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Creek Tribal Divisions And Gentes
Parallel to the two
íksa of the
Cha’hta the Creeks are divided
into two fires (tútka), a civil fire and a
military fire. The term fire evidently
refers to council fires, which had to be
kindled ceremonially by the friction of two
pieces of wood.
The term fire was also
applied by Sháwano and other Northern
Indians to the States formed by the early
colonists, and is still used of the States
now (1884) constituting the American Union: the
thirteen fires, the seventeen fires, etc.
Concerning the gentes (aläíkita)
of the Creek people, it is important to
notice that in their towns each group of
houses contained people of one gens only,1
and these gentes are often mentioned in
their local annals; and that the gens of
each individual was determined by that of
his mother. Some of the towns had separate
gentes for themselves, all of which had
privileges of their own.
Marriage between
individuals of the same gens was prohibited;
the office of the míko and the succession to
property of deceased persons was and is
still hereditary in the gens. In the
Tukabatchi town the civil rulers or míkalgi
were selected from the eagle gens; those of
Hitchiti town from the
racoon gens only; of
Kasiχta from the bear gens; those
of Taskígi probably from the wind gens. The
beloved men or ístitchakálgi of Kasiχta were
of the beaver gens.
In adultery and murder
cases the relatives of the gens of the
injured party alone had the right of judging
and of taking satisfaction; the míko and his
council were debarred from any interference.
This custom explains why treaty stipulations
made with the colonists or the Federal
Government concerning murders committed have
never been executed.2
There is probably no
Indian tribe or nation in North America
having a larger number of gentes than the
Maskoki proper. This fact seems to point
either to a long historic development of the
tribe, through which so large a segmentation
was brought about, or to internal
dissensions, which could produce the same
result. About twenty gentes are now in existence,
and the memory of some extinct ones is not
lost in the present generation.
The list of Creek gentes, as obtained from Judge G. W. Stidham,
runs as follows:
- Nokósalgi bear gens;
from nokósi bear.
- Itchúalgi deer gens,
from ítchu deer.
- Kátsalgi panther gens;
kátsa panther, cougar.
- Koákotsalgi wild-cat
gens; kóa-kótchi wild-cat.
- Kunipálgi skunk gens;
kúno, kóno skunk.
- Wótkalgi racoon gens;
wó’tko racoon.
- Yahálgi wolf gens; yáha
wolf.
- Tsúlalgi fox gens;
tsúla fox.
- Itch’hásualgi beaver
gens; itch hásua beaver.
- Osánalgi otter gens;
osána otter.
- Hálpadalgi alligator
gens; hálpada alligator.
- Fúsualgi bird gens;
fúswa forest bird.
- Ítamalgi, Támalgi, (?)
cf. támkita to fly.
- Sopáktalgi toad gens;
sopáktu toad.
- Tákusalgi mole gens;
táku mole.
- Atchíalgi maize gens;
átchi maize.
- Ahalaχalgi
sweet potato gens; aha sweet potato, long
marsh-potato.
- Hútalgalgi wind gens;
hútali wind.
- Aktäyatsálgi
(signification unknown).
- (-algi is the sign of
collective plurality the okla of Cha’hta.)
- The following gentes
are now extinct, but still occur in war
names:
- Pahósalgi; occurs in
names like Pahós’-hádsho.
- Okílisa; cf.
Killis-tamaha. See:
Chahta Indians
- ‘Lá’lo-algi fish gens;
‘lá’lo fish, occurs in war names like ‘Lá’lo
yahóla, etc.
- Tchukótalgi, perhaps
consolidated with another gens; it stood in
a close connection with the Sopáktalgi. Also
pronounced Tsuχodi; Chief Chicote
is named after it.
- Odshísalgi hickory nut
gens; ó’dshi hickory nut. Some believe this
gens represented the people of Odshísi town,
p. 71.
- Oktchúnualgi salt gens;
oktchúnua salt.
- Isfánalgi; seems
analogous to the Ispáni phratry and gens of
the Chicasa.
- Wá’hlakalgi; cf.
Hú‘li-wá’hli, town name.
- Muχlasalgi;
said to mean "people of Muklása town"; cf.
Imuklásha, under Cha’hta.
The Creek phratries and their names were not fully remembered by my informants. The only points
which could be gathered were, that
individuals belonging to the panther and the
wildcat gentes could not intermarry, nor
could the Tchukótalgi with the individuals
of the toad gens or Sopáktalgi. This proves
that the two groups formed each a phratry,
which perhaps comprised other gentes
besides. It is possible that among the above
totemic gentes some are in fact phratries
and not gentes; and the two fires (or tútka)
of the Creeks are not real phratries, but
formal divisions only.
Footnotes:
- A similar
distribution is observed in the villages,
hunting and war camps of the Pani and
Southern Dakotan tribes, and was very
strictly enforced by them.
- Cf. Hawkins, p. 75.
Back to: Creek
Government
Notes About Book:
Source: Gatschet, Albert S., A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians.
Pub.
D.G. Brinton, Philadelphia, 1884.
Notes about Online Publication: This manuscript has been ocr'd and heavily
edited. Many of the Native American words have been reproduced as clearly as
online publication will allow us, but not all are exactly the way they were in
the original work. The structure of this manuscript has been changed to allow
better online presentation.
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