32 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



We will now attempt to put these data together in such a way as 

 to make a coherent story. We may suppose that people with western 

 affiliations, represented in later times by the Tunican groups, ex- 

 tended over much of the lower course of the Mississippi River. East 

 of them were perhaps the Muskhogean tribes, one branch of whom, 

 later represented by the Natchez and their allies, pushed in upon the 

 river, forcing the Chitimacha and Atakapa south and west and the 

 Tunica north. East of the Natchez were perhaps the Choctaw and 

 beyond them the ancestors of the Alabama and Hitchiti. The former 

 remained about where they were, but the latter spread east, some 

 up the Tennessee and others down across the Coosa, Tallapoosa, and 

 Apalachicola until they reached the Atlantic coast and pushed along 

 it as far as the present Charleston, dividing as they went into the 

 various tribes mentioned. Still north of this group on the Miss- 

 issippi were the Muskogee, who followed their southern relatives 

 toward the east, pushing down between tribes belonging to that group 

 so that some were left on the Tennessee while others were forced on 

 toward the south and east. To the east of the Muskogee were the 

 Timucua, who shared a similar clan system. They were pushed on- 

 ward into Florida, approaching it from the northeast, and extend- 

 ing up the St. Johns River. In the meantime some tribes of the 

 Hitchiti or Apalachee groups had worked their way down into 

 Florida to the very end, and they were subsequently cut off from 

 their nearer relatives by the Timucua coming across from the east 

 coast of the peninsula. The Muskogee, Tunica, and Caddo had been 

 in contact with one another somewhere in Arkansas, but, after the 

 Muskogee went east, the Tunica moved south and the Caddo south- 

 w^est. In the meantime certain tribes along the northern or north- 

 eastern fringe of the Muskhogeans became specialized into the Siouan 

 dialectic groups, that represented by the Catawba being intermediate 

 probably and retaining contact with the Muskhogeans for a longer 

 period. The Caddoan stock was probably spread farther east and 

 the southern representatives of it farther north, where it is possible 

 they were in contact with the Iroquoian tribes lying south of the 

 Algonquians around the Great Lakes and north of the Siouans. It 

 is possible that the Iroquois, Caddo proper, and Muskogee were once 

 in intimate contact with one another along the Mississippi in the 

 region of the Middle Mississippi area, from which contact they may 

 all have derived their clan organizations with female descent. The 

 Siouan people were perhaps split into eastern and western sections 

 by the Algonquians moving south, but this process may have been 

 begun by the Iroquoians at an earlier date. On the other hand, it 

 is possible that the Iroquoian peoples entered the eastern part of the 

 United States before any Siouans moved northwest and indeed the 

 latter may have cut the Iroquois and Caddo apart. 



