The towns and villages of the Creeks were in the eighteenth century
built along the banks of rivers and their smaller tributaries, often
in places subject to inundation during large freshets, which occurred
once in about fifteen years. The smallest of them contained from
twenty to thirty cabins, some of the larger ones up to two hundred,
and in 1832 Tukabatchi, then the largest of all the Creek settlements,
harbored 386 families. Many towns appeared rather compactly built,
although they were composed of irregular clusters of four to eight
houses standing together; each of these clusters contained a gens
("clan or family of relations," C. Swan), eating and living in common.
The huts and cabins of the Lower Creeks resembled, from a distance,
clusters of newly-burned brick kilns, from the high color of the
clay.[88]
[Footnote 88: Cf. Yuchi, p. 22. At the time of the conquest of
Mexico by Cortez, many of the interior towns of that country
were whitewashed in the same manner, by means of a shining white
clay coating.]
It will be found appropriate to distinguish between Creek towns and
villages. By _towns_ is indicated the settlements which had a public
square, by _villages_ those which had none. The square occupied the
central part of the town, and was reserved for the celebration of
festivals, especially the annual busk or _fast_ (púskita), for the
meetings of chiefs, headmen and "beloved men," and for the performance
of daily dances. Upon this central area stood the "great house,"
tchúka `láko, the council-house, and attached to it was a play-ground,
called by traders the "chunkey-yard." Descriptions of these places
will be given below.
Another thoroughgoing distinction in the settlements of the Creek
nation was that of the _red_ or _war towns_ and the _white_ or _peace
towns_.
The _red_ or _kipáya towns_, to which C. Swan in 1791 refers as being
already a thing of the past, were governed by _warriors only_. The
term _red_ refers to the warlike disposition of these towns, but does
not correspond to our adjective _bloody_; it depicts the wrath or
anger animating the warriors when out on the war-path. The posts of
their cabin in the public square were painted red on one side.
The present Creeks still keep up _formally_ this ancient distinction
between the towns, and count the following among the kipáya towns:
Kawíta, Tukabátchi, `Lá-`láko, Átasi, Ka-iläídshi, Chiáha, Úsudshi,
Hútali-huyána, Alibamu, Yufala, Yufala hupáyi, Hílapi, Kitcha-patáki.
_The white towns_, also called peace towns, conservative towns, were
governed by _civil officers_ or míkalgi, and, as some of the earlier
authors allege, were considered as places of refuge and safety to
individuals who had left their tribes in dread of punishment or
revenge at the hand of their pursuers. The modern Creeks count among
the peace towns, called tálua-míkagi towns, the following settlements:
Hitchiti, Okfúski, Kasíχta, Ábi'hka, Abiχkúdshi, Tálisi, Oktcháyi,
Odshi-apófa, Lutchapóka, Taskígi, Assi-lánapi or Green-Leaf,
Wiwúχka.
Quite different from the above list is the one of the white towns
given by Col. Benj. Hawkins in 1799, which refers to the Upper Creeks
only: Okfúski and its branch villages (viz: Niuyáχa, Tukabátchi
Talahássi, Imúkfa, Tutokági, Atchinálgi, Okfuskū′dshi, Sukapóga,
Ipisógi); then Tálisi, Átasi, Fus'-hátchi, Kulúmi. For this list and
that of the kipáya towns, cf. his "Sketch," p. 51. 52.
The ancient distinction between red and white towns began to fall into
disuse with the approach of the white colonists, which entailed the
spread of agricultural pursuits among these Indians; nevertheless
frequent reference is made to it by the modern Creeks.
Segmentation of villages is frequently observed in Indian tribes, and
the list below will give many striking instances. It was brought about
by over-population, as in the case of Okfúski; and it is probable that
then only certain gentes, not a promiscuous lot of citizens, emigrated
from a town. Other causes for emigration were the exhaustion of the
cultivated lands by many successive crops, as well as the need of new
and extensive hunting grounds. These they could not obtain in their
nearest neighborhood without warring with their proprietors, and
therefore often repaired to distant countries to seek new homes
(Bartram, Travels, p. 389). The frequent removals of towns to new
sites, lying at _short_ distances only, may be easily explained by the
unhealthiness of the old site, produced by the constant accumulation
of refuse and filth around the towns, which never had anything like
sewers or efficient regulations of sanitary police.
The distinction between Muscogulge and _Stincard_ towns, explicitly
spoken of in Wm. Bartram's Travels (see Appendices), refers merely to
the form of speech used by the tribes of the confederacy. This epithet
(_Puants_ in French) may have had an opprobrious meaning in the
beginning, but not in later times, when it simply served to
distinguish the principal people from the accessory tribes. We find it
also used as a current term in the Naktche villages.
Bartram does not designate as Stincards the tribes speaking languages
of another stock than Maskoki, the Yuchi, for instance; not even all
of those that speak dialects of Maskoki other than the Creek. He calls
by this savorous name the Muklása, Witúmka, Koassáti, Chíaha,
Hitchiti, Okóni, both Sáwokli and a part of the Seminoles. He mentions
the _towns_ only, and omits all the _villages_ which have branched off
from the towns.
The present Creeks know nothing of such a distinction. Although I do
not know the Creek term which corresponded to it in the eighteenth
century, it is not improbable that such a designation was in vogue;
for we find many similar opprobrious epithets among other Indians, as
Cuitlateca or "excrementers" in Mexico; Puants or Metsmetskop among
the Naktche[89]; Inkalik, "sons of louse-eggs" among the Eskimo;
Kā′katilsh or "arm-pit-stinkers" among the Klamaths of
Southwestern Oregon; Móki or Múki, "cadaverous, stinking," an epithet
originally given to _one_ of the Shínumo or Móki towns for lack of
bravery, and belonging to the Shínumo language: múki _dead_.
[Footnote 89: Dumont, Mém. histor. de la Louisiane, I, 181.]
The plural forms: tchilokóga and tchilokogálgi designate in Creek
persons speaking another than the Creek language; tchilókäs _I speak
an alien language_. "Stincards" would be expressed in Creek by ísti
fámbagi. Of all the gentes of the Chicasa that of the _skunk_ or
hushkoni was held in the lowest esteem, some of the lowest officials,
as runners, etc., being appointed from it; therefore it can be
conjectured that from the Chicasa tribe a term like "skunks,"
"stinkards," may have been transferred and applied to the less
esteemed gentes of other nations.