S WANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 115 



1907 Mooney gave an estimate of 25,000 in the entire tribe, but the 

 census of 1910 increased this to 31,489 and that of 1930 to 45,238. 



CHIAHA 



A tribe associated, in its later years at least, with the Creek Con- 

 federation. These Indians probably spoke a dialect very close to 

 Hitchiti and are said to have separated from the Yamasee, though 

 this may imply only former geographical contiguity and of only a 

 part of the tribe. Considerable confusion has been occasioned by the 

 fact that there appear to have been two sections of this tribe in the 

 sixteenth century. The name first appears in the De Soto narratives 

 applied to a "province" on an island in Tennessee River, which Brame 

 has identified satisfactorily with Burns Island, close to the Tennessee- 

 Alabama line. They were said to be "subject to a chief of Coga," 

 from which it may perhaps be inferred that the Creek Confederacy 

 was already in existence. Early in 1567 Boyano, Pardo's lieutenant, 

 reached this town with a small body of soldiers and constructed a fort 

 where Pardo joined him in September. When Pardo returned to 

 Santa Elena shortly afterward, he left a small garrison here which was 

 later destroyed by the Indians, and that is the last we hear of this 

 northern band of Chiaha. From Daniel Coxe, however, we learn that 

 the Tallapoosa was sometimes called "River of the Chiaha," and an 

 eastern affluent of the Coosa is known as Chehawhaw Creek, so named 

 as early as the end of the eighteenth century. In the census of Creek 

 Indians taken in 1832-33 are listed two bodies of Upper Creeks called 

 respectively "Chehaw" and "Chearhaw," but it is more likely that they 

 received their names from the creek above-mentioned than that they 

 represented any survival of the northern Chiaha. In 1727 a tradition 

 survived among the Cherokee that the Yamasee were formerly Chero- 

 kee driven out by the Tomahitans, i. e., the Yuchi., and in this there 

 may be some reminiscence of what happened to the Chiaha. 



In the Pardo narratives the name Lameco or Solameco is given as a 

 synonym for Chiaha. This is probably intended for Tolameco, which 

 would be the Creek equivalent for "Chief Town." It will be recalled 

 that this was the name of a large abandoned settlement visited by 

 De Soto and close to Cofitachequi in the middle course of the Savannah 

 River. Since we know that Chiaha were also in this region, it is a fair 

 supposition that the Savannah town had been occupied by people 

 of the same connection. There is a Chehaw River on the coast of 

 South Carolina between the Edisto and Combahee, and as Chiaha is 

 used once as an equivalent for Kiawa, possibly the Cusabo tribe of 

 that name on Ashley River may be brought into the picture. In 1713 

 we are informed that the Chiaha who were then with the Creeks on 

 Ocmulgee River, had had their homes formerly among the Yamasee. 



