|
Apalachi Indians
Editor's Note:
Apalachi is a derivative of Apalachee, so
the following information is referencing the
Apalachee Indians.
The
Hitchiti, Mikasuki
and Apalachi languages form a dialectic
group distinct from Creek and the western
dialects, and the people speaking them must
once have had a common origin. The proper
names Apalachi and Apalatchúkli are now
extinct as tribal names, but are of very
ancient date. The auriferous ledges of the
Cheroki country were said to be within "the
extreme confines of the Apalachi province" (Fontanedo,
1559), and the Apalachi found by Narvaez was
fifteen days march north of Aute,1 a
roadstead or harbor on the Gulf of Mexico,
though the Indians had stated to him that it
lay at a distance of nine days travel only.
The "province" of Apalachi probably included
the upper part or the whole of the
Chatahuchi river basin, and on account of
the ending -okla in Apalatchúkla, its origin
must be sought in the
Cha’hta or Hitchiti
dialect. Rev. Byington explains it by
helping people, allies, in the Cha’hta
apālātchi okla, but the original form of the
name is Apalaχtchi ókli, not
apálatchi; -χtchi is a Hitchiti
suffix of adjectives, and apálui in that
dialect means on the other side of. Hence
the adjective apalaχtchi: “those
{people ókli) on the other side, shore or
river.
The town of Apalachi,
on Apalache bay, must be kept clearly
distinct from the town of Apalachicola, or
Apalatchúkla, about fifty miles further
west, on the river then called by the same
name.
Apalachi town was north
of Apalachi bay, the principal port of which
is now St. Marks. This was probably the
place after which "Apalache provincia" was
named in de Soto's time; Biedma, one of his
historians, states (in Smith, Docum. ined.,
I, 48. 49), that "this province was divided
by a river from the country east of it,
having Aguile as frontiers town. Apalachi
has many towns and produces much food, and
(the Indians) call this land visited by us
Yustaga." This river was probably the St.
Mark’s river. Both names are also
distinguished as belonging to
separate communities in Margry IV, 96. 117
(1699) and IV, 309. The western "Palachees"
are laid down on the map in Dan. Coxe,
Carolana, on Chatahuchi river, the eastern "Palachees"
on a river in the northeast angle of the
Gulf of Mexico; north of the latter are the
Tommachees (Timucua). At present, a
northwestern affluent of Okoni River, in
Upper Georgia, is called Apalache River.
Apalatchúkla, a name
originally belonging to a tribe, was in
early times transferred to the river, now
Chatahuchi, and from this to all the towns
of the Lower Creeks. An instance of this is
given by L. d’Iberville, who states (Margry
IV, 594. 595) that in 1701 a difficulty
arose between the Apalachicolys and the
Apalachis on account of depredations
committed; that the Spanish call those
Indians Apalachicolys, the French Conchaques,
and that they counted about 2000 families an
equal number of men being ascribed to the
Apalachis, who were under Spanish rule.
The name of the tribe
and town was Apalatchúkla, also written
Pallachucla, Palachicola. This town was on
the western bank of Chatahuchi River, 1½
miles below Chiaha. In early times its tribe
was the most important among the Lower
Creeks, adverse to warfare, a "peace or
white town," and called by the people Tálua
‘láko, Great Town. Like the town Apalachi,
the inhabitants of this town spoke a dialect
resembling Hitchiti very closely.
Apalachicola River is now the name of
Chatahuchi River below its junction with the
Flint River. More about this town in the:
List of Creek Settlements.
Later in the sixteenth
century the boundary between the Timucua and
the Apalachi lands is stated to have been on
or near the Vacissa River; Ibitachuco or
Black Lake being the eastern Apalachi
boundary, the westernmost town of the
Timucua being Asile (Ausile, Oxilla).
In 1638 the Indians of
Apalachi made war against the Spanish
colonists. Although the governor of Florida
had but few troops to oppose, he marched
against them and daunted their
aggressiveness (sobervia) by forcing them to
a disastrous retreat and following them into
their own country (Barcia, Ensayo, p. 203).
In 1688 a number of
Apalachi chiefs (caciques) addressed a
letter of complaint to Charles the Second,
king of Spain (†1700), concerning the
exactions to which their former governors
had subjected them, and other topics
relating to their actual condition. The
towns mentioned in the letter are San Luis
de Apalachi, Ibitachuco, Pattali, Santa
Cruz, Talpatqui, Vasisa, San Marcos. The
original, with its Spanish translation, was
reproduced in a facsimile edition in 1860 by
Buckingham Smith (fol.) and other documents
written in Apalachi are preserved in the
archives of Havana, the seat of the
archbishopric, to which Apalachi and all the
other settlements comprised within the
diocese of St. Helena belonged.
Christianized Apalachis, who had been
frequently raided by Alibamu Indians, fled
in 1705 to the French colony at Mobile,
where Governor de Bienville gave them lands
and grain-seed to settle between the
Mobilian and Tohome tribe; cf. Pénicaut in
Margry V, 461. 485, where their religious
festivals and other customs are described.
Like the Apalachis, the tribe of the heathen
Taouachas had quitted the Spanish territory
for being harassed by the Alibamu, and fled
southwest to the French, who settled them on
Mobile river, one league above the Apalachis
(1710; in Margry V, 485-487). Some Cha’hta
refugees had been settled at the "Anse des
Chactas," on Mobile Bay, the year preceding.
In the nineteenth century the last remnants
of the Apalachi tribe were living on the
Bayou Rapide, in Louisiana, and about A. D.
1815 counted fourteen families.
Footnotes:
- Perhaps from the Hitchiti term a-útilis "I build or kindle
afire."
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.
|
|
