Fus-hatchee Tribe

Last Updated on January 13, 2015 by

The descriptive name of the Fus-hatchee and their intimate relations with Kolomi, Kan-hatki, and Atasi lead me to believe that they were a comparatively late branch of one of these. They appear first on the De Crenay map of 1733, in which they are placed on the south side of the Tallapoosa. 1 They are also in the lists of 1738, 1750, 1760, and 1761. 2 James Germany was their trader in the last mentioned year. In 1797 the trader was Nicholas White. 3 The name is in the lists of Bartram 4 and Hawkins, 5 and is evidently the ”Coosahatchies” of Swan. 6 In his list of Creek traders, made in May, 1797, Hawkins assigns none to this town; but in a second, dated the following September, he gives the name of William McCart, who had formerly been a hireling of Abraham M. Mordecai at Holiwahali. 7 Hawkins describes the town as follows:

Foosce-hōt-che; from foo-so-wau, a bird, and hot-che, tail. 8 It is two miles below Ho-ith-le-wau-le [Holiwahali] on the right bank of Tal-la-poo-sa, on a narrow strip of flat land; the broken lands are just back of the town; the cornfields are on the opposite side of the river, and are divided from those of Ho-ith-le-wau-le by a small creek, Noo-coose-che-po. On the right bank of this little creek, half a mile from the river, is the remains of a ditch which surrounded a fortification, and back of this for a mile is the appearance of old settlements, and back of these, pine slashes.

The cornfields are narrow, and extend down, bordering on the river. 9

This was one of those towns which went to Florida after the Creek-American war, and consequently we find no mention of it in the census list of 1832. A small band is noted in northern Florida as early as 1778. 10 It was accompanied by Kan-hatki, and after the Seminole war the two moved westward together and formed a single settlement in the southern part of the Seminole Nation. There they constituted one district, known as Fus-hatchee, and were so represented in the Seminole council. Their square ground was, however, known as Liwahali, because the leaders in forming it are said to have been Holiwahali Indians.

Citations:

1. Plate 6; also Hamilton, Col. Mobile, p. 190.[↩]
2. MSS., Ayer Lib.; Miss. Prov. Arch., I, p. 94; Ga. Col. Docs., VIII, p. 523.[↩]
3. Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., IX, p. 168.[↩]
4. Bartram, Travels, p. 461.[↩]
5. Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., in, p. 25.[↩]
6. Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, V, p. 262.[↩]
7. Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., IX, pp. 168, 195.[↩]
8. This is erroneous. It should be fuswa, bird, and håtci, river or stream.[↩]
9. Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., III, p. 33.[↩]
10. Copy of MS. in Lib. Cong.[↩]