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A Kasihta chief settled some Yuchi on the Chattahoochee
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121
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After the establishment of a Yuchi settlement on the Chattahoochee by Chief Ellick of the Kasihta, in the year 1729, as will be detailed below, they began to make their permanent residence more and more among the Creeks, using their old territories principally for hunting. Although the white settlers naturally coveted these lands, left vacant for so much of the time, Governor Oglethorpe restrained them and preserved the territory inviolate until after 1740. Not many years later they had been practically given over by the Yuchi themselves. Two very good descriptions of the Yuchi town on the Chattahoochee have been preserved to us—one by Bartram and one by Hawkins. It stood at the mouth of the present Big Uchee Creek. Bartram, who passed through the place in 1778, says of it: "The Uche town is situated in a low ground immediately bordering on the river; it is the" largest, most compact, and best situated Indian town I ever saw; the habitations are large and neatly built; the walls of the houses are constructed of a wooden frame, then lathed and plastered inside and out with a reddish well-tempered clay or mortar, which gives them the appearance of red brick walls; and these houses are neatly covered or roofed with Cypress bark or shingles of that tree. The town appeared to be populous and thriving, full of youth and young children. I suppose the number of inhabitants, men, women and children, might amount to one thousand or fifteen hundred, as it is said they are able to muster five hundred gunmen or warriors. Their own national language is altogether or radically different from the Creek or Muscogulge tongue, and is called the Savanna or Savanuca tongue; I was told by the traders it was the same with, or a dialect of the Shawanese. They are in confederacy with the Creeks, but do not mix with them; and on account of their numbers and strength, are of importance enough to excite and draw upon them the jealousy of the whole Muscogulge confederacy, and are usually at variance, yet are wise enough to unite against a common enemy, to support the interest and glory of the general Creek confederacy."1 Of course the Shawnee and Yuchi languages are radically distinct. Bartram was led into the error of supposing a relation to subsist between them by the fact that the two tribes were on very intimate terms, were mixed together, and both spoke languages quite different from Creek.2 Hawkins's description follows: "U-chee: is on the right bank of Chat-to-ho-che, ten and a half miles below Cow-e-tuh tal-lau-has-see, on a flat of rich land, with hickory, oak, blackjack, and long-leaf pine; the flat extends from one to two miles back from the river. Above the town, and bordering on it, Uchee Creek, eighty-five [Note: The Lib. Cong. MS. has "45."] feet wide, joins the river. Opposite the town house, on the left bank of the river, there is a narrow strip of flat land from fifty to one hundred yards wide, then high pine barren hills; these people speak a tongue different from the Creeks; they were formerly settled in small villages at Ponpon, Saltketchers (Sol-ke-chuh), Silver Bluff, and O-ge-chee, and were continually at war with the Cherokees, Ca-tau-bau, and Creeks. "In the year 1729, an old chief of Cussetuh, called by the white people Captain Ellick, married three Uchee women, and brought them to Cussetuh, which was greatly disliked by his towns people; their opposition determined him to move from Cussetuh; he went down opposite where the town now is, and settled with his three brothers; two of whom had Uchee wives; he, after this, collected all the Uchees, gave them the land where their town now is, and there they settled. "These people are more civil and orderly than their neighbors; their women are more chaste, and the men better hunters; they retain all their original customs and laws, and have adopted none of the Creeks; they have some worm fences in and about their town, but very few peach trees. They have lately begun to settle out in villages, and are industrious, compared with their neighbors; the men take part in the labors of the women, and are more constant in their attachment to their women than is usual among red people. The number of gun men is variously estimated; they do not exceed two hundred and fifty, including all who are settled in villages, of which they have three. "1st. In-tuch-cul-gau; from in-tuch-ke, a dam across water [a "cut off"]; andul-gau, all; applied to beaver dams. This is on Opil-thluc-co, twenty-eight miles from its junction with Flint River. This creek is sixty feet wide at its mouth, one and a half miles above Timothy Barnard's; the land bordering on the creek, up to the village, is good. Eight miles below the village the good land spreads out for four or five miles on both sides of the creek, with oaky woods (Tuck-au-mau-pa-fau); the range is fine for cattle; cane grows on the creeks, and reeds on all the branches. They have fourteen families in the village; their industry is increasing; they built a square in 1798, which serves for their town house; they have a few cattle, hogs, and horses.1 "2d. Pad-gee-li-gau [padjilaiga]; from pad-jee, a pidgeon; and ligau, sit; pidgeon roost. This was formerly a large town, but broken up by Benjamin Harrison and his associates, who murdered sixteen of their gun men in Georgia; it is on the right bank of Flint River, and this creek, adjoining the river; the village takes its name from the creek ; it is nine miles below the second falls of the river;2 these falls are at the island's ford, where the path now crosses from Cussetuh to Fort Wilkinson; the village is advantageoulsy situated ; the land is rich, the range good for cattle and hogs ; the swamp is more than three miles through, on the left bank of the river, and is high and good canebrake; on the right bank, it is one mile through, low and flat; the cane, sassafras, and sumach, are large ; this extensive and valuable swamp extends down on one side or the other of the river for twelve miles. They have but a few families there, notwithstanding it is one of the best situations the Indians possess, for stock, farming, and fish. Being a frontier, the great loss they sustained in having sixteen of their gun men murdered discourages them from returning. [Note: "18 miles above Timothy Barnard's and 9 miles below the old horse path, the first rock falls in the river. "—Hawkins, in Oa. Hist. Soc. Colls., ix, p. 171.] "3d. Toc-co-gul-egau (tad pole) [toki ulga, tadpole place]; a small settlement on Kitcho-foo-ne Creek, near some beaver dams on branches of that creek; the land is good, but broken; fine range, small canes, and pea vines on the hills, and reeds on the branches; they have eight or ten families; this establishment is of two years only, and they have worm fences. U-che Will, the head of the village has some cattle, and they have promised to attend to hogs, and to follow the direction of the agent for Indian affairs, as soon as they can get into stock. "Some of the Uchees have settled with the Shaw-a-ne, at Sau-va-no-gee, among the Creeks of the upper towns."1 I will also add what Hawkins has to say regarding the settlement of Timothy Barnard, who plays a prominent part in Creek history, both before and after this time: "This gentleman lives on the right bank of Flint River, fifteen miles below Pad-jeeli-gau. He has eleven children by a U-chee woman, and they are settled with and around him, and have fine stocks of cattle in an excellent range. He has a valuable property, but not productive; his farm is well fenced on both sides of the river; he has a peach orchard of fine fruit, and some fine nectarines, a garden well stored with vegetables, and some grape vines presented to him by the agent. He is an assistant and interpreter, and a man who has uniformly supported an honest character, friendly to peace during the revolutionary war, and to man. He has 40 sheep, some goats, and stock of every description, and keeps a very hospitable house. He is not much acquainted with farming, and receives light slowly on this subject, as is the case with all the Indian countrymen, without exception." 2 (Swanton)
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