916 



MOBILE MOCCASIN 



[g. a. e. 



s. E. Nev., and numbering 64 in 1873. — 

 Powell in Ind. Aff. Rep. 1873, 50, 1874. 



Mobile (meaning doubtfnl), A Musk- 

 hogean tribe whose early home was prob- 

 ably Mauvila, or Maviila, supposed to 

 have been at r)r near Choctaw Bluff on 

 Alabama r., Clark co., Ala., where De 

 Soto, in 1540, met with fierce opposition 

 on the part of the natives and engaged in 

 the most obstinate contest of the expedi- 

 tion. The town was then under the con- 

 trol of Tascalusa (q. v. ) probably an Ali- 

 bamu chief. If, as is probable, theMobil- 

 ian tribe took part in this contest, they 

 must later have moved farther s., as they 

 were found on Moljile bay when the 

 French began to plant a colony at that 

 point about the year 1700. Wishing pro- 

 tection from their enemies, they obtained 

 permission from tlie French, about 1708, 

 to settle near Ft Louis, where space was 

 allotted them and the Tohome for this 

 purpose. Little is known of the history 

 of the tribe. In 1708 a large body of 

 Alibamu, Cherokee, Abihka, and Ca- 

 tawba warriors descended Mobile r. for 

 the purpose of attacking the French and 

 their Indian allies, but for some unknown 

 reason contented themselves with de- 

 stroying a few huts of the Mobilians. 

 The latter, who were always friendly to 

 the French, appear to have been chris- 

 tianized soon after the French settled 

 there. In 1741 Coxe wTote that the chief 

 city of the once great province of Tasca- 

 luza, "Mouvilla, which the English call 

 Maubela, and the French Mobile, is yet 

 in being, tho' far short of its former 

 grandeur." At this date the Mobilians 

 and Tohome together numbered 350 fam- 

 ilies. Mention is made in the Mobile 

 church registers of individual members 

 of the tribe as late as 1761, after which 

 they are lost to history as a tribe. For 

 subsistence they relied almost wholly on 

 agriculture. Clay images of men and 

 women and also of animals, supposed to 

 be objects of worship by this people, were 

 found by the French. 



The so-called Mobilian trade language 

 was a corrupted Choctaw jargon used for 

 the purposes of intertribal communica- 

 tion among all the tribes from Florida 

 to Louisiana, extending northward on the 

 Mississippi to about the junction of the 

 Ohio. It was also known as the Chicka- 

 saw trade language. (.\. s. g. c. t. ) 

 Mabile. — Ranjel quoted by Hulbert in Trans. Ala. 

 Hist. Soc, in, 68, 1899. Manilla.— Harris, Voy.and 

 Trav., I, 808, 1705 (misprint ). Maouila.— La Salle 

 (en. 1682) in Margry, Dec., ti, 197. 1877. Maubela.— 

 Coxe. Carolana, 25, 1741. Maubila.— French, Hist. 

 Coll. La., n, 247, 1S7.'S. Maubile.— Ibid., iii, 192, 

 1851. Maubileans. — Ibid. ,170. Maubilians. — Char- 

 levoi.x, Nouv. France, ll. 273, 1761. Mauvila. — Gar- 

 cila.sso de la Vcfja (1540), Fla., 146, 1723. Mauvil- 

 ians,— French, Hist. ColLLa., 111,192,1852. Mauvil- 

 iens. — Charlevoix, Nouv. F'rance, n, 308, 1761. 

 Mavila.— Biedma (1544) in French, Hist. Coll. La., 

 II, 102, 1850. Mavilians.— Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, 



II, 34, 18.52. Maviila.— Gentleman of Elvas (1557) 

 in French, Hist. Coll. La., ll, 156, 18.50. Mobeluns.— 

 Boudinot, Star in the West, 127, 1816 (or Mouville). 

 Mobilas.— Barcia, En.sayo, 313, 1723. Mobile.— Pc^- 

 nicaut (1699) in French, Hist. Coll. La., n. s., I, 

 43, 1869. Mobileans.— La Harpe, ibid., in, 20, 34, 

 1851. Mobilians. — .lefferys, French Dom. Am., l, 

 165, 1761. Mobiliens.— Fcnicaut (1702) in Margry, 

 D^c, V, 42.5, 1883. Mouvill.— Le Page du Pratz, 

 Hist. La., Eng. eil., 309, 1774. Mouvilla.— Coxe, 

 Carolana, 24, 1741. Mouville. — Boudinot, Starin the 

 West, 127, 1816 (or .Mobeluns). Movila.— Barcia, 

 Ensayo, 335, 1723. Movill.— Barton, New Views, 

 Ixix, 1798. Mowill. — Jeffervs, French Dom. Am., 

 I, 162, 1761. 



Mocama ('on the coast'). A former 

 Timucua district and dialect, probably 

 about the present St Augustine, Fla. 

 Mocama, — Pareja {en. 1614) quoted by Gatsetiet in 

 Am. Philos. Soc. Proc, XVI, 627, 1877. Moscama. — 

 Brinton, Floridian Penin., 135, 1859. 



Moccasin. The soft skin shoe of the 

 North American Indians and its imita- 

 tions on the part of the whites. The word, 

 spelled formerly also vioccason, is derived 

 from one of the eastern Algonquian dia- 

 lects: Powhatan (Strachey, 1612), viock- 

 asin, mawhcasun; Massachuset( Eliot, ante 

 1660), molikisson, mohkussin; Narraganset 

 (Williams, 1643), mocussin; Micmac, 

 m'ntsun; Chippewa, moAisni. Itcameinto 

 English through Powhatan in all proba- 

 bility, as well as through Massachuset. 

 The latter dialect has also moki(s or mokis, 

 of which the longer word seems to be a 

 derivative. Hewitt suggests that it is 

 cognate with makak, ' small case or box ' 

 {see Mocuck) . After the moccasin have 

 l)een named moccasin-fish (Maryland 

 sunfish), moccasin-flower or moccasin- 

 plant (lady's-slipper, known also as In- 

 dian's shoe), moccasin-snake or water- 

 moccasin { Aiirifilrodon piscivorus) , the up- 

 land moccasin (.1. atrofuscus). In some 

 parts of the South the term 'moccasined' 

 is in colloquial use in the sense of intoxi- 

 cated. (.\. F. c. ) 



With the exception of the sandal- 

 wearing Indians living in the states along 

 the JNIexican boundary, moccasins were 

 almo.st universally worn. The tribes of 

 s. E. Texas were known to the southern 

 Plains Indians as "Barefoot Indians," 

 because they generally went without foot- 

 covering, only occasionally wearing san- 

 dals. The Pacific coast Indians also as 

 a rule went barefoot, and among most 

 tribes women did not customarily wear 

 moccasins. There are two general types 

 of moccasins— those with a rawhide sole 

 sewed to a leather upper, and those with 

 sole and upper consisting of one piece of 

 soft leather with a seam at the instep and 

 heel. The former belongs to the P'astern 

 or timber tribes, the latter to the Western 

 or plains Indians. The Eskimo have soled 

 footwear. The chief causes influencing 

 this distribution are the presence or ab- 

 sence of animalsfurnishingthick rawhide, 

 thecharacterof trails and travel, and tribal 

 usages. The boot or legging moccasin, 



