SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTEiRN UNITED STATES 27 



were Creeks. One stage in the movement of the Tukabahchee can be 

 traced from Tukabahchee Oldtown in the upper part of the Talla- 

 poosa country to the great bend of the Tallapoosa River, where the 

 site has now been provided with a marker (Swanton, 1922, pp. 277- 

 282). The Muskogee language also shows by the breakdown of cer- 

 tain of its forms considerable contact with quite divergent tongues 

 not likely to have been brought about in the midst of Muskhogean 

 territory. That one of the languages influencing them belonged to 

 the Algonquian stock is indicated by the fact that pinwa^ the Creek 

 word for "turkey", was quite certainly adopted from an Algonquian 

 dialect. The word meaning "bear" and probably that for "raccoon" 

 show early contacts with the Tunica, Caddo, and perhaps other west- 

 ern tongues. It would seem that the Muskogee must have moved from 

 some region on or near the Mississippi not long anterior to the ap- 

 pearance of the Spaniards (Swanton, 1931). 



Historical evidence for movements of the tribes of the Alabama 

 group is much fuller. In 1541 De Soto found some of the Alabama 

 themselves a few miles west of the Chickasaw town in which he had 

 passed the winter (Bourne, 1904, vol. 1, pp. 108-109 ; vol. 2, pp. 24, 136) . 

 This was nearly 200 miles northwest of their later home about the 

 present Montgomery, Ala. There is practically no doubt that the 

 Coste, Costehe, or Acoste of De Soto's chroniclers was the Koasati 

 town later found by English and French traders at the very same 

 point, i. e., on Pine Island in the Tennessee River, and from them the 

 name of the latter stream often appears as "the River of the Cussa- 

 tees" (Swanton, 1922, pp. 201-207). While they were still living 

 there, but probably late in the seventeenth century, they were joined 

 by a tribe which there is every reason to suppose was of kindred origin 

 and tongue, the Kaskinampo or Casquinampo. This was without any 

 reasonable doubt the Casqui or Casquin encountered by De Soto 

 almost immediately after he crossed the Mississippi River. They 

 were then in what is now Arkansas not far from the site of Helena. 

 Their affinities with the Koasati are indicated by the second compon- 

 ent of the name, nampo, which has a plural signification in the Koasati 

 tongue. In the references to the tribe by Ranjel, Elvas, and Biedma 

 we find proof either that they belonged to the Muskhogean stock or 

 that the name was obtained through Muskhogean interpreters. The 

 final 71, sometimes introduced and sometimes omitted, is evidently the 

 common Muskhogean dative ending, and Icasqui, which Biedma uses, 

 as evidently contains the possessive prefix of the third person. Finally, 

 some later maps call both of the Pine Island towns towns of the "Cusa- 

 tees," that is Koasati, and Adair informs us that the strength of the 

 Creek Confederation had been increased by his time by the addition 

 of "two great towns of the Koo-a-sah-te" ( Swanton, 1930) . As appears 



