Kuitsh Indians. Significance unknown. Also called:
- Ci-sta’-gwût-mê’ tunnĕ’, Mishikwutmetunne name, meaning “people
- dwelling on the stream called Shista.”
- Lower Umpqua, or Umpwua, popular name.
- Tu’kwil-mä’-k’i, Alsea name.
Kuitsh Connections. The Kuitsh belonged to the Yakonan linguistic stock, though so remotely connected that Frachtenberg (1911, p. 441) thought of placing them in an independent family, the Siuslawan.
Kuitsh Location. On Lower Umpqua River.
Kuitsh Villages
According to Dorsey these were:
- Chitlatamus
- Chukhuiyathl
- Chukukh
- Chupichnushkuch
- Kaiyuwuntsunitthai
- Khuwaihus
- Kthae
- Kuiltsh
- Mikulitsh
- Misun
- Ntsiyamis
- Paiuiyunitthai
- Skakhaus
- Takhaiya
- Thukhita
- Tkimeye
- Tsalila
- Tsetthim
- Tsiakhaus
- Tsunakthiamittha
- Wuituthlaa
Kuitsh Population. The Kuitsh are usually classed with the Siuslaw. Mooney (1928) estimates the entire Yakonan stock at 6,000 in 1780, and by 1930 this had been reduced to 9. The Kuitsh are nowhere separately enumerated.