The Hitchiti, Mikasuki and Apalachi languages form a dialectic group
distinct from Creek and the western dialects, and the people speaking
them must once have had a common origin. The proper names Apalachi and
Apalatchúkli are now extinct as tribal names, but are of very ancient
date. The auriferous ledges of the Cheroki country were said to be
within "the extreme confines of the Apalachi province" (Fontanedo,
1559), and the Apalachi found by Narvaez was fifteen days' march north
of Aute,[49] a roadstead or harbor on the Gulf of Mexico, though the
Indians had stated to him that it lay at a distance of nine days'
travel only. The "province" of Apalachi probably included the upper
part or the whole of the Chatahuchi river basin, and on account of the
ending -okla in Apalatchúkla, its origin must be sought in the Cha'hta
or Hitchiti dialect. Rev. Byington explains it by _helping people_,
_allies_, in the Cha'hta apălătchi ókla, but the original form
of the name is Apalaχtchi ókli, not apálatchi; -χtchi is a
Hitchiti suffix of adjectives, and apálui in that dialect means "_on
the other side of_." Hence the adjective apálaχtchi: "those
(_people_ ókli) on the other side, shore or river."
[Footnote 49: Perhaps from the Hitchiti term a-útilis "_I build
or kindle a fire_."]
The town of Apalachi, on Apalache bay, must be kept clearly distinct
from the town of Apalachicola, or Apalatchúkla, about fifty miles
further west, on the river then called by the same name.
Apalachi town was north of Apalachi bay, the principal port of which
is now St. Marks. This was probably the place after which "Apalache
provincia" was named in de Soto's time; Biedma, one of his historians,
states (in Smith, Docum. ined., I, 48. 49), that "this province was
divided by a river from the country east of it, having Aguile as
frontierstown. Apalachi has many towns and produces much food, and
(the Indians) call this land visited by us Yustaga." This river was
probably the St. Mark's river. Both names are also distinguished as
belonging to separate communities in Margry IV, 96. 117 (1699) and IV,
309. The western "Palachees" are laid down on the map in Dan. Coxe,
Carolana, on Chatahuchi river, the eastern "Palachees" on a river in
the northeast angle of the Gulf of Mexico; north of the latter are the
Tommachees (Timucua). At present, a northwestern affluent of Okoni
river, in Upper Georgia, is called Apalache river.
Apalatchúkla, a name originally belonging to a _tribe_, was in early
times transferred to the river, now Chatahuchi, and from this to all
the towns of the Lower Creeks. An instance of this is given by L.
d'Iberville, who states (Margry IV, 594. 595) that in 1701 a
difficulty arose between the Apalachicolys and the Apalachis on
account of depredations committed; that the Spanish call those Indians
Apalachicolys, the French Conchaques, and that they counted about 2000
families--an equal number of men being ascribed to the Apalachis, who
were under Spanish rule.
The name of the tribe and town was Apalatchúkla, also written
Pallachucla, Palachicola. This town was on the western bank of
Chatahuchi river, 1-1/2 miles below Chiaha. In early times its tribe
was the most important among the Lower Creeks, adverse to warfare, a
"peace or white town," and called by the people Tálua `láko, _Great
Town_. Like the town Apalachi, the inhabitants of this town spoke a
dialect resembling Hitchiti very closely. Apalachicola river is now
the name of Chatahuchi river below its junction with the Flint river.
More about this town in the: List of Creek Settlements.
Later in the sixteenth century the boundary between the Timucua and
the _Apalachi_ lands is stated to have been on or near the Vacissa
river; Ibitachuco or _Black Lake_ being the eastern Apalachi boundary,
the westernmost town of the Timucua being Asile (Ausile, Oxilla).
In 1638 the Indians of Apalachi made war against the Spanish
colonists. Although the governor of Florida had but few troops to
oppose, he marched against them and daunted their aggressiveness
(sobervia) by forcing them to a disastrous retreat and following them
into their own country (Barcia, Ensayo, p. 203).
In 1688 a number of Apalachi chiefs (caciques) addressed a letter of
complaint to Charles the Second, king of Spain (†1700), concerning the
exactions to which their former governors had subjected them, and
other topics relating to their actual condition. The towns mentioned
in the letter are San Luis de Apalachi, Ibitachuco, Pattali, Santa
Cruz, Talpatqui, Vasisa, San Marcos. The original, with its Spanish
translation, was reproduced in a fac-simile edition in 1860 by
Buckingham Smith (fol.), and other documents written in Apalachi are
preserved in the archives of Havana, the seat of the archbishopric, to
which Apalachi and all the other settlements comprised within the
diocese of St. Helena belonged.
Christianized Apalachis, who had been frequently raided by Alibamu
Indians, fled in 1705 to the French colony at Mobile, where Governor
de Bienville gave them lands and grain-seed to settle between the
Mobilian and Tohome tribe; cf. Pénicaut in Margry V, 461. 485, where
their religious festivals and other customs are described. Like the
Apalachis, the tribe of the heathen Taouachas had quitted the Spanish
territory for being harassed by the Alibamu, and fled southwest to the
French, who settled them on Mobile river, one league above the
Apalachis (1710; in Margry V, 485-487). Some Cha'hta refugees had been
settled at the "Anse des Chactas," on Mobile bay, the year preceding.
In the nineteenth century the last remnants of the Apalachi tribe were
living on the Bayou Rapide, in Louisiana, and about A. D. 1815 counted
fourteen families.