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Hawkins described Kasihta
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121
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Hawkins gives the following description of Kasihta as it was in 1799, which shows incidentally that the town had been moved once after it was located on the river: "Cus-se-tuh; this town is two and a half miles below Cow-e-tuh Tal-lau-hts-see, on the left bank of the river. They claim the land above the falls on their side. In descending the river path from the falls in three miles you cross a creek running to the right, twenty feet wide; this creek joins the river a quarter of a mile above the Cowetuh town house; the land to this creek is good and level and extends back from the river from half to three-quarters of a mile to the pine forest; the growth on the level is oak, hickory, and pine; there are some ponds and slashes back next to the pine forest, bordering on a branch which runs parallel with the river; in the pine forest there is some reedy branches. "The creek has its source nearly twenty miles from the river, and runs nearly parallel with it till within one mile of its junction; there it makes a short bend round north, thence west to the river; at the second bend, about two hundred yards from the river, a fine little spring creek joins on its right bank. . . . "The flat of good land on the river continues two and a half miles below this creek, through the Cussetuh fields to Hat-che-thluc-co. At the entrance of the fields on the right there is an oblong mound of earth; one-quarter of a mile lower there is a conic mound forty-five yards in diameter at the base, twenty-five feet high, and flat on the top, with mulberry trees on the north side and evergreens on the south. From the top of this mound they have a fine view of the river above the flat land on both sides of the river, and all the field of one thousand acres [Note: The Lib. Cong. MS. has "100 acres."]; the river makes a short bend round to the right opposite this mound, and there is a good ford just below the point. It is not easy to mistake the ford, as there is a flat on the left, of gravel and sand; the waters roll rapidly over the gravel, and the eye, at the first view, fixes on the most fordable part; there are two other fords below this, which communicate between the fields on both sides of the river; the river from this point comes round to the west, then to the east; the island ford is below this turn, at the lower end of a small island; from the left side, enter the river forty yards below the island, and go up to the point of it, then turn down as the ripple directs, and land sixty yards below; this is the best ford; the third is still lower, from four to six hundred yards. "The land back from the fields to the east rises twenty feet and continues flat for one mile to the pine forest; back of the fields, adjoining the rise of twenty feet, is a beaver pond of forty acres, capable of being drained at a small expense of labor; the large creek bounds the fields and the flat land to the south. "Continuing on down the river from the creek, the land rises to a high flat, formerly the Cussetuh town, and afterwards a Chickasaw town. This flat is intersected with one branch. From the southern border of this flat, the Cussetuh town is seen below, on a flat, just above flood mark, surrounded with this high flat to the north and east, and the river to the west: the land about the town is poor, and much exhausted; they cultivate but little here of early corn; the principal dependence is on the rich fields above the creek; to call them rich must be understood in a limited sense; they have been so, but being cultivated beyond the memory of the oldest man in Cussetuh, they are almost exhausted; the produce is brought from the fields to the town in canoes or on horses; they make barely a sufficiency of corn for their support; they have no fences around their fields, and only a fence of three poles, tied to upright stakes, for their potatoes; the land up the river, above the fields, is fine for culture, with oak, hickory, blackjack and pine. "The people of Cussetuh associate, more than any other Indians, with their white neighbors, and without obtaining any advantage from it; they know not the season for planting, or, if they do, they never avail themselves of what they know, as they always plant a month too late. "This town with its villages is the largest in the Lower Creeks; the people are and have been friendly to white people and are fond of visiting them; the old chiefs are very orderly men and much occupied in governing their young men, who are rude and disorderly, in proportion to the intercourse they have had with white people; they frequently complain of the intercourse of their young people with the white people on the frontiers, as being very prejudicial to their morals: that they are more rude, more inclined to be tricky, and more difficult to govern, than those who do not associate with them. "The settlements belonging to the town are spread out on the right side of the river; here they appear to be industrious, have forked fences, and more land enclosed than they can cultivate. One of them desires particularly to be named Mic E-maut-lau. This old chief has, with his own labor, made a good worm fence, and built himself a comfortable house; they have but a few peach trees, in and about the town; the main trading path, from the upper towns, passes through here; they estimate their number of gun men at three hundred; but they cannot exceed one hundred and eighty. Au-put-tau-e [Apatana, bull frog village?] [Note: Oatschet derives this name from apatayas, I cover, and says it means "a sheet-like covering." A native informant suggested to the writer apatana, bullfrog. This is probably the village which Hawkins elsewhere calls Thlonotiscauhatche, after Flint River.]; a village of Cussetuh, twenty miles from the river, on Hat-che thluc-co; they have good fences, and the settlers under [enjoy?] the best characters of any among the Lower Creeks; they estimate their gun men at forty-three. On a visit here the agent for Indian affairs was met by all the men, at the house of Tus-se-kiah Micco. That chief addressed him in these words: "Here, I am glad to see you; this is my wife, and these are my children; they are glad to see you; these are the men of the village; we have forty of them in all; they are glad to see you; you are now among those on whom you may rely. I have been six years at this village, and we have not a man here, or belonging to our village, who ever stole a horse from, or did any injury to a white man." "The village is in the forks of Hatche thlucco, and the situation is well chosen; the land is rich, on the margins of the creeks and the cane flats; the timber is large, of poplar, white oak, and hickory; the uplands to the south are the long-leaf pine; and to the north waving oak, pine, and hickory; cane is on the creeks and reed in all the branches. "At this village, and at the house of Tus-se-ki-ah Micco, the agent for Indian affairs has introduced the plough; and a farmer was hired in 1797 to tend a crop of corn, and with so good success, as to induce several of the villagers to prepare their fields for the plough. Some of them have cattle, hogs and horses, and are attentive to them. "The range is a good one, but cattle and horses require salt; they have some thriving peach trees, at several of the settlements. "On Auhe-gee creek, called at its junction with the river, Hitchetee, there is one settlement which deserves a place here. It belongs to Mic-co thluc-co, called by the white people, the "Bird tail King [Fus hadji]." The plantation is on the right side of the creek, on good land, in the neighborhood of pine forest: the creek is a fine flowing one, margined with reed; the plantation is well fenced, and cultivated with the plough; this chief had been on a visit to New York, and seen much of the ways of white people, and the advantages of the plough over the slow and laborious hand hoe. Yet he had not firmness enough, till this year, to break through the old habits of the Indians. "The agent paid him a visit this spring, 1799, with a plough completely fixed, and spent a day with him and showed him how to use it. He had previously, while the old man was in the woods, prevailed on the family to clear the fields for the plough. It has been used with effect, and much to the approbation of a numerous family, who have more than doubled their crop of corn and potatoes; and who begin to know how to turn their corn to account, by giving it to their hogs, cattle, and horses, and begin to be very attentive to them; he has some apple and peach trees, and grape vines, a present from the agent. "The Cussetuhs have some cattle, horses, and hogs; but they prefer roving idly through the woods, and down on the frontiers, to attending to farming or stock raising."1 In notes taken two years earlier Hawkins thus speaks of another Kasihta village, located on Flint River: "Salenojuh, 8 miles [below Aupiogee Creek]. Here was a compact town of Cusseta people, of 70 gunmen in 1787, and they removed the spring after Colonel Alexander killed 7 of their people near Shoulderbone. Their fields extended three miles above the town; they had a hothouse and square, water, fields well fenced; their situation fine for hogs and cattle. Just above the old fields there are two curves on each side of the river of 150 acres, rich, which have been cultivated. Just below the town the Sulenojuhnene ford, the lands level on the right bank. There is a small island to the right of the ford; on the left a ridge of rocks. The lands on the left bank high and broken. Above the town there is a good ford, level, shallow, and not rocky; the land flat on both sides. "2 (Swanton)
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