Apalachee.
One of the principal native tribes of Florida, formerly holding the region
north of the bay now called by the name, from about the neighborhood of
Pensacola river to Ocilla river. The chief towns were about the present
Tallahassee and St Marks. They were of Muskhogean stock, and
linguistically more nearly related to the Choctaw than to the Creeks. The
name is of uncertain etymology, but is believed by Gatschet to be from the
Choctaw A`palachi, signifying '(people) on the other side.' The
Apalachee were visited by the expeditions under Narvaez in 1528 and DeSoto
in 1,539, and the latter made their country his winter headquarters on
account of its abundant resources for subsistence. The people were
agricultural, industrious and prosperous, and noted above all the
surrounding tribes for their lighting qualities, of which the Spanish
adventurers had good proof. They continued resistance to the Spanish
occupancy until after the year 1600, but were finally subdued and
Christianized, their country becoming the most important center of
missionary effort in Florida next to the St Augustine (Timucua) district.
In 1655 they had 8 considerable towns each with a Franciscan mission,
settlements, besides smaller and a total population of 6,000 to 8,000.
Their prosperity continued until about the year 1700, when they began to
suffer from the raids by the wild Creek tribes to the north, instigated by
the English government of Carolina, the Apalachee themselves being
strongly in the Spanish interest. These attacks culminated in the year
1703, when a powerful expedition under Gov. Moore of Carolina, consisting
of a company of white troops with a thousand armed savage allies of
various tribes, invaded the Apalachee country, destroyed the towns and
missions, with their fields and orange groves, killed the Spanish garrison
commander and more than 200 Apalachee warriors, and carried off 1,400 of
the tribe into slavery. Another expedition about a year later ravaged the
neighboring territory and completed the destruction. The remnants of the
Apalachee became fugitives among the friendly tribes or fled for
protection to the French at Mobile, and although an effort was made by one
of the Christian chiefs in 1718 to gather some of them into new mission
villages (Soledad and San Luis) near Pensacola, the result was only
temporarily successful. A part of the deported Apalachee were colonized by
the Carolina government on Savannah river, at a settlement known as
Palachoocla (Palachi-okla, or Apalachicola, but were finally merged into
the Creeks. Those who settled under French protection near Mobile crossed
the Mississippi into Louisiana after the cession of Florida to England in
1763, and continued to preserve their name and
identity as late, at least, as 1804, when 14 families were still living on
Bayou Rapide.
Among the principal Apalachee towns or mission
settlements of certain identification are Apalachee (1528-39 and later,
believed to have been near the present Tallahassee),
Ayavalla
Ivitachuco
San Marcos
San Juan
Santa Cruz
San Luis (1718)
Soledad (1718).
Consult Barcia Ensay 1723; Sibley, Hist.
Sketches, 1806; Shea, Catholic Missions, 1855; Gatschet, Creek Migr.
Legend, I, 1884.
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