the mouth of the Calcasieu, and probably on the lower Sabine. Mention has been made of an exploring party sent westward by Bienville which penetrated the country for 100 leagues and finally reached a tribe of cannibals. These were undoubtedly some one of the Atakapa groups. As these Indians lay at some distance from the Mississippi and from the early European colonies, they did not suffer seriously from white intrusion until well along in the eighteenth century, though individuals frequented the French posts along with other Indians. In 1760 Skunnemoke (Skenne-mok, "Short Arrow"), often called Kinemo, sold the land on which his village stood and a strip of territory 2 leagues wide between Bayou Teche and Vermilion Bayou to a Frenchman named Fusilier de la Clair, and from this time on the lands of the tribe were steadily alienated in spite of efforts to protect them. Notwithstanding the sale above mentioned, the Vermilion village was not abandoned until early in the nineteenth century, and in 1779 it supplied 60 men to Governor Galvez to assist him in his expedition against the British forts on the Mississippi. The Mermentou band furnished 120 men to Galvez in that expedition. In 1787 the principal Atakapa village was at the "Island of Woods," later known as the "Island of Lacasine" from an Indian reputed to be its chief. It was abandoned about 1799 and the Indians moved to a village on the Mermentou. This was the last village of the Eastern Atakapa and is said to have been occupied as late as 1836, but this is not certain. Some of these Indians united with the Western Atakapa about Lake Charles, but others scattered as far afield as Oklahoma. The last village of the Western Atakapa was on Indian Lake, later called Lake Prien, which must have been occupied until after the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1885 Dr. Gatschet learned of two women living

near Lake Charles who had belonged to this town, and collected a considerable vocabulary from them, which, along with a vocabulary of Eastern Atakapa obtained by Martin Duralde and a list of words from Akokisa taken down by the French captain Bérenger, has been published in Bulletin 108 of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Gatschet and Swanton, 1932). A sketch of a number of Louisiana Indians belonging to several tribes made by A. de Batz at New Orleans in 1735 includes an Atakapa in the ancient dress (pl. 3). A few of the survivors of the old town were living in 1907 and 1908 when the writer visited that part of the state (pl. 4, fig. 1), but all are now dead.

Atakapa population.-For the Atakapa alone the figures given above for enlistments in Galvez' forces by the Eastern Atakapa, viz, 60+120, and the figure for all Louisiana Atakapa furnished by Sibley in 1805, that is, 50, are all we have. My own original estimate of the population of this linguistic group, exclusive of the Opelousa, was 3,500, which I am now inclined to regard as too high in spite of the immense extent of country covered by them, and I even question whether the same is not true of Mooney's more modest estimate, about 1,000 less.

ATASI

The name of an old Muskogee town historically associated with the Tukabahchee and Kealedji and with a history paralleling the latter: 70-80 warriors in 1740-1800; 358 souls in 1832.

AVOYEL

A small tribe near the present Marksville, La., and on the lower course of Red River below the Rapides. Their name, which probably signifies "Stone People," or rather "Flint People," indicates that they were active as makers of or traders in arrow points, or at least traders in the raw material. In 1699 Iberville was given the Mobilian name of this tribe (Tassanak Okla) as the name of Red River, and next year he met some of the Indians themselves. They are again noted by St. Denis in 1714 and La Harpe in 1719, and Du Pratz tells us that they acted as middlemen in providing a market for horses and cattle plundered by western tribes from the Spaniards. Their name appears in 1764, in conjunction with those of the Ofo, Tunica, and Choctaw, as participants in an attack upon a British regiment ascending Red River, and in 1767 they were still said to have had a village near the "rapids" of Red River. In 1805 Sibley learned of but two or three women belonging to this tribe, who made their homes in French families on the Ouachita. Some, however, settled with the Tunica south of Marksville, and it was not until 1932 that the last individual known to have Avoyel blood passed away.

Avoyel population.-In 1700 Iberville met 40 warriors belonging to this nation and Bienville considered that that was their full strength.

In 1805, as we have seen, there were 2 or 3 on the Ouachita and probably there were as many more with the Tunica near Marksville.

BAYOGOULA

When the colony of Louisiana was founded in 1699, this tribe was living on the Mississippi River in one town with the Mugulasha (q. v.) near a place, Bayou Goula, which preserves their name. Since La Salle encountered no Indians along this part of the river in 1682, they may have been recent arrivals, though Ford reports that the remains on the site of their old town indicate a long period of occupancy. It is also possible that a tribe called Pischenoa (apparently a Choctaw word meaning "ours"), which Tonti encountered in 1686, 49 leagues above the Quinipissa (q. v.), may have been the tribe under consideration. In February 1699, a hunting party of Bayogoula and Mugulasha Indians discovered Iberville's colony at Biloxi and came to make an alliance with him. On March 15 Iberville visited them himself and has left a graphic description of their village. He took one of their young men back to Europe to learn the French language, but he died before returning to his people. The Bayogoula and Houma were then at war with each other, and the peace which Iberville patched up between them did not last after his return to Europe. In the spring of 1700 the Bayogoula attacked the Mugulasha, their fellow villagers, destroyed a considerable number, and drove the rest away, calling in families of Acolapissa and Tiou to take their places. This seems to have been partly because the Mugulasha had been too friendly with the Houma. In December of that year, the Bayogoula were visited by Father Gravier. In 1706, the Taensa, who had abandoned their towns on Lake St. Joseph, settled in the Bayogoula town, but presently treated the Bayogoula as they had treated the Mugulasha. The survivors were given a place to settle near the French fort on the Mississippi, and they furnished 20 warriors to St. Denis in his expedition against the Chitimacha in the year 1707. By 1725 they had removed to a point 13 leagues above New Orleans. In 1739 they were living between the Acolapissa and the Houma and had practically become fused with them. Their subsequent history is given under that of the Houma (q. v.).

Bayogoula population.-Different reports of 1699 for the Bayogoula and Mugulasha together give 400-500 population, 100 warriors, and 100 cabins. After the destruction of the Mugulasha we have in 1700 one estimate of 200 for the entire population. Iberville's estimate of Louisiana tribes, made in 1702, allows the Bayogoula 100 families. About 1725, 40 warriors are indicated (Bienville), and in 1739 this tribe, the Acolapissa, and the Houma combined were thought to number 270-300 exclusive of children. For his basal year 1650, Mooney estimated that this tribe, the Mugulasha, and the Quinipissa, assuming the last two to be distinct, included 1,500 people; my own estimate was 875.

BIDAI

A tribe living on the middle course of Trinity River, Tex., about Bedias Creek, in the country southwest of the Trinity about the Big Thicket, also toward the Neches east of the Trinity. In the narrative of Simars de Belle-Isle they are mentioned as allied with the Akokisa by whom he was held captive. In 1748-49 the Mission of San Ildefonso was established for this tribe together with the Akokisa, Deadose, and Patiri. It was on the San Xavier River, now the San Gabriel, at a place identified by Bolton as 9 miles northwest of the present Rockdale, Milam County, Tex. The medicine men of this tribe were highly esteemed by the Caddo, the exotic being assumed to be potent. In 1750 the Indians at San Ildefonso suffered from an epidemic, and next year they abandoned the mission in a body to join the Nabedache in an expedition against their common enemy, the Apache. Later the Bidai settled near the Mission of San Xavier and still later we hear of them as intermediaries between the French and Apache in supplying the latter with firearms. In 1776-77 an epidemic carried off nearly half of their number, which had been estimated as 100, but about the middle of the nineteenth century there was still one small village 12 miles from Montgomery, Tex. A diligent search for individuals of this tribe that I made in 1912 resulted in locating only one Indian of probable Bidai blood, but this person had been brought up in a white family and knew nothing of the language or customs of her people.

Bidai population. That portion of the tribe placed in San Ildefonso mission in 1748-49, including the Akokisa, Deadose, and Patiri, was said to have numbered 176 neophytes in 1751 after having lost 40 in an epidemic. Those who located at San Xavier included 66 families. As noted above, they were supposed to have numbered about 100 in 1776-77 when they lost half their number in another epidemic, and they are now extinct.

BILOXI

A Siouan tribe located on Pascagoula River and Biloxi Bay, probably formerly residents of the Ohio Valley. The De Crenay map of 1733 shows a Biloxi site on Alabama River at the mouth of Bear Creek, which may have been occupied by them on their way south. It was possibly the Istanane mentioned in narratives of the Spanish expeditions of 1693 to survey Pensacola Bay, said to be a very numerous tribe living "along a western bayou in Mobile Bay." This was the first tribe encountered by Iberville when he brought the first permanent colonists to Louisiana in 1699. They were visited in their principal town on Pascagoula River by Bienville in June of the same year. In April 1700, Iberville found their town abandoned, and he does not state definitely where they had gone, though Sauvolle