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Hitchiti Indians
The
Hitchiti tribe, of
whose language we present an extensive
specimen in this volume, also belongs to the
southeastern group, which I have called
Apalachian.
Hitchiti town was, in
Hawkins time, established on the eastern
bank of Chatahuchi River, four miles below
Chiaha. The natives possessed a narrow strip
of good land bordering on the river, and had
the reputation of being honest and
industrious. They obtained their name from
Hitchiti creek, so called at its junction
with Chatahuchi river, [and in its upper
course Ahíki (Ouhe-gee); cf. List] from
Creek: ahí-tchita "to look up (the stream)."
They had spread out into two branch
settlements: Hitchitúdshi or Little Hitchiti,
on both sides of Flint River, below the
junction of Kitchofuni Creek, which passes
through a county named after it; and
Tutalósi on Tutalosi creek, a branch of
Kitchofuni creek, twenty miles west of
Hitchitúdshi (Hawkins, p. 60. 65). The
existence of several Hitchiti towns is
mentioned by C. Swan in 1791; and Wm.
Bartram states that they "speak the Stincard
language." There is a popular saying among
the Creeks, that the ancient name of the
tribe was Atchík’hade, a Hitchiti word which
signifies white heap (of ashes).
Some Hitchiti Indians
trace their mythic origin to a fall from the
sky, but my informants, Chicote and G. W.
Stidham, gave me the following tale: "Their
ancestors first appeared in the country by
coming out of a canebrake or reed thicket (útski
in Hitchiti) near the sea coast. They sunned
and dried their children during four days,
then set out, arrived at a lake and stopped
there. Some thought it was the sea, but it
was a lake; they set out again, traveled up
a stream and settled there for a permanency.
Another tradition says that this people was
the first to settle at the site of Okmulgi
town, an ancient capital of the confederacy.
The tribe was a member
of the Creek confederacy and does not figure
prominently in history. The first mention I
can find of it, is of the year 1733, when
Gov. Oglethorpe met the Lower Creek chiefs
at Savannah, Ga., to conciliate their tribes
in his favor. The "Echetas" had sent their
war-chiefs, Chutabeeche and Robin with four
attendants (Ch. C. Jones, Tomochichi, p.
28). The Yutchitálgi of our legend, who were
represented at the Savannah council of 1735
by "Tomehuichi, dog king of the Euchitaws,"
are probably the Hitchiti, not the
Yuchi.
Wm. Bartram calls them (1773) "Echetas"
also.
The dialect spoken by
the Hitchiti and
Mikasuki once spread over
an extensive area, for local names are
worded in it from the Chatahuchi River in an
eastern direction up to the Atlantic coast.
To these belong those mentioned under "the
name Maskoki."
According to Wm.
Bartram, Travels, pp. 462-464, the following
towns on Chatahuchi River spoke the "Stincard"
language, that is a language differing from
Creek or Muscogulge: Chíaha (Chehaw),
Hitchiti (Echeta), Okoni (Occone), the two
Sáwokli (Swaglaw, Great and Little). From
this it becomes probable, though not
certain, that the dialect known to us as
Hitchiti was common to them all. The Sáwokli
tribe, settled in the Indian Territory, have
united there with the Hitchiti, a
circumstance which seems to point to ancient
relationship.
Like the Creeks, the
Hitchiti have an ancient female dialect,
still remembered and perhaps spoken by the
older people, which was formerly the
language of the males also. The woman
language existing among the
Creek Indians is
called by them also the ancient language. A
thorough study of these archaic remnants
would certainly throw light on the early
local distribution of the tribes and
dialects of the
Maskoki in the Gulf States.
Hitchiti Hunter's Song
The following ancient
hunting song may serve as a specimen of the
female dialect of Hitchiti; the ending -i of
the verbs, standing instead of -is of the
male dialect, proves it to be worded in that
archaic form of speech. Obtained from Judge
G. W. Stidham:
Hántun talánkawati a′klig; éyali.
Sutá! kayá! Kayap’hú!
aluktchabakliwáti ä′klig;
éyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap’hú!
aluktigonknawati ā′klig;
áyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap’hú!
aluk hadshá-aliwati ā′klig;
éyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap’hú!
hántun ayawáti ā′klig;
áyali.
Sutá! kayá! kayap’hú!
Somewhere (the deer)
lies on the ground, I think; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
It is raising up its
head, I believe; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
It attempts to rise, I
believe; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
Slowly it raises its
body, I think; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
It has now risen on its
feet, I presume; I walk about.
Awake, arise, stand up!
At every second line of this song the singer kicks at a
log, feigning to start up the deer by the
noise from its recesses in the woods. The
song-lines are repeated thrice, in a slow
and plaintive tune, except the refrain,
which is sung or rather spoken in a quicker
measure, and once only.
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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