EWANTONT ORIGIN LEGENDS 177 
ing heavy attacks on the enemy. By this assistance, the French generally got 
the worst of the fight. ...The Chickasaw Old Town, or ‘Old Fields,’ is 
somewhere not far from Ripley or Tupelo. The road leading from Pontotoc to 
Tuscumbia, Ala., formerly ran through those ‘ Old Fields.’ 2 
Rey. F. Patton, who wrote some reminiscences of the Chickasaws and who 
acted as amanuensis of Rey. T. C. Stewart, one of the early American teachers 
to the Chickasaws, relates the tradition somewhat differently. Tradition says 
that the Chickasaws and Choctaws were once one tribe and lived in the West, 
where they had powerful enemies who kept them in alarm. In a council they 
determined to seek a land of life, as they termed it. They divided into two 
parties, under the head of Chickasaw and Choctaw, two brothers. The brothers, 
after crossing the Mississippi River, separated, but settled in contiguous terri- 
tory; the two parties (the Chickasaws and Choctaws) remained distinct, and 
in time became hostile to each other. Before they commenced their journey, 
they sought guidance of the Great Spirit. A pole was set up, and the war dance 
danced till late at night. They then retired. Next morning they found that 
the pole bent eastwardly. They took this as a Divine sign, and journeyed in 
the direction the pole leaned. As they marched on they observed a like ceremony 
every night, and, with the same result. As they went over the country which 
they afterwards inhabited, the pole appeared to be nearly erect; but as it 
was considered to be not exactly perpendicular, they continued to move east- 
wardly. Two tales are told as to the end of their journey, one, that they took a 
northwesterly course until they reached the Tennessee River and that there the 
pole pointed in an opposite direction, [upon which] they retraced their steps 
until they reached what was afterwards known as the “ Chickasaw Old Fields” 
(in Lee County [Miss.]) where the pole stood erect. They rested at that place, 
built a town, cleared the forest, and cultivated maize. The “Old Fields” 
became the metropolis of the Chickasaw Nation as well as its center. The 
other tradition is that they followed a more southern direction after crossing 
the Mississippi, and reached the Alabama River. When the war dance was 
renewed around the pole, and after they had reposed, they learned that their 
course was westwardly. They left the Alabama River for the “ Chickasaw 
Oil Fields.” ° 
Malone states that he has obtained a long version of the migration 
legend from Hon. Charles D. Carter, but he gives only the closing 
section of it, which runs thus: 
They camped for the night on the banks of the great river [Mississippi], 
and since the leader’s pole still leaned toward the east the young men began 
to make rafts and canoes for crossing the river and proceeding on their journey. 
When the crossing was finally attempted, the little white dog which had so 
faithfully kept his course toward the rising sun was drowned, and upon reach- 
ing the opposite bank of the river the sacred pole, after wobbling around and 
pointing in many directions finally stood erect, and the medicine men inter- 
preted this as an omen that the promised land had been reached. 
Scouting expeditions were sent out by nearly all the clans in search of game 
and other food and to ascertain the exact character of country to which the 
Great Spirit had led them. Finally the headman of a certain clan, the members 
of which were described as taller and of fairer skin than the rest of the tribe, 
appeared before the general council and asserted that, according to his best 
information and judgment, the promised land had not yet been reached; that 
* Warren in Pubs, Miss. Hist. Soc., vol. vim, pp. 546-548, 
