SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 121 



some notes regarding the customs and legends of the people in 1907, 

 1908, and during later visits. A much more complete study has been 

 made since by Dr. Morris Swadesh. The old chief, Benjamin Paul, 

 who supplied most of the information to me and also to Dr. Gatschet 

 and Dr. Swadesh, is now dead and the language nearly extinct. Ben- 

 jamin Paul is shown in plate 16 and two of the other older Chitimacha, 

 Eegiste Dardin and his wife, in plate 17. 



Chitimacha population. — In 1699 La Harpe estimated that there 

 were 700-800 warriors in the tribe. In 1758 De Kerlerec reported 

 80 warriors in the Mississippi band, and in 1784 Hutchins reported 27 

 in the same. The census of 1910 returned 69, and the census of 

 1930, 51. 



CHOCTAW 



This seems to have been the largest tribe in the Southeast next to 

 the Cherokee, although the Creek Confederation taken together may 

 have equaled or surpassed it at times. Their first appearance in his- 

 tory is in the De Soto narratives, though not under the name by which 

 we now call them. After leaving the ruins of Mabila, the Spanish army 

 marched toward the north and came to a river and chief which, accord- 

 ing to Ranjel, bore the name Apafalaya, while Elvas calls the province 

 Pafallaya. These are evidently forms of the Choctaw name Pa°s- 

 falaya, meaning "Long Hair," which Adair tells us was applied to 

 this tribe because the men, unlike those of many of the surrounding 

 people, allowed their hair to grow at full length. From these narra- 

 tives it is also evident that the tribe was already in the country with 

 which it was later associated. In 1675 Bishop Calderon speaks of "the 

 great and extensive province of the Chacta which includes 107 villages" 

 ( Wenhold, 1936, p. 10) . Though the name appears in some later docu- 

 ments belonging to the seventeenth century, including Lieutenant 

 Matheos' letter to Governor Cabrera in 1686 and Marcos Delgado's 

 narrative of the same year, we hear little more of the tribe until 1699 

 when the French settled Louisiana. The Choctaw immediately became 

 all important to this colony, since they lay like a bulwark between it 

 and the English and their allies. It is true that Carolina and Virginia 

 were a considerable distance off, but they had had the start of Louisi- 

 ana, and traders from both colonies had pushed their way to the Mis- 

 sissippi. They established themselves firmly with the Chickasaw and 

 much of the time enlisted the Creek Indians in their interest. Indeed, 

 for a considerable period there was a strong English faction among 

 the Choctaw themselves, including many towns in the western division 

 of the tribe and part of the Sixtown Indians, whereas four of the Six- 

 towns — the Chickasawhay, Okalusa, Ayanabe, Youane — and the Coosa 

 Indians supported the French. Among the towns in the English inter- 



