EARLY HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 
275 
the north [of the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers] and 
fixed their dwelling in a beautiful plain on the bank of a little river." x 
Among some of the living Okchai there seems to be a tradition of 
this foreign origin, but nowhere do we find evidence that they spoke 
a diverse Language. Their tongue may have been a dialect of Mus- 
kogee assimilated to the current speech in very ancient times. 
This tribe appears on some of the earliest maps which locate 
Creek towns, such as that of Popple. 2 Their original scats were, as 
described by Milfort, on the western side of the Coosa some miles 
above its junction with the Tallapoosa. By 1738, however, a part of 
them had left that region and moved over upon a branch of Kialaga 
Creek, an affluent of the Tallapoosa. 3 Another portion evidently 
remained for a time near their old country, since the census of 1761 
mentions "Oakchoys opposite the said [i. e., the French] fort." 4 
After the cession of Mobile and its dependencies to Great Britain 
these probably reunited with the main body. Okchai are indeed 
afterwards spoken of in the neighborhood of the old fort, but they 
appear to have been in reality Okchaiutci, part of the Alabama, 
whose history has been given elsewhere. 5 The last were probably 
those "Okchai" who accompanied the Koasati to the Tombigbee 
shortly after 1763. 6 
The Okchai proper are not noted by Bartram except under the 
general term "Fish Pond" Indians, 7 but appear in the lists of Swan 8 
and Hawkins 9 and in the census rolls of 1832. 10 Hawkins has the 
following description: 
Hook-choie; on a creek of that name which joins on the left side of Ki-a-li-jee, 
three miles below the town and seven miles south of Thlo-tlo-gul-gau. The settle- 
ments extend along the creeks; on the margins of which and the hill sides are good 
oak and hickory, with coarse gravel, all surrounded with pine forest. 11 
After the emigration they established their square ground on 
the southern border of the Creek Nation, where it has remained 
ever since. 
A small band is recorded among the Seminolesof northern Florida 
in 177s. 1 -' 
Besides Okchaiutci. which was not properly a branch at all, 
several settlements were given out by this town. The most prom- 
inent and probably the most ancient of these was Lalogalga ("Fish 
Place"), from which the traders' name of "Fish Pond" is derived. 
' Milfort. Memoire, p. 267. 
J Plate 4. 
3 Ms., AyerLib. 
4 Ga. Col. Docs., in, pp. 521-523. 
» See pp. 200-201. 
•Seep. 203. 
' Bartram, Travels, p. 462. 
« Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, v, p. 262. 
• Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., in, p. 25. 
io Senate Doc. 512, 23d Cong., 1st sess., iv, pp. 
97-298. 
» Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., in, p. 37. 
i 2 Copy of MS. in Lib. Cong. 
