webb] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NORRIS BASIN 381 



James Needham, to explore the territory of Virginia to the westward 

 beyond the mountains. While much that the servant Gabriel Arthur 

 had to report is of very problematical ethnological value, the agent, 

 James Needham, an older man, evidently of broader education and ex- 

 perience, had opportunity, before being killed by the Indians, to report 

 to his employer the result of his early explorations. The most inter- 

 esting single fact of all the varied details of his report is that, after 

 traveling west by south for some 24 days, they came to a people calling 

 themselves "Tomahitans." 



It is obviously quite impossible, from the nature of this narrative, to 

 definitely locate the habitat of this Indian tribe. However, it is clear 

 that this tribe dwelt on the western slope of the mountains on a stream 

 flowing to the westward and not emptying into the ocean. And they 

 were some 24 days' travel west by south from Virginia. From such 

 vague and uncertain information it may never be possible to do more 

 than guess at the location of this tribe, but it should be pointed out 

 that Norris Basin could very well have been the place where Needham 

 found the "Tomahitans" in 1673. 



Interest in this speculation grows when Swanton identifies this tribe, 

 "the Tamahita", with the Yuchi of early historic times who were closely 

 associated with the Creeks on Tallapoosa River and who later became 

 an important band in the Creek Confederacy. 



In presenting the evidence of the identity of the Tamahita and the 

 Yuchi, Swanton 16 says : 



Last of all, we must not lose sight of the fact that the origin of the Tamahita, 

 like that of the Yuchi, may be traced far north to the Tennessee mountains. It 

 seems rather improbable that a tribe from such a distant country could have 

 settled among the Creeks and, after living in close intimacy with them for so 

 many years, have passed entirely out of existence without any further hint of 

 their affiliation or any more information regarding them. And the fact that they 

 and the Yuchi share so many points in common and appear in the same places, 

 though practically never side by side, must be added to this as constituting strong 

 circumstantial evidence that they were indeed one and the same people. 



While probably no one seriously doubts the correctness of Swanton's 

 identification of the Tamahita and the Yuchi, yet the possible connec- 

 tion between Tamahita and the builders of the small-log town house 

 in Norris Basin, if any, is still to be demonstrated. 



Since the material culture of the Yuchi or the Tamahita is unknown, 

 this suggested possible relationship with the Creeks has for its basis 

 only the fact that this unidentified cultural complex denominated as 

 "small-log town house" is found to occur in the general region of the 

 traditional home of this most problematical of tribal stocks, the Yuchi 

 of the Tennessee mountains, along with the "large-log town-house 

 people," who may be Creeks. 



^ Swanton, 1922, pp. 190-191. 



