The Creek Indians or Maskoki proper occupy, in historic times, a
central position among the other tribes of their affiliation, and
through their influence and physical power, which they attained by
forming a comparatively strong and permanent national union, have
become the most noteworthy of all the Southern tribes of the United
States territories. They still form a compact body of Indians for
themselves, and their history, customs and antiquities can be studied
at the present time almost as well as they could at the beginning of
the nineteenth century. But personal presence among the Creeks in the
Indian Territory is necessary to obtain from them all the information
which is needed for the purposes of ethnologic science.
There is a tradition that when the Creek people incorporated tribes of
other nations into their confederacy, these tribes never kept up their
own customs and peculiarities for any length of time, but were subdued
in such a manner as to conform with the dominant race. As a
confirmation of this, it is asserted that the Creeks annihilated the
Yámassi Indians completely, so that they disappeared entirely among
their number; that the Tukabatchi, Taskígi and other tribes of foreign
descent abandoned their paternal language to adopt that of the
dominant Creeks.
But there are facts which tend to attenuate or disprove this
tradition. The Yuchi, as well as the Naktche tribe and the tribes of
Alibamu descent[86] have retained their language and peculiar habits
up to the present time, notwithstanding their long incorporation into
the Creek community. The Hitchiti, Apalatchúkla and Sawokli tribes,
with their branch villages, have also retained their language to this
day, notwithstanding their membership in the extensive confederacy, a
membership which must have lasted for centuries; and in fact we cannot
see how the retention of vernacular speech could hurt the interests of
the community even in the slightest way. There were tribes among the
Maskoki proper, which were said to have given up not only their own
language, but also their customs, at a time which fell within the
remembrance of the living generation. Among their number was the
Taskígi tribe,[87] on the confluence of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers,
whose earlier language was probably Cheroki. But, on the other side, a
body of Chicasa Indians lived near Kasíχta in historic times, which
during their stay certainly preserved their language as well as their
traditional customs. From Em. Bowen's map it appears that Chicasa
Indians also lived on Savannah river (above the Yuchi) for some time,
and many Cheroki must have lived within the boundaries of the
consolidated Creek confederacy. The more there were of them, and the
nearer they were to their own country, the more it becomes probable
that they preserved their own language and paternal customs. The
existence of Cheroki local names amid the Creek settlements strongly
militates in favor of this; we have Etowa, Okóni, Chiaha, Tamá`li,
Átasi, Taskígi, Amakalli.
[Footnote 86: Wítumka (Great), Muklási, and the four Alibamu
villages named by Hawkins. To these we may add Koassáti.]
[Footnote 87: Hawkins, p. 39.]
In the minds of many of our readers it will ever remain doubtful that
the Creek tribes immigrated into the territories of the Eastern Gulf
States by crossing the Lower Mississippi river. But there is at least
one fact which goes to show that the settling of the Creeks proceeded
from west to east and southeast. The oldest immigration to Chatahuchi
river is that of the Kasíχta and Kawíta tribes, both of whom, as our
legend shows, found the Kúsa and the Apalatchúkla with their
connections, _in situ_, probably the Ábiχka also. If there is any
truth in the Hitchiti tradition, the tribes of this division _came
from the seashore_, an indication which seems to point to the coast
tracts afterwards claimed by the Cha'hta. All the other settlements on
Chatahuchi river seem younger than Kasíχta and Kawíta, and therefore
the Creek immigration to those parts came from Coosa and Tallapoosa
rivers. At one time the northern or Cheroki-Creek boundary of the
Coosa river settlements was Talatígi, now written Talladega, for the
name of this town has to be interpreted by "Village at the End,"
itálua atígi. If the name of Tallapoosa river, in Hitchiti Talepúsi,
can be derived from Creek talepú`la _stranger_, this would furnish
another indication for a former allophylic population in that valley;
but `l rarely, if ever, changes into s. The Cheroki local names in
these parts, and east from there, show conclusively who these
"strangers" may have been.
It appears from old charts, that Creek towns, or at least towns having
Creek names, also existed west of Coosa river, as on Canoe creek:
Litafatcha, and on Cahawba river: Tálua hádsho, "Crazy Town," together
with ruins of other villages above this.