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Yamassi Indians
As early as the latter
half of the sixteenth century, a tribe
speaking a Maskoki language was settled on
the shores of the Atlantic ocean, on lands
included at present in the State of South
Carolina, and from these shores they
extended to some distance inland. In that
country Rene de Laudonniere in 1564
established a fortification in Port Royal
Bay, called Charlefort, and the terms
transmitted by him, being all of Creek
origin, leave no doubt about the affinity of
the natives, yatiqui interpreter, tola
laurel, Olataraca, viz.: holá hta láko, nom.
pr. "the great leader." Shortly after, the
Spanish captain Juan Pardo led an expedition
(1566-67) through the countries along
Savannah River, and the local names found in
the report made of it by Juan de la Vandera
(1569) also point to the presence of a
people speaking Creek established on both
sides of that river:1 Ahoya "two going";
Issa Cr. ídshu "deer";
Solameco, Cr. súli miko "buzzard chief";
Canosi, Cr. Ikanō’dshi "graves are there"
the name of Cannouchee River, Georgia.
After the lapse of a
century, when British colonists began to
settle in larger numbers in these parts, a
tribe called Yámassi (Yemasee, Yamasee,
Yemmassaws, etc.) appears in the colonial
documents as settled there, and in the
maritime tracts of Georgia and Eastern
Florida. Thus G. R. Fairbanks, History of
St. Augustine (1858), p. 125, mentions the
following dates from Spanish annals: "The
Yemasees, always peaceful and manageable,
had a principal town, Macarisqui, near St.
Augustine. In 1680 they revolted, because
the Spaniards had executed one of their
principal chiefs at St. Augustine; and in
1686 they made a general attack on the
Spaniards, and became their mortal enemies."
The inroads of the
Yamassi, in Cr. Yamassálgi, made in 1687 and
1706 upon the Christianized Timucua have
been alluded to under "Timucua".
The English surveyor
Lawson, who traveled through these parts in
1701, calls them Savannah Indians, stating
that they are "a famous, warlike, friendly
nation of Indians, living at the south end
of Ashley River." (Reprint of 1860, p. 75.)
Governor Archdale also calls them Savannahs2
in 1695; hence they were named like the
Yuchi, either from the Savannah River, or
from the savanas or prairies of the southern
parts of South Carolina. The Yuchi probably
lived northwest of them. A few miles north
of Savannah city there is a town and
railroad crossing, Yemassee, which
perpetuates their tribal name. Another
ancient authority locates some between the
Combahee and the Savannah River, and there
stood their largest town, Pocotaligo.3 Hewat (1779) states that they possessed a
large territory lying backward from Port
Royal Island, in his time called Indian Land
(Hist. Ace., I, 213). Cf.
Westo and Stono
Indians.
They had been the
staunchest Indian supporters of the new
British colony, and had sent 28 men of
auxiliary troops to Colonel Barnwell, to
defeat the Tuscarora insurrection on the
coast of North Carolina (1712-13), when they
suddenly revolted on April 15th, 1715,
committed the most atrocious deeds against
helpless colonists, and showed themselves to
be quite the reverse of what their name
indicates (yámasi, yámasi, the Creek term
for mild, gentle, peaceable4). Among their
confederates in the unprovoked insurrection
were Kataba, Cheroki and Congari Indians.
Wholesale massacres of colonists occurred
around Pocotaligo, on Port Royal Island and
at Stono, and the number of victims was
estimated at four hundred. A force of
volunteers, commanded by Governor Craven,
defeated them at Saltketchers, on Upper,
Combahee River, southern branch, and drove
them over Savannah River, but for a while
they continued their depredations from their
places of refuge (Hewat, Histor. Ace., I,
213-222).
Names of Yamassi
Indians mentioned at that period also
testify to their Creek provenience. The name
of a man called Sanute is explained by Cr.
sanódshäs I encamp near, or with somebody;
that of Ishiagaska (Tchiagaska?) by íka
akáska his scraped or shaved head; or issi
akáska his hair (on body} removed. At a
public council held at Savannah, in May
1733, a Lower Creek chief from Kawíta
expressed the hope that the Yamassi may be
in time reunited to his people; a fact which
fully proves the ethnic affinity of the two
national bodies.5
A tradition is current
among the Creeks, that the Yamassi were
reduced and exterminated by them, but it is
difficult to trace the date of that event.
W. Bartram, Travels, p. 137, speaks of the "sepulchres
or tumuli of the Yamasees who were here
slain in the last decisive battle, the
Creeks having driven them to this point,
between the doubling of the river (St. Juan,
Florida), where few of them escaped the fury
of the conquerors.
There were nearly thirty of these
cemeteries of the dead," etc.; cf. ibid., p.
183. 516. Forty or fifty of them fled to St.
Augustine and other coast fortresses, and
were protected by the Spanish authorities;
p. 55. 485. 390.
After the middle of the
eighteenth century the name Yamassi
disappears from the annals as that of a
distinct tribe. They were now merged into
the Seminoles; they continued long to exist
as one of their bands west of the Savannah
River, and it is reported, "that the Yemasi
band of Creeks refused to fight in the
British-American war of 1813."
All the above dates
permit us to conclude that,
ethnographically, the Yamassi were for the
main part of Creek origin, but that some
foreign admixture, either Kataba or Yuchi,
had taken place, which will account for the
presence of their local names of foreign
origin. The Apalachian or Hitchiti branch of
the Maskoki family must have also furnished
elements to those Yamassi who were settled
southwest of Savannah City, for that was the
country in which the Apalachian branch was
established.
Back to:
Maskoki Family
Footnotes:
-
Cf. Buck. Smith, Coleccion de Documentos ineditos, I, p.
15-19 (Madrid, 1857).
-
Description of Carolina, London, 1707.
The Yamassi then
lived about eighty miles from Charleston,
and extended their hunting excursions almost
to St. Augustine.
- Gallatin, Synopsis, p. 84, recalls
the circumstance that Poketalico is also
the name of a tributary of the Great
Kanawha River. This seems to point to a
foreign origin of that name.
- Verbified in tchayámassis: I am
friendly, liberal, generous, hospitable.
8 Cf. Jones, Tomochichi, p. 31.
- In Thomas Jeffery’s Map of Florida,
which stands opposite the title page of
John Bartram, Descr. of East Florida,
London, 1769, 4to, a tract on the
northeast shore of Pensacola Bay is
marked "Yamase Land."
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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