S WANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNiITED STATES 127 



of the Creeks." There is no certain mention of it in the earlier 

 Spanish documents. In the spring of 1540, after leaving the Apa- 

 lachee country, De Soto passed through a province and towns, prob- 

 ably on Flint River, to which the names Chisi, Ichisi, and Achese 

 are given. Since Otci'si is the Hitchiti word applied particularly 

 to the Muskogee, and the Spaniards seem to have visited a Hitchiti- 

 speaking tribe just before, it is possible that the Creeks living here 

 were the Coweta. Another possibility is that they were the Indians 

 of Cofitachequi. Elsewhere (p. 143) I have identified these with the 

 Kasihta, and there are strong arguments for doing so, but reference to 

 a Casiste town on Alabama River, which the Spaniards passed in the 

 fall of the same year, may mean that the Kasihta were originally west 

 of their sister tribe instead of being east of them as represented in 

 all later tradition. Before South Carolina was founded, the Coweta 

 seem to have lived on Chattahoochee River and to have moved from 

 there to the Ocmulgee in order to be nearer the English traders. 

 After the Yamasee War in 1715 they returned to the Chattahoochee, 

 settling first, it would seem, on the west side a little above Fort 

 Mitchell, where in after years, was a noted branch town known as 

 Thlikatcka, or "Broken Arrow," though Broken Arrow was at an ear- 

 lier date 12 miles below Kasihta. Later they moved higher up and 

 settled a little below the falls. In 1799 there was a branch village 

 called Wetumka on the main fork of Uchee Creek, 12 miles north- 

 west of the main town. The census taken in 1832-33 gives five 

 Coweta villages besides the people of Broken Arrow, who were then 

 divided between two settlements. The Coweta were always very 

 friendly to the whites, sided actively with them during the Creek War 

 of 1813-14, and agreed in 1825 to a treaty of removal. For this last 

 act, the Coweta head man, William Mcintosh, was killed on May 1, 

 1825, by a party of warriors sent for that purpose. After the re- 

 moval, the Coweta Indians settled on the Arkansas near the present 

 town of Coweta. For a time they also retained their premier posi- 

 tion, but, like most of the other Lower Creeks, they gave up their 

 ancient customs and separate existence more readily than the in- 

 habitants of the Upper Towns. 



Coweta population. — ^We find the following estimates of the num- 

 ber of Coweta warriors in eighteenth century sources: 132 in 1738, 

 80+ in 1750, 150 in 1760, and 130 in 1761. In 1772 Taitt gives 220 

 gunmen in "Coweta, Little Coweta, and Bigskin Creek," and in 1792 

 Marbury reports 280 in Coweta and its villages. According to 

 Hawkins, in 1799 there were 66 gunmen in Coweta Tallahassee and 

 its villages by actual count. The census of 1832-33 gives 896 Indians 

 in the 5 Coweta settlements and 1,082 in those of Broken Arrow, 

 but this last should probably be reduced to 438, giving a total Coweta 

 population of 1,334. 



