SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 123 



the northeastern section of the nation. Plate 21, gives the home and 

 family of John Wesley south of Philadelphia, Miss., and plate 22, fig- 

 ure 1, of a man named Thliotombi, living near Idabell, Okla., and 

 reputed to be the oldest man in the nation at that time (1919). Plate 

 22, figure 2, shows the last Council House of the Choctaw at Tuska- 

 homa, Okla. 



Choctofw "population, — The numbers of Choctaw seem to have varied 

 little from the period of first white contact, though earlier figures 

 sometimes disagree very considerably. Mooney and I both estimate 

 a population of about 15,000 in 1650. In 1702 Iberville estimated that 

 there were 3,800-4,000 warriors and this, as well as De la Vente's 

 guess of a total population of 7,000-8,000 in 1704, is probably much 

 too small. Later estimates of the number of warriors are : 8,000 in 

 1725-26; more than 3,000 in 1730; 1,466 (evidently a partial census) 

 in 1732; 16,000 in 1738; 5,000 in 1739; more than 3,610, and not more 

 than 4,500 in 1750; 3,500-^,000 in 1758; 4,500 in 1764; 5,000 in 1764; 

 2,600 in 1771; 4,141 in 1780; 4,500 in 1785; 4,000 in 1814. Hutchins 

 estimates a total population of 21,500 in 1764, Romans 9,100 in 1771, 

 and Schermerhorn 15,000 in 1814, while Ramsey seems to supply a 

 census of 13,423 in 1780. In 1820 Hodgson suggests a total population 

 of 15,000-20,000, Morse 25,000 in 1822, while a census made in 1831 

 gave 19,554. The figures returned by the United States Department 

 of Indian Affairs from this period on, fall as low as 12,760 in 1850 and 

 rise to 22,707 in 1856. The census of 1910 gave 14,551 in Oklahoma, 

 1,162 in Mississippi, 115 in Louisiana, 57 in Alabama, and 32 in other 

 States, a total of 15,911 ; but the United States Department of Indian 

 Affairs in 1916-19 gave 19,148 in Oklahoma, not including inter- 

 married whites and freedmen, and 1,253 in Mississippi, or a total of 

 20,401, to which about 200 should be added to cover those in Louisiana 

 and elsewhere. The census of 1930 returned 17,757, of whom 16,641 

 were in Oklahoma, 624 in Mississippi, 190 in Louisiana, and the rest 

 scattered over more than 12 other States. Thus the Choctaw popu- 

 lation seems always to have fluctuated between 15,000 and 20,000. 



CHOULA 



A small tribe reported in 1722 as living 25-30 leagues (about 65-85 

 miles) above the lower Yazoo tribes and below the Chakchiuma, near 

 a modern town called Tchula after them. This was probably a band 

 of the Ibitoupa (q. v.) left behind when the main part of the latter 

 moved higher up the Yazoo River. Probably they reunited with the 

 remainder of the tribe shortly afterward, as we do not hear of them 

 again. 



Choula population. — ^La Harpe, our only authority regarding them, 

 gives their number in 1722 as 40. 



