Who Were the Mysterious Yuchi
of Tennessee and the Southeast?
The Tsoyaha (Yuchi) are not well represented in the history books. This is for several reasons. First, while the Yuchi were a large powerful tribe according to reports of the De Soto expedition, evidence indicates that disease/epidemics ravaged the Yuchi after the Spanish men visited the East Tennessee area. The Yuchi were known to have widely scattered villages that ranged from Florida to Illinois, and from the Carolina coast to the Mississippi River. Legend has it that the tribe split in half over politics, and the fate of remaining half is not known. We do know that much of what is now Tennessee was occupied by a tribe with cultural characteristics identical to the Mouse Creek (Uchean) culture for at least 6 or 8 centuries, and that these villages intermingled with those of the neighboring tribes. It was widely theorized that the Yuchi in their widely scattered villages throughout the Southeastern United States, represented the original inhabitants prior to he influx of the Muskhogean, Iroquoian, and Algonkian Peoples. It is certain that the Yuchi were among the Mound-building People, and therefore among the oldest recognizable residents of the Southeast.
Lastly, the Yuchi residing in East Tennessee were evicted/exterminated by the Cherokee under the armament and direction of Eleazer Wiggan and Alexander Long (residents of South Carolina) just before the Historic Period took hold of East Tennessee. At Chestowee (Mouse Creek) the heavily armed Cherokee stormed the walls in 1714. The surviving old men, women and children gathered in the communal house and committed mass suicide, rather than be taken captive. A woman and a couple of children survived, and were taken as slaves back to South Carolina where they told their story to officials. Mr. Long and Mr. Wiggan were arrested, tried and convicted of inciting Indian war, for which the were stripped of their trading licenses.
The arrival of the Europeans destabilized the delicately balanced alliances that allowed the Yuchi to live in widely scattered villages among many other peoples _ a priestly, warrior in palisaded villages. It remains inconceivable to the dominant culture of "ownership" that a people could or would share their lands, yet city states have long dotted Europe. The remaining Yuchi villages in East Tennessee, decimated by disease and hostile neighbors, fled to join other Yuchi living down on the Savannah and Chattahoochee Rivers and the Panhandle of Florida, where they failed to be distinguished from the Creek (Muskhogean) peoples that surrounded/dominated the area (ultimately many Yuchi were incorporated into the Cherokee, Seminoles, Creek and probably other Nations, and or "assimilated" _ a scattered people absorbed into a desperately changing world). The Federal Government has never recognized the Yuchi tribe despite the fact that they are not related by language or culture to any other native peoples. This is probably the result of never signing a treaty or fighting a war with the Yuchi. It seems they "obtained" title to Yuchi lands by treaty/purchase from the neighboring tribes.
Additionally, the tribe has been known by so many names: Chisca (Spanish), Tongora, Oustack, Westo (SC), Rickhokans (VA), Tomahittans (VA), Tahogalewi (Algonkin), Hogoheegee or Hogologe (Algonkin) & Yuchi (or Euchee, Uge (Uchean). This has led to much confusion to historians. They also did much raiding of the Colonies from Virginia to Florida. This may have been part of the reason for the attack organized by Messers. Wiggan and Long. As "Wild Indian" enemies of the writers of history, they were allotted much less treatment by history and the Federal Government than the more friendly Cherokee.
That they were a distinct people is known from their insistence on descent from the Sun, a hold over from the mound building Sun worship. While they lived among several other tribes, they remained distinct and held themselves separate. More important the Uchean language has never been certainly classified, and bears little resemblance to any of the known tongues of the Americas. Only a half dozen speakers of the Uchean language remain alive. The Yuchi long built their homes half subterranean with palisaded walls around the village. They buried their dead laid out flat, often within wooden or stone lined pits. It is cultural traits like these that distinguishes their archaeological sites from their neighbors.
A similarity between religious practices has led a few to theorize a Hebrew connection. Proof that at least a small connection exists resides in the Bat Creek Stone (Smithsonian Collection) which was removed from an East Tennessee mound, and contains a Hebrew inscription. However, despite much wishful investigation, this is not a lost tribe of Israel. The Yuchi are a mysterious indigenous people with a separate and distinct heritage form the other indigenous people of the United States. History aside, the Tsoyaha were one of the mound building peoples in the Southeast, a satellite culture of the great Mayan culture. They were part of the extensive trade that included trade with the Old World. Despite firmly held myths that claim current era discovery, America has been a melting pot of ideas, culture and genes since long before the Colombian Era, and well into the Neolithic times as the intercontinental Maritime Archaic demonstrate.
The name Yuchi means "Faraway," because they would say, "we are Tsoyaha yuchi" ("Children of the Sun from faraway") Indian tribes are frequently known by names other than what they call themselves, i.e. Sioux, Navaho, Creek, etc. This is only half true of the Yuchi.
The most accessible information on the Yuchi is in Tribes That Slumber by Kneberg & Lewis, Univ. of Tenn. Press. Any university library ought to have Ethnology of the Yuchi by Frank Speck, and Yuchi Tales, by Gunter Wagner.
Of Lost Roots and Forgotten Tribes
The name of the State of Tennessee is a minor mystery. The origin of the word was lost to history. Now, this is not a great matter of import, but such trivia can be enjoyable. An example is the name, "Chicago" which means "onion-place." About half the states and thousands of cities, rivers, lakes, and other sites in the United States have place names that are derived from aboriginal names. The difference is that many of these names' origins and meanings are known.
The origin of the name, Tennessee, remains a mystery because the name is probably from the nearly extinct Uchean Language. This is a language which enigmatically seems unrelated to any of the other 500 American Indian languages, but may have had some Siouan influences. The Yuchi are almost as forgotten as the origin of the word, Tennessee.
The name, Tennessee, is not Cherokee. The Cherokee told the early settlers that the name was used by "the people who lived here before we came." The Cherokee continued to use the name, Tannassee or Tansi, for a town on the Little Tennessee River at Nine-Mile Creek (near Chota). The white settlers would use this name for the rivers and later the state.
Archaeological evidence suggests that for hundreds of years the Yuchean-type culture flourished over much of eastern and middle Tennessee. This was before the white settlers came, and while the bulk of the Cherokee were still north in the Great Lakes region, before they were driven south by the Great Iriquois Confederacy.
Noted ethnologist John R. Swanton has stated that the name Tennessee was either Muskhogean (Creek) or Yuchi. Swanton, not knowing the Uchean language, proposed that it might be a contraction of Talwa-ahassi, i.e. talasi as in Talahassee, Florida. This means "Old Town" in Muskhogean (literally means "old fire"). Swanton did not have access to speakers of the Uchean language. The journals of the Juan Pardo expedition of 1567 records the Yuchi (Chisca) village of Tanasaqui in the East Tennessee area. Also the "el" sound isn't likely to have been changed to an "en" sound.
After studying the Uchean language and linguistics in an effort to learn something of the Yuchi, this writer believes there is a more likely origin. Several towns in the Tennessee Valley carried names homophonic (sounding-like) with the State name, Tahnisee, Tunnashe, Tamasttee, Tasechee, Tanasqui, and Tasache. These were located at the junctions of streams on the Little Tennessee, Hiwassee, French Broad and Tellico Rivers. The Yuchi refer to the confluence of streams as Tana-tsee-dgee, which translates roughly to "where-the-waters-meet," and literally means "brother-waters-place." (also Tana-tsee, Brother-waters)
The official (bigoted) view is that the name derives from a Cherokee word, "but they forgot what it means." Poor ignorant savages cannot be expected to remember what all their words mean. This is a suitable explanation, why search for any others. So for years, the Tennessee State Tourism has continued to expound demeaning propaganda that it was a mystery or a forgotten Cherokee word.
Neither the Cherokee nor the Creek recognized the word "tennessee." The Yuchi are known to have been among the immediate predecessors of the Cherokee in this area. Historical evidence on many maps from the 16th to 18th century show these similar names throughout this area at the junctions of streams. The Yuchi term for such town sites does sound much like Tennessee. Many early maps have "Hogoheegee" as the name for the Tennessee River (this is the Algonkin name for Yuchi People). We have both proof that the Yuchi resided here, and language validation of the likely derivation of the name. Therefore, this seems to adequately account for the mystery of the State's name.
The reasons for the name being lost to history are also interesting. The Yuchi were first visited at "Tanasqui" by the Hernando de Soto expedition in 1540 and the Juan Pardo expedition in 1567. Both these expeditions also fought battles with them. The Yuchi were a powerful tribe that raided the coastal colonies of South Carolina, Virginia and Florida and were feared by the neighboring tribes. By the early 18th century the Yuchi were greatly diminished, by either war or disease. They had lived as the immediate neighbors to Melungeons, colonist brought from Spain by Juan Pardo in the late 1560s (fleeing the Inquistions), and so were more intimately exposed to European diseases. Their decimation by disease and warfare made it easy for them to be driven from the land that had been their stronghold.
In 1714, messers. Eleazer Wiggan and Alexander Long, traders from South Carolina, provided guns to the Cherokee and encouraged them to attack the Yuchi at Chestowee (South Mouse Creek) on the Hiwassee River. The Yuchi fought valiantly, but mere bows and arrows were no match for deadly musket fire. Unlike spears and arrows, guns are easily fired between the poles of a palisade wall. For the first time the walls were little protection for the people. When the battle was all but lost, the Yuchi not killed in battle gathered their families and committed mass suicide in the communal house rather than be taken captive. Three survivors were taken as slaves. Other battles may have been fought at a place still known as Euchee Old Fields in Rhea/Meigs County (near the present community of Euchee). The remaining Yuchi communities left Tennessee to live down on the Savannah and Chattahoochee Rivers, and a few were known to be assimilated into the Cherokee and Melungeon Peoples.
The Yuchi, now only a small tribe, were forced to ally themselves with the Creek Confederacy for survival, and in an ongoing part of this American travesty have never been recognized by the Federal Government as anything but a part of the Creek Nation. Yet, they still continued to play a small part in history.
In the Creek War of 1814, a Yuchi named Timpoochee Barnard, fought along side Andrew Jackson at the battle of Callabee Creek. This battle was against the Red Stick Creek including their Euchee allies (a group of Creek/Yuchi mixed bloods). Timpoochee led a bloody charge against the overwhelming Creek forces saving the forces of Captain John Broadnix. Though wounded severely twice, he continued to fight until the Creeks were repelled. President Andrew Jackson later praised Timpoochee Barnard to his son, "a braver man than your father never lived." President Jackson soon forced all Indians, friends and foes on a death march to exile along the Trail of Tears. Here we have proof that the Yuchi were not a Creek people as they allied with the U.S. forces to fight the Creek, and were repaid with deportation.
In May of 1836, a Yuchi named Jim Henry participated in raids on settlements in Alabama and Georgia. By July of that year, the government rounded up 2500 Creeks (including 900 Yuchi) and ferried them to Indian territory (where only 216 are recorded in the 1930 census). The Indian removal was the beginning of the end for the Yuchi tribe. Some Yuchi fled to Florida and joined the Seminole, where Uchee Billy was Chief a century ago. Others of mixed heritage successfully "passed as white," and remained on their land. However, this required hiding all evidence of their Indian heritage.
Today, the tribal Yuchi number a few hundred and are partly assimilated into the Creek and Seminole Nations. Hardly anyone speaks the language, and only books preserve the "Eastern" traditions of the Yuchi. Little but dusty records, ties the Yuchi to their role in Tennessee history, and even this is slowly being erased by revisionist history writers. And yet, this tenacious people cling to their culture and language after centuries of Federal repression aimed at making them disappear.
In summary, the Yuchi language is nearly extinct with less than a dozen speakers. The tribe was expelled from East Tennessee before the settlers begin to record the area's history. Reduced to only a small tribe, they were largely ignored by scholars. It is little wonder that their tie to this State and its name has been nearly lost to us. Just a forgotten tribe and a nearly meaningless name hidden in a few musty records. If we ignore the Yuchi long enough they will be extinct, and therefore one less Indian problem to concern an arrogant majority bent on reducing them to naught but forgotten myths.
[While the unequivocal origin of the name can never be established, this explanation is more than compelling. It treads on our myths of the Indians as an inferior people who some how owed forfeiture of their lands to the invading Europeans, or those simplifications that portray the Cherokee as THE Indians from the Southeast. Perhaps it is just easier to simplify and rewrite history to fit the conscience of the dominant culture. I submitted for publication several years back in the state magazine _ They didn't think it was "appropriate" for their publication. Yet the records of the Yuchi are all still in our academic archives being quietly forgotten, just as the source of the State's name has been.]
Copyright 1989/97 Aztech/Teknowledgy (Woktela)
Related Sites:
"Yuchi Town"
"Trixter, An Introduction"
"Trickster's Ownership Manual for Status as Human Being"
"The Yuchi Language Primer"
For more information about the Yuchis, contact:
Yuchi Historian, David Hackett (Woktela)
Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830 · Phone (865) 483-0058
Send e-mail to woktela@comcast.net