BILL. 30] 



OPECHANCANOUGH OPELOUSA 



139 



Jova, as nearly 7,000. Hardy (Trav. in 

 Mex.,437, 1829) estimated them at 10,000. 

 They are now so completely civilized that 

 only 44 Opata were recognized as such by 

 the national census of 1900. 



The chief tribal divisions were Opata 

 proper, Eudeve, and Jova. Other divi- 

 sions have been mentioned, as the Segui 

 (Tegui), Teguima, and Coguinachi (Ve- 

 lasco in Bol. Soc. Mex. Geog. Estad., 1st s., 

 X, 705, 1863) ; and Orozco y Berra ( Geog., 

 343, 1864) adds a list of villages included 

 in each. As the divisions last named are 

 merely geographic, without linguistic or 

 ethnic significance, they soon dropped 

 from usage. 



The villages of the Opata proper, so 

 far as known, were: Aconchi, Arizpe, Ba- 

 bispe, Bacuachi, Baquigopa, Baseraca, 

 Batepito, Batesopa, Cabora, Comupatrico, 

 Corazones, Corodeguachi ( Fronteras ) , Cu- 

 chuta, Cuchuveratzi, Distancia, Guepaco- 

 matzi, Huachinera, Huehuerigita, Hue- 

 pac, Jamaica, Los Otates, Metates, Mary- 

 Biche, Mochilagua, Motepori, Nacori, 

 Nacosari, Naideni, Oposura, Oputo, Pivipa, 

 Quitamac, Sahuaripa, Suya, Tamichopa, 

 Tepachi, Terapa, Teras, Teuricachi, Tizo- 

 nazo, Toapara, Ures, Vallecillo, and Ye- 

 cora. For the villages belonging to 

 the other divisions mentioned above, see 

 under their respective names. See also 

 Clvondroco. The principal authority on 

 the Opata during the mission period is the 

 Rudo Ensayo, an anonymous account 

 written by a Jesuit missionary about 1763 

 and published in 1863. (f. w. h.) " 



Joyl-ra-ua. — Bandelier in Arch. Inst. Papers, in, 

 57, 1890; Gilded Man, 176, 1893 (own name). Opa- 

 la.— Ladd, Story of N. Mex.. 34, 1891 (misprint). 

 Opate.— Bartlett. Pers.Narr., i, 444, lS,i4. Opauas. — 

 MS. of 1655 quoted by Bandelier, op. cit., iv. .521, 

 1892. Ore.— Orozco y Berra, Geog., 338, 1864 ( =Ure, 

 used for Opata). Sonora.— Ibid. Tegiiima.— Ibid, 

 (really an Opata dialect). TXre.— Ibid, (doubtless 

 so named becau.se Opata inhabited the greater 

 portion of the partido of Ures). 



Opechancanough. A Powhatan chief, 

 born about 1545, died in 1644. He cap- 

 tured Capt. John Smith shortly after 

 the arrival of the latter in Virginia, and 

 took him to his brother, the head-chief 

 Powhatan (q. v.). Some time after his 

 release, Smith, in order to change the 

 temper of the Indians, who jeered at the 

 starving Englishmen and refused to sell 

 them food, went with a band of his men 

 to Opechancanough' s camp under pre- 

 tense of buying corn, seized the chief by 

 the hair, and at the point of a pistol 

 marched him off a prisoner. The Pa- 

 munkey brought boat-loads of provisions 

 to ransom their chief, who thereafter en- 

 tertained more respect and deeper hatred 

 for the English. While Powhatan lived 

 Opechancanough was held in restraint, 

 but after his brother's death in 1618 he 

 became the dominant leader of the nation, 

 although his other brother, Opitchapar, 



was the nominal head-chief. He plotted 

 the destruction of tlie colony so secretly 

 thatonly one Indian, theChristianChanco, 

 revealed the conspiracy, but too late to 

 save the people of Jamestown, who at a 

 sudden signal were massacred, Mar. 22, 

 1622, by the natives deemed to be entirely 

 friendly. In the period of intermittent 

 hostilities that followed, duplicity and 

 treachery marked tlie actions of both 

 whites and Indians. In the last year of 

 his life, Opechancanough, taking advan- 

 tage of the dissensions of the English, 

 planned their extermination. The aged 

 chief was borne into battle on a litter 

 when the Powhatan, on Apr. 18, 1644, fell 

 upon the settlements and massacred 300 

 persons, then as suddenly desisted and 

 fled far from the colony, frightened })er- 

 haps by some omen. Opechancanough 

 was taken prisoner to Jamestown, where 

 one of his guards treacherously shot him, 

 inflicting a wound of which he subse- 

 quently died. 



Opegoi. The Yurok name of the Karok 

 village oppo^^ite the mouth of Red Cap 

 cr., on Klamath r., n. w. Cal. It was 

 the Karok village farthest downstream.— 

 A. L. Kroel)er, inf'n, 1905. 

 Oppegach.— Gibbs (1851) in Schoolcraft, Ind. 

 Tribes, in, 148, 18.53. Oppegoeh.— Gibbs, MS. 

 Misc., B. A. E., 1852. Oppe-o.— McKee (1851) in 

 Sen. Ex. Doc. 4, 32d Cong., spec, sess., 164, 1853. 

 Oppe-yoh.—Gibbsin Schoolcraft, op. cit., 151. Red- 

 caps. — Gibbs, MS., op. cit. Up-pa-goine. — McKee, 

 op. cit., 194. TTp-pa-goines. — Meyer, Nachdem Sac- 

 ramento, 282, 1855. Up-pah-goines. — McKee, op. 

 cit., 161. 



Opelousa (probably 'black above', i. e. 

 'black hair' or 'Vjlack skull'). A small 

 tribe formerly living in s. Louisiana. It 

 is probable that they were identical with 

 the Onquilouzas of La Harpe, spoken of 

 in 1699 as allied with the Washa and 

 Chaouacha, wandering near the seacoasts, 

 and numbering with those two tribes 200 

 men. This would indicate a more south- 

 erly position than that in which they are 

 afterward found, and Du Pratz, whose in- 

 formation applies to the years between 

 1718 and 1730, locates the Oque-Loussas, 

 evidently the same people, westward and 

 above Pointe Coupee, rather too far to thex. 

 He says that they inhabited the shores of 

 two little lakes which appeared black from 

 the quantity of leaves which covered their 

 bottoms, and received their name, which 

 means ' Black-water jieople ' in Mobilian, 

 from this circumstance. If these were 

 the same as the Opelousas of all later 

 writers it is difficult to understand how 

 the change in name came about, but it is 

 not likely that two tribes with such similar 

 designations occupied the same region, 

 especially as both are never mentioned 

 by one author. When settlers began to 

 push westward from the Mississippi, the 

 district occupied by this tribe came to be 

 called after theni, and the name is still 



