Original territory of the Yuchi Tribe

The Yuchi, also spelled Euchee and Uchee, are a Native American Indian tribe previously living in the eastern Tennessee River valley in Tennessee, northern Georgia, and northern Alabama, who now primarily live in the northeastern Oklahoma area. Their own name for themselves is Tsoyaha, meaning "Children of the Sun". Their population plummeted in the 18th century due to foreign diseases and war with the Cherokee. In 2005 there are approximately 3,000 Yuchi people.

History

The origin of the Yuchi has long been a mystery. The Yuchi language does not closely resemble any other Native American language, suggesting a long period of isolation from other Native Americans of the historic era.

European colonial records provide information about the Yuchi dating back to the 17th century. It has been suggested that the Yuchi and the Westo were the same people, but there is debate over this theory. There is strong historical and archaeological evidence for several Yuchi towns of the 18th century. One of the earlier towns to be recorded to colonial records is that of Chestowee in southeastern Tennessee. In 1714, largely instigated by two traders from South Carolina, the Cherokee attacked and destroyed the Yuchi town of Chestowee. The Cherokee were prepared to carry their attacks to the Savannah River Yuchi settlements, but when word that the government of South Carolina did not condone these attacks, the Cherokee held back. The Cherokee destruction of the Yuchi Chestowee marked the emergence of the Cherokee as a major power.^[1] Another early Yuchi town existed at Mount Pleasant on the Savannah River in present-day Effingham County, Georgia, from about 1722 to about 1750. A large Yuchi town known as "Uche town" existed on the Chattahoochee River during the middle to late 1700s. It was located near Uche Creek, about 10 miles downriver from the Creek settlement of Coweta Old Town. It was visited by William Bartram in the 1770s, who praised its layout and thriving population. Another Yuchi town existed on Silver Bluff in Aiken County, South Carolina from 1746 to 1751. The Yuchi town known as "Patsiliga" existed on the Flint River in the late 1700s. Possible Yuchi towns may have existed on the Oconee River near Uchee Creek in Wilkinson County, Georgia, and on Brier Creek in Burke County, Georgia or Screven County, Georgia.^[2]

In the early 19th century the Yuchi were forcibly removed along with the Creek people to Oklahoma. Historically, the Yuchi have always been a separate people from other tribes though they have often been grouped with and treated with other people, most importantly, with the Creeks.

Current status

Now, most Yuchi are of mixed-tribe descent and many are citizens of and enrolled with the Muskogee (Creek) Nation, although many are citizens of other tribes, such as the Shawnee or Sauk and Fox. Yuchi people have tried to attain Federal Recognition from the United States in the last decades of the 20th century, but this doesn't appear to have been successful. There have been organizations which have striven to be representative tribal governments, however none have had near-universal support to date.

Yuchi language

The Yuchi language is a linguistic isolate, not known to be related to any other language. The Yuchi people and language are the subject of a chapter in Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages, a book on endangered languages by Mark Abley. It is believed that today, only five elderly Yuchi can speak the language, which is on the verge of extinction. This belief is certainly incorrect given the fact that young people of the Yuchi tribe have learned the language in recent years and are continuing to do so.^[3]

See also

• Yuchi language
• Sam Story

References

Bibliography

• Mark Abley Spoken Here : Travels Among Threatened Languages. Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
• Jason Jackson Yuchi Ceremonial Life: Performance, Meaning, and Tradition in a Contemporary American Indian Community. University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
• Frank Speck Ethnology of the Yuchi Indians (reprint). University of Nebraska Press, 2004.

External links

• Who Were the Mysterious Yuchi of Tennessee and the Southeast? at Yuchi.org
• Memoirs of Jeremiah Curtin in the Indian Territory pp. 327, 333-335 early ethnographer's account of learning Yuchi language in 1883 in a Yuchi settlement 55 miles from Muskogee, Oklahoma. Electronic record maintained by Library of Congress, accessed January 15, 2007.

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