The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-15

dition of the gutteral termination ma would form the word Alabama, and that II these Hillabees were the Uliabahillees Of DeSoto; but the fatal objection to this is that the Ullabahillees and Alabamos of DeSoto were different and distinct tribes, and were found in different places. and could not have been Identical. So this explanation does not explain.
 pr. D. G. Brinton, an acknowledged authority on aboriginal literature. quotes Rev. Allen Wright as saying that the name came from the Choctaw wofds alba ayamuie, meaning .'thicket openers or clearers,'' and further says that Sekopechee, an old Indian chieftain. once said to an Indian agent: "The Great Spirit brought the Alabama Indians from the ground between the Cahaba and Ala bama Rivers, and they believe that thee | are the right possessors of this soil. The Muscogees formerly called themselves Alabamians c'thicket clearers'D but others call them oke-choy- -atte." etc. | This is another fanciful meaning. which might apply to many places. and I only give 1t as part of the information-or | alleged information-connected with the subject. Thinking I might learn something by going to headquarters, as 1t were Il referred the above to Rev. John Ed wards. a teacher and preacher among | the Choctaws. who writes me: Ewing toms Lexicon gives the Choctaw for the name as Holbamo. Where MT. Wright has alba he doubtless meant ylba (the "v'' takes the place of short ''u') which he defines, weeds, plants, vegetation Umoh is to pick, gather etc. Trans forming it into a noun by the omission of the h. or by changing 1t into a gut teral, we have vmoh 'gatherers, pickers. | etc. Vlba vmoh would. therefore. mean | weed gatherers.' Writing it with the a, 1t would be alba amoh, which, by the whites, could be easily transformed into | Alabama. l simply put this as possible l definition, referring to the gathering of seed for food. as is often done by the California Indians"
 | Trying again, I referred 1t to Mrs. A. E. w. Robertson, for nearly half cen- tury a teacher among the Creek Indians, and who has written and translated many papers and books in their Ian I fuage She writes: Alabama, in the dialect of the Alabama Creeks. meant l old town as Tallahassee does in the l Creek proper. Mrs. Levers. my infor- | mant, thinks this information correct, l coming from different ones. Her definition Is much the more probable one. not so farfetched, and Is more like the Indian words"
 | pr. Wyman of Tuscaloosa, who Is ex-
 
 relating to the aborigines, declares that the name is not Creek at alL He has an impression that the word might mean mulberry town" but I can find nothing In the languages or dialects of any Of the Southern Indians which would or could be thus translated. In fact, like all the other hypothcses this one has weak places in it, and notwithstanding the we'll informed source from which the ex- nIo raQaFdNd as a solution of the difficulty.
 Now, let us go hack little and find where the first mention of the word oc- CUTS, as that may help to explain why the river and the State were called Ala bama. In 17s5 one Chskilh, who styled himself Emperor of the Upper and Lower Creeks" visited Savannah and there held talk" in the presence of Governor Oglethorpe and other officials, and handed them the Migration Legend of the Creek Indians" With this and the allied Hitcheti Legend we have noth- ing to do, except so far as it relates to the word in question. These legends purport to give the origin and journeyings of the tribes forming the great Musko- kee Confectionery, and though largely mythical there occur in the course of the narrative many local names which are yet preserved. Speaking of the tribes who were joined in the journey the Creek text has Momen Atilamalgi-"then the Atilamas," while the Hitchiti text has Mamihin Alabama-lohin, meaning | practically the same thing, showing that what was afterwards known as the Ala bamas were one of the ancient tribes or | divisions of what came to be known as the Creek Nation.
 Turning from the legendary to the semi historical, we find these names occurring ! in the Spanish and Portugese accounts of DeSoto's expedition. DeBiedma tells us that after the disastrous battle of Mau- bila they travelled In a Northwestern direction, traversing the Chicasa province and then reached the province of the Albamo. The Hidalgo of Elvas. the Portugese historian of the expedition. says that while they were resting at Chicasa they were visited by two caci- ques, one called Alimamu. the other Nicalusa. La Vegas, another chronlcler, tells us that the Spaniards had to fight the Alibamos entrenched fin a palisaded fort. And by the way it Is little pecu- liar that there was a Spaniard with the expedition named Alimamos, which may account for the peculiar orthography used by the Spanish writers in speaking of the Alibamas.
 l All this is interesting only as showing that the name was familiar one In 1540, when DeSoto found and fought them. | Iney were apparently a SelLleu peOple at that time, and their territory was in Northeastern Mississippi, doubtless on the Yazoo River. That their migration occurred soon after, and that they had settled on and gave their name to the Alabama River is proven by the fact that Daniel Coxe, in his Prescription of the English Province of Carolana," which was compiled from the history of various expeditions made through that region about the close of the Sixteenth Century, speaks of them as having towns on the Alabama, and a map which accompanies l his work has Rio des Alibamous, or River of Alabama, and locates several towns of les Ahbamous at the forks Of the Coosa and Tallapoosa. Two centuries later. when Colonel Benjamin Hawkins was Indian agent in this region he found several towns of Alabamas located on the river above and below the present site of Montgomery
 This Aggression into the realms of tra- dition and history Is intended-not to ex- plain the meaning of the word-but to show that 1t was a tribal name of a nation quite distant from the Alabama River centuries before they fished or boated in its waters. Now, what con- clusions do I draw from all this diversi- fled information? Just this. that the name Alabama belonged to the Indians long ago; that they brought it with them in their migration and gave it to our river and State; and. finally, If the name ever had a definite meaning or signi1Cation #