288 



CHOCTAW 



[B. A. 



sued by a white hunter to the mountain 

 which bears his name and driven over 

 the diffs or shot to death. Before dying 

 he is reported to have cursed the English 

 and their cattle, and to this is attributed 

 the fact that none of these animals thrive 

 in Burton (Drake, Aboriginal Races, 285, 

 1880). It is possible that the chief has 

 been conjured up to account for the name 

 of the mountain. (a. f. c. ) 



Choctaw (])0ssibly a corruption of the 

 Spanish rhito, 'flat' or 'flattened,' al- 

 luding to the custom of these Indians of 

 flatteningthe head). An important tribe 

 of the Muskhogean stock, formerly occu- 

 pying middle and s. Mississippi, their ter- 

 ritory extending, in their most flourishing 

 days, for some distance e. of Tombigbee 

 r., probably as far as Dallas co., Ga. 



ALLEN WRIGHT — CHOCTAW 



Ethnically they belong to the Choctaw 

 branch of the Muskhogean family, which 

 included the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Huma, 

 and their allies, and some small tribes 

 which formerly lived along Yazoo r. 

 The dialects of the members of this 

 branch are so closely related that they 

 may be considered as practically identical 

 (Gatschet, Creek Migr. Leg., i, 53, 1884). 

 The earliest notice of these Indians is 

 found in the De Soto narratives for 1540. 

 The giant Tascalusa, whom he met in his 

 march down Coosa valley and carried to 

 Mauvila, was a Choctaw chieftain; and 

 the natives who fought the Spaniards so 

 fiercely at this town belonged to a closely 

 related tribe. When the French, about 

 the beginning of the 18th century, began 

 to settle colonies at Mobile, Biloxi, and 



New Orleans, the Choctaw came early into 

 friendly relations with them and were 

 their allies in their wars against other 

 Indian tribes. In the French war on the 

 Natchez, in 1730, a large body of Choctaw 

 warriors served under a French officer. 

 They c-ontinued this friendship until the 

 English traders succeeded indrawingover 

 to the English interest some of the e. 

 Choctaw towns. This brought on a war 

 between them and the main bod\', who 

 still adhered to the French, which contin- 

 ued until 1763. The tribe was constantly 

 at war with the Creeks and Chickasaw. 

 After the French had surrendered their 

 American possessions to Great Britain, 

 in 1763, and to some extent previously 

 thereto, members of the tribe began to 

 move across the Mississippi, where, in 

 1780, Milfort (Memoire, 95, 1802) met 

 some of their bands who were then 

 at war M'ith the Caddo. About 1809 a 

 Choctaw village existed on Wichita r., 

 and another on Bayou Chicot, Opelousas 

 parish, La. Morse ( 1820 ) says there were 

 1,200 of tliem on the Sabine and Neches 

 rs., and about 140 on Red r., near Pecan 

 point (Rep. to Sec. War, 373, 1822). It 

 is stated by some historians that this 

 tribe, or parties of it, participated in the 

 Creek war; this, however, is emphatic- 

 all v denied by Halbert (Creek War of 

 1813 and 1814, 124, 1895), who was 

 informed in 1877 by some of the oldest 

 mendjers of the tribe that the Choc- 

 taw manifested no hostility toward the 

 Americans during this conflict. A small 

 band of perhaps 30 were probably the 

 only Choctaw with the Creeks. The 

 larger part of those in Mississippi began 

 to migrate to Indian Ter. in 1832, hav- 

 ing ceded most of their lands to the 

 United States in various treaties (Royce, 

 Indian Land Cessions, 18th Rep. B. A. E., 

 1899). 



The Choctaw were preeminently the 

 agriculturists of the southern Indians. 

 Though brave, their wars in most in- 

 stances were defensive. No mention is 

 made of the "great house," or "the 

 square," in Choctaw towns, as they ex- 

 isted in the Creek communities, nor of 

 the busk (q. v. ). The game of chunkey 

 (q. V. ), as well as the ball play (q. v. ), was 

 extensively practised by them. It was 

 their custom to clean the bones of the 

 dead before depositing them in boxes or 

 baskets in the bone-houses, the work be- 

 ing performed by "certain old gentle- 

 men with very long nails," who allowed 

 their nails to grow long for this purpose. 

 The people of this tribe also followed the 

 custom of setting up poles around the 

 new graves, on which they hung hoops, 

 wreaths, etc., to aid the spirit in its ascent. 

 As their name seems to imply, they 

 practised artificial head flattening. 



