SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTEiRN UNITED STATES 25 



In general, it may be said that these traditions are borne out by 

 historical and circumstantial evidence. Were that not the case, we 

 should be justified in maintaining a highly skeptical attitude toward 

 them. 



Reverting to the Muskogee, the tribe with which this discussion 

 began, it is first to be noted that the longest and earliest origin myth 

 which has survived, the legend told to Governor Oglethorpe by the 

 Kasihta chief Chekilli, not only gives the general line of migration, 

 but locates a number of places along the route which can be definitely 

 placed. They came first to a muddy river and then to a red river, 

 which cannot be identified, though some writers have seen in them 

 the Mississippi and Red Rivers, respectively, in spite of the inverse 

 order in which they were reached. Next they crossed a creek called 

 Coloose-hutche, and continued east to a town named Coosaw. As 

 Coosaw or Coosa was a well-known town located until very late times 

 on the east bank of Coosa River between the mouths of Talladega 

 and Tallaseehatchee Creeks, this point is determined with some- 

 thing approaching certainty. West of it lay the Black Warrior River, 

 and beyond, the country of the Chickasaw. Hutche is simply the 

 Creek word for "river" or "creek" and, indeed, it is so translated im- 

 mediately afterward in the original story. Coloose is said to have 

 been so named "because it was rocky there and smoked," but this is a 

 far-fetched attempt to interpret the name in Creek, and its form 

 along with the fact that this creek lay in the direction of the Chick- 

 asaw country indicates pretty clearly that it is intended for the 

 Chickasaw or Choctaw name Okalusa, "Black Water." (Gatschet, 

 1888, pp. 41-51; Swanton, 1928, pp. 34-38.) The Ranjel narrative 

 of the De Soto expedition tells us that, when the Spaniards reached 

 the Chickasaw country, the Chickasaw chief gave them guides and 

 interpreters "to go to Caluca, a place of much repute among the In- 

 dians." He goes on to say that "Caluga is a province of more than 

 ninety villages not subject to any one, with a savage population very 

 warlike and much dreaded, and the soil is fertile in that section." 

 (Bourne, 1904, vol. 2, p. 132.) 



They did not go there, however, unfortunately for us. A "Black 

 Water" province is mentioned by the chroniclers Biedma and Elvas 

 somewhere in northeastern Arkansas, apparently having nothing to 

 do with the above, and in the early part of the eighteenth century we 

 hear of a small Okalusa tribe on the west side of the Mississippi 

 River below the Red (Bourne, 1904, vol. 1, p. 128; vol. 2, p. 30). As 

 the name is fairly common, this last might or might not represent a 

 remnant of the tribe to which Ranjel refers. Brinton suggested an 

 identification of Chekilli 's Coloose with the Black Warrior (Gatschet, 

 1884, p. 64) and it is possible that the Moundville people, who must 



