> Choctaw Muskhogee, Gallatin in Trans. and Coll. Am. Antiq. Soc., II, 119, 1836.
> Chocta-Muskhog, Gallatin in Trans. Am. Eth. Soc., II, pt. 1, xcix, 77, 1848. Gallatin in Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, III, 401, 1853.
= Chata-Muskoki, Hale in Am. Antiq., 108, April, 1883 (considered with reference to migration).
> Chahtas, Gallatin in Trans. and Coll. Am. Antiq. Soc., II, 100, 306, 1836 (or Choctaws).
> Chahtahs, Prichard, Phys. Hist. Mankind, V, 403, 1847 (or Choktahs or Flatheads).
> Tschahtas, Berghaus (1845), Physik. Atlas, map 17, 1848. Ibid., 1852.
> Choctah, Latham, Nat. Hist. Man, 337, 1850 (includes Choctahs, Muscogulges, Muskohges). Latham in Trans. Phil. Soc. Lond., 103, 1856. Latham, Opuscula, 366, 1860.
> Mobilian, Bancroft, Hist. U.S., 349, 1840.
> Flat-heads, Prichard, Phys. Hist. Mankind, V, 403, 1847 (Chahtahs or Choktahs).
> Coshattas, Latham, Nat. Hist. Man, 349, 1850 (not classified).
> Humas, Latham, Nat. Hist. Man, 341, 1850 (east of Mississippi above New Orleans).
Derivation: From the name of the principal tribe of the Creek Confederacy.
In the Muskhogee family Gallatin includes the Muskhogees proper, who lived on the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers; the Hitchittees, living on the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers; and the Seminoles of the peninsula of Florida. It was his opinion, formed by a comparison of vocabularies, that the Choctaws and Chickasaws should also be classed under this family. In fact, he called[69] the family Choctaw Muskhogee. In deference, however, to established usage, the two tribes were kept separate in his table and upon the colored map. In 1848 he appears to be fully convinced of the soundness of the view doubtfully expressed in 1836, and calls the family the Chocta-Muskhog.
[Footnote 69: On p. 119, Archæologia Americana.]
The area occupied by this family was very extensive. It may be described in a general way as extending from the Savannah River and the Atlantic west to the Mississippi, and from the Gulf of Mexico north to the Tennessee River. All of this territory was held by Muskhogean tribes except the small areas occupied by the Yuchi, Ná'htchi, and some small settlements of Shawni.
Upon the northeast Muskhogean limits are indeterminate. The Creek claimed only to the Savannah River; but upon its lower course the Yamasi are believed to have extended east of that river in the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.[70] The territorial line between the Muskhogean family and the Catawba tribe in South Carolina can only be conjectured.