MODERN SQUARE GROUNDS OE THE CREEK E\DL\NS 



Bv JOHN R. SWANTON, 

 ethkologist, bureau of american ethnolot.y 



(With Five Plates) 



The writer has already published descriptions of many of the 

 square grounds of the Creek Indians, the sacred areas where their 

 busks and other annual ceremonies took place/ In collecting this 

 material, however, my endeavor was to learn the most ancient 

 arrangement of the several grounds and the arrangement of those 

 grounds no longer in use. During the summer of 1929 I visited the 

 Creek country again to secure information regarding the organization 

 of the extant grounds. This work duplicates and supplements the 

 earlier to a considerable extent, liut the main purpose was somewhat 

 different. 



Besides the three Yuchi grounds, now in the vicinity of Kellyville, 

 Bixby. and Depew, respectively, with which I did not concern myself, 

 there are, or were in 1929, 17 square grounds, as follows: Abihka 

 and Otciapofa near Henryetta ; Nuyaka north of Okemah ; Lalogalga ' 

 or Fish Pond and Asilanabi west of Okemah ; two Tulsa grounds 

 near Holdenville ; Tukabahchee at Yeager : Laplako near Wetumka ; 

 Alabama east of Alabama Station on the Erisco Railroad ; Eufaula 

 west of Eufaula; Kasihta east of Okmulgee; and Hilibi, Kealedji, 

 Okchai, Pakan Tallahassee, and Wiogufki about Hanna. Abihka. 

 Otciapofa, Nuyaka, Lalogalga. Kasihta. Hilibi. Pakan Tallahassee, 

 and Wiogufki were visited, and new information obtained regarding 

 all of the others except Eufaula. of which I secured very good 

 descriptions 17 years before. The Eufaula ground, that of Asilanabi, 

 one of the Tulsa grounds. Tukabahchee, Alabama, and Okchai were 

 visited in the winter of 1911-1912. Kasihta is the only square ground 

 representing the Lower Creeks now maintained. It was not in existence 

 during mv earlier work in the Creek Nation, nor were Laph'iko or 

 Kealedji.' These two last and the Yuchi grounds are the only ones 

 that I have not seen. I was present at part of the busks at Otciapofa, 

 Nuvaka. and Pakan Tallahassee. Not much attention was devoted 



*42d Ann. Rep.. Bur. Amer. Ethnol.. 1924-25, pp. 204-296, 1928. 

 ^ In the present paper, a indicates the obscure a in such a word as ability, and 

 i or L is a surd 1 approximating- thl in English. 

 ^ But see p. 35 regarding the former. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 85, No. 8 



