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The Coweta Tribe
The Coweta were the second great Muskogee tribe among the Lower Creeks, and
they headed the war side as Kasihta headed the peace side. Their honorary title
in the confederacy was Kawita ma'ma'yi, "tall Coweta.'' Although as a definitely
identified tribe they appear later in history and in the migration legends which
have been preserved to us the Kasihta are given precedence, the Coweta were and
still are commonly accounted the leaders of the Lower Creeks and often of the
entire nation. By many early writers all of the Lower Creeks are called Coweta,
and the Spaniards and French both speak of the Coweta chief as ''emperor" of the
Creeks. An anonymous French writer of the eighteenth century draws the following
picture of his power at the time of the Yamasee uprising:
The nation of the Caoüita
is governed by an emperor, who in 1714
[1715] caused to be killed all the English
there were, not only in his nation, but also
among the Abeca, Talapouches, Alibamons, and
Cheraqui. Not content with that he went to
commit depredations as far as the gates of
Carolina. The English were excited and
wanted to destroy them by making them drag
pieces of ordinance loaded with grape-shot,
by tying two ropes to the collar of the
tube, on each one of which they put sixty
savages, whom they killed in the midst of
their labors by putting fire to the cannon;
but as they saw they would take vengeance
with interest, they made very great presents
to the emperor to regain his friendship and
that of his nation. The French do the same
thing, and also the Spaniards, which makes
him very rich, for the French who go to
visit him are served in a silver dish. He is
a man of a good appearance and good
character. He has numbers of slaves who are
busy night and day cooking food for those
going and coming to visit him. He seldom
goes on foot, always [riding on) well
harnessed horses, and followed by many of
his village. He is absolute in his nation.
He has a quantity of cattle and kills them
sometimes to feast his friends. No one has
ever been able to make him take sides with
one of the three European nations who know
him, he alleging that he wishes to see
everyone, to be neutral, and not to espouse
any of the quarrels which the French,
English, and Spaniards have with one
another.1
Traditionally the name is supposed to
have had some connection with the eastward
migration of this tribe, and it is
associated with the word ayeta, to go. No
reliance can be placed upon this, however,
any more than on Gatschet's derivation from
the Yuchi word meaning "man."2
As the principal body of Muskogee in
Georgia, aside from the Kasihta, it is
possible that these are the Chisi, Ichisi,
or Achese of the De Soto chroniclers,3
since Ochisi (Otc?´si) is a name applied to
the Muskogee by Hitchiti-speaking peoples.4
Spanish dealings with them in the
seventeenth century have already been
recounted.5 In the period between
1670 and 1700 we find them placed on maps,
along with the Kasihta, about the headwaters
of the Chattahoochee and Coosa, but when
they are first clearly localized they are on
the upper course of the Ocmulgee not far
from Indian Springs, Butts County, Georgia.
On French maps the Altamaha and Ocmulgee
together are often called ''Rivi?re des
Caouitas." After the general westward
movement, which took place after the Yamasee
war, they settled on the west bank of the
Chattahoochee River between the Yuchi on the
south and a town known as Chattahoochee.
This last-mentioned place was the first
Muskogee settlement on Chattahoochee River
and is said to have been established to
enable its occupants to open trade with the
Spaniards. Bartram says that the people of
this town spoke the true Muskogee language,
and it is probable that it branched off from
the Coweta, though it may have been made up
from several settlements. It was in Troup or
Heard Counties, Georgia, and was abandoned
before Hawkins's time, 1798-99.
The first Coweta settlement on the
Chattahoochee was probably at a place
afterwards called Coweta Tallahassee, though
at the period last mentioned it was occupied
by people from Likatcka, itself a branch of
Coweta.6 D. I. Bushnell, Jr., has
published parts of a journal kept by a
member of General Oglethorpe's expedition to
the Creek towns in 1740, in which he gives
some account of the people of Coweta.7
In 1761 they had 130 hunters and their
trader was George Galpin.8 In
1797 Hawkins gives the names of five
traders, Thomas Marshall, John Tarvin, James
Darouzeaux, Hardy Read, and Christian Russel,
the last a Silesian.9 Adair
enumerates Coweta as one of the six
principal towns of the Muskogee confederacy
but does not mention Kasihta.10
Hawkins furnishes the following accounts of
Coweta, Coweta Tallahassee, and a branch of
the latter known as Wetumpka, as they
appeared in 1799:
Cow-e-tuh, on the right bank of
Chat-to-ho-che, three miles below the falls,
on a flat extending back one mile. The land
is fine for corn; the settlements extend up
the river for two miles on the river flats.
These are bordered with broken pine land;
the fields of the settlers who reside in the
town, are on a point of land formed by a
bend of the river, a part of them adjoining
the point, are low, then a rise of fifteen
feet, spreading back for half a mile, then
another rise of fifteen feet, and flat a
half mile to a swamp adjoining the
highlands; the fields are below the town.
The river is one hundred and twenty yards
wide, with a deep steady current from the
fall; these are over a rough coarse rock,
forming some islands of rock, which force
the water into two narrow channels, in time
of low water. One is on each side of the
river, in the whole about ninety feet wide;
that on the right is sixty feet wide, with a
perpendicular fall of twelve feet; the other
of thirty feet wide, is a long sloping curve
very rapid, the fall fifteen feet in one
hundred and fifty feet; fish may ascend in
this channel, but it is too swift and strong
for boats; here are two fisheries; one on
the right belongs to this town; that on the
left, to the Cussetuhs; they are at the
termination of the falls; and the fish are
taken with scoop nets; the fish taken are
the hickory shad, rock, trout, perch,
catfish, and suckers; there is sturgeon in
the river, but no white shad or herring;
during spring and summer, they catch the
perch and rock with hooks. As soon as the
fish make their appearance, the chiefs send
out the women, and make them fish for the
square. This expression includes all the
chiefs and warriors of the town.
The land on the right bank of the river
at the falls is a poor pine barren, to the
water's edge; the pines are small; the falls
continue three or four miles nearly of the
same width, about one hundred and twenty
yards; the river then expands to thrice that
width, the bottom being gravelly, shoal and
rocky. There are several small islands
within this scope; one at the part where the
expansion commences is rich and some part of
it under cultivation; it is half a mile in
length, but narrow; here the river is
fordable; enter the left bank one hundred
yards above the upper end of the island and
cross over to it, and down to the fields,
thence across the other channel; at the
termination of the falls, a creek twenty
feet wide, (0-cow-ocuh-hat-che, falls
creek), joins the right side of the river.
Just below this creek, and above the last
reef of rocks, is another ford. The current
is rapid, and the bottom even.
On the left bank of the river at the
falls, the land is level; and in approaching
them one is surprised to find them where
there is no alteration in the trees or
unevenness of land. This level continues
back one mile to the poor pine barren, and
is fine for corn or cotton; the timber is
red oak, hickory, and pine; the banks of the
river on this side below the falls are fifty
feet high, and continue so, down below the
town house; the flat of good land continues
still lower to Hat-che thluc-co (big creek).
Ascending the river on this bank, above
the falls, the following stages are noted in
miles:
2½ miles, the flat land terminates;
thence 3½ miles, to Chis-se Hul-cuh running
to the left: thence 4 miles, to Chusse thluc-co
twenty feet wide, a rocky bottom.
5 miles to Ke-t?-le, thirty feet wide, a
bold, shoally rocky creek, abounding in
moss. Four miles up this creek there is a
village of ten families at Hat-che Uxau
(head of a creek). The land is broken with
hickory, pine, and chestnut; there is cane
on the borders of the creek and reed on the
branches; there are some settlements of
Cowetuh people made on these creeks; all who
have settled out from the town have fenced
their fields and begin to be attentive to
their stock.
The town has a temporary fence of three
poles, the first on forks, the other two on
stakes, good against cattle only; the town
fields are fenced in like manner; a few of
the neighboring fields, detached from the
town, have good fences; the temporary, three
pole fences of the town are made every
spring, or repaired in a slovenly manner.
Cow-e-tuh Tal-lau-has-see; from Cow-e-tuh,
Tal-lo-fau, a town, and hasse, old. It is
two and a half miles below Cowetuh, on the
right bank of the river. In going down the
path between the two towns, in half a mile
cross Kotes-ke-le-jau, ten feet wide,
running to the left is a fine little creek
sufficiently large for a mill, in all but
the dry seasons. On the right bank enter the
flat lands between the towns. These are
good, with oak, hard-shelled hickory and
pine: they extend two miles to Che-luc-in-ti-ge-tuh,
a small creek five feet wide, bordering on
the town. The town is half a mile from the
river, on the right bank of the creek; it is
on a high flat, bordered on the east by the
flats of the river, and west by high broken
hills; they have but a few settlers in the
town; the fields are on a point of land
three-quarters of a mile below the town,
which is very rich and has been long under
cultivation; they have no fence around their
fields.
Here is the public establishment for the
Lower Creeks, and here the agent resides. He
has a garden well cultivated and planted,
with a great variety of vegetables, fruits,
and vines, and an orchard of peach trees.
Arrangements have been made to fence two
hundred acres of land fit for cultivation,
and to introduce a regular husbandry to
serve as a model and stimulus, for the
neighborhood towns who crowd the public
shops here, at all seasons, when the hunters
are not in the woods.
The agent entertains doubts, already, of
succeeding here in establishing a regular
husbandry, from the difficulty of changing
the old habits of indolence, and sitting
daily in the squares, which seem peculiarly
attractive to the residenters of the towns.
In the event of not succeeding, he intends
to move the establishment out from the town,
and aid the villagers where success seems to
be infallible.
They estimate their number of gun men at
one hundred ; but the agent has ascertained,
by actual enumeration, that they have but
sixty -six, including all who reside here,
and in the villages belonging to the town.
They have a fine body of land below, and
adjoining the town, nearly two thousand
acres, all well timbered; and including the
whole above and below, they have more than
is sufficient for the accommodation of the
whole town; they have one village belonging
to the town, We-tumcau.
We-tum-cau; from We-wau, water; and
tum-cau, rumbling. It is on the main branch
of U-chee creek and is twelve miles
northwest from the town. These people have a
small town house on a poor pine ridge on the
left bank of the creek below the falls; the
settlers extend up the creek for three
miles, and they cultivate the rich bends in
the creek; there is cane on the creek and
fine reed on its branches; the land higher
up the creek, and on its branches is waving,
with pine, oak, and hickory, fine for
cultivation, on the flats and out from the
branches; the range is good for stock, and
some of the settlers have cattle and hogs,
and begin to be attentive to them ; they
have been advised to spread out their
settlements on the waters of this creek, and
to increase their attention to stock of
every kind.11
The trader in 1797 was James Lovet.12
Wetumpka is probably the Wituncara of the
Popple map (pl. 4).
The census of 1832 enumerated five bands
of Coweta Indians, as follows: Koochkalecha
town, 276 besides 12 slaves; on
Toosilkstorkoo Hatchee, 85 and 15 slaves; on
Warkooche Hatchee, 30; on Halle-wokke
Yoaxarhatchee, 191; at Cho-lose-parp Kar, or
Kotchar, Tus-tun-nuckee's town, 275 and 24
slaves; total 857 Indians and 51 slaves.13
Chiefs' families are not included.
The inferiority of this town in numbers
to Kasihta was perhaps due to the fact that
it had given off another settlement which
after-wards constituted an independent town
with its own busk ground. This was Likatcka,
or "Broken Arrow'' as the name has been
rudely translated into English. It is said
to have been founded by some families who
went off by themselves to a place where they
could break reeds with which to make arrows.
According to William Berryhill, an old
Coweta, however, it was not so much on
account of the place where they had settled
as because they considered themselves to
have "broken away" from the parent band in
much the same manner as a reed is broken.
This town is said to have been situated on a
trail and ford 12 miles below Kasihta. It
appears to be noted first by Swan (1791).14
Hawkins in his Sketch of the Creek Country
does not speak of it, but in a journal dated
1797 says that the people of Coweta
Tallahassee had come from it.15
In the American State Papers16 he
mentions it as having been destroyed in
1814, but it was soon restored, for it was
represented at the treaty of November 15,
1827,17 and in the census of
1832. In this latter five settlements
belonging to the town are enumerated, but it
is probable that only the first two of these
are correctly designated. One of these
latter was on Uchee Creek; the situation of
the other is not specified. Together they
numbered 418 inhabitants, not counting
slaves and free negroes.18
Coweta and its chief, McIntosh, played a
conspicuous part in the removal of the Creek
Indians to the west. McIntosh was the leader
of that party which favored removal and was
killed by the conservative element in
consequence. After the emigration Coweta and
its branches settled in the northern part of
the new country on the Arkansas, where most
of their descendants still live. Their
square ground was first located about 2
miles west of the present town of Coweta.
After that site was fenced in and plowed up
they moved it to some low-lying land close
to Coweta, and later busks of a rather
irregular character were held in other
places, but the observance soon died out.
Nevertheless the busk medicines are, or
until recently were, still taken in an
informal manner by the Coweta men four times
a year, corresponding to the times of the
three "stomp'' dances and the busk.
According to one informant, shortly before
the Civil War, Coweta, Kasihta, Tukabahchee,
and Yuchi planned to come together in one
big town, but the war put an end to the
project. In late times the Coweta and Chiaha
were such close friends that it is said "a
man of one town would not whip a dog
belonging to the other." This friendship
also extended to the Osochi.
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The Muskogee
Tribe
Footnotes:
1 MS in Ayer Coll.,
Newberry Lib. The story about slaughtering
Indians who were pulling a cannon crops up
in connection with the Popham colony (see
Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 1st ser.. I, p.
252).
2 Gatschet, Creek Mig. Leg., I, p. 19.
3 Bourne, Narr. of De Soto, I, p. 10; II, p.
54.
4 Hence the name "Ocheese River" (p. 215).
See Hawkins in Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., IX, p.
200; and p. 148.
5 See pp. 220-222.
6 Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., IX, p. 63.
7 Amer. Anthrop., n.s.,vol. x, pp. 572-574,
1908.
8 Ga. Col. Docs., VIII, p. 522.
9 Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., IX, pp. 170-171.
10 Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p. 257.
11 Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., III, pp. 52-67.
12 Ibid., IX, p. 03.
13 Senate Doc. 512, 23d Cong., 1st sess.,
IV, pp. 379-386. A mistake in addition has
been made on one sheet, which I have
rectified.
14 Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, V, p. 262.
15 Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., IX, p. 63.
16 Am. State Papers, Ind. Affairs, I, 858,
1832.
17 Indian Treaties, 1826, pp. 561-564.
18 Senate Doc. 512, 23d Cong., 1st sess.,
IV, pp. 386-394.
Back to:
The Muskogee
Tribe
Notes About Book:
Source: Swanton, John R., Early
History of the Creek Indians and Their
Neighbors. Pub. Smithsonian
Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology,
Bulletin 73. Washington, 1922.
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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