BUSHNELL | NATIVE VILLAGES AND VILLAGE SITES 63 
documents belonging to the days when Virginia had to treat with the 
Indians on its frontiers. 
Such were the town houses, the council houses of the Cherokee, 
among the most interesting buildings reared by the native tribes. 
In general appearance they must have closely resembled the habita- 
tions of the Omaha, the Mandan, and other tribes of the upper 
Missouri Valley, although often much larger than the majority of 
the latter and of more elaborate interior construction. 
While many of the towns stood on one side of the river, others are 
known to have occupied both banks of the stream. The settlement 
of Sinica (I‘st’nigt, Mooney) formerly stood on Keowee River, about 
the mouth of Conneross Creek, in the present Oconee County, South 
Carolina. It was visited by Bartram in May, 1776, at which time he 
wrote that it was “situated on the East bank of the Keowe river, 
though the greatest number of Indian habitations are on the oppo- 
site shore, where likewise stands the council-house, in a level plain 
betwixt the river and the range of beautiful lofty hills, which rise 
magnificently, and seem to bend over the green plains and the river: 
but the chief’s house with those of the traders, and some Indian 
dwellings, are seated on the ascent of the heights on the opposite 
shore.” (Bartram, W., (2), pp. 327-328.) This was a new town 
only recently built 
The town house was the principal structure in the Cherokee vil- 
lages, but among the neighboring Muskhogean tribes, as will be 
shown on the following pages, the town house, or ‘‘rotunda,’’ was 
but one of a group of important buildings in each town. 
As previously stated, the southern section of eastern United States, 
that is, the greater parts of Mississippi and Alabama, and wide regions 
of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee, was claimed or 
actually occupied by Muskhogean tribes. The best known of these 
were the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and the numerous lesser tribes which 
were united as the Creek Confederacy. The Natchez, although dis- 
tantly related, should probably be considered as belonging to this 
linguistic family. Occupying such a vast region, extending from the 
Mississippi to the Atlantic, and from the high mountainous country 
of the north to the swampy lowlands bordering the Gulf of Mexico 
(pl. 10, 6, c), the different tribes developed distinct manners and cus- 
toms, many being shown in the form and appearance of villages. 
Although the Choctaw have been well known to Europeans for 
several generations, and their towns were visited by many who left 
accounts of colonial Louisiana, yet no clear description of a primitive 
Choctaw village is known to have been preserved. . However, their 
settlements do not appear to have been compactly built, but were 
probably scattered over a wide area, in the midst of a virgin forest, 
each habitation with a small garden. Recently a brief though very 
