Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico / edited by Frederick Webb Hodge.

Date:
1907-1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico / edited by Frederick Webb Hodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    979/1000 (page 961)
    BULL. :?oj MUriKP:<i MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY 9()1 iNlus. 1895; Brown in Am. .\nthro])., viii, no. 4, 1906; Cringan, Inujiioin Folk-songs, Arclueol. Kep. Brovin. Mns., Toronto, 1902; Curtis, Song.s of Ancient America, 1905; Cushing in MilFtone, x, Jan. 1885; Dixon in Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Mist., xvii, pC 3, 1905; Farrand, Basis of American History, 1904; Fillmore in Am. Antlirop., n. s., 1,1899; Fletcher (1) in Pub. Peabody IMus., I, no. V, (2) Indian Story and Song, 1900; Hoffman in 7th Rep. B. A. JC, 1891; Hough in Am. Anthrop., xi, no. 5, 1897; Hrdlicka, il)id., n. s., vii, no. 3, 1905, and VIII, no. 1, 1906; Bumholtz, Unknown Mexico, 1,475,1902; Matthews, (l)Navaho Legends, 1897, (2) Night Chant, Memoirs .\m. Mus. Nat. Hi.st., Anthrop. ser., v, 1902; Mooney in 14th Rep. B. A. E., 1896; Sammelbiinde der InternationalenMusik- gesellschaft; Stumpfin Merteljahrsschrift fiir Musikwissenschaft; Voth in Field Co- lumb. Mus. Pub., Anthrop. ser., iii, vi, 1901, 1903; Walla'ichek, Primitive Music, 1893; Willoughby in Am. Anthrop., n. s., IX, no. 1, 1907. ' (a. V. f.) Muskeg (Chippewa, uimhuj-, Kickapoo, mad'yuff', ‘gra.«sy bog.’—W. J.). Low, wet land; a quagmire, marsh, swamp, tlie e(iuivalent of savane in Canadian French. A word much used in jiarts of Ontario, the.Canadian Northwest, and theadjoining regions of theUnitedStates; spelled also maid-eg. In the N. W.muskeg is the usual form. (a. f. c.) Muskelunge. See Maskinonge. Muskhogean Family. .\n important linguistic stock, comprising the (’reeks, Choctaw, Chicka.saw, Seminole, aiul other tribes. The name is an adjectival form of Muskogee, properly MCiskoki (pi. Maskokalgi or Muscogulgee). Its deriva- tion has been attributed to an Algonquian term signifying ‘swamp’or ‘open marshy land’ (see Muskeg), but this is almost cer- tainly incorrect. The Muskhogean tribes were confined chiefly to the Gulf states e. of the Mississippi, occupying almost all of Mississippi ami Alabama, and parts of Tenne.«see, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, .\ccording to a tradition held in common by most of their tribes, they had readied their historicseats from .some startingpointw.ofthe .Mi.ssDsippi, usually placed, when localized at all, somewhere on the upper Red r. The greater part of the tribes of the stock are nowon reserva- tions in Oklahoma. Through one or another of its tribes the stock early came into notice. Panfilo de Narvaez met the Apalachee of w. Flor- ida in 1528, and in 1540-41 De Soto passed e. and w. through the whole ex- tent of the Muskhogean territory. Mis- sion effort was begun among them by the Spanish Franciscans at a very early period, with such success that before the year 1700, besides several missions in lowi'r < ieorgia, the whole Aiialachee trilie, an important single body, was civilized and Christianize! 1, and settled in 7 large and well-built towns (see Missions.) The establishment of the French at Mobile, Biloxi, and other i)oints about 1699-1705 brought them into contact with the Choc- taw and other western branches of the stock. The [lowerful Creek confederacy had its most intimate contact with tlie English of Carolina and Georgia, although a French fort was long established in the territoryof theAlibamu. TheChicka.saw also were allies of the English, while the Choctaw were uncertain friends of the French. The devotion of the Aj)alachee to the Spaniards resulted in the destruc- tion of the former as a people at the hands of the English and their Indian allies in the first years of the 18th cen- tury. The tide of white settlement, botli English and French, gradually pressed the iMuskhogean tribes back from the shores of the Atlantic and the Gulf, some bands recro.ssing to the w. of the Missis- sippi as early as 1765. The terrible Creek war in 181.3-14 and the long drawn-ont Seminole war 20 years laU'r closed the struggle to maintain themselves in their old territories, and before the year 1840 the last of the Muskhogean tribes had been removed to their present location in Oklahoma, with the exception of a few hundred Seminole in Florida, a larger number of Choctaw in Missis.sippi, Ala- bama, and liOuisiana, and a small forgot- ten Creek remnantin e. Texas. (See the several tribal articles.) Th er e e X ist ed bet w een t h e tri bes m ar k ed dissimilarities as to both physical ami cultural characteristics. For instance, the Choctaw were rather thickset and heavy, while those .farther e., as the Creeks, were taller but well-knit. All the tribes were agricultural and sed- entary, occupying villages of substan- tially built houses. The towns near the tribal frontiers were usually palisaded, while those more remote from invasion were left unprotected. All were brave, but the Choctaw claimed to tight only in self-defense, while the Creeks, and more particularly the Chickasaw, Avere ag- gressive. The Creeks were properlv a confederacy, with the Muskogee as the dominant partner, and including also in later years the alien Yuchi, the Natchez, and a ))art of the Shawnee. The Choctaw also formed a loose confederacy, including among others several broken tribes of alien st<)ck. In their government the ^Muskhogean tribes appear to have made ])rogress cor- responding to their somewhat advanced culture in other respects. In the Creek government, which is better known than that of the other tribes of the family, the Bull. 30—05 61