NO. 8 CREEK SQUARE GROUNDS SWANTON 35 



take medicine with them and in fact are not invited except in the 

 case of individuals married into the town. 



The Hathagas are the Bear (the most important of them), Bird, 

 Beaver, and Wind ; the Tcilokis are the Raccoon, Deer, Potato, 

 Aktayatci, Panther, AUigator, etc. Here the Alhgator, Turkey, and 

 Beaver can intermarry ; in Eufaula they could not. But probably this 

 means that the Beaver could intermarry with the other two, as the 

 Alligator and Turkey were seldom allowed to marry under any cir- 

 cumstances. The Bird and Beaver were classed together in Laph'iko. 

 but this group does not include the Bear or Wind. The Hathaga clans 

 had the rei)utation of being progressive while the Tcilokis were full- 

 bloods and reactionaries. This characterization probably followed the 

 coming of the white people. 



The towns of the opposite group were called Talipota, which means 

 " foreign but not unfriendly." 



The word Laptako indicates a place where there are many marshes 

 tilled with canes. This town square, which had been discontinued, 

 was revived in the year 1903 in this way. They had to prepare a 

 ground in order to take medicine before a game with the Nuyaka 

 Indians next year. Later this was improved with regular cabins, but 

 it must have been inconspicuous or have been considered unimpor- 

 tant, as I heard nothing about it in 191 2. 



Laplako and Atasi are now nearly fused on account of the number 

 of marriages between individuals belonging to them. Before the 

 Civil War the Laplako had an Atasi Indian named Hotalgi Had jo 

 married among them as their hilis haya. One of the great men of 

 Laplako in former times was Jim Boy (Tastanagi Imala) whom my 

 informant remembers to have seen. He thinks he died just before 

 the Civil War broke out. McKenney and Hall (History of the Indian 

 Tribes of North America, vol. 2, pp. 71-74) give a portrait of this 

 chief and a considerable account of his life. He was born in w^hat is 

 now Alabama in 1793 and accompanied the warriors of his town 

 during the Creek War of 1813-14, but was too young for active 

 participation. In the war with the Seminole he was one of the leaders 

 of the Creek contingent which aided the Americans. The exact date 

 of his death seems to be unknown. 



The arrangement of the modern ground differs more from those 

 described to me in 191 2 (42d Ann. Rep.. Bur. Amer. Ethnol.. |)p. 

 254 and 255) than any of the others. The first of the latter was 

 obtained from a very old man who should have known the ancient 

 arrangement well, but of course my interpreter and I may have 

 misunderstood him. The cabins are at different points of the compass 



