the filson club history quarterly - The Filson Historical Society

216 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 29
and Wabash of happier days; and they seized it, drireing off its
aboriginal Caddo inhabitants.
Several Akan splinter tribes, as Ofos and Uspies, settled on the
eastern bank of the lower Mississippi; and the Biloxis and Pascagoulas
found pleasant seats on the Gulf Coast near the present cities which
bear their names. From there they raided the Spanish missions in
Georgia and Florida.
The leader of a Spanish retaliatory raid, Captain de Florancia,
reported to Governor Salazar of Florida, "Many years ago the Chisca
Indians would come on the trails and assault and kill the Christians,
or carry them off for slaves. Last year [16761 it became clear they
were Chiscas." Whereupon he led thirty soldiers with firearms and
one hundred and sixty-seven archers against them. (It sounds like
Kentuckians going against the Shawnee towns in Ohio.) They
marched from St. Augustine eighteen days westerly and reached the
Chisca town "on the eve of St. Matthew the Apostle." This was
near the "Choctaws and Pensacolas near the sea." They peeped
through the palisades of the village, which was over three hundred
paces across. "The Chiscas were not sleeping but making much noise
around big fires." The Spanish set fire to the town with the loss of
seven killed and forty wounded; the Chiscas lost over sixteen dead
and many wounded. On October 5th the Spanish army got back to
Apalachi "by the favor of God and the Virgin of the Rosary." Later
these Chiscas helped the English drive the Spaniards out of Georgia.
The Omahas found a home in the rich Iowa and Nebraska cornlands,
where their river and farm culture availed. =a
The Osages became the dominant banditti of the Old Southwest,
compelling the stationing of the largest part of our army there.
One of their descendants, Charles Curtis, became Vice-President o/
the United States.
Missouri, Iowa, Dakota, Kansas, and Arkansas were named for the
refugees. Minnesota and Nebraska are Siouan words. One of the
Siouan tribes of the Missouri River, the Mandans, kept a knowledge
of their eastern origin and were called "white people" by other Indians
because they frequently had gray eyes, chestnut hair, and light skins.
They also made glass beads, a European craft. 26
The items on the early maps are largely the new locations of the
refugees. There is not space in this paper to give them all but a
few citations will show their character. The Amsterdam map of 1720
has Akans just below the mouth of the Ohio; Thevenot's (1681) and
De Lisle's (1720) put them opposite the mouth of the Arkansas in
Mississippi. Van Keulen's of 1720 shows the "Kansa or Akansa or
Missouris" on the south side of the Missouri in Missouri. Pirsson's