SWANTON] INDIAN TRIBES OP THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 295 



account of the hostility of the Chickasaw which they then aroused 

 that their ultimate destruction as an independent tribe took place. 



Light regarding this event is given us by Mr, H. S. Halbert in an 

 article on " The Small Indian Tribes of Mississippi."*^ He says: 



About 1770 the tribe was almost exterminated by the combined forces of the 

 Choctavvs and the Chickasaws. In 1836 this remnant was incorporated into the 

 Chickasaw Nation. At the time of their subjugation they occupied a narrow 

 territory between the Choctaws and the Chiclvasaws and extending from the 

 mouth of the Yalobusha on the west to the vicinity of the present town of 

 West Point on the east. We here quote a few lines from a letter received 

 several years ago from Mr. H. B. Cushman, of Texas, who in early life had 

 conversed with several aged Choctaw warriors who had served in the Choc- 

 chuma war : 



" The Chocchumas built many forts in this territory, several of which were in 

 Oktibbeha County. In the center of their forts they erected tall poles, on 

 which they suspended scalps, beads, bones, and other savage paraphernalia. 

 When the wind blew through thfese trophies it made a peculiar noise, which 

 their prophets interpreted as the voice of the Great Spirit, informing them that 

 some Choctaw or Chickasaw was killing a Chocchuma. Forthwith a party of 

 young braves would go on the warpath, and the first Choctaw or Chickasaw 

 they met, whether old or young, male or female, they would kill, return home, 

 hang the scalp on the instructive pole, and await another oracular response." 

 According to Choctaw tradition, it was these hostile acts of the Chocchumas, 

 together with their frequent horse-stealing inroads into the Choctaw and 

 Chickasaw countries, that aroused the warlike wrath of the latter tribes and 

 caused the war that terminated in the destruction of the Chocchuma nation- 

 ality. I here append the following traditions regarding this war. The most 

 noted stronghold of the Chocchumas was built on Lyon's Bluff on the south 

 side of Line Creek, about 8 miles northeast of Starkeville. The creek here 

 makes a bend to the north, forming a horseshoe containing about 8 acres. 

 In the center is an artificial mound. A rampart, some traces of which could 

 still be seen a few years ago, extended across this neck of land, connecting, 

 as it were, the two ends of the horseshoe. This inclosure, known as Lyon's 

 Bluff, strongly fortified, was occupied by a large band of Chocchuma warriors 

 with their women and children. The place was besieged by the allied tribes. 

 The Choctaws occupied the south, in front of the rampart, while the Chicka- 

 saws were posted on the north side of the creek, so that there was no chance 

 of escape for the Chocchumas. For several days and nights was the siege 

 kept up, until the last Chocchuma warrior fell and the women and children 

 yielded to the mercy of the conquerors. 



The late venerable Mr. Howell Peden, of Clay County, from whom several 

 years ago I received many Chocchuma traditions, informed me that in 1830 

 there was living near Plymouth, on the Tombigbee, an old Chocchuma woman 

 who was a girl or young woman during the Chocchuma war, and who was the 

 last survivor of the massacre on Lyon's Bluff. She had been a cook in Jack- 

 son's army during the Creek war of 1813. This fact is noted, as it gives a 

 clue to the approximate date of the Chocchuma war. A woman over 50 would 

 hardly be apt to serve as an army cook. Assuming this woman to be 7 in 

 1770, she would have been 50 in 1813; 1770, then, may be accepted as the 

 approximate date of the Chocchuma war. 



" Pubs. Miss. Hist. Soc, v, 302-308. 



