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Koassáti Indians
The ancient seat of
this tribe was in Hawkins’ time (1799), on
the right or northern bank of Alabama River,
three miles below the confluence of Coosa
and Tallapoosa Rivers. Coosada, Elmore
County, Alabama, is built on the same spot.
"They are not Creeks," says Hawkins (Hawkins,
Sketch of the Creek Country
$$$,
pp. 35, 1799.),
although they conform to their ceremonies; a
part of this town moved lately beyond the
Mississippi, and have settled there." G. W. Stidham, who visited their settlement in
Polk county, Texas, during the Secession
war, states that they lived there east of
the Alibamu, numbered about 200 persons,
were pure-blooded and very superstitious.
Some Creek Indians are with them, who
formerly lived in Florida, between the
Seminoles and the Lower Creeks.
Their tribal name is
differently spelt: Coosadas, Koösati, Kosádi,
Coushatees, etc. Milfort, Mem. p. 265,
writes it Coussehaté. This tribe must not be
confounded with the Conshacs, q. v.
From an Alibamu Indian,
Sekopechi, we have a statement on the
languages spoken by the people of the Creek
confederacy (Schoolcraft, Indians, I, 266
sq.): "The Muskogees speak six different
dialects: Muskogee, Hitchitee, Nauchee,
Euchee, Alabama and Aquassawtee, but all of
them generally understand the Muskogee
language." This seems to indicate that the
Alibamu dialect differs from Koassáti, for
this is meant by Aquassawtee; but the
vocabularies of General Albert Pike show
that both forms of speech are practically
one and the same language.
Historic notices of
this tribe after its emigration to western
parts were collected by Prof. Buschmann,
Spuren d. aztek. Sprache, p. 430. Many
Koassáti live scattered among the Creeks in
the Creek Nation, Indian Territory, at
Yufála, for instance.
Witumka, on Coosa
River, spoke, according to Bartram, the "Stincard"
language, and was a town of the Alibamu
division. Cf.
List of Creek Settlements.
Back to:
Maskoki Family
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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