Date published: 1922-01-01
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors (ID121)
Author: Swanton, John (ID85)
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Race described: Indian
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Content id: 2490
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1706-11-20 - 1706-11-20

Two hundred Chatot migrated to from Apalachicola to Mobileedit

On the 20th [of November 1706] two hundred Chanta [Chatot?] arrived [in Mobile] with four slaves and thirteen scalps of Cahouitas and Hiltatamahans.1 (La Harpe quoted in Swanton) Bienville's account of the Chatot migration to the neighborhood of Mobile and its causes has already been given.2 It seems strange that La Harpe nowhere mentions it, but from what Bienville tells us, it is apparent that it followed upon the attack of which news had reached Mobile January 7, 1706. The Lamhatty narrative merely says that three "nations" of the Tawasa were destroyed first, and that in a second expedition in the spring of 1707 four more were swept away.3 Penicaut, usually much inferior to La Harpe in his record of events, describes the removal at some length, though he places it in the year 1708, at least two years too late. He says: "Some days afterward, the Chactas, who were a nation repelled from the domination of the Spaniards, arrived at Mobile with their women and children and begged MM. d'Artaguiette and de Bienville to give them a place in which to make their dwelling. Lands were assigned them at a place lower down on the right, on the shore of the bay, in a great arm about a league in circuit. It is still called to-day l'Anse des Chactas."4 Hamilton says that this Anse des Chactas extended "from our Choctaw Point west around Garrow's Bend." He adds: "They occupied the site of the present city of Mobile and were its first inhabitants... When Bienville selected this very ground for new Mobile he had to recompense these Choctaws with land on Dog River. Maps of 1717 and later show them on the south side of that stream, sometimes near the bay, sometimes several miles up." He notes that their name seems to survive in the Choctaw Point just mentioned and in an adjacent swamp known as Choctaw Swamp. Hamilton also cites several entries referring to members of this tribe in the baptismal registers between 1708 and 1729, but one or two of these may be true Mississippi Choctaw, since Hamilton fails to distinguish the two peoples.5 (Swanton)

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