172 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY f bolt,. 7.". 
they emigrated west of the Mississippi, if at all. One of these indi- 
cations is the name "Chiaha" applied by Coxe to the Tallapoosa 
River, 1 another the name of a creek in Talladega County, Alabama, 
Chehawhaw Creek, known to have borne it as far back as the 
end of the eighteenth century, 2 and a third the enumeration of 
two bodies of Upper Creek Indians in the census of 1832 under names 
which appear to be intended to represent the name of this tribe. 3 
One of these is given as "Chehaw" with 126 people and the other as 
"Chearhaw" with 306. This is greater than the combined population 
of the Chiaha and Hotalgihuyana towns among the Lower Creeks, 
and it is difficult to see how they could have persisted as a distinct 
people for such a long period without separate notice. While there 
are no Upper Creek Chiaha now there seems to be a tradition of such 
a body as having existed in former times; and if so, we may consider 
it almost certain that they were descendants of those whom De Soto 
and Pardo encountered at the very dawn of American history. 
THE HITCHITI 
Hitchiti among the Creeks was considered the head or "mother" 
of a group of Lower Creek towns which spoke closely related 
languages distinct from Muskogee. This group included the Sawokli, 
Okmulgee, Oconee, Apalachicola, and probably the Chiaha, with 
their branches, and all of these people called themselves Attik-ha'ta, 
words said by Gatschet to signify "white heap (of ashes)." 4 If 
this interpretation could be relied upon we might suppose that the 
name referred to the ash heap near each square ground, but it is 
doubtful. Gatschet states that the name Hitchiti was derived from 
a creek of the name which flows into the Chattahoochee, and explains 
it by the Creek word ahi'tcita, " to look up (the stream)." 4 This in- 
terpretation would be entitled to considerable respect, since it prob- 
ably came from Judge G. W. Stidham, a very intelligent Hitchiti, 
from whom Gatschet obtained much of his information regarding 
this people, were it not that history shows that the name belonged to 
the tribe before it settled upon the Chattahoochee. In the follow- 
ing origin myth, related to the writer by Jackson Lewis, another 
meaning is assigned to it, but it is probably an ex post facto explana- 
tion. It is more likely that there was some connection with the 
general term Atcik-ha'ta. 
1 Coxe, Carolana, map. 
1 Hawkins's Viatory MS., Lib. Cong. 
3 Senate Doc. 512, 23d Cong. , 1st. sess. , pp. 264-265, 307-309; these ' ' Upper Cheehaws" are also mentioned 
in a volume of treaties between the U. S. A. and the Several Indian Tribes from 1778 to 1837, pp. 68-69, 
and, according to a letter dated June 17, 1796, their chiefs took part in a meeting at Coleraine (MS., Lib. 
Cong. ), though there is some reason to think that part of them were Natchez. 
* Gatschet, Creek Mig. Leg., i, p. 77. 
