Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 69 



The languages of the Chickasaws and Choctaws did 

 not differ more from the tongue of the Cherokees, 

 than the two divisions of the latter did from each 

 other. The Cherokees of the hills, the Otari, spoke 

 a dialect that could not be understood by the Chero- 

 kees of the lowlands, or Erati. Towns or bands 

 continually broke up and split off from their for- 

 mer associations, while ambitious and warlike chiefs 

 kept forming new settlements, and if successful 

 drew large numbers of young warriors from the 

 older communities. Thus the boundary lines be- 

 tween the confederacies were ever shifting. 2 Judg- 



2 This is one of the main reasons why the estimates of 

 their numbers vary so hopelessly. As a specimen case, 

 among many others, compare the estimate of Professor 

 Benj. Smith Barton ("Origin of the Tribes and Nations of 

 America," Phila., 1798) with the report of the Commissioner 

 of Indian Affairs for 1827. Barton estimated that in 1793 

 the Appalachian nations numbered in all 13,000 warriors; 

 considering these as one-fifth of the total population, makes 

 it 65,000. In 1837 the Commissioner reports their numbers 

 at 65,304 almost exactly the same. Probably both state- 

 ments are nearly correct, the natural rate of increase hav- 

 ing just about offset the loss in consequence of a partial 

 change of home, and of Jackson's slaughtering wars against 

 the Creeks and Seminoles. But where they agree in the 

 total, they vary hopelessly in the details. By Barton's esti- 

 mate, the Cherokees numbered but 7,500, the Choctaws 

 30,000; by the Commissioner's census the Cherokees num- 

 bered 21,911, the Choctaws 15,000. It is of course out of the 

 question to believe that while in 44 years the Cherokees had 

 increased threefold, the Choctaws had diminished one-half. 

 The terms themselves must have altered their significance 

 or else there was extensive inter-tribal migration. Similarly, 

 according to the reports, the Creeks had increased by 4,000 

 the Seminoles and Choctaws had diminished by 3,000. 



