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De Soto was helped by the Tali Indians on the Tennessee River
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121
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TENNESSEE RIVER TRIBES OF UNCERTAIN RELATIONSHIP We have had occasion to notice several tribes or portions of tribes in the valley of the Tennessee or even farther north whose history is in some way bound up with that of the better-known peoples of the Creek Confederacy. Thus the Tamahita came from the upper Tennessee or one of its branches, part of the Koasati and part of the Tuskegee were on the Tennessee, and there are indications that the same was true of part of the Tamali. Perhaps another case of the kind is furnished by the Oconee.2 Still another people divided into a northern and southern band were the Yuchi, whose principal residence was Savannah River, but part of whom were on the Tennessee. There were, however, two tribes in the north not certainly represented among the southern Muskhogeans and not certainly Muskhogean, but of sufficient importance in connection with the general problem of southern tribes to receive notice here. One of these was the Tali, a tribe which appears first in the De Soto narratives. It is not mentioned by Biedma or Garcilasso, and Elvas gives it but scant attention,4 but from what Ranjel says it was evidently of some importance. His account is as follows: "Friday, July 9 [1540], the commander and his army departed from Coete and crossed the other branch of the river and passed the night on its banks. And on the other side was Tali, and since the river flows near it and is large, they were not able to cross it. And the Indians, believing that they would cross, sent canoes and in them their wives and sons and clothes from the other side; but they were all taken suddenly, and as they were going with the current, the governor forced them all to turn back, which was the reason that this chief came in peace and took them across to the other side in his canoes, and gave the Christians what they had need of. And he did this also in his own land as they passed through it afterwards, and they set out Sunday and passed the night in the open country. "Monday they crossed a river and slept in the open country. Tuesday they crossed another river and slept at Tasqui. During all the days of their march from Tali the chief of Tali had corn and mazamorras and cooked beans, and everything that could be brought from his villages bordering the way."1 The Tali now disappear from sight and are not heard of again until late in the 17th century, when they are found in approximately the same position as 150 years earlier.2 (Swanton)
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