The following legends of the Creek Indians are the only ones I have
been able to obtain, although it may be taken for certain, that every
one of the larger centres of the Creek nation had its own story about
this. The legend in Urlsperger and in Hawkins are both from Kasi'hta.
Milfort's was probably given to him at Odshi-apófa, and a fragment of
the Tukabatchi legend is inserted under Tukabatchi, p. 147.
_Migration Legend as recounted to Col. Benj. Hawkins by Taskáya Miko,
of Apatá-i, a branch village of Kasi'hta. "Sketch" of B. Hawkins, pp.
81-83._
"There are in the forks (akfáski) of Red River or U-i tcháti, west of
Mississippi River, U-i ukúfki, two mounds of earth. At this place the
Kasiχta, Kawita and Chicasa found themselves, and were at a loss for
fire. They were here visited by the hayoyálgi, four men who came from
the corners of the world. One of them asked the Indians, where they
would have their fire (tútka). They pointed to a spot; it was made and
they sat down around it. The hayoyálgi directed that they should pay
particular attention to the fire, that it would preserve them and let
Isákita imíssi, the holder of breath, know their wants. One of the
visitors took them to show them the pā′ssa, another showed them
the míko huyanī′dsha, then the cedar or átchina and the sweet-bay
or tóla. (One or two plants were not recollected, and each of these
seven plants was to belong to a particular tribe, imaläíkita.[141])
After this, the four visitors disappeared in a cloud, going in the
direction whence they came.
[Footnote 141: aläíkita means _totemic gens_, imaläíkita _one's
own gens_, or _its particular gens_.]
"The three towns then appointed their rulers. The Kasiχta chose the
bear gens or nukusálgi to be their míkalgi, and the ístanalgi[142] to
be their íniha-`lákalgi or men second in command. The Kawita chose the
`lá`loalgi or fish gens to be their míkalgi.
[Footnote 142: No such gens or division exists among the Creeks
now.]
"After these arrangements, some other Indians came from the west, met
them, and had a great wrestle with the three towns; they made
ballsticks and played with them, with bows and arrows, and with the
átassa, the war club. They fell out, fought, and killed each other.
After this warring, the three towns moved eastwardly, and met the
Ábika on Coosa river. There they agreed to go to war for four years
against their first enemy; they made shields[143], tupĕlúkso, of
buffalo hides and it was agreed, that the warriors of each town should
dry and bring forward the íka hálbi or scalps of the enemy and pile
them; the Ábika had a small pile, the Chicasa were above them, the
Kawita above them, and the Kasiχta above all. The two last towns
raised the ítu tcháti, _red_ or _scalp-pole_, and do not suffer any
other town to raise it. Kasiχta is first in rank.
[Footnote 143: The present Creek word for _shield_ is
masanágita. The tupĕlúkso consisted of a round frame, over
which hides were stretched.]
"After this, they settled the rank of the four towns among themselves.
Kasiχta called Ábika and Chicasa tchatchúsi, _my younger brothers_.
Chicasa and Ábika called Kasiχta and Kawita tcha`láha, _my elder
brothers_. Ábika called Chicasa ama'hmáya or _my elders, my
superiors_, and Chicasa sometimes uses the same term to Ábika.
"This being done they commenced their settlements on Coosa and
Tallapoosa rivers, and crossing the falls of Tallapoosa, above
Tukabáχtchi, they visited the Chatahutchi river, and found a race of
people with flat heads in possession of the mounds in the Kasiχta
fields. These people used bows and arrows, with strings made of
sinews. The alíktchalgi or great physic makers sent some rats in the
night-time, which gnawed the strings, and in the morning they attacked
and defeated the flat-heads. They crossed the river at the island,
near the mound, and took possession of the country. After this they
spread out eastwardly to Otchísi-hátchi or Okmulgi river, to Okoni
river, to Ogītchi or How-ge-chuh river, to Chíska tálofa hátchi or
Savannah river, called sometimes Sawanógi. They met the white people
on the seacoast, who drove them back to their present situation.
"Kasiχta and Chicasa consider themselves as people of one fire,
tútk-itka hámkushi,[144] from the earliest account of their origin.
Kasiχta appointed the first míko for the Chicasa, directed him to
settle in the large field (sit down in the big savanna), where they
now are, and govern them. Some of the Chicasa straggled off and
settled near Augusta, from whence they returned and settled near
Kasiχta, and thence rejoined their own people. Kasiχta and Chicasa
have remained friends ever since their first acquaintance."
[Footnote 144: Tútk-itka hámkushi: of one town, belonging to one
tribe; literally: "of one burning _fire_:" tútka _fire_, itkis
_it burns_, hámkin _one_, -ushi, suffix: _belonging to, being
of_.]
* * * * *
_Extract from_: "History of the Moskoquis, called to-day Creeks;" a
chapter in "Mémoire" of Milfort, pp. 229-265:
Everybody knows, that when the Spaniards conquered Mexico, they
experienced but little difficulty in subduing the peaceable nation
inhabiting those southwestern countries by means of their firearms,
which proved to be far superior to the bows and arrows of their
opponents, and against which courage availed almost nothing. The ruler
Montezuma saw the impossibility of resisting, and called to his aid
the neighboring tribes. At that epoch the Moskoquis formed a powerful
separate republic in the northwest of Mexico; they succored him with a
numerous body of warriors, but were frightfully decimated by the
Spaniards, who dismembered Montezuma's domain, and almost completely
depopulated it. The conquerors also extended their sceptre over the
territory of the Moskoquis, who, disdaining abject slavery, preferred
to leave their native country to regain their former independence.
They directed their steps to the north, and having marched about one
hundred leagues reached the headwaters of Red river in fifteen days.
From there they followed its course through immense plains, blooming
with flowers and verdure and stocked with game, for eight days.
Innumerable flocks of aquatic and other birds congregated around the
salt ponds of the prairie and on the waters of Red River. Encountering
clumps of trees upon their way, they stopped their march. Scouting
parties were dispatched to explore the surroundings; they returned in
a month, having discovered a forest, the borders of which were
situated on Red river, and contained ample subterranean dwellings. The
Moskoquis went on, and on reaching the spot, discovered that these
dwellings were hollows made in the soft ground by buffaloes and other
animals, which had been attracted by the salty taste of the earth. The
tribe concluded to settle at this quiet place and began to sow the
grains of maize which they had brought from their Mexican home. Being
in want of other tools, they managed to cut and trim pieces of wood
with sharp-edged stones; these wooden sticks were then charred and
hardened in the fire, to serve as agricultural implements. Thereupon
they fenced in the fields selected for planting by means of rails and
pickets, so as to prevent the wild animals from eating the maize-crop,
and apportioned some of the land to each family[145] in the tribe.
While the young people of both sexes were occupied at the agricultural
work, the old ones were smoking their calumets. Thus many years were
passed in happy retirement and abundance of material riches.
[Footnote 145: Family is probably meant for _gens_, or
totem-clan.]
But soon their destinies took a downward turn, and forced them to
expatriate themselves for a second time. A number of their men were
killed by the Albamo or Alibamu, and the young men sent after them
were unable to meet the hostiles and to chastise them. The míkos
attributed this to the want of unity in their military organization,
and as a remedy for it instituted the charge of Great Warrior or
tustenúggi `láko. His authority lasted at first only during the
war-expedition commanded by him, but within that time his power was
unlimited, and he could not be called to any account.
Led by a tustenúggi of their choice, they pursued the Alibamu, and
finally caught up with them near a forest on the banks of the Missouri
river. The war-chief ordered the wind gens, to which he belonged, to
cross the river first, then followed the bear gens, then the tiger
gens, and so forth. On their march the vanguard was formed by the
young braves, the rear-guard by the old men, and the non-combatants
were placed in the centre. They surprised the Alibamu, who then
inhabited subterranean dwellings (souterrains), and massacred a large
number of them; then these retreated in haste along the Missouri
river, descending on its right or southern banks. When again closely
pressed by the pursuing Moskoquis, who had defeated them more than
once, the Alibamu crossed over to the left side of the river; but this
did not save them from pursuit, for the Moskoquis followed them to the
opposite side, defeated them in a sharp encounter, and drove them in
the direction of Mississippi river, in which many found a watery grave
in their hasty flight.
The two belligerent tribes now crossed Mississippi river, and the
Alibamu, having an advance of eight days over their pursuers, fled
before them into the interior parts to the east. The Moskoquis
discovered their tracks and followed them to the Ohio river, north
shore, thence to the influx of Wabash river, then crossed Ohio river
into what is now Kentucky, continued their march in a southern
direction, and finally arrived in the Yazoo country, where they stayed
for several years. The caves in which they lived exist to the present
day; some of them were excavated by themselves, while others were
found ready for occupation.
In the meantime the Alibamu had remained in the fertile tracts along
Coosa river. Their warriors cut off and scalped some of the Moskoqui
scouts, who had come to ascertain their whereabouts. This deed so
embittered the injured tribe, that their míkos resolved to dispossess
the enemy of their territory for the third time. They crossed
Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, followed Coosa river in marching
along its banks from south to north,[146] but were too late for the
Alibamu, who had previously left the country, partly for Mobile,
partly for the tracts held by Cha'hta Indians.
[Footnote 146: p. 262: "_dans la direction du nord_." Perhaps we
have to add the words: "_au sud_."]
The Moskoquis then quietly occupied the country which they had
conquered and spread out along the rivers Coosa, Tallapoosa,
Chatahutchi, Flint, Okmulgi, Great and Little Okoni and Ogitchi, till
they reached Savannah river at the place where Augusta is now
standing.
The Moskoquis, after taking possession of this wide extent of
territory, sent their warriors down Mobile river in pursuit of the
Alibamu, who had placed themselves under the protection of the French.
The French commander sought to prevent a war between the two bodies
of Indians, and succeeded in arranging a truce of six months and in
determining with accuracy the hunting grounds of both. Leaders and
warriors of the Moskoquis then descended the river and concluded a
lasting peace with the hostile tribe in the presence of the French
commander. They even invited the Alibamu to join their confederacy by
offering them a tract of land on what is now Alabama river, with the
privilege of preserving their own customs. The Alibamu accepted the
offer, settled on the land, built a town on it, called Coussehaté, and
since then form an integral part of the Moskoqui people, which now
assumed the name of Creeks.
As a sequel to his wonderful story of the pursuit of the Alibamu by
the Creeks and the final peaceable settling down of both, Milfort adds
some points on the early doings and warrings of the Creeks, which had
occurred but a limited number of years before his stay in the tribe,
and were recounted to him by one of the míkos from their memorial
beads, like the legendary migration:
About the time of Coussehaté's foundation an Indian tribe dismembered
by the Iroquois and Hurons, the Tukabatchi, fled to the Creeks, and
asked for shelter. Lands were assigned and the fugitives built on it a
town, which they named after themselves, and where the general
assemblies of the entire people are sometimes meeting. This kind
reception encouraged the Taskígi and the Oxiailles (Oktcháyi) who were
also annoyed by their warlike neighbors, to seek a place of safety
among the Creeks. Their request was granted also. The former settled
at the confluence of Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, the Oxiailles ten
leagues to the north of them, in a beautiful prairie near a rivulet.
Shortly after this event, the small tribe of the Yuchi (_la petite
nation des Udgis_), partly dismembered by the British, also fled to
the Creek towns and were given a territory on Chatahutchi river.
Likewise did a part of the Chicasa apply for help; they were assigned
seats on Yazoo river, "at the head of Loup river,"[147] and soon
extended their habitations up to the Cheroki boundaries. A few years
after, the unhappy Naktche took refuge among the Chicasa, who by
protecting them underwent the displeasure of the French colonists.
They attacked the Chicasa and in spite of their superior artillery
were disastrously beaten near Loup river. A second attack of theirs
was warded off by the tribe, by acceding to the peace arrangements
proposed by the French. The Naktche then passed over to the Creeks and
obtained lands on Coosa river; they built there the towns of Natchez
and of Abikudshi, near two high mountains having the appearance of
sugar-loaves. The head men of the Creeks went to New Orleans in order
to arrange matters amicably with the French and permitted them to
erect a fort at Taskigi, subsequently called Fort Toulouse, and the
tribes were helpful in erecting it.
[Footnote 147: Better known as Neshoba river, State of
Mississippi; neshóba, Cha'hta term for _gray wolf_.]
Jealous of the erection of this advanced trade-post by their
hereditary enemy, the British asked for permission to build a fort on
Ogītchi river, twenty miles west of Augusta, Georgia, but were
roundly, and in unmistakable terms, refused by the Creek towns. After
the loss of the Canadian provinces, Fort Toulouse was evacuated by the
French. The Creeks, much dismayed at the departure of their friends,
and filled with aversion against the British and Spaniards, were
compelled to open their towns to the English traders, to obtain the
needed articles of European manufacture.
* * * * *
Follows the recital of the incorporation of some families of
Apalachicola, Sháwano and Cheroki Indians into the community of the
Creeks (Mém., pp. 276-285). Unfortunately the statement concerning the
immigration of the Cheroki is without any details, and therefore is of
no avail in localizing the Cheroki towns or colonies within the Creek
territory (p. 285). The author states that the immigration was caused
by the pressure exercised upon the tribe by the English and Americans;
it was therefore of a quite modern date, if Milfort can be trusted.
* * * * *
In 1781, on the 1st of February, Milfort, great war-chief of the
Creeks, left his home at Little Talassi, half a league above the
ancient Fort Toulouse, at the head of two hundred young braves, to
visit the legendary caves on Red river, from which the nation had
issued in bygone times. They crossed the territories held by the Upper
Cha'hta, passed through Mobile, the confluence of Iberville bayou with
Mississippi river, St. Bernard bay on the coast, and following a
northern direction, finally reached a forest on Red river, about 150
leagues above its junction with Mississippi river. They crossed these
woods, which were situated on an eminence on the river side, and stood
in face of the caves (_cavernes_), the objective point of the
expedition.
The noise of a few gun-shots brought out of these spacious cavities a
large number of bisons, wild oxen and wild horses, which ran,
frightened as they were by the unusual explosions, head over heels,
over precipices of more than eighty feet of perpendicular height into
the slimy waters of Red river. The only description Milfort gives of
these caves goes to show that there were several or many of them,
situated in close vicinity to each other, and that those seen could
easily contain fifteen to twenty thousand families. The party
concluded to pass the inclement season in these grottoes, which they
had reached about Christmas time. Here they hunted, fished and danced
until the end of March, 1782, then started for the Missouri, and
subsequently for home, well supplied with the products of the chase.
_Remarks on Taskáya Míko's Kasi'hta Legend._
A closer study of this legend reveals many points of importance for
the better understanding of Tchikilli's narrative, as both have
evidently been derived from the same original report.
The locality where the tribes of the Kasíχta, Kawíta and Chicasa
came from is placed here in the same point of the compass as in
Tchikilli's story, in the west. Whether the forks of the Red river
were supposed to coincide with the "mouth of the earth" in the legend
can be decided only when we shall have a better knowledge of Creek
folklore. If Hawkins' informant used the passive form of hídshäs _to
see_, when speaking of the appearance of the Kasíχta, it would be
more appropriate to say _originated, were born_ than the expression we
find in the text: "found themselves." The subterranean dwellings,
mentioned and visited by Milfort as being the legendary home of the
"Moskoquis," are not mentioned here; and in French colonial times the
"Forks of Red river" designated the confluence of Washita and Red
rivers.
The hayoyálgi, coming from the four corners of the world to light the
sacred fire, the symbol of the sun, are the winds fanning it to a
higher flame, and the purpose of the story is to make an oracular
power of the sacred flame, by which the Holder of Breath, or Great
Spirit, could be placed in communication with his Indian wards, and
enabled to take care of them.
The notice that each of the seven plants distributed to the Indians
belonged, or was the emblem of a certain gens or division of people,
is gathered from this passage only, and probably refers to the
ingredients of some war-physic, which only a limited number of the
gentes may have been entitled to contribute to the annual púskita. The
precedence of some favored gentes before others in regard to offices
of peace or war is frequently observed among Northern as well as
Southern tribes of Indians.[148] The number four is conspicuous here
as well as in the legend related by Tchikilli; we have four hayoyálgi,
four principal chieftaincies, four years of warfare, etc.
[Footnote 148: Cf. what is said of the _wind_ gens in Milfort's
migration legend.]
The cause of the warring, or the pretense for it, against "some other
Indians from the west" is curiously similar to the rivalry in athletic
sports, which took place between the western Iroquois and their
subdivisions, and finally led to the destruction of the Erie or
Ká'hkwa Indians (Cusick, Johnson). The names of "brothers, cousins,
elders," which occur here, are terms of intertribal courtesy, which we
find also, perhaps in a more pronounced manner, among the New York
Iroquois. The Creeks called the Delaware and Sháwano Indians
grandfathers, because they regard their customs and practices as older
and more venerable than their own; others state, because they occupied
their countries further back in time than the Creeks did theirs.
The facts subsequently related are given without such chronological
dates as we find with the previous ones, but the narrator evidently
tried to condense into the space of a few years what it took
generations to accomplish. This is very frequently observed in
legendary tales. The spreading out of the people from the Tallapoosa
river to the Chatahutchi and from there to the Savannah must have
involved a warfare, struggling, migration and settling down of several
centuries, for the advance of the Maskoki proper in this direction was
tantamount to the formation of the Maskoki confederacy by subduing or
incorporating the tribes standing in their way, and to the still more
lengthy process of settling among them. What nation the flat-heads or
aborigines of the country may have belonged to, will be discussed in
the remarks to Tchikillis' tale. That there were Creek-speaking
Indians on the Atlantic coast as early as 1564, has been shown
conclusively in the article Yámassi; but their expulsion from there by
the white colonists occurred but one hundred and fifty years later.
A certain objective purpose is inherent in these legends, which is
more of a practical than of a historical character; it intends to
trace the tribal friendship existing between the Kasiχta and the
Chicasa, or a portion of the latter, to remote ages. It must be
remembered, that both speak different languages intelligible to each
other only in a limited number of words. An alliance comparable to
this also exists between the Pima and Maricopa tribes of Arizona; the
languages spoken by these even belong to different families.
The period when the Chicasa settlement near Kasiχta was broken up by
the return of the inmates to the old Chicasa country is not definitely
known, but may be approximately set down in the beginning of the
eighteenth century. Later on, a war broke out between the Creeks and
Chicasa. Kasiχta town refused to march against the old allies, and
"when the Creeks offered to make peace their offers were rejected,
till the Kasiχta interposed their good offices. These had the
desired effect, and produced peace" (Hawkins, p. 83).
_Remarks to Milfort's Legend._
Milfort's "History of the Moskoquis," as given above in an extract, is
a singular mixture of recent fabrications and distortions of real
historic events, with some points traceable to genuine aboriginal
folklore.
Nobody who has the slightest knowledge of the general history of
America will credit the statement that the Creeks ever lived in the
northwestern part of Mexico at Montezuma's and Cortez' time, since H.
de Soto found them, twenty years later, on the Coosa river; and much
less the other statement, that they succored Montezuma against the
invader's army.[149] That they met the Alibamu on the west side of
Mississippi river is not impossible, but that they pursued them for
nearly a thousand miles up that river to the Missouri, and then down
again on the other or eastern side of Mississippi, is incredible to
anybody acquainted with Indian customs and warfare. The narrative of
the Alibamu tribal origin given under: Alibamu, p. 86, locates the
place where they issued from the ground between the Cahawba and the
Alabama rivers. That the Creeks arrived in Northern Alabama in or
after the time of the French colonization of the Lower Mississippi
lands, is another impossibility, and the erection of Fort Toulouse
preceded the second French war against the Chicasa by more than twenty
years, whereas Milfort represents it as having been a consequence of
that war.
[Footnote 149: A Chicasa migration from Mexico to the Kappa or
Ugaχa settlements, on Arkansas river, is mentioned by Adair,
History, p. 195.]
It is singular and puzzling that Maskoki legends make so frequent
mention of _caves_ as the former abodes of their own or of cognate
tribes. Milfort relates, that the Alibamu, when in the Yazoo country,
lived in caves. This may refer to the Cha'hta country around "Yazoo
Old Village" (p. 108), in Neshoba county, Mississippi; but if it
points to the Yazoo river, we may think of the chief Alimamu (whose
name stands for the tribe itself), met with by H. de Soto, west of
Chicaça, and beyond Chocchechuma. A part of the Cheroki anciently
dwelt in caves; and concerning the caverns from which the Creeks claim
to have issued, James Adair gives the following interesting
disclosure: "It is worthy of notice, that the Muskohgeh cave, out of
which one of their politicians persuaded them their ancestors formerly
ascended to their present terrestrial abode, lies in the Nanne Hamgeh
old town, inhabited by the Mississippi-Nachee Indians,[150] which is
one of the most western parts of their old-inhabited country." The
idea that their forefathers issued from caves was so deeply engrafted
in the minds of these Indians, that some of them took any conspicuous
cave or any country rich in caves to be the primordial habitat of
their race. This is also confirmed by a conjurer's tricky story
alluded to by Adair, History, pp. 195. 196.
[Footnote 150: Cf. Abiku′dshi, p. 125. Adair, History, p.
195.]
A notion constantly recurring in the Maskoki migrations is that they
journeyed _east_. This, of course, only points to the general
direction of their march in regard to their starting point. As they
were addicted to heliolatry, it may be suggested that their conjurers
advised them to travel, for luck, to the east only, because the east
was the rising place of the sun, their protector and benefactor.
Cosmologic ideas, like this, we find among the Aztecs, Mayas, Chibchas
and many other American nations, but the direction of migrations is
determined by physical causes and not by visionary schemes. Wealth and
plunder prompted the German barbarians, at the beginning of the
mediæval epoch of history, to migrate to the south of Europe; here, in
the Gulf territories, the inducement lay more especially in the quest
of a country more productive in grains, edible roots, fish and game.
It may be observed here, that from the moving of the heavenly bodies
from east to west the Pani Indians deduced the superstition that they
should never move _directly_ east in their travels.[151] This,
however, they rarely observed in actual life at the expense of
convenience.
[Footnote 151: John B. Dunbar, The Pawnees; in Mag. of Amer.
History, 1882, (3d article) § 10.]