92 BUREAU OF AMEHICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



APAIiACHICOLA 



This name seems to have been applied originally to a small group 

 of tribes or towns speaking the Hitchiti language and living on the 

 lower course of the Chattahoochee, but the Spaniards used it in a 

 loose way for the Lower Creeks just as the French used the name of the 

 Alabama for the Upper Creeks. However, in documents of 1675 and 

 1686 the word is applied to a single town, and later it is connected 

 either with a town or a small group of towns. In 1690 two Franciscan 

 monks were sent into the Apalachicola territory to begin missionary 

 work, but the Coweta chief would not allow them to remain. In 

 1706 and 1707 Indians in alliance with the English, probably Creeks 

 or Yuchi, attacked the Apalachicola and allied tribes which were then 

 living on and near the Apalachicola River, scattering some and carry- 

 ing off others. The narrative of these expeditions, preserved through 

 the testimony of an Indian named Lamhatty and rescued by the late 

 David I. Bushnell, Jr., gives the names of four towns or tribes which 

 seem to have constituted the Apalachicola Nation at that time. These 

 were Ephippick, Auledly, Socsosky, and Sunepah. They were settled 

 en Savannah River below the Apalachee at a place later known as 

 the Palachocolas or Parachocolas Fort, nearly opposite Mount Pleas- 

 ant. In 1716, as a consequence of the Yamasee War, they moved 

 back to their old country in company with bands of Shawnee and 

 Yuchi, but established their own town at the junction of the Chatta- 

 hoochee and Flint Rivers, at a place long afterward known as Apa- 

 lachicola Fort. Their chief at that time was named Cherokeeleechee, 

 or "Cherokee Killer," a man who conducted many raids against the 

 frontiers of South Carolina. Not many years later a part moved 

 north to join the Lower Creeks and settled on the west side of the 

 Chattahoochee just below a sharp turn which it makes to the east. 

 Cherokeeleechee and the remainder of the people joined them a little 

 later, and even after that the town was moved again a mile and a 

 half higher up the river. According to Bartram, who gives us this 

 information, the second removal would have taken place about 1757. 

 He also tells us that fragments of the tribe moved east and south, 

 some of them adding their strength to the nascent Seminole. Accord- 

 ing to one tradition, the Creek Confederation was initiated through 

 a treaty of peace between the Muskogee and Apalachicola, and the 

 importance of this town was indicated by the name Talwa lako, or 

 "Big Town," which they gave to it. It seems to have been the origi- 

 nal White town of the Lower Creeks, as stated by Hawkins, until its 

 place was taken by Kasihta. After their removal from the country, 

 most Apalachicola settled near the present Okmulgee, Okla. 



Apalachicola population. — The Apalachicola who were placed on 

 Savannah River numbered in 1715, just before the outbreak of the 



