The Eyeish were a
Native American tribe from present-day eastern Texas.
History
The Eyeish were part of the
Caddo Confederacy,
[Sturtevant, 616] although their relationship to other Caddo tribes was ambiguous, and they were often hostile to the
Hasinai. They historically lived on the
Eyeish Creek, located between the
Neches and
Sabine Rivers.
[Eyeish Indian History.]
''Access Genealogy''. (retrieved 6 Sept 2009)
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.
[
Francisco monks who traveled on Domingo Ramón's 1716–17 expedition through Texas founded Mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de los Ais; 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.][
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.][
Ultimately, they joined the Wichita][ and ]Caddo
The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language.
The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, wh ...
tribes in Indian Territory.
Synonymy
The tribe is also known as the ''A'-ish, Aiaichi, Aliche, Aliches, Aiche, Ayays, Hais,''[ ''Ays,'' or ''Ahijitos.''][ 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, nor are they the same as the '' Ais'' tribe from Florida.
]
Language
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: ‘ tdiffers 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 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 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 sp ...
, 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.[Sturtevant, 616–7]
Notes
References
* Bolton, Herbet E
''The Hasinais: Southern Caddoans As Seen by the Earliest Europeans.''
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. .
* Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast''. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. .
External links
from Access Genealogy
{{authority control
Caddoan peoples
Native American history of Texas
Native American tribes in Texas
Unclassified languages of North America