The Chisca were a tribe of Native Americans living in present-day eastern Tennessee[1] and southwestern Virginia in the 16th century.
Their descendants, the Yuchi lived in present-day Alabama, Georgia, and Florida in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, and were removed to Indian Territory in the 1830s.
In late 1566, Captain Juan Pardo departed from Santa Elena to explore the interior of what is now the Southeastern United States.
Pardo's expedition reached Joara (at a site about 20 miles east of Marion, North Carolina) in late January 1567, where they built Fort San Juan.
Pardo left Sergeant Hernando Moyana in charge of the fort when he continued his journey of exploration before returning to Santa Elena.
Luisa Mendez, a Native American woman who was married to a Spanish soldier, was identified as the "cacica" (female chief) of the town of Guanaytique or Manaytique.
Mendez's description of brine springs in the area has been taken as evidence that Maniatique was near Saltville, Virginia on the Holston River.
[7][8] People that the Spanish called Chisca were in the western part of what is now the state of Florida by late in the 16th century.
When Juan de Salinas was governor of Spanish Florida between 1618 and 1624, he sent soldiers 60 leagues to punish Chiscas and Chichimecos for robbing and killing Christian natives in Timucua and Apalachee provinces.
On the other hand, that same year Pablo de Hita Salazar, governor of Florida, described the Chisca as "our enemies, rebellious people, untamed and brought up licentiously".
Diaz Vara Calderon, Bishop of Cuba, described the Chisca as living "without any fixed settlements, and sustaining themselves with the hunt, nuts, and roots of trees".
The Spanish sent a few soldiers and 25 Apalachees armed with harquebuses to support the missionary, and to expel Chiscas who had been living in the Chacato towns.
Miguel was later accused by the Spanish of recruiting Chacatos and Pansacolas to join the Chiscas in their attacks on the mission Apalachee.
The Spanish were told that the Chisca intended to use the town as a base for attacking the Apalachee, Timucua, Apalachicola, Chacato, Sabacola, Casista, Oconee, Usichi, Ayjichito and other peoples.
La Salle reported that the Cisca had taken refuge in Tennessee after their village had been burned by a combined force of English and "Apalalchites".
La Salle persuaded those villagers and the Shawnee north of the Cumberland to relocate to Fort St. Louis in what is now western Illinois, to live under French protection.
La Salle reported that the Chisca had originally lived in the Appalachians east of where he found them, until their town was burnt down by colonists from Florida.
Two Chisca were reported to be among the attackers on the San Carlos de los Chacatos mission in 1689 (the others were from Sabacola, Coweta, Apalachicola, and Tiquepache).
[18] Four Spaniards captured near Pensacola by Native groups, and released to St. Augustine in 1709, reported Chiscas among the various peoples supporting the English in their war against the Spanish.
[19] A village called Uchi was among the Lower Towns of the Muscogee Confederacy on the Chattahoochee River (the site of the former Apalachicola Province) by 1715.
[7][22][23] Swanton considered the people called "Chichimeco" by the Spanish to be the same as the Chisca, but Hann equates the Chichimeca with the Westo.
[27] Hann believes that the names Chisca, Ysica, Yuchi, Uchi, and Uchee refer to the same people, and that they were possibly related to the Westo.
[28] Hann also states that the Spanish began calling Chisca "Yuchi" (Yujiha in their language, "Euchee" in English sources) in 1715.