I would like to find out more about the Choctaws but can not seem to find much information.

Choctaw


Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Election 2007
In July, 2007, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians elected a new chief for
the first time in three decades, Chief Beasley Denison. He became only the
third elected tribal chief since the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.

MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians


The MOWA Choctaw Reservation is located on 300 acres in between the small
southwestern Alabama communities of McIntosh, Mt. Vernon and Citronelle. Aside from
the reservation, tribal citizens numbering around 3,600, live in 10 small
settlements near the reservation community. They are led by elected Chief Wilford
Taylor and are some of the descendants of those Choctaw people who refused
removal at the time of the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. Their annual cultural
festival, which includes Choctaw social dancing, stickball games, Choctaw
princess contest and an inter-tribal pow wow occurs on the third weekend of June
each year on their reservation lands.


California
California has the second largest population of Choctaw Indians in the United
States with approximately 26,000 members of the Choctaw Nation. They are often
descendents of Dust Bowl refugees who migrated from Oklahoma seeking jobs in
urban areas and farming communities.

The Dust Bowl was a series of catastrophic dust storms causing major ecological
and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands in the 19330s,
caused by decades of extensive farming without crop rotation among cotton, corn
and grain farmers using techniques that promoted erosion coupled with severe
drought. The fertile soil of the Great Plains was exposed through removal of
grass during plowing. During the drought, the soildried out, became dust, and blew
away eastwards, mostly in large black clouds. At times, the clouds blackened
the sky all the way to Chicago, and much of the soil was completely lost into
the Atlantic Ocean. This ecological disaster caused an exodus from Texas,
Arkansaw, Oklahoma, and the surrounding Great Plains, with over 500,000 Americans left
homeless . Many Americans migrated west looking for work while many Canadians
fled to urban areas like Toronto. Some two-thirds of farmers in "Palliser's
Triangle" in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan had to rely on government aid
to survive, although this was due mainly to drought, hailstorms, and erratic
weather rather than to dust storms such as those which were occurring on the U.S.
Great Plains farther south.  Some residents of the Plains, especially Kansas
and Oklahoma, fell prey to illnesses and death from dust pneumonia and the
effects of malnutrition.


Mississippi


Old Choctaw country in Mississippi before removal
  Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
Old Choctaw country included dozens of towns like Lukfata, Koweh Chito, Oka
Hullo, Pante, Osapa Chito, Oka Cooply, and Yanni Achukma located in and around
Neshoba and Kemper counties.

The oldest Choctaw settlement is located in Neshoba county. The bones of great
warriors are buried there.

Choctaws regularly traveled hundreds of miles from their homes for long periods
of time. They set out early in the fall and returned to their reserved lands
at the opening of spring to plant their gardens. At that time they visited the
Europeans at Columbus, Miss., Macon, Brookesville, and Crawford, and the region
where Yazoo City now is.

Presently, the Mississippi Choctaw Indian Reservation has 8 communities: Bogue
Chitto, Bogue Homa, Conehatta, Crystal Ridge, Pearl River, Red Water, Tucker,
and Standing Pine. These communities are located in parts of nine counties
throughout the state, although the largest concentration of land is in Neshoba
County, which comprises more than two-thirds of the reservation's land area and over
62 percent of its population as of the 2000 census. The total land area is
84.282 km² (32.541 sq mi), and its official total resident population was 5,190
persons. The Choctaws still living in Mississippi make up the Mississippi Band of
Choctaw Indians, led by Chief Beasley Denson.

Oklahoma


  Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
Most Choctaws were forcibly removed from Mississippi to Oklahoma during the
1830s. Choctaws contributed much to the early history of Oklahoma, even giving the
state its name. Former Principal Chief Allen Wright suggested the name
Oklahoma, from a contraction of the Choctaw words okla ("people") and humma ("red"). A
former governor of the Choctaw Nation, Gilbert Wesley Dukes, was the
Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma in the first state-wide election,
and though he lost, drew a significant percentage of the overall vote.
Oklahoma Choctaws comprise the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. The Choctaw Nation was
established in the southeastern quadrant of the state made of 10 and 1/2 counties.
The capitol building, which was built in 1884, is located in Tuskahoma,
Oklahoma. Their elected Chief is Gregory E. Pyle, and the Nation's headquarters are
located in Durant, Oklahoma, the nation's second largest city. McAlester is
currently Choctaw Nation's largest city. Approximately 250,000 people live within
the Choctaw Nation boundaries in Southeastern Oklahoma.


Louisiana
  Jena Band of Choctaw Indians; United Houma Nation; Choctaw-Apache of Ebarb;
Bayou Lacombe Choctaw; Clifton Choctaw
The Jena Band of Choctaw Indians are located in LaSalle and Catahoula Parishes.
The Jena Band received federal recognition in 1995. Tribal membership totals
241. The United Houma Nation is headquartered at Golden Meadow, Louisiana and
has numerous communities located in the bayous of Southeastern Louisiana. Many of
their communities were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Their total population
stands at 17,000. They are Choctaw-related people. The Choctaw-Apache of Ebarb
are descendants of Choctaw and Apache people who live near the town of Zwolle,
Louisiana in the extreme western part of the state of Lousiana. Their tribal
enrollment stands at 2,000. The Bayou-Lacombe Choctaw community is located in the
far eastern section of Louisiana, and is home to 300 tribal citizens. The
Clifton Choctaw are located in Clifton, Louisiana in the central part of the state
and number around 500 tribal citizens.




Sioux Leggings
Rare and beautiful Santee Sioux "Half Breed" hide leggings with quilled skunks,
elk, stars, and floral designs - some staining. 15-1/2" X 21"
Circa 1900



Culture
The Choctaws were known for their rapid incorporation of European modernity.
John R. Swanton writes,

  "It is generally testified that the Creeks and Seminole, who had the most
highly developed native institutions, were the slowest to become assimilated into
the new political and social organism which was introduced from Europe. The
Chickasaw come next and the Cherokee and Choctaw adapted themselves most rapidly
of all."

Crimes
Murder was usually dealt with by revenge. Swanton writes, "Murder, i.e.,
intratribal man-killing, could be atoned for ordinarily only by the death of the
murderer himself or some substitute acceptable to the injured family. they cherish
a desire for revenge for a generation."

Stolen property was usually punishable by returning the stolen goods or other
compensation. Swanton says, "thieves apprehended with the stolen property in
their possession were forced to return it. If they could not produce the property,
either they or their families were compelled to return goods of equal value."
Theft was later punishable by a whip. Swanton states of Cushman, "for minor
offenses, whipping was the punishment; fifty lashes for the first offense, one
hundred for the second, and death by the rifle for the third offense ... (1899)."

Incest was considered a crime. Swanton states, "incest ... was anciently a
major crime, but we have no record of the punishments inflicted on account of it."


Early Religion
The Choctaws believed in a good spirit and an evil spirit, and they may have
been sun, or Hushtahli, worshippers. Swanton writes, "the 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
..."

The evil spirit, or Na-lusa-chi-to (black being/soul eater), sought to harm
people. It may appear, as told in stories, in the form of a shadow person.

Shadow people (also known as Shadow men, shadow folk, or shadow beings) are
said to be shadow like creatures of supernatural origin that appear as dark forms
in the peripheries of people's vision and disintegrate, or move between walls,
when noticed.

Reports of shadow people are similar to ghost sightings, but differ in that
shadow people are not reported as having human features, wearing modern/period
clothing, or attempting to communicate. Witnesses also do not report the same
feelings of being in the presence of something that 'was once human'. Some
individuals have described being menaced, chased, or (more rarely) attacked by shadow
people. There have also been reports of shadow people appearing in front of
witnesses or lingering for several seconds before disappearing. Rumors of shadow
people possessions and even killings have been reported. Witnesses report that
encounters are typically accompanied by a feeling of dread.

Prayers may have been introduced by missionaries; however, Choctaw prophets
were know to address the sun. Swanton writes, "an old Choctaw informed Wright
that, before the arrival of the missionaries, they had no conception of prayer.
However, he adds, 'I have indeed heard it asserted by some, that anciently their
hopaii, or prophets, on some occasions were accustomed to address the sun ...'"


Language
  The Choctaw language is a member of the Muskogean family. The language was
well known among the frontiersmen of the early 1800s. The language is closely
related to Chickasaw and some linguists consider the two dialects of a single
language.

Mythology
  The Choctaw have many stories about little people. Swanton states of Halbert,
"the Choctaws in Mississippi say that there is a little man, about two feet
high, that dwells in the thick woods and is solitary in his habits ... he often
playfully throws sticks and stones at the people ... the Indian's doctors say
that Bohpoli [thrower] assists them in the manufacture of their medicines ..."
The little people are said to take young children to the forest to teach them how
to be medicine men.

Stories
Storytelling is a popular part of entertainment in many Native American
societies. This stood also true for the Choctaws. Stories would recount their origins
and would retell the deeds of heroes long gone. There are also stories about
possums, raccons, turtles, birds, chipmunks, and wolves. Randy Jimmie and Leonard
Jimmie state,

  The Choctaw believed that their people came forth from the sacred mound of
Nanih Waiya. In relation to this creation myth is the legend of the Choctaw
tribe's migration under the leadership of Chata. Several versions of their creation
and migration legends have been perpetuated by the Native Americans and remain
very popular among contemporary Choctaws, especially the elderly. The young,
however, have a more active interest in the mischievous deed of various forest
animals or in stories about the creation of the wild forests.

What food did we eat in centuries past?

H.B. Cushman, in the History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians, on page 250, epitomized the Choctaw agricultural development as thus, "The Choctaws have long been known to excel all the North American Indians in agriculture, subsisting to a considerable extent on the product of their fields. In the book Choctaw Social and Ceremonial Life, on page 46, Romans' writing of 1771 is quoted as:

"The Choctaws may more properly be called a nation of farmers than any savages I have met with; they are the most considerable people in Florida. . . Their hunting grounds are in proportion less considerable than any of their neighbors; but as they are very little jealous of their territories, nay with ease part with them, the Chickasaws and they never interrupt each other in their hunting; as I mentioned before."

Elsewhere he tells us that the Chickasaw were obliged to apply to them yearly for corn and beans. Their method of cultivation does not seem to have differed appreciably from that in vogue elsewhere in the Southeast. Land was cleared by burning underbrush and smaller growth, while the trees were girdled and left to die and disintegrate gradually. Before the cornfields were cleared there was a dance. Among the Creeks, planting was done in large communal fields and in small private gardens, the former divided, however, into separate plots for the families composing the town. The community field was planted and cultivated by men and women working together but the garden plots were cared for by some of the old women and were private enterprises. Among the Choctaw all memory of the communal plots has been lost and it is possible that they did not exist. The aboriginal agricultural implement was a crude hoe made out of the shoulder blade of a bison, a stone, or on the coast a large shell. A stick was also used to make holes for planting the seed which was put into hills. Small booths were constructed near the community grounds and young people stationed there to drive away the crows.

Something has been said above regarding Choctaw methods of treating corn and preparing it for food, and Romans has the following on their foods in general:

They cultivate for bread all the species and variety of the Zea (maize), likewise two varieties of that species of Panicum (probably Sorghum drummondii and paniscum maximum) vulgarly called guina corn; a greater number of different phaseolus (beans) and Dolichos (hyancinth beans) than any I have seen elsewhere; the esculent Convovulvus (vulgo)sweet potatoes, and the Helianthus giganteus (sunflower); with the seed of the last made into flour and mixed the flour of the Zea they make a very palatable bread; they have carried the spirit of husbandry so far as to cultivate leeks, garlic, cabbage and some other garden plants, of which they make no use, in order to make profit of them to the traders; they also used to carry poultry to market at Mobile, although it lays at a distance of an hundred and twenty miles from the nearest town; dunghill fowls, and a very few ducks, with some hogs, are the only esculent animals raised in the nation.

They make many kinds of bread of the above grains with the help of water, eggs, or hickory milk; they boil corn and beans together, and make many other preparations of their vegetables, but fresh meat they have only at the hunting season, and then they never fail to eat while it lasts; of their fowls and hogs they seldom eat any as they keep them for profit.

In failure of their crops, they make bread of the different kinds of Fagus (not including merely the beeches but then in addition the chestnut and chinquapin) of the Diospyros (persimmon), of a species of Convolvulus with a tuberous root found in the low cane grounds (wild sweet potato), of the root of a species of Smilax (Choctaw kaltak; Creek kunti), of live oak acorns,and of the young shoots of the Canna (imported probably from the West Indies); in summer many wild plants chiefly of the Drupi (plum) and Bacciferous (berry) kind supply them.

They raise some tobacco, and even sell some to the traders, but when they use it for smoking they mix it with the leaves of the two species of the cariariia (sumac)or of the Liquidambar styraacistua (sweet gum) dried and rubbed to pieces.

Mortars for pounding corn into meal were anciently made by burning hollows in the side of a prone log, a fanner being used to direct the course of the fire, but after axes and chisels were introduced by the whites, they set sections of trees on one end and hollowed out the other end with tools. Corn, hickory nuts and wild potatoes, as well as meat, were ground up in the mortars. Hickory wood was the kind out of which they were usually made because it conveys the best taste to the food. Failing that, they employed oak, though it gives food a puckery taste. Beech could be used but it was scarce, but some woods were not used because of the bad taste they communicate, in particular maple, which gives a taste "sufficiently bad to ruin one's stomach."

They had corncribs measuring not over 8 by 10 feet, each with a single entrance. They were raised fairly high above the round so that snakes could not seek refuge there and sting someone before they could be gotten rid of.

Hickory nuts were gathered in summer and the oil extracted from them was added to corn foods as a seasoning, though the meats were sometimes put in whole. To extract the oil they parched the nuts until they cracked to pieces and then beat them up until they were as fine as coffee grounds. They were then put into boiling water and boiled for an hour or an hour and a half, until they cooked down to a kind of soup from which the oil was strained out through a cloth. The rest was thrown away. The oil could be used at once or poured into a vessel where it would keep a long time.

Walnuts were little used for food. Very little use was made of acorns and no oil was extracted from them. Sometimes they cooked pin oak acorns with hominy but these often caused cramps.

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