Choctaw

Choctaw

Chahta
Louisiana Indians Walking Along a Bayou Alfred Boisseau – 1847
Total population
Approximately 214,884 total 212,000 (Nation of Oklahoma 2023)[1] 284 (Jena Band 2011)[2] 11,000 (Mississippi Band 2020) Koasati, and Seminole

The Choctaw (

The Choctaw were first noted by Europeans in French written records of 1675.[5] Their mother mound is Nanih Waiya, a great earthwork platform mound located in central-east Mississippi. Early Spanish explorers of the mid-16th century in the Southeast encountered ancestral Mississippian culture villages and chiefs.^[6]

The Choctaw coalesced as a people in the 17th century and developed at least three distinct political and geographical divisions: eastern, western, and southern. These different groups sometimes created distinct, independent alliances with nearby European powers. These included the

Most Choctaw allied with the Americans during the

Those Choctaw who chose to stay in the state of Mississippi were considered state and U.S. citizens; they were one of the first major non-European ethnic groups to be granted citizenship.[9]^[10][11] Article 14 in the 1830 treaty with the Choctaw stated Choctaws may wish to become citizens of the United States under the 14th Article of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on all of the combined lands which were consolidated under Article I from all previous treaties between the United States and the Choctaw.^[12]

During the

Since the 20th century, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians were federally recognized in 1945,^[13] the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma in 1971,^[14] and the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians in 1995.^[15]

Etymology

The Choctaw autonym is Chahta. Choctaw is an anglization of Chahta, whose meaning is unknown. The anthropologist John R. Swanton suggested that the Choctaw derived their name from an early leader.^[16] Henry Halbert, a historian, suggests that their name is derived from the Choctaw phrase Hacha hatak (river people).^[17]

History

Culture

The Choctaw people are believed to have coalesced in the 17th century, perhaps from peoples from Alabama and the Plaquemine culture. Their culture continued to evolve in the Southeast. The Choctaw practiced

Within the Choctaws were two distinct

By the early 1930s, the anthropologist John Swanton wrote of the Choctaw: "[T]here are only the faintest traces of groups with truly totemic designations, the animal and plant names which occur seeming not to have had a totemic connotation."^[20] Swanton wrote, "Adam Hodgson ... told ... that there were tribes or families among the Indians, somewhat similar to the Scottish clans; such as, the Panther family, the Bird family, Raccoon Family, the Wolf family."^[20] The following are possible totemic clan designations:^[20]

• Wind
• Bear
• Deer
• Wolf
• Panther
• Holly Leaf
• Bird
• Raccoon
• Crawfish

Games

Chunkey was a game using a disk-shaped stone that was about 1–2 inches in length.^[22]: 155 Players would throw the disk down a 200-foot (61 m) corridor so that it could roll past the players at great speed. As the disk rolled down the corridor, players would throw wooden shafts at it. The object of the game was to strike the disk or prevent your opponents from hitting it.^[22]: 155

Other games included using corn, cane, and moccasins.^[23] The corn game used five to seven kernels of corn. One side was blackened and the other side white. Players won points based on each color. One point was awarded for the black side and 5–7 points for the white side. There were usually only two players.^[23]

Language

The Choctaw language is a member of the

The Choctaw believed in a good spirit and an evil spirit. They may have been sun, or Hvshtahli, worshippers. The historian John Swanton wrote,

[T]he Choctaws anciently regarded the sun as a deity ... the sun was ascribed the power of life and death. He was represented as looking down upon the earth, and as long as he kept his flaming eye fixed on any one, the person was safe ... fire, as the most striking representation of the sun, was considered as possessing intelligence, and as acting in concert with the sun ... [having] constant intercourse with the sun ...^[22]

The word nanpisa (the one who sees) expressed the reverence the Choctaw had for the sun.^[26]

Anthropologist theorize that the Mississippian ancestors of the Choctaw placed the sun at the center of their cosmological system. Mid-eighteenth-century Choctaws did view the sun as a being endowed with life. Choctaw diplomats, for example, spoke only on sunny days. If the day of a conference were cloudy or rainy, Choctaws delayed the meeting until the sun returned, usually on the pretext that they needed more time to discuss particulars. They believed the sun made sure that all talks were honest. The sun as a symbol of great power and reverence is a major component of southeastern Indian cultures.

— Greg O'Brien, Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750–1830^[27]

Choctaw prophets were known to have addressed the sun. John Swanton wrote, "an old Choctaw informed Wright that before the arrival of the

The colorful dresses worn by today's Choctaw are made by hand. They are based on designs of their ancestors, who adapted 19th-century European-American styles to their needs. Today many Choctaw wear such traditional clothing mainly for special events. Choctaw elders, especially the women, dress in their traditional garb every day. Choctaw dresses are trimmed by full diamond, half diamond or circle, and crosses that represent stickball sticks.^[28]

Communal economy

Early Choctaw communities worked communally and shared their harvest.^[29][30] They had trouble understanding why English settlers allowed their poor to suffer from hunger.^[31] In Ireland, the generosity of the Choctaw nation during their Great Famine in the mid-nineteenth century is remembered to this day and recently marked by a sculpture, 'Kindred Spirits', in a park at Midleton, Cork.^[32][33]

Treaties

Land was the most valuable asset, which the Native Americans held in collective stewardship. The United States systematically obtained Choctaw land for conventional European-American settlement through treaties, legislation, and threats of warfare. Although the Choctaw made treaties with Great Britain, France, Spain, and the Confederate States of America; the nation signed only nine treaties with the United States.

Reservations

Reservations can be found in Louisiana (Jena Band of Choctaw Indians), Mississippi (Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians), and Oklahoma (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma). The Oklahoma reservation is defined by treaty. Other population centers can be found throughout the United States.

Influential leaders

• Tuscaloosa
  (died October 1540) retaliated against Hernando de Soto at the Battle of Mabilia. The battle was the first major conflict in North America between Native Americans and Europeans.
• Franchimastabe
  (died 19th century) was a transitional benefactor and a contemporary of Taboca. To some Americans he was the "leading chief of the Choctaws." He led a war party with British forces against American rebels. Franchasmatabe attended the treaty talks of 1801 near Mobile, Alabama.
• Taboca
  (died 19th century) was a traditional "prophet-chief" who led a delegation starting in October 1785 to Hopewell, South Carolina.
• Apuckshunubbee (c. 1740–1824) was chief of the Okla Falaya (Tall People) district in old Choctaw nation. He died in Kentucky on his way to Washington D.C. to conduct negotiations.
• Pushmataha (Apushmataha) (1760s–December 24, 1824) was a chief in old Choctaw nation. He negotiated treaties with the United States and fought on the American's side in the War of 1812. He died in Washington D.C. and is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington D.C.
• Mosholatubbee
  (1770–1836) was a chief in the Choctaw nation before the removal and after. He went to Washington City to negotiate for the tribe in 1824 and was the only major leader to return. In the summer of 1830, he ran for a seat in the Congress of the United States to represent the state of Mississippi.
• Greenwood LeFlore (June 3, 1800 – August 31, 1865) was a District Chief of the Choctaws in Mississippi. He was an influential state representative and senator in Mississippi.
• George W. Harkins (1810–1890) was a district Choctaw chief in Indian Territory (1850–1857) prior to the Civil War and author of the "Farewell Letter to the American People".
• Peter Pitchlynn (January 30, 1806 – January 17, 1881) was a highly influential leader during the removal era and long after. He represented the Choctaws in Washington, D.C., for some years and is buried in the Congressional Cemetery. Charles Dickens described him "as stately and complete a gentleman of nature's making as ever I beheld."
• Wesley Johnson (c. 1849 – 1925) was elected chief on May 10, 1913, in Meridian, Mississippi. He would lead the Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana Choctaw Council's delegation to Washington, D. C. in February 1914 where he met President Woodrow Wilson and many members of congress. There he expressed the dire situation of the Mississippi Choctaws. Wesley Johnson represented the Alabama Delegation from Southwest Alabama in Mobile and Washington Counties. Wesley Johnson was also known as Wesley Wakatubee.
• Phillip Martin (March 13, 1926 – February 4, 2010) was the Chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians from 1979 to 2007 and worked in tribal government for over fifty years. He encouraged outside investment and reduced unemployment to nearly 0% on the reservation.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Choctaw.

• William Bartram
• Chato people
• Choctaw culture
• Choctaw mythology
• Choctaw Trail of Tears
• Cyrus Byington
• Gideon Lincecum
• Steven Charleston
• List of Choctaw Treaties
• List of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition
• okay ("okeh", etymology)
• Bulbancha

References