The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-20

VSuSIAtIUu tO USIlCIdSiuu d. tO l DeSoto, Whom They Called "The White Warrior" and His Fights
 With tht Indians.
 | Tn his fourth letter which forms the | third instaIlment of the "Reminiscences of General Thomas S Woodward as they are being published in The Ad- vertiser. the old pioneer gives the ln- dians own account of the march and 1 fights of De Soto. The accounts are circumstantial and exact. although | they differ in some minor degrees | from the accounts given by the writ | CTS who accompanied De Soto's army, I But in the main they coincide and as l the traditions were repeated to the | first whites as they came into the Creek Nation. and before the Indians could possibly have known anything of the published accounts of the trav- els of De Soto, they are to De ac- cepted at their value.
 Moreover. General Woodward de- l clares that all the history and tradl- l tions of the Indians are very exact | and that the whites were much more l likely to embellish than the Indians l who made 1t a duty, almost painrul' to stick to the exact facts.
 l General Woodward continues to set l forth his belief that the big fight be- tween De Soto and the Big Warrtor' which Bancroft calls the bIoodiest bat tie ever fought between whites ana Indians, was fought at the Tallapoosa River few miles from Montgomery | near where the lines of Montgomery and Tallapoosa counties join. He de- ] clares that he he has seen at Tucka- batchie, the old Indian town near Tai lassee, brass plates and shields that the Indians took from the Spanish at that fight. And he says in snother mart of his memoirs that the Indians still had those brass plates when they were moved West and that these plates wrapped in deer skins were carried l at the head of the procession or marching Indians by specially selected bearers.
 General Woodward again goes into the origin and early history of the Creeks before they settled in Middle Alabama and he describes on the au- thority of Q friend q part of the Mus coEees and Creeks who when they emigrated from what is now Texas by a superior force went to Colorado as the others came to Aiabama.--Edi- torial note.)
 Third TnstaIinnent.
 winn Parish. La. Jan. 10. 1858. To. J. J. Hoper. Esq:
 wrote you some time back some six ketches relating to the Creek In dians, which no doubt you found too long, too tedious and too uuinterest- ing to publish. Tn that I sent you made mention of a family arrange ment among the Creeks. that differed from all other tribes that I know or have travelled among. Tha Creeks were laid off in families namely, Bears, Tigers. Wolves, Foxes. Deers and most all of the animals that were known to them. All these families had cer- tain privileges and each Indian knew to what family he belonged and what privileges he enjoyed. There was also the Wind Family which was al- lowed more privileges than all the rest. For instance, when an offender escaped from justice all families were allowed to pursue a certain number of days and no more. except the Wind Family, which had a right to pursue and arBest at any time-there was no limit to their privilege of bringing | an offender to Justice.
 There was nothing to prevent a blood relation from marrying another but a woman of the Bear family was at perfect liberty to take husband from any family except the Bear Fam fly; so 1t was with all the other fam flies, but none was permitted to mar ry in the same family; for instance, if a man of the Wolf Family marry Fox, all the children would be Foxes. Such has been the custom of the Creeks from the earliest history l have had of them, though their in- tercourse with the whites has changed many of their old habits and cus- toms since I have known them.
 Tn fact. I know a number of words in their language and names of places and things that are not spoken or pronounced as they were when first knew them. This has been occasioned by the whites not being able in many cases to. give the Indian pronouncia- tion and the Indians in many cases have confirmed to that of the whites, A horse, now for instance, is called "Chelocko" by the whites who speak Indian, but originally it was Echo Thlocko. sgnifying a Big Deer-Echo c is deer and thlocko Is something large
 SPANISH HAD FIRST HORSES
 INDIANS EVER SAW
 The first horses the Greeks ever saw were those introduced by the Span 
 as they resembled that animal more than any other they knew-this is their tradition and am satisfied that 1t Is correct
 There is the Indian town above Montgomery. Coowersartda, that is called by the whites Coosawda; also the town, Thlewalla. where Soto fought the Creeks; 1t is called by the whites Cuwally, and many of the Ih- dians raised of late years call it as the whites do. and do not know what it's original name Is or what its mean ing is Thela Is an arrow or bullet and walla Is to roll; the proper name Is Rolling Bullet and many such other alterations have been made that have come within my knowledge
 Indians in almost every instance learn our language quicker than we learn theirs. particularly our pronun- ciation An Indian, if he speaks our language invariably. pronounces as do those from whom he learned 1t. If he learns 1t from a white man who speaks well the Indian invariably does SO the same; if he learns it from a negro he speaks it as the negro did.
 You may take the best educated European that lives. that does not sneak our language and an Indian that does speak 1t; let both learn 1t; if the Indian does not learn 1t so well he will always speak more distinctly what he does learn than the European This will no doubt be disputed by many, but know it to be true from q