216 BELIEFS AND USAGES OF CHICKASAW [BTH. ANN. 44 
The general interest in their governmental affairs on the part of 
the mass of Chickasaw people is vouched for by Adair, who says: 
“When any national affair is in debate, you may hear every father 
of a family speaking in his house on the subject, with rapid, bold 
language, and the utmost freedom that a people can use. Their 
voices, to a man, have due weight in every public affair, as it concerns 
their welfare alike.” 
PROPERTY RIGHTS 
As with the Creeks, the lands of the Chickasaw appear to have 
been held in common except for the use ownership of those who 
built houses or cleared fields in certain places. The town gardens 
were also cultivated in much the same manner as those of the Creeks, 
but—partly owing to their wars—they did not produce as much of 
their own food as did the Choctaw, to whom Romans says they 
applied annually for corn and beans." 
Such of the personal property of the deceased as was not de- 
stroyed or buried with the body went to the brothers, sisters, or 
sisters’ children, that is, it was inherited in the clan. 
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 
This subject may best be introduced by quoting some passages from 
my report on the Creek Indians, including several paragraphs from 
Adair: 
The word haksi was used by Chickasaw of Adair’s time “ to convey the idea 
of a person’s being a criminal in any thing whatsoever,” and “ such unfortunate 
persons as are mad, deaf, dumb, or blind, are called by no other name.” The 
original meaning of this word is “deaf,” but it has come to signify drunken, 
roguish, wicked, sinful, ete. 
Institutional killing will be treated under its proper head. It was based on 
the principle of retaliation, or, as more popularly expressed, “ getting even,” and 
was considered necessary in order to placate the souls of the departed. I have 
already remarked that the victim was sometimes devoted to death in advance, 
and Bartram mentions a case [among the Creeks] in which he was selected by 
lot. The following quotation from Adair shows what happened when murder 
was committed within the tribe, as well as the Indian attitude toward man 
killing generally: 
“[The Indians] transmit from father to son the memory of the loss of their 
relation, or of one of their own tribe or family, though it were an old woman, 
if she was either killed by the enemy or by any of their own people. If, indeed, 
the murder be committed by a kinsman, the eldest can redeem; however, if the 
circumstances attending the facts be peculiar and shocking to nature, the mur- 
7 Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p. 428, 
°S Romans, Nat. Hist. BE. and W. Fla., p. 62. 
8 Pubs. Miss. Hist. Soc., vol. vil, p. 552; Cushman, Hist. Choc., Chick., and Natchez 
Inds., p. 495. 
7 Adair, Hist. Am, Inds., p. 157, footnote. 
