Eyeish

Last updated

The Eyeish were a Native American tribe from present-day eastern Texas. [1]

Contents

History

The Eyeish were part of the Caddo Confederacy, [2] although their relationship to other Caddo tribes was ambiguous, and they were often hostile to the Hasinai. [3] They historically lived on the Eyeish Creek, located between the Neches and Sabine Rivers. [4]

Spanish explorers encountered the tribe in 1542 and reported large herds of buffalo in the area. The tribe was not on the best terms with tribes located west of the Trinity River or those to the north near the Red River. [4]

Franciscan monks who traveled on Domingo Ramón's 1716–17 expedition through Texas founded Mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de los Ais; [5] however, the Eyeish were not generally accepting of Spanish missionary efforts. After 50 years, the mission only recorded eleven baptisms, seven burials, and three marriages. [4]

In the 18th century, the tribe contracted European diseases such as smallpox and measles from the French and Spanish explorers in the region. The populations decreased but rebounded, from a low of 20 tribal members recorded by John Sibley in 1805, to 160 families recorded in 1828. By then, they lived between the Brazos and Colorado Rivers. [4]

Ultimately, they joined the Wichita [4] and Caddo tribes in Indian Territory.

Synonymy

The tribe is also known as the A'-ish, Aiaichi, Aliche, Aliches, Aiche, Ayays, Hais, [2] Ays,Ahijitos, [4] Aaya, Aays, or Aas. [6] The group known as Hauydix may also have been the Eyeish.

They are not, however, considered to be the same tribe as the Aijados encountered by the Mendoza Expedition of 1683–84, [7] nor are they the same as the Ais people from Florida.

Language

Eyeish
RegionTexas
Extinct 19th century
unclassified (Adai?)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 None (mis)
07l
Glottolog None

Although the Eyeish people were clearly connected to the Caddo people politically, it is not clear what language they spoke nor how that language relates genealogically to other known languages. Explorer John Sibley wrote that the Eyeish language was one of three unique languages spoken by the Eyeish, the Adai and the Yatasi and Natchitoches people and that Eyeish was spoken by no other group: ‘[it] differs from all other, and is so difficult to speak or understand, that no nation can speak ten words of it.’ He collected a wordlist in 1807 for Thomas Jefferson, but this was lost when a thief stole Jefferson's linguistic papers as they were being moved from Washington DC to Monticello in Jefferson's second term. Sibley also reported that the Eyeish and Adai were bilingual in Caddo, which was used as a contact language. However, according to informant Caddo Jake's[ who? ] report to John R. Swanton, Eyeish was mutually intelligible with the Adai language. There is not sufficient evidence to conclusively relate Adai to Caddoan languages, the only documentation being a list of 275 words compiled by Sibley. Allan Taylor and Alexander Lesser and Gene Weltfish have speculated that Adai belonged to the Caddoan language family and was possibly a dialect of Caddo. [8]


Notes

  1. ↑ Sturtevant, 617
  2. 1 2 Sturtevant, 616
  3. ↑ Bolton, 32
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Eyeish Indian History. Access Genealogy. (retrieved 6 Sept 2009)
  5. ↑ Heard, Joseph Norman (1987). Handbook of the American Frontier: Four Centuries of Indian-White Relationships Volume I: S. Scarecrow Press. p. 150. ISBN   0-8108-1931-7.
  6. ↑ Clark, Patricia Roberts (21 October 2009). Tribal Names of the Americas: Spelling Variants and Alternative Forms, Cross-Referenced. McFarland. p. 10. ISBN   978-0-7864-5169-2.
  7. ↑ Bolton, 55
  8. ↑ Sturtevant, 616–7

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caddo</span> Southeastern Native American tribe

The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hasinai</span> Indigenous southeastern Texas tribe

The Hasinai Confederacy was a large confederation of Caddo-speaking Native Americans who occupied territory between the Sabine and Trinity rivers in eastern Texas. Today, their descendants are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and the Natchitoches Tribe of Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caddoan languages</span> Family of Native American languages

The Caddoan languages are a family of languages native to the Great Plains spoken by tribal groups of the central United States, from present-day North Dakota south to Oklahoma. All Caddoan languages are critically endangered, as the number of speakers has declined markedly due to colonial legacy, lack of support, and other factors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adai people</span> Extinct Native American people from Louisiana and Texas

The Adai were a Native American people of northwestern Louisiana and northeastern Texas. They were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands and part of the Caddo Confederacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kichai people</span> Ethnic group

The Kichai tribe was a Native American Southern Plains tribe that lived in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Their name for themselves was K'itaish.

The Nasoni are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas and southwestern Arkansas.

The Kadohadacho are a Native American tribe within the Caddo Confederacy. Today they are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.

The Yatasi were Native American peoples from northwestern Louisiana that were part of the Natchitoches Confederacy of the Caddo Nation. Today they are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.

The Nacono were a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Today they are part of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe in Oklahoma.

The Nadaco, also commonly known as the Anduico, are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Their name, Nadá-kuh, means "bumblebee place."

The Nabiti are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Their name means "Cedar Place" in the Caddo language.

The Nechaui were a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Their name is thought to be derived from Nachawi, the Caddo language word for Osage orange.

The Ouachita are a Native American tribe who lived in northeastern Louisiana along the Ouachita River. Their name has also been pronounced as Washita by English speakers. The spelling "Ouachita" and pronunciation "Wah-sha-taw" came about as a result of French settlers and their influence. Many landscape features and places have been named for them since colonization of the region by Europeans and Americans.

The Nabedache were a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Their name, Nabáydácu, means "blackberry place" in the Caddo language. An alternate theory says their original name was Wawadishe from the Caddo word, witish, meaning "salt."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nacogdoche</span> Native American tribe

The Nacogdoche are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas.

The Neche were a Native American tribe from eastern Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caddoan Mississippian culture</span> Indigenous civilization in present-day Southern Plains

The Caddoan Mississippian culture was a prehistoric Native American culture considered by archaeologists as a variant of the Mississippian culture. The Caddoan Mississippians covered a large territory, including what is now Eastern Oklahoma, Western Arkansas, Northeast Texas, Southwest Missouri and Northwest Louisiana of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bidai</span> Historic Native American tribe of eastern Texas

The Bidai, who referred to themselves as the Quasmigdo, were a tribe of American Indians from eastern Texas.

The Adai Caddo Indians of Louisiana is a state-recognized tribe in Louisiana and 501(c)(3) organization in Robeline, Louisiana. Its members are descendants of the Adai people. The chief is John Mark Davis, as of 2023.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.