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SC Indian trade board proposed a way for the Chiaha to return to the Yamasee from the Creeks
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121
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THE CHIAHA The Chiaha were a more prominent tribe and evidently much larger than [Osochi]. While the significance of their name is unknown it recalls the Choctaw chaha, "high," "height," and this would be in harmony with the situation in which part of the tribe was first encountered northward near the mountains of Tennessee. There is also a Cherokee place name which superficially resembles this, but should not be confounded with it. It is written by Mooney Tsiyahi and signifies "Otter place." One settlement so named formerly existed on a branch of the Keowee River, near the present Cheohee, Oconee County, South Carolina; another in Cades Cove, on Cove Creek, in Blount County, Tennessee; and a third, still occupied, about Robbinsville, in Graham County, North Carolina.2 As a matter of fact we know from later history that there were at least two Chiahas in very early times—one as above indicated and a second among the Yamasee. In discussing the Cusabo I have already spoken of the possibility that the Kiawa of Ashley River were a third group of Chiaha, and will merely note the point again in passing.' That there were Chiaha among the Yamasee is proved by a passage in the manuscript volume of proceedings of the board dealing with the Indian trade of Carolina. There we find it recorded that in 1713 an agent of this board among the Lower Creeks proposed that a way be prepared that "the Cheehaws who were formerly belonging to the Yamassees and now settled among the Creeks might return." This seems to be confirmed by the presence of a Chehaw River in South Carolina between the Edisto and Combahee, though it is possible that that received its name from the Kiawa. (Swanton)
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