bwahton] EAKLX BISTORT OF THE "KEEK INDIANS 291 
name Rickohockans, which, as we shall presently see, he identifies 
with the Westo, and the native name of the old Erie tribe 
Riquehronnons; the other an excerpt from the South Carolina 
archives to be noted presently. 1 Regarding the first point it is to be 
remarked that Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, who has a profound knowledge 
of the languages of the Five Nations and a very considerable 
knowledge of Algonquian, considers the resemblance only super- 
ficial and the former word plainly Algonquian. His researches also 
indicate another direction of migration for the defeated Erie. 
The excerpt referred to is a commentary appended to the South 
Carolina Commons House address of 1693 mentioned above tothecffect 
that " the Mawhawkes are a numerous, warlike nation of Indians, and 
strictly aleyd to the Westos. . . ." * As Professor Crane says, 
''much depends on the interpretation of the expression 'strictly aleyd'"; 
but I believe that the adverb would hardly have been used if the 
connection between the Mohawk and Westo were merely linguistic. 
While that might have been intended as one of the bonds between 
them, some kind of political or military coordination appears to be 
hinted at also, and this was extremely improbable between sworn foes 
like the Erie and Iroquois, while, on the other hand, we know that the 
Iroquois and Yuchi were both bitter enemies of the eastern Siouan 
tribes. 
My conclusion is that, in the present state of this question, the 
Yuchean connection of the Westo has greater probability in its 
favor than any other theory, and I shall treat their history along with 
that of the better identified Yuchean bands, leaving the reader to draw 
his own conclusions from the material available, all of which will be 
presented. 
On taking this position, however, we are immediately confronted 
by a further identification, mentioned above, between the Westo and 
the Rickohockans or Rechahecrians, a mysterious tribe which appears 
in early Virginia history. Professor Crane, to whom we owe this 
identification, bases it on material contained in the colonial archives 
of the State of South Carolina, which is as follows. On January 13, 
1693, the upper house of the colony of South Carolina laid before the 
commons house of Assembly information to the effect that some 
northern Indians had come to establish themselves among the Tus- 
kegee, and others were coming the summer following to settle among 
the Coweta and Kasihta. The reply of the lower house, drawn up by a 
committee of which James Moore, a leading Indian trader, was chair- 
man, declared " that all possible means be used to prevent the settlem* 
of any Northern nation of Indians amongst our Friends, more Espe- 
1 Crane in Amer. Anthrop., n. s. vol. xx, pp. 336-337. 
