34 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



of the Yasons, Coiirois, Ofogoula, and ()nsi)(,'H' nations," scattered 

 about for the most part on artificial earthen mounds." 0ns pee is, 

 we know, one form of the Tunica name for the Ofogoula. But 

 Ofogouhi, or rather Ofo, being the name applied by this tribe to 

 itself, and the Tunica having moved away eight years before to settle 

 opposite the mouth of Red river, the word Onspee can only have 

 come from the Yazoo or Koroa, or both. The case is made still 

 stronger by the fact that La Harpe had passed the Tunica without 

 stopping, and therefore it was unlikely that he had on board any 

 Tunica Indian from whom such information might have been ob- 

 tained. Now, if the Ofo were known to the Yazoo and Koroa by the 

 same term as that employed by the Tunica, a term at the same time 

 different from the one used by the Ofo themselves, a presumption of 

 relationship among the three other tribes is at once raised. 



Another argument is furnished by the following quotation from an 

 earlier journal of La Harpe Avhen on his way from the Nasoni country 

 to New Orleans via Red river: 



The 2Sth [of October, 1719], having deseeuded the river [from the Cado- 

 hadacho] about 10 leagues, we met three pii'ogues of our savages coming from 

 hunting bison. They told me that near the little river [about 10 leagues farther 

 on] they had met many newly made rafts, worked by the Tonicau nation 

 {nation Tonicaus) who are the Yasons, a fact which compelled them to return 

 to their villages.^ 



This statement is rather confusing since we do not Ivuow whether 

 La Harpe means the "Tonicaus" were identical with (he Yazoo or 

 simply that they lived upon the Yazoo river. The Yazoo and the 

 Tunica were certainly not identical, and at the time when he Avrote the 

 latter had moved from Yazoo river. None knew this better than La 

 Harpe himself, for he had stopped several days -with them just before 

 his ascent of Red river. It is true that he there spells their name 

 Tonica and here Tonicau, but he could hardly have meant two dis- 

 tinct tribes of Tunica or have been deceived into l)elieving tliere 

 were two; otherwise he certainlv would have noted the distinction he 

 believed to exist. Perhaps a perusal of the original manuscript would 

 cast some light on the question, l)ut failing that, it seems most likely 

 that he means that the Tunica of whom his men told him at this time 

 were really Yazoo. If that had not been the case there would have 

 been no reason to insert the statement ; if he had wished to record 

 the fact that the Tunica traced their origin to Yazoo river he would 

 have done so in his earlier discussion of the tribe. Finally we must 

 consider that, if these languages are unrelated — and there is good 

 reason for excluding them from either the ^luskhogean ov Siouan 

 families — we have to assum(> one or nion^ aildilional indeixMiden! 



' La Harpe, Jour. Hist., 311. " Margry, D6couvertos, vi, 302, 



