BULL. 30J 



MU8KE(i MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY 



961 



Mus. 1895; Brown in Am. Anthrop., viii, 

 no. 4, 1906; Cringan, Iroquois Folk-songs, 

 Archteol. Rep. Provin. Mus., Toronto, 

 1902; Curtis, Songs of Ancient America, 

 1905; Gushing in Millstone, x, Jan. 1885; 

 Dixon in Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., xvii, 

 pt. 3, 1905; Farrand, Basis of American 

 History, 1904; Fillmore in Am. Anthrop., 

 n. s., 1, 1899; Fletcher ( 1 ) in Pub. Peabody 

 Mus., I, no, V, (2) Indian Story and Song, 

 1900; Hoffman in 7th Rep. B. A. E., 1891; 

 Hough in Am. Anthrop., xi, no. 5, 1897; 

 Hrdlicka, ibid., n. s., vii, no. 8, 1905, and 



VIII, no. 1, 1906; Lumholtz, Unknown 

 Mexico, 1, 475, 1902; Matthews, (l)Navaho 

 Legends, 1897, (2) Night Chant, Memoirs 

 Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Anthrop. ser., v, 

 1902; Mooney in 14th Rep. B. A. E., 1896; 

 Sammelbande der InternationalenMusik- 

 gesellschaft; Stumpf in Vierteljahrsschrift 

 fiirMusikwissenschaft; Voth in Field Co- 

 lumb. Mus. Pub., Anthrop. ser., iii, vi, 

 1901, 1903; Wallaschek, Primitive Music, 

 1893; Willoughby in Am. Anthrop., n. s., 



IX, no. 1, 1907. (a. c. f. ) 

 Muskeg (Chippewa, inuskig; Kickapoo, 



maskydgi, 'grassy bog.' — W. J.). Low, 

 wet land; a quagmire, marsh, swamp, 

 the equivalent of savane in Canadian 

 French. A word much used in parts of 

 Ontario, the Canadian Northwest, and 

 the adjoining regions of the United States; 

 spelled also inaskeg. In the N. W. muskeg 

 is tlie usual form. (a. f. c.) 



Muskelunge. See Maskinonge. 



Muskhogean Family. An important 

 linguistic stock, comprising the Creeks, 

 Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and 

 other tribes. The name is an adjectival 

 form of Muskogee, properly Mdskoki (pi. 

 Maskokalgi or Muscogulgee ) . Its deriva- 

 tion has been attributed to an Algonquian 

 term signifying ' swamp ' or ' oi)en marshy 

 land' (see Muskeg), but this is almost cer- 

 tainly incorrect. The Muskhogean tribes 

 were confined chiefly to the Gulf states e. 

 of the Mississippi, occupying almost all 

 of Mississippi and Alabama, and parts 

 of Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and South 

 Carolina. According to a tradition held 

 in common b}' most of their tribes, they 

 had reached their historic seats from .some 

 starting point w. of the Mississippi, usually 

 jilaced, when localized at all, somewhere 

 on the upper Red r. The greater part of 

 the tribes of the stock are now on reserva- 

 tions in Oklahoma. 



Through one or another of its tribes 

 the stock early came into notice. Panfilo 

 de Narvaez met the Apalachee of w. Flor- 

 ida in 1528, and in 1540-41 De Soto 

 passed e. and w. through the whole ex- 

 tent of the Muskhogean territory. Mis- 

 sion effort was begun among them by the 

 Spanish Franciscans at a very early 

 period, with such success that before the 

 year 1700, besides several missions in 



Bull. 30— 05 61 



lower Georgia, the whole x^palachee tribe, 

 an important single body, was civilized 

 and Christianized, and settled in 7 large 

 and well-built towns (see Missiovs. ) The 

 establishmenfof the French at Mobile, 

 Biloxi, and other points about 1699-1705 

 brought them into contact with the Choc- 

 taw and other western branches of the 

 stock. The powerful Ci'eek confederacy 

 had its most intimate contact with the 

 English of Carolina and Georgia, although 

 a French fort was long established in the 

 territory of theAlibamu. The Chickasaw 

 also were allies of the F^nglish, while the 

 Choctaw were uncertain friends of the 

 French. The devotion of the Apalachee 

 to the Spaniard!^ resulted in the destruc- 

 tion of the former as a people at the 

 hands of the English and their Indian 

 allies in the first years of the 18th cen- 

 tury. The tide of white settlement, both 

 English and French, gradually pressed 

 the Muskhogean tribes back from the 

 shores of the Atlantic and the Gulf, some 

 bands recrossing to the \v. of the Missis- 

 sippi as early as 1765. The terrible Creek 

 war in 1813-14 and the long drawn-out 

 Seminole war 20 years later closed the 

 struggle to maintain themselves in their 

 old territories, and before the year 1840 

 the last of the Muskhogean tribes had 

 been removed to their present location in 

 Oklahoma, with the exception of a few 

 hundred Seminole in Florida, a larger 

 number of Choctaw in Mississippi, Ala- 

 bama, and Louisiana, and a small forgot- 

 ten Creek remnant in e. Texas. (See the 

 several triljal articles.) 



There existed between the tribes marked 

 dissimilarities as to both physical and 

 cultural characteristics. For instance, 

 the Choctaw were rather thickset and 

 heavy, while those farther e. , as the 

 Creeks, were taller but well-knit. All 

 the tribes were agricultural and sed- 

 entary, occupying villages of substan- 

 tially built houses. The towns near the 

 tribal frontiers were usually palisaded, 

 while those more remote from invasion 

 were left unprotected. All were brave, 

 but the Choctaw claimed to fight only in 

 self-defense, while the Creeks, and more 

 particularly the Chickasaw, were ag- 

 gressive. The Creeks were properly a 

 confederacy, with the Muskogee as the 

 dominant partner, and including also in 

 later years the alien Yuchi, the Natchez, 

 and a part of the Shawnee. The Choctaw 

 also formed a loose confederacy, including 

 among others several broken tribes of 

 alien stock. 



In their government the Muskhogean 

 tribes appear to have made progress cor- 

 responding to their somewhat advanced 

 culture in other respects. In the Creek 

 government, which is better known than 

 that of the other tribes of the family, the 



