28 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Buix. 137 



from the Delgado narrative, the first movement of these people pre- 

 ceded 1686 (Boyd, 1937). Leaving a fraction of the tribe on the Ten- 

 nessee, which afterward settled near Gunter's Landing, the remainder 

 established themselves close to the junction of the Coosa and Talla- 

 poosa where a post village still perpetuates the name (S wanton, 1922, 

 pp. 201-207). 



The Tuskegee came from the same general region and settled near 

 the Koasati at the very point where the Coosa and Tallapoosa come 

 together. The "Tasqui" village which De Soto's army passed through 

 m northern Alabama, on its way from the Tennessee to the Coosa, 

 probably belonged to this tribe, and a few years later two soldiers 

 sent by Juan Pardo from the Tennessee River to Coosa found near 

 Tasqui a second settlement named "Tasquiqui." At a later date part 

 of these Tuskegee moved up the Tennessee and made a permanent 

 home among the Cherokee while the rest settled among the Creeks, as 

 has just been stated (Swanton, 1922, pp. 207-211) . 



The Hitchiti language, while distinct from Alabama and Koasati, 

 was nearer to them than to any other known dialects, and therefore it 

 should not surprise us to find the Hitchiti and Alabama groups more 

 or less associated. The Pawokti and Tawasa, though the latter did 

 in fact speak a Timucua dialect, lived at the opening of the eighteenth 

 century on or near the Apalachicola Indians in close contact with some 

 tribes which afterward joined the Apalachicola, a Hitchiti group. 

 In 1540 De Soto encountered a tribe known as Chiaha on an island in 

 Tennessee River. They remained in this place over a quarter of a 

 century longer, as we know from the Pardo documents, and it is prob- 

 able that they moved from there to the Talladega country where a 

 creek bears the name Chehawhaw, which Coxe extends to the Talla- 

 poosa itself. A suggestion of Hitchiti-speaking Indians in the north- 

 west is contained in the Louvigny map which is attributed to the year 

 1697. This shows a town on Yazoo River which seems to bear a variant 

 of the name Sawokli. It has been barbarized by Coxe as "Samboukia," 

 and has been preserved down to the present day in the designation of 

 Sabougla Creek, a southern affluent of the Yalobusha. There is little 

 doubt that some of the Hitchiti tribes were in southern Georgia before 

 the Muskogee arrived, but the facts just cited point to a distribution 

 from the west and north at a not very remote period (Swanton, 1922, 

 pp. 137-141, 172-178; 1930; French, 1851, p. 59). We have no hint 

 regarding an earlier home of the Apalachee other than that furnished 

 by their language, which resembles Hitchiti and Choctaw, the latter 

 most closely to all appearance. The Hitchiti believed the Yamasee to 

 be related to themselves, and there are indications that the Cusabo 

 were connected with both. 



There is reason to think that some, at least, of the small Choctaw- 

 speaking tribes of the lower Mississippi and its neighborhood were 



