swanton] KA1IIA HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 287 
of North America having an independent stock language. Their 
isolation in this respect, added to the absence of a migration legend 
among them and their own claims, have led to a belief that they were 
t he most ancient inhabitants of the extreme southeastern parts of the 
present United States. The conclusion was natural, almost inevi- 
table, but the event proves how little the most plausible theory may 
amount to in the absence of adequate information. Strong evidence 
has now come to light that these people, far from being aboriginal 
inhabitants of the country later associated with them, had occupied 
it within the historic period. 
Dr. F. G. Speck has contributed to the study of southern tribes 
an invaluable paper on "The Ethnology of the Yuchi Indians," * 
but he made no special investigation into their history from documen- 
tary sources. However, he noted an apparent absence of Yuchi 
names — with one possible exception — in the narratives of the De 
Soto expedition, and particularly called attention to the non-Yuchean 
character of the name of Cofitachequi, which up to that time had 
generally been considered a Yuchi town. 2 I have touched upon this 
particular point more at length in-another place. 3 
One reason for the general misunderstanding of the place of the 
Yuchi in aboriginal American history was the fact that the language 
was generally considered very difficult by other peoples and few 
learned it, and, although not necessarily resulting from that circum- 
stance, it so happened that they were known to different tribes by dif- 
ferent names, never apparently by the term Tsoyaha, " Offspring of the 
sun/' which they apply to themselves. Regarding the name Yuchi, 
Speck says : 
It is presumably a demonstrative signifying "being far away" or "at a distance "' 
in reference to human beings in a state of settlement (yu, "al a distance." td, "sitting 
down"). 
It is possible, in attempting an explanation of the origin of the name, that the 
reply " Yu'tcl" was given by some Indian of the tribe in answer to a stranger's in- 
quiry. "Where do you come from?" which is a common mode of salutation in the 
southeast. The reply may then have been mistaken for a tribal name and retained as 
such. Similar instances of mistaken analogy have occurred at various times in con- 
nection with the Indians of this continent, and as the Yuchi interpreters themselves 
favor this explanation it has seemed advisable at least to make note of it. 4 
I can add nothing except to say that the Creeks have no explana- 
tion of the name to offer, and that it appears rather late, little if any 
before the opening of the eighteenth century. In the South Caro- 
lina archives reference is made to "the Uche or Round Town people," 
but the second term is probably not intended as a translation of the 
first. 5 
' Univ. of Pcnn., Anth. Pub., i, no. 1. * Speck, op. cit., p. 13. 
5 Ibid., p. 7. s Proc. Board of Coram, dealing with Ind. Trade, 
» See pp. 216-217. MS., p. 34. 
