BULL. "0] 



KNOU KOASATI 



719 



Knots of the centra 

 (boas) 



kinds of knots and splices in bark, stems, 

 roots, sinew thongs, strings, and ropes. 

 There were knots and turk'.s heads in 

 the ends of lines for buttons and toggles 

 and for fastening work, loops and run- 

 ning nooses for bowstrings and tent fas- 

 tenings, knots for attaching one line to 

 another or to some ol)ject, the knots in 

 netting for fish nets and the webbing in 

 snowshoes and rackets, knots for attach- 

 ing burdens and for packing and cinch- 

 ing, decorative knots in the dress of both 

 sexes, and memorial knots used in cal- 

 endars and for registering accounts and in 

 religion. The bight, 

 seen on Yuman car- 

 rying baskets, was 

 universal, and the 

 single, square, and 

 granny knots and 

 the half hitch were 

 also quite common. 

 In 1680 the Pueblo 

 Indians communi- 

 cated the number of 

 days before their 

 great ui^rising 

 against the Span- 

 iards bj- means of a 

 knotted string, and 

 some of their de- 

 scendants still keep personal calendars 

 by the same means, but in North America 

 the quipu was nowhere so highly devel- 

 oped as it was in Peru. Boas (Bull. Am. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist., xv, 1901) illustrates the 

 many splices, hitches, loops, and knots of 

 the Eskimo; Murdoch (9th Rep. B. A. E., 

 1892) has treated the knots used in nets, 

 snowshoes,and sinew-backed bows; Dixon 

 (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., xvii, 1905) 

 shows the knots of the northern Maidu 

 of California; and Mason (Smithson. Rep. 

 for 1893) gives details of those generally 

 used on bows and arrows. (o. t. m. ) 



Knoa {K'nou', ' eagle' ). A gens of the 

 Potawatomi, q. v. — Morgan, Anc. Soc, 

 167, 1877. 



Knowilamowan. A former Chinookan 

 village 25 m. from The Dalles, on Colum- 

 bia r., Oreg. 



Know-il-a-mow-an. — Lee and Frost, Oregon, 176, 

 1H44. 



Koagaogit {Koaga^ogit, ' wide and rush- 

 ing waters'). A former Haida town on 

 the N. shore of Bearskin bay, Skidegate 

 inlet, Queen Charlotte ids., Brit. Col., 

 in possession of the Djahui-gitinai. — 

 Swanton, Cont. Haida, 279, 1905. 



Koakotsalgi {Tcoa-kotchi 'wildcat,' algi 

 'people'). A clan of the Creeks. 

 Koakotsalgi. — Gatschet, Creek Migr. Leg., i, 155, 

 1884. Ku-wa'-ku-che. — Morgan, Anc. Soc, 161, 

 1877. 



Koalcha {Qod'ltca). A Bquawmish vil- 

 lage community at Linn cr., Burrard 

 inlet, Brit. Col.— Hill-Tout in Rep. Brit. 

 A. A. S., 475, 1900. 



Koalekt (KcxVlEqt). A Chehalis village 

 at the headwaters of a w. tributary of 

 Harrison r., in s. w. British Columbia. — 

 Boas, MS., B. A. E., 1891. 



Koanalalis [KoancVlalis). The ancestor 

 of a Nimkish gens after whom the gens 

 was sometimes named. — Boas in Peter- 

 manns Mitt., pt. 5, 130, 1887. 



Koapk {(/oa^px). One of the Talio 

 towns of the Bellacoola at the head of 

 South Bentinck arm, coast of British Co- 

 lumbia. 



K.'oa'pQ.— Boas in 7th Rep. N. W. Tribes Can., 3, 

 1891. ft'oa'px. — Boas in Mem. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 II, 49, 1898. 



Koas. Mentioned as a tribe residing 

 with the Hutsnuwu, Chilkat, and others, 

 in Sitka, Alaska (Beardslee in Sen. Ex. 

 Doc. 105. 46th Cong., 1st sess., 31, 1880). 

 It possibly refers to the Kuiu, otherwise 

 the name is unidentifiable. 



Koasati. An Upper Creek tribe speak- 

 ing a dialect almost identical with Ali- 

 bamu and evidently nothing more than 

 a large division of that people. The 

 name appears to contain the word for 

 'cane' or 'reed,' and Gatschet has sug- 

 gested that it may signify 'white cane.' 

 During the middle and latter part of the 

 18th century the Koasati lived, appa- 

 rently in one principal village, on the 

 right bank of Alabama r., 3 m. below the 

 confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, 

 where the modern town of Coosada, Ala., 

 perpetuates their name; but soon after w. 

 Florida was ceded to Great Britain, in 1763, 

 "two villages of Koasati" moved over to 

 the Tombigbee and settled below the 

 mouth of Sukenatcha cr. Romans and 

 other writers always mention two settle- 

 ments here, Sukta-loosa and Occhoy or 

 Hychoy, the latter being evidently either 

 Koasati or Alibamu. The Witumka Ali- 

 bamu moved with them and established 

 themselves lower down. Later the Koa- 

 sati descended the river to a point a few 

 miles above the junction of the Tombig- 

 bee and the Alabama, but, together with 

 their Alibamu associates, they soon re- 

 turned to their ancient seats on the upper 

 Alabama. A " Coosawda" village existed 

 on Tennessee r. , near the site of Langston, 

 Jackson co., Ala., in the early part of the 

 19th century, but it is uncertain whether 

 its occupants were true Koasati. In 1799 

 Hawkins slated that part of the Koasati 

 had recently crossed tlie Mississippi, and 

 Sibley in 1805 informs us that these 

 first settled on Bayou Chicot but 4 years 

 later moved over to the e. bank of Sabine 

 r., 80 m. s. of Natchitoches, La. Thence 

 they spread over much of e. Texas as far 

 as Trinity r., while a jwrtion, or perhaps 

 some of those who had remained in Ala- 

 bama, obtained permission fromthe Caddo 

 to settle on Red r. Schermerhorn ( Mass. 

 Hist. Soc. Coll., 2d s., ii, 26, 1814) states 



