THE YOWANNE,
OR HIOWANNI, INDIANS. (cont.)
Page 408
says lay nearly southeast
of his camp. From this statement it seems that his camp was on the west
side of Chickasahay river and on the south side of Shubuta creek. This
gives us at least one point on the western trail. In the same connection
Adair speaks of arriving at the outhouses of Yowanne, where he crossed
the Chickasahay river to another Yowanne town, “the palisaded fort.” The
“outhouses” of Adair are evidently Ewana, the town laid down on the west
side of the Chickasahay on Bernard Romans’ map. Romans was there in 1771,
noting the presence of traders and other Englishmen, and finding in this
country both Creek and Choctaw picture writings, or “hieroglyphicks.”
There were of course
other trails to and from Yowanne but they cannot now be so well traced.
On Cary’s map of the Mississippi Territory there is one marked from Yowanne
to Natchez and also from Yowanne to St. Stephens. It is a likely guess
of Mr. Halbert that this is the same as the McClary trace, made by that
lieutenant in 1799 from Natchez to St. Stephens. Just as the old explorers
certainly used Indian trails for lack of better roads, it is not unlikely
that the United States soldier widened and
straightened an
old Indian trail to transport his troops from Natchez to occupy the outpost
at St. Stephens abandoned by the Spaniards.
So much for the town.
What became of its people? It is said that some reside in Texas, but some
of them were found by A. S. Gatschet as late as ‘886 on Bayou Boeuf, at
the Lamouri bridge, 20 miles southeast of Alexandria, La. Others of course
may remain in Mississippi and doubtless others yet are among the Choctaws
in Indian Territory. When the line was run between the United States and
the Choctaws in the Mississippi Territory in 1805, the tradition, as given
by an old settler, John H. Evans, was that when the chief, whose name was
also Haiowanni, heard of the survey, he met the surveyors and told them
that if they continued in the direction they were then going they would
surely put him and his people within the bounds of the white settlements,
and that to this they would not consent; that the surveyor must turn south
and lay off a scope of country sufficiently great to leave them in the
Choctaw Nation. For the sake of peace, the surveyors yielded to this request
or demand. Commencing where they then were, which point made the northeast
corner of the
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