264 



PITAHAUERAT PITCHLYNN 



[b. a. 



nal, 51, 1840. Tapahowerat.— Ind. Aff. Rep., 213, 

 18C1. Tapaje.— Grinnell, Pawnee Hero Stories, 

 240, 1889. lappa.— Ind. Aff. Rep., 213, 1861. Tap- 

 page.— Long, Exped. Rocky Mts., l, 3.51, 1823. Tap- 

 page Pawnee.— Irving, Ind. Sketclies, ii, 13, 1835. 

 Tappaye Pawnee.— Treaty of 1834 in U. S. Ind. 

 Treaties, 649, 1873 (misprint). Witahawijiata.— La 

 Flesche quoted by Dorsev in Cont. N. A. Ethnol., 

 VI, 413, 1892 (Omaha name). 



Pitahauerat. One of the two divisions 

 of the Pitahauerat, or Tapaje Pawnee, the 

 other being the Kawarakish. — Grinnell, 

 Pawnee Hero Stories, 241, 1889. 



Pitahay. A tribe, evidently Coahuil- 

 tecan, met by Massanet (Mem. de Nueva 

 Espana, xxvii, 94, MS.), in 1691, 11 

 leagues e. of middle Nueces, r., Texas, to- 

 gether with Pacuache, Payavan, Patavo, 

 Patsau, and other tribes. (h. e. b. ) 



Pitas. A former tribe of n. e. Mexico 

 or s. Texas, probably Coahuiltecan, gath- 

 ered into the mission of Nuestra Senora 

 de los Dolores de la Punta, at Lampazos, 

 NuevoLeon. — OrozcoyBerra, Geog., 303, 

 1864. 



Pitaya (local contraction of pitahaya, 

 the fruit of the Cereus giganteus, and the 

 cactus itself). A former Maricopa ran- 

 cheria on the Rio Gila, in s. Arizona, in 

 1744.— Sedelmair (1744) cited by Ban- 

 croft, Ariz, and N. Mex., 366, 1889. 



Pitchibourenik. A tribe or supposed 

 tribe formerly residing near the e. side of 

 James bay, Canada; probably a band of 

 the Cree. 



Pitchiboucouni.— La Tour Map, 1784. Fitchiboue- 

 ouni.— La Tour Map, 1779. PitchibSrenik.— Jes. 

 Rel. 1660, 11, 1858. Pitehiboutounibuek.— Jes. Rel. 

 for 1672, 54, 1858. 



Pitchlynn, Peter Perkins. A prominent 

 Choctaw chief of mixed blood, born at 

 the Indian town of Hushookwa, Noxubee 

 CO., Miss., Jan. 30, 1806; died in Wash- 

 ington, D. C, Jan. 17, 1881. His father, 

 John Pitchlynn, was a white man and an 

 interpreter commissioned by Gen. Wash- 

 ington; his mother, Sophia Folsom, a 

 Choctaw woman. While still a boy, see- 

 ing a partially educated member of his 

 tribe write a letter, he resolved that he 

 too would become educated, and although 

 the nearest school was in Tennessee, 200 

 m. from his father's cabin, he managed 

 to attend it for a season. Returning home 

 at the close of the first quarter, he found 

 his people negotiating a treaty with the 

 general Government. As he considered 

 the terms of this treaty a fraud upon his 

 tribe, he refused to shake hands with 

 Gen. Jackson, who had the matter in 

 charge in behalf of the Washington au- 

 thorities. Subsequently he entered an 

 academy' at Columbia, Tenn., and finally 

 was graduated at the University of Nash- 

 ville. Although he never changed his 

 opinion regarding the treaty, he became 

 a strong friend of Jackson, who was a 

 trustee of the latter institution. On re- 

 turning to his home in Mississippi, Pitch- 

 lynn became a farmer, built a cabin, and 



married Miss Rhoda Folsom, a Choctaw, 

 the ceremony being performed by a Chris- 

 tian minister. By his example and influ- 

 ence polygamy was abandoned by his 

 people. He was selected by the Choctaw 

 council in 1824 to enforce the restriction of 

 the sale of spirituous liquors according to 

 the treaty of Doaks Stand, Miss., Oct. 18, 

 1820, and in one year the traffic had ceased. 

 As a reward for his services he was made 

 a captain and elected a member of the 

 National Council, when the United States 

 Government determined to remove the 

 Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creeks w. of 

 the Mississippi. His first proposition in 

 that body was to establish a school, and, 

 that the students might become familiar 

 with the manners and customs of white 

 people, it was located near Georgetown, 

 Ky., rather than within the limits of the 

 Choctaw country. Here it flourished for 

 many years, supported by the funds of 

 the nation. Pitchlynn was appointed 

 one of the delegation sent to Indian Ter. 

 in 1828 to select the lands for their future 

 homes and to make peace with the Osage, 

 his tact and courage making his mission 

 entirely successful. He later emigrated 

 to the new reservation with his people 

 and built a cabin on Arkansas r. Pitch- 

 lynn was an admirer of Henry Clay, whom 

 he met for the first time in 1840. He was 

 ascending the Ohio in a steamboat when 

 Mr Clay came on board at Maysville. 

 The Indian went into the cabin and 

 found two farmers earnestly engaged in 

 talking about their crops. After listening 

 to them with great delight for more than 

 an hour, he turned to his traveling 

 companion, to whom he said: "If that 

 old farmer witli an ugly face had only 

 been educated for the law, he would have 

 made one of the greatest men in this 

 country." He soon learned that the 

 " old farmer " was Henry Clay. Charles 

 Dickens, who met Pitchlynn on a steam- 

 boat on the Ohio r. in 1842, gives an ac- 

 count of the interview in his American 

 Notes, and calls him a chief; but he was 

 not elected principal chief until 1860. 

 In this capacity he went to Washington 

 to protect the interests of his tribesmen, 

 especially to prosecute their claims against 

 the Government. At the breaking out of 

 the Civil War Pitchlynn returned to In- 

 dian Ter., and although anxious that his 

 people should remain neutral, found it 

 impossible to induce them to maintain 

 this position; indeed three of his sons es- 

 poused the Confederate cause. He him- 

 self remained a Union man to the end of 

 the war, notwithstanding the fact that 

 the Confederates raided his plantation of 

 600 acres and captured all his cattle, 

 while the emancipation proclamation 

 freed his 100 slaves. He was a natural 

 orator, as his address to the President at 



