S WANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 167 



there was a distinct settlement of the tribe called Thlathlogalga, or 

 "Fish Pond," on a small affluent of Elkhatchee, a western branch of the 

 Tallapoosa. The name was also given to a Square Ground in Okla- 

 homa, founded in consequence of a separation brought about by the 

 Civil War. Another Okchai branch was known as Asilanabi, or 

 "Green Leaf." It was founded some time before 1792, and, as in the 

 case of Fish Pond, there is a later Square Ground of this name in Okla- 

 homa not far from the Fish Pond ground and brought into existence 

 also by the forces to which the latter owed its origin. Hatchet Creek, 

 or "Potcas hatchee," claimed as another branch, was in existence in 

 Hawkins' time (1799) and maintained itself until the period of the 

 emigration, when it probably united with the main body of Okchai. 

 After the removal the Okchai reestablished their Square Ground near 

 Hanna, Okla., at a site occupied down to the present day. A part of 

 these people joined the Seminole in Florida, but we have only a bare 

 mention of them. 



Okchai population, — In 1738 the Okchai settlements proper were 

 estimated to contain 200 men ; in 1750, more than 80 ; in 1760, 130 ; in 

 1761, 125. In 1792 Marbury gives 200 in Okchai, 140 in Thlathlo- 

 galga, 30 in Asilanabi and a town called Pilthlako, and 15 in Potcas 

 hatchee. The census of 1832-33 gives the total population of Okchai 

 as 493, Thlathlogalga as 313, Asilanabi as 181, and two towns on 

 Potcas hatchee Creek as 388, a grand total of 1,375. 



OKELOUSA 



(Signifying "Black Water" in Choctaw) 



A small tribe living west of the lower course of the Mississippi in 

 the early part of the eighteenth century. According to the Creek 

 migration legend related to Oglethorpe by Chekilli, the ancestors of 

 the Muskogee Indians stopped at one time during their movement 

 east on a creek called "Caloose Creek," which is probably intended 

 for Okalusa or Okeloosa Creek. In 1541 the Spaniards under De Soto, 

 while they were in the Chickasaw country, learned of a province 

 known as "Caluga," in which we again find Okalusa, said to contain 

 "more than ninety villages not subject to anyone, with a savage popu- 

 lation, very warlike and much dreaded," and occupying a fertile 

 land. These references may be to the tribe in question before they 

 crossed the Mississippi, but on the other hand, since we also find the 

 name bestowed on a territory west of the Mississippi by Biedma and 

 much farther north, it may be a general appellation for occupants of 

 certain alluvial lands along the Mississippi or its tributaries. In 

 1682 the Okelousa appear as allies of the Houma in the destruction 

 of a village of the Tangipahoa Indians on the east bank of the Mis- 

 sissippi, and La Harpe informs us that they were a wandering people 



