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 James Roane Gregory
Additional Texts
Yuchi
(1842-1912)
Edited by Barbara Cox
Photo courtesy of Oklahoma Historical Society
Ispahihtca,* a former chief of the Creek Nation, of the Kasihta
town, told the following version of the Creek Indian Migration
Legend to James Roane Gregory. Mr. Gregory repeated the legend to
John R. Swanton in May of 1912. Mr. Swanton included the legend in
his “42nd Annual Report” to the Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institute, entitled “Social Organization and Social Usages of
Creek Indians,” pages 53-55, 1924-1925. A copy was found in the
“Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 73” in the Oklahoma
Historical Library, Oklahoma City.
Some people anciently lived together in the West. In course of
time they became so evil that they could find nothing pure in the
world except the sun, and they determined to travel eastward to find
the place from whence it came. On the way they became separated into
three bodies. The first of these were called Chickasaw because on
the morning when they were to set out they were the first to see the
sun rise and said Tcika ha’sa (hitcika hasa), “See the sun!”
The second body said to the first Kohasita, (“Ko” is not the
usual word meaning “where?” but is probably an exclamatory
particle.) ‘Where is the sun?’ from which circumstance they
received the name Kasihta. The Chickasaw moved first, the Kashihta
following them, but the third body of people had some difficulty in
passing around a brier thicket and were left a long distance behind,
so that the parties in advance began to call them Ko-aoita, ‘Those
that are following us,’ whence the Coweta.
During their travels these tribes came to a great river which
they crossed, and presently the Chickasaw entered upon a beautiful
country whre ther were small prairies abundantly supplied with
strawberries and other wild fruits and having deep pools of water.
Then the Chickasaw did not want to go any farther and said that they
did not care where the sun came from So they settled in that
country, while the remaining bands held on their course. By and by
the Kasihta, who were still in advance, crossed a river smaller than
the first. On the other side they raised a mound, leaving a great
chamber in the center in which to fast and purify their bodies. They
left their women, children, and other noncombatants there and went
on toward the east.
Afterward, the Coweta arrived on the opposite side of the river
and sent word over that they intended to cross and kill everyone in
the place because the Kasihta warriors had not waited to have them
join in the expedition. But among the Kasihta women was one who had
a magic white stone or pebble, the mate to which was in the keeping
of her husband among the warriors. By means of this stone she
informed him of the serious state of affairs, and the Kasihta
warriors immediately retraced their steps, cut switches, and,
passing over to the Coweta warriors, whipped them severely. But they
did not strike them with a weapon of war. They then told the Coweta
to take charge of the mound, and, gathering together their own
noncombatants, they went eastward once more.
After the Kasihta had left, the Coweta made medicine and went
inside of the great mound in order to purify them selves, but while
they were there a Cherokee war party attacked the camp. Great was
their surprise, however, when the Coweta warriors poured up from the
bowels of the earth, and the Cherokees were defeated with great
slaughter. From this circumstance the Coweta town became the Great
War town of the Creek Nation. Then the Kasihta sent back for the
Coweta but, without waiting for them to catch up, continued in the
same direction as before. Presently they reached a country populated
by naked people who would attack them and then run off. The naked
people did this repeatedly until they at length ran into a dense
fog. The Kasihta followed them, and emerging on the other side,
found them selves on the shore of the ocean from which the fog had
arisen. Unable to go farther they camped where they were, and in the
morning saw the sun rise out of the sea. They concluded that was why
it was bright and pure. By and by the Coweta came up, and the two
peoples agreed that the country from which they had started was so
far off that they would not return to it. So they remained where
they were, fought with the inhabitants of the land, and brought them
under their own system of laws.
In curse of time no people were left willing to resist them, and
they longed for someone with whom to fight. Hereupon Coweta
challenged Kasihta to a game of ball in order to obtain revenge for
having been beaten with switches by the latter. The custom of having
ball contests originated at this time and in this manner and has
continued to the present day. Now arose the division between the war
towns and the peace towns. The war towns have separated from the
Coweta and the peace towns from the Kasihta, except in the cases of
towns which have been brought in from outside. These have usually
been brought in by the peace towns, and hence are generally white.
* Ispahihtca, the name spelled in the Swanton report, is more
typically found spelled Isparhechar.
(Transcribed by Barbara Cox.)
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