In the southern part of the Cha'hta territory several tribes,
represented to be of Cha'hta lineage, appear as distinct from the main
body, and are always mentioned separately. The French colonists, in
whose annals they figure extensively, call them Mobilians, Tohomes,
Pascogoulas, Biloxis, Mougoulachas, Bayogoulas and Humas (Oumas). They
have all disappeared in our epoch, with the exception of the Biloxi,
of whom scattered remnants live in the forests of Louisiana, south of
the Red river.
_The Mobilians_ seem to be the descendants of the inhabitants of
Mauvila, a walled town, at some distance from the seat of the
Tuscalusa chief, and dependent on him. These Indians are well known
for their stubborn resistance offered in 1540 to the invading troops
of Hernando de Soto.
Subsequently they must have removed several hundred miles south of
Tuscalusa river, perhaps on account of intertribal broils with the
Alibamu; for in the year 1708 we find them settled on Mobile Bay,
where the French had allowed them, the Naniaba and Tohome, to erect
lodges around their fort. Cf. Alibamu. On a place of worship visited
by this tribe (1702), Margry IV, 513.
_The Tohome_, Thomes, Tomez Indians, settled north of Mobile City,
stood in the service of the French colony, and adopted the Roman
Catholic faith. Besides the Naniaba[77] and Mobilian Indians, the
French had settled in their vicinity a pagan Cha'hta tribe from the
northwest and an adventitious band of Apalaches, who had fled the
Spanish domination in Florida. We are informed that the language and
barbarous customs of the Tohomes differed considerably from those of
the neighboring Indians. Their name is the Cha'hta adjective tohóbi,
contr. tóbi _white_.
[Footnote 77: "Fish-eaters," from Cha'hta náni, nánni _fish_,
ápa _to eat_. On Turner's map (1827), Nanihaba Island lies at
the junction of Alabama with Tombigbee river, and Nanihaba Bluff
lies west of the junction.]
In 1702 they were at war with the Chicasa. Their cabins stood eight
leagues from the French settlement at Mobile, on Mobile river, and the
number of their men is given as three hundred. They spoke a dialect of
the Bayogoula. Cf. Margry IV, 427. 429. 504. 512-14. 531. The
Mobilians and the Tohomes combined counted three hundred and fifty
families: Margry IV, 594. 602.
The _Touachas_ settled by the French upon Mobile bay in 1705, were a
part of the Tawasa, an Alibamu tribe mentioned above.[78]
[Footnote 78: Margry V, 457.]
_The Pascogoula_, incorrectly termed Pascoboula Indians, were a small
tribe settled upon Pascogoula river, three days' travel southwest of
Fort Mobile. Six different nations were said to inhabit the banks of
the river, probably all of Cha'hta lineage; among them are mentioned
the Pascogoulas, Chozettas, Bilocchi, Moctoby, all insignificant in
numbers. The name signifies "bread-people," and is composed of the
Cha'hta páska _bread_, ókla _people_, the Nahuatl tribal name of the
Tlascaltecs being of the same signification: tlaxcalli _tortilla_,
from ixca _to bake_. Cf. Margry IV, 154-157. 193. 195. 425-427. 451.
454. 602.
A portion of these Indians may have been identical with the
Chicasawhay Indians, and with the inhabitants of Yauana.
_The Biloxi Indians_ became first known to the whites by the erection
of a French settlement, in 1699, on a bay called after this tribe,
which is styled B'lúksi by the Cha'hta, and has some reference to the
catch of turtles (lúktchi _turtle_).
"We thought it most convenient to found a settlement in the Bilocchy
bay; ... it is distant only three leagues from the Pascoboula river,
upon which are built the three villages of the Bilocchy, Pascoboula
and Moctoby." Margry IV, 195; cf. 311. 451. We also find the statement
that the Bayogoulas call the Annocchy: Bilocchy (pronounced:
Bilokshi), Margry IV, 172. Pénicaut refers to their place of
settlement on Biloxi bay in 1704 in Margry V, 442. On their language
cf. Margry IV, 184; quoted under Chicasa, q. v.
Later on they crossed the Mississippi to its western side, and are
mentioned as wanderers on Bayou Crocodile and its environs (1806),
which they frequent even now, and on the Lake of Avoyelles.
_The Mugulashas_ (pron.: Moogoolashas) were neighbors of the French
colonists at Biloxi bay, and a people of the same name lived in the
village occupied by the Bayogoulas. Mougoulachas is the French
orthography of the name. Their name is identical with Imuklásha or
the "opposite phratry" in the Cha'hta nation, from which Muklásha, a
Creek town, also received its name. In consequence of this generic
meaning of the term this appellation is met with in several portions
of the Cha'hta country.
Previous to March 1700, there had been a conflict between them and the
Bayogoulas, in which the latter had killed all of the Mugulashas who
were within their reach, and called in families of the Colapissas and
Tioux to occupy their deserted fields and lodges. Cf. Margry IV, 429.,
Boguechito Indians, Bayogoula and Acolapissa.
_The Acolapissa Indians_ appear under various names in the country
northwest to northeast of New Orleans. They are also called Colapissa,
Quinipissa, Quiripissa, Querepisa, forms which all flow from Cha'hta
ókla-písa "those who look out for people," _guardians, spies,
sentinels, watching men_. This term refers to their position upon the
in- and out-flow of Lake Pontchartrain and other coast lagoons,
combined with their watchfulness for hostile parties passing these
places. It is therefore a generic term and not a specific tribal name;
hence it was applied to several tribes simultaneously, and they were
reported to have seven towns, Tangibao among them, which were distant
eight days' travel by land E. N. E. from their settlement on
Mississippi river. Cf. Margry IV, 120. 167. 168. Their village on
Mississippi river was seen by L. d'Iberville, 1699-1700, twenty-five
leagues from its mouth (IV, 101). Their language is spoken of, _ibid._
IV, 412. At the time of Tonti's visit, 1685, they lived twenty leagues
further down the Mississippi than in 1699-1700. They suffered terribly
from epidemics, and joined the Mugulashas, q. v., whose chief became
the chief of both tribes; Margry IV, 453. 602. On "Colapissas"
residing on Talcatcha or Pearl river, see Pani, p. 44. The Bayogoulas
informed d'Iberville in 1699, that the "Quinipissas" lived fifty
leagues east of them, and thirty or forty leagues distant from the
sea, in six villages: Margry IV, 119. 120. Are they the Sixtown
Indians?
_The Bayogoula Indians_ inhabited a village on the Mississippi river,
western shore (Margry IV, 119. 155), conjointly with the Mugulashas,
sixty-four leagues distant from the sea, thirty-five leagues from the
Humas, and eight days' canoe travel from Biloxi bay.
Commander Lemoyne d'Iberville graphically describes (Margry IV,
170-172) the village of the Bayogoula with its two temples and 107
cabins. The number of the males was rather large (200 to 250) compared
to the paucity of women inhabiting it. A fire was burning in the
centre of the temples, and near the door were figures of animals, the
"choucoüacha" or opossum being one of them. This word shukuasha is the
diminutive of Cha'hta: shukata _opossum_, and contains the diminutive
terminal -ushi. Shishikushi or "_tambours faits de calebasses_,"
gourd-drums, is another Indian term occurring in his description,[79]
probably borrowed from an Algonkin language of the north. A curious
instance of sign language displayed by one of the Bayogoula chiefs
will be found in Margry IV, 154. 155.
[Footnote 79: Margry IV, 175: "des tambours chychycouchy, qui
sont des calebasses."]
The full form of the tribal name is Bayuk-ókla or _river-tribe,
creek-_ or _bayou-people_; the Cha'hta word for a smaller river, or
river forming part of a delta is báyuk, contr. bōk, and occurs in
Boguechito, Bok'húmma, etc.
_The Húma_, Ouma, Houma or Omma tribe lived, in the earlier periods of
French colonization, seven leagues above the junction of Red river, on
the eastern bank of Mississippi river. L. d'Iberville describes their
settlement, 1699, as placed on a hill-ridge, 2-1/2 leagues inland, and
containing 140 cabins, with about 350 heads of families. Their village
is described in Margry IV, 177. 179. 265-271. 452, located by degrees
of latitude: 32° 15´, of longitude: 281° 25´. The limit between the
lands occupied by the Huma and the Bayogoula was marked by a high pole
painted red, in Cha'hta Istr-ouma (?), which stood on the high shores
of Mississippi river at Baton Rouge, La.[80] Their hostilities with
the Tangipahoa are referred to by the French annalists, and ended in
the destroying of the Tangipahoa town by the Huma; Margry IV, 168. 169.
Cf. Taensa. A tribe mentioned in 1682 in connection with the Huma is
that of the Chigilousa; Margry I, 563.
[Footnote 80: Thomas Hutchins, French America, Phila., 1784, p.
40.]
Their language is distinctly stated to have differed from that of the
Taensa, IV, 412. 448, and the tribal name, a Cha'hta term for _red_,
probably refers to red leggings, as Opelúsa is said to refer to black
leggings or moccasins.
They once claimed the ground on which New Orleans stands, and after
the Revolution lived on Bayou Lafourche.[81] A coast parish, with
Houma as parish seat, is now called after them.
[Footnote 81: Pénicaut in Margry V, 395.]
_The country south_ of the Upper Creek settlements, lying between
Lower Alabama and Lower Chatahuchi river, must have been sparsely
settled in colonial times, for there is but one Indian tribe, the
Pensacola (páⁿsha-ókla or "hair-people") mentioned there. This name
is of Cha'hta origin, and there is a tradition that the old homes, or
a part of them, of the Cha'hta nation lay in these tracts. On Escambia
river there are Cha'hta at the present time, who keep up the custom of
family vendetta or blood revenge, and that river is also mentioned as
a constant battle-field between the Creeks and Cha'hta tribes by W.
Bartram.[82] When the Cha'hta concluded treaties with the United
States Government involving cessions of land, they claimed ownership
of the lands in question, even of some lands lying on the east side of
Chatahuchi river, where they had probably been hunting from an early
period. A list of the way-stations and fords on the post-road between
Lower Tallapoosa river and the Bay of Mobile is appended to Hawkins'
Sketch, p. 85, and was probably written after 1813; cf. p. 83. This
post-road was quite probably an old Indian war-trail traveled over by
Creek warriors to meet the Cha'hta.
[Footnote 82: _Travels_, p. 436: "the bloody field of Schambe";
cf. 400. 414.]
The _Conshac tribe_, the topographic and ethnographic position
of which is difficult to trace, has been located in these
thinly-inhabited portions of the Gulf coast. La Harpe, whose annals
are printed in B. F. French, Histor. Coll. of Louisiana, Vol. III,
states (p. 44) that "two villages of Conshaques, who had always been
faithful to the French and resided near Mobile Fort, had been driven
out of their country because they would not receive the English among
them (about 1720)." The Conshacs and Alibamu were at war with the
Tohome before 1702; cf. Margry IV, 512. 518. L. d'Iberville, in 1702,
gives their number at 2000 families, probably including the Alibamu,
stating that both tribes have their first settlements 35 to 40 leagues
to the northeast, on an eastern affluent of Mobile river, joining it
five leagues above the fort. From these first villages to the E. N. E.
there are other Conshac villages, known to the Spaniards as
Apalachicolys, with many English settled among them, and 60 to 65
leagues distant from Mobile.[83] Du Pratz, who speaks of them from
hearsay only, places them north of the Alibamu, and states that they
spoke a language almost the same as the Chicasa (Hist. p. 208). "A
small party of Coussac Indians is settled on Chacta-hatcha or Pea
river, running into St. Rose's bay, 25 leagues above its mouth."[84]
On the headwaters of Ikanfina river, H. Tanner's map (1827) has a
locality called: Pokanaweethly Cootsa O. F.
[Footnote 83: Margry IV, 594. 595. 602.]
[Footnote 84: Thom. Hutchins, French America, p. 83 (1784). B.
Romans, Florida, p. 90.]
The origin of these different acceptations can only be accounted for
by the generic meaning of the appellation Conshac. It is the Cha'hta
word kánshak: (1) a species of _cane_, of extremely hard texture, and
(2) _knife made from it_. These knives were used throughout the Gulf
territories, and thus d'Iberville and du Pratz call by this name the
Creek Indians or Maskoki proper, while to others the Conchaques are
the Cusha, Kúsha, a Cha'hta tribe near Mobile bay, which is called by
Rev. Byington in his manuscript dictionary Konshas, Konshaws. That the
Creeks once manufactured knives of this kind is stated in our Kasí'hta
migration legend.