256 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 43

former location and close to the Georgia line. The removal may have been
due to the recent establishment of the mission at the old place. It was a
large settlement, about equally made up from the two tribes, but by this time
the Natchez were indistinguishable in dress or general appearance from the
others, and nearly all spoke broken Cherokee, while still retaining their own
language. As most of the Indians had come under Christian influence so far as
to have quit dancing there was no townhouse. Harry Smith, father of the late
chief of the East Cherokee, and born about 1815, also remembers them as living
on the Hiwassee and calling themselves Nd'tsi.
 From Gans'ti, or Rattling gourd, another mixed-blood Cherokee, who was
born on IIiwassee river in 1820 and went west at the removal eighteen years
later, it appears that in his time the Natchez were scattered among the Cher-
okee settlements along the upper part of that stream, extending down into
Tennessee. They had then no separate townhouses. Some, at least, of them
had come up from the Creeks, and spoke Creek and Cherokee as well as their
own language, which he could not understand, although familiar with both the
others. They were great dance leaders, which agrees with their traditional
reputation for ceremonial and secret knowledge. They went west with the
Cherokee at the final removal of the tribe to Indian Territory in 1838. In
1890 there were a considerable number on Illinois river a few miles south of
Tahleqiual, Cherokee Nation, several of them still speaking their own lan-
guage. among whom were Groundhog, John Rogers, and a woman named Ke-
haka. Some of these may have come with the Creeks, as by an agreement
between the ('reeks and Cherokee, before the time of the removal, it had been
arranged that citizens of either tribe living within the boundaries claimed by
the other might remain without question if they so elected. Among the East
Cherokee in North Carolina, about 1890, there were several who claimed
Natchez descent, but only one of full Natchez blood, an old woman named
Alkini, who spoke with a drawling tone said to have been characteristic of that
people as older men remembered them years ago.a
 In 1907 the writer found five persons who could still speak the
 Natchez language living close to Braggs, then in the Cherokee na-
 tion, but not far from the borders of the Creek nation. Most of
 them could speak Creek and Cherokee as well, and it is uncertain
 whether they were part of the original Cherokee band of Natchez or
 had moved over in later times from the Creeks. The latter view is,
 however, probably the correct one. These five persons were known
 to their white neighbors as Creek Sam, Wat Sam, Charlie Jumper,
 Lizzie Rooster, and Nancy Taylor. (Pls. 8, 9.) Farther south, on
 Illinois creek, is a settlement of Indians of Natchez descent called
 Natchez town," but it is said that no one there now speaks the old
 language. As is the case with the Creeks, there are many Cherokee
 who have Natchez blood in varying degrees of purity, some perhaps
 in larger measure than those who retain the speech, but most of these
 no longer consider themselves of the Natchez tribe. In the spring of
 1908 the number of speakers of Natchez was still further reduced by
 the death of Creek Sam, who is said to have been over 80 years old.
 In the fall of that year the writer visited his son, Wat Sam, and
 a Mooney in Amner. Anthrop., n. s., r, 517-518.