The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-13


 Autauga, or what the Indians called Autauga or Dumplin Town. Is tine place where Washington now Is in Autauga County. The AlabaInas and those little towns connected with them as far as Beach Creek that mouths just above Selma and up the river to where Coosawda is on the Autauga side. To spell 1t the way the Indians pro- nounced it and the way Colonel flaw kins spelled itAis Goowarsardta. The Alabamas differed from the Musqua or Muscogees as do the Choctaws from the Chicksaws. but were what the Ir- dians call "tlie same ffreside people" There was much of their dialect that differed from that of the common Creek or Muaque. as the Western In- dians called them. and no doubt once they were a different tribe.
 About the close of the American Revofution a large portion of the Ala bamas and Coowarsartdas returned 70 Texas on the Trinity. being under the command of a chief called Red Shoes of Stillipichatta. visited these Indians in 1876 In company with Mr. Angus Giiehrist and Mir. Edward Mclaughlin. Mir. Mclaughlin was the best Indian fn- terpreter I ever knew except HamIy, who was. reared by Forbes and Panton in Florida. Req Shoes was then Iiv- ing and lived for years afterwards 1 inquired much Into his history and the history of his people.
 INDIANS WE'RE DRIVEN
 FROM WHAT IS TEXAS.
 He gave the same account of their being driven from their old home in the West. and their settlement in Aiabama and in a part of Georgia as has been given me by the Creeks and if Indian tradition and what have heard from Colonel Hawlxins-who think was the most sensible man I was ever acquainted with and whose op- portunities were as good if not better than anybody else of his day possess ed. to collect correct information of the early settlements of the Creeks and their confederates in Alabama and Georgia are to be relied on Colonel Pickett must have been wrongly tn- formed as to the fights with the Mus cogees and Alabamas near the source of the Red river. Jas well as to the Muscogees settling in Ohio and the Alabamas settling on the. Yazoo and the destruction of their efforts by De Soto and the Alabamas being the first to settle in what Is now known to us as the Creek country.
 It has always been contested point
  chic, or old Cusetaw. opposite Fort Mitchell on the Chattafoochee river was settled first These two towns in almost every Instance furnished the head chiefs of the nation. Tuckabat- chic furnishing the upper town chief and Cusetaw furnishing the lower town chief This fact is we'll known to all who have been well acquainted with the Creeks. Besides John FerJi- nand De Soto who has been known by most persons as Hernanda De Soto, after landing hls forces in Georgia passed through a portion of Georgia and across the entire state of Alabama. be- fore he could have reached the Yazoo in Mississippi
 And in addition to this, one of the severest battles Soto had with the h. dians was fought with the Creeks at what is known now as Cuwally. It is either in Montgomery or Tallapoosa County. do not know how the county line runs. Cuwally is the name given it by the whites who did not know the Indian pronunciation of the name. To spell 1t is as the Indians pronounced it. would be ThleawaIla. which signifies rolling bullet" Thlea is an arrow or bullet and walla Is to roll
 The Indians say that it was there that spent ball was seen rolling on the ground and from that the place took its name.
 Besides the Tuckabatchies have now in their possession a number of plates of copper which the Spaniards used as a kind of shield to protect them selves from the arrows of the Indians. These plates were taken from the Spaniards ct that fight.
 And from what Colonel Pickett says of the fights at the source of the Red River the Indians were some years on their route going east. have not seen or heard any traditionary account of anything of the sort in my intercourse with the various tribes have been among. and the sources of the Red River must have been imperfectly known by any European in that day. that had visited this country and are stfll very imperfectlyt known by our own people to this day: for the Red River does not, as believed by many, head in the Rocky Mountains. but is a mere leak or drain from the prairies, except those little streams that head in the ozark Hills of Arkansas. Be- sides, 1t Is not such a country as the