MooxEY] LOCAL LEGKNDS OF TENNESSEE 413 



of the creek of the same naiiic in Hainilton county, was incorporated 

 in 1848. So far as is know ii there was no Cherokee settlement at the 

 place, although some prominent men of the tribe lived in the vicinity. 

 The name originally liclongcd to some location upon the creek. The 

 Cherokee pronounce it Tsatanu'gi, but sa}' that it is not a Cherokee 

 word and has no meaning in their language. The best informants 

 express the opinion that it was from the Chickasaw (Choctaw) lan- 

 guage, which seems possible, as the Chickasaw countrj' anciently 

 extended a considerable distance up the Tennessee, the nearest settle- 

 ment being within 80 miles of the present city. The Cherokee some- 

 times call the city A'tla'nuwa', "Tlii'nuwii (Hawk) hole," that being 

 their old name for a bluff on the south side of the river at the foot of 

 the present Market street. Fi'om this circumstance probably origin- 

 ated the statement by a magazine writer that the name Chattanooga 

 signifies "The crow's nest." 



Ciiickamauga: The name of two creeks in Hamilton county, enter- 

 ing Tennessee river from opposite sides a few miles above Chatta- 

 nooga. A creek of the same name is one of the head-sti"eams of Chat- 

 tahoochee river, in White count}', Georgia. The Cherokee pronounce 

 it Tsikama'gi, applying the name in Tennessee to the territory about 

 the mouth of the southern, or principal, stream, where they formerly 

 had a town, from which they removed in 178:^. The}' state, however, 

 that it is not a Cherokee word and has no meaning in their language. 

 Filson. in 17'.>3, erroneously states that it is from the Cherokee language 

 and signifies '"Boiling pot,'' referring to a dangerous whirlpool in 

 the river near by, and later writers have improved upon this by trans- 

 lating it to mean "Whirlpool." The error arises from confound- 

 ing this place with The Suck, a whirlpool in Tennessee river 1.5 miles 

 farther down and known to the Cherokee as Untiguhi', "Pot in the 

 water" (see number 63, '" Untsaiyi', the Gambler"). On account of the 

 hard fighting in the neighborhood during the Civil war, the stream was 

 sometimes called, poetically, "The River of Death," the term being 

 frequently given as a translation of the Indian word. It has been sug- 

 gested that the name is derived from an Algonquian word referring to 

 a fishing or fish-spearing place, in which case it may have originated 

 with the Shawano, who formerly occupied middle Tennessee, and some 

 of whom at a later period resided jointly with the Cherokee in the 

 settlements along this part of the river. If not Shawano it is prob- 

 al)!}' from the Creek or Chickasaw. 



Concerning "Chickamauga gulch," a canyon on the northern stream 

 of that name, a newspaper writer gives the following so-called legend, 

 which it is hardly necessai'y to say is not genuine: 



The CluTukees wcri' a tribe singularly rich in tradition, and of coursje w> wild, 

 gloomy, and reniarkal)lc a spot wa.s not without its legend. The desiendants of the 

 expatriated senii-barliarians believe to this day that in ages gone a great serpent made 



