swanton] EARLY HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 277 
village is high up the creek, nearly forty miles from its mouth, on a flat bend on the 
righl side of the creek; the settlements extend up and down the creek for a mile. 
A mile and a half above the settlements there is a large canebrake, three-quarters of 
a mile through and three or four miles in length. 
The land adjoining the settlement is waving and rich, with oak, hickory, and poplar. 
The branches all have reed; the neighboring lands above these settlements are fine; 
those below are high , broken hills. It is situated between Hill-au-bee and Woc-co-coie, 
about ten miles from each town; three miles west of the town there is a small moun- 
tain; they have some hogs. 1 
Probably the remnants of this town finally reunited with the main 
body. Two other "lost" settlements are also remembered — Talsa 
hatchi (Tulsa Creek) and Tcahki lako (broad shallow ford). Tins 
last, however, may have been the Okfuskee village of that name, at 
one time on Chattahoochee River. 2 
The Tukabahchee 
Tukabahchee was not only considered one of the four "foundation 
sticks" of the Creek Confederacy, but as the leading town among 
the Upper Creeks, and many add the leading town of the whole 
nation. During later historic times it was the most populous of all 
the upper towns, and is to-day the most populous without any ex- 
ception. Like the other head towns, it has a special ceremonial 
title, Spokogi, or Ispokogi. Jackson Lewis thought this meant 
that Tukabahchee brooded over the other towns like a hen over her 
chickens. Another old Creek was of the opinion that it meant "to 
hold something firmly," since it was this town that held the con- 
federacy together. Gatschet interprets it as "town of survivors," 
or "surviving town, remnant of a town." 3 It can not be said, 
however, that any of the suggested interpretations has great prob- 
abilitv in its favor. As some early writers give the second conso- 
nant as t instead of Tc, the initial word in the name may have been 
tutka, fire. The original Spokogi were supposed to be certain beings 
who descended from the upper world to the Tukabahchee and brought 
them their medicine. From the intimacy which long subsisted be- 
tween the Tukabahchee and Shawnee I am inclined to think that 
the resemblance between this word and that of one of the Shawnee 
bands, Kispokotha. or Kispogogi, is more than accidental. 
It would certainly be a shock to almost any Creek to be told that 
this reputed capital of the confederacy, from which, according to 
some of them, the busk ceremonial was derived, was not originally 
a true Muskogee town at all. This, however, is the conclusion to 
which we are brought by a study of the facts concerning its early 
' Qa. Eist, Boc. Colls., in, pp. 50-51. • Gatschet, Creek Mig. Leg., i, p. 148. 
i See p. 249. 
