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80 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 103
and Lin-ok-lu'-sha. The first of these names is translated " Beloved
People " like the name of the moiety itself, though the Choctaw
equivalents are totally distinct, and in this case I have no way of
accounting; for the interpretation. Bushnell's Bayou Lacomb in-
formants translated the name "Bunches of flies people," deriving
ehufan (or chufa, as he has it) from chukani, " fly," but this origin
is hardly jDrobable. The only Choctaw word which seems to hold
out a promising suggestion is chafa, "exile," "banished person,"
which recalls the Creek word " seminoie " and brings to mind one
origin for distinct clans of v/hich we have abundant examples. Is-
kii-la'-ni is a misprint of Is-ku-ta'-ni, but a better spelling would be
Iskitini. This is mentioned by Cushman, who calls it " Okla Isskitini."
^^ As stated above, the Shak-chuk'-la (or in full Shakchi
humma okla, " red crawfish people ") undoubtedly represented the
formerly independent tribe of that name incorporated among the
Choctaw. Kush-ik'-sii is shortened from Ku°shak iksa, " Reed iksa,"
while Law-ok'-la contains okla, people, and perhaps laue, " equal,"
or " able," the name connoting people who are equal to anything or
able to do anything. Lu-lak Ik'-sii is probably a misprint of Tu-lak
Ik'-sii, the Tula'iksa' ogla, or " Fall-in-bunches people " of Bushnell,
also remembered by two of my own informants.
" Tula " was evidently derived by Bushnell's Indians, whether
rightly or not it would be impossible to say, from tulli, to jump, to
frisk. The last name, Lin-ok-lii'-sha, is again undoubtedly a mis-
print, intended for Itim-ok-lu'-sha, or better Itimo"klasha, " their
own people," or " friends," being, as we have seen, one of the names
given to a moiety. The two first and the two last were known to the
Eev. Alfred Wright, whose account of them leads one to suspect that
the eight clans just mentioned are actually to be differentiated from
the other local groups next to be considered, although all of the
living Choctaw confound them hopelessly. Mr. Bushnell's informants
at Bayou Lacomb treat the names of the moieties, clans, and
local groups as if they were all the same thing, and it is apparent
that the names of the larger bodies were from time to time identified
with local groups. At any rate the Kashapa okla and I^holahta okla
are given as names of Choctaw bands at certain definite spots in
Louisiana, two of the others belong in the class of primary iksa or
clans just considered, while three would fall into the miscellaneous
class of local groups. My own experience has been like that of Mr.
Bushnell. The Choctaw whom I have interviewed have drawn no
distinction between the three sorts of divisions, although in fact
none of them seemed to have heard about the i°holahta okla, and the
kashapa okla were barely remembered.
"Cushman, Hist. Choc, Chick., and Natchez Ind., p. 90.