CHICKASAW TRADITIONS, CUSTOMS, ETC.  (cont.)
Page 549
 

“While the pole was in an unsettled situation, a part of the tribe moved on east and got with the Creek Indians, but as soon as a majority of the tribe settled at the ‘Old Fields,’ they sent for the party that had gone east, who answered that they were very tired, and would rest where they were awhile. This clan was called Cush-eh-tah. They never joined the parent tribe, but they have always remained as friends until they had intercourse with the whites; then they became a separate nation.”18
 

The tribe referred to above were Cussetas, (name variously spelled) part of the losse-jointed Creek confederation.
The following Migration Legend was related to Col. Benj.
Hawkins, the celebrated Indian Agent:

“Kasi Xta (Cusseta), called Abika and Chicasa, “tchatusi,” my young brothers. Chicasa and Abika called Kasi Xta and Kawita we a "tcha'laha," my elder brothers. Abika called Chicasa, "ama'hmaya," or my elders, my superiors, and Chicasa sometimes uses the same term to Abika
* * * * * * * *
“Kasi Xta and Chicasa consider themselves as people of one fire, tutk-itka hamkushi (literally translated: ‘off one burning fire;’ the meaning is that they belong to the same tribe), from the earliest account of their origin. Kasi Xta appointed the first mico for the Chicasa, directed him to settle in the large field (sit down in the big savanna) where they now are, and govern them. Some of the Chicasa straggled off and settled near Augusta, from whence they returned and settled near Kasi Xta, and thence rejoined their own people.” 19

As late as the time of the celebrated William Blount of Tennessee we find the Chickasaws laying claim to land at or near Augusta.

III. CHICKASAW PHRATRIES AND GENTES.

The learned ethnologist, Dr. Gatschet says:

“Lewis H. Morgan published in his Ancient Society (New York, 1877), p. 163, a communication from Rev. Chas. C. Copeland, missionary among the Chicasa Indians, on the totemic gentes observed by him. Copeland states that the descent is in the female line, that no intermarriage takes place among individuals of the same gens and that property as well as the office of chief is hereditary in the gens. The following list will show how considerably he differs from Gibbs’ list inserted below:

Panther phratry, koa. Its gentes:
1 ko-intchush, wild cat;
2. fushi, bird;
3. nanni, fish;
4. issi, deer.

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18 Schoolcraft’s Orig., Hist. and Con. of Chickasaws.
19 From migration legend as related to Col. Benj. Hawkins by Task&ya
Miko: Hawkins’s Sketch, quoted in Gatschet’s Migration Legend of the Creeks.

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