Yuchi Topics – Page 2 of 3 – Access Genealogy

Yuchi Language

My original purpose in visiting the Yuchi was to collect linguistic matter, which is now being worked up for special purposes in the interest of the Bureau of Ethnology. Although the detailed results of my linguistic studies are not available for the present paper it will be of advantage to introduce here a general statement regarding some characteristics of the language. It is quite certain now that Yuchi is spoken in only one dialect, although there is a current opinion that formerly the stock was more numerous than it is at present and that the language was spoken in two … Read more

Yuchi Environment

The Yuchi of the present time have nearly forgotten their old associations east of the Mississippi. Their geographical knowledge is practically limited to their immediate surroundings. They are known to the Creeks as Yu’tci, plural YutcA’lgi, to the Cherokee as Yu’tsi, and to the Chickasaw as Yu’tci. An informant stated that they were known to the Comanche as SakyówAn. To the Yuchi their near neighbors the Creeks are known as Ku’ba, ‘ looking this way'(?), plural Ku’baha. The Shawnee they call Yon’cta, the Cherokee Tsala”ki, and the Choctaw Tca?’ta. Their name for whites in general is Ka”ka (Goyáka) ‘man white,’ … Read more

Yuchi Decorative Art and Symbolism

Something has already been said about decorative designs in the description of clothing, but the designs themselves and the general subject of art deserve a little attention. As regards the artistic expression of this tribe it seems that, in general, special conventional decorations symbolizing concrete objects are confined to a few articles of clothing such as neckbands, sashes, hair ornaments, leggings and carrying-pouches. The whole field is permeated with a strong religious significance. Decorations of a like sort with a still more emphatic religious meaning are found on pottery, though rarely, as well as on other objects. Besides this we … Read more

Yuchi Customs

Fig. 36. Objects Deposited With Navel Cord

Birth Customs Before child-birth takes place the prospective mother retires to a secluded temporary camp always east of the usual dwelling. Here she is attended by one or two old women relatives and her mother. In order to facilitate delivery a decoction is made by placing a bullet in a cup of water, and the woman is given this to drink. During delivery she lees flat on her back on the floor or on the ground. Sometimes the family induces an old woman to come and help the woman in labor by sitting on her abdomen so that she can … Read more

Yuchi Ceremonies

The ceremonies, which according to tradition originated in the other world and were taught to the first Indians by Sun. consist of various religious rites performed in public by all the men of the town once a year. The rites include dancing, fasting, the observance of certain taboos, the kindling of a new and sacred fire, the scarification of men, the taking of an emetic and the performance of the ball game. The ceremony as a whole was called, Yueahe’, ‘In the rainbow, ‘ or ‘In the big house.’ The time for these ceremonies is determined by the state of … Read more

Yuchi Division of Time

The seasons art’ four in number. Spring, called hinA nwadelé, ‘when summer is near,’ is the time when agricultural activities are resumed after the comparative idleness of the winter. ‘Summer,’ wäde’, a term apparently related to wäfá, ‘south,’ is the long and active season. Autumn, yacadilé, ‘when the tree leaves are yellow,’ is a period of combined rest, hunting and enjoyment. Winter was called wictá, ‘snow comes (?).’ This season the people spent in idleness and recreation. The year is further divided into moons or months, each of which has its name. The names of eleven of these moons with … Read more

Yuchi Tribe History

Among the indigenous tribes of the southeastern United States, living within a territory roughly defined by the borders of Georgia and South Carolina, was one, exhibiting a type of culture common to the inhabitants of the country bordering on the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi river, whose members called themselves Tsoyabá, “Offspring of the Sun,” otherwise known as the Yuchi. Constituting an independent linguistic stock (called Uchean in Powell’s classification), their earliest associations, in so far as these are revealed by history and tradition, were identified with the banks of the Savannah river where they lived at a … Read more

Yuchi Medicinal Ceremonies

What has so far been said in regard to the treatment of disease deals only with what might properly be called shamanism. Besides the regular practice of curing disease, which is in the hands of especially qualified persons, there are various methods employed by individuals for themselves when attacked by sickness or threatened with it. The town itself celebrates a public ceremony when threatened with evil in the shape of sickness, or when actually suffering from some epidemic. When a man becomes sick and does not desire to employ a shaman to cure him but prefers to treat himself, he … Read more

Yuchi Dancing

On this, the second night, about six of the before-mentioned dances were performed. Although the general characteristics and functions of the dances have been described in the last chapter, a few of the peculiarities will be given again according to the actual cases as observed on both ceremonial occasions. All of the Yuchi dances were this night performed around the fire in the center of the square. The movement was from right to left, contra-clockwise. The steps of the dancers were short, the motion being chiefly in the leg below the knee. In general effect the dance steps look more … Read more

Yuchi New Fire Rite

The new fire rite performed at sunrise of the second day, is symbolic of a new period of life for the tribe. As far as could be learned, the fires of the various household hearths are not extinguished as among the Creeks, since the kindling of the new fire by the town chief is symbolical of this and suffices for all.

Yuchi Annual Town Ceremonies

Fig. 38. Yuchi Square-Ground During Ceremony

The following account of the annual ceremony of the Sand Creek Yuchi is based upon notes made at the time, and upon incidental information derived from participants. It deals chiefly with the 1905 celebration although there was no appreciable difference between that of 1904 and the event of 1905. The Preliminary Day. – According to the evidences of maturity observable in the corn in the neighboring fields, and the approaching phase of the moon, the town chief or head priest (Jim Brown) appointed and announced, to the townspeople scattered through out the neighboring district, a day of general assembly, at … Read more

Yuchi Games

With the Yuchi, all games have a strong ceremonial aspect. They are, most of them, of a public character, taking place in the allotted playground adjacent to the public square. The afternoon of the second day of the annual festival is the usual time for playing them ceremonially. Many of the games are accompanied by ritual, more especially the ball game. Stakes are wagered in nearly all games by both players and spectators. Like most Indian games the betting is a very important item of consideration. The first to call for description is the ball game played with two rackets … Read more

Yuchi Town and Town Square

We now come to the consideration of the Yuchi town. This is the ruling institution in the life of the Yuchi, the same holding true for most of the other southeastern tribes. It has superseded in political importance the other social groupings, and, as far as any governmental activities are carried on at all, they too are the affairs of the town. The societies are represented by officers in town gatherings, while some of the clans have assumed the right to fill the highest town office, as We have seen before. The town is extremely democratic, however, as all of … Read more

Yuchi Music

Singing at ceremonies and dances was accompanied by drums and rattles of two kinds. The large drum was made of hide stretched over a log sometimes three feet high and was used to call the townspeople together, and to accompany dancing. This in later times was replaced by a smaller type of drum, the pot-drum, didané (Fig. 32) now used at ceremonies. It was made by stretching a piece of hide over an earthen pot standing about 18 inches high, containing water. An ordinary stick was used with it as a drum stick. The hide covering was decorated usually with … Read more

Native Uprisings Against the Carolinas (1711-17)

In 1957 University of Georgia archaeologists, under the leadership of Dr. Joseph Caldwell, were working on several archaeological sites on the tributaries of the Savannah River that were to be flooded by Lake Hartwell. The best known of these town sites are Tugaloo and Chauga. Because they were last occupied by Lower Cherokees in the early 1700s, the archaeologists assumed that excavation of their mounds would prove that the Cherokees built all the mounds in the Southern Highlands. The archaeologists were shocked to find that the Cherokee occupation of both sites was very brief and much smaller than the ancestors … Read more

Yuchi Tribe

Yuchi Indians. A tribe coextensive with the Uchean family. Recent investigations point strongly to the conclusion that the Westo referred to by early Carolina explorers and settlers, and from whom Savannah river was originally named, were the Yuchi.

Timpoochee Barnard, Yuchi Chief

Yuchi Indian Tribe Clans

The political organization of the tribe, which has become more pronounced in type since its incorporation into the Creek Nation, is based on the town. This is made up of some 18 or 20 totemic, maternal, exogamic clans, the members of which trace their descent from the totem animal and have certain restrictions in regard to it. At an annual ceremony the clans perform propitiatory and reverential dances in honor of their totems. The Yuchi clans are as follows, the names in parentheses being the simplified forms of those recorded by Gatschet: Saggē’ (Sagi), Bear; Dałá (Tala), Wolf; WeryA°’ (Weyon), … Read more

Black-Indian History

The first black slaves were introduced into the New World (1501-03) ostensibly to labor in the place of the Indians, who showed themselves ill-suited to enforced tasks and moreover were being exterminated in the Spanish colonies. The Indian-black inter-mixture has proceeded on a larger scale in South America, but not a little has also taken place in various parts of the northern continent. Wood (New England’s Prospect, 77, 1634) tells how some Indians of Massachusetts in 1633, coming across a black in the top of a tree were frightened, surmising that; ‘he was Abamacho, or the devil.” Nevertheless, inter-mixture of … Read more

Yuchi

Yuchi Indians