The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-26
THr NAME. cHATTANooeA.

The Chattanooga Times Is somewhat disturbed about the real meaning of the name of its city. It doesn't accept the popular tradition that the word means Eagles Nest.'' We suppose it would be still less inclined to accept Grows Nest" which some unknown authority gives as the meaning of the word. The Times has been inquiring among the au- thorities and finds that none of them will father either Eagles Nest or Hawks Nest" to say nothing of the more humble crow, and adds:
 [. It has been demonstrated. therefore, that the word is not Cherokee. On the other hand. there is good reason flor be- lieving that the word is ChoctaW. A min ister of the earlier days who was active in this section has left record to the effect that in his work among the Choc- taws in the vicinity of Opeiika, Ala, he met with an exceedingly interesting char acter-a medicine man" who had wo- derful fund of information and tradi- tional lore about his people and their occupancy of this section. This Indian stated that the Word Chattanooga was a corruption of the word Choctaw-noo-gah, meaning, freely translated, "here ends the Choctaw land" The site on which the city is built Is quite near the dividing line between the territories of the Choctaws and the Cherokees and the derivation of the name Chattanooga given by the early settlers of Ross's Lending to their un- prete1tious village, Is without doubt cor rectly given by this Choctaw Indian re- ferred to. Certain it is, that it is not Cherokee word, and so surely it does not mean Eagles Nest"
 But we must inform our esteemed con- temporary that 1t has mixed those babies up' in a way to make sorne of It has located the tribes where they were never before known. That minister who found Choctaws at Opelika made a dis covery that nobody else ever heard of. Similarly, the statement that the city of Chattanooga is near the dividing line, between the Choctaws and the Cherokees" is fabulous, to say the least of 1t.
 The Cherokees. as far back as the whites have any knowledge of them, oc- cupied portions of Northeast Alabama Southeast Tennessee, Western North Carolina and portion of North west Georgia. They were essentially a hill people. and their homes were among the mountain ranges. The Choctaws. on the contrary, occupied the comparatively level regions of Middle West Alabama and Eastern Mississippi. Between them and the Cherokees were the Creeks on the northwest and the Chicasas on the north The Cherokees and Choctaws were widely separated and were never neighbors. at least in historic times
 Now, as to the name, we doubt if any certain definition can be found. If we should hazard an opinion, we should say that the foundation of the name is found in the Muskogee word "chatu." or "chatto" meaning a stone, though We know of no reason for giving the town a name taken from $ tribe which never. so far as we can learn, occupied that region That, however, is not an insupera ble objection, as 1t Is well known that there were what were called loan words used by different tribes. If the name is not in some way derived from the Creek word for rock or stone, we know of nothing to show its origin. We find no word Ill the language of any of the Southern h. dians. at all events, from which the devla- ton of Eagles Nest" or any other fowl and it's nest can be obtained. The Times will have to search further