SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SO UTHE ASTERN UNITED STATES 239 



ida, and the extinct Yamasee, who played an important part in the 

 early history of our Southern States. It included also the former 

 inhabitants of that part of the South Carolina coast from Charles- 

 ton to Savannah Kiver and that part of the Georgia coast from 

 Savannah River to St. Andrews Sound, the Coosa of inland South 

 Carolina, a number of small tribes on the Gulf coasts of Miss- 

 sissippi, Alabama, and west Florida, some on the lower course of the 

 Mississippi River itself, some on the upper Yazoo, and at an earlier 

 period several tribes on the Tennessee and a few at least in eastern 

 Arkansas. The Natchez of western Mississippi, and the Taensa and 

 Avoyel, two smaller peoples in neighboring parts of Louisiana, con- 

 stituted a widely varying branch of this stock which probably ex- 

 tended at one time over much more territory toward the north and 

 may well have played a major role in the days when the great 

 mound groups of the lower Mississippi Valley and the Ohio Valley 

 were created. These Natchez seem to have originated in a fusion 

 between Muskhogean peoples and some units from farther west, 

 very likely belonging to the Tunican group. This is rendered all 

 the more likely since we know that one, and perhaps two, bodies 

 of Indians of Tunican stock were living with them when they were 

 discovered. The Creek Confederation also consisted of a number 

 of peoples who were originally distinct, but most of these belonged 

 to the same stock and the exceptions, the Yuchi, a band of Shawnee, 

 and perhaps the Tawasa and Osochi, were very late additions. The 

 upper portion of the Florida Peninsula was occupied by a number 

 of tribes originally classified in an independent family called Timu- 

 quanan (more recently Timucuan). This was connected with the 

 Muskhogean stock, and discovery of a dialect formerly spoken in 

 central Alabama in some measure intermediate between Timucua and 

 the Muskhogean tongues proper indicates that it once had ramifica- 

 tions considerably farther north. (Swanton, 1929). The dialects 

 of south Florida, those spoken by the Calusa, Tekesta, Jeaga, 

 Guacata, and Ais, seem to have been quite different from Timucua, 

 and, if we may judge by the few words preserved from this part of 

 the State, they were nearer to the Muskhogean group proper. In 

 spite of the relative nearness of south Florida to Cuba and the 

 Bahama Islands, the connections of the Floridians appear to have 

 been almost entirely with the north. Fontaneda speaks of a band 

 of Cuban Indians which had crossed to the Calusa country and had 

 been established in a town by themselves by the Calusa chief, but 

 as yet no other evidence of their presence has been detected. (Swan- 

 ton, 1922, pp. 27-81; 1929; Fontaneda (Smith trans.), 1854.) 



Along the Mississippi and immediately west of it, a curious situa- 

 tion confronts us. The Natchez group of languages, differing wide- 



