NO. 2 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I918 IO9 



(lition of the Choctaw Indians in that neighborhood, the descendants 

 of those who remained in their old country after the greater portion 

 of the tribe had emigrated to wdiat is now Oklahoma. On the way 

 he stopped at Bay St. Louis to visit a small band of Indians living 

 in the country north of that i)lace. He learned that this was a band 

 of the Sixtown Choctaw, the southernmost division of the Choctaw 

 nation, but that all of the old people were dead and practically 

 nothing regarding their ancient manner of life was known to the 

 survivors. 



Near Philadelphia ( Mississippi) remnants of three Choctaw bands 

 or clans are still to be found, and in the few days spent in interviewing 

 them — this being merely a reconnoissance — a few interesting data 

 regarding their social organization and former customs were 

 secured. A visit was also made to the famous Xanih-waya, or 

 " mother hill," of the Choctaw, where, according to some versions 

 of the Choctaw origin legend, the ancestors of this tribe emerged 

 out of the earth. This is an artificial elevation of considerable size 

 in the midst of a fairly level tract of country, surrounded partly by 

 Nanne Warrior Creek, so named from the hill, and partly by a low 

 earthen rampart, traces of which are now barely visible. Several 

 photographs of this hill were taken. 



The remainder of the time, until the end of May, was devoted to 

 a study of the Catawba language on the Catawba reservation near 

 Rock Hill, South Carolina. Early in the eighties the late Dr. A. S. 

 Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, collected a vocabulary and 

 other linguistic material on the reservation, and recently Dr. Michel- 

 son spent a short time there studying the people and their language, 

 but our knowledge of it is still very imperfect and any additional 

 material is sure to be of value. Although fairly well known to 

 about 20 persons, this language is no longer in common use and few 

 Catawba retain it in anything like its ancient purity. Its peculiar 

 value consists in the fact that it is the only surviving dialect of the 

 eastern Siouan group and that by wdiich the other Siouan fragments 

 from the same area must be interpreted. It appears to be the most 

 aberrant of all the Siouan dialects and to contain features of great 

 value in tracing the evolution of the entire stock. Dr. Swanton 

 was able to collect considerable material, principally detached words 

 and i)hrases, also a slight amount of textual material, being assisted 

 very much by Dr. Gatschet's manuscript vocabulary. Some notes 

 of general ethnological character were also secured, but the tribe has 

 lived so long in close contact with white people that it is doubtful 

 whether much of this is purely aboriginal. 



