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HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 (^eie.^, GBie^: 
 
 a^aA\/ ... ""^^ 
 
 ^^^ J^e^teBe^ InSianjs 
 
 BY 
 
 H B. CUSHMAH 
 
 Copyright, 1899, by H. B. Cushraan. 
 
 (All rights reserved.) 
 
 OFEKNVILLK, TEXAS: 
 HEADLIGHT PKIN;riNG HOUSE 
 
 1899. 
 
A:- r. 
 
 To the memory of my parents, Calvin and Laura Cush- 
 man, as Heralds of the Cross of Christ, they, with a few 
 other congenial spirits, left their homes in Massachusetts, 
 A. D. 1820, as missionaries, and went to the Choctaw Indians, 
 then living in their Ancient Domains east of the Missisippi 
 River. Devoted their lives to the moral and intellectual 
 improvement and spiritual interests of that peculiar and in- 
 teresting- race of mankind, living and dying the sincere and 
 abiding friends of the Red Man of the North American Con- 
 tinent. 
 
 ALSO 
 
 To the Choctaw and Chickasaw people, each the now 
 feeble rpmnant of a once numei'ous, independent, contented 
 and happy people, whose long line of ancestry dates back to 
 the pre-historic ages of the remote past, it is ascribed in 
 loving remembrance of the writer's earliest and most faith- 
 ful friends, whom he has a just cause, to cherish for their 
 many long known ami tested virtues. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 To bring one's material to a strictly historical and clas- 
 sified order is almost an impossibility when dealing- with a 
 subject so diversified as that of the Red Race of the North 
 American Continent. But I have soug^ht, found and broug-ht 
 together an amount of information concerning that , pecu- 
 liar people that has never, before been published; having 
 been born of parents who were missionaries to the Choc- 
 taws in 1820, and haying been reared among them and in- 
 timately acquainted with them during the vicissitudes of a 
 life extending to nearly four score of years. I well know 
 that the Indian race has oft been the subject of the pen, and 
 still continues to be, but only in short details^ thus leaving 
 the reader in bevvilderment, though historical truths were to 
 be found in abundance among them wherever one, turned — 
 truths one can never forget; scenes and events which have an 
 imperishable memory. 
 
 Then come awhile with me, reader, from what you have 
 hitherto learned about the Red Man of this continent, to that 
 which may be entirely new to you no matter how old it may 
 be to others; since you might learn something more of the 
 primitive influences which shaped the career of the North 
 American Indians in their dealings with the White Race from 
 their first acquaintance to the present day; as I have endeav- 
 ored to present many based upon knowledge acquired by a 
 personal acquaintance with two tribes (closely allied) , dur- 
 ing a protracted life of many years, seeing and learning the 
 romance and poetry of their natures, a people of interest, 
 moral worth and individuality of character. I know that to 
 all riiy race, the Indian (comparatively speaking) lives only in 
 the vague memory of the legendary past — that period made 
 vivid by the wrongs of the White Race perpetrated upon the 
 Red — all a series of struggles terminating in sanguinary 
 executions when no services rendered by the tribe in their 
 vain struggle to be free, availed to save the defeated Chieftain 
 from a felon's grave; while the feeble remnant that still sur- 
 vives stands as the best commentary of their wrongs, while 
 they despairingly cry "kill us also, and thus complete your 
 crtfelty by taking our lives as you began with our liberties." 
 
 Truly, what a sad and melancholy record is their his- 
 tory; undervalued by the civilized world, though in op- 
 position to the declarations of all who knew them as justice 
 demanded they should be known. Alas, broken-hearted for 
 
4 INTRODUCTON. 
 
 two centuries, yet having their souls pierced and lacerated 
 by the poisonous shafts of unjust defamation and cruel false- 
 hood, while they sadly ask in lamentations of woe: "Where 
 is to be the end"? Only to hear echo's fearful response, 
 "The grave." Therefore they seem indifferentnowasto what 
 the world is doing around them, since none extend the hand 
 of friendshiptothem but to defraud; none smile on their dejec- 
 ted faces but to deride; none sympathize \^ith them in their 
 poverty but to mock; and now when you meet them, they 
 neither look to the right nor left, but straight forward walking 
 with slow and measured steps that betoken the thoughts of 
 a helpless and h6peless people— hopeless, at least, of all that 
 life may bring them of freedom and prosperity. Few even 
 speak to th/em in tones of kindness, yet all momentarily stop 
 to gaze on them with wondering stare as if they were cum- 
 berers of the ground, though there is still upon their faces 
 of despair a visible touch of lingering chivalry worthy of a 
 better fate. 
 
 With many of their illustrious men (long deceased) 
 whom I have brought into this history, I was personally ac- 
 quainted through the vicissitudes of many years; with others, 
 though not personally, yet I knew their minds and the 
 motives of their actions, and these truly constitute the man. 
 And they were men whose high endowments (nature's gift) 
 could not be misled into selfish ambition; nor prosperity in- 
 flate; nor disappointment depress from holy trust and honor- 
 able action known by the veritable touch-stone, "Ye shall 
 know a tree by its fruits." Nor have I sketched a virtue 
 that I have not seen, nor painted a folly from imagination; 
 but have endeavored to be faithful to reality, in all things as 
 touching that peculiar yet noble race of the human family, 
 who sought resignation in all their misfortunes and woes, 
 and found it only in the decrees of the "Great Spirit" who 
 had given to their race so many centuries of uninterrupted 
 bliss, truly a noble people who tauglit misfortune dignity. 
 They had never left their secluded and quiet homes amid 
 nature's forest ^groves to expose themselves to the contami- 
 nations of the vices (to them unknown) of the civilized (so- 
 called) world of traffic and trade. 
 
 Sequestered from its view, neither its pageants nor its 
 follies had ever reached them there. It was then and 
 there I studied their unsophisticated natures with an enthu- 
 siasm which is the fragrance of the flower that lives after 
 the bloom is withered. Nor am I asihamed to confess my 
 profound admiration of the North American Indian, to whom 
 there was nothing so dear as his freedom unrestrained, 
 which he proved beyond all dispute by fearlessly resisting 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5' 
 
 'the hand of tyrannical oppressions from the Atlantic coas1j»to 
 the Pacific, against odds in point of numbers, munitions of 
 war, skill and means, as one to ten thousand, and yielded 
 not until the last warrior had fallen, the last bow broken and 
 his race reduced to absolute poverty, want and woe. Still, 
 though poor and lowly as he seemed to his venal destroyers, 
 yet his whole heart and life were wrapt up in the remem- 
 brance of his freedom. He worshipped the thought as his 
 most precious property, the dear treasure of his secret and 
 Tiighest bliss. It was the constant compailion of his thoughts 
 the monitor of his actions and the true key to his life. 
 
 But alas, when memory now turns to the past of his 
 early life and its unexpected blighting, and raises before his 
 mind every hope connected with it, and his seeming present 
 ■doom stares him in the face, what can rid him of those suc- 
 cessive images that seem' to glide aroujl^d him like mouruful 
 apparitions of the long lamented dead, since grief long since 
 has looked up the avenues of complaint, and he stands as one 
 petrified to stone. But how wonderful, amid all their adver- 
 sities, has been their power to rally and to recover their 
 waning resolution and courage; verily, they oft seemed to 
 experience a kind of determined pleasure in resolutely/ con- 
 fronting the worst aspect of their innumerable reverses; 
 yea, in standing in the breech that ha^ long since overthrown 
 their future, and hurling back in defiant despair, "Here we 
 stand, at least an honest and chivalrous people;" but alas, 
 only to seek solitude by retiring within themselves pleading 
 "Jailor, lock the door." Truly their lives, thougfh not with- 
 •out their efforts of strorlg exertion, have been during the 
 last two centunies, and still are, a dream spent in chewing 
 the cud of sweet and bitter fancy, while they have worn the 
 garb of hope which has diverted their past and present woes 
 ' by a touch of the wand of imagination and gilded over the 
 future by prospects fairer than were ever realized. But it is 
 impossible to deny and yet not-to admire and praise the 
 strong sense of solidity and fraternity which, through all 
 their lives, still unite the membei's of the same tribe, and the 
 feelings which have not been dimmed by modern changes but 
 still exist as warm and active as ever; yet.the White Race has 
 ever looked Jupon the Red from the Ishmaelitish standpoint, 
 and in all its intercourse, from first to last, began and so 
 continued by treating them as inferior beings, too low in the 
 scale of humanity to be reached by the hand of Christianity 
 and civilization; inveterate and uncoiji promising- enemies to 
 be circumvented and overreached iinder an exhibition of 
 smiling and artful hypocrisy and base venality unknown to 
 .the Red Man and unsurpassed in the annals of the White. 
 
6 - INTRODUCTIOK.' 
 
 But longf since cut loose from their ancient mooring-s, they 
 have felt for more than a century that they were slowly but 
 surely drifting toward an uriknowQ destiny foreshadowing- 
 extermination^ What other people that would not have had 
 recourse to war or the suicide's rifle? yet, after despair had 
 usurped the place of hope in longer resistance, they had 
 principle to resist the one, and resolution to combat the 
 other. Biit they were to tread the lovt^est paths of sorrow, 
 poverty and humiliating depressions; whose circumstances 
 were too humble to expect redress aiid whose sufferings 
 (mental and physical) were too great even for pity; and 
 whose wrongs, at the hands of inside white intruders and 
 outside defamers, have long since destroyed that strength of 
 mind with which mankind can meet distress; therefore they 
 prepare to suffer in silence rather than openly complain. 
 What else could they do? The world disclaims them. 
 Christianity even seems to have turned its back upon their 
 distress, given them up to spiritual nakedness and hunger, 
 and left them to plead to white wretches whose hearts are 
 stone, or to debauchees who may curse but will not give re- 
 lief, while every devilish trick is played upon them, and their 
 every action made a fund for eternal ridicule. 
 
 fTruly, instead of wondering that so little of their true 
 history has been preserved, it is a matter of much greater 
 wonder that so much of truth has escaped the waste of two> 
 centuries through whict they have been dragged from place 
 to place, while all narratives concerning them have been 
 written, with few exceptions, in shameful derogation of their 
 true characters, all exaggerated and ^till continuing to be 
 exaggerated, evincing a strange love of defamation only to 
 gratify the morbid fondness of their readers for the marve- 
 lous, and their own manifested inability to tell the truth; 
 therefore the most absurd and ridiculous falsehoods are fabri- 
 cated and published about this people and joyfully read and 
 believed by all who are in harmony with their traducers, a 
 truth that remains, in essential points at least, from one end 
 of the scale to the other. 
 
 True, the ways of the Indians are not the ways of the- 
 civilized world of which they knew nothing; nor, were they, 
 being without its ways, versed in its revolting vices, and' 
 their so-called love of war and carnage existed but in the 
 imagination df the White Race, one of rts beliefs which may 
 be traced hither and thither but never to the propitiation of 
 truth concerning anything about the Red; since, having its 
 ori^^in alone in the impatience of its venality while Uriftin^ 
 amid zones of ignorance and prejudice; jind when I contem- 
 plate s^uch, I am taught to look upon their'errors more in sor- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 row than anger. True the Indians were cruel to their ene- 
 mieB in war, and so are we together vS^ith all , the nation^ of 
 earth. 
 
 But when I take up the North American Indian who has 
 suif ered and represent to myself the struggles he has passed 
 through for centuries past, to defend his just rights and 
 sustain the freedom of his country from exotic vandals, and 
 reflect upon his brief pulsations of joy; the tears of woe; the 
 feebleness of purpose; the scorn of the world that has, with- 
 out just reason, no charity for hiita; the desolation of his 
 souli's sanctuary, his freedom buried in the memory of the 
 past; happiness gone; hope Hed; I fain would leave his blight- 
 ed soul with Him from whose hands it came, for how diffi- 
 cult it is to roU away the black and huge stone of prejudice 
 from off the white man's heart, id whom ignorance is bliss 
 in regard to all Indians; thousands, tberefoire, hate the In- 
 dian because they do not kno'vv Mm and desire 'not to know 
 him because they hate him. 
 
 Truly, the North Amei'ican Indians constitute as grand 
 a record of human courage, patriotic endurance, and as har- 
 rowing a history of human suffering as has ever been told; 
 while their oppressors and destroyers, who have figured in 
 their nefarious designs against them from the alpha to omega 
 as the beau-ideal of cruel injustice, are still laboring with a 
 zeal never manifested before to intensify the public feeling 
 against the helpless people, that they may the more effect- 
 ually accomplish their infamous schemes to rob and plunder 
 them; and whose consciences seem so elastic that, at one 
 time it seems difl&cult for them to stretch them over a mole 
 hill; at another, with ease, they stretch them over a moun- 
 tain. Yet the influence, power and grip these charactefs 
 exert and impress upon the public mind are truths both hu- 
 miliating and disgraceful, and the strange liberties that are, 
 by our seemingly defective systems of jurisprudence, legal- 
 ly permitted to such plunderers in high places who have the 
 audacity and impertinence to appeal to law, and misuse its 
 machinery for. selfish and covetous purposes, are everywhere 
 illustrated at the expense of the misguided and alike help- 
 less and unfortunate Indians, upon whom they have descend- 
 ed in countless thousands as blow-flies on a decomposing 
 body, to rob and plunder them of the last acre of their terri- 
 tories. Truly our sensibilities in the light of humanity, and 
 our judgment in the light of truth and justice, are abso- 
 lutely dead in regard to this people; therefore, thousands 
 haye supinely yielded to the false assertions of thieves and 
 robbers, the reverence due to a Divine decree, without any 
 
a INTHODUCTION. 
 
 investigation whatever, which has been done in all cases of 
 dealing with Indians from first to last. 
 
 Truly it may be written as an epitaph for their history, 
 "unutterably sad, because so disastrously true." Alas! mul- 
 tiplied thousands to-day look with horror on the wrongs and 
 suififering-s of the feeble and helpless Indians still hovering in' 
 our midst, yet ane content to hide themselves from their 
 woes; yea, they openly acknowledge their shameful reality 
 yet do nothing to alleviate their condition. They well know 
 of the thousand wrongs continually being heaped upon them, 
 yet only shrug their Shoulders and fold their arms in callous 
 acquiescence m that which they falsely and cowardly declare 
 to be inevitable; while they, at the same time, acknowledge a 
 sense of shame and personal guilt in permitting such infa- 
 mous cruelty and oppression to be helped upon that help- 
 less race iq their midst and under their own eyes, without 
 being a:ctuated to noble efforts to stop it. No wonder the 
 Indian's countenance seems prematurely marked by deep 
 furrows, and his long hair waves over his brow on which is 
 fixed a deep gloom that no smile from !the lips can chase 
 awayl Alas, through what direful changes have they been 
 forced to passHhrougt what cycles of hope and fear have 
 their generations been coerced while the world about them 
 seemed like a vision hurrying by as they stood still in 
 silence, helplessness and woe! Therefore, in their entire 
 history, how little there is to contemplate but the most 
 agonizing struggles followed by the deepest and most osten- 
 sible ^ecay thraugh tieir long and continued attempts at 
 redress and the recovery of their God-inherited rights 
 which expired witii their liberty. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez 
 
 , INI^IANS. 
 
 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS t)F THE NORTH 
 AMERICAN INDIANS. 
 
 There has been, and is to-day, as great a proportion of 
 of those characteristics that elevate and adorn mankind 
 found among the North American Indian race as ever were 
 found upon earth. Men and women in whose breasts were 
 seats of virtues as pUre as ever found in man or woman. 
 This maj' seem as shadows, to many, incontrovertible truths 
 to those who truly know them, not as enemies but'as friends. 
 Through a long life of personal acquaintance with and ex- 
 perience among them, I can and do here testify to' the 
 same when living in their ancient domains, and still find 
 them in the present years as in those of the long past, 
 though my opinions then may have been formed to some ex- 
 tent as shadows jn the back-gi'ound of imagination, yet they 
 took substantial form and substance with time, in perfect 
 harmony with the positive assertions of all the early ex- 
 plorers, as far back as anything is, known of their history. 
 Truly, prolific fancies of the larger portion of modern 
 writers seem to have been governed by the' many false des- 
 criptions of the ancient; and poetic license has extended the 
 peculiarities of the ancestors with all their imaginary faults 
 and none of their virtues to their descendants, this too in the 
 absence of all authentic history; while our own traditions 
 have dealt no less unjustly with the remnant whom we are 
 following down to their seemingly inevitable destiny (exter- 
 mination) so unjustly and cruelly decreed through the insti- 
 gation of our insatiable venality, whose merciless sword is 
 still drawn and stretched athwart the gate of the Indian's 
 highest ambition, his freedom; allowing hifn no place in that 
 
10 HISTOKY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 higher civilization concerning- .which heaven and earth are 
 amazed at our continued vociferations, and stupified in our 
 inconsistency that denies to them their natural and individ- 
 ual rights, since it does but establish our inability to compre- 
 hend the eternal principles of human development, as we 
 assume to fear to trust them with the choice of their own 
 destiny, and that of their souls, moved and actuated by the 
 divine principles therein implanted. It could not justly be 
 expected that they would at once adopt our principles and 
 institutions, to them a chaos 6f conti-adictions. Yet we 
 charge them with the utter want of those virtues that dis- 
 tinguish man from thei brute, though well knowing the 
 falsity of the accusation py the undeniable testimony mani- 
 fest among them every where to the contrary. 
 
 We also charge them with every crime, but how greatly 
 inconsistent and unjust when being so deeply stained our- 
 selves! Alas, when Hope of longer freedom had given place 
 to, hopeless despair, and they as a forlorn hope, threw them- 
 selves upon our boasted humanity, they awoke but to find a 
 myth; for we then displayed our so-called Christian virtues 
 and high sounding hallelujahs of freedom to all mankind by 
 cooping them up in isolated reservations, but more properly 
 vestibules of the cemetery, the ante-rooms where the re- 
 cruiting agents of death (woe and despair) assemble their 
 conscripts to prepare them for the ranks whence there is 
 neither desertion or discharge; and having thus and there 
 caged them, now perform the honorable (?) and humane (?) 
 task of watching them at the doors of their prisons, while 
 our parasites keep a faithful record of the complaints of the 
 unfortunate, helpless, hapless and hopeless sufferers, 
 whose dire misfortunes few have the magnanimity to 
 respect, while thousands scoff and mock and which they 
 seem determined shall only cease in the silence of the last 
 Indian's grave. 
 
 Can the Indians of to-day but cherish the greatest ab- 
 horrence toward those who forced them into those lazar- 
 prisons where curses reply to their just complaints and 
 blows and kicks to their dying groans, as each is tortured in 
 his separate hell where all can hear but none will heed? Can 
 they but shun, in their limited inch of freedom, as a blighting 
 pestilence, those who still seek to debase them in the estima- 
 tion of the world by falsely branding them as creatures to' 
 be feared and shunned, with no power to resent but only to 
 weep in silence and hopeless despair, while their blighted 
 spirits are being proved in this furnace like steel in temper- 
 ing Are ? 
 
 Once they were quick in feeling and fearless in resent- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 11 
 
 ment^ — that is o'ei*. They are now the sons of silence; their 
 wounds of mind and body are now callous, or longf since 
 they would have dashed their brains against their pris- 
 on bars, as the rays ^f the suti of their re- 
 membered freedom and happiness flashed thi'ough them in 
 seaming mockery of their woes. Neither are their slumbers 
 sleep but only a continuance of enduring wdes, a' lingering 
 despair whose envenomed tooth preventing truth, justice and 
 humanity would still inarigle the dead; Their halt is g'ray, 
 b(ut not from years; 'tis (he imjpatient thirst for freedom par- 
 ching the heaf t, and abhorred slavery niaddeniijg the soul 
 with heaviness and woe as it battles with its agony under the 
 knowledge that to them eirth and air are banned and barred 
 — a living grave of long years of oppression, abuse, calumny 
 and outrage; yet they live, endure and bear the likeness of 
 breathing men, while they bear the innate tortures of a living 
 despair, becoming old in their youth, and dying ere middle 
 age, some of weariness, some of disease; (the legacy of 
 their destroyers) but moi'e of wjithered hopes and broken' 
 hearts. Alas, that they should have found so few among the 
 White Race vi^ith whom they could safely Wear the chain of 
 unassumed friendship and confidence; therefore have shunned 
 their companionship and sadly sought as long as they could 
 the solitude of the remote wilderness and there with its more 
 congenial spirit divided the hotnage of their hearts, but alas, 
 only to find even there no secure retreat from their restless 
 foes. This fatalism, the assured certainly that nothing good 
 can now be expected; the full conviction that even the United 
 States government seems indifferent to protect them from 
 the venality of its own unprincipled and seemingly law defy- 
 ing white subjects, is now deeply rooted in the minds of the 
 aged Indians; while the younger receive their education in the 
 high (so-called) schools of the States in learning by heart 
 Herbert Spencer, John Stuart Mill, Darwin, and noted exqtic 
 philosophers, thus losing much of their respect for their 
 own religion as taught them by the true missionaries of the 
 gospel of the world's Redeemer, rendering' their present a 
 gloomy back-ground, a black shadow of a once bright picture; 
 therefore they have become decrepit and have fallen down 
 like a huge memorial of antiquity prostrate and broken to 
 pieces, while the fragments only remain as a treasure belong- 
 ing alone to the modern archieologist. Yet, a noble people 
 whose memorials have long since been swept away by the hand 
 of usurpation, and whose relics of their former greatness 
 have alike crumbled to dust leaving no trac^e of their former 
 existence, save here and there names of a few rivers and 
 little streams, touching for their simplicity, but for whom 
 
12 HISTORY OF THIC INDIANS. 
 
 justice has long but vainly demanded an honorable place 
 among Christian people, and for whoni the time has surety 
 (yea, years ago) arrived to be redeemed from the cruel and 
 unjust bondage of that long, dark night of misrepresentation 
 to which they have been somercilessly subjected for so many 
 long and weary years — a people good without a pretense and 
 blest with plain reason and sober sense; whose traditional 
 history, connected as it is with the Eastern Continent, abound- 
 ed with many of those striking events which furnish modern 
 history with its richest materials; as every tribe had its 
 Thermopylae, and every village had pi-oduced its Leonidas. 
 But the veil of centuries past now hides those events that 
 might have been bequeathed to the admiration of the present 
 age of the world. The opportunity wasoffered by the Red Man 
 to the Wh^te two centuries ago but w.as rejected, though 
 advancing years proved their merit. But too late was dis- 
 covered theerror. Our many unfortunate ipisunderstandings 
 and contests with the ancient and modern Native Americans of 
 this continent are as fertile as any of similar character that 
 have afflicted man-kind; while many characters and scenes 
 have been brought upon the theatreby thesanguinehandof war 
 which history Ijas not recorded. Many of such have been 
 obtained ^nd are recorded in this book; as it was my fate 
 (whether good or bad, fortunate or unfortunate yet without 
 cause for regret) to be born and reared among the Choc- 
 taws; and having spent the bright morn of life to man-hood 
 among that excellent people and sister-tribe, the Chickasaws, 
 as well as my long and well known friendship and admiration 
 entertained for them and their entire i-acej have influencecf 
 them to give me a hearing (not boasting but unvarnished 
 truth) upon any and all subjects above that which generally 
 falls to the lot of the White Man to obtain. 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF THIS CONTINENT. IT'S RE- 
 SULTS TO THE NATIVES. 
 
 In the year 1470, there lived in Lisbon, a town in Portu- 
 gal, a man by the name of Christopher Columbus, who there 
 married Dona Felipa, the daughter of Bartolome oMonis de 
 Palestrello, an Italian (then deceased), who had arisen to 
 great celebrity as a navigator. Dona Felipa was the idol of 
 her doting father, and often accompanied him in his many 
 voyages, in which she soon equally shared with him his love 
 of adventure, and thus became to him a treasure indeed not 
 only as a companion but as a helper; for she drew his maps 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 13 
 
 and g-eographical charts, and also wrote, at his dictation, his 
 journals concerning: his voyages. Shortly after themarriag-e 
 of Columbus and Felipa at Lisbon, they moved to the island 
 of Porto Santo which her father had colbnized Snd was gov- 
 ernor at the time Of his death, and settled on a larg-e landed 
 estate which belonged to Palestrello, and which he had be- 
 queathed to Felipa together with all his journals and papers. 
 In that home of retirement and peace the young husband \and 
 wife lived in connubial bliss for many years. How could it 
 be otherwise, since each had found in the other a Congenial 
 spirit, full of adventurous exploratidns, but which all others 
 regarded as visionary follies^ They read together and talked 
 over the, journals' and papers Of Bartolomeo, during whiqh 
 Felipa also entertained Columbus with accounts of her own 
 voyages with her father, togethei* with his Opinions and those 
 of other navigators of that age — his friends and companions 
 — of a possible country that might be discovered in the dis- 
 tant West, and jthe future fame of the fortunate discoverer. 
 Thus they reaaj' studied, thought and talked together con- 
 cerning that which' they believed the futur*! would prove a 
 reality, but of which no other had a thought. This opinion 
 had found a permanent lodgment in the mind of Columbus 
 and awakened an enthusiasm therein never experienced be- 
 fore in the breast of man upon a like subject, and which 
 aroused him to that energy of determination which rebuked 
 all fear and i-ecognized no thought Of failure. But alas, the 
 noble Felipa, who alone had stood by him in their mutual 
 opinions and shared with him the storm of thoughtless ridi- 
 cule, lived not to learn of the fulfiUme^nt of their hopes, and- 
 the undying fame of her adored husband, even as he lived not 
 to learn the extent of his discovery. But alas, for human 
 justice and consistency. Instead of naming the "New 
 World" in honor of his equally meritorious wife, the heroic 
 Dona Felipa, or in honor of both, it was wrested from them 
 by one Amerigo Vespucci, a pilot on a vessel of an obscure 
 navigator named Hojeda, and the world acquiesced in the 
 robbpry. But such are its rewards! ' 
 
 But more than four-hundred years have been numbered 
 with the ages of the past, since a little fleet of three ships', 
 respectively named Santa Maria^ Pinta and Nina, under the 
 command of Christopher Columbus, were nearing the coast of 
 that country that lay in its primitive grandeur and loveliness, 
 even as when pronounced "good" by its Divine Creator, 
 beyond the unknown waters that stretched away in the 
 illimitable distance to the West where sky and sea, though 
 ever receding, seemed still to meet in loving embrace, but 
 whose existence was first in the contemplations of Columbus 
 
( 
 
 14 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 and Felipa.and its reality, first in the knowledge of Columbus. 
 At 10 o'clock, p. m., as it is recorded, Columbus discovered 
 the feeble glimmerings of a distant light, to which he at 
 once directed the attention of Pedrq Gutierrez, who also saw 
 it. On the next day, at 2 a. m., the distant boom of a gun 
 was heard rolling along on the smooth Surface of the tranquil 
 waters, the first that ever broke the : solitude of the night 
 in those, unknown region^ of the deep. It came from 
 the Pinta, and bore the joyful .intelligence that land 
 was found. But how little did these daring adventurers 
 imagine the magnitude of their discovery; or that that mid- 
 night signal also heralded the extermination of old notions 
 and the birth of new; the prelude to war and bloodshed with 
 a people whose types were unknown to the civilized world I 
 For man was there — man in his primitive state. Fiercely 
 energetic, yet never demonstrative or openly expressing his 
 emotions; uncultured, yet slow and deliberate in his speech; 
 congenial, yet ever exhibiting a reserve and diffidence among 
 strangers; hospitable, yet knowing his rights, knew no fear 
 in maintaining them; trusting, yet welcomed death rather 
 than endure wrong. Yet, in most of his characteristics and 
 peculiarities seemingly to have a foreign origin from the 
 known races of mankind; still indisputably of the human 
 race — he, too, was man; though with no regular or consistent 
 ideas of the Peity, religion or civil government, yet possessing 
 correct views of a diiitinction between right and vyrong, on 
 which were founded very correct maxims or codes of moral- 
 ity; but whose penal code was a definite and fixed rule of 
 personal retaliation — "An eye, for an eye and a tooth for a 
 tooth;" thus they were gliding smoothly along on tl^e tide of 
 time, nor had a troubled wave ever risen to disturb the tran- 
 quility of their voyage, or shadows darkened their sky, and 
 to whom the past had been so bright that the future held 
 only fair promises for them. But, alas, how little did they 
 realize how dark a future was in store for them! That mid- 
 night gun, as it momentarily flashed upon the deck of the 
 Pinta and then sent its welcomed boom to the listening ears 
 and watching eyes upon the decks of the Santa Maria and 
 Nina proclaiming that their languishing hopes were realized 
 and their declining expectations verified, was also the death 
 signal, first to the distant Peruvians by the hand of Pizarro ; 
 next, to the Aztecs by the hand of Cortez; then last, but not 
 least, to the North American Indians by the hand of De 
 Soto — as an introduction of what would be — but the Old died 
 hard to make way for the New. 
 
 Once the dominant power of this continent; but alas, 
 through unequal wars; through altered circumstances, 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. IS 
 
 through usurpation and frauds; tlirotlgh oppressions and 
 trials; througph misfortunes and hardships, sorrows and suf- 
 ferings, of which 'none can know but themselves,, they have 
 been* coerced by arbitrary power exerted, through treaty and 
 cessions by open-handed tyranny and wrong, tp surrender 
 their country, their all, to makeway for white civilization and 
 that liberty that only seemed to prosper and rejoice in pro- 
 portion to the destruction of their own; while they long but 
 vainly looked for the expected day wien, tbe "VVhite Man's 
 avarice would be satiated., and. then ,the red and white races 
 could walk together in barmony and ipeace each aiding the 
 other in the development of the resources of their respective 
 portions of the vast continent/ that lay between them, extend- 
 , ihg from ocean to ocean, to the mutual .advantages of each in 
 the noble and humane endeavors to attain the chief end of 
 man — the glory of God and the enjoymeht of,Him in this world 
 and the one to come — but the White Race would not. , , ' 
 
 But whience the origin of this, peculiarly interesting and 
 wonderful people? From what nation of people descended? 
 Whence and at what date, how and by what route came they 
 to this continent? Language has contributed its mite and the 
 archaeologist handed in his little, concerning the infancy of 
 this peculiar people, yet the veil of niystery still hangs around 
 them sh'utting out all kriowiege of the primitive past. ' Who 
 shall rend the veil and tell whence they came to possess this 
 continent in that distant long-ago before the dawn of history's 
 morn? Alas, even the feeble glimmerings of vague traditions 
 have not furnished a ray of light to penetrate the darkness of 
 the long night that enshrouds their origin. . It is a s,ealed 
 book. , 
 
 Such has been for two centuries past, and still is, the 
 long drawn and doleful wail concerning the North American 
 Indians' primitive land; romantic in affording an unlimited; 
 field over which the wild, dreamy speculations oJf the imagina- 
 tive minds, of which the present age is so prolific in every- 
 thing read or heard about the Red Race, may find abundant 
 space to indulge in their visionary delights^ unrestrained, un- 
 disturbed, undismayed; the alpha and the omega of their 
 knowledge of the North American Indian race in toto; since 
 the causes that induced them to forsake and how they drifted 
 froili the shores of the eastern to the western cofitinent,' are 
 today treasured in their ancient traditions still remembered 
 by the few remaining of their aged and also written upon a 
 few wampum —the archives of their historic past — that has 
 escaped the white vandals' devilish delight in destroying all 
 that is Indian, now forever buried in that night of darkness 
 which precedes their known histoiry. 
 
t 
 
 16 HISTOKY OF THH INDIANS. 
 
 But to those who knew them in their native freedom, when 
 uncontaminated by the demoralizing influences of unprincip- 
 led whites, they were truly a peculiar and ioteresting people 
 whose external habits, ^trange opinions, peculiar dispositions 
 and customs, seemed to belong alone to themselves and to 
 distinguish them from all known people of the human race; 
 yet, wholly susceptible to as high moral and intellectual im- 
 provements a* any other race of man-kind; while their distinct 
 identity with the human race is a fact which has never yet 
 been successfully disproved. Though severed by climate, 
 language' and a thousand external conditions, there is still 
 one deep underlying identity, which makes all man-kind 
 brothers; an instructive and interesting subject worthy 
 the attention and consideration of all man-kind. It is 
 neither new nor novel but is as ancient as the creation of 
 Adam and Eve. 
 
 Though the; Indians were without letters, chronology, or 
 any thing by which correctly to denote their dynasties but 
 that which may be inferred from their monumental remains, 
 yet there is much in their recitals of ancient epochs to give 
 great consistency to their legends and traditions, and fully 
 sufficient to reunite the assumed broken link in the chain of 
 their history, which, in the ages of^the past, connected them 
 with the Old World; and their history, antiquities and mytho- 
 logy are still preserved by many striking allegories, here 
 and there, or in wild yet consistent romance. And we can 
 but admit that there are many evident truths which we must 
 acknowledge; for when viewed by the light of facts, we see 
 in the North American Indians a peculiar variety of the 
 human race with traits of character plainly oriental, but 
 who long since have been lost to all ancient and modern 
 history. 
 
 But the time and manner of their migration to the 
 western continent, as before stated, are wrapt in impenetra- 
 ble mystery. Those who have studied the physiology, lan- 
 guage, antiquities, and traditions of this peculiar people, 
 have alike concluded that their migration to this continent, 
 judging from the ancient ruins found, probably extends 
 back to within five hundred years of the building of Babylon. 
 Dating from the discovery of Columbus, the western con- 
 tinent has been known to the European world upwards .of 
 four hundred years; yet it is now generally conceded (if not 
 universally admitted) that the Scandinavians (or Northmen) 
 discovered it long before Columbus, and had sailed along the 
 Atlantic coast from Greenland early in the 10th century. 
 Those ancient and daring sea-rovers of Norway, who ventured 
 upon the pathless ocean without chart or compass <riii<lc(l 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. It 
 
 alone by the planetary worlds above, discovered Iceland in the 
 year 850, upon which they established a settlement; and in 
 the following century, stumbled upon the bleak and inhospi- , 
 table shores of Greenland upon which was also founded a 
 colony. But it has been awarded to Leif, the son of Eric the 
 Red, as the first discoverer of the North American continent 
 in the 10th century. He named the ne;w .country (now 
 believed tc» be the coast of Massachusetts) 'V'inland, or Vine- 
 land, from the abundance of wild grapes, that were there 
 found . It is Said the records of this expedition state: "And 
 when spring came they sailed away, and Leif gave to the l^and 
 a name after its sort, and called it Vinland. They sailed 
 then until they reached Greenland; and ever afterward, Jjcii 
 was called 'Leif the Lucky." , , 
 
 The traditions of the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creek, 
 Cherokees, Seminoles, Delawares, Shawnese, as learned by 
 the early missionaries, and, in fact, of all the tribes who 
 formerly dwelt east of the Mississippi River,, state that the 
 White Race cdme to this continent from the East, but that 
 their fore-fathers came from the North West. 
 
 It is also said, that a Mexican historian makes, a. new 
 attempt to show that America was discovered , in the fifth 
 century, A. D., by a party of Buddhist monks from Afghanis- 
 tan, of whom one, Hwai Shan, returned to Asia after' an 
 absence of forty one years. A short account of the land 
 which he visited, supposed to be Mexico, was included in the 
 official history of China. It is said, there is, proof that Hwai 
 Shan actually visited some unknown eastern.j?||gions, and the 
 traditions of Mexico contain an account 6f the arrival of 
 monks. But whenever seen or found, whether in the fifth, 
 tenth, fifteenth, or eighteenth centuries, the North Amei-ican 
 Indians have possessed nearly all the leading traits that they 
 now possess. And all admit, that of all the races of man- 
 kind upon earth that wandered from the native countries and 
 have been thrown back into intellectual darkness, the North 
 American Indians , have undergone the least change, preserv- 
 ing their physical and mental type nearly the same, seemingly " 
 as if bound by the irresistible power of an unchanging 
 decree; and who, in their unvarying individualit;jr and univer- 
 sal idiosyncracy, point back to no known race of the human 
 family except the Jews. When regarded as a whole, they 
 appear to have been composed of fragments of different 
 tribes of the races of man, yet having a general affinity to , 
 each other, and, with Here and there an exception, appearing 
 to be parts of a whol?. The majority of their languages are 
 evidently derivative, and of a style of synthesis inore ancient 
 
18 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 than those even of Greece and Rome, but exhibiting- no 
 analogies to those of northern and western Europe. 
 
 Though Bancroft affirms "that their ancestors were, 
 like themselves, not yet disenthralled from nature," yet the 
 traditions of many of the tribes pointed back to an era in the 
 distant past in which they lived in a better an^ happier con- 
 dition, but that was all, nor have ever the fragmentary 
 writings of the ancients thrown any light upon their history. 
 The Nilotic inscriptions, the oldest known, are alike silent 
 concerning them, but that they ipay be still more ancient, 
 their language, strange idiosyncracies, and all that render 
 them so peculiar and seemingly different from all the known 
 human race, evidently denote and sustain the probability, if 
 nothing nore. Be this as it may, all evidence, yet obtained 
 proves them to be of very ancient origifa; and no known book 
 goes far enough back into the past to date the period of their 
 origin, unless it be the Sacred Scriptures. If we refer to 
 them a proto-type may possibly be traced in the Eberites, a 
 branch of the house of Almodad, the son of Joktan, of whom 
 it is said, during all periods of their history, that they were 
 reckless, heedless, impatient of restraint or reproof. Yet, 
 this but adds tQ thp affirmation, that history will ever vainly 
 inquire, "whence, their origin." I 
 
 But that many of their traditions were based on) facts is 
 unquestionably true. Many tribes possess traditions of the 
 first appearance oif the White Race among them. The 
 Mohicans and Lenni,Lenapes have a tradition of the voyage, 
 in 1609, of the great navigator and explorer, Hudson, up the 
 river now bearing h'is namle. ^Cartier's visit to the St. Law- 
 rence in 1534, is remembered by tradition among the 
 Algonquins, who still call the French, "People of the Wooden 
 vessel." The Chippewas declared (1824) according to their 
 traditions that seven generations of people had lived and died 
 since the French first sailed upon the Lakes. Taking 1608 
 as the year of the settlement of Canada by the French, and 
 allow thirty years to a generation, the accui-acy of their 
 traditibn is certainly praiseworthy, to say the least of it. 
 That their ancestors came from the Eastern continent there 
 are many traditional evidences that se^pi founded on truth. 
 In Sir Alexander Mackenzie's travels among the "most 
 northern tribes, he says the Chippewas had a tradition that 
 they originally came from another country, which was 
 inhabited by a very wicked people, that in their travels they 
 suffered greatly 'in passing over a gr'eat lake, which was 
 always frozen and covered with snow. McKenzie, page 387, 
 says: "Their progress (the great Athapasca family) was 
 easterly, and according to to their own tradition, they came 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 19 
 
 from Siberia ; agreeing in dress and malnners with the people 
 now found upon the coast of Asia." John Johnston, for 
 many years an agent aindng the Shawnees, an Algonquin 
 tribe, states that these Indians had a .tradition of a foreign 
 origin. In a letter of July 7th, 1819, ' (American Archaeolo- 
 gist, p, 273) he says: "The people of this nation have a 
 tradition that their ancestors crossed the sea ; arid that they 
 migrated from Florida to Ohio and Indiana;" where they 
 were located at the time of his ageiicy among them. "They 
 were the only tribe," he writes, "with which I am acquainted, 
 who admit a foreign origin." The Cherokees also admit it. 
 Oconostata, or the Big warrior, chief of the ancient Chfero- 
 kees, claimed that his people's ancestors came from Asia, 
 landing far to the north-west / of this continent; thence to 
 Mexico ; thence to this country. ■■ (Milfort, pi 269.) Johnston 
 further states respecting the Shawnees, "Until lately, they 
 kept yearly sacrifices for their safe arrival in this country. 
 Whence they came, or at what period they arrived in 
 America, they do not know. It is a prevailing opinion among 
 theln, that Florida had been inhabited by white people, who 
 had the use of iron tools* Blackhoof, a celebrated chief, 
 affirriis that he has often heard it spoken of by old people, 
 that stumps of trees, covered with earth, were frequently 
 found, which had been cut down with edged tools." But 
 this, no doubt, was the work of De Soto and his army in 1541. 
 Many attribute to the Indians a Jewish origin, and not 
 without some seemingly plausible reason. Jam6s Adair, a 
 man, it is recorded^ of fine erudition, and; who lived more 
 than thirty' years among the ancestors of the present 
 Chickasaws, and was often among the ancient .Choctaws, 
 Cherokees and Muscogees, and thus became familiar with 
 the customs and habits of these Southern Indians. Tradition 
 states that Adair commenced living among the Chickasaws 
 in 1844. He wrote and published a work, "The American 
 Indians," in 1775. He was well versed in the Hebrew 
 language, and in his long residence with the Indians acquired 
 an accurate knowledge of their tongue, and he devoted the 
 larger portion of his work to prove that the Indians were 
 originally Hebrews, and were a portion oi the lost tribes of 
 Israel. He asserts that at the "Boos-Ketous" (the ceremony 
 of initiating youth to manhood) "among the .ancient Musco- 
 gees and other tribes, the warriors danced around the holy- 
 fire, during which the elder priest invoked the Great Spirit, 
 while they responded Halelul Halelu I then Haleluiah! 
 Haleluiahl" He based his belief that they were originally 
 Jews, upon their, division into tribes, worship of Jehovah, 
 notions of theocracy, belief in the ministi-ations of angels, 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 language and dialects, mJnner of computing time, their 
 
 Prophets and High Priests, festivals, fasts and religious 
 
 rites, daily sacrifices, ablutions and anointings, laws of 
 
 uncleanlinless, abstinence from unclean things, marriages, 
 
 divorces, and punishments for adultery, other punishments, 
 
 their towns of refuge, purification and ceremony preparatory 
 
 to war, their ornaments, manner of curing the sick, burial 
 
 of the dead, mourning for the dead, choice of names adapted 
 
 to their circumstances and times, their, own traditions, and 
 
 the accounts of our English writers, an<i the testimony which 
 
 the Spanish and- other authors have given concerning the 
 
 primitive inhabitants of Peru and Mexico. He insists that 
 
 m nothing do they differ from the Jews except in the rite of 
 
 circumcision. The difference in food, mode of livihg and 
 
 climate are relied on by Adair, to account for the difference 
 
 in the color, between the Jew and the Indian. Abram 
 
 Mordecai, an intelligent Jew, who dwelt fifty years in the 
 
 the ancient Creek nation, confidently believed that the 
 
 Indians were originally of his people, and he asserted that in 
 
 their Green Corji Dances he had heard them often utter in 
 
 graceful tones, the word Yavoyaha! Yavoyaha! He was 
 
 always informed by the Indians that this meant Jehovah, or 
 
 the Great Spirit, and that they were then returjiing thanks 
 
 for the abundant harvest with which they were blest. 
 
 I often heard the Choctaws, when engaged in their 
 ancient dances at their former homes east of the Mississippi 
 River, utter in concert and in solemn tone of voice Yar-vo-hah, 
 Yar-vo-yar-hahl and vi^hen asked its signification, replied : 
 "It is the name of the Great Spirit we worship." According 
 to an ancient tradition of the Choctaws, as before stated, the 
 ancient Choctaws, Chickasaws and Muscogees (now Creeks) 
 were once the same people, and today the Creeks have many 
 pure Choctaw words in their language. 
 
 Other writers, who have lived amoi^ the ancient Indians, 
 are of the same opinion with Adair and Abram Mordecai, 
 forming this conclusion solely on the fact that many of the 
 religious rites and ceremonies of the various tribes they 
 regarded as truly Jewish, to that extent as to induce them 
 to believe that the North American Indians are originally 
 from the Jews. 
 
 Even the renowned Quaker, Wm. Penn, in expressing 
 his views upon this subject, says: "For the original, I am 
 ready to believe them the Jewish race, I mean of the stock of 
 the ten tribes, and that for the following reasons: 
 
 "First. They were to go to a land not planted or known 
 which, to be sure, Asia and Africa were, if not Europe, and 
 He that intended that extraordinary judgment upon them 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 21 
 
 might make the passage not uneasy to them, and it is not im- 
 possible in itself, from the easternmost part of Asia to the 
 westernmost part of America. In the next place, I find^hem 
 of like countenance, and their children of so lively resemb- 
 laiice that a man would think himself in Uuke's place or 
 Berry street in London, when he seeth them. But this is not 
 all. They agree in rites; they reckon by moOns; they offer 
 their first fruits; they have a kind of feaSt of tabernacles; they 
 are said to lay their altar upon twelve stones; theirmourning 
 a year; customs of women; with many other things." 
 
 There was a belief among many of the ancient tribes of 
 the North American Indians, that their earliest ancestors 
 were created within or at least once lived within, the interior 
 of the earth: The Lenni Lenape, now known as the Delaware 
 Indians, "considered," says Heckewelder, in his "M^taners 
 and Customs of the Indians," page 249, "the earth as their 
 universal mother. They believed that they were created 
 within its bosom, where for a long time they had^ their abode 
 before they came to live 6n its surface. But as to the form 
 under which they lived in the interior of the earth, their 
 mythologists differ. Some assert that they lived there in 
 human shape, while others, with much more consistencjr, 
 declare that their existence was in the form of certam 
 terrestrial anjmals, such as the ground-hog, rabbit and the 
 tortoise." Similar views respecting their origin were held 
 by the Iroquois. Q^'he Rev. Christopher' Pyrloeus, who 
 formerly lived among the Iroquois and spoke their language, 
 was told, (according to .Heckewelder) by a respectable 
 Mohawk chief, a tradition of the Iroquois which was as 
 follows: That they had dwelt in the earth when it was dark 
 and where no sun ever shone. That, though they engaged 
 in hunting for a living, they ate mice. That: one of their 
 tribe called Ganawayahhah having accidentally found i hole 
 at which to get out of the earth, went out, and after look- 
 ing around a while saw a deer, which he killed and took back 
 with him to his home in the earth, and that, ■ on account both 
 of the flesh of the deer proving such excellent food, and the 
 favorable description he gave of the appearances above, they 
 concluded it best to change tiieir homes from the inside to 
 the outside of the earth, and accordingly did so, and im- 
 mediately engaged in raising corn, beans, etc." Hecke- 
 welder does not state whether these traditions of the Lenni 
 Lenape and Iroquois were associated by them with any 
 particular localities. However, the place of origin was 
 generally located in some suitable spot Y'ithin the territory 
 of the tribes, and which was regarded with much veneration 
 by all. "We are told by Cussac, a later authority for the, Iro- 
 
22 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 qois tradition," says Schoolcraft (in his Indian Tribes, part 
 5, page 636) "that the place at which the first small band of 
 Indians was believe to have issued fl-om the earth was a 
 certain eminence near the Oswego Falls. Also, (jjart 5, p. 
 682) "that the Caddos, lonies, and Amaudakas believe that 
 their original ancestors came out of thie Hot Springs of Ark- 
 ansas." Mercy, in his Exploration of the Red River, p. 6 J, 
 states that the Wichitas, on the Red River, believed that 
 their fore-fathers came out of the mountains which bear 
 their name. Jones, in his Traditions of the NoEth American 
 Indians, v. 3. p. 187, says: The Minetories, on the Upper 
 Missouri, pointed out two hills as marking the spot of of the 
 tribe's origin. Side by side with these of the "earth born' 
 ancestry is another group of origin traditions, which i-epre- 
 sent the first of the human race as having their origin in 
 and coming out of some body of water, a river, spring or 
 lake, instead of' the ground. Long, in his expedition to the 
 Rocky Mountains, v. 1. p. 336, said: One branch of the 
 Omahas asserted that their founder arose out of the water, 
 bearing in his hand an ear of red maize, for which reason 
 the red maize was never used by them for food." De Smet, 
 in his Oregon Missions, p. 178, states that, in the country of 
 the Blackfoot tribe there are two lakes; one of them is known 
 as the lake of men, and the other, as the lake of women. 
 Out of the former came the father of the tribe and of the 
 latter, the mother. 
 
 These two traditions of man'sorigin,theone thathe came 
 out of the ground, the other, that he cftme out of the water, 
 have been regarded by some ai distiijct from one another 
 both in origin and meaning; while by others, as identical, and 
 both being, the mutilated interpretations of a myth into 
 which a cave and a body of water enter as prominent and 
 essential features. 
 
 Very similar, says Schoolcraft, in his Indian Traditions, 
 4, pp. 89 and 90, is the tradition of the Navajoes, of New 
 Mexico. According to their tradition as recorded by Dr. 
 Ten Brock, all mankind and all the animals once lived in a 
 gloomy cavern in the heart of the Cerro Naztarny mountains, 
 on the river San Juan. A lucky accidentUed them to suspect 
 that the walls of their prison-house were quite thin, and the 
 raccoon was set to dig a way out. As Ije did not succeed the 
 moth worm took his place and after much hard labor effefcted 
 an opening. But when he reached the outside of the moun- 
 tain, he found all things submerged under the sea, so he 
 threw up a little mound of earth and sat down to ponder on 
 the situation. Presently the water receded in four great 
 rivers and left in their place a mass of soft niud, Four 
 
HISTORY Of THE INDIANS. - 23 
 
 winds arose and dried up the mud and then tjie men and ani- 
 mals came up, occupying- in their passage several days. As 
 yet there was no sun, moon nor stars; so the old men held a 
 council and resolved to manufacture these luminaries. 
 There were among them two flute players, who, while they 
 had dwelt within the mountain, had been wont to enliven them 
 with music; and when the sun and moon were finished, they 
 were given into the charge of these musicians, who have been 
 carrying them ever since. These are the main points of the 
 Navajo legend .as recorded by Dr. Ten Brock. It will be 
 observed that the sea, which is nothing else than the prime- 
 val sea that forms so common a feature in cosmogonies, hplds 
 quite as prominent a place in the story as does the cavern 
 itself, and the two nlight easily become separated in an incom- 
 plete version. Either the cave or the water Might be dropped. 
 In fact, there is anothe^- version of this legend, given by 
 Col. J. A. Eaton, in which there is no mention of a caVe. The 
 Navajoes, according to Eaton's version of the story, came out 
 of the earth in the middle of a certain lake in the valley of 
 Montezuma, at some distance from their, present location. 
 The question which occurs first, upon,[Su'i:veying this ^roup 
 of legends so alike in their general tenQr, is; are they histor- 
 ically connected vvith one another in the sense that they are 
 the fragments of some primeval tale; current among the In- 
 dians at a time when they were less widely scattered over 
 the continent than at present, or have they sprung up at sev- 
 eral centers independently of each other? This question is 
 of great interest to American ethnologists, but one to which, 
 in the present state of our knowledgie respecting the mode of 
 growth and diffusion of popular tales, it would, perhaps, be 
 rash to attempt an answer. It may be said, however, in fa- 
 vor of the former hypothesis that the account of man's ori- 
 gin — at least, however, the story is circumstantially related 
 — is, so far as I have been able to discover, peculiar to Ameri- 
 ca. It is true it has sometimes been classed with those old 
 World legends which represent man as of an earthly nature, 
 either as having been fashioned out of Clfiy by the hand of 
 some Promethean potter, or as having sprung from a seed of 
 stones or of dragon's teeth scattered over the soil, tint a 
 close inspection of any of its detailed versions will show that 
 the story teller has in mind a thought essentially different 
 from those embodied in these classic legends. The first 
 men, according to the Indians' account, did not spring up as 
 vegetable life from the surface of the earth; they came out of' 
 its interior in the human shape and afterward accompanied 
 by the animals of the chase. Indeed, when closely scanned, 
 the story is seen to be, an account, not of man's origin, but 
 
s 
 
 24 HISTOKY OP THE INDIAKS. 
 
 simply of a chang^e in the scene of his existence. Except in 
 a few cases in which we are told that the original men were 
 created by the gods before being brought above ground, we 
 receive no hiht as to how their life be|jan. We are merely 
 told that they came a long time ago out of a cave or 
 out of a lake, within which they have lived from the begin- 
 ning. This is a characteristic feature which I have not met 
 with distinctly portrayed in any legends outside of America. 
 But whether or not these tales have any true kinship with 
 one another , it hardly admits of doubt that they have a com- 
 mon basis, either of facts or of logic, and that they may be 
 regarded as practically, if not actually, different versions of 
 a single original tale. What is this basis, and what is the 
 meaning of the story? This question has often been asked, 
 and has been answered variously. From a number of pro- 
 posed "interpretations," I select two, which seem the 
 most worthy of consideration, as well from their inherent 
 plausibility, as from the names by which they are endorsed. 
 Mr. Herbert Spencer, speaking, in a receqt work, with ex- 
 press reference to the Navajo tradition, of which an outline 
 has been given above, says: "Either the early progenitors 
 of a tribe were dwellers in c^ves or the mountains; or the 
 mountains making most conspicuously the elevated region 
 whence they came is identified with the object whence they 
 sprung."— (Spencer Principles of Sociology, Vol. 1, p. 393.) 
 And again: "Where caves are used for interments, they 
 became the siipposed places of abode for the dead; and 
 hence develops the notion of a subterranean World." — (Ibid, 
 p. 219.) Underlying the tradition of the Delawares and Iro- 
 quois, Heckewelder saw an admirable philosophical meaning 
 — a curious analogy between the generjil and the individual 
 creation. This view has been adopted by Dr. D. G. Brinton 
 who presents it as follow: "Out of the earth rises life, to it 
 all returns. She it is who guards all germs, nourishes all 
 beings. The Aztecs painted her a woman with countless 
 breasts; the Peruvians called her Mama Alpha, mother 
 earth; in the Algonqujn tongue thi word for earth, mother, 
 father, are from the same root Home, Adam, Chomaigenes, 
 what do all these words mean but earth— born, the son of the 
 soil, repeated in the poetic language of Attica in anthropos, 
 he who springs up like— a flower? As in Oriental legends 
 the origin of mail from the earth was veiled under the story 
 that he was the progeny of some mountain fecundated by the 
 embrace of Mithras or Jupiter, so the Indians often pointed 
 to some height or some cavern, as the spot whence the first 
 men issued, adult and armed from womb of All— mother 
 earth . This cavern, which th us dimly lingered in the mem- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS 35 
 
 ory of nations, occasionally Expanded to a mother-world, 
 imagined to underlie this of ours, and still inhabited by be- 
 ings of our kind, who have never been lucky enough to dis- 
 'Cover its exit. Such tales of an under-world are very fre- 
 quent among- the Indians, and are a very natural dut-growth 
 of the literal belief that the race is earth-born. "-^(The 
 Myths of the New World, 2nd. ed., pp. 238 to 245.) The fol- 
 lowing is the version given by Lewis and Clark of the tradi- 
 tion of the Mandans, on the uppSr Mississippi: 
 
 ','The whole nation resided in one large village under- 
 g-round near a subterraneous lake. A grapevine extended 
 its roots down to their habitation and give them a view of the 
 light. Some of the most adventurous climbed up the vine, 
 and were delighted with the sight of the earth, which they 
 found covered with buffalo, and rich with every kind of fruit. 
 Returning with the grapes they had gathered, their country 
 men were so pleased with the ta^te of' them; that the whole 
 nation resolved to leave their dull residerice for the charms 
 of the upper region. Men, women and children ascended by 
 means of the vine; and when about half the nation had 
 reached the surface of the eai'ih, a corpuleiit vv^bman, who 
 was clambering up th'ei vine, broke it with her weight jand 
 closed upon herself and the rest of the natibh the light or the 
 sun. ' ■ ■ ' •:U '.. ''-1 '■'■■■' ■ ■ -" ■ ■ ' 
 
 When the Mandans die, they expect to return to the 
 original seats of their forefathers, the good reaching the 
 ancient village by means of the lake, which' the burden of 
 sins of the wicked will not enable them to pass. ' W^e might 
 conjecture Upon general grounds thai the' idea of an under- 
 world found among the Maiidalis, and many other American 
 tribes sprang from ^he^ame sort of reasoning' as has evi- 
 dently given rise to it among other nations. " ' '■'■'■ 
 
 Prince Maximilian of New Wied, who visited the Man- 
 dans subsequently to Lewis and Clark, and learned addit- 
 ional particulars respecting their belief in an under-ground 
 origin tells us that the Mandansj like so many other nations, 
 supposed the world to be divided into' stages and stories. 
 These were eight in number, four of them were aftove the 
 earth, and four below, the earth itself forming the fourth 
 stage from the bottom. (Maximilian, Travels in North 
 America, London ed. p. 336.) There seems, therefore, to 
 be very little room for doubt as to the original character of 
 the cave of the Mandan legend. Among the Navajoes we 
 obtain equally satisfactory evidence touching the original of 
 this legendary cave. Dr Ten Brock tells us that he often 
 conversed with the Navajoes on the subject of their beliefs, 
 and he gives us, among other particulars, this very impor- 
 
26 raSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 tant item: "The old men say that the world (i. e. the earth) 
 is, as it were, suspended, and that when the sun disappears 
 in the evening, he passes under and lig-hts up our former 
 place of abode, until he again reappears at morning in the 
 east. There can be no question as to the location and the 
 real character of the cave into which the sun descends at 
 evening, and from which at morning he comes forth. Under 
 one disguise or another, this cavern occurs in legends the 
 world over. It is the cave which the Polynesian Majii 
 descends to visit his deserting mother, and into which 
 Orpheus descends in search of Eurydiee; it is the Latinian 
 cave, in which Selene, the Moon, wooes Endymion, the 
 Setting Sun. Nor need we be disconcerted because the 
 Navajoes have located it within a particular mountain. " It 
 would seem that these Indian legends have been handed 
 down by tradition through cycles of ages, founded upon the 
 declaration of the Bible, that man is a child of the soil— that 
 he ia earth born. Professor Campbell, of the Presbyterian 
 College, Montreal, believes that he has found the key to the 
 Hittite inscriptions, and has sent the result of his investiga- 
 tions to the Society of Biblical Archaeology. The most 
 striking and important feature of this work is the identity 
 established by Professor Campbell, as he believes, between 
 the Aztecs and the Hittites. He concludes a statement of 
 ■his discovery in the "Montreal Witness" as follows: "It is 
 interesting to know that we have on this continent the re- 
 mains of a people who played a great part in ancient history. 
 It is also' gratifying to learn that by the establishment of the 
 Hittite origin of the Aztecs, evolutionism in philology and 
 ethnology will receive its death blow." ' 
 
 There is a clan of Choctaws now living among the 
 Creeks in the Creek Nation, who did not move in 1832 with 
 the Choctaws east of the Mississippi River until the exodus 
 of the Creeks and then canie with them to the present Creek 
 nation where they have remained to this day. They were 
 known when living east of the Mississippi River as the 
 Hitchiti or Hichitichi dan, both words (as given above) are 
 corruptions of the two Choctaw words Hish-i (hair) It-ih 
 (mouth.) 
 
 Now if the Aztecs be of Hittite origin, and the Choctaws 
 of Aztec origin, of which there is grea| probability (if their 
 ancient traditions may be relied on) may not the Choctaw 
 words Hishi Itih, the name of one of their ancient Iksas 
 (clans) be itself a corruption of the word Hittite, and point- 
 ing back to their ancient origin in the eastern world? 
 
 A few of the Iksas of the Choctaws, at the advent of the 
 missionaries in 1818-20, qlaimed the earth to be their mother, 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' ■ 27 
 
 and connected a tradition Of their origin with a certain 
 artifical mound erected by their ancestors as a memorial of 
 their arrival in Mississippi from the West (Mexico) of which 
 I will more definitely speak elsewhere. 
 
 But thoug'h the remote history of this peculiar people is 
 forever hidden in the darkness of by-gone ag-es, yet they had 
 a true history, which, if only known, would have presented 
 as many interesting and romantic features, as that of any 
 of the races of mankind. Truly, would /there not be found 
 riiuch in tjiat distant peHod of their existence that precedes 
 their introduction to the White Race, which, when placed in 
 contrast to their now seemingly inevitable destiny (extermi- 
 nation) would loudly appeal to the hea.rts of the philanthro- 
 pists and Christians of these United States. A.ii<i even after 
 their introduction to the Whites, had they possessed the 
 same desire to learn their history,, and also to elevate them 
 in the scale of intelligence and morality,, as they did in get- 
 ting possession of their country aind destroying them, in 
 what a different condition would that , race of people be to- 
 day, arid what interesting and ins trnctivp narratives would 
 have been given to the world? What interesting narratives 
 could have been written even of the Natchez, in the days of 
 their prosperity and. power— those worshippers of the sun 
 with Eastern rites ! What too, of the Grecian fignres, the 
 letters and the hieroglyphics, which have been found reprci 
 sented on the earthen pottery of so many tribes of this pe- 
 culiar people's work — a people which might have been better 
 understood and more comprehended, but for shameful mis- 
 representation and calumnious falsehood I What, also, of 
 the once powerful Choctaw; the invincible Chickasaw; the 
 intrepid Muscogee arid the peerless Seminole, when in the 
 pride and strength of their respective nationalities ! But it 
 is to be greatly, regf etted that, of that history nothing will 
 ever be learned — not even its alphabet, as the mists of ages 
 have drawn their impenetrable curtain over all; and though 
 the remote past has been questioned, still no response ever 
 comes, except through the vague and unsatisfactory evi- 
 dence of an ancient people,. long antedating aU historical in- 
 formation. But tribe after tribe have appeared upon the 
 theater of life, acted their part in its drama, and then passed 
 off into the silence of forgetfulness; and their ancient do- 
 mains have passed from the hands oi their long line of 
 descendants into those of stranger of whom they never knew 
 or even heard; and who have left behind no memorials but 
 embankments of earth in the form of mounds and fortifica- 
 tions, separate and in combination, scattered all over the land 
 ii numbers and magnitude that awaken and excUe the curi- 
 
28 HISTOKY OF THK INDIANS. 
 
 osity of the beholder, but fail to satisfy; yet g^iving numer- 
 ous and satisfactory evidences of the foot-prints of a long 
 vanished people and the prolonp^ed occupancy of the North 
 American continent by the Indian riece wfiose few and feeble 
 descendants still linger upon the stage of life, as the wretched 
 and miserable words of oppression and cruelty — a living, 
 breathing allegory of poverty and want; since, by the law of 
 forcewe extended our possessions and made the irrestiveness 
 our excuse for conquering them, and then plundering them 
 of their lands and homes, and as each territory was added, a 
 new tribe was encountered; and its fears and res iveness in 
 like manner taken advantage of as our avarice dictated that it 
 could be made profitable to our pecuniary interests. And 
 that we may alike bury the remaining few in the grave of ig- 
 nominy, every thing that is spoken, written, or published, 
 concerning that now conquered, oppressed, impoverished, 
 hopeless and unhappy people, is but a reiterated and pro- 
 longed mass of exaggerations, misrepresentations and false- 
 hoods, sent broadcast over the land by government officials, 
 landed experts, and, in fact, every other kind of unprincipled 
 white skins; from constable to congressmen, and from land- 
 sharks to governors, who ride across the Indians' country 
 on railroads and gather their "wisdom" upon Indian matters 
 from the car windows, or a moments chat upon the platforms 
 with the white scums which infest every depot in their coun- 
 try — thus keeping the Indian between the devil and his imps 
 — then return each to his retreat, there to disgorge their 
 foul souls of the putrid mass. 
 
 Yet, that this noble but wrongfully abused people, to 
 whom Christopher Columbus gave the name Indian, from* 
 their fancied resemblance to the people of India, but whose 
 habits, customs and characteristics diifered so widely that 
 it may be truthfully affirmed, that no people could be more 
 dissimilar, are one of the primitive races of man-kind, cannot 
 be questioned; though it is admitted by all who are truly 
 acquainted with them, that among all the races of man-kind, 
 few have exhibited a greater diversity, or, if it may be so 
 expressed, greater antithesis of character, than the native 
 North American Indian warrior before humiliated by the 
 merciless hands of his white conquerors. The office of the 
 chief was not hereditary, but depended upon the confidence 
 entertained in him by his warriors. His power also de- 
 pended upon his personal merit and the confidence reposed 
 in him as a skillful war-leader. His prerogative consisted in 
 conducting negotiations of peace apd war; in leading his 
 warriors against the enemies of their country, in selecting 
 the place of encampment, and in receiving and entertaining 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 29 
 
 Strangers of note. Yet, even in those he was conti'oUed to a 
 great extent by the views and inclinations of his warriors. 
 The Indian warrior was indeed well fitted for the destiny to 
 which nature seemingly had adapted hiin. He was light in 
 form, yet sinewy and active, and unsurpassed in the endur- 
 ance of proti-acted fatigue and hardship; strictly temperate 
 even to abstemiousness requiring but little food when upon 
 the war-path, and that of the simplest kind. He was en- 
 dowed with a penetrating sagacity, subtle wit, quick con- 
 ception, and brilliant imagination, with quick and acute 
 sensibilities; a proud and fearless spirit was stamped upon 
 his face arid flashed from his black and piercing eye; easily 
 aroused by the appeals, of eloquence; his language, whose 
 words might well be compared to gems and flowers made him 
 truly nature's orator; and though a restless warrior, yet, he 
 was generous and hospitable, and the door of his cabin was 
 always open to the wayfarer; and his most inveterate enemy, 
 having broken bread with him, could repose , iinharmed 
 beneath the inviolable sanctity of his home. In war he was 
 daring, cunning, reckless, self-denying, and self-devoted; in 
 peace, strictly just, generous, proverbially hospitable to 
 strangers as well as acquaintances, modest, revengeful, 
 superstitious, and truthful to the greatest degree — ever faith- 
 ful to the last to his promised word. Justly could the North 
 Amei-ican Indian claim as having no lineal descendant of 
 Ananias and Sapphira among his race. 
 
 Such were some of the traits of this peculiar people. 
 And even to day many tribes are the same as they were 
 centuries ago, still clinging to their ancient habits and 
 customs and adhering to the belief of their ancient theories, 
 seeing and recognizing alone their Great Spirit both in 
 animate and inanimate nature, And why? Because, in so 
 few instsnces, have the renovating principles of the Bible 
 been presented to them as they should'and could have been. 
 
 True the arts of civilization as possessed by ns were 
 unknown by the Indians prior to the discovery of the conti- 
 nent by the White Race, still its seemingly illimitable forests 
 were alive with a free, independent and happy people, a war- 
 like race, j^lous of their rights; and its shades and glens 
 rang with the wild hoyopa-tussaha (Choctaw-warcry), and 
 the echoes of its hills and mountains threw^ back the defiant 
 shout of many a gallant warrior, as he hui;;ied along the war- 
 path in the noon-tide of his joyous man-hood, but soon to 
 slumber in the long night of oblivion, as the fatal result of 
 his unrestrained zeal; while the more experienced veteran 
 made his moveriients with that caim deliberation that scorned 
 every appearance of haste. Though warrlike, yet, they 
 
30 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. * 
 
 were a devotional people, to their beliefs, founded alone upon 
 the teachings of nature — their only light. They, had 
 their " good "Gre^t Spirit" and their evil "Great Spirit" 
 between which there was continual strife for the mas- 
 tery and possession of , the humaa mind. What less 
 or more have we? They acknowledged the mysterious 
 power of these two antagonistic spirits, and that in- 
 numerable numbers of subordinate spirits waited upon 
 both. In what do they differ from us in ^this? They 
 believed a spirit governed the winds, guided the clouds,' 
 and ruled in all things that inspired fear; thus they re- 
 garded the elements, and all nature, as spirits, whose images 
 were seen and whose voices were heard «ibove, beneath, every- 
 where. Little differing from the mythology of the ancients 
 Witchcraft swayed its sceptre over the mind of the poor. 
 Indian, whose intellectual light emanated alone from nature; 
 yet he wis not so much the object of just censure, as those 
 who had the Bible and yet advocated the doctrine. Remem- 
 ber Cotton Mather, a licensed expounder of the Sacred 
 Scriptures, and his numerous adherents, who advocator and 
 taught the doctrine of ^itchcraft, and , persecuted their 
 opposers, even to the burning of them at the stake. But for 
 the delusive beliefs and fears, which seemed to the Indian 
 as truth, that encompassed hiin on every side rendering him 
 the ready \kictim of the wildest superstition and dread, he has 
 been called "The Wild Man of, the Woods," and though his 
 religion involved the varying and confused belief in good and 
 evil spirits in every imaginary creation of air, earth, and sky 
 conceivable to the human mind, existing with not a ray of 
 intellectual light shedding its healing beams through his soul, 
 is it just that he should be reviled for his seeming apathy in 
 moral and intellectual advancement by those who have ever 
 lived within the circle of ever good and truthful influence, 
 but who closed nearly every avenue by which the hapless 
 Indian might return to th^ first principles o( truth and 
 intellectual light? Were not their traditions concerning the 
 creation of the world, and those of their own origin; and 
 their views and opinions of man, more worthy of praise than 
 contempt? Was not their belief in the Great Good Spirit by 
 whom all things were made; also in a Great Evil Spirit, who 
 ever plans and labors to counteract all the good and benevolent 
 designs of the Great and Good Spirit, so universal among all 
 the North American Indians, and their great respect for, and 
 undeviating and unwearied devotion to, the Great and Good 
 Spirit, and hate, fear, and dread of the Great and Evil Spirit, 
 a silent but pungent rebuke to their white scoffers and 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 31 
 
 defamers, who profess so much concerning- the Deity, 
 yet exercise so little of a devotiopal spirit? 
 
 But whence their universal belief in a future state of ex- 
 istence after death, thoug-h vag-ue their ideas in reg-ard to 
 future rewards and punishments? Whence alSd their uni- 
 versal belief in a delug-e at an ancient epoch, which destroyed 
 all mankind but a few? Whence their belief that^the earth 
 was their mother, who sent them forth from caves, ravines, 
 mounds and mountains? Whence the belief in fatality — that 
 the fate of man is irrevocably fixed? to which, perhaps, may 
 be attributed their stability and indifference to danger 
 and death? Whence their belief in transmigration and thus 
 claiming- relationship vvith th^ beasts of the field and the 
 birds of the air— expressive ojE an idea, it seems* of a foreign 
 origin? Whence their belief that the race of animals was 
 first created, then followed the creation of man? From 
 what ancient fountain of knowledge obtained they these va- 
 rious views? Was it intuitive? How manifest their pride 
 also, and great their delight in having their traditions and le- 
 gends point back to local origin, even to that of mysterious 
 revelation with all the quadrupeds that burrow in the hidden 
 rfecesses of the earth, differing in this but little from the 
 mythology of the ancients. ' : 
 
 Their opinions concerning the departure of the spirit at 
 death were various. Some believed that.it lingered for .a, 
 time near those,earthly precincts which it had jilst left, and 
 it continued still to be, .in a certain manner,: akin to the 
 earth. For, this reason, provisions were placed at the feet 
 of the corpse during the time it lay on it? elevated scaffold, 
 exposed to the influence of light or air. v The' deceased had 
 not as yet entered into the realm of spirits; but when the 
 flesh had withered away from ^the bones, these were buried 
 with songs and cries, terminating in feasts and dances pecu- 
 liar to the ceremonies of disposing of the dead.- ■ Others be- 
 lieve that when the spirit leaves the body,'it lingers for some 
 time before it can be wholly separate'd from its former con- 
 ditions; after which it wanders off traversing vast plains in 
 the moonlight. At length, it arrives at a great chasm in the 
 earth, on the other side of which is the land of the blessed, 
 where there is eternal spring and hunting g-rounds supplied 
 with great varieties qf game. But there is fao other way of 
 crossing this fearful gulf but by means of sa barked pine log 
 that lay across the chasm, which is.round,: smooth and slip-^ 
 pery. Over this the disembodied spirits must pass if they 
 would reach the land of a blissful, immortality. Such as 
 have lived purely and honestly upon earth are enabled to pass 
 .safely over the terrific abyss on the narrow bridge to the 
 
32 HISTORY OF THli INDIANS. 
 
 land of eternal happiness. But such as have lived wickedly, 
 in their attempt to pass over on the log, are sure to lose their 
 footing, and fall into the mighty abjrss yawning below. 
 Surely this is not a very objectionable idea of retribution af- 
 ter death. However, thfeir estimate of good and evil, in 
 many respects, was imperfect and circumscribed; and their 
 ideas of future rewards and punishments after death seemed 
 merely the the reflex of their earthly joys and sorrows, the 
 natural consequence of minds not enlightened by the teach- 
 ings of the Bible. Therefore, they beheld a transformed di- 
 vinity in animate and inanimate nature, in every thing which 
 lives or evinces an in-dwelling power, whom they sought to 
 propitiate by gifts and sacrifices. Their "Medicine Men" 
 were the mediators between themselves and their imagined 
 deity; these "Medicine Men" were believed, by means of 
 their knowledge of the mysteries of nature and the power of 
 magic, to be able to invoke spirits, to avert evil, to heal sick- 
 ness, and to obtain the fulfillment of human wishes. These 
 men were held in high esteem among all Indians every- 
 where, and acted in the capacity of both priests and physi- 
 cians. Their medical knowledge, even if classed with su- 
 perstitious usages, is not to be despised, as they have large 
 acquaintance with healing herbs and the power of nature. 
 The virtues of the Indian race are well known to those who 
 truly know them; and their fidelity in keeping a promise, 
 their true hospitality, and their strength of mind under sor- 
 row and suffering, merits the highest praise. They had no 
 other government nor governors but through their chiefs 
 and medicine men. The former had but little power and re- 
 spect, only in their own individual character, and they 
 dreaded the loss of their popularity in their tribe. Thus 
 the Indian warrior was truly his own man, free and inde- 
 pendent loathing all restraints. 
 
 , What but sad forebodings can fill the souls of the feeble 
 few, when contemplating the past and looking to the future 
 walled up before them to that extent, that all action and 
 energy of their lives seem at an end and their only hope of 
 refuge in the grave? 
 
 But the peagant has fled, and the majority of those who 
 gave it such depth of interest to their destroyers have long 
 since passed away into humble and nameless yet honorable 
 g'raves, into which the living few, in vacant desolation, are 
 fast falling, bewildered and counfounded kmid the toils that 
 have bee;i skillfully and successfully spread for them ; and 
 into which when fallen and hopelessly entangled, they ap- 
 pealed to our mercy but to find it amyth. Alas, whatacruel 
 
' ' HISTOKY'OF'THE INDIANS. 33 
 
 ' ' , ■/ , ■ '■■ ' :. „■■■■'■( ■ ' . ., 
 
 and iiioonsistent svystem haS yeen practiced toward the Red 
 Race, from the time we enti'ijed ttiem under, our jurisdiction, 
 as wards, to, the presept^day — a systerii, calculated in its 
 very nature to unc^vilize rather than to civilize them,-^de- 
 stroying' all colifideiice, all love and all rfespect; yea, stifling 
 all; the social affections of the heart, aiid the generosity of 
 ievery noble sentiment ; spreading devastation and desolation 
 among them^then toi be cursed and pronounced a, blotch 
 upon the fair -face of nature, while we, influenced alone by 
 that ,degi?ading ^venality, thq,t acknowledges no criterion but 
 success,' closed f he heart and hand of our charity against 
 them and shut our eyes on their woes — hearts, hands and 
 eyes never to be bpetied until the last 6f the race is extermi- 
 natecl, and there will be left no Indian possessions to excite 
 our. avarice; a,nd we be left to boast our achievements in ex- 
 terminating a helpless people whom to conquer was coward- 
 ice: — the checkered features of whose prehistoric history are" 
 .still dimly shadowed in the, memorials scattered around. 
 
 Yet their^ history, shorn as it is of its antique and ro- 
 mantic features by the march of civilization of the White 
 Race with its accompanying vices and follies, which were pre- 
 sented before them in proportion to its_. virtues as ten to one, 
 and thus rendered sad and mournful, is still interesting; 
 and,.! might justly add, instructive. But passing as they 
 have through many changes of a long pre-historic age,, as 
 well as that of an imperfectly known history, the events of 
 ihejir, fortunes iseem like the incidents of a fairy tale; and 
 while, we regard with admiration the many known traits of 
 their character, yet we can but be astonished that to so 
 many of'them natural refinement supplied the external defi- 
 ciencies' of accomplished instruction denied by their situa- 
 tion, while a sense of the proper, under every variety of cir- 
 cumstances, appeared jntuitive ; and many of their names 
 , and patriotic deeds are worthy of being transmitted to the 
 ' remotest posterity, accompanied by those honorable and 
 considerate epithets which flattery can never invest, and are 
 neve'r deceitful ; and had they have had a written language, 
 their native historians woul(J have presented many things is 
 interesting and dramatic as any of those of ancient or* mod- 
 ern renown. But as it is, they may be justly styled mar- 
 tyrs—uncrowned and uncanonized; since they are still 
 known to-day to millionsofthepeopleof these United, States un- 
 der stereotyped appellation of "savages, "and to an equal num- 
 ber of others, as "Heathen Barbarians ;" though the Indians 
 bq^long not to either department of that scientific knowledge 
 in which they have been enrolled by those whose extreme ig- 
 norance is thus made manifest ; and whib iEeel it an impera- 
 
34 \ HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 tive duty to assume a countenaii9e indicative of a holy horror 
 and puerile fear at the very mention of the word Indian ; and ' 
 :should they chance to meet one upon the^igh-viray serious 
 convulsions would inevitably be the result ; while others, of 
 somewhat greater intrepidity, hjive been Jcnown, to venture even 
 into the presence of an Indian, their iso-called devil incar- 
 nate ; and, to display their imagin,ed heroic daring, they 
 point the finger of scorn at him and question concerning 
 him and his race in the language of ridicule'>nd contempt 
 (to which I have oft been an eye witness when passing 
 through the Indian Territory) with that apparent instinct 
 which makes one feel that humanity,' at least that much of it 
 as professed by such ignorant and imbecile yet highly self- 
 conceited specimens of mortality, must be clo'sly allied to 
 Darwin's progenitor of man; and to whom the words of 
 Schiller are justly applicable — "Heaven and Earth wa^ in 
 vain against a dunce." 
 
 Liberty, equality, and fraterntiy have ever been found 
 to be cardinal principles among the Nortlj American Indians,} 
 from their first acquaintance with "the White Race even to 
 the present day. All stood, and still stand upon the 
 same social leyel. No one regarded himself better, in any 
 manner whatever, than his neighbor; none turned up the lip 
 of scorn, or sneered at the misfortunes of one of his tribe. 
 The members of each tribe lived in perfect harmony to- 
 gether, constituting, in every particular, one great, loving, 
 confiding brother-hood. The clan wa,s the unit of political 
 and social life with all tribes. The individual was never con- 
 sidered. Hence to insult, wrong or injure a member of a 
 tribe was actually to insult, wrong and injure the whole tribe; 
 thus each tribe held the other responsible for the actions of 
 its individual members according to the nature of the offence. 
 In like manner were also construed alliavors. Hence when 
 a favor was bestowed .upon any individual of a tribe, it was 
 accepted as bestowed upon each member of the tribe. He 
 who was a friend to one was regarded as equally a friend to 
 all, and as such was received into the confidence and friend- 
 ship of the entire tribe. What feature in the characteristics 
 of any nation of peopld more commendable than this? Yet 
 they 'are charged as being in want of a single redeeming 
 trait of character. 
 
 Despotism, oppression, avarice, fraud, misrepresenta- 
 tion in trade, were things absolutely unknown in all their 
 own tribal relations, and in their dealings with neighboring 
 tribes. Therefore were they, at first, so easily swindled in 
 trade by unprincipled white men; since the white man hid the 
 defects of his article of trade under falsehoods, and the 
 
, mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 35 
 
 Indian openly exposed the defects of his in truth. Though it 
 was easy to cheat an Indian once, to accomplish it the second 
 time was a more difficult task. His confidence was g-one 
 never again to be secured. I recollect a little incident of this 
 nature among the Choctaws when living east of the Mississip- 
 pi river. A young Choctaw was cheated in a trade with a 
 white man, and when censured for making the trade, he 
 calmly replied: "Pale-face cheat me, me sorry; pale-face 
 cheat me twice, me big fool." After that as a matter of 
 course, he would never believe a word that a white man would 
 say. 
 
 Their tradition, always based on facts though abound- 
 ing perhaps with many errors by misinterpretations and 
 corruptions in the cycles of ages through which they have 
 passed, were no less dear to him, making a stainless history 
 such.'as fevv nations had, save in those pure days of 'yore 
 when men love truth, justice and honor more than gold; but 
 while all those ancient places are still thronged with tradi- 
 tions, they are over grown with the weeds of popular fancy 
 like ruins of ancient castles covered with ivy; yet, the names 
 of some of them are still remembered by the aged Indians 
 and sometimes mentioned in their ancient traditions, but the 
 namesof their predecessors have completely disappeared from' 
 their memories, and tire time will never come in which these 
 secrets of the centuriefs will be remembered or ever known 
 again. 
 
 As aids to memory they used various devices, among 
 which belts of wampum. were the chief. . Wampum was truly 
 the archives of the tribe among all North American Indians. 
 It was made of dressed deer skin, soft and pliable as cloth, 
 and interwoven with various shells cut into uniform size, 
 carefully polished, strung together and painted in different 
 colors, all of which were significant; white being the emblem 
 of peace and friendship; red, the symbol of hostility^nd war. 
 As the colors of the wampum were signifficant, so also were 
 the length and breadth of these belts, and also the t>eculiar 
 arrangements of the differently painted strings attached, 
 each and all fully understood by the Indians alone. A belt of 
 wampum was presented to one tribe by another as a remem- 
 lirance token of any important event that was communicated. 
 They had many and various kinds of wampum; some in the 
 form of belts of different breadth and length; some in Strings 
 of various width and length, all reaching back in regular order 
 to centuries of the remote past, with an accuracy incredible 
 to the White Race. 
 
 The warn piim was the Indians' history the chronicles of 
 the past; and the readers of each clan of the tribe, front one 
 
36 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS- 
 
 generation to another, were carefully and thorongfhrj fiTstrac- 
 ted by their predecessors for that piafticular business and 
 were held in the highest esteem by all Indians everywhere. 
 
 Bundles of small round sticks were also used to assist 
 them in accui-ately keeping the number of days that would 
 intervene between the day agreed upon that anything should 
 be done, and the day upon which the bundle had been pre- 
 sented, one stick being drawn from the bundle at the termi- 
 nation of each day and thrown away; which duty was never 
 forgotten nor neglected to be done by him to whom it was en- 
 trusted. A long string was also used, having as many knots 
 tied in it as the number of days that were desirecV to be re- 
 membered; at the close of each day, a.i4 the withdrawing of a 
 stick from the bundle, so a knot was untied. This' custom 
 of using a string was also practiced, it is said, by the ancient 
 Persians, which is confirmed by Herodotus in his statement, 
 that "Darius gave to his allies a string with sixty knots tied 
 in it, and told tl;iem to untie one knot at the close of each day; 
 and, if he had not returned by the time the last one was un- 
 tied, they could go home." 
 
 Pictures, rudely carved on rocks and trees, were used to 
 convey information, each figure being a true symbol under- 
 stood and fully comprehended by the Indians wherever 
 seen. 
 
 The Indians regarded their majestic forest trees with 
 emotional pride ; and, as they reclined under their broad ex- 
 panding shades, they listened to their solemn whispers as 
 possessing a mysterious connection with themselves, and as 
 sharing with them their hppes and fears, their joys and sor- 
 rows, and they grieved to see them fall before the ax of civil- 
 ization ; since, between the Native American and the White 
 Race, who only saw lumber in the forest tree and money in 
 the lumber, there is the same difference existing that there 
 is between the man who hears the most refined music only 
 as a senseless noise-and him who hears it in messages of di- 
 vine import to his soul j thti3 it is that Nature bestows on 
 man only that which he is able to receive from her ; to one 
 lAjmber and the jingle of money ; to the other beauty and 
 harmony. Oft have I been an eye witness to the sensibility of 
 this people to the charms of natural objects, though accused 
 of its utter want ; and with emotions of pleasure listened to 
 their expressive words of delight in admiration of the grand 
 and beautiful in nature, as they pointed the finger of unas- 
 sumed pride to their magnificent forests, and the majestic 
 appearance of the old patriarchs of their woods — seeming to 
 be charmed with their grand forests, the beauty of their 
 flower bedecked prairies, the purity o-f their streams, the 
 
HISTOKY OF THE INDIANS. • 37 
 
 / 
 
 brightness of their skies and the salubrity of their climate. 
 To the peculiarly fascinating eharms of which, as they ap- 
 peared to my admiring gaze seventy years ago ih the ancient 
 domains of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, ea^t of the Mis- 
 sissippi river, I can testify from personal observation, as it 
 also was the home of my birth ; nor can ,time nor distance 
 ever erase from memory* their grandeur and beauty; and, 
 to-day, their seeming power is exercised over me in calling 
 up the reveries and picturings of the past clothing reality 
 with the illusions of the memory and imagination. But to 
 many, nature, in her primitive grandeur, is but ah indifEer- 
 ent beauty, though she stops to smile, to caress and enter- 
 tain with exhaustless diversion her admiring and loving 
 wooer. 
 
 So to the Indian also, the grandeur and beauty of his 
 ancient forests left a memory which abides as a constant 
 source of gratification, as he reflects upon theii' natuj-al 
 beauty upon which his eyes so oft had rested', and from 
 which his soul had gathered a noble -conception of the sym- 
 phonies from which it drew its pure aspirations ; and truly, 
 no one who has any conception of the grand and beautiful, 
 could have gazed upon the outstretched panorama of their 
 forests as presented in their ancient domains, without being 
 lastingly impressed with the marvelous picture, in which 
 there stood forth most striking beauties in the form of ma- 
 jestic trees and green swards, on whose bosoms rested, in 
 gentle touch, most inviting shades free of all under-growth 
 of bushes but covei;ed with luxuriant grass interspersed 
 with innun\erable flowers of great variety, rivaling the most 
 beautiful flower garden of art. Never have I witnessed 
 any thing more grand and impressive than the Mississippi 
 forests presented when left by the Choctaws and Chicka- 
 saws as an inheritance to the Whites. ' Then and thete na- 
 ture, in all her diversified phases, from the finite to the in- 
 finite, and from the infinitessimal to the grand aggregate of 
 knowledge, was full ' of instruction ; by which she would 
 teach man his duty to his God, to his fellow man and to him- 
 self. But alas, how few ever heed the symbolic whispers of 
 her low, sweet voice ! ' 
 
 It was truly a vast wilderness of trees entirely free of 
 all undergrowth except grass with that peculiar stillness 
 that attested the absence of man, and possessing a vastness^" 
 and boundless extent, and uninterrupted (Contiguity of 
 shade, which prevented the attention from being distracted, 
 and allowed the mind to the solitude of itself, and the imagi- 
 nation to realize the actual presence and true character of 
 that which burst upon it like a vivid dream. Truly that is 
 
38 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 happiness that breaks not the link between man antl nature. 
 The Indians of this continent openly acknowledged and 
 sincerely believed in the One Great and Good Spirit, and also 
 in the One Great and Evil Spirit; to the former they gave 
 divine homage with a devotion that well might put to shame 
 many of those who have lived a life time under the light of 
 the Gospel dispensation, with scarcely a devotional emotion. 
 Towards the latter they cherished the greatest fear and dread 
 and sought continually the aid of the Good Spirit in averting 
 the dreaded machinations of the Evil Spirit, therefore every 
 warrior had his totem; i. e. a little sack filled with various 
 ingredients, the peculiarities of which were a profound 
 secret to all but himself; nor did any Indian ever seek or de- 
 sire to know the contents of another'siotem, it was sacred to 
 its possessor alone. I have more than once asked some 
 particular warrior friend concerning the contents of his 
 totem but was promptly refused with the reply: "You would 
 not be any the wiser thereby." Every warrior kept his 
 Totem or "Medicine" aliout his person, by which he sincere- 
 ly believed he would be enabled to secure the aid of the Good 
 Spirit in warding off the evil designs of the Evil Spirit, in the 
 existence of which thejr as sincerely believed, and to whom 
 they attributed the cause of all their misfortunes, when fail- 
 ing to secure, the aid of the Good Spirit. Therefore, each 
 and every warrior of the tribe, with eager zeal,, endeavored to- 
 put himself in direct communication with the Great and 
 Good 3pirit. There was but little difference between the 
 "Indian Magician" and the Indian 'IMedicine Man," but 
 when a warrior had attained to that high and greatly desired 
 point of direct communication with the Great and Good 
 Spirit, and had impressed that belief upon his tribe as well as 
 himself, he at once became an object of great veneration, and 
 was henceforth regarded by all his tribe, regardless of 
 age or sex, as a great "Medicine Man," upon -whom 
 had been conferred supernatural powers to foretell 
 coming events, to exorcise evil spirits, and to perform 
 all kinds of marvelous works. But few attained the 
 coveted eminence; yet he who was so fortunate, at once 
 reached the pinnacle of his earthly aspirations. But before 
 entering upon his high and responsible duties, and assuming 
 the authority of a diviner — a graduated Medicine Man, in 
 other words, with a recognized and accepted diploma, he 
 must also have enlisted in his service one or more lesser 
 spirits, servants of the Great and Good Spirit, as his allies or 
 mediators, and to secure these important and indispensable- 
 auxiliaries, he must subject himself to a severe and testing 
 ordeal. He now retires alone into the deep solitudes of Ills 
 
• ' ' ■ ':'■ ' ' ■• ( ■'■ ■■ '.-■' .■'•■• I 
 
 V .'■*■> ,. ' 
 
 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 39 
 
 native forest and there engages in meditation, self examina- 
 tion, fasting' and prayer duriiig: the! coming and going of 
 many long and weary days, and even wpeks. And all that for 
 what end? That he might, by his^ supernatural power thus 
 attained, be enabled tp jgratify ^his ambition in playing the 
 tyrant over his people tf rdu^h fear of him? Or that he might 
 be enabled the 1?etter to gra^tify the ■ spirit *of avarice that 
 rankled in his heart? Neither, for both tyrant and avarice, 
 were utterly unknown among, all Indians. ' i 
 
 What then? First, that hermight^^eyer be enabled', by 
 his influence attained with ^the great and Good Spirit, toward 
 off the shafts of the Evil Spirit, and tih us protect himself from 
 seen and unseen darigers, an4, also ' be Successful in the ac- 
 l5omplishment of all his earthly hopes and wishes. 
 
 Second. That he might be abenefacto^ to his tribe, by 
 being enabled to divine future events, and thus forewarn 
 them of approaching daiiger and the prbper steps to take to 
 successfully avoid it ;•■ klso to' heal ti^e sick, etc. True, the 
 fearful ordeal of hunger,thirsf, fal;igue wrought their part 
 in causing his imagination to usurp the place of reasotf, fill- 
 ing his fevered mind with the wildest, hallucinations and 
 rendering him a fit subject to beljeyej-anything and every- 
 thing. Yet, no , doubt, when'he left'.'.his place of prayer and 
 self-examination and returned to his people, he sincerely be- 
 lieved that he\had been, admitted to, th? Special favor of the 
 great and Good Spirit slrid was f uUy^ preparfed to exercise his 
 newly acquired supernatural attaiiiixients for his own bene-, 
 fit and to the interest of hjs tribe. Smile not. at this, per- 
 haps, to you, seeming folly of one \yh6 thought, reasbnedand 
 acted as taught by the feeble light of nature alone ; with 
 such a devotional spirit, what would lie havelijee^; if enlight- 
 ened by the renovating influences of thfe'jji-ecepts of the Son 
 of God ? But I ask, if this doctrine of the spiritual world, the 
 disembodied spirits of our departed loved ones everywhere 
 about us, and the power of cominunication with them, has 
 riot sprung into new life among us in th^s boasted entightened 
 age illumined by the glorious light' of the Bible shining 
 around us for centuries pa^t? though the doctrine' was disr 
 carded by the Indians at once and foreyer, SO. soon as the 
 light of the Bible shone into their untutored minds. But 
 alas, we still speak of them as savage^ and barbarians ; yet 
 should not emotions of shame fill our hearts, when the ;simi- 
 larity of belief between the unlettered Indians of seventy- 
 five years ■ ago, and the boasted intelligejice and .Christian 
 civilization of the "Anglo Saxon" of the present day, is ^so 
 manifest ? Need we try to deny that .modern Spiritualism, 
 
40 HISl'ORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 has its counterpart in the philosophy of the North American 
 Indians of three-quarters of a century ago? 
 
 May we justly scorn the Indian when not free ourselves 
 of his ancient , superstitious follies, but still have so large 
 a portion, though long disoarded by the civilized tribes, se- 
 cretly hidden away in the stra^.of,oUr boasted common 
 sense, besides ^einff greatly tinctured With, the fashionable 
 skepticism (unknown to all Indians) o^ jthe present civilized 
 but fearfully corrupt age? 
 
 The Indian^ reasoned from the known to the unknown 
 differing from us only in th^t they had no accumulated 
 knowledge to'guide them but their traditions. And when 
 we take into consideration 'the great difficulties with which 
 they had to contend' and overcome in the struggle up the 
 rugged hill of civilization and Christianity, as presented to 
 them with all their manifested contradictions and enigmas 
 by the ''Pale-faces," it is a matter of profound astonishment 
 that they ^ave achieyed as much as'the^ have. 
 
 Alas, that our universal error,, in all our dealings with 
 that people, should, consist in the deplorable yet inexcusable 
 failure to perceive hoW greatly their ideas differed from our 
 own in regard to every thing appertaining to our civilization, 
 Christianity and love of gain ; and at the same time forget- 
 ting that the idea of civi} government was with us of long and 
 slow growth, taking many ages to develop us from our own 
 ignorant and savage ancestry to our present enlightened 
 state ; and how gi'eatjy to be regretted is the fact, that our 
 feelings and actions are still so influenced and governed by 
 ^deplorable ignorance of the true nlture and characteristics 
 of the Indian,, and so swayed by a foolish prejudice against 
 him, and so led captive by selfTConceit and imagined superi- 
 ority over him by nature, that we do not and will not justly 
 and impartially weigh the evidence before us ; through fear, 
 it truly seems, that our preconceived opinions may be proved 
 to be formed in eri-or, if tested by the knowledge of the truth 
 that would be gained by irivestigation. 
 
 The Indian is accused of stolidity. Wherefore? Is it 
 because he can and ddes control his topgue when the white 
 man would fly into a violent passion? Is it because the Indian 
 never speaks evil of any one, not even of a personal enemy, 
 but keeps his thoughts and opinions of others in the secret 
 recesses of his own breast, while the reverse is an innate 
 characteristic of the White Race? Is it because the Indian 
 has learned never to talk to the purpose of what is not the 
 purpose to talk of,' but in which the white man has long since 
 proved himself an adept to the entire satisfaction of himself 
 and all man-kind? If all this, seemingljf so mysterious to his 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ,41 
 
 defamers who would search earth and heaven to find an 
 accusation against an Indian, merits the title Stolidity, then 
 indeed is the Indian meritorious, and that is the whole of it 
 in a nut shell. i 
 
 He has also been ridiculed as being an idiot for carrying 
 with him his mystic Medicine-pouch, and relying on it for 
 safety both in seen and unseen dangers. Yet in this how 
 little did he differ from thousands of the White Race of even 
 today with all their professed culture, among whom there 
 can still be detected a foolish superstition, a lingering sur- 
 vival of Fetchism, for it can be nothing else. See the still 
 lingering belief in Witchcraft and magic charms; behold the 
 horse shoe still nailed over the door as a guarantee to "good 
 luck" and the prevention of injury from the midnight ca- 
 rousals of witches; view the stigma placed upon the good 
 names of one pf the days of the we6k^unfortunate Fridayl 
 Contemplate the Charm-string composed of various childish 
 gew-gaws dangling from the watch-chain of the empty ajid 
 unbalanced head of the "pale-face" dude, and also its counter- 
 part around the neck of the empty-headed little Miss of 
 *'sweet sixteen"! Think of the harmless little bug \ snugly 
 ensconced in a ci"ack of the wall hummingits luUa-by in token 
 of its happiness yet is stigmatized with the appellation of 
 "Death-watch," the fore-runner of the grim monster so 
 much feared and dreaded by frail humanity, and many more 
 that might be mentipned! What are all tljiese but a lingering 
 spirit of superstition, legitimate offsprings Fetishism, and 
 differing in nothing from the Indian's totem. Yet the 
 Indian is Regarded . as meriting condemnation in this world 
 and damnation in the next because he still adheres, in some 
 few instances where the truths of the Bible have never 
 reached him, to his ancient superstitious belief, and so-called 
 savage folly, but the white man, cradled in the lap of Chris- 
 tianity and yet carrying secretly in his breast his totems, 
 verily, might not the repi'oving lajnguage of , Saul to Bar Jesus 
 be justly applied to us in all our dealing, with 4he Red Race 
 from the Alpha to the Omega?— "O, full of all subtlety, and 
 all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all 
 righteojusness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways 
 of the Lord?" 
 
 Again: The Indians' passion for war, so erroneously 
 proverbial among us, has ever been shamefully exaggerated. 
 True, their passion for war, when engaged in it for the re- 
 dress of real. or imaginary wrongs, was unequalled : and, in 
 defense of their country has few parallels in the history of 
 nations, of which we have the full attestation of experience ; 
 though we fought them, taking all things into consideration, 
 
42 HISTOKY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 the advantages of fifty to one. But they seldom made war 
 upon each other actuated alone by the motives of ambitiou^j 
 conquests for national or personal aggrandizement, as far as 
 has been ascertained from actual proof. They had no mo- 
 tive for such a war, as it is well known t^o all who have at- 
 tained any true knowledge of the North American Indians 
 worthy of notice, since avarice, in a national or personal point 
 of view with all its baneful eonsequences, was utterly un- 
 known to the ancient Indians of this continent, as it is to this 
 day to their pnre blooded descendants. Their desperation 
 in resisting our encroachments upon their rights gave birth 
 to the false charge that "they are a blood-thirsty race de- 
 lighting in human gore ;" but there is no proof based upon 
 truth that they are meritorious to a greater extent than any 
 other race of mankind to bear such reproach. Nor were 
 their tactics of war, so loudly condemned by us, any more 
 irreconcilable to justice and humanity, than our own. We 
 stigmatize them with the name of "dowards" for limiting 
 their fighting to ambuscade and surprise ; and which we, if 
 out-witted and defeated in a battle with them, pronounced, 
 1^ with assumed horror, a "cruel massacre ;" yet, truth posi- 
 tively declares that we too have adopted equally with them 
 the ambuscade, the surprise, and every art of war known to 
 us to out-general them in cunning, in treachery, and in de- 
 ceit; but call it, if we succeed, "a glorious military strate- 
 gy," as if that would make it appear more honorable or 
 justifiable in the sight of truth, justice and humanity or that 
 of a just God. Absolute necessity compelled the Indians to 
 resort to ambuscade and surprise in their wars with us, on 
 account of our vast superiority over them in numbers, skill, 
 and instruments of warfare. What hope of success could 
 they entertain by coming out in the open field with their 
 feeble bows and arrows and few worthless old guns, "and 
 stand up before our deadly rifles and destructive batteries i 
 They would simply have acted the part of fools in so doing. 
 They fought as best they could, and just as we, or any other 
 people, woyld have fought under similar circumstances. 
 
 We charge them with deception and 'being full of all man- 
 ner of hypocrisy in all places and at all times, even in the 
 social and business relatiops of life. A more false charge 
 was never made against anyone; and it is but one among the 
 thousands that have been unjustly used in justification of 
 robbing them of their country and wiping them out as cum- 
 berers ol the ground, wholly unfit any longer to inhabit the 
 earth. 
 
 Who ever beard of the Indians adulterating their food 
 with poisonous ingredients to add a dime moro ttt their gains? 
 
 \ 
 
HISTORY OF THlE INDIANS 43 
 
 Who ever, heard of them adulterating- their medicines, thus 
 endangering life to make a nickel Ttoore? Who ever heard of 
 them banding together to oppressnhe poor of their own race 
 by buying up certain articles of food or medicine and hold- 
 ing it to .extort a higher price from the needy, and thus add 
 a few more cents to their own coffers? And yet we see fit 
 to falsely charge the Indians with deception and hypocrisy. 
 But to misrepresent in all that is said or written about the 
 Red Race is an axiom 6f long standing. As an illngtration, 
 Ridpath, in his -'History of the United States"— page 45, 
 says: ' 
 
 "But the Red Man was, at his best estate, an unsocial, sol- 
 itary and gloomy spirit. He was a man of the woods. He 
 sat apart. The forest was better than the village." L-et 
 others speak that it may be known how near the above de- 
 lineation of the RedjMan's characteristics, as exhibited by 
 the glare of imagined erudition, throws its light to the line 
 of truth according to the positive declarations of the early 
 writers who visited the Indians; and the missionaries who 
 first preached the Gospel of the world's Redeemer to tliem. 
 All, everywhere, and among all Indians back to the Pilgrims 
 of 1620, affirm that the tribes everywhere lived in separate 
 districts, in which each had numerous large and permanent 
 towns and villages, and were the most Social, contented and 
 happy people they ever knew. La Salle, the renowned 
 French explorer, states that he found numerous towns and 
 villages everywhere. He affirms that the Indians lived in 
 comfortable cabins of great proportion^, in some cases, forty 
 feet square with dome-shaped roofs, in which several fami- 
 lies lived. De Soto, in his memorable raid through the ter- 
 ritories of the Southern Indians in 1541-42, found towns and 
 villages containing "from fifty to three hundred houses, 
 ■ protected by palisades, walls and ditches filled with water;" 
 it is also stated, "evei*y few miles he found flourishing towns 
 and villages." So also, the early explorers of the head 
 waters of the Mississippi river found the Indians every- 
 where dwelling in towns and villages: "The houses being 
 framed wfth poles and covered with bark." 
 
 Lewis and Clark, when exploring the waters of the Col- 
 umbia River in 1805,under the auspices of the United Sates 
 Government, found the Indians in the valley of the Columbia 
 living in villages in which there were many large houses. 
 They mention some capable of "funiishing habitations for 
 five hundred people." The Iroquois, whose territories lay 
 along the southern borders of the Great Ljakes, Erie and 
 Ontario, when Visited by the Jesuit priests and French 
 traders in 1771, were ^found dwelling in large towns and 
 
44 HISTORY Ol' THK INDIANS. 
 
 villages, some of which are described as having "130 houses, 
 many of them from 50 tO|^0 feet in length, and affording am- 
 ple room and shelter for^welve or fifteen families." The 
 Indians of the Atlantic States were settled in permanent 
 towns and villages. The Pokanokets, Narragansets, Pe- 
 quods, and others, as stated by early writers, lived in towns- 
 and villages. The missionaries, when they established 
 Chirstain missions among the Cherokees in 181S, the Choc- 
 taws in 1818, and Chickasaws in 1821, found them living in 
 prosperous towns and villages scattered from two to six miles 
 apart all over their then vast territories, and to which I testify 
 fronyactual, personal knowledge; and no people with whom I 
 was ever acquainted, or of whom I ever read, exhibited more 
 real social virtues, true contentment and genuine social 
 happiness than they; yet Ridpath's doleful and stereotyped 
 edition of misrepresentation and ignorjince says: "But the 
 Red Man was, at his best estate, an unsocial, solitary, and 
 gloomy spirit. He communed only with himself and the 
 genius of solitude. He sat apart; the forest was better than 
 the village." 
 
 The six nations, to whom the French gave the name Iro- 
 quois(Longhouses) were composed of the Senecas, Cayugas, 
 Onandagas, Oneidas, Mohawks and Tuscaroras, inhabiting 
 the northern part of the continent, and the Choctaws; Chick- 
 saws, Cherokeies, Muscogees, Seminoles, Natchez and Ya- 
 masas, living in the southern part and known at an early day 
 as the Mobela Nations,- presented, no doubt, the highest 
 type of the North American Indians, and were unsurpassed 
 in point of native eloquence, unalloyed patriotism, and heroic 
 bravery, by any ancient or modern race of people, civilized 
 or uncivilized; in friendship faithful and true, in war not 
 safe or comfortable to encounter ; and whose highest bliss 
 was found in national independence and absolute personal 
 freedom from all restraint whatever ; and of whose ancient 
 history, if only known, it might truthfully be said, would be 
 stranger and more interesting than the most thrilling fic- 
 tion; abounding with hidden romances of which the civilized 
 world never conjectured or even dreamed, if we may judge 
 from the little that hafe escaped oblivion. The Iroquois, and 
 the six Nations of the North have long since^ disappeared be- 
 fore the White Race as autumnal leaves before the wintry 
 winds, except with 'here and there a few lonely wanderers 
 who, like ghosts, still hover around the graves of their ances- 
 tors, feeblesparksyetlingering in theashesof an exterminated 
 race. The Natchez and Yamase& of thfe Mobela Nations 
 have also long since passed through the same ordeal, and 
 Ichabod is written upon th^ir urns with thousands of others 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS 1' ' 45 
 
 of their unhappy race ; while a few still lingfer to jitstly re- 
 buke our cru'elty and avarice. ■' ' ' ' ' ' 
 
 They know that they only can learn the present through 
 the niemory of the blood-staiiied past; thit temple from 
 which posterity draws its lessons of hiimaftlife; yet they are 
 not ashamed of their past; or do they underva,lue It, but 
 advocate, as they have many long years before, the great 
 brotherhood of man; and still hope and expect, as in th.e years, 
 of the long past, great things from Christianity and intellect- 
 ual culture; thoughoft have been doomed to that bitter dis- 
 appointment which so loudly and justly rebukes a^d con- 
 demns that prejudice still cherished so bitterly but unjustly 
 against them by the White Race, and so difiBcult to be 
 reconciled to its published professions of. Christian kttainr 
 ments, too deep for them or any other people, to understand 
 or even rightly conjecture. But the question naturally 
 arises. Why are they still distrusted by us? Is, it because: 
 they still honor their past which th^y can never renounce nor 
 forget as a brave and patriotic people? Must, we forever hate- 
 them and eternally make them the subjects of GUI' ridicule 
 and contempt because, forsooth, they will not irepudiate the 
 memory of their ancient line of ancestry to them as honoti- 
 able as to us is our own? And though self respect is all that, 
 ^ve have left to them, except a few acres of begrudged land, 
 do we now demand and expect them to so far forget them- 
 selves and to stoop so low in the scale of humanity as to 
 adopt voluntarily, the impious and degradMig estimate put 
 upon them by the unprincipled of our own race, who thraugh 
 ignorance and' prejudice have misjudged them? ;Then know 
 we not the North American Indian; rior will our demand or 
 expectation ever be realized. 
 
 We may exterminate them afe we have millions of their 
 race, for we have the power to do so ; but we never can co- 
 erce them to voluntarily place a degrading estimate upon 
 themselves. Never. I have Heard the charge over and over 
 again made against them, that they would stop the progress 
 of the white man's civilization and the religion of Jesus 
 Christ among them if they could. Without fear or favor, I 
 here denounce the charge as a falsehood, begat by the devil, 
 born in the regions of eternal night, thence escaped to find 
 lodgement in the hearts of its rriisei-ably degraded author, 
 and his congenial spirits, the foul mouthed promulgators ; 
 and into their teetl^I fearlessly hurl it bacK.. Butt B freely 
 admit, if the "white man's civilization and' the white man's 
 Christiahity" is meant the grim visage of infidelity with its 
 abominable train of liberalism, socialism, secularism, nihi- 
 lism, spiritualism, and whiskey ism; with, their^.- legitiinate 
 
46 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 children, saloonism and baudy-houseism, and all other devil- 
 ish isms presented in the white man's Christiap civilization 
 (so-called), they want none of it ; anp in proof of which they 
 have warred, and still war and will ever continue to war 
 against the foul brood, be they ever so protective to the 
 white man's "Personal Liberty ;" or ever so dearly cher- 
 ished by him, as among the brig-htest lights along the horizon 
 of his modern and advanced civilization. But let Christ's 
 glorious Christianity and civilization, as it was presented to 
 them eighty years ago in their ancient domains east of the 
 Mississippi river by the pure minded, devoted, self-sacrific- 
 ing, God approved missionaries, whose God-like teachings, 
 both by precept and example, have been handed down by 
 that generation to this, (of whom many old Choctavv^s of that 
 day have frequently spoken to me during my sojourn among 
 them, during the last five or six years, and as often drew the 
 contrast between the white man's religion of those days and 
 the white man's religion of to-day, the gepuine fruits of 
 which are so manifest) be rudely assailed or imperilled, and 
 every warrior, old and young, would at once rise as one man 
 jn its defense, and freely give their lives as sacrificial offer- 
 ings upon the altar of its protection. They had long walked 
 in darkness, but they have seen the light as it shone in the 
 daily life, conversation, and actions, of those old heralds of 
 the Cross, who came to them in their ancient domains, four 
 score years ago, as messengers of the Son of God, proclaim- 
 ing Peace Good and Will to them. But they would see greater 
 ligh^ and know more of that light.; therefore, they who 
 charge them with a hankering to still return to the customs 
 of their ancestors, though in many respects more to be de- 
 sired than the isms and degrading vices of the white man's 
 modern civilization as presented to them, can lay no just 
 claim to fne right of judging or estimating the merits, or 
 demerits of any one, as they measure every thing by the 
 standard of their own imbecility so matiifest to all. 
 
 There is today, and has ever been, as much talent found 
 among the true Native Americans as among the Americans, 
 or ever was found in any race of uneducated people; and the 
 Indian is naturally as much of a religious being as the white 
 man, yea, to a greater degree, which is fully sustained by his 
 more faithful adherence^ and unassumed" devotion to his 
 newly adapted religion, as taught him by the missionary of 
 the Gospel, than are we with all of our fine churches and 
 noisy professions. The Sabbath day is regarded with much 
 more reverence, and observed with greater emotions of un- 
 feigned devotion, yet we call him a savage. Long before the 
 light of the Gospel illuminated the mind of the Indian, and 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. . 47 
 
 the knowledge of his own digfnity and destiny had dawned 
 upon his understanding-, his reason taught him a belief in the 
 existence of a Superior Being whose wisdom and goodness he 
 saw, acknowledged and reverenced in every leaf and flower 
 that adorned thfe earth; in the rising and setting of, the sun;' 
 in the storm of night and the calm of day. But the mis- 
 sionary came, and the Gospel of the Son of God then erected 
 his altfer among them and shed the beijign influences of her 
 orafles over them, leading their understanding from the 
 intellectual darkness of that long starless night that had 
 bi'ooded over them during ages untold. Great indeed must 
 be the reward in heaven for those men and women of God 
 who carried the Bread .of Eternal Life to the southern Indians 
 of this continent, over three quarters of a century ago; when 
 civilization and Christianity had never before found lodge- 
 ment, and Nature was presented in all her seemingly new- 
 ness of life, unchanged by the handi-work of man. The 
 pride of ancestry may be just; to rehearse the deeds of illus- 
 trious predecessors may by laudable; but they, vy^ho devote 
 life to the Glory of God and the benefit of their fellow men 
 are truly the ones that make life illustnjous and the grave 
 glorious; for when time had silvered their heads with gray, 
 and the summons came that bade them go hence; then it was 
 their good deeds lighted up the gloom of the grave and 
 soothed and softened the pangs of dissolution; and when 
 they have long slumbered in the citv of the silent; yea, when 
 every trace of the unhappy Indian shall have been wiped out 
 and forgotten in the oblivion of the past, still will .the mem- 
 ory of their labors of love live, and their monuments be in-' 
 scribed with characters of imperishable fame. Years hence, 
 when the inquisitive shall ask what manner 6i people were 
 the fallen and exterminated race of North American conti- 
 nent, and inquire concerning those who enlightened the 
 minds that only here and there have left a monument of their 
 independence, will some venerable patriarch point to the 
 catalogue of renowned names, who disseminated the Gospe) 
 and the light of learning among the primitive inhabitants of 
 the Nptth American continent. But the question naturallyi 
 arises here, will the mighty tide of humanity, now flowing 
 like a grAat river into and over our country, bear to future 
 posterity our virtues or our vices, our glory or our shame? 
 Will the ikoth of inmorality and the vampire of luxui-y trans- 
 mit, as an inheritance, theirv natural results to our future 
 posterity, and ultimately prove the overthrow of our Govern- 
 m^^t, or shall our knowledge and virtue, as pillars of rock, 
 support them against th^ whirlwind of ambition and corrup- 
 tion now overspreading the land? The little insect ihtrud- 
 
48 HISTORY OF THK INDIANS. 
 
 ing- upon our path is despised and wantonly crushed; ypt 
 united, they have destroyed nations and depopulated cities. 
 "Coming events" cease not to "cast their shadows before." 
 The North American Indians, in symmetry of form, 
 seemed perfect men and women ; all were strai<jht and 
 erect ; the men, of a proud, independent and manly bearing-, 
 with sinewy form that denoted great strength, agility and 
 fleetness ; with dark complexion, resolute, yet quiet in ex-. 
 pression, except when agitated by emotion ; frank in de- 
 meanor, and always courteous, never ■ meeting you without a 
 grave but polite and cheerful salutatitJn ; and whose confi-- 
 dence was not a sudden spark that shone for a moment then 
 went out, but endured' through life unless betrayed, then , 
 was never more regained, nor was th^ir hatred impulsive 
 but fixed in their judgment and their thoughts rather than 
 • in their passing feelings. And what is said of the charac- 
 teristics of the men, as men, so it may be said equally of the 
 women, as women. Their traditions, which form the con- 
 necting link between truth and romance, throw but a glim- 
 mering light, as before stated, upon the unwritten. history 
 of their past, which has so long been forgotten, as well as 
 upon their ancient habits and customs, of which there can be 
 no reliable information, therefore all must be left to conject- 
 ure . But I came in possession of many traditions seemingly 
 to founded more 'in truth than in fiction,- as I. oft sat 
 among the Choctaws and Chickasaws in youth and early, 
 manhood and listened with romantic emotions to the narra- 
 tions of the aged, whose plurality of years had consigned, 
 them to the retired list of warriors, as unable longer jto en- 
 dure the hardships and dangers that begirt the war-path 
 and the chase, and thus acquired much concerning their 
 past history, not to be found inbooks, of which .Ii\vill 
 more fully speak in their proper place. 
 
 But alas, that the writings of so many of their White 
 historians (so-called) seemingly through ignorance or preju- 
 dice, or both, should contain more fiction than truth, and dif- 
 fuse more error than true information concerning this pecu- 
 liar and so poorly comprehended race of people; hence it 
 may be truly affirmed that there is no race of people that 
 now e:^ists upon the earth, or has ever existed, of \^iiom so 
 much has been said and written, yet of whom the world has 
 been taught less true knowledge ari'd correct, information 
 than of the North American Indians. Bot if should not be, 
 perhaps, a matter of very great surprise that the majority 
 of the writers of the present day, especially the sensational 
 newspaper correspondents, as many of their predecessors of 
 years ago, should give prejtidiced accounts of this people; 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. '49 
 
 since it is plainly manifest, when taken into just considera- 
 tion, that they are utterly ignorant of the subject offered for 
 their contemplation, yet fail to see their incapacity , since 
 
 r the ingredients are pure and have given abundant and unmis- 
 takable proof of their many valuable qualities ; therefore, as a 
 natural result, are lost to the blind observers whose compo- 
 sitions, regarding the unfortunate Indians, are made up of 
 equal parts (well mixed) of self-conceit, ignorance, duplicity 
 and falsehood ; which, in their very nature, so utterly dis- 
 qualify them of judging beyond the surface of ■ anything ex- 
 cept self ; but seem extravagantly delighted when they have 
 struck a new vein of precious metal in the mine of falsehood 
 against the unoffending Indians, and foolishly imagine it has 
 stamped them with a wisdom higher than man'Sj though dif- 
 iiculties arise in the minds of a majority from a failure to so 
 ■comprehend it. Stili it is diverting to see them strut about 
 after a safe deliver^', as if they were at the head of a new 
 dispensation and waiting for unknown converts to kiteel and 
 pay homage to their imagined gireatness. 
 
 It is a universally admitted that the color of the Indians 
 ispeculiar to themselves, and though some affirm t^at they 
 
 .:have discovered indications of a Tartar origin in their cheek- 
 bones, others assert that their eyes do not jfistify the affir- 
 matioji. Their manner of life may have exerted, perhaps, 
 some influence in regard to color, but it would be a difficult 
 matter to satisfactorily, explain how it coult have produced 
 the great difference ' that is so plainly manifest in 
 that of the eyes. Still it is affirmed that "'their imagery, 
 both poetry and oratory, is Oriental, though suffering by the 
 limited extend of their practical knowledge." Their 
 metaphors were drawii from nature, the seasons, the clouds, 
 the storms, the hiountains, birds and beast, and the vegetables 
 world. Yet in this, they only did what all other races of the 
 human family hayp done, whose bounds to fancy were 
 governed by experience- They also clothed their ideas in 
 Oriental dress. They expressed a phi-ase in a word, and 
 qualified the signification of a whole sentence by a syllable; 
 and also conveyed different significations by the simplest 
 inflections of the voice. Some philologists afi&rm that among 
 all th6 North American Indians who once inhabited this con- 
 tinent, "tjiere are, properly speaking, bu^t two or three 
 languages," and the difficulty , which different tribes ex- 
 perience in understanding each 'other, is attributed, to the 
 corruptions in dialects. This may seem more plaiisible 
 from the following incident. Shortly after the Choctaws 
 were' removed from their ancient doma,ins east of the Mis- 
 sissippi River to their present places of abode, a small tribe 
 
so HISTOBY OF THE INDIAINS. 
 
 of strange Indians was discovered occupying a portion of 
 their western territory, now the Chickasaw Nation. A party 
 of Choctaws, under the command of Peter P. Pitcblynn, 
 was sent out to ascertain who they were. When the dele- 
 gation arrived at one of the villages of 'the unknown tribe, 
 they were totally unable to communicate with them only 
 through the sign language, so well understood by all the 
 Indians, and them alone. However, it was soon observed 
 That the villagers, in conversation with each other, used a 
 few words that were decidedly of Choctaw origin, and now 
 and then one or more purely Choctaw words. This but in- 
 creased the interest of the now deeply interested delegates. 
 Upon further investigation by means of the sign-language, 
 itiwas ascertained that the name of the little tribe of stran- 
 gers wasBaluhchi, a pure Choctaw woriJ, signifying hickor^'- 
 bark (formerly used by the Choctaws in making ropes and 
 whips wh^n peeled from the hickory bush in the spring). It 
 was also learned that they originally came from a country, to 
 their pleasant place of abode, that lay beyond the "Big 
 Waters," and this was all that could be learned concerning 
 them. Being anxious to ascertain something more definite, 
 the delegates, upon further inquiry, learned that there lived 
 in anothe'r village a few miles distant, an iged man who was 
 formerly their chief but owing to his advanced age he no 
 longer acted in that capacity, but wis regarded by the tribe 
 as their national Seer or Prophet. To him the delegation 
 immediately went, and found to their agreeable surprise that 
 the venerable old patriarch, for such he truly was, could speak 
 , the Choctaw language fluently. He corroborated the state- 
 ment of the villagers in regard to the migration, and also 
 claimed that he and his tribe were Choctaws. When asked. 
 How long since he left his people east of the "Big Waters," 
 he replied: "Lon^ ago, when a little boy," and further 
 stated that he was the only survivor ctf the little company 
 that had wandered away years ago from the parent stock. 
 But to fully test the matter, he was questioned as to the 
 name of the Choctaw Iksas (Clans) and their ruling chiefs at 
 the time of his boyhood and the departure of the company to 
 the far west. He readily gave the name of several clans and 
 their then ruling chiefs, together with the names of the clan 
 (Baluhchi) to which his parents belonged; also many memor- 
 able incidents connected with the Choctaws in his boyhood 
 together with the general features and outlines of their 
 territory. All of which was known to be true. The test 
 was satisfactory. The delegates returned; made their re- 
 port, and the Choctaw Nation at once received its long wan- 
 dering prodigy's y.ito it- p-'.:;-.\:il cmbraTC, u.il v,it';o;it 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. i ;' it 61 ^ 
 
 ; ;■ ■■,■■.. ►M,',/.;.il 
 
 hesitation toolf them into full fellowship as children oh ojie. 
 and the same family. About fifty families of this once l6bt 
 clan, numbering about two hundred spills still survive; .with , 
 a few of whom I am personally acquainted . The little band, 
 I was informed, still adheres to the ancient customs of their 
 Clan with that tenacity peculiar to the North American 
 Indians alone, but has returned to the use of the Choctaw 
 language proper. i / i 
 
 Here then, in this little band of strayed Ctoctaws, who 
 had wandered from the parent stock scarcely a century be- 
 fore, is found a case in which their language' had becbme so 
 blended or mixed with that of the languages of other adjoin- 
 ing tribes, and thereby so corrupted and changed as not to 
 be understood by tlieir own people from w;hom they had/ 
 wandered but a generations or two before.- ,'d?he ancient 
 Baluhchi Clan of Choctaws was first, hiade known to the 
 whites by La Salle, who visited them on his voyage of dis- 
 covery down the Mississippi River in 1682, and to which I 
 will again refer. ' / ' 
 
 Fenimore Cooper, in reference to the , sign4anguage of 
 the North American Indians, says, he was present at an in- 
 terview between two chiefs of the western plains, and when 
 an interpreter was present who spoke ' both languages of- 
 the two different tribes to which the two chiefs respectively 
 belonged. The two warrior chief s appeared , to be on the 
 most friendly terms, and apparently conversed much togeth- 
 er ; yet, according to the affirmation Of the interpireter, each 
 was absolutely ignorant of what the other said in his native 
 tongue. Their trites vi^ere hostile to each other, but these 
 two chiefs had accidentally been brought togethei* by the in- 
 fluence of the Government ; and it is worthy lof remark that 
 a common' policy influenced them both to adopt the same 
 subject. They mutually exhorted each other to befriend 
 the one the other in the event that the chance of ^^ war should 
 throw either of them in the hands of his enemies." \ 
 
 But whatever may be the truth as i;;espects the root and 
 the genius of the Indian tongue, it is quite evident thtey are 
 now so remote in their words as to possess piost of the dis- 
 advantages of strange languages ; hence, much of the em- 
 barrassment that has arisen in learning their history, and 
 most of the uncertainty which exists in their traditions. 
 
 The North American Indians conform to rule as rigidly 
 as any nation of people that ever iexisted. They regulated 
 their whole conduct in conformity to some general maxims 
 implanted in their minds in their youthful days. The moral 
 laws by which they were goveirned were few, 'tis true. 
 Butthey conformed toallof them moatrigidly ; while our moral 
 
52. HISTORY OF THE INDIANS.' 
 
 laws are many by which we assume to be g'overned, yet we 
 ' frequently violate them with little compunction of conscience 
 when conflicting with our real or imaginary interests. We 
 accuse the Indians of stoicism and habitual taciturnity, with- 
 out studying their characteristics?; but if we had 
 only informed ourselves, we would have learned that they 
 are more firmly linked to us by mutual sympathies and affec- 
 tions than we have ever even imagined. But why do the In- 
 dians appear taciturn and unsocial to us ? Because we 
 have, from first to last, manifested toward them an uncon- 
 cealed coldness, indifference, distrustfulness bordering 
 largly on contempt ; and never with that confidence, frank- 
 . ness and'sincerity which are so indispensable to genuine love 
 and true friendship. Let a little group of Indians be at a 
 railroad station on the arrival of a passenger train. See the 
 rush to the platform and the circle formed around them ; 
 hear the remarks of attempted wit made al^out them and the 
 laugh of ridicule, as they stare at them as if they were a 
 group of wild beasts, yet assuming themselves to be a people 
 remarkable for their strict adherence to the rules and regu- 
 lations of politeness ! What feelings must pervade the In- 
 dians' breasts but emotions of manifold pity and mingled 
 contempt for such an ill-mannered set, who profess so much 
 yet display . so little of common sense 1 Who, with any de- 
 gree of justice, can blame the Indians :for manifesting their 
 wisdom and good sense by keeping themselves aloof from 
 the company of the self-conceited and scornful, whose moral 
 worth and highest attainments begin and end seemingly 
 with the monkey ? and, ^'s a natural consequence, can exhibit 
 no other disposition when in the presence of one or more In- 
 dians than that of gratifying an ignorant curiosity in behold- 
 ing the so-called "red devils, red skin, Indian bucks," appel- 
 lations having their origin in the depi-aved hearts of as cor- 
 rupt and reckless specimens of humanity as ever cursed a 
 land or country, arid are a foul blot upon the fair face of na- 
 ture, and the language of Whose hearts is "justice, truth, 
 honor, mercy, humanity depart from us, we desire not the 
 knowledge of thy ways." Thus, in all opr intercourse with 
 this unfortunate race of people, we haye exhibited, in the 
 majority of instances, every disposition toward them that 
 was calculated "to drive them far frofn even the sight of us, 
 and to stamp indelibly upon their hearts the belief that our 
 only desire is, and ever has been, to dispossess them. of their 
 hereditary possessions ; and in which they are wholly con- 
 firmed by reading our publications in which we portray them 
 as "red devils, red skins, blood-thirsty savages, Indian 
 bucks," thus seemingly to atloiupt to justify ourselves, by 
 
raSTOKY OF THE INDJANS. ' S3 
 
 our calumniating- epithets, in our cruelties and outrages upon 
 them without any^respect to their cl^iims upon truth, justice, 
 mercy and humanity whatever; and also, that th^y have no 
 rights when conflicting with ours, but must succumb any- 
 where and everywhere to the riod of ourVinterest, be itiat 
 their sacrifice what it may; therefore we continue, as ^e 
 have done for centuries past, to execute our verdict pro- 
 nounced against them from the beginning: "It is easier and^ 
 less expensive to exterminate the Indians, than to obey the 
 mandates of the Son of God in attempting' to Christianize 
 them." Said an old chief: "We've been driven back, until 
 we can retreat no farther ; our totaahawkshaye none to wield 
 them ; our bows have none to shoot them ; our council fires 
 are nearly burned out ; soon the white man will cease tboppress 
 and persecute us, for we will have perished and gone from 
 the earth." Thus have their expectations darkened into 
 anxiety, theif anxiety into dread, their dread into despair 
 and their despair into death. ) 
 
 Never in t;he history of man has the extermination of a 
 people been more complete than that of the North American 
 Indians within the last two and a half centuries. To the 
 query, "Whei^e are they"? Echo but responds, "Where"? 
 Alas! all have disappeared from their ancient abodes, and 
 hundreds .of tribes have long" since ceased to exist as 
 nations, the majority not e^en leaving a name behind them; 
 and even the former homes lof the hapless remaining few 
 refuse to acknowledge the feeble exiles but as vile intruders,^ 
 while the names of mountains, hills and streams are all that 
 remain as testimonials of their former occupancy, even as 
 solitary heaps of drift-wood left far from the channel of tlie 
 river bear testimony to the extent of its inundation. And to 
 the query, Where are they? The best reply may be found 
 in a book bearing the title ''Shank's Report On Indian 
 Frauds," made March 3d, 1873, to the 420 Congress,. 3d, ' 
 Session, in the management of Indian Affairs. It is as 
 follows: "In 250 years^'we have wasted their numbers from 
 2,500,000"' taearer the truth would be, 20,500,000) "dowii to 
 250,000 or a waste of.a numbe;: equaV to all their children 
 born to them in the last 250 years, aijd 2, 250,000, or 9-10 of 
 their original numbei*, residing in the limits pf; our Govern- ' 
 ment, and have taken absolute ownership of 3,232,'936,351 
 acres of their lands, prairies, forests, gaine and hom^s, 
 leaving, to all their tribes collectively, only ^7,745,000 acres 
 of ground, generally not the best, and even that is sought 
 after with a greed that is not worthy a Christiaii people." 
 Nevertheless we boast of ourselves being a trud Christian 
 nation of the "Anglo Saxon" blood. Who caii but pity the, 
 
54 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 unfortunate Cubans and the Filipinos! With what emotions 
 of horror must they shrink from their prospective future, 
 when contemplating- the extermination of the North Ameri- 
 can Indians. ^ , 
 
 Evenatanearly day the Indians themselves, believed, felt 
 and acknowledged it. In 1611, all the Indians, thenknown to 
 the whites, complained, according to the statements of the 
 early writers, that from the time the French came to trade 
 with them they began to decline and die off more rapidly 
 than ever before. It is stated by the early explorers, that 
 they would often fumigfate their heads to avoid infection 
 from the magic charms they believed the French carried 
 about their persons, secret poison, harmless to themselves, 
 but fatal to all Indians ; at other^times they would accuse 
 the whites of selling them poisonous provisio^is. "Jn 1634," 
 writes the French journalist, "the orphans were sadly nu- 
 merous, for after the Indians began to use whiskey they 
 died in great numbers." "Not so," said a chief in 1636, "It 
 is not your drink which kills us, but your writings ; for 
 since you have described' our country, our rivers, land and 
 forests, we are all dying. This was hot so before your com- 
 ing." Unhappy chief 1 Thou wert honest in thy convic- 
 tions, but erring in your judgment. Whiskey was the se- 
 cret poWr employed by the pale-faice to silently but effectu- 
 ally destroy thy race, as it h%s been from that day to this ; 
 and, as auxiliaries to that terrible destructive, the introduc- 
 tion of small-pox, scarlet fever, measles, mumps, whooping 
 coijgh,unknov<fn before, to the Indians, did their fatal work, 
 and hurried millions of that unfortunate people to premature 
 graves, often depopulating entire towns and villages, and 
 even tribes. These new and unaccountable diseases ap- 
 pearing among them with the coming of the whites, baffling 
 their utmost powers in the healing art, and which it ap- 
 peared no skill could obviate, nor remedy dispel the fearful 
 infection, they very naturally attributed -the cause of them 
 to the writings of the Pale-face, so mysterious and incom- 
 prehensible to them. While some tribes attributed their 
 mysterious dying to the angei*of the Gyeat Spirit, who thus 
 punished them for permitting the Pale-faces to "describe 
 their country, lands, rtvers and forests." 
 
 A Huron convert told the Jesuit priests in 1639, that it 
 was almost the universal opinion of his nation, that all the 
 professed friendship of the whites for the Indians was but 
 a blind to conceal their deep hidden hypocrisy and treachery; 
 and that they were really aiming to the total destruction of 
 the Indian^, in order to secure their country for themselves. 
 How truly prophetic, and how much more of truth than 
 
.HISTORY OELTHE INDIANS. SS 
 
 fiction were their rational conclusions, and was there , not 
 manifested also, in their just reasonirngfs, in reg^ard to the 
 secret designs of the whites, as far-sighted statemanship as 
 was ever exhibited by any nation of pfeo^jle that ever existed, 
 ancient or modern? Were the phillippics hurled against the 
 ambitious Macedonian king- and conqueror by the world- 
 wide renowned statesman and orator of ancient Athens more 
 prophetic than were the predictions of those ancient Hurons 
 of North America? "You will see," said a relative of the 
 above mentioned Huron convertt to whom he ■ spoke of the 
 kiq^d words and friendly actions of the Jesuit priests towards - 
 the Indians, '-your children die before your eyes; you your- 
 self will soon'followi and if we listen to them, we all' ;wiil go 
 the same way." "Whether it is the work of the'devil or the 
 providence of God," adds the annalist, "we dare not say, but 
 of five children in the family, but one remains. Soon after 
 that speech, one was carried off by fever; another has been 
 ill for months and cannot live; the oldest, who was one of our 
 pupils, a lad of fourteen, died very suddenly; an adopted 
 daughter has a dangerous cough; thfe youngest boy is dying 
 too, while the Lord has seen fit to afflict the wife also, who, 
 after losing four children, herself died of /small-pox. Truly 
 the! poor Indian may say Probasti me et cognovisti me." In 
 1657, Father Menard himself, while laboring among the Iro- 
 quois, wrote as follows: "The hostility to our faith and to our 
 persons which the Hurons had transmitted to tho^ abori- 
 gines, persuading them that we carried with us disease and 
 misfortune to every country we approached, caused our re- 
 ception to be cool and the presents to be spurned which we 
 offered as a help to th^ introduction of our religion." 
 
 Could the Indians be justly censured, with such potent 
 convictions resting upon their minds, that many, in wild de- 
 spair and in blind revenge, if, peradventure, they might be 
 able to turn back the fearful and destructive tide of disease 
 and death that was so effectually and rapidly destroying 
 them, by driving from their territories the pale-faces — 
 seemingly the author of all their misfortunes and woes? and 
 did not their hopes of success, their devotion to and love of 
 country, and their irresistible idealism which stimulates the 
 mighty effort, constitute the essence of true patriot- 
 ism? But alas, our prejudice denies it to them. 
 Wherefore? Because we, as a people, were blinded 
 by our imagined superiority over them, and pte-con- 
 ceived determination to convert their country to our own use 
 —every foot of it — as is so manifest to-day ; therefore refused 
 to become properly acquainted with them lest we might see 
 and learn of their many characteristic virtues.' Their coun- 
 
56 ' HISTORY OF THE INDIA1«. 
 
 try was the philosopher's stone to us — ^the true secret that 
 influenced our actions toward, and all our dealings with 
 them, both of a peaceful and hostile nature. It was the 
 sceptre that was to give us dominion over them, to their de- 
 struction, but our aggrandizement ; the key that would un- 
 lock to us a store-house of national power and personal 
 emolument,, opening unto us the untold ti'easures of the 
 western continent. Therefore, whatever in them appeared 
 strange and forbidding to our disordered imagination ; what- 
 ever did not agree in every punctilio to our self-conceited, 
 "high-born," civilized customs, we at once misjudged and 
 underrated, haughtily condemned and pushed aside as un- 
 worthy our refined attention. Hence it is a lamentable 
 truth, that all the impressions ever made by the whites upon 
 the Indians, with few exceptions, from their earliest associa- 
 tions to the present day, have been contrary to every thing that 
 had 4 tendency tosecure their confidence, maintain their friend- 
 ship, and induce them to forsake their primitive qustoms 
 and adopt those of ours ; and we have to-day the evidence i 
 on every side that the evil influences^placed before the In- 
 dians, and the baneful impressions niade upon their minds 
 by unprincipled and lawless white men^ who have always in- 
 fested their country, from the beginning, have, been deeply 
 and lastingly made, and have long ago assumed the form of a 
 justly bitter but silent hatred tnduring as time, and, it is to 
 be feared, forever to rankle in their breasts. This prejudice 
 against and hatred of all that appertains to the white race 
 has been widening and deepening from their first acquain- 
 tance with the whites, from whom they have received noth- 
 ing but sneers, cuffs and kickp-irom the alpha to the omega, 
 and now stands a yawning gulf between the confidence and 
 friendship of the red man and the white, so broad and deep 
 that all hope ol its being bridged seems nearly if not entirely 
 at an end. As the great and good Washington exclaimed, 
 when informed of the treason of Benedict Arnold, "Whom 
 can we trust?" so the Indians, long ago, have been entirely 
 justifiable to exclaim of tHe Vhite race "Whom can we 
 trust.?" Memory is, ahd always has befen, the Indian's onlv 
 record-book, their history of past events ; and upon its 
 pages, handed down through ages- from generation to g6ner- 
 yation, are truthfully, faithfully and lastingly recorded in the 
 archives of their respective nations, and the vicissitudes of 
 their individual lives. Its instructions they never forget, be 
 they of joy or sorrow, hope"br fear, rights or wrongs, bene- 
 fits or injuries ; and to-day, could the heart of every Indian, 
 whose blood is not contaminated with that of the white, male 
 or female, old or young, now living within the jurisdiction of 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS, 57 
 
 these United States as their miserable and down-trodden 
 wards, be read as an open scroll, I venture the assertion as 
 being within the line of truth, though ^road and inconsistent 
 as'it may seem, there would be found written, and with just 
 cause approyed and sustained by truth, against the white 
 race, , with pen dipped in the stream of as bitter hatred as 
 ever flowed through the human soul, "Tekel," They would 
 be superhuman if otherwise. But upon whom justly rests _ 
 the cause of all this? At whose door lies the fearful wrong? 
 "Who has been the first and last cause ? The voice of truth, 
 as potent as that which fell upon the ears of Israel's guilty 
 king, sustained now as then by the God of justice ancl truth, 
 comes also to' the whitie man, and declares in thunder tones, 
 "Thou art the man." 
 
 The era (1492) in which Columbus discovered the 
 western continent was unprecedented in the history of the 
 "world, awakening the lon|f slumbering ambition of man-kind 
 to an energy unknown before, and giving qrigin to num'ber- 
 less speculative enterprises, which resulted in a fierce strug- 
 gle among the different nations of the Old World to secure a 
 permanent foot-hold in the New, which offered such bright , 
 prospects for national power and glory and individual wealth, 
 and soon the representatives of the different maritime 
 powers were seen upon the wide and seemingly illimitable 
 field disputing, quarrelling and fighting for supremacy upon 
 the soil of the Native American, and adopting every art and 
 device that ingenuitv could suggest, right or wrong, so it did 
 prove but successful in preventing the opposite from attain- 
 ing its desired end, or displacing the fortunate one who had 
 secured a coveted prize. Among the most conspicuous 
 contestants were the irepresentatives of Spain, France, Eng- 
 4and and Holland; wlft) sent out corporations for colonizing 
 purposes, establishing them at different points according to 
 the inclinations of each, extending from the Great 
 Lakes of . the North to the Gulf in tte South; 
 each assuming the right based upon that of discovery 
 and occupancy to possess, hold, occupy and retain 
 any territory desired; but in reality, , more by -virtue of 
 professed intellectual superiority, over the Native Americans 
 and the actual advantages in the "munitions of war, than that 
 of any right accrued by^vii-tue of discovery; influencing, the 
 inexperienced and unlettered natives by cajolery and decep- 
 tion, and oft by compulsion, to dispose of their lands to them 
 at nominal prices, a mere pittance under the name-'of "pur- 
 chase," without any regard whatever to the claims, of truth, 
 justice and honor, or to tie validity of tlje Indians' title by 
 previous occupancyf ■ for* ages unknown., But after many 
 
58 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 years of disputation, wrang-ling- and fighting, the greatest 
 arena of contending disputants was cleared of all but two, 
 the French and Englis^, to whom was left the task of closing 
 the bloody drama; but into which th6 two hostile and con- 
 tending rivals continued to involve (ashad been^done from 
 the beginning of their feuds!) the bewildered Indians in their 
 battles with each other, and also arraying , them in deadly 
 strife and prolonged war-fare among themselves, tribe 
 against tritje, that they might thus weaken their numerical 
 strength, and thus the quicker and the more easily drive 
 them from their ancient possessions; a scheme artfully 
 adopted by us, after the dispossession of the English, in turn, 
 in 1776 and the handing over of the Indians to us, to complete 
 the destruction of that unfortunate race. 
 
 But truly has it been said, "The Father of Waters" has 
 two epochs, and each with a iiomance, the one as different 
 from the other as day and night. The first belongs to the 
 northern Mississippi, and the second to the southern ; the 
 former has its pastor, Father Marquette ;(the latter its nov- 
 elty, Hernando deSoto. France and England, long the am- 
 bitious rivals and zealous competitors for territorial acquisi- 
 tions throughout the inhabited globe, were the first and only 
 nations that disputed and contended for the entire posses- 
 sion of the North American continent at that early day ; re- 
 garding which it has also been said that religious enthusiasm 
 planted the Puritan colony on Plymouth Rock ; religious en- 
 thusiasm planted the Cross on the shores of the St. Law- 
 rence, among the Indians around Lake Superior, thence to 
 the Great Valley of the Mississippi. Thus France and her 
 Christianity stood in Canada and the Mississippi valley ; En- 
 gland and her Christianity stood on the hills of the Hudson 
 and in the Susquehanna valley, and invited the Indians each 
 to their respective civilization and Christianity, while bloody 
 conflicts and cruel scenes marked the footsteps of the intro- 
 duction of the new order of things among the confused In- 
 dians. 
 
 In J608, Quebec was founded by the intrepid explorer, 
 Sa^iuel Champlain, and whose name is perpetuated in that of 
 Lake Chatiipl^in. From Quebec the French Jesuits pene- 
 trated and explored the vast solitudes of the Canadian 
 wilderness 1 to the Great Lakes of the West, then a. terra 
 incognita, to the civilized vi^orld. Following in their wake 
 came the Enp['lish in their representatives, known as the 
 Pilgrims landing on the rock-bound coast of Massichusetts 
 in 1620, where the foot of the white man had never trod, 
 though the adventurous and indefatigable La Salle had ex- 
 plored the Ohio River as far down as the present city of 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS ' ,59 
 
 Louisville, Ky., many yeai's befoi-e, while other Fi-ench 
 adventurers and also Jesuit missionaries had penetrated the 
 wild regions around the Great Lakes, thpnce southward 
 along the various tributaries of the Mississippi which drained 
 the vast and wild region between, them and the Gulf of 
 Mexico far to the south; there-, they planted the Cross in 
 those seemingly illimitable forests, whose Solitudes never be 
 fore had been broken by the voice of anthems gang in praise 
 to the one and only true God, and there left behind them 
 many monuments scattered here and there, as memorials of , 
 their adventurous and perilous travels, vvhich, in, after years, ; 
 would remind the passer-by of the na!mes of La Salle, 
 Allouez, Marquette, Joliet, lleynard, and other kindred 
 spirits, whose energy and untiring efforts to .convert to- 
 their religious creed the various tribes of the Native Ameri-^ 
 cans, and to successfully and permanently secure all their 
 territories for the French, has no parallel in the atinals of 
 the world's history. Quebec soon became the great and 
 frequented mart of trade between the French and the 
 Indians, to which the various tribes came frohi far and near 
 in their canoes laden with the skins and furs of the 
 various wild animals that roamed in countless numbers 
 over the vast forests of those primitive days, to- 
 see the pale-face .strangers, and to exchange their furs 
 and skins for- the' new and^strange articles that seemed ' 
 so greatly to excel their own , comforts of life, 'a,nd especially 
 the white man's wonderful gun, which they had quickly 
 learned far surpassed^ their bows and arrows in killing game 
 and in destroying their enenjies. / , 
 
 In 1679, James Marquette, a French Jesuit, an^ Loui^ 
 Joliet, a French Canadian mei'chant, entered the Mississippi 
 river by way of the Wisconsin in two birch-bark canoes; 
 thence down the Mississippi to a point below the mouth of 
 the Arkansas. In 1682, Robert de Lasalle, a French Cana- 
 dian officer, entered the Mississippi from the Illinois river,, 
 thence up to its source, thence down to its mouth, and gave) 
 the name Louisiana to that vast territory in honbr of Louis 
 XIV, king of France. In 1683, Kaskaskia, in the- now state 
 of Illinois, was founded by the French; in 170i, 
 Detroit, in Michigan ; in i70S, Vincennes, in Indi- 
 ana. In 1699, the French, under the command of Le^ 
 moyne de Iberville, also a French Canadian, founded Biloxi, 
 in Mississippi, which was named after a clan of the aticietit 
 Choctavvs called Bulohchi (Hickory Bar), of whom I have al- 
 ready spoken. New Orleans vvas founded by the French 
 under Bienville, in 1718. Fort Rosalie among the Natchez 
 liidians, whidh was destroyed by them in 1729, who hid be- 
 
60 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 come exasperated by the oppressions of the French, of whom 
 I will again more particularly speak. In 1722, Bienville also 
 founded Mobile, in Alabama. A chain of forts, was then 
 built by the French between Montreal and New Orleans ; 
 the most important of which were, the one at Detroit, erect- 
 ed in 1701 ; the one at Niag-ara, 1726 ; and one at Crown, 
 Point, in 1730. However, De Monts, a French Huguenot, 
 established the first pertnanent French settlement upon the 
 continent, at Port Royal (now Annapolis) in Nova Scotia, call- 
 ing the territory Acadia. 
 
 February 10th, 1763, witnessed the total subversion of 
 French power in North America by the English, at which 
 time peace was made between the belligerents, England, 
 France and Spain, by which the ^^orth American continent 
 and-its native inhabitants were handed over to England. 
 
 Reader contemplate the following, which is only one of 
 thousands. In the "California Illustrated," a book written 
 in 1849, the Author, on page 111, says: "In passing through 
 a. slight gorge, I came upon the bodies of three Indians who 
 had been dead apparently about two days, each bearing the 
 mark of the unerring rifle; two of them were shot through 
 the head; the sight was a sad ^one, and gave rise to melan- 
 choly reflections, for here these poor beings are hunted and 
 shot down like wild beasts, and they no doubt fell by the 
 hand of the assassin, not for lucre but to satiate a feeling of 
 hate." "In an^djoining territory the Red Mail had a quiet 
 home; there he was always supplied with venison, their corn 
 fields ripened in autumn, their rude trap furnished clothing 
 for the winter, and in the spring they danced in praise of 
 the Great Spirit for causing flowe"rs to bloom upon the,graves 
 of ,their fathers, but the white. stranger came, and took 
 possession of their hunting grounds and streams, and har- 
 vested their corn. They held a council and decided that the 
 Great Spirit had sent the white stranger, and it would be 
 wrong not to give him all he wished; they collected their 
 traps, bows and arrows, and prepared to fall back in search 
 of new streams and hunting grounds; they paid the last visit 
 to the graves of their fathers. What were their feelings? 
 The moon threw a pale, dim light through the foliage, the 
 air breathed a mournful sigh as they reached the lonely 
 mound; the stout hearted .v/arrior drew his blanket to hide 
 his tears as he bowed down to commune for the last time 
 with the spirits that had so often blessed him in the chase; 
 his heart was too full, and h'e fell upon his face and wept 
 bitterly. But a last adieu; they rise, c^oss the arrows over 
 the grave, walk mournfully away; the Great Spirit give them 
 a new hunting ground, and the corn ripens on the plain, but 
 
 \ 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. , 61 
 
 soon the white strang-er conies and tells them to fall back. 
 They are at the base of the mountain; there are no hunting 
 grounds beyond; they hold a council ctnd dec de to defend 
 their homes against further, encroachments of the "white 
 stranger. The white was strong- and drove the Red Man 
 into the mountains, and for the crime of having tried to de- 
 fend their homes and families, they are {)laced under a ban, 
 and hunted down like beasts. No mafter where they are 
 fojind the crime of being a Red Man is a forfeiture, not only 
 of all right to prosperty but to life itself. 
 
 "Will not some p^iilanthropist rise above sectional preju- 
 dices and undertake the regeneration of this truly noble butv 
 dowi^-trodden people? Had I the, wealth of an Astor I would 
 not wish a better or nobler field for immortality." Will not 
 the philanthropists of^^teUnited States "rise above ''sec- 
 
 tional prejudices, ah^^i^i^rtake the regeneration of these 
 truly" infamous, Gifa-forfia.lf^^> white scoundrels, that so 
 curse our landP-ifl'I w6uld;'hBt*wish a better or nobler field 
 for immortality:"-'. ^'"■- ""'■'■'^-"'"'^ , ■■ . / " ' . ' 
 
 ^ "The first man I, net* after my; arrival in the interior 
 was an Oregoniah onyL ^'•iebacl!:,*at'med with a revolving ,fifle 
 in search of Indians; ''lieih^d Had a stolen, and pre- 
 
 sumed it was taken by an Iridiall ;he swbr^^he would shoot the 
 first red skin he met;' arid I had, no 'reason to doubt his 
 word; still the chances'wer'e ninety-nine out of a hundred, 
 that the horse was stolen by al white man, and the charges of 
 the white man upon'the Indian^ are like Nero's setting Rome 
 on fire and charging it upon Christiatis. I have no doubt the 
 three Indians above spoken of' were wantonly shot while 
 walking peacefully along their trail." But alas! who would 
 undertake the task of regenerating the harpies\that are, at 
 the present day, pursuirig the Indians, and howling at their 
 heels. - 
 
 Eugene V. Smalley, in his travels, says: "Near the 
 town (Benton) we visited the camp of a doz6n lodges of Pie- 
 gan Indians, who had come to. stay all winter for the sake of 
 such subsistence as they couldiget from the garbage barrels 
 of the citizens. A race of valorous hunters and warriors has 
 fallen so low as to be forced to beg at^back doors for kitchen 
 refuse. In one of the tepees in the Piegan camp there was 
 an affecting scene. A young squaw lay on a pile of rqbes 
 and blankets, hopelessly ill and given up to die. In the lines 
 of her face and the expression of her great black eyes there 
 were traces of beautyandrefinement not often seen in Indian 
 women. Crouched on the ground by h6r side sat her father, 
 an old blind man with long white hair and a strong, firm face 
 clouded with an expression of stolid grief. The Piegans 
 
* 62 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 and Blackfeet, who possess the great reservation north and 
 east of Fort Benton, have suffered g'rievously for want of 
 food, and hundreds have died from scrofula and other diseas- 
 es induced by insufficient nourishment. In fact the 
 government ha^ kept them in a state of semi-starva- 
 tion. Father Palladini told me that the speeches of 
 Indian chiefs at\ the council, where th^y told of their 
 suffering of their tribes and bared their emaciated arms 
 and breasts to show what a condition th§y had been brought 
 by hunger, were thrilling bursts of Indian oratory, even af- 
 fecting listeners who could not, as he did, understand the 
 spoken words." What a picture is here represented of our 
 policy toward the Indians I What an illustration of the de- 
 signs of that arch dissei&bler, the author of the "Severalty 
 Bill," whose venal soul plundei^s ^\^elpless people of the 
 , homes and little all through j«}rilfjil.';inisi-epresentation and 
 brazen-faced falsehood. - WJiat i,,true elucidation of the so- 
 called "Indian Problem" which jbur congress has so long 
 held up in imaginary suspensiod in mid air as a kind of Mo- 
 hamet's coffin ! ,, ;^, lil j,,j 1 .| 
 
 The ancient traditional history ' the Choctaws and Chick- 
 asaws, (the former signifying Separation and the latter Re- 
 bellion — separafion and rebellion from the Muskogees, now 
 known as Creeks, who, according to^tradition, were once of 
 one tribe before their migration from some distant country 
 far to the west, totheir ancient domain east of the Mississippi 
 river, which is of more than dubious authority) claims for 
 them a Mexican origin, and a migration from that country at 
 some remote period in the- past, under the leidership of two 
 brothers, respectively named: Chahtah and Chikasah, both I 
 noted and influential chiefs, to their possessions east of the 
 Mississippi. Adair, in his "American Indians," says: 
 •'The Choctaws and Chickasaws descended from a people 
 called Chickemacaws, who were among the first inhabitants 
 of the Mexican empire ; and at an ancient period wandered 
 east, with ^ tribe of Indians called Choocomaws ; and finally 
 crossed the Mississippi river, with a force of ten thousand 
 warriors." It is reasonable to suppose that the name 
 Choctaw has it's derivation from Choccomaw, and Chickasaw, 
 from Chickemacaw (both corrupted) ; as they claim, and no 
 doubt justly, the names Choctaw and Chickasaw to be their ' 
 ancient and true names. 
 
 Their tradition, in re|:ard to theip origin as related by 
 the aged Choctaws to the missionaries iri 1820, was in sub- 
 stance as follows: • In a remote period of the past their an- 
 cestors dwelt in a country far distant toward the setting 
 sun ; r.r.d be'^g conquered and greativ oppressed by a more 
 
\ 
 
 EQSTORY' OP THE INDIANS. 63 
 
 powerful people (the Spaniards under Cortez) resolved to 
 seek a country far removed from the possibility of their op- 
 pression. \ I " ; 
 
 A great national council was called, t8 which the entire 
 nation in one vast concourse- quickly responded. After 
 many days spent in grave deliberations upon the question in 
 which so much was involved, a day was finally agreed upon 
 and a place of rendezvous duly appoiriteji whence they should 
 bid a final adieu to their old homes and country and take up 
 •their line of march to seek' others, they knew not where. 
 When the appointed day arrived it fouild them at the desig- 
 nated place fully prepared and ready fdr the exodus under 
 the chosen leadership of two brothers, Chahtah ahd Chika- 
 sah, both equally renowned for their bravery and skill in 
 war and their wisdom and prudence in council ; who, as 
 Moses and Aaron led the Jews in their exodus from Egypt, 
 were to lead them from a land of oppression to one of peace, 
 prosperity and happiness. The evening before their de- 
 parture a "Fabussa" (pole, pro. as Fa-bus-sah) was firmly 
 set up in the ground at the centre point of their encamp- 
 ment, by direction of their chief medicine man and prophet, 
 whose wisdom in matters pertaining to things supernatural 
 was unquestioned and to whom, after many days fasting and 
 supplication, the Great Spirit had revealed that the Fabussa 
 would indicate on the following morning, the direction they 
 should march by its leaning ; a.nd, as the star led the Magi 
 to where the world's infant Redeemer and Savior sweetly re- 
 posed, so the leaning of the pole, on each returning morn, 
 would indica;te the direction they must travel day by day un- 
 til they reached the sought and desired haven ; when, oh the 
 following morn, it would there and then remain as erect as 
 it had been placed the evening before. At the early dawn of 
 the following morn many solicitous eyes were turned to the 
 silent but prophetic Fabussa, Lol It leaned to the east. 
 Enough. Without hesitation or delay the mighty host began 
 its line of march toward the rising sun, and followed each 
 day the morning directions ' given by "the talismanic pole, 
 which was borne by day at the head of the moving multi- 
 tude, and set up at each returning evening in the centre of 
 the encampment, alternately by the two renowned chiefs and 
 brothers, Chahtah and Chikasah. For weeks and months 
 they journeyed toward the east as directed by the undeviat- 
 ing fabussa, passing oyer wide extended plains and through 
 forests vast and abounding with gam^e of many varieties 
 seemingly undisturbed before by the presence of man, from 
 which their skillful hunters' bountifully supplied their daily 
 ^yzrA3. Gb^llv v'zxi^^ th-y h—z a:::p':^, zr. ^hclr :"i::rs 
 
64 ' HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 asylum, many parts of the country through which they 
 traveled, but were forbidden, as each returning- morn the un- 
 relenting pole stjll gave its silent but comprehended com- 
 mand: "Eastward and onward." After many months of 
 wearisome travel, sud^denly a vast body of flowing water 
 stretched its mighty arm athwart their path. With un- 
 feigned astonishment they gathered in groups upon its banks 
 and gazed upon its turbid waters. Never before had they 
 even heard of, or in all their wanderings stumbled upon 
 aught like this. Whence its origin? Where its terminus? 
 This is surely the Great Father the true source of all waters, 
 whose age is wrapt in the silence of the unknown past., ages 
 beyond all calculation, and as they then and there named it 
 "Misha fcfipokni" (Beyond Age, whose source and terminus' 
 are unknown). \ 
 
 Surely a more appropriate, beautiful and romantic name, 
 than its usurper Mississippi, without any signification. But 
 who can tell when the waters of Misha ,Sipokni first 
 
 vfound their way from the little Itasca lake hidden in its 
 northerly home, to the far away gulf amid the tropics of^ the 
 south? Who when those ancient Choctaws stood upon its 
 banks and lis'tened to its murmurings Which alone disturbed 
 the silence of the vast wilderness that stretched away on 
 every side, could tell of its origin and over what mighty dis- 
 tances it rolled its muddy waters to their ultimate destiny? 
 And who today would presume to know or even conjecture, 
 
 "through what mysterious depths its surging currents strug- 
 gle ere they plunge into the southern gulf? But what /how 
 says their dumb talisman? Is Misha Sipokni to be the 
 terminus of their toils? Are the illimitable forests that so 
 lovingly embraced in their wide extended arms its restless 
 waters to be their future homes? Not so. Silent and motion- 
 less, still as ever before, it bows to the east and its mandate 
 "Onward, beyond Misha Sipokni" is accepted without a 
 murmur; and at once they proceed to construct canoes and 
 rafts by which, in a, few weeks, all we?re safely landed upon 
 its eastern banks, whence again was resumed their eastward 
 march, and so continued until they stood upon the western 
 banks of the Yazoo.river and once more encamped for the 
 night; and, as had been done for many months before, ere 
 evening began to unfold her curtains and twilight had 
 spread o'er all her mystic light, the Fabussa (now truly 
 their Delphian oracle) was set up; but ere the morrow's sun 
 had plainly lit up the eastern horizon, many anxiously watch- 
 ing eyes that early rested upon its straight, slender, silent 
 form, observed it stood erect as when set up the evening be- 
 fore. And then was borne upon that morning breeze 
 
HISTORY OF THE INJUNS. ' , 65 
 
 throughout the vast sleeping encampment, the joyful accla- 
 mation, "Fohah hupishno Yakl Fohah hUpishno Yak! .(pro- 
 as Fo-hah, Rest, hup-ish-noh, we, all of us, Ykk, here.) 
 
 Now their weary pilgrimage .was endedi and flattering 
 hope portrayed their future destiny in, the bright colors of 
 peace, prosperity and happiness. Then, as commemorative- 
 of this great event in their national history, they threw up a 
 large mound 'embracing three acres of land and rising 
 forty feet in a conical form, with a deep hole about ten feet, 
 in diameter excavated on the top, and all enclosed by, a ditch 
 encompassing nearly twenty acres. After its completion, it 
 was discovered not to be erect but a little leaning, and they 
 named it Nunih (mountain or mound, Waiyah, leaning, pro. as, 
 Nunih Wai-yah). This relic of the remote past still stands half 
 buried in the accumulated rubbish of years unknown, dis- 
 figured also by the desecrating, touch of time which has 
 plainly left his finger marks of decay }ipbn it blotting out 
 its history, with all others of its kind, tjiose. memorials of 
 ages pasH; erected by the true Native American, about which 
 so much has been said in conjecture and so much written in 
 speculation, that all now naturally turn to anything from 
 their modern conjectures, and speculations v^ith much doubt 
 and great misgivings. ' ' 
 
 Several years afterward, according to the tradition of' 
 the ChoctawH as narrated to the missionaries, the two, 
 brothers, still acting in the capacity of chiefs,, disagreed 
 in regard to some national question, and, as Abraham sug- 
 gested to Lot the propriety of a separation, so did Chikasah 
 propose to Chahtah; but not with that unselfishness that 
 Abraham manifested to Lot; since Chikasah, instead of ' 
 giving to Chahtah the choice of directions, proposed that: 
 they should leave it to a game of chance, to which Chahtah!. 
 readily acquiesced. Thus it was played: They stood fac- 
 ing each other, one to the east and the other to the west, 
 holding a straight pole, ten or fifteen feet in length, in an 
 erect position between them with one end resting on the 
 ground; ind both were to let go of the pole at the same, 
 instant by a pre-arranged signal, and the direction in whicb 
 it fell was to decide the direction in which . Chikasah was to-. 
 take. If it fell to the north, ChikasE^h and his adherents, 
 were to occupy the northern portion of the country, and 
 Chahtah and his adherents, the southern; but if it fell to the 
 south, then Chikasah, with his followers, was to possess, 
 the southern portion of the country, and Cha.htah with his, 
 the northern. The game was played, and the pole decreed 
 that Chikasah should take the northern part of their^hi^n 
 vast and magnificent territory. Thus they were divided 
 
66 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 and became two separate and distinct tribes, each of whom 
 assumed and ever afterwards retained the name of their 
 respective chiefs, Chahtah and Chikasah. The ancient 
 traditions of the Cherokees, as well as the ancient traditions 
 of the Muscogees (Creeks) and the Natchez also point back 
 to Mexico as the country from which they, in a period long- 
 past, moved to their ancient possessiphs east of the Missis- 
 sippi river. But Whether they preceded the Choctaws 
 and Chickasaws or came after, their traditions are silent. 
 
 Milfort, (p. 269) says : Big Warrior, chief of the Chero- 
 Ifees, as late as 1822, not only confirms their tradition that 
 Mexico was their native country, but goes back to a inore 
 remote period for their origin and clarms that his ancestors 
 came from Asia ; crossing Behring Straits in their canoes ; 
 thence down the Pacific coast to Mexico; thence to the coun- 
 try east of the Mississippi river, where they were first 
 known to the Europeans. 
 
 Mr. Gaines, United States agent to the Choctawsin 1810, 
 asked Apushamatahaubi (pro. Ar-push-ah-ma-tar-hah ub-ih), 
 the most renowned chief of the Choctaws since their acquain- 
 tance with the white race, concerning the origin of his peo- 
 ple, who replied: "A hattaktikba bushiraioktulla hosh hopaki 
 fehna moraa ka minti" (pro. as Arn (my) hut-tark-tik-ba 
 (forefather) hiish-ih ai-o-kah-tullah (the west) mo-mah (all) 
 meen-tih (came>ho-par-kih (far) feh-nah (very)). And the 
 same response was always given by all the ancient Choctaws 
 living east of the Mississippi river, when the inquiry was 
 made of them, whence their origin? By this they only re- 
 ferred to the country in which their forefathers long dwelt 
 prior to their exodus to the east of the Mississippi river; as 
 Ihey also had a tradition that their forefathers come from a 
 country beyond the "Big Waters" far to the northwest, 
 crossing a large body of water in their canoes of a day's 
 travel, thence down the Pacific coast to Mexico, the same as 
 the Cherokees. In conversation with an aged Choctaw in 
 the year 1884, (Robert Nail, along known friend,) upon the 
 subject, he confirmed the tradition by §tating that his peo- 
 ple first came from Asia by way of the Behring Straits. He 
 was a man well versed in geography, being taught in bov- 
 hood by the missiojiaries prior to their removal from their 
 eastern homes to their present abode north of Texas. The 
 Muscogees, Shawnees, Delawares, Chippeways, and other 
 tribes also have the same traditions pointing beyond Behring 
 Straits to Asia as the land whence their forefathers came in 
 ages past. Some of their traditions state, that they crossed 
 the Strait on the ice, the Chippeways for one ; but the most, 
 according to their traditions, crossed in their canoes. But 
 
\ 
 
 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 67 
 
 ■that the ancestors of the North American Indians came at 
 some unknown period in the remote past, from Asia to the 
 North American continent, there can be no doubt. Their 
 traditions, pointing back to ancient historical events,' and 
 many other things, though vague by the mists of ageg past, 
 yet interestingly strange JFrom proximity to known historical 
 truths^ Noah, who lived 3S0 years after the flood, which oc-- 
 curred 1656 years from the creation of man, or 2348 B. C, 
 divided the earth, according to general opinion, among his 
 three sons. To Shem, he gave Asia; to Ham j Africa, and to 
 Japheth, Europe, whose posterity are described occupying 
 chiefly the western and northern regions (Gen. x, 3-5); this 
 well accords with the etymology of the name, which signifies 
 widely spreading ; and how wonderfully did Providence en- 
 large the boundaries of Japheth! His posterity diverged 
 eastward and westward, from the original Settlement in Ar- 
 menia, through the whole extent of Asia north of the great 
 range of Taurus distinguished by the general namesof Tarta- 
 rs and Siberia as far as the Eastern Ocean: and, in process of 
 time, by an easy passage across Behriiig Straits, over the en- 
 tire continent; and they spread in the opposite direction, 
 throughout the whole of Europe, to the Atlantic Ocean ; thus 
 literally encompassing the earth, within the precincts of 
 the northern temperate zone ; while the war-like genius of 
 this hardy hunter race frequently led them into the settle- 
 ments, and to dwell in the "tents of Shem," v^hose pastoral 
 occupations rendered them more inactive, peaeieable, and un- 
 war-like. 
 
 There is much proof in favor of the belief that the Choc- 
 taws, Chickasaws, Cherokees and Muscogees, were living in 
 Mexico when Cortez overthrew the Aztec dynasty. 
 
 'But heavily has the hand of time, with its weight of 
 y^ars, rested upon the descendants of the people over whom 
 the two brothers, Chahtah and. Chikasah swayed the 
 sceptre of authority as chiefs, counselors and warriors, in 
 the unknown ages of the past; and from the time of their 
 traditional migration to that of their first acquaintance with 
 the White Race, what their vicissitudes and mutations; what 
 their joys and sorrows; what their hopes and fears; what 
 their lights and shadows, during the long night of historical 
 darkness, was known to them alone, and with them has long 
 been buried in the oblivion of the hidden past, together with 
 that of their entire race. Truly, their legends, their songs 
 and romances, celebrating their exploits, would form, if but 
 known, a literature of themselves; and though their ghosts 
 still ride through the forests and distant echoes of them are 
 still heard in vague tradition, yet they afford but a slender 
 
68 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 basis for a history for this broad fabric of romance, while 
 around them still cljuster all those wonderful series of myths, 
 which have spread over the land and assumed so many 
 shapes. But what a volume of surpas!sing romance; of fon- 
 dest hopes, of blighted aspirations; of glorious enthuiasms; 
 of dark despair, and of touching- pathos, would their full 
 history make? THey owned this vast continent, and had 
 possessed it for ages exceeding in time the ability of the 
 human mind to conceive; and they too speak of the long in- 
 fancy of the human race; of its slow advance in culture; of 
 its triumphs over obstacles, and of thje final appearance of 
 that better day, when ideas of truth, justice, and that ad- 
 vanced stage of enlightenment h^d been reached wherein we 
 speak of man as civilized. They were of a cheerful and joy- 
 ous disposition, and of a kindly nature, the croaking and 
 snarlings of ignorance, and prejudice to the contrary not- 
 withstanding. Their civilization has been gi-ossly under- 
 estimated. We have unjustly contemplated them to a ridicu- 
 lous extent through our own selfish ami narrow contracted 
 spectacles, and have so loudly talked of and expatiated upon 
 their forests, that we have forgotten their cornfields; and 
 repeatedly spoken of their skill as hunters, until we have 
 overlooked their labors as herdsmen; while, at the same time, 
 it has been customai-y every where to4ook down upon them 
 with emotions of contempt and to decry their habjts and 
 customs. I do not deny the existence of blemishes in many 
 of their characteristics; nor deny tha.t superstitions and 
 erroneous opinions were pr^evalent. At which we have assumed 
 to be greatly horrified; yet, do condemn the modern writers 
 for their want of judgment on this point, and their unreason- 
 able severity in their condemnation of the Indians, in whom 
 they profess to have discovered so manv defects without a 
 redeeming virtue; and their disregard of the truth, that, to 
 him alone who is without sin is given the right to cast the 
 first stone. Therefore, how could it be otherwise than that, 
 concerning the dealings of the White Race with the Red, 
 there is a sad, fearful and revolting story to be told; while 
 losing ourselves in the wild revelry of imagination, we dream 
 of the time when our civilization and Quixotic ideas of human 
 liberty shall embrace the entire world in its folds. 
 
 The Choctaws were first made known to the European 
 world by the journalists of that memorable adventurer, 
 Hernando De Soto, who invaded their territory October' 
 1540, and introduced the civilized (so-called) race of man- 
 kind to the Choctaws in the following manner: A manly 
 young Indian of splendid proportions, and with a face ex- 
 tremely attractive and interesting, visited Uc Soto after he 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 69 
 
 had left Tallase. He was the son of Tuscaloosa /corruption 
 of the Choctaw words Tushka, warrior, Lusa, black), a re- 
 nowned chief whose territories extended to the distant 
 Tombigbee in the west. (Tombigbec'is a corruption of the 
 Choctaw words Itombi, box, ikbi, maker), a name given to a 
 white man, it is said, who, at an early day, settled on the 
 banks of the river and made boxes for the Choctaws, in 
 which were plaqed the bones of their dead,'which will be par- 
 ticularly noticed elsewhere. , 
 
 The young warrior bore an invitation froln his father 
 to De Soto to visit him at his capital. The next day De Soto, 
 advancing to within six miles of where the great chief await- 
 ed him, made a halt, and sent Louis de Mascosso with fifteen 
 horsemen to inform Tush ka Lusa of his near approach. 
 Mascosso and his troopers soon appeared before Tush ka 
 Lusa, who was seated upon an eminence commanding a 
 broad and deliglitful view. He was a man of powerful stat- 
 ure, muscular limbs, yet of admirable proportions, with a 
 countenance grave and seVere, yet handsome. When De 
 Soto arrived Tush ka\Lusa arose and advanced to meet him 
 ■with a proud and haughty air, and said : "Great Chief ; I re- 
 ceive you as a brdther, and welcome you to my country. I am 
 ready to comply with your requests." After a few prelimi- 
 naries, in company with Tush ka Lusa and his followers, De 
 Soto took up his line of march for Mobila the capital of the 
 mighty chief. (Mobila is a corruption of the two Choctaw 
 ■words moma, all, binah, a lodge, literally a lodge or epcamp- 
 ment for all.) 
 
 On the third day of their march from Piache, (a corrup- 
 tion of the Choctaw woi-'d Pi-a-chih, to care' for us), they 
 passed through many populous towns, well stored with corn, 
 beans and other provisions. On the foui^-th morning, De 
 Soto, with a hundred cavalry and as many infantry, made a 
 forced march with Tush, ka Lusa in the direction of Mobila, 
 leaving Mascosso to bring up the rear. At eight o'clock the 
 same morning, October 18th, 1540, De Soto and Tush ka 
 Lusa reached the capital. It stood by the side of a large 
 river, upon a. beautiful plain, and consisted of eighty hand- 
 some houses, each large enough to contain a thousand men, 
 and all fronting a large public square. Dodge says in his 
 book styled "Our Wild Indians" that "The aboriginal in- 
 hjabitants of the North American continent, have never at any 
 time exceeded half a million souls;" yet according to De 
 Soto's journalists who w;ere with him in his memorable raid, 
 Mobila alone, "consisted of eighty handsome houses, each 
 large enough to contaiiji a thousand men;" and if each house 
 contained Dodge's "several families consisting of men, with 
 
70 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 two or three wives, and children of all ages and sexes, occp 
 py for all purposes one single lodge of 12 or 15 feet in 
 diameter what must have been the number of indabitants 
 in, Mobila with "80 handsome houses, each large enough to 
 contain a thousand men" with two, three, or more wives, 
 and children occupying "for all purposes," a space only "12 
 or IS feet in diameter"? The reader can make the calcula- 
 tion at his own leisure ; though it seems Mobila alone con- 
 tained over.half the number of souls that Dodge allows for 
 the entire continent, "at one time." 
 
 A high wall surrounded the town, made of immense 
 trunks of trees set close together and deep in the grouWd, 
 and made strong with heavy cross timbers interwoven with 
 large vines. A thick mud plaster, resembling*i handsome 
 masonry, concealed the wood work, while port-holes were 
 abundant, together with towers, capable of holding eight 
 men each, at the distance of fifteen paces apart. There 
 were two gates leading into the town, one on the east, the 
 other on the west. De Soto and Tush ka Lusa were es- 
 corted into the great public square \^ith songs and chants, 
 and the dancing of beautiful Indian girls. They alighted 
 from their horses, and were given seats under a canopy of 
 state. Having remained seated for a ^hort time, Tush ka. 
 Lusa now requested that he should no longer be held as a 
 hostage; to which De Soto giving no heed, the indignant 
 chief at once arose and walked off with an independent atti- 
 tude to where a group of his warriors stood. De Soto had 
 scarcely recovered from his surprise at the independent con- 
 duct of Tush ka Lusa, when Jean Ortez followed the chief 
 and stated that breakfast awaited bim at De Soto's table ; 
 but he refused to return, and added, "If your chief knows 
 what is best for him, he will immediately tak^ his troops out 
 of my territdry." At this juncture De Soto secretly sent word 
 to his men to be prepared for an attack. Then, hoping to 
 prevent an attack until he could again get in possession of 
 the chief, De Soto advanced toward him with assumed smiles 
 and words of friendship, but Tush ka Lusa scornfully 
 turned his back upon him, and was soon hidden among the 
 multitude of now highly excited warriors. Just then a warrior 
 rushed out of a house, denouncing the Spaniards as robbers 
 and murderers and declared that they should nolonger impose 
 on their chief, by holding him as a prisoner. HIb words so en- 
 raged Baltaserde Gallagas, that he cut the warrior In twain with 
 one sweep of his broad sword. At the sight of their slain 
 vir^rrior, the Choctaws. with their defiant war-whoop, at once 
 rushed upon De Soto and his men. De Soto, placing himself 
 8t the head- of his men, fighting and retreating, 
 
HISTORY OF THE, JNDJANS,, ' 71, 
 
 slowly made his way out of i, the,,, /town into, itlie 
 plain; and continued ' to retreat, until.' he, ,,had 
 reached a considerable distance, upon the , plain. In the- r 
 mean time the troopers rushed to secure tl^eiri horses, which 
 had been tied outside of the walls. The Chqcta.ws at once 
 knocked the chains from the i hands and feet of the Indian 
 prisoners whom-De Soto had brought with him, giving' theni, 
 weapons bade them help destroy the perfidious strangers. In> 
 the first rush the Choctaws killed five, of the Spaniards, who^ 
 had been left outside of the walls, and.i were loudly exulting' 
 over their seeming good fortune in dense; masses before the 
 gate. At that moment, De Soto with his cavalry, closely 
 followed by his infantry, made a fearful chairge upon the 
 disordered mass of the Choctaws, who were still on the out- 
 side of the enclosures, and with a terrible slaughter drove 
 them back into the town. Immediately the Choctaws. 
 rushed to the port-holes and towers, and hiirled clouds of ar- 
 rows and spears upon the Spaniards, and again drove them, 
 from the walls. Seeing the Spaniards again retreat, agfain, 
 the Choctaws rushed through the gate and fearlessly attacked 
 the Spaniards fighting them hand to hand and face to face 
 Three long hours did the battle rage, the Spaniards now re- 
 treating, then the Choctaws. Like a spectre De Soto seemed, 
 every where hewing down on the right and left, as if /his. 
 arm could never tire. That sword, which, had, been so {Mtea 
 stained with the blood of the South American, was now re^, 
 with that of the North American, a still, braver race. Above, 
 the mighty din was heard the voice of Tu^hka Lusa en- 
 couraging his warrior's ; his tomahawk, wielded by his mus- 
 cular arm, ascended and descended in rapid strokes, like a 
 meteor across a scarry sky. Bvti could the feeble bow and 
 irrow and the tomahawk avail against the huge lance and 
 broad-sword? What the unprotected body of the Choctavir 
 warrior against the steel clad body of the Spanish soldier? 
 At length the Choctaws were forced to make a permanent re- 
 treat within the enclosure of their town, closing the gates 
 after them; and at the same time the Spaniards made'a des>- 
 perate charge against the gates and walls, but were met 
 with showers of arrows and other missiles.' But the infant- 
 ry, protected by their bucklers, soon hewed the gates to 
 pieces with their battle-axes, and rushed into the town, while 
 the cavalry remained on the outside to cut to pieces all •wh(> 
 might attempt to escape. Then began a carnage too awful 
 to relate. The Choctaws fought in ihe streets, in the 
 square,' from the house top, and walls; and though the 
 ground was covered with their dead and dying, .relatives a,nd 
 fnends, still nonliving' one entreated f 61; t|tfa»:ter. Hotter 
 
'72 HISTORY OF'THE INDIANS. 
 
 and hotter, and more bloody waxed the desperate conflict. 
 Often the Choctaws drove the Spaniard's out of the town, but 
 to see them return again with demoniac fury. To such a 
 crisis had the battle now arrived, that there could be no idle 
 spectators ; and now were seen women and girls contending 
 side by side with the husbands, fathers and brothers, and 
 fearlessly sharing in the dangers and in the indiscriminate 
 slaughter. At length the houses were setson fire, and the 
 wind blew the smoke and flames in all directions adding hor- 
 ror to the scene. The flames ascended in mighty volumes. 
 The din of strife began to grow fainter. The sun went 
 down, seemingly to rejoice in withdra>ving from the sicken- 
 ing scene. Then all was hushed. Mobila was in- ruins, 
 and her people slain. For nine long hours had the battlfe 
 raged. Eighty-two Spaniards were killed and forty-jiye 
 horses. But alas, the poor Choctaws, who participated in 
 the fight were nearly all slain. 
 
 Garcellasso asserts that eleven thousand were slain; 
 while the "Portuguese Gentleman" sets the number at twenty 
 five hundred within the town alone. Assuming a point be- 
 tween the two, it is reasonable to conclude that six thousand 
 were killed in and outside of the town. Tushka Lusa 
 perished with his people. After the destruction of Mobila, 
 De Soto remained a few days upon tbe plains around the 
 smoking town ; sending out foraging paj-ties, who found the 
 neighboring villages well stocked with provisions. In all 
 these foraging excursions, females of great beauty were 
 captured, and added to those taken at the close of the battle. 
 On Sunday the 18th of November, 1540, this monster and 
 his fiendish crevv look their departure from the smouldering 
 ruins of Mobila, and its brave but murdered inhabitants; and 
 with the poor Mobjla girls, at whose misfortunes humanity 
 weeps, resumed thejr westward march." 
 
 Thus the Europeans introduced themselves to the Native 
 Americans negirly four centuries ago as a race of civilized and 
 Christian people, but proving themselves to be a race of 
 fiends utterly, void of every principle of virtue known to man. 
 And thus the Native Americans introduced themselves to the 
 Europeans as a race unknown to civilization and Christianity, 
 yet proving themselves possessed of many virtues that adorn 
 man, together with a spirit of as true and noble patriotism, 
 martyrs upon the altar of liberty, that has never been sur- 
 j)a8sed. 
 
 I challenge history to show a nation whose people ever 
 displayed a more heroic courage in defense of their country 
 •and homes than did Tushka Lusa and his brave people in 
 defending their town Mama-binah. They exposed their 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' 73 
 
 naked breasts to the feeeii lances and swords of those iron-clad 
 Spaniards ■v^ith but stone and bone-tipped spears'and the 
 feeble bow and arrow, which were but as tdy pistols agpainst 
 the deadly Winchester rifle of the present day; and heroic- 
 ally stood face to face with their terrible foes .with their frail 
 weapons and disputed every inch of ground, and yielded 
 only when none was left to fig-ht. That they should have 
 killed eighty two of the Spaniards with their feeble weapons 
 is truly astonishing, proving conclusively that had they been 
 on equal footing with the Spaniards, not a Spaniard would 
 have survived to tell the tale of their cotnplete destruction. 
 
 That the Mobilians, as they have befen called by the early 
 writers, were a clan of the ancient Choctaws there can be no 
 doubt whatever The early French colonists established in 
 the south under Bienville called the Choctaws, Mobilians 
 and Pafalaahs (corruption of the Choctaw words pin, our, 
 okla, people, falaiah, tall), and also called the Ch'ickasaws 
 Mobilians ; they also state that the Choctaws, Pifalaiahs or 
 more properly, Hottak falaiahs (long or tall men) and Mobi- 
 lians s'poke the same language. The present city of Mobile 
 in Alabama was named after the Mobila "Iksa," 9r clan of 
 Choctaws by Bienville at the time he laid its foundation. 
 Moma binah, or Mobinah (from which Mobile is derived) and 
 Pifalaiah are pui-e Choctaw ys^ords. According to the ancient 
 traditions of the Choctaws, and to which the aged Choctaws 
 now living still affirm, their people were, in the days of the 
 long past, divided into two great Iksas ; one was Hattak i ho- 
 lihtah (Pro. har-tark, men, i, their holihta, ho-lik-tah, 
 fenced ; i, e. Their men fortify). The other, Kashapa okla 
 <as Ka-shar-pau-oke-lah): Part people, i. e. A divided people", 
 The two original clans, subsequently divided into six clans, 
 were named as follows: Haiyip tuk lo hosh, (The two 
 lakes.) Hattak falaiah (as, Har-tark fa4ai-yah hosh. The 
 long nian or men. Okla hunnali hosh (as Oke-lah huli-har- 
 lih hosh. People sixthe. Kusha (Koon-shah) Being broken. 
 Apela, (A help.) Chik a sah ha, (A Chckasaw.) 
 
 In 1721, a remnant of the Mobilians were living at the 
 junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, but finally 
 united with other clans of the Choctaws, their own people, 
 and thus became extinct as an iksa. The laws of the great 
 Iksas or families, Hattak i holahta and kash ap a okla, for- 
 bade the marriage of any person, either male or female, 
 belonging to tl^e same clan; which, as the laws 6f the Medes 
 and Persians, were unchangeable ; and to this day, the same 
 laws relating to marriage are stirictly observed. 
 
 From the destruction of Mobila by ' De Soto, a long, star- 
 less night of nearly two centuries throws its impenetrable 
 
74 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 veil over the Chocta-\Vs shrouding their;history in the oblivion 
 of the past. But that they, with othersouthern tribes, 'were 
 a numerous and also an agricultural people as far back as 
 the fifteenth century there is no doubt ; though agricultural 
 to a small extent in comparison with the whites; yet to a 
 sufficient degree to satisfy the demands ' of any people to 
 who avarice was an entire stranger, and who adhered to the 
 maxim "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." 
 
 When De Soto passed through Georgia, his route was 
 lined with towns, villages and hamlets, and many ^own fields 
 which reached from one to the other. The numerous log 
 pens were full of corn, while acres of that which Was grow- 
 ing bent to the warm rays of the sun and rustled in the 
 breeze. "On the 18th of September, 1540, De Soto reached th^ 
 town of Tallase, a corruption of the Choctaw words Tuli^ 
 rock, and aisha, abound, i. e. the place of rocks." 
 
 It stood upon a point of land almost surrounded by a 
 main river. Extensive fields of corn reached up and down 
 the banks. On the opposite side were Other towns, skirted 
 with rich fields laden with heavy ears of corn. On the 
 third day the of march from Piache, they passed through 
 many populous towns, well stored with corn, beans, pump- 
 kins, and other provisions." 
 
 But the six great southern tribes, Choctaws, Chickasaws, 
 Cherokees, Muscogees, Seminoles and Natchez possessed 
 too grand a country not to attract the eyes of the fortune 
 hunters of all Europe, and excite their cupidity to the high- 
 est degree; therefore, the French in Lousiana, the Span- 
 iards in Florida, and the English in Virginia and the Caro- 
 linas, early sought to establish a foothold in the territories 
 of those warlike and independent triBes by securing, each 
 for himself, their trade, with a vieiv of ultimately conquering 
 tbepi and thus getting possession of their territories and 
 country. As early as 1670 the English 'traders and emissa- 
 ries had also found their way to the Choctaws, Chickasaws 
 and Muscogees; and but few years had passed before their 
 designs, together with those of the French and Spaniards, 
 were plainly manifested. 
 
 By each exciting the Indians and influencing them to 
 drive the others from their territories; each hoping thus to 
 ultimately secure these regions for their own country and 
 their personal interests. As the Frencli had artfully gained 
 and held the friendship and confidence of the Choctaws, so 
 had the English secured and held that of the Chickasaws; 
 hence those two brave, and then powerful tribes, were in- 
 duced tp ma}ce frequent wars upon each other, and thus 
 each foolishly but ignorantly furthering the designs of their 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS 75. 
 
 ( 
 
 mutual foes against thelnselves, the Choctaws weakening and , 
 destroying the Chickasaws for the benefit Of the French 
 alone, and the Chickasaws for the benefit alone of the Eng- 
 lish; neither caring a flg Jfor either the. Choctaw or Chicka-, 
 saws, only so far as prosecuting their designs the oneagainsti 
 ■the other; each with the hope of drivitig' thje other! out 
 of the country, and then, being enabled easily tO subjugate.' 
 the Indians by their weakened condition, they would ,Soott 
 secure their country; therefore; the more Itidians killed; no« 
 matter by whom or by what means, the better; iThus were 
 the grasping hands of the two ijnscrupulous rivals mani-' 
 fested as long as they possessed any power or authority upon 
 the North American continent now forming the United 
 States. ■'' ' , : '.^ . -• 
 
 In 1696, Bienville convened the chiefs of the Choctaws- 
 and Chickasaws in council, that he might conciliate their good- 
 will by presents; and, v with a view of impressing them with 
 his power and greatness by an imposing display, he also- 
 called together all the colonists within bis reach; but his effort 
 to impress the Choctaws and Chickasaws with an idea of hi& 
 greatness proved more humiliating than flattering to the 
 pride of Bienville, asr they manifested to him their utter con- 
 tempt of such a farcical evidence, of power and g'reatness, by 
 propounding a question to him, I through one of their chiefs,^ 
 which was a humiliating proof of the low estimation in which 
 they held him as well as the entire French people; it was, "If 
 his people at home were as numerous as those who had set- 
 tled inxtheir country"? In reply, Bienville, who had learned 
 to speak their language to some extent, attempted to describe 
 to them' by various comparisons the great numbers and 
 power of the French. But still the chiefs proved not only to 
 be doubting Thomases, but wholy established in the belief 
 that all he had said was false, by finally propounding the 
 following questions: "If your countrymen are as thickj as you 
 say, on their native soil as the leaves on the trees of our 
 forests, why have they not sent more of their warriors here 
 to avenge the death of those whom we have slain in battle? 
 "When they have the power to avenge their death and then fail 
 do so, is an evidence of great cowardice or a mean spirit. 
 And why is it that the places of the strong and brave soldiers 
 that first came with vou, but now dead, are filled by so many- 
 little, weak and bad looking men, and even boys? If your 
 nation is so great and your people so numerous, they would 
 not thus act, and we believe that our white brother talks with 
 a forked tongue," Thus was Bienville fully convinced that 
 the Choctaws and Chickasaws did not tremble through fear 
 of his boasted power; and that they also well knew that he 
 
76 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 I 
 
 only had about fifty soldiers at his command, and that his 
 attempted display of power had but convinced them of his 
 weakness. And had the Choctaws and Chickasaws been so 
 disposed, they could, with a little hajidful of their warriors, 
 have wiped out the French colony, Bienville, soldiers and all. 
 
 In 1702, Bienville, then commander of the French at Mo- 
 bile, secretly sent out a small party to the Choctaws and 
 Chickasaws to solicit their friendship, and thus secure their 
 trade. A few chiefs returned with the party to Mobile, 
 whom Bienville welcomed and entertained with affected 
 friendship and assumed hopitality, bestowing presents and 
 soliciting their friendship; yet, "In January, 1704," says 
 Barnard de la Harpe, pp. 35, 83, "Bienyjlle induced several 
 war parties of the Choctaws to invade the country of the In- 
 dian allies of the English, and having taken several scalps, 
 they brought them to Bienville, who rewarded them satisfac- 
 torily;" thus involving the Choctaws, whose interests he pro- 
 fessed to have so much at heart, in dtistructive warfare so 
 greatly detrimental to their national interests ; and proving 
 the shallowness of his professed friendship for the Indians 
 and the perfidy of his nature, in a letter to the French min- 
 ister, October 12, 1708, in which he suggested the propriety 
 of the French colonists in North America, being allowed the 
 privilege of sending Indians to the West India Islands to be 
 exchanged as slaves for negroes, and asserting that "those 
 Islanders would give two negroes for three Indians." 
 
 There was a tradition of the Choctaws related to the 
 missionaries over seventy-five years ago by the old warriors 
 of the Choctaws of that day, who for many years before had 
 retired from the hardships of the war-path, which stated 
 that a two years' war broke out between their nation and 
 the Chickasaws, over a hundred years before (about 1705) 
 the advent of the missionaries among them, resulting in the 
 loss of many warriors on both sides and finally ending in the 
 defeat of the Chickasaws ; whereupon peace was restored to 
 the mutual gratification of both nations wearied with the 
 long fratricidal strife. This war had its origin as the tra- 
 dition afiirms, in an unfortunate affair that occurred in Mo- 
 bile, (then a little French trading post) between a party of 
 Chickasaw warriors (about seventy) who had gone there 
 for the purpose of trade, and a small band of Choctaws who 
 had preceded them on the same business. While three to- 
 gether, a quarrel arose between some of the different war- 
 riors resulting in a general fight, in which, though several 
 Chickasaws were killed and wounded, the entire little band of 
 Choctaws was slain as was supposed; but unfortunately for 
 the Chickasaws a Choctaw happening to, be in another part of 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. > , '^7 
 
 the town at the time of the difficulty, escaped ; and learning- 
 at once of the killing- of his comrades, fled for home, where 
 aCrrivin^ safely he informed his people of the bloody tragedy 
 at Mobile. Without delay the Choctaws adopted measures 
 of revenge. Knowing that the company, of Chickasaws 
 would have to return home through their country, they laid 
 their plans accordingly. The Chickasaws, not without fears, 
 however, lest the Choctaws might have heard of the unfor- 
 tunate affair, secured an escort from Biefiville of twenty-five 
 Canadians under the command of Boisbriant. As they ap- 
 proached a village, the Choctaws sent a small company to 
 invite arid escort them to a council pretenvedly to be ^in 
 session ; which the Chickasaws, feeling safe' under their 
 escort, accepted. . They were escorted to the sham council, 
 and were given, as was customary on such occasions, the 
 inside circles, all seated on the ground ; while the Choctaws 
 formed a circle completely hemming them in. A Choctaw 
 chief then arose and advanced with great solemnity and dig- 
 nity to the speaker's place in the centre, with a tomahawk 
 concealed under his dress, which, when he drevv from its 
 place of concealment, was the signal for the work of death 
 to begin. The speaker went on for ' a few minutes in a 
 strain of wild eloquence, "but saying nothing that would 
 awaken the least suspicion in the minds of his still unsus- 
 pecting guests; when suddenly he snatched the fatal toma- 
 hawk from its concealment and in an instant hundreds of 
 tomahawks, heretofore concealed, gleamed a moment in the 
 air and then descended upon the heads of the doomed Chicka- 
 saws, and, ere they had time for a second thought, all were 
 slain. The Choctaws knowing that the Chickasaws Would 
 hear bf the destruction of their bi-ethjren and would' retaliate 
 upon them, rushed at once into their' country and destroyed 
 several villages ere the Chickasaws could recover from their 
 surprise. But the brave and dauiltless Chickasaws, ever equal 
 to any and all emergencies, soon rallied from their discom- 
 fiture, and presented a bold and defiant front. Then com- 
 menced a two years' war of daring deedfe and fatal results 
 between those two nations of fearless warriors, known and to 
 be known to them alone. The creek, dividing thkt portion 
 of their territories that lay contiguous to the place where 
 the band of Chickasaws vvere slain on their return fi-om 
 Sfobile, now in the northern part of Oktibbiha county, Mis- 
 sissippi, and known as Line Creek, was named by theChoc- 
 taws, after the two years' war, Nusih (sleep or slept, Chiab, 
 yau-yau slept, that is, you were taken by surprise) in 
 memorial of those two tragical events, the surprise and 
 destruction of the Chickasaw warriors, and the disquiet and 
 
78 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 discomfiture of their nation at the unexpected attack upon 
 them by the Chbctaws, Nusih Chia has been erroneously 
 interpreted by some as meaning "Where acorns abound." 
 Nosi aiasha — means where acorns abound; 
 
 The killing of this little band of Chickasaws under the 
 circumstances, together with that of being under the escort 
 and protection of the French, caused the Chickasaws to be- 
 lieve it was done through the connivance of the French, and 
 ever afterwards they were the most inveteaate and uncom- 
 promising enemies of the French, among all the Indian 
 tribes, north and south, except the Iroquois, and in which, 
 as a matter of course, they were encouraged by the Carolina 
 traders from the English settlements. 
 
 That the southern Indians were friendly to their foreign 
 intruders and disposed to live in peace with them, and were 
 not such a bloodthirsty people as thpy have been repre- 
 sented, is clearly demonstrated by the fact that, in 1810 
 ■there was such a scarcity of provisions, that Bienville had to 
 scatter his men among the Indians in order to obtain food 
 for them, and so informed his government; a plan to which 
 he had been driven before; and had not the Indians pre- 
 ferred peace toiwar with the whites, they surely would have 
 embraced such favorable opportunities to destroy the un- 
 welcome invader of their country. 
 
 In 1711, through the machinations of the English, who 
 were ever ready to embrace every opportunity to enhance 
 their own' interests; though at the destruction of the Indians', 
 the Choctaws Bnd Chickasaws, were again involved in a 
 fratricidel war, at the beginning of which, there was a little 
 company of thirty Chickasaw warriors instead of Choctaws, 
 in Mobile, and fearing to return home through the Choctaw 
 nation, they too earnestly requested Bienville to send a com- 
 pany of his soldiers with them for protection. Bienville, 
 seeing so favorable opportunity of winning the friendship 
 of the Chickasaws, and hoping thus to seduce them from 
 their alliance to the English to that of the French, cheerfully 
 complied to their request by sending his brother, Cha- 
 teaugne. to escort them through the Choctaw nation, which 
 he safely did. But the cause and result of this war have 
 long since paased with its participants into the silence of the 
 unknown past. 
 
 Charles Gayarre (Vol. 1, p. 91) says: "In 1714 twelve 
 English men, with a large number of Muskogees, came 
 among the Choctaws, and were kindly received by all the 
 towns except two, who fortified themselves and, while be- 
 seiged by the Muskogees, one night made their escape to 
 -Mobile. From the above, it appears that the visit of the 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 79 
 
 twelve Engflishmen to the Choctaws was attributed to an in- 
 vitation extended to them by a Choctaw chief; since ini the 
 following year, July 1715, Bienyille sent messengers to the 
 Choctaws, demanding the head of Outoct-chito"(a cotfup- 
 tion of his true name, Oktak (oketark) (Prairie) Chitoh (Big 
 or Big Prairie)) "who had persuaded the English traders to 
 visit their nation) and had thereby caused to be driven off 
 the inhabitants of two Choctaw towns, who were still in Mo- 
 bile. The messengers returned to Mdbile with the head of 
 the unfortunate Oktark Chitoh, which had been stricken off 
 by the Choctaw chiefs, who now were afraid of Bienville." 
 
 How different the Choctaws then from what they were 
 in, 1696, when they closed their interrogatories' to him with 
 "the bold assertion, "We believe our white brother talks with 
 a forked tongue. " Alas! how rapidly had they fallen from a 
 state of perfect independence to that of servile dependence 
 within the period of three quarters of a century; the dupes 
 at first, only to become the abject slaves of a heartless tyrant. 
 Thus did the rivalry of France and England for the posses- 
 sion of the North American continent, encouraged and em- 
 boldened by their national jealousy and inhate hatred long 
 cherished each for the other, involve the deceived Indians in 
 continued war-fare with each other, as their respective 
 traders and emissaries throughout the length and breadth 
 ■of the Indian territories to contend for the patrpnage of the 
 Indians, and to drive ^ach the other from thps positionse 
 where they had established thefmselves, ultimately to end in 
 ruin and destruction of the Indians. But the Choctaws, 
 though reduced to such servile extremities and seemingly 
 wholly under the arbitrary power of the French, were still 
 dreaded by many of the neighboring tribes, and, even by the 
 English themselves. As an illustration, in 1727, the English, 
 being at war with the Spaniards, used every means in their 
 power to influence the Indians to make war upon them, and 
 by their instigation a tribe, then known as Talapauches, had 
 laid seige to Pensacola (corrupted from the Chahtah words 
 Puska, bread, and Okla, people, Bread People, or people 
 having bread); but Pirier, who had succeeded Bienville in the 
 governorship at New Orleans, sent word to the Talapauches 
 (corrupted from the Choctaw vi^ords Tuli, rock or iron, and 
 Poo-shi, dust; and no doubt an ancient off-shoot of the Choc- 
 taws) to return to their homes without delay, or he would 
 put the Choctaws after them; and they at once sought their 
 homes with much more alacrity than when they left them. 
 Such was the dread of the Choctaws an-d such the terror in- 
 spired by their name alone. 
 
 In 1733, the Choctaws, as allies to the French, engaged 
 
80 HISTORY OF THK INDIANS. 
 
 in a war with the Natchez, of which I will more particularly 
 notice in the history of that tribe. 
 
 On January 13th, 1733, the truly Christian philanthro- 
 pist, Oglethorpe, with a hundred ani twenty emigrants 
 landed at Charleston, South Carolina. Afterwards sailing- 
 down the coast, he anchored his vessel, "Anne," for a few 
 days at Beaufort,., while he, with a small company ascended 
 the Savannah river to a high bluff on which the present city 
 of Savannah, Georgia, now stands, which he selected as the 
 place for the establishment of his little colony. And there, 
 February 1st, 1733, he laid the foundation of the oldest En- 
 glish town south of the Savannah river. In a few days the 
 great chief of the Yemacaws, Tam-o-chi-chi, called upon the 
 strangers who had thus unceremoniously taken posession of 
 that portion of of his people's territories; and then and there 
 two congenial spirits, the one of European, the other of an 
 American, first met and formed a friendship each for the 
 other that was never broken; and at the departure of the 
 venerable old man, he presented to Oglethorpe a magnificent 
 buffalo robe upon the inside of which w^s painted with elabo- 
 rate Indian skill, the head and feathers of an eagle, and said: 
 "Accept this little token of the good will of myself and peo- 
 ple. See, the eagle is bold and fearless, yet his feathers are 
 soft; as the eagle, so are my people bold and fearless in war; 
 yet as his feathers, so are they soft and beautiful in friend- 
 ship. The'buffalo is strong, and his hair is warm; as the 
 buffalo, so are my people strong in war; yet, as his robe, 
 they are warm in love. I and my people would be your 
 friends, beautiful in our friendship and warm in our love. 
 Let this robe be the emblem of friendship and love between 
 me and you, and mine and thine." Oglethorpe accepted the 
 present with its tokens; nor was the purity of those em- 
 blems ever tarnished by a dishonorable act of Tomochichi 
 and his tribe or Oglethorpe and his colony, the one toward 
 the other. 
 
 It is evident that the Yamacaws were an ancient off- 
 shoot of the Choctaws from the similarity of their language, 
 habits and customs. The vei-y name of the tribe is plainly a 
 corruption of the Choctaw words yummakma (that one also) 
 Ka-sha-pah, (to be a part). 
 
 Also the name of their chief, Tamochichi, is also a cor- 
 ruption by the whites of the Choctaw words, Tum-o-a-chi 
 (wandering away, from the Choctaws in the pre-historic oj 
 the past). 
 
 How well did the North American Indians read and 
 comprehend the symbolic language of !Nature in all its dif- 
 ferent phases ! What white man, whether illiterate or 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 81 
 
 I 
 
 boasting tj)e comprehensive g^enius of a United States Colonel 
 (Dodge) ■^ho was enabled to discover one race of God's 
 created intellig-ences (the North American Indians) to be 
 "absolutely without conscience," could have drawn such 
 grand sentiments from a buffalo robe and a bunch of eagle 
 feathers, since "the money that was in them" would have 
 absorbed every other consideration of his soul I Alas! that 
 "The love of money" should so engross every noble faculty 
 of our souls, that we could not, or would not, comprehend 
 those beautiful symbols found in. nature, on earth and in 
 heaven, everywhere, and would not, or did not, heed them, as 
 they call with their ten thousand voices to the discharge of 
 our duty to the Indians and plead, for the perfection of the 
 character of both the red and white race, as illustrated in 
 those grand sentiments of the no less grand old chief of the 
 Yummak ma kasbapas. "I and my people would be your 
 (friehds, beautiful in our friendship and warm in our ilove 1" 
 How sad! how humiliating the reflection that, during four 
 centuries, the North American Indians have found no re- 
 sponsive sentiment in the White Race, except in Penn and 
 his followers, Oglethorpe and his colony, the self-sacrificing 
 missionaries and a few noble philanthropists, though the 
 same earnest and ..sincere plea was heard from the mouths 
 of every tribe, when first visited by the whites, echoing from 
 the Atlantic's stormy shores in the east to the Pacific's rock' 
 bound coast in the distant west, "I and my people would be 
 your friends, beautiful in our friendship and warm in our 
 love;" but only to fall upon the ear of our avarice as a tink- 
 ling cymbal, since deaf to all else but the gratification of our 
 lov^ of greedy gain, (that stranger to truth and justice, and 
 untouched by any emotion of humanity) which demanded 
 the extermination of the Indians, as the only guarantee to 
 sure possession of their country and hemes ; and then called 
 for obloquy to cover their memory as an honorable justifica- 
 tion for that extermination. And though Nature, every- 
 where in all its phases from the finite to the infinite, and the 
 infinitesimal to the grand aggregate of knowledge, is full of 
 instruction, by which she would teach us our duty to God, 
 pur fellow-men, and to ourselves, yet we heeded not the 
 symbolic whispers of her low, sweet plaintive voice pleading 
 in behalf of the Red Race; and in so doing, forfeited a privi- 
 lege that heaven's angels would have embi'aced with eager- 
 ness and joy, for the gratification of our frenzied avarice. 
 On the 29th of May following, Oglethorpe held a councfl 
 with the Muscogees at Savannah; for whom and all their 
 allies, Long Chief of the Ocona clan of Muscogees spoke 
 and welcomed Oglethorpe and his little colony to fheir coun- 
 
82 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ^ 
 
 try in the name of peace and friendship by presenting- to 
 him large bundles of the skins and furs of wild animals in 
 which their territories then abounded. And soon so great 
 and wide extended became the fame of Oglethorpe and his 
 followers as true and sincere friends to the Indian race, that 
 the chiefs of the Cherokees, from their distant mountain 
 homes, came to see and confer with Oglethorpe and his 
 colony, to them a prodigy, a white man and great chief and 
 yet a true man to his word pledged to an Indian. Naught like 
 this had been known since the days of Penn and his Quakers. 
 Was the bright morn of a glorious future about to dawn upon 
 their race dispelling the long night of darkness that had for 
 ages obscured their moral and intellectual vision? Was the 
 White Race truly to prove their benefactor, once so brightly 
 shadowed forth in the precepts and pfi-actice of the noble 
 Penn and his colony? Indeed it appe.ared as the second 
 dawn of hope; but alas, only to flicker a moment as the feeble 
 and expiring taper, and then to go out to be seen no more, an 
 illusive dream even as the first had proven to be. 
 
 In August, 1739, a great council was convened at Coweta 
 in the Muscogee Nation by Oglethorpe, the Indians' undevi- 
 ating friend, in which the Muscogoes, Choctaws, CliicUa- 
 saws, Cherokees, Yummakmakashapahs and niany' others 
 were represented, and in peace and harmony equally par- 
 ticipated. The faithful and honest old Tumoachi stood 
 among the most conspicuous of the various and distinguished 
 chiefs. Coweta was, at that time, one of the largest towns 
 of the Muscogee Nation, and many days' travel from Savan- 
 nah through the deep solitudes of a vast wilderness, un- 
 trodden by the foot of a white man since the days of De Soto's 
 march, two hundred years before; but through which Ogle- 
 thorpe and his little band of followers fearlessly and safelj'^ 
 traveled to fulfill his engagement with, the unknown Indians 
 there in council to assemble. When it was learned that he 
 had arrived near Coweta, a deputation of chiefs, representa- 
 tives of the respective tribes assembled, met and escorted 
 him to the town with unfeigned manifestations of pride and 
 joy. The next day the council convened, and remained in 
 session several days, during which stipulations of peace 
 and friendship were ratified, and free trade and friendly 
 intercourse to all established, to the mutual satisfaction 
 and delight of both red and white; after which the Grand 
 Finale was performed, the solemn ceremony of dr'inking the 
 "Black drink," and smoking the Pip.e of Peace; in all of 
 which the noble Oglethori>e participated, to the great de- 
 light and satisfaction of the admiring Indians; then, after the 
 closing ceremony of bidding adieu, all to their respective 
 
mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 83 
 
 homes returned delighted with the happj/ results of the coun- 
 cil. Oglethorpe was ever afterwards held in grateful remem- 
 brance, and loved and honored by all the southern Indians; 
 and was known everywhere as thd Indians' friend, and 
 everywhere regarded and received as such with implicit 
 confidence. How so? Because he was never known to 
 wrong them in a single instance; therefore their admiration 
 and confidence for and in him had no limits. 
 
 The morn of the southern Indians' Christian era, as 
 professed by the Protestant world, dawned, accolrding to an- 
 cient Choctaw tradition, at the advent of Oglethorpe to this 
 continent and the establishment of his colony on the banks 
 of the Savannah; and was heralded by the two brothers who 
 so jufetly rank among earth's illustrious modern great as 
 preachers of the Gospel of the Son of God; viz: John and 
 \ Charles Wesley, who came with Ogletliorpe in 1733, and ac- 
 companied him tb his councils with the, Indians, and there 
 preached the "glad tidings of "Peace and Good will toward 
 men." Shortly after, John Wesley influenced the renowned 
 preacher, George Whitfield, to also come to America. In a 
 letter to Whitfield, John Wesley ^hus wrote: "Do you ask 
 - what you shall have? Food to eat, raiment to weiLr, a house 
 in which to lay your bead such as your Lord had not, and a 
 crown of glory that fadeth not away." Upon the reception 
 of which, Whitfield said his heart echoed to the call, and to 
 which he at once responded; and upon the return of the 
 Wesleys to England, he says in his journal. "I must labor 
 most heartily since I^canie after such worthy predecessors." 
 In 1734, Tumoahchi, with his wife and son and seven 
 Muscogee warriors accompanied Oglethorpe to George II. 
 and before whom Tumoahchi made a speech in that shrewd 
 and captivating manner so characteristic of the North Ameri- 
 can Indians; which so pleased the king that he caused the 
 American chief and warriors to be loaded with presents and 
 even sent him and his wife and son in one of the royal carria- 
 ges to Grovesend when he embarked to return to his native 
 forest home. Shortly after his return home, the noble old 
 chief was taken sick, and was at once visited by Whitfield, 
 who says: "He now lay on ablanketj thin and meager, little 
 else but skin and bones. Senanki, his wife, sat by fanning 
 him with Indian feathers. There was no one who could talk 
 English, so I could only shake hands with him and leave 
 him." In a few days after, Whitfield returned to the couch 
 of the dying chief and was rejoiced .to find Tooanoowe, a 
 nephew of Tumoahchi present, who could speak English. 
 "I requested him," says Whitfield, "to ask his uncle whether 
 he thought he should die? He answered' 'I cannot tell.' I 
 
84 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 then asked where he thought he would g-o after death? He 
 replied, 'to heaven.' But, alas, how can drunkards enter 
 there? I then exhorted Tooanoowe, who is a tall, proper 
 youth, not to get drunk, telling- him that he understood Eng- 
 lish, and thei-efore would be pumshed the more if he did not 
 live better. I then asked him~"whether he believed in a 
 heaven, 'yes,' said he. I then asked whether he believed in a 
 hell, and described it by pointing to the fire He replied, 'No.' 
 From whence we may easily gather how natural it is to all 
 man-kind to believe there is a place of happiness, because 
 they wish it to be so; and on the contrary, how averse they 
 are to believe in a place of torment becatise they wish it not to 
 be so." But if the poor, unlettered, yet, generous and noble 
 hearted Tumoahchi, who knew nothing of the sin of dr»nk- 
 eness, was 'unfit for heaven becaqse "how can a drunkard 
 enter there"? How unfit must be he who made him such, by 
 making the whiskey, then taking it thousands of miles to the 
 before temperate Indian and teaching him to drink it! and 
 how inconsistent with reason and common sense, and how 
 insulting to the God of justice it must be, for us to call our- 
 selves Christians and the Indians savages! And if Tooanoo- 
 we "would be punished the more if he did not live better," 
 since "he understood English" a little, what will be the fate 
 of us whose native tongue in English, and who, with all our 
 boasted attainments, led, influenced and taught them to 
 adopt and practice, by precept and example, our "civilized" 
 vices, but seldom instructed them in the' virtues of the reli- 
 gion of the Bible! Does not the just and merciful Redeemer 
 of the. world of man-kind regard with much less approbation 
 all external professions and appearances, than do thousands 
 of his professed followers found among our own White Race? 
 Did he not prefer the despised but charitable Samaritan to 
 the uncharitable but professed orthodox priest? And does 
 He not declare thatthose who gave food to the hungry, enter- 
 tainment to the stranger, relief to the'sick, and had charity 
 (all of which are to-day, and ever have been, from their 
 earliest known history, the noted characteristics of the 
 North American Indians, though they never heard of the 
 name of Jesus) shall in the last day be accepted? When 
 those who boisterously shout Lord! Lord, valuing themselves 
 upon their professed ^aith, though sufficient to perform 
 miracles, but have neglected good works shall bp rejected. 
 And though we have scarcely permitted the Indians, though 
 starving and pleading for moral, intellectual and spiritual 
 food, to pick up the crumbs that fell from our tables loaded 
 with professed virtues, yet we have displayed a wMMderful 
 talent in traducing them and manifest a strange desire that 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS,, ' i ' 85 
 
 tlioy slioiihl he falsely hanflcd down to posterity as crcatui-Ss 
 not embraced in the fiat of Him. who said "Let us make 
 man." ' 
 
 Never did a North American Indian acknowledge that 
 he recognized in the white man a master; nor was ever an 
 emotion of inferioiity to the white man experienced by an 
 Indian. Nearly four centuries of ' unceasing- effort, by the 
 White Race have utterly failed to make the Indian even feel, 
 much less acknowledge, the white man as master. 
 
 In 1741, Bienville was superseded by Marquis de Van- 
 dreuiJ, to whom the Chickasaws sent a delegation to New 
 Orleans to treat for peace. But Vandreuil refused to treat 
 unless the Choctaws, allies of the French, were made parties 
 ' to the treaty. The Chickasaws then made an effort to in- 
 duce the Choctaws to form an alliance with them, supported 
 by the English, against the French. But their design was 
 ■discovered and thwarted by the secret intriguing of Van- 
 dreuil with Shulush Humma, (Red Shoe), then a noted Choc- 
 taw chief and shrewd diplomatist, ciud belonging p3 the clan 
 called Okla Hunnali, (Six People and living in the present 
 Jasper county, Mississippi, who had been favorably, disposed 
 toward the English for several years; and finally, in 1745,. 
 through personal interest alone it was thought, he went over 
 to the English; and, at the. same time, influencing a chief of 
 the Mobelans (properly, Moma Binah, or Mobinah, a clan of 
 the ancient Choctaws) to do the same vfith his warriors, and 
 also some of the Muscogees, all of whom were, at that time, 
 allies of the French. . Shortly after, Vandreuil went from 
 New Orleans to Mobile, and there met twelve hundred Choc- 
 taw warriors in council assembled, with whom he made re- 
 newed pledges of friendsTiip bestowing upon them many 
 presents of various kinds. But Shulush Humma stood aloof 
 and refused to participate in any of the 'proceedings; and to 
 place beyond all doubt the position he occupieii, he, a^ few 
 weeks after, slew a French officer and two French traders, 
 who unfortunate ventured into his village. 
 
 Thus the Choctaws were divided into two factions; at 
 first peaceable, but which finally culminated into actual civil 
 war through the instigations and machinations of both the 
 French and English. And thus the Chickasaws and the 
 Choctaws, blinded to their own national interests, were led 
 to destroy each other, the one in behalf of the English and 
 the other of' the French; while both the English and French 
 under an assumed friendship, used them as instruments 
 alone to forward their own selfish designs and self-in- 
 terests, though to the destruction of both the misguided 
 Choctaws and Chickasaws. Truly misfortune seems to 
 
86 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 have set her fatal weal upon ^le North American Indians, and 
 doomed them to eternal misery while up«on earth, in contend- 
 ing with the White Race for the right to live and enjoy life 
 with the rest of mankind. Unhappy race! What heart so 
 lost to every emotion of sympathy but weeps at the re- 
 hearsal of your woesl 
 
 In 1750, still infatuated with the belief that the White 
 Race sought their interests, the Choctaws still remained in 
 two hostile factions, thirty of their villages adhering to the 
 French, and only two to the English, who, in a terrible bat- 
 tle which ensued, had one hundred and thirty of their war- 
 riors slain, and soon after, were again defeated by the 
 French, with a party of Choctaws, and compelled to sue for 
 peace, while the English stood aloof and left them to fight 
 alone against fearful odds, though their accepted friends. 
 
 Three years after (17S3), De Vandreuil was succeeded 
 by Kerleree, who, in one of his dispatches, thus spoke of the 
 Choctaws: "I am satisfied with them. They are true to 
 their plighted faith. But we must be the same in our trans- 
 actions with them. They are men who reflect, and who 
 have more logic and precision in their reasoning thai,i is sup- 
 posed." 
 
 How tru^ it is, that the above assertion of Kerleree, in 
 regard to the Choctaws, may be as truthfully affirmed of the 
 entire North American Indian race. And had that truth 
 been admitted and acted upon by the White Race in all their 
 dealings with the Red Race from first to last, the bloody 
 charges that to-day stand recorded against us in the volume 
 of truth would not have been written. 
 
 November 3rd, 1763, the King of France ceded to the 
 King of Spain his entire possessions in North America 
 known under the name of Louisiana; and at which time, a 
 treaty of peace was signed between the Kings of Spain and 
 France of the one party, and the King of England of the 
 other, by which France was stripped of all her vast landed 
 possessions to which she had so long and tenaciously laid 
 claim at the useless and cruel destruction of thousands of 
 helpless Indians who alone held the only true and just claim. 
 When the Indians learned of this treaty of cession, and were 
 told that they had been transferred fram the jurisdiction of 
 the French to that of the English, whom they feared and 
 dreaded ten fold more than they did the French, they were 
 greatly excited at the outrage, as they rightly termed it; and 
 justly affirmed that the French possessed no authority over 
 them by which to- transfer them over to the English, as if 
 they were but so many horsey and cattle. Truly, as human 
 beings, as a free and independent pcpple and as reasoning 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS ' 87 
 
 men, how coiikl they but feel the (legradation of being thus 
 bartered away as common chattels, and feel the deep humi- 
 liation that followed the loss of their, national charalcter and 
 national rights. Yet, how little did they imagine the still 
 deeper humiliation, degradation and woe that were in store 
 for their racel How little did they believe that they were 
 soon to be driven away by merciless intruders, from their 
 ancient and justly owned possessions and the cherished 
 graves of their ancestors, to wander, they knew not where, 
 in the vain search of a pity and commiseration, never to be 
 found among their heartless oppressors and conquerors! 
 Alas I how else but broken-hearted can the surviving little 
 remnant be, when no words of consolation and hope ever 
 gireet their ears I How can they be industrious when that 
 industi-y but brings them in contact with the authors of all 
 their misfortunes and woes! How can they forget their 
 wrongs and sow, unless it be to sow dragon's teeth with 
 the hope that warriors mightspring up to avenge their blood, 
 that vengeance justly claimed 1 Did they not in all sincerity 
 believe themselves wrongfully oppressed? which they truly 
 were; and in/ resisting that oppression, did they do more 
 than any other Nation, under similar circumstances, has 
 done and will ever do, that claims the right to exist as a 
 Nation? They contended for that which- they honestly be- 
 lieved to be their birthright, and it was, poth by the laws of 
 God and man. Could they have ddnte otherwise, when they 
 desired and sought our civilization and Christianity; but we 
 would grant it to them only uponthe terms of yielding up to 
 us their country, their nationality, their freedom, their 
 honor, their all that makes life worth living? Have we not 
 treated them from first to last as inferior beings, and in our 
 bigoted egotism scorned them and pushed them from us as 
 creatures below our notice? Can we establish a just plea 
 upon the broad foundation of truth to sustain the right to 
 treat them as we have treated them, take their country from 
 them by the strength of arbitrary power, aiid call it honor- 
 able purchase, and then annoy thfem by reiterated extortions 
 and oppress them to exterminajbion? 
 
 In November, 1763, the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Chero- 
 kees, arid Muscogees were, through their representative 
 chiefs, assembled in council at Augusta, Georgia, with the 
 representative Governors of Virginia, North and South Car- 
 olina, and Georgia. Butj^wo years later, August, 1765, the 
 Choctaws and Muscogees— inveterate enemies— commenced 
 a fearful and devastating war, which, acording to their tradi- 
 tions, continued six years with unabated hostility; and dur- 
 ing which many battles were fought and heavy losses sus- 
 
88 i HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 tained on both sides, yet each displa}'iiig the most undaunted 
 and heroic bravery. But as they had ^no native historians, 
 the cause, the progress, the successes, the defeats, as Dame 
 Fortune alternately bestowed her favoi"^ upon the one and 
 the other, will never be known; for the long period of those 
 six years of bloody strife is wrapt in the silence of the un- 
 known past, and all that now may be written is contained in' 
 "They lived; they fought." Nor has much more been re- 
 corded concerning the vicissitudes of Ihe North American 
 Indian race, by their white historians; though "they killed, 
 they robbed" is but a counterpart of the mutations of the 
 White Race also. 
 
 Be it as it may, we find the Choctaw people, amid all their 
 vicissitudes and misfortunes, occupying, all albng the line of 
 their known history, a prominent place as one of the five great 
 southern tribes, -who have been jiistly regarded as being the 
 most to be dreaded in war of all the Noi'th American Indians, 
 for their skill and invincible bravei-y: and the most to be ad- 
 mired in peace for the purity of their "friendship and fidelity 
 to truth. And to compare the present enfeebled, oppressed, 
 broken-hearted, down trodden, the still surviving little rem- 
 nant, to their heroic, free, independent, and justly proud 
 ancestors of two centuries ago, or even less than one cen- 
 tury ago, is to compare the feeble light of the crescent moon 
 lingering upon the western horizon to the blaze of the sun in 
 the zenith of its power and glory. But what has wrought 
 the feariul change? Who hurled them from their once high 
 and happy state down to this low and wretched state of 
 humiliation and slavery? Truth points its unerring finger to 
 these United States, and says as he to Israel's ancient king, 
 "Thou art the man." What the difference? None in princi- 
 ple. The one, Israel's king, a murderer, to gratify a beastly 
 lust; the other, America's people^ tyrant, to gratify a beastly 
 avarice. And yet we claim to advocate the right of freedom 
 and self government to all nations of people; and boldly hurl 
 our anathemas against the iron heel of England's oppression 
 of Ireland, and curse the greedy avarice of a heartless and 
 grasping landlordism that for years has sapped the vitals of, 
 that unfortunate country and broken the spirit of its noble 
 people; while we are guilty of the same greedy avarice that 
 has broken the spirit of as noble a people as ever lived; and 
 against whom we have exercised the aggressive tyranny, and 
 made it a point to preserve to\vards them an attitude the 
 most commanding and supercilious, and^gainst whom we have 
 Jong cherished and still cherish the basest and most unjust 
 prejudice. Alas, how inconsistent are \Ve. 
 
 Many other tribes living in the same regions are men^ 
 
mSTOX^Y OF THE INDIANS. 89 
 
 iioned by the early writers, but who, in comparison to num- 
 bers and prominence as a people, fell far below the Choctaws, 
 Chickasaws, Cherokees, Muscogees, Seminoles and N.atchez; 
 though it is reasonable to conclude that mafiy of them were 
 offshoots of the above mentioned. But the cruel and bloody 
 scenes that marked the conflicts of the whites with the brave 
 warriors of these five nations of the North American Indians, 
 before they overpowered them by superiority' in numbers, 
 skill and weapons of warfare and drove them fi-om their 
 ancient homes under the false plea of "fair and "honorable 
 purchase," scattering along the whole lihe of their known 
 history, fraud, dissimulation, oppression, destruction and 
 death, clothe the, character of this wotfderful people in the 
 wildest romance and truly render them worthy heroes of 
 fabM and song; of whom it may truly be said that, in point of 
 numbei-s; in the magnitude and grandeur of their territories 
 abounding in every variety of game that could render them 
 truly the paradise of the Indian hunter; in their far sighted 
 sagacity; in their peculiar native eloquence; in their legends 
 and traditions handed down from generation to generation 
 through cycles of ages unknown; in their strange and mys- 
 t^rious.-,religious rites and ceremonies; in all that strange 
 and peculiar phenomena, that stamp the true Native Ameri- 
 cans as the independent aud fearless sons of the forest, un- 
 surpassed in daring and heroic deeds in defense of their 
 country, the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Muscogees, 
 Seminoles and Natchez stand unsurpassed by.^ iany other of 
 the North American Indians, or any other unlettered race of 
 people on earth. 
 
 Pickett, in his History of Alabama states: "In 1771, the 
 eastern district of the Choctaw Nation was known as Oy-pat- 
 6o-coo-la, signifying the 'Small Nation;"* and the w'estern disr 
 trict was called Oo-coo-la Falaya, Oo-coo-la Hanete and 
 Chickasaha," The four names are fair samples of the mis- 
 erable corriiption of the languages of the North American 
 Indians every where, by the whites. 
 
 And in the above, Pickett is greatly in error in the word 
 Oy-pat-oo-coo-la signifying "Small Nation," if he uses It as 
 a Choctaw or Chickasaw word. In the first place there is no 
 such word in either of their languages, and even admitting 
 there is, it cannot signify "small nation." The words of 
 both for small nation are Iskitini Pehlichika, small nation or 
 kingdom. "And the western district was called Oo-coo-la 
 Falaya, and Oo-coo-la Hanete and Chickasaha." It is evident 
 also that the^e three names are corruptions from Choctaw 
 words. The ^first being a corruption of the wpr49 Okla 
 
90 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 Falaiah, Tall People; the second, "Oo-coo-la Hanete," from 
 Okla Hunnali, People Six, or Six People. 
 
 The third, Chickasaha, from Chikasah, Rebellion, all of 
 which were names of different clans of the ancient Choctaws. 
 There was also an ancient clan named Okla Isskitini, People 
 Small, or Small People, which, no doubt, was corrupted to 
 Oy-pat-oo-coo-la; if not, some linguist, other than a Choctaw, 
 or Chickasaw, will have to give its signification. 
 
 Alas; If the errors of our race were confined alone to 
 the orthography, orthoepy and signification of various In- 
 dian languages, though as inconsistent and absurd as they 
 are in that of the Choctaw, we might be excusable; but 
 when they enter into every department of our dealings with 
 that people, there can be no excuse whatever offered in justi- 
 fication of them. 
 
 See the gross errors set forth in thf publications re- 
 garding tht Indians from first to last, clothed in scarcely a 
 word'of truth to hide their hideous deformity, so humiliat- 
 ing to justice, and all in direct opposition to known truth 
 and common sense. The newspapers and periodicals of the 
 present day are full of the same old stereotyped edition of 
 vile calumniations and base falsehoods against that helpless 
 people, the latter of which stand in close and worthy prox- 
 imity to that of the devil's to the mother Eve. Even that 
 class of literature devoted to the instruction af the young, 
 books and papers bearing the title of "School History of 
 the United States," "Youth's Companion," etc., are contami- 
 nated with 'falsehoods and defamatory articles against the 
 Indians; the writers of which seem determined that the 
 memory of the North American Indiatis must and shall de- 
 scend from generation to generation to the one which shall 
 be the fortunate one to hear the tones of Gabriel's mighty 
 trumpet sounding a truce to longer defamation of the Red 
 Race; and thus escape the nauseating dose which its prede- 
 cessors bave been forced to swallow; and though justice 
 calls upon these white slanderers of the Red Raqe to turn 
 their attention from the arduous labor attending the suc- 
 cessful finding of a few defects in the Indians, to the correc- 
 tion of the hideous sins of their own race, yet they heed not 
 her voice. 
 
 Before me lies a book bearing the title, "School History 
 of the United States," under the signature of "W. H. Ven- 
 able." by which its author would stuff the minds of the 
 present generation, and those to follow, with the false asser- 
 tions and self-imagined erudition, in which he has displayed 
 as much knowledge of the North American Indians as might 
 reasonably be expected to be found in a Brazilian monkey if 
 
/ I 
 
 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 91 
 
 writing its views upon the characteristics of the Laplanders 
 in their icy homes. 'On page 17 of this so-called "Illumina- 
 tion of the Youthful Mind," in the matter of Indiaii charac- 
 teristics, is found the following- absurdities: "The Ameri- 
 can Indians ,were fit inhabitants of the wilderness.: Children 
 of nature, they were akin to all that is rude, savage, and 
 irredeemable. Their number within the limits of what is 
 now the United States was at no time, since the discovery of 
 America, above four hundred thousand individuals, for the 
 Indian, hopelessly unchanging in respect. to individual and 
 social development, was as regarded tribal relations and. 
 local haunts, mutable as the wind.",' 
 
 "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis' folly to be wise," there- 
 fore his "Ipse dixit."- '.; , V 
 
 Again, (page 19) he affirmg: "Stratagem, surprise, and 
 the basest treachery were approved and practiced even by 
 the bravest." But what of the White Race? Did not Wash- 
 ington and his generals "approve 'and practice deception, 
 surprise and stratagem" upon the Brit|sh infighting for the 
 independence of these /United States? Did not Oglethorpe 
 "approve and practice stratagem and deception" upon the 
 Spanish fleet, when he gave a Spanish prisoner his liberty if 
 he would deliver a letter to one of his own- men who had 
 deserted and fled to the Spanish ships, the particulars of 
 which are too jvell known to be repeated here? Did not Lee 
 and Grant, ye?i, every officer from general down to captain, 
 "approve and practice stratagem, deception and surprise,", 
 during our Civil war? and when an advantage, by these 
 means, was gained, was it not acknowledged as a grand dis- 
 play of supferior generalship and dubbed "Military Skill?" 
 When "practiced and approved" by the whites, they are 
 virtues; but when by the Indians, in their wars of resistance 
 against our oppression and avarice, they at once become 
 odious characteristics. But when and upon whom, did the 
 Indians approve and practice stratagem,' surprise and the 
 basest treachery? alone u^on their enemies in war; iiever 
 elsewhere. But we have alike "approved and practiced 
 stratagem and surprise" in our wars vvith them always ancl 
 everywhere; and have, in numerous instances, approved 
 and practiced the basest treachery," upon them by false < 
 promises, misrepresentations and ' absolute falsehoods of 
 ^uch hideous proportions as to cause the devil to blush at 
 his own impotency in the art, when trying to influence them 
 to enter into treaties with us by whifh we would secure fpr 
 ourselves tlieir landed possessions, and all under the di's- ^ 
 guise of declared disinterested friendship, and deep-felt * 
 interest in their prosperity and happiness; and I challenge 
 
*)2 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 anyone to successfully refute the charge. Yet this man 
 would contribute his mite of misrepnesentation and false- 
 hood to assist others of his own cong-eniality, to hand down 
 the Indians to the remotest posterity as a race of people the 
 most infamous; but would have i^ remembered that he and 
 his fall below their merits — the white "children of the 
 Lord." 
 
 Therefore, he thus continues his lecture to the children, 
 as set forth in'^his ephemeral history: ^'Languag'e cannot 
 exaggerate the ferocity of an Indian Battle, or the revolting 
 cruelty practiced upon their captives of war." Surely this 
 sensitive educator of the young, never perused that truthful 
 little volume, bearing the name of "Our Indian Wards" as 
 written by a Christian philanthropist, W. Manypenny! But 
 thus he continues; "The very words tomahawk, scalping 
 knife, and torture scaffold fill the fancy with dire images; 
 and to say 'as-savage as an Iroquois warrior' is to exhaust the 
 power of simile." But in impressing the youthful "fancy 
 with dire images"^, while studying his "ScWool ' History of 
 tomahawks, scalping knives and torture scaffolds" and in- 
 delibly stamping upon their memories his emphatic "to say 
 as savage as 'an Iroquois warrior' is to exhaust the powers 
 of simile," he is scrupulously careful not to mention, or even 
 drop a hint, in regard to the foul massacre of the friendly 
 Cheyenne chief. Black Kettle and his band .by Gen. Custer 
 and hia soldiers, Nov. 27th, 1868; of which Superintendent 
 Murphy, after the diabolical massacre, wrote the commis- 
 sioner of Indian affairs; "It was Blc^ck Kettle's band of 
 Cheyennes. Black Kettle, one of the best and truest friends 
 the whites ever had among the Indians of the plains;" and of 
 the "horrible" butchery of the Piegan Indians, on the 23rd 
 of January, 1870, who were helplessly- afflicted with the 
 small pox, and guilty of no offense except being Indians, but 
 in which assassination, one hundred and seventy-three In- 
 dians were slaughtered in cold blood by the whites, without 
 the "loss of a man; ninety of \vhom were women, and fifty- 
 five of them children, none older than twelve years, and 
 many of them in their mothers' arms;" and though the 
 butchery of these unoffending and helpless hnman beings 
 merits the execration of all men, yet the actors in the bloody 
 scene lived toi boast among their fellows "I too have killed an 
 Indian," though that Indian was an infant in its mother's 
 arms; while their head was honored as the "Great" General 
 Sheridan, backed by general Sherman, at whose feet syco- 
 phants bow and humbly solicit a smile from his august per- 
 sonage, then die happy, if obtained, but in despair, if 
 refused. Merciful God! If the very words "tomahawk. 
 
scalpingknife and torture fill the fancy, with dire' images; 
 and to say as savage as an Iroquois warrior is to eixhaust the 
 powers of. simile," does not the butpher of helpless and un- 
 dff ending- -Indian women and children by civilized whites 
 equally "fill the fancy with dire images"? and tosay s,s sav- 
 age as a Sheridan and Sherman in the blood-thii'sty wars of 
 exterminating the Indians of the western plains, to protect 
 the white desperadoes in th,eir depredations upon that help- 
 less people, and thereby stick another feather in their cap of. , 
 war fame to conciliate shouts of the rabble, music more 
 sweet to their bloody senses than that of heavenly angels, •. ' 
 "is to exhaust every power of simile." In the name of truth, 
 justice and humanity, if what Mr. Manypenhy has revealed ' 
 in his "Our Indian Wards," a copy of which every lover of 
 truth, justice and humanity should purchase and read, as- 
 due to the interests of truth, justice, religion and humanity^ 
 is not enough to cause an indignant^God to visit these United , 
 States with his avenging hand, then indeed, they have noth- 
 ing to fear in regard to what they must do. Be it as it may, 
 there is abundant reason to tremble, if we would reflect that 
 God is just. 
 
 On the 16th of February, 1763, the whole of Louisiana,, 
 for which they had so long struggled, passed entirely from 
 under -the dominion of the French to that of the English ; 
 and all evidences of their occupe^ncy of the sea coast of Mis- 
 sissippi, since Iberville first landed there on the 16th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1693, are now only remembered as matters of history 
 and traditions of the long past. , 
 
 In 1765, through the solisitation of Johnstone, then' act- 
 ing as governor, the Choctaws and Chickasaws convened in 
 general council with him at Mobile, at which time were con- 
 firmed the former treaties of peace and friendship; and also 
 regu'^ations of trade were established between them and the 
 English; and in 1777, the Choctaws, the first time ever be- 
 fore sold a smaU por1:ion of their country then known as the 
 Natchez District, to the English Superintendent of Indian 
 Affairs, which lay on the Mississippi , river and extended 
 north from the bluff then known as Loftus Cliffs to the 
 mouth of the Yazoo river, 110 miles above. 
 
 In June, 1784, the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Muscogees 
 convened in council, at Pensacola.'tcorriipted from the Choc- 
 taw words Puska Okla, People with abundant bread) and 
 there made a treaty of peace with Spadn. 
 
 Soon after, Alexander McGillervey, the famdus chief of 
 the Muscogees, as representative of the Coweta claim of the 
 Muscogees, together with the Seminoles, Mdbelans (prop- 
 erly, MobinahsJandTalapoosas (corrupted from the Choctaw 
 
94 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Words Tuli Pushi, Iron Dust) concluded a treaty of peace 
 and friendship with the same nation. 
 
 At this time, the United States set up her claim over the 
 entire territories of the southern Indians by virtue of the 
 English title, though the Cherokees, Choctaws Chickasaws 
 and Muscogees, whose landed possessions were more exten- 
 sive than all the southern tribes combined; but out of which 
 she finally ousted them, though they had replenished the 
 feeble ranks of her army with their warriors, and helped he?r 
 out from under the yoke of British oppression fighting un- 
 der Gen. Wayne and Gen Sullivan, only to have her yoke of 
 oppression placed upon their necks in turn as a recompense 
 of reward for their services and as a memento of our "dis- 
 tinguished" gratitude to them; while Spain claimed, at the 
 same time, the lion's part of their territories by virtue of her 
 treaties, not with the Indians, the legal owners, but with 
 England and France; while the Indians m whom rested the 
 only true and valid title, gazed upon the scene of controversy 
 over their ancient domains, as silent but helpless specta- 
 tors. 
 
 That the Choctaws were once a nufnerous people, even 
 years after the destruction of Mobinah, the chief town of 
 Tushkalusas Iksa or clan, by De Soto, there can be but little 
 room for doubt. Their ancient traditions affirm they were 
 at one time one hundred and fifty thousand strong, but some 
 allowance perhaps should be made upon that statement, 
 however, their territory, as late as 1771, extended from Mid- 
 dle Mississippi south to the Gulf of Mexico; and from the 
 Alabama river west to vthe Mississippi river, embracing as 
 fine a country as the eye could possibly desire to behold; 
 and De Soto states he passed through towns and villages all 
 along his route through their territory, as well as through 
 the te'rritorities of other southern tribes. Roman states, in • 
 his travels through the Choctaw Territory in 1771, he pass- 
 ed through seventy of their towns. Rev. Cyrus Byington, 
 who was a missionary among the Choctaws for many 
 years previous to their exodus to the west, and had traveled 
 all over their country in his labors of love and mercy, com- 
 puted their number, all told, at the time of their removal, at 
 forty thousand, but at which time six thousand died pn route 
 many with cholera, and others with various other diseases 
 contracted on the road, as is well authenticated. I was in- 
 formed, when traveling over their country in 1884, by an old 
 Choctaw with whom I was personally acquainted when living- 
 east of the Mississippi, that many, when they first moved to 
 their present homes, settled contiguous to the pestilential 
 Red river, and in a few years four hundred of the colony 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 95 
 
 had died, and the rest move/l away from that stream of death 
 to other parts of their territory. 
 
 Picket, in his Histoi'y of Alahama, says: "In 1771 
 there were two thousand three hundred warritors registered 
 upon the superintendent's books at Mobile* while two thous- 
 ands were scattered over the country, eng-aged in hunting." 
 But that did not weigh the value of a poor scruple in sustain- 
 ing the seemingly advanced position, that the Choctaws at 
 that time only numbered about forty-three hundred war- 
 riors; as it,is safe to say, the French did not register a fifth 
 of the warrioKS, for several reasons: First, from their great 
 aversion to their number^ being known to the whites; sec- 
 ond, their dread and superstitious fear of having their names 
 written in the "white man's books;" third, the great dis- 
 tance that the homes of thousands lay from Mobile, but 
 few of whom ever saw the place; fourth, the missionaries 
 who traveled all over their country found their villages and 
 towns everywhere. ' And if the French had twenty-three 
 hundred Choctaw warriors' names registered upon the pages 
 of their books, I feel confident, froni my own knowledge of ' 
 the Choctaws over seventy years ago, in saying Very few; if 
 any, of the owners of those registered names knew they 
 were recorded there. And if all be taken into consideration, 
 the six thousand, the lowest estimate. Slain in the destruc- 
 tion of Mobinah, then the great number that must have per- 
 ished in their wars with the English and French, a's allies 
 first to the one and then to the other; and their wars with 
 various other tribes; and the many that were killed and died 
 from disease when engaged in our Revolutionary war; and 
 the six thousand that died on their removal to the west in 
 1832-33; and the multiplied hundreds that died soon after 
 their arrival to their present place of abode, from diseases 
 contracted en route and from not being acclamated to their 
 new country; and in addition to all this, the many depress- 
 ing influences they have labored under since they have had 
 to do with the White Race, and the terrible dispensation un- 
 der which they have lived; they must, at an early period 
 have been a numerous people, or long since they would have 
 become totally eitinct. 
 
 "The Severalty Bill I" I was in the Indian Teri-itory 
 and read a letter from an Indian delegate in Washington , 
 City, to a friend in the Territory and was forcibly struck 
 with the shameful truth of one sentence ."Congress can and 
 will pass any bill to destroy the Indians." Yet nothing 
 strange in this, since rascality and debauchery characterize 
 that once pure and noble body, if even half be true that is 
 said about it, by those who have seen behind the curtains. I 
 
96 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 s 
 
 'also read another letter written by an Indian in the Territory 
 to a delegate of his people, then (Feb. IS, 1887,) in Wash- 
 ington from which, by request and permission, I copied the 
 following- without alteration : 
 "Dear old friend:" 
 
 "Wounded and grieved over the action of Congress and 
 the President, who gave the Indians his word (which should 
 be as his bond) to stand by us, when our rights were trepass- 
 ed upon. Behold now, his actions in the severalty bill. Are 
 there no honest men, citizens of the United State^? Alas, 
 even the highest in power has no regard for^his word ! 
 There must be very little honesty among rhem, and if God 
 forsakes us, we will soon be remembered only in story. God 
 knows, if we had only the power that the United States have 
 I would be willing to resent the wrong and insult, if it shoul^l 
 be at the sacrifice of every drop of Indian blood that is cir- 
 cling in our race." (All praise to that noble and patriotic 
 spirit), "Cleveland thinking he might lose the next nomina- » 
 tion for President, is willing to sacrifice his word or honor 
 (whatever you may choose to call it) to be on the popular 
 side. Away with such hypocrisy! He should be a man of 
 some principle and stamina, but he lacks all of it. 
 
 "Dawes, when here, said he would do everything to ad- 
 vance our cause; that he was surprised to see the intelligence 
 and evidences of progress existing among us. See too, what 
 he has done! God will surely damn such hypocrites. Poor 
 Mr, Brown, I feel sorry for him, standing alone, as it were, 
 in the cause of humanity and justice; but I hope he will not 
 feel disheartened in tjic^^ood cause, hut will gather strength 
 from the ruins of broken treaties and shattered pledges 
 made and violated by his so-called great and magnanimous 
 government. All honor and peace be his. 
 
 "We will-ever feel grateful to him for the active part he 
 took in our behalf. Had there been a few more honest and' 
 fearless men like him in Congress, we might have fared bet- 
 ter. Inch by inch, does Congress trespass upon and violate 
 the solemn vows it ha« made. Surely such an outrage is 
 almost enough to drive ua to raise the tomahawk, and di«,. 
 every one of us, in fighting for justice against such high- 
 handed tyranny and insupportable oppression of our help- 
 less and hopeless race. " 
 
 What patriotic heart but leaps with emotions of pride 
 at the heroic sentiments expressed in the above. Truth, 
 justice, humanity, Christianity, our honor and integrity as a 
 professed Christian people, backed by a just and righteous 
 God above, demand of us to proclain our fiat to the acoun- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS^ ' . 97 
 
 drels that to-day so curse our country anddisgrace us as a 
 people, in a tone of voice that shall be heard ,and obeyed, in 
 the imperative command, Halt! v , . \ . 
 
 On June 22nd, 1784, the Spaniards convened a council 
 at Mobile, Ala., in which the Chobtaws and Chicka'saws were 
 larg-ely represented, also a few other ' smaller tribes came 
 with their families. As usual, on all such occasions, the 
 Spaniards; unex'celled only by the Americans aftei-wards, 
 lavished upori the Indians their flattery and presents, each 
 of equal value, with unwearied tong-ues and unsparing' hands, 
 thus to induce them to form a treaty of alliance and trade, 
 which was successful^ consummated. The last article of 
 this treaty then entered into, confirmed,' in the name of the 
 Spanish King-, the Indians in the peacejlble possession of all 
 their territories within the King's dominions; and further 
 more, it was stipulated, should any of them be deprived of 
 their lands b}- any of the^King-'s enemies, he would re- 
 possess them with other lands within his territories equal 
 in extent and value to those lost. But as stipulations and 
 promises, never intended to be fulfilled, and cajolery 
 and flattery to deceive them into a trusting- belief of true 
 friendship, were the means adopted and practiced by the 
 foreign nations that contended with each other for a portion 
 of the North American Continent, so they, as the vicissitudes 
 of war dictated, withdre-vv their interest in and protection 
 from the confiding liidians to whom they had made so many 
 fair promises of protection, and manifested such high pre^s 
 tentions of sincere and disinterested friendship, and un-, 
 hesitatingly assume'd the right of transferring them to any 
 nation which their interest demanded without a ca,re, or even 
 a thought, of the interests and welfare of the Indians; thus 
 conclusively proving that they, each haunted with the fear of 
 the other, using every effort to secure and maintain the good 
 will of the Indians only for the purpose of interposing them 
 between themselves and their encroaching rivals, when it 
 was to their interests so to do. 
 
 The Spaniards again induced thirty-six of the 'most 
 prominent and influential chiefs of the Choctiws and Chick- 
 asaws to visit them at New Orleans in 1787, "whet-e they were 
 received and entertained with the greatest manifestations of 
 sincere respect and friendship, by escorting them to public 
 balls land military parades, and the u^sual, bestowal of pres- 
 ents and flattery; nor did it ever occurcto the Choctaws and 
 Chickasaws that all this was but for the purpose of rendering 
 them, their more easy prey, and their assumed friendship de-i 
 signed but to throw them off their guard, and thus conceal 
 their real intentions; thus they were induced to renew their 
 
 i 
 
*J8 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 pledges of peace and friendship to the Spaniards, by smok- 
 ingf the pipe of peace in confirmation of their former treaty, 
 by judging- the actions of .the Spaniards from the standpoint 
 of the integrity and honesty of their own hearts. 
 
 The first treaty made with the Choctaws by the United 
 States was at Hopewell, on January 3r4, 1786; and between 
 this and January 20th, 1825, seven additional treaties were 
 made with them; the second being December 17th, 1801, in 
 which it was mutually agreed between the Choctaw Nation 
 and the United States Government, "that the old line of de- 
 marcation heretofore established by and between the officers 
 of his Brittanic Majesty and the Choctaw Nation, shall be 
 retraced, and plainly marked in such a' way and manner as 
 the' President may direct, in the presence of two persons to 
 be appointed by the said nation; and that the said line shall 
 lie the boundary between the settlements of the Mississippi 
 Territory and the Choctaw nation." 
 
 James Wilkerson, as commissioner of the United States, 
 and Push-kush Miko, (Baby Chiefj, and Ahlatah Humma, 
 iMixed Red, i. e. Mixed with Red), as commissioners of the 
 "Choctaw nation, did run and make distinctly this division 
 line, and made a report of the same, August 31st, 1803, as 
 follows: "And we, the said commissioners plenipotentiary, 
 do ratify and confirm the said line of (demarcation, and do 
 a-ecognize and acknowledge the same to be the boundary 
 which shall separate and distinguish the land ceded to the 
 United States, between the Tombigbee, Mobile, and Pascu- 
 fgola rivers, from that which had not been ceded by the said 
 'Choctaw nation." 
 
 The names of the ancient Choctaws, as well as their 
 ■entire race, as far as I have been enabled to learn, were 
 nearly always connativc referring generally to some animal, 
 and often predicating s^me attribute of that animal. Such 
 names were easily expressed in sign language; as the ob- 
 jectivencss of the Indian proper names with the result, is 
 that they could all be signified by gesture, whereas ^he bqst 
 sign talker among deaf mutes, it is said, is unable to translate 
 the proper names in his speech, therefore resorts to the 
 dactylic alphabet. The Indians were generally named, or 
 rather acquired a name, and sometimes several in succession, 
 from some noted exploit or hazardous adventure. Names 
 ■of rivers, creeks, mountains, hills, etc.. were given with 
 reference to some natural peculiarity; for the Indian had a 
 literature of his own, which .grew every year in propoi-tions 
 and value; it was the love of Nature, which may be developed 
 »n every heart and which seldom fails to purify and exalt. 
 
HISTORY OF. THE INDIANS. 99 
 
 Ignorance and prejudice call the Indians savages. I call 
 them heroes. You and I, reader, may not fcnow where or 
 how they live. God does. , ,. : 
 
 As before stated, the first treaty was made by the United 
 States with the Choctaw Nation on Jan. 3d, 1786. The follow- 
 ing Articles of this treaty were concluded at Hopewell, on the 
 Keowee River, near a place known as Seneca Old Town be- 
 tween Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, and Joseph 
 Martin, commissioners plenipotentiary\)f the United States 
 of America, of the one part, Yockenahoma, (I 'give the names 
 of the Choctaws as recorded in the treaty, and also give their 
 corrections and significations), corruption, Yoknahoma; 
 Orig., Yoknihumma Land, Hoommar ,Red, great medal chief 
 of Soanacoha, corruption of Sanukoah,.. pro. as' Sar-nook-o-ah 
 (I am mad); Yackehoopie, corruption of Yaktii Hopaii pi-o. as 
 Yark-nih, (Land) Ho-py-ye (Land of the war thief, leading 
 chief of Bugtoogoloo, corruption of Bok Tuklo, pro. as-Boke 
 (Creek) Took-lo (Two); Mingohoopari, corruption of Miko 
 Hopaii, pro. as Mik-o (Chief) Ho-py-ye (Leader as War Chief), 
 leading chief of Hashooqua, corruption of Hashokeah, pro. 
 as Harsh-oh-ke-ah (Even the aforesaid); Tobocoli, corruption 
 of Tobih Eoh, pro. as Tone-bih Eloh (All Sunshine) great 
 medal chief of Congetoo, utterly foreign to the CJioctaw 
 language; Pooshemastuby, corruption of Pasholih-ubih, pro. 
 as Par-sha-lih (To handle) ub-ih (and kill) gorget captain of 
 Senayazo; cor. of Siah (I am) Yo-shu-b'a (as ah) Lost; and 
 thirteen small medal chiefs of the first-class, twelve medal 
 and gorget captains, commissioners plenipotentiary of all the 
 Choctaw nation, of the other part. 
 
 The commissioiiers plenipotentiary of the United States 
 of America give peace to all the Choctaw Nation, and re- 
 ceive them into favor and protection of the United States of 
 America, on the following conditions: 
 
 Article Ist.^ — The commissioners plenipotentiary of all 
 the Choctaw Nation, shall restore all the prisoners, citizens 
 of the United States (useless demand, as the Choctaws were 
 never at war with the United States, and never held any 
 citizen of the United States as a prisoner, but always w^re 
 their faithful allies) or subjects of their allies, to their entire , 
 liberty, if any there be in the Choctaw Nation. They shall 
 also restore all the negroes, and a|l other property, taken 
 during the late war, from the citizens, to such person, and at 
 such time and place, as the commissioners of the United 
 States of America shall appoint, if any there be in the Choc- 
 taw Nation. , . . , • . i- f 11 
 
 Article 2nd.— The commissioners plenipotentiary of all 
 the Choctaw Nation, do hereby acknowledge the tribes and 
 
100 / HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 towns of the said Nation, and the lands with the boundary 
 -allotted to the said Indians to live and hunt on, as mentioned 
 in the Third Article, to be under the protection of the 
 United States of America, and of no 6ther sovereig^n what- 
 soever. 
 
 Article 3rd.r— The boundary of the lands hereby allotted 
 to the Choctaw Nation to live and hun| on, within the limits 
 of the United States of America, is and shall be the follow- 
 ing, viz.: Beginning at a point on the thirty-first degree of 
 north latitude, where the eastern boundary of the Natchez 
 district shall touch the same ; thence east along the thirty- 
 first degree of north latitude, being the southern boundary 
 of the United States of America, until it shall strike the 
 eastern boundary of the lands on which the Indians of the 
 s;ud nation did live and hunt on the twenty-ninth of Novem- 
 ber, 1783, while they were under the protection of the King 
 of Great Britain; thence northerly along the said eastern 
 boundary, until it shall meet the northc rn boundary of the 
 said lands; thence westerly along the said northern boun- 
 dary, until it shall meet the western boundary thereof ; 
 thence southerly along the same, to tbe beginning; saving 
 and reserving for the establishment of trading posts, three 
 tracts or parcels of land, of six miles square each, at such 
 places as theUnitedStates, in Congress assembled, shallthink 
 proper; which posts, and the lands annexed to them, shall 
 be to the use and under the government of the United States 
 of America. 
 
 Article 4th. — If any citizen of the United States, or other 
 person, not being an Indian, shall attempt to settle on any of 
 the lands hereby allotted to the Indians to live and hunt on, 
 such persons shall forfeit the protection of the United States 
 of America, and the Indians may punish him or not as they 
 please. 
 
 Article Sth. — If any Indian or Indians^, or persons resid- 
 ing among them, or who shall take refuge in their nation, 
 shall commit a robbery or murder, or other capital crime, on 
 any citizen of the United States of America, or person under 
 their protection, the tribe to which such offender may be- 
 long, or the nation, shall be bound to deliver him or them up 
 to be punished according to the ordinances of the United 
 States in CongAess assembled: provided, that the punish- 
 ment shall not tfe greater than if the robbery or murder, or 
 other capital crime, had been committed by a citizen on a 
 citizen. 
 
 Article6th.— If any citizen of the United States of 
 America, or person under their protection, shall commit a 
 robbery or murder, o^- other capital crime, on any Indian, 
 t 
 
HISTOKY Of THK INDIANS. 101 
 
 sHch offender or offenders shall be punished in the same 
 manner as if the robbery or murder, or other capital crime, 
 had been cbmmitted on a citizen of the United States of 
 America; and the punishment shall be in the presence of 
 some of the Choctaws, if any will atteiid" at the time and 
 place; and that they may have an opportunity feo to do, due 
 notice, if practicable, of the time of such intended punish- 
 ment shall be sent to some one of the tribe. 
 
 Article. 7th.^It is understood that the J)unishm€nt of 
 the innocent, under the idea of retaliation, is unjust, and 
 shall not be practiced on either side,' except where there is a 
 manifest violation of this treaty; and then it shall be pre- 
 ceded, first by a demand of justice; and if refused, then by a 
 declaration of hostilities . (But wherein is this to benefit the 
 Choctaws, if, to the best of their j-udgment, "this treaty" 
 was violated by us, and their demand of justice was refused? 
 Could they hope to obtain justice "by a declaration of hostili- 
 ties"? What a farce is such a futile attempt to display our 
 wonderful g-enerosity to the Choctaws, when we have openly 
 violated every treaty made with them, swhenever it was to 
 •our interest so to do, a truth we canno't deny, knovving the 
 folly they would be guilty of in declaring war against us 
 ^vvheii we were as a thousand to one of them in every particu- 
 lar as to advantage. Nor have we neglected to use those ad- 
 vantages from 1786 down the passing years to^the present, 
 to the utter impoverishment and final extermination of the 
 too confiding Indians). 
 
 For the benefit and comfort of the Indians, and for the 
 prevention of injuries or oppressions on the part of the citi- 
 zens or Indians, the United States in Congress assembled 
 shall have the sole and exclusive right of regulating the trade 
 with the Indians, and managing all tjieir affairs in such man- 
 ner as they think proper. 
 
 Then was inaugurated a system of fraud by which the 
 Choctaws were conii)letel3^ given into the hands of a few 
 soulless white ti-aders who fleeced their victims at will. 
 
 Article 9th, — Until the pleasure of Congress be known, 
 respecting the 8th article, all traders, citizens of the United 
 States of America, shall have liberty-to go to any of the tribes 
 or towns of the Choctaws, to trade with them, and they shall 
 be protected in their persons and property and kindh- 
 treated. 
 
 Article 10. — The said Indians shall give notice to the citi- 
 zens of the United States of America, of any designs which 
 they may know or suspect to' be formed in any neighboring 
 tribe, o'r'bv any person .\^homsoever, against the peace, 
 tradej or interest, of the United States of Amerida, 
 
102 HISTORY OF TITE INDIANS. 
 
 Article 11. — The hatchet shall be forever buried, and the 
 peace given by the United.States of America, and friendship 
 re-established between the said States on the one part, and 
 all th^ Choctaw nation on the other part, shall be universal, 
 and the contracting parties shall use their utmost endeavors 
 to maintain the peace given as aforesaid, and friendship 
 established. 
 
 In witness of all and every thing herein determined, be- 
 tween the United States of America and all the Choctaws, ^ve, 
 the underwritten commissioners, by virtue of our full powers, 
 have signed this definitive treaty, and have caused our seals 
 to be hereunto affixed. 
 
 Done at Hopewell, on the Keowee, third daj' of Jan- 
 uary, 1786 L. S. (Locus Sigilli) Place of the Seal. 
 
 Bknjamin Haw KINS, 
 Andkkw Pickkns, 
 Joseph Maktin. 
 
 Corruption: Yockenahoma, his x mai'k. Original: Yok- 
 ni Humma, pro. Yak-nih Hoom-mah Land Red. 
 
 Corruption: Yokehoopoie, his x mark. Original: Yak- 
 ni hopaii (as, hopy ye). Land of the Oar-chief. 
 
 Corruption: Mingo hoopaie, his x mark. Original: Mi- 
 kohopaii. Leader, as War-chief. 
 
 SECOND TREATY. 
 
 Concluded December 17th, 1801, Between the Choctaw 
 Nation and the United States. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States of 
 America, by James Wilkerson, of the State of Maryland, 
 brigadier general in the army of the United States, Benjamin 
 Hawkins, of North Carolina, and Andrew Pickens, of South 
 Carolina, commissioners plenipotentiary of the United States, 
 on the one part,, and the Mingoes, principal men and war- 
 riors of the Clioctaw Nation, representing the said Nation in 
 council assembled, on the other part, have entered into the 
 following articles and conditions, viz.: 
 
 Article 1st.— Whereas, the United States in Congress 
 assembled, did, by their commissioners plenipotentiary, 
 Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, and Joseph Martin, at 
 a treaty held with the chiefs and head men of the Choctaw 
 Nation at Hopewell, on the Keowee, June 30th, 1786, give 
 peace to the said Nation, and receive it into the favor and 
 protection of the United States of America; it is agreed by 
 the parties to these presents respectively, that the Choctaw 
 
HISTORY' OP THE INDIANS. lOJ. 
 
 Nation, or such part of It aa may reside within the limits of 
 tjie United States, shall be and continue under the care and 
 protection of the said United States; and that the mutual, 
 coiifideiice and friendship which are hereby acknowledgfed 
 to subsist between the contracting parties, shall be main- 
 tained and perpetuated. 
 
 Article 2nd. — The Mingoes, principal men, and warriors 
 of the Choctaw Nation of Indians, do hereby give their free 
 consent that a convenient and desirable wagon-way may be 
 explored, marked, opened, and made, under the orders and 
 instructions of the President of the United States, through 
 their lands; to commence at the northern extremity of the 
 settlements of the Mississippi Territory, and to extend from 
 thence, by such route as may be selected and surveyed un- 
 der the authority of the President of the Ufaited States, until 
 it 'shall strike the lands claimied by the Ghickaskw Nation; 
 and the same shall be and continue forever, a high-way for 
 the citizens of the United States and the Choctaws; and the 
 said Choctaws shall nominate twq discreet men from their 
 Nation, -vVho maty be employed as assistants, guides^ or 
 pilots, during the time of laying out and opening thei saidl 
 high-way, or so long as may be deemed expedient, under the 
 direction of the officer charged with this duty, who shall re- 
 ceive a reasonable compensation for their services., 
 
 Article 3rrf. — The two contracting parties covenant and 
 agree, that the old line of demarkation heretofore established 
 by and between the officers of his Brifanic Majesty and the 
 Choctaw Nation, which runs in a parallel direction with the 
 Mississippi river, and eastward thereof, shall be retraced 
 and plainly marked, in such a way and manner as the Presi- 
 dent may direct, in the presence of" two persons to be ap- 
 pointed by the said Nation; and that the said line shall be- 
 the boundary between the settlements of the Mississippi 
 Territory and the Choctaw Nation. And the said Nation 
 does, by these presents, relinquish to the United States and 
 quit claim forever, all their right, title, and pretension, to- 
 thfe land lying between the said line and the Mississippi 
 river, bounded south by the thirty-first degree of north lati- 
 tude, and north by the Yazoo river, where the Said line shall 
 strike same; and on the part of. the commissioners it is 
 agreed, that all persons who may be settled beyond this line 
 shall be removed within it, on the side toward the Missis- 
 sippi, together with. their slaves, household furniture, tools,, 
 materials, and stock, and the cabins or houses erected b}' 
 such persons shall be demolished. 
 
 ' Article 4th.— The President of the Unitecl States may., 
 at his discretion, proceed to execute the Second Article ofi; 
 
104 ' HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 this treaty; and the Third Article shall J[)e carried into effect 
 as soon as may be convenient to the Government of the 
 United States, and without unnecessary delay on the one 
 part or the other, of which the President shall be judge; the 
 Ch'octaws to be reasonably advised, by order of the Presi- 
 dent of the United States, of the time when, and the place 
 where, the re-survey and re-markingf of the old line referred 
 to in the preceding Article will be commenced. 
 
 Article 5th. — The commissioners of the United States 
 for and in consideration of the foregoing concessions on the 
 part of the Choctaw Nation, and in full satisfaction, do give 
 and deliver to the Mingoes, chiefs, and warriors, of the said 
 Nation, at the signing of these presents, the value, of $2,000 
 in goods and mdVchandi^e, net cost at Philadelphia, the re- 
 ceipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, and they further en- 
 gage to give three sets of blacksmith tools to the said Na- 
 tion. 
 
 Article 6th. — This treaty shall take effect and be obliga- 
 tory on the contracting parties, as soon as the same shall be 
 ratified by the President of the United States of America, 
 by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof. 
 
 In testimony whereof, the commissioners plenipoten- 
 tiary of the United States, and the Mingoes, principal men, 
 and warriors of the Choctaw nation, have hereto subscribed 
 their names and affixed their seals, at Fort Adams, on the 
 Mississippi, this the 17tl\ day of December, 1801, and of the 
 independence of ^he United States the 2(>. 
 
 Jawics Wilkickson, 
 Bknjamin Hawkins, 
 Andkicw Pickisns. 
 
 Corruption: Tuskana Hopia, his x mark. Original: 
 Tushka hopaii. Warrior of the War Chief. 
 
 Corruption: Toota Homo, his x mark. Original: Tobu 
 humm.i, made red. . 
 
 _ Corruption: Mingo Horn Massatubby, his x mark. 
 Original: Miko humma ubi (i, as ih) Red chief killer. 
 
 This treaty was also signed by twenty-two other Choc- 
 taws, whose names are omitted. 
 
 I 
 
 AGREEMENT. 
 
 CoNCi.uDKD OcTOBiCK 17'iH, 1802, Bktwi;i;n iHic Choctaw 
 Nation and thio Unh kd Siatks. 
 
 A provisional convention, entered into and made by 
 Brigadier (iencral James Wilkerson, of the State of Mary- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS lOS 
 
 land, commissioner for holding' conferences with the In- 
 dians south of the Ohio river, in behalf of the United States, 
 oii the one part, and the whole Choctaw Nation, by their 
 chiefs, head men, and Pjrincipal warriors, on the other 
 part. ' 
 
 Preamble: For the mutual accommodation of the par- 
 ties, and to perpetuate that concord and friendship, \Vhich so 
 happily subsists between them, they do hereby freely, vol- 
 untarily, and without constraint, covenant and agree: 
 
 'Article 1st.— That the President of the United States' 
 may, at his discretion, by a commissioner or commissioners, 
 to be appointed by him, by and with the advice and con- 
 sent of the Senate of the United States, retrace, connect, 
 and plainly re-mark the old line of limits, established by and 
 between his Britannic majesty and the said Choctaw nation, 
 which begfins on -the left bank of the Chickasaw-hay river, 
 and runs thciice in an easterly direction to the right bank 
 of the Tombigbee river, terminating on the same, at a bluff, 
 well-known by the name of Hacha Tiggeby (corruption of 
 Hacha toh bichi. You are very white,) but it is to be clear- 
 ly understood, that two commissioners, to be appointed, by 
 the said nation, from their own body, are to attend the com- 
 missioners of the United States, who may be appointed to 
 perform this servic^, for which purpose the siid Choctaw 
 Nation shall be reasonably advised by the. President of the 
 United States, of the particular period at- which the opera- 
 tion may be commenced, and the said Choctaw commission- 
 ers shall be subsisted by the United States, so .long as they 
 may be engaged on thisbusiness, and paid for their services, 
 during the said term, at the rate of one dollar per day. 
 
 Article 2nd. — The chiefs, head men, and warriors,, of the 
 said Choctaw nation, do hereby constitute, authorize, and 
 /.appoint, the chiefs and head men of the upper towns of the 
 said nation, to make such alteration in the old boundary 
 line near the mouth of the Yazoo river, as may be conven- 
 ient, and may be done without injury to the said Nation. 
 
 Article 4. — This convention shall take effect, and become 
 obligatory on the contracting parties, as soon as the Presi- 
 ,dent of the United States, by and with the advice and consent 
 of the Senate, shall have ratified the same. 
 
 In testimony whereof, the parties have hereunto set 
 their hands and affixed their seals, at Fort Confederation, on 
 the Tombigbee, in the Choctaw country, the 17th,' of Octo- 
 ber 1802, and of the independence of the United States the 
 
 twenty-seventh. 
 
 ' Jame^ Wilkerson. 
 In behalf of the lower towns and Chickasaw-hay. 
 
106 HISTORY OF THi: INDIANS. 
 
 Corrupted: Tuskona Hoopoio, his x mark. Orig-inal: 
 Tushkahopaii. Warrior of the Prophet, 
 
 Corruption: Mingo Hoopoio, his x mark. Original: 
 Mikohopaii. King of the War-chief. 
 
 The names of twelve Choctaws are omitted who signed 
 this treaty. 
 
 AGREEMENT. 
 
 CoNCLUDKD August 31st, 1803, Betwkicn Thk Choctaw 
 Nation and Thic Unitkd Status. 
 
 To whom these presents shall come: ' 
 
 Know ye, that the undersigned commissioners plenipo- 
 tentiary of the United States of America, of the one part, and 
 the whole Choctaw Nation of the other part, being duly au- 
 thorized by the President of the United States, and by the 
 chiefs and head men of said Nation, do hereby establish, in 
 conformity to the convention of Fort Confederation, for the 
 line of demarkation recognized in said convention, the follow- 
 ing metes and bounds, viz: Beginning ^t the channel of the 
 Hatche at the point where the line of limits between the 
 United States and Spain crosseth th^ same, thence up the 
 channel of said river to the confluence of the Chickasaw-hay 
 (corruption oi Chikasahha) and Buckhatannee (corruption of 
 Buchchah, a range of hills) and Hantah (to be bright) rivers, 
 thence up the channel of the Buchhatannee to Boque Hooma 
 (corruption of Bokhumma, Red Creek, thence up said creek 
 to a pine tree standing on the left bank of the same, and 
 blazed on two of its sides, about twelve links southwest of an 
 pld trading path, leading from the town of Mobile to the 
 Hewanee towns, much worn, but not "in use at the present 
 time. From this tree we find the following bearings and 
 distances, viz: south 54 degrees 30 miautes west, one chain, 
 one link, a blackgum, north 39 degrees east, one chain, 75 
 links, water oak; thence with the old British line of partition 
 in its various inflections to a mufberry post, planted on the 
 right bank of the main branch of ^intee Bogue, (cor. of Sinti 
 Bok and pro. as 8een-tih Boke, Snake Creek) where it makes 
 a sharp turn to the south east, a large broken top cypress 
 tree standing near the opposite bank of the creek, which is 
 about three pol^s wide, thence down the said creek to the 
 Tombigbee and Mobile rivers to the above mentioned line of 
 limits between the United States and Spain, and with the 
 -same to the point of beginning; and we, tHe said commission- 
 era plenipotentiary, do ratify and condrm the said line of 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS, , , 107 
 
 ' ' *'i I ' ■ ' ' ' ■ ' 
 
 (lemarkation, and do recognize and acknowledge the same to 
 be the boundary which shall separate and distinguish ttie 
 land ceded to the United States, between the Tombigbee, 
 Mobile and Pascagola rivet's, from that which has not been 
 ce'ded by the said Choctaw Nation. (Tombigbee, corruption 
 of Itombiikbi, Boxmater; Mobile, tbrruption of Momabinah, 
 A lodge for all; Pascagola, corruption of Puskaokla, Bread 
 people). In testimony whereof,' we hereunto affix , our 
 hands and 'seals, this 31st, day of August, 1803, to triplicates 
 of this tenor and date. Done at Hoe-Buck-intoopa, (corrup- 
 tion of jHoburk, coward intakobi lazy) the day and year above 
 written, and in the 27th year of the independence of the 
 United State's. 
 
 ' James Wilk^ekson. 
 
 Corrupted: Mingo Pooscoos, his x mark; Original: 
 Mikopuscus (pro. Mik-o Poos-ko(i)sh) Infant King. 
 
 Corrupted: Alatala Hooma, his x mark. Original: 
 Alatalihhumma, (pro. Ar-lah-tah-lih hoom.mah.) 
 Witnesses present: Joseph Chambers, U. S. Factor.' 
 Young Gaines, Interpreter,.. 
 John Bowyer, Capit. 2nd U. S. Regt. 
 
 We the commissioners of the Choctaw nation, duly 
 appointed, and the chiefs of the said nation who reside on the 
 Tombigbee river, next to Sintee Bogue, do acknowledge to 
 have received from the United States of America, by the 
 hand of Brigadier General, James Wilkerson, as a considera- 
 tion in full for the confirmation of the above concession, the 
 following articles, viz.; fifteen pieces of strands, three rifles, 
 one hundred and fifty blankets, two hundred and fifty pounds 
 of powder, two hundred and fiftj' pounds of lead, one bridle,^ 
 and man's saddle, and one black silk handkerchief. (Thus; 
 we have an fexhibition of the wonderful generosity expressed i 
 in the Government's reiterated "To give peace to all the^ 
 Choctaw nation," and the meaningof "and receive them into,' 
 favor and protection of the United States of America,"; 
 Wonderful protection! to take advantage of their ignorance 
 in the value of their lands, and disposses them of hundreds 
 of thousands of acres for a few pounds of powder and lead, , 
 a few blankets, a saddle and bridle, and- lastly though not 
 least, "one black silk handkerchief." i 
 
 : Mingo Pooscoos, his x mirk. 
 Alatala Hooma, his x mark. 
 Commissioners of the Choctaw nation. 
 
 Corrupted: Pio Mingo, his x mark Original: 
 Pin Miko. Our chief . 
 
 Corrupted: Pasa Mastubby Mingo, his x mai-k. Origi- 
 
108 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 ■f. * . 
 
 nal: Pisahmiahubih Miko, (pro. Pe-sah-me-ah-ub-ih Miko. • 
 To see, g-o ahead and kill the chief.) 
 
 k, » In November, 1805, another portion of their country was 
 ceded to the United States; and in October, 1816, still another 
 portion; and October 18, 1820, andther portion was ceded for 
 and in consideration of a tract of country west bf the Missis- 
 sippi river, being- between the Arkansas and Red rivers, the 
 lines of which were to be ascertained and distinctly marked, 
 by commissioners for that purpose, to be accompanied by 
 such persons as the Choctaws mig^ht select. Again, January 
 20th, 1825, they ceded another portion of their lands, east of 
 the Mississippi river, to the United States. Then in Sep- 
 tember, 1830, the climax of the white man's greediness as 
 far as the Choctaws ^were involved, was reached, by forcing 
 that people to cede the last acre of land they possessed east 
 ,of the Mississippi riVer. And thus by hypocrisy, deception, , 
 /fraud, misrepresentation and unblushing falsehood, has the 
 octopus arm of white avarice seized in its insatiable 
 embrace the Indiana' country from Maine to California, un- 
 ; til scarcely enough is left them upon which to eke out a mis- ' 
 I erable existence ; and yet, year by year, generation by 
 genei-ation, the grasp widens and tightens, and creeps fur- 
 -ther and futrher upon them until with its stiff-necked, in- 
 ! corrigible bfutishness, its hissing is heard, throughout the 
 ' length and breadth of the land, vibrating upon that harp of a 
 (thousand strings that still remains in tune to the same old 
 howl "Open to white settlement, open up to white settle 
 ment." 
 
 a' TREATY OF LIMITS. 
 
 / 
 
 Concluded Novkmbek 16th, 1805, Bktwicicn tiii'; Choctaw 
 Nation and the Uni'ikd Statics. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, Presiderit of -the United States of 
 America, by James Robertson, of Tennessee, Silas Dins- 
 more, of New Hampshire, agent of the United States to the 
 Choctaws, commissioners plenipotentiary of the United 
 States, on the one part, and |the Mingoes, chiefs, and war- 
 riors of the Choctaw Nation of Indians, in council assembled 
 on the other part, have entered int(3 the following agree- 
 ment, viz.: 
 
 Article 1st. — The Mirtgoes, chiefs, and warritjrs, of the 
 Choctaw Nation of Indians, in behalf of themselves and the 
 said Nation, do, by these presents, cede to the United States 
 of America, all the lands to which thoy now have or ever had 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 109 
 
 claim, lying- to the right of the following lines ; to say, Be- 
 ginning- at a branch of theHumecheeto (Cor. of.Humma chitoh, 
 being greatly red), where the same is intersected by the 
 path leading from Natches to "^the county of Washington, 
 usually called McClary's path, thence eastwardly along 
 McClary's path, to the east or left bank of Pearl river,, 
 thence on such a direct line as would touch the lower end of 
 a bluff on the left bank of Chickasaw hay river, the first 
 above the Hiyoo wunnee (corruption of Hiohlih, Standing,, 
 uni, berries) towns, called Broken Bluff, thence in a direct 
 line nearly parallel with the river, to a poiitt whence an east 
 line of four miles in length will intersect the river below the 
 lowest settlement at present occupied and improved in the 
 Hiyoo wunnee town, thence still east four miles,'thence in a 
 direct line nearly parallel with the river to a point to be run 
 from the lower end of the Bi-oken Bluff to Falukta bunnee 
 (corruption of F^lakna, a fox squirrel, and bujnna, one^'who 
 wants) on the Tombigbee river, four riiiles from the Broken 
 Bluff, thence along the said^ line to Falukta bunnee, thence 
 east to the boundary between, the Creefks and Choctaws on 
 the ridge dividing the waters running into the Alabama from 
 those running into the Tombigbee, thence southwardly aloi^g 
 the said ridge and boundary to the southern point, of the 
 Choctaw claim. Reserving a tract of two miles square, run 
 on meridians and parallels, so as to include the houses and 
 improvements in the town of Fuket chee' pocwita, , (corrup- 
 tion of Fakit chipinta, and pro. as Fah-kit che-pin-tah, Tur- 
 key very small), and reserving also a tract of 5120 acres, be- 
 ginning at a post on the left bank of Tombigbee river op- 
 posite the lower end of Hatch a tigbee (corruption of Ha- 
 chotukni — pro. Har-cho-tuk-nih, Loggerhead turtle) Bluff, 
 thence ascending the I'iver four miles front and two back ; 
 one half for the use of Alzira, the other half for the use of 
 Sophia, daughters of Samuel Mitchell, by Molly, a Choctaw 
 woman. The latter reserve to be subject to the same laws 
 and regulations as may be established . in the circumjacent 
 country; and the said Mingoe^ of the Choctaw, i-equest the 
 government of the United States to confirm the title of this 
 reserve in the said Alzira and Sophia. 
 
 Article 2nd. — For and in consideratioji of the foregoing 
 cession on the part of the Choctaw Nation, and in full satis- 
 faction for the same, the commissioners of the United States 
 .do hereby covenant and agree with the said Nation, in behalf 
 of the United States, that the said States shall pay to the said 
 Nation fifty thousand and five hundred dollars f^r the follow- 
 ing purt)oses, to wit, forty-eight thousand dollars to enable 
 the Mingoes to dischai-ge the debt due to their^ merchants and 
 
; 
 T10l» HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 traders fthus went the poor Choctaws' land and money, to a 
 set of white sharpers;) and also pay for tiie depredations 
 committed on stock and other property, by evil disposed 
 persons of the said Choctaw Nation; (but who were the "evil 
 disposed persons of the said Choctaw Nation"? No other 
 than the white refugees from the violated laws of the States, 
 who had fled to the Choctaw Nation, and of whose character 
 the Choctaws were wholly ig-norant; they stole horses and 
 killed cattle, not belonging to the Choctaws for they feared 
 them, but belonging to the white traders, who charged 
 vtp their losses, duly exaggerated, to the Choctaws, thus 
 they were swindled and robbed by the shrewd, but not too 
 honest, white traders through a credulbus government — the 
 truth in a nut shell. );twenty-five hundred dollars to be paid 
 to John Pitclilynn, to compensate him for certain losses sus- 
 tained in the Choctaw Country, and as a grateful testimonial 
 of the Nation's esteem. And the said States shall also pay 
 annually to the said Choctaws, for the use of the Nation, 
 three thousand dollars, in such goods (at net cosyt in Phila- 
 delphia) as the Mingoes may chpose, they ^giving at least one 
 year's notice of such choice. 
 
 Article 3d.^-The commissioners of the United States, 
 on the part of the said States, engage to give to each of the 
 three great metlal Minyfoes Puckshunnubbce (corruption of 
 Apucksheubih) Mingo Hoomastubbee (corruption of Humma- 
 ubi, Red Killer) and Poosshamattaha (corruption of Anuma- 
 ishtayaubih, aimessenger of death), five hundred dollars, in 
 consideration of past services in their Nation, and also to pay 
 to each of them an annuity of one hundred and fifty dollars 
 during their continuance in office. It is perfectly under- 
 stood, that neithei" of those medal Mingoes is to share /any 
 part of the general annuity of the Natio{i. 
 
 Article 4th. — The Mingoes, chiefs, and warriors of the 
 Choctaws, certify that a tract of land not exceeding fifteen 
 hundred acres, situated between the Tombigbee river and 
 Jackson's creek, the front or river line extending down the 
 river from a blazed white oak; standing oii the left bank of 
 the Tombigbee, near the head of the .4hoal, next above Ho- 
 bukenloopa (corruption of Hobachit Yukpa, a laughing 
 echo), and claimed by John McGrew, was, in fact, granted to 
 the said McGrew by OpiomingoHesmitta, (corruption of the 
 words Hopoamikohimmittah, The hungry young chief) and 
 others, many years ago, and they respectfully request the 
 government of the 'United States to establish the claim of 
 the said McGrew to the said fifteen hundred acres. 
 
 Article 5th. — The two contracting parties covenant and 
 .-igree, that the boundary, as described in the second article. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. Ill 
 
 shall be ascertained and plainly marked, in such way and 
 manner as the President pf the United States may direct, in 
 the presence of three persons to be appointed by the said 
 Nation; one from each of the great medal districts, each of 
 whom shall receive for their service two dollars per day for 
 his actual attendance; and the Choctaws shall have due and 
 reasonable notice of the place where, and time when the 
 operation shall commence. ' , 
 
 The first article is presumed to be meant. The second 
 <loes not designate a boundary : - 
 
 Article ,6th. — The lease granted for establishments on 
 the roads leading- through the Choctaw country, , is hereby 
 confirmed in all its conditibns; and, except in the alteration 
 of boundary, nothing in the instrument shall affect or change 
 any of the pre-existing obligation of the cortracting parties. 
 
 Article 7th. — This treaty shall take effect and become 
 reciprocally obligatoi-y so soon as the same shall have been 
 ratified bj' the President of the United States of America, by 
 and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United 
 States. 
 
 Done on Mount Dexter, in Pooshapukanuk (corruption^ 
 of Pashiakona, Unto the dust) in the Ghoctavv country, this 
 the 6th of November, 1805, and of the independence of the 
 United States of America the thirtieth. \ ■ 
 
 James Robertson, 
 , Silas Dinsmoric, 
 ^ Commissioners. 
 
 Puchunnubbee, his x mark 
 Mingo Hoomastubbe, his X mark, 
 , Pooshamattah, his X mark, ' ' 
 
 Great Medal Mingoes. 
 Chiefs and Warriors: — 
 
 Corruption Ookchummee, his x mark; original, Okchulih, 
 Tiller of the land. 
 
 Corruption Tushamiubbee, his x mark; Tusuhahmutu- 
 bih, to whoop and also kill, and thirty-one others. 
 
 A TREATY OF CESSION 
 
 Concluded, October 34th, 1816, Between the Choctaw 
 Nation and the United States. 
 
 A treaty of cession between the United States of America 
 
 and the Choctaw Nation of Indians. 
 
 James Madison, President of the United States 6f Amer- 
 ica, by General Coffee, John Rhea, and John McKee, 
 
112 HISTORY OF THE CNDrANS. 
 
 Esquires, commissioners on the part of the United States, 
 duly authorized for that purpose, on the one part, and the 
 Ming'oes, leaders, Captains, and warriors, of the Choctaw 
 Nation, in g'eneral council assembled, in behalf of themselves 
 and the whole Nation, on the other part, have entered into 
 the following- articles, which, when ratified by the President 
 of the United States, with the advice and consent of the Sen- 
 ate, shall be obligatory on both parties: «. 
 
 Article 1st.— The Choctaw Nation, for the consideration 
 hereafter mentioned, cede to the United States all their title 
 and .claim to land lying east of the following boundary, 
 beginning at the mouth of Oaktibuha (corruption of O-ka, 
 Water, it-tib-ih, having fought) river, the Chickasaw \boun- 
 dary, and running thence down the Tombigbee river, until' it 
 intersects the northern boundary of a cession made to the 
 United States by the Choctaws at Mount Dexter, on the U)lh 
 of November, 1805. 
 
 Article 2nd. — In consideration of the, foregoing cession, 
 the United States engage to pay to the Choctaw Nation the 
 sum of six thousand dollars annually, for t^venty years; they 
 also agree to pay them in merchandize, to be delivered imme- 
 diately on signing the present treaty, the sum of ten thou- 
 sand dollars. 
 
 Thus we again see the Choctaws swindled out of their 
 lands, by getting onlv as many thousands of dollars for their 
 lands as they were worth in as many millions. But we had 
 taken them under our fatherly protection, and, as a matter , 
 of course, they must pay for so great a favor and so great a 
 blessing. 
 
 Done and executed in full and open council, (but by 
 much misrepresentation and dissimulation, as will be here- 
 after shown) at the Choctaw trading house, October 24th, 
 1816, and of the independence of the United States the forty- 
 first. John CoFFiii:, 
 
 . John Rhea, 
 John McKkk, 
 Mushoolatubbe, his x mark, 
 Pooshamallaha, his x mark, 
 Pukshunilubbee, his x mark, 
 
 TREATY. 
 
 Concluded, October 18, 1820, Between Thk Choctaw 
 Nation and the United States. 
 
 A treaty of friendship, limits and accommodattion, be- 
 tween the United States of America and the Choctaw Nation 
 
mSTORY OF THte INDIANS 113 
 
 of Indians, beg'att and concluded at the treaty ground, in 
 said nation, near Doak'siiStand, on the' Natchez road. 
 
 Preamble: Whereas, it is an important object with the 
 President of the United States, to promote the civilization of 
 the Choctaw Indians, by the establishment of schools 
 amongst them; and to "perpetuate them as a nation, by ex- 
 changing', for a small part of their land here, a country be- 
 yond the Mississippi river, where all, who live by hunting, 
 and will not A^ork, may be collected and settled together: 
 And whereas, it is desirable to the State of Mississippi, to 
 obtain a small part of the land belonging to said nation; for 
 the mutual accommodation of the parties, and for securing 
 the happiness and protection of the whole Choctaw nation, 
 as well as preserving that harmony and friendship which so 
 happily subsists between them and the United States, Janles 
 Monroe, President of the United States of America, by 
 Andrew Jackson, of the State of Tennessee, Major General 
 in the army of the United States, and General Thomas 
 Hinds, of the State of Mississippi, commissioners plenipo- 
 tentiary of the United States, on the one part, and the Min- 
 goes, head men, and wafriors, of the Choctaw Nation, in full 
 council assembled, on the other part, have freely and volun- 
 tarily entered into the following articles, viz. : to promote the 
 civilization of the Choctaw Indians, by the establishment of 
 schools among them, and to perpetuate them as a Nation, 
 and securing the happiness of the whole Choctaw Nation: 
 
 Article 1st. — To enable the President of the United 
 States to carry into eiiect the above grand and humane ob- 
 ject, the Mingoes, head men, and warriors, of the Choctaw 
 Nation in full council assembled, in behalf of themselves and 
 said Nation, do, by these presents,' cede to the United 
 States of America, all the land lying and being within the 
 boundaries Wlowing, to-wit: Beginning on the Choctaw 
 boundary, eastbfPearrriver,at a point due south of the White: 
 Oak spring, on the old Indian path; thence north to said 
 spring ; thence northwardly to a black oak, standing on thc' 
 Natchez road, about forty poles eastwardly from Doak's 
 fence, marked A. J. and blazed ; thence, a straight line to the 
 head of Black Creek, or Bogue Loosa (original Bok Lusa), 
 thence, down Black Creek, or , Bogue Loosa, to a small lake ; 
 thence, a direct course, so as to strike the Mississippi one. 
 mile below the mouth of the Arkansas river; thence, dovi^n 
 the Mississippi to our boundary; thence, arouiid and along 
 the same to the beginning. , 
 
 Article 3rd. — To prevent any dispute upon the sub-, 
 ject of the boundary mentioned in the First and Second 
 Articles, it is hereby stipulated between the piarties, that 
 
114 HISTORY OF THB INDIANS. 
 
 the same shall be ascertained and distinctly marked by a 
 commissioner, or commissioners, to be appointed by the 
 United States, accompanied by such person as the Choctaw 
 Nation may select ; said Nation h&ving- thirty days previous 
 notice of the time and place at which the operation will com- 
 mence. The person so chosen by the Choctaws, shall act as 
 a pilot or guide, for which the United States will pay him 
 two dollars per day, whilst actually engaged in the performa- 
 tion of that duty. 
 
 Article 4th. The boundaries kereby established be- 
 tween the Choctaw Indians and the United States, <^n this 
 'side of the Mississippi river, shall remain without alteration 
 until the period at which said Nation shall become so civiliz- 
 ed and enlightened as to be made citizens of the United States, 
 and Congress shall lay off a limited parcel of land for the 
 benefit of each family included in the Nation. 
 
 Yet, that "period at which said nation shall become so 
 civilized and enlightened as to be made citizens of the United 
 States," never was realized, since "the boundaries" did 
 not "remain without alteration" by the open violation of said 
 4th, article on the part of the United States, as will be fully 
 shown and established; proving that our professed desire 
 and vociferous declarations, concerning the civilization, the 
 moral and intellectual interest of the Choctaws, were myths, 
 palpable falsehoods, assumed and practised to deceive the 
 Choctaws and thereby take advantage of their credulity, as it 
 is manifested even unto the present day with unblushing 
 boldness in our dealing with the entire Indian race, feeling 
 the reproof of conscience in our injustice and inhumanity to 
 that unfortunate and helpless people, "and our determination 
 to i-ob them of their last acre of land, as a wave separated for 
 ii moment by the course of a ship that j)asses through it. 
 
 Article 5th.— For the purpose <>f aiding and assisting the 
 poor Indians, who wish to remove to the country hei'ebv 
 ceded on the part of the United Stales, and to enable them to 
 do well and support their families, the commissinners ol the 
 United States engage, in behalf of said States, to give to each 
 warrior a blanket, kettle, rifle gun, buUut mould and nip- 
 pers, and ammunition for hunting and defence, for one year. 
 Said warrior shall also be'supplied with corn to support liim 
 and his family, for the same period, and whilst travelling to 
 the country above ceded to the Choctaw Nation." (Mirabilc 
 dictui When before, in all the annals of time, was there 
 such a display of munificence in the simple manifestation of 
 an expressed desire "to promote the civilization of the Chi/ - 
 taw Indians, and for securing their happiness and protec- 
 ti(m." The bestowal of "a blanket, kettle, rille gun, bullet 
 
HISTOKY 0"F TKE INDIAnS. - 115 
 
 mould and nippers." Wonderfull ' Indeed, did not the 
 -angels of heaven look with profound astonishment at such a 
 display of human magnanimity in its effort "to promote the 
 ■civilization of the Choctaw Indians," and briiig them into the 
 folds of Christianity? Surely the devil may give up his chase 
 after the souls of the Choctaws, since they have such a lov- 
 ing and powerful protector in the United States of Amei-ica. 
 Magnanimous United States I Well may we make the welkin 
 ring with oiir huzzas of Liberty, freedom and. equal rights to 
 all people of earth's remotest bound, \vhen in the magnani- 
 mity of our Christian zeal "to promote the civilization of the 
 Choctaws," we made that .munificent bequest of "a blanket, 
 flap, kettle, rifle gun, bullet moulds and nippers." and then 
 drove them to that distant wilderness, as far from the means 
 of being benefitted by the influences of Christianity as vye 
 could drive them, there to be civilized and Qhristianized by 
 'our remarkable munificent gifts.) 
 
 Article 6th. — The commissioners of the United States 
 further covenant and agree, on the part of said States, that 
 an agent shall be appointed, in due time, for the benefit of the 
 Choctaw Indians who may be permanently settled in the 
 country ceded to them beyond the Mississippi river, and, at 
 a convenient period, a factor shall be sent there with goods, 
 if supply their wants. A blacksmith shall also be settled 
 amongst them, at a point most convenient to the population; 
 and a faithful person appointed, whose duty it shall be to 
 use every reasonable exertion to collect all the wandering 
 Indians belonging to the Choctaw Nation, upon the land 
 hereby provided for their permanent settlement. 
 
 Article 7th. — Out of the lands ceded by t^e Choctaw 
 Nation to the United States, the commissioners aforesaid, in 
 behalf of said States, further covenant and agree that fifty- 
 four sections of one mile square shall be laid out in good 
 land, by the President of the United States, and sold, for the 
 purpose of raising a fund, to.be applied to the support of the 
 Choctaw schools, on both sides of the Mississippi river. 
 Three-fourths of said fund shall be appropriated for the 
 benefit of the schools here ; and the repiaining fourth for the 
 establishment of one or more beyond the Mississippi; the 
 whole to be placed in the hands of the President 
 of the United States, cahd to be applied by him, 
 expressly and exclusively, to this valuable object. 
 (But what was the result of this appropriation "fifty- 
 four sections" of their) land to the establishing and 
 supporting "of the Choctaw schools, on both sides of the 
 Mississippi river." In ten years after, when hundreds of 
 dollars, proceeds of the sale_of the fifty-four sections of their 
 
116 raSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 own lands, had been used in establishing' schools, and these 
 schools were flourishing' all over their country, I speak of 
 that east of the Mississippi river, and' though, in spite of 
 embarrassments, adversities and misfortunes, they were 
 making the most rapid progress in civilization and Chris- 
 tianity, a quietus was placed upon everything by the United 
 States forcing them to sell their entire land possessions to 
 them, and driving them, by the unmerciful hand of arbitrary 
 power, to the distant wilderness in the west where they had 
 driven the former, there to civilize themselves by means of 
 a "blanket, flap, kettle, rifle gun, moulds and nippers," 
 while their schools and the "fifty-four sections of land" be- 
 came things of the past to the Choctaw, to be heard of no 
 more by them ; and thus we sacrificed this trusting people, 
 our faithful allies, to our avarice, more .odious in all its feat- 
 ures than even the nefarious proposal- which Themistocles 
 suggested to Aristides, of burning the ships of the allies at 
 the very time in which they were engaged in fighting, 
 for the common liberties of Greece; since he was blinded 
 by the glare of military glory, but we by a sordid, debas- 
 ing and degrading avarice. 
 
 Article 8th. — To remove any discontent which may have 
 arisen in the Choctaw Nation, in consequence of six thousand 
 dollars of their annuity having been appropriated annually 
 for sixteen years, \)y some of their chiefs, for the support of 
 their schools, the commissioners of the United States oblige 
 themselves, on the part of said States, -to set apart an addi- 
 tional ti'act of l^nd, for raising a fund equal to that given by 
 said chiefs, so that the whole of the annuity may remain in 
 the Nation, and be divided amongst tliem. And in order 
 that exact justice may be done to the poor and distressed of 
 said Nation, it shall be the duty of the agent to see that the 
 wants of every deaf, dumb, blind, and distressed Indian, 
 shall be first supplied out of said annuity, and the balance 
 equally distributed amongst every individual of said Nation. 
 
 Article 9th. — All those who have sepaVate settlements, 
 and fall within the limits of the land added by the Choctaw 
 Nation to the United States, and who desire to remain where 
 they now reside, shall be secured in a tract or parcel of land 
 one mile square, to include their improvements. Any one 
 who prefers removing, if he does so within one year from 
 the date of this treaty, sjiall be paid their full value, to be 
 ascertained by two persons to be appointed by the President 
 of the United States. 
 
 Article 10th. — As there are some who have valuable 
 buildings on the roads and elsewhere, should tliey remove, it 
 is further agreed by the aforesaid commissioners, in behalf 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 117 
 
 of the United States, that the inconvenience oi doing so shall 
 be considered, and such allowapce made as will amount to an 
 equivalent. For this purpose, there shall be paid to the 
 Mingo Puckshenubbe (original, A-pak-foh-li-chih-ubih), five 
 hundred dollars; to Harrison, two hundred dollars; to Cap- 
 tain Cobb, two hundred dollars; to William Hays, two hun- 
 'dred dollar's; to O'Gleno, two hundred dollars; and to all oth- 
 ers who have comfortable hotises, a compensation in the 
 «ame proportion. 
 
 Article 11th. — It is also provided by the com^missioners 
 of the United States, and they agree in behalf of said States, 
 "that those Choctaw chiefs and warriors, who have not received 
 compensation for their services during the campaign to Pen> 
 sacola, in the late war, shall be paid whatever is due them 
 over and above the value of the blanket, shirt, flap, and leg- 
 gins, which have been delivered to them. 
 
 Article 12th. — In order to promote industry and sobriety 
 -amongst all classes of the Red People in this Nation, but 
 particularly the poor, it is further provided by the parties 
 that the agent appointed to reside here, shall be, and he is, 
 liereby. vested with the full power to seize and confiscate all 
 the whiskey which may be introduced into said Nation, ex- 
 cept that used at public stands, or brought in by the per- 
 mit of the agent, or the principal' chieJFs of the three dis- 
 tricts. 
 
 Thus was the law of the Choctaws forbidding the intro- 
 duction of any kind and all kinds of spirituous liquors into 
 their country virtually abrogated, and their strenuous efforts 
 to keep the hideous hydra in its proper place, among its 
 makei's and worshippers (the white man) proved unavailing 
 as the door was thus opened for the white smugglers — pf 
 whom the agents were leaders. 
 
 Article 13th.^To enable the Mingoes, chiefs, and bead 
 men, of the Choctaw Nation, to raise and organize a corps of 
 light horse, consisting of ten in each district, so that good 
 order may be maintained, and that all men, both.White and 
 Red, may be cbmpelled to pay their debts, it is, stipulated 
 and agreed, that the s,um of two hundred dollars shall be ap- 
 propriated hf the United States, for each district, annually, 
 and placed in the hands of the agent, to pay the expenses in- 
 curred in raising and establishing said corps; which is to 
 act as executive officers, in maintaing good order, and com- 
 pelling bad men to remove fr.om the Nation, who are not 
 authorized to live in it by a regular permit from the agent. " 
 
 Article 14th.— Whereas the father of the beloved chief 
 Mushulatubbee (original Mosholatubil, with whom I was 
 personally acquainted), of the lower towns, for and during his 
 
118 HISTORY OF THE INpiANS. 
 
 life, did receive from the United States the sura of one hun- 
 dred and fifty dollars, annually; it is l^ereby stipulated, that 
 his son and successor Mushulatubbee, shall annually be paid 
 the Same amount during his natural lifp, to commence from 
 the ratification of this treaty. 
 
 Article 15th.— The peace and harmony subsisting be- 
 tween the Choctaw Nation of Indians and the United States, 
 are hereby renewed, continued, and declared to be perpet- 
 ual. 
 
 Article 16th. — These articles shall take effect, and be- 
 come obligatory on the contracting parties, so soon as the 
 same shall be ratified by the President, by and with the ad- 
 vice and consent of the Senate of the United States. 
 
 In testimony whereof, the , commissioners plenipoten- 
 tiary of the United States and the Mingoes, headmen and 
 warriors of the Choctaw Nation, have hereunto subscribed 
 their names and affixed their seals, at the place above writ- 
 ten, this the 18th, of October, 1820, and of the independence 
 of the United States the forty fifth. 
 
 Andrew Jackson, 
 Thomas Hinds, 
 ^ Commissioners- 
 
 Medal Mingoes: — 
 
 Corrupted: Puckshenubbee, his x mark. Original: 
 A-pak-foh-li-chihub-ih. 
 
 Corrupted: Poohawattaha, his x mark. Original: Ai'- 
 noom-pah-ish-tam-yah-ub-ih . 
 
 One hundred and twenty-eight names of Choctaws, who 
 signed this treaty are omitted. « 
 
 GREER COUNTY DISPUTE. 
 
 /The Dispute in the Right of Ownership op Greer County 
 Bktween^the United States and Texas. 
 
 The petition of the Attorney-General of the United 
 States affirms that according to the treaty of Feb. 22, 1819 
 made by the United States and the King of Spain, which was 
 ratified two years later, and so proclaimed by both the Uni- 
 ted States and Spain, and that by the third article of the 
 treaty it was provided and agreed that "the boundary line 
 between the two countries west of the Mississippi River 
 shall begin on the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Sabine 
 River, in the sea, continuing north along the western bank 
 of that river to the thirty-second degree of latitude; thence by 
 a line due north to the degree of latitude where it strikes the 
 
 1 
 
HISTORY Of THE INDtANS; *■ ~" 119 
 
 'Rio Roxo of Natchitoches or Red River; tfaeil following the 
 course of the Rio Roxo westward to thedegree' of longitude 
 100 west from London and 23 from Washington;' then cross- 
 ing the said Red River and running the'nce''by a line due 
 n6rth to the river Arkansas: thence following' the course of 
 the southern bank of the Arkansas! to its source in latitude 42 
 north, and thence by that parallel of latitude to the South 
 Sea. The whole being a;s laid down in Melish's map of the 
 United States, published at Philadelphia, improved to Jan- 
 uary, 1, 1818. 
 
 "The two high contracting parties agreeing to cede and 
 renounce all their rights, claims and pretensions to the ter- 
 ritories described by the said line. That is to say, the 
 United States hereby cede to his Catholic majesty and re- 
 nounce forever all their claims, rights, and pretensions to 
 the territories lying west and south of the above described 
 line, and in like manner his Catholic majesty cedes to the 
 United States all his 'rights, claims ?ind pretensions to any 
 territories east and north of the said line, and for himself, 
 his heirs and successors renounces all claim to the said ter- 
 ritory forever." 
 
 "The petition states that at the date of the conclusion of 
 the treaty aforesaid Mexico constituted a part of the Spanish 
 monarchy, but that Mexico, subsequently, iii the year 
 1824, became and was established as a separate and indepen- 
 dent power and government, and the boundary line defined 
 and designated in the treaty of 181,9, aforesaid, thereby be'- 
 came in part the boundary line between the United States 
 and Mexico, all the territory of the state of Texas being then 
 a part of the Mexican territory. ' 
 
 ','The Attorney General's petition to the court then goes 
 on to review the different movements of the United States 
 and Texas commissioners to establish the line between the 
 disputed territory, and which all resulted in a failure to 
 agree. 
 
 "The Attorney General further states that the said 
 state of Texas has, without any right or title thereto, claimed, 
 taken possession of, and endeavored to extend its laws and 
 jurisdiction over the said parcel or tract of land herein be- 
 fore described, and does still claim, hold possession of, and 
 exercise certain jurisdiction over the same, and has excluded 
 the United States from possession of and jurisdiction over 
 the same in violation of the treaty rights of your oratrix as 
 aforesaid; all of which your oratrix charges is a manifest in- 
 vasion of her sovereign rights and tends to the disturbance 
 of that amity and peace which ought to exist between the 
 authorities of the United States and the state of Texas. 
 
120 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 \ 
 
 "The area of the disputed territory is one million, five 
 hundred and eleven thousand, five hundred and seventy six 
 and seventeen one hundreds acres of la'rid. 
 
 "The petition futher states that the south fork of Red 
 river as now named and delineated on the maps, is the Rio 
 Roxo or Red river delineated on Melish*s maps, described in 
 the treaty of February, 22, 1819, and as the boundary line of 
 said treaty to the point where the 100th degree of west longi- 
 tude crosses the same, 
 
 "And your oratrix futher states that under and by virtue 
 of the terms of the treaty of 1819, between the United States 
 and Spain, she became entitled to possession of and jurisdic- 
 tion over all that parcel or tract of land which lies between 
 what has been herein designated as the Prairie Dog town 
 fork or Main Red river, and the north fork or Red river, 
 and is more accurately described as the extreme portion of 
 the Indian territory lying west of the north fork of Red 
 river, and east of the one hundreth meridian of west 
 longitude from Greenwich; that she has never voluntarily 
 abandoned or relinquished such claim to title and jurisdic- 
 tion, but has continually asserted the same at all times since 
 the ratification of said treaty of 1819 up to the present time, 
 and does still assert the the same; that said tract of land was 
 never subject to the jurisdiction or claim of Spain subsequent 
 to the treaty of 1819 aforesaid, nor was it subject to any claim 
 or jurisdiction on the part of Mexico after her indepertdence 
 from Spain was secured and assei\ted." 
 
 The following clause in the petitionof the Attorney-Gen- 
 eral states that "in consideration whereof, and for as much 
 as your oratrix can only have adequate relief in the premises 
 in a court of equity; where nyitters of this nature are prop- 
 erly cognizable, and in this court by original bill, to the 
 end for the purpose of determining and settling the true 
 boundary line between the United States and the state of 
 Texas, and to deternijne and put at rest questions which 
 now exist as to whether the Prairie Dog Town fork or the 
 North fork of Red river, as aforesaid, constitutes the true 
 boundary line of the treaty of 1819, aforesaid, and whether 
 the tract or parcel of land lying and being between two said 
 streams and called by the\iuthorities of the state of Texas 
 Greer county, is within the boundary and jurisdiction of the 
 United States or of the state of Texas." 
 
 Dr. Gideon, Lincicum who lived in Columbus, Miss, several 
 years prior to the exodus of the Choctaws, was present at 
 the treaty held by General Jackson and General Hinds at a 
 place known as Doak's Stand, in the Choctaw nation, in the 
 fall of 1820. The object of the United States in holding this 
 
1 
 
 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 121 
 
 treaty was to exchange all that country where the five civil- 
 ized tribes now reside south of the Canadian River for a strip 
 of territory from the lower and western part of the then 
 •Choctaw nation, known as the Huchchalusachitoh — pro* as 
 asHuch-chah (River) loo-sah (black) che-toh (big.) i. e.' Big 
 Black Rjver country. A'great many Choctaw's were in at- 
 tendance, and after GeneralJackson had read the commis- 
 sion and the President's letter to them, in a lengthy speech 
 he explained the object a;^id purpose for which they had been 
 -called together. He 'declared to them, that "to promote 
 "their civilization by the establishing of schools among them, 
 and to perpetuate them as a nation, was a constant solicitude 
 Avith the president of the United Stattes." (But the sequel 
 soon proved that ''solicitude" to be false.) 
 
 "To enable 'the President to effect this great national 
 -and very desirable object io accommodate the grovs^i^ng state 
 of Mississippi and thereby secure grestter safety and protec- 
 tion to the Choctaws and their seminaries of learning at 
 home, it was proposed by him to exchange for a small part of 
 their lands here, a large country beyond the Mississippi 
 river, where all who live by hunting and -will not work, and 
 who by the nature of their mode of life are widely scattered, 
 may be collected and settled together in a country of tall 
 trees, many water courses, rich lands and high grass, 
 abounding in game of all kinds— buffalo, bear and deer, ante- 
 lope, beave"V, turkeys, honey, and fruits of • many kinds, iii 
 this great hunting ground they may be settled near together 
 for protection and to be-able to pursue their peculiar vocation 
 without.danger. , 
 
 'Ailother great benefit to be derived from this arrange- 
 ment would be the removal from among the people at home 
 ■who are already inclined to progress and civilization of the 
 ' bad example of those who, in their wild wandering propensi- 
 ties do not care for improvement. The project recom- 
 mends itself to the thinking portion of the industrious com- 
 ; munity, while it will provide ample means ior the protec- 
 tion of the careless stragglers of the Nation. 
 
 'The tract of territory which the President proposes to 
 exchange for the, Big Black river country here, lies between 
 the Arkansas and Red rivers. It is a large and extended 
 country. Beginning where the lower boundary line of the 
 Cherokees strikes the Arkansas river, thence up the Arkan- 
 sas to the Canadian river fork; thence up the Canadian to its 
 source, thence due south to Red river, thence down Red riv- 
 «r to a point three miles below the mouth of Little river 
 Tvhich enters into Red river from the north, thence on a di- 
 rect line to place of beginning. 
 
122 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 'This extensive rich terPitory is offered in exchang-e by 
 the President for the little strip of land in the lower part of the 
 present Choctaw Nation. It is a much larger territory than 
 the whole of your possessions this side of the Mississippi 
 river, and is certainly a very liberal proposition. What say 
 the chiefs and Choctaw people to this great offer? 
 
 "After the pipe lighters had finished handing the pipes 
 around and order was again restored, Apushamatahah arose, 
 and, addressing himself to his own people first, told them 
 the man who had just finished his big talk was the great 
 warrior, General Jackson, of whom theyliad all so often heard. 
 Many of them had, no doubt, seen him and, like himself, had 
 served under him in many successful battles. His great 
 character as a man and warrior, in addition to the commis- 
 sion he bore from the President of the United States, de- 
 manded from the Choctaw people respectful replies from his 
 proppsitions, and for that purpose he moved that the council 
 adjourn until the middle of the day, to-morrow, which mo- 
 tion was carried and the council adjourned. ' 
 
 "The chiefs and head men went into secret council that 
 night, where they very deliberately discussed the merits of 
 the propositions that had been made by the United States 
 commissioners. They considered it a wise and benevolent 
 proposition, and, notwithstanding that the land they offered 
 to exchange the large tract of western territory for was 
 worth more to them at this time than two such countries as 
 the one they were offering, with the Choctaws, the thing 
 stood very differently, particularly in relation to the fixing 
 of a home for our wandering hunters in the midst of a game 
 country. However, good as the proposition is, we must in 
 this case adopt the white man's rules in the transaction and 
 get all we can from them. General Jackson is a great man, 
 but in his talk in making the proposition to exchange coun- 
 tries he has been guilty of misrepresentations which he 
 knows are such, and others which, perhaps, he is not ap- 
 prised of their beiiVg false. Our plan is to meet him in the 
 treaty with his own policy and let the hardiest reap the 
 profits. If we can do no better we will take them at the offer 
 already made." "This much and the appointment of Apush- 
 amatahah to do the talking, next day was the result of the 
 secret council. i 
 
 "When at 12 o'clock the next day the council had assem- 
 bled, the commissioners inquired of the chiefs if they had 
 come to any conclusion on the subject of the propositions 
 made to them yesterday in relation to the exchange of coun- 
 tries? Apushamatahah arose and said that the chiefs and 
 leaders of his people had appointed him to reply to the com- 
 
mSTORY OP , ,THE. iPSTDIANS.i > <v 123 
 
 ' A . I 
 
 miasioners on the subjecti He remarked ithat' he fully ap- 
 preciated the magnitude of .the propositionj and, his incom- 
 petenpy todo it justice, especially while in contact with two 
 such master minds as he would have to deal with. He fur- 
 ther remarked that when any business wals intended to be 
 fairly and honestly transacted it made no difference as to the 
 capacity of the contracting parties. One party /might be a 
 great man as General Jackson, the other a fool, but the re- 
 sult would be the same. The wise man in stlch cases would 
 protest the rights of the fool, holdiiig hini firm on safe gound^ 
 From what he had already heard he had discovered that the 
 great transaction now about to take place between friendly 
 nations, was not to be conducted on those equitable' princi- 
 ples, and that it would not be safe for him, fool as he was, to 
 rely upon any such'^ expectations. He was to come to the 
 contest with such powers as he possessed, do the best he 
 ould , and his people must be satisfied and abide the results, 
 nd consequences. 
 
 ' The object and benefits to be derived by the United. 
 States were very great and desirable, or they would not 
 have sent two of their greatest warrior generals to conduct 
 the treaty in their behalf. He was friendly toward the: 
 United States, aild particularly to their two distinguished 
 agents, for he had served under them and side by side in the 
 hour of peril and deadly strife, had aided them in the acqui-^ 
 sition of Florida and a considerable portion of the Muscogee 
 couiltry with his manhood, and as many of his coiintrymen 
 as he could persuade to take part in the dangers of the en- 
 terprise. Under all these considerations he intended to 
 strike the bargain in the exchange of countries with them if 
 he could. He thought it was one of ihoke kind of swaps, if 
 it could be fairly made, that would acconimodat.e both par- 
 ties. He should do his best, and he hoped to succeed in 
 presenting the thing in such a form as to convince the. com- 
 missioners that 'further misrepresentation would be entire- 
 ly unnecessary. 'D He then sat down. 
 
 "General Jackson arose and grawely remarked: 'Broth- 
 er Push, you have uttered some hard words. You have ac- 
 cused me of misrepresentation, and indirectly, of the desire 
 to defraud the red people in behalf of my government. 
 These are hfeavy charges, charges of a very serious charac- 
 ter. You must explain yourself in a manner that will clear 
 them up or I shall quit you.' "Apushamatahah then arose 
 and made a long explanatory speech, but its length precludes 
 its production here. , , ,' 
 
 "The closing portion was, 'I shall take much pleasure 
 in my explanation to render a plain and irrefutable itlter- 
 
124 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. . 
 
 pretation of what I have said, and which will present in a 
 very clear light the misrepresentations in relation to the 
 quality of the country west of the Mississippi and the size of 
 the country on .this side of the great river. 
 
 'In the first place, he speaks of the country you wish to 
 obtain in the swap as a little slip of land at the lower part of 
 the present Choctaw Nation, whereas jt is a very consider- 
 able tract of country. He has designated the boundaries of 
 it, and I am very familiar with the entire tract of land it will 
 •cut off from us. 
 
 "In the second place, he represents the country he wishes 
 to exchange for the 'little slip' as being a very extensive 
 country 'of tall trees, many water courses, rich lands and 
 high grass, abounding in game of all kinds, buffalo, bear, 
 «lk, deer, antelope, beavers, turkey, h^ney and fruits of 
 many kinds.' I am also well acquainted with that country. 
 I have hunted there often, have chased the Comanche and 
 Wichita over those endless plains, and they too have some- 
 times chased mie there. I know the country well. It is in- 
 deed a very extensive land, but a vast amount of it is poor 
 and sterile, trackless and sandy deserts, nude of vegetation 
 of any kind. As to tall trees, there is no timber anywhere, 
 ^except on the bottom lands, and it is low and brushy even 
 Ihere. The grass is everywhere short; as for the game, it 
 is not plenty, except buffalo and deer. The buffalo, in the 
 western portion of the tract described, and on the great 
 plains into which it reaches, are very numerous and easily 
 iaken. Antelopes,^ too, are there, and deer almost every- 
 -where, except in tne dry grassless, sandy desert. There 
 are but few elk, and the bear are plenty only on the Red riv- 
 er bottom lands. Turkey are plentiful on all the water 
 courses. There are, however, but few beaver, and fruit and 
 honey are a rare thing. The bottoms on the river are gen- 
 erally good soil, but liable"^to inundq.tion during the spring 
 season, and in summer the rivers and creeks dry up or be- 
 come so salty that the water is unfit for use.. It isnotat these 
 times always salty, but often bitter and will purge a man 
 like medicine. 
 
 •This account differs widely from the description given 
 by my friend yesterday, and constitutes what, in my reply 
 to him, I styled a misrepresentation. He has proven to me 
 by that misrepresentation and one great error that he is en- 
 tirely ignorant of the geography of the country he is offering' 
 to swap, and therefore I shall acquit him of an intentional 
 fraud. The testimony that he bears against himself, in re- 
 gard to his deficiency of a knowledge of that far-off country 
 manifests itself in the fact that hb has^offered to swap to me 
 
^HISTORY OF THE INDIAJ^S. 12S 
 
 an undefined portion of Mexican territory. He offei-s to run 
 the line up the Canadian river to its source, and thence due 
 south to the Red river. Now, I know that, a line running- ■ 
 due sou1;h from the source of the Canadian would never touch 
 any portion of Red river, but would go into the Mexican pos- 
 sessions beyond the limits even of my geog^raphical knowl- 
 edg'e.' ' 
 
 "General Jackson interrupting him, said: 'See here^ 
 Brother Push, you must be mistaken. Look at this map. 
 It will prove to you at once that you are laboring under a 
 g^reat geographical error yourselfj' and he spread out the 
 map. ' , I 
 
 "Apushamataha examined it very minutely, . while 
 General Jackson traced out and read the names of the'rivers 
 for him. Apushamatahah said: 'The paper, is not true.' 
 "He then proceeded to mark -out on the ground with the 
 handle of the pipe hatchet, which he held in hi.^ hand while 
 speaking, the Canadian and the upper branches of ^Red 
 river, and said, holding- the end of the hatchet handle on the 
 g-round, 'there is the north,' then rapidly tracing- a deep line 
 on the ground, 'here is the soihth, and, you see, the line be- 
 tween the two points do not toucK any portion of Red river, 
 and I declare to you that it is the natural position of the 
 country and its water courses.' , 
 
 "You must be mistaken, said General Jackson; at 
 any rate, I am willing to make good the proposition I have 
 named.' / 
 
 "Very well,' replied ApushaniataTia, 'and you must 
 not be surprised nor think hard of me if I call your attention 
 to another subject within the limits of the country you 
 designate west of the Mississippi, which you do not seem to 
 be apprised of. The lower portion of the land you propose 
 to swap to us is a pretty good country. It is true that as high 
 up the Arkansas river as Fort Smith the lands are good and 
 timber and water plenty, but there is an objectionable diffi- 
 culty in the way. ll was never known before, in any treaty 
 made by the United States with the Red people, that their / 
 commissioners were permitted to offer to swap off or sell 
 any portion 'of their citizens . What I ask to know in the 
 stipulations of the present treaty is, whether the American 
 settlers you propose to turn over to us in this exchange of 
 countries are, when we'get them in possession, to be con- 
 sidered Indians or white people?' 
 
 "General .Jackson replied and told the speaking chief 
 that, 'As for the white people on the land, it was a mere 
 matter of moon-shine. There were perhaps a few hunter^ 
 
 ( 
 
126 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 scattered over the country, arid I will have them ordered 
 off.' 
 
 I "'I beg your pardon,' said Apushamataha, 'there are a 
 great many of them, many of them substantial, well-to-do 
 settlers, with good houses and productive farms, and they 
 will not be ordered off.' 
 
 " 'But,' said GeneralJacksoh, 'I will send my warriors, 
 and by the eternal, I'll drive them intb the Mississippi or 
 make them leave.' ^ 
 
 '"Very well,' replied the chief, 'and now the matter is 
 settled as far as the land west of the Mississippi river is 
 concerned. We will now consider the boundary and coun- 
 try the Choctaws are to give to you for it, and if we can 
 agree upon that the trade will be completed. You have de- 
 fined its boundaries and they include a very valuable tract of 
 country of considerable extent, capable of producing corn, 
 cotton, wheat and all the ciiops the white man cultivates. 
 NoaV, if we do agree on terms and run this line, it must, as a 
 part of this contract, be very clearly understood, and put on 
 paper in a form that will not die or wear out, that no altera- 
 tion shall be made in the boundaries of that portion of our 
 territory that will remain, until the Choctaw people are suf- 
 ficiently progressed in the arts of civilization to become citi- 
 zens of the States, owning land and homes of their own, on 
 an equal footing with the white people. Then it may be 
 surveyed and the surplus sold for the benefit of the Choctaw 
 people.' 
 
 "'That,' said General Jackson, 'is a magnificent ar- 
 rangement and we consent to it readily.' 
 
 'An adjournment of the council was then made until 10 
 o'clock next day to allow the chiefs and warriors time to dis- 
 cuss the treaty, and the secretary of the commissioners for 
 preparing his big paper, t^e treaty, ready for the seal. 
 ^ "Next day at the appointed; time the council met and 
 General Hinds, one ^of the commissioners of the United 
 States, made a long talk to the chiefs and warriofs. 
 
 "Apushamatahah was the speaking chief, and demanded 
 the following additional remuneration: 
 
 1st.— 'That the United States furnish each of those who 
 chose to go to the new country a good rifle, bullet mould, 
 camp-kettle, one blanket and powder and lead to last one year. 
 Also corn for one year. 
 
 2nd.— "Out of the land about to be swapped, fifty-four 
 sections of a mile square shall be surveyed and sold to the 
 best bidder by the United States for the purpose of raising 
 a fund to support Choctaw schools, all to be placed in the 
 
HISTORY OP THE INblANS. 127 
 
 hands of the Presideht of the United States to be dealt oilt 
 by him for school purposes only in the Choctaw Nation. 
 
 3rd.— "The United States to pay for militai'y services of 
 all the Choctaw warriors during the campaign to Pensacola. 
 
 4th.— 'Payment to all having good houses and residing 
 on the ceded territory.' 
 
 "All the propositions were agreed to by the United 
 States commissioners. The commissioners first signed the 
 treaty, them Mushulatube, Apukshinubi and Apushimataha, 
 the head chiefs of the upper, middle and lower districts of 
 the Choctaw Nation. Then 100 leaders and warriors signed 
 with their names or x^^mark. All were pleased and satisfied. 
 
 "Apushimataha was then-requested to speak. His effort, 
 now on record, would equal Daniel Webster in any of his fani-/^ 
 ous orations. -^ 
 
 "He concluded las follows'': 'I most solemnly declare 
 that on my part the sacred words 'perpetual friendship,' 
 included in thfe last article of the treaty, shall never be vio- 
 lated or suffer the slightest infringem'ent. We have made 
 many treaties with the United States, all conducted in peace 
 and amacably carried out. but this last one, the greatest of 
 all, has been peculiar in its stipulations, giving another arid a 
 stronger proof of the fostering care and proctecting inten- 
 titons of the United States toward their Choctaw friends. 
 In all our treaties we Have been encouraged by them to in- 
 situte schools, urging us to prepare ourselves as fast as 
 possible to become citizens and mepibers of that great 
 Nation. In the treaty which has been concluded to-day the 
 subject of schools has been more particularly urged, and 
 appropriations more extensively provided than any 
 other former treaty. The applauding murmurs on that 
 subject have passed thl-ough the camps of the R^d people. It 
 meets their approbation. They will most certainly succeed. 
 It is a peculiar trait in the Choctaw character, that all the 
 national movements turn out to be successes. I am pleased 
 to hear so many spealcing favorably of school institutions. 
 It tells me that they will have them. It is a national senti- 
 ment, and I here venture the prediction, for I am considered 
 a sort of a prophet any way, that the time will come, and 
 there are many children and some grown men here to-day, 
 who will live to see it, when the highly improved Choctaw , 
 shall hold office in the councils of that great Nation of white 
 people, and in their wars with the Nations of the earth, 
 mixed up in the armies of the white man, the fierce war 
 whoops of the Choctaw warrior shall strike terror and melt 
 the hearts of an invading foe. Mind that; Apushimataha has 
 this day declared it and his words of prophecy are not ut- 
 
128 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 tered foolishly. To the chiefs, leaders and warriors of my 
 countrymen I may say: Return to your homes and forget 
 not the words of this great treaty to which so many of you 
 subscribed your names with your White brothers to the same 
 big paper, this bright day. Nuktaniabilia, perpetual friend- 
 ship, is placed on that paper. You have all agreed to stand 
 to it and manifested your consent by having your names 
 placed on the big papejr, where they will remain long after 
 you have all paseed away to the good hunting ground.' 
 
 Nuktaniabilia are corruptions of the whites and are not 
 the Choctaw words fol- "perpetual friendship," The 
 
 Original: Biliahittibaiachuffah. Pro. Be-le-ah (for 
 ever) it-tib-ai-ar-chuf-fah (to be one mind) i. e. Perpetual 
 friendship. 
 
 How easily could the sentiments and desires expressed 
 by the Choctaw people through their noble chief, have been 
 realized but for that base venality which demanded their 
 country alone and their banishment to the then most inhos- 
 pitable region then known upon the western continent, in 
 open violation of a thousand as sacred pledges as it is possi- 
 ble for man to make to man. Surely we are not a govern- 
 ment of law but of brute force impelled alone by that venality 
 that knows no principle of virtue whateAfer. ^ 
 
 See the low duplicity and misrepresentation adopted by 
 Jackson tu mislead Apushamataha, in regard to the coun- 
 try west of the Mississippi River that he was endeavoring to 
 exchange with the Choctaws for a portion of their west; and 
 to-day, after three quarters of a century has past, it stands 
 as a living testimony'of the honesty and truthfulness of the 
 noble Choctaw chief. Xjnd when he pointed to the white set- 
 tlers occupying a part of the offered land — mark the threat 
 of Jackson, "I will send my warriors, and, by the eternal, I'll 
 drive them into the Mississippi or make them leave;" which, 
 whatever name Truth and Justice deem it merits, was never 
 executed; and after remaining five years, the quiet of the 
 Choctaws was again disturbed on October 20th, 1825, by the 
 voice of the white man howling in iSinai thunder tones: 
 "More land!" "More land!" Again were they summoned 
 from their peaceful homes by the arbitrary voice of their 
 "Great Father at Washington"— great in the unsurpassed 
 ability of defrauding helpless Indians)-t(j cede to the United 
 States that portion of their land still occupied by the afore- 
 said settlers that the "truthful" Jackson had sworn "by the 
 eternal" to put into the "Mississippi river or make them 
 leave." The- United States got the land, as no doubt, it was 
 a pre-arranged plan to keep the whites upon it until the proper 
 time arrived, then take it; theioforc, Jackson's "into the 
 
mSTORY OF THE INDIAJJS. 139 
 
 MissiHwippi" was but a toot of his own horn, understood 
 alone by himself, though deceiving the too confiding Apusha- 
 mataha. And in ten years after A-push-a-ma-ta-ha had 
 made the treaty of 1820 (the last he eyer made) the United 
 States Government had defrauded (the word might be used 
 as can be proven) the Choctaws out of every acre of their 
 country east'of the Mississippi. TheoldherchaSdiedin Wash- 
 ington Citysixyearsbefore,andwithhim also died: I'Thetime 
 will come when the highly improved Choctaw shall hold office 
 in the councils of that great Nation of white people, and in their" 
 wars with the Nations of the earth, nrixed up in the armies 
 of the white man, the fierce war whoop of the Choctaw war- 
 rior shall strike terror ind melt the hearts of an invading 
 foe," and buried so deep down under the dirt and rubbish of 
 the white man's avarice, that left no hope of a resurrection 
 morn. ' _ 
 
 When stretched in his tent upon his bed 0f death he said 
 to Jackson standing near: 
 
 "Original, "lUi siah makinli su paknaka ta; pro; Il-lih se- 
 ah mar-kin-lih soo park-da-kah,ta; signifying, dead I am as 
 soon as me above. '^ • 
 
 "Original, napoh chitoh tokahlechih; pro. narn-poh che- 
 toh to-kah-le-chih ; sig. guns big shoot off." Which was done 
 according to his request. 
 
 Verily "Let Hamlet" also "be his eulogist:" .• ^ 
 
 'How noble in reason! How infinite in facultiesl. 
 'In form and moving how express and admirable:' 
 "Let Mark Antony" also "write his epitaph:" 
 
 'His life was gentle ; and the elements 
 So mixed in him, that nature might stand up 
 And say to all the world: This was a man'." 
 His Motto, 
 Onward career of duty; 
 
 His Canopy, ; 
 
 A conscious rectitude of purpose^ 
 His lamp, truth; , 
 , His Motto, 
 Nil, nil, desperandum. Never, never, despairf 
 
 THE CHOCTAW CLAIM. 
 
 Ever since the dispute between Texas, and .the United 
 States commenced concerning the title to Greer county, the 
 Choctaw Nation 'had two of its ablest men in Washington 
 over-hauling the old treaties and watching the movements of 
 both disputants. The United States by the Doak's Stand 
 
I 
 \ 
 
 130 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 treaty in the autumn of 1820 ceded all its territory to the 
 Choctaws south of the Canadian river to Red river along^ the 
 western line of the Indian Territory. The Cherokees had 
 been ceded all north of the Canadian. Texas claimed that 
 the Red river mentioned in the treaty of 1819 between the 
 United States and the King of Spain rs-the north fork of Red 
 river. The United States claimed that the south fork of 
 Red river is the true Red river. This is where the dispute 
 arose . \ 
 
 "Should a future survey be made to determine the ques- 
 tions of boundary lines, and the south fork of Red river be 
 declared the true line, the Choctaw Indians would certainly 
 be the legal owners. 
 
 "The map used by General Jackson in the treaty at 
 Doak's Stand was doubtless Melish's of 1818. That map is 
 doubtless on file in the Department of the Interior in Wash- 
 ington settle the controversy. General Jackson promised 
 to make good the lines shown up the map when the speaking 
 chief at the treaty questioned its accuracy. 
 
 "The survey, as to how far west the 10th meridian runs 
 has never been made and forty years have passed without 
 the boundary line being known. Tliis is why the Choctaws 
 have never presented their claims to Greer County. 
 
 The United States conveyed to the Choctaws, on the 
 28th of October, 1820, all of their lands west of Arkansas 
 between the Canadian and Red rivers, that was within the 
 limits of the ynited States at that time ; and on the 19th of 
 February, 1821, the United States conveyed a strip off of the 
 west end of the same lands conveyed to the Choctaws by the 
 King of Spain, in an exchange for the then Province of Flori- 
 da. Hence this claim of the Choctaw Nation on what is now 
 known as Greer County. In 1855, the Choctaw Nation ceded 
 to the United States all their lands, then in their possession 
 lying west of the 100", for-the consideration of $800,000. Now 
 the Choctaws claim, and justly too, it seems, that they did 
 not make a cession, in 1855, of that portion of the land which 
 the United States sold to the King of Spain, without their 
 consent and for which they have never received a dollar, as 
 it was not in their possession to make a conveyance — it then 
 being in the possession of Spain and thus beyond their juris- 
 diction. 
 
 Thus the 'United States deal with her Indian Wards, 
 whom she had beguiled into her power. 
 
 ARTICLE OF A CONVENTION, 
 Made and concluded January 20th, 1825, between John C. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANEP. , 131 
 
 Calhoun, Secretary of War, being specially authorized 
 therefor by the President of the United States, and the 
 undersigned chiefs and head men of the Choctaw Nation 
 of Indians, duly authorized and empowered by said 
 Nation, at the City of Washington, on the 20th day of 
 January, 1825, 
 
 Whereas, a treaty of friendship, and limits, and accom- 
 modation, having- been entered into at Doak's Stand, on the 
 18th of October, 1820, between Andrew Jackson and Thomas 
 Hinds, commissioners on the part of the United .States, and 
 the chiefs and warriors of the Choctaw Natipn ; and, 
 
 Whereas, the second article of the treaty aforesaid pro- 
 vides for a cession of lands, west of the Mississippi, to the 
 Choctaw Nation, in part satisfaction for lands ceded by said 
 Nation to the United States, according to the first article of 
 said treaty; and 
 
 Whereas, it being, ascertained that the cession aforesaid 
 embraces a large number of settlers, citizens of the United 
 States ; and it being the desire of thfe President of the United 
 ■States to obviate all difficulties resulting therefrom, and 
 also, to adjust other matters in wl]|ich both the United States 
 and the Choctaw Nation are interested. The ifoUowing 
 articles have been agreed upon, and concluded, between 
 John C Calhoun, Secretary of War, especially authorized 
 therefor by the President of the United States, on the one 
 part, and the undersigned delegates of the Choctaw Nation, 
 on the other part : / 
 
 Article 1st. — The Choctaw Nation does hereby cede to 
 the United States all that portion of, land ceded to them by 
 the Second Article of the treaty of Doak's Stand, as afore- 
 said, lying east of a line beginning on the Arkansas, pne 
 hundred paces east of Fort Smith, and running thence, due 
 south to Red river ; it being understood that the line shall 
 constitute, and remain, the permanent boundary between 
 the United States and the Choctaws; and,the United States 
 agreeing to remove such citizens as ma^ be settled on the 
 west side, to the east side oJf,said line, and prevent further 
 settlements from being made on the west thereof. 
 
 Article 2nd. — ^In consideration of the cession aforesaid, 
 the United States do hereby agree to pay the said Choctaw 
 Nation the sum of six thousand dollars annually, forever; 
 it being agreed that the said sum of six thousand dollars 
 shall be applied, for the term of twenty years, under the 
 direction of the President of the United States, to. the sup- 
 port of schools in said Nation, and extending to it the bene- 
 fits of instruction in the mechanic and ordinary arts of life; 
 
(132 . HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 when, at the expiration of twenty years, it is agreed that the 
 said annuity may be vested in stocks, or otherwise disposed 
 of, or continued, at the option of the Choctaw Nation. 
 
 Article 3rd. — The eighth article of the treaty aforesaid 
 having- provided that an appropriatio5 of lands should be 
 made for the purpose of raising six thousand dollars a year 
 for sixteen years, for the use of the Choctaw Nation; and it 
 being desirable to avoid the delay and expense attending the 
 survey and sale of said lands, the United States do hereby 
 agree to pay to the Choctaw Nation, in lieu thereof, the sum 
 of six thousand dollars, annually, for sixteen years, to com- 
 mence with the present year. And the United States fur- 
 ther stipulate and agree to take immediate measures to sur- 
 vey and bring into market, and sell, the fifty-four sections of 
 land set apart by the Seventh Article of the treaty aforesaid, 
 and apply the proceeds in the manner provided by the said 
 Article. 
 
 Article 4th. — It is provided by the Ijfinth Section of the 
 treaty aforespd, that all those of the Choctaw Nation who 
 have separate settlements, and 'fall within the limits of the 
 land ceded by the said Nation to the United States, and de- 
 sire to remain where they now reside, shall be secured in a 
 tract pr parcel of land, one mile square, to include their im- 
 provements. It is, therefore, hereby agreed, that all who 
 have reservations, in conformity to said stipulation, shall have 
 power, with the consent lO^ the President of the United 
 States, to sell and convey the same in fee simple. It is fur- 
 ther agreed, on the pai't of the United States, that those 
 Choctaw^, not exceeding four in number, who applied for 
 reservations, and received the i-ecommendation of the com- 
 missioners, as per annexed copy of said recommendation 
 shall have the privilege, and the right is hereby given to 
 them, to select, each of them, a portion of land, not exceed- 
 ing a mile square, anywhere within the limits of the cession 
 of 1820, where the land is not occupied or disposed of by the 
 United States; and the right to sell and convey the same, 
 with the consent of the President, in fee simple, is hereby 
 granted. 
 
 Article Sth.— There being a debt due by individuals of 
 the Choctaw Nation to the late United States trading house 
 on the Tombigbee, the United States hereby agree to relin- 
 quish the same; the delegation, on the part of their Nation, 
 agreeing to relinquish their claim upon the United States, to 
 send a factor with goods to supply the wants of the Choctawa 
 west of the Mississippi, as provided for by the Sixth Article 
 of thetreaty aforesaid. 
 
 Article 6th.— The Choctaw Nation having a claim upon 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 133 
 
 the United States for services rendered in the Pensacola 
 campaign, and for which it is stipulated in the Eleventh Ar-* 
 tide of the treaty aforesaid, that payment shall be made,. but 
 "which has been delayed for the want of proper vouchers, 
 which it has been found, as yet, impossible to obtain; th6 
 United States, to obviate the inconvenience of further delay, 
 aiid to render justice to thie Choctaw warriors for their serv- 
 ices in that campaign, do hereby agree upon an equitable 
 ■settlement of the same and the sum of fourteen thousand 
 nine hundred and seventy-two dollars and fifty cents; 
 which, from the muster rolls, and other evidence in i the pos- 
 session of the third auditor, appears to be about the probable 
 amount due, for the services aforesaid, and which sum shall 
 be immediately paid to the delegation, to be distributed by 
 them to the chiefs and warriors of their Nation, who served 
 in the campaign aforesaid, as may appear th them to be 
 just. . ' 
 
 Article 7th. — It is further agreed, that the Fourth Ar- 
 ticle of the treaty aforesaid, shall be so modified, as that the 
 Congress of the United States shall not exercise the power 
 •of apportioning the lands, for the benefit of each family, or 
 individual, of the Choctaw Nation, and of bringing them un- 
 der the laws of the United States, but with the consent of 
 the Choctaw Nation. 
 
 Article 8th. — Itappearing that theChoctaws have various 
 claims against the citizens of the United States, for spolia- 
 tions of various kinds, but which they havej not been able to 
 support by testimony of white men, as they were led to be- 
 lieve was necessary, the United States, in order to a final 
 settlement of all such claims, do hereby agree to pay to the 
 Choctaw delegation, the sum of two thousand dollars, to be 
 distributed by them in siich way, among the claimants, as 
 they may deem equitable. ' It being understood that this 
 provision is not to affect sUch claims as may be properly 
 authenticated, according to the provisions of the act of 1802. 
 
 Article 9th. — It is further agreed that, immediately upon 
 the notification of this treaty, or as so6n thereafter as may 
 be practicable, an agent shall be appointed for the Choctaws 
 west of the Mississippi, and a blacksmith be settled among 
 themin conformity with the stipulation contained in the 
 Sixtb Article of the'treaty of 1820. 
 
 Article 10th. The chief Puckshenubbee, (original, Apuk- 
 shiubih) one of the members of the delegation, having died 
 on bis journey to see the Pres. and Robert Cole recommended 
 b/l;he delegation as his successor, it is here agreed, that 
 the said Robert Cole shall receive the medal which apper- 
 -.tains to the ofiice of chief, and, also, an annuity from the 
 
134 • UTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 United States of one hundred and fifty dollars a year, dur- 
 ing his natural life, as was received by his predecessor. 
 
 Article Ixth.— The friendship heretofore existing- be- 
 tween the United States and the Choctaw Nation, is hereby 
 renewed and perpetuated. 
 
 Article 12th.— These articles shall take effect, and be- 
 come obligbory on the contracting parties so soon as the 
 same shall be ratified by the President, by and with the ad- 
 vice and consent of the Senate of the Unite States. 
 
 In testiseny whereof, the said John C. Calhoun, and the 
 said deleg-ates of the Choctaw Nation, havo hereunto, set 
 their hands, at the city of Washington, the 20th day of June, 
 1825. John C. Calhoun. 
 
 Corrupted: Mooshulatubbee, his x mark. Original: 
 Mosholihubih. 
 
 Robert Cole, his x mark. 
 Daniicl McCurtain, his x mark. 
 Tushka Anumpuli Shali his x mark. 
 Pro. Tush-kah (warrior) Shah-lih (messenger, > 
 Red Fort, his x mark. 
 Corrupted: Nittuckachie, his x mark. Original: Ni- 
 tak (a, as ah) a chih — To suggest the day. 
 David Folsom. 
 
 J. C. McDonald, Talkative warrior. 
 According to traditional authority, the morning star of 
 the Choctaws' religious era, (if such it may be termed) first 
 lit up their eastern horizon, upon the advent of the two great 
 Wesleys into the now State of Georgia in the year 1733, as 
 the worthy and congenial companions of the noble Oglethorpe; 
 but also, it flashed but a moment before their eyes as a beau- 
 tiful meteor, then as quickly went out upon the return to 
 England of those champions of the Cross, 'leaving them only 
 to fruitless conjecture as to its import; nor was seen again 
 during the revolutions of eighty-five long and weary years. 
 Though tradition afiSrms, there were several missionaries 
 (Roman Catholic) among the Choctaws in 1735; and that tha 
 Reverend Father Baudouin, the actual superior general of 
 the mission resided eighteen years among the Choctaws. 
 With these two above named exceptions, I have seen no rec- 
 ord of the White Race pver manifesting any interest in the 
 southern Indians' welfare either of a temporal or spiritual 
 nature, from the earliest trading posts established among 
 them in 1670 by the Virginia and Carolina traders, down 
 through slowly revolving years to that of 1815; at which 
 time may be dated the establishment of the first Protestant 
 mission among the southern Indians. This mission, which 
 w;is named Brainiird, was estiiblislied ;nnong the ClierokeL's 
 
^ HISTORY pir THE INDIAStS. , ' l35 
 
 by Rev. Cyrus Kingsbiu-y, under the jiirisdiction of the Old, 
 School Presbyterian Board of Foreig-n Missions, in Boston, 
 Massachusetts, who arrived in that Nation, in company with 
 his assistant laborers, Mr. and Mrs.' Williams, January isth. 
 1815. J ^ 
 
 In 1818, Mr. Kingsbury, in company with Mr. and Mrs. 
 Williams, left Brainard in the charge of Rev. Daniel S. But- 
 trick (who arrived there January 4th, 1818, and remained as 
 a missionary among the Chefokees until 1847, when hi 
 health failing, he went to Dwight Mission also in the Chero^ 
 kee Nation, where he died June 8th, 1851) andarrived in the' 
 Choctaw Nation near the last o^ June, 1818, and established 
 a mission in a vast forest of lofty trees, three miles south of 
 Yello Busha, a river (corruption from the Choctaw word s 
 Yciloba aiasha; Tadpole^ abounding) and about thirty miles 
 above its junction with the Yazoo, (corruption of the Choc- 
 taw word Yoshuba — pro. as Yoh-shu-bah, and sig. Lost), 
 and 400 miles distant from Bainard, which We named Elliot, 
 in honor of the Rev. John Elliot, that distinguished mission- 
 ary among the Indians of the New England States. 
 
 They went from Brainard to the Tennessee river, seven 
 miles distant, by private conveyance, and there went by way 
 of a boat, which had beenengaged to carry them to t he 
 Muscle Shoals. A wagon was also placed upon the boat, by 
 which they went from Muscle Shoals to the Chickasaw 
 agency, two hundred miles away, ' where they abandoned the 
 wagon, andcrossed the country on horseback, directed alone 
 by little paths that led through thickets and canebrakes, and 
 safely arrived at the Yalobaaiasha settlement, where they 
 were hospitably received by Capt. Perry, (a half breed) and 
 many native families. On the following Sabbath Mr. Kings- 
 bury held a religious- meeting and proclaimed salvation 
 through the Son of God, for the first time ever proclaimed in 
 the Choctaw Nation by the Protestant minister. Capt. Perry 
 also supplied them with a house until they were able to build 
 for themselves. 
 
 In June, 1818, Moses Jewell and wife, John Kanouse and 
 wife, an,d Peter Kanouse left New York for New Orleans, 
 and reached the Choctaw Nation, in the following August. 
 The ' first tree for. the establishment of the Mission was 
 felled on August the ISth, 1818. •— 
 
 The Choctaws seemed to comprehend the benevolent 
 designs of the missionaries and received them with every 
 manifestation of friendship and good will; though some mis- 
 apprehension was indicated owing to the debased lives of the 
 white men (without a single white woman), with whom the 
 
136 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 Choctawa had long associated, as true representatives of the 
 White Race in toto. 
 
 Soon after came A. V. Williams (brother of L. S. Wil- 
 liams, who came with Cyrus King-sbury) and Miss Varnum 
 and Miss Chase, whom Mr. King-sbury met in New Orleans, 
 and there n^arried Miss Varnum, with whom he had been, 
 under matrimonial engagement before he entered the mis- 
 sion. They ail returned to Elliot in February, 1819; thefi a 
 mission church was orgainized on the last Sabbath of the fol- 
 lowing March, and the Lord's supper administered — the 
 first ever witnessed in the Choctaw Nation. Ten persons 
 composed the number of that church (all connected with the 
 mission), and the ten partook of that supper — a strange and 
 incomprehensible scene to the Choctaws, who gazed at the 
 novel sight with unassumed wonder. 
 
 Within ten months from the time Mr. Kingbury and 
 Mr. Williams and Mrs. Williams arrived at the Ya-lo-ba-ai- 
 a-sha settlement, seven log houses had been erectecf. and 
 completed, the largest 20x22, and the smallest, 12x16; and 
 also, had nearly completed a mill, stable and store-house, 
 and had nearly prepared timber enough for a school house, 
 kitchen, and dining-room, and had sawed by hand 9,000 feet 
 of cypress and poplar plank with which to make furniture,, 
 floors, doors, &c., the principal labor of all which was dond 
 by employed Choctaws directed by the missionaries — so 
 eager were they to assist their white friends who had come 
 to live among them and bless them by their benevolent teach- 
 ings; and before the school house -v^as completed, eight 
 children, through a false rufnor that the school was opened, 
 were brought over 1^0 miles to be entered. And thus the, 
 mission, without a school house, and also pressed by a great 
 scarcity of provisions, was greatly perplexed; since,' if the 
 children were rejected, an unfavorable impression wpuld be 
 the inevitable result, and if they were received, those in the 
 neighborhood would claim their equal rights to the same fa- 
 vor. However, it was resolved, upon due reflection, to 
 receive them as the less of the two evils, and a little cabin 
 was appropriated for a school house, arid the school opened 
 on the 19th of April, 1819, with ten pupils 
 
 On the firstof August, 1819, the mission was strengthened 
 by the arrival of Dr Pride and Isaac Fish, who was a farmer 
 and blacksmith. Shortly after, the Choctaws convened in 
 national council, and which, Mr. Kingsbury, through earnest 
 solicitation of the Choctaws, attended. The subject of 
 schools was discussed during the session of the council, in 
 which Mr. Kingsbury took part, and among the other things 
 suggested, also proposed that all whodpsired to have a schoo 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 137 
 
 established among them should signify that desire by sub- 
 scribing money, or live stock, as they preferred. At once a 
 ■subscription was opened in the council, and a considerable 
 amount of mony was subscribed; Apakfohlichlhubi (sig. One 
 who encircles to kill), the ruling chief, giving $200 of ,the 
 rsame, while others gave 90 cows and calves, with the promise 
 of as many more yearly, which was faithfully fulfilled; and 
 thus the mission-Tvas, at once, amply stocked with cattle. A 
 farm was soon opened and every effort made to prepare for 
 the reception and accommodation of as many pupils as might 
 seek to enter the school. 
 
 The Chickasaws, learning of the school, made appli- 
 cation for their children to attend the sphool, also, to which 
 ihe Choctaw chiefs, though knowing that the children of the 
 applicants of their own nation could not all be accommodated, 
 finally give their consent, fearing if they refiised they would 
 wound the feelings of their Chickasaw friends, but with the 
 following proviso: That all Chickasaw children whose father 
 or mother were Chickasaws, would be received into the 
 ■school, and no others. Such was the zeal manifested for 
 schools and churche^among the Choctaws, from the opening 
 of the first to the closing of the last, when despoiled of their 
 ancient homes and driven to seek others in the distant west. 
 
 Soon after the opening of the school a deep gloom threw its 
 dark mantle over the mission in the sudden and unexpected 
 killing of aged Chickasaw woman, named lUichih (pro. as II- 
 lich-ih, and sig. to cause to die,)and who lived about two liiiles 
 from Elliot with a son (20 years of age) two daughters |and 
 'two little grand-daughters, and (had endeared herself to 
 the missionaries by her many acts 'of kindness and much val- 
 ■uable assistance. The tragic affair happened thus: 
 
 A Choctaw girl, who lived about thirty miles distant, 
 came, a short time before Mr. Kingsbury arrived, to visit 
 some friends living near where Elliot was located. The gir'l 
 was taken sick, and an old Choctaw woman — a conjuring 
 doctress — proposed to cure her. ^ She was at once employed 
 in the case. After giving her patient a variety of root and 
 lierb decoctions, intei-nally 'and also externally applied for 
 several days, at the same time chanting her incantations and 
 going through her wild ceremonies over and around her pa- 
 tient, she pronounced the girl convalescent and would re- 
 cover; the father was duly informed of the happy change, 
 and came to take his daughter home; he remunerated the 
 apparently successful physician by giving: her a pony, and 
 retired for the night intending to start for home with his 
 ■daughter the next day; but during the night, the daughter 
 suddenly became worse and expired in 24 hours. It was at 
 
138 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 once decided that her sudden demise was the result of a 
 isht-ul-bih (wftch ball) shot from an invisible rifle in the 
 hands of a witch. Without delay her physician was con- 
 sulted, who pronounced lUichih to be the witch who had shot 
 the fatal bullet. Immediately the father with several other 
 men, all armed, went to the home of Illichih and entered her 
 cabin. She displayed her hospitality, so universal among all 
 Indians, by setting before them the best she had ; and after 
 they had partaken of her scanty refreshments, the father 
 suddenly spr&ng to his feet and, seizing her by the hair, 
 cried out "Huch-ish-no fiopa uno chumpa; aholh-kun-na 
 chish-o yokUt, cha ish ai illib, (your life I bought; a witch you 
 are, and must die.") To which Illichih, realizing her inevit- 
 able doom, calmly replied: "Ohomi holubih, cha ish moma 
 yimmih" (others lie, and you all believe.") In a moment she 
 was stretched upon the floor a bleeding corpse. 
 
 When her son, who was absent from home at the time of 
 the tragedy, returned, his feelings may be imagined but not 
 described. He at once hastened to the missionaries, for 
 whom he had often worked, and told them his tale of woe. 
 Mr. Kingsbury immediately wentto the.lfragic scene of death. 
 He found the mangled corpse of his old friend lying upon 
 the floor, partially covered with a blanket, with the two 
 daughters and grand-daughters sitting around it in the 
 deepest grief, and their wailings but feebly expressed the 
 anguish of their hearts. Mr. Kingsbury had a coffin made, 
 and the missionaries, with the five children, laid poor Illichih 
 in he r humble grave, there to await the resurrection morn.. 
 The missionaries performed religious ceremonies at the 
 grave' and after they had placed the coffin in its last resting 
 place, the relatives and friends of the deceased placed all her 
 cloth fng and the little money she possessed, and her bedding, 
 upon the coffin and filled up the grave — an ancient custom of 
 the Choctaws, as well as of all North American Indians, wha 
 believed their deceased friends will have need of those things 
 in the the world beyond the grave. 
 
 Does the reader exclaim in indignant horror at the slay- 
 ing of Illichih, "What inhuman wretches!" But be not too 
 hasty in your judgment and condemnation of the acts of the 
 .then unenlightened Choctaws; but remember our professed 
 
 civilized and Christian ancestors — the "Pilgrim Fathers" 
 
 stand to-day guilty of the same charge, but sixty fold more 
 culpable (professing what they did) than the Choctaws; for, 
 as soon as the Choctaws had been insti'ucted in the impro- 
 priety and sinfulness of killingf any one for witchcraft, no 
 life was ever afterwards sacrificed to avenge the death of a 
 bewitched relative or friend. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS.' 139 
 
 On the following- Sabbath after the tragic death of Il-lich- 
 ih, Mr. Kingsbury preached from the appropi-iate text, 
 "The dark places of the earth are full of the habitation of ' 
 cruelty." He spoke fearlessly but calmly to his Choctaw' 
 audience of the errors and wickedness of their superstitions, 
 and the abhorrence of the Great Spirit in the slaying of their 
 own people through the belief that they are witches, who' 
 listened in profound silence and with the ' deepest 
 attention; and though a few old women in the Yalobaaiasha. 
 district fell as sacrifices before the superstition of witch- 
 craft, after the establishment of the Elliot mission, yet by 
 the influence and exertions of the missionaries the horrible 
 practice was soon forever stopped. Though they believed 
 that there were white witches also, yet they never attempted 
 to kill a white witch, upon the grohnds that the whites eat sa 
 much salt, that a witch ball fell harmless when shot against 
 an Indian by a white witch. 
 
 But the kindness and interest displayed by the mission- 
 aries to and for Il-lich-ih quickly spread over the country,, 
 and so won the respect and confidence of the Choctaws that 
 all who were in affliction sent for one or more of them; and 
 also manifested great interest in their teachings and anxiety 
 for the success of all improvements both in churches and 
 schools, as suggested by those men and women of God. 
 
 But alas, it is a melancholy and lamentable truth that the 
 most that the North American Indians (everywhere over this 
 continent) have learned from the whites, the missionaries 
 alone excepted, has been, and still continues to be, that of 
 their follies and vices. One of the "f ollie^ so incomprehensi- 
 ble to the ancient Choctaws was, and still is, that one day, near 
 the close of eaeh year, should be devoted by the "pale-faces" 
 to eating and drinking, dancing and frolicking, ca,rousing- 
 and fighting, called Christmas; — incomprehensible, since so- 
 inconsistent with what the missionaries taught them what 
 the Bible reasons for rejoicing were, and in what way they 
 should be expressed to please God, as J;he advent of his Son 
 to earth to redeem man and bring him back from the paths 
 o^ slI 1 and folly to those of virtie and righteousness. 
 
 In 1820, Mr. Kinp-sbury started from -Elliot for the pur- 
 pose of establishing a mission near the It-oom bih river, and 
 arrived at the home of David Folsom, sixty miles distant, 
 and then known by the name of "Puch-i A-nu-si," (pro. as 
 Push-ih (Pigeon) Ar-noos-ih (Sleep) or Pigeon Roost) from 
 the vast numbers of that be^autiful bird that formerly roosted 
 there. There Mr. Kingsbury secured the voluntary assist- 
 ance of Colonel Folsom to assist him in the selection of a 
 proper situation for the contemplated mission; after the sec- 
 
140 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 •ond day's travel they reached Major John Pitchlynn's — a 
 white man who, by marrying a Choctaw woman, had been 
 adopted by the Choctaws according to their custom, and 
 who, at that time, was acting as interpreter for the United 
 States Government, and, in conjunction with Colonel Folsom 
 and others, was a zealous advocate of the civil and religious 
 improvement of his people; while both expressed the utmost 
 gratitude to Mr. Kingsbury for his interest manifested 
 toward their people, and the bright prospect of the Choc- 
 taws' future as presented by the missionaries in schools and 
 their preaching among and in behalf of their long neglected 
 people. 
 
 Alas, how great' the contrast between John Pitchlynn, 
 Nathaniel Folsom, Henry Nail, Lewis LeFlore, John Col- 
 bert, and others, who over a century ago, voluntarily united 
 themselves to the fortunes of the Choctaws in toto, 
 standing firmly and fearlessly to the interest of that ap- 
 preciative people through their hopes and fears, joys and 
 sorrows. 
 
 After many days riding over .the country, Mr. Kings- 
 bury, Col. Folsom, and Major Pitchlynn selected a place for 
 -the mission station on a high point overlooking a grand prai- 
 rie towards the south and west, and on the south 
 banks of a stream flowing into a stream now known as Tioi 
 •(corruption of the Choctaw word It-tib-'i'h — to fight or having 
 fought), where they at once erected a camp, preparatory to 
 the establishment of the missionary station^-to which Mr. 
 Kingsbury gave the name Mayhew. A log cabin or two 
 were soon erected by the aid of the neighboring Choctaws, 
 also a garden and cornfield opened and planted, when Mr. 
 Kingsbury retraced his steps to Elliof and safely arrived 
 there March L>')th. 
 
 Soon the news of the establishment of another station, 
 and the opening of another school, echoed and re-echoed 
 throughout the Nation with astonishing rapidity ; and appli- 
 cations were immediately made from various parts of the 
 Nation for stations and schools also. And to prove the sin- 
 cerity of their applications, councils W^re held, and appro- 
 priations were made in various parts of tlie Nation, for 
 churches, schools, blacksmith shops, -etc., and in 1820, an- 
 nuities were appropriated to these objects to the amount of 
 six thousand dollars annlially to run for sixteen years 
 These annu'-ties were for lai-ge tracts of land sold by the 
 Choctaws to the United States. Their country was at that 
 time divided into three districts, Itnow as the western, north- 
 eastern, and southern; called Upper Towns, Lower Towns 
 and Six Towns. Each district hud a ruling chief, and eacli 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 141 
 
 town a subordinate chief, captain, aild warriors, who man- 
 ag'ed the local affairs of the people. Elliot was located in 
 the western district, over which, at that time, Pushamataha 
 COri. A-num-pah-ish-tarn-yah-ub-iM, a messenger of death) was- 
 the ruling chief ; Mayhew, in the north eastern, over which 
 Puckshenubbee(Orig A-piurk-fo-ltch-ihub-ihTo encircle and 
 kill) was the chief and A-mb-sho-lihub-ih of the southern. , 
 
 About this time (1820) the mumps followed by the 
 measles' desolated many families and even towns and villages- 
 in different parts of the nation, owing to the ignorance of the 
 Choctaws concerning the nature of the new diseases and 
 their proper treatment. 
 
 In the same year Apakfohlichihubih and Amosholihubih, 
 with' seven other chiefs, visited Elliot and were highly elated 
 at the progress of the pupils, and exhorted the children in 
 strains of native eloquence to learn the teachings of the 
 Holisso Holitopa (pro. as Ho-lis-soh Ho-le-to-pah, and sig. 
 Book Holy (Bible), which told them how to be good. In a 
 social conversation with Amosholihubih while at Elliot, Mr.^. 
 Kingsbury referred to the evils resulting to his people by 
 the use of whiskey; after listening attentively for some time, 
 he replied: "I never can talk with you good missionaries 
 without hearing something about the drunkenness and lazi- 
 ness of the Choctaws. I wish I had traveled over the wHite 
 man's country; then I would know whether my people are 
 worse than every other people. But I am determined it shall 
 ' no longer be thus said. I will summon a council, have a big- 
 talk and stop the whiskey; fori am tired ofhearing my people 
 called every where lazy and drunkards." He was as good as 
 his word. The council was convened; the "big talk" had, 
 and the whiskey banished from the Choctaw Nation, and 
 kept away, until the Mississippi Legislature in 1830-^abro- 
 gated their laws, and turned, by the hand of arbitrary power, 
 the corrupting ai^d devastating channel of Whiskey river 
 into their country, as the quickest means of securing their 
 i-emaining lands, knowing their hoi-rpr of the white man's 
 laws with his whiskey as the protector and sustainer of 
 human "Personal Liberty." 
 
 Early in the year 1820, an English traveller from Liver- 
 pool, named Adam Hodgson, who had heard of the Elliot 
 mission when at home, visited the mission, though he had to 
 turn from his main route of travel the distjince of sixty miles. , 
 He, at one time on his sixty miles route, employed a Choc- 
 taw to conduct him te;i or twelve miles on his new way, 
 which he did, then received his pay and left him to finish his 
 journey alone. Of this Choctaw guide Mr. Hodgson, as an 
 example of noble benevolence and faithful trust, states:- 
 
142 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 "After going about a mile, where we became confused in re- 
 gard to the correct direction and were halting upon two 
 opinions, my guide suddenly and unexpectedly appeared at 
 my side, and pointed in the direction I should go, as he 'could 
 not talk English. I thanked him and again we parted; but 
 again becoming confused by a diverging path, half a mile 
 distant, as suddenly and unexpectedly appeared again my 
 guide who had still been, silently and unobserved, watching 
 my steps. Again he set me right, and made signs that my 
 course lay directly toward the sun, and then disappeared;" 
 and by carefully keeping the coursA as directed by the 
 Choctaw, Mr. Hodgson safely reached the mission, where he 
 was warmly received by the missionaries. Yet the Indian is 
 still called a savage, who "cannot be educated out of his sav- 
 agery." God pity such ignorance, and forgive their duplici- 
 ty ill a:.suming to be enlightened Christians, and yet seek to 
 hand down to the latest posterity a part of God's created in- 
 telligences — the Red Race — as beings incapable of being 
 "educated out of their savagery." 
 
 Mr. Hodgson was duly introduced to the members of the 
 mission, and then to the school of native Americq.n pupils, 
 and expressed his surprise as well as heartfelt gratifica- 
 tion with the account the teachers gave of the uncommon fa- 
 cility with which they acquired knowledge. After remain- 
 ing a few days, Mr. Hodgson left, and was accompanied sev- 
 eral miles on his way to Brainard by Mr. Kingsbury, the 
 missionary station established five years previous, among 
 the Cherokees by' Mr. Kingsbury and Mr. and Mrs. Wil- 
 liams, as before stated. 
 
 Mr. Hodgson, in a letter written shortly after he left 
 Elliot, thus spoke of his interview wi^h Mr. Kingsbury in 
 his own room at Elliot: "A log c&bin, detached from 
 the other wooden buildings, in the middle of a boundless 
 forest, in an Indian country, consecrated, if I may de allow- 
 ed the expression, by standing on missionary ground, and 
 by forming at once the dormitory and the sanctuary of a 
 man of God; it seemed to be indeed the prophet's chamber, 
 with the 'bed and the table, the stool and the candlestick. 
 
 "It contained, also, a little book-case, with a valuable 
 selection of valuable books, periodica,ls, biographical, and 
 devotional; among which I found many an old acquaintance 
 in this foreign land, and which enabled Mr. Kingsbury, in 
 his few moments of leisure, to converse with many, who 
 have long since joined the 'spirits of just men made perfect ' 
 or to sympathize with his fellow-laborers in Staheite, Africa 
 or Hindoostan. About midnight we became thirsty with 
 talking so much; and Mr. Kingsbury proposed that we 
 
, HISTORY OF THE INDIANS 143 
 
 walk to the spring:, at a little distance. The nig-ht was 
 beautifully serene after the heavy showers of the preceding 
 night; and the coolness of the air, the fresh fragrance of the 
 trees, the deep stillness of the midnight hour, and the soft 
 light which an unclouded ttioon shed on the log cabins of the 
 missionaries, contrasted with the dark shadows of the sur- 
 rounding forest, impressed me with feelings which I can 
 never forget." In regard to the >mission family, hesai'd: 
 "I was particularly struck with their humility, with .their 
 kindness of manner towards one another, and the little at- 
 tentions which they seemed solicitous to reciprocate. They 
 spoke very lightly of their privations, and of the trials which 
 the world supposes to be their greatest ; sensible, as they 
 said, that these are often expeHenced in at least a^ great 
 degree, by the soldier, the sailor, or even the merchant. .— _ 
 Yet, in this V:ountry these trials are by no means tri- 
 fling. Lying out for two or three months, in' the woods, 
 with their little babes in tents which cannot resist the rain 
 here, falling in torrents such as I never saw in England, 
 within sound of ^the nightly howling wolves, and occasionally 
 visited by panthers, which have approached almost to the . 
 door, the ladies must be allowed to acquire some courage; 
 while, during many season of the year, the gentlemen can 
 not go 20 miles from home (and they are often obliged to go 
 30 or 40 for provisions) without swimming their horses over 
 four or five creeks. Yet, as all their inconveniences are suf- 
 fered by others with cheerfulness, from worldly motives, 
 they would wish them suppressed in the missionary reports, 
 if ^hey were not calculated to deter m^ny from engaging as 
 missionaries, under the idea that it is an easy, retired life. 
 Their real trials they stated to consist in their own imper- 
 fections, and in those mental maladies, which the retirement 
 of a desert cannot cure. I was gratified by my visit to 
 Elloit, this garden in a moral wilderness; and was pleased 
 with the opportunity of seeing a missionary settlement in its 
 infant state, before the wounds from recent separation from 
 kindred and friends had ceased to bleed, and habit had ren- 
 dered the missionaries familiar with the peculiarities of their 
 novel situation. The sight of the children also, many of 
 them still in Indian costumes, was most interesting. I could 
 not help imagining, that, before me, might be some Alfred of 
 this western world, the future founder of institutions which 
 are to enlighten and civilize his country, some Choctavv 
 Swartz or Elliot, destined to' disseminate the blessings ^f 
 Christianity from the Mississippi to the Pacific from the 
 Gulf of Mexico to the Frozen sea. I contrasted them in their 
 social, their moral, and their religious conditions, with the 
 
144 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 r 
 
 straggling white hunters and their painted faces, who 
 occasionally stare through the windows, or, with the half- 
 naked natives, whom we had seen a few nights before, dancing 
 around their midnight fires, with their tomahawks and 
 scalping knives, rending the air w^th their fierce wai*- 
 whoops, or making the woods thrill with their wild yells. 
 
 "But they form a still stronger contrast with the poor In- 
 dians, whom we had seen on the frontier, corrupted, de- 
 graded, debased by their intercourse with English, Irish, or 
 American traders. It was not without emo1;ions, that I 
 parted, in all human probability forever in this world, from 
 my kind and interesting friends, and prepared to return to 
 the tumultuous scenes of a busy world from which, if life be 
 spared, my thoughts will often stray to the sacred solitudes 
 of Yallow Busha, as a source of the most grateful and re- 
 freshing recollections." 
 
 Soon afterMr. Hodgson left EJliot, a re-enforcement of 
 missionaries arrived at Elliot and Mayhew from Massachu- 
 setts, viz: Messrs. Smith, Cushman, Bardwell, with their 
 families, Byington, Hooper, Misses Frisselle and Thacher 
 from Pennsylvania. They travelled together as far as Pitts- 
 burg, Pennsylvania, where (November 4th, 1820) they took 
 passage on a large flat boat called, at that day, an Ark, and 
 reached the Walnut Hills (now Memphis, Tennessee) about 
 the last of December, There Mr. Cushman and his family, 
 and Mr. Hooper, took a wagon, and safely arrived at May- 
 hew after being about three weeks upon the road; while Mr. 
 Smith and family and Mr. Byington and Miss Thacher re- 
 mained on the boat until they reached the mouth of the Yoh- 
 shu-bah (Yazoo); and Mr. Bardwell and his family and Miss 
 Frisselle remained at the Walnut Hills to look after the in- 
 terests of the property of the mission, which had been there 
 deposited to await the arrival of the Choctaw packet to carry 
 it to Elliot and Mayhew. But the river rising to such a 
 height as to render it impracticable to travel by water, Mr. 
 Bardwell, after waiting many days for the falling of the river, 
 procured horses upon which he and his family and Miss 
 Frisselle rode to Elliot through the wilderness by the way 
 of little paths alone. 
 
 A short time before the arrival of the above mentioned 
 missionaries at Elliot and Mayhew, Mr. Loring S. Williams, 
 who came with Mr. Kingsbury to the Choctaw Nation, trav- 
 elled over that Nation to learn the views of the Choctaw peo- 
 ple in regard to the establishment of churches and schools 
 among them, and whom he found everywhere delighted with 
 the idea. In his travels he visited, among many others, a 
 point on the Old Natchez Trace, (to which I will again refer) 
 
HISTORY OP ^HE INDIANS,, ' 145:. 
 
 called French Camp, about half way , between Elliott and 
 Mayhew where he eventually settled with his family, opened' 
 a school and both preached to and taug-ht the Clioctaws, and 
 God greatly blessed him in his glorious work. ' 
 
 CZ'In the meantime, Mr. Kingsbury met all their chiefs in a 
 great council near and explained to them the nature and de- 
 'sign of the missions being established in the Nation; and to- 
 which a chief thus responded: "I be not used to make a. 
 talk before white man, but when my heart feel glad, me can 
 say it. Me and my people have heard your talk before, but 
 never understajnd this business so well as now, that the- 
 missionaries work for Choctaws without . pay; that they 
 leave their homes, and all for good of Choctaws. We are- 
 ignorant. We know when day comei and when night come.. 
 That be all they know." 
 
 Thus was manifested the eagerness of those ancient: 
 Choctaws, as well as all their .race from the days of Elliot, 
 the early Apostle to the Red msn of North America, down 
 to Cyrus Kingsbury, the Apostle of the Choctaws; 
 and thus it would have\ been ., down to the pres- 
 ent day, but for the interference with and/ pulling 
 down the labors of those men of God, by the hands of thpse 
 white men of the devil, whose howls are heard from the cen- 
 tre to circumference of, the land, even this day, "Open up to 
 white. settlement 1 Open up to white settlement ! " 
 
 But now missions began to be established in Various 
 parts of the Choctaw Nation; and now was also seen the long 
 closed gates of an age of moral and intellectual - dark,ness,, 
 through which even the wing of conjecture is unable to ex-, 
 plore in its flight, swinging open to the first echo of the ,ap-, 
 proaching footsteps of those pioneers of the Cross bearing 
 and bringing the glad tidings t»f peace and good will to the 
 Choctaws, and commending the religiofl of Jesus Christ to. 
 them, not more by their learning than by their 'life; and pi 
 each of whom, both men and women, it truly might be said, 
 Israelites "in whom there is no guile." Biit the ever watch-, 
 ful and closely observing Choctaws at once learned, to justly 
 appreciate the simple beauty of such lives as theirs, never 
 before seen nor even heard of, in all their knowledge of andi 
 intercourse with the White Race. Consequently, they held; 
 them in great respect and reverence; and even to this day, 
 though all have passed from their toils below to their rewards 
 above, Mr. Cyrus Kiiigsbury, the last of that noble 'little 
 band of Christian heroes and heroines, dying June 27th, 1871, 
 aged 83 years, 7 months and 4 days, while their names live 
 in the memory of the present generation of, the Choctaws; 
 since, in all the years of their, long lives p^ labor and love 
 
146 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 \ 
 
 among them, they did them no wrong, but only good, and 
 thus proving themselves to be their real friends and bene- 
 factors, who came to them, not with soldiers and guns as 
 their emblems of peace, friendship and good will, but with 
 the Bible' alone by whose doctrines unive\-sal friendship, 
 peace and brotherhood may be successfully and permanently 
 established among all man-kind, of all nations and of every 
 tongue; and was successfully and permanently established 
 between the missionaries and the Indians every where upon 
 the North American continent, from the first sermon 
 preached to them by John Elliot down the flight of years to 
 the last sermon preached to them by Cyrus Kingsbury. A 
 truth incontrovertible, too, clear too certain to admit of dis- 
 pute. And had the love of God and one veneration of his pre- 
 cepts, as set forth in the Bible, governed the American peo- 
 ple in all their dealings with the Indians, as did those eaiiy 
 missionaries to that noble race of God's created intelligences, 
 they would, long since, have'been a paft and parcel of our 
 nationality filling their nook and corner tof our confederacy 
 with gloriously redeemed manhood and womanhood that 
 would to-day triumphantly stand the scrutiny and verdict of 
 the civilized and Christian worhl. But alas, we tried to force 
 upon them the falsehood that they were inferior beings, and 
 justly failed; and will ever fail so long as a North American 
 Indian lives to hurl the idiotic notion back into our teeth, 
 though the howls of the modern idiots, who still strive to 
 diabolify the noble but unfortunate Red Race, disturb the 
 quiet of earth with "No good Indian but a dead Indian," 
 "Once an Indian, always an Indian" exterminate the red 
 skins; shoot down the "bucks as rabid wolves," followed by 
 the doxology upon that "Harp aof thousands strings." "Open 
 up their few remainidg acres of land to settlement for the 
 children of the Lord." 
 
 Many parents and friends attended the closing exercises 
 of the first session of the Mayhew school, and were delighted 
 at the improvement of the children, and the day was a happy 
 one both to parents and pupils. Arnasholih'ubih, acco?npa- 
 nied by many of his chieftains and warriors, also attended 
 the examination, and made the following remarks to the 
 school: "Such a thing was not known here when I was a 
 boy. I had heard of it, but did not expect to see it. \ I re- 
 joice that I have lived to see it. You must mind your teach- 
 ers, and learn all you tan. I hope I shall live to see our 
 councils filled with the boys who are now in this school, and 
 that you will then know much more thah we know and do 
 much better than we do." And lie did live to see it. All re- 
 turned to their homes highly pleased. At the opening of the 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 147 
 
 next session of the school, Amosholih'ubih brought two of 
 his sons and a nephew to enter the achool:-a,lso anaged Choc- 
 taw man brought his grandson and daughter to enter the 
 school, and said to Mr. Kingsbury: "I now give them to 
 you, to take them by the hand and heart, and hold them fast. 
 I will now only hold them by the end of their' fingers." 
 
 To the examination at Mayhew in 1822, many Choctaws 
 came from a long distance, and the whole Nation, from qen-- 
 tre to circumference, seemed awake upon the subject of im- 
 provement," morally, intellectually, and religiously." But 
 alas, the devil was not asleep, but secretly busy in trying to 
 thwart the good efforts of both the Choctaws and mission- 
 aries, by influencing his abandoned white subjects, who had 
 fled from the religious restraints of their homes in the 
 States, to misrepresent the designs of the missionaries, and, 
 in a few instances, succeeded in inducing parents to take 
 their children from under the care arid instriiction of the 
 schools^ But many Choctaws came the distance of 70 miles 
 to learn the truth of the Reports; and, as might be expected, 
 returned satisfied of their falsity, and better pleased with the 
 missionaries, their churches and schools, than ever before; 
 and thus waa the devil and his white subjects gloriously de- 
 feated in their nefario»j(s designs. 
 
 Soon after, a brother of Captain Cole (who died ten or 
 twelve miles east of Atoka in the present Choctaw Nation, 
 Indian Territory, in the year 1884, at the advanced age of 
 nearly four score and ten years) sent five children to school, 
 and a few months later sent another, but the school was so 
 crowded that the sixth could not be admitted, and for causes 
 not known, the father sent and took away the fivC/Who mani- 
 fested the greatest sorrow in having to leave the school. 
 But Captain Cole, after more room had been provided, sent 
 a petition with the signature of himself and eig^ht chiefs 
 urging the propriety of returning all the six children to the 
 school; and not only the six were returned, ^but also six 
 others, besides application for two others, one of whom was 
 his son, whom he gave to the missionaries, with 'the words:. 
 "I want him to remain with yo^ until he obtains a good edu- 
 cation, if it takes ten years." 
 
 Mrs. Kingsbury died at Mayhew, on the 15th day of 
 September, 1822, and was buried in the Mayhew cemetery — 
 u true and self-sacrificing Christian woinan, Avho gave up all 
 for the sake of assisting to lead the Red man of ^Torth Aiji- 
 erica into the fold of her Divine Master. Her noble husband's 
 body rests from its earthly laboi's, in a Choctaw cemetery 
 near Old Boggy Depot, Indian Territory, among the people 
 he loved so well, and for whose good he labored so faithfully 
 
148 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 for 53 long- and eventful years. She left two little boys, 
 Cyrus and John, the last mentioned also lies in the same 
 cemeterynearthegrave of his noble fatber;theformer,if alive, 
 I know not where he is. The last I heard of him, (years ago) 
 he was living- in Iowa. Both were the playmates of my child- 
 hood's years, never to be forgotten. 
 
 Ah! How those najnes stir the memories that still clus- 
 ter around my early youth! We were five missionary l)oys, 
 Cyrus and John, my two brothers and myself, all playmates 
 at that age when we felt that we were "monarchs of all we 
 survey" and truly we reigned right royally. But with added 
 years came the truth that the world was not so eagerly 
 moulded to our wishes, for life soon taught its realities to us 
 as to all poor humanity whose days are full of sorrow, and 
 lives but a s'pan. But it rests me, to pause, here and there, 
 in the midst of hurry and care, to sit in this my angle-nook, 
 among the present Choctaws Indian Territory, and ponder 
 o'er the joys of by-gone days, when I was a fifth part of the 
 happy, boyhood group that each day gathered together in the 
 long ago. How well I remember it, and how warm my heart 
 grows at the thought. The cold adamantine wall that has 
 enclosed me in my contact with a busy and seemingly heart- 
 less world crumbles to dust and falls away, leaving me again 
 a tender, confiding, loving boy. Ah! That beautiful long 
 ago! when I received earth as full of sunshine without alloy, 
 and sweet song without a discordant note. 
 
 ^ Those were days wherein the world seemed to have 
 reached its perfection; days, when all things seemed in uni- 
 son with harmony, as if Nature would indulge her offspring; 
 when all things, animate and inanimate, ^seemed to give 
 signs of satisfaction and contentment; and even the horses 
 and cattle, scattered here and there in little grpups, some 
 reposing on the green sward and others grazing around, 
 seemed to be indulging in tranquil thoughts. AhW the mem- 
 ory of those days makes me long once more to throw myself 
 into the arms of loving Nature, as in the days of yore; but 
 not as she smiles in well-trimmed woody gi-oves or in culti- 
 vated fields of grain ; but Nature, as she was in that age when 
 creation was complete and unadorned by human hand. Yes,. 
 I would go again, even in this my life's far decline — back'to 
 the land whereof none then the history knew ; back even to 
 the Red man, whom I am not ashamed to own I love; to 
 whom civilized vice was then unknown; where on every side 
 stretched away on illimitable forest scarcely to be distin- 
 guished in the shadows of night from the hills beyond; 
 while the flowing streamlet, here and there, clearly gleamed 
 through the open glades as the ripple qf night breeze gently 
 
HISTOfeY OF THK INDIANS. 149 
 
 ■stirred the forest leaves. But if you, whose eyes may some 
 day fall Upon these, my written thoughts, I pray you perse- 
 vere, since what I may have to tell you may not be without 
 interest, as I have not told it before nor will I again. 
 
 Though the death of Mrs. Kingsbury was a great 
 bereavement and trial Ito'Mr. Kingsbury, yet h6 faltered not 
 in the cause of his Divine Master among his Idved Choctaws. 
 ] But two weekfe after he started upon a long journey in the 
 southern part of the nation to find suitable points for estab- 
 lishing churches and schools among the Choctaws, that their 
 children might receive an education near home, and also 
 relieve the missions from all expenses except that of the sup- 
 port of teachers. After.several days travel, he arrived at the 
 home of the celebrated chiefs of the Choctaws, Apushamata- 
 liahubih, where he met Mr. Jewell; thence, they journeyed 
 together to a point one hundred miles distant, called by the 
 Choctaws Oktak Falaiah (Ok-tark, '(Prairie), Far-lai-ah 
 t<Long.) ) There they laid the foundations for the establish- 
 ment of a school, which was afterwards n9.med Emmaus, and 
 was near the line between Mississippi and Alabama^ At Ok- 
 tak Falaiah they made the acquaintance of Henry Nail, an 
 aged white man, who had been adopted by the Choctaws by 
 his marriage, many years before, to a Choctaw woman. He 
 told Mr. Kingsbury and Jewell that he had twelve children 
 living and one dead. He was a chief among the Choctaws for 
 many years, and is the progenitor of the Nail family among 
 the Choctaws. But I will speak of him again more definitely. 
 Thence the two missionaries, in company with Joel Nail, a 
 ■son of Henry Nail, who lived near his father with a wife and 
 several small children, went to Okla Hunnali pro. Ok-lah 
 (people) Hun-nar-lih, (Six). While en route, they unexpect- 
 edly came upon a large company of Chpctaws assembled for 
 a. ball play. As soon as they ascertained that, one of the 
 white men was "Na-sho-ba-Ah-o-wa, (Nar-sho-bah, (Wolf), 
 Arn-o-wah (Walking) (a name given to Mr. Kingsbury by 
 the Choctaws, though one foot was badly deformed by the 
 cut of a scythe when a boy) of whom they had heard, they 
 postponed their ball play, and both chiefs and warriors 
 gathered at once around him, and urgently solicited him to 
 give them "a talk" about schools. , He willingly complied, 
 while they listened with the deepest interest and in profound 
 silence to his propositions, and manifested unassumed joy at 
 the prospect of a school. Mr. Kingsbury then bade them a 
 friendly adieu, and {he three continued their jotirney thence 
 io Okla Hunnali, which comprised six clans, and contained 
 :2164 inhabitants. 
 
 Aboha KuUo Humma, (pro. Ar-bo-hah') (House) Kullo 
 
ISO ^ HISTORY OF TliE INDIANS. 
 
 (strong) Humma (red) or, in our phraseology — (Strong" red 
 house — but in the Chpctaw, Red Fort) was the chief of Okla 
 Hunnali. The clans of the Choctaws were all perpetuated 
 in the female line. When a man married, he was adopted 
 into the family of his wife, and her brothers had more au- 
 'thor^ty over her children than her hosband; therefore, when 
 a lover wi^ed to marry a girl, he consulted her uncles, and 
 if they consent to the marriage, the father and mother ap- 
 proved. Those of the same clan were never allowed to inter- 
 marry. A Choctaw regarded marrying^a girl of his own cla,n 
 with. the same horror as the white man did to marry his own 
 sister; and equally so did the Choctaw girl, i, 
 
 AbohaKuUo Humma washighly ela!ted at the proposition 
 of Mr. Kingsbury to establish a school among his clans, or peo- 
 ple;and earnestly importuned Mr. Kingsbury to establish two 
 .inhisdistrict;andsuchwerehis pleadings that Mr. Kingsbury 
 finally agreed to write a letter to the Pi"udential Committ.ee, 
 to solicit more teachers, and Aboha Kullo Humma also, wrote 
 a letter, and sent it with Mr. Kingsbury's, a true c6py of 
 which I here insert: ... 
 
 Six Towns, Choctaw Nation, October 18th, 1822. 
 Brotheks: V ' 
 
 i "The first law I have made is, that when my warriors 
 go over the line among the white people, and buy whiskey, 
 and bring it into the Nation to buy up the blankets, and 
 gu^ns, and horses of the Red people, and get them drunk; 
 the vvhiskey is to be destroyed. The whiskey drinking is 
 wholly stopped among my warriors. The Choctaw women 
 sometimes killed their infants, when they did not want to 
 provide for them. I have made a law to have them pun- 
 ished, that no more children be killed." ^ 
 
 This law had actually been passed and was then in full 
 force, as had been exemplified in the case of a woman who 
 had been tried and convicted for killing Jier infant, a short 
 time prior to Mr. Kingsbury's visit to Okla Hunnali. She 
 was tied to a tree and whipped by the officers of justice until 
 she fainted; and not only the woman was whipped, but her 
 husband also received the same punishment for not restrain- 
 ing his wife in the destruction of the (Jhild. But thus con- 
 tinues Aboha Kullo Humma. 
 
 "The Choctaws formerly stole hogs and cattle, and kill- 
 ed and ate them. I have organized a .company of faithful 
 warriors to take every man who steals, and tie him to a tree 
 and give him thirty-nine lashes.". 
 
 This law of punishing theft by whipping has never been 
 repealed; but has been amended to this extent, and so stands 
 
hi§t;Pr.y o;f. the D^jfjiA];]-^. ^ ■ 151 
 
 toTcUy— being fifty lashes on the t)are baak for the firsttheft; 
 a hundred for the second, and death bjr.,tl^^'i;^ifle for the third. 
 I "The Chpctaws have, spmetimes'/ run ,o,ff with each Oth- 
 er's wives. We have now made a la^v^that.tjiose who do so, 
 shall be w;hipt)ed thirty-nine lashes; ; tod if a woman runs 
 away from her husband withanother man, she is also' to be 
 whipped in the same manner. ,The nunxber of men, women, 
 and children in the Six TJowns,, is 21641 I want the good\ 
 •white people to send men and women 1;o get ' up a schbpl in 
 my district; I vvant them to do^it quiet, for I am growing: old 
 and want to seethe good work before I die. We have al- 
 ways, been p,as^ed , by,! Other, ^ paints, ^f, ,the Nation have 
 schools; we ha,ve not; we hive piade tile above laws because we 
 wish ,to if plloyi' the ways of th,e white^ people, ; We hope they 
 will assist us in getting oujv 'chi.l,dren,i educated.' This is the 
 first time I write aletter- LapViMirthe,'fir'st,tirae we make 
 ijawsj I say'n,o more, /'l ha.Y.e,;^tbld, ray,' wa'nls. ' I hope you 
 wilLnot, forget me.". ■ , !. ■,/''' J'ABOHJ^^'^ito'BvUMA/' ' '^' 
 ;. |._ : It ^atruth, though unknown tp.thousands, -yet contrar 
 .dieted by tl^oii^ands who doknow it'that, from an unwilliTig-, 
 ness to admiV anything which , the trq't'h of a. desire ill ith^t:' 
 ladians to become ,a |Qiyilized'and|Christian people, Abtrfia 
 KuUo Humma's letter expressed tlie true sentiments '<off 
 every tribe of North Ainerican Indians, to whom the mis- 
 ;Sionaries have, gone, from the' days of tie missionary Elliot 
 down the flight' of years to the preterit. Instead of the bread 
 of eternal life for' which tney so eai-riestly pleaded, except the 
 few crumbs the devoted and self-sacrificing missionaries 
 gave them, we have given them leaden , bullets; (while the 
 iron wheel of -our merciless venality rolled over them, and 
 still rolls on like a juggernaut crushing them by^ turns, some 
 quickly, and some later on, to us it mattered not, so in'* the 
 end all were crushed, and we go in to take their long coveted 
 land; though they fled hither and thitner,,and plead for mercy,' 
 yet the appeal was vain, for the blind fury of our avarice 
 (deaf as the adder) still thunders on only to stop, it seems, 
 when the last of the Red Race shall be numbered with the 
 past and our cup of iniquity be full, that the God of justice 
 may write against us — Tekel, that our' ^hip of State may also 
 go down in the vorte caused by,the sinkidg'of theirs. 
 
 From 1822, to tha time they were dispossessed of every 
 foot of their ancient dprnainsj ' ai]id d^riveii; away to a then 
 wilderness, the schpols increased ih numbers, and the ordi- 
 nances of religion vi^ere augmented, 'and, a deeper interest 
 manifested every wh^re over their, country— never witnessed 
 before; as they,' previous to .thai ,time,^ had had intercourse 
 with the defeased of theWhite Race„by whoin they had been 
 
•i> 
 
 iS2 mSTORV OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Uaught"m't"he school of vice, and nothiiig but vice: therefore 
 tthe North American Indians have been accused, from first 
 ;to ladt, of having no conception of an over-ruling- providence 
 — ^fhe Creator of all things, and an effort has jjeen made to 
 :sustain the charge in that they believed in the supernatural 
 Ipower of their rain-makers, their fair-weather-makers, and 
 •.the incantations of^their doctors. , But the charge is utterly 
 false. 'Tis true, they relied o\ t^eir rain-makers, fair- 
 "weather-makers and the conjuring of their doctors, through 
 "the belief that, by prayer and supplication, those person- 
 ages had been endowed with supernatural powers by the 
 •Great Spirit, (th^ir God and ours), in whom all Indians be- 
 lieved, and with greater veneration than the whites, and I de- 
 f,y successful contradiction. They sought the aid of the 
 rainmakers, doctors, &c, just as we do the prayers of our 
 preahers in behalf of our sick, and for our rain, etc. Now, 
 -whatmore did or do the Red Race than the White? Noth- 
 ing. Yet the Indians must be called infidels; though there 
 are today, and always have been, ten thousand white ifidels 
 to one Indian, and always will be. The Indians have also 
 l)een called savage, and are still so called, because he suf- 
 fered himself to be tortured with fear and anxiety in the 
 belief of the existence of witches and ghosts, and that many 
 were slain because they were believed to deal in witchcraft. 
 But say you, "Remember Ulichihl" I do; but also point you 
 back to Cotton Mather. The slayers of poor Illichih knew noth- 
 ing of the injunctions of the Bible, and were called savages; 
 "but Cotton Mather was an expounder of the Bible, and his 
 ladherents the professed believers of its teachings, but he 
 and they are calle/l Christians. Now judge ye, (if ye can do 
 so impartially) if "savage" is recorded in heaven against the 
 slayers of Illichih, is "Christian" also recorded there against 
 the slayers of ^hose charged with witchcraft in Massachu- 
 setts? Is it just that the North American Indians alone 
 roust still be held up to view by the stigmatizing name. Sav- 
 age, thougji years ago, they freed themselves, as a people, of 
 all such nonsense; while thousands of ihe White Race among 
 the civilized nations, our own included, are to-day the slaves 
 ■of that most foolis|i of all foolish superstitions, yet demand 
 to be called civilized and a Christian people? 
 
 Mayhew, the second mission e'stablished among the 
 'Choctaws, as before stated, was located on the eastern bor- 
 der of a magnificent prairie that stretched away to the west 
 •and south m billowy undulations presenting a scene of 
 fascinating loveliness unsurpassed, when arrayed in its 
 dress of summer's green, dotted with innumerable flowers 
 •of various colors; and the country in all directions for 
 ) 
 
^ HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 153 
 
 miles away, was rich in all the boundless extravagance of 
 picturesque beauty, where Nature's irtost fascinating feat- 
 ures everywhere presented themselves carelessly disposed 
 in wild munificence, unimprbved, and indeed unimprovable 
 by the hand of art. Truly the lovely situation of that mis- 
 sion is still fresh in mpmory, though more than a half cen- 
 tury has passed away; and to-day, as of that Idng ago, the 
 eye of memory sees the far ektending prairie on the south 
 and west, and the boundless fofests on the north and east, 
 with their hills and vales of romantic loveliness, and creeks 
 and rivulets combining to give a moral interest to the pleas- 
 ure derived from the contemplation of Nature in her bright; 
 •est, happiest and most varied aspect. Ahl tlie imagination 
 could but fold its pinions, and stand in wondering admira- 
 iion amid' the sublime solitudes of the grand forests of that 
 ■day, while hill and dale seemed as entrancing to the eye with 
 iheir beautifully draped garments of green as the weird 
 music of the winds amid their branches wis to the. ears of 
 fairies played on mystic Memnon's harp tuned, to audible 
 minstrelsy under the glancing rays of the morning and even- 
 ing sun. 
 
 Their horses, cattle and hogs, which they possessed in 
 great numbers, were fed alone from Nature's ample store- 
 house filled at all times with the richest varieties of proven- 
 der-grass, cane, acorns and nuts; while game of many vari- 
 eties roamed over their forests undisturbed only as necessity 
 demanded their destruction. Birds- of many kinds, and of 
 various plumage, added their enchantment to the scene. 
 
 The missionaries found the Checokees, Choctaws and 
 Chickasaws in their native state — that of mortality unadorned; 
 _yet struggling into the dawn of civilization as those who had 
 ieard afar the roar of the world's civilization and roved im- 
 patiently to the shore; and they soon learned (that even the 
 ^espis^d, defamed and down-trodden Indian rejected not 
 ■God's IkW — improvement; nor was wanting in ability, while 
 their sentiments found an expositor; and every feeling and 
 •oracle in his untutored breast. Therefore, they sought to 
 make them religious through their best feelings rather than 
 their worst; through their gratitude and affections, rather 
 than their fears and calculations of risk ' and future punish- 
 ' ment; and they found by giving them the least advantage of 
 instruction they glided into refinement; and also found that 
 there was that sentiment in the Indian that gives delicacy to 
 thought, and tact to manner; for they listened and caught 
 knowledge in the hatural way of beneficence and power of 
 •God; of the mystic and spiritual history oimdn; and philan- 
 thropic missionaries were charnied by their attention. , How 
 
154 HISTORY Ol' THE INDIANS. 
 
 true that, in the nature of man— the humblest to the hardest 
 —there is something that lives in all of the beautiful or the 
 fortunate which hope or desire have appropriated, even in the 
 vanities of a childish dream! At the time of the advent of the 
 missionaries, the Citierokees occupied the now State of Ten- 
 nessee, the Chickasaws the north part of the now, State of 
 Mississippi, and the Choctaws the south part including- 
 ralso the western part of the now State of Alabama and the 
 eastern p?irt pf the now State of Louisiana. Those early 
 , missionaries (both nien and.women), who offered their lives 
 to the cause and. thought, no more of themselves, wer^ of 
 strong character, .firm .resolution and, of, fine taste^ and 
 ideals;. and of., thos? missionary women it may be|truthfully 
 acWed, they we,re intellig;ent and elegant as they. were hei-oic; 
 and the.lpvens pf missiopaj-y lore o^t rpajd, with ; delight the 
 ideal romaijce, of their lives. ; , ' ,,,, . ,_,, 
 
 r,f ; /They ifirst Studied and nijide themselves ^.cquainted wjp 
 the, various dialects of th^ Indians' Cprnplic^ted languag^!^— 
 .(iUfi)i;qlt, because of the combination of signs and wqrds , that 
 . cannot, be, ireduced to arjy known rule; they, administered to 
 the wants of the sick and dressed the wounded; they brayed 
 .sickness and , death apd preached the tidings of pe^ce on 
 earth and , good wjl) , to men; and to-day, though, long sjince, 
 all haveigoneto receive their,, reward — a blissful immortality 
 amjd. eternity's scenes— yet their names and deeds of right- 
 eousness stand triumphant and reverecl, while over them and 
 those whom they taught and led, the Choctaw, the Chicka- 
 saw, the Creek, the Cherokee, the Seminole— waves the 
 white banner whoSe only symbol is the Cross of the World's. 
 Redeemer. 
 
 But in their early labors of love among the above named 
 people what did those selfsacrificing men and women find? 
 They found the Indians confidence was easily gained, and as 
 easily retained by just and humane treatment, they found 
 that he was not vicious nor bloodthirsty, an untamable 
 savage, as he was and ever has been so unjustly represented 
 to be; they found that, unlike his white defamei*, he never 
 was profane. He took not in vain the name of his God, the 
 Great Spirit, nor the names of the subordinate deities, to 
 whom his religion taught him the supreme Great Spirit dele- 
 gated supernatural powers among men. Whatever he loved, 
 he called it good; whatever he hated, he called it bad. Of 
 whiskey he said: "0-ka-ki-a-chuk-ma, Water not good, that 
 was all. 
 
 They found the men to be, to a greM extent, even as the 
 whites, good husbands, loving fathers, and the' most faithful 
 of friends; the women, devoted wives, adoring mothers, and 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANSi .155 
 
 equally true as friends, and both men and women, i trutlfful 
 to the letter, all scorning a lie and a liar .1', , !^ ;. ■ 
 
 They found among all the men the- attributes of t^e 
 ' heroes, in truth, honesty, fidelity and patriotism,. . unsur- 
 passed in the annals of the human race, all sustained by in- 
 controvertible testimony for two cijnturies past; yet, with 
 many foibles common to the fallen race of man, but with few 
 of the prominent and debasing vicesiof the White Race. 
 
 '. .They found them to be a race that defied the tortures of 
 an enemy to produce a groan, to shed' a tear or; manifest 
 pain . Stake man or woman to the ground and burn .themi to 
 death by degi"ees, and they would expire; without a moan 
 chantihg his or her death-song defiantly to the last gasp; r-. ' 
 ' ; ! They found them, in the literal sense of the , word, .to be 
 communists. Whatever they had. wasjicheci-fully bestowed 
 to any needy of their tribe. "Will I let my brother. suf- 
 fer when I have plenty?" repliedan Indian ,to a jwhite man whp 
 advised economy by saving his superfluous meat. against) the 
 scarcity, of winter, instead of dividing, it;amonghi^ felloK?- 
 His'generosity and his hospitality wfere extended, even to an 
 ' enemy— whose life was safe if he entered h'is cabin.' and :par-, 
 took even a drink of water; forithe Indiajn's laws, of jhospitcil- 
 ity were inviolate. ,: ■ • ■ ' |>ri ' ' i ii. d .. 
 
 The religion of Jesus Christ fell upyu^ the earipf the Red. 
 man as a bright and beautiful elucidation of ;his own Vague 
 but often sublime conceptions, and, unfler the mild teachiiigs 
 of the devoted^missionaries, he adapted himself to the spirit 
 of the age and accepted his new surroundings because the 
 power which led him on to civilization was that of the Soldier 
 of the Cross instead of the sword. 
 
 The missionaries also found them with the knowledge of 
 good and evil; they too were embued vs'ith the eternal princi- 
 ples of love and hate; feeling that they were by Nature in- 
 tended to be free, yet feeling that they were slaves to circum- 
 stances — alike with the human race— seeking the good yet 
 too oft finding the bad; but not being able to attribute, both 
 the good and the evil to the same All-Wise Being, they im- 
 agined that these gods were alike anxious to do them service 
 — the one to give them pain and sorrow, and the other pros- 
 perity and pleasure; the one ever thwarting them in their 
 undertaking, the other encouraging and assisting them; 
 they, therefore, desired, and very naturally, too, to appease 
 the one and please the other, and < this desire, as a natural 
 consequence^ influenced them to the worship of both,the god 
 of evil and the god of good; yet those' holy men' of God. also 
 found; that the Indians', thoughts (thewild ivy of , the human > 
 mind) could be trained upward ' until they too were hung 
 
156 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 around by the tenderest associations and the recollections of 
 ail that is Sweet and solemn in man's nature, as it points up- 
 wards to a blissful immortality in the skies; and that their 
 spirits and hopes at once began to mount up from earth, in 
 the pathway thus indicated by the light of truth; to reach 
 the blissful home so timely suggested by those men and 
 women of God. 
 
 But, alas, for the Choctawsl 
 
 The white man soon disturbed the long and deep rest of 
 their happy lives, not for their moral and intellectual im- 
 provement and advancement in Christian civilization, but 
 alone for their banishment from their ancient domains of con- 
 tentment and bliss to impoverishment and humiliation in a 
 distant wilderness in the west, with the injunction "Root 
 5)ig or die," where there was actually nothing for which to 
 root. 
 
 There were many things which served to awaken in the 
 minds of the early missionaries to the present five civilized 
 ■tribes, when living in their ancient domainseastof the Missis- 
 sippi river, sad ^nd melancholy reflections. They beheld all 
 around them indubitable evidence of the former existence of 
 a large population who lived long prior to the people among 
 -whom they labored, and had in the years of the long ago per- 
 formed their part upon the stage of life, and unremembered, 
 passed into the secret chambers of oblivion. They felt 
 that they walked over the graves of a long succession of gen- 
 erations ages before mouldered into dtist; tlve surrounding 
 forests were once animated by their labors, (as their rude 
 and mouldering fortifications testified), their huntings and 
 wars, their songs and their dances; but silence had drawn 
 its impentrable vail over their entire history; no lettered page, 
 no sculptured monument told who they were, whence they 
 came, or the period of their existence. 
 
 But how strange the scene presented to the Cherokees at 
 Brainard, to the Choctaws at Elliot, and the Chickasaws at 
 Monroe, (the names given to the missionary stations, the first 
 established among the peculiar but appi^ciativepeoplel) How 
 incomprehensible to them was the conduct of the pale faces 
 then and there. How different from all others they had ever 
 seen or heard, the white traders, whiskey peddlers, strag- 
 glers and refugees from justice! In all their previous know- 
 ledge of whose race, they had seen the same motto inscribed 
 upon all their flags — "Trafiic and trade. War and strife;" 
 but now they came disrobed of every Appearance of greedy 
 jrain and all implements of war and strife, and teaching the 
 strange tidings of peace on earth and good will to man. Nor 
 were the missionaries scarcely less astonished to find the 
 
HISTORY OF THK INDIANS ' 157 
 
 people who had been repreaented to them l;iy the tongue of 
 calumny as a set of savages, to be quite the revei-se — even a 
 remarkable people in many respects; first, for their native 
 moral principle, their innocence of all hypocrisy, lying and 
 all forms of deceit, in all their social relations with each other; 
 secondly, for their virtue, their fair-mindfedness, - their 
 great and abiding paternal and ipareittal affection; thirdly, 
 their respect for the right of property and the sacredness of 
 human character from slander and vituperation. 
 
 This is not an over-drawn picture. Nowhere among 
 any people was property, life, and human character more 
 sacred, and hypocrisy and lying less known, than among the 
 ancient Choctaw and Chickasaw, Cherokee ?Lnd Muskogee, 
 people. I speak from personal |knowledge. And the mis- 
 sionaries found them, to their agreeable surprise, as little 
 meriting the title, savages, which ignorance, prejudice and 
 i in beeile e^'otism had applied to them, as any race of unlet- 
 tered people that were ever known to exist; and, in viewing 
 them in the light of a true catholic spirit, saw much that was 
 touching and beautiful in their manners^nd customs. They 
 also found them to be a people with immovajjle faith In a 
 Supreme Heing, and {assessing a great reverence for powers 
 and aliilities superior to those of. earth; though, to some ex-> 
 tent, nlaterialistic in their conception, but totally ignorant of 
 the white man's ideas and views of Christ and the Father. 
 They regarded the Great Spirit at4 the source of general 
 igood, and of wlion; they askeil jjuidance in all undertakings, 
 and implored aid against their enemies', and to whose power 
 they ascribed favors and frowns, blessings, successes and 
 disappointments, joys and sorrows; and tliough their faith 
 niay have seemed cold to us, and their ceremonies, frivolous, 
 ridiculous, and even blasphemous in our eyes; but in such 
 lightas th^y had truly walked, with ready and sincere acknowl- 
 edgement of human dependence on super-human aid and 
 mercy. Can we say as much for ourselves? Do, we walk 
 according to the light we have as truly and faithfully as the 
 unlettered Indians did? 
 
 But among the many things that are associated with the 
 North American Indians as topics of conversation and sub- 
 jects of the printer's ink-more talked about and less under 
 stood-is the "Medicine Man." On Nov. 14. 160S, the first 
 b'rench settlement was made in America, on the north-east 
 coast of Nova Scotia, and thev gave the name Acadia to the 
 country; and on July .v 18Qg, Samuel Charaplain laid the 
 foundation of (Juebec. The character "Medicine-Man" had 
 its origin, according to tradition, among those early Frendv, 
 colonists who corrupted the word "Meda"— a word in tile- , 
 
158 ■ HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 languagfe of one of the Indian tribes of that day signifying- 
 chief, into "Medicine-Man," and also called the relig-ious 
 ceremonies of the Indian "making' medicine," which was 
 afterwards called, as the result, "medicine," and which final- 
 ly became in use among the Indians themselves, and has so 
 continued to the present day. 
 
 It was a religious ceremony for the propitiation of invisi- 
 ble spirits and practised by all of the l^forth American 
 Indians, with scai'cely an exception. The ancient Choctaws 
 and Chickasaws had their. Medicine Men, with many of whom 
 I was personally acquainted in the years of the long ago. 
 
 There were two kinds of Medicine (religious ceremon- 
 ies) among' the Choctaws and Chickasaws, the same as 
 among all other tribes of their race, the tribal medicine and 
 the individual, each peculiar to the individual tribe and in- 
 dividual person of that tribe. What the different ingredients 
 were, which composed the tribal medicine, no one knew, or 
 ever tried to know, except he who secretly collected and 
 stored them away in the carefully dressed, highly orna- 
 ^mented and sacred deer-skin sack; yet it was held as sacred 
 in the hearts pf the entire tribe of all ages and sexes, as was 
 the ark of the convenant among the ancient Jews. And 
 equally so was that of the individual, whose ingredients were 
 known only to its maker and possessor. More than once did 
 my boyish , curiosity induce me to ask a Choctaw warrior 
 what was in his medicine sack, but only to get the repulsive 
 reply: None of your business. 
 
 Indeed, the mission of the tribal medicine was to the In= 
 dians the same, to all intents and purposes, as that of the sa-, 
 cred ark to the ancient Jews when borne through the wilder- 
 ness in those days of their historical pilgrimage. It was re- 
 garded as the protector of the tribe, in fact, the, visible em- 
 bodiment of the promise of the good Great Spirit to provide 
 for the tribe all the necessaries of life, and protect them 
 from all enemies. So too was that of the individual medicine 
 which he had made for himself alone, and which was indeed 
 a part of his life, — his assurance in danger, his safety in bat- 
 tle, and his success amid all the vicissitudes of his earthly 
 career. If the sacred and secret articles that composed the 
 contents of the tribal medicine bag, or those of the individual 
 medicine bag, should become known to others, than the one 
 who collected and placed them therein, the mystic bag at 
 once became powerless — even as Saihpson, when shorn of 
 his hair by the treacherous hands of Delilah. And was it 
 captured in war or otherwise fell into the hands of an enemy 
 the greatest consternation fell upon the entire tribe, and su- 
 per-human efforts were made to recover it. If they failed in 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' ' 159 
 
 this, overtures soliciting- peace, even to humiliation, were 
 made at once to ^he ememy. 
 
 But, if an itidividual was in any way deprived of his, 
 which he always kept about his person, he made gjiother. 
 The making, of another may seem an easy matter to the un-; 
 ^ informed. But not so. It entailed upOh the maker a long 
 period of uttei- seclusion in the solitude and silence of the 
 forest far away from the abodes of ijian-kind, with long .con- 
 tinued fasting, meditation and prayer, followed by long pro- 
 tracted labor in finding and securing the necessary articles* 
 suc'.i as earths of different colors, the ashes of various 
 weeds, bones of certain birds and snakes, and various other 
 things which his fancy may suggest. These were placed 
 in a vessel of water prepared for the purpose, and the vessel 
 is then placed upon a fire and the contents Continually stirred 
 w'ith a st'ck as it became more? and more heated. During 
 this process he obtains a sign from some developed peculiarity 
 which he regards as infallible, and which enables him to in- 
 terpret signs and omens, both of good and evil. A small ' 
 portion of the contents of the vessel was placed in his mystic 
 sack and accompanied him every where^ In time of peace, 
 the tribal medicine was placed in the care of a chief noted 
 for his bravery, who carefully guarded it from all profana- 
 tion; but in the time of war, the war-chief carried it in front 
 of his warrior as they marched upon the war-path. The 
 youthful warriors was always instructed in the art of mak- 
 ing medicine by the aged men of the tribe, of which he made 
 good use and never forgot. 
 
 The philosophy of the ancient Indian ever taught him 
 to concentrate his mind upon the spirit land; and that the 
 influences which surrounded him in Nature, above, beneath, 
 around, are sent direct by the spirits that dwell in an invisi- 
 ble world above; that there are two kinds of spirits — the 
 good and the bad, who are continually at war with each other 
 over him, the good directing all things for his prosperity 
 and happiness, the bad directing all things against his pros- 
 perity and happiness; that within himself he can do nothing', 
 as he id utterly helpless in the mighty contest that is waged 
 over him by the good a.nd bad spirits. Therefore, he exerts 
 his greatest energies'of mind and body to the propitiation of 
 of the bad spirits rather than the good, since the former may 
 be induced to extend the sceptre of mercy to him, while the 
 latter will ever strive for his good, and his good alone. 
 ■Therefore, when he is fortunate he attributes it to some good 
 spirit; when unfortunate, to some bad spirit. So, when he 
 said it is "good medicine," he meant that the good spirit had 
 
160 HISTOHY OF THE INDIA^KS. 
 
 the ascendency; and when he said it is "bad medicine"^he 
 meant that the bad spirit had the ascendency. 
 
 Therefore, all thing's in nature, as a natual consequence, 
 indicated to him the presence of the spirits, both good and 
 bad, — as each made, k^owp their immediate nearness 
 through both animate and inanimate nature. The sighing 
 of the winds; the flight of the birds; the howlof the lone wolf; 
 the midnight hoot of the owl, and all other sounds heard 
 throughout his illimitable forests both by day and by night, 
 had to him most potent significations; and, by which, he so 
 governed all his actions, that he rtever went upon any enter- 
 prise, before consulting the signs and omens; then acted in 
 conformity thereto. If the medicine is good, he undertakes 
 his journey; if bad, he remains at home, and no argument 
 can induce him to change his opinion, which I learned from 
 personal experience. 
 
 The missionaries found the precepts of the Choctaw's 
 to be moral; and also that they respected old age, and kept 
 fresh in memory the wise councilsof their fathers, whose les- 
 sons of wisdom the experience of the past, taught their 
 youthlul minds to look upward, and whose teachings they 
 did not forget in their mature years. 
 
 Their tenderness to and watchful care of the aged and 
 infirm was truly remarkable; they looked upon home and 
 regarded their country as sacred institutions, and in the 
 defense of which they freely staked their lives; they also in- 
 culcated a high regard for parents, and were always cour- 
 teous by instinct as well as by teaching; they held in high 
 veneration the names of the wise, the good, and the brave of 
 their ancestors, and from their sentiment toward the dead 
 grew sweet flowers in the heart. Thej' believed that interity 
 alone was worthy of station, and that promotion should rest 
 on capacity and faithfulriess; they also had swift and sure 
 methods of dealing with the incorrigible, official or private; 
 nor were they impatient of the slow processes of the years 
 but knew how to wait in faith and contentment; and if they 
 were not as progressive, as our opinion demands in its rush 
 for gain and pompous show, they had at Icjast conquered the 
 secret oi National and individual steadfastness. To-day we 
 are a prodigal and wasteful people, the Indians are frugal 
 and economical. 
 
 In 14 months after the location of the mission at Elliot 
 by the indefatigable perseverance of Mr. Kingsbury, a 
 sufficiency of houses were ■ erected, a school was opened, 
 apd that then young pioneer of the Cross proclaimed the 
 Gospel of the Son of God, where it never before had been 
 proclaimed; and at the time the Chactaws were so cruellv 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. - 161 
 
 driven from their ancient domains to make room for our cruel 
 and unchristian venality called "Prog-lress," thie BUliot and 
 Mayhew missions together with the eleven other established 
 in various parts of the Choctaw Natibn, were in a flourishing 
 condition; and this earliest effort to evalngelize this worthy 
 people, was highly encoui-aging from the readiness, yea, 
 absolute eagerness, on their part to receive instruction. 
 A considerable and suitable literature bpth educational and 
 religious was soon prepared; a school syfetem was also founded 
 through which many young Chbctaws, both male and female, 
 received the elements of a good education. Many of the 
 useful arts of civilized life were introduced; and the mission- 
 aries had gathered many Christian congregations of whom 
 not a few had received the good seed in an hbnest heart. 
 Arid of those noble, self-sacrificing missionaries, it may truly 
 be said, "Their works do follow them;" and to-day the names 
 Kinp'sbury, Byington, Williams, Cushman, Polly. Hotchkins, 
 Hawes, Bardwell and Smith, are still held in grateful re- 
 membrance by the Choctaws, as the names of some of those 
 who were their true, their noblest and best earthly friends, 
 to which the following will truthfully attest. 
 
 In his first annual report of the Elliot Mission, bearing 
 date October 28th, 18l9, Mr. Kingsbury says: (I copy firom 
 the original MS.) "The first tree was felled on the 13th of ' 
 August, 1818. Since we arrived, (himself and Mr. and Mrs. 
 Williams) we have been joined by the following persons: 
 
 Mr. Peter Kanaise, Mr. John Kanaise and wife, car- 
 penter, Mr. Moses Jewell and wife, Mr.. N. Jersey, Mr. 
 N. York, carpenter and millwright, Mr. A. V. Williams,, 
 laborer, Mrs. Kingsbury, Miss Chase, Mr. Isaac Fisk,, 
 blacksmith, Mr. W. W. Pride, physician. 
 
 "All these came out to labor gratuitously for the benefit: 
 of the Choctaws. 
 
 It would be trespassing unnecessarily on the time of 
 the secretary to detail the principal circumstances and difiS.- 
 culties which have attended the progress of our labors. 
 They have been similar to what must always attend such 
 enterprises in an uncivilized country f^r removed from those 
 places where the necessaries, comforts; and conveniences of 
 life can be obtained. ^ 
 
 , Since our arrival, we have been principally occupied in 
 erecting buildings. This 'devolved upon us much labor and 
 greatly retarded our other business; but by the blessing of a 
 kind Providence, we have been prospered inour woi'k, much 
 beyond our expectations! ' 
 
 ' Within about fourteen months there have been erected at 
 
162 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Elliott seven commodious cabins which are occupied as 
 dwelling houses. ,. 
 
 A dining room and kitchen contiguous, (54 x 20) with 
 hewed logs and a piazza on each side.' 
 
 A school house 36ft x 34 hewed logs; and finished on the 
 Lancastrian plan. 
 
 A millhouse 34 x 30ft, and also a lumberhouse and 
 granary, each 18 x 20ft. 
 
 A blacksmith shop, stable, and tiiree outhouses, all of 
 which are nearly completed. 
 
 On the plantation between 30 and 40 acres have been 
 cleared and fenced; and between 20 and 30 acres have been 
 cultivated, which have produced a considerable quantity of 
 corn, potatoes, beans, peas, etc. 
 
 IBesides the above, considei'able time has been spent in 
 cutting roads in different directions, and constructing several 
 small bridges, which were necessary for transporting with a 
 wagon, V 
 
 The stock at present belonging to the mission, consists 
 of 7 horses, 10 steers, 75 ccw^, 75 calves and young cattle, 
 and about 30 swine. Of the above, 54 cows and calves, and 
 6 steers and young cattle have been presented by the Choc- 
 taws for the benefit of the school. 
 
 "Therg is no private property attached to the mission. 
 All is sacredly devoted to the various purposes of instructing 
 the Choctaws. 
 
 "Urged by the importunity of the natives, the school was 
 commenced under many disadvantages in April last, with 
 ten pupils. As accommodations and means of support have 
 increased the school has been enlarged, and there are fifty- 
 four students who attend regularly — males and females. 
 All th'ese board in our family. They are of different ages — 
 from 6 to 20, and could not speak our language when they 
 came. More pupils are expected to join the school shortly. 
 In ad^dition to the common rudiments of education, the boys 
 are acqjuiring a practical knowledge of agriculture in its 
 various branches, and the girls, while out of school, are em- 
 ployed under the direction of the fem.ale missionaries in dif- 
 ferent departments of domestic labor. We have also a full- 
 blooded Choctaw lad learning the blacksmith trade; and 
 another, now in school, wishes to engage in the same em- 
 ployment, so soon as there is opportunity. All the children 
 are placed entirely under our control, and the most entire 
 satisfaction is expressed as to the manner they are treated. 
 
 "The school is taught on the Lancastrian plan, and the 
 progress of the children has exceeded our most sanguine ex- 
 pectations. Thirty-one began the A. R, C's. Several of these 
 
I HISTORY OF THE INDIAjfS. ; 163 
 
 can now read the TeStameht, and others. in easy reading les- 
 sons. Most of them have also made considerable progress 
 in writing. „ 
 
 "There have been instances of lads 14 to 16 years old, en- 
 tirely ignorant of our language, who have perfectly learned 
 the alphabet in three days, and on the; fourth day could read 
 and pronounce the abs. We have never seen the same num- 
 ber of children in any school, who appeared more promising. 
 Since they commenced, their attention has been constant. 
 No one has left the school, or manifested a wish to leave it.'^ 
 
 "Want of accommodations, but more particularly ^ant of 
 funds, has obliged us to refuse man/y children who wish to 
 enter the school. If adequate meaiis can be obtained, we 
 design to increase the number to 80 or 100. It is our inten- 
 tion to embrace in their education, that practical industry, 
 and that literary, moral and religious' instruction, which may 
 qualify them for useful members of society; and for the ex- 
 ercise of those moral principles, and that genuine pietyj 
 which form the basis of true happiness. 
 
 "The expenditures of the mission, including the outfit 
 and traveling Expenses of the missionai-ies, and exclusive of 
 their services (which have all been gratuitous) have been more 
 than $9000. About $2000, of this has been on account of 
 buildings. It has' been our constant endeavor to impress on 
 the people of this nation the advantages of instruction, and 
 the propriety of their contributing tovvards the education 
 of their own children; and by commencing on a labored and 
 , extensive scale for their Wprovement we have drawn forth a 
 . spirit of liberality as unexpected as it is encouraging. 
 
 "At a council in August, which by invitation I attended, 
 , the natives subscribed ninety-five cows and calves, and more 
 than $1300 in cash for the benefit of the school. At a lower 
 town district, in September, they unanimously voted to 
 appropriate $2,000 (tHtir proportion of the money due from 
 the United States for the last purchase of land) to the sup- 
 port of a school in that district. It has been proposed in this 
 district to make a similar appropriation for the benefit of 
 this school. 
 
 ; "These measures discl&se the disposition of the Nation 
 and evince that under the influence and direction of 
 the Executive a fund might be established, which eventu- 
 ally would be adequate to the instruction of the Nation, 
 We feel a confidence that in future treaties with the Nation, 
 this subject will, without any suggestibn of ours, receive 
 that attention which its consideration demands." 
 
 "To bring this people," continues that true Christian, 
 "within the pale of civilization and Christianity is a great 
 
164 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 work. The instruction of the rising generation is unques- 
 tionably the most direct way to advance. Nothing is now 
 wanting to put the great mass of children in this Nation, in 
 a course of instruction but efficient means. 
 
 It may be proper to observe that the Chickasaws are 
 anxious to have similar institutions in their Nation; and 
 two more are earnestly desired and much needed by the 
 Choctaws. For the support of one of them, two thousand 
 dollars for 17 years annually ($34,000) have already been ap- 
 propriated by the Choctaws. It is the intention of the Amer- 
 ican Board to commence one or more of the establishments as 
 soon as they can command the means. It is therefpre desir- 
 able that the onp already commenced here should be comple- 
 ted without delay and placed on a perm;anent foundation. 
 
 Before closing this report, I beg leave to remark on two 
 points relative to the improvement of the Choctaws. ' 
 
 First: We think the introduction of a few respectable 
 mechanics of good moral character, would be of great ad- 
 vantage in civilizing and introducing industry among them. 
 We have a blacksmith of this description, who came out at 
 the expense of the American Board, and the. profits of his 
 work are devoted to the support of this establishment. Many 
 of the mechanics found in the Indian countries are of little 
 advantage in any respect; and the conduct of some is an out- 
 rage on barbarism itself. 
 
 Second. — "Could the missionaries be relieved from the 
 labor of greeting the buildings, it would enable them much 
 sooner to direct their attention to thfe improvement of a 
 plantation and other necessary preparations for commencing 
 the school. 
 
 "With sentiments of sincere respect, I am, dear sir, 
 your obedient and very humble servant, 
 
 Cykus Kingsbury. 
 
 From a letter (now before me) written to the then young 
 missionary, Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, bearing date, October, 
 2nd, 1819, 1 take the following extract: "In a situation like 
 yours, it must be an unspeakable comfort to know that you 
 have the prayers of God's people. Many are daily supplicat- 
 ing the Throne of Grace for you, and ihe object in which you 
 are engaged; but I prfesume you can hardly realize the extent 
 of the interest which is awakened for .our missions among 
 the Southern Indians. The eyes of all our churches are 
 turned toward them with the earnest expectation, which is 
 the oflFspring of faith and prayer. The Indian character in 
 the estimiltion of even those who have hitherto deemed 
 them too savage to be civilized; and those who-acknowledged 
 the excellency of many of the native traits of their character. 
 
' mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 165 
 
 but were faithless as to the practicability of making' them 
 good citizens, are now convinced by the experiments made at 
 Brainard, (among the Cherokees) that the Indians can be 
 educated, become good citizens and devout Christians. 
 Another evidence that had the whites exercised the same 
 credulity in giving heed td the voice of truth that so long and 
 loudly appealed to them in behalf of the Indian race, as they 
 were credulous to the voice of falsehood, the unfortunate 
 Indians would not have so suffered at the hands of ignorance. 
 But continues the writer: i 
 
 "Truly, you have seen more to rejoice your Jieart than is 
 witnessed by one in -ten of our New England ministers. You 
 have witnessed the Christian devotion or characters once de- 
 graded. You have withessed the wilderness and the solitary 
 place, in one year, became glad before you, and the desert; 
 blossom as the rose. After such experience of the smiles of 
 Tieaven do not faint or become discouraged. God's promises 
 are established in truth, and they are all yours. Blessed 
 promises! Thus far the Lord has "faliored you more than 
 any Indian missionary for sixty or sevtfhty years ^ast. The 
 public are waking up with wondetrful rapidity to* the 
 wants of the Indians. You may be distressed and perplexed 
 for a season, but it will not last always. • The Lord will come 
 and will not tarry." 
 
 . But it does not fall within the present plan of this work 
 to enter fully into the history, in all its particulars, of those 
 worthy and interesting missions of ^eventy years ago among 
 the Choctaws, to them the dawn of hope; the return of spring 
 after a long and dreary winter, — but only to present certain 
 aspects and features of them, which shall exhibit thei hand 
 of God as engaged to renovate and bless a long 'Oppressed 
 Nation, and preparing for it a gracious visitation. Shortly 
 after the necessary houses for dwellings, school and church 
 purposes, had been erected and all things had .settled down 
 to systematic business, and the missionaries 'to give their 
 whole attention to their ministerial labors,^there was a mov- 
 ing of the long stagnant waters, — a presentment of coming 
 change; and soon a mental activity that presaged emancipa- 
 tion of the Choctaws from the long, dark night of spiritual 
 gloom that had brooded over their minds during ages un- 
 known, , 
 
 For the first few years the good and glorious work of 
 reform went on for the most part quietly though steadily. 
 Then there was manifested a greater spirit of inquiry, not 
 only about the truth as a matter of speculation, but after 
 salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. It was truly 
 affecting to see the d§,ep and unaffected interest manifested 
 
166 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 by those unlettered warriors, as they listened for the first 
 time to the, wonderful story of the Cross — a theme to them 
 incomprehensible and almost beyond human belief. That a 
 friend mig-ht peradventure die for a friend was to them a 
 possible thing-; but for a father to g-ive Jiis only son to die for 
 the benefit of his enemies, and that son also be willing; to 
 accept the ordeal of dying- the most excruciating' death that 
 their mutual enemies might be benefitted thereby, seemed 
 too incredible for belief, and filled them with wondering as- 
 tonishment. Yet hundreds of them yielded to the i-egener- 
 ating influenoes and power of the Divine Spirit years before 
 they were driven from their ancient hoin<fS to seek others in 
 a distant wilderness that the progress of the white man in 
 his strife for gain might not be impedecl by their presence, 
 and lived the exemplary lives of the true Christian, and 
 died the death of the righteous in bright hopes of a blissful 
 immortality . 
 
 The first conversion among the full-blooded Choctaws 
 was that of an aged man. Who lived near Col. David Folsom, 
 chief of the Choctaws,«iamed Tun-a pin a-chuf-fa, (Our one 
 weaver) hitherto as igrtoi-ant of the principles of the religion 
 of Jesus Christ as it is possible to conceive. He manifested 
 an interest in the subject of religion about six months before' 
 any other of his, people in the neighborhood, and soon began 
 to speak publicly in religious meetings, and gave evidence, 
 by his daily walk and conversation, of a happy and glorious 
 change, to the astonishment of his people, who could .not 
 comprehend the mystery. The old man, but now a new 
 one, lived the life of a true and devoted Christian the few 
 . remaining years of his life, and then died leaving bright 
 evidence of having died the death of the righteous. When 
 he was received into the church, he waS baptised and given 
 the name of one of the missionaries, viz.: William Hooper, 
 by his own request, towhom Mr. Hooper had endeared himself 
 by many acts of kindess conferred upon the aged and appre- 
 ciative Choctaw. ' 
 
 Shortly after he professed religion, he dictated a letter 
 to Col.^David Folsom, his nephew, which was written and 
 translated into English byMr. Loring Williams, of which the 
 following is a copy: 
 
 "Ai-ik-hum-a; Jan. 30, 1828," (A place of learning.) 
 
 "Brother: — Long time h^d'we been as people in a storm 
 which threatened, destruction, until the missionaries came 
 to our land; but now we are permitted to hear the blessed 
 Gospel of truth. You, our brother and chief, found for us a 
 good and bright path, and we would follow you in it. Y.tu 
 are as our good father, and your words are good. Your 
 
mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 167 
 
 messengers (the missionaries^, that you sent to us, we hear. 
 When we think of our old ways, we feel ashatned." This 
 blessed day I have given a true talk. The black and dirty 
 clothes I used to wear I have taken off and» cast away. ,Clean 
 and good clothes, I now put on. My heart, I hope, had been 
 made new. My bad thoughts I throw awajr.' Thewordsof 
 the. great Father above I am seeking to have in nly mind.' ' 
 
 The missionaries, in the Choctaw Nation, salute, v The 
 missionaries, chiefs, and people, I salute. O my chief, I, 
 your uncle, salute you. I am your wari-ior. You must re- 
 member me in your love. The letter which! send you, you 
 must read to your captains, leaders, and warriors. As I ffeel 
 today, I wish to have all my Choctavv brothefs feel. I am 
 the first of the Ghocta:ws that talk the good talk. My chief, 
 as you go about among your people, you must' tell them this,' 
 the dark night to me has gone, and the morning has dawned 
 upon me. The,jiiissionaries at Mayhew, I'salute you. Mr. 
 Kingsbury, when this letter you see, you will forward it to 
 Miko (chief)Folsom. Tunapinachuffa. 
 
 Soon after the writing'of this letter, Mr Williams visited 
 the venerable ex-chief and retired- warrior of the Choctaws. 
 As he drew near the humble log cabin of the aged Choctaw, 
 his attention was attracted by the voice of singing. He halt- 
 ed a moment to listen. It was the aged Tunapinachuffa 
 singing a song of Zion ; and when Mr. Williams came 
 up he found him sitting at the opposite side of his little 
 cabin, resting his head on one hand and holding a catachism 
 in the other, holding holy anjd sweet communion with his 
 newly found Savior; and so absorbed was he in his medita- 
 tions, that the presence of Mr. Williams was not known, un- 
 til announced by the barking of the dogs; and yet,^sodeep 
 and pleasant was his reverie, that he remained seemingly 
 unconscious of everything around him until Mr. Williams 
 came to his .^ide and spoke to him. He then looked up, 
 sprrng to his feet and greeted Mr. Williams with unfeigned 
 manifestations of the greatest joy; and, at once, inquired 
 after Mr. Kingsbury with expressions of the greatest affec- . 
 tion ; then requested Mr. Williams to tell Mr. Kingsbury, 
 that "he did. love the Savior with all his heart and soul;" that 
 "he took great delight in the Sabbath, and loved to prayi" 
 that, "to-day heaven is near; it is not for away^I know it is 
 near — I feel it." Mi-. Williams and the new born babe in 
 Christ, though feeble alone with the weight of nearly three 
 score years and ten-i-the Psalmist's allotted period of man's ^ 
 earthly sojourn — joined in a song together; (in praise to Him 
 who has said: "Come unto me, ye that are heavy laden, and 
 I will give you rest; and then Tunapinachuffa offered up a 
 
168 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 prayer to Him who is the Indian's God as well as the white 
 man's. 
 
 Mr. Williams stated, in speaking- of the interview with 
 the venerable Choctaw, that, he prayed with the deepest 
 sincerity for his family; then, that all. Ws people "might be 
 united'to Christ in peace and love as with an iron chain; and 
 that they mig-ht take hold of the Savior with their hands." 
 At morning- and at night tVs redeemed Choctaw child of God 
 called his household around the family altar, nor ever per- 
 mitted business or compainy to interfere with those sacred 
 devotions. 
 
 But Tuna pin a chuff a was not an isolated case. Hun- 
 dreds of similar cases could be mentioned among the young, 
 a^ well as the aged, of those Choctaw converts under the 
 teachings of ;the missionaries when living in their ancient 
 possessions. 
 
 After the conversion of Tuna pin a chuffa, a great and 
 wonderful change for the better was soon seen in not only 
 Tuna pin a chuffa's district, but also in other districts — 
 both in outward appearance and moral condition. The men 
 soon began to acquire habits of industry, cultivating cotton 
 and enlarging their corn fields. Temperance rapidly 
 gained ground all over the Nation; and in nearly every house 
 throughout the country soon were found the cotton card, 
 the spinning wheel and the loom, with here and there black- 
 smith and wood-shops.. 
 
 Soon large quantities of various cotton cloths were made 
 by the Choctaw mothers and daughters; while the father and 
 son raised corn, sweet potatoes, peas, beans, and various 
 kinds of vegetables; and their willingness to work ran 
 parallel with their progress and advancement in Christian 
 knowledge. Nor was there any difficulty experienced by the 
 missionaries in hiring Choctaws to work for them, both men 
 and women, and even boys and girls; many of the men with 
 their families, went to the adjoirting States and picked cotton 
 for tte white farmers; after they had gathered their own 
 crops. As cotton pickers, both in quantity and quality, day 
 by day, they had no superiors; therefore, the white farmers 
 paid them one dollar per hundred pounds, and also boarded 
 them; and a thousand have been known to leave their Nation 
 at one time to pick cotton in the States; and before they were 
 driven to the wild wilderness far away to the west by the 
 inexorable law of the whites, that "IVIight is Right," when 
 dealing with the North American Ind4an; fifty, yea a hun- 
 dred and fifty, drunken white men could be found in the 
 contigudus States, to where one Choctaw would be found in 
 the Nation most distant from the neighborhood of the white 
 
■ HISTORY OE THE INDIANS. . 169 
 
 settlements. Much has been said to prove the drunken 
 Indian, to be a friend incarnate; and though I have seen 
 drunken Indians, yet my experience hqts/ tatight me that a 
 drunken white man is far worse than a drunken Indian, and 
 more to be feared ten to one, than the Indian . ' 
 
 AfterTunapinachuffa, followed the conversion of Col.David 
 Folsom, and many other leading men of the Nation, together , 
 with the common warriors and their wives; and to that extent 
 was the interest in the subject of religion manifested by, all 
 'that a special meeting was appointed in the woods by the 
 missionaries; and at which, Col. David FolSom and , others, 
 together with the now zealous and good old Tuhapinachuffa, 
 took an active part. Though there were fe-j^ Choctaws 
 present, yet the Spirit of God was there; and one evening' an 
 unusual solemnity seemed to pervade the entire little com- 
 pany of worshippers, and so deeply felt by old Tunapina- 
 chuffa, that he was unable to longer restrain himself. He 
 arose and commenced an exhortation to his people present, , 
 and continued for thirty or mpre minutes in such sublime 
 Indian eloquence (Nature's gift untarnished by human art) 
 such deep pathos, and such irresistible arguments, as are 
 seldom hear|d anywhere. 
 
 At the close of hi^ inimitable and indescribable exhorta- 
 tion, he, in a persuasive tone of voice, said: "All you whb 
 'desire and are willing to receive these Good Tidings from 
 above into your hearts and go with me' to the good land 
 above, come and sit on this log." What a moment -Was that to 
 the noble-hearted and pious missionaries who were so for- 
 tunate as to be present ! Who can justly describe it? Fiirst 
 one, and then another and another, came foi-ward and' took' 
 their seats on that forest log, until it was coVered, thiis mani- 
 festing and openly avowing their determination toperve the 
 livihg God; and there and then twelve adults becaibe living, 
 active witnesses for .the cause of the worl'd's, Redeemer.' 
 That little religious meeting, in the deep solitudes of a Mis- 
 sissippi forest, closed; but the tidings of its strange pro-. 
 ceedings and its more wonderful results , spr^ead "far and 
 wide, and it became the subject of conversation and inquiry 
 for miles away; and sobn was awakened such a feeling of 
 curiosity and desire to learn mdre of this, to them strange 
 and incomprehensible thing, that other meetings were ap- 
 pointed, to which hundreds gathered, artd the result was they 
 were multiplied all over the land and scofes flocked to and 
 around the standard of Christianity. 
 
 But this interest was confined for several months, al- 
 most exclusively, to the northern part of the Nation contigu- 
 ous to Mayhew, whence the missionaries went out among the 
 
170 . HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' 
 
 Choctaws aiid taug-h^ and preached to them . The converts 
 were at first gftthpred into one church organization though 
 widely separated;' henife their sacramental meetings were 
 held in the woods under the wide extended branches of the 
 mighty forest oaks of that day — ^^God's natural temples — 
 where many hundred^ would congregate and spend several i 
 days worshipping God; and a more hu-mble. ^nd devout as- 
 sembly, of worshippers of the Hying God (without an indif- 
 ferent or idle spectator) was never anywhere beheld than 
 were those worshipping Choctaws. At one of these forest 
 meetings, where the wind, (nature's harp) sighing amid the 
 thick and wide extended limbs of the giant forest trees, had 
 for ages untold received no response but that of the defiant 
 war-hoop, now was mingled the praise of huma.n tongues in 
 anthems sweet with nature to nature's God; ninety Choc- 
 taws both men and women, were enrolled in the army of the 
 Cross; and at another over a hundred, 
 
 Messrs. Williams, Smith, Howse and Bardwell, shortly 
 after the establishment of the Mayhew mission, took charge 
 of the one established in the southern part of the Nation 
 among a clan of Choctaws called Okla Hunnali, (people Six), 
 distant seventy or more miles from Mayhew, leaving Messrs. 
 Kingsbury, (to whom the Choctaws gave the name Na-sho-ba 
 No-wah (Walking Wolf), Byington (whom they named La- 
 pish 0-la-han-chih, Sounding Horn), Cushman and a few 
 others at Mayhew. 
 
 Soon after the close of the revival tpeetings in the north- 
 ern part of the Nation, several new converts, in company 
 with Col. David Folsom and a few missionaries of the May- 
 hew mission, made ^ journey to the Okla Hunnali mission to 
 attend a religious meeting previously appointed. The Choc- 
 taws of that district, expecting them, came in large numbers 
 from the surrounding villages to the appointed place to wel- 
 come them, and manifested the greatest delight regarding it 
 as great favor conferred upon them by their friends who had 
 come so far to attend their meetings. They assembled 
 without ostentation, yet in all the paraphernailia of Choctaw 
 custom, presenting a novel appearance to the eye of the 
 novice. But the "tidings of great joy— peace on 6arth and 
 good will to man".— to the red as well as the white, proclaimed 
 and urged upon them with such evidence of truth, sincerity 
 and deep feeling, was to thei^i something new indeed, unseen 
 and unfelt before. 
 
 Calm reflection assumed (as at the meetings in the north- 
 ern section of the Nation) the place of thoughtlessness and 
 indifference, (for an Indian can and doQs reflect as well as a 
 white man), and soon were seen on many .i painted face 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS ' l7l 
 
 trickling tears (though not given to' weepi'ug),forii;ing little 
 channels throU^^h the vermilion as they coursed, their way' 
 down. And this meeting was also blessed' with' a gracious 
 visitation of the Holy Spirit, and many, 'precious, souls,, 
 (though Choctaws) were gathered into '.the fold of the Great 
 Shepherd as had been done m the northern pqrtion. of their. , 
 country. At o'rice^a mighty change began, all' over their 
 Nation whei-ever the missionaries went, )vho truly, might be ■ 
 termed the Apostles of God to the- Choctaws; and soon, one 
 by one their aiicient customs and habits we're; 'f driver laid, 
 aside, culminating in a general changeof; things' well adapt- 
 ed to their then, it may be truthfully stated, progressive,, 
 condition. But among the rtiost prominent iteatur.ps indicat- 
 ing a speedy reformation at this time (1,826), Was. .the enact- 
 ing of a law forever baiiishing that curse' of .ajU.' curses O-ka 
 Humma (Red Water) or properly O-kaJio-irii (Strong Water) 
 which, like that of th^ Medes and Persians chahgeth not, , 
 stands to-day unrepealed, and will so continue as long, as 
 they are permitted to exist as a Nation. , '.'. 
 
 Mady of the a.ncient Choctaws were; a depts in the art of 
 singing their native airs, of which ihey had many; but all 
 effort to induce one of them to sirig alone one of his favorite 
 song-s was fruitless. They invariably replied to the solicitation 
 in broken English, "Him no'good." Then sing me a war- 
 song. "Him heap no good'," w^th an ominous shake of the 
 head. Then sing me a hunting song. "No good; he no fit 
 for pale face. "Well, sing me a love song. "Wah!'I(anancient. 
 exclamation of suprise — now obsolete) much love song, him 
 bad, no good for pale face." Though this was somewhat 
 tantalizing yet it had to be endured. 
 
 Like all their race, the Choctaws never forgot an act of 
 kindness be it ever so trivial; and many a white man overtaken 
 by misfortune when traveling over their country, and weak 
 beneath the remorseless grasp of hunger, has felt that the 
 truth of the eastern proverb has been brought home to him: 
 Cast thy bread upon the waters, and thou Ishalt ^nd it after 
 many days. More than once has it fallen to my lot to c6n- 
 tribute to an Indian's immediate necessities, in days of their 
 individual want and weakness; and, in after days— the inci- 
 dent by me loiig forgotten; they have, returned, the .favor, 
 thirty fold; and for many favors have ,1' become. indebte;d,to, 
 them, when I hid nothing to return. T^eir. great, de- 
 licacy in conferring' a favor was; not. the least admirable 
 part "of their conduct,, of te.n they wQUlcl .leaye ,a, larg^f.wild,, 
 turkey upon the door-!4ill,'or place a;y^nifiC!n hjvtn jiist withiti,- 
 it, and Steal away .without saying a,;VVord,', as if .^hey -feared,, 
 you might stispect them .of trying to buy yoiy friendships 
 
1 < 2 HBTOBT OF THE DiDiAXS. 
 
 irfaen not enabled to secure it »lone bj merit: or that, to 
 accept a present from a poor Indian mi^ht be hnmiliating^ to 
 the pride of the receiver and they woaM >c-ire him the mor- 
 ti£catioo :: retnrn.ng thanks. Nerer w-s~ a race of people 
 more sensitive of iandaess, or more grateful for any little 
 act of benevolence exercised toward thpm. or practiced the 
 great Christian principle. Charity to a greater degree of 
 perfection, especially in regard to strangers, than did the 
 North American Indians. The n-i-s: ;nir:e= everywhere 
 and among all tribes, met them with Idndnessand coniidence, 
 and conducted them^^elre;- by the rules of strict integrity in 
 all their dealing with them; and no in-tance baus been re- 
 corded, where their confidence iifc the Indiana was betrayed,^ 
 or their ecod opinion of them destr:- ved. 
 
 The Cboctaws were great imitators, and possessed a 
 nice tact in adopting- the manners of those with wboni they 
 ass'>ciated. An Indian, however, is Nature's gentleman — 
 never familiar, coarse or mlgar. If he takes a meal with yon, 
 he quietly waits to see you make u^e of the unaccustomed 
 iai{Aements on the table, and the manner in which yoa eat. 
 he exactly ::sit2.tes with a grave decornm and as much appar- 
 ent ease, as if he had been accns: >med t.> the -.ame usages 
 from childhood. He never attempts to help hiratrc'.f or de- 
 mand more food. ^Jt patiently waits until von perceive what 
 he requires. This :r.r.ate pi-viteness :r^ natural t :• all Indiir.~. 
 But the mixtiire of white bksoc. while ;t may be ^A to add a 
 iittle to the physical beauty of the half-^race, yet pr. iucc= a 
 deplorable fiJing ; f from the CMT^aal inteirrity of the Indian 
 character; which, however, may be attributed wboOy to the 
 weH known fact, that the young iiai:-":.rec!s min^'ie witi: the 
 '.vb:te> ninety per cent more than tbe i~.'.-t'.- •■.'..-: and ever 
 retain that peculiar character— tic of the Indian i. e. c-jr.i- 
 dence in^all prvfe^-i- r.- .:•: friendship an.tii proted faKe, then 
 never i?ain t.j be trz^ted; th js are they e^~ily made the 
 dupes of the whites, and are i^-norantly. and therefore un- 
 conscioti^Iy, led ~tep by step oow-n t :• a leve! with their de- 
 stroyers, and t:o late awake to :r»c consciousness 
 that they are tbe victims. Thus is the pro:e~-ed grandeur 
 of our civilizatioa portrayed to t'ne :a'.i-b!o«id Indian. No 
 wonder he wants none of it. If :^'.i:h is the resuit of that 
 civii:£ati^>n we would have him adopt, no wonder he shrinks 
 Iron: it as he would from a fearful contain n. 
 
 No Indian was efer so =^elnsb a> to >n:oVe a'.one in the 
 presence of others. I hare c ft attended thar - -cial gather- 
 :na"s where, seated oo the ground in little groajr, forming 
 little circies. the personificatioa of bli-^ful c ntentment, I 
 invariably saw the f»ipe on it=. line of march, and - continued 
 
HISTORY OF THK INDIANS. llTS 
 
 until the talk was ended. If but two were seated together, 
 and one lighted his pipe, he only drew a few whiifs and then 
 handed it to his companion, who also drew a whiff or two 
 and returned it; and thus the symbol of peace, friendship \ 
 and gjood will passed back and forth until the social chat was 
 terminated. 
 
 The Choctaw women did not indulge in the use of tobacco 
 in any way whatever when living. east of the Mississippi,'ex- 
 cept a few in advanced years; and it was regarded as great 
 a breach of female decorum for a Choctaw wom,en to use the 
 weed, as it is with the white women of the present day to 
 chew or smoke; and even the men confined its use exclusively 
 to the pipe. But now they seem to have deviated to some 
 extent from that good custom; for in my travels over their 
 country during the last few years, I have frequently fallen in 
 company with Choctaws, and when offered a chew of tobacco 
 it was accepted by a few fuUbloods, atid chewed with as 
 much gusto as we rode along together, as I dared to assume 
 with all my long years of experience; and thus I ascertained 
 that those of the present day do not conijne the use of tobacco 
 exclusively to the pipe as did their fathers of the long> ago, 
 proving the truthfulness of the adage, "Evil communications 
 corrupt good manners," and also good habits. 
 
 The innate politeness of the Indians, when in their 
 strength and independence east of the Mississippi River, was 
 truly remarkable. The early explorers were surprised at 
 the perfection of this characteristic in the Choctaw Indians, 
 and many expressed their admiration in their writings. If 
 a Choctaw of the long 'ago met a white man with Ayhom he 
 was acquainted and on terms of social friendship, he took his 
 proffered hand, then with a gentle pressure and forward in- 
 clination of the head, said, in a mild and sweet tone of voice: 
 "Chishno pisah yukpah siah it tikana su," I am glad to see 
 you my friend, and if he has nothing of importance to com- 
 municate, or of anything to obtain infoi?mation, he passed on 
 without further remarks; no better proof of good sense can 
 be manifested, and well worthy of imitation. 
 
 But one of tlie many noble traits among the Choctaws 
 was that of unfeigned hospitality; and to that extent that it 
 became proverbial — deservingly so. When any one entered 
 their house or hunting -camp, be he a friend, mere acquain- 
 tance or entire stranger, they extended the hand of welcome 
 —and it was sincere,— and after exchanging a few words of 
 greeting, the visitor was invited to take a seat; after which, 
 they observed the most profound ^silence, waiting for their 
 Visitor to report his business. When he had done this, the 
 silent but attentive wife brought what food she might have 
 
174 ' IflSTORY OF THE rNDllvNS. 
 
 -prepared, (they were seldom found without something on 
 hand), and her husband said to his guest: "Chishno upah" 
 "you eat." To exhibit a true knowledge of Choctaw 
 etiquette, it became your duty to partake a little of every 
 thing the hospitable wife had placed before you; otherwise 
 you would, though unwittingly, cause y«ur host and hostess 
 to regard your neglect of duty as a plain demonstration of 
 contempt for their hospitality — purposely intended and of- 
 fered, y^ 
 
 Whether the Choctaws assembled for social conversa- 
 tion or debate in council, there never was but one who spoke 
 at>a time, and under no circumstances was he interrupted. 
 This noble characteristic belongs to all the North American 
 Indians, as far as I have been able to ascertain. In the 
 public councils of the Choctaws, as well as in social gather- 
 ings and religious meetings, 'the utmost decorum always 
 prevailed, and he who was talking in the social circle or ad- 
 dressing the council or lecturing in the religious "meeting, 
 always had as silent and attentive hearers as ever delighted 
 and blessed a speaker. A noble characteristic. And when 
 a question had been discussed, before putting it to a vote, a 
 few minutes were always given for silent meditation, during 
 which the most profound silence was observed; at the expira- 
 tion of the allotted time, the vote of the assembly was taken ; 
 and which, I have been informed, is still kept up to this day. 
 For many years after they had arrived from their ancient 
 homes to the present place of abode, no candidate for an 
 office of any kind ever went around among the people solicit- 
 ing votes; the candidates merely gave notice by public an- 
 nouncement, and that was all ; and had a candidate asked a 
 man for his support, it would have been the death knell to 
 his election. '' 
 
 On the day of the election, the name of all the candidates 
 -were written in regular order upon a long strip of paper; 
 with the office to which each aspired written opposite to his 
 name; and when the polls were opened, this paper, with the 
 names of the candidates and the' offices to which each 
 aspired written upon it, was handed to the voter when he 
 presented himself at the polls to vote, who commenced at 
 the top of the list and called out the name of the candidate he 
 •wished to support for the different offices; if the voter could 
 not read, then one of the officers in charge of the election, 
 who could read, took the paper and slowly read the names 
 and the office aach aslpirant desired; and the voter called out 
 the name of each candidate for whom tie wished to vote as he 
 read; and no candidate ever manifested any hard feelings 
 
HISTOKY OF TriE INDIANS. .175 
 
 toward those ^vlio voted against him. Here was exhibited 
 ■true libertjr and free sufErag-fe.' ' '■ ;■ " 
 
 De Soto found the southern Indians to beyan agricultural 
 people, provident, patriotic, hospitable and geilerous, three 
 hundred and fifty years ago; and when he tested their .patri- 
 otism at Moihabinah, and Chickasahha he learned to his sat- 
 isfaction that their heroic bravery 'in defense of their 
 country, their homes and hfeaven bequeathed right, was 
 unsurpassed in the history of the world. -^ 
 
 The missionaries found them in 1815 an unlettered 
 people, yet far from meriting the title savage in the common 
 acceptation of the word. ' They found thtm to be a noble 
 hearted and interesting people free of a majority of the de- 
 basing vices practiced by the' whites, and alcquainted with 
 many of the domestic and agricultural, and posse>ssing many 
 utensils and implements belonging to each; on a small scale 
 ' 'tis true, yet amply sufficient for their Wants. 
 
 They recogiiized and acknowledged a Supreme Being, 
 — The Great Spirit, the creator and f uler of all things. This 
 ■Great Spirit was held in great reverence by all Indians. 
 Never did a North American Indian profane the name 6f his 
 Creator or deny his power. 
 
 The Choctaw warrior, as I knew hjm in his native Mis- 
 sissippi forest, was as fiiie a specimen of manly perfection 
 as I have ever beheld, ^^e seemed to be as perfect as 
 the human form could be. Tall, beautiful in symmetry of 
 form and face, graceful, active, straight, fleet, with lofty and 
 independent bearing, he seemed worthy in saying, as tie of 
 Juan Fernandez fame: "I am monarch of all I survey." His 
 'black, piercing eye. seemed to penetrate and ^ead the very 
 "thoughts of the heart, while his firm step proclaimed a feel- 
 ing sense of his manly independence. Nor did their women 
 fall behind in ill that pertains to female beauty. I have seen 
 among the Choctaws and Chickasaws, when living east of the 
 Mississippi, as beautiful ydung women as could be found 
 among any nation of people— civilized or uncivilized. Many 
 of them seemed, and truly were, nymphs of the woods. 
 They were of such unnattii-al beauty that they Ittei-ally ap- 
 peared to light up everything around them. iTh^eir shoul- 
 ders were broad and square and their carriage true to 
 Nature which has never b^n excelled by the hand of art, 
 their long, black tresses hung in flowing waves, extending 
 nearly to the ground; but the beauty of the countenances of 
 many of those Choctaw and' Chickasaw girls was so extra- 
 ordinary that if such faces were seen to-day in one of the 
 parlors of the fashionable world, they would be considered 
 as a type of beauty hitherto unknown. It was the wild un- 
 
176 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 trammeled beauty of the forest, at the same time melancholy 
 and splendid. The bashful calm in their larg:e, magnificent 
 eyes, shaded by unusually long, black eye-lashes, cannot be 
 described; nor yet the glance, nor the splendid light of the 
 smile which at times lit up the countenance like a flash, ex- 
 posing the leveliest white and even teeth. Vainly one was 
 tempted to believe a whole nocturnal world lay in those 
 eyes, the dark fringe of which cast a shadow upon the cheek; 
 while they seemed to glance downward into a depth, dreamy, 
 calm and melancholy, without a tinge or shadow of gloom. 
 'Twas a beauty indeed upon which they who looked, long 
 gazed that they might call it up in after days, as some wild 
 melody that haunts them still, when far away. Then the 
 Choctaw's boast \yas— and justly 'too — "Chahtah siah I" and 
 with as much merited pride as he of old "Romanus sum." 
 
 But alas! what a change has seventy-five years wrought 
 upon this once free and happy people! How different the 
 present generation from that happy, independent spirit that 
 characterized their people when living in their ancient 
 domains now the State of Mississippi! That manly bearing 
 has given place to weakness and dejection; that eye, once so 
 bright, bold and piercing, is now faint and desponding. The 
 Choctaws once looked you straight in the eye with fearless 
 yet polite, manly independence; his descendants now scarcely 
 raise their heads to greet you. They seem no longer to view 
 life through the rainbow lenses of sanguine hope, but as those 
 in despair. Ah, the world may die, but there are some 
 sorrows'in^mortal. I have frequently met, here and there, a 
 few Choctaws in Texas bordering on Red River. They 
 seemed as strangers wandering in a strange land among 
 whose people no voice of sympathy could be heard; no word of 
 commisseration to be found; no smile of ertcouragement to be 
 seen. With each different little band I tried to introduce a 
 conversation only to be disappointed; and though I addressed 
 them in their, own native language; I could only obtained a 
 reply in a few scarcely audible monosyllables. They remem- 
 bered the past and were silent, yet how eloquent that 
 silence. 
 
 In 1832, at Hebron, the home of the missionary, Calvin 
 Cushman and his family, was the place appointed for the 
 assembling of all the Choctaws in that district prepartory to 
 their exodus from their ancient domaines to a place they 
 knew not where; but towarc] the setting sun as arbitrary 
 power had decreed. Sad and mounful indeed was their gath- 
 ering together— helpless and hopeless under the hand of a 
 haman power that knew no justice or mercy. 
 
 I was an eye witness to that scene of desparing woe and 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 177 
 
 heard their sad refrain. I frequently visited their encamp- 
 ment and sti-oUed from one part of it to another; while from 
 every part of their. wide extended camp, as I walked, g-azed 
 and wondered at the weird appearance pf the scene, there 
 came, borne upon the morn and evening breeze from every 
 point of the vast encampment, faintly, yet distinctly, the 
 plaintive sounds of weeping — rising' and falling' in one 
 strang-ely sad and melancholy chorus, then dying away in a 
 last, long-drawn wail. It was the wailing of the Choctaw 
 women — even as that of Rachel for her children. 
 
 Around in different* groups they sat with their children 
 from whose quivering lips sobs and moans came in subdued 
 unison; now, in wild concert united, their cries quivered and 
 throbbed as they rose and fell on the night air, then dying 
 away in a pathetic wail proclaiming, in language not to be 
 misunderstood, the pressure of ^he anguish that was crush- 
 ing their souls — hidden from human eyes and told only to 
 the night. Truly, their grief was so deep, so overpowering, 
 that even reason seemed to reel, blighted beneath its wither- 
 ing touch, too great to admit the cofnfort of hufnan sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 The venerable old men, who long had retired from the 
 hardships and fatigues of war and the chase, expressed the 
 majesty of silent grief; yet there came now and them a sound 
 that here and there, swelled from a feeble moan to a deep, 
 sustained groan — rising and falling till it died away just' as 
 it began. True, a few encouraging smiles of hope, though 
 utterly void of sincerity, would not have been out of place, 
 but they were unlearned in such subtle arts; therefore, their 
 upturned faces mutely, but firmly spoke the deep sorrow 
 that heaved within, as they sat in little groups, their gray 
 Kfeads uncovered in the spray of dancing sunshine which fell 
 through the branches of the trees from above, while pitiful 
 indeed was the feeble semblance of approval of the white 
 man's policy which they strove to keep in their care worn 
 countenances; while the heart-piercing cries of the women 
 and children, seated upon the ground with heads covered 
 with shawls and blankets and bodies swinging forward and 
 backward, set up day and night, sad tones of woe echoing 
 far back from the surrounding but otherwise silent forests, 
 presenting a scene baffling in description the power of all 
 human language; while the young and middle-aged warriors, 
 now subdued and standing around in silence profound, gazed 
 into space and upon the' scattered clouds as they slowly 
 swept across the tender blue, lending wings to the imagina- 
 tion which seemed momentary to still, with a sense of \heir 
 own eternal calm, the conflicting thoughts that then composed 
 
178 HISTORY OF THE mCIANS. 
 
 the turbulent garison of their hearts. Inaudible, yet from 
 flashing eyes and lips compressed that bespoke the emotions 
 that surged within, could be read, "Why longer seek for 
 hope amid the ashes of life"? While here and there was 
 heard an inarticulate moan seeking expression in some snatch 
 of song, which announced its leaving a broken heart. 
 
 But why dwell upon such bitter memories? My soul 
 finds no pleasiure in them. Deep down to undiscovered 
 depths has my life among, and study of the North Apieri- 
 can Indians during over three score and ten years, enabled me 
 to penetrate their human nature with all their endurances 
 and virtues. What the world ought to know, that I have 
 written; and especially for those who desire more light on 
 that unfortunate race of people, and feel an interest in truth, 
 justice, and what concerns humanity the world over. To 
 me was offered the mission, and I accepted it because my 
 conscience approved it as right; and I have thus far, exerted 
 every power to fulfill even to the letter and shall so continue 
 to the end; allowing each reader to freely think his oriher 
 own thoughts. , . 
 
 Every missionary among the Choctaws, when he entered 
 the mission gave a pledge that he would devote his or her 
 life to the service of God in the cause of civilizing and Chris- 
 tainizing the Choctaw people, with no remuneration what" 
 ever except that of food and clothing for liimself and fam ily . 
 This was supplied by the Board of Foreign Missions estab- 
 lished at Boston, Mass., to which Board everything pertain- 
 ing to the mission in tlie way of property belonged — the 
 missionaries owning nothing. This BoBfrd had spent a great 
 deal towards the missions, and, in the removal of the Choc- 
 taws west, was uilable to build up new missions there of suf- 
 ficient number to sup])ly );^jor for all of the missionaries; 
 hence, all but three wore absolved from their pledge, who 
 soon returned to tlieir friends iu Massachusetts, while the 
 three — Messrs Kingsbury, Byington and Hotchkins, with 
 their families, followed the exiled Choctaws to their unknown 
 homes to be found in the wilderness of the west. Mr. Cal- 
 vin Cushman was one of the two who remained in Mississip- 
 pi, and died ;it liis old Missionary Post, Hebron, a few years 
 after the banishment of his old and long tried friends the 
 Choctaws, for whose moral and intellectual benefit he had so 
 long and faithfully labored; and the other was Mr. Elijah 
 Bardwell, who labored at Ok-la Hun-na-tli sixty miles south 
 west of Hebron, but who, after the banishment of the Choc- 
 taws, moved toapoint a mile and a half east of the present town 
 of Starkville, Mississippi. He too, with all the rest of his co- 
 laborers, has long since also gone to hisrcward in the blissfu 
 
 1 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS* 179 
 
 1 Immortality; but whose names still live, in honored remem- 
 brance in the hearts of a few aged Choctaws, who still sur- 
 vive. 
 
 As an, example of the faithfulness with which , those 
 ancient missionaries adhered to every principle inculcated in 
 the religion-they professed among and preached to the Choc- 
 taws of the long ago, I will here relate the following as 
 worthy of remembrance. ' 
 
 In the early days of the town of i Stark ville, Mississippi, a 
 blacksmith, (John McGaughey), established a shop in the 
 ■embryo city, and, in connection^ with his smithing, also 
 ■traded in horses, keeping a few on hand all the time. Mr. 
 Bardwell knowing this, and wishing- to purchase a horse, 
 called at Mr. McGaughey 's shop anfe morningf and asked him if 
 he had a horse for sale that would be suitable for a farm. 
 Mac. replying in the affirmative they went to the stable, 
 vv^here Mr. JBardwell, after examining the animal, asked the 
 price.' To this Mr. McGaughey replied: "Eighty-five 
 dollars." "I regard that as too high a price," said Mr. 
 Bardwell. Mr. McGaughey, well knowing the aged mission- 
 ary and having unlimited confidence in his integity, asked 
 him what he believed the horse to ke worth. To which Mr. 
 Bardwell replied: "Sixty-five dollars." "You can have him 
 at that price," responded Mr. McGaughey. Mr. Bardwell 
 paid the money and took the horse. The trade wds made in 
 the spring of the year. Eai'ly in the following autumn, Mr. 
 Bardwell called at the shop and, after the usual salutation, 
 handed Mr. McGaughey twenty dollars, saying: "Here is 
 that money that I owe you." Mr. McGaughey, in much 
 astonishment, replied: 'iYouare certainly mistaken. You 
 do .not owe me a dollar, you have always paid me the cash 
 for all the work I have done for you in my shop." "True"! 
 said Mr. Bardwell. "But this is not for work done in the 
 shop, biat is due you in a trade we made last spring." "What 
 trade"? asked Mr. McGaughey in unfeigned suprise. "Why! 
 in the purchase of a horse from you,", replied Mr. Bardwell. 
 "But yoii paid me the sixty-five dollars cash, the price for 
 
 . which I told you, you could have hini." "True," replied Mr. 
 Bardwell, "But you judged the horse to be worth eighty-five 
 dollars, while I estimated his worth at only sixty-five; upon 
 trial I have found him to be well worth the eighty-five dollars, 
 the price you first asked ' for him. Here is your money." 
 "But, Mr. Bardwell, I cannot accept the money. It was a 
 fair trade." "Not so;"replied the aged missionary, "you were 
 
 .right, Mr. McGaughey in your judgment as to the correct 
 value of the horse, and I was wrong. I insist upon your 
 accepting that which is your just due." Mr. McGaughey 
 
180 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 finally accepted the twenty dollars but only through his g-reat 
 respect for Mr. Bardwell, whose feelingij he knew would be 
 wounded if he did not accept the proffered twenty dollars. 
 
 Mr. John McGaughey, many years afterwards, frequent- 
 ly related this horse trade. 
 
 Seventy years ag-o, the Choctaw hunter generally hunted 
 alone and on foot; and when he killed his game, unless small, 
 he left it where it had fallen, and turning his footsteps home- 
 ward, traveled in a straight line, here and there breaking a 
 twig leaving its top in the direction he had gome, as a guide 
 to his wife whom he intended to send to brihg it home. As 
 soon as he arrived, he informed her of his suqcessand merely 
 pointed in the direction in which he the gaAie lay. At once 
 she mounted a pony and started in the direction indicated ; 
 and guided by the broken twigs, she soon arrived at the spot, 
 picked up and fastened thedeadanimalto the saddle, mounted 
 and soon was athome again; then soon dressed and prepared a 
 portion for her hunter lord's meal, while he sat and smoked 
 his pipe in meditative silence. No animal adapted for food 
 was ever killed in wanton sport by any Indian hunter. 
 
 As a marksman the Choctaw could not be surpassed in 
 the use of the rifle. It mattered' not whether his game was 
 standing or running; a bullet shot from his rifle, when directed 
 by his experienced eye, was a sure messenger of death. A 
 shotgun was regarded with great contempt, and never used. 
 The rifle, and the rifle alone, would he use. To surprise a 
 Choctaw warrior or hunter in the woods — see him before he 
 saw you — was a feat not easily accomplished ; in fact, impos- 
 sible by an experienced white woodsman, and extremely 
 difficult even by the most experienced. His watchful and 
 practiced eye was always on the aler.t, whether running, 
 walking, standing or sitting ; and his acute ear, attentive to 
 every passing sound, heard the most feeble noise, which, to 
 the white man's ear was utter silence. 
 
 Years ago I had a Choctaw (fultblood) friend as noble 
 and true as ever man possessed, and whom once to know 
 was to remember with an esteem approaching the deepest 
 affection; and of whom I was justly proud and in whom I 
 took delight; and to-day, had I a hundred tongues,' I could 
 not express my appreciation of that noble friend. He was 
 indeed a cordial to my heart— oft imparting to me an earnest 
 of happiness which I thought had fled. Oft in our frequent 
 hunts together, while silently gliding through the den^e 
 forests ten or fifteen rods apart, he woiild attract my atten- 
 tion by his well-known ha ha (give caution) in a low but dis- 
 tinct tone of voice, and point to a certain part of the woods 
 where he had discovered an animal of some kind; and though 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 181 
 
 I looked as closely as possible I could see nothing whatever 
 that resembled a living- object of any kind. Being at too 
 great a distance to risk a sure shot,. he would signal me to 
 remain quiet, as he endeavored to get closer. To me that 
 was the most exciting and interesting part of the scene;, for 
 ihen began those strategic movements in which the most 
 skillful white hunter that I have ever seen, was a mere bun- 
 gler. With deepest interest, not unmixed with excitement,! 
 closely watched his every movement as he slowly and stealth- 
 ily advanced, with eyes fixed upon his object; now crawling 
 noiselessly upon his hands and knees, then as motionless as 
 a stump; now stretched full length upon the ground, then 
 standing erect and motionless; then dropping suddenly to 
 the ground, and crawling off at an acute angle to the right 
 or left to get behind a certain tree or log, here and there 
 stopping and slowly raising his head .just enough to look 
 over the top of the grabs; then again be hidden until he 
 reached the desired free; with intense mingled curiosity and 
 excitement, when hidden from my view in the grass, did I 
 seek to follow him in his course with my eyes. ' Oft I would 
 . see a little dark spot not larger than my fist jtlst above the 
 top of the grass, which slowly grew larger and larger until I 
 discovered it was his motionless head; and had I not known 
 he was there somewhere I would not have suspected it was 
 a human head or the head of anything else; and as I kept my 
 eyes upon it, I noticed it slowly getting smaller until it grad- 
 ually disappeared; and when he reached the tree, he then 
 observed the same caution slowly rising until he stood erect 
 and close to the body of the tree, then slowly and cautiously 
 peeping around it first on the right, then on the left; and 
 when, at this juncture, I have turnfed my eyes from hirn, but 
 momentarily as I thought, to the point where I thought the 
 game must be, being also eager to satisfy my excited curi- 
 osity as to the kind of animal he was endeavoring to shoot, 
 yet, when I looked to the spot where I had just seen him— 
 lol he was not there; and while wondering to what point of 
 the compass he had so suddenly disappeared unobserved, 
 and vainly looking to find bis mysterious whereabouts, I 
 would be stg^rtled by the sharp crack of his rifle in a differ- 
 ent dii-ection from that in which I was looking for him, and 
 in turning my eye would see him slowly rising out of the 
 grass at a point a hundred yards distant from where I had 
 last seen him. "#ell, old fellow," I then ejaculated to my- 
 self, "I would not hunt for you in a wild forest for the purpose 
 M obtaining your scalp, knowing, at the same time, that you 
 wefe somewhere about seeking also to secure mine; I would 
 just call to you to come and take it at once and save anxiety." 
 
182 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Talk about a white man out maneuvering an Indian in a for- 
 est, is an absurdity — veritable nonsense. 
 
 Frequently have I proposed to exchange guns with 
 George (that was his name--simply George and nothing 
 else) my double barrel shot-gun for his rifle, but he invari- 
 able refused; and when I asked for his objection to my gun, 
 he ever had but one and the same reply— "Him push." He 
 did not fancy the reaction or "kicking" so oft experienced in 
 shooting the shot-gun which George had, no doubt, once ex- 
 perienced to his entire satisfaction. Generous and faithful 
 George! I wonder where you are to-day ? If on the face of 
 God's green ear..h, I am sure — humble though you ma.y be — 
 there is one true heart above the sod that still beats in love 
 for me. 
 
 It was truly wonderful with what ease and . certainty the 
 Choctaw hunter and warrior made his way through the dense- 
 forests of his country to any point he wished to go, near or 
 distant. But give him the direction, was all he desired; with 
 an unerring certainty, though never having been in that part 
 of the country before, he would go Over hill and valley, 
 through thickets and canebrakes to the desired point, that 
 seemed incredible. I have known the little Choctaw boys, in 
 their juvenile excursions with their bows and arrows and 
 blow-guns to wander miles away from their homes, this way 
 and that through the woods, and return home at night, with- 
 out a thought or fear of getting lost; nor did their parents 
 have any uneasiness in regard to their wanderings. It is a 
 universal characteristic of the Indian, when traveling in an un- 
 known country, to let nothing pass unnoticed. His watch- 
 ful eye marks every distinguishing feature of the surround- 
 ings — a peculiarly leaning or fallen tree, stump or bush, rock 
 or hill, creek or branch, he will recognize years afterwards, 
 and use them as land marks, in going again through the 
 same country. Thus the Indian hunter was enabled to go 
 into a distant forest, where he never before had been, pitch 
 his camp, leave it and hunt all day — wandering this' way and 
 that over hills and through jungles for miles away, and re- 
 turn to his camp at the close of the day with that apparent 
 ease and unerring certainty, that baffledall the ingenuity of 
 the white man and appeared to him as bordering on the mir- 
 aculous. Ask any Indian for directions to a place, near or 
 distant, and he merely points in the direction vou should go, 
 regarding that as sufficient information for any one of com- 
 mon sense. . 
 
 In traveling through the Choctaw Nation in 1884, at one 
 time I desired to go to a point forty miles distant, to which 
 led a very dim path, at times sc;ircelv deserving the name. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. • 183 
 
 ■and Upon making inquiry of different Choctaws whom I f're- 
 quently met along my way, they only pointed in the direction 
 I musttraveland passed on; and being- ashamed to letit appear 
 that I did not have sense enough to goto the desired point after 
 being told the direction, I rode ^n without further inquiry, 
 and by taking the path, at every fork that seemed to lead the 
 nearest in the direction I had been iold to travel, Ij in good 
 time, reached my place of destination. So, after all, the 
 Choctaws told me all that was necessary in the ma!tter. 
 
 The ancient Choctaw warrior and hunter ieft the do- 
 mestic affairs of his humble home wholly to the management 
 o;f his wife and children. The hospitalities, of his cabin, 
 however, , were always open to 'friend or stranger, but 
 before whom he ever assumed a calfai and respectful reserve, 
 though nothing escaped his notice. If questioned he would 
 readily enter into a conversation concerning his exploits as a 
 warrior and hunter, but was indifferent upon the touching 
 episodes of home, with its scenes of domestic bliss or w^oe, 
 though their tendrils were as deeply and strangely inter- 
 woven with the fibres of his heart as with those of any other 
 of the human race. The vicissitudes of life, its joys and 
 sorrows, its hopes and fears, were regarded as unworthy the 
 consideration of a warrior and hunter; but the dangers, the 
 fatigues and hardships of war and the chase as subjects only 
 worthy to be , mentioned. Yet, with all this, in unfeigned 
 a flection for his vvife, children, kindred and friends; in deep 
 a nxiety for thpm in sickness and distress; in untiring efforts 
 to relieve their necessities and wants; in anxiety for their 
 sa fety in hours of danger; in fearless exposure of himself to 
 p rotect them from harm; in his silent yet deep sorrow at 
 their death; in his unassumed joy in their happiness; in 
 the se all Indians stand equal to any race of people that ever 
 liv ed. And when roaming with him years ago in the solitudes 
 of his native forests, and have looked upon him, whose nature 
 and peculiar habits have been declared by the world to have 
 no place with the rest of the human family, and then have 
 gone with him to his humble, but no less hospitable, forest 
 home, and there witnessed the same evidences of joy and 
 sorrow, of hope and fear, of pleasure and pain that are 
 every where peculiar to man's nature, I could but be more 
 ' firmly established in that which I long had known, that the 
 North American Indian, from first to last, had been wrong- 
 fully and shamefully misrepresented, and though in him are 
 blended vindictive and revengeful passions, so much con- 
 demned by the civilized world, yet I found these were equally 
 balanced by warm, generous, and noble feelings, as wfere 
 found in any class of the human race: 
 
184 HISTORY OF 'the INDIAIJS. 
 
 To the ancient Choctaw warrior aod hunter, excitement 
 of some kind was indispensible to relieve the tedium of the 
 nothin^-to-do in %yhich a great part of his life was spent. 
 Hence the intervals between war and hunting were filled up 
 by various amusements, ball plays, dances, foot and horse 
 races', trials of strength and activity in Wrestling and jump- 
 ing, all of which being regulated by rules and regulations of 
 a complicated etiquette. 
 
 But the Tolik (Ball play) was the ultimatum of all games 
 —"the sine qua non" of all amusements to the Indians of the 
 southland to which he attached the ^greatest importance, 
 and in the engagement of which his delight reached its high- 
 est perfection, and in the excelling of which his ambition fell 
 not below that of him who contested in the Olympic games of 
 ancient Greece. f 
 
 A Choctaw Tolik seventy years ago, was indeed a game 
 that well might have astonished the Titan, and diverted 
 them, pro. tern, at least, from their own pastime. But 
 when I look back through the retrospective years of the long 
 past to that animating scene, and then read in recent years 
 the different attempts made by many through the journals 
 of the day to describe a genuine Choctaw Ball-play of those 
 years ago, it excites a smile and onjy intensifies the hold 
 memory retains of that indescribable game. No one, who 
 has not witnessed it, can form a just idea of the scene from 
 any description given; for it baffles all the powers of lan- 
 guage and must be seen to be in any way comprehended. 
 The base ball-play of the present day, so popular among the 
 whites, in point of deep interest and wild excitement pro- 
 duced in the spectator, when compared to the Chashpo Tolik 
 (Ancient Ball-play) of the Choctaws ea^sl of the Mississippi 
 river, bears about the same relation that the light of the 
 crescent moon does to the mid-day light of the mighty orb of 
 day in a cloudless sky. However, I will attempt a descrip- 
 tion, though well aware that after all that can be said, the 
 reader will only be able to form a ver}' imperfect idea of the 
 weird scene. 
 
 When the warriors of a village, wearied by the mono- 
 tony of every day life, desired a change that was truly from 
 one extreme to that of another, they sent a challenge to those 
 of another village of their own tribe, and, not infrequently, 
 to those of a neighboring tribe, to engage ina grand ball-play. 
 li the challenge was accepted, and it wa's rarely ever declined 
 a suitable place was selected and prepared by the challengers, 
 and a day agreed upon. The Hetoka (ball ground) was 
 selected in some beautiful level plain easily found in their then 
 beautiful and romantic country. Upon the ground, from 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 185 
 
 three Iniiidred to four hundred yards apart, two straight 
 pieces of timber were firmly planted close tog-ether in the 
 g-round, each about fifteen feet in height" and from four to 
 six inches in width, presenting a front of a foot or more. 
 These were called Aiulbi, (Ball posts.) During the inter- 
 vening time between the day of the challenge and that of the 
 play, great preparations were made on both sides by those 
 who intended to engage therein. With much 'care and 
 unaffected solemnity they went through with their prepara- 
 tory ceremonies 
 
 The night preceding the day of the play was spent in 
 paintinp-, with the same care as when preparing, for the war- 
 path, dancing with frequent rubbing of both the upper and 
 lower limbs, and taking their "sacred medicine." 
 
 In the mean time, tidings of the approaching play spread 
 on wings of the wind from, village toVillage and from neigh- 
 borhood to neighborhood for miles away; and during the 
 first two or three days preceding the play, hundreds of In- 
 dians — the old, the young, the gay, the grave of both sexes, 
 in immense concourse, were seen wending their way through 
 the vast forests from every point of the compass, to\ifard the 
 ball-ground; with their ponies loaded with skins, fur^, 
 trinkets, and every other imaginable thing that was part and 
 parcel of Indian wealth, to stake upon the result of one or the 
 other side. 
 
 On the morning of the appointed day, the players, from 
 seventy-five to a hundred on each side, strong and athletic 
 men, straight as arrows and fleet as antelopes, entirely in a 
 nude state, exceptmg a broad piece of cloth around the hips, 
 were heard in the distance acf'^ancing toward the plain from 
 opposite sides, making the "heretofore silent forests ring 
 with their exulting songs and defiant hump-hel (banter) as 
 intimations of the great feats of strength and endurance, 
 fleetness and activity they would display before the eyes_ of 
 their admiring friends. The curiosity, anxiety and excite- 
 ment now manifested by the vast throng of assembled spec- 
 tators were manifested on every countenance. Soon the 
 players were dimly seen in the distance through their majes- 
 tic forests, flitting here and there as spectres among the 
 trees. Anon they are all in full view advancing from opposite 
 sides in a steady, uniform trot, and in perfect order, as if to 
 engage in deadly hand to hand conflict; now they meet and 
 intermingle in one confused and disorderly mass interchang- 
 ing friendly salutations dancing and jumping in the wildest 
 manner, while intermingling with all an artillery of wild 
 Shakuplichihi that echoed far back from the solitudes of the 
 surrounding woods. 
 
186 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Then came a sudden hush — a silence deep, as if all 
 Nature had made a pause — the prophetic calm before the 
 bursting- stbrm. During this brief interval, the betting was 
 going on and the stakes being put up; the articles bet were 
 all placed promiscuously in one place, often forming a vast 
 conglomeration of things too numerous to mention, and the 
 winning side took the pile. This being completed, the play- 
 ers took their places, each furnished with two kapucha (ball- 
 sticks), three feet long, and made of tough hickory wood 
 thoroughly seasoned. At one end of each ka-puch-a a very 
 ingenious device, in shape and size, very similar to that of 
 the hand half closed, was constructed of sinews of wild 
 animals, in which they caught and threw the ball. ' It was 
 truly astonishing with what ease and certainty they would 
 catch the flying ball in the cups of the sticks and the amaz- 
 ing distance and accuracy they would hurl it through the 
 air. In taking their places at the opening of the play, ten or 
 twenty, according to the number of players engaged, of each 
 side were stationed at each pole. To illustrate, I will say, 
 ten of the A. party and ten of the B partj^ were placed at pole 
 C; and ten of the B. party and ten of the A. party at pole D. 
 The ten of the B party who were stationed at the pole C. 
 were called Fa-lo-mo-li-chi (Throw-backs); and the ten of the 
 A. party also stationed at pole C. were called Hat-tak fa-bus- 
 sa (Pole men), and the ten of the A. party stationed at the 
 pole D. were called Fala molichi, and the ten of the B. party 
 stationed at the pole D., Hattak fab.ussa. The business 
 of the Falamolichi at each pole was to prevent, if 
 possible, the ball thrown by the opposite party, from strik- 
 ing the pole C; and throw it back towards the pole D. to 
 their own party; while that of the Hattak fabussa at pole C. 
 was to prevent this, catch the ball thetnselves, if possible, 
 and hurl it against the pole C, and the business of the Fala- 
 molichi and Hattak fabussa at the pole D. was the same as 
 that at the pole C. In the centre, between the two poles, 
 were also stationed the same number of each party as were 
 statidned at the poles, called Middle Men, with whom was a 
 chief "Medicine man," whose business was to throw the ball 
 straight up into the air, as the signal fpr the play to com- 
 mence. The remaining players were scattered promiscu- 
 ously along the line between the poles and ov«r different por- 
 tions of the play-ground. 
 
 All things being ready, the ball suddenly shot up into 
 the air from the vigorous arm of the Medicine Man, and the 
 wash-o-ha (playing) began. The moment the ball was seen 
 in the air, the players of both sides, except the Falamolichi 
 and Hattak fabussa, who rcmaino<l at their posts, rushed to 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 187 
 
 the spot, where the ball would likely fall, with a fearful shock. 
 Now 'began to be exhibited a scene of wild grandeur that 
 beggared all description. As there were no rules and regu- 
 lations governing the manner of playing nor any act con- 
 sidered unfair, each of course, acted under the , impulse of 
 the moment regardless of consequences. 
 
 They threw down and ran over each other in the wild 
 excitement and reckless chase after the ball, stopping not 
 nor heeding the broken limbs and bruised beads or even, 
 broken neck of a fallen player. Like a herd of stampeded 
 buffaloes upon the western plains, they ran against and over 
 each other, or any thing else, man or beast, that stood in 
 their way; and thus in wild confusion and crazed excitement 
 they scrambled and (tumbled, each player straining every- 
 nerve and muscle to its utmost tension, to get the ball or 
 prevent his opponent, who held it firmly g'rasped between 
 the cups of his trusty kapucha, from making a successful 
 throw; while up and down the lines the shouts of the players. 
 — "Falamochi! Falamochil" (Throw it backl Throw it 
 back) as others shouted Hoklil Hoklio! (Catch I Catch I) The 
 object of each party was to throw the ball against the two 
 upright pieces of timber that stood in the direction of ■ the 
 village to which it belonged; and, as it came whizzing through 
 the air, with the velocity comparatively of a bullet shot from 
 a gun, a player running at an angle to intercept the flying 
 Ijall, and when near enough, would spring several feet' into- 
 the air and catch it in the hands of his sticks, but ere he 
 could throw it, though running at full speed, ah. 6pponent 
 would hurl him to the ground, with a force seemingly / suffi- 
 cient to break every bone in his body-^and even to destroy 
 life, and as No. 2 would wrest the ball from the fallen No. 1 
 and throw it, ere it had flown fiftyfeet, No. 3 would catch it 
 with his unerring kapucha, and not seeing, perhaps an op- 
 portunity of making an advantageous throw, would start off 
 with the speed of a deer, still holding the ball in the cups of 
 his kapucha— pursued by every player. 
 
 Again was presented to the spectators another of those 
 exciting scenes, that seldom fall to the lot of one short life- 
 time to behold, which language fails to depict, or imagination 
 to conceive. He now rupso'ff, perhaps, at an acute angle 
 with that of the line of the poles, with seemingly super-hu- 
 man speed; now and then elevating above hisi headv his ka- 
 pucha in which safelv rests the ball, and'in defiant exultation ■ 
 shouts,-"hump-hel hump-he!" (I dare you) which was ack- 
 nowledged by his own party with a wild.response of approval, 
 but responded to by a bold cry of defiance from the opposite 
 side Then again all is hushed and the breathless silen,ce is 
 
188 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 only disturbed by the heavy thud of their runningfeet. For 
 a short time he continues his straight course, as if to test 
 the speed of his pursuing- opponents; then begfins to tircle 
 toward his pole. Instantly comprehending- his object, his 
 running friends circle with him, 'with eyes fixed upon him, 
 to secure all advantages givento them by any stragetic throw 
 he may make for them, while his opponents are mingled 
 among them to defeat his object; again he runs in a straight 
 ■ line; then dodges this way and that; suddenly he hears the 
 c^-y from some one of his party in the rear of the parallel 
 running throng, who sees an advantage to be gained if the 
 ball was thrown tg him, "Falamolichi"! "Falamolichi"! He 
 now turns and dashes back on the line and in response to the 
 continued crv — "Falamolichi"! he hurls the ball with all his 
 strength; with fearful velocity it flies through the air and 
 falls near the caller; and in the confusion made by the sud- 
 denly turning throng, he picks it up at full speed with his 
 kapucha, anc] starts toward his pole. Th.en is heard the cry 
 yof his hattak fabussa, and he hurls the ball toward them and, 
 ( as it falls, they and the throw-backs stationed at that pole, 
 rush to secure it; and then again, though on a smaller scale, 
 a scene of wild confusion was seen — scuffling-, pulling, push- 
 ing, butting — unsurpassed in any game ever engaged in by 
 man. Perhaps, a throw-back secures the ball and starts 
 upon the wing, in the direction of his pole, meeting the ad- 
 vancing thi-ong, but with his own throw-backs and the pole- 
 men of his opponents at his heels; the latter to prevent^him 
 from making a successful throw and the former to prevent 
 any interference, while the shouts of "Falamolichi!"" "Fala- 
 molichi!" arose from his own men in the advancing runners. 
 Again the ball flies through the air, and is about to fall di- 
 rectly among them, but ore it reaches the ground many 
 spring into the air to catch it, but are tripped and they fall 
 headlong to the earth. Then, as the ball reaches the ground 
 again is brought into full requisition the propensities of each 
 one to butt, pull, and push, though not a sound is heard, ex- 
 cept the wild rattling of the kapucha, that reminded one of 
 the noise n^ade by the collision of the horns of a drove of 
 stampeding Texas steers. Oft amid the play women were 
 seen giving water to the thirsty and offering words of encour- 
 agement; Nvhile others, armed with long switches stood read v 
 to give their expressions of encouragement to the supposed 
 tardy, by a severe rap over the naked shoulders, as a gentle 
 reminder of their dereliction of duty; all of which was re- 
 ceived in good faith, yet invariably elicited the response 
 — "Wah!" as an acknowldgement of the favor. 
 
 From ten to twenty was generally the game. Whenever 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' 189 
 
 \ - 
 
 the ball was thrown against the ^upright ftabussa (poles), it 
 counted one, and the successful thrower shouted; '.'Illi tok," 
 (dead) meaning one number less; oft accompaning the shout 
 by gobbing vociferously like the wild tur key ^ which elicited a 
 shout of laughter from his party, and a yell of defiance from 
 the other. Thus the exciting, and truly wild and romantic 
 scene was continued, \wth unbated efforts on the part of J;he 
 players until the game was won. But woe to the inconsider- 
 ate white man, whose thoughtless curiosity had led him too 
 far upon the hetoka. (ball ground) and at whose feet the ball 
 should chance to fall; if the path to that ball was not clear 
 of all obstructions, the 200 players; now approaching 
 with the rush of a niighty whirlwind would soon make it so. 
 And right then and there, thpugh it might be the first time in 
 life, he became a really active man, if the desire of immediate 
 safety could be any inducement, cheerfully inaugurating pro- 
 ceedings by turning a few double somersets, regardless as 
 tp the scientific manner he executed them, or the laugh of 
 ridicule that might be offered at his expense; and if he 
 escaped only with a broken limb or two, and a first-class 
 scare, he might justly consider himself most fortunate. But 
 the Choctaws have long since lost that interest in the ball- 
 play that they formerly cherished in their old homes east of 
 the Mississippi River. 'Tis true, now and then, even at the 
 present day, they indulge in the time honored game, but the 
 game of the preset day is a Lillipution — a veritable pygmy- 
 in comparison with. the grand old game of three quarters of 
 a century ago; nor will it be many years ere it will be said of 
 the Choctaw tohli, as of anbieiat Troy^'-Ilium fuit." 
 
 To any one of the present day, an aneient Choctaw ball- 
 play would be an exhibition far more interesting, strange, 
 wild and romantic, in all its features, than anything ever ex- 
 hibited in a circus from first to last — excelling it in every 
 particular of daring feats and wild recklessness. In the 
 ancient ball-play, the activity, fleetness, strength and endur- 
 ance of the Misisissippi Choctaw warrior and hunter, were 
 more fully exemplified than anywhere else; for there he 
 brought into the most severe action every power of soul and 
 body. In those ancient ball-plays, I have known villages to 
 lose all their earthly possessions upon the issue of a single 
 play. Yet, they bore their misfortune with becoming grace 
 and philosophic indifference and appeared as gay and cheer- 
 ful as if nothing of importance had occurred. The educa- 
 tion of the ancient Choctaw warrior and hunter consisted 
 mainly in the frequency of these -muscular exercises which 
 enabled him to endure hunger, thirst and fatigue; hence 
 they often indulged in protracted fastings, frequent foot- 
 
190 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 races, trials of bodily strength, introductions to the war- 
 path, the chase and their favorite Tolih. 
 
 They also induced in another g'ame in which they took 
 great delight, called Ulth Chuppih, in which but two players 
 could engage at the same time; but upon the result of which, 
 as in the Tolih, they frequently bet their little all. An alley, 
 with a hardjsmooth surface and about two hundred feet long, 
 Tvas made upon the ground. The two players took a posi- 
 tion at the upper end at which they were to commence the 
 game, each having in his hand a smooth, tapering pole eight 
 or ten feet long flattened at the ends. A smooth I'ound stone 
 of several inches in circumference was then brought into 
 the arena; as soon as both were ready, No. 1 took the stone 
 and rolled it with all his strength dowrt the narrow inclined 
 plane of the smooth alley; and after which both instantly 
 started with their utmost speed. Soon No. 2, threw his pole 
 at the rolling stone; instantly No. 1, thr«w his at the flying 
 pole of No. 2, aiming to hit it, and, by so doing, change its 
 course fi-ora the rolling s^one. If No. 2 hits the stone, he 
 counts one; but if No. 1 prevents it by hitting the pole of 
 No, 2, he then counts one; and he, who hits his object the 
 greater number of times in, eleven rollings of the stone, was 
 the winner. It was a more difficult matter to hit either the 
 narrow edge of the rolling stone, or the flying pole, than 
 would be at first imagined. However, the ancient Chahtah 
 Ulte Chupih may come in at least as a w6rthy competitor with 
 the pale-face Ten-pin-alley, for the disputed right of being 
 the more dignified amusement. 
 
 Judge Julius Folsom of Atoka, Indian Territory, inform- 
 ed me that a friend of his, Isaac WcClure, found an Ultli 
 Chnx)pih ball in a. mound near Skullyville, Choctaw Nation, 
 Indian 'territory, and not knowing \Vhat it was, brought it to 
 him lor information. This proves that the Indians who 
 occupied the territory prior to the Choctaws also indulged in 
 the game of Ulth Chuppih. 
 
 The following was furnished me by my learned friend 
 II. S. Halbert, of Mississippi, a genuine philanthropist and 
 true friend to the North American Indian race: 
 
 "The Great Ball Play and Fight on Noxubee" (a (tor- 
 ruption of the Choctaw word Nakshobih, a peculiarly offen- 
 sive odor), between the Creeks and Choctaws. 
 
 "In the fall of 1836, there died In the southern part of 
 Noxubee county an aged Indian warrior named Stonie Hadjo. 
 This old Indian had resided in the county for years and was 
 very popular with the pioneers, who regarded him as an up- 
 right and truthful man. He was a Creek by birth, a Choc- 
 taw by adoption. This old warrior would often tell of a 
 
mSXO&Y OF THE INDIANS 191 
 
 ^reat ball play and fight which occurred between the Creeks 
 and Choctaws in Noxubee county. This event, from date 
 given by him, must have occurred about the year 1790. 
 
 "On Noxuljee river there was anciently a large beaver 
 pond, about which the Creeks and CJhoctaws had a violent 
 dispute. The Creeks claimed it by priority of discovery, 
 -while the Choctaws asserted their right to it because it lay 
 in their own territory. As the fur trade at Mobile and Pen- 
 sacola, (corruption of the Choctaw words puska okla, bread 
 people, then small places, but the main points of trade for 
 the southern Indians) was lucrative, each party was loath to 
 renounce the right to the beavers. The two Nations finally 
 agreed to settle the inatter by a balji-play. A given number 
 of the best players were accordingly selected from each 
 Nation, who were to decide, by ■ the result of the game, to 
 which Nation, the exclusive i"ight to the beaver pond should 
 belong. Grea;t preparaliojts were made by each party for 
 this important event. They commenced preparing on the 
 new moon and it took them two whole moons and until the 
 full of the third to complete preparations. Great quantities 
 of provisions had to be procured, and the ball players had to 
 subject themselves meanwhile, to the usual requirement of 
 practice, the athletic exercises customary on such occa- 
 sions. 
 
 , "Finally the day came, and Stonie Hadjd said that there 
 were ten thouwand Indians, Creeks , and Choctaws, camped 
 around the ball ground on Noxubee river. The Creek Chief 
 who held the highest command, after seeing his people 
 propei-lj'' encamped left to pay a visit of ceremony to gjreat 
 ChiSf of the Choctaws, who lived at some distantance. Stonie 
 Had jo give the names of thpse two chiefs, but tliese names 
 cannot now be recalled." (If I mistake not, the Choctaw 
 Chief was Himakubih, now to kill). "Every thing being now 
 ready the play commenced, and it was admitted on all sides 
 to have been the closest and most evenly matched game ever 
 witnessed by either nation. Fortune vascillated from Creek 
 to Choctaws and then fi'om Choctaw to Crefek. At last, it 
 was a tied game, both parties standing even. One more 
 game remained to be played which would decide the contest. 
 Then occurred a long and terrible struggle lasting for four 
 hours. , Every Creek and every Choctaw strained himself to 
 his utmost bent. Finally 'after prodigious feats of stren^h 
 and agility displayed on both sides, fortune at last declared in 
 favor of the Creeks. The victors immediately began to 
 shout arid, singl Tl^e' Choctaws were greatly humiliated. 
 At length a high spirited Choctaw, player, unable longer to 
 -endure the exultant shouts of the victorious party, made an 
 
192 HISTORY OF TfHE INDIANS. 
 
 nsulting remark to a Creek player. (Who, in retaliation, 
 Choctaws state, threw a petticoat on the Choctaw — the 
 the greatest insult that can be offered to an Indian). The 
 latter resented it, and the two instantly clutched each other 
 in deadly combat. The contagion spread, and a general fight 
 with sticks, knives, guns, tomahawks and bows and arrows, 
 began among\ the ball players. Then warriors from each 
 tribe commenced joining in the fight until all were engaged 
 in bloody strife. 
 
 "The fight continued from an hour by the sun in the 
 evening with but little intermission during the night, until 
 two hours by the suh the next morning. At this juncture 
 the great chiefs of th^ Creeks and the Choctaws arrived upon 
 the ground and at once put a stop to the combat, runners 
 having been dispatched at the beginning of the fight to these 
 two leaders to inform them of the affair. The combatants 
 upon desisting from the fight, spent the remainder of the 
 day in taking care of the wounded; the women watching over 
 the dead. The next day the dead were buried; their money, 
 silver ornaments, and other articles of value being deposited 
 with them in their graves. The third day a council convened. 
 The Creek and the Choctaw chiefs made "talks" expressing 
 their regrets that their people should have given way to 
 such a wild storm of passion resulting in the death of so 
 many brave warriors. , There was no war or cause for war 
 between the two Nations and they counciled that all forget 
 the unhappy strife, njake peace and be friends as before. 
 This advice was heeded. The pipe ©f peace was smoked, 
 all shook hands and departed to their homes. 
 
 "Stonie Hadjo stated that five hundred warriors were 
 killed outright in this ijght and that a great many of the 
 wounded afterward died. The Creeks and Choctaws had had 
 several wars with each other, had fought many bloody bat- 
 tles, but that no battle was so disastrous as this fight at the 
 ball ground. For many long, years the Creeks and Choc- 
 taws looked back to this event with emotions of terror and 
 sorrow. For here, their picked men, their ball players, 
 who were the flower of the two Nations, almost to a man 
 perished. Scarcely was there a Creek or Choctaw family, 
 but had to mourn the death of some kinsman slain. For 
 several years the Creeks made annual pilgrimages to this 
 ball ground to weep over the graves of their dead. The 
 Choctaws kept up this Indian custom much longer. Even 
 down to the time of their emigration in 1832 they had not 
 ceased to make similar lamentations. 
 
 "After the fight, by tacit consent; the beaver pond was 
 left in the undisputed possession of the Choctaws; but it is 
 
HJSTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' 193 
 
 said that soon afterwards, the beaver Entirely abandoned the 
 pond. According to Indian superstition, their departure 
 was supposed to have some connection with the unfortunate 
 fight. 
 
 "In 1832, a man named Charles Dobbs settled on this ball 
 and battle ground. Stonie Hadjo, who was then living in 
 the vicinity pointed out to him many of the graves, where- 
 in money and other valuables were buried. Dobbs dug 
 down and recovered about five hundred dollars in silver, and 
 about t\Vo hundred and fifty j dollars' worth of silver orna- 
 ments. , 
 
 "This ground is situated on the eastern banks of Noxu- 
 bee river, about five miles west of Cooksville and about, two 
 hundred yards north of where Shuqualak(corruption of Shoh- 
 - pakalih,Sparkling,) creek empties into Noxubee. The beaver 
 pond, now drained and in cultivation, is situated on the 
 western bank>of Noxubee, about half a mile north of the 
 ball-ground. 
 
 Frequently disputes between the ancient Choctaws and 
 Muscogees arose as a result of a ball-play, but which too 
 frequently terminated in a fearful fight, followed by a pro- 
 tracted war. My friend, H. S.' Halbert, informed me by 
 letter, of another, which was told to him by an aged Choctaw 
 who remained in Missisippi with others at the time of the 
 Choctaw exodus in 1832. Is is as follows: 
 
 "The war in 1800 between the Choctaws and Creeks had 
 its origin in a dispute about the territory between the Tom- 
 bigbee and Black Warrior rivers, which both Nations claim- 
 ed. It wa^ finally agreed to settle the matter by a ball-play. 
 The play occurred on the west bank of the Black Warrior, a 
 mile below Tuscaloosa. The Creek chief was named Tus- 
 keegee, the Choctaw,. Luee, (corruption of La wih,- being 
 equal). Both parties claimed the victory. A violent dispute 
 arose which resulted in a call to arms followed by a furious 
 battle in which many were killed and wounded on both sides, 
 but the Choctaws were victorious. This occurred in the 
 spring. The Choctaws after the fight withdrew to their 
 homes. The Creeks, stung by defeat, invaded the Choctaw 
 Nation in the ensuing fall under Tuskeegee and fought the 
 second battle in the now Noxubee courjty, in which the 
 Creeks were victorious. Luee again commanded the Choc- 
 taws." But the Choctaws being reinforced, another battle 
 was soon after fought in which the Choctaws under Himar- 
 kubih, were victorious and drove the Creeks out of their 
 country. I have been told that previous to our civil war the 
 trees still showed signs of the ancient conflict. 
 
 The Choctaws, at the time of their earliest acquaintance 
 
194 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 with the European races, possessed, in conjunction with all 
 their race of the North American Continent, a vag-ue, but to 
 a great extent, correct knowledge of tlie Oka Falama, "The 
 returning waters," as they termed it — The Flood. 
 
 The Rev. Cyrus Byingfton related' a little incident, as one 
 out of many interesting- and pleasing- ones that frequently 
 occurred when traveling- through their country from one 
 point to another in the discharge of his ministerial duties, 
 over seventy years ago. At one time he found night fast 
 approaching without any visible prospect of finding a place 
 of shelter for the night, safe from the denizens of the wilder- 
 ness through which bis devious path was leading him. Then 
 and there roads were unknown and paths alone led the trav- 
 eler from place to place. Soon, however, he discovered an 
 humble cabin a few hundred yards distant, directly to which 
 the little path was leading him, and which he readily recog- 
 nized as the home of a Choctaw hunter. Several little chil- 
 dren were engaged in their juvenile sp®rts near the house, 
 who, upon seeing the white stranger approaching, made a 
 precipitate retreat into the house. The mother hastened to 
 the door to learn the cause of the alarm — saw, gazed a 
 moment, and then as suddenly disappeared. As Mr. Bying- 
 ton rode up, he observed an Indian man sitting before the 
 door, whose appearance betokened his experience in the vi- 
 cissitudes of life to have reached four score years or more, 
 who cheerfully extended the hospitality of his humble home 
 to the solitary and wayworn stranger. 
 
 But nothing strange in this, for who ever heard of an 
 American Indian refusing the hospitality of his cabin, how- 
 ever so humble, to a passing stranger? Soon Mr, Byington 
 \yas also seated before the cabin door near the aged Choctaw, 
 and very naturally took a survey of the surroundings. It was 
 a cloudless eve in May, 1825. The calm beautiful day was 
 just drawing to a close and the slanting sunbeam fell in a 
 dreamy sort of indolent beauty upon the delicate shrubbery 
 beneath the majestic trees that towered above in stately 
 grandeur gangling with their branches lin a careless radiance 
 and throwing upon them such gorgeous tints, as they alone 
 can bestow at the last moment of their departing glory. Far 
 away before the admiring gaze of the humble" missionary, 
 stretched a gently undulating plain which seemed to extend 
 beyond the sunbeams into the gray twilight of the distant 
 east. Her6 and there dense masses of foliage on the north, 
 south and w^est, deepening and darkening into increasing 
 depths of shade, blended so imperceptibly with the out- 
 stretching shadows which they cast, that it was difticult to 
 tell where the reality cca:sk.'<l and the sliadow began. Viirious 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 195 
 
 Icinds of birds were now flocking' from the open plain into 
 the recesses of the dark foliage of the surrounding trees, 
 and, with noisy twitterings seemed disputing for the occu- 
 pancy of their favorite roosting place upon some selected 
 twig; lovely flowers of varieg^ated hue filled the air with 
 sweetest perfume, rendering it a luxury to breathe; while 
 here and there little groups of ■ cattle and horses lazily crop- 
 ped the new and tender grass or idly lay upon its soft carpet, 
 which now covered the ground with living green. The aged 
 warrior, true to his nature, had sought his cabin door that, 
 undisturbed, he might look upon the scene that, stretched in 
 a wild panorama of beauty before his appreciative and admir- 
 ing'gaze. Romantic and lovely indeed were all the surround- 
 ings of that forest home, so truly characteristic of the Indian 
 in the selection of his abode. The old warrior and hunter, ' 
 ere his meditations were disturbed by the coming stranger, 
 was, no doubt, silently and attentively listening to the voice 
 of memory calling him from afar oif, back to^ the sunny days 
 of early youth, while his ears caught other, cadences that 
 whispered of man-hood's strength, when, untrammeled 
 by the weight of years, he roamed o'er his native land, 
 and, with eagle-eye and nimble-foot, pursued his game, 
 or, with ste^althy step, followed' the war-path in its dubious 
 windings through the distant country of his foes. But to 
 the cultivated mind of the man of God, who now sat by his 
 side and also viewed the glories of the scene, hovs' different 
 the emotions awakened I His thoughts arose from Nature's 
 beauties to the sublimities and glories of Nature's God. For 
 it was the place and hour to enter. Nature's sacred temple 
 and there commune with her in her own mystic language; 
 to see the beautiful where others see it not; to hear anthems 
 that whisper to man of hope and joy in the diapason of the 
 gentle zepyrs, making the appreciative heart thankful, to be 
 ■alive; while pitying the dweller^ in crov^ded cities who never 
 see or enjby aught like this. 
 
 After an exchange of a few words, and the aged man 
 had learned who his guest was, for he had heard of the good 
 missionaries, mutual confidence was at once established be- 
 tween the two; especially as the stranger was conversant, to 
 some extent, in his native Choctaw tongue. During the con- 
 versation of the evening, the good missionary, true to his 
 trust, narrated to his aged host the story of the Cross, with 
 all its interesting bearings, and in conclusion set forth, vvith 
 much eloquence, the importance and necessity of his host's 
 immediate attention to the things that appertained to his in- 
 terests beyond the sphere of time; to all of which the old 
 man listened in profound silencCj and with the deepest inter- 
 
196 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 est and attention; then rising- from his 'seat and taking Mr. 
 Byington by the hand and leading him to the corner of the 
 little cabin where the setting sun could be seen in full view, 
 he pointed to it and said: "Your talk is, no doubt, true and 
 good, but it is strange and dark to mi. See yonder is the 
 sun of my life; it but lingers upon the western sky. It is- 
 now too late for me to follow your new and strange words. 
 Let me continue in the path I long have walked, and in which 
 my fathers before me trod; the Great Spirit tells me, it will 
 lead me to the happy hunting grounds of the Indian, and that 
 is sufficient for me." And who can say it was not? With 
 unshaken faith he believed the Great Spirit would take him 
 at the hour of death to the happy hunting ground — the heav- 
 en of the Indian, the only one of which he had ever heard. 
 Then pointing to his children and grand-children, he contin- 
 ued: "Tell your new talk to them and to my young people. 
 They have time to consider it. If it is a better way to the 
 happy hunting grounds than the Indian's, teach them to 
 walk in it, but persuade me not to now forsake my long 
 known path, for one unknown and so strange to me." Mr. 
 Byington, deeply interested in his aged friend, related, in 
 connection with other Bible truths, the account of the flood. 
 Instantly the old veteran's countenance brightened up, and 
 with a smile of self-confidence said: "You no longer talk 
 mysteries. I know now of what you speak. My father told 
 me when a boy of the Oka Falama." Mr. Byington then 
 asked him, if he knew how long since it occurred. The old 
 veteran, with an air of injured innocence, by the doubt ex- 
 pressed in the question of his veracity for truth, stooping, 
 filled both hands with sand, then, with an expression of tri- 
 umphal confidence, said: "As many seasons of snow ago, 
 as I hold grains qf sand in my hand . " 
 
 During the fall of 1887, I was boarding at a Choctaw 
 friend's in the territory, a man of noble characteristics, and 
 one day related to him the above incident. I was struck with, 
 his remark. As I closed, he said in a slow and mournfill 
 tone of voice; "Ever thinking of the good of their people, — 
 the young and rising generations coming after 'them." I 
 asked a more explicit explanation. He replied; "The aged' 
 men of my people always expressed more concern for the 
 welfare of the young than they did for themselves. Tint 
 old Choctaw, of whom you have just spoken, seemed to re- 
 alize that it was too late for him to be benefitted by the teach- 
 ings of the good white man, but still was anxious for him to 
 do all the good he could for the young and rising generation of 
 his Nation. Why is the Indian so traduced by the white 
 man? Has my race no redeeming traits?" Shame for my 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 197 
 
 ' • ' ■ ^ 
 
 ■own race hushed me \o silence, and I made, no reply, as he 
 arose and quietly left my room-«-and me to my unpleasant 
 reflections. 
 
 The Choctaw hunter was famous as a strategist when 
 hunting alone in the woods; and was such an expert in the 
 art of exactly imitating the cries of the various animals of 
 the forests, that he would deceive the ear of the most expe- 
 rienced. They made a very ingeniously constructed instru- 
 ment fpr calling deer to them, in the use of which they, were 
 ■very expert; and in connection with this,, they used a decoy 
 made by cutting the skin clear round the neck, about ten 
 inches from the head of a slain buck having huge horns, and 
 then stuffing the skin in one entire section up to the head 
 :and cut;ting off the neck where it joins the head. The skin, 
 thus made hollow from the head back, is kept in its natural ' 
 position by inserting upright sticks; the skin is ' then pulled 
 upwards from the nose to the horns and all the flesh and 
 brains removed; then the skin is repuUed to its natural place 
 and laid away to dry. In a year it has become dry; hard and 
 inoffensive, and fit for use. All the upright sticks are then 
 taken out extept the one next to the head, which is left as a 
 hand-hold. Thus the hunter, with his deer-caller and head 
 decoy, easily enticed his game within the range of his deadly 
 rifle; for, secreting himself in the woods, he commen'^ed to 
 imitate the bleating of a deer; if within hearing distance, one 
 soon responds; but, perhaps, catching the scent of the 
 hunter, stbps and begins to look around. The hunter now 
 inserts his arm into the cavity of ithe decoy and taking hold 
 of the upright stick within, easily held it uj) to view, and'~at- 
 tracted the attention of the doubting deer by rubbing it 
 against the bushes or a tree; seeing which, the then no 
 longer suspicious deer advanced, and only leairned its mis- 
 take by the sharp crack of the rifle and the deadly bullet. 
 
 The antlers of some of the bucks grew to a wonderful 
 
 size, which were shed off every FebruEtry; or rather pushed 
 
 off by the forthcoming ijew horns, a siingularly strange 
 
 freak of nature, yet no less true. There was also, a strange 
 
 and ancient tradition among the Choctaw and Chickasaw 
 
 hunters, before their exodus to their present place of abode, 
 
 that, as soon the horns dropped off, the buck at once pawed a 
 
 hole in the ground with hi^ feet (it being always soft diiring 
 
 ' the season of shedding, from the frequent rains) into which 
 
 he pushed the fallen horns and carefully covered them up. 
 
 ■ This may seem fabulous, yet there are good grounds upon 
 
 which to establish, at least a probability, if not its truth. I 
 
 / have heard of white hunters who had been attracted by the 
 
 appearance of something being freshly covered up, with the 
 
198 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 tracks of deer alone at and around the spot, and, upon dig- 
 ging- down, have found the horns of a deer. In many hunts 
 in the forest of Mississippi, during many years, where the 
 deer almost filled the woods, I have never seen a deer horn 
 except those attached to a skull — left in the woods by the 
 hunter, or those of a buck that had died a natural death. 
 The forests were burnt oif the latter part of every March, 
 and thus the ground, was entirely naked and a deer's horn, if 
 above ground, could have been seen a hundred yards distant,, 
 but they were not seen. The fires of the forest were not hot 
 enough to burn them. Now what became of them if not 
 buried by the bucks, as hundreds were shed yearly? 
 
 The Choctaw warrior was equally as expert in deceiving 
 ^is enemy as he was in that of the wild denizens of his native 
 forests. When upon the war-path the Choctaws always 
 went in small bands, which was the universal custom of their 
 entire race, traveling one behind the other in a straight line;, 
 and, if in the enemy's territory each one stepped exactly in 
 the tracks of the one who walked before him, while the one 
 in the extreme rear defaced, as, much as possible, their 
 tracks, that no evidence of their number, or whereabouts 
 might be made known to the enemy. In these war excur- 
 sions, the most profound silence was obs'erved; their com- 
 munications being carried on by preconcerted and well un- 
 derstood signs made by the hand or head; if necessary to- 
 be audible, then by a low imitative cry of some particular 
 wild animal. 
 
 The dignity of chieftainship was bestowed upon him 
 who had proved himself worthy by his ^kill and daring deeds 
 in war;, and to preserve the valiant character of their chief, 
 it was considered a disgrace for him tq'be surpassed in dar- 
 ing deeds by any of his warriors; at the same time, it was 
 also regarded as dishonorable for the warriors to be sur- 
 passed by their chief. Tnus there were great motives for 
 both to perform desperate deeds of valor — which they did; 
 nor did they wait for opportunities for the display of hero- 
 ism, but sought perils and toils by which they might distin- 
 guish themselves. These war parties, gliding noiselessly 
 like spectres through the dense forests, painted in the most 
 fantastic manner conceivable, presented a wild and fearful 
 appearance, more calculated to strike terror to the heart of 
 t^e beholder than admiration. Though they advanced in sm^ll ' 
 bodies and detached parties, yet in their retreats they scat- 
 tered like frightened partridges, each for himself, but to 
 unite again at a pre-arranged place miles to the rear. No 
 ffiiudy display was ever made in their war excursions to 
 their enemy's country. They meant business, not display. 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIAllS. 199 
 
 depending' on the success of their expedition in their silent 
 and unexpected approach, patient watching, and artful strata 
 gems. To fight a pitched battle in an open field, giving- the 
 enemy an equal chance, was to the Choctaws the best evi- 
 dence of a want of military skill. But unlike most of their 
 race, they seldom invaded an enemy's territory from choice; 
 but woe to the enemy, who attributing this to. cowardice, 
 should have the presumption to invade their country; like 
 enraged bears robbed of their young, they would find the 
 Choctaw warriors, to a man, ready to repel them" with the most 
 desperate and fearless 'bravery ever exhibited by any race • 
 of men. Yet, to theift, no less than to th'e whites, strategy 
 was commendable, and to outwit an enemy and thus gain 
 an advantage over him, was evidence, of great and praise- 
 worthy skill. ' , 
 
 ■ Duels. — The duelist, according to the white man's code 
 of honor, was regarded by the Choctaws with utmost con- 
 tempt, the fool above all fools; and in this, manifesting much 
 better sense than the white man with all his boasted idea of 
 honor. That a man would stand up openly before his enemy 
 to be shot at with the opportunity of getting an open shot at 
 him, was a code of honor beyond their comprehension, a piece 
 of nonsense in the indulgence of which a Choctaw could not ^ 
 be guilty. . • 
 
 I did once hear, however, of a young Choctaw warrior ac- 
 cepting a chellenge from a white man in their nation east of 
 the Mississippi river. A white man, who had been living in 
 one of their villages for several months, taking offense at 
 something a young warrior had done, and well-knowing the 
 repugnance with which the Choctaws regarded the white 
 man's code of honor, thought it a proper time to impress 
 them with the belief that he was very brave, since he had but 
 .little to fear that he would be called upon to.put it to the test; 
 therefore, gave him a verbal challenge, in the presence of 
 many other Choctaw warriors, to fight him a duel accord- 
 ing to the white man's code; and to impress upon the 
 minds of the by-standers that where there was so much 
 bravery, there must be a proportional amount of honor, the 
 heroic challenger informed the young Choctaw that, as he 
 was the challenged party, the white man's code of honor 
 nobly awarded to him the choice of weapons, time and place. 
 To all ofwhrch the young Choctaw listened in meditative sil- 
 ence. All eyes were turned upon him expecting a negative 
 reply; none moro so than the "brave" pale-face. At that mo- 
 ment he sprang to his feet and with a nimble bound placed him- 
 self directly before the face, and within a few feet of his chal- 
 lenger, and, with his piercing eyes upon, said in broken 
 
200 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 English, "You say, me hab choice of weapon, time, and place, 
 too?" "Yes," responded the now dubious white brave; then 
 looking around upon all with a determined eye, to the aston- 
 ishment of all, the challenger by no means excepted, ex- 
 claimed in a calm tone of voice: "Pale-face, me fight you to- 
 marler wid rifle." Then turning to Oije of the by-standers 
 he said: "You take him" (pointing to -his challenger) "to- 
 marler, sun so high," (pointing to the east) one mile dis way, 
 put him behind tree, den you come back." Then turning to 
 another, continued: "You take me tcnmarler, sun same so 
 high" (again pointing to the east) "one' mile dis udder way, 
 put me behind tree, too, den you come ba'ck." Then turning 
 his penetrating bjack eyes fully upon the then astonished 
 "man of honor," and|1ookingi him straight in the eyes, said: 
 "Pale— face, you hunt me to-marler, and me hunt you to-mar- 
 ler; you see me first, den youshoot me first; me see you flrst, 
 den mp shoot you first." The pale-face warrior, quickly con- 
 cluding that prudence then and there was evidently the bet- 
 ter part of valor, wisely declined the honor with all the 
 prospective pleasure of the morrow's hunt; to Ihe great 
 amusement of the Chbctaws, who by their continued tantiliz- 
 ing, soon drove the would-be duellist from their territory. 
 
 Upon this subject, I here quote the following from the 
 pen of Rev.^srael Folsom, a Choctaw, with whom I was per- 
 sonally acquainted, east of the Mississippi river, and kindly 
 furnished me by his amiable daughter, Czarena, now Mrs. 
 Robb, a noble Christian lady living in Aitoka I. T. (from Ai- 
 a-tuk-ko, a protection or shield.) 
 
 "They had duels too; but they were quite different from 
 any that has been practiced by any of the Indians of the con- 
 tinent or the whites; and which most commonly proved fatal 
 to both parties. When a quarrel or difficulty occurred be- 
 tween two warriors, a challenge was sent by one to the other; 
 not to meet and take a pop at each other with pistols, as is 
 the case in civilized and refined Nations, but in reality, it was 
 a challenge for both to die. It was understood in no other 
 way; this was the mode of trying the man's bravery, for 
 they believe that a brave man, who possesses an honest and 
 sincere heart, would never be afraid to die: It was usual for 
 each one to select his own friend to dispatch him. If one 
 should back out from the challenge, they considered it as a 
 great mark of cowardice and dishonesty in him, and Tie would 
 be despised by his relations and friends, 'and by the whole 
 tribe. If a challenge was given and accepted, it was certain 
 to end in the death of both parties; this mode of deciding 
 difficulties had a strong tendency to restrain men from 
 quarreling and fighting among themselves, for fear of being 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 301 
 
 challengfed and consequenty compelled to die, or forever be 
 branded with dishonesty and cowardice, and afterwards live 
 a life of degradation and disgrace. Hence, it was «( common 
 saying among them, that a man should never quarrel, unless 
 he was willing to be challenged and to die. On one occasion 
 a sister seeing her brother about to back out from a chal- 
 stepped forward and boldly ofEered herself to die in his 
 stead, but her offer was not accepted, and she was so morti- 
 fied at her brother's want of i courage that she burst into 
 ■tears." 
 
 Thus they fought the duel: When one Choctaw chal- 
 lenged another the challenge was given verbally, face to face, 
 the time and place then and there designated. If accepted 
 (and it was almost, certain to be) the two went to the place 
 each with his second. The. two combatants then took their 
 places unarmed about twenty feet apart, each with a second 
 at his right side with a rifle in hand. At a given signal each 
 second shot the combatant standing before him. That 
 closed the scene. Each had proven himself a Tush-ka Siah; 
 (warrior I am) and that was satisfactory to all. 
 
 To have it said, "he died bravely," was the highest am- 
 hition of the Choctaw warrior, and thus/ it is even to the 
 present day. He regards death as merelfy a transmigration 
 to the happy hunting-gi'ound, to which many of his' friends 
 had already gone. His rifle, so long his boon companion and 
 trusty friend, together with his tomahawk, knife and tobacco, 
 he only required to be deposited in the grave by his side as 
 all the requisites necessary for him, when he arrived at the 
 land of abundant game to resume the sports of the chase; 
 frequently a little corn and venison were also placed in the 
 grave, by the hand of maternal fore-sight and love, that her 
 warrior boy might not hunger during his long journey. 
 
 There was a peculiar custom among the ancient Choc- 
 taws, prior to 1818, which, according to, tradition, was as 
 follows: For many years' after the marriage of her daughter, 
 the mother-in-law was forbidden to look upon her son-in-law. 
 Though they might converse together, they must be hidden 
 the one from the other by some kind of a screen, and when 
 nothing else offered, by covering her eye^. Thus the mother- 
 in-law was put to' infinite trouble and vexation least she 
 should make an infraction upon the strange custom; since, 
 when travelling or in camp often without tents, they were 
 necessarily afraid to raise theibr heads, or open their eyes 
 through fear of seeing the interdicted object. 
 
 Another peculiarity, which, however, they possessed in 
 common with other tribes, was, the Choctaw' wif^ never 
 called her husband by name. But ^ddr^ssed him as "my son 
 
202 raSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 or daughter's father;" or more commonly using- the child's 
 name, when if Shah-bi-chih, (meaning, to make empty, the 
 real name of a Choctaw whom I kno\^) for instance, she 
 she calls her husband "Shah-bi-chih's father." Another 
 oddity in regard to names was, the ancient Choctaw warriors 
 seemed to have a strange aversion to telling their own names, 
 and it was impossible to get it unless he had an acquaintance 
 present, whom he requested to tell it for him. 
 
 The Choctaw ya-yahs ; CiiiES Over the Dead. — Their 
 manifested sorrow and wailing over the graves of their dead 
 were affecting in the extreme — ^truly tfordering on the sub- 
 lime in their severe simplicity; and had the Indian character- 
 istics been rightly' understood, and the nature of their 
 lamentations justly comprehended by the whites, their an- 
 cient "Yayahs". might well have been compared to the com- 
 plaints of the mother of Euriauls, in the ^Enead: the same 
 passionate expressions of deep sorrow, and the same ex- 
 travagance of grief, whose affecting tones sank deep into the 
 inexperienced heart. For twelve months, at various inter- 
 vals, the wom^n repaired to the grave of the last deceased 
 relative or friend there to weep and express their unassum- 
 ed, heart-felt griefs to the memory of the dead, loved in life 
 and lamented in death, thus manifesting the tender sensi- 
 bility of the Indian female. And though those tender and 
 affecting exhibitions of affection may be regarded by the 
 arrogant whites as having their origin in ignorance, super- 
 stition and error, yet how hard that heart must be that par- 
 dons not the illusion that soothes the sufferings of a bereaved 
 soul. But that age in which superstition held her empire 
 undisputed in the Choctaw mind has long since past; and 
 that noble people, however seemingly low, or however op- 
 posed in their progress by conflicting and opposing circum- 
 stances, have years ago turned towards truth, land have long- 
 since attained that goal which reason has erected in their 
 breasts equ^ to that of the White Race. 
 
 The deep and unaffected grief of a Choctaw mother at 
 the death of a daughter, and that also of a father at the loss 
 of an only son in whom rested his fondest hopes, words are 
 inadequate to describe. With tearless eyes and solemn 
 countenance the bereaved father strolled about his little 
 premises, seemingly unconscious of all the surroundings, 
 vvhile the frequent outbursting of grief in the loud lamenta- 
 tions of the mother was truly a Rachel weeping for her child-' 
 ren. There never lived a race of people jnore affectionate 
 one to another than the Choctaws in their ancient homes. 
 They actually seemed as one great brotherhood— one loving, 
 trusting family; nor has there been gny material change 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 203 
 
 from that day to this. 'Tis true, they were subject to like 
 passions with all imperfect humanity, and in momentary fits, 
 of passion, excited by the white man's "Personal Liberty," 
 one sometimes killed another; but as soon as his drunken fit 
 had worn off and momentary anger cooled, he manifested 
 the deepest sorrow for the unfortunate affair; nor did he 
 ever try tb escape from the-^punishment attending the crime 
 — ^never; but calmly offered himself as a voluntary sacrifice 
 to the offended law. 
 
 They held spfecified cries for the dead, which to us of the 
 present day would appear strange and even bordering upon 
 the romantic, yet cotild not be witnessed without emotions 
 of sadness. After the death and burial, the time was set by 
 the near relations' of the deceased for the cry, and notice was 
 given to the neighboring villages for their attendance, to 
 which all gave a ready response. When assembled, as many 
 as could conveniently, would kneel in a close circle around the 
 grave, both men and women; then draWing their blankets 
 over their heads would commence a wailing cry in different 
 tones of voice, which, though evident to a sensitive ear that 
 the rules of harmony had been greatly overlooked, produced 
 a solemnity of feeling that was indescribable, to which al^o 
 the surroundings but added to the novelty of the scene: for 
 here and there, in detached little groups, were seated upon 
 the ground many others, who in solemn demeanor chatted 
 in a low tone of voice and smoked the indispensible pipe; 
 while innumerable children of all ages and sexes, engaged in 
 their juvenile sports and in thoughtless glee mingled their 
 happy voices with the sad dirge of their seniors; which ad- 
 ded to the barking of a hundred dogs intermingling with the 
 tinkling chimes of the little bells that were suspended upon 
 the necks of as many ponies, made a scene baffling all des- 
 cription. At different intervals, one, sometimes three or 
 four together, would arise from the circle of mourners, qui- 
 etly walk away and join some one of the many little groups 
 seated around, while the vacancy in the mourning circle was 
 immediately filled by otbers, who promptly came forward, 
 knelt, drew their blankets over their heads, and tookMip the 
 mournful strain;' and thus for several days and nights, the 
 wailing voices of the mourners, the gleeful shouts of thought- 
 less yet innocent and happy childhood; the howling and 
 barking of innumerable dogs, and the tinkling of the f>ony- 
 bells of every tone ima,ginable, in all of which dissonance was 
 a prominent feature, was heard for miles away thi'ough the 
 surrounding forests, eohoing a wild, discordant note, more 
 incomprehensible than the united voices of a thousand of the 
 different denizens of the wilderness, of which no one, who 
 
204 I HISTORY OF, THE INDIANS. 
 
 has not been an eye witness, can form even the most remote 
 conception. If alone in the silent gloom of the wilderness, 
 the boldest heart would quail, and the strongest nerve relax, 
 unless the course and meaning- were known and understood; 
 for he could but believe that all the lost spirits of the lower 
 ■world had left their dark and dismal abodes, ascended to 
 earth, and, in one mystic concert, brayed the fearful discord. 
 More than once have I witnessed the scene and heard the 
 wailing thereof. Oft, in the calmstill hours of a starry night, 
 have I heard the dubious tones of a distant Choctaw Indian 
 cry, and as the ^disconnected sounds, borne upon the night 
 breeze, floated by in undulating tones, now plainly audible, 
 then dying away in the distance, I must confess there was a 
 strange sadness awakened in my breast, unfelt and unknown 
 before or since. It must be heard to be comprehended. 
 "When the time for the cry had expired, the mourning was 
 exchanged for a previously prepared feast; after the enjoy- 
 'ments afforded in the participation of which, all joined in a 
 jolly dance; thus ha'ppily restoring the equilibrium so long 
 physically and mentally disturbed. Then each to his home 
 returned, while the name of the departed was recorded 
 among the archives of the past, — to be mentioned no more. 
 
 The relatives of the deceased, who lived at too great a 
 distance to conveniently to cry over the grave of the dead 
 set up a post a short distance from the house, around which 
 they gathered and cried alternately during a period of 
 twelve months. Such were some of the ancient characteris- 
 tics of this peculiar but interesting people of the long ago, 
 most of which, however, have long since been abandoned and 
 numbered with the things of yore. 
 
 The faces of the Choctaw and Chickasaw men of sixty 
 years ago were as smooth as a woman's, in fact they had no 
 ^beard. Sometimes there might be seen a few fine hairs (if 
 hairs they might be called) here and there upon the face, 
 but they were few and far between, ahd extracted with a 
 pair of small tweezers whenever discovered. Oft have I seen 
 a Choctaw warrior standing before a mirror seekng with 
 untiring perseverance and unwearied eye^, as he turned his 
 face at different angles to the glass, if by chance a hair could 
 be found lurking there, which, if discovered, was instantly 
 removed as an unwelcome intruder. Even to-day, a full- 
 blood Choctaw or Chickasaw with a heavy beard is never 
 seen. I have seen a few, here and there, with a little patch 
 of beard upon their chins, but it was thin and short, and 
 with good reasons to suspect that white blood flowed in their 
 veins. 
 
 It is a truth but little known among the whites, that the 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDBANS. 205 
 
 North American Indians of untarnished blood have no hair 
 upon any part of the body except the head. My knowledge 
 of this peculiarity was confined, however, to the Choctaws 
 and Chickasaws alone. But in conversation with an aged 
 Choctaw'' friend upon this subject, and inquiring if this 
 •peculiarity extended to all Indians, he replied; "To all, I 
 believe. I have been among- the Cpmanches, Kiowa's and 
 other western Indians, and have ofien seen them bathing, 
 men and women, promiscuously together, in the rivers of 
 V, their country, and found it was the same with them, their 
 heads alone were adorned with hair." 
 
 In conversation soon after with a Creek friend upon the 
 subject in regard to the full-blood Creeks, he said, "They have 
 no hair whatever upon the body, excfept that of the head, and 
 the same is the case with all full-bloods that I have seen of 
 other tribes." It is'also the testimony of all the early ex- 
 plorers of this continent. 
 
 In their ancient councils and great national assemblies, 
 the Choctaws 'always observed the utmost order and decorum, 
 which, however, is universally characteristic of the Indians 
 everywhere. In those grave and imposing deliberations of 
 years, ago convened at night, all sat on the ground in a circle 
 around a blazing fire called "The Council Fire." The aged, 
 who from decrepitude had long retired from the ' scenes of 
 active life, the war-path and the chase, formed the inner 
 circle; the middle aged warriors, the next; and the young 
 warriors, the outer circle. The women and children were 
 always excluded from all their national assemblies. The old 
 men, beginning with the oldest patriarch, would then in 
 regular succession state to the attentive audience all that had 
 been told them by their fathers, and what they themselves 
 had learned in the experience of an eventful life — the past 
 hifetory of their nation; their vicissitudes and changes; what 
 difficulties they had encountered, and how overcome; their 
 various successes in war and their defeats; the character and 
 kind of enemies whom they had defeated and b}^ whom they 
 had been defeated, the mighty deeds of their renowned 
 chiefs and famous warriors in days past, together with their 
 own achivements both in war and the chase; their nation's 
 days of prosperity and adversity; in short, all of their tradi- 
 tions and legends handed down to them through the suc- 
 cessive generations of ages past; and when those old seers 
 and patriarchs, oracles of the past, had in their turn gone to 
 dwell with their fathers in the Spirit Dand, and their voices 
 were no longer heard in w>jpe counsel, the next oldest 
 occupied the chairs of state, and in turn rehearsed to their 
 young braves the traditions of ' the past, as related to them 
 
•206 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. \ 
 
 "by the former sages of their tribe, together with their own 
 knowledge; and thus were handed down through a long line 
 of successive generations, and with much accuracy and 
 -truth, the events of their past history; and when we consider 
 the extent to which all Indians cultivated that one faculty, 
 memory, their connections in the history of the past is not 
 so astonishing* I will here relate a little incident (frequently 
 published) in the life of the famous Indian chief. Red Jacket, 
 as an evidence of strength and correctness of the Indian's 
 memory. It is said of Red Jacket, that he never forgot any- 
 thing he once learned. On a certain occasion, a dispute 
 arose in a council with his tribe and the whites, concerning 
 the stipulations made and agreed upon in 'a certain treaty. 
 "You have forgotten," said the agent, "we have it written on 
 paper." "The paper then tells a lie," replied Red Jacket. 
 "I have it written down here," he added, placing his hand 
 with great dignity on his brow. "This is the book.the Great 
 Spirit has given the Indian; it does not lie." A reference 
 was immediately made to the treaty in question, when, to the 
 astonishment of all present, the document confirmed every 
 word the unlettered warrior and statesman had utttered. 
 There can be little doubt but that a large majority of their 
 1 traditions are based upon truth;' though passing as they have 
 through so long a period of time, it is reasonable to suppose 
 that many errors have crept in. 
 
 But one has given his opinion, on page 92 of his "History 
 of the Indian Tribes of North America," in the following 
 positive and presumptuous assertion, though his apparent 
 ignorance of all the characteristics (well known to the thous- 
 ands of the White Race who tave lived among them and 
 studied them a long life-time) of the North American Indians 
 so plainly manifested throughout his entire work, entitles 
 his assumed learned opinion regarding the truth or untruth 
 Qf the traditions of the North American Indians, or anything 
 else concerning that people, to but little, if any, credit. He 
 boldly asserts, with a seemingly great indifference as re- 
 gards its truth, that "Nothing can be more uncertain, and 
 more unworthy, we will not say of credit, but of consid- 
 eration, than their (the Indians') earlier traditions; and 
 probably there is not a single fact in ail their history, sup- 
 ported by satisfactory evidence, which occurred half a cen- 
 tury previous to the establishment of the Europeans," 
 Though all admit that the voices of tradition coming from 
 all Nations— even from our own ancestors, the Britons— are 
 enshrouded, to a greater or less extent, in dense and dubious 
 fogs, and become more dim and distant as we go further 
 back into the past. Yet that does not necessarily bring even 
 
mSTORY OP THE INDIANS ,207. 
 
 the traditions of the North American Indians under his edict, 
 ^'Nothingf can be more uncertain, and more unworthy, we 
 Avill nt>t say of credit, but of consideration, than their tra- 
 ditions,"as here comes to our aid modern Oriental Discovery, 
 with records engraven on rocks and stamped 6n bricks — 
 records contemporary with the events, and in all cases inde- 
 pendent of the modern authority — since the, records have 
 been hidden from the eyes of both the believer and disbe- 
 liever. Inscriptions are disclosed, in languages how dead, 
 in characters long forgotten, and to which every key had 
 been apparently lost. Ancient cities and countries, Thebes, 
 Ninevah, Pompeii, Balbee, Babylon, Jerusalem and Egypt 
 rise to testify and confirm the credit of many of the tra- 
 ditons, fables and legends of the Old M^orld. Xnd so also, 
 from the buried past of the New World, hundreds of wit- 
 nesses have already been summoned, and are still being 
 summoned, that confipln the credit jof the traditions and 
 legends of the North American Indians, and to which they 
 pointed back through the long vista of ages past, ere the 
 Indians were known to the White Race, and give the merited 
 contradiction to ^the assertion th;at their traditions "merit 
 not even consideration." 
 
 An ancient Choctaw tradition attributes the origin of the 
 prairies along, the western banks of the Tombigbee River, to 
 some huge animals (mammoths) that existed there at the 
 advent of their ancestors from the west to Mississippi. 
 Their tradition also states that the NahuUo, (Supernatu:-al) 
 a race of giant people, also inhabited the same country, 
 with whom their forefathers oft came in hostile contact. 
 These mighty animals broke off the low limbX of the trees in 
 eating the leaves, and also gnawed the bark, off the trees, 
 which, in the course of time, caused them to wither and die; 
 that they roamed in different bands, which engaged in des- 
 perate battles whenever and wherever they met, and thus 
 caused them to rapidly decrease in numbers; and that, in the 
 course of years all had perished but two large males, who, 
 separate and alone, wandered about for several years — each 
 confining himself to the solitude of the forest many miles 
 from the other. Finally, in their wanderings they met, and 
 . at once engaged in terrible conflict in which one was killed. 
 The survivor, now monarch of the forests, strolled about for 
 a few years wrapt in the solitude of his own reflections and 
 independence — then died, and with him the race became 
 extinct. 
 
 That the Choctaw traditions of both the mammoth and 
 great men, was based on truth as to their former existence 
 in the southern and western parts of this continent is Satis- 
 
208 mSTPRY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 factorily established by the many mammoth skeletons of 
 both men and beasts and fragments of huge bones that have 
 been, and are continually being found in different parts of 
 the country, and all of whom, according to their tradition 
 were contemporary with the ancient fathers of the present 
 Indian race. It is well known that the ancient existence of 
 those giants and mammoth was wholly unknown to the 
 White Race, until the excavation of their bones proved their 
 former existence; yet were known to the Indians to have 
 existed and so declared; but which was regarded by the 
 whitesas only an Indian fable, unworth-y of belief or even a 
 second thought. A huge skeleton of one of those ancient 
 animals was found in March, 1877, four miles east of the 
 town of Greenville, Hunt county, Texas. I secured a frag- 
 ment of the skeleton, evidently a part of the femoral bone, 
 which measured twenty-one inches in circumference. A 
 tooth measured three inches in width, five inches in length 
 along the surface of the jaw bone and five inches in depth 
 into the jaw, and weighed the seemingly incredible weight 
 of eleven pounds. The teeth proved the monster herbifer- 
 ous, the anamel of which was in a perfect -state of preserva- 
 tion. The greater part of the frame crumbled to dust, as 
 soon as exposed to the action of the air. 
 
 Here then it had found a burial place, among others of 
 the prehistoric population of the various animals which held 
 possession of this continent before, perhaps, the advent of 
 man, rising up before us like some old granite dome, weather- 
 beaten and darkened by the lapse of a^es past. But death 
 came to it, as to its predecessors, who^e cemeteries time has 
 opened here and there, and revealed to the scrutiny of the 
 curious, the testimony of vanished ^ge. Many citizens of the 
 immediate neighborhood visited the place of disinterment, 
 and viewed the solitary grave and looked with wondering in- 
 terest upon this stranger of hoary antiquity arising from his 
 forest tomb where he has so long slept in silence, unknown 
 and unsung; whose history, as that of his mighty race, is 
 wrapt in the eternal silence of the unknown past. Yet, to 
 one who seeks to muse o'er the mysteries of the unwritten 
 long ago, this fossiljtells a story of the mystic flays of yore 
 and of the multiplied thousands of years since old Mother 
 Earth commenced to bear and then destroy her children. 
 
 Ah, could the records of the ages to \\ hioh they point be 
 restored, how many doubts and problems would be solved? 
 But they only tantalize us by their near approach and uddi- 
 minished' inscrutableness, while imagination shrinks from 
 the comtemplation of the intervening years between. Yet, 
 from those relics of the ages past, an ur\Jimited field for the 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIAilS. . 209 
 
 imagination is open to view, which many thinkers have 
 attempted to explore only to find themselves utterly lost. 
 
 "Hupimmi hattak tikba a mintih hushi aiokatula" (our 
 forefathers came from the west), declare the ancient Choc- 
 taws through their tradition, and "they saw the mighty 
 beasts of the forests, whosfe tread shook the earth; but our 
 forefathers' ancestry came from the northwest beyond the 
 the big water." 
 
 '"Tis but the tradition of the ignorant Indiad, — a foolish 
 fable," responded he of the pale-face, of boasted historical 
 attainments. When lol accident unearths the long hidden 
 monster of traditional record, and the truth of the rejected 
 declaration of the despised Indian is established, and 
 with equal truth establishing the fact that, mid ja.U 
 our boasted ancient pedipree, theirs is more ancient, and 
 perhaps more honorable, reaching back through the vista of 
 pre-historic times to the dim and hazy regions of ages past 
 and unknown. , / 
 
 Also of the tradition of the Ghoctaws which told of a race 
 of giants that once inhabited the now State of Tennessee, 
 5ind with whom their ancestors fought when they arrived in 
 Mississippi in their migration from the west, doubtless -Old, 
 Mexico. Their tradition states the Nahullo (race of giants) 
 was of wonderful stature; but, as their tradition of the mas- 
 todon, so this was also considered to be but a foolish 
 fable, the creature of a wild imagination, when lol their 
 exhumed bones again prrove the truth of the Ghoctaws' tradi- 
 tion. In the fall of 1880, Mr. William Beverly, an old gentle- 
 man 84 years of age living near Plano,jCol]in County, Texas, 
 and who was born in west Tennessee and there lived to man- 
 hood, stated to me that near his father's house on a small 
 creek were twenty-one mounds in consecutive order forming 
 a crescent, each distant from the other about fifty feet 
 and each with a base of seventy-five or eighty feet in. 
 diameter, and rising to an average height of forty feet;, that 
 he, when a boy twelve years of age, was present with his 
 father, when an excavation was made in one of the mounds in 
 which human bones of enormous size were found, the femoral 
 bones being five inches longer than the ordinary length, and 
 the jaw bones were so large as to slip over the face of a man 
 with ease. 'This statement was confirmed by Rev. Mr. 
 Rudolph of McKinney, Texas, and several others, all men of 
 undoubted veracity, which places the truth of the former 
 existence of the mounds, their excavations and results, as 
 well as the Choctaw tradition, beyond all dou-bt and even 
 controversy. ■ / 
 
 In regard to the race of giants that once occupied the 
 
210 HISTORV OF THK INDIANS. 
 
 now State of Tennessee and mentioned in the tradition of the 
 ancient Choctaws, Mr. H. S. Halbert, an esteemed friend, 
 says in a letter to me, January 22, 1878, "I will give you some 
 facts which modern researches have thrown upon the 
 ancient occupancy of this continent, on the Atlantic seaboard 
 of the United States stretching from the coast of North 
 Carolina up to and through New England. I refer particu- 
 larly to the seaboard . 
 
 "I am satisfied that the Indian race were in occupancy of 
 this seaboard region only about 200 years before the discov- 
 ery of America in 1492, I give the reasons: 
 
 "About the year 1000, A. D. (I quote the date from 
 memory, not having the authories before me) the Northmen 
 discovered America and made some settlements on the New 
 England coast. AH this, as you know, is historical. The 
 Northmen there came in contact with a people \yhom they 
 called Skrellings. Now these Skrellings, from the descrip- 
 tion given by them were not Indians, but Esquimaux. They 
 were the sanle kind of people the Northmen had previously 
 met in Greenland and whom they callec^ also Skrellings, or 
 rather Skraellinger. This is plain iiroof that 500 years be- 
 fore Columbus, the Esquimaux race was inhabiting the sea- 
 board of New England and not the Indians. 
 
 "Again, the Tuscarora Indians, now living in Canada, 
 but formerly from North Carolina, state in their traditions 
 that they came from the west and settled on the North Caro- 
 lina seaboard about the year A. D. 1300. Their traditions 
 also state that they came in contact with a people of short 
 stature, ignorant of maize and eaters of raw flesh. \ 
 
 "Now to whom does this descriptiqn apply but to the 
 Esquimaux? Thirdly, relics have been discovered — imple- 
 ments of various kinds, along the seaboard exactly similar to 
 those used by the Esquimaux of the present day. All this 
 is plain proof to my mind, that the Esquimaux once inhabited 
 the Atlantic seaboard as far south as North Carolina, and 
 that they were pushed northward by the influx of the incom- 
 ing Indian tribes; and that the Indian had not been settled 
 but for comparatively a short period in this seaboard at the 
 time of Columbus' discovery. The Mound Builders seemed 
 to have never occupied this seaboard stretching from North 
 Carolina upward. Now as to the Delaware tradition. 
 
 "The Delawares, or Leni Lenape as they style them- 
 selves in their native tongue, have a tradition that they came 
 from the west. When they came to the Great River, 
 perhaps, somewhere in the latitude of St. Louis, they 
 found a people of tall stature, and living in towns. This 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 211 
 
 people the Delawai-es called AUegewl. They asked 
 the AUegewi for permission to cross the river, which was 
 granted. The AUegewi, however, peeing- the Indians con- 
 stantly coming- from the west in such large numbers, 
 and fearing- they would ultimately dispossess them of their 
 country, commenced war upon them. After yeafs of fight- 
 ing, the AUegewi were defeated and driven out of their 
 country — retreating southward, and the Delaiwares and other 
 tribes took possession of their country^ .Now these AUegewi 
 are without doubt the same stock of people spoken of in Choc- 
 taw tradition as the Nahoolo." 
 
 The word Nahoolo is a corruption of the Choctaw word 
 NahWlo and is now applied to the entire White Race, but 
 anciently it referred to a giant race with whom they came in 
 contact when they first crossed ihe Mississippi river. These 
 giants, says their tradition, as related to the missionaries 
 occupied the northern part of the now States of Mississippi 
 and Alabama and the western part of Tennessee. The true 
 signification of the word Nahullb is a superhuman or super- 
 natural being, and the true words for white man are Hattak- 
 tohbi. The Nahullo were of white complexion, according to 
 Choctaw ti-adition, and were still an existing people at the 
 time of the advent of the Choctaws to Mississippi; that they 
 were a hunting people and also cannibals, who killed and 
 ate the Indians whenever they could capture them, conse- 
 quently the Nahullo were held in great dread by the Indians 
 and were killed by them whenever an opportunity , was 
 presented; by what means they finally became extinct, tradi- 
 tion is silent. . .; 
 
 "Chemical analysis of the bones of this giant race in, 
 Tennessee and elsewhere," says Mr. H. S. Halbert, in a 
 letter of January 3rd, 1878, "indicate the ra-vages of one of 
 the most terrible diseases to which flesh is heir.' Bones ex- 
 humed from these ancient cemeteries indicate with painful 
 certainty that syphilis was, at least, one cause of the extinct- 
 ion of this ancient people. It was long supposed that syph- 
 ilis was imported into this continent by the Bui'opean race . 
 That may have been the case, in the historical period, but I 
 have no doubt it prevailed with awful fatality among that 
 ancient people, who dominated a large - portion of this 
 continent before the advent of the Indian race. 
 
 "Mr. Grant Lincicum, (Ur. GideonLincicum, with whom 
 I was personally acquainted, was an educated white main, 
 who came to the Choctaw Nation after the advent of the mis- 
 sionaries, and settled at Columbus, then a small place, and 
 afterwards wrote a MS. of the Choctaw habits, customs, 
 traditions and legends, which has been lost) "stated that 
 
212 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 they (the Mound Builders) were, accoFding to the Choctaw 
 tradition, a huntings people. He certainly must be in error 
 on this point. (Not so; Lincicum used the pronoun "they" 
 with reference to the Nahullo, and not to the Mound Build- 
 ers, of whom their traditions never spoke). Now I believe 
 that the Mound Builders were of much fairer complexion 
 than the Indian, perhaps almost, if not quite, as fair as we, 
 and were an agricultural people also. Disease and war no 
 doubt were the main causes of their extinction. Detached 
 offshojts of them may have amalgamated with the Indian 
 tribes, and thus lost their physical peculiarities, but at the 
 same time kept up with their tribal organization. The Man- 
 dan Indians (now extinct) are supposed to have been a de- 
 generate and amalgamated offshoot of the Mound Builders, 
 In their manners and customs they were strikingly differen. 
 from the other Indians. I have no doubt but the researches 
 of antiquarians in some manner, to Us yet unknown, will 
 throw much light upon the early occupants of this con- 
 tinent." 
 
 Be that as it may, I still believe in the Choctaw traditions 
 — that the Nahullo who inhabited North Mississippi and Ala- 
 bama, and West Tennessee, were "a hunting jieoplc," as 
 they have left no trace whatever of having been agricultur- 
 ists, as the unbroken forests of majestic trees of ages 
 growth, that covered the land everywhere at the advent the 
 of the Europeans, evidently prove. 
 
 Still I admit, with friend Halbert, that, possibly the Al- 
 legewi of Delaware tradition may be the Nahullo of Choctaw 
 tradition, — if they were of white complexion, as the word 
 Nahullo is empha^cally applied to the white race and no 
 other. If white, may they not be of the Northmen, who, it 
 is said, "established a few colonies upon the Atlantic coast 
 A. D. 1000. ?" Then, if the North American Iiidians are not 
 the Mound builders, (which has not yet been satisfactorily 
 proved) may not the Northmen be? 
 
 So^e hare believed that the Nahullo we're the Carib 
 Indians, as they were said to be of gigantic stature and also, 
 cannibals, and who once inhabited our Gulf coast. They 
 were found by Columbus in the West Indies, and they are 
 still found in the isles of the Caribbean sea and Venezuela. 
 The early French writers of Louisiana Called the Caribs by 
 their Indian name Attakapas, and Attakapas Parish inLouis- 
 iana took its name from that tribe. The French translated 
 Attakapas, Man-eater. Attakapas is ,a corruption of the 
 Choctaw words Hattakapa, (man eatable) which they (the 
 French), no doubt, got from the Choctows, who gave the 
 tribe that name. I am inclined to believe that the .J^ahullo 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' 213 
 
 of the Choctaw tradition were not reg-iilar cannibals, but that 
 they sacrificed human victims in their relig-ious ceremonies, 
 which in extreme cases may, perhaps, have required their 
 officiates to eat a portion also of the victim's flesh. The same 
 also of the Carit>s,— hence Hattakapa, (man eatable) instead 
 of Hattakupa, eater. . 
 
 That the fore-fathers of the present Choctaws, Chicka- 
 saws, Cherokees and Muscogees 'migrated ages ago from 
 Mexico to their ancient abodes east of the Mississippi riyer 
 there can be scarcely a doubt; and that they were a branch 
 of the Aztecs there is much in their ancient traditions and 
 legends vipon which to predicate, at least, a reasonable sup- 
 position, if not a belief. The Aztecs are regarded by some 
 as the first of the human race that came to the North Amer- 
 ican continent, and by others as one of the oldest races of the 
 human family upon earth, whose records and traditions point 
 back to those of the books of Genseis and Job . Though 
 the historical legends of the above named tribes do not divide 
 the ages past 6t their race into four epochs as the Aztecs, as 
 Gama Dom Vasco Da, the Portuguese mariner and discov- 
 erer of the maritime route to India near the close of the 14th 
 century, asserts; and the first of which terminated in a de- 
 struction of the people of the world by famine, the second by 
 wind, the third by fire, and the fourth by water, (very simi- 
 lar to the traditions and legends of the Hindoos), yet they do 
 point back to many historical facts of the Christian's Bible, 
 which have been handed down by tradition through ages and 
 point to great and important events of the long past, equally 
 showing that their rac^, as well as the Aztecs, are among 
 the oldest of the human race, and also among the first that 
 came to the North American continent. These legends, 
 traditions and parts of histories point back to pestilences, 
 plagues and cataclysms preceded by long periods of dark- 
 ness, then dense clouds followed by the return of light to the 
 earth, during which the human race was nearly exterminated, 
 which are fully sustained by the geologists of the present \ 
 day, who affirm that there has been an age of thick clouds 
 and of floods, snows and glacier ice. 
 
 The Choctaws' endurance of pain^even to excruciating 
 torture — and to him the true exponent of every manly virtue, 
 was equal to that of any of his race and truly astonishing to 
 behold; and he who could endure the severest torture with 
 the least outward manifestation of suffering, was regarded 
 by his companions as most worthy of admiration and adula- 
 tory praise, the bravest of the brave. No race of the human 
 family, of which I have read or heard, ever endured turture, 
 without a murmur, groan or sig^h, as did the North Ameri- 
 
214 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 can Indians when inflicted by an enemy to elicit a groan or 
 sigh — to them a , manifestation of disgraceful Aveakness; 
 therefore, both men and women, endured the fire at the 
 stake, or to be cut to pieces by piece-meal, without any mani- 
 festation of pain whatever; but derided their tormentors and 
 mocked at thejr efforts to force even a groan from their vic- 
 tim. Of all the animals of their forests, there were but two 
 that no torture could force from them a manifestation of p^i'i 
 — the wolfe and the opossum: 
 
 Even the little Choctaw boys took delight in testing the 
 degrees of their manhood by various ways of inflicting pain. 
 I have often seen the little fellows stir up the nests of yellow 
 jackets, bumble-bees, hornets and wasf)s, and then stand 
 over the nests of the enraged insects which soon literally 
 covered them, and fight them with a switch in each hand; 
 and he who stood and fought longest without flinching — fore- 
 shadowed the future man — was worthy the appellation of 
 Mighty Warrior. But the business ends of the hornets, 
 bees and wasps, noted for their dispatch in all matters of 
 this kind, universally effected a hasty retreat of the intruder 
 upon their domiciles, sooner or later — much to the delight of 
 his youthful companions and acknowledged by an explosion 
 of yells and roars of laughter. But thediscomfitted embryo 
 warrior consoled himself by daring any one of his merry- 
 making companions to "brave the lion in his den," as he had 
 and endure longer than he did the combined attacks of the 
 valiant little enemy. The challenge was most sure to be ac- 
 cepted, but invariably with the same result, a retreat at the 
 expense of a hearty laugh. From one to three minutes was. 
 the average length of a battle, the insects holding the field 
 invariably. I have also seen them place a hot coal of fire on 
 the back of the hand, wrist and arm, and let it burn for 
 many seconds — bearing it with calm composure and without 
 the least manifestation of pain; thus practicing those first 
 lessons of endurance which were to enable them, when ar- 
 rived to manhood, to undergo the most dreadful tortures 
 without manifestation of pain, or experience the deepest 
 sorrow without the slightest emotion. Verily, who can offer 
 a better claim than the North American Indian to the title, 
 "The stoic of the woods— the man without a tear?" As a 
 race of people, they have exhibited a power of enduring the 
 severest torture of which it is possible to conceive without a 
 murmur, without a groan, or even the movement of a mus- 
 cle; in this differing from all Nations of people that have ever 
 been known to exist. A few years ago, in the Sherman and 
 Sheridan's wars of exterminating the unfortunate and help- 
 less western Indians, it is stated that, during a fight with 
 
mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. , 215 
 
 some white men who had made an attack upon au Indian vil- 
 lage of a western tribe, an Indian mother concealed her little 
 daughter— a mere child— in a barrel, telling her to iremain 
 perfectly quiet no matter what should take place. After the 
 battle the soldiers found the little girl with her arm fearfully 
 shattered by a minnie ball, but the little sufferer had not, 
 littered a word. "Was there ever recorded of any other Na- 
 tion of people such manifestations of heroic fortitude? 
 
 Patience was also considered among the Choctaws .a 
 bi-ight and manly virtue and in connection with that of en- 
 durance, formed the basis from which they derived all the 
 other qualities of their chai-'acters; and they estimated their 
 success, both in war and hunting, as depending almost ex- 
 clusively upon their unwearied patience and the ability of 
 great and long endurance. , , 
 
 The ancient Choctaws were as susceptible to all the 
 pleasing emotions produced by the sweet copicords of sound 
 as any, other people, yet their musical genius, . in the inven- 
 tion of musical instruments, never extended beyond that of 
 a cjane flute and a small drum, which was constructed from 
 a section cut from a small hollow tree, over the hollow part 
 of which was stretched a fresh deer skin, cleansed from the 
 hair, which became very tight when dried; and when struck 
 by a stick mad^ a dull sound, little inferior to that of our 
 common snare-drum; which could be heard at a considerable 
 distance; and though uncouth iri appearance, and inharmo- 
 nious in tone, as all drums, still its "vjpice" was considered 
 an indispensable adjunct as an accompaniment to all their 
 national and religious ceremonies; even as the ear-splitting 
 discords of the civilized snare or kettle-drum, united with 
 the deafening roar of the base drum are considered by the 
 white man as indispensable in all his displays of harmony. 
 Yet the ancient Choctaw, in all his solemn ceremonies, as 
 well as amusements and merry-makings, did not depetid so 
 much upon the jarring tones of the diminutive drum, as he 
 did upon his own voice; which in concert with the monoto- 
 nous tones of the drum, — to the cultivated and sensitive ear 
 a mere jargon of sound, — was to the Indian ear the most ex- 
 citing music, and soon wrought him to the highest state of 
 excitement. In all their dances they invariably danced to 
 the sound of the indispensable drum, accompanied with the 
 low hum of the drummer, keeping exact step with its mo- 
 notonous tone. In the social dance alone were the women 
 permitted to participate, which to the youthful maiden of 
 "sweet sixteen," was truly the ultimatum of earthly bliss. 
 
 But little restraint, parental or otherwise, was placed 
 Upon their children, hence they indulged in any and all 
 
216 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 amusements their fancy might sugg-est. The boys in little 
 bands roamed from village to village at their own pleasure, 
 or strolled through the woods with their blow-guns and bow 
 and arrows, trying their skill upon all birds and squirrels 
 that were so unfortunate as to come in their way. They were 
 but little acquainted with the principles of right and wrong, 
 having only as their models the daring deeds of their fathers 
 in war and the chase, they only yearned for the time when 
 they might emulate them in heroic achievements ; and one 
 would very naturally inf*er that these boys, ignorant of all 
 restraint from youth to manhood, would have been, when 
 arrived to manhood, a set of desperadoes, indulging in every 
 -vice and committing every crime. But not so. No race of 
 young people ever grew up to manhood in any nation who 
 were of a more quiet nature and peaceful dispositions than 
 the youths of the old Mississippi Choctaws. They seldom 
 quarreled among themselves even in boyhood, and less, when 
 arrived to the state of manhood. To them in youth as well 
 as in advanced years, as to all of their race, the dearest of all 
 their earthly possessions from childliood to manhood, from 
 manhood to old age, and from old age to the grave, was their 
 entire and unrestrained freedom; and though untrammeled by 
 mortal restraint, yet there seemed to exist in their own 
 breasts a restraining influence, a counteracting power, that 
 checked the ungoverned passions of their uncultivated na- 
 tures through life, and kept them more within the bounds of 
 prudence and reason, than any race of uneducated people I 
 ever knew. 
 
 Among every North American Indian tribe from their 
 earliest known history down to the present, there was and is 
 a universal belief in the existence of a fiod, and Supreme 
 Being, universally known among all Indians as the Great 
 Spirit; and with whose attributes wer* associated all the 
 various manifestations of natural phenomena; and in point of 
 due respect and true devotion to this Great Spirit — their 
 acknowledged God — they as a whole to-day excel, and over 
 have excelled, th^ whites in their due respect and true devo- 
 tion to their acknowledged God, Never was an Indian known 
 to deny the existence of his God — the Great Spirit — and 
 attribute the creation of all things, himself included, to 
 chance. Never was a North American Indian known to deny 
 the wisdom and power of the Great Spirit as manifested in 
 the creation of an intellectual and immortal being, yet found 
 and acknowledged it in the monkey. 
 
 Never was an Indian known to deny his immortality 
 bestowed upon him by the Great Spir'it. Immortality, that 
 most sublime thought in all the annals of fallen humanity. 
 
\ HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 11? 
 
 lias ever found a I'esting- place immovably fixed in evei-y 
 Indian'sheart, not one excepted;and under its benigninfluence, 
 their tmculttvated minds have- expanded and shadows of 
 death been disarmed of terror; and though, through all the 
 ages past has been "heard the inc[uiry— "Is there a latent 
 spark in the human breast that will kindle and glow after 
 death?" and though earth's learned of all time have pondered 
 over it, and pronounced it the world's enigma, and affirmed 
 and still affirm, death to be the end of all, eternal oblivion, an 
 endless sleep, yet the unlettered children of nature, the 
 •despised, down-trodden Indians, have long had the problem 
 solved to their own satisfaction arid peace of mind, never 
 experiencing a doubt. 
 
 To the Choctaws, as welf as to all Indians, the voice of 
 -the distant muttering thunder that echoed from hill to hill 
 through their wide extended forests; the I'oaring wind and 
 lightning flash that heralded the approaching storm, were 
 but the voice of that Great Spirit, and they made them the 
 themes that filled their souls with song and praise. They 
 «ver heard the voice of that unseen Great Spirit throughout 
 all nature — in the rustling leaf arid the sighing breeze; in the 
 roaring cataract and the murmuring brook; and they ex- 
 pressed their souls' adoration; understood and comprehend- 
 ed by them alone, in their songs and dances. To them all 
 nature ever spoke in language most potential, and their im- 
 mortality and future existence in another world they never 
 doubted, though their ideas of future rewards and punish- 
 ments beyond the tomb were feeble and confused. 
 
 It was their ancient custom to leave the murderer in the 
 hands of the murdered man's relatives and friends; and, as 
 "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth" was recorded 
 upon their statute book, he was, sooner or later, most sure to 
 fall b}' an unknown and unseen hand. Sometimes, however, 
 the slayer appeased the avenge'i- by paying a stipulated 
 amount; but this was of rare occurrence. . Soon after the 
 missionaries were established among, them, a company of 
 armed and mounted police, called "Light Horse Men," were 
 organized for each district, in whom Was vested the power 
 of arresting and trying all violators of the law. The}' were 
 continually riding/over the country settling all difficulties 
 that arose among parties or individuals, and arresting all 
 violators of the law. The custom of leaving the murderer to 
 be disposed of as the relatives of the deceased saw proper, 
 was then set aside, and the right of trial by the Light Horse 
 who acted in a three fold capacity— sheriff, judge and jury, 
 was awarded to all offenders. The Light Horse were com- 
 posed of a brave and vigilant set of fellows, and nothing es- 
 
218 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 caped their eagle eyes; and they soon became S terrftl" to 
 white whiskey peddlers who invaded the Choctaw territories 
 at that time. When caught, the whiskey was poured upon 
 the ground and the vender informed th^t his room was pre- 
 ferable to his company. 
 
 When a murder was committed, the Light Horse at once 
 took the matter into consideration, and after hearing all the 
 testimony pro and con, pronounced the verdict in accordance 
 thereto. If the person accused was found to be guilty, there 
 and then, the time and place of his execution was designated, 
 and the doomed man was informed that his presence would 
 accordingly be expected. He never failed to make his ap- 
 pearance at the appointed place and hour, and all things be- 
 ing ready, a small red spot was painted directly over his 
 heart as a target for the executioner; and, being placed in 
 position, calmly received the fatal bullet, soon the grave 
 closed over him and thus the matter ended. Sometimes the 
 condemned would request a short respite, a few days exten- 
 sion of time, assigning as a reason for the desired delay, that 
 a grand ball-play, dance or hunt, was soon to take place, in 
 which he desired to participate, and as it did not take place 
 until after the appointed day of his execution, he requested 
 the favor of postponing his little affair until afterward. The 
 request was seldom refused. Q'^he doomed man then desig- 
 nated the day and hour on which he would return and attend 
 to the matter under consideration. He went to the ball-play, 
 the dance, or the hunt, engaged in and enjoyed his anticipated 
 fun, then returned true to his promised word and paid the 
 penalty of the violated law, by calmly receiving the fatal shot. 
 The rifle was invariably used as the instrument of execution, 
 for the soul of the Choctaw who had been executed by hang- 
 ing was regarded as accursed — never, being permitted to 
 join his people in the happy hunting grounds, but his spirit 
 must forever haunt the place where he was hung. Hence 
 their horror of death by hanging, and the gallows has ever 
 been unknown among them. . If the condemned should fail to 
 appear, which was never known to be, at the time and place 
 of his execution, or should manifest any emotion of fear dur- 
 ing his execution^ it was, regarded as a disgrace to himself, his 
 relatives, and his nation as a Choctaw warrior, which no length 
 of time could ever efface; hence their honor, resting upon 
 their firmness in the hour of death, wis watched with jeal- 
 ous care. Never was a full-blood Choctaw known to evade 
 the death penalty, passed upon him by the violated law, by 
 flight. If he violated the law he calmly abided the conse- 
 quences, hence all places of imprisonm'ent, were unknown. 
 Eor minor offenses, whipping was tfie punishment; fifty 
 
mSTORY OP THE INDIANS. 219 
 
 lashes for the first offense, one hundred for thie second, and 
 death by the rifle for the third offense in case of theft, and 
 so it is today. 
 
 He who had been condemned to receive this punish- 
 ment never attempted to evade it; but promptly presented 
 himself, or herself, at the designated place of punishment. 
 This punishment was inflicted several times at the mission 
 of Hebron, to which I was an eye witness. Before the hour 
 appointed, the neighborhood assembled around' the church 
 which stood about forty rods distant frbm the mission-house, 
 where they indulged in social conversation and smoking; 
 never, however, mentioning, or even hinting the subject 
 which had brought them together. The culprit was as gay 
 and cheerful as any of them, walking with an air of perfect 
 indifference, chatting and Simoking with the various groups 
 sitting around on blankets spread upoij the ground. Precisely 
 at the moment designated, the Light-Horse, 'who constituted 
 a sort of ambulatory jury, to arrest, try and punish all 
 violators of the law, would appear. The crowd then went 
 into the church, closed the door and commenced singing a 
 religious hymn, taught them by the missionaries, which they 
 continued until the tragedy outside was over. At the same 
 time the culprit shouted "Sa mintihl" I have come! then 
 ejaculated "Sa kullol'' (I am strong!) He then elevated his 
 arms and turned his back to the executioner and said: "Fum- 
 mih!" (whip). When he had received fifteen or twenty 
 blows, he calmly turned the other side to the Fum-mi (one 
 who whips); and then again, his back, uttering not a word 
 nor manifesting the least sign of pain. As soon as tne 
 whipping was over, the church ' door was opened and the 
 whole assembly came out and shook hands with the "Fum- 
 ah" (whipped), thus reinstating him to his former position in 
 society, and the subject was then and there dropped, . never 
 to be'mentioned again, and it never was. 
 
 The Choctaws had great, pride of race. The warrior,s 
 proudest boast was Choctaw Siah! (I am a Choctaw!) and he 
 still clings to it with commendable tenacity even as he does 
 to his native language. It has been said that no people have 
 been truly conquered who refuse to spfeak the language of 
 the conqueror; therefore the North American Indians, that 
 subdued, yet unsnbduable people, havfe never ceased to speak 
 their native tongue. 
 
 The law on whipping for minor offenses, especially that 
 for theft, was, fifty lashes on the bare back for the first 
 offense; one hundred for the second, and death by the rifle 
 for the third. This law is still in force in the Choctaw Nation. 
 Truly, if the whites would adopt this method of dealing with 
 
220 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 their own thieves, would there not be less stealing among 
 them? 
 
 As an illustration of this peculiar characteristic of the 
 Indians — so different from that of any race of whom I have 
 heard — i. e., never fleeing from, or in any way attempting 
 to evade the penalties of the violated lc|,w, I here introduce 
 the sad scene in the execution of Chester Dixon, a Choctaw 
 youth convicted of murder at a term of the Circuit Court of 
 the Choctaw Nation in December, 1883. 
 
 Chester Dixon was a young, full-blood Choctaw, about 17 
 years of age. He was subject to fits, during which he seem- 
 ed to be unconscious of his acts. A-side from this malady, 
 he was considered rather a bright boy. He lived with his 
 mother and step-father, five or six miles from Atoka. Their 
 nearest neighbors were a Choctaw knownas Washington and 
 Martha, his wife. One evening Washington, on his return 
 home from Atoka, was shocked in finding the body of his 
 wife lying on the floor of his cabin fearfully mangled, the 
 head severed from the body, with several frightful gdshes, 
 evidently inflicted with an ax, which lay by the side of the 
 corpse. The alarm was given, and it was soon ascertained 
 that Chester Dixon was /seen coming from the house, in 
 which the deed had been committed, covered with blood. 
 He was arrested, tried by the Choctaw law, condemned, and 
 sentenced to be shot on^an appointed day, at noon. He was 
 neither confined nor guarded, but went where he pleased, 
 having pledged his word of honor, however, that he would be 
 at the place of execution punctual to the hour appointed. 
 Here I would deviate a little from the subject, to show how 
 prone the whites are to misrepresent the Indians in nearly 
 everything they write about them; and it docs seem that 
 they cannot write a half dozen words about this people with- 
 out shamefnlly misrepresenting them. It seems incredible, 
 nevertheless it is true, as the thousands of publications that 
 flood the country prove. I saw an ar,ticle in a Texas news- 
 paper in regard to this very case 6f Chester Dixon, in which 
 the writer says: "The laws of the ^hoctaws provide for no 
 APPiCAL, or poor Chester's case might have been re-consider- 
 , ed;for after his conviction he was attacked with one of his ac- 
 customed fits, which was conclusive and satisfactory evidence 
 that he was subject to temporary aberration, during which 
 he was irresponsible for his actions. His attorney had neg- 
 lected to make this plea in behalf of his client during the 
 trial, and once the sentence of death.havlng been pronounced 
 it was unalterable." Now, the above is utterly false, and the 
 writer should learn to keep in respectful distance of the 
 truth, at least, before he attempts to write about the Choc- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 221 
 
 I J ■ 
 
 taws. The truth is, the laws of the Choctaws provide for 
 three appeals — first from the County Court to the District 
 Court; thence to the Supreme Court; thence to the United 
 States Supreme Court. But to return to Chester Dixon. A 
 few days before the execution, Dixon came wi^th his 
 step-father to Atbka for the purpose of oi'dering- his coffin. 
 He had his measure taken for the grave, and then calmly 
 informed his step-father where he wished to be buried. 
 
 The day of execution came; and a few, mostly whites as- 
 sembled at the place of execution to witness the sad scene. 
 The doomed boy did not make his appearance to wi;thin 
 twenty or thirty minutes of the appointed time, and many of 
 the whites, judging from their own standpoint, began to 
 doubt the integrity of the Choctaw, and expressed those 
 doubts one to another. But true to bis plighted word, the 
 truthful youth soon rode up; and, dismounting from his 
 horse, quietly walked up to a little groUp of Choctaws, who 
 were sitting around a fire, without taking any notice what- 
 ever of the surroundings, and calmly took his seat upon the 
 ground, with his head bowed between his knees as if lost in 
 meditation. An aged Choctaw man soon approached him, 
 and, speaking to him in his own language, encouraged him to 
 bravely meet his fate as a young Choctaw brave; and to die 
 willingly, since nothing but his life could atone for the one 
 he had taken; and also to feel that his people had been just 
 in condemning him. He spoke not a word nor raised his 
 head during his old friend's conversation; but at its conclu- 
 sion he looked up and around for a moment, then grasped 
 the old man's hand, as if to say, I'll be firm, and he was to 
 the last. Then his Choctaw friends, both nien and women 
 came up and bade him their last earthly adieu; with all of 
 whom he shook hands, but spoke not a word. After which, 
 the sheriff brought the unfortunate boy a change of clothing, 
 in which he clothed himself for the grave, without the least 
 discernible sign of agitation; he then took; his seat on a 
 blanket spread for him, and his mother combed his hair with 
 calm composure— her last act of matef-nal love; and though, 
 with a heart bleeding at every pore, no outward manifesta- 
 tion was made, yet her face told the storm of grief that raged 
 within; while, true to her nature, she clung to her boy to the 
 last moment, to console him with a mother's presence and 
 a mother's love. 
 
 The sheriff then told Chester that the hour of execution 
 had come. He arose at onte and quietly walked to the spot 
 pointed out to him by the sheriff, and stopped facing his 
 coffin— the personification of calih composure and firm resig- 
 nation. His step-father and cousin then walked up, the 
 
222 ', HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 I 
 
 former taking him by the rig-hthand and the latter by the left. 
 The same venerable old man who had first approached him, 
 again came forward and made a little black spot upon his 
 breast, just over the heart, and once more whispered a few 
 words of parting encouragement, ^^hen walked away. The 
 sheriff then bound a handkerchief over his eyes, asked him 
 to kneel, and beckoned to a' man who had until then kept 
 himself concealed. This man was a cousin of Chester Dixon, 
 and had been chosen hy Chester to do the shooting. He now 
 advanced, and taking his position five or six paces from the 
 poor boy, leveled his Winchester rifle and fired. 
 The ball went to the mark. At the report of the rifle 
 Dixon fell forward, and died without a struggle. The 
 mother now came forward took charge of the lifeless body of 
 her boy, and with the assistance of frieuids, laid it away in 
 the grave. No confusion nor even the semblance of excite- 
 ment disturibed the solemn proceedings. And when con- 
 trasted to the civilized mode of punishment that of hanging 
 — the Choctaw method is certainly more humane and effec- 
 tive, to sayi the least of it. 
 
 I will state another instance that took place among the 
 Choctaws when living in their ancient domains. 
 
 A Choctaw unfortunately killed another in a fit of pas- 
 sion. He was duly tried, convicted, and sentenced to be 
 shot on a cectain daj^; but requested a stay of the execution, 
 upon the plea that his wife and little children would be left 
 in a destitute condition unless he was allowed to return 
 home and finish making his brop. His i-equest was granted 
 with no other assurance than his pledged word that he would 
 return and receive his death sentence. The day of execution 
 was fixed at a time when the crop would be matured, and 
 the doomed man returned to his home and family. The fatal 
 day came and found the necessary labor on the crop finished 
 and also the noble Chectaw at the appointed hour and place, 
 where he calmly received the fatal bullet which at once 
 closed his earthly career. 
 
 Thus sacred was held the noble virtue, Truth, among 
 the ancient Choctaws when they lived east of the Mississippi 
 river; and thus sacred is it still held among the full-bloods 
 west of the same river; and I have never known or heard of a 
 full-blood Choctaw or Chickasaw, during my personal ac- 
 quaintance with that truly grand and noble people for seven- 
 ty-five years, who violated his pledged word of honor by fail- 
 ing to appear at the time and place designated, to suffer the 
 penalties of the violated law, be it death by the rifle or fifty 
 or a hundred lashes at the whipping post. And truly it may 
 be said: No race of people ever adhered with greater ten- 
 
HISTOKY OF THE INDIANS 223 
 
 acity to truth, or the greater hatredfor thefalsehood, than did 
 and do the Choctaws. They truly abhoired and still abhor a 
 liar. Years before the ^advent of the missionaries among- 
 them, one of their chiefs was strangely addicted to lying; 
 and so great did their disgust finally beconie that they, in 
 council assembled, banished him from their Nation under 
 pain of death if he ever returned. This exiled chief then 
 settled with his family in the now parish of Orleans, Louisi- 
 ana, on a small tract of land which projec^ into lake Pontch- 
 artrain, and erected his lonely cabin near a feayou which is 
 connected with the lake. And to this day, that small tract 
 of land, it is^said, is called Ho-lub-i Miko (.Lying- Chief), hav- 
 ing- taken its name from the exiled Choctaw chief. 
 
 Tie territories of the Choctaws in 1723, in which year 
 the seat of the French government in Louisiana, then under 
 Bienville, was definitely transferred from Natchez to New 
 Orleans, then containing about one hundred houses and three 
 thousand inhabitants, extended from the Mississippi River- 
 ' to the Black Warrior, east: and from Lake Pontchartrain to" 
 the territories of the Natchez, west, aud Chickasaws, north. 
 They possessed upwards of sixty principal towns, and 
 could muster, as was estimated, twenty-five thousand war- 
 riors. 
 
 The Cho(;taws called all fables Shukha Anump (hog 
 talk) as a mark of derision and ^contempt. Some of their 
 fables, handed down by ti'adition through unknown genera- 
 tions, were similar in the morals taught by those of the 
 famous ^sop. One of these Shukha Anumpas was that of 
 the, turkey and the terrapin: — A haughty turkey gobbler, 
 with long- flowing- beard and glossy feathers, meeting- a ter- 
 rapin one bright and beautiful spring morning, thus accos- 
 ted him with an expression of great comtempt; "What are 
 you good for?" To which the terrapin humbly replied 
 "many things." "Name one," continued the turkey. "I 
 can beat you running," said the terrapin. "What nonsense!" 
 "I thought you were a| fool, now I know, it,'* continued the 
 turkey. * 
 
 "I repeat it, I can beat you running, distance half a mile" 
 continued the terrapin. "To prove you are a fool in believ- 
 ing such an absurdity, I'll run the race with you," responded 
 the turkey with marked disgust. The day was appointed, 
 the distance marked off, and the agreements entered into, 
 one of which was, the terrapin was to run with a white 
 feather in his mouth by which the turkey might be able to 
 distinguish him from other terrapin; another was, the turkey 
 was to give the terrapin the advantage of one hundred yards 
 in the start. ^ In the intervening time of the race, the wily i 
 
224 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 terrapin secured the assistance of another terrapin to help 
 him out of his dilemma, and thereby establish the reputation 
 of the terrapin family in point of fleetness to the discomfiture 
 of the haughty turkey. Therefore, he' secretly placed his 
 assistant, with the white insig^nia also in his mouth, at the 
 terminus to which the race was to be run. Early on the 
 morning- of the day agreed upon, the competitiors were at 
 their posts — the contemptuous turkey at the goal, and the 
 dispassionate terrapin a hundred yarfls on the line. The 
 turkey was to give the signal for starting by a loud gobble. 
 The signal was given, and the race was. opened . The turkey 
 soon came up with the terrapin, who had gotten but a few 
 feet from his goal, and shouted derisively as he passed by 
 "What a fooll", 
 
 To which the terrapin ejaculated — "Not as big as you 
 imagine." The confident turkey ran on about half way, and 
 then stopped and turned off a little distance to secure his 
 breakfast, but kept an eye on the track that the terrapin 
 might not pass unobserved. After feeding about some time 
 and not seeing any thing of th6 terrapin, he began to fear he 
 had pa'^sed him unobserved; therefore, he started again at 
 full speed; and not overtaking the terrapin as he expected, 
 he redoubled his exertions and reached the goal breathless, 
 but to find the terrapin with the white feather in his mouth 
 (his supposed opponent) already there, Moral. — The scorn- 
 ful are often outwitted by those upon whom they look with 
 contempt. 
 
 In estimating character, all the ancient Indians that once 
 lived east of the Mississippi river, if the statement of the 
 , early writers and noble missionaries be true, and he, whose 
 ■ incredulity would make him doubt their statements is in- 
 capable of believing any thing — even hia own senses — regard- 
 ed moral worth alone; The man must possess truth, honor, 
 patriotism, bravery, hospitality and virtue — all of which 
 seemed intuitive to the minds and hearts of those North 
 American Indians of the south. I know this will be regarded 
 by thousands of my own race as untenable ground. Never- 
 ' theless, I speak of that I know — obtained by a long life, 
 personal acquaintance with the Choctaws and Chickasaws, 
 and the same acquaintance with different missionaries to the 
 Gherokees, Muscogees and Seminoles, all sustained by the 
 great phi^nthorpist Oglethorpe and the noted ministers of 
 the gospel John and Charles Wesley, and (Seorge Whitefield, 
 and their missionary successors sent out to the Indians by 
 the Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches; and morg, 
 proving bej'ond doubt the susceptibility of the North Ameri- 
 can Indians to easily become civilize<l and christianized. 
 
HISTOKV OF XHli INDIANS. ' 225 
 
 In the disposition of their dead, , the lancient Choctaws 
 practiced a strange method different from any other Nation 
 of people, perhaps, that ever existed. After the death of a 
 Choctaw, the corpse wrapped in a bear skin. or rough kind 
 of covering of their owii manufacture, \Vas laid out at full 
 length upon a high scaffold ei'ected near the, house qf the 
 deceased, that it might be protected from the wild beasts of 
 the woods and tl-je scavengers of the air. After the body 
 had remained upon the 'scaffold a sufficient time for the flesh 
 to have nearly or entirely decayed,' the. Hattak fullih nipi 
 foni, (Bone Picker) the principal official in their funeral cere- 
 monies and especially appointed for that duty — appeared 
 and informed the relatives of the deceased that he had now 
 come to perform the^last sacred duties of his office to their 
 departed friend. Then, with the relatives and fi'iends, he 
 marched with great- solemnity of countenance to the scaffold 
 and, ascending which, began his awful duty of picking off the 
 flesh that still adhered to the bones, with loud groans 
 and fearful grimaces, tovwhich the friends below responded 
 in cries and wailings. 
 
 The Bone-Picker never trimmed the nails of his thumbs, 
 index and middle fingers which accordingly grew to an as- 
 tonishing length — sharp and almost as hard as flint — and well 
 adapted to the horrid business of their owner's calling. 
 After he had picked all the flesh from the bones, he then 
 tied it up in a bundle and carefully laid it upon, a corner.of 
 the scaffold; then gathering up the bones in his arms he de- 
 scended and placed them in a previously prepared box, and 
 then applied fire to the scaffold, upon which the assembly 
 gazed uttering the most frantic cries and moans until it was 
 entirely consumed. Then forming a jprocession headed by 
 the Bone-Picker the box containing the bones was carried, 
 amid weeping and wailing, and deposited in a house erected 
 and consecrated to that purposie and called A-bo-ha fo-ni, 
 (Bone-house) with one of which all villages and towns were 
 supplied. Then all repaired to a previously prepared feast, 
 over which the Bone-Picker, in virtue of his office, presided 
 witfi much gravity and silent dignity. (^' 
 
 As soon as the bone-houses of the neighboring villages 
 were filled, a general burial of the bones' took place, to which 
 funeral ceremony the people came from far and near, and, 
 in a long and imposing procession, with weejping and wailing 
 and loud lamentations of the women, bore off the boxes of 
 bones to their last place of rest, and there despositing them 
 in the form of a pyramid they were covered with earth three 
 or four feet in depth forming! a conical mound. All then 
 
226 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 returned to a previously designated villag-e and concluded 
 the day in feasting. 
 
 Thus many of the mounds found in Mississippi and 
 Alabama are but the cemeteries of the ancient Choctaws; 
 since, as often as the bone-houses became filled, the^boxes of 
 bones were carried out to the same cemetery and deposited 
 on the previously made heap commencing- at the base and 
 ascending to the top, each deposit being covered up with 
 earth to the depth of three or four feet, and thus, by con- 
 tinued accession through a long series of ages, became thie 
 broad and high mounds, concerning which there has been so 
 much wild speculation with so little foundation for truth or 
 common sense. Even at the time the missionaries were 
 established among them (1818), many of the mounds were of 
 so recent date that not even bushes were growing upon them, 
 though the custom of thus laying away their dead had become 
 obsolete: still a few Bone-Pickers had survived the fall of 
 their calling, and were seen, here and there, wandering about 
 from village to village as ghosts of a departed age, with the 
 nails of the thumb, index and middle fingers still untrimmed, 
 and whose appearance indicated their earthly pilgrimage had 
 reached nearly to a century, some of whom I personally 
 knew. 
 
 Shortly before the advent of the missionaries, the cus- 
 tom of placing the dead upon the scaffolds was abolished, 
 though not without much opposition; and that of bui'ial in a 
 sitting posture was adopted, -with also new funeral ceremon- 
 ies, which were as follows: Seven men were appointed 
 whose duty it was to set up each a smooth pole (painted red) 
 ai-ound the newly made grave, six of which were about eight 
 feet high, and the seventh about fifteen, to which thirteen 
 hoops (made of grape vines) were suspended and so united 
 as to form a kind of ladder, while ory. its top a small white 
 flag was fastened. This ladder of hoops was for the easier 
 ascent of the spirit of the deceased to the top of the pole, 
 whence, the friends of the deceased believed, it took its final 
 departure to the spirit land. 
 
 They also believed that the spirits of the dead, after their 
 flight from the top of the pole to the unknown world, had to 
 cross a fearful river which stretched its whirling waters 
 athwart their way; that this foaming stream has but one 
 crossing, at which a cleanly peeled sweet-gum log, perfectly 
 round, smooth and slippery, reached from bank to bank; 
 that the moment the spirit arrives at the" log, it is attacked 
 by two other spirits whose business is to keep any and all 
 spirits from crossing thereon. But if a spirit is that of a 
 good person, the gu.irdians of the log h:i-ve no power over it. 
 
"* HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 32^ 
 
 and it safely walks over the log' to the opposite shore, where 
 it is welcomed by other spirits of friends gone before, 
 and where contentment and happiness will-forever, be the lot 
 of all. 
 
 But alas, when the spirit of a bad person arrives at the 
 log--crossing- of the fearful river,; it also is assailed by the 
 ever wakeful guards,' and as it attempts to walk the slippery 
 log they push it off into the surging waters below, to be help- 
 lessly borne down by the current to a cold and barren des- 
 -ert, where but little game abounds and over which he is 
 doomed to wander, a forlorn hope, naked, cold and hungry. 
 
 When a death was announced, which was made by the 
 firing of guns in quick succession, the whole village and sur- 
 rounding neighborhood— ^almost to a man— assembled at 
 once at the home of the deceased, to console and mourn with 
 the bereaved. On the next day a procession was formed 
 headed by seven men called Fabussa Sholih (Pole-bearer), 
 each carrying on his shoulder a long, slender pole painted 
 red, and all slowly and in profound silence marched to the 
 ■grave, where the poles were at once firmly set up in the 
 -ground — three on each side of the grave, and one at the head, 
 on which thirteen hoops wei;e suspended while on its top a 
 small white flag fluttered in the breeze. The corpse was 
 then carefully placed in its last earthly place of restj the 
 grave filled up, and all returned to the former home of the 
 departed. They had specified cries at the grave of the de- 
 ceased, which continued for thirteen moons. At the termi- 
 nation of each cry, a hoop was taken off of the pole, and so 
 on until the last one was removed; then a grand funeral cere- 
 ■ mony was celebrated called Fabussa halut akuchchih, (pole 
 to pull down). And the manager of the pole-pulling was call- 
 ed Hattak iti i miko, (their chief man); ' and the hunters sent 
 out to provide venison for the company on that occasion, 
 were called Hattak (man) illf(dead) chohpa (meat). That is, 
 meat for the dead man; or, more properly, meat for the obse- 
 quies of the dead man. 
 
 To this celebration, or last commemoration the dead, 
 when all had assembled, the Fabussa halulli, (the same Fa- 
 bussa Sholih who had set up the poles) under the command 
 of the Hattak iti i miko (the same who bore and set up the 
 long pole upon which was attached the hoops and flag) slowly 
 and silently marched in solemn procession to the grave and 
 pulled up the poles, and carried them.off together with the 
 hoops and concealed them in a secret place in the forest 
 where they were left to return to dust forever undistui-bed. 
 
 As soon as the Fabussa HalluUi had disposed of the 
 poles and hoops, preparations were begun for the finale — a 
 
228 msTORY OF the Indians. 
 
 feast and the grand Aboha hihlah, home dancing, or dancing 
 home of the deceased good man to the land of plenty and 
 happiness, and the bad man to the land of scarcity and suf- 
 fering. ^ ' 
 
 The festivities continued durihg the day and the night 
 following the pole-pulling. On tho next morning all returned 
 to their respective homes; and from that day he or she of the 
 grave became a thing of the past, whose names were to be 
 mentioned no more, And they were not. 
 
 Among the ancient Choctaws, a mare and colt, cow and 
 calf, and a sow and pigs were given to f^ach child at its birth, 
 if the parents were able so to do, — and -all, with few excep- 
 tions, were able; this stock, with its increase under no cir- 
 cumstances whatever, could be disposed of in any way; and 
 when he or she, as the case might be, became grown, the 
 whole amount was formally conveyed over to him or her. 
 Thus when a young couple started out in life they had a 
 plenty of stock, if nothing more. 
 
 Diseases, they believed, originated }n part from natural 
 causes, therefore their doctors sought in nature for the 
 remedies. Graver maladies, to them, were inexplicable, and 
 for their cures they resorted to their religious superstitions 
 and incantations. They were very skillful in their treat- 
 ment of wounds, snake bites, etc., Their knowledge of the 
 medicinal qualities of their various plants and herbs, in 
 which their forests so bountifully abounded, was very great. 
 'Tis true they were powerless against the attacks of many 
 diseases — importations of the White Race, such as small-pox, 
 ineasles, whooping-cough, etc; yet, they did not exhibit any 
 greater ignorance in regard to those new diseases, to them 
 unknown before, than do the doctors of the White Race, who 
 have had the experience of ages which has been handed 
 down to the^ through the art of printing, manifest in regard 
 to the new diseases that so oft attack their own race. The 
 art of blood-letting and scarifying was well understood and 
 practiced by many of their doctors, as well as the virtue of 
 cold and warm baths; and in many of {he healing arts they 
 fell not so far below those of the White Race as might be 
 aup^osed, ttough many white doctors imagine themsalves. 
 perfect ip the healing art, since forsooth their diplomas 
 boast the signatures of the medical faculties in the world. 
 
 In cases of bowel affections tliey use persimmons dried 
 by the heat of the sun and mixed with a light kind of broad. 
 In case of sores, they applied a poultice of pounded ground 
 ivy for a few days, then carefully washing the afflicted part 
 with the resin of the copal-tree. For fresh wounds they 
 made u poultice of the root of the collon-lrce wliich proved 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS 229 
 
 very efficaqiouis; to produce a copious perspiration, a hot 
 •decoction, of the China root swallowed, had the desired effect. 
 They^jossessed an antidote for the bite and sting of snakes 
 and insects, in the root of a plant called rattle snake's master, 
 h-Av'mg a pungent yet not unpleasant odor. The root' of the 
 plant was chewed, and also a poultice made of it was applied 
 to the wound, which at once checked the poison and the 
 patient was well in a few daysi The medical properties of 
 the sassafras, sarsaparilla, and other medicinal plants, were 
 known to them. They possessed majny valuable secrets to 
 ■cure dropsy, rheumatism, and many other diseases, which, 
 no doubt, will ever remain a secret with them, proving- that 
 their powers of observation, investig-ation and discrimination, 
 .are not, by any means, to be regarded as contemptible; 
 while their belief, that the Great Spirit has provided a 
 1-emedy in plants for all diseases to which poor , humanity 
 seems an heir, and never refuses to make it known to those 
 who seek the knowledge of it by proper supplications, is 
 praiseworthy in them to say the least of it. 
 
 Their doctors were held in great veneration, though 
 they oft practiced upon their patrons many frauds. Mill- 
 fort, p. 298, says: "when one of them had a patient on hand 
 a long time, and the poor sick'fellow's means. had been ex- 
 hausted he privately told the relatives that his skill was ex- 
 hausted, that he had done all in his power to no avail, and 
 that their friend must die within a few days ait farthest; and, 
 with great seeming sympathy, set forth the propriety of 
 killing him, arid so terminate his sufferings at once. Having 
 the utmost confidence in the doctor's judgment and knowl- 
 edge of the case, and also believing the case hopeless, the 
 poor fellow was at once killed." In proof of this, he states 
 that in 1772 a doctor thus advised concerning one> of his pa- 
 tients. "The sick man," he says, "suspecting, from thp 
 actions of his physician, that he was advising the propriety' 
 of ending his suffering by having- him killed, with great effort 
 succeeded one night in crawling out of the house and making 
 good his escape. After much suffering ,he succeeded in 
 making his way into the Muscogee Nation, and fortunately 
 went to the house of Col. McGillivry, who, Samaritan like, 
 took him into his house, and soon restored him to his usual 
 health. At the expiration of several months he returned to 
 his home, and found his relatives actually celebrating his 
 funeral by burning the scaffold which they had erected to his 
 memory, with the accustomed weeping and wailing, — be- 
 lieving him to be dead. His unlocked for appearance among 
 them; at that solemn hour and place, threw them'' into the 
 (greatest consternation, and, in horror and wild dismay, all 
 
230 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 fled to the woods. Finding himself thus received by his 
 own relatives and friends, he returned in disg'ust to tl e 
 Muscogees and spent the remainder of his dayi' among 
 them. But when his relatives had become truly sat'sfied 
 that he did not die, and was actually alive and well, they 
 made the doctor pay heavily for the deception he had prac- 
 ticed upon them, by killing him." 
 
 The greatest mortality among thesi was most generally 
 confined to the younger children; while longevity was a 
 prominent characteristic among the aduits. After the age of 
 six or eight years the mortality of disease among them was 
 less than among the white children of the present day after 
 that age. But after those baneful diseases, scarlet fever, 
 measles, mumps, whooping-icough, diseases unknown to them 
 before, had been introduced among them, the fatality among 
 the children was distressing, frequently destroying the 
 greater number of the children in a village or neighborhood; 
 — being/wholly ignorant as they were of the proper mode of 
 treatment was a great cause of the fearful fatality. Mental 
 or nervous diseases were unknown to the ancient Choctaws; 
 and idiocy and deformity were seldom seen . But of all the 
 "diseases" introduced among them by the white?, the most 
 pernicious and fata.l-in all its features, bearings, and con- 
 sequences, to the Choctaw people, was, is, and ever will be, 
 Okahumma (red water "'or whiskey)^ which, when once 
 formed into habit, seemed to grow to a species of insanity 
 equal even to that so often exhibited among the whites. , 
 
 "The Medicine Man," was a dignitary who swayed 'his 
 scepter alike among all Indians, 'but was altogether a very dif- 
 ferent personage from the common physician. The Medicine 
 Man professed an insight into the hidden laws of Nature; he 
 professed a power over the elements, the fish of the waters 
 and the animals of the land; he could cause the fish to volun- 
 tarily suffer themselves to be caught, and give success to the 
 hunier by depriving the denizens of the forest of their natural 
 fear of man; he could impart bravery to the heart of the war- 
 rior, strength and skill to his arm and fleetness to his feet; 
 yea, could put to flight the evil spirits of disease from the 
 bodies of the sick. He could throw a spell or charm over a 
 ball player that would disenable him to hit the post; or over 
 the ball-post that would prevent its being hit by anyone 
 whom he wished to defeat. Such were the professed attain- 
 ments of the Indian "Medicine Man." But whether he 
 possessed all or any of the supernatural powers he profess- 
 ed, it matters not, it is certain, however, that he possessed 
 one thing, the power, art, or skill, call it which you may, to 
 "*Tmnke his people believe it, and that was all-sufficient for him 
 
HISTORY OF THr INDIANS'. " 231 
 
 —even as it is with all humbiijJTs. The' Choctaws regarded 
 dreams as the direct avenues ^o the iavisible world, the divine 
 revelations of the Great Sr,ii-it. If a. vision of the' spirit of an 
 animal appeared to the h unter in his-dream, he felt confident 
 of success on the morrow's hunt. But thbugh he invoked the 
 friendship, the protoction and the good will pf spirits, and 
 besought the mediation of the Medicine Man, he never would 
 confess his fear of death. But chide not too harshly, reader, 
 the poor, unlettered Indian for his superstitions and wild 
 beliefs, for the same long existed among the civilized Na- 
 tions of the world, nor are they entirely exempt even, at the 
 prf sent day, nor is it likely they ever will be. 
 
 They lived in houses made of logs, but very comfortable; 
 not more rude or uncouth, however, than many of the whites 
 even of the present day. Their houses consisted generally 
 of two rooms, both of which were used for every domestic 
 purpose — cooking, eating, living and sleeping; nor was their 
 furniture disproportionate with that of the dwelling — for the 
 sitting room,, a stool or two; for the kitchen, a pot or kettle, 
 two or three tin cups, a large and commodious wooden bowl, 
 and a horn spoon, constituted about the ultimatum — 'twas all 
 they needed, all they wanted, and with it they were perfectly 
 contented and supremely happy. 
 
 Tafula; (pro. Tarm-ful-ah, hominy; corrupted to Tom- 
 fuller), is made of pounded corn boiled, using lye for fermen- 
 tation, and tafula tobi ibulhtoh (boiled corn niix^d with 
 beans) were, and are to the present 4ay, favorite dishes 
 among the Choctaws; nor need it be thought strange, as they 
 are dishes worthy the palate of the Stnost fastidious. The 
 tafula, their favorite and indispensable dish was put into alarge 
 bowl, around which all gathered, and each in turn using the 
 horn spoon to. replenish his waiting mouth with the coveted 
 luxury. But little pains was taken in .the preparation of 
 their food, which was as rude, though clean and nice, as the 
 means of preparing it. Having no tables or dishes, except 
 the wooden bowl, nor knives and forks, they squatted around 
 the pot of boiled meat and bowl of tafula, and each used his 
 or her fingers in extracting the contents of the pot, and con- 
 veying it to the mouth, and the horn spoon by turns in 
 doing obeisance to the tafula — all in perfect harmony and 
 jollity. , ' 
 
 They use another preparation for food called Botah 
 Kapussa, (cold flour) which was made of parched corn 
 pounded very fine; an ounce of which mixed with a little 
 water would in a few minutes become as thick as soup cooked 
 by a fire. Two or three ounces of this were sufficient to 
 sustain a man for a day. In their war' expeditions it 
 
 / 
 
232 HISTOKY Ol- THIS INDIANS. 
 
 was an indispensaU'e adju.ict — the sine qua non — to the 
 warrior's bill of fare, as they I'ould not shoot game, with the 
 rifle when upon the war-path in i}?eir enemy's territories for 
 fear of giving- notice of their preser.ce. Bunaha was another 
 foo^ much used in the long ag-o. It was made of pounded 
 meal mixed with boiled beans te whicli is added a little lye, 
 then made into a dough wrapped in corn husks and boiled. 
 Oksak (hickory nut), atapah (broken in) is :utill another; this 
 was made of pounded meal mixed with the meat of the 
 hickory nut instead of boiled beans, and cooked ns bunaha. 
 I l^ave eaten the three kinds, and found them very palatable. 
 
 They were great lovers of tobacco; yet never che\^ t^d it, 
 but confined its use exclusively to the pipe, in which they 
 smoked the weed mixed with the dried leaf of the aromatJ.'- 
 sumac, which imparted to the smoke, a delightful .ftiAvr, 
 agreeable even to the most fastidious nose. But they nww 
 have learned to chew, which I ascertained by actual observa- 
 tion, when riding over their country yisiting them during 
 the year 1884 to 1890. Fi-equently I have ridden several miles 
 with different Choctaws,, with whom I accidentally fell in com- 
 pany, and to whom I offered a chew of tobacco, which was 
 frequently accepted; and I noticed they chewed it with as 
 much apparent delight and gusto, as their white brothers, 
 proving themselves worthy rivals in the accomplished art. 
 However, I could state that the habit is not as universal, by 
 great odds, as among the white. 
 
 All the drudgery work about the house and the hunting 
 camp was done by the wife assisted by her children; an(l as 
 the wife of the Choctaw warrior and hunter was regarded as 
 the slave of her husband, so likewise may equally be 
 regarded the unfortunate wives of many of the boasted 
 civilized white men of this 10th century. 
 
 With the Choctaw wife, as with all Indians, parturition 
 was matter that gave no uneasiness' whatever; nor did it 
 interfere with her domestic affairs, but for a few hours. 
 Unlike her civilized sister, she neither required nor desired, 
 nor accepted any assistance whatever. I have known them 
 to give birth to a child during the night, and the next morn- 
 ing would find them at the cowpen attending to the affairs 
 of the dairy. To have a man physician, on such occasions, 
 was as abhorrent to her sense uf modesty and revolting to her 
 feelings, as it was wholly unnecessary. And the old cus- 
 tom is still adhered to by the present Choctaw wife and 
 mother. After a child was born, after undergoing the usual 
 necessary preliminaries, it was placed in a curiously con- 
 structed receptacle called UUosi afohka, (infant receptacle) 
 where it spent principally the first year of its life, only 
 
■ \ . . 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 11^ jIANS. 233 
 
 when taken out for the purpose o."i' washing and dressing-. 
 This curiously made little cradle rfor such it may truly be 
 called) was often highly ornamented with all the pharapher- 
 nalia that a mother's love and car^ could suggest or obtain. 
 The little fellow's face, which was always exposed to view, 
 was carefully protected by a piece of wood bent a few inches 
 above and over it. Conteiited as Diogenes in his tub, the 
 babe would remain in its little ' prison for hours without a 
 whimper; part of the time asleep, and part of the time awake 
 looking ai-ound in its, intiocence with calm and tranquil 
 resignation. According to her convenience, the rtiother sus- 
 pended her thus cradled child t»n her back, when walking, 
 or the saddle when riding;'or stood it up against a neighbor- 
 ing tree, if a pleasant day, that it might enjoy the fresh and- 
 pure air, and exhilarating sunshine; or suspend it to the 
 projecting limb of a tree there to be rocked to sleep and 
 pleasant dreams by the forest breeze. As soon as it was 
 old enough to begin to^crawl, it bade an informal adieu 
 to its former prison, but to be found 'perched upon its moth- 
 er's back, where it seemed well contented- in all its journeys 
 — long or short. It was triily astonishing with what appar- 
 enlt ease the Choctaw mother carried her child upon her back. 
 The child was placed high up between the shoulders of the 
 mother, aind over it was thirown a lai-ge blanket, which was 
 dravtntightly at the 'front of the. mother's neck, forming a 
 fold behind; in this the child was placed and safely carried, 
 with seeming'ly little inconvenience to either mother or child. 
 When the little chap had grown to such proportions as to be 
 no longer easily thus\ transported, he was fastenedv to the 
 saddle upon the back of a docile pony, which followed the 
 company at pleasure; though here and there stopping 
 momentarily to bite the tempting grass that grew along the 
 pathway, then briskly trotting up until it had again reached 
 its proper place in rank' and lile, indifferent to the jolting 
 experienced by the youthful rider tied upon its back, who, 
 however, seemed to regard it with stoical indifference. 
 When arrived at the age of four or five years, he was con- 
 sidered as having passed through his fourth and last chrys- 
 alis stage, and was then untied from the saddle and bid ride 
 for himself; and soon did the young horseman prove himself 
 a true scion of the parent tree, as a fearless and skillful 
 rider. ^ 
 
 Though the Allosi afohka has long since passed kway 
 with other ahcient customs, still the Choctaw mother carries 
 her child upon her back as she of a century ago, and loves it 
 with the same fond and strong love; and though she did not, 
 nor does not, express it by any outward manifestations, yet 
 
234 HISTC H" OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 her love was and is real, perfect and constant; nor was she 
 ever known to trust her babe to a hired nurse. The love 
 for their children and untiring devotion to their homes and 
 families, and their profound reg'ard for the aged^^ were in- 
 deed beautiful and touching traits in the characteristics of 
 the Choctaw women. In fact, the great respect and uniform 
 kindness paid by the Indians everywhere, and under all cir- 
 cumstance, to the aged of their people, might justly bring 
 the blush of shame upon the face of many of the 3'oung twigs 
 of the professed enlightened white race. The Choctaw 
 women of years ago were a merry, light-hearted race, and 
 their constant laugh and incessant prattle formed a strange 
 contrast to the sad taciturnity of the present day. The 
 easily conjectured cause precludes the necessity of being^ 
 mentioned here. 
 
 Adair (p. 89) says; "the Choctaws, in an early day» 
 practiced the custom of flattening the heads of their infants 
 by compres"sion,"and were first known to the whites by the 
 name of Flat Heads." ■ Be that as it may, the custom had 
 long ceased to be practiced, when later known. 
 
 Wherever they went, distant or otherwise, many or 
 few, they always traveled In a straight line, one behind the 
 other. They needed no broad roads, nor had they any; 
 hence, they dispensed with the necessity of that expense, 
 road-working, so grudgingly bestowed by all white men. 
 Paths alone, plain and straight, then led the Choctaws where 
 now are broads roads and long high brfdges, from village to 
 neighborhood, and from neighborhood tp village, though' many 
 miles apart; and so open and free of logs, bushes, and all 
 fallen timber, was their country then, rendered thus by their 
 annual burning off of the woods, it was an easy matter to travel 
 in any direction and any distance, except through the vast 
 cane-brakes that covered all the bottom lands, which alone 
 could be passed by paths. 
 
 On hunting excursions, when a parjty moved their camp 
 to another point in the woods, whethjer far or near, they 
 invariably left a broken bush with the top leaning in the 
 direction they had gone, readily comprehended by the practi- 
 ced eyeof the Choctaw hunter. They kept ona straight line to 
 where a turn was made, and whatever angle there taken, they 
 travelled it in a straight line, but left the broken bush at the 
 turn indicating the direction they had taken. If a wandering 
 hunter happens to stumble upon the late deserted camp and 
 desired to join its former occupants, the broken but silent 
 bush gave him fhe information as to the direction they had 
 gone. He took it and traveled in a straight line perhaps for 
 several miles; when suddenly his ever watchful eye saw a 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 23S 
 
 broken bush with its top leaning in another direction. He at 
 once interpreted its mystic language — ','Here a turn was 
 .made." He too made the turn indicated by the bush; and 
 thus traveled through the unbroken forest for miles, directed 
 alone by his silent but undeviating guide, which was sure to 
 lead him to his desired object. 
 
 All North Ailierican Indians, have always held their lands 
 ' in common; occupancy alone giving the right of possession, a 
 custom peculiar to the North American ({ndians, and a living 
 proof ojf practical communism, as far as land is concerned, at 
 least. When a Choctaw erected a house upon a spot of 
 ground, and prepared a few acres for his^orn, beans, potatoes^ 
 etc., so long as he resided upon it as his home, it was exclus- 
 ively his, and his rights were strictly respected by all; but if 
 he left it and moved to another place, then his claim to hi& 
 forsaken home was forfeited; and whoever saw proper could 
 go and take possession; nor was the second occupajit expected 
 to remunerate the first for the labor he had done, However, 
 if No. 1, afterward should desire to return to his previous 
 home he could do so, provided no one had taken possession. 
 The present time, if one improves a place and leaves, it, no one 
 has the right to take possession of the deserted place without 
 permission of the one who improved it. 
 
 The famous little Choctaw pony was a veritable forest 
 camel to the Choctaw hunter, as the genuine animal is to the 
 sons of Ishmael. His unwearied patience, and his seeming'ly" 
 untiring endurance of hardships and fatigue,' were truly 
 astonishing — surpassing, according to bis inches, every other 
 species of his race — and proving himself to be a worthy de- 
 scendant of his ancient parent, the old Spanish war-horse, 
 introduced by the early Spanish explorers of the continent. 
 In all the Choctaws' expeditions, except those of war in. 
 which they never used horses, the chubby little pony always 
 was considered an indispensable adjunct, thel'efore always 
 occupied a conspicuous place in the cavalcade. A packsaddle 
 which Choctaw ingenuity had invented expressly for the 
 benefit of the worthy little fellow's back, and finely adapted 
 in every particular for its purpose, was firmly fastened upon 
 his back, ready to receive the burden, which was generally 
 divided into three parts, each weighing from forty to fifty 
 pounds. Two of these were suspended across the saddle 
 by means of rawhide rope one-fourth of an inch in diameter 
 and of amazing strength, and the third securely fastened 
 upon the top, over all of which a bear or deer skin was 
 spread, which protected it from rain. All things being 
 ready, the hunter, as leader and protector,' took his position 
 in front, sometimes on foot and sometimes astride a pony of 
 
236 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. / 
 
 such diminutive proportions, that justice and mercy would 
 naturally have sugg-ested a reverse in the order of things, 
 and, with his' trusty rifle in his hand, without which he never 
 went anywhere, took up the line of marph, and directly after 
 whom, iri close order, the loaded ponies followed in regular 
 succession one behind the other, while the dutiful wife 
 and children brought up the rear in regular, successive 
 order, often with from three to five children on a single pony 
 — literally hiding the submissive little fellow from view. 
 Upon the neck of each pony a little bell was suspended, 
 whose tinkling chimes of various tones broke the monotony 
 of the desert air, and added cheerfulness to the novel scene. 
 Long accustomed to their duty, the faithful little pack-ponies 
 seldom gave any trouble, but in a straight line followed on 
 after their master; sometimes^ however, one here and there, 
 unable to withstand the temptation of the luxuriant grass 
 that offered itself so freely along the wayside, would make a 
 momentary stop to snatch a bite or twb, but the shrill, dis- 
 approving voice of the wife in close proximity behind, at once 
 reminded him of his dereliction of order and he would hastily 
 ti'ot up to his position; and thus the little caravan, with the 
 silence broken only by the tinkling pony bells, moved on amid 
 the dense timber of their majestic forests; until the declin- 
 ing sun gave warning of the near approaching night. Then 
 a halt was made, and the faithful little ponies, relieved of 
 their wearisome loads which they had borne throughout the 
 day with becoming and uncomplaining patience, were set 
 free' that they might refi-esh themselves upon the grass and 
 cane— nature's bounties to the Indian^that grew and cover- 
 ed the forests in wild abundance. Late next morning— (for 
 who ever knew, an Indian, in the common affairs of life, to be 
 in a hurry or to value time? Time! He sees it nut; he feels 
 it not; he regards it not. To him 'tis but a shadowv name — 
 a succession of breathings, measured forUi by the change of 
 night and flay by a shadow crossing the dial-path of life) 
 the rested and refreshed ponies were gathered in, and, each 
 having receivetthis former load, again the tinkling chimes of 
 the pony bells alone disturbed the quiet of the then far ex- 
 tending wilderness, announcing in monotonous tones the 
 onward march, as the day before, of the contented travelers; 
 and thus was the journey continued, day by day, until the 
 desired point was reached.' 
 
 The Indian unlike the white man, often received a new 
 name from some trivial incident or sonne extraordinary ad- 
 venture, which frequently occurred, especially in their wars. 
 Anciently the Choctaws and Muscogees were uncompromis- 
 ing enemies, ever making raids into each others territories. 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. ■ ' 337 
 
 At one time a Muscoycc party invaded the Choctaw cotmtry, 
 and made a sudden and unexpected attack upon a band of 
 Choctaw warriors. The Choctaws, thoug-h surprised, made 
 a brave resistance, and, after a short but furious fight, de- 
 feated and put their assailants to flight. A vigorous pursuit 
 at once ensued in which a fleet young Choctaw warrior nam- 
 ed Ahaikahno, (The Careless), had far in advance of his 
 comrades, killed a Muscogee, and was in the act of scalping 
 him, when two Muscogee warriors turned and rushedtoward 
 him with their utmost speed. The Choctaws in the rear, 
 seeing the danger of Aljaikahno, who was ignorant of his 
 two fast approaching foes, shouted to him with all the 
 strength of their voices — Chikke-bulilih chia! Chikke bulilih 
 chia! (pro. Chik-ke (Quickly) bul-elih (run) che-ah (you!). 
 Ahaikahno, hearing the shout and seeing his danger, was 
 not slow in heeding the advice. Ever afterwards Ahaikahno 
 bore the additional name Chikke Bulilih Chia. Both parties 
 lost many warriors in this short iiut bloody fight, and the 
 little mound erected by the Choctaws oVer the common grave 
 of their slain warriors was still to be seen dowfi to the year 
 of the Choctaw migration west, in l831-'2. 
 
 Nearly every river, creek, lake, rock, hill and vale, was 
 endeared to them, by a name given to it from some peculiar- 
 ity, some incident or adventure of the past, that wais signifi- 
 cant of the same; and in whibh were embodied the reihem-^ 
 brance of the heroic achievements of a long line of ances- 
 try; some in nature's rocks, mountains^ hills, dells> woods, 
 and waters; while others took substantial form in the im- 
 pressive memorials reared by loving hearts and willing hands 
 in the form of mounds over their dead. Many of those names 
 were beautifully significant; but alas, how corrupted by the 
 whites, to that extent indeed, that not even one has retained 
 its original purity. Think you, reader, it was an easy matter 
 for the Choctaws, with such a country as they then posses- 
 sed, endeared to them by ten thousand times ten thousand 
 ties as strong as were ever interwoven around the human 
 heart, to cut loose from this their ancient home, and set sail 
 on an unknown sea for distant ports in an unknown land, and 
 under the pilotage of those pretended ' friends, who they 
 bad found could riot be trusted. 
 
 Of all the wild aninials of the cane-brake, the wild boar 
 truly merited the name'of being the most dangerous, when 
 brought to bay, the panther or bear not excepted, and in at- 
 tacking him, coolness and a steady nerve were as necessary 
 as perfect marksmanship. In this kind of sport a novice would 
 always find it the better part of valor to keep in mind that 
 "distance lends enchantment to the view;" for he seldom 
 
238 HISTORY OF THE INDIAKS. 
 
 made a charge without leaving- his mark, since that charg^e 
 I can attest by frequent observation, was no child's play. One 
 stroke with his long, keen tusks, was all he wanted to kill an 
 offending dog, or even disembowel a horse; and woe to the 
 hunter that carelessly or with foolhardiness approached too 
 near; if he failed to make a dead-shot, his life was the forfeit; 
 for with the rush of a whirlwind, and the agility of a cat, he 
 sprang from his lair, and more sure and fatal was his stroke 
 as he passed, than the stroke of a dagger in the hands of an 
 enraged man. An effectual shot was only made by shooting 
 him through the brain, as his shoulders were protected by 
 a massive shield extending from his short neck two-thirds of 
 the way to the hips, and impervious even by a ball shot from 
 the rifle of that day; his' enormous head, set of by ears about 
 Ihe size of a man's hand, standing straight up, and his pow- 
 erful jaws, armed with four fearful tusks, two short stubby 
 ones protruding from the upper and two long, dagger-like 
 ones from the lower lips, with a backward curve, combined 
 with his strength and activity, rendered him a formidable 
 foe, and made him truly the monarch of the Mississippi cane- 
 brake 70 years ago. From his short legs and sluggish ap- 
 pearance, when secretly seen from a distance moving about 
 at his leisure, one would have supposed him slow in point of 
 speed; but such was not the case. For as soon as you gave 
 him a good cause to bestir himself, he .did it to such a good 
 purpose that it was hard for a common horse to escape his 
 pursuit for a short distance, or to overtake him in his flight. 
 But of the two contingencies the latter, so far as the hunter 
 was concerned, was immeasurably the safer; since his temper 
 was as short as his legs, and very little indeed sufficed his 
 boarship's philosophy to constitute sufficient provocation, to 
 make a sudden whirl, present and about face, and instantly 
 make a furious charge; then, if the horseman was not as 
 quick to make the turn, there vvas a collision, always to the 
 great advantage of the boar. 
 
 To intrude upon his retreat when at bay,/ even though 
 no malicious propensities had been proven against the tres- 
 passer, was madness; for he charged the intruder without 
 hesitatioi^ and with positively such terrific impetuosity that 
 proved there w^s no reservation about his conduct nor 
 opportunity intended to be given to the incautious visitor for 
 making any mistake as to his intentions; and he then and 
 there learned to his entire satisfaction that, if he intended to 
 have apologized to his boarship, it would be policy to do so in 
 writing at some future day; as, at that moment, it was de- 
 cidedly the best to get out of the way nor seek leisure for 
 explanation of the intrusion, since the monster was coming 
 
' HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ; 339' 
 
 down upon him, with now and then a siTort, that emphatically 
 said, "Out you go," as intelligibly as ever snorts said any- 
 thing, yet singularly exprefesive, unmistakably meaning 
 prompt ejection from his premises; and though his 
 progeny were styled the "racers, razor backs, subsbilers, 
 jumpers, and rail splitters," by the early white settlers, yet, 
 with his fleetness, agility, strength and savage snout armed 
 with those terrible tusks— ^veritable lancets indeed — which in 
 many instances grew to incredible dimensions both in size 
 and length — his majesty was justly styled the undisputed 
 monarch of the Mississippi cane-brakes. His courage was 
 indeed fearless and defiant, and with a reckless ferocity that 
 no sane hunter had the nerve to resolutely receive. Oft he 
 waited not for presumptuous provocation, but waged 'war 
 at once on hunter and dogs as soon as trespassing on his 
 domains,. whom he calmly faced with a defiant front that, 
 indicated a business propensity not to be safely misjudged, 
 as he slowly turned from side to side seemingly to scan the 
 immediate surroundings and take in the situation; but when 
 he set himself to going after man or dog, he displayed an 
 agility and address which those who have once experienced 
 it pronounced amazing, nor desires ever again to test his 
 boarship's peculiarities by personal experience. He often 
 wandered companionless, then he became more morose and 
 malignant, and more dangerous to intrude upon. One of 
 this character, for reasons best known to himself, ventured 
 under the cover of a dark night, to sleep with the tame hogs 
 belonging to the missionary station, Hebron, over which ^r. 
 Calvin Cushman had jurisdiction, soon after the exodus of 
 the Choctaws.. At that early day, hounds were a protective 
 necessity against the carnivorous wild animals that numer- 
 ously abounded in the forests, though Mr. Calvin Cushman 
 was never known to fire a gun at a wild animal of any kind, 
 ■or to go into the woods as a hunter, but left that wholly to 
 others, among whom his three sons were generally found. 
 The visitor had overslept himself, or, at least, was a little - 
 dilatory the next morning in starting for his home in the 
 cane-brake, and thus,vvas discovered about daybreak, .by one 
 of the hounds between whom and his boarship uncompromis- 
 ing hostility existed. At once the hound gave notice to his 
 companions in the yard <Jf the presence of their hated and 
 dreaded enemy by loud and vociferous barking,_ to which the 
 whole pack, gave iminediate response by rushing headlong 
 over the vard fence, and in full cry hastened to the call of 
 their fellow. At once they rushdd for the wild intruder, 
 who, taking in the surroundings, broke at once for his citadel 
 in the swamp two miles away across an injtervening forest 
 
240 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 with no undergrowth in which to shelter himself in case of 
 being overtaken by his pursuing foes. My brother and I, 
 knowing from the wild outcry of the hdumls that they had 
 discovered some wild animal of merit, seized our rifles, rushed 
 to the barn, saddled our hunting horses and mounted; then 
 list/ned a moment to ascertain the bearings jOf the hounds 
 whose cry was now faintly heard in the distance, but gave 
 evidence that the object of their pursuit was no small matter. 
 At once we started at full speed through the open forest, and, 
 after running a mile or more, stopped to listen, when we 
 ascertained that they had overtaken the night intrudei^ 
 whatever he was, and brought him to bay, but still nearly a 
 mile distant; Again we put our horses at full sliced, and 
 thus continued until we had reached the top di a high ridge» 
 where came into full view, about three hundred yards distant, 
 the hounds encircling a huge wild boar. For a minute we 
 silently stood and gazed upon the exciting scene. 
 
 The hounds (eight in number) knovving, fi-om sad e-i- 
 perience, the characteristics of their foe, were running this 
 way and that around the old monarch of the canebrake, but 
 observing the judicious caution to keep twenty or thirty feet 
 distant from him, who defiantly stood in the centre of 
 the circle and boldly solicited closer quarters. No under- 
 growth obstructed our view, and the whole play was being 
 enacted before us. Now a hound would make a dash at his 
 rear only to be met by the about face of the agile boar, which 
 caused the hound to also make an about face followed by a 
 hasty retreat, then one would succeed in giving him a snap 
 in the rear, which cAused the boar, not only to make a quick- 
 turn, but also to make a rush for a few paces after the now 
 retreating dog, but to be again pinched in the rear by some 
 one of his more venturesome assailants. Finally one made a 
 dash at the rear of the boar with high expectations of secur- 
 ing a good bite; but poor Pete was not quick enough in his 
 whirl, for the boar, in his sweep, struck him with his curv- 
 ing tusks upon the thigh making an ugly wound three or 
 four inches in length and to the bone. Pete at once acknowl- 
 edged his defeat by a shrill cry and immediate retreat to the 
 rear. Thinking it time to take a hand in the fray, we dis- 
 mounted, and leaving our horses concealed, cautiously ad- 
 vanced to the scene of action, but taking care not to let his 
 boarship learn of our proximity. But not much danger of 
 that, as his attention was wholly engaged with the still tor- 
 menting dogs. When we had approached within a hundred 
 yards, \ye halted behind a large tree and formed our plan of 
 attack, .-IS we silently peeped from our hiding place and \\l-\v- 
 cd the scLtic. 'J^h«i boar was still ignorant of our i)rcsenct'; 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 241 
 
 but the hounds had evidently stispected our presence some- , 
 where, by frequently looking back and sniffing the air, and 
 then barking' more vigorously at the boar and making bolder 
 and more frequent ajttacks upon his rear. 
 
 He was truly a magnificent specimen of his race, of a 
 sandy color, full grown, and in fine condition. His huge 
 head was adorned with enormous, curving tusks with one 
 sweep of which he could cut a man, dog or horse into 
 threads. His little red eyes, nearlj- cdvered with shaggy- 
 hair, now glowed like coafs of fire, beneath a pair of ears 
 about the size of a man's hand which stood perfectly erect; 
 'his tail, though curled once at his body, nearly touched the 
 ground with its long shaggy hairs; his cavernous mouth was- 
 white with foam — proof that he was mad all over; his bristles 
 about four inches long, extended from his ears to his tail, 
 and stood up erect and stiff, while every hair upon his body 
 seemingly quivered with rage; the massive sinews of his 
 great chest stood out like small ropes as he turned from side 
 to side, exposing also to view the outlines of the almost im- 
 pervious shield that enveloped his shoulders. He was truly 
 an incarnation of immense strength, activity, courage, and 
 brutal ferocity. j 
 
 Our curiosity being satisfied in yiewing his dimensions 
 and appearance, it was resolved that my brother, who was 
 the more courageous and the better marksman, should crawl 
 to a large tree that stood exactly between us and the boar, 
 which would bring him within fifty or sixty yards of his boar- 
 ship, and also, the sure range of his rifle, while I was to keep 
 my position as a rear guard in case of a Compulsory retreats 
 By good fortune he gained the tree uno*5served by hound or 
 boar; then arose to his feet and brought his rifle to his shoul- 
 der, with the barrel resting against the right side of the tree,, 
 thus being enabled to keep his body wholly concealed. Soon 
 I saw the boar turn his head, exactly toward the tree and in- 
 stantly the crack of the rifle mingled with the baying of the 
 hounds, and the fierce brute pitched over on his nose to be 
 instantly covered with exultant dogs who bit and snapped 
 their fallen foe. We hurried up, only to see §. convulsive shiver 
 run through the huge mass of flesh and bone, and the fierce 
 glare of the eye as it died out slowly ,Jike a coal fading in the 
 sunlight as the white ashes cover it. The rifle ball had ac- 
 complished its mission of death. 
 
 In conclusion, I will but ajid: If those, who to-day talk 
 about dangerous game, would like to enjoy a rough and tum- 
 ble encounter, I would, could I recall the last seventy years, 
 recommend to them a wild boar of the. Mississippi cane- 
 
 \ 
 
242 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 breaks, with strong testimonials; nor would they have far to 
 go, at that day, to find him. 
 
 O-ka-it-tib-ih-ha- county, Mississippi, as well as its 
 sister counties, has been the scene of many hard strugg'les 
 between the contending- warriors of the different tribes, 
 who inhabited the noble old state in years of the long past; 
 not only from the statements and traditions of the Choctaws, 
 who were among the last of the Indian race whose council- 
 fires lit up her forests, and whose hoyopatassuha died away 
 upon her hills, but also from the numerous fortifications and 
 intrenchments, that were plainly visible, ere the ploughshare 
 had upturned her virgin soil, and her native forests still 
 stood in their primitive beauty and grandeur. From those 
 rude fortifications, plainly identified many years after the 
 advent of the missionaries, strong positions were evidently 
 held by each contending party; yet they seemed to have 
 been constructed with no regard to mathematical skill, but 
 rather as circumstances demanded or would admit, 'Such 
 at least were the intrenchments enclosing the Shakchi 
 Humma old fort; and the many evidences, such as rusted 
 tomahawks, arrow-heads, human bone», teeth and fragments 
 of skulls that were continually being ploughed up for 
 many years, proved the hard contested tight of the Shak- 
 chi Hummas and the allied Choctaws and Chickasaws; and 
 that the brave but greatly put-numbered Shakchi Hummas 
 had disputed every inch of the ground, and had only yielded 
 to the superior numbers of the combined Choctaws and 
 Chickasaw warriors. The ancient Choctaws, as well as all 
 other Indians, did notconfine their battles to forts and in- 
 trenchments, but fought as circumstances offered, oftener 
 in small bodies than in large. Hence, they never drew out 
 thdr forces in open field, but fought from behind trees, 
 stumps and logs; each seeking every possible advantage of 
 his enemy, regarding all advantages gained as wholly at- 
 tribuiable to superior skill; all advantages lost, to want 
 of.it. 
 
 According to the statements made by the Choctaws to 
 Mr. Calvin Cushman, when first established among them 
 as a missionary, nearly eighty years ago, the Shakchi 
 Hummas, a warlike and very overbearing tribe of Indians, 
 were wholly exterminated by the combined forces of the 
 Choctaws and Chickasaws about the year 1721. 
 
 I was personally acquainted with a remarkable old Choc- 
 taw warrior, by the name of Ish-iah-hin-la, (you liable to go) 
 who claimed to have fought through the Shakchi Humma 
 war. lie was said to be llic last surviving Choctaw warrior 
 of. that memorable conllict, and died in 1H2M at the advanced 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 343 
 
 sage of 107 years, SO he claimed to be. Indeed the old war- 
 rior's w^hite locks, wrinkled face, shriveled and decrepit 
 body, indicated life's journey to have reached that point; 
 and, as long-evity was frequent at that time (as even to-day) 
 among the Indians, many then living whose ages reached 
 eighty and ninety years. I did not doubt the old man's state- 
 ment. He took great delight in relating many incidents of 
 that war and oft amused my boyish fancy in telling many 
 thrilling scenes in which he participated . This war had its 
 ■origin from the overbearing disposition of the Shakchi Hum- 
 mas, and the frequent murders committed by their war par- 
 ties upon the Choctaws and Chickasaws. The account, as 
 related bj-^ the Choctaws to the missionaries, is in substance, 
 about as -follows: Many years after the Choctaws and 
 Chickasaws had established . themselves east of the Missis- 
 sippi river, a Choctaw chief, named Shakchi Humma (Craw- 
 fish Red), recrossed the Mississippi river, with his family 
 and a large number of his adherents, and established a col- 
 ony (under the name of their chief, Shakchi Humma) in, 
 now the state of Arkansas, 
 
 In the. course of years this colony became greatly en- 
 larged by cofastant accessions; and, with increasing nunibers 
 and strength, also became insolent and overbearing to that 
 extent that a war arose between them and another tidbe, in 
 Avhich they were defeated and driven' back over the Missis- 
 sippi to their former country. After being established 
 there, (not as Choctaws but as Shakchi Hummas, disregard- 
 ing their ancient kindred ties) they adopted- an arrogant and 
 aggressive policy towards both the Choqtaws and Chicka- 
 saws, who, provoked beyond longer endurance, formed a 
 secret alliance in an exterminating war against the Shakchi 
 Hummas. 1 
 
 Then followed a three years war of extermination (fa- . 
 mous in Choctaw tradition) culminating, at the battle of Oski 
 Hlopah and blotting out the Shakchi Humma nation. The , 
 Choctaws and Chickasaws' took the warpath together, re- 
 solving to exterminate their insolent enemies or be exter- 
 minated themselves. At thisjuncture, several large parties, 
 of Shakchi Hummah hunters were camped on Noxubee 
 creek, ' as much game had congregated there owing to the 
 destruction of the range in many pai-ts of the country by the 
 accidental fall fires. The Choctaws, being aware of the lo- 
 cality of the Shakchi Humma hunters, opened the war by 
 making an unexpected attack upon them and slew the greater 
 part, throwing their dead bodies into the cr^ek which caused 
 an awful stench, which ^ave .the name Nahshobili to the 
 creek, and opened hostilities in good earnest between the 
 
244 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 I 
 
 Choctaws and Chickasaws on one side and the Shakchi 
 Hummas'on the other. 
 
 Extermination beings th ewar-cry adopted b}' the con- 
 testants, both parties fought with desperation. But, un- 
 expectedly as the two allied tribes had rushed upon their 
 unsuspecting' and unprepared enemies (thus in the outset 
 gaining great advantage) yet the ShakcHi Hummas soon 
 rallied from their discomfiture caused by their surprise; and 
 then commenced one of those fierce and bloody conflicts, so 
 oft engaged in by the Red Men in the years of the hoary 
 past, but known only to themselves. In union there is strength, 
 IS (an old but true adage; and thus it proved to the Choctaws 
 and Ghickasaws, Though fortune for a while appeared to 
 waver, vacillating from the one side to the other and seeming 
 at a loss on whom to bestow her smiles, but finally looked 
 with favor upon the two allied tribes. The Shakchi Hummas, 
 after many reverses and great losses, finally sought to pro- 
 tract the strong struggle by taking refuge in their intrenched 
 villages. But one after another of these fell into the hands of 
 the victorious Choctaws and Chickasaws, who now had 
 become fearless by their success, and, e're the third year of 
 the desperate conflict had closed, every village had been 
 taken, and destroyed, and the majorify of the inhabitants 
 slain. The few who esca^d united their strength and finally 
 took their last stand at a point now known as Lyon's bluff on 
 Oski Hlopah (Cane stripped) river known now as Trimcane,. 
 about nine miles northeast of Starkville, Mississippi, hope- 
 less, yet determined to fight to the death. Sheltered by a 
 few logs and banks of earth, the last of that once powerful 
 and arrogant tribe, now' fought as only men in despair can 
 and do fight, sending many of their enemies to precede them 
 to the hunting grounds in the great beyond. How true it is, 
 that man is a being, when placed in danger and devoid of 
 hope — that oasis amid the arid desert of life — who is to be 
 dreaded! When hope has fled, despair ^isurps its place; and 
 none despair till they behold death staring them in the face; 
 and when life, with all its beautiful shades and colors, is 
 bleached with the bitterness of death, 'tis then man becomes 
 desperate; and even the n^pat timid have then accomplished 
 feats of daring seemingly incredible. Such was the forlorn 
 hope cooped up in that little fort, if fort it might be called. 
 Surrounded on all sides without the possibility /of escape, 
 and sheltered only by a few logs and piles of dirt; yet they 
 baffled all attempts of their enemies to dislodge them. 
 
 Like tigers at bay, they fought day and night, though 
 hour by hour tliinncd in numbers, till' :it List Init few re- 
 mained; yet tliat handful yielde<l not, n<;r iisKed fur <|«;irler, 
 
HISTO.RY OF THE INDIANS. 245 
 
 but singingf their death song-, and ever and anon hurling 
 back their defiant war-whoops, they continued, to fight, kill- 
 ing everyone who attempted to scale their little breast-work 
 ■of logs and earth. For many days did the warriors of that 
 log and mud fort successfully hold out, bravely driving back 
 their assailants in every charge. At length, the Choctaws 
 and Chickasaws, maddened at the obstinate resistance of the 
 now desperate Shakchi Hummas, and the continued falling 
 here and there of, their own warriors, with a mighty rush 
 broke over the feebly defended walls of logs and earth, but 
 to be ipet by the little squad of still defiant Shakchi Hum- 
 mas, who received them with the last shout of their still defi- 
 ant war-whoop. Then, for a few moments, was heard the 
 clashing and ringing of the tomahawks as the busy scene of 
 death went on; each Shakchi Humma warrior fighting, not 
 for life or for glory, but in mad despair — seeking to kill ere 
 he was killed. But jsoon the last death-dealing blow was 
 struck that blotted out forever the Shakchi tlumma Nation. 
 Only one of, the whole tribe was left, and that one was a 
 young girl about sixteen or eighteen years of age, who was 
 spared on account of her wonderful beauty. She was adopt- 
 ed by the Choctaws, and lived to be nearly or quite a bun-' 
 dred years old, and was living some y?ars after the advent 
 of the missionaries among them. Mr. H. Peden, who lived 
 fourteen miles from Hebron, the home of Mr. Calvin Cush- 
 man, stated that Mr. P. P. Pitchlynn, who had often spoken 
 to him of this old Shakchi Humma captive, one day pointed 
 her out to him at a religious meeting of the Choctaws. Mr. 
 Peden stated that she was the oldest looking huinan being 
 that he had ever seen, and from her appearance, he judged 
 her to be over a century old. She died a few years before 
 the venerable old warrior, Stahenka; but lived to hear the 
 tidings of the Cross preached to her race, though the only 
 survivor of her own tribe, exterminated in the bright morn 
 of her youthful biit eventful' life. Alas, the single combats 
 ■of the heroes of history or fable may ^muse the fancy and 
 engage the admiration; the skillful evolutions of wai'^ may 
 inform the mind; but in the uniform and terrible picture of 
 a general assault, all is blood, horror and desolation; nor shall 
 I further attempt to delineate, at the distance of nearly two 
 centuries, a scene at which the actors themselves were in- 
 capable of forming any just or adequate idea. But such is 
 the only history of the Shakchi Hummas whose blood still 
 runs in the veins of a few Choctaws — descendants of the girl 
 .saved at the tragic destruction of her tribe— one of whom 
 became a chief of the Choctaws and died in 1884 at his home 
 
246 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 a few miles east of Atoka, Choctaw Natibn, Indian Territory. 
 His name is Coleman Cole. 
 
 The Choctaws, like all of their race, had no written laws, 
 and their government rested alone on custom and usag'e, 
 g^rowing out of their possessions and their wants ; yet was 
 conducted so harmoniously by the influence of their native 
 genius and experience, that one would hardly believe 
 that human society could be maintained with sq 
 little artifice. As they had no money, their traffic con- 
 sisted alone in mutual exchange of all commodities ; as 
 there was no employment of otters for hire, there 
 were no contracts, hence judges and lawyers,, sheriffs 
 and jails were unknown among thenl. There were no beg- 
 gars, no wandering tramps, no orphan children unprovided 
 for in their country, and deformity was almost unknown, 
 proving that nature in the wild forest of the wilderness is 
 true to her/type. Their chief had no crown, no sceptre, no 
 body guards, no outward symbols of authority, nor power to 
 give validity to their commands, but sustained their author- 
 ity alone upon the good opinion of their tribe. No Choctaw 
 ever worshipped his fellow man, or submitted his will to the 
 humiliating subordinations of another, but with that senti- 
 ment of devotion that passed beyond the region of humanity, 
 and brought him in direct contact with nature and the imag- 
 inary beings by whom it was controlled, which he divined but 
 could not fathom; to these, and these alone, he paid his hom- 
 age, invoking their protection in war and their aid in the 
 chase. 
 
 The ancient Choctaws believed, and those of the present 
 day believe, and I was informed by Governor Basil LeFlore,. 
 in 1884, (since deceased) that there is an appointed time for 
 every one to die; hence suicide appeared to them as an act 
 of the meanest cowardice. Though they regarded it as a 
 sacrilege to mention the names of their dead, still they spoke 
 of their own approaching death with calmness and tran- 
 quility. No people on earth paid more respect to their dead,, 
 than the Choctaws did and still do; or preserved with more 
 affectionate veneration the graves of their ancestors. They 
 were to them as holy relics, the only pledges of their history; 
 hence, accursed was he who should despoil the dead. They 
 had but a vague idea of future rewards and punishments. 
 To them a future life was a free gift of the Great Spirit, and 
 the portals of the happy hunting grounds would be opened 
 to them, in accordance as their life had been meritorious as 
 a brave war-rior. They were utterly ignorant of the idea of 
 a general resurrection, and it was difficult for them to be in- 
 duced to believe that the body would again 'be raised up. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 247 
 
 But to-day finds the Choctaws advanced in knowledg'e aiid 
 improvement, which has produced a revolution in their moral 
 and intellectual ctondition and in the current of their thoughts 
 and ideas. Though seemingly slow to many , has been their 
 progress, yet not more so than other nations. For it must 
 "be remembered, that to-day .there are many nations on the 
 eastern continent, where a knowledge of letters has been 
 known for centuries, and whose intellectual advantages liave 
 been much supei-ior to that of the North American Indians, 
 who have not yet reached that moral and intellectual culture 
 that many tribes of the Indians have. It required over 2000 
 years for us to rise from a state of savage barbai-ity to our 
 present state of advancement, though, 'tis true they have 
 had, to a small extent, the advantages of our civilization; but 
 when we take into consideration the great disadvantages 
 which even the five civilized tribes have laborifed under and 
 the many oppositions they have had to encounter fi-om .first 
 to last, in their commendable efforts to moral and intellectual 
 improvement, (though enjoying the advantages of the teach- 
 ings of the faithful and noble missionary for half a century) 
 from the corrupting influences and pernicious examples i of 
 the base white men who have ever chrsed their country, even 
 as fated Egypt of old was cursed by the visitations of the 
 locusts, frogs and lice, we have just and good reasons to, be 
 surprised that they have made the progress they have. 
 
 As a proof of the Indian's love of country and the scenes 
 of his childhood, so cruelly denied^him by his oppressors, I 
 will state that a few iears after they had moved west, a few 
 Choctaw warriors, seemingly unable to resist the desire of 
 once more looking upon the remembered scenes 6f the un- 
 forgotten past, returned to the homes of their youth; for 
 a few weeks they lingered around, the very , pers^onification 
 of hopeless woe, with a peculiar something in their manner 
 and appearance, which seemed to speak their thoughts as 
 absently following a lojig dreatti that was leading them to 
 the extreme limits of their once interminable fatherland. 
 But their souls could not b^ook the change, or the ways of 
 the pale-face. They gazed awhile, as strangers in a strange 
 land, then turned in silence and sorrow from the loved vision 
 theynever'would enjoy or look upon again, but which they 
 never would forget, and once more directed th6ir steps to- 
 ward the setting sun and were seen no more,^ But nothing 
 strange in this; for who does not delight, eveti in after years 
 to return to the well remembered walks of early life! the 
 touch of the long vanished hands, and the'echo of the voices 
 that are hushed, all seem to return,' reminding us in touch- 
 ing accents of unutterable patbQg,,of the days that are no 
 
'248 HISTORY OF THE INDiAnS. 
 
 morel ag-ain are we united with the days of childhood, call- 
 ing up by-gone joys. Truly, what a hallowing glory invests 
 ■our past, beckoning us back to. the haunts of boyhood's daysl 
 again the songs we sang sweep o'er the harp of memory in 
 tones of sweetest melody! again the faces that early went 
 down to the tomb, that cheerless habitation of the dead, 
 smile on us with unchanging love and tenderness. The 
 pastl To every heart, what a fairy land. Who would not 
 keep the memory of those days unsullied, unalloyed from 
 those that raise a sadness in the soul! Ah! as a token from 
 some lost loved one, whose name is orily spoken within the 
 secrets of the heart, would I cherish and keep them with 
 memories that never die. 
 
 The Indians have ever been termed a nomadic^ race, and 
 as such have been represented by all who have written about 
 them. There certainly never has a gr.eater error been pro- 
 mulgated about any people. I refer to the southern Indians 
 who formerly lived ea^t of the Mississippi river. How far 
 "the Indians of the western plains may merit the title, I 
 will not attempt to judge, being but little acquainted with 
 their habits and customs, ancient or modern. But I have no 
 fears in saying that no people merited less the appellation, 
 nomadic, than those who formerly dwelt east of the Missis- 
 sippi river. Webster, the standard authority, gives the defi- 
 nition of nomadic as signifying, "Moving from place to 
 place," and how that word could in any way justly be ap- 
 plied to the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Muscogee Indians, who 
 were never known to move in the knovvledge of the whites, 
 until moved by them from their ancient domains to their 
 present location, is a difficult matter to comprehend. In 
 1540, De Soto found them in the very spot from which the 
 .government moved them in 1832, 1836, and 1840. In 1623, 
 the early settlers of Virginia found them exactly where De 
 Soto had left them. When the French established them- 
 selves in Mobile, Alabama, they found them still where the 
 Viginia settlers had found them. In 1735, the Carolina 
 traders found them exactly where De Soto, the Virginians 
 and the French had found them. In 1744, Adair found them 
 still \yhere De Soto, the Virginians, the French, and the 
 Carolina traders, had found them, and lived among the 
 Chickasaws thirty years. In 1771, Roman still found them 
 at the very place where De Soto, the Virginianrs, t)ie French, 
 the (".irolina traders and Adair, had found tliom; and slates, 
 in his travels ' through the Choctaw Nation, he passed 
 through seventy of their towns. In 1815, the missionaries 
 still found theni exactly where De Soto, the Virginians, the 
 I'^iench, tho.earoliiiian traders, Achiir, and Koman had found 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS ,249 
 
 them. In 1833, the United States Government found them 
 still where De Soto, the Virg-inians,. the French, the Caro- 
 lina traders, Adair, Roman, and the missionaries had found 
 them, and moved them to their present place of abode in 
 1832; and 1899, A. D. finds them just where the government 
 put them sixty-seven years ago. So they have "moved from 
 place to place," once in 359 yeirs, and then moved by the 
 -force of arbitrary power, they ar^ called nomadic. ( 
 Of the Indians it may be truly said: " 
 
 "But on the natives of that land misused, 
 
 Not lOBg.the sUenoe of amazement hung, ^ / 
 
 Nor brooked they long their friendly faith abused; 
 For with a common shriek, the general tongue 
 Exclaimed, 'to arms '.' and fast to arms they sprung." 
 
 They were truly men of the past, as well as men of the 
 •woods, yet noble and true, glorying in their ancestors, and 
 living in their deeds by reverencing what they had handed 
 down to them. 
 
 The Choctaws, from their ^arliejst history, have ever 
 maintained their independence, and their love of country, 
 amounting to almost idolatry, which cannot be described by 
 words ; and, in defending it, they utterly despised danger 
 and mocked at fear. • 
 
 Having no alphabet nor written language', their know- 
 ledg:e was conveyed to the eye by rude imitation. In the 
 pictures of various animals which had been drawn on smooth 
 substance, a piece of bark, or tree, there he recognized a 
 symbol of his tribe; and in these various figures which he 
 «aw sketched here and there, he read messages from his 
 friends. The rudest painting, though silent and unintelligi- 
 ble to I, the white man, told its tale to the Choctaws. He 
 abhorred restraint of any kind, while liberty, free and un- 
 restrained, was the ruling passion of ,his soul; the natural 
 and unrestrained propensities of his wild nature were his 
 system of morals, to which he firmly adhered and tenaciously 
 followed. They had no calendar, but reckoned time thus: 
 The months, by the full or crescents moons; the years by 
 the killing of the vegetation by the wintry frosts. Thus, for 
 two years ago the Choctaw would say: Hushuk (grass) illi 
 (dead) tuklo (twice); literally, grass killed twice, or, more 
 properly, two killings of the grass ago. The sun was called 
 Nittak hushi — the Day-sun; and the moon, Neuak hushi, 
 the Night-sun and sometimes, Tekchi hushi —the Wife 
 of the sun. Their almanac was kept by the flight of 
 the fowls of the air; whose coming and going announced to 
 them the progress of thd* advancing and departing 
 
250 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 seasons. Thus the fowls of the air announced to the then 
 blessed and happy Choctaw the prog'ress of the seasons, 
 while the beasts of the field g-ave to him warning- of the 
 g-athering- and approaching- storm, and the sun marked to 
 him the hour of the day; and so the; changes of time were 
 noted, not by figures, but by days, sleeps, suns and moons — 
 signs that spoke the beauty and poetry of nature. If a shorter 
 time than a day was required to be indicated two parallel 
 lines were drawn on the ground, a certain distance apart, 
 then poiriting to tHe sun he would say: "It is as long as it 
 would take the sun to move from there to there." The time 
 indicated by the moon was from its full to the next; that of 
 the year, from winter to winter ag^ain, or from summer to 
 summer. To Keep appointments, a bundle of sticks contain- 
 ing the exact number of sticks as there were days from the 
 day of appointment'to the appointed, was kept; and every 
 morning one was taken out and thrown away, the last stick 
 announced the arrival of the appointed. This bundle of 
 twigs was called Full (sticks) kauah (broken) broken sticks. 
 
 The abundant game of his magnificent and wide extended 
 forests, which he never killed in wanton sport, no more than 
 a white man would kill his cattle, but only as his necessities 
 demanded, together with the fish of his beautiful streams, 
 his fields of corn, potatoes, beans, with that of the inexhaus- 
 tible supplies of spring and summer berries of fine variety 
 and flavor, and winter nuts, all united to consummate his 
 earthly bliss in rendering him a successful huntsman, 
 a good fisherman, and cheerful tiller of the ground. 
 The Choctaws have long been known to excel all the North 
 American Indians in agriculture, subsisting to a considerable 
 extent on the produce of their fields. In mental capacity the 
 Choctaws, as a race of people, both ancient and modern, were 
 and are not inferior to the whites; and their domestic life, 
 as I know them seventy years ago, would sustain in many 
 respects, a fair comparison with average civilized white com- 
 munities. Their perspective faculties were truly wonder- 
 ful; and the Choctaws of to-day, to whom the advantages of 
 an education have been extended, have given indisputable 
 evidence of as great capacity for a high order of education 
 as any people on earth, I care not of what nationality. 
 
 There were po degrees of society among them, no dif- 
 ference in social gatherii;igs; all felt thepiselves equal, of the 
 same standing and on the same terms of social equality. 
 And it is the same to day. They had nosur-names,yet their 
 names were peculiar, and most always significant, express- 
 ive of some particular action or incidenrt; even as the names 
 given to their hills, rivers, creeks, towns and villages. As 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. / 251 
 
 those of ancient, classic fame in the eastern world, so to the 
 superstitious mind of the Choctaw of the, western world, 
 caused him also to regard the sudden a|)pearance of certain 
 birds and their chirpingfs and twittering's, the howl i of the 
 wolf and thelonely hootoftheowl,asomeflsbf evil,whilepthers 
 asomensof good; the spiritual significance of which, however, 
 he interpireted according to the dictation of his own judg- 
 ment, instead of that of an augur differing in this particular 
 from his ancieiit brothers of Rome and Greece; yet like them 
 he undertook no important enterprise without first Consult- 
 ing his trusted signs, whether auspicious or otherwise* , If < 
 the former, he hesitated not its undertaking; if the latter, no 
 inducement could be offered that would prevail upon him to 
 undertake it; but he returned to his , cabin and there re- 
 mained for favorable omens. 
 
 But how far may be found a more just cause for admi- 
 ration of the religious superstitions of the ancient Romans 
 and Grecians than that of the North American Indians, it is 
 difficult to see, since the Iiidians, alike with them, acknowl- 
 edged, everywhere in nature, the presence of invisible be- 
 ings; and it was the firm belief that his interests were under 
 the special care of the Great aiid Good Spirit that the Choc- 
 taw warrior went upon the war-path, arid the hunter sought 
 the solitudes of his native forests in search of his game; and 
 that his career in life was mairked out for him by a decree 
 that could not be altered. True, he was free to act, but the 
 consequences of those actions were fixed , beforehand; his 
 daily food, life, joys, all, everything, were acknowledged as 
 coming from the Great S.pirit, who' knew all things and im- 
 parted his wisdom to man; rewaraed good deeds and pun- 
 ished crimes; implanted unwritten laws of right and wrong 
 on the human heart, and unfolded to him comigig events 
 through dreams. The mystery of nature ha,d its' influence 
 upon the untutored minds of all Indians, as well as its phe- 
 nomena upon his senses; which, to them, were represented 
 by the inferior " spirits that surround the Great Spirit, who 
 was the all-controlling deity; and to Him they all turned in 
 gratitude for blessings, and for aid in all the affairs of life. 
 Surely, it is the part of humanity in us,who have lived under 
 a higher dispensation, in tracing the deep influences that 
 the mythology of this strange, wonderful and peculiar peo- 
 ple had over theip; to admire rather than condemn wi|;hout 
 admitting the many extenuating circumstances. And 
 though the rites and ceremonies of the Indians, by vsrhich 
 they expressed their belief in their dependence on the Great 
 Spirit, was made in offerings of corn, bread, fruits, etc, in- 
 stead of the sacrifices of animals; and sought omens in the 
 
252 rasTORY OF the Indians. 
 
 actions of living animals, instead of an augury in the entrails 
 of'dead animals; yet the sincere feelings of piety, of grati- 
 tude and dependence, which gave origin to those offerings, 
 gave origin also to that universal habit of self-examination 
 and secret prayer to the great Spirit, so characteristic of the 
 Indian race. They believed that the Great Spirit communi- 
 cated his will to man in dreams, in thunder and lightning, 
 eclipses, meteors, comets, in all the prodigies of nature, and 
 the thousands ,of unexpected incidents that occur to man. 
 Could it be otherwise expected from those who walked by 
 the light of nature alone? And though few assumed to have 
 attained the power of revealing the import of these signs and 
 wonders, yet hiany sought the coveted prize but found it not, 
 therefore, became self-constituted prophets, but remained 
 silent as to the charaqter and functions of the spirits, with 
 whom they held their mysterious intercourse, thus leaving 
 little*fou'ndation by which to identify their mythology. But 
 that they derived their religious beliefs from the common 
 seed with' which man first started, there can be no doubt; 
 but ere it had developed to any extent they strayed from the 
 parent stock, and it assumed different aspects under d iff er- 
 en circumstances, during the long period "of isolation that en- 
 sued. Still, we find existing everywhere among mankind 
 the same sensitiveness to the phenomepa of nature, and the 
 same readiness and power of imagininig invisible beings as 
 the cause of these phenomena. 
 
 The tendency of the Indian mind was thoroughly pi-ac- 
 tical, stern and unbending, it was not filled with images of 
 poetry nor high strung conceptions of fancy. He struggled 
 for what'was immediate, the war path, the chase and council 
 life ; but when not engaged ^herein, the life of the national 
 games, under the head of social amusements, filled up the 
 measure of his days — the ball play, horse-race, foot-race, 
 jumping and wrestling — to them as honorable as the gym- 
 nastic exercises of the eastern nations of antiquity; enduring 
 heat and cold, suffering the pangs of hunger and thirst, fa- 
 tigue and sleeplessness. The object of the Indian boy also, 
 was to gain all the experience possible i-nall manly exercises, 
 therefore at an early age he went in search of adventures. 
 Their tribal council consisted of the best, wisest and most 
 worthy of the tribe. A fact from which we might draw 
 many useful lessons. In its meetings, the most important 
 topics of their country were the subjects of their delibera- 
 tions; nor was the question ever asked in regard to any new 
 question presented before that body, "If there was any riioney 
 in it?" the guod of tlieir common country was the only thini/- 
 discussed or even thought of. It was a bodv, which, in i>o\nt 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 253 
 
 of true dignity, if not of wisdom, has seldom been equalled 
 and never surpassed; and which was regarded the supreme 
 power of the tribal commonwealth.; They had but few laws, 
 biit the few were rigidly enforced. "^ 
 
 There were many natural orators among the ancient 
 Choctaws when living in undisturbed prosperity and happi- 
 ness east of the Mississippi river. Their orations were 
 very concise, animating and abounding in many beautiful meta- 
 phors; and who, bad they possessed the embellishments of a 
 refined education, would have compared well with any race 
 of mankind that ever existed. 
 
 The Choctaws, like all their race, deliberated with great 
 dignity and solemnity on national affairs; and in all their 
 assemblies, both, national and social, everything was carried 
 on in the' best order and unassumed decorum. Their treaties 
 were ratified by smoking the pipe of peacd — an emblem 
 respected, honored, and held sacred by all Indians every- 
 where. As with all their race, so war was, in the estimation 
 of the ancient Choctaws, the most patriotic avocation in which 
 a man could engage; they seldom began a war with another 
 tribe, but rather waited for an attack, then no braver or more 
 resolute warriors ever went upon the war-path. The open- 
 ing of hostilities was alwas preceded by the famous Hoyopa- 
 hihla. War-dance. Night was the chosen time for engaging in 
 that time-honored ceremony; and as soon as evening began 
 to spreadher dark mantle o'er their forests,ahuge pile of dry 
 logs and brush previously prepared was set on fire, whose 
 glaring and crackling flames intermingling with their hoyopa- 
 taloah (war-songs) and soul-stirring hoyopa-tassuhalj, (war- 
 hoops) presented a scene as wild and ro.mantic as can possi- 
 bly be imagined. 
 
 The manly forms of the dusky warriors with their paint- 
 ed faces illuminated with the wildest excitement; the huge 
 fire blazing and crackling in the centre of the wide extended 
 circle of excited dancers, which, now and then, a kick from a 
 dancing^ warrior, caused to send- the flames and sparks 
 high up among the wide extended branches of the mighty 
 forest tf ees that stood around; the stern visages of the old 
 warriors, whom age and decrepitude had long since placed 
 upon the retired list from further duty upon the war-path or 
 in the chase, sitting around in' little groups where the light 
 of the burning log-heap disputed- precedency with the gloom 
 of night, calm and silent spectators of the weird scene in 
 which they could no longer participate, bat which awakened 
 thrilling memories of the past; the Goddess Minerva's fav- 
 orite birds, allured from their dark abodes in the forest by 
 the glaring light, flitted here and there overhead through 
 
254 N HISTORY OF THE INDIAKS. 
 
 >^ 
 
 the extended branches of the overshadowing oaks, and anon 
 joined in with their voices, to which in wild response, the 
 distant howl of a pack of roving wolves filled up the meas- 
 ure of the awe inspiring scene. But those who have wit- 
 nessed it will not be easily satisfied with any vain attempt to 
 depict it on paper; and those who have not will hardly halve 
 their anticipations realized by anything short of the opportun- 
 ity of judging for themselves. Therefore, have I contented 
 myself with giving a mere outline of my Own impressions; for 
 he who would attempt to picture a Choctaw Hoyopa-hihla, as 
 it was exhibited seventy years ago in the midnight solitudes 
 oi a Mississippi forest, would have to aim at condensation and 
 exaggeration and yet expect failure in both; for adjectives 
 would only confuse and sentences but veil the scene; besides 
 any description tha^ could be made would not express the 
 thousandth part of what ought to be said, and if but a weak 
 picture was drawn, even then it would be called the wild hal- 
 lucinations of a disordered brain. But that the reader may 
 be able to form a faint idea of the scene, I know of nothing 
 more appropriate, (judging from what I have read and also 
 been told by eye witnesses) to which it may be compared, 
 than a Chicago political convention of the present ago, with 
 this exception however; the yells of the Indian squaws were 
 not heard intermingling with the war-whoops of the forest 
 warriors in wild cadences of the war-dance, as the yells of 
 the white squaws are heard mingling with th6 political 
 whoops of the white warriora'in the crazed scenes of the con- 
 ventional dance. 
 
 On the return of a successful war-path, the village at 
 once became the scene of festivity and triumph. The varied 
 trophies — scalps, painted shields, etc., were hung on poles 
 near the houses. Then followed war-feasts, scalp-dances, 
 accompanied with war-songs and shouts of victory, while the 
 old men went from house to house rehearsing in a loud tone 
 of voice the events of the battle and the various daring ex- 
 ploits of the warriors. But, amid all this, sounds of another 
 kind were also heard mingling in discordant tones with those 
 of joy; they were the piteous wailings of the women borne 
 upon the air from the surrounding hills, where they had 
 retired to mourn in darkness and solitude for tlieir slain in 
 battle. There the mother, wife and sister gave full sway to 
 the anguish of their hearts; reminding the intelligent hearer 
 of lihat affecting pasasage of Scripture, "In Rama was there 
 a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, 
 Rachel weeping for her children and wOwld not be comforted 
 hccauso they were not." 
 
 As all nations of the human family,. so the Choctuws of 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 355, 
 
 both sexes dfellghted in ornaments. Though the Choctaw 
 warrior, in his training for the duties of manhood, inured 
 himself to fatigue and privation, and in defense of his country 
 and home, and resenting an insult, was as brave as bravery 
 itself ; yet he \Vas fond of admiring himself befot^e a mirroi' 
 when arrayed in the paraphernalia of Choctaw fashion; i. e. a 
 red turban, highly decorated with the gay plumage of varions 
 kinds of birds encircling his head; with face painted accord- 
 to Choctaw etiquette; with crescents of highly polished tin 
 supehded from his neck and extending in regular order 
 from the chin to the waist; with shining bracelets of the same 
 metal encircling his wrists and arms above the elbows; with 
 a broad belt around his waist, tastily interwoven with 
 innumerable little beads of every gay and flashing color; 
 with feet encased in moccasins soft and pliant, and highly 
 decorated with little beads of sparkling hue, did the young 
 Choctaw warrior walk forth among the admiring beauties of 
 his tribe as mucl^ the personification of a modern, first-class,' 
 white dude, complete and perfect, as ev6r' contested for the 
 honor of superiority in the "laudable" occupation; yielding, 
 the palm of victory to his pale-face brother disputant, only in 
 the "gift of continuance;" since the Choctaw, after indulging 
 in momentary paroxysms of self-admiration, turned from his 
 mirror, doffed his effeminate plumage ' to soon forget what 
 , manner of man he appeared, since the thought of his noble 
 aspirations and strivings returned to excel as a warrior and 
 conselor in his nation, but leaving his pale-face opponent 
 mastei'of the field to live and die contented and happy in his 
 imbecility. 
 
 The Choctaws were strong in their belief in the exist- 
 «nce of hat-tak holth-kun-a Cwitches); even as our own "en- 
 lightened" ancestors in the days of Cdtton Mather — differ- 
 ing, however, in this particular; the Choctaws selected bid, 
 and decrepit women as victims of their superstitions, while 
 their white brothers, whose boasted civilization had rendered 
 a little more fastidious, manifested their superiority in 
 intellectual attainments over the Indians, by selecting the 
 young as the victims of their wild theories. But ghosts 
 and w-itches have long since been to the Choctaws as things 
 of the forgotten past. v 
 
 The restless and fertile imagination of the Choctaws, 
 as well as all their race, peopled with beings of a higher or- 
 der than themselves the mountains, plains, woods, lakes, 
 fountains and streams. But in regard to the origin of man, 
 the one generally accepted among the Choctaws, as well as 
 many other tribes was that man and all other fornls of life 
 had originated from the common mother earth through the 
 
256 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 agency of the Great Bpirit; but believed that the human race 
 sprang from many different primeval pairs created by the 
 Great Spirit in the various parts of the earth, in which man 
 was found; and according to the different natural features^ of 
 the world in which man abode, so their views ■- varied with 
 regard to the substance of which man was created; in a 
 country of vast forests, they believed the primeval pair, or 
 pairs, sprang from the trees; in a mountainous and rocky 
 district of country, they sprang from the rocks; in valleys 
 and prairies, from the earth; but their views as to the time 
 this creation of man took place, whethe-r at the same time 
 throughout the various inhabited regions or at different 
 periods, their traditions are silent. 
 
 To the unlettered and untutored mind of man thi-ough- 
 out the world, all things are endowed with individuality and 
 life; from which arose, no doubt, the great number of mystic 
 conceptions, regarding the sun, moon, stars, clouds, winds 
 and storms, as being animate bodies, possessing, life as all 
 animate creatures. The traditions of some of the North 
 American Indian tribes are said to state, that the sun was 
 once caught in a snare by a great hunter, and was set free^ 
 by the moles, but at the loss of their eyes from its intense 
 light, and have ever since been blind. Perhaps the primi- 
 tive fathers of those tribes possessed some knowledge of 
 Joshua's command to the orb of day. Brinton s^tes in his 
 "Myths of the New World,"^page 55, that the legend of the 
 Peruvian Incas, in regard to the sun, is, "He is like a teth- 
 ered beast who makes a daily round under the eye of a 
 master." Many of the North American Indian tribes be- 
 lieved, in regard to the eclipse of the sun and moon, that 
 some animal, wolf, dog, etc., was devouring the sun, and 
 made every effort to drive him away. Some whipped their 
 own dogs during an eclipse because a "Big dog" was eating 
 the sun or moon, and believed the "Biglclog" might be in- 
 duced to postpone his meal by the howls of their whipped 
 curs. 
 
 The ancient Choctaws believed an eclipse was caused by 
 a little black squirrel, which had resolved to devour the sun, 
 and which could oqly be saved from the little gormandizer 
 by frightening him away by a great noise, to which I have, 
 more than once, been an eye witness, and to the modus oper- 
 randi adopted to give him a scare; and ajlso testify from ex- 
 perience as to the virtues of the music; at least the sun came 
 out all right; but as to the strict adherence to the accepted 
 rules of harmony, during the performance, I will write more 
 definitely on some other page. It is also stated, that the 
 South American Indians believed tliat the inoon, when in an 
 
HISTORY OF THI? INDIANS 257 
 
 1 
 
 eclipse, was being- devoured by dogs, and, to scare them off, 
 the natives, made a great noise. (Tyler, "Culture," Vol. 1, 
 p. 296.) Also of the African Moors, says Grimm, "Teuto- 
 nic Mythology," Vol, 2, p. 707. When the sun eclipse was at 
 its highest, we saw the people running about as if mad, and 
 firing their guns at the feun, to frighten the monster who, 
 they supposed, was wishing to devour the orb of Gay. The 
 women banged copper vessels together, making such a din, 
 that it was heard miles away." 
 
 A legend of the Mongolians states that a monster con- 
 tinually pursues the sun and moon, and when overtaking -the 
 one or the other an eclips_e is the result. The Chinese be- 
 lieve, even at the present day, the sun and moon are being 
 devoured by a great dragon during an eclipse. During the 
 eclipse of the sun in 1887, the Chinese authorities, in accord- 
 ance with the usage. of the empire, commanded the Buddhist 
 and Tauist priests to perform their incantations to rescue 
 the sun from the jaws of a devouring monster. It was at 
 the time of the celebration of' the Emperor's birthday, 
 when all the officials were required to wccir embroidered 
 robes; but it is also the law that during an eclipse officials 
 who participate in the ceremonies must wear ordinary 
 clothing until the sun is rescued. An edict had to be ob- 
 tained from the Emperor to settle it. He ordered the offi- 
 cials to ignore his birthday and attend to the wants of ^he 
 sun. So they all wore ordinary clothes. The Esthonians 
 believed the syn and mooin were being eatep during an 
 eclipse by some animal, and endeavored to fi-ighten it away 
 by conjuring, "The Hindoos, to this day, believe that a. 
 giant lays hold of the luminaries, and tries to swallow them. 
 Thei Romans flung fire-brands into the" air and blew trum- 
 pets and clanged brazen pots and pans." During an eclipse 
 in the I7th century the Celtics "run about beating kettles y 
 and pans thinking thfeir clamor and vexations 'available to llie 
 assistance of 'the higher orbs." (Tyler, Op. Cit. p. 301.) 
 So also it is said of the Northern Asiatics, and of the Finns 
 of Europe. ' 
 
 The traditions of the Polynesians state that Maui and his 
 brothers thought the sun went too fast for their convenience, 
 and determined to check him; therefore, they made strong 
 ropes, and then went "very far to the eastward, and came to 
 the very edge of the place out of which the sun rises." 
 There they placed a noose to catch the sun. "He rises up, 
 his head passes through the noose, and it takes in more and 
 more of his body, until his fore paws pass through; then 
 are pulled tight the ropes. The sun Screams aloud; he 
 roars; Maui strikes him fiercely with many blows. They ' 
 
258 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 hold him for a long- time; at last they let him go; and then 
 weak from wounds the sun crept slowly along- his course," 
 (Grey's Polynesian Mythology, p, 35-8.) It is said, however, 
 ihat there are different versions of this leg-end; one, that 
 Maui finally released the sun; another that he still has him 
 roped, and holds him in check; and the Polynesians still be- 
 lieve they can see the ropes at the rising^ and setting of the 
 sun, to which they point and exclaim — "Behold the ropes of 
 Maui," while we say, "the sun is drawing- water," both 
 equally absurd. 
 
 The Australians, it is said, regarded the sun as a woman. 
 •'Every night she descends among the dead, who stand in 
 •do\ible lines to greet her and let her pass. She has a lover 
 among the dead, who has presented her with a red. kangaroo 
 skin, and in this she appears at her rising." To us how 
 foolish, yet how similar to our own ancestors, who regarded 
 the dawn a red cow, and the sun her calf. (Zoological Mytho- 
 logy, Vol. r, p. 50.) So also of the Vedas whose Ushas (Dawn) 
 "opens the darkness as a cow her stall." Hence the sacred- 
 ness of the cow to the Hindoos in their worship; and also, it 
 might be added, the red heifer among the Israelites. (Num. 
 
 And thus it appears that all other nations of mankind 
 are, and have been, theorizers, even as the North American 
 Indians; and though these theories were crude yet they 
 found embodiment in stories handed down to posterity as 
 -traditions and legends. They were not allegories, but man 
 in his primitive state endeavoring to find out and to explain 
 the mysteries of nature around him; and, as learning and 
 intelligence advanced, these absurdities passed alike into 
 forgetfulness. So it is evident, we have little ground upon 
 which to base our contempt for the Indians in regard to their 
 myths, since we have also passed through the same. 
 
 The Choctaws had several classes of dignitaries among 
 them who were held in the highest reverence: The Medi- 
 cine Man or Prophet, the Rain Maker, the Doctor— a veritar 
 ble chip of Esculapius. Well indeed did each fill his allotted 
 position in life, and faithfully discharge the mystic duties 
 appertaining thereunto, both in their own opinion as well as 
 that of their people. The Choctaws' Materia "Medica, like 
 all their race, was Nature, herbs and roots furnishing 
 their remedies both externally and internally; and the 
 success with which they used those remedies proved 
 their knowledge of the healing properties of the various 
 herbs and roots in which their extensive forests abounded. 
 They had a specific for the bite of the sintullo (rattle snake). 
 Their doctors relied much on dry-cupping, using their 
 
HISTORY Of the INDIANS. , 259 
 
 mouth alone in all such cases. Oft have I witnessed the 
 Choctaw physician, east of the Mississippi river, administer- 
 ing to the necessities of his suffering patient through the 
 virtues found in the process of dry-cupping.' Stretching the 
 sufferer upon a blanket spread upon the ground, he kneeled 
 beside him and began a process of sucking that part of the 
 body of which the patient complained, or where, in his own 
 judgment, the disease was located,, making a guttural noise 
 'during the operation that reminded one of dog worrying an 
 opossum; at different intervals raising his head a few inches 
 and pretending to deposit into his hands, alternately in the 
 one and the other, an invisible' something which he had 
 drawn from his patient, by a magic power known alone to 
 himself. 
 
 ' After sucking a sufficient length of time to fill both 
 hands, judging from the frequent deposits therein made, 
 with great apparent dignity and solemn gravity, this worthy 
 son of Esculapius arose and stepping to the nearest' tree, 
 post, or fence, wiped the secret contents of his apparently, 
 full hands thereon; then with an air of marked importance 
 walked away to the enjoyments of his own reflections, while 
 the sufferer, in real or fancied relief, acknowledged the efficacy 
 of the physician's healing powers by ceasing to complain, 
 turned over and sought f orgetf ulness in .the arms of refresh- 
 ing sleep. If there ensued a change for the better he claimed 
 the honor and praise as due the noble profession of which he 
 recognized himself a worthy and important member; but if 
 the disease proved stubborn and refused to yield to the medi- . 
 cinal virtues of his herbs, roots and dry-cupping, he _ turned 
 to his last resort^the Aniika, (Hot-house.) This edifice, an 
 important adjunct in all Choctaw villages, was made of logs 
 rendered nearly air tight by stopping ail cracks with mortar. 
 A little hole was left on one side for an entrance. A fire was 
 built in the centre of this narrow enclosure, and soon the 
 temperature within was raised to the desired degree, then 
 the fire was taken out and the patient instructed to crawl in; 
 which being done, the little opening was closed. As a matter 
 of course, the patient must bake or sweat; which,, however, 
 resulted in the latter; and when, in the opinion of theAlikchi, 
 (doctor) he had undergone a thorough sweating, the entrance 
 was opened, and the patient bidden to come forth; who, upon 
 his exit, at once runs to the nearest water into which he 
 plunged head first; but if not of sufficient amount and depth 
 for the correct performance of that ceremony to its fullest 
 extent, he d,ucks his head into it several times, thus making 
 practical the wholesome theory of the hygienist: "Keep 
 your head cool, but your feet warm." In case of common 
 
260 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 intermittent fever, the efficiency of tiiis mode of proceeding- 
 (the sweat and cold bath) was truly astonishin;^, seldom 
 failing- to effect a cure. 
 
 But if the patient died — ah, then! with that shrewdness 
 pecular to all quacks the world over, he readily found a 
 cause upon which to base his excuse for his ineflicrtcy to 
 effect a cure; differing somewhat, however, from his white 
 brother alikchi, who attributes the cause of his failure to 
 innumerable "where-as-es and ifs," while he openly ackowl- 
 edged and emphatically declared the interposition of a hat- 
 tak holth-kun-na (witch), which counteracting the beneficial 
 virtues of his remedies, had caused the death of his patient 
 by thus placing him beyond the reach of mortal skill, noth- 
 ing more nor less. Sometimes, for the sake of varict}', 'he 
 attributed the death of his patient, if occurring very sudden- 
 ly, to an Ish tulbih (witch ball) shot from an invisible rifle in 
 the hands of a witch. At this important juncture of affairs, 
 it now becomes his duty to find the witch that he, she, or it, 
 may be brought to pay the penalty of the law in all such 
 cases- — death. As a matter of course, the doctor, not very 
 scrupulous in the matter of shifting the blame from his own 
 shoulders to that of another — so natural to all mankind — 
 easily found a witch in the person of some attenuated old 
 -woman, whom he designated as the guilty part}', and who 
 consequently was immediately sla,in by the relatives of the 
 deceased; an illustration of which I have already given in the 
 case of the unfortunate Il-lich-ih. 
 
 In the, matter of rain, the Choctaw Rainmaker truly 
 swayed the sceptre of authority in that line of art, undis- 
 puted, and was regarded with reverential awe by his people. 
 In all cases of protracted drouth, which was quite frequent 
 at an early day in their ancient domains, the Hut-tak Um-ba 
 Ik-bi, (man rain maker) was regarded as the personan^c in 
 whom alone was vested the power to create rain; therefore 
 to him they went with their offerings and supplication^s, tlic 
 former, however, partaking moreof a persuasive nature th/in 
 ! the latter, in the judgment of the Umba Ikbi, as an effectual 
 means to bring into requisition his mysterimis power in the 
 matter of rain. He without hesitation promised to heed 
 their solicitations, but gently hinting that, in his judgment, 
 the offerings were not in as exact ratio to their importuni- 
 ties as they should have been. However, he now assumes 
 an air c,f mysterious thoughtfulness and,^"grand, gloomy 
 and peculiar wrapped in the solitude of his own imagina- 
 tion," strnlled from village to village, y-azing at the sun by 
 day and the stars by night, seeming to Mold communion with 
 the sinniN of the ui)per worlds; linally h.- ventured his repu- 
 
mSTOKY OF THE INDIANS. 261 
 
 tiitioii by spccifj'iny ;i certain day upon which he would 
 make it rain. The da}' arrived, andi if haply came 
 with it a rain the faith of his dupes wasconfirmed, his mystic 
 power unquestioned, and the Uraba Ikbi made comfortable. 
 But if otherwise, he did not as the Alikchi, attribute his fail- 
 ure to the ccmnteracting influence of a witch in the person 
 of an old woman, but to that of a brother Umba Ikbi living in 
 some remote part of the nation, with whom he was just then 
 at variance. He now informs his unfortunate but not faith- 
 less people that an Umba Ikbi's mind miist be free of all 
 contending emotions while engaged in the mystic cerefno- 
 nies of rain making; that he was now angry, too much mad 
 to make it rain. Upon which annouricement, the now de- 
 spairing people earnestly solicited to know if they, in any 
 way could assuage his wrath. He replied in the negative; 
 but promised, however, to consider the matter as soon as his 
 anger abated. He now became more reserved; sought soli- 
 / tude where undisturbed he might scan the sky and per- 
 chance discern some sign of rain. Sooner or later, ^e 
 discovers a little hazy cloud stretched along the distant 
 western horizon; attentively and carefully watches' it as 
 broader and higher it ascends, untij he feels surp he can 
 safely risk another promise; then leayes his place of secret 
 and thoughtful meditation, and, with countenance fair as a 
 summer morn, presents himself before his despairing 
 people and announces his anger cooled and wrath departed; 
 that now he would bring rain without delay, yet dropping a 
 casual hint as to the efficacy of a coveted poiiy, cow, blanket, 
 etc., being added, as a sUrer guarantee, sidce "the laborer 
 was worthy his hire." The hint was comprehended ai/d 
 fully complied with in hopeful expectation. Anon the low 
 mu^ttering thunder vibrates along the western horizon in 
 audible tones, and the lightning flash is seen athwart the 
 western sky heralding the gathering and approaching storm; 
 soon the sky is overcast with clouds of blackest hue while 
 the lightning's flash and the thunder's i^oar seem to proclaim 
 to the people their wonderful Umba Ikbi's secret power in 
 the affair of rain; and, as the vast sheetg of falling water wet 
 the parched earth they sing his praise; which he, with as- 
 sumed indifference, acknowledged with an approving grunt; 
 then, with measured steps, sought his home, there to await 
 another necessity that would call him forth to ^again deceive 
 his credulous adm'irers. But all such delusions soon van- 
 ished before the teachings of the missionaries. 
 
 In connection with this peculiar one of the Choctaws, I 
 will here relate an incident that took place during a great 
 
262 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 drouth that prevailed in their Nation soon after the estab- 
 lishment of the mission called Hebron. . 
 
 The Rain Maker had long been appealed to through sup- 
 plications and fees, but all in vain; and it seemed that the 
 stubborn drouth had unitediwith more than one distant broth- 
 er Umba Ikbi in rendering- his present worship prodigiously 
 mad, not only with them but also with himself and the world 
 in general, as his ears seemed deaf to all appeals upon the 
 subject of water. Since wells and cisterns were luxuries 
 then unknown to the Indians, they depended upon their 
 rivers, creeks, lakes and ponds, which seldom failed to sup- 
 ply. Amid the prevailing gloom an aged Choctaw widow 
 named Im-ai-yah (to go by) living two miles south of Hebron, ' 
 came one day, as she oft had done before, to talk with her 
 pale-face friend, Mrs. Cushman, concerning the drouth. She 
 soon stated that she believed there would be plenty of rain in 
 a iew days. When asked upon what she based her belief, 
 she replied: "On my way here this morning, I sat down at 
 the roots of a large tree; while sitting there these thoughts 
 came to me. Our Rain Maker cannot make it rain, or he 
 would. If he can make it rain, why should not I be able to 
 make it rain too? Why should not anyone? Then I asked 
 myself; who made this big tree? Somebody made it, and he 
 who made it surely can make it rain too. I know he can; and 
 I will ask him to please make it rain very soon. I then kneel- 
 ed down at the roots of that big tree an^ earnestly prayed to 
 him who made tjie big tree to please make it rain; and while 
 I was praying a little cloud formed directly over the tree, 
 and a little shower fell and many of the di-ops of water, pass- 
 ing through the leaves of the tree, fell on me. I know now 
 who can make it rain." "Who?" earnestly asked the deejily 
 interested pale-face listener. "He who made that tree. Is 
 he your God of whom you have told me?" "He is," replied 
 the poor widow's pale-face friend and spiritual teacher. But 
 I will leave the further conversation that ensued betwen the 
 tvvo red and white friends to the imagination of tlie readei', 
 with this only: No two women were more devoted friends, 
 the one to the other, than were the poor Choctaw widow and 
 the "paleface" missionary. But what ef that prayer at the 
 roots of that "big tree?" It was heard and answered by the 
 \ Maker of that "big tree;" who has said,. "I will not bruise the 
 broken reed nor quench the smoking flax." Yes, in a few 
 days, an abundance of rain fell; vea, more. From that lime 
 the mystic power of the Umba Ikbis began to wane, and soon 
 vanished as a summer dream from the Choctaw Nation. 
 And he who cannot believe that Israel's God heard the hum- 
 ble request of that earnest petitioner, and did' not then and 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 263 
 
 there ackno\Vleclgc its virtue i/i the little shower of rain, and 
 in a few days ansWer that prayer of faith by an abundant 
 shower, Is thrice welcome to his unbelief. 
 
 Their laws (for they had laws,) though exceptional in 
 some respects to the White Race, nevertheless, were good, 
 and quite consistent with the nations of a primitive age. But 
 hke all others of their race, their severest law -was that of 
 blood revenge. "Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man 
 shall his blood be shed" was a statute rigidly enforced among 
 all North American Indians. It was acknowledged among all, 
 not only to be the right, but also the imperative duty of the 
 nearest relative on the male side of tjie slain, to kill the slayer 
 wherever and whenever a favorable opportunity was presented. 
 Under many existing circumstances the law might, perhaps, 
 have been just and salutary; but unfortunately it went too. 
 far, as any male member of the murderer's family, though 
 innocent and even.ignorant of the crimcj might become the"^ 
 victim of the avenger of blood, if the guilty had fled; but 
 such seldom occurred, as the murderer rarely ever made any 
 effort whatever to. escape, but passively submitted to his fate. 
 Still, this law^ revolting as it may appear to many, exercised 
 a good influence among thfe Choctaws, as it had a salutary 
 > effect in restraining them' in the heat of passion, by render- 
 ing them cautious in their disputes and ' quarrels, lest blood 
 should be shed; knowing the absolute certainty of murder 
 being avenged sooner or later upon the murderer himself, or 
 some one of his nearest male relatives; hence no man, or 
 family, would with impunity commit or permit, if they could 
 avoid or prevent it, an act that would be sure to be avenged, 
 no one could tell when or where. Dajs, weeks, and even 
 months perhaps,[might pass, yet the avenger sleepeth not nor 
 has he forgotten; and, at an hour l^ast expected and from a 
 source least apprehended, the blow at last falls, and there 
 the matter ends. Nor did the slayer find ^ any protection 
 from any source whatever, not even from his nearest rela- 
 tives. Yet calmly and with stoical indifference awaited his 
 certain doom; nor was the avenger, though known, inter- 
 rupted ii;i any manner whatever, either before or aftei' hfe had 
 accomplished his revenge. The avenger of blood never took 
 the life of a female of the slayer's family, but satisfied him- 
 self in the death of the slayer himself or in the person of some 
 one of his nearest male relatives. If the murderer had fled, 
 and the life of one of his male relatives had been sacrificed in 
 lieu of his own, he then could return without fear of molesta- 
 tion; but the name of coward was given to him — an appella- 
 tion more dreaded and less endurable than a hundred deaths 
 to all North American Indians.. 
 
264 inSTOKY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 A few instances have been known among- the Choctaws, 
 where a relative proposed to die for the slayer, and was ac- 
 cepted on the part of the relatives of the slain; but such 
 instances were very rare. I remember of an instance re- 
 lated^ of undoubted authority, which deserves to be held in 
 lasting remembrance if nothingf more than to forever silence 
 and put to eternal shame the foolish croaking-s of those who 
 deny to the Indian the possession of any of the finer feelings 
 and emotions of the heart, and to establish the fact that the 
 height, depth, and breadth pf an Indian mother's love can 
 only be equalled by that of her white sifter, botb immeasur- 
 able, incomprehensible, unfathomable. The case which I 
 here relate, was Toh-to Pe-hah (Red Elm Gathered Up), an 
 aged Choctaw mother, who gave her life for that of her old- 
 est son;and which clearly illustrates the depth and strength, 
 the sensibility and tenderness of maternal affection in an 
 Indian woman, whose name, had she lived in the days of 
 classic lore, would have been handed down to all future ages 
 in the songs of the poet minstrels, and upon the pages of the 
 historians. But alas! she was unfortunately an Indian an(| 
 virtue in an Indian is, with many of the present day, not a 
 virtue; while vice, in their defamers, is. This poor widowed 
 Chdctaw mother, came with others of her friends to the 
 place of execution on the day her son was to be shot for kill- 
 ing an aged Choctaw man living many miles distant from 
 that of his own home. This killing was done before the 
 establishment of the law that the slayer should be tried by 
 law, and no longer left in the hands of the "avenger of 
 blood." Of her four children he was tlje oldest, her darling 
 first-born, on whom she mainly depended for assistance in 
 the support of her little famil}-, and whom she had named 
 Hoh-tak Lah-ba (Luke Warm). 
 
 When the mother arrived at the plaice of execution, she 
 found many had already assembled; but with emotions, felt 
 and known only by and to a mother, she pressed through the 
 throng to where her doomed boy stood, close to the execu- 
 tioner with the deadly rifle in hand, upon which Hohtak Lah- 
 ba looked with steady eye and unshaken nerves. All were 
 silent. Not a whisper disturbed the profound hush tiiat 
 rested like a gliiomy pall upon that ass;embly. The mother 
 glanced a look of love at the erect form nf her son, who stood 
 as a statue before her eyes;then turned them a moment upon 
 the executioner with an appealiny^ look for compassion; then 
 beseechingly upon the re]ati\'es of the man slain, and at once 
 bi-oku the silence with 4n irresistible appeal ti> them to take 
 her life instead of Hohtak Lahba's, "IK is yuung, and 1 am 
 old," she cried. "His wife and child, his two little sisters and 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. , 265 - 
 
 t 
 
 brother, will Kiiffcr if he is taken from them. They cannot 
 live Avithout him, they can without me. I am old and can do 
 but little for them, nor that little long-. Your relative he 
 killed w^s an old man. Why take a young life for an old life? 
 Take mine in the place of Hohtak Lahba's. Let the avenger 
 of the death of your kinsman be satisfied with my death.- 
 Blood for blood satisfies our violated law. It seeks no more, 
 it demands no more, What more should vou require? Speak 
 kinsman of the dead! Will you accept my life. as sufficient 
 propitiation, a just compensatibn for the life of your slain? 
 I await your atiswer." A murmur of approval was heard in 
 the crovcd, and soon one of the nfearest in kindred to the slain 
 arose and accepted the offfer in a firm and, distinct tone of 
 voice. A smile of joy lit up the countenance of Toh-to Pe-hah 
 as she responded, " 'Tis well." A few moments were given 
 her to bid an adieu to her loved ones, and give her last 
 admonitions to her wayward boy; after which she calmly 
 presented herself before the executioner, and, ' nerved with 
 a mother's love that bids defiance to fear, bade him do his 
 duty. Then the sharp crack of the rifle broke the pi'ofoun^ 
 stillness rof the moment, and the spirit of that loving Choc- 
 law mother winged its flight to Him who has said: "Where 
 little is given, little is required." Such was the. custom of 
 ^ this, peculiar people in the years of the long ago. "An eye 
 for an eye, and a tooth for; a /tooth," was ever found 
 written in all Indians' code of laws, and'to the execution of 
 -which they adhered with the strictest punctuality. The 
 spirit of the murdered Indian could never take its flight from 
 earth, or find rest anywhere in the eternal unknown, until 
 blood had atoned for blood, a belief as firmly fixed upon the 
 Indian heart as that upon the Phristian*s, that the blood pf 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, atoned for the sins of 
 the woi4d. 
 
 It is na1(ural to suppose that Hohtak Laliba would have 
 refused the offer of his devoted mother. But custom denied 
 him the privilege of any action, whatever in the matter. If 
 the offer was made and accepted by the relatives of the slain, 
 he no longer stood condemned before the Adolated law, or in 
 the eyes of the avenger, and he or she, who had voluntarily , 
 assumed the position, could onh' make the atonement. The 
 mother, in this case, had offered her life, a voluntary sacri- 
 fice for that of her son's; it had been accepted as a sufficiency 
 by the avenger, and, eveii as the law of the Medes and Per- 
 sians that "changeth not," so Tohto Pehah could not re- 
 verse her accepted proposal, even if she had relented, nor 
 the son refuse, she must die, and Hoh tak Lahba must live; 
 and the Amen was the response of the law. The unfortu- 
 
266 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 nate Hoh tak Lahba, though the aveirger of the blood of his 
 slain victim had been appeased at a fearful cost to him, was af- 
 terwards often taunted by the relatives and friends of the 
 old man he had slain, with the accusation of cowardice, which 
 to all Indians is more to be dreaded than death. 
 
 For several years he bore up under their taunts until 
 he eventually began to believe that all regarded him as a cow- 
 ard, and life to him had became a burden too great to be 
 longer borne. But what could he do? To take his own life 
 would not do, since that act would stamp tlje seal of woe 
 upon his eternal destiny. How then was he to secure for 
 himself an honorable death and wipe off the stain of coward- 
 ice that had been attached to his name, and depart to the 
 eternal and happy home that awaited all brave warriors? 
 His cogitative mind at last suggested a plan; it was, only by 
 killinganother man. Thishe adopted and put into immediate 
 execution; and to makehis death the more certain, he sought, 
 found, and slew a son of the very man for whose death his 
 doting mother had so heroically atoned; and though his 
 victim lived many miles distant, hewell.knew the deed would 
 speedily bring the avenger to his side. But that 'he might 
 effectually wipe forever from his name the stain of coward- 
 ice, to his own honor and that of his kindred, he at once re- 
 solved to take his own life, since now it would be blood' for 
 blood, and self sacrifice would no longer fix upon him the 
 penalty of eternal woe. Quietly but resolutely he dug his 
 own grave before putting his dreadful resolution into effect; 
 and when completed, calmly stretched himself therein to as- 
 certain if it was complete in every particular. As soon as he 
 had slain his victim he hastened home with his utmost speed, 
 and at once told his relatives and friends what he had done, 
 and then said: "You know that I have )ong been accused of 
 cowardice, but now I will prove to you tiiat I can also 
 meet death like a brave warrior." Well they knew his fear- 
 ful determination and the impossibility of dissuading him 
 therefrom, as they sat in gloomy silence awaiting the ap- 
 proaching fearful scene that was soon to be enacted. Slow- 
 ly he went through with his preliminary death ceremonies 
 with that stoicism so peculiar to his race; the careful exami- 
 nation of his rifle,j to see if it would still be as true to its 
 trust as it so loag had proved in his many conflicts with the 
 wild beasts of his native forests; the singing of his death 
 song, (the Indians adieu to earth) and the farewell shaking 
 of the hands of his relatives and friends present, consisting of 
 his wife, two sisters and brother, who sat in a mournful 
 group a little to one side, with eyes vacant and fixed as if 
 upon some distant object, but presenting a picture of silent 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ^ 267 
 
 woe that baffles desci-iption; while the old men of the neigh- 
 borhood sat in little groups around, smoking their pipes in 
 doleful silence. No wailing, not even a half smothered sigh, , 
 broke the silence of the solemn scene. Nothing was heard 
 but the voice of Hoh tah Lahba, as he now and then chanted 
 his death-song. When he had bidden all his last adieu, he 
 seized his bottle of whiskey, that "bright insignia" of tlie 
 white man's "Personal Liberty," drank a long draught then 
 hurled the bottle with its contents to the ground with all his 
 strength, as if invoking a curse upon its maker arid vendor, 
 then snatched his rifle from its leaning position against a 
 tree, rushed to his waiting grave, and the sharp crack of the 
 rifle that immediately followed told but too plainly that Hoh- 
 tah Lahba was dead. Then burst forth a long restrained 
 wail of grief from his bereaved wife, sisters, and other fe- 
 male friends alone, (as an Indian man never expresses his 
 
 ' grief by any external emotions) heretofore smothered in re- 
 spect to Hoh tah Lahba's request, "that all emotions of 
 grief be restrained in his presence j" that echoed far back 
 from the surrounding forests. ~ ' .' 
 
 What Christian heart could witness such a scene without 
 emotions of sorrow, since it exhibits > the human mind 
 shrouded in the greatest error, while at th^ same time it , 
 exhibits the elements of a noble naturd. Contemplate the 
 love of that unlettered motherl Listen again to her arguments 
 before that stern court of inflexible jhsticei, pleading her own 
 destitution of all further usefulness to her people, as a just 
 reason for the preservation of her son's manhood and useful- 
 ness I View the son too, though sacrifijcing the life of his 
 loving mother by his wayward life, yet manifesting as great 
 a sense of shAme and fear of public censure, as his civilized 
 white brother, (yet far more honorable) who sacrificed two 
 
 ' lives also under his so-called exalted views of honor in fighting 
 a duel ! Now turn aside from a long, lingering gaze upon the 
 desolate hearts of that wife, now widowed, and those weeping 
 sisteirs ; hear again that fearful, undissembled shriek as the 
 crack of the rifle announced that its messenger of death had 
 accomplished its work; listen to those lamentations loud, as 
 they rush to the fatal spot and throw themselves upon the 
 quivering body, and then will you, can, you, longer deny to 
 the Indian mother, wife, sister,'daughter, any of those flivine 
 and holy sensibilities so justly awarded to the white females? 
 Truly .may it be said of the North American Indian 
 woman as a general thing, that they rank higher in those 
 feminine virtues that so peculiarly belong to women than any 
 unlettered race known in history or otherwise. And for that 
 
 highest of all female virtues, chastity, 'the full-blood North 
 
268 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 American Indian woman can fearlessly clvalleng-e her white 
 sistel-s of the entire United States, without the fear of the 
 possibility of defeat. Duringf my sojourn among- the Choctaw 
 and Chickasaw people in the years 1884 to 1890, I made fre- 
 quent inquiries relative to this subject, both of native citizens 
 and white citizens married among them, and whites living- 
 among- them as renters of tjieir farms, and they have spoken 
 in the highest terms of praise of the chastity of the Choctaw 
 and Chickasaw women, and to which Tadd my own, based 
 upon a knowledge of over seventy years personal acquaint- 
 ance with these two branches of the Indian race, and also 
 that of the missionaries who labored among them when 
 living east of the Mississippi River. Ih conversation \vith :i 
 Chickasaw (half blood) in February, 1886, an ex-auditor of 
 the Chickasaw Nation and a man of undoubted veracity, who 
 lived near the line of division between hi's own people and the 
 war-like Commanches, and with whom he had formed an 
 extensive acquaintance by trading among them, he thus 
 replied to ray inquiries concerning the c-hastity of the Com- 
 manche women: "It is an absolute impossibility to i-ob a 
 Commanche r^man of her virtue, only by' superior physical 
 force. No professions of love, no promisos of marri.-ige, no 
 temptation of bribery, can avail anything in inducing her to 
 step from the path of rectitude, virtue and honor.' I was 
 informed by a gentleman who lived in the southern part of 
 Arizona, that he was well acquainted with a tribe of Indians 
 whose women it was impossible to influen.-o from the path of 
 virtue. Many of the early writers speak in the highest com- 
 mendation of the native Indian women. All praise to th4 
 North American Indian women! uneducated, uncivilized, 
 with no advantai^cs of moral culture, yet true to the nalui-al 
 instincts of morality, "adorning" no cities, towns and villagers 
 with houses erected for the prostitution of theii- bodies and 
 the eternal damnation of their souls. 
 
 The Choctaw women were of medium height, lieautiful 
 in form, strong and agile in body; strictlv honest, truthful, ; 
 light-hearted and gay, and devoted in their affection t(j fam- 
 ily and friends, while common custom protected them against 
 all offense, even as it does at the present day;— how com- 
 mendable to the Choctaw men. 
 
 There a'lways have existed among the North American 
 Indians, and stjll exist, many examples of intellectual ability, 
 of genius, of high moral feeling and as iiMbk-and pure patri- 
 otism as was ever found in any nation of people and as proof 
 of this fact I relate the following: Some twenty-five years au-., 
 a photographer of Chicago, being in Arizona on .-i vacatirm 
 trip, found and rescued from an Apache cainpan abandoned 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDiAnS. 269 
 
 Indian m/ilo infant of full blood. The photograplier became 
 possessed with a desire to take the boy home with him and 
 adopt him . In spite of vvarning-s that the child would prove, 
 a viper in his bosom, he carried out his intentions, and rear- 
 ed the boy, to whom the. name of Charles Montezuma was 
 given, as a member of his family. The young- Apache grew 
 up to be in face and physiqufe the very type of his tribe; but 
 he was at the same time an excellent scholar and a perfect 
 gentleman. He graduated at the Chicago High School with 
 credit, and was very popular in his class, being g-entle, polite, 
 industrious. A recent inquiry as to Montezuma's career 
 since the completion of his high school education developed 
 the facts that he has selected surgery for a profession, and 
 will graduate from the Chicago Medical College far above 
 the averag-e of his class; that he is likfed by his claSsmktes 
 and has never manifested any desire to resume the barbai-- 
 ous habits of his relatives, or shown any savage traits what- 
 ever; that he supports himself, during his studies at the 
 medical college, by filling- prescriptions at a 'Chicago drug ' 
 store where be is looked upon as an expert pharmacist, and 
 that every circumstance indicates that he will make a suc- 
 cessful professional man. 
 
 But long^ since has it been proven and established beyond, 
 contradiction that they posses^sed capacities as susceptible 
 of the hig-hest refinement as that of the White .Race, which, 
 wrapt in the garb of self-importance impervious to truth 
 and reason, regarded the Indians as inferior beings, unworthy 
 its consideration, except as objects to be plundered and 
 destroyed; and in justification of which, called them savages, 
 but-with as little justice and reason as the Indians had to 
 call them Christians. ^What unlettered nations, utterly 
 without books, colleges and schools, have ever produced such 
 men, worthily renowned as orators and statesmen incouncil, 
 and brave in the field of battle as patriots, as the' true Native 
 Americans of the North Western Continent, in their Mas- 
 sasoits, Phillips, Pontiacs, Red Jackets, Black Hawks, Te- 
 cumsehs. Humming- Birds, Red Shoes, Apushamatahahs, 
 Weatherfords, Osceolas, Ridges, Rosses, Colberts, and 
 hundreds of others of equal renown? They are not to be found- 
 in tradition on in ancient or moddrn history. , 
 
 who that has read Cooper's "Last of tHe Mohicans," 
 but remembers Uncas, the yonng Mohawk warrior, and 
 jointly with that of his white friend Leather Stocking, the 
 ifiero of the story? It is said his Indian name was Tschoop; 
 but if it is corrupted as badly as all other Indians' names 
 when put in print by the whites, it is as foreign from his 
 true name as that by which he figured in the "Last of the 
 
270 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Mohicans," However, he has been handed down as a noted 
 warrior among' his people — the once powerful and warlike 
 Mohawks who inhabited the now State of New York in the 
 years of long past — famous for his daring exploits in war, 
 and his fiery eloquence in the councils of his Nation. In 
 1741, he was often visited at his home by a Moravian mis- 
 sionary, named Christian Rauch, who often spoke to him 
 upon the su'bject of religion during their frequent socal con- 
 versations; and finally asked him if he had any desire to save 
 his soul. "We all desire that," responded Uncas. The 
 good missionary^ in his zeal, became persistfent in urgiug 
 upon him the importance and great necessity of his becom- 
 ing a Christian, praying and pleading with him — often with 
 tears; and after many months of prayer and entreaty, the 
 pious Rauch was delighted to see his forest pupil a changed 
 man — a truly pious Christian, whom he baptised under the 
 name of John. In a letter Uncas afterwards sent to the 
 Delaware Indians, he said: "I have been a bad, very bad, 
 man. But a white preacher told me there is a God. I said: 
 Do I not know that? Return whence you came. 
 
 Then another came and told me that God was offended 
 at me when I did any bad acts. Again I said: Do I not know 
 that 'too? Do you think that I am a fool? Then Christian 
 Rauch came into my cabin and sat down by me and told me 
 of my crimes, of Jesus who died to save me from them; and 
 this he did day after day, until I became tired^ of his talk and 
 treatened to kill him if he came to my cabin again. But one 
 day I came home and found him in my cabin sound asleep. 
 I stood and looked at him, and said to myself — "What sort 
 of a man is this? How easily I might kill him; yet he is with- 
 out fear, for he says his Jesus will protect him from all 
 harm. Who is that that Je^us? I too must and will find 
 him." And, reader, he did find him; and soon after he be- 
 came not only an humble and devout follower of the Lbrd 
 Jesus Christ, but also became a preacher of the Gospel with 
 the same fiery eloqtience which had given him a power among 
 his race, and spent many years in traveling among the neigh- 
 boring tribes of his day — who long sinc6 have all been num- 
 bered with the events that were fading before the tide of the 
 white man's Christian oppression like a shadow that leaves 
 no trace behind, except in the persons of a few who have 
 survived the wreck of years, only, it seems, because they 
 have the right to, live. 
 
 Curiosity was one of the chief characteristics of the 
 Choctaws, and held a prominent position in their breasts. 
 They were desirous to know everything peculiar or strange 
 that was transpiring about them;-not more so, however, than 
 
EdSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 2^1 
 
 any others of the human race. Yet the Choctaw differed 
 from his white brother in this particular; the white man ex- 
 pressed openly his curiosity at anything- unusual or strang^e, 
 and asked innumerable questions concerning it, and 
 manifested the g-reatest excitement until his curiosity 
 was gratified; but the Choctaw asked no questions, 
 nor manifested any surprise whatever,^ no matter how 
 strang-e or incomprehensible to him, but walked around with 
 an air of seemingly perfect indifference; yet was attentive to 
 any and all explanations that were b^ing- made by others. 
 The ingenuity of the white man as displayed in his vari- 
 ous inventions was, to him, as to all his race, the deepest 
 mystery, an incomprehensible enigma that placed the pale- 
 face, in his opinion, in close relationship to super-human 
 beings; and influenced an aged Indian chief .to exclaim, when 
 viewing the mysterious workings of a steam engine when 
 once at Washington City, "I hate the avarice of the white 
 ■ man's heart, but worship the ingenuity of his mind." The 
 astonishment sometimes depicted upon the countenances of 
 the Indians when beholding the wonderful performances of 
 the white man, audibly expressed by the ancient Choctaws 
 in the sudden ejaculation, "Wah?" was often very divert- 
 
 On one occasion a vtenerable old Indian man, who, in 
 order to light his pipe, was trying to catch a spark upon a 
 piece of punk struck from his flint and steel; after many 
 fruitless attempts, a white man standing near had observed 
 the old' man's unsuccessiful efforts to obtain the desired 
 spark, and anticipating a little laugh might be had at the ex- 
 pense of the old veteran, stepped up ^ and proposed to bring 
 down fire from the sun with which 'to light his pipe. At 
 this astounding pi'oposal, the old man looked up and shook 
 his head with an incredulous grunt, which being interpreted 
 evidently signified: "You are a fool." The white man then 
 slowly taking a sun-glass from his pocket, held it concealed 
 in his hand directly over the well filled pipe of tobacco. The 
 focal rays of the sun soon did their work. "Now smoke," 
 said the white man. The old man:obeyed, and at once his 
 mouth wq.s filled with smoke. That was enough. He at 
 once puffed the smoke from his mouth; then stopped and 
 looked at the white man, then up at the sun; then down at 
 his well lighted pipe; then again at th« white man and the/ 
 sun, with that expression of amazenjent and awe which 
 plainly expressed his now changed opinion, that, instead of 
 a fool, that white man was nothing more nor less a person- 
 age than the devil himself; and, with eyes askant resting 
 upon him, he slowly arose and walked away with his last 
 
2i2 HISTOKY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 formed opinion which no argument could h.ave induced him 
 to ag-ain chanffe; yet not with as de\\)tional a spirit, it is pre- 
 sumed, of he of the steam engine, 
 
 As an evidence of the tenacity with ^\•hich the ancient 
 Choctaws adhered to the veracity of their traditions handed 
 down through a long line of ancestrj', I>vill here relate a little 
 incident in which my twin brother and myself (then seven 
 years of age) were the chief actors, and shared all the glor}'. 
 At that time, there was a remembered tradition of their an- 
 cestors which they truly believed, that "pale-face" twins (if 
 boys) possessed-the magic power of dispelling all depreda- 
 ting worms and insects from cornfields, gardens, etc., which, 
 in some years, at that early day, proved quite destructive, 
 especially to their corn during the milk sta^. Now it so 
 happened during one summer, that the corn-worms were 
 unusually numerous and were committing great depredations 
 upon their fields of green corn. This corn-worm, with which 
 all southern farmers are well acquainted, but entertained no 
 dread, is, when fully grown, about an iijch and a half or two 
 inches long, and about the size of a wheat straw, and commits 
 its depredations (if depredations it may now be called) only 
 when the corn is in the millc stage, entering the ear at the 
 top and gradually working downward, but leaving it as soon 
 as the grain becomes hard. Now it also happened, they had 
 learned that Mr. Cushman, the "good pale-face," as he was 
 termed, had a pair of twin boysja propitious opportunity (long 
 desired) was now offered to secure for themselves, by an 
 occular demonstration, the traditional efficacy of the pale-face 
 twins' supernatui-al power, which they joyfully embraced. 
 
 Unexpectedly, one beautiful June morning, a company 
 of line-looking Choctaw warriors were seen approaching on 
 hor.seback at full speed. They halted at the gate of Mr. 
 Cush man's 3'ard and called for him. He at once I'esponded 
 by walking out to them. After the usual friendly salutations 
 had been passed, they inquired if he had a pair of twin sons, 
 to which he replied in the affirmative. They then-informed 
 him bf the depredations being committed upon their fields of 
 green corn, and also of the traditions of their ancestors, re- 
 questing at the same time the loan of his twins that they 
 might, by that mysterious power possessed alone by pale- 
 face twins, rid them of the voracious pests that were then de- 
 stroying their fields of corn. Mr. Cushman, ignorant of 
 such a pdwer having been bestowed upon his twin boys, at 
 first demurred; but they becoming more importunate in 
 their rt.>ii^(.st, he finally told them he would give them an an- 
 swer in :i few minutes. He then stepped into the house and 
 pre>.enled the liise to Mrs. t'usliman for cdnsitlor.iliou, who 
 
HISTORY OF THE INpiANS. 2lZ 
 
 at once, from a mother's natural apprehensions that would 
 arise in such a novel case, most positively refused her con- 
 sent; but after a few minutes! deliberation reluctantly yield- 
 ed, to the great joy and satisfaction of the twins, who had 
 been attentive spectators and listeners to the whole proceed- 
 ing's, and had become eager to test their attributed power, 
 (unknown before) and to enjoy the anticipated novel sport so 
 closely connected with the horseback ride that was present- 
 ed. Mr. Cushman at once led his little twins to the gate and 
 introduced them to the now jubilant warriors, by telling 
 them the ■ respective names of the "wonderfully gifted" 
 twins; and then granted their request upon the promise that 
 they would return his boys in the evening of the day, before 
 the sun had set. The promise was given and accepted by 
 Mr. Cushman without the least apprehension of its violation, 
 while Mrs. Cushman stood in the door and viewed the pro- 
 ceedings with that doubtful anxiety known and felt only by 
 mothers. 
 
 Mr. Cushman then set each of his boys upon a horse be- 
 fore a warrior, accompanying the act with t^e parting re- 
 quest: "Take good care of my little boysl" Unnecessary 
 appeal, as not a Choctaw in that little band but would have- 
 shielded the entrusted twins from injury even at the ex- 
 pense of his life. At 6nce we galloped off in the direction of 
 their village three miles distant called Okachiloho fah. 
 (Water^falling, or Falling water.) When we arrived in sight,, 
 their success was announced by a shrill whoop to which the 
 villagers responded their joy by another. As soon as we rode 
 into the villajge, we were immediately surrounded by an ad- 
 miring throng, and being tenderly lifted from our positions' 
 on the horses, we were handed over to the care of several old 
 men, who took us in their arms and with much gravity 
 carried us into a little cabin, vifhich had previously been set 
 in order for our reception, where we found prepared a va- 
 riety of eatables, to us seemingly good enough to excite the 
 appetites of the most fastidious twift epicures; after 
 which the venerable old seei-s of the village instructed 
 us in the mystic rites and ceremonies of their , tribe, 
 preparatory to calling into requisitioii the magic power 
 of our twinship in all its bearingsi upon the duties 
 of the day. Then showing us our weapons, which 
 consisted of iron, wood and lire, the two former in the shape 
 of a frying-pan, in which we were to b.urn the worms after 
 picking them from the corn, and a blazing chunk of fire, tw& 
 stout and straight sticks about six feet in length, with the 
 proper instructions in regard to the manner of using them 
 effectually. Having been thoroughly drilled in these pi*e- 
 
274 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 liminaries, the line of march was taken up toward the field 
 • where the enemy were said to be strongly intrenched; ir 
 profound silence and with unfeig-ned gravity, the Palokta 
 Tohbi, (Twins White, or White Twins) led the van, borne 
 upon the shoulders of twopowerful warriors closely followed 
 by three others bearing- the arms, while the villagers, headed 
 by the veteran seers, brought up the rear presenting an im- 
 posing appearance with a considerable smack of the ridicu- 
 lous, even as Don Quixote astride of his famous Rosinante 
 followed by his valuable squire in like position on his mule. 
 
 When the field was reached a halt was made, and two 
 venerable looking old men, whoSe hoary locks and wrinkled 
 faces bespoke their earthly pilgrimage had extended man}- 
 years beyond their allotted three score years and ten, came 
 to the front and, with solemn misen, lifted us from our perches 
 and gently placed us over the fence into the field; then hand- 
 ing the frying pan, chunk of fire, and sticks, our weapons, to 
 us, with a word of encouragement whispered in our ears to 
 prove ourselves Valiant and worthy our traditional fame, they 
 bade us charge the foe. The plan of the campaign was to 
 attack the enemy first in the center; there build a hot fire 
 with the dry wood, previously prepared by the theughtful 
 Choctaws, upon which place the frying pan and into which 
 throw all prisoners without discrimination, as our flag bore 
 the motto — "Neither giving nor asking quarter;" and like- 
 wise also at the the four corners of the field. The centre 
 was gained, the fire made, and upon it placed the pan; then 
 we made a vigorous attack upon the strongholds of the 
 enemy dislodging them and at the same time taking them 
 prisoners of war; then hurrying them to the centre hurled 
 them hors de combat into the frying pan heated to a red heat, 
 and with our ready sticks stirred them vigorously, while the 
 wreathes of smoke that ascended from the scene of carnage 
 and floated away before the summer breeze, together with 
 the odor, not as fragaant to the sensitive nose, however, as 
 the lily or the rose, gave undisputed evidence of our victories; 
 while our waiting Choctaw friends, acknowledged their 
 approval from the outside of the field, (since the tradition for- 
 bade them sharing in the dangers of the conflict— the Palok- 
 tasmust fight alone) filling our youthful hearts with heroic 
 emotions unfelt before or afterwards. j 
 
 After we had immolated two or three panfulls of the 
 enemy at the center and at each corner of the field, nor lost a 
 man, we returned in triumph to our waiting friends, 1)V 
 whom we were receiv(?d with unfeigned manifestation's of 
 affection and pride. Thence we wure borne as before to 
 other fields, where were enacUd the same prodigies of valor 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ,275 
 
 with similar results until the declining sun gave warning of 
 •their promise not being fulfilled if the Paloktas were not re- 
 turned ere the sun went down. Therefore' we were carried 
 from our last field of slaughter back to the villagfe in "glori- 
 ous triumph," where never were offered to frail mortality 
 more sincere homage and unfeigned devotion than were be- 
 stowed upon the Paloktas by those grateful Choctaws., They 
 seemed only to regret not being able to manifest a still 
 greater degree of gratitude, and to do more for us as a man- 
 ifestation of their appreciation of the great favor 
 we had conferred upon them. With zealous care they 
 watched over us while ilnder . their care, that no 
 harm might befall us. . As we came so we returned, and 
 safely reached home ere the sun sank behind the western 
 horizon. We were aftei'wards" frequently called upon, 
 much to our gratification and delight, it was fun for us, to 
 bring into requisition our mysteriously delegated power in 
 behalf of^their cornfields; and we became the special favor- 
 ites of that kind-hearted and appreciative people; and woe to 
 him or them who should impose upon or attempt to injure 
 their little pets, the pale-face Paloktas. But the boyish 
 pride that filled my heart on those occasions, though seventy 
 years have fled, is remembered to this day, haunting the 
 imagination with a mystic power, as thought goes back to 
 many a vanished scene recalling associates incident to the 
 days of the long past. 
 
 But curiosity might now be inquisitive enough to ask: 
 "Did the worms cease their depredations on the green 
 cprn?" To which I reply: Many of them certainly did; and, 
 as iao further complaint was made by the Choctaws during 
 that season, it is reasonable to suppose those that were left, 
 after the immolation of so many of their relatives, took a 
 timely hint and sought other quarters where pale-face Palok- 
 tas were unknown; but whether actuated through fear of a 
 similar fate as had befallen a goodly number of their com- 
 panions, or because the corn had become -too hard, by age for 
 easy mastication and healthy digestion, I will leave for future 
 consideration and determination of those who feel more 
 interested in its solution. than I do just now. However, this 
 much I can and will unfold; as the little pale-face Paloktas 
 honorably sustained the reputation of their mystic art, at 
 least in the opinion of their Choctaw ffiends, who were ren- 
 dered supremely happy in the indulgement of their faith in 
 the truth of the ancient declaration of their honored an- 
 cestors; appreciative and gratefuljto the "Good Pale-face" for 
 the loan of his favored twins; and the twins enjoyed the new 
 and novel sport, and nobody hurt, (unless the worms, who 
 
276 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 are at liberty to render their own complaint,) we will let it 
 pass without further ado as being- only a little superstitious 
 yet novel affair, not less unreasonable however, in all its con- 
 comitants than other sup;erstitions so oft indulged by the 
 human race of all nationalities, even of to-day as well as in 
 the years of yore. 
 
 There were many traditions among- all North American 
 Indians, many of which bordered on tfie poetical and from 
 which I will select one or two more, which shall suffice as 
 examples of a few of the peculiarities of this peculiar yet 
 interesting people. 
 
 .Thus says the tradition of "Ohoyo Osh Chisba," (The 
 Unknown Woman.) In the days of many moons ago, two 
 Choctaw hunters were encamped forthe night in the swamps 
 of the bend of the :S^labama river. But the scene was not 
 without its roinance. Dark, wild, and unlovely as a swamp 
 is generally imagined to be, ^et to the musing heart and 
 contemplative spirit, it had its aspects of beauty, if not of 
 brightness, which rose up before the mind as objects of se- 
 rene delight. 1 speak from long personal experience. Its 
 mysterious appearance; its little lakes and islands of repose: 
 its silent and solemn solitudes; its green cane-breaks and 
 lofty trees, all combined to present a picture of strange but 
 harmonious combination to which a lover of nature in all its 
 diversified phases could not be wholly insensible. The two 
 hunters having been unsuccessful in the chase on that and 
 the preceding day, found themselves Ayithout anything on 
 that night with which to satisfy the cravings of hunger ex- 
 cept a black hawk which they had shot with an arrow. Sad 
 reflections filled their hearts as they thought of their sad dis- 
 appointment^ and of their suffering families at home, while 
 the gloomy future spread over them its dark pall of despon- 
 dency, all serving to render them unhappy indeed. They 
 cooked the hawk and sat down to partake of their poor and 
 scanty supper, when their attention was drawn from their 
 gloomy forebodings by the low but distinct tones, strange 
 yet soft and plaintive as the melancholy notes of the dove, 
 but produced by what they were wholly unable to even con- 
 jecture. At different intervals it broke th^ deep silence of 
 the early night with its seemingly muffled notes of woe; and 
 as the nearly full orbed moon slowly ascended the eastern 
 sky the strange sounds became more frequent and distinct. 
 With eyes dilated and fluttering heart they looked up and 
 down the river to learn whence the sounds proceeded, but 
 no object except the sandy shores glittering in the moon- 
 light greeted their eyes, while the darfe waters of the river 
 seemed alone to give response in murmuring tones to the 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS.' 277 
 
 ■/ 
 
 strang-e notes that continued to float upon the night air from / 
 a direction thej^ could not definitely locate; but happening to 
 look behind them in the direction opposite the moon they 
 saw a woman of wonderful beauty standing upon a mound a 
 few rods distant. Like an illuminated shadow, she had sud- 
 denly appeared out of the moon-lighted forest., She was 
 loosely clad in snow-white raiment, and bore i*i the folds of 
 her drapery a wre^ath of fi-agrant flowers. She .beckoned 
 them to approach, while she seemed surrounded by a halo of 
 light that gave to her a supernatural appeai-ance. Their im- 
 agination now influenced them to believe her to be the Great 
 Spirit of their nation, and that the flowers she bore were re- 
 presentatives of loved ones who had passed from earth to 
 bloom in the Spirit-Land; truly, a beautiful sentiment that 
 touches ev6ry heart, for who has not some treasure in that 
 immortal home? Reason as we maj', there is something, in- 
 describable though it may be, that draws us to the unseen 
 world; and we pine for a Word or token from the dear ones 
 who have thither gone. Call it heathenish if you will, a relic 
 of superstition, of the days when every rock, tree and plant 
 were deemed the abode of a deity, but we never gather a 
 flower that we do not feel- for the life thus ended. It may be 
 an error clothed with beauty and tenderness, and far more 
 harmless than the theory that thrusts us helpless into life 
 and leaves us to grope our way through it uncared for, then 
 to die unnoticed and forgotten. 
 
 ' The mystery was solved. At once they approached to 
 where she stood, and offered their assistance in any way they 
 could be of service to her. She replied she was very hungry, 
 whereupon one of them ran and brought the roasted hawk 
 and handed it to her. She accepted it with grateful thanks; ,- 
 but, after eating a small portion of it, she banded the remain- 
 der back t'o them replying that she would remember their > 
 kindness when she returned to her home in the happy hunt- 
 ing grounds of her father, who was Shilup Chitoh Osh — The 
 Great Spirit of the Choctaws. She then told them that when 
 the next mid-summer moon should come they must meet her 
 at the mound upon which she was then standing. She then 
 bade them an affectionate adieu, and was at once borne away 
 upon a gentle breeze and, mysteriously as she came so she 
 disappeared. The two hunters returned to their camp for the 
 night and early next morning sought their homes, but kept 
 the strange incident a profound secret to themselves. When 
 the designated time rolled around the mid-summer full moon 
 found the two hunters at the foot of the mound but Ohoyo 
 ChishbaOsh was nowhere to be seen. Then remehibering 
 she tolithem they must come to the very spot where she 
 
278 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 was then standing, they at once ascended the mound and 
 found it covered with a strange plant, which yielded an ex- 
 cellent food, which was ever afterwards cultivated by the 
 Choctaws, and named by them Tunchi; (Corn). 
 
 Somewhat similar to the tradition of the Ohoyo Chishba 
 Osh is that of the Hattak Owa Hushi Qsh, (The Man Hunt- 
 ing For The Sun.) 
 
 The Choctaws once, a great amount of corn having been 
 made and as a manifestation of their aplpreciation and gratifi- 
 cation and gratitude to the Great Spirit, their benefactor, 
 held a Great National Council at which their leading prophet 
 spoke at great length upon the beauties of Nature which 
 contributed so much to their pleasure, and the various pro- 
 ductions of the earth and the enjoyment derived therefrom, 
 attributing much of all to the effects of the sun. That great 
 lighter and heater of the earth came from the east, but 
 whence it went after it had passed behind the western hills, 
 had long been a subject of debate, never satisfactorily de- 
 termined. Again the mooted question was brought .up by 
 the prophet in his speech at the aforesaid council, who, in 
 a strain of wild eloquence, cried out, "Is there not a warrior 
 among all my people who will go and find out what becomes 
 of the sun when it departs in the west? " At once a young 
 warrior, named Oklanowah, (Walking People) arose in the 
 assembly and said: "I will go and try to fihd where the sun 
 sleeps, though I may never return." He soon took his de- 
 parture on his dubious errand leaving behind him one sad 
 heart at least, to whom he gave a belt of wampum as a token 
 of remembrance. 
 
 But after an absence of many years he returned to the 
 home of his nativity, only to find himself an entire stranger 
 among his people. After many days search, however, he 
 found one in the person of an aged and decrepit woman, who 
 remembered the circumstances connected with the young 
 hunter who had gone many years before on his adventurous 
 exploit to find the sleeping place of thfe sun; and though he 
 was satisfied that she was his identical betrothed — the loved 
 one of his youth— oft spoke with the deepest affection of her 
 long lost Oklanowah, yet no arguments could induce her to 
 acknowledge the old man before her as her lover of the past. 
 The unfortunate and forlorn Hattak O.wa Hushi Osh spent 
 his few remaining days in narrating his adventures to his peo- 
 ple, the vast prairies and high mountains he had crossed; the 
 strange men and animals he had seen; and, above all, that 
 the sleeping place of the sun was in a big, blue water. Still 
 after hearing all this, the old woman, more incredulous than 
 "doubting Thomas" of Biblical fame, refused to believe, bui 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' ' 279 
 
 secliuled herself in her lonely cabin, and alone occupied the 
 sad hours of the days and years that came and went in 
 counting the wampum in her belt, the sacred memento of her 
 Oklanowah^oved, but' lost; lost, yet loved. Spring return- 
 ed, but ere^ the leaves were grown Hatiak Owa Hushi Osh 
 died, and Avas buried near the ancient mound Nunih Waiyah, 
 and ere the moon of the corn planting hadi come, the old 
 woman also died, and she to was buried at the sacred Nunih 
 Waiyah by the side of her unre!cognized yet faithful Okla- 
 nowah. 
 
 Another specimen of their love legends is exhibited in 
 t^hat of Chahtah Osh Hochifoh Keyu — the Nameless Chah- 
 tah. In the days of the long past there lived in the Choctaw 
 village Aiasha, (Habitation), the only son of a g^eat war- 
 chief. This son was noted for his wonderful beauty of form, 
 and features and manly bearing. The aged men of the 
 Nation predicted, on account of his known and acknowledged 
 bravery, he would become a renowned warrior. But as he- 
 had not distinguished himself in war either by slaying an 
 enemy, taking a prisoner, or sti-iking^ the dead (a feat ac- 
 companied with the greatest danger, as every efEort is made 
 by the friends of the fallen warrior to prevent such an insult; 
 to the dead), he wa^ not permitted t'oi. occupy a seat in the 
 councils of the tribe, though respected and hoiiored,' and his:. 
 bravery uiidoubted by all. f 
 
 According to the custom of the ancient Choctavvs, a boy 
 was not given a specific name in childhood .unles^ he merited^ 
 it by some daring act; and the young warrior, by some un- 
 avoidable chain of circumstances, passed through his chrys- 
 alis stage of life without having won a, reputation according 
 to his youthful ability; therefore went by* the general name 
 Chahtah Osh Hochifoh Keyu. The Nameless Chahtah. Ili 
 the same village of Aiashah, there also lived, according to the 
 legend, the most famous beauty of the tribe, the daughter of 
 a noted warrior and skillful hunter, and the beti-othed of 
 Chahtah Osh Hochifo Iksho. Though they often met at the 
 great dances and,festivals of the tribe, yet she (whose name 
 the legend does not state) treated him with distant reserve 
 (then the universal custop of the Choctaw girls) though the- 
 ardent lover of the nameless hero. Still one cloud cast its. 
 gloomy shadow over their happiness; it was the knowledge 
 of the stubborn truth, that'the laws of their Nation, as those- 
 of the Medes and Persians, were unalterable; and that they 
 could never become husband and wife until he had acquired 
 a name by some daring deed in battle with' the enemies of 
 his country. But time sldvvly rolled away and summeif again 
 camewith a balmy day followed , by its evening twilight,. 
 
280 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 which witnessed the lovers seated tog^ether upon the summit 
 ■of a hill shaded by the foliag-e of innumerable and immense 
 forest trees. Far below from a distant plain ascended the 
 light and smoke from the fire of a war-dance, around which 
 danced in wild excitement four hundred Choctaw warriors, 
 preparatory to a war-expedition against the Osages, far dis- 
 . tant to the west, and that night was the last night of their 
 preparatory ceremonies. Previous to that night Chahtah 
 Osh Hochifoh Keyu had acted as one of the most conspicu- 
 ous in the dances engaged in the four previous nights before, 
 but on the last night, had retired from the dance to enjoy a 
 parting interview with his betrothed. There they parted, 
 and ere the morning's sun again lighted up the eastern hori- 
 zon, the "sound of revelry by night" had ceased, while 
 silence again resumed her sway o'er Nature's vast expanse, 
 and bespoke the four hundred warriors with Chahtah Osh 
 Hochifoh Keyu were many miles upon the war-path that led 
 to the country of the Osages among the headwaters of the 
 Arkansas river. ' 
 
 , The hostile land was reached, and soon they discovered 
 a large cave into which they entered, that concealed they 
 might the better arrange their plans for future operations, 
 being then in the enemies' country. Two scOuts, however, 
 were sent out to reconnoitre, one to exaniine the surround- 
 ings east, the other west. The latter wfis Chahtah Osh 
 (Hochifoh Keyu. But alas for human bopes! The evening 
 passed away and night came on bringing one Osage hunter 
 ■who had oft before sought the cave and found a safe resting 
 j)lace for the night. But as he drew ijear the cave, his ob- 
 servant eyes, ever on the alert, discovered signs which told 
 him of the presence of others; further examination revealed 
 that they were his nation's most bitter and unrelenting ene- 
 mies, the hated Choctaws. Silently he stole away undis- 
 covered by the Choctaws, until safely distant, then sped 
 away through the darkness on nimble feet to his village and 
 told of his discovery; at once a large band of Osage warriors 
 rushed for the cave, and as they drew near gathered up small 
 logs, chunks, limbs and brush with w^ich thev silently and 
 effectually closed the mouth of the cave, and to which they 
 applied the torch, and the sleeping Choctaws awoke but fb 
 read their inevitable doom— all perished. The Choctaw 
 scout who had gone east returned during the night, but ere 
 he reached the cave the flames revealed to him the tale of 
 woe; he approached near enough, however, to comprehend the 
 whole; stooda moment and gazed in mazy bewilderment, then 
 turned and fled for home where he s.afely arrived and re- 
 vealed the sad intelligence of the wretched fate of his com- 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 281 
 
 rades'to their relatives and frieads. It was also believed by 
 all that Chahta Osh Hochifoh Keju had been discovered and 
 had also been ?lain. The sad tidings fell heavily upon all 
 and the wail of woe was nekrd in many a village and cabin; 
 but upon one it fell with terrible weight; and the promised 
 wife of, "The l^meless Choctaw" at once began to droop 
 and soon withered away as a rose severed from the parent 
 stem; and ere another moon had passed away she was laid 
 iway in a grave upon the very spot (by her request) where 
 she had last shared the parting embrace with her adored 
 Chahtah Osh Hochifoh Keyu, upon whose tomb-stone, had 
 one been erected to her memory, could justly have borne the 
 epitaph — "A broken heart." 
 
 But the supposition that he too had been slain proved 
 untrue. Though he had" been discovered by the Osages and 
 vigorously pursued for several days and nights, he finally 
 was fortunate enough to escape. During the chase his flight 
 had been devious, and when he had gotten beyond the^danger 
 of further pursuit by his fearful foes, he found himself to be 
 a bewildered man, wretched and forlorn. Everything ap- 
 peared wrong, and even the sun appeared to him to rise in 
 the wrong direction, all nature was out of order. After 
 several days of dubious wanderings, hither and thither, he 
 knew not where, he came to the foot of a mountain, whose 
 sides were covered with a kind of gi-ass entirely diffferent 
 from anything he had ever seen before. Then, in the course 
 of his wanderings, he -strayed, at the close of another^ day, 
 into a lovely wooded valley, where he camped for the night, 
 kindled a fire and cooked a rabbit he had killed, of which he 
 made his sup'per, and then sought temporary forgetfulness 
 of his woes in sleep. Morning again dawned, but to awake 
 him to a stronger sensibility of his loneliness and Wander- 
 ings he knew hot where. Many moons came and passed 
 away and left him a lost wanderer. Summer came, and he 
 called upon the Great Spirit to make his paths straight, that 
 they might lead him out of bewilderment." He then hunted 
 for a spotted deer, found and killed one, and offered it a sac- 
 i-ifice to the Great Spirit, after reserving a small portion to 
 satisfy his own immediate wants. Night again came on, and 
 as he sat by his little campfire in lonely solitude, he heard 
 the near approach of footsteps in an adjoining thicket, but 
 before he could talte a second thought, a snow-white wolf of 
 immense size was crouching at his feet, and licking his 
 moccasins with the utmost manifestations of affection. Then 
 looking him in the face said: "Whence came you, ind why 
 are you alone in this wilderness?" To which Chohtah Osh 
 Hochifoh Keyu gave a full account of his misfortunes. The 
 
282 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 1 
 
 wolf then promised to lead him safely out of the wilderness 
 in which he had been so long- wandering- and return him 
 to his country, and they started early on the following' 
 morning. i 
 
 Long was the journey, and dangerous the route; but by 
 the time that the corn-hoeing moon came the forlorn wan- 
 derer entered once more his native village, the anniversary 
 of the' day he had bidden his betrothed adieu; but alas, only 
 to find his village in mourning for her premature death. Alas 
 too, so changed was he that none recognized in the wayworn 
 stranger the lost Chatah Osh Hochifoh Keyu; nor did he 
 make liimself known. Often, however, did he solicit them to 
 rehearse to him the account of her death; and oft he chanted 
 his wild songs, to the astonishment of all, to the memory of 
 his loved one,/ dead yet love4, loved yet dead. During his 
 frequent nightly visits to her lonely grave upon the hill which 
 had witnessed their last parting, he once came on a calm, 
 cloudless night — 'twashislast — and stood by thegravethatheld 
 his dead at a moment when the Great Spirit cast a sh?idow 
 upon the moon, then fell upon it and died. They found him 
 there, and then was he recognized as the long lost Chatah 
 Osh Hochifoh Keyu, and, there buried by the side of his 
 earthly idol. For three consecutive nights the silence of the 
 forests contiguous to the lovers' graves was broken by the 
 continual wailing howl of a solitary wolf, then it ceased and 
 was heard no more; but the same wail was taken up by the 
 pine fbrest upon tlie hill where the lovers parted in hope, but 
 thereto be buried in despair, and that mournful, wailing 
 sound they have continued from that day dawn to the present 
 time. 
 
 The traditions of the Choctaws corfcerning the Oka Fal- 
 ama (Returned waters— the Flood) is as follows : In ancient 
 time, after many generations of mankind hadlived and passed 
 from the stage of being, the race became so corrupt and 
 wicked — brother fighting against brother and wars deluging- 
 the earth with human blood and carnage — the Great Spirit 
 became greatly displeased and finally determined to destroy 
 the human race ; therefore sent a great prophet to them 
 who proclaimed from tribe to tribe, and from village to vil- 
 lage, the fearful tidings- that the human race was soon to 
 be destroyed. None believed his words, and lived on in 
 their wickedness as if they did not care, and the seasons 
 came again and went. Then came the autumn of the year, 
 followed by many succeeding cloudy days and nights, dur- 
 ing which the sun by day and the moon and stars by night 
 were concealed from the aarth ; then succeeded a total dark- 
 ness, and the sun seemed to have Been blotted out ; while 
 
. HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 283 
 
 darkriess and silence with a cold atmosphere took posses- 
 sion of earth. Mankind wearied and perplexed, but not re- 
 ■ penting or reforming, slept in darkness' but to awake in 
 darkness ; then the mutterings of distant' thunder began to 
 
 - be heard, gradually becoming incessant, until it reverbera- 
 ted in all parts of the sky and seemed to echo back even from 
 the deep center of the earth. Then fear and constei-nation 
 
 -seized upon every heart and all believed the suii would neve;r 
 return. The Magi of the Choctaws spoke despondently in 
 reply to the many interrogations of the alarmed people, and 
 sang their death-songs which were but faintly heard in the 
 
 \ mingled confusion that arose amid the gloom of the night; 
 that seemed would have no returning morn. Mankind went 
 from placte to place only by torch-light; their food stored 
 
 • away became mouldy and unfit for use ; the wild animals of 
 the forests gathered around their fires bewildered and even, 
 entered their towns and villages, seeming to^ave lost all 
 fear of man. Suddenly a fearful crash of thunder, louder 
 than ever before heard, seemed to shake the earth, a,nd im- 
 mediately after a light was seen glimmering seemingly far' 
 away to the North. It was soon discovered Inot to be the 
 light of the returning sun, but the gleam of great waters ad- 
 vancing in mighty billows, wave succeeding wave as they on- 
 ward rolled over the earth c^estroying everything in their 
 path. I . ; . 
 
 Then the wailing cry was heard coming from all direc- 
 tions. Oka Falamah, Oka Falamah; (The returned' waters). 
 Stretching from horizon to hoi'izon, it came pouring its mass- 
 ive waters onward. "The foundations of the Great Deep 
 were broken up." Soon the earth was. entirely overwhelmed 
 by the mighty and irresistible rush of the waters w^hich swept 
 away the human race and all animals leaving the earth a des- 
 olate waste. Of all mankind only ,one .was saved, and that 
 one was the njiysterious prophet who had been sent by the 
 Great Spirit to warn the human race of their near approach- 
 ing doom. This prjaphet saved, himself by making a raft of i 
 of sassafras logs by the direction of the Great Spirit, upon 
 which he floated upon the. great waters that covered the, 
 earth, as various kinds 6i fish swam around him, and twined 
 among the branches of the submerged trees, while upon the 
 face of the waters he looked upon the dead bodies of men 
 and beasts, as they arose and fell upon the heaving billows. 
 After many weeks floating he knew, not where, a large 
 black bird came to the raft flying in circles above, his head. 
 He called to it for assistance, but it only replied in loud, 
 croaking tones, then flew away and was seen ho more. .A 
 few days after a bird of bluish color, with red eyes and beak 
 
284 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 ca!me and hovered over the raft, to which the prophet spoke 
 and asked if there was a spot of dry land anywhere to be 
 seen in the wide waste of waters. Then it flew around his 
 head a few moments fluttering its wingfs and uttering a 
 mournful cry, then flew away in the direction of that part of 
 the sky where the new sun seemed to be sinking- into the 
 rolling waves of the great ocean of waters. Immediately a 
 strong wind sprang up and bore the raft rapidly in that 
 direction. Soon night came on, and the moon and stars 
 again made their appearance, and the next morning the sun 
 arose in its former splendor; and the prophet looking around 
 saw an island in the distance toward which the raft was 
 slowly drifting, and before the sun had gon^ down seemingly 
 again into the world of waters, the raft had touched the 
 island upon which he landed and encamped, and being wear- 
 ied and lonely he soon forgot his anxieties in sleep; and when 
 morning came, in looking around over the island, he found it 
 covered with •^ll varieties of animals — excepting the mam- 
 moth which had been destroyed. He also found birds and 
 fowls of every kind in vast numbers upon the island; and 
 among which he discovered the identical black bird which 
 had visited him upon the waters, and then left him to his 
 fate; and, as he regarded it a cruel bird, he named it Fulushto 
 (Raven) — a bird of ill omen to the ancient Choctaws. 
 
 With great joy he also discovered the bluish bird which 
 had caused the wind to blow his raft upon the island, and be- 
 cause of this act of kindness and its great beauty he called it 
 , Puchi Yushubah (Lost Pigeon). 
 
 After many days the waters passed away; and in the 
 course of time Puchi Yushubah became a beautiful woman, 
 whom the prophet soon after married, and by them the world 
 was again peopled. 
 
 Whence this tradition with such strong resemblance to 
 the account of the deluge as given in the Sacred Scriptures? 
 It is not fiction or fable, but the actual tradition of the ancient 
 Choctaws as related by them to the missionaries in 18t8. 
 Whence .this knowledge of the flood of the Bible? Does one 
 reply, they obtained it from the early European explorers 
 of the continent? Not so; for the earliest explorers speak of 
 the North American Indians' various traditions of the Flood. 
 May it be possible that their ancestors, far back in the early 
 dawn of the morn of Christianty, received it from some one 
 or more of the apostles, as ours did — the ancient Britons? 
 Who knows? It is not a thing impossible, if we admit they 
 drifted ages ago from Asia's shores to the western conti- 
 nent. If not, whence and how have they this knowledge of 
 the flood? ^ 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. j 285 
 
 St. Paul himself declares, in his epistie to the Gklatians, 
 that soon after he had been called to preach Christianity 
 among-. the heathen, he "went into Arabia." The dissen- 
 sions which arose in the Eastern church, in the early part of 
 the third century, breaking- it up into seqts, drove many into 
 exile into i^emote parts of the East, and planted the Chris- 
 tian faith among the principal tribes of that region. 
 
 Another Choctaw Version of their traditional flood (Oka- 
 falama) is as follows: In, the far distant ages of the past, 
 the people, whom the Great Spirit had created, became so 
 wicked that he resolved to sweep them all from the earth, ex- 
 cept Oklatabashih (People's mourner) and his family, who 
 alone did that which was good. He told Oklatabashih to 
 bujld a large boat into which he should go with his family 
 and also to take into the boat a male and female of all the an- 
 imals living upop. the earth. He did as he was commanded 
 by the -Great Spirit. But as he went out in the forests to 
 bring in the birds he was unable to catch a pair of biskinik 
 (sapsucker), fitukhak (yellow hammer), bak bak, (a large 
 red-headed woodpecker); afe these birds were so quick, in 
 hopping around from one side to the other of the trees upon 
 which they clung with their sharp 'and strong claws, that 
 Oklatabashih found it was impossible for him to catch them, 
 therefore he gave up the chase, and returned, to the boat, 
 and the door closed, the rain began to fall increasing in vol- 
 ume for many days and nights, until thousands of people and, 
 animals perished. Then it suddenly ceased and utter dark- 
 ness covered the face of the earth for a long time, while the 
 people and animals that still survived groped here and there 
 in the fearful gloom. Suddenly far in the distant north was 
 seen a long streak of light. They believed that, amid the 
 raging eleipents and the impenetrable darkness that covered 
 the earth, the sun had lost, its way and was rising in the 
 north. All the surviving people rushed towards the seeni- 
 ingly rising sun, though utterly bewildered, n^ knowing 
 or caring what they did. But well did Oklatabashih in- 
 terpret the prophetic sign of their fast approaching doom. 
 Instead of the bright dawn of another long wished-for day, 
 they saw, in utter despair, that It was but the mocking light 
 that foretold how near the Okafalama was at hand, rolling 
 like mountains on mountains piled atid engulfing everything 
 in its resistless course. All earth was at once overwhelmed 
 in the mighty return of waters, except the great boat which, 
 by the guidance of the Great Spirit, rode safely upon the 
 rolling and dashing waves that covered the earth. During 
 manv moons the boatfloated safely o'er tlje vast sea of waters. 
 Finally Oklatabashih sent a dove to see if any dry land could 
 
286 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 be found. She soon returned with her beak full of grass, ' 
 which she had gathered from a desert island. Oklatabashih 
 to reward her for her discovery mingled a little salt in her 
 food. Soon after this the waters subsided and the dry land 
 appeared; then the inmates of the great boat went forth to 
 repeople another earth. But the dove, having acquired a 
 taste for salt during her stay in the boat continued its use 
 by finding it at the salt-licks that then abounded in many 
 places, to which the cattle and deer also frequently resorted. 
 Every day after eating, she visited a salt-lick to eat a little 
 salt to aid her digestion, which in the course of time became 
 habitual and thus was transmitted to her offspring. In the 
 course of years, she became a grand-mother, and took great 
 delight in feeding and caring for her grand-children. One 
 day, however, after having eaten some grass seed, she un- 
 fortunately forgot to eat a little salt as usual. For this 
 neglect, the Great Spirit punished her and her descendants 
 by forbidding them forever the use of salt. When she re- 
 turned home that evening, her grand-children, as usual be- 
 gan to coo for their supply of salt, but their grand-mother 
 having been forbidden to give them any more, they cooed in 
 vain. From that day to this, in memory of this lost privil- 
 ege, the doves everywhere, on the return of spring, still con- 
 tinue tlieir cooing for salt, which they will never again be 
 permitted to eat. Such is the ancient tradition of the Choc- 
 taws of the origin of the cooing of doves. 
 
 But as to the fate of the three birds who eluded capture 
 by Oklatabashih, their tradition states : They flew high in 
 air at the approach of Okafalama, and, as the waters rose 
 higher and higher, they also flew highfer and higher above 
 the surging waves. Finally, the waters rose in near prox- 
 imity to the sky, upon which they lit as their last hope. 
 Soon, to their great joy and comfort, the waters ceased to 
 rise, and commenced to recede. But while sitting on the 
 sky their tails, projecting dow,nward, were continually being 
 drenched by the dashing spray of the siu-ging waters below, 
 and thus the end of their tail feathers became forked and 
 notched, and this peculiar shape of the tails of the biskinik, 
 fitukhak and bakbak has been transmitted to their latest 
 posterity. But the sagacity and skill manifested byl these 
 birds in eluding the grasp of Oklatabashih, so greatly de- 
 lighted the Great Spirit that he appointed them to forever be 
 the guardian birds of the red men. Therefore these birds, 
 and especially the biskinik, often made their appearance in 
 their villages on the eve of a ball play ; and, whichever one of 
 the three came, it twittered in happy tones its feelings of 
 joy in anticipation of the near approiich of the Choctaws' 
 
fflSTORY OF THE INDIANS 287 
 
 favorite game. But in time of war one of these bird^ al- 
 ways appeared in the camp of a war party, to give them 
 warning of approaching danger, by its constant chirping 
 and hurried flitting from place to place around their camp. 
 In many ways did these birds prove their love for and 
 friendship to the red man, and he ever cherished them as 
 the loved birds of his race, the remembered gift of the 
 Great Spirit in the fearful days of the mighty Okafalama. 
 
 The French in making their voyages of discovery along 
 the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in 1712, under the command 
 of Iberville, anchored one evening near an island (now known 
 as Ship Island) which they discovered to be intersected with 
 lagoons and inhabited by a s.trange and peculiar animal 
 seemingly to hold the mediiim between the fox and cat, and 
 they give it the name Cat Island, by which it is still known; 
 thence they passed over the main land, where they discovered 
 a tribe of Indians called Biloxi, among whom they afterwards 
 located a town and gave it the name Biloxi — now the oldest 
 town in the State of Mississippi. This .tribe .of Indians 
 proved to be a clan of the Choctaws, and the iname Biloxi, a 
 corruption of the Choctaw word Ba-|uh-chi, signifying hick- 
 ory bark. Thence going eastward they discovered another 
 tribe weich they called the Pascagoulas, which also proved 
 to be a clan of the Choctaws, and the nam£ Pascagoula, a 
 corruption of the two Choctaw words Puska (bread) and 
 Okla (people), i. e: Bread People, or people having bread; 
 but which has been erroneously interpreted to mean "Bread 
 Eaters." A remnant of the Ba-luh-chis still exist among the 
 ■Choctaws, while the Puskaoklas have been long lost by unit- 
 I ing with other Choctaw clans. There was an ancient tradi- 
 tion among the Puskaoklas, which stated that, in the years 
 long past, a small tribe of Indians of a lighter complexion than 
 themselves, and also different in manners and customs, in- 
 habited the country near the mouth of the Pascagoula river, 
 whose ancestors, according to the tradition, originally emer- 
 ged from the sea, wherp they were born; that they, were a 
 kind, peaceful and ij^offensive people, spending their time in 
 public festivals and'amuse^ments of various kinds; that they 
 had a temple .in which the^ worshiped the figure of a Sea 
 God; every night when the moon was passing from its cres- 
 cent to the full, they gathered around the figure playing upon 
 instruments and singing and dancing, thus rendering hom- 
 age to the Sea God. That shortly after the destruction of 
 Mobilla (now Mobile, Alabama,) in 1541, by De Soto, there 
 suddenly appeared among the Sea God worshippers a white 
 hian with a long, gray beard, flowing garments and bearing 
 a large cross in his right hand; that he took from his bosom 
 
288 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 a book, and, after kissing- it again and again, he began to ex- 
 plain to them what was contained in it; that they listened 
 attentively and were fast being- converted to its teachings 
 when a fearful catastrophy put an end to all. One night, 
 when the full moon was at its zenith, there came a sudden 
 rising of the waters of the river, which rolled in mighty 
 waves along its channel; on the crest ofthefoamingwaterssat 
 a woman, with magnetic eyes, singing in a tone of voice that 
 fascinated all; that the white man, followed by the entire 
 tribe, rushed to the bank of the stream in wild amazement, 
 when the siren at once, modulated her voice to still more 
 fascinating tones, chanting a mystic song with the oft 
 repeated chorus, "Come to me, come to nie, children of the 
 seal Neither hook nor cross, from your queen, shall win ye;" 
 Soon, an Indian leaped into the still raging waters, followed 
 by the remainder in rapid succession, all disappearing as 
 they touched the water, when a loud and exultant laugh was 
 heard, and then the waters returned to their usual level and 
 quiet leaving no trace of their former fury; the white man 
 was left alpne, and soon died of grief and loneliness. 
 
 TRADITION OF THE PAPAGOES INDIANS. 
 
 It is stated of the Papagoes, (known as the short-haired 
 Indians of the Southwest) that an ancient tradition of their _ 
 tribe proclaims the coming of a Messiah by the napie "Moc- 
 tezuraa." They affirm that, in the ancient past, he lived in 
 Casa Grande, the famous prehistoric temple on the Gila 
 river; that his own people rebelled against him and threaten- 
 ed to kill him, and he fled to Mexico. But before leaving 
 them he told them that they would experience great afflic- 
 tions fdr many years, but eventually, at the time of their 
 greatest need, he would return to them from the east with 
 the rising sun; that he would then cause the rain to fall again 
 upon their arid country, and make it bloom as a garden, and 
 make his people to become the greatest on earth. There- 
 fore, when Moctezuma arrives, that he ({lay see all the doors 
 open and none closed against hinj, tlj^humble people, with 
 a pathetic faith, make the only entrSfice to their houses, 
 toward the east and leave the door' always standing open 
 that their Messiah may enter when he comes. During the 
 years 1891, 1892 and 1893, a three years' dro'u'th had destroy- 
 ed their crops, dried up their water, cut off their supply of 
 seeds, and killed great numbers of their cattle. Truly it 
 was the time of their greatest suffering, and surely Mocte- 
 zuma would now come tu their rescue; and it was enough to 
 move the heart of the most obdurate infidel, to see the people 
 
mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 289' 
 
 5 
 ascending just befoi'e sunrise to the top of the suiTounding 
 hills and look anxiously toward the risingf sun for Moctezu- 
 ma, until disappointment usurped the place of. hope, and 
 one by one, each returned patiently to his house, but to 
 hope on. ' r ■ 
 
 Christianity, it is said, dates' back from the return of 
 the Hellenist Jews and proselytes from, "Egypt and the 
 parts of Libya about Cyrene,'* who heard St. Peter preach, 
 on the day of Pentecost. 
 
 It is well known that, in the history of the early church,, 
 no city is more famous than Alexandria. From that citj 
 cam^ Apollos ; there, too, Mark, the evangelist, is said tO' 
 have preached ; and from it Pantemusas was sent as a mis- 
 sionary to India ; in it also dwelt Clement, Athanasius and- 
 Origin. Carthage and , Hippo have given to the world the 
 names of Cyprian, TertuUian and Augustine. In the fifth 
 century there were 560 Bishoprics in North Africa. The 
 Coptic church in Egypt, and its daughter church in Abys:- 
 sinia which still survive, though in corrupted state, while of" 
 the ancient North African church, not a vestige, it is said,, 
 remains, being wholly swept away by Mohammedism in the: 
 seventh century. '■ 
 
 May not the ancestors of the North American Indians- 
 have dwelt in soifae of those regions of count;ry' in which the' 
 gospel was preached by those ancient missionaries? aSld 
 also have been among those of the early Christians who fled 
 before the persecutions of the Turk and Tartar, artd cross-- 
 ed over to this continent by way of Behring Strait, or the 
 fabled sunken continent Atlantis (if it ever existed), bring- 
 ing with them the many Asiatic characteristics they possess- 
 in their manners and custorns and religious ceremonies,, audi 
 their traditional knowledge of the flood ? But alas 1 upom 
 this we can but conjecture, there we can but begin and there 
 we have to end. 
 
 The belief of the ancient Choctaws iil regard to the 
 eclipses of the sun was not more inconsistent, than that of 
 any portion of the human family, whose minds had never 
 been enlightened by the rays of spiritual light from the gos- 
 pel of the Son of God. The. Romans, the Celtics, the Asia-, 
 tics, the Finns of Europe, and, no doubt, Britons, too, 3.II? 
 had their views in regard to eclipses a^ absurd as the Choc- 
 taws. The Choctaws, .as before stated, attributed an eclipse- 
 of the sun to a black squirrel, whose eccentricities often led 
 it into mischief, and, among other things, that of trying to- 
 eat up the sun at different intervals. When thus inclined, 
 they believed, which was confirmed by long experience, that 
 the only effective means to prevent so fearful a ^catastrophe- 
 
290 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' 
 
 liefalling the world as thei blotting out of that indispensable 
 luminary, was to favor the little, black epicure with a first- 
 ■class scare'; therefore, whenever he manifested an inclination 
 to indulge in a meal on the sun, every ingenuity was called 
 into requisition to give him a genuine fright that he would 
 be induced, at least, to postpone his meal on the sun at that 
 particular time and seek a lunch elsewhere. As soon, there- 
 fore, as the sun began to^draw its lunar veil over its face, 
 the cry was heard from every mouth from the Dan to the 
 Beersheba of their then wide extended territory, echo- 
 ing from hill to dale, "Funi lusa hushi umpa! Funi lusa 
 hushi umpa," according to our phraseology. The black squir- 
 rel is eating the sun! Then and there was heard a sound of 
 tumult by day in the Choctaw Nation for the space of an 
 hour or two, far exceeding that said to have been heard by 
 night in Belgium's Capital, and sufficient in the conglomera- 
 tion of discordant tones terrific, if heard by the distant, 
 little, fastidious squirrel, to have made him lose forever 
 afterward all relish for a mess of suns for an early or late 
 dinner. The shouts of the women and children mingling 
 ■with the ringing of discordant bells as the vociferous pound- 
 ing and beating of ear-splitting tin pans and cups mingling 
 in "wild confusion worse confounded," yet in sweet unison 
 with a first-class orchestra of yelping, howling, barking 
 dogs gratuitously thrown in by ihe innumerable and highly 
 excited curs, produced a din, which even a "Funi lusa," had 
 lie heard it, could scarcely have endured even to have in- 
 dulged in a nibble or two of the sun, tthough urged by the 
 •demands of a week's fasting. 
 
 But during the wild scene the men were not idle specta- 
 tors, or indifferent listeners. Each stood a few paces in 
 front of his cabin door, with no outward manifestation of 
 excitement whatever — so characteristic of the Indian war- 
 rior—but with his trusty rifle in hand, which so oft had 
 proved a friend sincere in many hours of trial, which he 
 loaded and fired in rapid succession at the distant, devastat- 
 ing squirrel, with the same coolness and calm deliberation 
 that he did when shooting at his game. More than once have 
 I witnessed the fearful yet novel scene. When it happened 
 to be the time of a total eclipse of the sun, a sufficient evi- 
 dence that the little, black epicure meant business in regard 
 to haying a square meal, though it took the whole sun to fur- 
 nish it, then indeed there were sounds of revelry and tumult 
 unsurpassed by any ever heard before, either in "Belgium" 
 or elsewhere. Then the women shrieked and redoubled 
 their efforts upon the tin pans, which, under the desperate 
 blows, strained every vocal org;tn to do its utmost ;ind wliolo 
 
HISTORY OF q;ME INDIANS. 291 
 
 duty in loud response, while the excited children screamed 
 and beat their tin cups, and the sympathetic dogs (whose 
 name was legfion) barked and howled^ — all seemingly deter- 
 mined not to fall the one behind other in their duty — since 
 the occasion demanded it ; while the warriors still stood in 
 profound and meditative silence, but firm and undaunted, as 
 they quickly loaded and fired their rifles, each time taking- 
 deliberative aim, if perchance the last shot might prove the 
 successful one ; then, as the moon's shadow began to move 
 from the disk of the suii, the joyful shout was heard above 
 the mighty din Funi-lusa-osh mahlatah ! The black squirrel 
 is frightened. But the din remained' unabated until the sun 
 again appeared in its usual splendor, and all nature again 
 assumed its !|iarmonious course ; then quiet below again as- 
 sumed its sway, while contentment and happiness resumed 
 their accustomed place in the hearts of the grateful Ghoc- 
 taws — grateful to the Great Spirit who had given them the 
 victory. But the scene 6f a total eclipse of the sun in the 
 Choctaw Nation in those ancient years must he witness-' 
 €d to be justly comprehended by the lover of the romantic, 
 and heard by the highly sensitive ear to be fully appreciated 
 and enjoyed. , 
 
 On the road leading from St. Stephens then a little town 
 in Alabama, near which wias the home of the renowned Choc- 
 taw Chief Apushamata hahubi in 1812, to the city of Jackson, - 
 Mississippi, stood the mound Nunih Waiyah erected by the 
 Choctaws in commemoration of their migration, as has been 
 previously stated, from a country far to the west to their 
 homes east of the Mississippi river, where they were first 
 tnown to the Europeans. I read an article published some 
 vears ago in a newspaper, which stated that an ancient tra- 
 dition of the Choctaws aflirmed that they derived their 
 origin from Nunih Waiyah, their ancestors' swarniing from 
 the hole on the top as bees swarming from the hive in sum- 
 mer, and thus was that part of the world peopled with Choc- 
 taws. The Choctaws did not so state their origin to the 
 ■early missionaries of 1818. They always have claimed their 
 origin from a country far to the West, and the above men- „ 
 tioned tradition with all its absurdities, so numerous in the 
 writings of the majority of those of the present age, who, 
 having nothing more, clothe their nominal Indian in myths 
 and hide him in impenetrable fogs, had its origip in the 
 prolific brain of the writer, who assumes to be gifted with a 
 vivid imagination, even as his congenial fellow writers of the 
 present day when getting up a "send-off" upon the Indians; 
 and who imagine themselves wiser than even seven men who 
 can render a reason, though they have advanced no further 
 
\ 
 
 292 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 / 
 
 in Indian lore than the widely circulated hear-say's- 
 ' elementary spelling--book; and, having learned all there is to 
 be known in that branch of historical mformation, they feel 
 themselves incapable of receiving any further instruction 
 in reg-ard to the North American Indian characteristics, 
 from any source whatever, yet they are lacking in one very 
 essential thing; i. e. Not tu know how little they do know. 
 But nothing better could be expected from such "Worldly 
 ' Wisemen," whose heads have been stu'ffed with naught else 
 but tales of "Indian devils and Indian ghosts; Indian fairies 
 and Indian elves; Indian tomahawks and Indian scalps;" and 
 with ears full of. such hobgoblins, they fell in love, as soon as 
 "vtheygrewto manhood, with thedesiretoanathematize that un- 
 fortunate race as naturally as a bird sings; yet blinded as ef- 
 i, fectuallyto the enemity and atrocity of the wrongs and in- 
 juries done to the helpless Indians, as that drunkenness of 
 heart which follows up long, continued success, creating' 
 utter insensibility and remorselessness of conscience, but 
 establishing the fact, that morally the Indians are immeasur- 
 ably supei'ior to any and all such oppressing, plundering and 
 defaming specimens of humanity. 
 
 The Choctaws lived around their honored memento of 
 the past for many successive generations, and some, even in 
 large excavations made in its sides. And when interrog'ated 
 by the whites with the question "Whence came they?" 
 alluding to the origin of their race, Jhe Choctaws, thinking 
 their interrogator wished to learn from what part of their 
 nation they came, replied: "From the.Mound;" while those 
 who dwelt in the excavations made in .its sides, answered: 
 "From out the Mound,',' meaning they lived in the mound. 
 No Choctaw was such a fool as to believe, or even assert, 
 their ancestors jumped out of the hole on the top of Nunih 
 Waiyah full fledged warriors, as they of fabled renown who 
 spring from the dragon's teeth sown in the earth. And 
 when speaking to.them of this tratiition, with seeming emo- 
 tions of pity mingled with contempt, they have replied: 
 "That fellow did not Icnow what he was talking about;" a 
 self-evident truth to all who know anythi-ng about the Choc- 
 taw people. True, they held Nunih Waiyah in great rever- 
 ence; but not as the author of the tradition would make 
 believe, that, in their degraded ignorance, they cherished it 
 as the place of their origin which sent them forth in num- 
 bers "as swarming bees," but as an ancient relic handed 
 down to them through a long line of honored ancestry; and 
 even as the great pyramid, Cheops, of the arid desert, points 
 the Egyptian back to the cycles (if ages past, so too di<l Nu- 
 nih Waiyah remind the Choctaw of his Iwng line of descent as 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 393 
 
 he proudly gazed upon its hoary and weather-beaten sides. 
 
 As an evidence of their admiration and veneration for 
 thus ancestral memento, the Choctaws, when passing, would 
 ascend it and drop into the hole at its top various trinkets, 
 and sometimes a venison ham, or dressed turkey, as a kind 
 , of sacrificial offering to the memory of its ancient builders, 
 who only appeared to them through the mists of ages past; 
 and a,s the highest evidence of their' veneration for this 
 relic of theii: past history, it was sometimes spoken of by 
 the more enthusiastic as their Iholitopa Ishki, (beloved 
 mother). . 
 
 In 1810, the United States Agent, George S. Gaines, was 
 one day ridirig along the road that leads near Nunih Waiyah, 
 and to satisfy his curiosity turned and rode to its base, then 
 dismounted and walked to its top. While thefe, he noticed 
 a large band of Choctaw warriors passing along the road; 
 and being desiroiis of their company, he hastily descended, 
 mounted his horse and soon overtook them. ~^As he rode up, 
 and the usual salutations had been exchanged, the chief, 
 who was no less than the renowned Apushamatahaubih, with 
 a significant smile in which fun and innocent mischief were 
 most prominent, said: "Well, friend Gaines,'! see you have 
 been up to pay your compliments to our good mother." 
 "Yes, I concluded to pay her a visit as I was passing," re- 
 plied Mr. Gaines. "Well, what did she say to you?" asked 
 the great chief. "She said," responded Mr. Gaines, "that 
 her Choctaw children had become too numerous to longer 
 be prosperous, contented and happy In theii* present coun- 
 try, therefore, she thought it besffor them to exchange 
 their old country and lands for a new country ahd lands 
 west of the Mississippi river, where the game was' much 
 more abundant, and the hunting grounds far more exten- 
 sive." With a loud laugh in which his warriors also heartily 
 joined, Apushamatahah then exclaime4 "Holobihiholubit ish 
 nohowa nihl (It's a lie.) Do not go about telling lies. Our 
 good old niothei* never could have spoken such words to 
 you." After the laugh of the joke was over, Apushamata- 
 hahubih expressed himself freely with Mr. Gaines upon vari- 
 ous subjects relative to his people as they rode along 
 together; among many, things that were mentioned, that of 
 uheir origin was brought up; and to the inquiry of Mr. 
 Gaines, "Whence they came to the country then occupied by 
 ihem," the chief replied: "Our ancestors came from a 
 country far to the west many suns and moons ago. And this 
 was the iny&riable reply made by all the Choctaws when 
 asked concerning their traditional origin. 
 
 The Choctaw^ Nation, from its earliest known history to 
 
294 HISTORY > OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 the present time has, at different intervals, produced many 
 great and good men; who, had they have had the advantages 
 of education, would have lived upon the pages of history 
 equally with those of earth's illustrious great. 
 
 The first of whom we have any historical account, is 
 Tush-ka Lu-sa, (the heroic defender of Moma Bin-na, a 
 Lodge for All — corrupted first to Mobila, then to Mobile)" 
 who perished, with many thousands of his people, in that 
 bloody tragedy of three and a half centuries ^ago, while de- 
 fending his ancient city against the Spaniards, nothing more 
 however, has been handed down by which we can judge of 
 his ability as a wise and judicious ruler, but the fact that De 
 Soto found his Nation in a prosperous condition; his people 
 dwelling in large and well fortified towns, comfortable houses, 
 subsisting to a very large extent by the cultivation of the 
 soil. 
 
 But of the patriotism and undaunted bravery of Tush- 
 ' kai Lusa, and his ability as a commander of his warriors, 
 DeSoto had satisfactory proof at the battle of Momabinah. 
 But so little of the history of those ancient Choctaws has 
 escaped oblivion that in sketching a line of their history at 
 such a distance of time we necessarily pass thi-ough un- 
 known fields so wide and diversified that it is lilie gliding 
 lightly and swiftly over thfe numberless waves of the agita- 
 ted ocean, and only touching here and there some of their 
 highest tops ; while, as we approach oUr own times, merely 
 the outline of their history, if accurately drawn, would fill 
 many volumes ; therefore, in the selection of objects to pre- 
 sent to the reader, with a due regard for his pleasure and 
 profit, I shall have continual reference to the power of as- 
 sociation, and endeavor to present such as will be most 
 likely to bring to my Choctaw and Chickasaw friends, for 
 whom the work is especially written, the remembrance of 
 many incidents and.-circumstances, which once were fresh, 
 but now are fading in their minds, by devoting here a few 
 pages to the brief sketch of the lives of some of their emi- 
 nent men now living, together with some of their distin- 
 guished dead. Noblemen they were; the fame of whose 
 virtues belong not to the world, but alone to their own Na- 
 tion and people, though I am well aware that the whole sub- 
 ject of the North American Indians is so tinged with ro- 
 mance and fiction that did not the interest of correct history 
 demand that at least an attempt should be made to shed a 
 ray of light upon that wonderful people, I would not, as a 
 truthful chronicler, have attempted to lift the veil and look in 
 upon this mystic people, so long known, but so little under- 
 stood by my own race. 
 
mSTORV OF THE INDIANS. 295 
 
 It is ^n accepted fact that one grand requisite to give, or 
 sufficiently comprehend a biography, lies in a knowledge of 
 the times to which it refers. I can truly say that with a 
 knowledge of the times to which most of the following bio- 
 graphical sketches refer, I am fully acquaiinted ; but I am 
 well aware, however, that the standard of public regard is. 
 so constantly changing that a character half a century ago 
 would have attracted the adulation of the world with its ex* 
 cellence ; in the present age receives but a moderate share; of 
 praise, however meritorious, aside from that of its own fel- 
 low citizens and people. 
 
 Biit the custom of commemorating the virtues and emi- 
 nent characteristics of those who have won the admiration,, 
 confidence and affection of, their fellow citizens, and have 
 passed away from eafth's tragic scenes, has always com- 
 manded the services of civilized life; as it has been deemed 
 useful to their contemporaries to awaken and keep alive in 
 their thoughts those grateful deeds that are hallowed by 
 memory, and to transmit a record of those deeds to the 
 future, in order to act as incentives and models to succeeding- 
 generations. 
 
 .Therefore, that the following biographical sketches may 
 be as incentives and models to the yoiing ^men of the Choc- 
 taw and Chicaksaw people, has been one of the inducements 
 that has actuated me in writing them. Still to notice the 
 virtues of 'humble individuals, lacking kingly ancestry and 
 high position in the civilized world, with h6ne of the accom- 
 plishments of birth, fortune and name, is an incident so un- 
 usual, that I might forbear, were I not writing to and for 
 their own people, who will read not to criticise, but to bear 
 testimony to the excellence and worth of their noble dead. 
 
 It has been said that there is a place for every man in 
 the theatre of life. • If true, it is equally so, that every man 
 does not always find his true place, nor occupy the positiom 
 best suited to his capacity or ability. The circumstances, 
 and incidents of human life, as they are daily unrolled, have- 
 much to do in throwipg men in the various situations in soci- 
 , ety, some of which they neither occupy nor faithfully ,fill. There 
 should be a fitness for the man for the place; else a statue of 
 Vulcan would as well adorn a niche in the temple of the Muses, 
 and a clown in his colored dress suitably represent the stern 
 judge.' I claim, however, for the subjects of this biography,, 
 not only a proper place, but an entire fitness for the varied 
 duties incident to the occupancy of the place. Therefore, 
 whether we look upon them as the faithful men, the intelli- 
 gent and judicious citizens or the Jealous rulers, they 
 challenge alike a just adimration and worthy praise. In the 
 
296 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 •various relations in \yhich they stood among .their people, 
 they won the confidence, affection and • esteem of all who 
 knew them, both of their own race and also of the white; and, 
 under the influence of a laudable ambition, they spared 
 neither labor, time, nor well directed exertion to elevate their 
 people in the scale of morality, prosperity and happiness. 
 To their signal success in these eiforts, the intelligence and 
 prosperity of their people to-day, bear indisputable testimony, 
 as the result of the labors of those who, in conjunction with 
 the missionaries, carried all the ardor of their souls, all the 
 strength of their minds, and all the application and concen- 
 tration of their powers that were necessary for securing- 
 their object in view. The responsibility of the stations they 
 thus honored, they felt in all their force, and earnestly, 
 honorably, and nobly they endeavored to discharge theni. 
 
 None but those who personally knew them, can form 
 any just conception of the manly efforts put forth by those 
 truly noble and honest patriots, Jn their exertions to elevate 
 the standard of their Nation in the estimation of the Chris- 
 itian world. They sought and obtained every useful informa- 
 tion that could give them additional mental power in the 
 ■pursuit of their favorite object, and studiously gathered the 
 ripe experience of others, both by the study of books and 
 ■observations in their travels among the whites, in their visits 
 to Washington City on business of national affairs; and it is 
 .a matter -of aatomshment that amid the many difficulties 
 they had to overcome in counteracting the evil influences of 
 the lawless whites who invaded their country, that they ac- 
 complished what they did. Yet they were but in a prepara- 
 tory state for enlarged usefulness among their people, when 
 the hand of disease was laid upon them and they were re- 
 ■moved from their labors. Many of them in the very prime 
 of their powers, in the very morn of the expansion of their 
 matuyed minds, were cut down in the bright promise of a 
 glorious future. But they had done enough to make their 
 lives:notable, and to justify- the presenting of the records of 
 their lives as containing laudable incentives to encourage 
 others in the path of honorable usefulness, and meritorious 
 examples as a model for them. >. 
 
 Tushka Lusa, the hero of Moma Bina, as before stated, 
 is the only Choctaw chief whose name has been handed down 
 from that tragic scene through the long line of historic 
 silence, to the year 1745, when in the English and French 
 wars, in which each were contending for supremacy upon 
 .the western continent, involving both the Choctaw and Chick- 
 asaw Nations, a few chiefs arose to the surface whose names 
 .have escaped •oblivion by their daring achievements during 
 
\piSTOftY OF THE DfDIANS. * 297 
 
 those scenes of blood and carnage; the most prominent'of the 
 Choctaws were Shulush Humma and Ibanowa, (one who 
 walks with) Miko (chief) whom I will more particularly 
 speak in the history of the Chickasaws. From 1745 to 1785 
 no other names of Choctaw chiefs haVe been preserved, all 
 alike having- gone down into the silence of eternal forgetful- 
 ness, but from 1785 the names of many of their great chiefs 
 have been preserved, though long since deceased; among 
 which, as the most prominent, stand that of A-piish-a-ma-ta- 
 hah-ub-i, (a messenger of death; literally, one whose rifle, 
 tomahawk, or bow alike fatal in war or' huntirigi) A-pak- 
 foh-li-chih-ub-ih, (t6 encircle and kill, corrupted by the 
 whites to A-puck-she-nubee, and so used by the Choctaws of 
 the present day.) A-to-ni Yim-in-tah, (a watchman infatuated' 
 with, excitement) Olubih,,(to take by force); Coleman Cole, 
 Greenwood La Flore, Nit-tak-a chih-ub-ih, (to suggest the day 
 and kill); David Folsom, Peter P. Pitchlyiln, (the CalhoUn of 
 the Choctaws); Isaac Folsom, Silafe Pitchlynn, Israel Fol- 
 som, (The Wesley of th^ Choctaws) and many o^ers. 
 With the last seven mentioned I was, personally acquainted. 
 The distinguished waj-rior and chief of the Choctaws, 
 Apushamatahah, was born, as near as can be ascertained, in 
 theyeaxa764. He was of the Iksa, called Kun-sha (A reed 
 — the name of the creek along whose banks the Kunsha Clan 
 dwelt.) Kunsha-a-he (reed— potato) is the full name of the 
 clan, which took its name from the thick reeds and wild 
 potatoes that grew together in the marshy ground along the 
 banks of the creek — Cane and Potato creek. 
 
 At an early age Apushamatahah (Foi^ the sake of brevity 
 the ubi is dropped) acquired great celebrity among his peo- 
 ple as a brave warrior and successful hunter. His love for 
 the facinating iexcitement of the chase and dai-ing adventures 
 frequently led him into the deep solitudes of the then distant 
 and wild forests west of the Mississippi river untrodden by 
 the foot of the white man, to engage in hunting buffalo, a 
 sport considered by the red man, and at a later period by the 
 white also, as the noblest ever engaged in upon the North 
 American continent. ^ The buffalo, at that day, congregated 
 in seemingly incredible'numbers, and roamed over the entire 
 wide extended western valley, grazing in countless multi- 
 tudes upon the rich grasses of the vast prairies that extended 
 before the vision to where eai-th and sky seemed to embrace. 
 But now that noble game is numbered with the things of the 
 past. 
 
 In those distant hunting expeditions and daring adven- 
 tures, accompanied only by a small number of youthful and 
 ■congenial spirits, Apushamatahah encountered many dangers 
 
298 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 and ended many privations and hardships; which consti- 
 tuted, to the young, free and independent Indian warrior and 
 hunter, the Veritable elixir of life, the ultimatum of earthly 
 bliss. 
 
 At one time, while engaged in one of those hunts on Red 
 river with a little party of Choctaw "braves," his camp was 
 unexpectedly and unceremoniously attacked, by a large band 
 of Cal-lag-e-hah warriors, (Callage-hah is evidently a cor- 
 ruption of the words,! Chah lih hihla, (fast dancers). These 
 Indians may possibly have been a clan of the Choctaws be- 
 fore they left Mexico, and .afterwards followed on to join the 
 main body, but never crossed the Mississippi river, hence 
 became forever lost from the parent stock) and being 
 greatly outnumberedj^Apushamatahah and his little party, 
 after a brief skirmish, were totally defeated, and but few 
 escaped, each taking care of himself. Apushamatahah, 
 being one of the few, found himself alone. After experienc- 
 ing great hardships and dangers in eluding the vigilance of 
 his wily enemies, he fortunately stumbled upon a Spanish 
 settlement, in which he remained many months, hunting for 
 the Spaniards^ and secretly preparing his plans for revenge 
 ag^ainst the Callagehahs for their unceremonious attack upon 
 his camp, and which he successfully executed, as the sequel 
 will show. At this time (1793) Missouri, Kansas and Arkan- 
 sas were under Spanish Dominion. 
 
 After he had thoroughly laid his plans of revenge, he 
 bade his Spanish employers a formal adieu, and started for 
 his distant and long absent home by devious paths, until he 
 came upon a camp of his enemies, the Callagehahs, upon 
 which he rushed at night with the ferocity of a tiger, and 
 slew seven of its occupants and secured their scalps, ere 
 they could recover from their surprise; tfi-en shouting back his 
 war-whoop of defiance, he fled with the nimble feet of the 
 antelope, directing his course homeward, where he, in the 
 course of several weeks safely arrived, to the astonishment 
 and joy of his relatives, who had regarded him among the 
 number of the slain, who had fallen on the fatal night of the 
 raid made upon their camp by the Callagehahs. He remain- 
 ed at home two or three years, but had not forgotten the 
 attack made upon his hunting camp in the distant solitudes 
 of the forests west of the Mississippi river, and the death of 
 his comrades; while his proud spirit still chafed under the 
 imagined disgrace of his defeat, he yearned to punish the 
 Callagehahs still more severely for their audacity and insult; 
 therefore, he again started with a select company of warriors 
 for his enemies' territories; where again surprising one of 
 their unsuspecting camps he slew three warriors without sus- 
 
HISTORY OF THE, INDIANS. 299 
 
 taming loss; after which he withdrew from the Callagehahs'' 
 country, but remained west of the Mississippi river for sev- 
 eral months in the fascinating amusements of the chase, that 
 exciting occupation that renders the hunter, both red and 
 white, oblivious to all else. Again he t-eturned home with 
 . his little band; yet his restless spirit could not rest in iil- 
 activity longer than a few weeks; and once more, Avith anoth- 
 er little company of congenial spirits of about twenty-five in 
 number, he started for the land of his foes and was gone 
 several months, when he again returned home with a dozen 
 or more Callagehah scalps, without the loss of a single one of 
 his little party. He remained at. home, after this exploit, 
 nearly a year, then again, but for the last time, sought the 
 distant tei'ritories of the Callagehahs with another band of 
 his warriors; again fortune smiled upon her seemingly 
 chosen favorite; for he struck another death dealing b,low, 
 obtaining many scalps, then bade the unfortunate Callage- 
 hahs a final adieu, returned to his native land with his vvar- 
 riors, and annoyed them no more. 
 
 The,Choctaws and Muscog'ees, in years long past, were 
 proverbial enemies, and hated each other with uncompromis- 
 ing bitterness ; therefore, embraced every opportunity to 
 manifest their hostility the one toward the other. On One 
 occasion a party of Muscogees secretly entered the Choctaw 
 territories and, among other ; depredations committed on 
 their devious i-oute, they burned the house of Apushamata- 
 hah, who, with his family, was absent from home engaged 
 inhis favorite amusement— a grand ball-play. As soon as he 
 returned home and found it a heap of smoking ruins, and 
 learned who had committed the mischief, he at once collec- 
 ted a company of warriors and sought the Muscogee Natipn 
 with the same determination and resolution that he. had pre- 
 viously sought that of the Callagehahs; and when arrived, 
 he repaid them ten foljd for the destruction of his home. 
 Many years afterward Apushamatahah was the first Choc- 
 taw chief who led a war-party of 800, warriors against the 
 Muscogees in what is known as the Creek War of 1812. 
 
 Several Choctaw companies joined Washington's army^ 
 during our Revolutionary war, and served during the entire 
 war; some of them were at the battle of Cowpens, under 
 General Morgan; others, at the battle of Stony Point, under 
 General Wayne, and others, at the battle of Tilico Plains, un- 
 der General Sullivan, sent by General Green to punish 
 the Tories and northern Cherokees (at that time the 
 only Cherokees hostile to the Americans) for the destruction 
 of Fort Loudon, situated on the Tennessee river in the terri- 
 tories then of North Carolina, whom he overtook at Tilico 
 
\ 
 
 \ 
 
 300 HISTORY OF THE INDIAJIS. 
 
 Plains, engaged and routed, with great loss on the part of 
 the tories and Cherokees.also securing the women and child- 
 ren whon they taken had prisoners in the fall of Fort Loudon, 
 and devastating the country of the hostile Cherokees ?is he 
 went, in driving them, (Tories and Cherokees) through 
 Deep Creek Gap, in Cumberland mountains, into the now 
 State of Kentucky; and there ending th^ pursuit, Sullivan re- 
 turned and joined his command near Yorktown. It is said, 
 those Cherokees never did return to their former homes, 
 but became incorporated with other Indians in Kentucky; 
 others, were under Washington at the capture of Yorktown, 
 and witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis. 
 
 An amusing incident was related to me when in the Choc- 
 taw Nation in 1888, in which a Choctaw scout, under General 
 Sullivan, previous to the defeat of the Tories and Cherokees 
 at Tilico Plains, was the chief hero. This scout, from his 
 short and thick set form, was given the name Dutch Johnnie, 
 by the soldiers. Dutch Johnnie was an uncompromising 
 enemy to the hostile Cherokees, for the re ison that a scout- 
 ing party of theirs had killed his wife and only child; and in 
 revenge he had sworn, as he of ancient Carthage, eternal 
 hatred against the Cherokees. Learning this. Gen. Sullivan 
 appointed Dutch Johnnie as one of his chief scouts, much to 
 the joy of Johnnie, as it gave him a broader tield in which to 
 seek and obtain the much desired revenge for the death of 
 ^his wife and child. He soon became noted for his intrepidity 
 endurance, skill, and valuableireports in regard to the enemy; 
 and by his many noble traits also became the pet of the army. 
 At one time, he was returning to the command from a long 
 scout of several days absence, and had reached within ten or 
 fifteen miles of the army, when night overtook him at an old 
 and long deserted house. It had been raining all day, so the 
 story goes, and was still raining and growing dark. As any 
 port in a storm had long been Dutch Johnnie's motto, he at 
 once resolved to accept the offered hospitalities of the for- 
 saken mansion; and, without formality, entered the open 
 space, where once had hung the door that then lay upon the 
 ground, a wreck of its former glory, and surveyed its apart- 
 ments. He found it consisted of but dne room, with but one 
 ingress or egress, one chimney of sticks and dirt, and four 
 or five logs extending across the room above, about 
 four feet apart, upon which were loosely laid some 
 boards extending from one to the ot|jer. 
 
 Being a good retreat from the rain and chill without, 
 Dutch Johnnie soon stretched himself upon the puncheon 
 floor in his wet clothes, too considerate to build a fire in the 
 hearth by which to dry and warm himself, and thus attract 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS 301, 
 
 the eye of an enemy engaged in .the same business as him- 
 self, and was just passing into the shadows of the land of 
 dreams, when his ears, ever wakeful sentinels and always 
 on the alert, whispered "danger without." He instantly 
 arose to a sitting posture and heard approaching footsteps. 
 Instantly he seized his rifle and quickly and noiselessly 
 climbed up t^ie wall and laid down upon the boards, and there 
 waited future developments. The approaching footsteps, 
 grew plainer until they stopped before the house. Then all 
 was hushed for a few moments, and then the intruders en- 
 tered. Dutch Johnnie from above could see nothing, ' so in- 
 tense was the darkness ; but soon learned that his visitors 
 were a company of Tories and Cherokee warriors, who, alike 
 with him, had sought the hospitality of the deserted house 
 from the inclemency of the night. He understood enough 
 English to learn much of their plans as the Tories convers- 
 ed with each other. In the course of an hour all had stretch- 
 ed themselves upon the puncheon floor, and were shortly 
 after wrapt in sleep ; yet with a sleepless sentinel eig'ht feet 
 above, who could see nothing — not even his hand before him 
 — but hear evei-y thing, even to the low breathing of his un- 
 welcome visitors below. Poor, entrapped Johnnie, how 
 was he to safely get out'^f the dilemma? If he remained 
 until morning some curiosity seeker might climi) the wall to 
 see what lay above," and then Dutch Johnnie's doom was in- ' 
 evitable. After . cogitating the matter over carefviUy, he 
 finally concluded he would try and escape by noislessly de- 
 scending the wall which he had ascended ; but the question 
 arose in his mind — how far from the wall in vvhich the door- 
 way was cut was the first parallel joist over which space he 
 discovered there were no boards when he first entered the 
 house. When he had taken his position above he had 
 stretched himself full length (face downward) upon the 
 boards, with his head toward the wall he desired to descend. 
 He began at once to reach out with his right hand into the 
 darkness for the wall, but his arm was too short. Again 
 and again he stretched it out, but to no avail. Anxiety, at 
 length, overcame his prudence ; for, in attempting to extend 
 his body a little over the joist that he might be enabled, per- 
 chance, to reach the coveted wall, the boards, which were 
 not nailed to the joist, slipped from their places and, in con- 
 fusion worse confounded, fell together with Dutch Johnnie^ 
 in a promiscuous mass upon the sleepers below. The scene 
 of confusion that then ensued may be imagined only. 
 
 The sleepers, thus suddenly aroused, were utterly be- 
 wildered, and unable to decide whether a cyclone had struck 
 the house, an earthquake was upon.them, or the knell of time 
 
302 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 was at hand. But Dutch Johnnie's presence of mind, which 
 liad so oft brought him safely out of difficulties that tried 
 men's souls, forsook him not in this hour of peril, but ren- 
 dered him equal to the emergency, having, however, the ad- 
 vantage of his foes in knowing why he had made such a des- 
 perate charge, alone and in utter darkness, upon them; for 
 he seized a board with both hands, sprang to his feet, and be- 
 gan to strike, right and left in the dark, with super-human 
 force, accompanying the act with reiterated Choctaw war- 
 hoops intermingled with General Sullivan's war-cry in Eng- 
 lish; which at once caused the Tories and Cherokee wari-iors 
 to believe that, instead of a cyclone, earthquake, or the knell 
 of time, or all together, it was Sullivan and his troopers upon 
 them; therefore, each one, actuated with the frantic desire 
 of self-preservation alone, sought, in frenzied haste, the one, 
 and only egress into the open air, jumping, tumbling, falling, 
 rolling out, while Johnnie's wild war-hoops uttered in both 
 Choctaw and English, with his board wielded by his vigoroufe 
 arms, whizzing through the darkness this way and that thus 
 oft meeting in collision with heads and bodies, added wings 
 to the retreat of his foes. Soon the house was left in 
 possession of Dutch Johnnie alone; then to make the victory 
 complete, he, sprang to the rifles of his foes stacked in a 
 corner of the room and then to the door, where he fired off 
 each one in rapid succession accompanied with reiterated 
 war-hoops, which made each flying Tory and Cherokee 
 believe that himself alone had escaped. As he seized a gun 
 and fired it off, he threw it upon the floor, and sprang for 
 another, and so continued to do until he had fired the last; 
 then, not knowing what might still be in the house, since the 
 pitchy darkness prevented anything being seen, he leaped 
 out, uttered several war-hoops of victory, and sought safety 
 amid the darkness of the forest feeling his way as best he 
 could. When he had ' gone far enough to feel safe from 
 immediate danger, he sat down and waited for the light of 
 the returning morning; then hastened to the encampment, 
 where he arrived in safety about an hour after sunrise. He 
 soon related his adventure to.General Sullivan, who sent a 
 company of troopers back with Dutch Johnnie to prove the 
 statement of his romantic adventure, and night conflict with 
 the emeny, over whose unknbwn numbei-s— unlike Sampson 
 with his jaw bone of an ass, but like Dutch Johnnie alone— 
 with a post-oak board, he had gained a complete victory. 
 When the company had reached the battle ground and enter- 
 ed the again tenantless and silent fort, they found the fallen 
 boards upon the floor under which lay Johnnie's rifle— suffi- 
 cient proof of his rapid descent upon the enemy, while the 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 303 
 
 I, ■ , 
 
 twenty empty rifles that lay upon the floor, gave entire satis- 
 faction, none more so than to Dutch Johnnie himself, that he 
 had defeated his enemies as one to twenty, by his rapid de- 
 scent upon them with his shower of boards, followed by the' 
 vigorous use of one alone in his stalwart hands accompanied 
 I with his terrific war-hoops. Of course, he became the hero 
 of the day. The twenty rifles were justly awarded to him 
 as trophies of his victory; which he traded' for various articles 
 necessary for his comfort and protection in his anticipated 
 future adventures. He lived through the war as ' an indis- 
 pensable scout, proving himself fearless in battle, and oft 
 dazzling his comrades by his daring acts. 
 
 THE MEETING IN 1811, OF TECUMSEH, THE 
 MIGHTY SHAWNEE, WITH APUSHAMATA- 
 HAH, THE INTREPID CHOCTAW.' , • 
 
 I will .here give a true narrative of an incident in the life 
 of the great and noble Choctaw chief, Apushamatahah, as re- 
 lated by Colonel John Pitchlynn, a white man of sterling 
 integrity, and who acted for many years as interpreter to 
 the Choctaws for the United States, Government, and who 
 ■was an eye-witness to the thrilling scene, a similar one, never 
 before noraf terwards befell the lot of a white man to witness, 
 except that of Sam Dale, the great scout of General Andi-ew 
 Jackson, who witnessed a similar one^that of Tecumseh in 
 council assembled with the Muscogees, shortly afterwards 
 — of which I will speak in the history of that once powerful 
 and war-like race of people. 
 
 Colonel John Pitchlynn was adopted in early manhood by 
 the Choctaws, and marrying among them, he at once became 
 as one of their people; and was named by thetn "Chahtah It- 
 ti-ka-na," The Choctaws' Friend; and long and well he 
 proved himself Worthy the title conferred upon, and the trust 
 confided in him. He had five sons by his Choctaw wife,' 
 Peter, Silas, Thomas, Jack and James, all of Whom proved to 
 be men of talent, and exerted a moral influence among their 
 people, except Jack, who wis ruined by the white' man's 
 whiskey and his demoralizing-examples and influences. I 
 was personally acquainted with Peter, Silas and Jack, the 
 former held, during a long and useful life, the highest posi- 
 tions in the political history of his Nation, well deserving the 
 title given 'him by the whites, "The Calhoun of the Choc- 
 taws;" but of whom I will speak more particularly else- 
 where. 
 
 England, in her anticipated war with the. United States in 
 
304 mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 1812, early made strenuous efforts to secure the co-operation 
 of all the Indian tribes, both north and south, as allies 
 against the Americans, as she had done against the French 
 previous to supplanting them in 1763; though, not with that 
 success that she did in arraying them in opposition to the 
 Americans; for to the honor and praise of the majority of 
 the early settlers of the French among the North American 
 Indians be it said, that they had won the respect, confidence, 
 and love of the northern Indians especially, by their freedom 
 from all arrogance, abuse and oppression, and by honest 
 dealing with them, comparing well in this particular with 
 the Quakers, and thus seeming to the highly appreciative 
 Indians, more as affable companions anil genial friends, than 
 insolent and pretended masters, as the English had assumed 
 to be, and afterwards the Americans, who followed in their 
 wake; both of whom, early and late, introduced the traffic in 
 whiskey among them, which had been effectually prohibited 
 by the French down to that time. 
 
 Having secured the co-operation, however, of many of 
 the northern tribes to operate under the command of the 
 cruel Proctor, the English then turned their attention to the 
 securing of the southern tribes as allies, especially the five 
 great and most war-like tribes then within the boundaries of 
 the United States, viz: The Choctaws, Chickasaws, Chero- 
 kees, Muscogees and Seminoles, whose warriors were then 
 justly considered as the shrewdest, bravest and most to be 
 dreaded in war of all the North American Indians; and that 
 they might the more effectually and with greater certainty 
 secure the aid of those brave, skilful and daring warriors of 
 the south, the renowned Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, was sent 
 to persuade them by his great influence and unsurpassed 
 native eloquence to unite with them as allies in the expected 
 war. As one of the bravest and most skilful Indian chiefs 
 that ever trod the American soil; as a statesman in the 
 council of his nation; as a foresighted politician; as a man of 
 integrity and humanity, according to the morals of . his 
 people; as a man of comprehensive mind, rich in resources 
 for every emergency; as a man of undaunted nature, Tecum- 
 seh stands with no superiors and few equals upon the pages 
 of Indian history; and his name still hovers among the 
 northern and western tribes, with those of Sassacus, chief 
 of the Pequods, in 1637; Philip, chief of the Pokanokets in 
 1674; Canonochet, chief of the Naragansetts in 1675; and the 
 great Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas in 17()3; Red Jacket, of 
 the Senecas; Black Hawk, of the Sacs, and Fox, and others, 
 who figured along down the path of tiiVie in their noble but 
 vain endeavors to protect their homes and country from the 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' ' , ' 305^ 
 
 encroachment of foreign vandali, cls the heroes, who, in th6 
 days of their prospferity and strength, liad each devised the 
 plan for unity of action among' all the tHbes' in driving back 
 the usurping whites from their common territories, and 
 conducted their mighty but unavailing struggles with seem- 
 ing destiny for the continued independence of their race, as 
 men who loved no enjoyment equal to that of perfect per- 
 sonal freedom in the companionship of nature, as it then 
 presented itself in its ■ picturesque ga^l'b of mountains ihd 
 valleys, rivers and lakes, forests and prairies, tiffctrding them- 
 all the necessaries of life, and Uniting to consiimmate their 
 earthly bliss as a free, indepdndent, contented and happy 
 people. Therefore one master spirit filled and ruled the: 
 hearts of those ancient chieftains, and gave to their whole- 
 lives their character. ' ' 
 
 Willingly, therefore, did Tecumseh accept the embassy 
 to the southern tribes, in behalf of the English ; nor could 
 they have confided their mission with greater hope of suc- 
 cess to a more influential chief, or a more bitter enemy tO' 
 the Americans than to Tecumseh. North and South, fai' 
 and near, was the name of the great Shawnee Chief andl 
 warrior known. From their youth the vvarriors of all the 
 tribes, at that day and time, had heard of his great achieve- 
 ments in battle ; of his irresistible eloquente in debate and. 
 the devastation that marked his footsteps upon the war-patfr ;: 
 for his tomahawk was like the lightning bolt in force and' 
 power, atrmed with sWif t and sure destriiction to all upon.. 
 whom it fell when wielded by its master's hand, to all In- 
 dians, a meritorious commendation and worth]ir all accepta-; 
 tion. Unknown to fear, yet it is ^aid of .Tecumseh that,; 
 his heart was tender as a child's, and the sufferings of a. 
 friend whom he loved could torture him with the keenest; 
 anguish. His mother was a Muscogee and his father ai 
 Shawnee ; and both were born, in Alabama, at a village called' 
 Sau-van-o-gee (afterwards known as "Old Augusta") on the 
 Tallapoosa river, though Tecumseh's father and grand par- 
 ents belonged to the Shawnees of the North. They moved 
 to the then wilds of the now State of Ohio with their family 
 of several children, wher^, in 1768, Tecumseh Was born, who 
 became so distinguished m the history of his race as a chief 
 and warrior. He had five brothers, all of whom were noted' 
 warriors. He also had one sister named Tecum-a-pease^ 
 who was highly endowed as a woman of strong character 
 and sound judgment, and a great favorite of. her vrar-like 
 brother, over whora she exercised great influence. At the 
 age of nineteen years Tecumseh visited the South, once the 
 home of his parents, where he spent a few years principally- 
 
306 ' HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 among the Muscogees, the relatives and friends of his 
 mother — engaging with them in their hunts and various 
 amusements, and winning their admiration by a heroism free 
 from temerity, and a friendship free from partiality. 
 
 In the spring of 1811, Tecumseh, with thirty congenial 
 spirits all well mounted, again left his northern home and 
 directed his course once more to the South to visit those dis- 
 tant friends, not as before, a pleasure seeker in their hunts,, 
 national festivals and social amusements, but as one seeking 
 co-operative vengeance upon a common foe, the pale-face in- 
 truders and oppressors of their race. Silently and fearlessly 
 did the little band of resolute men, keep their course with un- 
 wearied resolution and unerring judgment through the vast 
 wilderness that intervened; over hills and endless wastes; 
 swimming broad rivers and narrow creeks, and working 
 their way through wide extended cane-brakes, where seldom 
 or never before had trod human feet, the sun their guide by 
 day, the stars, by night, until they reached the broad terri- 
 tories of the Chickasaws through which they passed, nor 
 ceased their march, until they entered the Choctaw Nation 
 in the district over which Apakfohlichihubih was the ruling 
 chief and there pitched their camp. Soon the tidings of the 
 arrival and encampment of the renowned Shawnee chief and 
 his thirty warriors as an embassy were borne as on wings of 
 the wind, throughout the district fanning the hitherto' quiet 
 inhabitants into a blaze of the wildest excitement, and many 
 rushed at once to see the great Chieftain and his warriors; 
 actuated more however through curiosity than expectation of 
 learning anything concerning the intent or purpose of their 
 coming; for an Indian embassador is ever silent upon the sub- 
 ject of his mission, and opens not his mouth but in council 
 assembled, and thus manifesting good sense and profound 
 judgment. In solemn pomp, therefore, Tetumseh and his 
 warriors were escorted to the home of Apakfolichihubih, to 
 whom Tecumseh stated that his business was of a national 
 character and of the most vital importance, to the Choctaw 
 Nation. At once Apakfolichihubih, summoned the warriors 
 of his district to convene in council, at which a resolution was 
 passed calling the entire Choctaw Nation to assemble in a 
 great council, extending the invitation alike to the Chickasaw 
 Nation, stating as a reason, that it was made through the 
 request of Tecumseh, as in embassador of the Shawnees; 
 that he, with thirty warriors, was now a guest of Apakfolih- 
 chihubih, and had a proposition to lay before the coi^ncil of 
 vital import to both Nations. A day was also appointed and 
 the place designated, in and at which the two Nations should 
 assemble in united council to hear the words of the mighty 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS I 30? 
 
 ■Shawnee. The place sele.cted at which the, council was to 
 convene, was at a point on the Tombighee river, five miles (by 
 land) north of Columbus, Mississippi, and'now known by the 
 name of Plymouth. " 
 
 Immediately runners (news horsemen) were sent out to 
 the remotest points of their country, also to the Chickasaws, 
 to notify all of the comings event; and soon they were seen on 
 their fleetest horses speeding in wild haste and in all direc- 
 tions', over their wide extended territory; even as was wit- 
 nessed when our Declaration of Independence was first pro- 
 claimed, and the "Old Liberty Bell" rang out its joyous peals 
 echoing imid wild shouts along the hills of the Atlantic 
 shore, biyt to die away in mufted tones. among the rocky bat- 
 tlemeiits.of the far-away Pacific coast; and as the tones of 
 the "Old Liberty Bell" secured responsive ears, so too the 
 call of Tecumseh secured the speedy response of every 
 Choctaw and Chickasaw warrior, however remote his cabin 
 from the designated place of rendezvous. ^ 
 
 For many days previous tojthe convening of the council, 
 hundreds upon hundreds of warriors, in various groups, 
 were seen slowly and silently wending their way through 
 the forests from every direction toward the designated place 
 for the meeting of the two Nations in council with the mighty 
 chief and Shawnee eimbassador; and when the appointed day 
 came, many thousands had presented themselves. 
 
 Col. John Pitchlyhn stated to the missionaries who es- 
 tablished a mission among the Choctaws several years after, 
 that he never saw so great a number of Indian warriors 
 gathered together. It was indeed a congregation vast of so- 
 licitous and expectant men, whose breasts heaved and tossed 
 with the conflicting emotions of the wildest imaginations, 
 for rumor of war between the United States and England 
 had reached them In their distant villages situated along the 
 banks of their rivers and creeks, and ill their humble cabins 
 found scattered everywhere amid the deep solitudes of their 
 seemingly illimitable forests ; therefore hope and fear alter- 
 nately held dubious sWay o'er their minds as to the design 
 of Tecumseh's unexpected visit, and the calling them to- 
 gether in council, which seemingly foreshadowed evil, also to 
 their respective nations as compulsory allies to the one or to 
 the. other of the belligerent parties ; still no external mani- 
 festations of any kind whatever were seen that betrayed the' 
 secret emotions within, as profound silence and the utmost 
 decorum were always and everywhere observed by the North 
 American Indians' when assembling and having assembled in 
 national council. • 
 
 But the light of that memorable day seemed to wane 
 
308 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 slowlj', and its sunset was followed by that seemingly breath- 
 less pause and stupor so oft experienced in a southern clint'e. 
 The increasing dusk crept on by degrees, while the outlines 
 of familiar objects became blurred, then dim and fantastic 
 in the uncertain light. At length the leaves began to stir 
 and the placid waters of the itombi ikbi trembled in the 
 darkness, for the night wind had sprung up freighted with 
 the cool breath and sweet odors of the surrounding forests, 
 as twilight dropped her mantle to her successor — night. 
 Then a huge pile of logs and chunks, previously prepared, 
 was set on fire — the signal to the waiting multitudes, who 
 sat in groups of hundreds around chatting in low tones and 
 smoking their indispensable pipes, constructed in the heads 
 of their tomahawks. Each group arose without delay or 
 confusion and in obedience to its mandates, marched up in 
 solemn and impressive silence, and took their respective 
 seats upon the ground forming many wide, extended circles 
 around the blazing heap, but leaving an open space of twenty 
 or thirty feet in diameter for the occupancy of the speaker 
 and his attendants. ' 
 
 The chiefs and old warriors always formed the inner 
 circle; the middle aged, next, and so on to the outer circle, 
 which was composed of the young and less experienced war- 
 riors, thus carrying out the old pi*ecept, "The old for 
 counsel, the young for w;|ir." All being seated, the pipes, 
 indispensable adjuncts in all the North American Indians' 
 national and religions assemblies, were lighted, and com- 
 menced their rounds through the vast concourse of seated 
 men; and each one, as a pipe came to him, drew a whiff or 
 two, and then, in turn, passed it on to the next, while pro- 
 found silence throughout the vast assembly reitned su- 
 preme, disturbed alone by the crackling and sputtering of 
 the burning logs. 'Twas indeed a silence deep, as if all 
 nature had made a pause prophetic of the gathering storm. 
 
 What a beautiful characteristic of the North American 
 Indians was that of repressing every emotional feeling when 
 assembled in, council or otherwise, and observing the most 
 profound silence when one of their number was speaking! 
 Even in the social circle, never but one speaks at a time 
 while the closest attention is given and the most profound 
 silence observed by the others. This was and is a part of 
 their education, an established rule of their entire race, into 
 the violation of which they were seldom if ever betrayed by 
 any kind of excitement whatsoever; and in visiting the Choc- 
 taw and Chickasaw councils in 1885, 1 fofund they still adhered 
 to the old established rule with the same rigid tenacity as 
 did their ancestors oast of the Mississippi river in the days 
 
HISTOHY OF THE INDIANS. ,v i 1 309 
 
 of the long-ago. For this noble virtue (for virtue it may be 
 •called) they are termed taciturn and grave, yet their national 
 .sensibilities are deep, active and strong. 
 
 Soon Tecumseh was dimly seen einergipg f i-om the dark- 
 ness beyond into the far reflected light , of , the blazing logs, 
 followed by his thirty warriors. Witli. measured steps and 
 grave demeanor they slowly advanced. But no wild shouts 
 heralded their coming. No deaf ening yells proclaimed their 
 welcome. Silence deep and profound swayed her sceptre 
 there. Yet that vast assembly of silent men seated in cir- 
 cles upon the ground, while clotids of tobacco smoke g-ently 
 floated o''er their heads; witli countenances beaming with in- 
 quiry as their calm but piercing eyes, glistened in the reflect- 
 ed light of the blazing logs^ spoke a language to Tecurtiseh 
 more potent than the wild huzzas of the whites ever did to 
 their approaching political favorite. In silence, the circle 
 was opened as Tecumseh and his followers drew near 
 through which they slowly marched, tjien immediately closed 
 behind them surrounding them by thousands of strangers; 
 but nothing to fear, for the Peace Pipe yas in the left hatod 
 of the mighty Shawnee, an elnblem rigidly respected by all 
 North American Indiahs all bver the colitinent. When Te- 
 cumseh had reached a point near the fire, he halted and ihis 
 thirty warriors at' once seated themselves on the ground 
 formmg a crescent before their adored chieftain, while he, 
 the personification of true dignitjr knd manly beauty, stood 
 erect and momentarily flashed his piercing eyes over the 
 mighty host as if to scan each countenance (that index of the 
 soul) and read its import, the better thereby to lay a proper 
 basis for the successful effect of, his arguments dn ,the sup- 
 port of his mighty scheme. -~ 
 
 Every eye was now fastened upon him, while, in turn, 
 beneath his high forehead flashed his'own black and restless 
 eyes; and though his face wore a calm expression 
 jret there was a nervousness about him- withal that plainly 
 indicated one of those sensitive organisms that 
 kindle at the slightest warmth. But he sought not the 
 personal admiration or tlie praise of his audience. He 
 meant business serious and weighty; business, in which he 
 felt was involved thefuture.destinyof the entirelndian racefor 
 weal or woe. Noble and unselfish patriot! How true thy 
 far-sighted statemanship! But alas, how unavailing! What 
 an imposing and impressive scene was there! A hundred 
 closely formed circles of silent men seated on the ground 
 from whose dark features were reflected, by the lip^ht on 
 the burning log-heaps, a thousand cenflicting emotions of 
 .hope and doubt, as they gazed in profound, silence upon the 
 
310 HISTORY OF THK INDIANS. 
 
 imposing figure that stood in their midst. The scene at 
 this juncture, stated Col. Pitchlynn, was grand and impos- 
 ing indeed, and worthy the pencil of a Raphael. Every 
 countenance told of suppressed feelii^g, and every eye 
 sparkled with mental excitement. An enthusiasm border- • 
 ing on ecstacy marked the manner of the elder, while the 
 young, sturdy fellows in the flower of manhood's strength, 
 had more than usual expression upon their faces, which 
 indicated'that some of the deepest chdrds in their natures 
 had already been struck, holding out a promise to them of 
 things undreamed of before, by touching that note to which 
 their every breast gave more or less response. 
 
 Tetumseh's observant eye read its import at a glance, 
 and at once the tones of his voice broke the, stillness. Now 
 he seemed nothing but nerves, and shot out magnetism that 
 electrified his hearers into like intensity of feeling, and every 
 nerve and muscle of the vast assembly seemed to take up 
 the measure and tingle with the same enthusiasm and feel- 
 ing, as the wild orator yoiced the sentiments of his audience. 
 In the outset he unfolded the designs of the whites and their 
 schemes to accomplish them ; he portrayed the consequences, 
 that would inevitably ensue in case they should get the as- 
 cendency ; he^Jared no artifice, omitted no topic that would 
 have a tendenc^to alarm their concern for their country, or 
 their fears for themselves; he arraigned all the conduct of 
 the whites since their first introduction among their race, 
 and portrayed in vivid colors their ingenuity in concealing 
 their avarice and covetousness under a veil of most gener- 
 ous and disinterested principles ; and how insidious and vile 
 their schemes had ever befen, and still continued to be ; he 
 made good use of the figures which gave force and energy 
 to his discourse, for no one better understood the designs of 
 the ;^hite man, and no one could better explain them than he; 
 therefore he drew his lines, sketched hiis plans, and well did 
 the drawings and sketches manifest the master's hand ; and 
 ere he had closed, strange alternatives of elevating hope were 
 manifest in the countenances of his silent and attentive 
 hearers. , 
 
 He began his speech in a grave and solemn manner, 
 stated Col. Pitchlynn, which I here give in substance, as 
 follows : , 
 
 "In view of questions of vast importance, have we met 
 together in solemn council to-night. Nor should we here 
 debate whether we have been wronged and injured, but by 
 what measures we should avenge ourselves ; for our merci- 
 less oppressors, having long since planned out their proceed- 
 ings, are not about to make, but have and are still making 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 311 
 
 attacks Upon those of our race who have as yet come to no 
 resolution. Nor are we ignorant by >what steps, and by 
 what gradual advances, the whites break in upon our neigh- 
 bors. Imagining themselves to be still undiscovered,, they 
 fehow themselves the less audacious because you are insen- 
 sible. The whites are already nearly a match for us all 
 united, and too strong for any one tribe alone to resist ; so 
 that unless we support one another with our collective and 
 united forces ; unless every tribe unanimously com bines to 
 give a check to the ambition and avarice of the whites, they 
 will soon conquer us apart and disunited, and we will be 
 driven away from our native country and scattered as 
 autumnal leaves before the wind. 
 
 ■ "But have we not courage enough remaining to defend 
 our country and maintain oUr ancient independence? Will 
 we calmly suffer the white intruders and tyrants to enslave 
 . us? Shall it be said of our race that we knew riot how to ex- 
 tricate ourfeelves from the three most to be dreaded calami- 
 ties — folly, inactivity and cowardice? But what need is 
 there to speak of the past? It speaks foi- itself and asks, 
 'Where to-day is the Pequod? Where the Narragansetts, 
 the Mohawks, Pocanokets, and many other orice powerful 
 tribes of our race? They have vanished before the avai-ice and 
 oppression of the white men, as snow before a summer' suh. 
 In the vain hope of alone defending their ancient possessions, 
 they have fallen in the wars with the white men. Look 
 abroad over their once beautiful country, and what see you 
 now? Naught but the ravages of the pale-face destroyers 
 meet your eyes. So it will be with yOu Choctaws and Chicka- 
 saws! Soon your mighty forest ti-ees, under the shade of 
 whose wide spreading branches you have played in infancy, 
 sported in boyhood, and now rest your wearied limbs after 
 the fatigue of the chase, will be cut down to fence in the land 
 which the white intruders dare to call their own. Soon 
 their broad roads will pass over the grave of your fathers, 
 and the place of their rest will be blotted oUt forever. The 
 ainnihilation of our race is at hand unless we unite in one 
 common cause against the common foe. Think not, brave 
 Choctaws and Chickasaws, that you can remain passive and 
 indifferent to the common danger, and thus escape the com- 
 mon fate. Your people too, will soon be as falling leaves 
 and scattering clouds before their blighting breath. You too 
 will be driven away from your native land and ancient do- 
 mains as leaves are driven before the wintry storms." 
 
 These were corroding words; and well might terrible 
 thoughts of resistance pass through the minds of those 
 freemen and patriots, as, by the light of the burning heap 
 
 i 
 
312 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 ^gleamingf through the darkness of the night, they in admir- 
 ing silence gazed upon the face of Tecumseh and listened to 
 his untaught eloquence, which thrilled and swayed their 
 hearts and moved the deep waters of their souls, as he plead 
 the cause of right from the. vindications of his own heart 
 Tipon which was written the statute — "A favor for a favor, an 
 injur}' for an injury." 
 
 "Sleep not longer, O Choctaws and Chickasaws," con- 
 tinued the indefatigable orator, "in false' security and delu- 
 sive hopes. Our broad domains are fast escaping fi^om our 
 rgrasp. Every yeair our white intruders become nliore greedy, 
 •exacting, oppressive and overbearing. Every year con- 
 tentions spring up between them and our people and when 
 blood is shed we have to make atonement whether right or 
 wrong, at the cost of the lives of our greatest chiefs, and the 
 yielding up of large tracts of our lands. Before the pale- 
 faces came ampng us, we enjoyed the happiness of unbounded 
 freedom, and were acquainted with neither riches, wants, 
 nor oppression. How is it now? Wants and oppressions are 
 •our lot; for are we not controlled in everything, and dare we 
 anove without asking, by your leave? Are we not being strip- 
 ped day by day' of the little that remains of our ancient 
 liberty? Do they not even now kick and strike .us as they 
 do their black-faces? How long will it be before they will tie 
 us to a post and whip us, and make us work for them in their 
 • K:orn fields as they do them? Shall we wait for that moment 
 -or shall we die fighting before submitting to such ignominy"? 
 
 At th4s juncture a low, muffled groan of indignation 
 forced its way through the clinched teeth running through 
 the entire assembly, and some of the younger warriors, no 
 longer enabled to restrain themselves, leaped from their 
 seats upon the ground, and, accompanying the act with the 
 thrilling war;whoops of defiance, flourished their toma- 
 hawks in :i frenzy of rage. Tecumseh turned his eyes upon 
 them with a calni' but rebuking look, which spoKe but too 
 well his disapproval of such,, an undignified and premature 
 display of feelings, which had interrupted him; then with 
 a gentle wave of the hand, the interpretation of which was 
 not very difficult, he again continued: . "Have we not for 
 years had before our eyes a sample of their designs, and are 
 they not sufficient harbingers of their future determina- 
 tions? Will we not soon be driven from our respective 
 countries and the graves of our ancestors? Will not the 
 bones of our dead be plowed up, and their graves be turned 
 into fields? Shall we calmly wait until they become so numer- 
 ous that we will no longer be able to resist oppression? 
 Will we wait to be destroyed in our turn, without making an 
 
mSTORY OF THE INDIANS, ,313 
 
 effort worthy our race? Shall v^e give up our homes, i our 
 •coun,try, bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of 
 ■our dead, and everything that is dear and sacred to us, with- 
 out a struggle? I know you will cry vvith me, Neverl 
 Neyerl Then- let bs by unity of action destroy them all, 
 which we now can do, or drive them back whence they came. 
 War or extermination is now our only choice. "Which do 
 you choose? I know your answer.. Therefore, I now call 
 on you, brave ChoctAws and Chickasaws, to assist in the just 
 cause of liberating bur race from the grasp of our faithless 
 invaders and heartless oppressors; 'I he white Usurpation 
 in our cominon country must be stopped; or W^, its rightful 
 owners, be forever destroyed and wi^ed out as a. race of 
 people. I am npw* at, the head of many warriors backed by 
 the strong arm of-Bftglish soldiers, Choctaws and Chicka-i 
 sawsi you have too lon^ borne tvith grievoiis usurpation in- 
 flicted by • the vki-Eogant : Americans. Be 'no longer their 
 dupes. If there b&pne here to-night who believes that his 
 rights will not sooner", or later, be taken from him by the 
 avaricious AmericiSinp?ile-faceSi his ignorance ought to excite 
 pity, for he knows little of the character of oiir common -foe. 
 And if there be one among you mad enough to undervalue 
 the growing power of the white race among us, let him 
 tremble in considering the fearful woes he' will bring down 
 upon our entire race, if by his crin^inal' indifference he 
 assists the! designs of our commbti enellny against our com- 
 mon country. Then listen to the voice of duty, of honor,, 
 of nature and of your endangered country; Let us form one 
 body, one heart, and defend to the'la^t warrior our country, 
 our homes, our liberty, and the graves of our fathers. 
 
 "Choctaws and Chickasaws, you are among thejfew of 
 our race who sit indolently at ease. You have iildeed enjoy- 
 ed the^ reputation of being brave, but will you be indebted 
 for it more from report than fact? Will you let the whites 
 encroach upon your domains even to your very door before 
 ' yo\i will assert your rights in resistance? Let nd one in 
 this council imagine that I speak more from malice against 
 the pale-face Americans than just grounds of complaint. 
 Complaint is just toward friends who have failed in their 
 duty; accusation is against enemies guilty of injustice. 
 And surely, if any people ever had, we have -good and just 
 reasons to believe we have ample grounds to accuse the 
 Americans of injustice; especially when such great acts of 
 injustice have been committed by them upon our race, of 
 which they seem to have no manner of regard, or even to re- 
 flect. They are a people fond of innovations, quick to con- 
 trive and quick to put their schemes into effectual execution. 
 
314 mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. ^ 
 
 no matter how great the wrong and injury to us; while we 
 are content to preserve what we already have. Their de- 
 signs are to enlarge their possessions by taking yours in 
 turn ; and will you, can you longer dally, lO Choctaws and 
 Ghickasaws? Do you imagine that that people will not con- 
 tinue longest in the enjoyment of peace who timely prepare 
 to vindicate themselves, and manifest a determined resolu- 
 tion to do themselves right whenever they are wronged? 
 ,Far otherwise. Then haste. to the relief of our common 
 cause, as by consanguinity of blood you.are bound ; lest the 
 day be not far distant when you will be left single-handed 
 and alone to the cruel mercy of our most inveterate foe." 
 
 Though the North American Indians never expressed 
 their emotions by any audible signs whatever, yet the frown- 
 ing brows, and the flashing«eyes of that mighty concourse of 
 seated and silent men told Tecumseh,,as he closed and took 
 his seat upon the ground among his warriors, that he had 
 touched a thousand chords whose yibrjations responded in 
 tones that were in perfect unison an^.harmony with his own, 
 and he fully believed, and correctly too, that he had Accom- 
 plished the mission whereunto, he was sent, even beyond his 
 most sanguine hopes and eApectations. V 
 
 Afewof the Choctaw and Chickasaw chiefs now arose 
 in successioi;! and, walking to the centre, occupied, in turn,, 
 the place which Tepumseh , had just vacated and expressed 
 their opinions upon the question so new and unexpectedly 
 presented to them for their consideration; the majority lean- 
 ing to the views advanced by the Shawnee chief, a few doubt- 
 ing their expediency. Tecumseh was now jubilant, for his 
 cause seemed triumphant. But at this crisis of affairs, a sud- 
 den and unexpected change came o'er the scene. Another, 
 who, up to this time, had remained a sijent but attentive 
 listener, arose and, free of all restraint, marched to the cen- 
 tre mid the deep silence that again prevailed. A noble speci- 
 men also, was he, of manly beauty, strength, and unlettered 
 eloquence, who was to fasten a ring in the nose of the mighty 
 Shawnee to lead him before all the Philistines at his royal 
 will and pleasure. As he drew himself up to his full height, 
 there was revealed the symmetrical form of the intrepid and 
 the most renowned and influential chief of the Choctaws, a 
 man of great dignity, unyielding firmness, undisputed brav- 
 ery, undoubted veracity, sound judgment, and the firm and 
 undeviating friend of the American people. He was Apush- 
 amatahah. 
 
 All eyes were ^at once turned to and riveted upon him, as 
 he momentarily stood in profound silence surveying the faces 
 of his people with that indescribable expression which in- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 315 
 
 dicated to the stranger, and none the less to the astonished 
 gaze of Tecumseh, that under it lurked such fearlessness 
 as commanded respect. How ; truly q.nd plaihly the soul 
 writes its tale on that expressive a4id plastic tablet-J-the face 
 of, man! Though habitually of a lively knd jovial disposition, 
 y^t Apusharaatahah could rival the lynx when he applied his 
 penetrating mind to detect the weak points of his opponent, 
 and present his arguments in such a manner as to uiiravel 
 the hidden meaning of those of his antagonist. Free from ^ 
 any nervous agitation he calmly looked over his audience. 
 His long black idckfe fell back from a broad manly brow^ 
 from which shone dark, eloquent eyes full of depth and fire; 
 his facEv broad and of .^i clear olive tint, his lips thin and 
 compressed, all united to give an expressidn of firmness and . 
 intellectuality. The solemn manner and long silence that he 
 assumed as be calmly gazed upon the scene before him, was. 
 as full of eloquence as any words he could have' uttered, and 
 fell with unmistakable meaning upon the silent -throng, upon 
 whose faces still shone the light of the blazing council ■ fire, 
 reflecting no longer conflicting emotions, but one seeniingly 
 united all pervading sentiment. Wan andi extei-mination to 
 the whites. Apushamatahah's observant eye read its deep 
 signification. But nothing daunted, he began in a low but 
 distinct tone of voice, which increased in volume and pathos as 
 he he becahie more and. more animated. It was then that his 
 eloquence also struck other sympathetic chords in that 
 silent'and attentiv%audjence, and caused hundreds of hearts 
 to pulsate faster under the magnetic influence of his words, 
 and feel at once that before them stood, what many already 
 knew, a great man. He also began his speech in the ancient 
 method of opening an address (long since obsolete), thus: 
 "0-mish-ke! A numpa tillofasih ish hakloh.". (Attention!, 
 Listen you to my brief remarks) j and then contniued in 
 substance as follows: . 
 
 "It was not my design in coming here to ^nter into a 
 disputation with any one. But I appear before you, my 
 v arriors and m v pb)l le not to throw in my plea against the 
 accusations of Tecumseh; but to prevent your forming rash 
 and dangerous resolutionsuppn things of highestimportance, 
 through the instigations of others, I have myself learned 
 by experience, and I also see' many of you, O Choctaws 'and 
 Chickasaws, who have the same experience of years that I 
 have, the injudicious steps of engaging in an enterprise be- 
 cause it is new. Nor do I stand up before you to-night to 
 contradict the many facts alleged against the American 
 people, or to raise my voice against them in useless accij^sa- 
 tions. The question before us now is itot what wrongs. 
 
316 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 ) 
 
 they have inflicted upon our race, but what measures are 
 best for us to adopt in reg'ard to them; and though our race 
 may have been unjustly treated and shamefully wrongfed by 
 them, yet I shall not for that reason ^alone advise )'ou to de- 
 stroy them, unless it was just and expedient for you so to do; 
 nor, would T advise you to forgive them, though worthy of 
 your commiseration, unless I believe it vvould be to the in- 
 terest of oui- common good. We should consult more in re- 
 gard to our future welfare than our present. What ^people, 
 my friends and countrymen, were so unwise and inconsid- 
 erate as to engage in a war of their own accord, when their 
 own strength, and even with the aid (5f others, was judged 
 unequal to the task? I well know causes often arise which 
 force men to confront extremities, but, my countrymen, 
 those causes do not now exist. Reflect, therefore, I earn- 
 estly beseech you, before you act hastily in this great matter, 
 and consider witjh yourselves how greatly you will err if you 
 injudiciously approve of and inconsiderately act upon Te- 
 •cumseh's advice^ Remember the American people are now 
 friendly disposed toward us. Surely' you are convinced that 
 the greatest good will result to us by the adoption of and ad- 
 hering' to those measures I have before recommended to 
 you; and, without giving too great a sco])e to mercy or for- 
 bearance, by which I could never pjermit myself to be se- 
 duced, I earnestly pray you to follow ray advice in this 
 weighty matter, and in following it resolve to adopt those ex- 
 pedients for our future welfare. My friends an^ fellow 
 countrymenl you now have no just "Ause to declare war 
 against the American people, or wreak your vengeance upon 
 them as enemies, since they have ever manifested feelings 
 jof ^friendship towards you. It is besides inconsistent with 
 your national glory and with your honor, as a people, to vio- 
 late your solemn treaty; and a disgrace to the memory of 
 your forefathers, to wage war against the American people 
 merely to gratify the.maliceof the English. 
 
 "The war, which you are now contemplating against 
 the Americans, is a flagrant breach of justice; yea, a fear- 
 ful blemish on your honor and also that of your fathers, and 
 which you will find if you will examine it carefully and judi- 
 ciously, forbodes nothing but destruction to our entire race. 
 It is a war against a people whose territories are now far 
 greater than our owft, and who ai-e far better provided with 
 all the necessary implements of war, with men, guns, 
 horses, wealth, far beyond that of all our race combined, and' 
 where is the necessity or wisdom to make war upon such a 
 • people? Where is our hope of success, if thus weak and un- 
 prepared we should declare it against them? Let us not be 
 
KftSTORY OP THE INDIAiJS. 317 , 
 
 deluded wi'th the foolish hope that this war, if beg-un, will 
 soon be oyer, even if we destroy all the whites within our 
 territories, and lay waste their hoilies and fields. Far from 
 it. It will be but the beginning of the end that terminates 
 in the total destruction of our rac^. And though we will 
 not permit ourselves to be made slaves, or, like inexperienced 
 warriors, shudder at the thought of war, yet I am not so in- 
 sensible and inconsistent as to advise you to cowardly yield 
 to the outrages of the whites^ or wilfully to connive at their 
 unjust encroachments ; but only not/yet to have recourse to 
 war, but to send embassadors to our Great Father at Wash- 
 ington, 'and lay before him our grievances, without betraying 
 too great eagerness for war, or mahif esting any tokens of 
 pusillanimity. Let us, therefore, my fellow countrymen, ' 
 form our resolutions with great caution and prudence'upon 
 a subject of such vast importance, and in which such fearful 
 consequences may be involved. ( 
 
 "Heed not, O, my countrymen, the opinions of others to 
 that extent as to involve your country in a war that) destroys 
 its peace and endangers its future safety, prosperity andi 
 happiness. Reflect, ere it be too late, on the great uncer-i- 
 tainty of war with the American people, and considei" well, 
 ere j'ou engage in it, what the consequences will be if you 
 should be disappointed jn your calculations and expectations, i 
 Be not deceived with illusive hopes. Hear me, O, my coun- > 
 trymen, if you begin, this war it will end in calamities to us 
 from which w^ are now free and at a distance;;. and upon 
 \<'hom of us^ they will fall, will only be determihed by the un-. 
 certain an tf hazardous. event. Be riot, I pray you, guilty of 
 rashness, which I never as yet have known you to be; there-.' 
 fore, I implore you, while healing measures are in the elec- 
 tion of us all, not to break the treaty, nor violate your pledge 
 of honor, but to submit our grievances), whatever they may 
 be, to the Congress of the United States, according to the 
 articles of the treaty existing between us and the American 
 people. If not, I here invoke the Grea.t Spirit, who takes 
 cognizance of oaths, to bear me witness, that I sh'all endeavor 
 to avenge myself upon the authors of this war, by whatever 
 methods you shall set me an example. Remember we are a 
 people who have never grown insolent with success, or be- 
 come abject in adversity; but let those^ho invite us to haz- 
 ardous attempts by uttering our praise, also know that the 
 pleasure of hearing has never, elevated our spirits above our 
 judgment, nor an endeavor to exasperate us by a flow of in- 
 vectives to be provoked the sooner to compliance. From , 
 tempers equally balanced let it be known that we are warm 
 in the field of battle, and cool in the hours of debate ; the for- 
 
318 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 mer, because a sense of duty has the greater influence over 
 a sedate disposition, and magnanimity the keenest sense of 
 shame; and though good we are at debate, still our education 
 is not polite enough to teach us a contempt of laws, yet by its 
 severity gives us so much good sense as never to disregard 
 them. ■ _ 
 
 "We are not a people so impertinently wise as to invali- 
 date the preparations of our enemies by a plausible haran- 
 gue, and then absolutely proceed to a contest; but we reckon 
 the thoughts of the pale faces to be of a similar cast with our 
 own, and that hazardous contingencies are not to be determinedv 
 bv a speech. We always presume that the projects of our 
 enemies are judiciously planned, and then we seriously pre- 
 pare to defeat them. Nor do we found our success upon the 
 hope that they will certainly blunder in their conduct, but 
 upon the hope that we have omitted no proper steps for our 
 own security. Such is the discipline which our fathers 
 have handed down to us; and by adhfering to it, we have 
 reaped many advantages. Let us, my countrymen, not forget 
 it now, nor in short space of time precipitately determine a 
 question in which so much is involved. It is indeed the duty 
 of the prudent, so long as they are not injured, to delight in 
 peace. But it is the duty of the brave, when injured, to lay 
 peace aside, and to have recourse to arms; and when success- 
 ful in these, to then lay them down again in peaceful quiet; 
 thus never to be elevated above measure by success in war, 
 nor delighted with the sweets 6f peace to suffer insults. For 
 he who, apprehensive of losing the delight, sits indolently at 
 ease, will soon be deprived of the enjoyment of that delight 
 which interesteth his fears; and he whose passions are in- 
 flamed by military success, elevated too high by a treacher- 
 ous confidence, hears no longer the dictates of judgment. 
 
 "Many are the schejnes, though unadvisedly planned, 
 through the more unreasonable conduct of an enemy, which 
 tiirn out successful ; but more numerous are those which, 
 though seemingly founded on mature counsel, draw after 
 them a disgraceful and opposite result. This proceeds ^rom 
 that great inequality of spirit with which an exploit is pro- 
 jected, arid with which it is put into actual execution. For 
 in council we resolve, surrounded with security; in exe:u- 
 tion we faint, through the prevalence of fear. Listen to 
 the voice of pruden^i, oh, my countrymen, ere you rashly 
 act. But do as you may, knoiv this truth, enough for you to 
 know, I shall join our friends, the Americans, in this war." 
 
 The observant eye of Tecumseh saw, ere Apushamata- 
 hah had closed, that the tide was turning against him ; and, 
 maddened at the unexpected eloquence, the bold and irre- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIAM:S. 319 
 
 sistible arguments of the Choctaw orator, the moment 
 Apusharaatahah had taken his seat he spring to the center 
 of the cirtle and, as a last effort to sustain his waning cause, 
 cried out in a loud, bold and defiant tone of voice, "All who 
 will follow me in this war throw your tomahawks into the 
 air above your heads." Instantly the air for many feet above 
 was filled with the clashing of ascending, revolving and de- 
 scending tomahawks, then all was hushed. Tecumseh 
 then turned his piercing eyes upon Apushamtahah with a 
 haughty air of triumph, and agaih took.his seat.' AH eyes 
 were instantly turned to where the fearless hero sat. At 
 once the mighty Choctaw, nothing daunted, sprang to his 
 feet, gave the Choctaw hoyopatassuha (war-whoop), then, 
 with the nimble bound of an antelope, leaped into th.e, circle, 
 and hurling his tomahawk into the air, shouted-in a loud and 
 defiant tone, "All who will follow me to victory and glory in 
 this war let me also see your tomahawks in the air." 
 
 Again the air seemed filled* with tomahawks. Again 
 sifence prevailed. The test has been made, and what is the 
 issue? The two forest orators have just counterpoised each 
 others' arguments, making an equal division in opinion 
 among the vast assembly of warriors, which caused a strange 
 alternative of hope in the one, arid of apprehension in the 
 other, of the now newly formed and opposing parties. Truly, 
 that -midnight council presented as wild and romantic a 
 scene S,s can pOssibly be imagined, but which neither words 
 nor pencil can justly express or paint; the wild glare of the 
 burning log-heap alternately presenting in different shades 
 the imm.ediate surroundings in all -their picturesque and 
 romantic appearance; the voice of nature's unlettered and 
 untutored orators alone disturbing the stillness of the night; 
 friends and countrymen besieged by conflicting emotions 
 expressed alone by the face. What a medley was there and 
 then presented! some incredulous, some convinced; some 
 hopeful, some despairing; bHt all breasts heaving with the 
 wildest, conflicting emotions. But I leave the reader to turn 
 his thoughts upon it, and view it through the whole of its 
 pi'oceedings by the power of his imagination, which he can 
 only do. ' 
 
 What now was to be done in this dilemma of a diibious 
 issue? If half followed the suggestions of Tecumseh, and 
 took sides with the English, and the other, those of Apush- 
 amatahah declaring for the Americans, it would virtually be 
 civil war, and that should not — must not. be. To settle the 
 questidn, after many conflicting suggestions had been pro* 
 posed and rejected' by first one and then the Other of the two 
 opposing parties, it was finally resolved to refer the matter 
 
320 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 to an aged Choctaw seer, living' some distance away, and 
 abide by his decision. The council adjourned to await his 
 coming. A proper deputation was immediately sent to 
 request his presence without delay, which returned in the 
 evening of the second day accompanied by the old and vener- 
 able Choctaw hopaii (seer) whose white locks and wrinkled 
 face proclaimed life's journey had passed' many years beyond 
 man's alloted period of three score and ten. As the twilight 
 of the declining day approached, the council fire was replen- 
 ished, and when night again had thrown o'er all her sable 
 mantle, the council once more convened. 
 
 Again Tecumseh made the opening speech, rehearsing 
 his designs and plans before the attentive seer and warrior 
 host in strains of the most fascinating eloquence. Again 
 followed Apushamatahah, who fell not behind his worthy 
 competitor in native eloquence and logical argument. No 
 other spoke, for both partie^ had mutually left the mooted 
 question in the hands of the two great chiefs, statesmen and 
 orators. When the two distinguished disputants had been 
 respectively heard by the aged seer, he arose and slowly 
 walked to the centre of the circle, gazed a moment over the 
 silent but solicitous throng, and then said: "Assemble here 
 to-morrow when the sun shall be yonder— rpointing to the 
 zenith — build a scaffold there — pointing to the spot — as.high 
 as my head; fill up the intervening space beneath with dry 
 wood; bring also a red heifer two years old free of all disease, 
 and tie her near the scaffold; and to-morrow the Great Spirit 
 will decide for you this great question." 
 
 On the next day the appointed hour found the multitude 
 assembled; the altar erected; the wood prepared, and the 
 sacrificial offering in waiting. The seer then ordered the 
 heifer to be slain; the skin removed; the entrails taken out 
 and placed some distance away; the carcase cut up into 
 small pieces and laid upon the scaffold; he then applied a 
 brand of fire to the dry wood under the scaffold; then com- 
 manded the vast multitudes,! all, everyone, to stretch them- 
 selves upon the ground, faces to the earth, and thus tore- 
 main in profound silence until he ordered them to rise, which 
 command was instantly obeyed; then seizing the bloody skin 
 he stretched it upon the ground, hair downward, and 
 quickly rolled himself up in it, and commenced a series of 
 prayers and doleful lamentations, at the same time rolling 
 himself backward and forward before the consuming sacri- 
 fice uttering his prayers and lamentations intermingled with 
 dissonant groans fearful to be heard; and thus he continued 
 until the altar and the flesh thereon were entirely consumed. 
 Then'frecing himself from the skin, he sprang to his feut 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDiAnS. 321 
 
 and said: "(Ssh (the) Ho-che-to (Great) Sliilup (Spirit) a- 
 num-pul-ih (hag^poken). Wak-a-yah (rise) ah-ma (p.nd) Een 
 (His) a-num-pa (message) hak-loh (hear). All leaped to their 
 feet, and gathered in close circles around their venerated 
 seer, who, pointing to the sky, exclaimed: "The Great 
 Spirit tells me to warn you against the dark and evil designs 
 of Tecumseh, and not to be deceived by his words; that his 
 schemes are unwise; and if entered into by you, will bring 
 you into trouble; that the Americans are our friends, and 
 you must not take up the tomahawk against them; if you do, 
 you will bring sorrow and desolation upon yourselves and 
 nations. Choctaw and Chickasaws, obey the words of 
 the Great Spirit." Enough I As oil upon the storm' agi- 
 tated waters of the sea, so fell. the mandates of the Great 
 Spirit upon thfe war agitated hearts of those forest warriors, 
 and all was hushed to quiet; reason assumed again her sway; 
 peace rejoiced triumphant, as all in harmony sought their 
 forest homes; and thus the far scattered white settlers, in 
 Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Flbrida, and the western 
 portion of Tennessee, escaped inevitable destruction; for, 
 had Tecumseh been successful in uniting those five then 
 powerful and warlike tribes into the adoption of his schemes 
 scarcely a white person would, have been left in 
 all their broad teri'itories to „tell the tale of 
 their complete exterpiination; since the wily Shawnee 
 had laid off for each tribe its particular field of 
 operation, before he had left his northern home to entice 
 them into daring schemes. The whites werie then but few, 
 scattered here and there, and at great distances apart, and 
 could not have competed even with the Choctaws alone, as 
 they, at that time, numbered between thirty and forty thou- . 
 sand warriors, and, besides, the blow would have fallen upon 
 them when least, expected and most unprepared. 
 
 But the long cherished hopes of Tecumseh were blas- 
 ted, and Apushamatahah erected his trophies upon his de- 
 feat. Though greatly disappointed, yet not disheartened, 
 Tecumseh at once set his footsteps toward' the Muscogee 
 Nation, now the State of Gepi-gia. 
 
 Apushamatahah, who then lived near St. Stephens, now 
 in Washington county, Alabama^ turned his steps directly 
 for that little town. Rumor of Tecumseh's presence among 
 the Choctaws and Chickasaws, and the cpuncil on the Tana- 
 poh Ikbih river, had preceded hira ; and when he arrived at 
 the little place he found it in a blaze of excitement, for a 
 thousand exaggerated reports had but added to the conjec- 
 ture as to the convening of the two tribes in common coun- 
 cil, with the noted Shawnee Chief. But their fears were 
 
322 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 ^vTiolly allayed when the noble Apushainatahah, whose vera- 
 city none questioned, rode into the little town, and gave a 
 short sketch e/t the proceedings at t;he council, and also 
 proffered the services of himself and warriors to the Ameri- 
 cans, which. were cordially accepteJd Ipy George S. Gaines, then 
 United States agent to the Choctaws, and who, in company 
 "with the noble chief, immediately hastened to Mobile, to in- 
 form General Flournoy of Apushamatahahls proposition. 
 To the astonishment of all, General Flournoy refused to ac- 
 ■cept the offer of the great Choctaw chief and warriors; while 
 from every mouth loud curses and bitter denunciations were 
 heard against his considered folly an4 seeming madness. 
 With heavy heart and unpleasant forebodings Gaines return- 
 iSd to St. Stephens with Apushamatahah, whose grave silence 
 iut too plainly told the wound inflicted. 
 
 iFortunately, however, Flournoy reconsiflered his re- 
 fusal, and at once sent word to Gaines not only to accept the 
 proposal of Apushamatahah in the name of the United States, 
 but also to go immediately into the Choctaw Nation and se- 
 cufe the Choctaws as allies in the approaching war. There 
 had been grgat apprehension lest the Choctaws would "Unite 
 "With the Muscogees and other disaffected tribes, as allies to 
 the English; which they would, perhaps, have done, had 
 yiournoy's rejection of Apushamatahah 's proposal been 
 "given previous to the council held but a few days before. 
 Apushamatahah, without delay, returned to his people then 
 in the northern district of his Nation — contiguous to the 
 Chickasaw Nation, and there assembled his warriors in coun- 
 £ril; while Gaines hastened to Colonel John Pltchlynn's house, 
 ne«.r where the council with Tecumseh had but shortly 
 adjfttiii'Jied, and where he was fortunate enough to meet 
 ColoneJlMcKee, United States Agent to the Chickasaws. At 
 that time, ;lbe Choctaw Nation was divided into three dis- 
 tricts, o.fvWhich Apushamatahah was the ruling chief of the 
 ;eastern, ApSkfa)hlicbihubih, of the northern, and Amosho- 
 lihubih of the southern. Gaines at once left Colonel Pitch- 
 Jynn'B and hastened to the Choctaw council, where he found 
 Apushamatahah and several thousand of his warriors already 
 q^sembled; to whom Apushamatahah made a long and elo- 
 iquent speech denouncing the ambitious views of Tecumseh, 
 and extolling the friendship of the American people; then 
 offered to lead all wjio would follow him, to victory and glory 
 against the enemies of the Americans. As soon as he had 
 concluded his speech, a warrior sprang from his seat on the 
 ground, and striking his breast repeatedly with the palm of 
 Ms right hand, shouted: "Choctaw siah! Tushka chitoh 
 siah aicnal I'immi miko uno i.iUiy;ih. (A Choctaw I am. L 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIAKS. 323 
 
 am also a. great warrior, I will follow our chief) . To which 
 taction and sentiment the whole council at once responded 
 In the mean time, McKee hastened with Colonel John Pitch- 
 lynn to the Chickasaw Nation, and by mutual efforts suc- 
 ceeded in assembling- them in council, and successfully 
 secured them also as the allies to the Americans. Thus, by 
 the firmness, influence and eloquence of the great and good 
 Apushamatahah, Tecumseh's plans were thwarted, and those 
 two then powerful tribes, the Choctaws and Chickasaws, 
 secured as allies to the Americans, in the war with England 
 in 1812, and also in that known as "The Creek war." 
 
 In the council convened, in which the Choctaws declared 
 in favor of the Americans against the English and the Mus- 
 •cogees, Apushamatahah publicly announced that, every 
 Choctaw warrior who joined the Muscogees, should be shot, 
 .if ever, they returned home. Still, there were thirty young 
 warriors under the leadership of a sub-chief named Illi 
 Shuah (Dead Stink), virho joined the Muscogees. It was said, 
 five or six lived to return home after the defeat of the Mus- 
 cogees, all of whom Apushamatahah caused to be shot. But 
 an aged Choctaw (long since deceased) whom I interviewed 
 concerning the subject, stated that all the thirty warriors, 
 who joined the Muskogees under Illi Shuah, were slain in 
 battle to a nian; ibut Illi Shuah escaped and finally returned 
 home, but he did not remember whether Apushamatahah 
 had him shot or not. In the "Creek war," Apushan^atahah, 
 assisted General Jackson with seven hundred warrior^; and 
 in the "Battle of Orleans," with five hundred. In both of 
 which they proved themselves to be worthy allies in bravery 
 ■and in the use of the deadly rifle. 
 
 The noble . Apushamatahah descended not through a 
 successive line of chiefs, but was of common parentage. Yet 
 of whom it may be truly said: He was one of nature's nobil- 
 ity, and born to command^a man who raised himself from 
 the obscurity of the wilderness unlettered and untaught; 
 but by his superior native talents, undaunted bravery, noble 
 generosity, unimpeachable integrity, uiiassumed hospitality 
 to the known and unknown, won the admiration, respect, 
 confidence and love of his people; and also, of all the whites — • 
 high or low, rich or poor — who were personally acquainted 
 with him. He was truly and justly the pride of the Choctaw 
 people when living, and their veneration today though long 
 dead. He acknowledged no paternity. Yet, his own state- 
 ment in regard to his genaeolo'gy, as related to me by the 
 aged Choctaws of the past, and is still mentioned by their 
 ■descendants at the present dajj, with great pride, as charac- 
 
324 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ^ 
 
 I 
 
 teristic of the manly independence of their honored chief- 
 tain, is worthy of record. It is in substance as follows: 
 
 On one occasion a deputation was sent by the Choctaws 
 to Washington City to present the respects of their nation to 
 the President of the United States who, at that time, was 
 Andrew Jackson, and to assure him of their abiding' friend- 
 ship toward him as the "Great Chief" of the American peo- 
 ple, and to also confer with him relative" to the future inter- 
 ests and welfare of their nation. The renowned Apushama- 
 tah^h was one of the deputation. A few days after their 
 arrival in the city a reception was given to them, at which 
 many of the cabinet and representative officers were pres- 
 ent. Among the many and various questions that were 
 asked of the different members of the delegation was the 
 'question, How they became so distinguished among their 
 people ? To which various answers were given, each telling 
 his own story of the exploits which brought him out of ob- 
 scurity^ and placed his name in the temple of human fame. 
 Apushamatahah, up to this time, had said nothing. At length 
 President Jackson requested the interpreter to ask him how 
 he became such a great warrior and renowned chief. To 
 which Apushamatahah coolly and with unassumed indiffer- 
 ence replied: "Tell the white chief it's none of his busi- 
 ness." This unexpected retort attracted the attention of 
 all present, and all eyes were at once turned upon the bold 
 chief. Jackson, amused at the reply, and pleased at the 
 manly independence of the noble chief, requested the inter- 
 preter to propound the same question again ; which was 
 done, but to which Apushamatahah seemed to give no heed. 
 The curiosity of all being greatly excited, the question was 
 asked still again. To which Apushamatahah then replied : 
 "Well, if the white chief must know, tell him that Apusha- 
 matahahubih has neither father nor motlier, nor kinsman 
 upon the earth. Tell him that once upon a time, far away 
 from here in the great forests of the Choctaw Nation, a dark 
 cloud arose from the western horizon, and with astonishing-' 
 velocity, traveled up the arched expanse ; across its dark 
 face the bright lightning played in incessant flashes, Avhile 
 the rolling thunder reverberated in muffled tones from hill 
 to hill amid the vast solitudes of the surrounding forests. 
 Swiftly and majestically it climbed the western sky, 
 while the lightning flashed, followed by the thunder's roar in 
 successive i)eal iifter peal. In silence profound, all animate 
 nature stood apart ; soon the fearful cloud reached the zen- 
 ith, then as quickly spread its dark mantle o'er the sky en- 
 tire, shutting out the light of the sun, and wrapi)ing o;irth in 
 midnight gloom, lighted only in lucid intervals by the li-lit- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' 325 
 
 ning's fitful glare, fbllowcd by peals of thunder in deafening 
 roar. Then burst the cloud and rose the wind; and while * 
 falling rains and howling winds, lightnings gleam and thun- 
 ders roar, in wild confusion blended, a blinding fla^h blazed 
 athwart the sky as if, to view the scene, , then hurled its 
 strength against a mighty oak — an ancient monarch of the 
 woods that for ages had defied the Storm with his boasted 
 power — and cleft it in ecfual twain from utmost top to lowest 
 bottom; when, lol from its riven trunk leaped' a mighty 
 man; in statm-e, perfect; in wisdom, profound; in bravery, 
 unequalled — a full-fledged warrior. "TwasApushamatahah- 
 ubih." M '^^ ' - 
 
 In November ■ 1812, Apushamatahah visited General 
 Claiborne. When he approached the General's tent, he was 
 received by thelieutenanton guard, who invited him to drink, 
 that "civilized" method of the whites to prove' the sincere 
 emotions of the heart in regard to friendship. Apushama- 
 tahah answered only with ailook of contempt. He t-ecognized 
 no equal with one epaulette., 'When Gen Claiborne walked 
 in, the Choctaw Chieftan shooli him by the hand and proudly 
 said, as to one equal, "Chief,, ' I vvill drink with you.*' He 
 was six feet two inches in height, of powerful frame and 
 Herculean strength, and with features after the finest models 
 of the antique, composed, dignified, and seductive in'his de- 
 portment,- and was the most remarkable man the Choctaws 
 ever produced since the days of ChahtSih, the Great Miko of 
 their traditional past. He was Sometimes called Koi Hosh, 
 (The Panther); and sometimes,' Ossi Hosh; sometimes Oki 
 Chilohonfah (Falling Water); The tWo first alluding to his 
 quick movements and daring exploits in vvar, and the latter, 
 to the sonorous and musical intonations o| his voice. 
 
 Sam Dale, the renowned scout of General Andrew Jack- 
 son in the "Creek war" of 1812, and as, famous in his day, 
 as Kit Carson in the narrative of Gen. Fremont in his ex- 
 ploring expeclition over the Rocky Mountains, stated that he 
 had heard Tecumseh and the Prophet of the , Shawnees; 
 Bill Weatherford of the Muscogees; Big Warrior of the 
 Cherokees, and Apokfohlichubih of the Choctaws, besides 
 the most distinguished American orators in congress, but 
 never one who had such music in his tones, such energy in 
 his manner, and such power over his audience as Apushama- 
 tahah, the Choctaw chief, patriot and warrior. 
 
 Many characteristic anecdotes are related of him, and 
 of which I will mention a few: ' A feud once existed fetWeen 
 him and another Choctaw chief of the Yazoo district, and it 
 was generally believed that when they met their tomahawks 
 -would settle the difference betweeri them. One day his rival 
 
326 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 was seen approaching in company with a large party of war- 
 riors; and on a nearer approach, manifested great agitation 
 irresolutely grasping his tomahawk. Apushamatahah, as 
 soon as he discovered him shoutedhis challenging warwhoop, 
 rushed toward him with his long hunting knife m his hand, 
 then suddenly stopped, and with a smile of the utmost con- 
 tempt, cried out "Hushi osh chishikta! Katihma ish wun- 
 nichih! Hosh mahli Keyumahlih. Ea, ho bak! Ea! 
 (Leaf of the red-oak! Why. do you tremble? The wind 
 blows not. Go, coward! Go!) The woV'd hobak is consid- 
 ered by the Choctaws, as a word of the greatest reproach 
 and most unpardonable offense that cduW possibly be ap- 
 plied to a man, its true signification being an eunuch, 
 
 Apushamatahah was very sensitive at the appearance of 
 anything that even bore the appearance of oppression. A 
 few soldiers, at that day, were stationed at the agency among- 
 the Choctaws, as they are and always have been among all 
 Indians, as a bright (?)manifestationof the great confidence(?} 
 the whites cherished in the integritpr and friendship of all 
 Indians; and one of the soldiers being addicted to drunk- 
 enness, and at one time having become boisterously drunk, 
 he was tied to a tree, for the want of that necessary ap- 
 pendage to an Indian Agency, as well as to all towns among 
 the whites, a jail or guard house,' until he became sober. 
 Apushamatahah happening to pass by and seeing the 
 soldier tied asked him of what he was guilty, that he should 
 be placed in so humiliating a condition; being told the cause, 
 he at once released th6 unfortunate man, exclaiming, "Is 
 that all? many good warriors get drunk." 
 
 Apushamatahah, in unison with the ancient custom of 
 the Choctaws, had twO' wives. Being -asked if he did not 
 consider it wrong for a man to have more than one living- 
 wife, he replied: "Certainly not. Should not every woman 
 be allowed the privilege of having a husband, as well as a man 
 a wife? and how can everyone have a husband when there are 
 more women than men? Our Great Father had the Choc- 
 taws counted last year, and' it was ascertaifted that there 
 were more women than men, and if a man was allowed but 
 one wife many of our women would hav^ no husbands. 
 Surely, the women should have equal chances with the men 
 in that particular." 
 
 During the Creek war of 1814, in which Apushamatahah 
 was engaged with eight hundred of his warriors as allies of 
 the United States, as before stated, ia small company, of 
 Choctaw women, among whom was the wife of Apushamata- 
 hah, visited -their husbands and friends then in the Ameri- 
 can army in the Creek Nation. A white soldier, grosslj'- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. , SZT 
 
 insulted the wife of the distinguished Choctaw chief, for 
 which the justly indignant chief knocked him down with the 
 hilt of his sword, instead of plunging it through his body, as 
 he should have done. Being arrested for the just and: meri- 
 torious act, and asked by the commanding general the rea- 
 sons for his act, he fearlessly answered: "He iiisulted my 
 wife, and I knocked the insolent dog down; but had you,. 
 General, have insulted her as that common soldier did, I 
 would have used the point upon you instead of the hilt, in 
 relenting an insult offered to my wife." And he. would have; 
 been as good as his word; for a Choctaw then, as now, is not 
 slow in resenting any insult offered to the female portion of 
 his family, and his work is quick and sure; and had not the 
 noble Apushamatahah regarded the soldier who insulted his- 
 wife, as too contemptible a creature for the point of his. 
 sword, he would have plunged" it through his body without a. 
 moment's hesitation; and that he only knocked him down, 
 with the hilt, is sufficient evidence that he did! not regard! 
 him worthy its point. 
 1 Apushamatahah was exceedingly fond of engaging in: 
 
 I that ancient and time-honored amusement, tbe famous To- 
 lih ("ball play) ; and in which the Chdctaws,, as well as the 
 southern portion of their race, took great delight— a gymna- 
 sium indeed, where were exhibited and tried the various 
 physical powers of man, unsurpassed on earth.; and in which 
 even those of ancient Greece and Rome dwindle into insig- 
 nificance. / ' 
 
 While battling with his warriors for the interests of the- 
 Americans under Andrew JacksonJ' in 1814, General Jacksom 
 presented to Apushamatahah a complete military suit audi 
 sword, as worn by the American generals ; which he wore- 
 with manly and becoming dignity until the close of the war; 
 which, after the close, he took off and hung up in his cabin^ 
 and never afterwards put on the suit ; but donfled hip native 
 garb and once more became the Apushamatahah of his peo- 
 ple. Having become wearied, however, *'in looking upon the 
 white man's insignia — that feeble representation of true 
 greatness in the opinion of the Choctaw hero— he took the 
 suit from its resting place, rolled it up and fastened it to' one 
 end of a long rope, then attached the pther end to his belt;; 
 and then, with quiver full of arrows hung over his left 
 shoulder and bow in hand, marched through various parts of 
 his village, dragging the insignificant badge of meritorious 
 distinction on the ground behind him ;. at each house he apr- 
 proached, he shot a chicken, if one was found ; took it up and 
 . inserted its head under his belt ; then he continued his silent 
 walk, and seeking another house, there shot another chicken,: 
 
328 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 also slipped its head under his belt : and thus he continued 
 his march from house to house with a solemn and silent g"rav- 
 ity, taxings each a chicken until he had shot as many as he 
 could slip heads under the belt. The owners of the chickens 
 said nothing-, knowing that some fun was ahead. He then 
 walkgd to an untaxed house with his load of chickens dang- 
 ling' from his belt, had them nicely dressed and cuoked, then 
 invited all from whom he had taken a chicken' to come and 
 partake of th(2 feast he had thus unceremoniously prepared 
 for them. They went and had a jolly time, Apushamatahah 
 fig^uring- as the gayest among the ga.y. Pie left his suit lying 
 upon the ground before the door of the house at which he 
 deposited the chickens, a frail memento of human greatness 
 with its hopes departed. v 
 
 In 1823, Apushamatahah, then about sixty years of age, 
 walked about 80 miles from his home (being too poor to own a 
 horse, and too proud to borrow one) to attend a council of his 
 Nation. Mr. John Pitchlynn, then United 8tates interpreter 
 to the Choctaws, and Mr. Ward, United States agent, (with 
 both of whom I was in boyhood personally acquainted), were 
 present at'the council. At the adjournment of the council, 
 Mr. Ward suggested to Mr. Pitchlynn that they purchase a 
 horse for the old chief. Mr. Pitchlynn readily acquiesced 
 in the proposition, but with the proviso that Apushamatahah 
 must pledge his word that he would not sell the horse for 
 whiskey. Apushamatahah cheerfully gave the pledge, re- 
 ceived the horse and departed for his distant home highly 
 elated with his unexpected good fortune. A few months 
 after he visited the agency, and Ward discovered that he 
 was again minus a horse, and learned, upon inquiry that he 
 had lost the presented horse in betting him on a ball-play. 
 Ward at once accused him of violating his pledged word; 
 which Apushamatahah as firmly denied. "But you promised," 
 continued Ward, "that you would ' not sell the horse." 
 "True I did;" retorted the venerable old chief. "But I did 
 not promise you and my good friend, John Pitchlynn, that I 
 vvould not bet him in a game of ball. Ward conceded the 
 victory to Apushamatahah, and chided him no more. 
 
 In 1824, this groat and good man visited Washington 
 City m c<)mpany with other Choctaw chiefs, as delegates of 
 their Nation to the United States govei-nment; at which time 
 he made the following remarks to th£ Secretary of War, 
 wh^ich were written down as he spoke them. 
 
 "Father, I have'been here many davs, but have not 
 talked, have been sick. I belong to another district, differ- 
 ent from these my companions and countrymen. You have 
 no doubt heard of me, I am Apushamafahahubih. When in 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 329 
 
 •my own country, I often looked towards this Council House, 
 and desired to see it, I have come, but I am in trouble, and 
 would tell my sorrows; for I feel as a little child reclining 
 in the bend of its father's arms, and looks up into his face 
 in childish confidence ito tell him of its troubles; and I would 
 now recline in the ben'd of your arm, and trustingly look in 
 j-our face, therefore hear my words. ' .( 
 
 "When at my distant home in my own nSitive land, I 
 heard that men had been appointed to talk to us; I refrained 
 from speaking there, as I preferred to come here and speak; 
 therefore I am here to-day. I can boastingly say, and in so 
 doing speak the truth, that none of my ancestors, nor my 
 present Nation, ever fought against the United States. As 
 a Nation of people, we have always been friendly, and ever 
 listened to the applications of the American People. We 
 have given of our country to them until it has become very 
 small. I came here yearte ago when a young mail to see my 
 Father Jefferson. He then told mp if ever we got into 
 trouble we must come and tell him, and he would help us. 
 We are in trouble, and have come; but I will now let another 
 talk." ■ 
 
 The above was but a preliminary to a speech he intended 
 ±0 make, and which, had he lived to have delivered, ' would 
 have proved to his hearers in Washington his great nativ4 
 ■eloquence, which had been so long and much eulogized by 
 the whites who had often heard him around the council fires 
 of his Nation. ' 
 
 In conversation with the noble General Lafayette during 
 the same visit to Washington City Apushamatahah closed 
 with the following : "Thisiis the first time I have seen you, 
 and I feel it will be the last. The earth will separate us for- 
 ■ever^— farewell 1" How prophetic 1 He died but a few days . 
 after. When stretched upon his bed of death, fully con- 
 scious of his near approaching end, he calmly turned his 
 eyes upon the faces of the Choctaw; delegates standing 
 around him, and said : "I am' dying, and wifl never return 
 again to our native and loved land. But you will go back to 
 our distant hbmes ; and as ypu journey you v?ill see the wild 
 flowers of the forests and hear the song-s 6f the happy birds 
 of the woods, but Apushamatahahubih will see and hear 
 them no more. ' ' 
 
 •'When you return home you will be asked, 'Apushama- , 
 tahah kaltimmaho?' (where is Apushamatahah?), and you 
 will answer, 'lUitok' (dead to be). Atld it will fall upon their 
 ears as the sound of a mighty oak falling in the solitude of 
 the woo'ds." His dying words were — "Illi siah makinli sa 
 paknaka tanapoh chitoh tokalichih" (As soon as, I am dead 
 
330 HISTORY OP THE INDIAilS. 
 
 shoot off Hhe big guns above). The request of the dying" 
 hero was strictly complied with. The minute-guns were 
 fired on Capitol Hill as the solemn an^ imposing procession 
 of half a mile in. length marched to the cemetery — that silent 
 and melancholy habitation of the dead — and there the great 
 Choctaw Chief and warrior found a grave where all distinc- 
 tions cease and where neither flatteries, nor censures, nor 
 proffered wealth, nor honors, could seduce his incorruptible 
 heart. 
 
 His . surrounding brother chiefs erected, a monument 
 over the. grave of their distinguished chieftain, with the fol- 
 lowing meritorious epitaph, — "Apushamatahah, a Choctaw 
 Chief; lies here. • This monument to his memory is erected 
 by his brother chiefs who were associated with him in a dele- 
 gation from their nation, in the year 1824, to the government 
 of the United States. 'Apushamatahah was a warrior of 
 great distinction. He was wise in council, eloquent to an 
 extraordinary degree ; and on all occasi6ns, and under all cir- 
 cumstances, the white man's friend. He died in Washing- 
 ton on the 24th of December, 1824, of the croup, in the 60th 
 year of his age." 
 
 Apushamatahah had only one son, who was named John-y 
 son. He moved with his people to their present homes, 
 and served them in ;the capacity of -Prosecuting Attorney 
 for many years, in Apushamatahah District. He lived to 
 prove himself worthy of his distinguished father, and in 
 many respects was a true scion of the parent trunk. 
 
 Truly, if the adventures through which Apushamatahah 
 passed had been preserved, they would have furnished alone 
 abundant material for all the writers of romance in the 
 United States, for years. 
 
 It is conceded by all who knew him, that he was the 
 most renowned warrior and influential chief of the Choctaw 
 Nation, since their acquaintance with the whites. He was a 
 man who never surrendered nor disguised hisopinionsand con- 
 victions upon any subject whatever. His recoil from all that 
 which was mean, selfish, false, and unjust resembled the im- 
 pulse with which the strongly bent bow recoils from the 
 curve to which the strong arm of the experienced archer has 
 forced it. 
 
 Nor did Tecumseh, whom I would not pass unheeded by, 
 fall below Apushamatahah; and he too may deservedly have 
 a place among the greatest of the North American Indian 
 chiefs;and truthfully may it be said of him, his arm pervaded, 
 his vigilance detected, his spirit animated, and his generosity 
 won, in all directions, and he ever maintained the. standing- 
 he acquired among all his race everywhere. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 531 
 
 That Tecumseh was a man of tender feelings and noble 
 principles is sufficiently attested in his actions at Fort 
 Miami. -^ When the white prisoners, taken at Fort Meigs in^ 
 1813, were confined in Fort Miami by General Proctor, some 
 of them were being' slain by the Indians in, ihe presence of 
 Proctor, and his officers, when suddenly a thrilling voice in 
 the Shawnee language was heard, and soon Tecumseji was- 
 seen approaching on his horse at full speed, and spring- 
 ing to the ground where two Indians were in the act of kill- 
 ing an American prisoner, he hurlAd them both to the ground,, 
 then brandishing his tomahawk he threatened death to the 
 Indian that dared to kill another prisoner.^ "AH knew toa 
 well that the fearless chieftain threatened not >m vain, arid 
 the killing instantly ceased. Then he called out in the loud- 
 est tone of voice, "Where is Proctor?" but at the same in- 
 stant, seeing him standing a few rods distant, he sternly 
 demanded of him why, he permitted the mi/rdering of the 
 American prisoners? To which Proctor replied: "I cannot 
 govern your warriors." Upon which Tecumseh fixed his 
 keen and penetrating eyes upon him a moment, and then, 
 with the utniost contempt, cried" put, ' "Begone! you are not 
 fit to command; go put on a petticoat," an epithet, denot- 
 ing the Indian's supreme disgust and highest contempt. 
 
 To Tecumseh the idea of selling land was an absurdity. 
 On one occasion, he cried out in unfeigned astonishment: 
 "What 1 sell land ! As well sell air and water. The Great 
 Spii-it gave them in common to all— ^the air to breathe, the 
 water to drink, and the land to live upon — you may as well 
 sell air and water as sell land;" and in the same light did all 
 the North Ameritan Indians view it, and hence their opposi- 
 tion to land severalty which they cannot understand nor 
 comprehend. [ 
 
 Tecumseh, signifying Flying Arrow', (it is said) belonged 
 to the clan called Panther of the Kickapoo tribe. His mother 
 was a Muscogee and his father a Shawnee, though born 
 among the Muscogees in the feouth, and af erwards moved to 
 Ohio among his own tribe and settled upon the banks of the 
 Sciota river, but while upon the journey Tecumseh was 
 born. 
 
 The Kickapoos of the present day are supt)Osed to be a 
 branch of the Shawnee tribe proper, as the traditions of 
 both give nearly the same accounts of their union and separa- 
 tion, besides their language is said to identically the same.- 
 
 The Shawnee traditions declare their ancestors formerly 
 dwelt in <t foreign land, but the reason for the abandonment 
 of their ancient sites is not stated. 
 
 But when the day appointed for their exodus rolled 
 
332 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 around, they were informed by the Great Spirit through their 
 prophets, to march in a body to the shore of a sea, and then 
 select a leader from the multitude, who would be clothed by the 
 Great Spirit with that supernatural power that the waters of 
 the sea, as soon a:s he touched them, would seperate and he 
 would conduct them on dry land safely across to another 
 country, Havingf reached the sea, a selection was made but 
 -the incredulity of the chosen caused him to refuse the 
 honor as well as the responsibility; many h;iving been chosen 
 with like results, it began to awaken "no little trepidation, 
 when one, who was selected from a clan called The Turtle 
 Clan, accepted the position, and confidence wis again restored. 
 All things being duly prepared to resume their journey, still 
 to many of uncertain issue, their chosen leader boldly placed 
 himself at the head of the host, and fearlessly stepped into 
 the sea, upon which the waters at once divided to the right 
 and to the left, and they safely walked across on the bottom 
 and thus came to this country; reminding one of the account 
 given by Holy Writ of Moses and the Jewish host encounter- 
 ing the waters of the Red Sea. To what else can the Shaw- 
 nee tradition point, but the crossing of the Red Sea by the 
 Israelites in their exodus from Egypt and their flight before 
 Pharaoh and his pursuing army? 
 
 The Shawnees had another tradition whose shades of 
 tcoloring seem greatly Jewish. It is, that the Shawnees were 
 originally divided into twelve tribes^ each one having., a 
 ■distinct and separate name ; and each of which was aftep 
 wards sub-divided into clans, called The Eagle, The Pah- 
 Iher, The Turtle, etc., the animals whose names they bore 
 constituting their coat-of-arms, or totem. ^Their traditions 
 also affirm two of the original tribes became extinct, as also 
 were their names; while the other ten are still extant, though 
 but four are wholly distinct^ and are called The M^-kas-tra- 
 ke, The Pick-a-way, The Kick-a-poo, and the Ch'il-i-coth-e 
 Clans; the other six, according to their tradition, having been 
 incorporated with the four. It has been stated by the early 
 missionaries to them, that to a late date their counLil houses 
 were separated into four divisions, each one of which was 
 assigned to the occupancy of each one of the tribes separate 
 and apart from each other, and was invariably so occupied. 
 And that it was impossible for the whites to discriminate in 
 the least whatever, yet the Indians themselves could tell, to 
 which clan any one belonged as soon as they saw him. 
 
 Truly, what an interesting and instructive volume 
 -would the early history of the North Atnerican Indians have 
 .been, with all the various traditions of their migrations, 
 vicissitudes and changes, had they been preserved. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 333. 
 
 It long has been believed that Col. Richard M. Johnson 
 killed Tecumseh at the battle of the'^hames, and the follow- 
 ing from the pen of Benjamin B. Griswold strengthens, if 
 not wholly confirms it. "I had an interview with Noon-day, 
 chief of the Ottawa tribe, about the year 1838. ' This ghief 
 was six feet high, broad shouldered, well pr6portioriedfwith 
 broad high cheek bones, pibrcing black eyes, and lohg black 
 hair which hung down upon his shoulders, and he possessed 
 wonderful muscular power. He was converted to the 
 Christian religion by the preaching of a Baptist missionary 
 named Slater, whose mission was located about three miles 
 north of Gull Prairie,' in the county of Kalamangoo, Michi- 
 gan. Just over the county line and in the edge of Barry 
 county, this chief and iabout one hundred and fifty of his 
 tribe were located and ' instructed in farming.'' A church 
 was erected which answered for p. school hoflse, and here, 
 residing near them, I attended their church and listened to 
 the teachings of Mr. Slater in the Indian dialect, and to the 
 prayers of this old chief. To get a history of any Indian 
 who fought on the 'side of the British has ever been a dif- 
 ficult task; but through the Rev. Mr. Slater I succeeded, to a 
 limited extent, in getting a sketch from this old chief of the 
 battleof the Thames, in which he was engaged; After rehears- 
 ing the speech which Tesu'mseh madeto his warridrs previous 
 to the engagement and how they all felt, that they fought to 
 defend Tecumseh mqre than for the British, he was ksked, 
 were you near Tecumseh when he fell? 'Yes; directly on 
 his right.' Who killed him? 'Richard M. ,Johnson.' Give 
 us the circumstances. /He was on a horse; and the horse 
 fell over a log; and Tecumseh, with his tomahawk, rushed 
 upon him to kill him, when he drew a pistol from his holster, 
 shot him in the breast, and he f fell dead on his face. Iran 
 to him and, with the assistance of Saginaw, carried him 
 from the field. When he fell the Indians all stopped fight- 
 ing and the battle ended. We laid him down upon a blanket 
 in a wigwam, and we all wept, we lovfcd him so much. I took 
 his hat and tomahawk.' Where, are they now? 'I have his 
 tomahawk and Saginaw his hat.' Could I get them? 'No; 
 Indian keep them.' How did you know it was Johnson who 
 killed him? 'General Cass took me to see the Great Father, 
 Van Buren, at Washington. I went to the great wigwam, 
 and when I went in I saw the same man I see in Battle,' an 
 Indian never forgets a man's face (once seenj. The same 
 man I see kill Tecum^ee. Johnson replied that he never 
 knew who it was, but a powerful Indian approached him and 
 he shot him with his pistol. 'That was Tecumseh. I see 
 you do it.' Noon-day finished his story of Tecumseh by 
 
334 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 telling of his noble traits, the tears meanwhile trickling' 
 down his cheeks." There can be no doubt of Noon-day's 
 unvarnished narative; and he who would doubt it, is well 
 prepared to doubt any truth. 
 
 It is a matter of regret that so little has been preserved 
 of Ap,ushamatahah and Tecumseh, and so few circumstances 
 have escaped oblivion, which would most clearly have eluci- 
 dated their private characters. Both were men respected, 
 honored, and loved^ by all who knew them. Tecumseh, by 
 the Indians and English, and Apushamatahah.by the Indians 
 and Americans. Noble men ! (^Though history may not re- 
 cord their names with earth's illustrious great as worthy 
 remembrance in the years to come, yet they were, as well as 
 thousands of their race, mortals of no common mould, and 
 worthy a place 'mid names of high degree. 
 
 But why-have not the services of Apushamatahah — that 
 remarkable friend of the American people — been written ? 
 Alas ! he was an Indian. ,. But I mistake ! They have been 
 written ; and to-day, after the lapse of nearly three quarters 
 of a century, the aged Choctaws speak his name with loving 
 reverence, while the young listen with wondrous delight to 
 the thrilling stories of his life in manj' an humble home in 
 their territory. 
 
 The death of Apushamatahah shrouded the countenances 
 of the bereaved chiefs at Washington in the deepest unaffec- 
 ted gloom during their remaining short stay in the city, tell- 
 ing a tale of sorrow that nothing but a full realization of 
 their loss could create. One, however, a young warrior of 
 noble mien, whose power of self-command was not equal to 
 ,his seniors in age and experience, betrayed emotions that 
 told of a heart overwhelmed with the keenest and deepest 
 anguish, though manifested by no outward expression of 
 feeling. To oifered words of consolation by some of the 
 whites, he replied : "I'm sorry" ; and being questioned why 
 he should be moi-e deeply grieved than the others, answered: 
 "I'm sorry if was not I who had died" ; signifying that his 
 country would have sustained but little loss In his death, in 
 comparison with the loss sustained by the death of Apusha- 
 matahah, and thus expressed it — "I'm sorry it was not I." 
 But the recorders of the incident have greatly misrepresen- 
 ted that young Cho:;taw by stating that the firing of the 
 minute-guns and the pageantry displayed at the burial of 
 Apushamatahah alone pi;oduced the deep sorrow manifested, 
 because he himself was not the subject of the honors con- 
 ferred. That young a.nd sorrowing Choctaw youth was Ni- 
 takachieubih (Give us the day to kill), the nephew of A-push- 
 a-ma-taha, and proved himself to be a worthy scion of the 
 
HISTORY OP THE INMANS 335 
 
 ancestral tree, as a statesman and counselor among- his peo- 
 ple, sustaining his high honors with dignity through a long 
 and useful life and dying as his noble uncle — ^lamented by 
 his nation. 
 
 In traveling through their present country, many of the 
 aged Choctaws (old friends when living east of the Missis- 
 sippi river) have expressed great indignation that Nitakachie 
 was so unjustly misrepresented. Indian men die every day, 
 Avhose lives are grander than those of the world's historic' 
 Tbattle heroes ; yea, and women too, before whose pure devo- 
 tion the heroism even 6f Joan of Arc would fade away ; yet 
 the world knows nothing of them. / 
 
 We, the Amel-ican people of to-day, still pky (and justly 
 ioo) the highest honors to the name of General La Fafayette, 
 who extended so generously a helping hand to our fathers in 
 their darkest hour of need; remembering him with filial 
 reverence and gratitude unalloyed,, but silently bury -in 
 ■oblivion the name Of Apushamatahah, as unworthy of eulogy 
 or even a place in the annals of histoi*y; though he, at thi? 
 head of his brave warriors, with purity of motives and with- 
 out expectation of reward, also extended to them a helping" 
 hand in a gloomy hour of their history, and saved the primi- 
 tive white settlers of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia — 
 then few, far between, and feeble — from actual, extermina- 
 tion. ^ r 
 
 But had he lived, whose character and noble deeds form 
 the subject under consideration, some centuries ago; had he 
 saved a portion of the citizens of a Romaii or Grecian province 
 from destruction, as he did' the American citizens of the 
 above named States in 1811, Old Rome and Greece would 
 have deemed no applause too loud, no honors to great, no 
 laurals too exti^vagant, yea, would have embpdied him in 
 columns of unfading marble; yet the name of the old hero of 
 the past, though forgotten by the white beneficiaries of his 
 friendship, still live written upon that imperishable monu- 
 ment, the hearts of his people. 
 
 In a letter to me, September 5th, 1891, Judge JuliusFol- 
 -som, son of Rev. Israel Folsom, thus wrote: "'In the year 
 1861, two Delegates of the Choctaw Nation, Peter P. Pitch- 
 lynn and Israel Folsom, were in the city of Washington, D. 
 C, attending to business in which our Nation was interested, 
 but accomplished nothing, as the prospect of an approaching 
 war between the North and South absorbed every other con- 
 sideration. The two delegates, as soon as they learned that 
 war had actually commenced between the North and South, 
 \ hastened home that they might use their influence (which no 
 two men exercised more over their Nation than they) in an 
 
336 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 effort to keep the Choctaw Nation upon neutral grounds 
 But alas, they were too late! Already had the Confederate 
 troops taken possession of our country, and they found 
 everything in a state of wildest confusion. Up to this time, 
 our protection was in the United States' troops stationed at 
 Fort Washita, under the command of Colonel Emory. But 
 he, as soon as the Confederate troops had entered our coun- 
 try, at once abandoned us and the Fort; and, to make his 
 flight more expeditious and his escape more sure, employed 
 Black Beaver, a Shawnee Indian, under a promise to him of 
 five thousand dollars, to pilot him and his troops out of the 
 Indian country safely without a collision with the Texas 
 Confederates; which Black Beaver accomplished. By this 
 act the United States abandoned the Choctaws and Chicka- 
 saws. 
 
 Our Indian Agent, Duglas H. Cooper, also betrayed the 
 United States bv his acte, for he at once joined the rebellion, 
 and urged the Indians of both the Choctaw and Chickasaw 
 tribes to do the same, backing his arguments with the threat 
 of confiscation of both land and stock if they refused. But 
 under all this pressure, abandoned by the North, and threat- 
 ened by the South, they stood upon neutral grounds until the 
 middle of June, 1861! Then, there being no other alterna- 
 tive by which to save their country and property, they, as 
 the less of the two evils that confronted them, went with the 
 Southern Confederacy.* Your friend, Julius Folsom." 
 
 Contemporaneous with Apushamatahah was the Choctaw 
 chief Apakfolichihubih who was of the Ilai-yipa-tuk-lo Clan 
 (meaning Two Lakes.) He also was a Choctaw whose blood 
 was uncontaminated with anything foreign, a man pf sterling 
 merits, whose name is held in grateful and proud remem- 
 brance by his people to this day, as a worthy and faithful 
 chief in the national affairs of his common country and the 
 interest of his people. He was also a quiet and unobtrusive 
 man, but faithful in the discharge of his dutys as chief; and 
 his seemingly premature death was 4 national loss to his 
 people, and deeply deplored by them. He lost his life by 
 accidentally stepping off a balcony at night, at a hotel in Mays- 
 ville, Kentuckey, his neck beirtg dislocated by the fall, while 
 going to Washington City as a deligate with Apushamatahah 
 and others of his Nation. Little has been preserved of 
 Apakfolichih's life but that he was an Honest man. Knough! 
 Requiescat en pace. Amen! Amosholihubih (To destroy 
 as by fire), was a noted chief of the Oklafalaiah Clan (Long 
 People). It is said the name of this clan had its origin in 
 a Choctaw family who, both parents and children, were un- 
 commonly tall. Amosholihubih, than wliom a more far- 
 
raSTORY OF THE INDIANS^ 337 
 
 sig^hted man, white or red,^ is seldom found, was a true 
 patriot; he was calm and dignified in pouncil; possessing a 
 black, keen penetrating eye, and a lowering yet meditative 
 brow on which a thousand emotions of conflicting thoughts 
 and designs seemed to have stamped a portion of their 
 obscurity. Many years prior to the expulsion of his people 
 from their ancient homes, his character was assailed by, the 
 white intruders who strolled about over the country, and olf 
 whom he had seen and learned enough to convince him, "as 
 well as many others, of theirutter want of scarcely a redeem- 
 ing trait of character; therefore, strenuously advocating 
 measures for their explusion from the Choctelw country and 
 prevention of their return, he was called Hattak-upi-humma 
 okpuloh, (a Bad Red Man.) 
 
 Amosholihubih through whose veins unadulterated Choc- 
 taw blood alone coursed, and of which he was justly proud, 
 moved with his people to their present homes, where he speilt 
 the few remaining years of his life (for he was then an old 
 man) in encouraging their desponding hearts to rise above 
 misfortune and adversity. Though not a fluent speaker, yet 
 he spoke with a dignified but gentle humility; he addr,pssed 
 the reason and good sense of his hearers, and not their pas- 
 si(^s and prejudices. His untutored delivery was indeed 
 graceful; his argument connected '^and convincing, and his 
 manners, calculated to attract audiences and hold attention. 
 He lived several years beyond the allotted life of mail, reach- 
 ing nearly four score years and ten. He died at home among 
 bis friends and people, honored, respected and loved by his 
 nation, though age seemed not to have diminished his mental 
 faculties, and, but slightly impaired his physical powers; and 
 to the last he. continued a grand old man, who, while he yvas 
 as confiding as a child in those who had won his confidence, 
 was full of fire and vigor when he was convinced that wrong 
 had been done either to himself or his people. Always a 
 hater of shams and deceits, liars and , def^itner^, and being 
 never a dissembler nor a coward, liar 'or defamer himself, 
 there was no room to doubt the side onl which he wolild be 
 found in any cause where there was a questioja about its 
 truth or its justice; and withal a kindlier, gentler spirit than 
 Amosholihubih possessed was seldom foUndC'^'Ilhe, years of 
 his aged wife, who survived her venerable husband many 
 yeai's reached within a few years of a century. 
 
 Apushamatahahubih, Apakfolichihubih and Amosholih- 
 ubih were the head chiefs of the Choctaw Nation in 1814, 
 the latter being the youngest;, but after the demise of the 
 two former, Coleman Cole and Nittakachihubih, the nephew, 
 of the renowned Apushamatahahubih were' chosen as their 
 
338 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 successors a few years previous to the treaty of 1830 at 
 Bok Chuckfiluma Hehlah (dancing rabbit creek), Nittaka- 
 chihubih succeeding his uncle and Coleman Cole, Apakfol- 
 ichihubih. 
 
 Subsequently Greenwood Le Flore superseded Coleman 
 Cole as leading chief of the Apakfolichihubih District, and 
 David Folsom superseded Amosholihubih District ; to the 
 proceedings of the latter succession Amosholihubih taking 
 exceptions, and being strenuously supported by Nittakachi- 
 hubih, he openly disputed the claims of David Folsom to the 
 chieftaincy over him ; while Coleman Cple, who was of Shuk- 
 chih Humina descent, and proved himself an upright and 
 honest man during his whole public, as well as private life, 
 quietly returned to private life after he was superseded bj' 
 Le Flore, moved west with his people and spent his remain- 
 ing days in using his influence by precept and example, for 
 their welfare and happiness, and died in the fall of 1884 at 
 the honored age of four score and ten, at his home near 
 Atoka, Indian Territory. But Amosholihubih, still chafing 
 under his political defeat, and viewing the appointment of 
 Colonel David Folsom as chief of the district over which he 
 had 'so long ruled, as an unjust encroachment upon his 
 rights, resolved to sustain his claims at ajll hazards. At this 
 time there had just been paid to the Choctaws an annuity, 
 which getting into the hands of Amosholihubih, sustained by 
 a strong party of his adherents, and also by Nittakachih and 
 his entire district, he refused to pay it, or any part of it, into 
 the hands of Colonel Folsom, the proper person to hold it 
 for distribution. This seemingly bold step at once threw 
 the entire nation into a high state of excitement. A council 
 w^s immediately called, to be represented by the two dis- 
 tricts — the one over which Nittakachih presided and the one 
 over which Colonel Folsom had just been appointed. The 
 council at once convened and, as was expected, controversy 
 ran high and the dispute waxed warmer and warmer, and 
 the breach grew wider and wider, resulting in the adjourn- 
 ment of the council sTme die, without any definite conclusion 
 being attained ; and each party, with anything but amicable 
 feelings the one toward the other, returned to their respec- 
 tive homes— Colonel Folsom and his partisans to their 
 homes in the northern part of the district, the others to 
 theirs in the southern. 
 
 Nittakachih was as true a specimen of the North Ameri- 
 can Indian warrior as ever lived. True courage, thaH which 
 no other quality commands so great admiration among men, 
 seemed to have been written in i;very lineament of his face, 
 and his unflinching eyes convincud at a glance that no earth- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS 339 
 
 ly power could intimidate him. Thoug^h small in stature, 
 yet nature had cast his limbs in a mould of delicate yet man- 
 ly beauty, and also endowed him with a constitution which 
 seemed to bid defiance to almost all changes, as 'well as to 
 fatig-ue and privations of every kind. His disposi'tion seem- 
 ed, in a g^reat degree, to partake of the qualities of his bodily 
 frame; and as the one possessed great activity, strength and' 
 endurance, the other, under a calm semblance, had.much 
 of the fiery love of glory which constituted the principal 
 attribute of the Indian character, constituting them, in the 
 estimation of the inconsiderate, a remarkable phenomenon; 
 though not more so to be regarded than many of the Nations 
 of antiquity, whose love of war fell not behind that of the 
 North American Indians, yet have not been considered as a 
 remarkable phenomenon. But the face of Nittakachih might 
 well be termed a luminous medium of the passions. The 
 bright or the dark, the lurid cloud and the calm sunshine, 
 made themselves known, not only in the voice and gesture, 
 but also in the ever-varying expression of his eloquent coun- 
 tenance. His self-cbmmand under any and a.11 circumstances, 
 and his calm and unassumed fearlessness in the hour that 
 tests the soul of man, weire truly wonderful; and, as an illus- 
 tration, I will here relate an incident of his life, in connection 
 with that of Colonel David Folsom, having its origin in the 
 deposal of Amosholihubih and the elevation of Colonel David 
 Folsom to his place as a chief concerning which I have just 
 spoken. 
 
 As soon as the council adjourned, C^olonel David Folsom, 
 fearing the hot words passed in the council might be but the 
 preliminaries to something serious, immediately sent a mes- 
 senger to Greenwood Le Flore then living in the extreme 
 western portion of the Nation to inform him of the unpleas- 
 ant state of affairs existing in his district, and the causes; 
 and also the fears he entertained of its resulting in blood- • 
 shed. Le Flore, comprehending the situation at oiice, col- 
 lected a large body of his warriors without delay and hasten- 
 ed to Colonel Folsom's place of residence, then known as 
 The Choctaw Agency, twelve or fifteen miles south of the 
 present town of Starkville, Mississippi, on the road now 
 leading from Columbus to Jackson, then known as the "Old 
 Robinson Road." 
 
 In the meantime rumor was on the vising that Amosho- 
 lihubih and Nittakachih had threatened to depose Colonel 
 Folsom and reinstate Amosholihubih even if it had to be 
 done bv the tomahawk and rifle. Colonel Folsom at first re- 
 garded" the rumor as having no foundation in truth— a feHnt 
 on the part of Amosholihubih and Nittakachih to bring him 
 
340 HISTORY OF, THE INDIANS. 
 
 e 
 
 to their measures— but soon learned to his surprise and sor- 
 row that they evidently meditated hostilities, as they were 
 actually collecting- their warriors at the then trading-house 
 of the Choctaws with the whites, on the Tanapo Ikbi river, 
 now known as Demopolis. ' Colonel Folsom now fully com- 
 prehended the gathering storm no longer of doubtful mien ; 
 for the distant thunder in its low mutterings, and theglitter- 
 ings here and there of the lightning's flash, while he felt the 
 heaving and rocking of the convulsed mountain, all unmis- 
 takably portended a terrific eruption .and it was now mani- 
 fest that but a spark was wanting to kindle the flame of" civil 
 war, and who could tell the moment that spark would ap- 
 pear! Colonel Folsom immediately sent out his runners 
 (fleet horsemen) to call together his warriors; and then were 
 seen these runners, mounted upon their fleetest horses, 
 speeding with the velocity of the wind fi'om village to village 
 and from neighborhood to neighborhood, calling to arms. 
 Truly, it was astonishing in how short a time the Choctaws, 
 at that day and time, could send any intelligence they desir- 
 ed to convey, from any part of their country to another. If 
 anything of importance occurred to-day in anj' part of the 
 Nation itwas known on the morrow at distances seemingly 
 incredible. 
 
 All was now in a blaze of wild excitement. The mfissiOn- 
 aries in their qu^et and peaceful homes, though not indif- 
 ferent totheseeminglyapproaching eventsthatwere thenand 
 there extending their shadows before, did not anticipate 
 anything serious at first, even as was thought by all that the 
 events that foreshadowed our civil war of 1861, would have its 
 origin in blustering only to terminate in an empty noise; but 
 the thrilling warwhoop that now disturbed the hitherto 
 quiet, echoing by day and by night from hill to hill through 
 their then boundless forest; the renewed life and active 
 energy displayed by the warriors, who but the day before 
 reclined in silent reverie before their cabin doors, or in list- 
 less indifference smoked their pipes, but too plainly an- 
 nounced to them, that a , fearful storm was not only fast 
 gathering, but seemed ready to burst with all its terrific 
 fury upon the Choctaw Nation, and who could tell where or 
 upon whom its fury would be spent! The pale-face intru- 
 ders, loafers, stragglers, and traders, taking the hint, bade 
 the country a hasty adieu; but the missionaries hoping for 
 the better, still lingered with their families, but stood in 
 readiness for precipitous flight at a moments warning, should 
 safety absolutely require it. Colonel David Folsom's resi- 
 dence, then known and long after remembered as the old 
 Choctaw Agency, was appointed as the place of rendcv.vous 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ^ 341 
 
 t 
 
 for his .assembling- warriors, there to unite with the coming 
 forces of LeFlore, the warriors of Colonel Folsom living in 
 the northern part of his district, passed directly by Hebron, 
 the missionary station and hoftie of Mr. Calvin Cushmari, 
 ■on their way to the point of rendezvous. Many parties 
 stopped in passing and conversed with him concerning the 
 unfortunate state of affairs; and replied to his interroga- 
 tories, as to the propriety of his leaving the nation with his 
 family at once, or wait for further developments, by urging 
 him to remain, and assuring him, at the same time, a timely 
 notice of approaching danger, and also a sufBcient escort to> 
 conduct him and family to a place of safety. Mr. Cushman, 
 having implicit confidence in their plighted word, resolved to 
 remain, though not entirely free of all apprehensions, but 
 ^tood in, readiness to depart with his faniily at any mo- 
 ihent. . . 
 
 For two or three days, and frequently during the night, 
 bands of warriors continued to pass dre'ssed in all the Choc- 
 taw paraphernalia of war, and painted as an Indian otily can 
 paint — an art known but to him by which the countenance is 
 made to assume a most frightful and awe-creating express- 
 ion, and the eye that deadly ferocity, which to be compre- 
 hended must be seen. Invariably when passing, night or 
 day, as they drew near Mr. Cushma|ij's hortie the thrilling 
 war-whoop broke the stillness of ( tlie''*'fc>reBts that stretched 
 around and awav from that liumbl^' p,tidqt*eac;ef ul missionary 
 habitation,, as a 'signal to its ocdStpatitg.-ihat, though it pro- 
 claimed war to others, it was d^Mi?bM'ger of , peace to them; 
 tnit which, after all, was not, to ' tKe' tinaccustomed ear, in 
 strict accordance with the rules of h&irmoiiy. Or to the timid 
 heart very persuasive in its melody. V ' 
 
 But this difficulty, the result bt^hich Seenjed would in- 
 evitably terminate in a civil war, was brought to a happy 
 settlement by an incident unparalleled in' the annals of an- 
 cient or modern history, and which I will here relate from 
 memory as I heard it in my boyhood, when narrated to Mr. 
 Cushman by Colonel David Folsom, who was one of the two 
 who figured as the most conspicuous in the novel scene; and 
 which was so impressed upon my youthful mind, that dis- 
 tance nor time has been able to efface it from the pages of 
 memory; Still I do not presume to be able to present before 
 my readers the vivid picture that was presented to my de- 
 lighted imagination by the eloquent tongue of Colonel David 
 Folsom, who both saw and felt that which of itself alone 
 -could give unwearied wings to the imaginative mind and un-^ 
 ■deviating eloquence to the tongue., 
 
342 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Colonel Folsom stated to Mr. Cushman, in substance, 
 as follows; and which I will place under the caption: 
 
 THE MEETING OF FOLSOM AND NITTAKACHIH 
 —THE TWO CHOCTAH CHIEFS. 
 
 When the council, convened for th'e adjustment and 
 final distribution of the annuity, adjourned in such confus- 
 ion, together with the animosity manifested and openly ex- 
 pressed by both contending partiesthe one toward the other, 
 (a similar scene never before witnessed in a Choctaw coun-^ 
 cil) I feared the consequences that I was apprehensive would 
 follow, but hoped that the conflicting- opinions then agitating 
 my people would be harmonized upon calm reflection and the 
 adoption of wise and judicious measures. But when I ascer- 
 tained that Nittakachih and Amosholihubih were truly assem- 
 bling their warriors, I began to view the matter in its true 
 and proper light, I knew those two chiefs too well to longer 
 doubt the full interpretations of their designs as set forth in 
 their actions; for they both were men who indulged not in 
 meaningless parade, or delighted in empty display. Inevi- 
 table war — kindred against kindred and bi"othcr against 
 brother — with all its horrors and irreparable consequences 
 now seemed to stare me in the face, with no alternative 
 but to speedily prepare {l5i,meetit; therefore Le Flore and 
 myself, after due deljb^rrvtion, resolved, if we must fight, to 
 confine the fighting a^ rnucl^ ^s possible within Amosholihu- 
 bih 's and Nittakachih's,ovKi;iVdistricts. We at once took up 
 our line of march south td^jvard Demopblis which was in the 
 district of Amosholihubih, and vvhere they had assembled' 
 their warriors. , 
 
 At the termination of our second days march, we ascer- 
 tained through our scout^,- that Amosholihubih and Nittaka- 
 chih Were also advancing with their warriors to meet us. 
 In vain I still sought for some pacific measures that might be 
 advanced to stop further demonstrations of war. To send a 
 flag of truce, requesting a conference with the two disaf- 
 fected chiefs, would, I felt, prove unavailing, as it would be 
 attributed to fear on the part of myself and LeFlore, and 
 but render them the more obstinate and unyielding. On the 
 morning of the third day we were informed by our scouts 
 that they were only a few miles distant, slowly but boldly 
 advancing In a few hours marching, I looked ahead and 
 dimly saw the outlines of the front warriors here and there 
 visible among the trees, and then the whole army appeared 
 in full view about half a mile distant, all in full war dress 
 and armed complete, advancing slowly and in good order.. 
 
^ . 'i HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' 343 
 
 Even up to this moment I had . cherished the fond hope that 
 matters would not be carried to the extreme; but now hope 
 fled, and the speedy destruction df my people and country 
 seemed inevitable. In vain I endeavored to think of some 
 plan that might yet avail and prevent bloodshed. A few 
 moments more and it would be too late for reflection, as. each 
 army with stern brows, firm steps and resolute hearts, were 
 slowly but fearlessly shortening the distance between. 
 But now the time for futile reflection had passed^ and stern 
 determination claimed the hour. - ' 
 
 Nearer and nearer the fearless warriors were steadily 
 approaching each other. Not a word had been spoken, nor a, 
 sound of defiance uttered by either the one or the other of 
 the stilL advancing parties; and thus in profound' silence each 
 continued to advance, the one toward the other, until not ex- 
 ceeding two hundred yards intervened, when Nittakachih 
 gave the signal for his warriors to halt, which they instantly i 
 obeyed. LeFlore and myself instantly gave the same to 
 our men, which was as quickly obeyed. Forseveralminutes 
 the armies stood and gazed upon each other in profound 
 silence. To me what minutes of indescribable suspense! I 
 speak not boastingly when I affirm that my own safety had 
 not the weight of the sixteenth part of a poor scruple in my 
 reflections. The terrible consequences that woMd follow 
 the firing of a single gun absorbed my every thought; and 
 how soon that might be done by aomp inconsiderate and 
 reckless one, no one knew. I still clung to a feeble and 
 lingering hope that the unfortunate affair might yet be ami- 
 cably adjusted; but what step to take that could lead to that 
 desirable and'happy result, at that advanced stage of affairs, 
 I was utterly at a loss. 
 
 At this juncture of alternate hope and despair my aston- 
 ishment was unbounded wheni saw Nittakachih leave his men 
 where they were standing arid alone advance tovvard. us with 
 slow and measured steps, looking with a calm and steady 
 gaze upon us. Every eye was upon him in a moment, as with 
 firm and dignified steps he continued to advance until he had 
 reached a point half way between the now wondering, but 
 still silent, warriors ; then stopped and,^slowly raising his 
 arms, he gently folded them across his breast and, in calm 
 and dignified silence, looked with fearless eyes upon me, Le 
 Flore, and our astonished men. Truly, what a scene I What 
 a picture ! There he stood in his shining war-dress midway 
 between the gazing and admiring warriors, the personifica- 
 tion of calm courage and heroic daring; his dark eyes flash- 
 ing, and his proud lips curling seemingly in fearless defi- 
 ance, and presenting one of the finest specimens of a North 
 
344 > HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. , 
 
 American Indian warrior conceivable. No fig^ure of bronze 
 could have been more rigid than that of Nittakachih, as he 
 there stood erect and in calm silence ; truly a more striking^ 
 subject- for a picture was n^ver exhibited than was presen- 
 ted in Nittakachih in that attitude. What a theme was he to 
 whom fear was a stranger! 
 
 But what his moti.ve in thus presenting himself — delib- 
 erate as it was strange — none could comprehend, or even ad- 
 vance a remote conjecture. Yet, all could read that what- 
 ever it might be, he meant it ; for no onje did him the injus- 
 tice by evei;i supposing that the situation was contrived for 
 dramatic effect. Ah 1 it is comparatively an easy matter to 
 unravel those characters which appear before us in butter- 
 fly colors, whose easy dispositions and familiarities of man- 
 ner preclude the possibility of deception; but to uq^erstand 
 the secret and hidden workings of that mind which lies con- 
 tinually wrapped up in its own solitude — to trace the secret 
 springs and solitary windings of the mysterious power 
 within, and read the intents of the heart as they are made 
 manifest, in the attitude, the look, the silence, the act, re- 
 quires an intimate knowledge of the human soul which but 
 few, if any, possess, and which nothing but long experience 
 can ever secure. 
 
 To all it^eemed a fearful scene, terrific, in its conse- 
 quences, was about to be enacted. In vain I sought for 
 some token, some sign expressive of his wish ; but his silent 
 and motionless form, indexing a determined soul, was all 
 that seemed animate. Like a statue he still stood, calm, sil- 
 ent and motionless, presenting a picture grand and beautiful 
 even to sublimity, while silence profound seemed to brood 
 over everything animate. Even the gentle breezes seemed to 
 have sung themselves to rest;and a solemn hush prevailed, as 
 though all nature in pitying suspense had made a pause, to 
 stay the death dealing struggle that se.emed about to ensue 
 between kindred and friends. It was a bright October morn- 
 ing, clear, sunny and cool, with the bluest of blue skies over- 
 head, dotted here and there with little white clouds that 
 floated about like sails upon an ocean, while the sunlight 
 filtered jlown between the branches of the trees and fell in 
 bright flecks upon the ground. The melancholy haze of 
 Indian Summer wrapped every distant object in the soft, 
 purple veil; the dim vistas of the surrounding forests ended 
 in misty depths; through the openings the majestic trees of 
 endless variety and gigantic size were dropping their dying 
 leaves, and here and there along a ravine, crimson maples 
 gleamed against the back-ground of dark green sweet-gums. 
 In all directions, the forest foliage painted with autumnal 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 345 
 
 hectic, were strewjng the bier of the departing' year, casting 
 over all a melancholy, dreamy, appearance that approximated 
 to the sublime; and which, under other circumstances, 
 would have awakened the harp of memory to the sweetest 
 tones, carrying- the thoug-hts back to the haunts of the olden 
 time, under the magic melody of boyhood's by-gone joys; but 
 then all was wrapped in that mysterious silente which pro- 
 duced sensations not unsimilar to that experienced by the 
 birds beneath the basilisk glare of the serpent. What 
 emotions thrilled my soull emotions which seemed to isolate 
 my whole being from all surrounding objects, but that silent 
 and motionless form before me, wrapt in the impenetrable 
 silence of his own heart. / 
 
 Again I loooked around for some one from whom I might 
 receive even a conjecture as to the interpretation of the in- 
 comprehensible enigma, that so mysteriously and unexpec- 
 tedly had presented itself before us, but none ventured to 
 break the stillness by a word. 
 
 I then resolved to go to him alone, be ,the consequences 
 what they might ; and a ray of hope illuminated the darkness 
 of my despairing soul, as I thought a word to him might, 
 perhaps, be as oil upon the troubled waters, and the threat- 
 ' ening storm of war yet be hushed to peace. With emotions 
 known only to myself, yet with a calm exterior, I started to- 
 ward him with a slow but firm step, and had walked but a 
 few paces when I observed Nittikachih's warriors 'silently, 
 but steadily raising their rifles to their shoulders and bring- 
 ing them to bear directly upon me; and at the same instant 
 heard behind me the ominous click of the ififle-locks of my 
 own men — the signification of which I vi^ell understood. 
 With deadly aim Nittakachih's warriors held their rifles up- 
 on me, as I drew nearer and nearer to their adored chieftain 
 who still stood silent and motionless, but with his black, pen- 
 etrating eyes upon me as if he would read the very thoughts 
 of my heart; yet without a visible sign of emotion, and ut- 
 terly unheeding the thousand rifles that also rested upon 
 him,withasmany clear andiresolute eyes glancing along their 
 dark barrels. The silence was still profound. Not a word, 
 not even the chirping of a bird or rustling of a leaf b'"oke 
 the fearful stillness. I well knew everything was suspended 
 at this juncture upon a pivot which the slightest breath 
 might turn the equally poised scale for the worst, and give a 
 signal for several thousand rifles to begin their work of 
 death, and Nittakachih and myself would be the first to fall 
 riddled with bullets, ^and our position but made it doubly 
 sure. 
 
 With a secret bracing of my nerves I continued to stead- 
 
346 ( mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 ily advance, and when within a few paces of him I met his 
 eyes fixed upon mine with that baffling expression, which, I 
 must confess, caused me to feel an inward alarm, as if some- 
 thing vaguely dangerous had suddenly reared himself in my 
 path, which by its very charm instinctiv'ely bade me beware. 
 But I as quickly subdued my apprehensions, by thinking, 
 with a certain haughty pride which I fear will never be elimi- 
 nated from my nature, of the dangers I had already met and 
 overcome in myl brief but troubled life, and meeting his 
 calm and steady gaze with a smile which I knew to contain a 
 spice of audacity, stopped immediately before and near him, 
 and calmly said, as I noticed the strife of expression be- 
 tween his eye and lip; the one hard, cold and unyielding; the 
 other deprecating in its half smile and falsely gentle, as if 
 the mind that controlled it was even then divided between -its. 
 wish to subdue and the necessity it felt to win: Nittakach- 
 ih, it would be only folly for me to speak as if nothing had 
 occurred to justify your present attitude. It would be do- 
 ing your good sense and sound judgment but little honor; 
 and putting myself, or rather, ourselves, for we, as chiefs, 
 should be one in the matter of our country's interests, in a 
 position which would make any after explanations exceed- 
 ingly difficult. For explanations can be .given, and in a word, 
 for what has doubtless appeared to yoji as strange and un- 
 warrantable on our part, explanations which I am sure you 
 will cheerfully accept, as it is not natural for you to nurse 
 suspicions contrary to your own candid and noble nature. 
 I calmly waited for the words I felt to be hovering upon hi& 
 lips, but they were scarcely the ones I expected. He replied 
 that he was satisfied with my proffered words of reconcilia- 
 tion, and, as he spoke his voice assumed its confident tone, 
 whatever might have been the disturbance communicated to 
 his inward nature.' Then looking with his dark and pierc- 
 ing eyes into mine, as if to read the secret thoughts of my 
 heart, and see if perchance treachery^ lurked not beneath 
 the smile of friendship: finding none, , the dark cloud of defi- 
 ance that greeted my approach ipstantly gave place to the 
 sun-lit rays of confidence, and he continued: "I feel that I 
 can and will again give y9u the title of friend. Will you ac- 
 cept it from me, and with it my past confidence and esteem?" 
 I responded, I will in behalf of the common interests of our 
 people; and then extended my hand to him, but in a steady 
 mechanical way that I felt committed me to nothing, for I 
 was fully alive to the possible consequences of my every act. 
 He took it, though the slight unmistakable pressure he re- 
 turned seemed to show that he accepted it for a true sign of 
 restored friendship, if not of absolute surrender. "You 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 347. 
 
 have removed a great weight from my ' heart," he againre- 
 marked. "Had you been one of the common place type of 
 men, you might have made this a serious matter for us." 
 
 What have I said and done, I reijlied, though not so bit- 
 terly, or with as much irony as I might have done, had that 
 desire to understand the full motive of a condescension I 
 could but feel was unprecedented in his arrogant nature, been 
 less keen than it was, to influence you to suppose that I will 
 not yet do so? "Your glance and your honest hkrxd are your 
 surety," he answered; then with a real smile, though it was 
 not the reassuring and attractive one he doubtless meant it 
 to be, we both turned our faces toward our anxious and 
 waiting warriors, and each gave the signal of pfeace and 
 friendship restored. Instantly every rifle was lowered, and 
 the two armies slowly marched in perfect order to where we 
 stood, and there all shook hands. A council was then and 
 there convened; satisfactory explanations made and accepted; 
 peace and friendship restored, and a terrific civil war 
 averted. And then, as the party turned their faces home- 
 ward, all fired oflE their guns as an acknowledgment that not 
 a particle of animosity lingered i in the heart of a single one 
 of either party, but that entire confidence and friendship 
 was restored. 
 
 In more aijicient times, when difficulties between two 
 clans of parties had been settled they stacked their arms to- 
 gether, and as an evidence that entire confidence, friend- 
 ship and good wijl was restored; which ceremony was called 
 "Tanapoh Aiyummih," signifying guns mixed. 
 
 Such was the narrative (in substance) related to Mr. Cal- 
 vin Cushman by Colonel David Folsom sixty years ago, por- 
 traying a scene in actual life that stands unequaled in the) 
 annals of historic warfare; while also displaying a self-skc- 
 rificing and patriotic heroism (especially in Colonel David 
 Folsom") that should put to shame and confusion of tongue 
 those ignorant and senseless babblers who deny to the 
 Indian race^the possession of a single virtue. 
 
 Nittakachih moved west with his people; remained a 
 few years, and then returned to the home of his nativity in 
 Mississippi to attend to some unfinished business, and while 
 there was taken sick and died; and thus secured for himself 
 the gratification of dying in his native land, and having his 
 body laid away in peaceful rest among the graves of his an- 
 cestors — a privilege so much coveted by the North American 
 Indian. 
 
 Had Nittakachih possessed the advantages of a thorough 
 education, he would have placed his name high on the roll of 
 fame among earth's illustrious great as a brave, patriot and 
 
348 rasTORY OP the Indians. 
 
 honest statesman; yet, without any o/ those advantages what- 
 ever; few, if any, among the whites could equal him in point 
 of true native eloquence, g'enuine patriotism, self-CQmmand, 
 and moral courage, under any and all circumstances. It was 
 my fortune to be personally acquainted with him, and never 
 have I seen, nor do I ever expect to see, a finer specimen of 
 nature's true man, than was exhibited in Nittakachih. He 
 left one son, who,was known as Captain Jackson Nittakachih, 
 and also one son-in-law named Tunapoh Humma, (Red Gum). 
 He was chief at one time of the Kunsha-ache Iksa, which 
 lived on the creek then called Lussah Hochcto, (Big Swamp), 
 now known as Big Black. They both ipoved with their peo- 
 ple to their present place of abode, and died soon after the 
 death of their noble father and father-ift-law. 
 
 Colonel David Fo,lsom, the first chief of the Choctaws, 
 elected by ballot, was a man whose generosity of nature was 
 conspicuous, not merely in the ordinary acceptance of that 
 term, but in its fullest and broadest sense ;^an'd I hazard 
 nothing in saying if posterity shall do justice to his memory, 
 history will accord to David Folsom a high rank as a just and 
 honest ruler, a noble patriot and an exemplary Christian; and 
 it is no doubtful proof of the distinguished talents of this il- 
 lustrious Choctaw, that he administered the national affairs 
 of his people for thirty years, during a period the most crit- 
 ical and perilous in the annals of the Choctaw Nation, con- 
 jointly with other kindred spirits venerable for their age, 
 prudence and integrity and of which their nation seemed re- 
 markably prolific, and whose names and eulogy might fill a 
 volume. Colonel David Folsom was a good man in the full 
 sense of that word. Continually filling offices of greater or 
 less importance in his country, still he ever carried the traits 
 of honesty, faithfulness, zeal and energy into every position. 
 He was truly one of thbse characters that naturally come to 
 the front in all matters, and possessed many of the charac- 
 teristics of a leader of men. It was natural that such a man 
 should sometimes encounter antagonism and be misunder- 
 stood, but his noble heart and generous nature could not 
 carry malice or harbor revenge. No man was more ready 
 for reconciliation and forgiveness, whether the cause of mis- 
 understanding was just or unjust. Of his worth as a citi- 
 zen, public or private, and his Christian faith and life, his 
 people know full well and justly appreciate. 
 
 He was elevated to the chieftaincy at a time when his 
 country was agitated by many conflicting emotions; his 
 people were just emerging from the state of nature to that 
 of Christianity and civilization; and the fountains of the great 
 deep of their hearts were being broken up by the new order 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 349 
 
 of thingfs that were being established among them in govern- 
 ment and in morals; and in connection with this, the ex- 
 change of their homes and country for others remote in the 
 distant and unknown west, by a process of coercion, fi-aiid 
 and tyranny unsurpassed in the annals of man, but justly 
 aroused their fears to the highest pitch, and filled every 
 heart with misgivings and the deepest gloom. - I witnessed 
 their indescribable agitation, and heard their wail of woe. 
 Yet, amid the raging storm of conflicting emotions that 
 everyv/here prevailed. Colonel David Folsom stood pre-emi- 
 nent; the prudent, wise and wholsome counsels he then gave 
 upon all questions to the subordinate chiefs and his agitated 
 people; his calm and noble bearing amid the all pervading 
 confusion; the firm and undaunted rebuke which his en- 
 lightened and enlarged philanthrophv administered to the 
 wrong policy of the uninformed and inconsiderate, were as 
 oil tipon the troubled waters and conspired to make him the 
 chief influence for good. 
 
 But in his home life Colonel Folsom's virtues shone in 
 all their'unvarnished beauty. ' This was his chosen sphere; 
 here he delighted to receive and entertain the friends who 
 were privileged with his intimate acquaintance, of&cial or 
 private, rich or poor, high or low; and for warmth of affec- 
 tion to his people, kindred and cherished friends; for singu- 
 lar unselfishness, he had few equals . and no superioi's any 
 where. His sympathies were as prompt and as tender as a 
 .child's, and it was natural and became habitual for his peo- 
 ple to go to him when in trouble, to seek council and sympa- 
 thy which they never sought in vain; nor did he wait to be 
 sought. He loved outward nature too as the source of con- 
 scious pleasurable emotions. He would say, "It rests me to 
 look upon its varied and lovely scenes, landscapes which, are 
 really a means of education to the susceptible mind, and 
 which so often have been invested with the charms of poetry 
 and romance. " ■ ' ■ '. 
 
 During a visit to the Choctaw Nation, in 1884, I unex- 
 pectedly came upon a cemetery in my devious-wanderings 
 wherein I found the graves of many Choctaws. Conspicu- 
 ous amdng many monuments, stood that of Colonel David 
 Folsom, vvhom I had known from youth's early morn. Thus 
 reads the epitaph: 
 
 "To the memory of Colonel David Folsom, the first Re- 
 publican Chief of the Chahtah Nation, the promoter of indus- 
 try, education, religion, and morality;- was born January 
 35th, 1791, and departed this life, September 34th, 1847, 
 aged 56 years and eight months. 
 
 "Ete being dead yet speaketh." 
 
350 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 His son, then my companion, and old friend from early 
 youth, informed me that the above appropriate epitaph was 
 dictated by Rev. Cyrus Byington, the long- known and faith- 
 ful friend of Colonel David Folsom and his people. To all, 
 Colonel Folsom seemed to have died in the very midst of his 
 great usefulness and the brightest glory of his days; but 
 those years and the responsibilities that had attended them, 
 had already added dignity to his firm, bold brow, with its 
 strongly marked eyebrows above black penetrating eyes. 
 For many years he had been the ruling spirit among his 
 people, and this sense of mas.tery had given him some touch 
 of kinglinessto his general appearance, his tone and manners 
 something of that look and demeanor which is seen in re- 
 nowned statesmen and famous warriors. 
 
 In strolling o'er that silent and lonely habitation of the 
 dead, I found the graves of many of my old Choctaw and 
 ■phickasaw friends of the long-ago; and in reading their 
 names carved upon the hard, white stone, how beautifully 
 those cherished friends , of other days seemed to rise up 
 again in the perspective of memory, calm and serene, as an- 
 gels of life from the paradise of the past. 
 
 Close by that of Colonel David FoJsom's was the grave 
 of Joel H. Nail, a brother-in-law to Colonel Folsom, and 
 grandfather of Joel H. Nail, now living in Caddo, Indian 
 Territory. He was another true and noble specimen of a 
 Choctaw Christian man. A beautiful marble monument also 
 marked his place of rest, and the following told the curious 
 and inquisitive passer-by who was the occupant: 
 
 "Sacred to the memory of J. H. Nail, of the Chahtah 
 Nation, who died at his residence near Fort Tawson, Au- 
 gust 24th, 1846, in the S2nd year of his ^ge. 
 
 "Reader prepare to meet thy God." 
 
 The present Nail family of the Choctaws are the de- 
 scendants of Henry Nail, a white man, who came among the 
 Choctaws about the time Nathaniel Folsom, John Pitchlynn 
 and Lewis Le Flore came ; and as they, so did he, marry 
 among them, was adopted and thus became identified among 
 that people. He rose to the position of child and exerted, as 
 did the other three above mentioned, a moral influence among 
 that noble and appreciative people with whom he had cast his 
 lot. He had four sons— Joel, Robert, Morris and Joseph ; 
 Joel Nail had seven daughters— Harrfet, Delilah, Selina, 
 Catharine, Isabelle, Melvina and Emma; and three sons — 
 Jonathan (father of the present J. H. Nail), Adam and Ed- 
 win. Robert Nail had one son — the only chief— named Ed- 
 win, who was drowned in Blue river; and Jonathan had 
 only one son, thu present Joel H. Nail, ;is above stated, :in<l 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 351 
 
 who is a worthy scion of the old stock and still living ; he is 
 a quiet and good man ; noble and good in his integrity of 
 ■character; attractive in the benevolence Of his life; great 
 and good in his benefaction add charity to his fellow-man ; 
 with a life full of gentleness, always ready, he lives as one 
 whom only those can understand who knew him and enjoyed 
 the benefits of his virtues. 
 
 Near to this this stood another emblem of frail liiortality, 
 which told of one who had lived and died, and upon vv^hose 
 smooth face I read love's ^tribute of affection. "Sacred to the 
 memory of, Major Pitman Colbert, who departed this life 
 February, 26th, 1853, aged 56 years. He lived an exemplary 
 life. Ever devoted to the welfare of his people (the Chicka- 
 saws), and died respected by all who knew him." 
 
 Of Major Colbert it may justly be said: He was emin- 
 ently a 'Christian reformer. His sympathy for his people 
 was intense. He sought to create love and harmony among 
 them; and to show them that purity of life, generosity, 
 honor, truth, are blossoms that springevenfrom stagnant pools, 
 •which to know may be found, not faultless, but still tru4.and 
 lovable, and learn that mercy and charity are needed as 
 well as justice to see what is beautiful in any life. His 
 hearty contempt for cant and snobbery in any form found a 
 ringing echo in his noble nature. He was a true disciple in 
 the temple of knowledge; ever devoting his time and labors 
 to those useful pursuits, which alone adorn and embellish 
 the mind, fitting it for the abode of truth. To the light of 
 jiature and reason he added the light of the Bible and Revela- 
 tion; and prompted by 'a higjier and nobler motive, moved 
 ;and instigated by a Divine impulse, by that Spirit that comes 
 ^rom above, he spent the morn, noon and' evening of his life 
 iTn trying to alleviate the sufferings Of others; to lift the 
 fallen,-support the weak, confirm the good, elevate the scale 
 of excellence among his people, and with the laudable pur- 
 pose of making them the better by his having lived; and who, 
 in his devotion to the great principles of morality and vir- 
 tue, lived a life of pleasant toil, supporting and elevating his 
 race wherever fallen, curbing the vices of the vicious, cor- 
 recting the waywardness of the dissolute, sustaining the 
 right and condemning the wrong. 
 
 But what visions of the long past 4woke to memory as I 
 stopped before a monument, whose beautiful symmetry of 
 form had attracted me and read; "In memory of Louis 
 Garland; died Agust 14th, 1853, aged 33 years. Generous, 
 upright and virtuous, he lived an example for all who seek 
 .the favor of the good." 
 
 More appropriate and truthful words never adorned the 
 
352 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 tombstone ofjnan. We were fellow students during the 
 years 1839-40-41 and 1842 at Marietta College, Ohio; and 
 both professors and students who may now be living, could 
 they read the epitaph that records Lewis Garland's "place of 
 rest, would attest to its truth without a "dissenting voice; and 
 I too, though years have intervened with their varied vicis- 
 situdes, would here offer some tribute, though feeble yet 
 sincere, to this my Choctaw friend, though an Indian, yet 
 loved none the less. I was born among his people and 
 thus wa^ early initiated into the "mys.teries of the Indian 
 character;" and a friendship and love for them, of which I 
 am not ashamed, but justly proud, was formed; not only for 
 them but their entire race, which time nor distance has been 
 able to weaken; and even to-day, in these my declining years, 
 my heart oft turns to these true children of the Great Spirit, 
 known during the long period of life, ;and among whom I 
 have yet to find my first false friend; and though during my 
 sojourn and travels among them, I could but feel that 
 
 We met like ships upon the sea, 
 Who hold an hour's converaa— 
 One little honr! and then speed away, 
 On dlyerglng paths— to meet no more— 
 
 and my heart still goes out in fond affection to all those old 
 Choctaw and Chickasaw friends of my youth; in whose 
 honest hearts I have ever found a friendship that never be- 
 trayed and a constancy that never wearied. 
 
 Continuing my walk through the ceinetery, I discovered 
 a grave that had no marble 1;oken to tell of its silent occu- 
 pant. Upon inquiring of my Choctaw companion, he in- 
 formed me that it was the grave of his brother, Cornelius ; 
 another fellow-student of boyhood's merry time. We were 
 chums for two years in college life, and there and then be- 
 came sincere friends, linked to the recollections of life's 
 early morn, ere sorrow's dark pall had fallen athwart our 
 pathway; but hope with rosy finger still pointed to the flat- 
 tering possibilities of the promising future. But alas! Con- 
 sumption claimed him as its own, and he returned to his 
 southern>home but to fall into a premature grave. In college 
 he vvas a diligent student, and stood high in his classes. The 
 high elements of his noble nature were so fully developed 
 that he commanded the respect and admiration of both pro- 
 fessors and students. He was consistant in all things, and 
 his moral character was blameless ; and the highest testi- 
 mony to this was the respect which all classes of students 
 manifested toward him. But here, dear Cornelius, old 
 chum, loved friend and companion of school-boy days, I let 
 
 J J J J J J J 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 353 
 
 ■I ■ 
 
 the curtain drop over thy blameless life, closed by a calm and 
 peaceful death and blessings well bestowed. Thou went 
 loved and honored while living-, and thy early death deeply 
 mourned by all thy frieiids both red and white ; and friend- 
 ship without alloy still drops a 'tear o'er thy early grave, 
 while thy name and virtues are engraved ontstill loving hearts 
 that need no voiced urn or marble inscription to perpetuate 
 thy memory. ; ' 
 
 But adieu, old friends of the past. After life's fitful 
 fever, there you sleep. No persecution and oppression dis- 
 turb yo,u now. The tall forest oaks stand like sentinals 
 around your graves as if keeping watch over this bivouac of 
 the noble dead, which I visited with deep emotion, and left 
 with tfiflectionssad. Why should not history preserve their 
 names? /But all unnoticea by the^busy world, they lived and 
 died, because they were Indians. That tells tale. 
 
 As a sample of Colonel David Folsom's ability as a letter 
 writer, I will insert a few of his letters written to Rev. Blias 
 Cornelius and others, copied ftomthe original without altera- 
 tion; and when it is taken into consideration that he never 
 went to school but six months, they may justly cause the 
 blush of shame (if such a tiling be within, the line of a possi- 
 bility) to appear upon the cheeks of thousands of white men, 
 who have gone as many years, and yet cannot do.half as 
 well. 1 
 
 To Rev. Elias Cornelius : — ' ' 
 
 Choctaw Nation, Pigeon Roost. July 16, 1818. 
 My Dear Sir: — 
 
 Your letter dated Knoxville, June 2nd has come duly to 
 hand, safe this morning, which I am rejoice to learn that you 
 and brother McKee and three other boys are all well and 
 happy. I did learn from you and McKee, when you wrote 
 from Cherokee Nation to me by Mr. Kingsbury, and did 
 write you and direct the letter to City Washington, agree- 
 able to your direction to me. Rev. Mr. Kingsbury was here 
 few days ago from Yellobusher, and he requestpd that he 
 wanted my brother Israel under his care, and that he was 
 much in need for company in traveling about the nation and 
 which his request was very certainly most pleasing talk to 
 me and Israel. He is under Mr. Kingsbury's care and as he 
 is very industrious boy I make no doubt but he will be use- 
 ful to Mr. K, by the first opportunity that K. may have he 
 will send Israel on to you. My dear friend, I have no 
 means to inform you at present in the regard of my nation 
 as we have had no council since you left here. But I know 
 and all I can say for liny /nation they are a people much in 
 
354 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 need for help and instruction, and we look up to the gfovern- 
 ment of the U. S. for instruction, and which I do know the 
 establishment of this school will be the: means of the great- 
 est good ever been done for this nation. Our hunting are 
 done for these many yeai^s ^)ack and for wanting good Father 
 and good Council that the general run of peoples at the Na- 
 tion have still hunted for game an they have in many become 
 in want. But I know that your wish is pure and love and 
 good for this nation, and therefore I have been talking to my 
 peoples and have advice them for the best during their inten- 
 tion to industrys and farming, and lay our hunting aside,and 
 here is one point of great work is just come to hand before 
 us which is the establishment of a school, and the Choctaws 
 are appear to bd well pleased. I thank you for the good and 
 love you have, and what have, already done for my nation. 
 Not long aince I have heard from Rev and Mrs. Williams. 
 They are all well. I have not seen them yet. I wish you 
 happiness. 
 
 I am your true friend till death, 
 
 David Folsom. 
 
 N. B. You will excuse my bad writing, as I did inform 
 you that I had only but six months schooling. 
 
 Chahtah Nation, Pigeon Roost, Nov. 3, 1818. 
 To Rev. Elias Cornelius: 
 
 My dear sir: — I have just returned from the Chahtah 
 Treaty, and I inform you that Chahtah did not sell or ex- 
 change lands with the United States the Chahtah said that 
 it is but two years ago when the Nation sold a large track of 
 country to the United States and therefore they said that 
 they had no more lands to sell, which they cannot think to 
 sell the land which we are living on it and raising our 
 children on it. And I inform you also that the nation a great 
 of friendships to the United States Com. The Nation talk 
 of in Council and mention fhat it was great benefit for us 
 Chahtah to have school in our Nation, and appear to be well 
 please and rejoiced to have such aids in our Nation. The 
 chiefs wrote a letter to the president of the United States 
 a most friendly talk and I must inform you in one part of 
 the letter to the president, our chief said, Father we' are 
 most thankful for your kindlv favor that you aided the 
 Society School in our nation. The chiefs are I believe in 
 notion of visiting the father, the president. Give my warm 
 love to my brother McKee and Israel when you shall see 
 them, and tell them we are all well. 
 
 I remain your most dutiful friend till death, 
 
 David Foi som. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS, 355 ^ 
 
 Chahtah Nation, Pigeon Roost, July 6th, 1832. 
 My Dear Friend Rev. Byingtoti: 
 
 I was rejoiced to learn from Rev. Kingsbury goodinews 
 from Elliott, and that health of family was much better. It 
 is indeed, good news to rac/to hear that Mr. Ward has 
 brought the large boys under his Government once more. 
 
 , After all our fuss and talk and grumbling and dissatisfaction 
 on the part of we Chahtahs, I hope good will result from it. 
 
 ' I did feel sorry when I was there to witness some bad con- 
 duct of the scholars there. But I hope good may overrule for 
 the best — this is my sincere wish. Some days since 1 was 
 at Mayhew and staid there few days, an4 I am happy to say 
 to you that family were well, and the scholars are doing well, 
 and all in good health. The children go out to work cheer- 
 fully, and come in the school cheerfully, and mine their 
 teacher cheerf ull)^, and on the hole I think they improve 
 most handsomely — and the missionary spirit at Mayhew I 
 think it is good — they all appear to do what they can. We 
 shall have a council 18th inst. at Mayhew — with the chiefs and 
 warriors of this District. I shall want Mr. Kingsbury to 
 give them a straight talk. I have no news to inform you at 
 present that is worfli your notice. Give me some news if 
 jou have any. Present my best wishes to the Mission fam- 
 ily. I am — Dear Sir — your friend, 
 
 David Folsom. 
 Rev. C. Byington. ' 
 
 January 7th, 1829. 
 My Dear Friend Rev. C. Byington: — 
 
 I am informed you have gone to Columbus, and I do not 
 know it is best that you were there with the lame hand you 
 had. I diii'not like the look of y^Ur hand other day. I think 
 it would be well for you to be very careful hereafter and en- 
 deavor to get your hand well. As to our appoint at Aiikhuna 
 ■ (a school or place of learning), you need not feel any disap- 
 pointment. I shall try to go over agreeable to promise, it 
 was made to the people, if I should be permitted to go by the i 
 almighty hand. I shall try to go and see the people— if I only 
 just go' there and shake hands and see the people. Mr. 
 Williams will be there, and he can preach to the people if it 
 be necessary to do so. I trust, if I am not deceived, the 
 Lord has' done great things for my soul. Pray for me 
 brother. / • ■ 
 
 I am, dear sir, your friend, , , : 
 
 Aiikhuna. ^ ^^r""^?^ ., 
 
 I have copied the above four letters of Colonel David 
 
 Folsom from the original without any alteration whatever. 
 
356 msTORY OF the Indians. ' f 
 
 Though there are defects, yet, when we consider the limited 
 opportunity offered in six months tuition — and only Six 
 months — and the writer beginning' at the alphabet of a lan- 
 guage foreign to his native tongue, and of which he compar- 
 atively knew nothing, are they not remarkable productions, 
 especially in that of their orthography? And when we also 
 take into consideration that Colonel David Folsom is but one 
 of hundreds of Choctaws, as well as of other North American 
 Indians all over the continent, as will be successfully estab- 
 lished, do not the united voices of truth and justice pi-oclaim 
 the falsity of the assertion, "The Indian could never be ed- 
 ucated from his savagery." Here I will introduce to the 
 reader the Rev. Israel Folsom, a younger brother of the 
 great and good Colonel David Folsom, either of whom to 
 know was to love, yet true Choctaw Indians. But Rev. Israel 
 Folsom 's name belongs alone to the religious history of his 
 country and people, by whom such a man cannot be forgot- 
 ten. The cause for which he so prodigally spent himself is 
 his people; but I honor his name. What Christian can be 
 dead to the lesson of self-sacrifice, and life-long devotion, 
 which his noble career so eminently exemplified? Who of 
 those who knew him can doubt that after life's journey hb 
 entered into that everlasting rest which, while on earth, he 
 so wistfully contemplated, and so interestingly discoursed 
 upon? 
 
 His conversion to the Christian religion was somewhat 
 peculiar. After he had become the head of a family, he came 
 in possession of some deistical books handed to him by some 
 of that class of whites who would not only degrade the In- 
 dian upon earth but also damn his soul in eternity. But the 
 God of pity and love thwarted the designs of thq white mis- 
 creant by interposing in behalf of his untutored, inexperi- 
 enced and unsophisticated child of nature, as the sequel will 
 prove. For several years he carefully and diligently read 
 the deistical works, to the gradual neglect of the religious 
 books, especially the Bible, all of which, had been furnished 
 him by those devoted missionaries, with their frequent 
 prayers for God's blessing to accompany them. Those 
 prayers of faith followed the Choctaw* student from his home 
 east of the Mississippi river to his new home in the wes|; 
 when he still read his deistical books, and devoted much 
 thought and calm reflection) upon thefr teachings while en- 
 gaged in the duties of his 'extensive farm and stock ranch. 
 One beautiful spring morning, having ridden out upon the 
 prairie to look after his cattle, and while reflecting upon 
 what he had read the night before, which denied the exist- 
 ence of a First Great Cause, lie asked himself: "Then 
 
, HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 357 
 
 whence came the green grass that now covers this vast 
 prairie as with a carpet, that stretches away before me on 
 every side? Whence'came the innumerable flowers of varie/ 
 gated colors that so delight my eye? Whence came the cattlfe, 
 the horses, the birds, and all other animals? Ah! Wljence 
 came I, myself? There must be a God. . There is a God!" 
 Then and there he sprang from his horse, fell iUpon his 
 knees, and in earnest prayer sought light from Him, who 
 hath said, "In the day that ye seek me with all thy heart, 
 I will t>e found of thee," and arose a changed man. Heat 
 once turned his steps homeward, entered his house, an,d 
 without speaking a word gathered every deistical, and in- 
 fidel book that had so long contaminated and polluted his- 
 house and led him astray,' and in one pile threw them into 
 the fire; then went out of the house, took. his stand, where 
 he could see the top of the chimney, and, as the black smoke, 
 made blacker by the consuming falsehoods of their infamous 
 contents, ascended in dark rolls to the sky, shouted as he 
 waved his hand to its final adieu^ "Behold ini^delitj^"! and 
 from that moment gave his life to the ministry, and in that 
 capacity filled a large sphere of usefulness, aiid sat upon the 
 throne of a wide public esteem. | 
 
 By precept and example, he endeavored to lea^ the 
 minds of his people into the paths of virtue and truth. His 
 great effort was to train them morally by impressing uj)on 
 them the value of Christian truth, as the basis of Christian 
 character and life. In his nature he was modest and retir- 
 ing, but his 'social qualities were of the highest order; and 
 as husband, father, citizen, friend and preacher of the Gos- 
 pel, he illustrated in his daily life all those noble attributes 
 which make up and form the highest type of true manhood. 
 His fine sensibility fitted itself to every deitiand that could 
 be mg,de upon it in his family and social relations. He was 
 happy in making others happy, tender, true and devoted; 
 and his ways were truly the ways of simplicity and gentle- 
 ness. Thus lived and died this great man— great, not in 
 the present acceptation of the word in this age of folly and 
 sin, but in that of truth, an ornament to the truth, and a 
 gem in the diadem of his Redeemer. Truly, so grand a 
 specimen of the old school of Presbyterianism should not be 
 lost from the view of succeeding generations; who, in 
 strength of faith, ardbr of hope, and zealous devotion to the 
 cause of man's Redeemer, and unwearied labor for the sal- 
 vation of souls, had few equals in any age of that glorious 
 church of Christ. . 
 
 One has spoken of him as "orie of the saintliest men 
 with whom.he had ever been acquainted"; and all those who 
 
358 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 khew him will fully acquiesce in the truth of that statement.. 
 He was indeed a most sincere Christian; a man of great 
 spirituality; in which there was nothing morbid or senti- 
 mental, nor yet bustling and obtrusive; but unaffected and 
 genuine, and at the same time most active and efficient. The 
 elemei.ts of character which contributed to his success 
 were his simplicity, solidity and godly sincerity. He was 
 one who believed what he preached, and practiced what he 
 taught. He united gentleness with decision of character, 
 and was firm in his convictions, yet free of obstinacy; and 
 when convinced of his errors, he at once retracted. No one 
 ever knew him to knowingly sacrifice a right principle, frus- 
 trate a worthj' purpose, shrink from a known duty, betray a 
 sacred trust, speak evil of his fellowman, forsake a friend 
 or injure an ^nemy. Insincerity was a stranger in his 
 breast, and to say or do anything for effect never entered his 
 honest mind. Though not what the world would call a bril- 
 liant preacher, yet he possessed what many brilliant preach- 
 ers lack — good, common sense; for extravagances or eccen- 
 tricities never marred his own labors, nor were the legiti- 
 mate effect of his pulpit works cancelled by his erratelife. 
 
 Rev. Israel Folsom always gave owe- tenth of his annual 
 income to the church; and in his will, left one tentli of his 
 property to the church to which he was attached; and 
 though time seemed to have prematurely whitened his locks, 
 yet Lt also seemed to have gently touched his stalwart frame, 
 and his manly features indicated to the last a character that 
 had met life's vicissitudes as a man should meet them. Hjs 
 native strength and force still seemed like the beautiful 
 country in which he lived — once wild and rugged indeed, but 
 now softened and humanized by years of culture. It was 
 evident that he looked at the world, as mirrored before him, 
 not with cynicism nor mere curiosity, but with ;i heai't in 
 sympathy with all the influences that were making it better. 
 He died April 24, 1870, and was buried at Old Boggy Depot, 
 Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, ag^d 67 years, 11 months 
 and 22 days. Such was Rev. Israel Folsom, of whom it may 
 be said: He was a remarkable illustration of the power of 
 Christianity — a great mind, once entangled in the meshes of 
 error, but broke away, grasped the' truth and yielded not 
 with his expiring breath. His was a religion that endured ; 
 a bright and shining light to all his people; a morning star 
 that had arisen, casting its wild light over the dark cloud 
 which, for untold centuries, had hung its dark and gloomv 
 pall over his nation; and though it seemed to set prema- 
 turely, yet it cast back a light that illuminated the path of 
 truth. But the veil of silence has been drawn over as true 
 
\ 
 
 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 359 
 
 and unselfish a life as was ever laid at the Master's feet; 
 ytet his grand Christian life will remain a brig-ht, shiningf 
 light, animating and encouraging his loved ones left behind, 
 while memory endures. 
 
 I will here give the following of the Choctaw people, 
 from the pen of their great and good countryman, Rev. 
 Israel Folsom, which I have copied from the original without 
 alteration whatever, furnished me by his daughter Czarena, 
 now Mrs. Rabb, and never 'before published: 
 
 "The history of the aborigines of America has been one 
 of the most prominent and interi'esting subjects of inquiry 
 and resea/rch of the present age. The, manners, habits, 
 customs and peculiarities of the different Indian tribes, have, 
 for many years, formed a theme of deep interest and praise- 
 worthy investigation to the philanthropic and scientific 
 world. While their traditions are worthy of being pre-' 
 served, on account of their similarity to some of the won- 
 drous and attractive events recorded in the Old Testament, 
 various and unsatisfactory are the conjectures set forth re- 
 garding their parent root or origin. Some, with a good show 
 of plausibility, have attempted to prove that they are of i Jew- 
 ish extraction and constitute a.remnafit of the lost ten tribes 
 of Israel; others as earnestly agree, that they are but a, 
 branch or off-shoot from the\ Tartar, Sclavonic or |Tyrus 
 race; while, on the other hand, a class of speculative his- 
 torians make bold to assert that they are not of Asiatic line- 
 age, and do not, therefore, owe in common withfmankind 
 their descent from Adam. The first view is supported by 
 the Indians themselves, but gives little strength or addition- 
 al force 'to the argument. Whatever value, or otherwise, , 
 may be attached to one or all of these theories., which to a 
 large extent they only are, one thing is clear and beyond 
 contradiction, that the white people in general have, com- ' 
 paratively speaking, but a very imperfect knowledge of the 
 Indian race. 
 
 "During the earlier period of the history of America, and 
 shortly after its discovery, the monarchs of Europe, fired 
 with the lust of conquest and spoil, attempted, , but in vain, 
 to subjugate the Indians and rivet the shackles of slavery 
 upon them. They however, carried this purpose so far into 
 execution, as cruelly to tear them away from their peaceful 
 homes and endeared families, and transported them by 
 thousands into various parts of the world. These unjust 
 proceedings, instead of quenching the indomitable love pf 
 liberty, which so strongly and brightly burned ni their 
 bi'easts, served only to arouse the full power of resistance 
 
360 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 against their oppressors, which ultimately had the effect of 
 freeing them from such bondage. 
 
 'Tliey may bury tbe steel In the Indian's breast; 
 Thev may lay bim low with hia aires to rest, 
 His scattered race from their heritage push, 
 But his dauntless spirit they cannot break.' 
 
 "From that period up to the pi-esent time, the Indians 
 have been and are gtill receiving everything but justice. In 
 fact ever since the Christian world gained a foot-hold upon 
 the American continent and erected the cross on its shores 
 they have had no rest, but have been defrauded, trodden 
 down, oppressed, scattered, and weakened. Their condi- 
 tion has been one of constant suffering and injustice. 
 Avarice, the demon of civilized man, has worked heavily 
 upon them, the result of which is, that.only a sad and melan- 
 choly history can be written in regard to their past and 
 present conditions. Yet a people possessed of such rare 
 and remarkable traits, should not be permitted to pass away 
 without some notice and record of their history. 
 
 "But how true, when nature is wounded through all her 
 dearest ties, she must and will turn on the hand that stabs 
 and endeavor to wrest the poniard from the grasp that 
 aims at the life, pulse of her breast! And this she will do in 
 obedience to that immutable law, which blends the instinct 
 of self-preservation with every atom of human existence. 
 And for this, in less felicitous times, when oppression and 
 war succeeded alternately to each other, was the name 
 Indian blended with the epithet 'cruel,' therefore, when they 
 (the whites) talk or write about the Indians' wild, savage, 
 and irreclaimable nature, they speak not nor write as they 
 know or feel, but as they hear, by which and through which 
 they have been educated to regard the Indian race as beings 
 forming a lower link than humanity in the chain of nature, 
 and finding only a place for them in the ranks of ferocious 
 beasts of prey; but this, with other innumerable errors of 
 both excusable ignorance, but in most cases, that of inex- 
 cusable Ignorance and great want of principle, is shamefully 
 -unjust; since the Indians' cruelty to the White Race as a 
 whole, has not been greater than that practiced upon them 
 by the White Race, proving that they possess as humane 
 dispositions as any nation of people under the same 
 circumstances and in the same state of moral and intellectual 
 culture. 
 
 "As comprising an important chapter of this great sub- 
 ject, I will now prc^ceed to give a brief narrative of the Choc- 
 taw tribe of red people— their traditions, government, relig- 
 
raSTORY OP THE INDIANS. 361 
 
 ions belief, customs and manners, anterior to the introduc- 
 tion of the gospel among- them. To guard against any 
 misconception, however, I deem it proper to state that their 
 traditions and history are so much commingled, it is difficult 
 to separate them without destroying, in a great measure, the 
 interest of the subject, and I have, therefore, to some ex-{ 
 tent, interwoven them. 
 
 Name and Migration from the West. — The Pro- 
 phet Warrior, and the Enchanted Pole. ^ — "The 
 name Choctaw, or Chahtah is, derived from a ' pro- 
 phet warrior who flourished at a time too remote for fixing 
 any date, as it is only handed down by tradition from one gen- 
 eration to another. 
 
 "Headed by him, tradition informs us, the people in one 
 grand division migrated to the East from a country far to- 
 ward the setting sun, following the Cherokees and Musco- 
 gees, iwho had moved on, four years previous, in search of a 
 suitable spot for a permaneht location. He is said to have 
 been possessed of all the characteristics essential to the car-\ 
 rying out of such an enterprise to a successful termination. 
 
 • His benevolence and many other virtues are still cherished 
 and held in sacred remembrance by hi^ people. The coun- 
 try whence they migrated, or the causes which induced them 
 to seek another place of habitation, is wrapt in mysterious 
 oblivion, as their tradition begins'abruptly with the epoch of 
 migratfon. In moving from places to place, Chahtah is said 
 to have carried a high staff or pole which, on encamping, was 
 immediately placed in front of his wigwam, where it re- 
 mained until they broke up encampment. His wigwam is 
 represented to have been placed in the van of all the tribe. 
 When the pole inclined forward — a power which it was be- 
 
 ' lieved to possess — the people prepared to march. This is 
 somew^hat analogous to the cloud by day and pillar of fire by 
 night, by which the Lord, through His beloved servant, 
 guided the children of Isi-ael from Egypt. After many 
 years of wanderings, during which they, in common with 
 those who have ever engaged in similar enterprises, suffered 
 many trials and privations, they at length arrived at a cer- 
 tain place, where the staff stood still and, instead of bending 
 forward, inclined backward, which was regarded as a sign 
 they were at their journey's end. To this place where the 
 staff stood still, Chahtah gave the name of Nun-nih Wai-ya. 
 The exact period of the termination of their wanderings is 
 unknown. So soon as they got in some degree settled, Chah- 
 tah called the warriors together for the, purpose of organiz- 
 ing a dode of laws for their government. At this place of 
 rest, Nunnih Waiya, they built strong fortifications in order 
 
363 HISTORY OP THB INDIANS. 
 
 to protect themselves from anyvfoe wto might conceive hos- 
 tile intentions ag-ainst them. Whether or not they were ever 
 assailed sre unknown. The remains of the fortress, how- 
 ever, is still to be seen in Mississippi. Along time did not 
 elapse before their newly acquired territory was found to be 
 too limited to hold their rapidly increasing numbers, and 
 they were in consequence compelled to spread themsplves 
 over the adjacent country, and form themselves in villages. 
 It is a well authenticated fact that fronj this out-pouring or 
 scattering, sprung the Indians called Shukchi, Hummas and 
 Yazoos. 
 
 Domestic Government. — "In the domestic government 
 the oldest brother or uncle was the head; the parents being 
 required merely to assist in the exercise of this duty by 
 their advice and example. This was similar in a great de- 
 gree to the Patriarchal government in vogue among the 
 Jews. • 
 
 Tribal Government. — "The -tribal or national govern- 
 ment was vested in the royal family. Their criminal code 
 was simple in the extreme — life for life. For minor offenses 
 they inflicted punishments or imposed fines suited to the 
 nature of the case. They were under the government of 
 custom or coYnmon law of the Nation. All their matters of 
 dispute or difficulty were settled in open council. They 
 had no such officers as constables or sheriffs, but the chief 
 had power at any time to order out any number of warriors 
 to bring offenders to justice. The* chief's office was one 
 merely of supremacy or leadership, and consequently there 
 was no pay attached to it as at present. 
 
 Idols — Spirits — Sacred Fires. — They, never worshiped 
 idols, or any works of their own hands, as other savage 
 nations. They believed in the existence of a Great Spirit, 
 and that He possessed super-natural power, and was omni- 
 present, but they^did not deem that He expected or required 
 any form of worship of them. They had no idea of God as 
 taught by revealed religion — no conception of His manifold 
 mercies, or the atonement made for sin. All they felt was a 
 dread of His attributes and character, made manifest to 
 them by the phenomena of the heavens. But in common 
 with the believers of the Scriptures, they held the doctrine 
 of future rewards and punishments. They differed from 
 them, however, as to the location of heaven and their views 
 of happiness and misery. Heaven, or the happy hunting 
 grounds, in their imagination, was similar to the Elysian 
 fields of the heathen mythology. There the spirit of those 
 who had been virtuous, honest and truthful, while on earth, 
 enjoyed, in common with youthful angels, all mannfer of 
 
hISTORY of the INDIANS. 363 
 
 games and voluptuous pleasures, with no care, no sorrow, 
 nothing but one eternal round of enjoyment. They be- 
 lieved that angels or spirits seldom Visited the earth, and 
 cared but very little about doing so, as being supplied in 
 heaven with everything suitable to their wants, nothing was 
 required from the earth. According to their notion, heaven 
 was located in the southwestern horizon, and spirits, instead 
 of ascending, according to the Christian idea, sped their 
 last journey in a line dire'ctly above the surface of the earth 
 in the direction of the southwest horizon. Previous to a 
 spirit's admission into the happy hunting ground, it was ex- 
 amined by the attendant angel at the gate, who consigned it 
 to heaven or hell according to its deeds on earth. Their hell, 
 or place of punishment, as they termed it, was the reverse 
 of the happy hunting ground—a land full of briers, thorns, 
 and every description of prickly plants, which could inflict 
 deep cuts, causing intense pain frorii which there was no 
 escape; onward they mu'st go— no healing 'oil for their 
 wounds— nothing but an eternity of pain — no games — fto 
 voluptuous pleasures — nothing save an illimitable land of 
 blasted foliage. : ^ 
 
 They also believed in the existence of a devil, whom they , 
 designated Na-lusa-chi-to, a great black bein^, or soul eiter, 
 who found full occupation in terrifying and doing all manner 
 of harm to people. He accofds well with the one described 
 in thfe Scriptures; "who goeth about like a roaring lion seek- 
 ing whom he may devour." Previous to a spirit winging its 
 flight to the happy hunting ground, or the land of briers and 
 blasted foliage, it was supposed to hover around the place 
 where its tabernacle lay for several days — four at least. 
 They believed that the happy hunting ground was at a dis- 
 tance of many days journey. When a person died, provis- 
 ion was jirepared for the journey under the supposition that 
 the deparjted spirit still possessed hunger. Upon the death 
 of a man, his dog Was killed, that its spirit might accompany 
 that of its master. Ponies, after they were introduced, were 
 also killed, that the spirit might ride. They believed that 
 all animals had spirits. During four days a fire was kept 
 kindled a few steps in front of the wigwam of the deceased, 
 whether the weather was cold or hot. They imagined, that 
 if the'spirit found no fire kindled in that manner for his 
 benefit, it would become exceedingly distressed and angry, 
 especially when the night waS cold; dark and stormy. A 
 bereaved mother, on the loss of her child, would kindle; up a 
 fire and sit by it all night. The wife on the loss of a husband 
 performed th,e same vigil. In either case a rest in sleep was 
 denied. For six months or more, in case of the deajth of a 
 
364 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. - , 
 
 chief, the sorrowing' and mourning relations indicated their 
 grief in many ways. The men, in the early part of their 
 time of mourning, remained silent and subdued, ate very 
 sparingly, and abstained from all kinds of amusements,- and 
 from decking themselves out in their usual manner; the 
 women did the same, with this difference, that they remained 
 at home prostrated with grief — their hair streaming over 
 their shoulders, unoiled and undres^d,-^ being seated on 
 skins close to the place of burial or sacred fire. They not 
 unfrequ'ently broke the silence of sadness by heart piercing 
 exclamations expressive of their grief. For a long time they 
 would continue to visit the grave regularly morning and even- 
 ing to mourn and weep. 
 
 Mode of Burial — Bone-Pickers.— Origin of the Mis- 
 sissippi Mounds. — "The mode of burijil practiced by the 
 Choctaws consisted in placing the corpse five or six feet 
 from the ground upon a platform of rough timber made for 
 that purpose, covered with a rough kind of cloth of their 
 own making, or skins of wild animajs and bark of trees. 
 After remaining in that condition until the flesh had very 
 nearly or altogether decayed, the bones were then taken 
 down by the bone-pickers (persons appointed for that duty) 
 and carefully put in wooden boxes made for that purpose, 
 which were placed in a house built and set apart for them. 
 These were called bone-houses; whenever they became full, 
 the bones were all taken out and carefully arranged to a con- 
 siderable height somewhat in the form of a pyramid or cone, 
 and a layer of earth put over them. This custom, which 
 prevailed among many dliferent tribes, is, no doubt, the or- 
 igin of the Indian mounds, as they are generally called, 
 which are found in various parts of the country, particularly 
 in the States of Mississippi and Alabama, formerly the home 
 of the Choctaws. When the custom of placing the dead 
 upon platforms was abandoned, which met with strong op- 
 position, they buried their dead in a pitting posture in the 
 grave; around the grave they set half a dozen red poles about 
 eight feet high, and one about fifteen feet high, at the top of 
 which a white flag was fastened. The occupation of the 
 bone-pickers having been abolished, it then became their 
 business to make and set up red poles around the graves, 
 and afterwards to remove them at the expiration of the time 
 of mourning, and hence they were, called pole-pullers. They 
 were respected by the people, and for less labor being im- 
 posed upon them, they were pleased with the change in the 
 burial of the dead. At the pole-puUings, which as stated, 
 ^vas at the expiration of the time of mourning, a vast collec- 
 tion of people would assemble to join in a general mourning. 
 
HISTORY. OF THE INblANS.. 365 
 
 After much food had been consumed fhey would disperse to 
 their respective homes, and the mourning relations would oil 
 their hair and dress up as usual. , ■ ' 
 
 Tradition of the Flood. — The tradition, as related by 
 wise men of the Nation, about the flood, is as follows: A 
 long continued night came upon the land, which created no 
 small degree of fear and uneasiness among the people. 
 Their fears were increased at seeing the terrible buffaloes, 
 and the fleet deer making their appearance, and after them 
 the bears and panthers, wolves, and others approaching their 
 habitations; suspicious at first of their intentions, they 
 thought of placing themselves- beyond the reach of the more 
 dangerous animals, but instead of exhibiting any disposition 
 of ferocity, they seemed rather to claim protection at their , 
 hands. This presented an opportunity of having a jubilee 
 of feasting, and they therefore indulged themselves to the 
 fullest bent of their propensity and inclinations by an indis- 
 criminate massacre of the animals. Having thus feasted for 
 some time, they at last saw daylight appearing. But what 
 surprised themimuch, was, they saw it coming from the 
 north. They were at a loss what to think of it. They, 
 however, supposed that the sun must have missed his path, 
 and was coming up from another direction, vi^hich caused 
 the unusual long night, or perhaps he had purposely changed 
 his course, to rise hereafter in the north instead of the east. 
 While such conjectures were making, some fast runners 
 arrived as messengers coming from thfe direction of the sup- 
 posed day light, and announced to them that the light which 
 they saw was not the day light, but that it was a flood slowly 
 approaching, drowning and destroying everything. Upon 
 this report the people fled to the inountains, and began to 
 construct rafts of sassafras wood, binding them together 
 with vines, believing this ^expedient would save them from a 
 watery grave. But alas, delusive hope! for the bears were 
 swimming around in countless numbers, being very fond of 
 vine twigs gnawed them through, thereby setting loose the 
 materials of the raft, and bringing the people under dark 
 waters. Their cries, wailing and agony, were unheard and 
 unseen. But there was one man who prepared and launched 
 a strong peni or boat, into which he placed his family and 
 provisions and thus floated upon the deep waters. For 
 days the Penikbi (boat builder) strained his eyes looking all 
 around for the purpose of discovering the existence of 
 some animal life, and a place at which to anchor his vessel. 
 
 "Nothing met his sight save, the cheerlees waste of 
 waters. The' hawks, eagles and other birds of the same 
 class, had all, when they found that the tops of the moun- 
 
366 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 tains could not render them a lig'hting place from the flood, 
 flown to the sky and clung- on to it with their talons, and re- 
 mained until the flood abated, when they returned to their 
 old haunts and resumed their natural propensities and 
 habits. An indication of the disappearing of the flood thus 
 manifested itself. A crow made its appearance and so much 
 delighted to see the boat, that it flew around and around it. 
 The Penikbi, overjoyed beyond measure, addressed the 
 sable bird, wishing- to elicit some information from it as to 
 whereabouts, and whether or not the flood was subsiding 
 any, but it heeded him not, seeming- to be determined to con- 
 sult its own safety before that of any one else; but scarcely 
 had the crow winged away from the peni before a dove was 
 described flying towards it, and on reaching it, the Penikbi 
 with joy perceived a leaf in its bill. .It flew several times 
 around but did not alight; after doing so took its course 
 slowly flying toward the west, but seemingly anxious that 
 Penikbi would steer in the direction it flew, which he did 
 faithfully following the course. In this way many a weary 
 mile was traveled, before seeing a place to land. At length 
 a mountain became visible, and never did a benighted ma- 
 riner hail the sight of land as Penikbi did, when its sum- 
 mit became visible. When he had safely landed, the dove 
 flew away to return no more. Though this diluvial story is 
 in some respects absurd, still, the intelligible portions of 
 it concide with those evidences which are embalmed in the 
 convictions and understanding of the Christian world, in 
 the authenticity of the inspired Word. It is strange that 
 the Choctaws should have been in possession of those par- 
 ticulars long before the white man spread before them the 
 pages of life." 
 
 Ancient Choctaw tradition affirms that a drouth followed 
 by a famine in corn, peas, beans, etc., prevailed throughout 
 their country far back in the days of their forefathers, which 
 continued over three years; that all the tributaries of the 
 Tanapoh Ikbi (Gun Maker), now knowp as the Tombigbee 
 river, together with all the lakes and ponds, wei-e completely 
 dried up; that the river ceased , to run, the water standing 
 only in holes here and there, that all the larger game left 
 the country, going west; that the buffalo, then inhabit- 
 ing their country, never returned. Does this tradition point 
 back to those remote ages in which the Prophet of God and 
 king Ahab figured? This traditional drouth of-'the Choctaws 
 continued over three years, that of the Prophet three and a 
 half years. Did it extend to the western continent, or did 
 the tradition refer back prior to their ancestors' migration 
 
HISTORY OF THE INBIANS 367 
 
 from the eastern, to the western continent, the Tanapoh Ikbi 
 and the buffalo being', additions of a future generation? 
 
 Iksa: — "The Cboctaws were divided into various clans 
 called Iksa, established and regulat'ej^ upon principles of 
 unity, fiidelity and charity. They held this to be a neces- 
 sary and important custom to be sacredly kept and inviola- 
 bly observed by them at all times and utider all circumstan- 
 ces, and never to be forgotten. If one ' should be found 
 in a strange place far from home, and should be placed 
 in .a situation to need assistance, all he had to do was 
 to give the necessary intimation of his membership of one 
 of those Iksas, and upon the mention of the name of that clan 
 he would never fail to meet one or more, who would immedi- 
 ately extend to him the hand of friendship. Should he be 
 sick, in want or in distress, relief would be immediately 
 administered. The marriage of persons belonging to the 
 same Iksa was forbidden by the common law of the tribe. 
 The br'otherly love, so strongly inculcated and highly recom, 
 mended in the Inspired Volume, was to a great extent prac- 
 liced under this sort of arrangement. It was considered 
 that the Nation could not exist without the Iksa. One Iksa 
 piled the bones, and buried the dead of another. No Iksa 
 performed these last offices to any of its own Iksa. Each 
 ihad their bone-pickers — old men being usually chosenf or that 
 purpose and were held in high esteem on account of their 
 ;age and office. ' 
 
 Doctors :-^"I beliey,e it is an a!cknowledged f act, ihep-is 
 no nation in existence, or has ever existed, but ha4 had doc- 
 tors. This shows the importance of the profession. The 
 Choctaws,also were not withdjut them. But perhaps with the 
 advantage over all others, of having as many of the female as 
 of the male sex, who were quite as successful in their, prac- 
 tice as the latter. The doctors made use of herbs and roots 
 in various forms, applied and given in different modes — ^for 
 emetics, cathai-tics, sweats, pounds and sores ; they also 
 ■ made use of cold baths, scarification, cupping and blistered 
 by means of burning punk, and practiced suction to draw 
 out pain; some used enchantment, while others practiced by 
 magic, pretending to have learned the art of healing. Mor- 
 mon-like, by special revelation, communicated to them in 
 some retired and unfrequented forest. It was in this way, 
 also, it was said, that the war-prophets were raised up to 
 lead the people to battle. At a high price and much expense 
 the doctors of both sexes learned the mode_ and maniier of 
 the use of herbs and roots. It is a fact worthy of remark, 
 that even now many of them are in possession of some use- 
 ful and impoi-tant means of cure. They have, among other 
 
368 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 things, an effectual remedy for the bite of the rattle-snake, 
 or of any other venomous reptile, the bite of which they 
 consider very easy of cure. 
 
 Mksmekism. — "Mesmerism was known among- them, 
 though they regarded it with wonder and dread, 
 and it was looked upon as injurious and 
 hurtful in its results; while those who prac- 
 ticed this curious art had often to pay vei-y dearly for it, 
 for they were frequently put to death. Ventriloquism has 
 also been found among them, and used solely for vain, self- 
 ish and evil designs, but to the great danger of the life of the 
 person practicing it, for the Choctaws believe that whatever 
 appears supernatural, is suspicious and. likely at any time 
 to be turned to evil purposes. 
 
 EcLiPsiis. — Br.ACK Squirkkls Eating up the Sun. — "Be- 
 fore correctly understanding the true causes 'of the eclipses 
 of the sun, all heathen nations have had their superstitious 
 belief in regard to them. It was so with the Choctaws. 
 Their notions were strange indeed. When the sun began to 
 get less in his brightness, and grow dark and obscure, they 
 believed that some thei»eal black squirrels of large size, 
 driven by hunger, had commenced eating him and were going 
 to devour him. With this belief they thought it was their 
 duty to make every exertion they co,uld to save the great 
 luminary of day from being consumed by them. Therefore 
 every person, both men, women and children, who could 
 make a noise, were called upon to join in the effort to drive 
 the squirrels away. To do this they would begin in the 
 same manne»" as persons generallv do ;in trying to start a 
 squirrel off from a tree. Some would throw sticks towards 
 the declining sun,- whooping and yelling-, at the same time 
 shooting arrows toward the supposed black squirrels. 
 
 Dances. — "They had various kinds of dances as well as 
 other people, many of which were, however, insignificant 
 and do not deserve a notice here; but there were others 
 which were considered important and national, such as the 
 ball-play dance, the war-dance, eagle-dance, and scalp-dance, 
 all of which seem to have been the result of rude and savage 
 ideas, The training of their young men consisted princi- 
 pally in three things: viz.: War, hunting, and ball-playing. 
 The last was a national play with ball-sticks, m which they 
 all took much pride. In that for war, the young men were 
 required to pass through many hard exercises of the body 
 in order to inure them to hardships and suffering. They 
 were required to receive inflictions of tortures on their 
 naked bodies, once a year, and also to pltinge into deep water 
 and dive four times in about one minute, during one of the 
 
HISTORY OP THE mDIANS. 369 
 
 most cold and frosty mornings. . Lectures on the subject of 
 bravery and sincerity, truth and justice towards their 
 friends, were often given them by some of the bravest of 
 their head-men. In fact, no other perfeon was allowed to ad- 
 dress the young,' or the people at any time, but those only 
 whose braverj-i. had been long known, and acknowledged 
 among them. They were also carefully drilled in the uSe of 
 the bow, with which they were expert ahd perfect. They 
 would ha'rdly ever miss a deer or turkey at ,the distance of 
 fifty yards. 
 
 "The girls were trained up to perform various kinds of 
 domestic employments, as well as to work in the field, \yhich 
 was but little at that time. They took no small degree of 
 pride in the latter, viewing it as a proper sphere for their ex- 
 ertions. The women would ridicule .and laugh at the men 
 who would dare ta, undertake that kind of labor, which was 
 considered as properly belonging to the women. Their 
 maxim was — men for war and hunting; while home is the 
 place for women, and theirs the duty to work. ' ' . 
 
 Ancient Choctaw Courtship:-'-" When the young Choc- 
 taw beau went the fii'st time to see his 'Fair One,' after 
 having resolved upon matrimony, he tested his own standing 
 in the estimation of his anticipated bride by indifferently 
 walking into the room where she is seated with the rest of 
 the family, and, during the general convei'satipn, he sought' 
 and soon found an opportunity to shoot, slyly and unobservr 
 ed, a little stick or siiidll pebble at her. She soon ascertained 
 the source whence they came, and fully comprehended the 
 signification of those little messengers of love. If approved, ■ 
 she returned them as. slyly and silently as they came. If 
 not, she suddenly sprang from her seat, turned a frowning 
 face of disapproval upon him and silently left the room. 
 That elided thb matter, though not a word had been spoken 
 between them. But when the lit;tle tell-tales skipped back 
 to him from her fingers, followed by a pair of black eyes 
 peeping out from under their long, silken eye-lashes, he joy'' 
 fully comprehended the import and, in a few minutes, arose 
 and, as he started toward the door, he repeated his informal 
 'Ea li' (I go), upon which a response of assent was given by 
 the father or mother in the equally informal 'Omih' (very 
 well). ■ 
 
 He returned in two or three days, however, with a few 
 presents for the parents, and to secure their approval. 
 Which being obtained, a day was appointed for the marriage 
 — a feast prepared and friends invited. When all had assem- 
 bled, the groom was placed in one room and the bride in 
 another and the doors closed. A distance of two or three 
 
370 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 hundred yards was then measured off.and at the farther end 
 a little pole, neat and straight was set up. Then, at a given 
 signal, the door of the bride's room was thrown open, and 
 at once she springs out and starts fpr the pole with the 
 lightness and swiftness of an antelope. As soon as she has 
 gotten a few rods the start, enough for her to keep him from 
 overtaking her if she was so inclined, the door of his room 
 was thrown open, and away he runs with seemingly super- 
 human speed, much to the amusement of the spectators. 
 Often, as if to try the sincerity of his affection, she did not 
 let him overtake her uritil within a few feet of the pbl^; and 
 sometimes, when she had changed her mind in regard to 
 marrying him, she did not let him overtake her, which was 
 public acknowledgement of the tact, and the groom made Jhe 
 race but to be grievously disappointed — but such a result 
 seldom happened. As soon as he caught her, after an ex- 
 change of a word or two, he gently led her back by the hand, 
 and were met about half way by the lady friends of the 
 bride, who took her from the hands of the groom yielding 
 to their demands with seeming reluctance, and led her back 
 into the yard to, a place in front of the house previously pre- 
 pared for her, and seated her upon a blanket spread upon the 
 ground. A circle of women immediately formed around her, 
 each holding in their hands the various kinds of presents 
 they intended to bestow upon her as a bridal gift. Then 
 pne after another in short intervals began to cast her presents 
 pfi the head of the seated bride, at which momenta first-class 
 grab-game was introduced. For the moment a present fell 
 upon her waiting head it was snatched therefrom by some 
 pne of the party — a dozen or more makiAg a grab for it at the 
 same instant — regardless of thesufferingbride,who was often 
 pulled hither and thither by the snatchers' eager fingers be- 
 coming entangled in her long, black ringlets. When the 
 presents had all been thus disposed of, the bride npt receiv- 
 ing a single article, the twain were pronounced one — man 
 /^nd wife; then the feast was serVed, after which all returned 
 to their respective homes with merry and happy hearts." 
 
 As the land was free to all, thp happy groom, a few 
 days after his nuptials, erected with the assistance of his 
 friends, a neat little cabin in some picturesque grove by the 
 side of some bubbling spring or on the banks of some rip- 
 pling brook. A small iron kettle in which to boil their veni- 
 son, and a wooden bowl in which to put it when cooked, 
 were sufficient culinary utensils for the young house-keep- 
 ers. They needed no mahogany tables or carved chairs, for, 
 they sat, as the Orientals, upon the ground. The bowl with 
 > ts contents was placed in the centre of the cabin and the 
 
HISTORY dF THE INDIANS. 371 
 
 husband and wife sat around it, and with the wooden or horn 
 spoon, helped themselves one after the other. If they had 
 
 fuests the same rule of etiquette was observed — each one 
 eing free to make a dip with the spbon into the contents 
 of the bowl, thence to the mouth, in regular turn. 
 
 » Ta-ful-a, (TomfuUer), was their favorite and hence 
 standing dish, and is to this day. It consists of corn, pound- 
 ed in a wooden mortar with a wooden pestle to take off the 
 husks, then thoroughly boiled; sometimes peas or beans are 
 mixed and cooked with it, then it is called Tafula tabi ibu- 
 Ihto. , 
 
 Then, again, hickory or Walnut kernels or meats are 
 mixed and cooked with it; it is then called Tafula oksak nip- 
 ibulhto; if walnut kernels, then it is called Tafula ok-sak- 
 hahe (walnut) nipi ibulhto. \ 
 
 They used a very pleasant beverage of acidulated fo-i 
 (honey) and o-ka, (water); also they made a very palatable 
 jelly from the pounded roots of the China brier, strained 
 through baskets, and mixing the dried farina with honey. 
 They pounded hickory and walnuts together, and having pass- 
 ed them through boiling water, and then through strainers of 
 fine basket work, it produced aninspissated liquor, the color 
 and consistency of cream, and richer and of finer flavor. 
 
 Laws — Of the Choctaws regulating the marriage of 
 white men to the Choctaw women: ^ 
 
 Whereas, the Choctaw Nation is being filled up with 
 white persons of worthless characters by so-called marriages 
 to the great injury of the Choctaw people. 
 
 Section 1st. — Be it enacted by the General Council of the 
 Choctaw Nation assembled: That the peace and prosperity 
 of the Choctaw people require that any white man or citizen 
 of the United States, or of any foreign government, desiring^ 
 to marry a Choctaw woman, citizen of the Choctaw Nation, 
 shall be and is hereby required to obtain a liceilse for the 
 same, from any of the Circuit Clerks or Judges of a Court 
 of Record, p,nd make oath, or satisfactory showing to such 
 Clerk or Judge, that he has not a surviving wife from 
 whom he has not been lawfully divorced, and unless such 
 information be fr^gly furnished to the satisfaction of the 
 Clerk or Judge no license shall issue. 
 
 Section 2nd.— Be it further enacted: That every white 
 man or person applying for a license as provided in pre- 
 ceding section of this act, shall before obtaining the same, 
 be required to present to the said Clerk or Judge a certifi- 
 cate of good moral character, signed by at least ten respect- 
 able Choctaw citizens by blood, who shall have been ac- 
 
372 historV op the Indians. 
 
 quainted with him at least twelve months immediately pre- 
 ceding the signing of such certificate. 
 
 3rd. Be it further enacted, before any license as herein 
 provided shall be issued; the person applying shall be.ind is 
 hereby required to pay to the Clerk or Judge, the sum of 
 twenty-five dollars, and be also required to take the following 
 oath : I do solemnly swear that I will honor, defend and sub- 
 mit to the Constitution and Laws of the Choctaw Nation, and 
 will neither claim nor seek from the United States Govern- 
 ment, or from the Judicial Tribunals thereof any protection, 
 privilege or redress incompatible with the same, as guaran- 
 teed to the Choctaw Nation by the treaty stipulations enter- 
 ed between them, so help me God. 
 
 Sec. 4th. Marriages contracted under the provisions of 
 this act, shall be solemnized as provided by the laws of this 
 Nation or otherwise null and void. 
 
 Sec. 5th. No marriages between a citizen of the United 
 States, or any foreign Nation, and a female citizen of this 
 Nation, entered into within the limits of this Nation, except 
 hereinbefore authorized and provided, shall be legal, and 
 every person who shall engage and assist in solemnizing 
 such marriage, shall upon conviction before the Circuit 
 Court of the District of this Nation, be fined fifty dollars, 
 and it shall be the duty of the prosecuting attorney of the 
 District in which said person resides to prosecute such pei'- 
 son before the Circuit Court, and one-half of all fines arising 
 under this act, shall be equally divided between the sheriff 
 and prosecuting attorney. 
 
 , Sec. 6th'. Every person performing the marriage cere- 
 mony under the authority of a license provided for herein, 
 shall be required to attach a certificate to the back of the 
 license and return jt to the person in whose behalf it was is- 
 sued, who shall within thirty days therefrom place the same 
 in the hands of the Circuit Clerk, whose duty it shall be to 
 record the same, and return it to the owner. 
 
 Section 7th. — Be it further enacted: that should any man 
 or woman, a citizen of the United States, or of any foreign 
 country, become a citizen of the Choctaw Nation by inter- 
 marriage and be left a widow or widower, shall continue to 
 enjoy the rights of citizenship, untess he or she shall marry 
 a white man or white woman, a citizen of the United States, 
 or of any foreign government, as the case may be, having no 
 rights of Choctaw citizenship by blood; in that case, all his 
 or her rights acquired under the provision of this act shall 
 cease. 
 
 Section 8th.— Every person who shall lawfully many 
 under the provision of this act, and after abandon his \v\i\- 
 
inSTORY OF THE INDIANS. ■ 373 
 
 shall forfeit every right of citizenship and shall be considered 
 intruders and removed from this Nation by order of the 
 sprincipal Chief. 
 
 Section 9th.-t-Be it further enacted; that this act take 
 effect and be in force from and after its passage. ' 
 
 Proposed by Isham "Walker. ' 
 
 Passed the House, Novembe/6, 1875, J. White, speaker. 
 
 Passed the Senate, 'November 9, 1875, J. B. Moore, Pres- 
 ident Senate. '' 
 
 Approved, November 9, 1875, Colefinan Cole, P. C, Choc- 
 taw Nation. ' ' « > 
 
 Ihei'eby certify that the foregoing act in relation to 
 white men marrying kn Indian woman, or white woman 
 marrying, e^c , is a true and correct copy from the Original 
 Bill now on file in my office. In testimony whereof I have 
 hereunto set my hand and and affixed the seal of the Choc- 
 taw Nation. 
 
 This the 9th day of October, 1884. 
 
 Thompson McKinney, 
 I National Secretary Choctaw Nation. 
 
 It no doubt would have been better for the Choctaws, if 
 they had strictly adhered to a resolution drawn up and 
 adopted in an ancient couucil of their tribe. A white man 
 at an early day, came into their country, and in the course 
 of time married a Choctaw girl and as a natural result, a 
 child was born. Soon after the arrival of the little stranger, 
 (the first of its type among them), a. council was caljled to 
 consider the propriety of permitting -white men to marry 
 the women of the ChoCtaws. If it was permitted, they 
 argued, the whites would become more numerous and event- 
 ually destroy their national characteristics. Therefore it 
 was determined to stop all future marriages between the 
 Choctaws and the White Race, and at once, ordered the 
 Avhite man to leave their country, -and the child killed. A 
 committee was appomted to carry the decision into .execu-. 
 tion, yet felt reluctant to kill the child. In the me<iiitime, 
 the mother, hearing of the resolution passed by the council, 
 hid the child, and when the committee arrived they failed to 
 find it, and willingly reported that the Great Spirit had taken 
 it away. The mothel" kept it concealfed for several weeks, 
 and then secretly brought it back one night, and told her 
 friends the next morning that the Great Spirit had returned 
 during the night with her child and placed it by her side afe 
 she slept. The committee had previously decided, how- 
 ever, that if ever the child returned it might live; but if it 
 never came back, they then would know that the Great 
 Spirit had taken it. The boy was ever afterwards regarded 
 
374 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 as being under the special care of the Great Spirit, and be- 
 came a chief of their Nation. The law was repealed; the 
 father'^ re-called and adopted as one of the tribe; and thus 
 the custom of adopting the white man pi'ig'inated and has so 
 continued from that day to this — so affirms one of their 
 ancient traditions, those Indian caskets filled with documents 
 from the remote past, but which have long since passed into 
 the region of accepted fables. 
 
 As proof that the North American Indian has love for 
 country and home, I will here insert the following (never be- 
 fore published) taken from the original MS., written by Rev. 
 Israel Folsom, just before his people were driven fixjm their 
 ancient possessions east of the Mississippi river to their 
 present place of abode. Their lands had been promised to 
 the Choctaws "as long as water should run and grass should 
 grow." 
 
 THE INDIAN'S SONG.— LOI THE POOR INDIAN'S HOPE. 
 
 "Land where brightest waters flow, 
 Land where loveliest forests grow 
 Where warriors drew the bow— i 
 
 Native land farewell . 
 
 "He who made yon stream and tree. 
 Made the White, the Red man free. 
 Gave the Indian's home to be 
 'Mid the forest's wilds. 
 
 "Have the waters ceased to flow? 
 Have the forests ceased to grow? 
 Why do our brothers bid us go 
 From our native home? 
 
 ^ "Here In infancy we played, 
 
 Here our happy wigwams made, 
 Here our fathers' bones are laid— 
 Must we leave them all? 
 I 
 
 "White men tell us of God on high. 
 So pure and bright In yonder sky- 
 Will not then His searching eye 
 See the Indians' wrong?" 
 
 The following is from the pen of a missionary who has 
 long labored among the Choctaws and knew of what he 
 spoke, and is sufficient testimony of the moral worth of him 
 of whom he wrote: 
 
 "Choctaw Nation, April 9, 1885. 
 "Dear Brother Murrow: — 
 
 "I write you a sad letter. Our old Brother Peter Folsom 
 IS dead. He was taken sick the first day of April, and has 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 375 
 
 been growing: worse ever since. He died to-day. lamiwrit- 
 ing by his beloved body. His spirit is in heaven. I can write 
 no more. Please publish his death in the Champion, that all 
 friends may know. 
 
 "Your brother in Christ, 
 
 "Simon Handcock." 
 
 Such was the sad news that reached me. I "knew Bro. 
 Folsom personally for twenty-seven years. Truly, 'a great 
 man has fallen.' He was great— first and chief est, because 
 he was g^ood. He was good in a moral and Christian sense. 
 He was the first Choctaw who united with a Baptist church. 
 This was in the year 1829. No charge of unfaithfulness to 
 Christ has ever been made against him for over fifty years. 
 He was an eloquent and active preacher of the Gospel. He 
 established a number "of churches, and developed, and train- 
 ed excellent pastors for them all. He might appropriately 
 be termed 'the father of the Baptist mission work in the 
 Chodtaw Nation.' His piety was known and read of all men. 
 He enjoyed the confidence and esteem of everybody — red,' 
 white and^ black. He walked with God, and is not, for God 
 has taken him. 
 
 Second. — "He was 'great,' because he was useful as a 
 citizen. Uncle ^Peter was a true Choctaw. He loved his 
 people ; he souglit their interests. For many years he was 
 a prominent man in the councils and national affairs. He 
 was a safe and wise counselor; was never accused of betraying 
 a party to any crookedness nor a member of any ring. He 
 often represented his Nation at Washington City. While 
 there he always maintained his moral, upright character. 
 His religion and purity were not left at home. 
 
 "Third — he was 'great,' because he was charitable; 
 'But the greatest of these is charity,' or love. I think Uncle 
 'Peter loved everybody and everything that was good . His 
 heart, hi.s home, his purse were always open. Indeed, he 
 was, perhaps, too charitable, for he was often imposed upon. 
 The poor, the neetjy, the distressed, whether red, white or 
 black, were never turned from him without help or comfort. 
 For many years he enjoyed a competency of this world's 
 goods, for he was a good manager. But the war broke him 
 up, and he died in poverty. And yet he held an interest in a 
 large and just claim against the United States Government. 
 A claim recognized by Congress as just and ordered paid. 
 Technicalities and red-tape delays hindered this payment. 
 O what a shame! A rich and / pros'perous Government, with 
 millions piled up in the treasury vault, owing money justly 
 to a feeble people who need it, and who die in poverty and 
 
" I 
 
 376 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 suffering for the want of it. But our brother needs it not 
 noV. He is free from poverty arid injustice. He is rich 
 and happy." 
 
 "J. L. MURROW." 
 
 Rev. Peter Folsom had two sons — Jerry and William. 
 He had also three daughters — Susan Francis, Sophia and 
 Kizia — all of the daughters are deceased. 
 
 Judge Loring- Folsom, now th^ only surviving child of 
 Colonel David Folsom and his first wife, Rhoda Nail, was 
 long one of the leading men of the Choctaw Nation, but re- 
 tired from the political arena several 3'ears ago, and has ever 
 since been living in peace and quiet on his farm one and a 
 half miles south of the town of Caddo, which took its name 
 from a tribe of Indians whom the Choctaws defeated in bat- 
 tle on a group of high hills at the tfase qf which Judge Loring 
 Folsom now lives. This was the last battle in which the Choc- 
 taws were ever engaged as a Nation. In this the sun of 
 their military glory went down to be followed by no return- 
 ing morn. 
 
 But no study is needed to ascertain that Judge Loring 
 Folsom Is also a genuine man ; a man from all dissimulation 
 free — a characteristic so notable of the Choctaws— and over 
 wearing a cheerful face, so indicative of the warm feelings 
 of a kind and generous friend. His natural disposition is 
 remarkably amiable, being endowed with a gentleness of 
 manner and delicacy of feeling, which t© the casual observer 
 would not at first indicate that inflexible firmness which 
 he always manifests in determining questions of duty. 
 
 He filled the high and responsible position of Circuit 
 Judge in his district for nearly twenty years, with credit 
 and honor; though retired to private life, like his amiable 
 father, he possesses a strong, clear mirid, which he has cul- 
 tivated vyith assiduous success, in consequence of which he 
 has obtained a large amount of general information, by ex- 
 tensive reading, close observation and mature reflection. 
 He is well posted in all the political affairs of his own na- 
 tion, and also of the United States. His whole public life, in 
 all the different and responsible fields in which he has been 
 called by his people to labor, attest the purity and loftiness 
 of Its tone and purpose. He is a man of distinct individual- 
 ity, yet in all his conduct, he is ever animated by the purest 
 motives and an inflexible love of truth a'nd justice, that would 
 be of great advantage to all to put into practice the noble 
 principles that animate the breast and govern the actions of 
 Judge Loring Folsom. 
 
 ( Tiiifi Two Fkucnds— Thk Rkd and tiii: Whitic— 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS 377 
 
 During- my travels in the Choctaw arid Chickasaw Nations in 
 1884, 1 arrived one evening the 19th oflune, at the quiet and 
 unostentatious village of Doaksville— one among the first 
 towns located in their present country when arriving from 
 their ancient domains east of the Mississippi river, in the 
 jear 1832. It soon became .a place of considerable trade; 
 but ultimately proving to be very sickly it was nearly aban- 
 doned; and, at the time I visited it, was but a relic of the 
 past with Ichabod as an appropriate epitaph — having only 
 one small dry goods store and eight or ten resident ^houses. 
 My object in visiting it w^s to find a Choctaw friend, one 
 among the few then living and known as friend in the 
 broadest sense of the word, in days! of the long ago. On 
 entering the little place I found many Choctaws there of 
 both sexes and of all ages, the store full within and its im- 
 mediate environments covered with diversified groups pf 
 men, women and children sitting and standing. I ask^d a 
 Choctaw man standing near, if he knew Henry Folsom, and 
 if he was in the town? Looking around a moment he pointed 
 to a group of men a short distance away and said: "Yum- 
 mun-o (that one) chish-no (you) pisah (see) pil-lah (yonder). 
 Dismoifnting I slowly walked towards' the group with fixed 
 ■eyes upon him who, I had just been told, was the object of 
 my search. As I approached, 'all eyes, of the little group 
 turned upon me with inquisitive gaze; but, by ray steady 
 look at him alone, he seenied intuitively to know that he was 
 the one I sought; acting acc(irdingly, he quietly arose and 
 advanced, with measured steps, to meet me looking straight 
 into my face. As each fipproached the other, I recognized 
 the features and knew 'twas he— the long lost friend of the 
 far distant past^ — though now in the dignity and the sadness 
 of his reclining years; once, more, after so many 'years, I 
 looked upon him, whom of all others, aside from kindred ties, 
 I loved as one among the best of earthly friends, and knew 
 I was thus to him; and again felt the strange magnetic charin 
 of his noble soul, so well known in days of yore, and remem- 
 bered still; for he had stood to me during all the years for 
 all that was good, a perfe'ct type of friendship true, and 
 honor without alloy. As we drew nearer, I saw also, ,that: 
 o'er him hung the shadows of fragile health, and thought 
 'tis but the old type of receding years. 
 
 We met, he paused a moment, surprised arid uncertain. 
 Ahl that long past time was now so ijlim to him, and many ' 
 remembrances had been so merged in the vicissitudes and 
 misfortunes, that it was difficult to call them up. Alas,- I 
 saw too that his eyes, so victorious in youth, so unsparing 
 in their attraction, now gazed into mine with painful desola- 
 
378 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 tion. Tnlly, weary -and time-worn was he; while in his 
 , hands seemed an hour-glass whence the last sands of life 
 were slowly but surely falling. I looked upon his wrinkled 
 brow as memories uncalled rushed upon me, and with ex- 
 tended hand, said: Henry, friend of my youth, have you 
 forg-otten me? Grasping my offered hand he replied: "For- 
 gotten my earliest friend ! never ! Wrong me not thus! 
 Much of /my life now seems a plank to me, and our re-union 
 in this our decline of life gives me joy." Reader, there are 
 no words for such a re-union. Yet, this much I can and will 
 unfold. We met — the red and the white— as ardent friends 
 —only can and do meet — enough for thee to know. 
 
 Henry, how many joyous reminiscences as well as 
 blighted hopes do thy name and face now arouse from their 
 long sleep amid the scenes and events experienced together 
 in the years now so far behind ! 
 
 "Cush, I rejoice for what I bestowed and regret what I 
 took away. But are not what you call blighted hopes oft 
 changed into fruits of good ? " 
 
 Even so, Henry. But the years, how swiftl)' have they 
 seemed to speed away since w^ drifted apart! 
 
 "True, and much older are we now." 
 
 Yet Henry! how the forms and faces of loved one, long 
 sinc^ recorded among the dead, seem to rise up before me 
 now as they have not done for years before. 
 
 "Yes, friend Cush, like sprigs cast upon the waters of 
 a turbid stream they have been swept apart to meet on earth 
 no more. But how is it that we've never met upon the 
 high-ways of life, until in this my home of retirement and 
 solitude?" 
 
 Oft I've heard of yoiu and thus kept upon your trail; 
 have suffered with you and your' race in the bitterness of 
 your wrongs; have gloried in your patient endurance, though 
 distant away. Yet, you and your people seem to have made 
 a noble use of your adversity. 
 
 "Ah, old friend of better days, I'm heart-sick of the 
 "eternal babbling of the white people about my race and its 
 so-called worthlessness. It is your race (no reflections upon 
 you) who blinded us but to deceive; yours, who was never 
 satisfied until it had won our confidence only to violate it; 
 yours, who curse us in right and in wrong; yours, who, if 
 you see us at peace, imagine your lives are endangered and 
 drive peace away; yours, who eternally rants at us as 
 savages, yet little know and less care, that their mockery 
 destroys more lives than it has ever saved." 
 
 He thus spoke in passionate yet sad and mournful tones. 
 I made no reply. How could I when JFeeling the truth of his 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 379 
 
 words so deeply? Yet, with the tliougfhts of other days 
 which my presence had called up so unexpectedly, there 
 seemed as suddenly to steal on him one fresh, soft and lov- 
 ing memory — that of our joyous boyhood's days. "Friend 
 of my youth," in calm and gentle tones he said;'^ "Pardon 
 mel I did not wish to speak of those thirig-s, but they came 
 up uncalled; In the bliss of my early life, and in which you, 
 old friend, was a large sharer, I looked upon the White Race 
 with a wonder, in which mingled much of admiration, but 
 more of veneration, when first presented to me in its repre- 
 sentative, the noble self-sacrificing white missionary. But 
 I learned, as I grew on to manhood, that there were few,, 
 very few white missionaries among the White Race; but that 
 the animal lusts and the evil 16aven, venality, lay concealed 
 seemingly in the purest forms of its inature ready to rouse 
 and glut its insatiate appetite in the destruction of my race. 
 But because the White Race has destroyed ray own, I would 
 not stoop so low as to deny the power of its cultivated intel- 
 lect. It is worthy of its fame; but not, that, I acknowledge 
 its superiority over that of the red, only in the cultivation. 
 But regard me none the better, friend Cush, that I thus 
 speak; for there are still times in hours of reflection, if a 
 reckoning could come between my i-ace and thine, in which I 
 could resort to deadly weapons, I, with my i-ace entire, would, 
 though few and feeble, deal with the common destroyer hand 
 to hand and blow for blow." ' 
 
 But, friend Henry, has not the United States Govern- 
 ment manifested much lenity towards your race? Instantly 
 he replied in an excited and high tone of voice. "Lenity! 
 lenity! did you say: Alas! we are but the miserable wards 
 of a tyrannical government." 
 
 There was the vibration of deep and intense feeling in 
 his words, as he thus continued: "Have not the misguiding 
 .-influences of the whites hurled down to ruin the manhood of 
 my race, by the mighty arm of supei-ior numbers and imple- 
 ments of war; and then by the taunts, mockery, injury, hate 
 and cruelty with which it has always been requited for nobly 
 resisting aggression, oppression, outrage and extermination? 
 Surely, it would be super-human if, through the countless 
 years of unmerited wrong, and the eonstant banishments 
 from all it once owned and loved, it had not despaired, long 
 since, of all hope or belief in truth and justice earthly or 
 divine; wiping out in their helpless victims all higher in- 
 stincts, all appearance of honor, all purity of'conscience; 
 that if possible, even at the end, their hopes' mig'ht be re- 
 warded in fruition; that, under the weight of accumulated 
 wrongs, long-chaine^ passions and long-strained endurance 
 
3S0 \ HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 might give way, and find their fall in dealing in retribution, 
 though it be in the justice of some avenging wrong." 
 
 I freely, but not without shame, confess, Henry, that all 
 you have stated is but truth and only truth. Yet, I rejoice 
 in also knowing the truth, that all the wrongs and sufferings 
 of your race havp not been able to wrench from it its better 
 and nobler nature. An involuntary sigl^ escaped him, as he 
 replied: "That is idle talk. My race is no better nor worse 
 than any other race of mankind; nor are we demi-goda, to 
 rise above all natural passions, and unra6ved see evil triumph. 
 Robbed us, you say? 'Tis true! yet, wisely kept to wind- 
 ward of your law, Might is Right, and took our heritance by 
 forciiig us to disinherit ourselves, and in lieu thereof be- 
 queathed us a mess of pottage — a combination of whiskey, 
 poverty, degradation, suffering, death — and called it "Pur- 
 chase." But those who sin easily as easily iind an apology for 
 their crime; therefore, few know the Indians' wrongs 
 as they have been, are still to-day, and m ly be through all 
 future to come." 
 
 Thus he swept on, while thoughts seemed to rush upon 
 him with such sudden and passionate force that it was an 
 impossibility to frame them into words; yet they came with 
 an irresistible power; wholly absorbed I listened to his ex- 
 pressed thoughts which moved him and seemed to stir 
 depths of his soul that time had long sealed. I knew that 
 he had striven to live only the life of a reader and thinker; 
 and to leave behind him all weight of regret and the useless 
 indulgence of vain hopes. But now looking backward to 
 a' multiplied remembrances, the events of those days rose up 
 and forced themselves upon him; andmanv things returned 
 to his mind and knocked for admittance "which, iint.l now, 
 had passed unheeded by; for he had long striven to hurl 
 from memory the remembrance of his and his people's 
 wrongs and losses — the former beyond avenging, the latter 
 beyond redemption. But as they look back to all they have 
 endured, all they have lost, by the merciless hands of arbi- 
 trary powder whose shout is *'Might is Right," could they 
 but feel the fierce blood of retributive instinct— latent in all 
 human hearts— rise and burn in thed? They could not be 
 human and feel otherwise. 
 
 "But how came you, friend Cush?" 
 
 I but pointed to mv horse. 
 
 " 'Tis well ! Go get him. Yonder's my home, amid 
 those trees on the ridge, a quarter of a mile away. Let us 
 seek its quiet." 
 
 We reached his house. He paused at the yard gate and 
 said: "What think you, old friend, of this my home?" 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN'S. • 381 
 
 It has the appearance of quietness, peaojefiiliiess, and 
 happiness unalloyed, .and surely .must, constitute much of 
 pleasure to'' your declining , years. "Truly have you 
 spoken." It was indeed a quiet place' bordering even on the 
 romantic. But alas, how still! hovv^ lonelyl Surely, thought 
 I, one in search of utter exile from the din and noisy strife: 
 of a contending world, might here safely hide and find that 
 "solitude" of which the seemingly disconsolate; poet sang in 
 days of yore. We entered the open door, and then he said: 
 "Friend of my youth! feel at home under this my humble 
 roof. You have been lost to me for many, , many years. 
 Is thy heart still unchanged?" In silence I extended my hand, 
 . In silence he clasped it. 
 
 Our eyes met in unison of emotion, and the tw(i long 
 sepai'ated friends were one again, even as in the days of 
 youth and hope; endeared the one to the other not only by 
 the ties of boyhood and early manhood's association, but by 
 the ties of sincere friendship between the Red and the 
 White. 
 
 "Much," he continued, "of my life you know not, 'tis 
 with the dead. To-night we'll talk till wearied nature de- 
 mands a halt to seek repose. My domestic affairs attention 
 need. Excuse a moment's absence. I'll soon return." 
 He then left me to muse alone. Night had already begun to 
 glide aloiig the woods shutting out the wilderness of forests 
 that stretched away on every side, Whose ' deep silence 
 seAned never to have been broken by, the din of humaii life. 
 But after many years have flown, we dear Henry, have met 
 ■ again; met as only ardent friends long lost can and do meet, 
 enough for us to know 
 
 Reader, no gilded ornaments adorned this my Choctaw 
 friend's humble hoJne; no luxurious furnishings attracted 
 the eye as you entered its portals, but a piano and violin, 
 whose appearance bespoke the vicissitudes of many years, ' 
 yet, his sweelt solaces in hours of despondency and gloom— 
 undeviating adjuncts decreed to man;, but here his house 
 stands far back a:mid broad-armed oaks of centuries' growth, 
 whose leafy crowns were never defaced by the ax wielded 
 by the topping hand of art, and where the way-worn and 
 weary traveler and long absent friend found indeed a place 
 of rest. Haughty pride and folly would look down upon it, i 
 with scorn, and even ask in sneering tones, "What is its 
 object there"? Yet, it still remains with its inmates (father 
 and son and a few negro servants, slaves of former days) 
 in that same quiet spot with open doors to all. Yet no 
 blazoned insignia were needed to attract attention to this 
 
383 ' HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 I 
 
 abode of peace, nor gilded monument necessary to perpetu- 
 ate its memory. ■ 
 
 Dr. Folsom lost his wife (daughter' of the great and good 
 Chickasaw, John Colbert) and daughter many years ago by 
 the ruthless hand of man's common foe; but true to his 
 early love, he had remained a widower, living alone with his 
 unmarried son, the solace of his father's declining years. 
 God be gracious to 3'ou and yours, my qoble Henry ! Though 
 advanced in years, even as I, thou still art that cheery com- 
 rade and trusty friend as in days of yore; and though thy 
 merry heart is mellowed by the fine sympathy born of care 
 and thoughtfulness, yet thy nature is still beautified by that 
 dash of spirit, like to the spell of enchantment the moonlight 
 throws over the hills and forests of thy country and home. 
 With what glbwing fascination did the full orbed moon, in 
 that silent and sacred hour of thought, flood, with its dreamy 
 light, those ancient oaks that adorned his homel The birds 
 too knew their value and rejoiced in their beauty, and came 
 into their wide embrace seemingly as children to the extend- 
 ed arms of a doting parent, making the morn and eve reso- 
 nant with their joyous twitterings, That hour alone I can 
 never forget; as twilight slowly gave place to night, so rich 
 with her crown of stars and seemingly sceptered for domin- 
 ion o'er a world hushed to quiet, while earth seemed to 
 thoughtfully lay beneath my feet. Ah, the stars and full or- 
 bed moon then seemed, more than ever before, as a seraph- 
 choir thrilling all Nature with their minstrelsy, till she \yas 
 moved to bliss ineffable, yea, as spirits that have passed 
 through sin and death without a stain, and now wear crowns 
 of fadeless glory above. 
 
 His domestic duties done, my old friend returned and 
 aroused me from my reverie as he exclaimed: "Upon what 
 dwelt your thoughts?" 1 pointed to the full orbed moon 
 that lighted up the eastern sky ; then to the earth beneath 
 and sky above blushing in wild and romantic beauty; then, 
 to the giant oaks that stood around in silent majesty as they 
 received a soft glow from the fleecy clouds which softly re- 
 flected upon them the gentle ligh^t of departing day and ad- 
 vancing night. He then said in a low tone of voice: "I too 
 love them all." 
 
 Reader, 'twas amid such a scene, and at that lovely hour, 
 when the sweet songs of nature seem to whisper of peace 
 and joy, we sat, a groupof three, on the moonlighted piazza in 
 exchange of thoughts; and there lingered (loth to part) till 
 the stars climl^ed to the zenith, and all around lay sleeping 
 in the silence of a moonlit summer night. To me his con- 
 versation was fascinating — full of grace and originality; 
 
mSTORY. OP THE INDIANS. 383 
 
 brilliant 1 will not call it, for it was too mellow and restful to 
 be thus characterized. But upon his face rested the mystic 
 sign which constitutes the bond of unioti among all congenial 
 souls, and I felt that the emotions of his heart were in 
 strict unison with my own, and each responded in perfect 
 harmony the one to the other. Ahl then and there, 
 
 We spoke of many a vanished scene, 
 Of what we oAce had thought and said, 
 Of what had been, and might have been. 
 And who was changed, aod who was dead; 
 And all that fills the hearts of friends, 
 When first they feel with secret pain, 
 Their Uvea thenceforth have separate ends, 
 And can never be one again. 
 
 He also spolfe of our youth's bright and promising morn — r 
 *'God'S(days," as he expressed it; the days of childhood's 
 innocence — when life was new and hope was bright. Now, 
 with folded hands and drooping head, he sat in silence long, 
 as memories of other days abound him rush;, but, each un- 
 derstood the other's sigh, for each had experienced life's, 
 vicissitudes — had long since bade adieu to scenes of early 
 youth and happy days, which, by a strange and unknown 
 law of association, stood out before us again as vividly as if 
 but yesterdaj' intervened ; and felt as if left behind in the 
 race of life, and sidly toiling on alone, while new proofs 
 poured upon us where'er we turned. You may not under- 
 stand the tie that then bound the red and the white. Nor 
 can you. Firm in his attachments, the Indian never forgets 
 a friend; let this suffice for thee to know, if thou ftast never 
 had an Indian friend, v 
 
 Then he spoke of the silent stealing on of man's days and 
 years, the unseen and unfelt progress of his life from youth 
 to age; and which, as we look back upon that* flowing water, 
 now a dry channel overgrown with leaves, we see few marks 
 along its course by which we can remenber how it ran. 
 Could I listen but with emotionable delight? Now he speaks 
 of his people, of their vicissitudes and sorrows, their past 
 history, their present condition, their future hopes arid pros- 
 pects; then he spoke of those heart memories that never 
 die, and which the rough usages of the world can never des- 
 troy, nor time nor distance weaken, those memories of his 
 early home east pf the Mississippi, of boyhood's morn with 
 its gay and hopeful dreams, sunny hours and illusive visions 
 of bliss all gone', but which time nor change, sorrow nor age, 
 can blot from the heart, but which, though on the verge of 
 the grave, reproduce the freshness of emotion with which 
 life began. 
 
384 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 He talked too of art, literature and modern science, but 
 in the quiet, unconscious way of one with whom knowledge 
 flows as a full stream, and to whom knowledjje and research 
 (for he was a man of fine erudition and scientific attainments 
 attained at school, and had also mingled freely during a long- 
 life with men of learning and culture) have taUght that deep 
 yet saddening truth — the limitation of human knowledge. 
 He was indeed a pleasant companion; interesting and instruc- 
 tive in conversation; which was enriched by experience and 
 and observation. Picturesque too was he; and though nearly 
 three score and fifteen years had been his earthly pilgrimage, 
 yel he walked with elastic steps, and his ^rm still was finely 
 expressive of sinewy energy, but bore the record of his years 
 and their garnered cares; while his face held a full chronicle 
 of bitter experience that had mingled with the sweet; for 
 he too had tasted the cup of affliction in more than one 
 form; he too had seen the happiness of life decay, and also 
 felt that there is an unseen and mysterious power which 
 operates upon man's destiny, controlling events over which 
 he possesses no contri)!. 
 
 But his regular, clear cut features and dark, piercing 
 eyes still possessed a touch of melancholy in their depths, 
 indicating his slightly mixed blood — the quick intelligence of 
 the white man with the mingled sadness of the Red, a sadness 
 impressed as a heritage by long years of oppression and 
 wrong. I observed it also in the broken but still majestic 
 warriors of his race, as I mingled among them — a buried yet 
 still living resentment — a touch of defiance in the prevailing 
 coldness of their mien, and a gleam of suspicion in the forced 
 smile they still alike bestow on all strange white men, the 
 authors of all their misfortunes and woes. 
 
 ' ' A hundred long years I what visions rise 
 
 (St dynastlea risen and set, 
 
 Of powers that melted trom earth away 
 
 Wben the wrone and the right clashed and met— 
 
 Alas! the old died hard to make way for the now." 
 
 But ah! how soon does sorrow tread upon the heels of 
 joy! A few short weeks after I had left him in perfect 
 health, and turned to other duties forgetting him for the 
 moment, believing him to be as we parted, a letter from a 
 'Choctaw friend informed me of his death. Then and there 
 I felt I had lost a friend of a life time — a friend of unconquer- 
 able 'integrity, true artd faithful in all things; one whose 
 heart was warm; intelligence strong, and whose devotion 
 to his convictions and his obligations immovable. Truly, 
 to lose such a friend from among the living seems an irre- 
 parable misfortune, and I numbered him with the doad in 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. ' 385 
 
 / 
 
 sorrow earnest and ' deep. What thoug'li, old friend of the 
 past, I have no picture of thee — the work of art! 'Tis well; 
 for no artist could paint thee; and surely it would mar iny 
 joy to Ipok upon a blank, expressionless and fading- toy, and 
 call it' by thy name; but there is a picture hung in the death- 
 less halls of memory, franied in the rarest wood which' time- 
 can never dim. But I will not chide the outbursts of sor- 
 row, though it is not well to be betrayed by passion into 
 wild forg-etfulness of reason, since time's busy fing-ers are- 
 never at rest, and ere another summer comes and g-oes what 
 changes may be wrought, who can tell? Ah! "The future's- 
 great veil our breath fitfully flaps, and behind it broods- 
 ever the mighty perhaps." 
 
 He lived beyond the allotted years of manhood's three- 
 score years and ten of the Psalmist, yet his busy brain and 
 untiring hand wrought on, as if in the vigor of a changeless- 
 youth. Adieu, thou pattern of fidelity that never betrayed 
 and constancy that nfever wearied. 
 
 I found a few others, here and there, in my travels 0Tei~ 
 the country, that were familiar figures in my boyhood andi 
 manhood days, and of whom I now may say : One glance at 
 their keen, black eyes and I still loved them ; onp look at 
 the honest, good-humored, kind .expression of their faces-j, 
 and intuitively I yet loved them — those unchanged,, ©M and;' 
 dear comrades of the long' ago ; and again, aS' oft before, I" 
 listened with delight to their a-ncient legends as facts, asso-- 
 ciated with their history in the days of yore, known but to 
 themselves. How I again reveled in those tales of ajnicient; 
 days as their aged eyes brightened and sparkled at the. most 
 improbable passage of the narative, but which I assumed 
 not to doubt for fear of wounding their sensitive hearts ; yet 
 fascinating to me since truth and fancy were so intermingSed'. 
 that they rivaled the most extravagant fairy tale that ever- 
 imagination wove in the recess of a subtle brain; and who-,, 
 when their heroes' stars had set, turned their faces away- 
 from their ancient domains and here in their present homes-, 
 carved out their own fortunes and handed down their hon- 
 ored names to posterity; and though their legends again re- 
 hearsed as before in the days of the loi^g past were only as a 
 memory to me, yet I treasure them as beautiful and inter-- 
 esting eulogies pronounced upon their heroes of ages past„ 
 I well knew that, because of their chivalrous 'patriotism, ancf' 
 high sense of honor, they ranked among the greatest ,of" 
 their race ; and I gloried in the thought that their oft re- 
 peated legends and tales found in me not only a ready and! 
 an intensely sympathetic listener, but making me admire- 
 and love the red race more than ever, because of the alL— 
 
386 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 absorbing devotion that made them lose their own identity in 
 that of their ancient great. Nearly all of those Indian friends 
 of my youth and manhood days have gone down to the silent 
 and cheerless habitation of the dead, yet their memory still 
 survives in many a picture of the years that have been. 
 
 I will here present to the reader the memoirs of Nath- 
 aniel Folsom, the oldest of the three brothers who cast their 
 Ibt in their morning of life among th6 Choctaws, and became 
 the fathers of the Folsom House in the Choctaw Nation, as 
 related by himself to the missionary, Rev. Cyrus Byington, 
 June, 1823, and furnished me by his grand-daughter Czarena 
 Folsom, now Mrs. Rabb. 
 
 "I was born in North Carolina, Rowan County, May 
 I7th, 1756. My father was born in Massachusetts or Con- 
 necticut. My mother was born in New Jersey. My parents 
 moved to Georgia, and there my father sent me to school 
 about six months, during which time I learned to read and 
 write. My mother taught mis to read and spell at home. 
 My father had a great desire to go to Mississippi to get 
 money; they said money grew on bushes! We got off and 
 came into the Choctaw Nation. The whole family came; we 
 hired an Indian pilot who led us throdgh the Nation to Pearl 
 river, where we met three of our neighbors who were re- 
 turning on account of sickness. This alarmed my father, 
 who then determined to return to North Carolina. We came 
 back into the Nation to Mr. Welch's, on Bok Tuklo (Two 
 Creeks), the father of Mr. Nail. At this time I was about 19 
 vears of age. At that place we parted. My father knocked 
 fj^ down. I arose and told him I would quit him, and did so 
 jhy^ljj^ilking straight off before his face. I do not remember 
 ,wh,^tjl,jj.id, but I always thought I was not in fault. My 
 pareijts.tj^en moved into the Chickasaw' Nation. I entered 
 .into part'n,e;i;^hip with Mr. Welch, and could do many things 
 ;f(^ him. vln,^he Chickasaw Nation my brother Israel ran 
 away fj^-om my father and came to me. He died at the age 
 ,of 18 iiear where Mr. Juzon now lives. He was a good young 
 man. My parents moved again to Fort St. Stephens. My 
 brother Ebenezer visited me several times; he also sent me 
 word to come and move him up into the Nation. I did so. 
 He lived with me two years. Still he wanted to go to Mis- 
 sissippi, and wished I would i-aise a guard and send him 
 there. I did so. Brother Edmond and two sisters went 
 with him, and there my father died, on Cole's creek, Missis- 
 sippi. I really believe my mother was a pious woman. I 
 traded a long time in the Nation, sometimes taking up three 
 «r four thousand dollars' worth of goods. I followed trading- 
 ibout thirty y.car$. I lived principally at Bok Tuklo, fifteen 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS 387 
 
 miles this side of Juzon's (i, e. north). There was a great 
 to^yn of about four hundred Indians. The French King 
 lived there. (This great French King was, no doubt, Bien- 
 ville, or some one of his officers). I learned the Choctaw lan- 
 guage very slow. I was never perfect in the language. But 
 after ten years I could do any business with the Choctaws. 
 I bought a Bible of Robert Black about twelve years ago. 
 This is the first Bible I ever owned. Before that I cared noth- 
 ing about the Bible. I first heard a sermon by Mr. Bell at 
 the Pigeon Roost about twelve years ago . I heard Lorenzo 
 Dow pray once. About this time I began to have serious 
 thoughts. Before this I had none. My mind was lafEected by 
 what the missionaries said, who came from the North. Soon 
 after 'm J' son Edmond died. One Sabbath I had a great con- 
 flict in me. I heard a -feermon at the- Pigepn Roost. My 
 friends thought I felt bad because my son died. But it waS 
 something else. At that time there was a great change in 
 me, which has remained ever since. This was in August, 
 1824. I joined the church at Mayhew, October, 1827, in my 
 72nd year. I have been the father of twenty-four children,- 
 fourteeen of whom are living. I have lived to see six of them 
 join the church, and three others sit on the anxious seat." 
 According to an entry in the church record of Mountain Fork 
 church, Nathaniel Folsom died October 9th. 1833, in his 78th 
 year. 
 
 Mr. Rufus Folsom, great grandson of Nathaniel Folsom, 
 also kindly furnished me with a sketch of his great grand- 
 father, which was nearly the same as the above — closing, 
 however, with the following: "In September, 1830, the 
 government of the United States made a treaty with the 
 Choctaws for their lands east of the Mississippi river, 'and 
 in October, 1832, our old great grand-father, afflicted with a 
 palsy of the limbs for many years, started from the old 
 Nation to come to this. He reached Mountain Fork, and 
 there resided till the 9th of October, 1833, when he died, 
 aged 77 years, four months, and twenty-seven days." 
 Signed, Rufus Folsom, 
 
 Folsom Station, Indian Territory. 
 I Nathaniel Folsom married Aiahnichih Ohoyoh (A 
 woman to prefer above all others.) She was a niece of Miko 
 Puskush, (Infant Chief,) who was the father of Amosholih- 
 ubih. She descended from a long and ancient line^f chiefs, 
 and belonged to the ancient Iksa Hattakiholihta, one of the 
 of the two gl-eat families, the other being Tashapaokla (Part 
 of a People); the laws of which forbid any person, male or 
 female, to mirry any one of the same Iksa. Though Mr. 
 Nathaniel Folsom had acquired but a limited education, yet 
 
388 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 he was a moral man, and the good example he set before the 
 people of his adoption and with whom he had cast his lot, 
 won their respect, confidence and love, which he fully recipro- 
 cated to the day of his death. According to the ancient cus- 
 tom of the Choctaws, he had two wives at the same time, 
 Aiahnichih Ohoyoh and her sister, whose name has not been 
 preserved. Colonel David Folsom and Rev. Israel Folsom • 
 were sons of Aiahnichih Ohoyoh; and Captain Robert Folsom 
 and Isaac Folsom werp sons of her sister; with all the four I 
 was personally acquainted. Robert and Isaac lived near 
 Hebron, and were prominent members 'in the church at that 
 mission. I will here insert an eAtract from a letter now 
 before me, written by Mr. Nathaniel Folsom to Rev. Cyrus 
 Bying-ton on the death of his daughter and I^ewis Folsom, his 
 grandson, dated March, 1830, which .truly manifests the 
 humble and pious heart of the father and grandfather. I 
 copy it from the original with no alteration whatever. 
 
 Dear friend Mr.Byington: I desire to let you know my 
 felifigs at this present time. I feel satisfied it is the Lord's 
 will. God give her to me and he has taken her away and his 
 will is right and good in all things that befalls us wicked 
 mortals here upon earth. I bless (iod for it all things .that 
 befalls me it is the holy will of the blessed God it is rite an 
 good. I hope her soul at rest with the blessed S^^vior of the 
 world I believe she has gone to Ilim forever this turble thing 
 of my grand son at Mayhew thar is no hope. O childen take 
 ,wareng by this I say turn O childen and remember your 
 Creator God on you all will die but wat wil beoiim of your 
 little souls if you repent on earth you all ar lost ever I say 
 my dear childun quit your bad ways ati turn to Lord with 
 all your heart an/ Christ wil resev'e you for he loves little 
 children if you obey his commandments my dear friend you 
 no my felings about children that blessed Book the Bible is 
 the gide to larn us all to fit us to the worlds to come the Lord 
 bless you all." N. Folsom. 
 
 The death of his grand son, Lewis Folsom, to which 
 the good old man so pathetically allu<les, was indeed a sad 
 affair. I was acquainted with Lewis, his grand-son, whose 
 father was Capt. Robert Folsom. Lewis and Joel Nail, his 
 cousin and son of Henry Nail, were driving four horses at- 
 tached to the end of the two levers of a mill, two horses \t 
 the end' of each. The two boys got into a play in which 
 they soon began to throw corn cobs at each other, while 
 riding around on the levers and driving the horses. Un- 
 fortunately Lewis jumped upon the big cog wheel and 
 was instantly killed. 
 
 I was personally acquainted with his father's entire fam- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' 389 
 
 ily. His youngest sister, Else, how Mrs. Perkins, is still 
 livingf. His father, at the time 6f the sad occurrence, was 
 in their present territory, being sent with others by their 
 Nation, to look after the country preparatory to the exchange 
 -which was afterwards made with the United States Govern- 
 ment in 1830. 
 
 From an old MS. left by Nathaniel Folsom in his own , 
 hand writing, I here insert the the following! extracts ob- 
 tained through the kindness of his grand-daughter Czarina 
 Folsora, now Mrs. Rabb, living in Atoka. 
 
 "The Choctaws were more numerous than now. Thirty 
 years ago it is probable there were, nearly 30,000. Before I 
 came here the smallpox killed two-thirds of the people.^ 
 The measles also destroyed a great many. There was one 
 town entirely destroyed by the measles. 
 
 "They had axes and hoes, but not a plough in the Na- 
 tion. I gave twenty-two dollars for the first plough I had; 
 twenty dollars for a bushel of salt; ten dollars for a common 
 blanket. Goo'ds were then brought from St. Augustine, 
 Florida, on pack-horse^. I gave once twenty dollars for 'a 
 half bushel of salt in a time of war (the Revolution^. 
 
 "The woman's dress was a petticoat that came just be- 
 low the knees, and a head-gear ; and in the winter a tight 
 woolen jacket with bright buttons in front. They had an 
 abundance of blankets by sewing the feathers of turkeys 
 together. They had but few iron pots and kettles, the arti- 
 cles were dear. n 
 
 "When anyorfe died-a scaffold was made in the yard near 
 the house, put'high enough to be safe from the dogs. On 
 the top of this the body was laid on its side; and then a 
 blanket or bear skin was thrown over it; and , there it re- 
 mained until it perished. Then the bone-pickers' came and 
 picked the flesh off and put the bones in a box. The head 
 was adorned and put away in a box, and then the boxes were 
 put away in a bone-house — a house set apart to receive them, 
 and placed at the edge of the town. At this time there was 
 a large collection of people. The bone-pickers had some 
 ceremonies, but I do not recollect them. Twice a year— fall 
 and spring— the people assembled, and had a great gather- 
 ing over the bones of the dead. Th'e two families would 
 meet. One day one family would cry.; and on the next day 
 the other would cry, and then the bones would be brought 
 out in the boxes and buried. A little present was made to 
 the bone-pickers. , 
 
 '''Ever since about the time of the Revolutionary war the 
 • Choctaws began to leave their towns and settle in^the woods 
 'for the benefit of their stock. I was the first to settle on the 
 
3yU HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Natchez ti-ace at Pigeon Roost, about twenty-five years since. 
 Still, at the time of the exodus of the Choctaws, in 1832, they 
 had many large and populous towns and villages in their 
 Nation which I personally knew. 
 
 "Kings. — Some inherited the office; others were ap- 
 pointed by the French and English. Amosholihubih is the 
 old family (i. e., the old family of kings or chiefs). David's 
 old uncle was of the royal family. 
 
 "The Indians spoke in a different style from what they 
 do now. The doctors are great deceivers. One came to me 
 and said he could cure me of my lameness (palsy in the 
 limbs.) I told him if he would cure me, I would give him a 
 horse; if he did not cure me, I'd give him nothing. The doc- 
 tor inquired where the lameness commenced. I told him, 
 in the sole of my feet, He then examined them, got down, 
 spit on them and sucked the place until a long time, as 
 though he'd draw something out. After awhile he got up 
 and then made a great effort to get something out of his 
 mouth; at length he took out a small piece of deer skin, as 
 appeared, and said he had drawn that out of my foot. I 
 asked him where the hole was. He said: 'It never makes 
 a hole.' I took the bit of leather, and talked to him, and told 
 him that doctprs were the greatest liars in -the world. You 
 never pulled that out of my foot. You cut it off from some 
 deer skin and put it in your mouth. Now stop telling such 
 lies, or somebody will injure you. He looked very much 
 ashamed and walked off. Before the doctors begin to doctor, 
 they sing a long song, whisper a prayer, and then com- 
 mence. >i m \ 
 
 "At that time there w^re several white men among thcj 
 Choctaws, all of whom married Choctaw wives, and thus be- 
 came identified with that people. The descendants of 
 nearly all of whom are still among the Choctaws to this 
 day. >^ 
 
 "Hardy/Perry," continued Nathaniel Folsom, "brought 
 the first neat cattle into the Nation." 
 
 The old gentleman evidently refers to the eastern part 
 of the Nation,' where he lived; since it was well known that, 
 either about the same time or a short time before Perry's 
 drove were" first introduced into the fastern part of the 
 Nation, and the waters of the Tombigbee river, Lewis and 
 Michael LeFlore and Lewis Durant introduced a small herd 
 into the western part of the Nation, and located it on the 
 waters of the Yazoo river. But thus continues Mr. Fol- 
 som. 
 
 "He bought them of the French a't Mobile, Twenty- 
 five dollars for a cow and calf. This was soon after I came 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 391 
 
 into the country. Benj. James then bought one. I was the 
 third man. From these the stocks of cattle have sprung. 
 There was abundance of horses. There were many hogs in 
 the Nation when I first came. I have seen tiearly thirty 
 dogs at an Indian house. They resembled the wolf. 
 
 "David Folsom went to a school on Elk river, Tennes- 
 see. Started off alone at sixteen yeara of age, at least 250 
 miles from home, and was there six months. That was the 
 end of his schooling there. I employed another man a 
 month to teach him figures. That wag' seveii months 
 education. ■ ^ 
 
 "About this time (he seemed to forget.to mention dates) 
 he was married to Rhoda Nail. He took her out \of the In- 
 dian Territory to a magistrate and married her lawfully. 
 She is his wife, and this is the first instance I know of, 
 where an Indian was married according to our laws." 
 
 John Pitchlynn, the name of another white man who at 
 an early day cast his lot among the Choctaws, not to be a 
 curse but a true benefactor. He was contemporaneous with 
 the three Folsoms, Nathaniel, Ebenezer and Edmond; the 
 three Nails, Henry, Adam and Edwin; the hvo Le Floras 
 Lewis and Mitchel, and Lewis Durant. John Pitchlynn, as 
 the others, married a Choctaw g-irl and thus become a bona- 
 fide citizen of the Choctaw Nation. He was commissioned 
 by Washington, as United States Interpreter, for the Choc- 
 taws in 17S6, in which capacity he served them long and 
 faithfully. Whether he ever attained to the position of chief 
 of the Choctaws is not now known. He, however, secured 
 and held to the day of his death not only the respect, esteem 
 and confidence of the Choctaws as a moral and good citizen, , 
 but also that of the missionaries who regarded him as one 
 among their best friends and assistants in their arduous 
 labors for the moral and religious elevation of the people of 
 his adoption. He married Sophia Folsom, the daughter and 
 only child of Ebenezer Folsom. They had five sons, Peter 
 P., James, Thomas, Silas and Jack, all of whom were men of 
 fine talents and high position, reflecting credit on their an- 
 cient and honorable name, except Jack, who was led astray 
 and finally l^illed. 
 
 How many strange little incidents oft happen to various 
 persons the cause of which none can satisfactorily explain; 
 many of which are similar to the following that Major John 
 Pitchlynn once experienced in early life ! He stated to the 
 missionaries that he, in company with sixty Choctavv war- 
 riors, was once returning home from a trading expedition to 
 Mobile— then a small town and trading point of the Choc- 
 taws. One night they all had lain down upon their blankets 
 
392 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 .-side by side, and all soon fell asleep but himself, who, by a 
 stringe and unusual restlessness, was unable to sleep. For 
 a long time he rolled this way and that upon his blanket, but 
 • all to no purpose; he could not sleep. Finally he arose, took 
 up his blanket andiaid down on the opposite side of the fire 
 which had been made for the common benefit of the camp. 
 Scarcely had he adjusted himself upon his new bed when a 
 large tree suddenly fell to the ground and exactly across the 
 bodies of his six sleeping comrades, killing every one of 
 them, and leaving him a lone survivor of the camp. Major 
 Pitchlynn often afterwards spoke of this incident as a mani- 
 festation ef a special Providence; his unaccountable sleep- 
 lessness OQ that night, and his getting up and going to the 
 'Other side of the fire to sleep, as a divine interposition in his 
 special behalf. Peter was born January 30, 1806, in a little 
 village called Shik-orpoh (The Plume), which was then in 
 what is now Noxubee County. In early youth young Peter 
 manifested a disposition for intellectuajl attainments; heat- 
 tended the great councils of his Nation as an attentive hearer 
 but silent spectator, and sought every opportunity to inform 
 himself of all that was transpiring around him. As he grew 
 lip his desire to obtain an education increased, and he was 
 finally sent to a school in Tennessee. 
 
 He returned home at a time his people were negotiating 
 a treaty with the United States Government; when and 
 where he made himself the object of much conversation, in 
 the way of reproof by some, and commendation by others, 
 in refusing to shake hands with Andrew Jackson, the 
 negotiator of a treaty, which, in his youthful judgment, he 
 regarded as an imposition (which Jackson himself well 
 knew) upon his mis-led and deluded people and an insult to 
 his Nation; this opinion was never changed to the hour of his 
 death years after. After remaining at home awhile, he went 
 to school at Columbia Academy, Tennessee; thence to the 
 Nashville University, where he graduated; and afterwards 
 became, as the sequel will show, a great and useful man to 
 his Nation. 
 
 During his scholastic days at the Nashville University, 
 General Jackson visited there officially as a trustee, and on 
 seeing young Peter, at once recognized him as the Choctaw 
 boy who had some years before refused to receive 
 him as an acquaintance, or recogniiie in him a friend. 
 Jackson, than whom few 'were better judges of human 
 nature and moral worth, determined \o win the friendship 
 and confidence of the proud and manly young Choctaw, and 
 succeeded finally in changing the old fcieling of dislike to one 
 ^f warm personal friendship, which sacred ties were never 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. * 3^3 
 
 t ' 
 
 broken. Aftei- he graduated he returned home and settled, 
 as a farmer, upon the outskirts, of a beautiful prairie to 
 which his name was given, and down to the war of 1861 it 
 still bore, and perhaps does yet, the name, "The Pitchlynn 
 Prairie." , ' , ^ 
 
 His remarkably manly form and bearing; his beautifully 
 shaped head covered with long, black, shining hair and 
 possessed with as black, piercing eyes as ever penetrated 
 to the secret thoughts of the heart; his broad cheek-bones 
 and brown complexion together with his natural and' unaf- 
 fected courteousness, affability and generous disposition, all 
 served to constitute Peter P. Pitchlynn as stately and com- 
 plete a gentleman of Nature's handy wprk as I ever beheld. 
 He erected a comfortable house upon the spot selected for 
 his home, and won the heart of the youngest daughter of 
 Nathaniel Folsom, (!Rhoda) to whom he was soon married ac- 
 cording to the usages of the Whites, by the missionary, 
 Rev. Cyi-us Kingsbury. 
 
 In 1824 a law' was passed by the council of the Nation 
 organizing a corps of Lijjht-Horse (a jittle company of cav- 
 alry), who were clothed with the authority and also made as 
 their imperative duty to close all the dram-shops that were 
 dealing in the miserable traffic in opposition to law and 
 treaty stipulations. The command of this band was given 
 to young Peter P. Pitchlynn', who united the bravery of 
 LeonidaHto the incorruptible virtues of Ariatides, and in one 
 year, from the time he lundertook to etase the foul blotch 
 (ti-affic in whiskey) from the face of his country, he had suc- 
 cessfully accomplished it. ;• , . ' 
 
 From his soon known abilities hej^was early elected a 
 membeV of the National Council, an libi^or riever before con- 
 ferred uium one so young. Pitchlynn at once 'brougl^t be- 
 fore the council the necessity of educating their children,. 
 and argded the great advantages that would acc^nie therefr,pm.; 
 and, tnat the students might more readily become accus- 
 tomed to the usages of the whites, he suggested the pro- 
 priety of establishing a school for Choctaw youths in some 
 one of the states. It was decided, therefore, by the council 
 in accordance with his proposition, and a Choctaw Academy 
 was established near Georgetown, Kentucky, sustained by 
 the funds of the Nation, and stood, until driven from their 
 ancient domains, a proud monument of the Choctaw's ad- 
 vancing civilization under the fostering care of God's mis- 
 sionaries sent to them. ' 
 
 In the year 1828 he, with another Choctaw, two Chicka- 
 .saw and two Muscogee warriors, constituted a delegation ap- 
 pointed and sent by, and at the expense .of, the United States 
 
304 HISTORY OF THIi INDIANS. 
 
 Government, to g^o upon a peace-making expedition into the 
 Qsagfe country west of the Mississippi river, now the State 
 of Kansas, as the Osag'es and Choctaws were and had been 
 uncompromising enemies for years untold; and if peace 
 could be established between them, it was believed that the 
 Choctaws would the mpre readily consent to the exchange of 
 lands, as was afterwards maite. The. little band of six, few 
 but resolute and fearless, with Pitchlynn as their chjef, 
 went first to Memphis, then a little village; thence to St. 
 Louis, where they received necessary supplies from the In- 
 dian superintendent ; thence to Independence, consisting 
 then of only a few log cabins, where they were received and 
 hospitably entertained by a son of the renowned Daniel 
 Boone. At Independence they were joined by an Indian 
 agent; thence they started and made their first camp on a 
 bi-oad prairie near a Shawnee village. The Shawnees had 
 never before seen a Choctaw, Chickasaw or Muscogee; nor 
 had they ever seen a Shawnee, except in the persons of Te- 
 cumseh and his thirty warriors, in their meijnorable visit to 
 their three nations in 1812, while each knew of the existence 
 of the other. On the following morning Pitchlynn and his 
 little band directed their footsteps toward the Shawnee vil- 
 lage, with the decorations of the pipe of peace gaily flutter- 
 ing, to the prairie breeze above their heads — an emblem ever 
 respected and honored by the North American Indians any- 
 where and everywhere. Upon seeing the peace-pipe extend- 
 ed, "the Shawnees at once came out to meet them, and escor- 
 ted them in much pomp and ceremoijy into their village, 
 where a council was soon convened to learn the object of the 
 strangers' visit; which soon being explained, pledges of 
 friendship were (exchanged and speeches made, and the 
 strang'ers earnestly solicited to remain the next dcly to attend 
 a grand feast that would be given to them in honor of their 
 ' visit, which was duly accepted ; and then the little band 
 again took up its line of travel toward the territories of the 
 Osages. For several days they traveled along on the famous 
 Santa Fe trail, then turned in a southeast direction, travel- 
 ing over beautiful prairies skirted here and there with tim- 
 ber. 
 
 One day, about the middle of the afternoon, a fevw deer 
 were\seen on a prairie a half a mile distant, and Pitchlynn 
 left his corajjany to continue their course, while he would 
 try to procure some venison for their supper. He had ap- 
 proached nearly near enough to risk a shot, when he was 
 discovered by the deer, who scampered off across the prai- 
 rie. At that moment he discovered a small herd of buffalo, 
 at one of which he tried to get a shot; but they, too, discov- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 395, 
 
 ered him and took to flight. He pursued them a milfe or two,, 
 but finding he was getting too far away he stopped his pur- 
 suit and and tui-ned to overtake his companions by traveling • 
 at an angle that would enable him to overtake or strike theii- 
 trail several miles south of where he had left them. But 
 after riding a few miles he saw about half a mile before 
 him a ridge of undulating prairie, on the opposite side of 
 which he felt sure his little company must have passed. As 
 the sun was now nearing the western ho.rizon, and he knew 
 not how far his companions were ahead of him, he started 
 for the top of the ridge in a brisk gallop until he reached the 
 base of the hill, then reined in his horse to a steady walk as 
 he ascended the ridge, ever keeping in practice the safe 
 motto, "Caution is the mother of safety." And well he did, 
 for he was then in the country of Osages, who, not knowing 
 his mission, would have made short work of him, had they 
 have met him. As he drew nearer the top the slower he 
 rode, and thus cautiously moved until he could see the valley 
 beyond, and there he saw a company of Osage warriors but 
 a short distance ahead. Some were riding slowly along in- 
 tently looking on the ground,,while others had dismounted 
 and were leading their horses, now stooping with eager look, 
 and then pushing the gi-ass this way and that, as if to find 
 something lost. Pitchlynn at once comprehended the whole. 
 They had found the trail of his companions and were using 
 their woods-craft to read the signs indicated, and learn 
 whether friends or foes iiad passed, and also their number. 
 Pitchlynn at once reined his horse backward until "he 
 was below the brdw of the hill, then turned and rode slowly 
 down until he had reached its base lest the''sound of his 
 horse's feet should betray him; then struck off at full gal- 
 lop i^ a south direction and continued it until night called a^ 
 halt. He then dismounted, roped his horse upon the grass, 
 and lay down to reflect upon his day's ventures, until sleep 
 embraced him in her arms and lulled him to unconsciousness. 
 In the morning he arose and was soon again on his dubious 
 way, making a wide circuit to avoid running again upon his 
 unwelcome neighbors. Again night overtook him a lone 
 wanderer in a pathless wilderness, without having made any 
 discoveries as to the whereabouts of his companions, or 
 his enemies, the Osages. Again he stretched himself 
 upon the grass and foiind forgetfulness in sleep. Again 
 he started and was rejoiced, after an hour's ride, to strike 
 the trail of liis friends whom he overtook in the even- 
 ing of the same day. Not knowing what had become of, him, 
 or where to look for him in that endless wilderness, they 
 had traveled slowly, hoping that he would yet come up : but 
 
396 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 when the second night came without his return, despair 
 had usurped the place of hope and they had given him up as 
 forever lost to them. 
 
 The Osag-es, for unknown reasons, did not pursue 
 them. If they had, there would have been a final separation 
 as the Osages so outnumbered them, that not one of the little 
 company would have been left to tell the tale of their com- 
 plete dfestruction. The unexpected return of their chief 
 gave new, life to all, and they pursued their journey with re- 
 newed vigor. In a few days they came to a large Osage vil- 
 lage situated on a high bluff on the Osage river, and camped 
 near the same, where they remained several days safe under 
 the Pipe of Peace, whose decorations of ribbons fluttered 
 above their camps; the Osages refusing, however, to meet 
 them in council, since but a short time previous a war party 
 of Choctaws had invaded their counti-y, and in a battle had 
 slain several of their warriors. Still Pitchlynn proposed -a 
 treaty of peace and after much equivocation and delay the 
 Osages consented to meet Pitchlynn and his little band in 
 council; but nothing definite was done on the first day, 
 though Pitchlynn told them tha;t he and his party, the first 
 Choctaws that had ever proposed peace to the Osages, had 
 traveled over two thousand miles through the request of the 
 United States government, to propose a treaty of perpetual 
 peace and friendship to the Osages. To which an Osage 
 chief made a haughty and defiant reply. The next day in 
 council assembled, Pitchlynn also assume^l an air more of 
 haughty defiance than that of a suppliant for peace, and in 
 his speech, in reply to the Osage Chief's speech made the 
 day before, boldly said: "After what the Osage warrior 
 said to us in his talk yesterday, we find it difficult to restrain 
 our old animosity. You tell us that by your 1 iw.-i it is your 
 duty to strike down all who are not Osage Indians. The 
 Choctaws have no such laws. But we have a law which tells 
 us that we must always strike down an Osage warrior when- 
 ever we meet him. 1 know not what war-.iaths you may 
 have followed west of the Great river, but I knjw very well 
 that the smoke of our council fires vou hav^ never seen, as 
 we live on the other side of the Great :River. Oivr soil has 
 never been tracked-by an Osage, only when he was a pris- 
 oner. I will not, as you have done, boast of the many war- 
 paths we have followed. I am in earnest and speak the 
 truth, when I now tell you that our last war-path, since you 
 will have it so, has brought us to the Osage country, and to 
 this village. The Choctaw warriors now at home would be 
 rejoiced to get a few hundred of your scaljis, for it is thus 
 that they get their reputation as warriors. I tell vou this 
 
 € 
 
mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 397: 
 
 to remind you that we also have some ancient laws as well as 
 the' Osages, and that the Cho^taws know too how to fight. 
 Stand by the laws' of your fathers, and irefuse the offer of 
 peace that we have now extended to you, and bear the conse- 
 quences that will follow. 
 
 "We are now a little band in your midst, but we do not 
 fear to speak openly to you and tell you the truth. We ex- 
 pect to move soon from our ancient country east of the 
 Great River to the sources of the Arkansas and Red rivers, 
 which will bring us within two hundred miles of your coun- 
 try; and then you shall hear the defiant war-whoops of the 
 Choctaws in good earnest and the crack of their death-deal- 
 ing rifles from one end of your country to the other; nor 
 will they cease to be heard until the last Osage warrior has 
 fallen; your wives and children carried iqto captivity, and 
 the name of the Osages blotted out. You may regard this 
 as vain boasting, but our numbers so much exceed that of 
 your own that I am justified, as you well know, in my asser- 
 tion. You say you will not accept the white paper of the 
 Great Father at Washington ; therefore, we now tell you that 
 we take back all we said yesterday about a treaty of peace. 
 If we are to have peace between the Choctaws and Osages, 
 the proposition must now come from the Osages. I nave 
 told you all I have to say, and shall speak no more." 
 
 This bold speech of Pitchlynn's had the desired effect, 
 causing a great change to come suddenly over the spirit of 
 the Osages' dreams; therefore, on the next day the council 
 was again convened and the Osages, without further Solici- 
 tations, negotiated for peace, which was soon declared, and 
 followed by a universal shaking of hands and great demon- 
 strations of friendship, intermixed with unassumed joy in 
 the happy result. A grand feast was at once prepared, at 
 which everything presented a joyous appearance, while 
 peace-speeches furnished the greater part of the entertain- 
 ment; the honor of delivering the closing speech was award- 
 ed to Pitchlynn, in which, with his usual eloquence, he por- 
 trayed before the eyes of the attentive Osages the benefit 
 that would accrue to them as a Nation to lay aside their old 
 manner of living and begin a new kind of life — ^that of adopt- 
 ing the customs of civilization. He spoke'of his own people, 
 the Choctaws, who had conformed to the customs of civiliza- 
 tion, by encouraging white missionaries to come Among them 
 and teach them ; by establishing schools for the educafion 
 of their children, and by turning the attention of the men to 
 the cultivation of the soil; and had given up war as a source 
 of amusement, and hunting as their sole dependence for 
 food, and how much benefit they had already derived in so 
 
398 mSTORV OF THE mOIANS. 
 
 doing', and he would advise tfie Osages, as well as all Indians, 
 to do the same; as it was the only means of preservings them- 
 selves from the grasping habits and power of the white 
 men. If they would make an effort to elevate themselves in 
 the scale of civilization, the American government would 
 treat them with greater respect, and they thus would pre- 
 serve their nativity. 
 
 At the close of the peace ceremonies and festivities a 
 painty of Osage warriors, with the Qsage speaker of the 
 Council, Avere appointed to escort, as token of peace and 
 friendship between the Osages and Choctaws, Pitchlynn and 
 his little company to the borders of the Osage territories, 
 a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. There the Osage 
 escort bade their old enemies, but now newly-made friends, 
 a formal adieu, and returned to their villages, while Pitch- 
 lynn and his five companions, after an absence of nearly six 
 months, turned their faces homeward with light hearts, pur- 
 suing a southern direction down the Canadian river, and 
 continuing along the Red river valley, and finally reached 
 home in safety. 
 
 Peter P. .Pitchlynn, while upon this adventurous jour- 
 ney, picked up a little Indian boy belonging to no particular 
 tribe, whom he adopted and carried home with him, had him 
 educated at the Choctaw academy in Kentucky; and that 
 homeless boy of the western prairies became "one of the 
 most eloquent and faithful preachers that ever preached the 
 ■'Glad tidings of great joy" among the Choctaw people. 
 
 Peter P. Pitchlynn first formed an acquaintance with 
 the great American statesman, Henry Clay, in 1840, when 
 travelling on a steamboat. While on board, he one day heard 
 two apparently old farmers discussing the subject of agri- 
 culture, to whose conversation he was attracted, and soon 
 became a silent but deeply interested listener for more than 
 an hour; then going to his state-room he told his travel- 
 ling companion what a treat he had enjoyed in the discussion 
 between "two old farmers" upon the subject of farming, and 
 added : "If that old farmer with an ugly face had only been 
 educated for the law, he would have beeh one of the greatest 
 men in this country." That "old farmer with an ugly face" 
 was Henry Ciay, who was delighted at the compliment paid 
 to him by the appreciative Choctaw. 
 
 The noble Peter P. Pitchlynn was in Washington City 
 at the time of the commencement of the civil war in 18G1, at- 
 tending to the national aifairs of his people, but at once has- 
 tened home, hoping that they would escape the evils of the 
 expected strife, and returned to hishom,e to pursue the quiet 
 life of a farmer among his own people. But the Choctaws 
 
fflSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 399 
 
 as well as the Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks and Seminoles, 
 from their position between the contending parties, were not 
 permitted to occupy neutral grounds, but were forced into 
 the fratricidal strife, some oh the one side and some the 
 'Other, but to the inconceivable injury of all. 
 
 Of Peter P. P tchlj-nn it can be said, he was teacher, 
 philosopher and friend among- the Choctaws, cherishing with 
 great pride the history and romantic traditions of his peo- 
 ple. As a private citizen, he was a good man;' as an of&cial 
 and public servant, he was a pure man. As a high official in 
 his country, he too was a pious man ; nor thought the religf- 
 ion of Jesus Christ derogatory to the position of a public 
 official, but taught to all the lesson of personal grace as pror 
 duced in the heart, and won from those who knew him their 
 esteem, reverence and praise. His daily walk, bto^h in pub- 
 lic and private capacity, was as bright as the sunshine andas 
 beautiful too. It truly seemed as if nothing could disturb 
 his serenity, so evenly was it spread over his life, and so 
 much did it seem to be a part of it. He was one of those 
 Christian men who carried the charm of an attraction with 
 them everywhere. He possessed such sweetness of spirit, 
 such gentleness of manner, such manly frankness, such 
 thorough self-respect on one hand, and on the other, such 
 perfect regard for the judgment of others, that one could 
 not help loving him, however conscience might compel con- 
 clusions on matters of mutual consequence unlike those he 
 had reached.- Often indeed, one was even more drawn to 
 iim when in opposition, because he was so true and just that 
 his respedt carried with it all the refreshment of variety 
 with none of the friction of hostility. His character possess- 
 ed a completeness and grandeur rarely found, and the vir- 
 tues which distinguished him were many, both excellent and 
 winning. His unswerving fidelity in religion, so remarka- 
 ble in the Choctaws, and his eminent purity of life, ever 
 -shone out brightly in all the circumstances in which he was 
 placed, whether in the private or public walks of life. And 
 with all he was a spirited citizen of his country, who lived 
 and labored, not for selfish gain and self-emolument, but for 
 the good of his people, and always felt a lively interest and 
 performed an active part in any and all things looking to the 
 welfare of his country. The loss of such a man may well be 
 mourned, and his example sacredly treasured and followed. 
 In the light of a spiritual sun he passed from the scenes of 
 earth, but his influence lives, and illustrates the new crear 
 tive power that is possible to all. 
 
 The Cravat family of Choctaws are the descendants of 
 John Cravat, a Frenchman, who came among the Choctaws at 
 
400 HISTORY OP THH INDIANS. 
 
 an early day, and was adopted among them by marriag-e. 
 He had two daughters by his Choctaw wife, Nancy and Re- 
 becca, both of whom became the wives of Louis LeFlore. 
 His Choctaw wife dying he married a Chickasaw woman, by 
 whom he had four sons, Thomas, Jefferson, William and 
 Charles, and one daughter, Elsie, who married a white man 
 by the name of Daniel Harris, and who became the parents 
 of Col. J. D. Harris, whose first wife was Catharine Nail, 
 the fourth daughter of Joel H. Nail. The descendants of 
 John Cravat aj-e still among the Choctaws and Chickasaws, 
 and known as prominent and useful citizens in the two 
 nations. 
 
 The LeFlore family of Choctaws are the descendants 
 of Major Louis LeFlore, and his brother, Michael LeFlore, 
 Canadian Frenchmen, who, after the expulsion of the French 
 from the territories of Mississippi by the English, first set- 
 tled in Mobile, Ala., then a small trading post. After re- 
 maining there a few years, Louis moved to the now state of 
 Mississippi and settled on Pearl river, in the county of 
 Nashoba (Wolf). Thence he moved to the Yazoo Valley, 
 where he lived until he died. As before stated, he married 
 the two daughters of John Cravat, Nancy and Rebecca. Bv 
 the former he had four sons in the following order of thei'r 
 names : Greenwood, William (who was drowned in Bok Iski- 
 tini), Benjamin and Basil; and five daughters, viz : Clarissa, 
 Emilee — the names of the others not remembered. After 
 the death of Nancy he; married Rebecca, by whom he had 
 two sons, viz: For bis and Jackson. Clarissa married a white 
 man by the name of Wilson, and living, at the time of the 
 exodus of her people, in what is now known as Winston 
 county, Mississippi, east, of the town of Louisville. Wilson 
 having died she married a man by the name of Alfred Leach 
 and moved with him to the western part of Winston county, 
 and settled on the banks of a creek called Lobucha (cor- 
 rupted from Lah-buch-ih, to make warm.) She there died. 
 Her children, by her first husband, moved with their people 
 to the west. Emilee married A. H. Carpenter, a Frenchman 
 of high family. He practiced law in Jackson, Mississippi, 
 and rose to an eminence that caused him to be regarded as 
 a lawyer having few equals and no superiors. Mr. Carpen- 
 ter died in 1852, followe<l by his wife in 1860. They left 
 two sons, Jerome and Surry. Jerome at the age of fifteen 
 entered^ the Confederate army as a private, serving under 
 General Robert E. Lee in Virginia. He was wounded July. 
 I8t)2, at the battle of Malvern. After he had recovered he 
 served as one of Gen. Joe Johnson's body guards, and acted 
 m^the capacity of dispatch bearer. Soon after the war he 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 401 
 
 went to Mexico and received a commission as, Colonel in 
 Maximillian's army. • i» 
 
 At the defeat of Maximillian, - the youthful Jerome was 
 condepined to be executed with the unfortunate Prince; but 
 was saved by the timely intervention of Secretary Seward. 
 As an acknowledgment of Jerome's services and devotion 
 to Maximillian, the Emperor, Francis Joseph, conferred, the 
 title of "Baron" upon him, and also offered him a position in 
 the Austriah army, which he declined to accept. He re- ■ 
 turned to the United States, and was s^hortly afterwards 
 killed in a duel with Amos Price, leaving a wife to mourn his 
 untimely death. He had no children. The other three 
 daughters married as follows:/ One married John Harkins, 
 who became the gi-and-father of Colonel G- W. Harkins of 
 the Chickasaw Nation; another married a man by -'the name 
 of Tra5'-du or Ti-aydew; and the other married a man by 
 the name of Harris. ; 
 
 The LeFlores have, ever since the introduction of the 
 family, always held a prominent place in the annals of Choc- 
 taw history; and can j ustly boast a noble genealogy that ex- 
 tends far back .into the twilight of history, when the Indians 
 were truly and justly, the Lords from the Great takes of 
 the north to the Gulf of Mexico. Basil\and Forbis were 
 the only sons who followed the fortunes ' of their banishedi 
 people to the west. William, as before stated, was acci- 
 dentally drowned in Bok Iskitini; Benjamin lived and died at. 
 his old home on the banks of a stream where he kept a ferry,, 
 called Yockanookany, a corruption from Yakniokhina, (the 
 land of streams). 
 
 Major Louis LeFlore was adopted by the Choctaws, and 
 gradually rose to great distinction as a chief among that ap-- 
 preciative people, who quickly discerned true merit and 
 knew how to esteem it. He with his bi'other Michael who' 
 came to Missis^ppi and also settled in the Yazoo Valley, and 
 Lewis Durant, also a Frenchman, and the progenitor of the 
 Durant family of Choctaws, first introduced cattle into the 
 western part of the Choctaw Nation from Mobile, about the 
 year 1770, the first animal of the bovine species ever seen by 
 the Choctaws in that part of the Nation. They drove their 
 little herd to the voters of Pearl river in now, Nashoba 
 county, and pladed them upon the range, then seemingly un- 
 limited in its wide extended forests and impenetrable cane- 
 brakes. As a itatter of course the ca,ttle were a great curi- 
 osity to the Choctaws. The LeFlores and Durant told an 
 amusing incident that took place a short time after their ar- 
 rival at their ranch with the catUe. A little yearling had 
 strayed from the herd. It so happened that three Choctaw 
 
402 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 I 
 
 hunters soon after pitched their camp a few miles from the 
 newly estalJlished cattle ranch being entirely ignorant of its 
 near proJHmity, and also of the new animals just introduced 
 into their hunting grounds. One day, as usual, the three 
 hunters left their camps for a hunt, each taking his course 
 yet keeping near each other. During the day one of them 
 discovered the yearling slowly emerging from a little plat of 
 cane; to him a wonderful beast. Unseen by the l,onely calf, 
 he stood, gazed, and wondered. Naught like that had ever 
 been seen upon his hunting path before. What it was, 
 whence it came and how, baffled tbe wildest flights of even 
 conjecture. 'Twas not a deer, nor a panther, nor yellow 
 wolf! Must he signaj for his compahions? It might flee, 
 must he shoot? He might only wound and cause it to at- 
 tack, and then what! But he raised his trusty rifle and 
 brought it to bear upon the unsuspecting calf; at that mo- 
 ment he discovered that it was eating the grass similar to 
 his native deer; at once his fears were allayed and he con- 
 cluded not to kill but to capture the prodigy, and take it alive 
 to his camp as a living wonder. 
 
 Setting his gun against a tree, he bolted for the calf; 
 which hearing the approaching footsteps, raised its head, 
 gazed a moment, and seeing the fast approaching and equally 
 strange object, iit once gave' the signal for a test of speed by 
 elevating its rear appendage to an angfe of forty-five degrees, 
 and the race began; the pursued, for the realities of life, and 
 the pursuer for that of curiosity. Hither and thither, helter 
 skelter; round and round; here at right angles, and there at 
 acute; now in a circle, and then in a semi-circle; over logs 
 and through bushes, the astonished calf, with head straight 
 out, npstrils expanded, led his indefatigable and indefeasible 
 pursuer. Finally the physical endurance of ajZlhoctaw 
 hunter proved superior to that of a city calf; for he"now ran 
 but a few feet behind his coveted prize. But alas for human 
 hopes! With a des]ierate spring in which were centered all 
 his hopes, he made a grab at the tail of the despairing calf 
 which then drooped at twenty-two and a half; when, seem- 
 ingly to comprehend his design, the calf gave it a vigorous 
 twitch as it leaped a treacherous log that lay concealed in 
 the gniss over which he tumbled headlong to the ground. 
 The lucky calf, comprehending the advantage offered, again 
 raised its flag to forty-five, and with invigorated strength 
 increased its speed, and was soon out of sight. 
 
 With hopes blighted, the unfortunate hunter crawled up 
 to a sitting posture and comm^jnced rubbing his bruised and 
 painful knee, when he discovered that the whole top of the 
 knee moved hither and thlfher at his sli.,.-htesl push, a thiiio- 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS., 403 
 
 untaught in his book of anatomy, and at once concluded that 
 his leg was fearfully shattered. He whooped to his com- 
 rades, who, happening to be near andvhearing his call, has' 
 iened to his side. They also, upon close examination of the 
 wounded limb, arrived at the same conclusion with the sup- 
 posed injured ifaan, when the two LeFlores and Durant, 
 searching for the strayed yearling, rode up; and taking in 
 the situation at a glance, after a few words of inquiry, they 
 soon explained the anatomy of the human knee to the three 
 hunters by showing them that the moving of the knee-cap 
 was common to all, and did not denote a broken bone. Being 
 thoroughly convinced 'of its truth, the fallen man arose to 
 his feet, gave a brief account of his adventure, pointed the 
 direction in which the strange beast had disappeared ; and 
 the three Choctaw deer^ hunters, and the three white calf 
 Jiunters, soon found the wanderer and safely placed it again 
 within the fold ; then the three Choctaws returned to their 
 forest camp to talk over the adventures of the day, as well 
 as the knowledge gained regarding the new animal intro- 
 duced, whose flesh was equal, if not superior, to that of their 
 famous deer, and also of the addition to their knowledge in/ 
 osteglogy. 
 
 -"-^Major Lewis Le Flore resided for many years on the 
 waters of the Pearl River raising cattle, and early became a 
 wealthy man ; from his stock, which increased rapidly in 
 ' their abundant range and genial climate, the surrounding 
 Choctaws supplied themselves with cattle. He then moved 
 to the Yazoo Valley where he spent the remainder of his 
 days respected and loved. As colonel, he commanded a bat- 
 talion of Choctaw warriors under Jackson at the taking of 
 Pensacola in the Creek war of 1812. ' 
 
 Greenwood, after his father's death, succeeded him as 
 one of the chiefs of the Choctaw Nation, which he retained 
 until the exodus. He was a man of great energy, and to 
 whom nature had given force of cJiaracter ; and had he also 
 have had the advantages of high mental culture, he would 
 have been a leader of men. He did not move west with his 
 people, but remained at his old home in a little town called 
 Greenwood, situated on a tributary of the Yazoo River, 
 where he lived to an advanced age, died and was buried there. 
 He was married twice. ' His wives were sisters, the daugh- 
 ters of John Dunley of Alabama. The old chief was highly 
 respected by the whites, and was elected to the State Legis- 
 lature as a member from Yazoo county ; and afterwards was 
 elected to the State Seiiate from Yazoo and Carroll counties. 
 
 William lived near the Yelobusha River (corrupted from 
 Yaloba-aia-sha— where tadpoles abouiid). He, too, was a 
 
4d4 
 
 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 respected and useful man. He was unfortunately drowned 
 in Bok Iskitini (as before st^^ted) in the pride and manhood 
 of his life, regretted and mourned by all his'numerous ac- 
 quaiptances and friends. His body was recovered and 
 buried at his home. 
 
 Forbis and Basil were the only two sons who moved west 
 with their people, both lived to an advanced ag^c ; the former 
 died in 1883, the latter in 1886. Both were pious men and 
 died in strong- faith of a blissful immortality. Forbis, in re- 
 lating his Christian experience, once said: "I was once a very 
 wicked man. God gave me a long rope — a mighty long rope 
 — but I cut it right short off." And his Christian life after 
 he embraced the religion of the Son of God, proved that he 
 did cut "right short off" from his wickedness. Forbis Lc 
 Flore Ivas indeed a man of stern merits, and blended with 
 his force of character were gentleness of spirit and entire 
 conscienciousniess, by which he obtained the confidenceof his 
 people; and while he merited all their esteem by his virtues, 
 he also secured their affections by them. 
 
 Basil LeFlore was a man than whom a purer one is sel- 
 dom found in this age of the world. Of him it can with truth 
 be said: "He was an honest man." -His long and useful 
 life was devoted to the moral and intellectual improvement, 
 the prosperity and happiness of his fellow man. Refilled 
 the highest public offices of his Nation with honor to himself 
 and his country. He was truly a bright and ever shining 
 light among the Choctaw people, of him they are justly 
 proud, for they h^ve the best of reasons to be. Kind words 
 and pleasant smiles spread sunshine throughout his whole 
 actions; his home was a model home, where all the virtues 
 known to man seem to congregate and delight to dwell. I 
 speak from personal knowledge. But his crowning virtue 
 was his earnest piety, his simple, trusting faith. No one 
 could detect inconsistency in Basil LeFlore. He carried 
 his religion with him everywhere, vvhich burned with a 
 steady beautiful light, making its influence felt far and wide. 
 His Christian life was truly most exemplary, his morals 
 the purest, and Ms principles the noblest, while unostenta- 
 tious religion trbly seemed a part and parcel of his being; 
 never arrogant or obtrusive, but all pervading and firm as 
 the Rock upon which his faith was founded. As a friend 
 he was warm-hearted, steadfast and true as the magnet to 
 the pole; as a public or private' citizen his character was 
 above reproach; and his many virtues will ever be emulated, 
 his goodness of heart and head, and his numerous deeds of 
 charity and love remembered with profound gratitude. 
 
 To see him was to admire him; to meet him was to re- 
 
HISTORY OF THB INDIANS. 405 
 
 spect him; and to know him was to love and honor him. 
 His public services were not less patriotic tlian his private 
 ■virtues were conspicuous. The former are , monuments to 
 his wisdom and honest statesmanship, and will ever be 
 viewed by his admiring people as stars in the firmament of 
 their Nation. And his life illustrates the possibilities of a 
 Choctaw citizen meriting arid receiving the entire confidence, 
 respect and love of his people, whom he had long and faith- 
 fully served in, the capacity of a public servant; ' and the 
 respect and admiration of all. the whites who were person- 
 ally acquainted with him. He died fuU'of years (well spent) 
 at the home of ^ friend, October, 1886, living a, few miles 
 from his own, whom he was visiting. His death was sud-, 
 den and unexpected— falling dead from his chair while at the 
 supper table- But his lamp \yas well trimmed and full. of 
 oil waiting for his Master's call. "Blessed, ijs the death of. 
 the righteous." A Choctaw friend inforined nie of his death, 
 by letter, in the following truthful aiid memorat>le words: 
 -'Gov Basil LeFlore is dead. He |s ;the last of the family. 
 It is a national loss to the ChoctaWi.aiid Chickasaw people. 
 Our best old men are fast disappearing." Yes, the death of 
 Basil ILeFlore but thins still more the sadly, thinned tanks 
 of the few noble old Choctaw men, whose history, if it had 
 been written, would be strangely beautiful and far more 
 interesting and fascinating than the most thirilling fiction, 
 since in it were hidden i-omantic truths of which the "pale- 
 faces" never even dreamed, oi* will ever know. ' 
 
 Michael LeFlore, the brother and only relative of 
 Major Lewis LeFlore among the Choctaws, the people of 
 their adoption, had five sons, viz: Thomas, Michael, Joel,, 
 Ward and Johnson, and two daughters, Mary and Sophia. 
 Thomas was chief in their present Nation for several years. 
 When I last heard of his widow she, was still living near 
 Wheelock, Choctaw nation, and is said to be bordering on 
 a hundred years of age. Young Michael served as major in 
 the Confederate arjny through the civil war. 
 
 Louis Durant, a Canadian Frenchman, was the proprie- 
 tor of the Durant family among the Choctaws, who came, 
 as before stated, to the Choctaw Nation with the two 
 brothers, Lewis and Michael LeFlore about the year 1770. 
 He, as his friends and contemporaries', the two LeFore 
 brothers, also selected a wife among the Choctaw forest 
 flowers, but whose name has been lost amid the vicissitudes 
 through which her people have passed. They had three 
 sons, Pierre, Charles and Lewis; and two daughters, Mar- 
 ;garet and Syllan. The father and three sons served under 
 
406 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 their renowned chief, Apushamatahah, as allies of the 
 America|ns in the Creek war of 1812. 
 
 Pierre had seven sons, viz: Fisher, Georg^e, Jefferson,. 
 Sylvester, Isham, Ellis and Joseph.' Ellis and Sylvester 
 served in the Confederate army during^ the civil war of 1861, 
 the former in the rank of major. Alexander Durant, one of the 
 Supreme Judges of the Choctaw Nation, (with whom I am 
 personally acquainted) is a son of George Durant. Fisher 
 Durant had three sons, Bissant, Dixon and Jesse. Dixon 
 is a minister of the Gospel. He is a poor man in a pecuni- 
 ary sense, but rich in a spiritual sense. He seems to live 
 alone for the cause of his Divine Master and the salvation 
 of his fellow men. Ahl if the world's Christians were all 
 such Christians as Dixon Dut-ant, the devil's kingdom on 
 earth would soon be overturned, and that of the World's. 
 Redeemer permanently established thereon, God be with 
 you, my Christian brother! Thoughipoor in worldly goods, 
 and unknovm to earthly fame, yet of you, will it not be said iiiiiinyyyyini 
 in the day of final accounts,, as of the poor widow who cast 
 her mite into the treasury? Who then of man can justly es- 
 timate thy riches? ' 
 
 Margaret Durant married a man by the name of Eli 
 Crowder; and Syllan, a William Taylor. The two husbands 
 were with their father-in-law and their three brothers-in-law 
 in thp Creek war of '1812 as allies of the Americans. 
 
 Eli Crowder secured for himself, in the Creek War of 
 1812, the name Muscokubi (Muscogee or Creek-Killer), which 
 he ever afterwards bore; being called by the Choctaws, Mus- 
 cokubi, and by the whites, Creek-Killer. The following are 
 the circumstances by which he gained the name : 
 
 At one time, during the campaign, a company of Choc- 
 taw warriors, of which he was a member, was encamped on 
 the outskirts of the main body of General Jackson's army, 
 then in the Muscogee or Creek Nation. Crowder, at that 
 time, possessed a little pony which had served him faithfully 
 in more than one trouble, "and to which he was greatly at- 
 tached through a sense of deep gratitude. He frequently 
 would attach a 'little bell to the neck 6t the pony and turn 
 him out at night upon the range to graze upon the luxuriant 
 grass that covered the earth in rich profusion, and go early 
 the next morning and drive him from his night wanderings 
 back to camp. Frequently the pony would wander a mile or 
 more from the camp during the night, and Crowder had 
 been warned of the danpfer of his mofnlng walk after the 
 pony, since a scouting Muscogee might be attracted some 
 night by the bell, and finding it upon the horse, naturally 
 conclude that the owner would be out af^er him in the morn- 
 
mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 407 
 
 ing, and would lie in ambush for him, and, ten to one, would 
 lift his scalp. But Crowder seemed to have n6 fears. One 
 morning', however, in going after his pony, he heard the little 
 bell at rather an unusual distance away, which aroused his 
 suspicions a little that perhaps the pony, had been driven 
 there by a Muscogee scout in order to draw the anticipated 
 owner as far into the solitudes of the" forest and away from 
 the Choctaw camp, whose location he perhaps well knew, 
 that he might the safer shoot him; therefore, he kept a vigi-, 
 lant outlook. When he had approached within sight of his 
 little truant quietly feeding some two or three hundred 
 yards distant, whose tinkling bell, mingling its monotonous 
 tones with tlie songs of the various forest bii'ds, alone dis- 
 turbed the profound silence of the scene. Th^ peculiar cir- 
 cumstances of the immediate surroundings, however, began 
 to awaken his suspicions the more that an enemy was lurk- 
 ing near, whose eyes, perhaps, already rested upon him. 
 But bracing up his nerves he continued walking slowly to- 
 wards the pony, but with eyes playing in all directions and 
 ears attentive to the minutest sound. He had approached 
 within two hundred yards of his pony when his watchful 
 eye detected the quick movement, as he thought, of an ob- 
 ject four or five feet above the base of a large tree a few 
 rods to the left, of the still quietly feeding pony, who seemed 
 to be enjoying his' breakfast upon the grass that lay in rich 
 profusion under his feet, as well as the tinkling chimes of 
 his bell that alone broke the profound silence of the vast 
 solitude that lay around, unconscious of the^ bloody scene 
 that was about to be enacted at his very side. 
 
 Crowder made no halt, nor altered his movements in any 
 way, that might have a tendency to betray to his suspected 
 enemy (if real) that he suspicioned his |)resence. But while 
 he guarded with 6agle eyes the suspected tree, he placed 
 double duty upon his ears and also glanced everywhere 
 around. He had walked but a few paces farther when he 
 noticed a seemingly unnatural protuberance, scarcely visi- 
 ble, on one side of the now truly suspected tree. Yet he 
 slowly proceeded on his way, but kept an eye askant upon 
 the tree. As he steadily continued, he noticed the protuber- 
 ance slowly, but surely, enlarging. Little by little it grew 
 in size until the outlines of half the size of a man's head was 
 discernible— then instantly disappeared. That told the 
 tale. Crowder easily, guessed the lurking and peeping non- 
 descript that stood behind the tree, and also why the pony 
 was so unusually distant from camps. In a twinkling he 
 formed his resolution. It was to continue walking towards 
 the pony until within sure rang:e of his rifle, and then risk 
 
408 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 the chance of securing- the first shot. If he failed, then 
 Margaret Crowder would be a widow. But the word fail was 
 nowhere to be found in Muscokubi's vocabulary. Therefore, 
 he proceeded on his way, nothing- discomfitted by the new 
 acquaintance he was about to form, believing- he had as long- 
 ranged rifle and was as accomplished an expert in the use of 
 it as he who was peeping from behind the tree, and who, he 
 felt sure, would indulge in another peep ere he risked a shot; 
 but after that he resolved to be no longer peeped at, without 
 indulging in a sly peep himself; so he slowly, but resolutely, 
 marched on towards his concealed foe, but kept his eyes 
 upon the place of his concealment. As he expected, again 
 he saw the unnatural protuberance slowly forming on the 
 side of the tree- at the very spot vvhere it had twice formed 
 before-; slowly, but steadily, inch by inch, it grew until it 
 was in size as before, then as instantly disappeared, Mus- 
 cokubi ran as nimbly and lightly as a cat towards the tree, 
 which brought him in easy range, and stopped, raised his 
 rifle and held it with unerring aim upon the very spot where 
 the apparition had so oft appeared and disappeared. There 
 he stood the very personification of a mkrble statue — mo- 
 tionless and silent. 
 
 Soon he saw the dark barriel of a rifle becoming slowly 
 visible and becoming plainer and plainer to view as it extend- 
 ed out along the side of the tree and pointing toward him, 
 then was motionless; then as before, the apparition slowly 
 began to form; inch by inch it enlarged, but just as it reach- 
 ed its former size the sharp crack of Muscokubi's rifle, fol- 
 lowed by a dull, heavy thud, united with the tinkling pony 
 bell to break the forest silence. He then re-loaded his rifle 
 and again slowly advanced to the (to him) so nearly fatal tree 
 to learn the extent of his morning adventure, and there saw 
 a Muscogee warrior stretched full length in death, as he had 
 expected, with the right side of his head torn off — the effect 
 of his death-dealing bullet. For a moment he gazed upon 
 his fallen foe ; then severed the scalp from the head, attached 
 it to his belt, and with it and the rifle of the outwitted war- 
 rior as proofs of his adventure, returnied to the camp slowly 
 driving the truant pony before him, while the unceasing 
 tinkling of the pony bell seepied as the exultants of both 
 pony and master^the former in remembrance of his night's 
 rich repast, and the latter of the securing of the scalp and 
 rifle. 
 
 Eli Crowder, alias Muscokubi, lived, as would seem at 
 the present day, to the extraordinary age of 102 years, 2 
 months and 11 days; but longevity aftiong the Choctaws at 
 that time, as well as among other southern tribes, was of 
 
HISTOIjtY OF the; INDIANS, ■ 409 
 
 very common occurrence. His first wife'was a white woman 
 by whom he had two sons. From her he separated — cause 
 unknown. He then married a Choctaw woman by whom he 
 had nine sons and two daughters, who wfere born: Harris, 
 Jackson, Phebe, James, Catherine, Solomon, David, Louis, 
 Washington, Martin, and one who died in infancy. i , 
 
 His Choctaw wife dying-, he married a Chickasaw 
 
 -woman, by whom he had nine sons; Francis .Marion (known 
 as Dick,) Eli, Van (known as Bob); the fourth died in in- 
 fancy; then followed Thpmas, William, Josh iia, George and 
 John. Louis Crowder, (or Louie, as he is called, ajnd to 
 whom I am indebted for all the aboye concerijin^ the 
 Crowder family,) the sixth son of Muscokubi by his Choctaw 
 wife, is acknowledged throughout the Choctaw Nation as the 
 best interpreter in it. He has been actiiag in the capacity, of 
 
 igeneral interpreter foi: the Choctaws and Missionaries dur- 
 ing the last forty-five years. He is a consistent member of 
 the Old School Presbyterian Church j[south). His grand- 
 father, James Crowder was an ordained Methodist minister 
 
 ■of the Gospel; and two of his uncles, Jeptha and. Levi, were 
 class leaders in the Methodist church. , He has been greatly 
 afflicted with rheumatism for many years, ' yet has born his 
 affliction with becoming Christian for^titude, ever wearingik 
 smiling face and a cheerful countenance. ' 
 
 John flarkins, a white man, is the father of the Harkins 
 family of Choctaw's.- His advent to the Choctaw nation was, 
 as near as can be ascertained, about the year 1800 or soon 
 
 -afterwards. He was a man of high-toned principles, and 
 contemporary with the Folsoms, Nails, ,Pitchlynns, Le- 
 Flores, Durants, Cravats, Crowders, and others of the long 
 ago, who matried among the Choctaws; all men, who, hav- 
 ing cast their lot among that people made their interests 
 their own, and sought, by every means in their power to 
 elevate them in the scale of morality and virtue. 
 
 John Harkins married, a daughter of Major Lewis 
 LeFlore, by .whom he had four sons — Willis, George, Rich- 
 ard and James. Willis married Salina Folsom, oldest da,ugh- 
 ter of Col. David Folsom. They had two sons, George W; 
 and Crittendon, and one daughter, Salina. 
 
 Col. George W. Harkins was a graduate of Danville Col- 
 lege, Kentucky. He was a man of a.cknowledged abilities; 
 a lawyer by profession, and a fine jurist and wise counsellor. 
 He for many years acted in the capacit}^ of delegate to 
 Washington in attending to the national affairs of the Chick- 
 asaw Nation, with which people, though a Choctaw by con- 
 
 'sanguinity, he cast his lot. He was a bold, vigoi'ous and 
 
 -able defender of the rights of his people in the Congress of 
 
410 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 the United States; and by energetic and fervent persever- 
 ance, with solid learning, he rose to eminence in the spheres 
 of an active life, as well as in his profession. He died in 
 August, 1891. 
 
 Salina, the only daughter, is a lady of fine literary at- 
 tainments, and high cultivation of both^mind and heart ; and 
 who, by an indefeasible resolution and indefatigable perse- 
 verance has placed herself high in the esteem and confidence;, 
 of a wide circle of admiring friends. She has never mar- 
 ried, but seems toprefer fighting the battles of life single 
 handed than running the risk of finding a partner in the 
 present seemingly rickety old ship of matrimony, who would 
 prove a worthy ally in the campaign from time to eternity, 
 amid its fluctuating hopes and fears, its joys and sorrows ; 
 though many a young swain has taken issue with her in re- 
 gard to her convictions, and truly believes her decision is 
 injudicious and without true wisdom for its foundation. But 
 there being two sides to the mooted question, the future 
 alone can and will decide whose arguments will prevail; 
 though the flag of victory thus far triumphantly waves over 
 the citadel which the still defiant young lady holds as a wise, 
 judicious and brave commander. She- graduated in one of 
 the female colleges of Tennessee, after which she engaged, 
 for a while, iii teaching, but for several year^ was engaged 
 as telegraph operator at Talbott Station, Tennessee. She at 
 different intervals visits her relatives and friends in the 
 Choctaw Nation, then returns to her duties in Tennessee. 
 May prosperity and happiness attend her through life. 
 
 George, of the four sons of John Harkins, was one of 
 the chiefs of the Choctaw Nation in 1852, in conjunction 
 with Cornelius jlvIcCurtain and George Folsom. 
 
 But it would not be practicable, were it even possible, to 
 give a sketch, though short, of the lives of all the Choctaws. 
 who became conspicuous by their virtues and noble deeds, 
 both of unmixed and mixed blood, being wise in counsel, 
 brave in the field of battle, judicious in peace, orators by 
 nature, and who eloquently and courageously presented the 
 wrongs and sustained the rights of their people. , 
 
 It has been my good fortune, as well as pride and pleas- 
 ure, to be personally, acquainted from youth to old age with 
 the majority of those Choctaws whose characteristics I have 
 thus delineated; and with the ancient and present habits, 
 manners and customs, of whose people I have made myself 
 fully acquainted by the diligent study, the long and free as- 
 sociation and close observation of over three score and ten 
 years; and it has ever been, and will ever continue to be, my 
 sunniest memories to know that I have ever stood as the. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 411 
 
 friend of the Red Man, as my parents before me who sev- 
 ered the ties of all that makes life most dear, leaving all be-, 
 hind, to go to the rescue of the Choctaw people in obedience 
 to their Divine Master's injunction — "Go ye into all the world 
 and preach my gospel" — and also that I have been blest with 
 such noble friends as I have found, secured and still possess 
 in them, true as the needle to the pole, and in whose friend- 
 ship unalloyed I have always found, still find, and ever ex- 
 pect to find, equal joy and cheer, though a people unknown 
 to earthly fame. 
 
 And though I freely and proudly acknowledge my preju- 
 dice in their favor, if love and friendship without alloy, based 
 upon true merit, are worthy that title, yet I have endeavored 
 to give a triithf ul)sketch of those noble ahd as worthy men 
 as ever blest a Nation, though\ much more might be said Of 
 their virtues; and with equal tfuth of hundreds of others of 
 that noble people, both men and women, who have lived and 
 died, and others who still live, but occifpied a less public, jet 
 none the less useful and glorious sphere ill lif^, since; they 
 did their duty and thus iSlled it nobly. 
 
 rt is the fif st tiine their names have been presented to 
 the world; and I have ventured this just and, true sketch for 
 the consideration of those of my own race whq have hei^eto- 
 fore seemingly felt, and therefore evidently exercised but 
 little interest in the North American Indians, beyond that 
 found in reading the falsehoods and Vituperations -published 
 against them in the sensational articles of the. day by many 
 of the newspaper men. ' ' '," ■ j 
 
 What more could be expected but that the Indian Race 
 should be regarded, root and branch, as being' incapable of 
 possessing or exercising any of those virtues whose ten- 
 dencies are to elevate and adorn the human I'ace? To the 
 refutation of this false charge, have I given to the world the 
 characteristics of the Indian hoping that it might serve, to 
 some extent at least to remove from the minds of those open 
 to conviction, the gross errors under which they have beeii 
 living in regard to that unfortunate but noble race, by their 
 thoughtless credulity when giving heed to the defamations 
 of those who scruple not to do anything by which they can 
 add a penny to their selfish interests. Still 1 know the 
 sketch given of those noble Choctaws may be, and will be 
 cast aside by those over whom long established prejudice 
 still sways her merciless sceptre, with the interrogatory, 
 "Can anything good come out of Nazareth"? To which I 
 respond: There did. A glorious light which exposed to 
 view a world that lay in moral and intellectual darkness. 
 What next? This much. What I have written, I have writ- 
 
412 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 ten; and with a full knowledge of its truth, sustained by over 
 three quarters of a century's personal acquaintance and ex- 
 perience with the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, and con- 
 -firmed by hundreds of others whose acquaintance and ex- 
 perience are greater than my own, and bidding defianc^ to 
 successful contradiction. ' 
 
 Bui. it will not trouble me, as far as mj' owJi individual 
 interests are concerned, if the facts presented are rejected 
 as the wild and absurd hallucinations of a disordered brain; 
 but only in behctlf of the down-trodden Indian I would that 
 they might be otherwise accepted; as lam well aware that a 
 brief period will place me beyond all anxiety in their behalf, 
 and I sh^U leave them to the humanity, or inhumanity, of an- 
 other generation; but in which, God grant, others, more able 
 and worthy than myself, shall rise up as their true friends 
 and successful protectors against any future generation 
 whos^ humanity may npt exceed that of the present. Old 
 and worthy friends they are, long tried and ever true, there- 
 fore dopbly dear ip their misfortlines. I still delight to take 
 them by the hand as of old and listen to their voices, l^armo- 
 nious in gentle tones of love and friendship unalloyed, reviv- 
 ing the memory of happy years long past, when in child- 
 hood's morn I listened with delight to their sonj^s of praise 
 r. ? Israel's God ; and though but few remain with whom I 
 trod life's flowery paths, scattered here and there at, their 
 humble homes and around their peaceful firesides calm and 
 silent; yet the names of those whose places in the old family 
 circle- are vacant now still live in tender recollection ; and my 
 sojourns among them have been to me like rambling amid 
 pleasant scenes of the remembered past; and bringing long 
 hidden beauties again to light by the freSh cementing of that 
 friendship which has grown stronger with increasing years, 
 and given t > me the pleasant thought that there is, at least, 
 one spot c i earth, if no other, that I can visit as long as life 
 endures; the assurance of an unfeigned welcome that is as 
 spontaneous as it is sincere and beautiful, and which I ven- 
 ture to lay upon the shrine of our life-long friendship that 
 has existed untarnished through the vicissitudes of nearly 
 eighty yeai .-,. 
 
 Dark indeed have been the clouds and shadows that have 
 swept over those time-honored friends; but they nobly and 
 bravely withstood the fiery test, and slowly and surely 
 pressed forward and upward over innumerable difficulties, 
 until those clouds and shadows were riven, and their names 
 now stand forth in a bright and glorious sunshine; for, coin- 
 cident with their early and high position among their people, 
 a little star was seen to twinkle, which small though it was! 
 
\ \ 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 'nSTDIANS '413 
 
 added its nllte,ih ctispelling the moral and intellectiial' dark- 
 ness that so long had brooded o'er their Nation;' and, from 
 whatever point we view it, we find it 'has pierced the dark 
 clouds and revealed the bright sky beyond; knd with gi-eat 
 and noble' objects in view resting Upon the' firm foundation 
 rock of Truth, and with the help of a just God above, they 
 have been enabled • to withstand the taunts and malice of a 
 selfish and unmerciful woi-ld, and to-day their works do 
 show forth in the peace and prosperity of their people; and 
 to-da}"-, if those good men, whose memories staiid along 
 down the years of the Choctaws' past history^ were called 
 up from their graves and, aske'd, what was their proudest 
 boast? they would respond with one united voice: "We 
 stood on the side of truth land justice, and ever were the ad- 
 vocates of temperance and virtue." * 
 
 But if, in your opinion, reader, I have committed ei-rors 
 of judgment in my sketch of those illustrious Choctaws,' and 
 in my emotional feelings of interest in behalf of them and 
 their people, in excuse I plead but, two things: The stirength 
 of affection for worthy men and theii- no less worthy peq- 
 ple, and the weakness (if it be a weakness) of human naturel. 
 If these carry no weight with, you, read no furtheir. You 
 are too good for me, and I am too hunian for you- We can- 
 not be congenial lior abiding friends^.sb' there let' the matter 
 forever rest. ' ' ' ' [ ' 
 
 Yet it is surpassingly sti-ange that talent, worth and 
 true merit should be so ovei-looked, and so little appreciated, 
 because its possessor occupies an imaginary low' position in 
 the fabric of society; in other words, because he is an Indian. 
 Alas! When will human nature recognize the great truth 
 and be actuated by it in social intercourse, that some flowers 
 may be repulsive at first sight, but when closely examined 
 unfold a world of beauty, and so it is with man. But if in > 
 the face of all the immense array of incontrovertj^ble testi- 
 mony that has been and still can be adduced to sustain the 
 present and long moral and intellectual standing" of the 
 Choctaws and their four sister tribes, the Chickasaws, Cher- 
 okees, Creeks and Seminoles, and many other tribes within 
 the jurisdiction of these United States, there still remain 
 those who cling to, their unenviable ignorance attd inconsist- 
 ent prejudices. It can only be said of them, "They are 
 joined to their idols, let 'them alone." 
 
 The government of the Choctaws is modeled after that 
 of the state of Mississippi, and was adopted before they 
 were exiled from their ancient domains to their present 
 places of abode. The executive power is lodged in a gov- 
 ernor. Each county in the Nation chooses a sheriff and i 
 
414 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 other officers by ballot. The leg-islative department consists 
 of a general council, comprising a senate and house of rep- 
 resentatives. The Nation is divided into three districts, 
 from each of which four senators are sent. The members 
 of the house of representatives are chosen by ballot from 
 the various counties. The judiciary consists in a supreme 
 court of three judges, one from each district. The names 
 of three judicial districts are A-push-a-ma-ta-ha, A-puk-shen- 
 ub-i, and A-mo-sho-la-ub-i, the names of three of their former 
 and famous chiefs. The senior judge is the Chief Justice. 
 This court has only appellate jurisdiction. A prosecuting 
 attorney is elected in each district, vi'hose duty it is to rep- 
 represent the Nation in all civil and criminal cases. The 
 national capital is Tush-ka Hum-ma, (red vs'arrior) where a 
 National Council and Supreme Court are annually held, con- 
 vening on the first Monday in October of each year. 
 
 In the First District, the court holds its session during 
 the entire session of their courts; and my informer re- 
 marked: "It is beautiful to see how harmoniously and 
 Christian-like they engage in these religious exercises and 
 devotions." Noble people and true servants of the Most 
 Highl 
 
 I was informed by the Choctaws, when visiting Tushka 
 Humma in October, 1884, during the session of their council, 
 that during the session of their District Courts as well as 
 that of the national council, which are invariably opened by 
 prayer, they have preaching every night in the week; and 
 that many of the district judges, attorneys and jurymen, 
 are ministers of the Gospel of all denominations, preaching 
 alternatelyjat night. 
 
 / 
 
V V 
 
 THE CHICKASAWS. 
 
 Conquest or Progress I It is the same, since it is with 
 blood that the book of humanity is written. The pages here 
 devoted to the narrative of the Chickasaw Indians is not an 
 exception; their's, too, is stained with the seemingly inevita- 
 ble sanguinary horrors, but nowhere is the trace inexplica- 
 ble. To some it may seem useless knd even wrong to recall 
 these pages of history so distant in the past, v^Jhich began in 
 wrong, continued in wrong and will end, so for as human ob- 
 servation can judge, in wrong, and then ask nothing better 
 than to be forgotten. Alas, experience J|ias shown that to 
 change the mode of life of a primitive race is to condemn it 
 to death ; since always regarded as an inferior race by their 
 conquerors, they have been swept away without justice or 
 mercy — a people who had existed in an unbroken line of de- 
 scent from prehistoric ages unknown. 
 
 East of the Mississippi River was also the Chickasaws\ 
 hereditary domain, handed do^n through a long line of an- 
 cestry during ages unknown, and who, like the Choctaws, 
 were first made known to the Eastern world by Hernando 
 de Soto who invaded their country in the month of Novem- 
 ber, 1540; but beyond which, except through the tradition of 
 the Choctaws and Chickasaws, as /before related, the faintest 
 glimmerings pf vague tradition has afforded scarcely a ray 
 of light to penetrate the darkness which envelops their his- 
 tory with its mantle of silence ; yet has also opened a wide 
 field to those dreamy speculations of which the imagina_tion 
 is so fond, and in which it so delights to indulge. Ah, would 
 not their ancient history, if known, present asinany subjects 
 of interest as any other race of primitive man, our own not 
 excepted? Would there not bQ<^uch found in that period of 
 their early existence, which precedes their known history, 
 which, when placed in contrast to their seemingly unhappy, 
 cruel destiny, appeals to the heart of the Christian? Who, 
 '• so incapable of reflection, could sit under the shades of the 
 gigantic trees of centuries growth that bedecked their an- 
 cient possessions, standing so densely together that their 
 wide extended branches, interlocked high above, shutting 
 
416 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 out the I'ays of the sun which only reached the ground here 
 and there, while the earth beneath was covered with grass, 
 from twelve to fifteen inches high, interspersed with a great 
 variety of wild flowers, many of which were of exquisite 
 beauty and emitting the sweetest perfume, with no ^iushe& 
 to mar the beauty, and grandeur of the fascinating scene; or 
 on the top of those ancient mounds, the sepulchers of man 
 erected by his own hand — the l^unih 'Waij'ahs of the long 
 ago— and not feel his whole soul glo^ with hallowed emo- 
 tions ? 
 
 Let vour thoughts again revert to the scene presented 
 in the Bay of Santo Spiritu, Florida, May 31st, 1540. Three 
 vessels, it is recorded, of strange and curious shape to the 
 native beholders, bearing the banner oi haughty Spain, 
 moored close to their, sl^ores, and one thousand men of in- 
 fantry and three hundred cavalry landed in proud array, 
 with Hernando De Soto, their leader, the former companion 
 of Pizarro, in his conquest of Peru and butchery of its 
 helpless inhabitants. , View again the heroism of those 
 ancient Choctaw^ in the patriotic defense of their city, 
 Moma-Binah. Look again upon those noble Choctaw women 
 — mothers, wives, sisters and daughters — lighting sifle by 
 side with fathers, husbands, brothers and sons, mid blood 
 and carnage, and perishing in the flames of their burning 
 homes rather than- yield to the human fiends that had in- 
 vaded their country. Take also a retrospective vfew of 
 those foreign marauders afterwards quartered for the win- 
 ter in Chikasahha, November, 1540, the most ancient city of 
 the Chickasaws, the bravest of the brave among the North 
 American Indians, whose king (th» Chickasaw rulers were 
 anciently called kings instead of chiefs) had received De Soto 
 and his followers (though uninvited) with the greatest kind- 
 ness, and extended to them the hospitality of his town and 
 people; but who, preparatory to the renewal of his wild and 
 Quijvotic journey in the following spring, manifested his 
 gratitude to the generous Chickasaw ki^g for his kindness 
 and hospitality, by haughtily demanding two hundred of his 
 warriors to accompany him in his dubious adventures as 
 burden bearers and servants of 'the camp. To which inso- 
 lent, insulting and outrageous demand the Chickasaw king 
 scorned to submit, and evaded a direct answer to De Soto 
 by requesting a few days in which to lay the matter before 
 his people in council assembled, but during which interval 
 nobly prepared for a bold resistance ; and, ere the insolent 
 invaders were aware, gave his reply to De Soto's insulting 
 demand in the defiant war-whoop; then setting fire to their 
 town in which the perfidious Spaniards were sleeping, the 
 
1 mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 417 
 
 brave and justly indignant Chickasaws, with a noble patriot- 
 ism, unsurpassed even in the civilized world, rushed upon 
 their unprincipled and ungrateful invader's aiid intruders. 
 
 But as the Choctaws, in defense of Moma Binah a few 
 months before, were ^ defeated, so too were the Chickasaws ; 
 for what could avail the feeble bow and arrow wielded by an 
 unprotected body against powder and lead, lance and broad 
 sword wielded by a steel-clad body? Yet they bravely 
 fought until hundreds of their noble warriors were slain and 
 longer fighting was vain } not without, however, making it a 
 deadly fought victory to the Spaniards; besides teaching 
 them, as had the Chpctaws a few weeks before, that, though 
 termed savages, yet they Were patriots and heroes unsurpass- , 
 ed even by exotic barbariahs of boasted Castillian blood with 
 bodies incased in steel; sijiCe, unprotected and with feeble 
 bows and arrows, the young Chickasaw king and' his war- 
 riors heroically attajcked the insolent intruders and maraud- 
 ers and justly punished their base ingratitude by burning 
 their ancient Capitol, Chikasahha — the Moscow ofthe Chick- 
 asaws — in which De Soto had unceremoniously quartered his 
 cruel soldiers for the near approaching winter, and killed 
 many of his men and horses, destroying the greater part of 
 his baggage, throwing his entire army into confusion; and 
 though the Chickasaws were finally defeated by superior 
 arms, yet De Soto was glad to bid them an eternal adieu with' 
 out any further demonstration of their prowess. ThuSy as; 
 the Choctaws were initiated into a knowledge of the charac- 
 teristics of the White Race, so too were the Chigkasaws. 
 iVnd from that day to the present, the former bright sun of 
 their freedom, contentment and happiness, alike with their 
 entire race upon the North American continent, has beetf. 
 steadily and constantly waning. An4 though over 400 years, 
 have elapsed since their entire country was sleeping in its 
 cradled wilderness of grand forests and prairies, unknown 
 in its solitude and beauty to the Eastern world, yet they 
 were here, but in their primitive state of nature, as they 
 were then regarded and so termed ; and, being also pro- 
 nounced by their new discoverers to be of different origin 
 from all others of the human race, they were denounced as 
 "unreclaimable savages" from that day to this; yet were a, 
 noble branch of the human race, possessing more of the vir- 
 tues that adorn humanity, and fewer of vices that degrade, 
 than any other race of unlettered people recorded upon the 
 pages of history, ancient or modern. To-day as a race of 
 people, though overpowered (not conquered), impoverished, 
 calumniated, abused, they fearlessly challenge these United 
 States to show purer and cleaner skirts, in point of virtue 
 
418 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 and morality as set forth in the Bible (our professed guide) 
 and point, to the God of the Bible as the judge by whose de- 
 cision they will abide,. Who will take up that glove thrown 
 at our feet as an. acceptance of the challenge? 
 
 Three centuries after, the Russians burned their capi- 
 tol, Moscow, over the head of their invader, Napoleon Bona- 
 parte; thus forcing him to retreat at the loss of his army; 
 which act of patriotism was heralded over the world by the 
 pens of historians as meriting immortal fame; while the pa- 
 triotism of the true Native Americans, though equally meri- 
 torious, remains unwritten and unsung. But such is the 
 consistency of fallen and depraved humanity everywhere, 
 and such too is its boasted justice. 
 
 No history records the Chiclcasaws' past prior to their 
 acquaintance with the White Race. Like their entire race, 
 it is hiddien amid the mysteries of the unknown. But from 
 the legends handed down through the 4ong and bewildering 
 tracts of time by their "wise old men,'' those Chroniclers of 
 the North American Indians' long ago, as related to the 
 missionaries seventy-five years in the past, the voice of the 
 Chickasaw's traditions are in harmony with the dubious 
 lights afforded by the Magi of the ancient Choctaws; dilTcr- 
 ing, however, in a few nonessential particulars*, Their tra- 
 dition in regard to ancestry, migration, etc, are the ijame as 
 the Choc taws, being one tribe and peqple until the mutual 
 division made by their two chiefs Chikasah and Chahtah 
 many years after their arrival and location east of the Mis- 
 sissippi river. , 
 
 In the year 1819 thQ Synod of South Carolina resolved' 
 to establish a mission among the Southern Indians east of 
 the Mississippi river. The Cherokees, Muscogees, Semi- 
 nolcs, Choctaws and Chickasaws then occupied Georgia, 
 I'^lorida, Alabama and Mississippi. Rev. David Humphries 
 otTcrcd to take charge of the intended ""mission. He was 
 directed to visit the Indians, obtain their consent and select 
 a suitable location. Rev. T. C. Stewart, then a young licen- 
 tiate,' offered himself as a companion to Mr. Humphries. 
 Tliey first visited the Musc(jgees (Creeks), who, in a coun- 
 cil of the Nation, declined their proposition. They then 
 traveled through Alabama into iMississippi, and proposed to 
 establish a mission among the Chickasaws. They found 
 them on the eve of holding a council of the Nation to elect a 
 king. In that council, held in l,s2o, permission was granted 
 the missionaries to establish missions in their Nation, and a 
 charter was signed by the newly-chosen king. The two 
 missionaries then returned to South Carolina. During the 
 return Mr. Humphries concluded that he was not called to 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 419 
 
 preach to the untaug-ht North Amtrlcan Indians. ' But the 
 Rev. T. C. Stewart, during the same journey, firmly resolved 
 to undertake the self-denying vs^ork, and offered to take 
 charge of the contemplated mission. The Synod ,g-ladly ac- 
 cepted, and he at once commenced making preparations to 
 enter upon the life of a missionary to the Chickasaws: In 
 January, 1821, he reached the place chosen for a station; and 
 named it Moni-oe Station, in honor of Jam^s Monroe, the ' 
 then president of the United States. Mr. Stewart was the 
 only missionary. Two men, however, accompanied him with 
 their- families — one named, Vernon, a mechanic, the other 
 named Pickens, a farmer. Houses were erected, a farm, 
 opened, a school established, and preaching through an in- 
 terpreter. , 
 
 Rev. T. C. Stewart was born in the year 1793, and died 
 in Tupelo, Mississippi, October 9th, 1882. 
 
 In early }'outh I was personally acquainted with that 
 great philanthropist, sincere and self sacrificing Christian, 
 T. C. Stewart; and in redalling the reminiscences of those 
 years of the long ago, I can but regard them as treasures 
 from the memoi-y of those who were indeed what they pro- 
 fessed to be, honest and sincere friends of the entire North 
 American Indian Race, as well as all mankind the 'world over. 
 Yet _ those memories are freighted with sadness, when re- 
 flecting that all those hallowed relics have passed a way 
 leaving tlic poor Indians, for whom they so long and faith- 
 fully labored, to struggle among wolves (many in sheeps' 
 clothing) with few such shepherds to counsel and lead them 
 as those old missionary heroes of eighty years ago; While 
 those years with their vicissitudes have silvered the heads 
 of the only two remaining children now living, of those 
 messengers of peace and bearers of the gladtidings of great 
 joy to the descendants of two ti'aditional brother-chiefs 
 Chahtah and Chikasah; the one a daughter living in Bel- 
 pry, Ohio; the other a son living in Greenville, Texas. Both 
 were born among the Choctaws at the Missionary Station' 
 Mayhew; but now, under the weight of years beyond those 
 allotted to man's ea.rthly pilgrimage, totter upon the banks 
 of the mystic river; and though the scenes and the land- 
 marks,, of the early labors of their fathers and mothers, 
 hallowed by their foot-prints as the devoted friends of the 
 Red Man, have long been blotted out, as far as concerns 
 the White Race; yet they still live in the hearts of the pres- 
 ent civilized and Christian people, the Chickasaws and Choc- 
 taws, whom they have handed down to the present as liv- 
 ing, moving monuments of the great and abiding truth that 
 the North Atnerican Indians everywhere are as susceptible - 
 
420 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 of as high civilization and Christianity as any race of people 
 that ever lived upon earth. 
 
 The little colony soon became a centre of Gospel light and 
 civilizing influences to the whole Nation. Other missiona- 
 ries came at different times to aid the one man, who began 
 the good work: Rev. Hugh Wilson, in 1821, from North Car- 
 olina; Rev. W. C. Blair, from Ohio, in J.822; James Holmes, 
 of Pennsylvania, in 1824. The first two named, after the 
 removal of the Indians, went to Texas, where their bodies 
 now sleep, Mr. Holmes was licensed to preach after he 
 came to the mission as teacher. H^ became a doctor of 
 divinity and taught a classical school of high reputation at 
 Covington, Tennessee, for many years, and died at an ad- 
 vanced age. But it is unnecessary to enter into a detail of 
 the fruits of this mission. It will suffice to say that many 
 Indian youths who have become prominent in their tribe as 
 legislators, preachers of the Gospel and influential citizens, 
 received their education, in part or in fiill, at Monroe. The 
 foundation ot a Christian civilization, to which the Chicka- 
 saws have years ago reached and still firmly maintain, may 
 be safely said, was laid in the mission of which the noble 
 T. C. Stewart was founder. 
 
 About the year 1822 Rev. Haynes opened a school in the 
 Chickasaw Nation, near the southern line of the Cherokee 
 Nation, , under the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, 
 for the benefit of which George Colbert established a board- 
 ing house. This school and the one established at Monroe 
 by Rev. T. C. Stewart, January 1821, soon became flourishing 
 institutions of learning. In the course of years a son of Rev. 
 Haynes married a Chickasaw girl who formerly had been a 
 pupil at his father's school. He (the son) labored among 
 both the Chickasaws and the Choctaws ^s a missionary until 
 they emigrated west. He lived with his Chickasaw wife 
 nearly forty years, when she died. He then (1884) went 
 west to live with his daughter, Mrs. Eads, who lives in Lone 
 Oak, Denton county, Texas. At that time he was 88 years 
 of age, still in his mental vigor and attending to his minis- 
 terial duties. 
 
 In 1821 the Methodist church sent out Rev. Alex Deavers 
 as a missionary to the Chickasaws, who remained amoqg 
 them until they moved west. He had two sons, one of whom 
 married a Chickasaw girl and the other a Choctaw. 
 
 De Soto and his band gave to the Choptaws at Moma 
 Binah and the Chickasaws at Chikasahha their first lesson in 
 the white man's modus operandi to civilize and Christianize 
 North American Indians; so has the same lesson been con- 
 tmued to be given to that unfortunalc people by his white 
 
HISTORY OF Tip INDIANS 421 
 
 successors from that day to this, all over this continent, but 
 •which to them, was as the tones of ^h alarm-bell at midnight. 
 And one hundred and twenty-three years have passed since 
 'Our forefathers declared all men of every' nationality to be 
 free and equal on the soil of the North American continent 
 then under their jurisdiction, except the Africains whom 
 they held in slavery, and the Native Americans against 
 whom they decreed absolute extermination because they 
 could not also enslave them;toprovewhich,they at once began 
 ■to hold out flattering inducements to the so-called oppressed 
 people of all climes under the sun, to come^to free America 
 and assist them to oppress and kill off the Native Ameri- 
 cans and in parti^ership take their lands and country, as thi? 
 was more in accordance with their) lust of wealth and speedy 
 self-aggrandizement than the imagined slow process of edu- 
 cating, civilizing and Christianizing them, a work too con- 
 descending, too humiliating: and to demonstrate that it has 
 been a grand and glorious success, we now point with 
 vaunting pride and haughty satisfaction to our broad and 
 f^r extended landed possessions as indisputable evidence of 
 our just claims to the resolution passed by our pilgrim an- 
 cestors, "Wearethechildrenof the Lord"; and to the little 
 remnant of hapless, helpless and hopeless Indians who 
 calmly wait their turn to be wiped out as tribes and nation- 
 alities, that the^ also, as all their race before, may give 
 place to our glorious institutions of civilization. 
 
 Justly have the ancient Cliickasaws been regarded as the 
 bravest and most skillful warriors among all the North 
 American Indians; and it has been affirmed that they never 
 were conquered, though fighting oft under adverse circum- 
 stances; and also, had they maintained the fight with DeSoto 
 but a few hours longer, they would have defeated him and 
 utterlydestroyed his army, leaving not a single one to tell of 
 , his overthrow and complete extermination. The surround- 
 ing tribes recognized and acknowledged them as justly the 
 l^ds and masters of the vast territory they claimed extend- 
 ing from the Yalobaaiasha (Tadpole Habitation — corrupted 
 to Yalobusha), Mississippi, north to the Ohio River, and from 
 the Mississippi to the Muscl^ Shoals in the Tennessee River; 
 and oft the Indian hunters from the prairies of Illinois and 
 the , lakes of the North, in pursuing the deer and buffalo in 
 'the then wide extended and magnificent forests south of the 
 Ohio River, trespassed upon those of the Chickasaws and 
 fierce and bloody battles ensued. As it is the Choctaws' 
 boast — "they never in war shed an American's blood" — so it 
 iis the Chickasaws' boast — "they never in war shed a white 
 man's blood of English descent," 
 
422 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 Neither the Choctaws nor Chickasaws ever engaged m 
 war against the American people, but always stood as their 
 faithful allies. It has been published that, p.fter the destruc- 
 tion of Fort Mim's by the Creeks, in 1812, "the Chickasaw 
 towns began to paint , and sing their war songs; and the 
 Choctaws had snuffed the scent of blood and were pnntino- 
 for war, and ready to draw the scalping knife against the 
 Americans." This was founded alone on rumor promul- 
 gated for sensational purposes, so much delighted in bj'^ our 
 people, especially if it regards the Indians. True, had the 
 Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokees united with the Mus- 
 cogees and Seminoles in 1812, depopulation of all the white 
 settlements within their territories would have been the 
 inevitable result. The Chickasaws and Choctaws, though 
 distinct nations, yet speaking nearly the same language, 
 were generally animated by the same views and motives ; 
 had nearly the same customs and habits ; were governed by 
 the same principles, and followed by the same fortunes. 
 Alike, they were doomed to expei-ience the satne ingratitude 
 from the American people, which caused thousands of them 
 to descend in poverty and sorrow to untimely graves, leaving 
 it for posterity to do justice to their mem(jry, while the re- 
 maining few and feeble stand waiting for us to exert our 
 clemency in helping them to prosperity and happiness, or 
 display our power in the destruction of their nationality and 
 sending them forth as sheep without a shepherd among 
 ravenous wolves, already howling upon their heels. 
 
 But let us go back, reader, a few centuries and review 
 the progress of the early European settlers of this continent 
 and their dealings with each other and also their modus oper- 
 andi -to dispossess the Native Americans and secure, oach 
 for their own nationality, the entire continent, as they in- 
 truded vpon the Indians, tribe after tribe, until they reached 
 the Chickasaws. 
 
 Twenty years after Columbus made his great discovery 
 Juan Ponce de Leon, ex-governor of Porto Rico, sailed froTh 
 that island in March, 1512, and landed off the coast of the 
 now State of Florida, which he gave that name, from the 
 profusion of wild Howers, seen on all sides, and its having 
 been first seen on Piaster Sunday, which was called bv llu- 
 Spaniards, Pascua Florida— "The Country of Flowers." 
 In May, 1530, Ferdinand de Soto, Covcrnor of Cuba, landed 
 at Tampa Bay. 
 
 For^many years, by the so-called right of discovery 
 Spam claimed the entire country, bounded by the Atlantic 
 to the (iulf of St. Lawrence on the north, all of which beinir 
 then known by the name of Florida. About twenty years 
 
HISTORY OF THE. INDIAIJS. . 423 
 
 after DeSoto made his discovery of the Mississippi river, a 
 few Roman Chathollc missionaries made an attempt t9 
 establish settlertien'ts at St. Augustine and its vicinity; and 
 shortly afterwards a colony of French Calvinists vi^as estab- 
 lished ontheSt. Mary's river near the coast,' butwag destroyed 
 in 1565 by an expecjitiou from Spain, under Pedro Melendes^ 
 de Aviles, cowardly murdering upwards of nine hundred 
 Frenchmen, women and children, and suspending many of 
 the slain to bi-anches of trees, with the inscription — "Not as 
 Frenchmen but as heretics." This diabolical butchery 
 being accomplished, Melendez founded St. Augustine, the 
 oldest town by, nearly half a century of any in the United 
 States. Four years after, Dominic de Gourg'es, to avenge 
 the butchery of his countrymen on the St. Mary's river, 
 fitted out an expedition at his own expense and attacking the 
 Spanish colonists on the St. Mary's river, he ravaged the 
 settlements with fire and sword, burning their houses, de- 
 molishing their forts, and slaying the inhabitants. This 
 being accomplished, he, in turn, suspended some of the 
 dead bodies from the trees, with the inscription, "Not as 
 Spaniards, but as murderers," and then returned to France 
 with his fleet. With the e,xception of a few years, Spain 
 held Florida until 1819, when, greatly diminished, from its, 
 original boundaries, it was ceded to the United States, and 
 became a state in 1845, 
 
 In 1535 James Cartier, a French explorer, sailed with an 
 expedition up the St. Lawrence and took formal possession 
 of the country in the name of his king) calling it New France. 
 111(1608 Champlain founded Quebec, which soon became a 
 nucleus for the settlement of Canada. This was the, same 
 year in which the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, was 
 established; and twelve years before, ithe -Puritans, landed 
 upon the rocks of Plymouth. , > , 
 
 In order to strengthen the power of the French, Cham- 
 plain resolved to establish missions: among the Indians. : At 
 that period of time "the far west" had never been trodden by 
 the foot of the European. In 1616 Le Caron, a French Fran- 
 ciscan, visited the Iroquois and Wyandotts, and thence to the 
 tribiltaries of Lake Huron; and in 1634 the Jesuits estab- 
 lished the first mission in that then distant and visionary 
 region of country. A century had passed, (however, from 
 the discovery of the Mississippi River, before the first Can- 
 adian envoys met the Indians inhabiting the unknown re- 
 gions of the northwest, in council assembled at the falls of 
 the St. Marys, a little below the outlet of Lake Superior, 
 But not till the year 1669 did any'of the adventurous trap- 
 pers and fur-traders spend the winter along the shores of 
 
424 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 that great lake; nor until 1660 that Rene Mesnard establish- 
 ed the first missionary station upon its cold, rocky and in- 
 hospitable coast, and who, soon after,was lost in the bleak 
 wilderness and was heard of no more. Father Claude AI- 
 louez, five years after, built the first permanent habitation of 
 Europeans among the Indians of the northwest; and in 1668 
 a mission was established by Dablon and Marquette at the 
 falls of St. Mary's. In 1671 the French took formal posses- 
 sion of the northwest and Marquette established another 
 missionary station in that country at Point St. Ignace, north 
 of Mackinac, which was the first European settlement in 
 Michigan. 
 
 Owing to the hostility of the Iroquois (whose territo- 
 ries lay along the Lakes Erie and Ontario), caused by Cham- 
 plain inconsiderately joining with a few other Frenchmen, a 
 war party of Hurons against the Iroqifis, and a battle ensu- 
 ing in which the latter'^yere defeated, the missionaries were 
 forced to travel far north by the Ottawa and French rivers 
 of Canada, in journeying west, to avoid their, threatened 
 vengeance. 
 
 At that period the French had not advanced beyond 
 Fox river, in Wiscorj^in; but in May, 1673, Marquette, with 
 a few companions, started from Mackinac in canoes ; pad- 
 dled up Green bay; thence into Fox river; thence transport- 
 ing their little canoes across the country to the Wisconsin 
 river, and launching them upon that stream they rearclied 
 the Mississippi, and upon its turbid waters floated down sev- 
 eral hundred miles, then returned in the ensiling autumn. 
 The discovery of the great Mississippi was a source of 
 much joy to the French, who, in that age of newly discov- 
 ered wonders, believed that a direct route to the South Sea, 
 and thence to China, would be found through some of its 
 western tributaries. The indefatigable M. La fcjalle first 
 explored the mighty stream to its termination in the Gulf, 
 in 1682, and took formal possession of the country, through 
 which it flowed, in the name of the king of France, in honor 
 of whom he called it Louisiana. Three years later he also 
 took possession of Texas, establishing a colony on the Col- 
 orado. Being assassinated by one of his men, the colony 
 was, shortly after, dispersed. 
 
 Lemoine D'Iberville, a French officer, renewed the ex- 
 plorations of LaSalle in 1697. He entered the Mississippi 
 river with two vessels in March 1698; and also erected forts 
 on the bay of Boloxi, and at Mobile, both of which were 
 afterwards abandoned for the Island of Dauphine, which 
 for many years was the headquarters of the colony. He 
 also built Fort Balise, at the mouth of the river, and selected 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 435 
 
 the site of Fort Rosalie, afterwards' destroyed by the 
 Natchez Indians. Still, after th e death of D 'Iberville, in 1706, 
 Louisiana was but little more than a wilderness, since a 
 futile search for gold and theobtainitig of furs, engaged tW 
 thoughts of the colonists, to the neglect of more substantial 
 pursuits, and valuable time wasted in journeyings of dis- 
 covery, and in obtaining fUrs and skins among distant 
 tribes. * 
 
 Kaskaskia and Cahokia, the oldest towns in the valley 
 of the Mississippi, were founded near the year 1680. The 
 former _ becoming the capitol of the Illinois country, and 
 \yhere, in 1721, a Jesuit college and monastery were estab- 
 lished. 
 
 Iti 1700 peace was established between the two hostile 
 tribes, the Iroquois and Ottawas, and the French, which 
 gave the latter the desired opportunities for colonizing the 
 western portion of Canada. Whereupon De la Motte Cadil- 
 lac, with a hundred men and a Jesuit missionary, laid, in 
 June, 1701, the foundation of Dfetroit, Michigan. At this 
 period the French claimed the entire, vast and extensive re- 
 gion south of the Great Lakes under the name of Canada, or 
 New France. As a matter of course, this aroused the jeal- 
 ousy of the English to the highest pitch and the Legislatui-e 
 of New York published a Bill for hanging any and all Papish 
 priests who should voluntarily make his appearance in the 
 province. 
 
 When the war broke out between England and France 
 in 1711, the friendship and confidence of the western In- 
 dians had been so completely gained by the Freneh through 
 the mild and conciliatory course adopted by them and their 
 missionaries, that all the most powerful tribes became their 
 allies; when the former attempted to.restrict the claims of 
 the latter to the country south of the Great Lakes, their' ef- 
 fort proved abortive; and though the Fox tribe, as allies of 
 the English, made aii attack upon Detroit in 1713, they were 
 sorely defeated and driven back by the French and their 
 numerous Indian allies. But the treaty of Utrecht having 
 been concluded that year, the war closed. 
 
 By the year 1720 the French had established a lucrative 
 trade in furs, skins and agricultural products between their 
 Louisiana and Illinois colonies, and settlement had been ex- 
 tended on'the Mississippi river to points below on the junc- 
 tion of the Illinois. But for the more effectual confinement 
 of their hated rival, the JEnglish, to the Atlantic coast, the 
 French adopted the plan of erecting aline of 'military posts 
 extending from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico; and 
 as one of the important links of this chain they erected 
 
I 
 426 mSTORY.OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Fort Chartres, on the. Mississippi rivter, near Kaskaskia, 
 where, in close proximity, stood the towns Cahokia^ and 
 Prairie de Rocher. 
 
 The early settlers upon the Great Lakes of the north, 
 were chiefly French emigrants from Picardy and Nor- 
 mandy, in France. They settled in and around the forts 
 that had been erected for the extension of the dominion of 
 France, promulg^ating- the Catholic religion among the In- 
 dians, and securing the fur trade of th-e various tribes that 
 ivisited the forts, bringing' their furs to barter with the 
 pale-faces for their new and strange commodities. The 
 most attractive features of those forts, according' to the 
 early writers, were the fort garrisoned with a few soldiers, 
 the chapel and its functionaries, the Jesuit priests, and the 
 Indian 'wigwams, interspersed here and there, all sur- 
 rounded with little patches of cultivated land, comprising a 
 commandant and a heterog'entous company of soldiers, 
 priests, merchants, traders, hunters, trappers, half-breeds 
 and the genuine Indians^— the most respectable and meri- 
 torious of the outfit — all of whom, the pijre Indian excepted, 
 were attached to a system of machinery in religion and in 
 trade peculiar to themselves alone. J^ext to the command- 
 ant in prominence stood the merchants, who were regarded 
 as the masters of the situation when at their post of trade. 
 They were said to be shrewd, careful and frugal, with but 
 little enterprise and less virtue, and employed their time in 
 procuring skins ^^nd furs from the Indians in exchange for 
 their goods and commodities. They kept on the best terms 
 of friendship with the Indians and displayed their regard 
 for virtue and morality in the large number of half-breed 
 children they fostered, but whose mothers they called 
 wives, though only truly so regarded by the Indian's them- 
 selves; who grew up to speak the language of their parents 
 — a mixture of French and Indian — and.k-arning just enough 
 of their religion to care for neither., The . progress of the 
 Indians, morally and intellectually, were things, unthought 
 of by the French west of the Alleghany mountains, or-by 
 the English east. 
 
 The design of the French was to enrich themselves by 
 the fur trade; therefore they had little motive to attend to 
 anything else; but were remarkable for their skill in ingra- 
 tiating themselves into the confidence of the warlike tribes 
 around them, and for their easy amalgamation in manners, 
 customs and blood; while that of the English was to enrich 
 themselves in seizing the Indians' land. 
 
 At this period (1720) of their history the Ohio river 
 seems to havu been but little known to the French, as it ap- 
 
raSTORY OP THE, INDIANS.. 427 
 
 pieared to be but an insignificant stream as exhibited on their 
 early maps. Early in the year 1720 their energetic mission- 
 a:ries hadlexplored to the head watei-sof the Allegheny river; 
 and in the following, year /the French trader and agent, Jan- 
 cairie, established a trading post among the Senecas, at 
 Lewistown, and five years afterward Fort Niagara was 
 erected contiguous to the falls. In 1735, according to some 
 writers, Post St. Vincent was built on the Wabash; and 
 about the same time the militairy post of ' Presque Isle was 
 erected, on the site of Erie, Penn., and thence a line of posts 
 extended on the Allegheny to Pittsburg, thence down the 
 , Ohio to the Wabash. 
 
 A map published in London in 1775 has the following list 
 of French posts as then existing in the West. Two on 
 French Cr«ek, near Erie, Pennsylvania; Duquesne, where 
 Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, now stands; Miami^, on the Mau- 
 mee River, near where Toledo is now situated ; Sanduskyj 
 on Sandusky Bay ; St. Joseph's, on St. Joseph's River, Mich- 
 igan; Ponchartrain,i where Detroit, Miehigan, now standsj 
 Michilimackinac; one on Fox River, Green Bay; Creye- 
 cour, on the Illinois River; Rockport, or Fort St. Louis, on 
 the Illinois River; Vinceunes; Cahokia; Kaskaskia, aiid one 
 at each of the mouths of the Wabash, Ohio and Missoui'i. 
 Others besides, it is said, were also builij at that period, but 
 not named. Just below Portsmouth, on the Ohio, ruins have 
 been found which, no doubt, were those of an ancient French 
 port, as they had a port there, it is said, during Braddoek!s 
 war. ■■< •: ,■ ', . 
 
 The Ohio company, principally composed of wealthy 
 Virginians, sent Christopher Gist, in 1748, to explore the 
 country, secure the frieildship of the Indians (always ready 
 and willingto cultivate the acquaintance and friendship of the 
 Whites who sought their friendship upon the platform .of 
 truth and justice) and learn concerning the movements of 
 ''the French. He reached the Ohio River over land,^ thence 
 went down that river to its junction with tl^e Great Miami, 
 thence up the Great Miami to the villages of the Miamis, 
 nearly fifty miles north of the present Dayton. In the fol- 
 lowing year the company located a' trading post near that 
 point, on Laramies Creek, the first place of English settle- 
 ment in the Western country ; but the French, ever on the 
 alert, Soon broke it up. ' 
 
 in 1749 the French began a more regular exploration of 
 the Ohio river, and also formed/ alliances of peace and friend- 
 ship with the Indians in Western' New, York, Pennsylvania 
 and Virginia, while the English, who extended their claims 
 west to the Pacific ocean, though their actual possessions 
 
428 . HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 were circumscribed within the comparatively narrow strip 
 east of the Alleghany mountains were becoming' more irri- 
 tated at the rapidly increasing power of the French in the 
 west. Not contented in exerting every means to excite the 
 Indians to hostilities against them, thus using, alike with the 
 French, the misguided Indians as the cat's paw to draw out 
 the chestnuts from the hot embers, they as a stimulus to 
 private enterprise, gave to the "Ohio Company" six hundred 
 thousand acres of excellent land, without so much as even 
 saying, "By your leave" to the just and legal owners, the 
 Indians. And when they nobly fought against such high- 
 handed business, they were decreed a's meriting speedy an- 
 nihilation. 
 
 By the year 17S1 the settlements in the Illinois country 
 consisted of Cahokia, five miles south of the present city, of 
 St. Louis; St. Philips, forty-five miles lower down the river; 
 St. Genevieve, still lower; Fort Chartres. Kaskaskia and 
 Prairie de Rocher, still below, and on the eastern side of the 
 Mississippi river. Kaskaskia being the largest of the last 
 three named, containing at one time upwards of three thou- 
 sand persons. 
 
 The English, ever wakeful to their interests upon the 
 North American continent, viewed with apprehension the 
 rapidly growing power of the French ; especially as they re- 
 garded themselves as possessing an equal claim by the right 
 of discovery through the Cabots, and of extending their set- 
 tlements even to the Pacific ocean; while the French, on the 
 other hand, maintained their claim to the valley of the Mis- 
 sissippi upon the right of having first explored and colonized 
 it; therefore insisted that the English should confine them- 
 selves to the country east of the Alleghany mountains. But 
 in their conflicting pretensions, no regard for the prior 
 rights of the Indians which, in the sight of justice, equally 
 barred the claims of both, was manifested by either. And 
 it is said an Indian chief remarked, with reference to the* 
 two disputants, "The French claim all the country to the 
 west, and the English all to the east and west; where, then, 
 is the country of the Indians?" Truly a question that never 
 has been answered, nor will it ever be. 
 
 Measures were now adopted by both French and Eng- 
 lish for the approaching conflict that seemed would inevita- 
 bly ensue. On the yth of July, I7SS, General Braddock's 
 army was destroyed, which gave the French a complete as- 
 cendency on the Ohio river and its tributaries, and for a few 
 years, checked the operations of the Einglish, west of the Al- 
 leghany mountains. In July, 1758, General Forbes, with 
 an army of seven thousand men, started for the west from 
 
/ HISTORY OF THE tNDIANS. 429 
 
 Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A detachment under Major Grant 
 consisting of Highland Scotch, were defeated on the 13th 
 of September, near Fort Duquesne. Soon after, the French 
 were in turn defeated by the advanced guard under Colonel 
 Boquet. In November, the French army at Fort Duquesne, 
 finding- its inability to cope with the superior force advanc- 
 ing under General Forbes, abandoned Fort Duquesne and ' 
 descended the river to New Orleans leaving the fortress to 
 be occupied by Forbes, who thoroughly repaired it, but 
 changed its name to Fort Pitt, in honor of England's 
 Prime Minister. 
 
 For the first tiiiie the English were now in possession of 
 the upper Ohio; while success had also attended them in the 
 North, In 1759 Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Fort Niagara 
 and Quebec fell into their hands and, in the following year, 
 Montreal also, and with it all of Canada. A few days after 
 the fall of Montreal Major Rogers was sent with forces to 
 take possession of the French posts along the southern shore 
 of Lake Erie and also at Detroit. -' 
 
 In 1663 the treaty of Paris concluded, by which France 
 yielded to England, Canada and New France which embraced 
 all the territory east of the Mississippi River from the source 
 to the Bayou Iberville. The remainder of her North Ameri- 
 can possessions, embracing Louisiana west of the Missis- 
 sippi River and the Island of New Orleans, she soon after 
 secretly ceded to Spain, and thus terminated the dominion 
 of France upon this continent, and with it alike vanished her 
 /vast schemes for power and self-aggrandizement as mistg be- 
 fore the morning sun. ' 
 ' Immediately after the peace of 1763 all the French forts 
 in the west as far as Green bay were garrisoned with Eng- 
 lish troops ; and the Indians now began/ to realize, but too 
 late, what they had long apprehended — the selfish designs of 
 both French and English threatening destruction, if not 
 utter' annihilation, to their entire race. These apprehen- 
 sions brought upon the theati^e of Indian warfare, at that 
 period of time, the most remarkablte Indian in the annals of 
 history, Pontiac, the chief of the Ottawas and the principal 
 sachem of the Algonquin Confederacy. He was not only 
 distinguished for • his noble and manly form, commanding 
 address and proud demeanor, but also for his lofty courage, 
 winning manners and a pointed and vigorous eloquence, 
 which won the respect and confidence of all Indians, and 
 madehim a marked example of that grandeur and sublimity 
 of character so often found among his so greatly miscom- 
 prehended race. .Pontiac had closely watched the slowly 
 advancing powter of the Englishj'and their haughty and de- 
 
430 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 fiant encroachments upon the territoriies of his own people 
 and his entire race. 
 
 When he was'informed of the appoach of Major Rogers 
 with a company of English soldiers into his country, the in- 
 dignation of the forest hero was roused to its highest pitch; 
 and at once he sent a messenger to Rogers, who met him on 
 the 7th of November, 1763, with a request to halt until Pon- 
 tiac, the chief of thfe Nation, should aiTive, then on his way. 
 As soon as Pontiac came up he boldly demanded of Rogers 
 his business and why he had come with his soldiers into the 
 Ottawa country unsolicited? To which Rogers replied; He 
 had no evil designs against his people, nor any of his race; 
 his only object in coming was to remove the French from 
 the country who pretended a mutual friendship and trade 
 between his people and the English. The next morning, 
 after smoking by turns the pipe of peaCe, Pontiac told Rog- 
 ers that he would protect him and his party from the attack 
 of his warriors who were already collected at the mouth of 
 Detroit River to stop his further progress. Major Rogers 
 having arrived unmolested at Detroit, he at once entered into 
 friendly negotiations with many of the -neighboring tribes; 
 after which he left Captain Campbell in charge of the fort 
 and departed on the 2lst of December for Pittsburg. 
 
 The Indians, throughout the whole of the covintry form- 
 erly occupied by the French, regarded the arrogant Eng- 
 lish as intruders, and were indignant at the incomprehen- 
 sible exchange without a voice in the matter; and the smile 
 that might have been observed playing around the mouth 
 of Pontiac when he first met Rogers and his soldiers on the 
 shores of Lake Erie, but concealed the deep cherished 
 hatred he entertained for the PJnglishj even as the rays of 
 the setting sun bedazzle the thundiercloud in the' far 
 distant east; as he had only made professions of friendship 
 as a matter of national policy, that he might gain time to ma- 
 ture his plans for the defense of his pcipple and race against 
 the destruction that seemed approaching. Truly, the far- 
 sighted statemanship evinced in his plans far eifect;ng the 
 expulsion of the English, theirassumed friends but deadly 
 foe^s, and thereby the preservation also of his people and 
 race, proved his possession of an extraordinary courage 
 and an energy of the highest order, liis plan was a sud- 
 den and contemporaneous attack upon all the English ports 
 everywhere in the Indian territories west of the Alle<rhany 
 mountams— at St. Joseph, Green Bay, Ouiateon, Detroit 
 Michihmackmac, Maumee, Sandusky, Niagara, Presque 
 Isle, LeBoeuf, Venango and Pittsburg; the last four men- 
 tioned bcmg m Western Pennsylvania. Could the attack 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDUNS. 431 
 
 ( 
 
 be simultaneous, and ev6ry E)nglish fort upon a line of many 
 hundreds of miles be destroyed' upon the same day, no one 
 would be able to give assista.nce to the'other; while, at the 
 same time, the failure of one attacking party '\Vbuld have 
 no deleterious effect upon the other. Thus' the war might 
 begin and end iii the same day, and the Indians would again 
 be free and in the possessions and enjoyment of the land 
 of their ancestors.: ■.■<:■ ' ,1 
 
 Pontiac first laid his plans before his' own people; the 
 Ottawas, who at once embraced his propositions and gladly 
 ! entered into his plans. He then called for a great council of 
 all the" tribes to be held at a designated point on the Aux 
 Ecarces river. They responded to the call of the mighty 
 Ottawa, whose name was knoWn far and wide ; and it was an 
 assemblage vast of unvarnished, unpanoplied men consult- 
 ing upon plans for mutual protection against a fearful foe 
 threatening their destruction. Then and there was heard 
 the untaught eloquence of nature's orator, the great Pon- 
 tiac, who in strains of wild eloquence appealed to his hear- 
 ers' fears and hopes, their patriotism, their love of freedom 
 and hatred of the English, their oppressors and destroyers; 
 then to their superstitions, by relating a dream in which he 
 told them the Great Spirit (whom all Indians held in great 
 reverence unsurpassed by any nation of people on earth) 
 had revealed to a Delaware prophetjthe path his red children 
 should pursue; and concluded in a wild tone of voice : ."Why, 
 why, said the Great Spirit, angrily to the Delaware prophet, 
 why do you permit those dogs in red clothes to come into 
 your, country and rob you of the land and homes I have 
 given you? Drive them back whence they came. If you 
 need assistance, I will help you." 
 
 That was, enough. The dawn of the morn of their lih- 
 ci-ation seemed gloriously appearing in the East. With 
 Pontiac at their head^a host within himself — and the Great 
 Spirit's promised assistance, failure in the great undertaking 
 was impossible. The foot, prints of the foreign intruder 
 and oppressor were soon to be seen no |inore upon their soil, 
 and, again they Were to be free. A plan of action was adop- 
 ted at once and far and wide, even to the borders of North 
 Carolina, the tribes laid aside their foi-nier feuds, became 
 friends and joined the 'league in common and united effort to 
 rid their common country of its foreign enemies whom they 
 had ignorantly embraced as friends but to find them foes. 
 
 Silenly and unobserved gathered the clouds of the ap- 
 proachi ig tempest, while the quiet or fancied security res- 
 ted upon all. The traders, as usual, traveled from village 
 to village; the idle soldiers dozed away the day in dreamy 
 
432 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 thoughtlessness and all was calm life; yet unseen, journeyed 
 bands of Red Men through the deep solitudes of the forests, 
 until every English fort was hemmed in by mingled war- 
 riors. The day came, and first the traders everywhere were 
 slain. Then every English fort west of the Alleghany moun- 
 tains was at once destroyed through the pre-conceived and 
 pre-arranged plans of the master mind of Pontiac, except 
 four, Detroit, Bedford, Ligonier and Pi,tt. 
 
 Detroit was the most important situation to be taken, 
 since, if captured, it would enable the Indians to unite their 
 hitherto separate lines of pperation, above and below; there- 
 fore, Pontiac, in person, undertook its capture with his own 
 Ottawa warriors. The garrison numbered one hundred and 
 thirty, with forty ""or fifty traders in the village. 
 
 On the 8th of May, 1760, Pontiac, with about three hun- 
 dred warriors, appeared before the gates of the fort, and 
 solicited an interview with the commanding officer, Major 
 Gladwyn; but, alas, for the hopes of Pontiac! A few days 
 before an Indian woman had betrayed the secret to Major 
 Gladwyn, and Pontiac found all on their guard and prepared 
 ior an attack. Yet he delayed not, but ^made a bold attack 
 upon the fort, and adopted every means his ingenuity could 
 suggest to destroy it ; but after a siege of several weeks he 
 withdrew, having learned of the approach of re-enforce- 
 ments for the fort. Thus Detroit was saved by the treach- 
 ery of one of his own race, and Pontiac's hopes utterly 
 thwarted ; and also, as if by miracle, the three above men- 
 tioned forts escaped destruction. The noble, sagacious and 
 patriotic Pontiac afterwards fell by the hand of a traitor 
 and assassin, and with his death perished the last hope of 
 the western Indians, who were soon conquered and humil- 
 iated. Ill fated race I Who but must sympathize with you 
 in your misfortunes. . 
 
 Treaties of peace were then concluded'with the different 
 and disconsolate tribes at Niagara, by Sir William Johnson; 
 at Detroit by General Bradstreet; in Ohio by Colonel Bo- 
 quet; and at the German Flats on the Mohawk river, with 
 the Six Nations and their allies. By these treaties, exten- 
 sive tracts of lands, as usual, were taken from the Indians, 
 as a recompense of reward for daring to fight for freedom' 
 homes and their native land. ' 
 
 The power of the Indians being destroyed, and them- 
 selves utterly humiliated, the whites began to cross the Al- 
 leghany mountains. Millitary land-warrants of incredible 
 numbers had been issued, and a frenzied mania for western 
 lands seemingly absorbed every other desire in the hearts of 
 the people of that period; and which has not abated from 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. . 435 , 
 
 that day to this, but rather increased, as was practically il- 
 lustrated in the Oklahoma craze that added so much "glory'* 
 to these United States, but to the pecuniary loss of the de- 
 frauded' Creeks. Those treaties of 1768, with the north- 
 western and western Indians, and the two made about the 
 same time with the Cherokees at Hard Labor and Lochaber, 
 afforded a pretext under which the white settlements ad- 
 vanced upon the rights of the Indians. It' was now falsely 
 claimed that the Indian title was extinguished east and!, 
 south of the Ohio river, to an indefinite extent, and the" 
 spirit of emigration and speculation rushed headlong over- 
 reason, justice and truth in] all things pertaining to the 
 rights of the Indians. ' , 
 
 The war^in 1774 witji the Indians, known as "Dunmore's 
 War," had its origin exclusively from the cold-blooded and 
 diabolical murders committed upon'' inoffensive Indians by 
 the Virginians in the region of the upper Ohio. Among: 
 {hose murdered by Cresap and Greathouse at Captina andi 
 Yellow Creek, near Wheeling, was the entire family of the 
 noble, generous, but unfortunate Logan. He was, and al- 
 ways had been, the firm friend of the Whites, and the advo- 
 cate of peace; but upon this barbarous outrage he justj^ 
 rushed to war to obtain revenge — his only mode. The S^^a^w^. 
 'nees were also among the murdered, whose tribe, as soon as., 
 it was known, rushed upon the war-path with emotions of ■ 
 anger and revenge that knew no limits, and directed their' 
 vengeance mainly against the Virginians. The Colonialj 
 Legislature of Virginia, then in session, at once adoptee^ 
 measures for the emergency. What measures? Concilia^ 
 tory, by immediately causing the white murderers to be ar-^ 
 rested and handed over to the outraged Indians to be dealt 
 with as they saw proper, and thus manifesting to them that 
 we practiced what we so loudly professed — justice to all — 
 and by so doing, saving the lives of hundreds of innocent 
 persons, white and red? No. But measures justifying the 
 white cut-throats in their crimes by preparing to success-, 
 fully resist the Indians in their righteous appeals for justica 
 even from the bloody hands of war. The Indians only did 
 what we or any other people would have done under similar 
 circumstances. But that "Colonial Legislature" had smelt 
 Indian blood, and four hundred volunteers responded to its. 
 call for more blood, who, under one Angus McDonald, rush-, 
 ed into the Indian country on the Muskingum River, in 
 June, 1774, and burned the towns of the Wappatomica In-, 
 dians, killing many of the inhabitants, nor lost a man. But 
 what was the effect of this "conciliatory" measure of that 
 "Colonial Legislature?" It was [what it expected and, 'na 
 
434 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 V 
 
 doubt, greatly desired. It only served to further exasper- 
 ate the outrag-ed Indians and to excite them to fearless action 
 in defense of their lives and God-inherited rig'hts. What 
 next? Was this act of vandalism — burning the towns of the 
 Wapp^atomicas and killing the inhabitants — a recompense of 
 reward sufficient to Cresap and Greathouse to induce them 
 to again wash their hands in the blood of innocent and un- 
 offending Indians, when desiring to gratify their murderous 
 whims? 
 
 In the following September, Lord Dunmore, the royal 
 governor of Virginia, raised a force of three thousand men 
 to make a raid on the Shawnee towns on the Scioto river. 
 This force was collected in two divisions. The first to ren- 
 dezvous at Wheeling, under Dunmore; the other to cross the 
 Ohio at the mouth of the Kanawha, under Colonel Andrew 
 Lewis. Having arrived there, they encamped. The next 
 morning two soldiers went up the river about two miles in 
 quest of game, and unexpectedly came upon a body of Shaw- 
 nee warriors, who killed one of them, and the other made 
 good his escape to camps with the intelligence. The army 
 was soon on the march in two lines, and when they had pro- 
 ceeded scarcely a half a mile they were met and bravely 
 charged by the Shawnee warriors, upon which both lines 
 gave way and were retreating, when they were rallied by , 
 Colonel Field, and the battle soon became general and sus- 
 tained with obstinate bravery by both gides. The Shawnees 
 judiciously formed in a line across ^)oint from the Ohio 
 river to the Kanawha (the battle being at the junction of the 
 two streams) to prevent being flanked. In this order of bat- 
 tle they maintained the fight with unal)at"ed resolution and 
 bravery from early in the day until nearly sunset, heroically 
 resisting successive charges made upon their line by the 
 whites. , 
 
 The Shawnees were under the command of the dis- 
 tinguished and consummate chief, Cornstalk. His plan of al- 
 ternate retreat and attack was masterly conceived, and 
 paused the chief loss of the whites. Whenever the warriors 
 manifested signs of wavering, his voice was heard above the 
 din of the battle, exclaiming in his native tony^ue, "Be 
 strong! be strong!" Atone time it is said, a warrior near 
 him manifested fear and a reluctance to charge, and Corn- 
 stalk, dreading his pernicious example, struck him dead 
 with his tomahawk. As the evening of the day drew on, 
 and the Shawnees still maintained their position against the 
 most vigorous attacks, and apprehending the consequences 
 that might arise if the battle was not decided before night 
 Colonel Andrew Lewis, sent three companies, who secretly 
 
mSJORY OF THE INDIANS 435 
 
 marched up under the banks of the Kanawha river beyond 
 the upper end pf the Shawnee line, and thus gaining' their 
 rear made an attack. TDhe Shawnees unexpectedly/ finding 
 themselves surrounded on both sides, ' Etnd believing their 
 rear attack was made by reinforcements, soon ga,ve way, 
 and crossing the Ohio river retreated to their villages on the 
 Scioto. But the victory . was dearly bought, the brave 
 Shawnees having killed and wounded two hundred and fif- 
 teen of the whites, while their loss was never ascer- 
 tainedj , , t . , 
 
 In the meantime Dunmore had descended the Ohio river 
 from Wheeling to the mouth of the Hocking. Thence he> 
 marched toward the Shawnee towns on the Scioto. After 
 the battle, Colonel Lewis hastened on with his forces to the 
 same point, "maddened" — as it has 6eeh recorded — "by 
 the loss of so many brave men, and anxious to avenge their 
 fate by the annihilation of the Shawnee villages;" ' 
 
 But before reaching the Scioto, the Shawnees, seeing the 
 folly of attempting to oppose the forces approaching, sent 
 an embassy to Dunmore, requesting peace. He accepted 
 their proposition. A conference was ordered that peace 
 might be ratified. Dunmore then sent orders to Lewis to 
 discontinue his march. He refused to obey orders, nor was 
 it until Dunmore went in person to his ' camp, then on Congo 
 creek,*^ just south of the Shawnee villages, before he could be 
 induced to give up his murderous designs against the In- 
 dians, because they, had dared to avenge the murder of their 
 people by the hands of Cresap and Greathouse. ■ 
 
 Dunmore remained' at his camp, within four miles of the ^ 
 Shawnee towns, where the council was soon convened with 
 the Shawnee chiefs to negotiate peace. The deliberations 
 were opened by Cornstalk, who, in a short, concise and ener- 
 getic speech, delivered with great natural dignity, and in a 
 tone so powerful as to be heard all over the camp. But brev- 
 ity, energy and dignity, so commendable, were noted char- 
 acteristics of the North American Indian orator. In his 
 speech, Cornstalk rehearsed the former power of his race ; 
 the number of their tribes ; the magnitude of their landed 
 possessions and the happiness of the people ; tnfen compared 
 their past to their present feeble condition; to' their forldrn 
 and diminished numbers; to their diminutive landed pos- 
 sessions; to their hunting grounds and gatoe destroyed-^ 
 those gifts of the Great Spirit to his red children— and to 
 the impoverished and humiliating condition of the people. 
 Then he spoke of a former treaty made at Fort Stanwix,' 
 and the great cessions of territory made by them to the 
 pale-faces. Then he pointed to the lawless encroachments 
 
436 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 of the pale-faces upon their lands everywhere, in open and 
 defiant violation of all treaty stipulations; to the forbear- 
 ance of his race for years, under reiterated wrong's, indig- 
 nities and insults heaped upon them everywhere by the 
 frontier white people. He said his (people, as well as all 
 others of his race, knew and deeply felt their weakness, and 
 their inability to successfully contend in hostilities with the 
 whites, and they asked only for justice; that the war just 
 closed was not sought by his people, for it was commenced 
 by the whites without any provocation on the part of his- 
 people or race; that under the same circumstances the pale- 
 faces would have done as they had done ; that if they had 
 failed to resent the unprovoked, cruel and treacherous mur- 
 ders of their relatives and friends at Captina and Yellow 
 Creek, they would have deserved the contempt of all nations 
 of people; that the war was the work of the whites and not 
 of the Indians, for they wanted peace. 
 
 The treaty was concluded, but not before Dunmore, as a 
 manifestation of his confidence in the integrity of the In- 
 diahs, judged from the fallacy of his own heart, had secured 
 four Indian warriors, as hostages to be taken by him to Vir- 
 ginia, and right in the face of the irrefragable truths just 
 rehearsed in his hearing by the noble and patriotic Corn- 
 stalk; proving conclusively, also, that though he knew the 
 whites were wholly in the wrong, yet, like all evil doers, he 
 would shift the blame from his own shoulders to that of the 
 Indians, by making it appear that the Indians could not be 
 trusted; therefore, it was necessary to coerce them by 
 hostages. 
 
 The stipulations of the treaty under consideration made 
 the Ohio River the boundary between the Indians and the 
 white peoploi; the Indians agreeing not to pass beyond the 
 east side of the river, and the Whites agreeing not to pass 
 beyond the west side. Thus was that beautiful river, ac- 
 knowledged for the first time by the Indians, as the boun- 
 dary between the territory of the White Race and the hunt- 
 ing grounds of the Red. 
 
 Great anger was manifested by the officers and soldiers 
 agamst Dunmore, it is narrated by the chroniclers of that 
 war, for making peace and the treaty with the Indians, and 
 their indignation knew no bounds in their disappointment at 
 losing so good an opportunity of indulging their natural and 
 now urgent propensities for a copious draught of Indian 
 blood. Cresap, Greathouse and their crew liad enjoyed a 
 hearty drink awakening also their momentary sleeping 
 thirst; and now, after marching so far only to have the tan- 
 talizing cup dashed from their expectant lips as they were in 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS, , 437 
 
 the very act of enjoying a ffew sips— could poor humanity 
 -endure any greater disappointment and live?, Therefore, 
 long and loud were the curses heaped upon Dunmore for hife 
 unusual act of humanity towards the Indians — inexplicable, 
 except on the supposition, it was said, that Dunmore had re- 
 ceived orders from the Royal Government to make peace 
 with the Indians as quick as possible, and on such terms as 
 might secure their alliance in favor of, the English against 
 the colonies in the expected war that was anticipated with 
 them ; for, as Pericles, so did King George — "Behold war 
 advancing, with wide and rapid stridesi from the Pelopon- 
 nesus," in North America. And thus was 'displayed' the 
 character of that leniency and exhibition of mercy as was 
 displayed on that occasion by Dunmore to the Indians — self 
 interest momentarily checked the thirst for Indian blood. 
 
 But the noble chief, Logan, who mourned the ruthless 
 murder of his entire family by the hands of the white vil- 
 lains, though winked at by the authorities of that law that 
 lay powerless in their hands, as far as regarded the poor and 
 unfortunatip Indians, nobly and justifiably refused to be 
 seen as a suppliant among his brother chiefs, whose anxiety 
 and love for their living families had overcame their natural 
 and manly pride, and had alone induced them to assume the 
 Jiumiliating attitude of suppliants when outraged beyond 
 human endurance; yet, in a private interview with General 
 Gibson, who had been sent as an envoy to the Shawneies, 
 he, though with a broken heart, yet with a calm and manly 
 dignity and in a calm, low and solemn tone of voice, nar- 
 rated the pathetic story of his unsurpassed wrongs and in- 
 juries in the following well known but little heeded words; 
 as they have long since been jjronounced as being above 
 the ability of the Indian; therefore, are the work of the 
 white man, who writhes in agony at the mere mention of al- 
 lowing the Indian any credit for anything that is commenda- 
 ble or meritorious. Thus spake the noble but broken- 
 hearted Indian chief : 
 
 "I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered 
 Logan's cabin hungi-y, and I gave him not meat; If ever he 
 came cold or naked, and I gave him not clothing." 
 
 "During the course of the last .long aqd bloody war, 
 Logan remained in his cabin an advocate for peace. Nay 
 such was my love for the whiiles, that those of my own 
 country pointed at me as they passed by and said, 'Logan 
 is the friend of the white men.' I had even thought to live 
 with you, byt for the injuries of one mail. Colonel Cresap, 
 the last spring, in cool blood, and unprovoked, cut off all the 
 relatives of Logan; not sparing even my women and chil- 
 
438 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 dren. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of 
 any human creature. This called on me for reveng^e. I 
 have sought it. I have killed many. I have satisfied my 
 veng-eance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of 
 peace. But, do not harbor the thought that mine is the joy 
 of fear. Log'an never felt fear. He will not turn on his 
 heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? 
 Not one?" 
 
 Such was the language of a broken-hearted hero. And 
 it is but one'of a thousand of the utterances of mingled pride, 
 courage,' sorrow and despair of the North American Indians. 
 For three hundred years down the line of time to the pres- 
 ent, have their wrongs, in pathetic woe, been expressed and 
 heard, moving to sympathizing tears, the angels of heaven, 
 but awakening no responsive chord in the hearts of the 
 the white men lost, utterly lost, to all else, except the Indians' 
 few remaining acres of land; and who for the securing of 
 which, have made proper arrangements with the devil for 
 future and permanent residences, according to human ideas 
 of justice, with him in the regions below, as a just recom- 
 pense of their reward for services rendered during their 
 stay in his dominions on earth. 
 
 The last years of the old chief were spent in Avandering 
 I about from village to village and from tribe to tribe, a for- 
 lorn, dejected, solitary and lonely old man — a melancholy, 
 yet truthful, exhibition of the horrible falsity of the white 
 man's professed anxiety for the good of the Indian — who had 
 finally yielded/to the crushing weight of despair by the loss 
 of his family and relatives at the hands of white murderers, 
 and the decay of his tribe and race. He also, as did his fam- 
 ily, perished by the hands of an assassin, near Detroit, Mich- 
 igan. He was sitting before his camp-fire with his blanket 
 over his head, his elbows resting upon his knees and his 
 head upon his hands, wrapt in seemingly deep, sad and 
 mournful reflection o'er the scenes and experiences of the 
 eventful past, when an unexpected tomahawk was buried in 
 his bi:ains, wielded by the hand of an Indian. But who does 
 not believe, who knows the sacredness and veneration with 
 which the aged were held by all North American Indians, 
 and the eternal disgrace that ensued to him who killed or 
 even injured an aged oerson, that wheii the fulfillment of the 
 declaration of Holy Writ— "And the books were opened," at 
 the great and last assizes in which man shall be interested — 
 that there and then will be found recorded, 'Logan fell by 
 the hands of a white assassin." The plea in favor of the 
 white assassin's innocence is feeble. Be as it may, so per- 
 ished the aged and grand Indian Chief, Logan. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' 439 
 
 Of the i-enowned Shawnee chief, Cornstalk, it may also 
 be truthfully affirmed that he was a man of true nobility of 
 soul, a wise statesman in the councils of his Nation, and a 
 brave and skillful chief in war. After the battle near the 
 junction of the Ohio river and the Kanawha, he returned to 
 the Pickaway villages and called a council of his people and 
 other contiguous tribes to consult what should be done". 
 When assembled he upbraided them for their want of fore- 
 sight and their injudicious measures adopted in not permit- 
 ting him to make solicitations of peace to the whites, as he 
 desired, on the evening before the battle. "What," ex- 
 claimed he, in his usual loud tone of voice and with great 
 vehemence, '"do you now propose to do? The big knives 
 (referring to the swords of the officer^) are coming on us 
 and we will all be killed, and our wives and children led away 
 into captivity, or scattered as autumn leaves before the win- 
 try winds. Now we must fight in earnest, or we will be 
 destroyed." No reply bejng made, he continued: "Then 
 let us kill all ouf women and children -and resolve to fight 
 until the last warrior has fallen." But still no reply being 
 made, he struck his tomahawk with a mighty blow into a 
 tree standing near, and exclaimed: "But I will go and make 
 peace." ■ To this there was given a universal approval, and 
 runners were at once sent to Dunmore to solicit peace. The 
 result has been given. , . , \ 
 
 But as the immortal Logan, whSse name with others of 
 his race, has elevated the characters of the native Americans 
 throughout the intelligent world,, and whose touching elo- 
 quence can never be forgotten so long as' eloquence is admir- 
 ed by man, fell by the hand of the stealthy assassin, so too 
 was the noble Cornstalk murdered, in the summer of 1777, 
 by some execrable white villains Of the Cresap, Greathouse 
 and Whetzel order, at Point Pleasant, near where the battle 
 had been fought three years , before. He had crossed the 
 ^ river to commutiicate the designs of the English and their 
 allied Indians, as it was afterwards learned. When he saw 
 his murderers approaching, his little son, Elnipsico, trem- 
 bled. His father, upon seeing which, said to him: "Be not 
 afraid. The Great Spirit has sent us here to die together." 
 As the white men drew near he rose up and, with his little 
 Elnipsico, advanced to meet them, when instantly a half dozen 
 bullets pierced their bodies. So fell the great warrior and 
 pure patriot. Cornstalk, whose name was bestowed upon him 
 by his Nation, as their great strength and support. 
 
 Three years later, in the summer of 1780, wfe find eight 
 hundred men, .under Colonel Brodhead, in rendezvous at 
 Wheeling, where six years before Dunmore had collected 
 
•440 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 his forces whom he led in person to exterminate the 
 Shawnees and destroy their villag-es, because they g-rumbled 
 about Cresap and Greathouse butchering a dozen or more 
 of their people regardless of age or sex. Colonel Brod- 
 head, with his eight hundred, are to march against the In- 
 dian villages on the Muskingum river, Ohio. They 
 marched, plundered and burnt a few villages, and captured 
 a number of Indians among whom were sixteen warriors, 
 ■who were led out and, in cool blood, tomahawked and 
 scalped. On the next morning, a noble looking chief, under 
 a promise of protection from Brodhead, came into camp; 
 and while talking with Brodhead in regard to peace, 
 Whetzel secretly stole up behind him, and with one blow of 
 his tomahawk cleft his skull in twain. They now had to re- 
 treat; but before so doing, they massacred all the remaining 
 prisoners, except a few women and childreti; then, when ar- 
 rived safely at home, enjoyed a higher degree of complacency 
 'in imagined self-importance in having taken a few villages of 
 Indian wigwams and butchering helpless prisoners, than 
 .did Cyrus in taking Babylon, or Titus, Jerusalem. 
 
 ^ In the early part of the year 1763 two Moravian mission- 
 aries. Post and Heckewelder, established a mission among 
 the Tuscarawa Indians, and in a few years they had three 
 flourishing missionary stations, viz: Shoenbrun, [Gnaden- 
 .brutten and Salem, which were about five miles apart and fifty 
 miles west of the present town of Steubenville, (Jhio. During 
 ■our Revolutionary War*their position being midway between 
 the hostile Indians (allies of the British) on the Sandusky 
 River, and our frontier settlements, and therefore on the di- 
 rect route of the war parties of both the British Indian allies 
 and the frontier settlers, they were occasionally forced to 
 give food and shelter to both, which aroused the jealousy of 
 both the Indian allies of the English and the American front- 
 iersmen, although they preserved the strictest neutrality. 
 
 In February 1772, the American settlers (nothing more 
 •could be expected) assumed to believe that the Moravian, or 
 ■Christian Indians; as they were called, harbored the hos- 
 tile Indians; therefore they pl'onounced them enemies, 
 and at once doomed them to destruction. Accordingly on 
 the following march, ninety volunteers, under the leadership 
 •of one David Williamson, started /or Gnadenbrutten where 
 -they arrived on the morning of the 8th, and at once sur- 
 rounded and entered the station; but ^ound the most of the 
 Indians in a field gathering corn. They told them they had 
 come in peace and friendship, and with a proposition to 
 move them from their unpleasant and dangerous position 
 between the two hostile races to Kort Pitt for their better 
 
 J 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIAirS. 441 
 
 Iprotection. The unsuspecting- Indians, delighted at the 
 suggestion of their removal to a safer place, gave up their 
 few arms used for hunting alone, all the kind they h^d, and 
 commenced preparing breakfast for their guests and' also 
 for themselves. The still unsuspecting Indians at once sent 
 a i^unnen to Salem to inform the brethren there of the new 
 arrangement. After eating breakfast, both Indians and 
 whites returned from the field to Gnadenbrutten; and, on 
 reaching it, a number of the whites started on their horses 
 for the Salem station, but met the Salem Indians already on 
 their way, through the advice of the messenger, to join their 
 brethren at Gnadenbrutten. In the meantime, the, whites, 
 who had remained at Gnadenbrutten, had secured the In- 
 dians whom they had already decoyed into their power, by 
 binding them, and confining them in two separate houses 
 under a strong guard. As soon as the party from Salem 
 came up (their arms having been previously secured with- 
 out awakening any suspicion of hostile intention), they- were 
 also placed in fetters and confined in the two prison-houses 
 with their brethren, the men in one, and the , women and 
 children in the other. The number thus, seized. ,and im- 
 prisoned, including men women and children, were ninety- 
 six. What next? . . ' 
 A mock council was then convened to decide what dispo- 
 sition should be made of their victims. Upon this horrid 
 tragedy the late Dr. Doddridge, in his published notes on 
 Indian wars, says : "Colonel Williamson put the question, 
 'Whether the Moravian Indians should be taken pris- 
 oners to Fort Pitt, or put to death?' requesting those who 
 were in favor of saving their lives to step out and form a 
 second rank. Only eighteen out of the whole number 
 ' stepped forth as advocates of mercy, in these the feelings 
 of humanity were not extinct. In a majority, which was 
 large, no sympathy was manifested. They resolved to mur- 
 der (for no other word can express the act) the whole of the 
 Christian Indians in their custody. Among these were sev- 
 eral wJio had contributed to aid the missionaries in the work 
 .of conversion and civilization, two of whom graduated from 
 New Jersey after the death of their spiritual father, the 
 Rev.. David Brainard. One woman, who could speak good 
 English, knelt before the coramanfter and begged his pro- 
 tection. Her supplication was Unavailing. They were or- 
 dered td prepare for death. But the warning had been an- 
 ticipatecl. Their firm belief ifi their new creed was shown 
 forth, in the sad hour of their tribulation, by religious exer- 
 cises of preparation. The orisons of the devoted people 
 were already ascending the throne of the most high 1 The 
 
442 HISTORY OF THE IN^JIANS. 
 
 sound of the Christian's hymn and the Christian's prayer 
 found an echo in the surrounding woods, but no responsive 
 feelingf in the bosom of their executioners. With gun and 
 spear, tomahawk and scalping-knife the work of death pro- 
 gressed in these slaughter-houses until not a sigh or moan 
 was heard to proclaim the existence of human life within. 
 All, save two — two Indian boys — escaped, as if by a miracle, 
 to be witnesses in after times of the savage cruelty of the 
 white man toward their unfortunate race. 
 
 I "Of the number thus butchered by thos^ backwoods- 
 men of Ohio between fifty and sixty were women and chil- 
 dren — some of them little babes. No resistance was made; 
 one only attempted to escape. The Whites finished the tra- 
 gedy by letting fire to the town, including the slaughter- 
 houses with the bodies in them, all of which were consumed. 
 A detachment was also sent to the upper town, Shoenbrunn, 
 but the people having received information of what, was 
 transpiring below, had deserted it." 
 
 Reader, what think you now of the justice in still call- 
 ing the Indian an irreclaimable savage, when our motto in 
 dealing with the North American Indians from the alpha to 
 the omega has been — "Massacre and burn" until barbarity 
 could go no further? 
 
 I agree that in every instance pointed out, that I have ex- 
 amined, the Indians imbibed their treachery from motives 
 of self-preservation against their skilled teachers in the art 
 of treachery and hypocrisy — to many of whom such arts are 
 intuitive. The Indian is a diplomatist — as much so as the 
 white man — and his habits are formed from thos^ of the 
 Whites with whom he had to deal and from whom he had to 
 defend himself. I have never known, in my personal experi- 
 ence of seventy-five years, a single instance where kindness 
 failed vto go straight home to the Indian's heart, or was not 
 fully reciprocated. 
 
 In 1780 Colonel George Clark erected Fort Jefferson on 
 the Mississippi River, in the territories of the Chickasaws, 
 a few miles below the mouth of the Ohio, and on his return 
 from Fort Jefferson he organized a company of one thousand 
 men, in July, made a secret and rapid raid into the Miami 
 country, plundered and, burned the Pequa villages on Mud 
 River and also the Chillicothe villages on the Little Miami, 
 murdering all the unfortunate Indians that fell into their 
 hands with fiendish delight— and returned in triumph with- 
 out loss. 
 
 In the year following, 1781, the Chickasaws, justly indig- 
 nant at the erection of Fort Jefferson upon their soil, be- 
 sieged it under the command of the great Colbert. As us- 
 
raSTORY OF THK INDIANS. 443 
 
 nal everywhere for evei-y act of injustice heaped upon the 
 Indians, the Whites have been sustained; therefore, General 
 Clark hastened from Kaskaskia with re-inforcements, upon, 
 the arrival of which the Chickasaws drew off a little dis- 
 tance. Soon after, however, Clark dismantled the fort, re- 
 turned to his own, and the Chickasaws quietly returned to 
 their homes. 
 
 In the year 1799, when the remnant of the Moravians 
 were recalled by the United States, in the plenitude of their 
 mercy which required just twenty-seven years to mature, 
 an old Indian, in company with a young- white mail by the 
 name of Carr, visited tlie desolate and melancholy scene, and 
 an excavation was pointed put by the did man, which had 
 formerly been a cellar, and in which were still some moul- 
 dering bones of the victims, though 27 years had passed 
 since their tragic death, while the tears trickled down the 
 wrinkled face of that aged child of the Tuscarawas. 
 
 At the time of the diabolical massatre, but little more 
 than one-third of the Moravian Indians were af their villages 
 on the Tuscarawas, the others having been induced by the 
 hostile Indians>to move and settle at Sandusky in their vi- 
 cinity. Soon after the return of Williamson's meii what 
 may be called a second Moravian campaign was projected, 
 the object being first to complete the destruction of the 
 Christian Indians, at their new establishment on the San- 
 dusky river, murder-the Wyandott Indians on the'same river, 
 then plunder and burn their villages. Having had a taste of 
 blood warm from the veins of Christian Indians, men, 
 women and children, like the tiger man-eater of the B^ng-al 
 jung-les, it proved mor'e palatable to their taste sines' there 
 was no impedimentto obstruct a full display of their manhood 
 ;and heroic bravery in butchering and drinking the blood of 
 the Christian Indians, who stood as helpless before th^ffl as a 
 little girl of ten years in the spring of the Bengal man-eater, 
 they naw determined not to spare' the lives of any Indians 
 who might fall into their clutches, whether friend or foe, 
 old or young, male or female, all from the decrepit in years 
 to the babe in its swaddling clothes. Such was the modus 
 operandi adopted by the professed civilized and Christian 
 race to gather the Native Americans into the folds of the re- 
 ligion of the world's Great Redeemer, and prac.ticed from 
 that day to this plainly shown in the butchery of the western 
 Indians by the two modern Caligulas, Sherman and Sheri- 
 dan and their subordinates, by Mr. Manyperiny in his "Our 
 Indian Wards." 
 
 ' On the 20th of May, 1792, four hundl-ed and eighty hu- 
 man monsters, impiously called men, collected from the 
 
444 HISTORY OP THE INDIAJJS. 
 
 country of the upper Ohio at a point, then known as the 
 "Old Mingo Town^," to carry out their diabolical schemes, 
 and there raised one of their number, William Crawford, to 
 the position of their commander. 
 
 Notwithstanding the secrecy of their murderous 
 schemes, the Indian scouts — the best the world ever pro- 
 duced — learned the place of their rendezvous in the Mingo 
 bottom, where they ascertained their number and destina- 
 tion. Every encampment after their departure was visited 
 by those Indian vigilknts, whose skill in obtaining facts 
 from signs alone seemed superhuman. Every scrap of pa- 
 per and chip that was found jn the place of encampment 
 ■with marks made upon them were picked up and carried at 
 once to the Moravian Indians, who had fled from Shoenbrunn 
 at the time of the slaughter of their brethren and settled at 
 Sandusky; who, having been taught to read and write by 
 their spiritual guides — the white missionaries — read the 
 •writings upon the scraps of paper and chips: "No quarter 
 to any Indiana-man, woman or child." 
 
 The march of the whites was directly through the 
 Moravian villages, the scenes of their former butchery. On 
 the 6th of June fhey reached the Moravian villages, on a 
 branch of the Sandusky river ; but, instead of finding inno- 
 cent and helpless Indians to murder and plunder, they 
 found only vestiges of desolation. A few huts scattered 
 here andthiere, alone remained to tell of their blighted hopes 
 and bitter chagrin, in being thwarted in their grand designs 
 of besieging, taking and destroying an imagined North 
 American Nineveh, Babylon and Jerusalem, and thus have 
 their names and heroic achievements engraved upon the 
 rolls of fame with a Cyaxares, a Cyrus and a Titus. Alasl 
 for hurrian hopes! The scraps of paper and the chips injudi- 
 ciously left at their encampments had warned their intended 
 victims, who had fled; and with them set the sun, whose 
 rayfe were to light up the pages of their imagined glory 
 through all future generations with such brilliancy that 
 one, though a fool, might run and read, nor err therein. 
 Could American ambition aspire to anything greaterl It 
 seems not from the history of the past. For our foolish 
 boasting over the sacking of a few Indian villages and butch- 
 ering the sleeping inhabitants, the accomplishment of which 
 always eliciting the soul animating and flattering ejaculation: 
 "Too much praise cannot be awarded the officers and sol- 
 diers for their bravery and heroism disfplayed in the fearful 
 conflict." While our great generals enjoy in dreamy frenzy 
 their fancied flight to their roost upon the pinnacle of earthlv 
 fame, there to revel in imagined glory, and feel themselves. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 445 
 
 as Cyrus, encompassing the walls of Ancient Babylon and 
 gazing with admiring and contemplative mind upon its lofty 
 bjattlements, as they listen to the noisy shouts of the rabble 
 below, and the call of the sensational newspapers, "Sheridan 
 to the front! To arms! To arms! The Greek! The Greek! " 
 When rumor whispers on a cloudy day, "Ah Ind.ian failed to 
 answer at roUxall on such a reservation." 
 
 But what of Crawford and his band of murderers? 
 Maddened at their disappointment in not obtaining a few gal- 
 lons of Indian blood to cool their raging thirst, they resolved 
 to proceed one day longer on their hunt j. aiid then if no In- 
 dian villages with their unsuspecting inhabitants were found, 
 to retreat. But on the n^xt day, about 2 o'clock, they foUnd 
 the object of their search, but not a helpless village of Chris-, 
 tian Indians in thoughtless security, but a well organized 
 body of fearless Indian warriors ready to face their ruffian 
 invaders in open battle. At once the conflict was opened, 
 and contitaued with unabated vigor until dark, each party 
 lying upon their arms during the night to prevent sur- 
 prise. The next morning at a deliberation of officers, 
 Williamson, the leader at the massacre of the Gnadenbrutton 
 and Salem Indians, proposed to go .with one 'hundred and 
 fifty volunteers to upper Sandusky, which proposition was 
 promptly rejected upon the grounds that their divided forces 
 would be attacked in detail and destroyed. The day, there- 
 fore, was spent in burying the dead and making prepara- 
 tions for a night retreat; since, to fight wide awake Indians 
 was not in their vocabulary of warfare in seeking military 
 fame. But the Indians, suspecting their intentions, and de- 
 siring to give them a full and quenching draught of Indian 
 blood, renewed the attack about sunset with renewed vigor 
 and fearless resolutions from all sides except that toward 
 Sandusky. The white marauders unable to withstand the 
 urgent desires "to live, that they might fight on s'ome other 
 day," which then seemed to overbalance the desires to fight 
 at night live and wide awake Indians, began a retreat with 
 their thirst for Indian blood somewhat abated, since the 
 price of it had gone up to such an unexpected and pxtrava 
 gant degree that prudence forbade further indulgence unUi 
 they should return home and recuperate their now weakened 
 desires. But many, with the heroism displayed at Gnaden- 
 brutton, believing the wide awake Indians would follow the 
 main body, broke off into small detached parties and hurried 
 in different directions toward their then much desired 
 homes. All these the wide awake Indians pursued in equal 
 detachments, overtook an^ sent them to their long .homes 
 where they might quench their thirst with something 
 
446 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 strong-er and more enduring than the blood of Christian 
 Indians. < 
 
 Soon after the retreat had gotten under full headway, 
 Crawford, having missed his son and several other relatives, 
 halted and vainly searched the line as it passed along for 
 the objects of his solicitation, and waited too long in anxious 
 expectation of learning something conc^erning them, for in 
 attempting to overtake his retreating army, he with one 
 Dr. Knight and a few others, after the' third day's ride was 
 captured by the victorious Indians. They were all taken to 
 an encampment in the vicinity, and next morning their cap- 
 tors, under the command of the Delaware chief, Pipe, 
 started with them for a Wyandott village, but slew all ex- 
 cept Crawford and Knight before reaching it. When at the 
 village, Crawford recognized among ihe Indians the re- 
 nowned Shawnee chief, Wingenund, with whom he had long 
 been acquainted and between whom a mutual friendship ex- 
 isted. Crawford at once made an appeal to Wingenund to 
 intercede in his behalf. But to his solicitations Wingenund 
 calmly replied: "I am not unmindful of our former friend- 
 ship; and cheerfully would I now assist you in your misfort- 
 une, were you in any other place but this, and were you still 
 what I once thought you to be." To which the despairing 
 Crawford i-eplied: "I have been engaged only in honorable 
 warfare." Then what must be dishonorable warfare? But 
 to which reply, Wingenund, with a significant look, re- 
 sponded: "I might possibly have been able to save you had 
 you not joined Williamson in murdering the Moi"avian In- 
 dians without discrimination of age or sex knowing they 
 were innocent of all wrong." "Had I heen with him I 
 would not have peVmitted the cruel act," replied the 
 wretched Crawford. "That may be all true," replied the 
 chief; but Williamson went a second time and killed more of 
 the Christian Indians." "But I went out and did all I could 
 to stop him," said Crawford. "That may also be true, but 
 "you cannot vmake the Indians believe it; for, when you were 
 marching here, you turned aside with your soldiers and 
 went to the Moravian villages, but found them deserted. 
 Our scouts were watching you and saw you do this. Had 
 you been looking for warriors, you would not have gone 
 there, for you knew the Christian Indians are foolish and 
 will not fight. I shall take no pleasure in your death, 
 though you have forfeited your life. Had we also captured 
 Williamson, we might spare your life; but as we have 
 failed in that, you must take his place. I am unable to save 
 you." 
 
 Crawford still implored him to interfere in his behalf. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' ,447 
 
 "but the chief assured him that it would be o:^ no avail, and 
 at once tui-ned away and left the hapless and now hopeless 
 captive to his fearful fatej which was , witnessed by. Knight, 
 who had also been condemned to a similar fate, bnt fortu- 
 nately made his escape shortly after the execution of Craw- 
 ford. All the prisoners captured in this marauding- cam- 
 paign were slain, in retaliation for the butchery of the Del- 
 awares, then known as the Moravian Christians. Crawford's 
 son was executed\t a Shawnee town. 
 
 ■ The account given by Knight of the execution of Craw- 
 ford need not be i-epeated here. All should denounce, with 
 a united voice, executions liy fire, no matter^ how great the 
 crime of the culprit. <But let God, and not guilty man, be 
 the judge between the white executioners of the ninety-six 
 Christian Indians, guilty of no offense; therefore, the dupes 
 of the vilest, treachery, and the Indian executioners .of their 
 white prisoners of war, invaders of their country bearing 
 the banner with the inscription : "No quarter to any Indian 
 of any age or sex," and carrying death, destruction and de- 
 vastation every where in their route. Though a howl of 
 indignation rent the air at the announcement of Crawford's 
 fearful death by Knight, but not a whimper at the brutal 
 execution of the ninety-six Moravian Indians. Such is the , 
 justice the White Race has awarded the Rpd from the alpha 
 to the omega of their dealings with that unfortunate people; 
 
 But two years previous to the invasion of Crawford and 
 his four hundred and eighty merciless vandals, thirteen hun- 
 dred men — if men they may be called — made a raid from 
 Cincinnati, under the command of General Harmer, against 
 the Indian villages on the Maumee river. W(hen within a 
 short distance. Colonel Hardin was sent forward with six 
 hundred and fifty meij to reconnoitre, who found the villages 
 deserted. On the next day when the main btidy came up 
 the work of ' pillagb, destruction and, desolation was com- 
 menced. The villages, some containing, upwards of three 
 hundred houses, were plundered and burned^ their fruit 
 trees cut down, and over twenty thousand bushels of corn 
 destroyed. Such was the work of those who really believed 
 themselves to be civilized, and the acpepted followers of 
 Jesus Christ. Should the devil be discouraged! 
 
 But while this vandalism was going on, Hardin was 
 again sent forward, but with only one hundred and fifty men, 
 to follow up a little trail, hoping it would lead to other vil- 
 lages which might also add to their beastly propensities a 
 little more joy. But they had not proceeded many miles, 
 cogitating the emotions of heroic pride that must swell their 
 breasts to a danger of bursting, when, returned to their 
 
448 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 homes, they should be encircled with wife and children, each 
 asking innumerable questions — "Papa, did you kill an In- 
 dian? Papa, why didn't you bring- me a little pap-poo-sy to 
 play with? Papa, wasn't you fraid?" This was a poser. 
 But the wife came to the rescue — "No, my son. Papa 
 wasn't fraid"; and the momentary cloud passed off, and 
 papa's . features assumed again their wonted appearance of 
 heroism. But the pleasant reverie of future narrations of 
 bloody strife mid scenes of carnage in burning, deserted 
 villages, cutting down fruit trees and destroying corn, was 
 cut short by the reality in the shrill and defiant war-whoop 
 seconded by the united report of a volley of rifles in the 
 hands of a band of outraged, insulted and maddened In- 
 dian warriors under the noted chief, Little Turtle, and 
 twenty-six of the white marauders kissed their mother 
 earth, while the remaining one hundred and fifty-four bade 
 Little Turtle and his band of paitriots a hasty adieu without 
 even returning their morning salutation by the discharging 
 of a single gun. 
 
 As soon as the fugitives returned to the main body and 
 gave the information that live and wide awake Indians were 
 at hand, it was suddenly ascertained that pressing business 
 at home required their attention, and a retreat at once be- 
 gan. On the next morning, however, Colonel Hardin and 
 Major Willis returned, with a force of 340 militia and 60 reg- 
 ulars, to the burnt villages, hoping to find that the old men, 
 women and children had returned to view the scene which 
 portrayed the destruction of their homes and their earthly 
 all, and thus would be afforded an opportunity of adding to 
 the glory of their precious barbarism, the butchery of their 
 contemplated victims without danger to themselves, and 
 thus add another wreath of unfading glory to the chapter of 
 their already attained heroism, and also one to be placed upon 
 the angelic brow of their Government, as an imperishable 
 trophy of its success in disseminating her so-called glorious 
 principles — "Liberty and equal rights to all mankind" — and 
 humane efforts to civilize and christainize the native Ameri- 
 cans. As they approached the melancholy scene of smoking 
 ruins, a few forlorn hopes were seen running from the oppo- 
 site end of that place of desolation, and who were at once 
 pursued, as the Indians desired, by the .340 militia. When 
 the chase had drawn them to a proper distance, the live Lit- 
 tle Turtle and his wide awake band of warriors charged the 
 regulars and, ere the militia could return, sent the last one 
 of them, with Major Willis, to where Indian lands excite 
 covetousnessno more. The heroic militia returned near 
 the close of the fight, fired a few random shots as they hur- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. '" ' '■",-. 4)J9' 
 
 rtedly passed, and then, with retiewed S|,ctivity and increased ' 
 animation, sought the mainN body, ' leaving thfe dead and ' 
 wounded regulairs in the hands of the victorious chief and 
 his warriors. ' ' ' '" '' '■''.'' " 
 
 The ferocious vandalism displayed liy 'the white intrud- 
 ers and devastaters of their homes and country, aroused the 
 Indians to that degree of manly and vigorous efforts of self- 
 protection that, they would have broken up' the settlements 
 of the white intruders had it not been for the total destruc- 
 tion of their provisions- knd homes' jUst at the opening di 
 winter. "'" '"' 
 
 In May, 1791, a fdrce of 750 men from Kentucky, under 
 Charles Scott, crossed the Ohio river and plundered and 
 burned several Indian villages on the Wabash river, murder- 
 ing thirty of the inhabitants, capturing fifty-eight, and re- 
 turned home in three weeks withoilt loss; all of which was 
 regarded only as a little freak of fun— a'little pleasant rec- 
 reation for the jolly boys- \ 
 
 The following August, a company pf 550 similar "jolly 
 boys," under Che James Wilkenson, left Fort Washington 
 to complete the work of destruction upon the Indians on the 
 Wabash river, which Scott and his gang; had so successfully 
 begun. Wilkerson also was successful in burning many 
 towns, cutting down all their fields of corn, killing several 
 and capturing thirty-four. 
 
 But while theseplunderers were committing their dep- 
 redations upon the W*abash and its tributaries, the war 
 department of theUnited States was engaged iaorganizing 
 an army of three thousand men, by directions of congress, 
 to invade the territories of the northwestei-n Indians, to be 
 placed under the command of Governor St. Clair. This 
 force encamped on the night of the 3d of November, 1791, ' 
 on a tributary of the Wabash river. On th6 following morn- 
 ing, a little before sunrise, the bold and patriotic Indians 
 made a vigorous attack upon the advanced guard, who were 
 encamped about p, quarter of a mile in front of the main 
 body, which was encamped in two lines, with a space of a 
 hundred yards or more between. The guard at once gave 
 way, and in a wild frenzy of fright rushed headlong over the 
 camp-fires and camps of the first lin^e, closely pursued by 
 the outraged Indians, who, however, were niomentarily 
 checked by the fire of the first line. At once they made a 
 terrific charge upon that line, and almost simultaneously 
 upon the second line also, and the battle became general at 
 once. In a short time the heroic Indians had penetrated, 
 into the camps, and though charge after charge was made 
 upon them, yet each was met with the bravest resistance.. 
 
450 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Finally a desperate charge was made by the whites to regain 
 the road from which they had been cut off. This was suc- 
 cessful, and then began the retreat 'vyhich soon terminated 
 in a reckless flight, which began abou^ 9 in the morning and 
 continued to Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles from the field 
 of battle, reaching the Fort about sunset. 
 
 The Indian warriors — heroes every one of them — 
 were commanded by those consummate chiefs and warriors, 
 Red Jacket, Little Tvirtle and Bukongahelas, and nymbered 
 about two thousand. The government lost 900 killed and 
 wounded, among whom were forty-nine commissioned 
 officers. Red Jacket, Little Turtle and Bukongahelas had 
 only about 60 killed ; wounded .unkn.ow'n. ■; ' 
 
 Thus the Indians were depred^ited upon by the various 
 campaigns of marauding parties from, every where, killing, 
 destroying and laying waste their homes and country, which 
 aroused their patriotism to that pitch of enthusiasm that 
 caused them to fight with a desperation unsurpassed in the 
 annals of man. 
 
 In April, 1792, General j Anthony Wayne was appointed 
 by the general government to take command of the North- 
 western Army. 
 
 Qa the 5th of the following November a hundred men 
 fiom Kentucky, under Adair as captain, made a raid across 
 the Ohio River into the Indians' country, but the indefatiga- 
 ble Little TufUe and his band of heroee met him and, in a 
 severe fight, defeated him, with heavy loss, and drove him 
 back to his own. 
 
 In the spring of 1793, during the arrangements that 
 were being made for Wayne's campaign. Congress sent com- 
 paissioners to the Northwest Indians to negotiate a treaty 
 on the bas^is Of the treaty made at Fort Harmer in 1789. 
 This treaty-making with the Northwest Indians was not a 
 step with the view of civilizing the Indians and bringing 
 them under the benign influences of Christianity, nor was 
 the organization of Wayne's army for the purpose of pro- 
 tecting them from the raids of the marauding companies of 
 white marauders, robbers and thieves, who invaded their 
 country whenever they desired ; but for the accomplishment 
 of a scheme for robbing the helpless Indians of their coun- 
 try and homes. ' , , ' i 
 
 The commissioners called a council of the Indians to be 
 held at the mouth of the Muskingum river. Nqw, it is a 
 known fact, that the Congress of the United States never 
 did assemble any tribe or tribes of Iiidians upon the North 
 American continent from 1776 to the present time, for the 
 humane purpose of consulting with tlicin upon mcasui-es 
 
 ) 
 
HISTORY OF THE mDfkNS. , 451 
 
 relating to their civilization and Christianity. ' Never. But 
 to rob and swindle them out of their - country was the only 
 motive for a council, and I challenge successful contf-adic- 
 iion. About twenty Indians, from about the same inumber 
 of tribes, responded to the commissioners' call, and as- 
 sembled at the designated place. They justly denied the 
 validity of the treaty made in 178'9, . at Fort Harmer, as it 
 had only been made by representatives of six of the tribes, 
 who had no power or right to cede the territories of the 
 ■other tribes, and Congress knew it, as well as the Indians. 
 But that infamous game of secretly making a sham pur- 
 chase of lands from a tribe or two, and then extend the claim 
 over every tribe whose lands were coveted, and then back 
 the diabolical proceedings by seizing it vi et armis, then 
 .burning their homes, cutting down their orchards, destroy- 
 ing their every means of support", and murdering them in 
 col(^ blood, all,' without distinction of age or sex,' because 
 they dared to raise a hand in self-defense, has been our plan,* 
 and only plan, of dealing with the North Amferican Indians 
 from first to last. 
 
 The deputation of Indians mentioned above jvistly insis- 
 ted on the treaty of Fort Stanwix, made, in 1767, which es- 
 tablished the Ohio River as the boundary, and boldly affirm- 
 ed that the Whites must conform to that treaty, as they had 
 made no other with them; and move from their territories,, 
 west of the Ohio River, if they desired peace with the In- 
 dians. But the commissioners still pointed to the two trea- 
 ties of 17S4 and 1789, in which they affirmed the United , 
 States had bought large bodies of land which they had de- 
 termined to hold. How clearly this old precedent, handed 
 down from that day to this, was illustrated iii the securing 
 of the /Oklahoma Territory, and also that from the Sioux, 
 in which fraud, falsehood, hypocrisy and rascality are the 
 only characteristics that are visible in the whole? 
 
 But the commissioners, finding the Indians immovable 
 and strenuously appealing to the treaty of 1768, and know- 
 ing that they had truth, justice and honor on their side, and 
 judging that noble race of the long ago, who then were free, 
 pure and even unstained by the vices of the White Race, 
 whose very breath seemed pollution to them by the fallacy of 
 their own polluted hearts, offered pecuniary inducements to 
 them to confirm the treaty, then endeavoring to be made 
 with them, the vast tracts of land in the Ohio country which 
 were claimed by the treaty of Fort Harmer in' 1789, made 
 with six.little tribes alone. If that treaty was' just and valid, 
 what necessity was there in calling a councilof those Indians 
 to make another treaty in regard to those identical lands? 
 
452 HISTORY, OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 And why did Congress instruct thoSe commissioners, if ca- 
 jolery and threats would not avail, to resort to their last ar- 
 gument — bribery. 
 
 But those ancient Indian patriots could not be bribed. 
 It would have been as easy for those commissioners to have 
 turned the sun from its course as those twenty native Amer- 
 ican chiefs of a century ago from the paths of honor. Nor 
 would they agree to any other boundary line thart the Ohio 
 River, proposed by the Whites, accepted by the Indians' and 
 established by both irj the treaty of- Fort Stanwix in 1768. 
 The council adjourned and the bull dogs of war were untied 
 and turned loose upon the Indians. Why? Because they re- 
 fused to sell/ their country. That's all. Congress knew 
 they would not give up their country by the bogus treaty of 
 1789; and it knew that it had no more^ just claims to those 
 vast tracts of land than it did to the throne of Queen Vic- 
 toria. But the United States had the power, but not the 
 hbnor, therefore Ahab took the land. 
 
 Wayne at once took up the line of march for the Indian 
 territories, in Ohio. On his march, he built a fort where 
 Greenville, Ohio, is now situated. In October 1793, the 
 Seemingly indomitable Little Turtle and his warriors made 
 an attack upon Lieutenant Lowry, who, with ninety men, 
 Avas conveying supplies for the apmy, and killed Lowry 
 ..and fourteen of his men, and captured ninety horses. 
 
 Wayne remained at the ne\vly erected fort until the 
 spring of 1794 making every preparation for a successful ex- 
 terminating campaign against the Indians, who were con- 
 centrating their strength upon the Maumee river, and also 
 making every preparation that their meager means would 
 admit to repel their plundering invaders. On the 27th of 
 July, Wayne, with an army of 4000 men, started upon his 
 depi-edatory and exterminating work upon the Indians. 
 August 4th, found him on the St. Mary's river, 47 miles 
 from the fort. There he erected another fort and 
 named it Fort Adams, garrisoni.ng it with one hun- 
 dred men. He again resumed his march, and, on 
 the 8th of August encamped 103 miles from his first fort. 
 On the morning of the 20th hecamoto the encampment of 
 the Indians on the bank of the Maumee river, and the battle 
 opened, which resulted in the defeat of the Indians, though 
 they fought with heroic bravery, and, says Wayne in his re- 
 port of the battle "exposed their persons in an unusual de- 
 gree, and seemed determined to conquer or perish." 
 Wayne remained three days after the battle, burning their 
 houses, destroying their - cornfields and everything that 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. • i '453 ' 
 
 could be ilcstrdyed, above and below forififty miles on each 
 ■side of the Maumee river. . ^ 
 
 This barbarous destruction of their villages and vast 
 corn fields that spread for fifty and sixty miles along- the 
 banks of the Maumee and Auglaize rivers, reduced the In- 
 dians to such privations and suffering's," that they were 
 forced to sue for peace; and on the 3rd of August, 1795, 
 Wayne concluded a treaty of peace with the northwest 
 tribes, in which the Indians were forced to make concessions 
 of large tracts of land, as usual in. all siich cases; for fight- 
 ing for liberty and their native land. '. .' 
 
 . But here, as in the middle watches of the night, I will 
 close this cursory review of the fearful sufferings and cruel 
 destruction Of that portion of tlje human family, who were 
 
 - seldom equalled and never surpassed in the annals of the 
 world for patient endurance and patriotic heroism %yhen bat- ■ 
 tling for their homes and native land against the irdn heel 
 of tyranny, and who formerly possessed and inhabited the 
 northern and western part of this continent as a free and 
 happy people; then fell into the hands of 1? ranee, and sub-.j^ 
 ' seqiifently into those of England, to be finally handed over ■' 
 to the United States as old and useless goods and chattels; 'C 
 And though I have but exhibited the mere skeleton of their- ' 
 wrongs and woes inflicted by the hands of .white civilization 
 and professed Christianity, yet I will return to i^y subject, 
 the Chickasaws, from which I have so long and far wsin- 
 dered ; not to repose in htope of a fairer morn in tracing the 
 
 ^ line of their history, since there can be no hope expected in 
 this age abounding, as all heretofore^ have, more with vice 
 than with virtue. 
 
 While the English east of the Alleghany mountains were 
 adopting active, but secret measures, to stcj|p.- the progress 
 of French colonization on the banks of the Mississippi riv6r, 
 their traders^were meeting the French traders every where 
 among the southern Indians, and their mutual animosity and 
 competition causing frequent quarrels, oft terminating in 
 collisions, in which the unfortunate Indians always became 
 involved on the one or the other side. But the French, af an 
 early day had excited, the animosity of the Chickasavvs by 
 failing to protect a band of their ^ warriors who had solicited 
 an escort from Mdbile to their homes, tjirough the Choctaw 
 Nation, with whom they were then at war; but in passing 
 through the Choctaw Nation, though under a French escort, 
 they were slain to a man by the Choctaws. The Chickasaws, 
 believing it was done through the connivance of the French, 
 never forgave them; and in all the quarrels between the 
 French and English traders they took sides with the latter, 
 
(454 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. I 
 
 and finally became the firm and undeviating friends and 
 allies of the English, and the piost bitter enemies of the 
 French, giving them more trouble than all the other southern 
 tribes, and whom they regarded as the most dreaded enemies- 
 among all the Indians in the Mississippi valley. ' 
 
 Their territory lay exactly between the French settle- 
 ments in Louisiana and Illinois and thus made all intercourse 
 extremely dangerous. The high point upon which Mem- 
 phis, Tennessee, is located, then known as the Chickasaw 
 Bluffs, was a favorite spot selected by the shrewd and wily , 
 Chickasaw warriors from which to make their attacks upon 
 the French boats ascending and descending the river. Bien- 
 ville, then governor and commander of the French colonies 
 in the Mississippi valley, adopted' every possible method to 
 retaliate upon that brave Nation, and too often succeeded in 
 arraigning the Choctaws, his allies, against the Chickasaws 
 — much to his great jov and satisfaction, but greatly to the 
 injury of the two injudfcious and misguided tribes. In 1719 
 he succeeded in influencing the Choctaws to declare war 
 
 . ^^gainst them, and in which they, by the assistance of Bien- 
 ville in the way of arms and ammunition, defeated the Chicka- 
 saws in several hard contested battles, and so weakened 
 
 ' th^m that they for awhile ceased their attacks upon the 
 French, though retaining, to the fullest extent, their' hatred 
 *nd animosity toward them. Bienville, in one of his letters 
 regarding this fratricidal war he had so effectually brought 
 about between those two kindred and warlike Nations, ex- 
 ultingly said: "The Choctaws, whom I have set in motion 
 against the Chickasaws, have destroyed entirely three vil- 
 lages of this ferocious Nation, which disturbed our com- 
 
 -> merce on the river. They have raised about four hundred 
 scalps, and m^de one hundred prisoners. Considering this 
 state of things, it is a most important advantage which we 
 have obtained, the more so, that it has not cost^ one drop of 
 French blood, through the care I took of opposing those 
 barbarians to one another. , Their self-destruction operated 
 in this manner is the sole efficacious means of insuring tran- 
 quility to the colony." 
 
 It now seems almost incredible that such a crazed infat- 
 uation should possess the Choctaws a? to so utterly blind them 
 from comprehending the dark design,s of Bienville whep ar- 
 raigning them against their own race, and especially against 
 their kindred Chickasaw brethren. 
 
 In July 1720, the English traders among the Chick- 
 asaws involved them in turn in a war with the 
 French,, by influencing them to kill Serigney, a French 
 officer, whom Bienville had sent among them to in- 
 
HISTORY QOF THE INDIANS. 4S5 
 
 ' '' ■ ' • ,■ . t 
 
 duce them to withdraw/ from the English and give 
 their trade to the French. Thus Aid the EJnglish 
 and French use thd inconsiderate and misguided Native; 
 Americans to advance their own intei:ests, and sacrifice them 
 upon the altar of their avarice in -settling their disputes and 
 quarrels: Unfortunate racel Too credulous that perfidy 
 could not dwell in the hearts of such professed white 
 friends! , t 
 
 In 1731, after the destruction of the Natchez as a Nation, 
 a few of whom had fled to the brave and generous Chicka- 
 saws for protection, Governor Perier, who had been ap- 
 pointed commander of the colony in the place of Bienville,' 
 then deposed and recalled to France, sent orders • to the 
 Chickasaws to drive the Natchez" fugitives out of their terri- 
 tories, if they did not wish to secure his animosity; to this 
 insolent command; they heroically replied: "We neither 
 respect you as a friend, nor fear you as an enemy. We 
 have extended the hand of friendship and safety to the 
 unfortunate Natchez, and how to protect them." This 
 heroic but defiant message caused the conceited little Frencli 
 governor to foam with rage; and he at once resolved upon 
 immediate war upon "those insolent savages"-^but a Na- 
 tion of heroes, and, as an introductory to his designs, 
 adopted measures without delay to again array the Choctaws 
 in hostilities against them, but evidently not without just ap- 
 prehensions of success; for in a letter written at this time 
 to his government by Beauchamp, the commander at Mo- 
 bile, he said: "The Choctaws are not friendly disposed to- 
 wards us, which is greatly to be regretted; for should this 
 tribe declare against us, we should be compelled to abandon 
 the colony. The Natchez war principally endangered the 
 traders on the Mississippi river, but a Chickasaw vvar 
 \<7ould cause apprehfension throughout the whole colony. 
 They have already sent three emissciries to seek the al- 
 liance of the Illinois Indians against us, who, however fell 
 into our hands, and Governor Perier intends ordering them 
 burnt." 
 
 Such rough measures and cruel punishment inflicted 
 upon the Indians, without any just cause whatsoever, from 
 thatdayNto this, by those who professed and taught the hu- 
 mane and pacific principles of Christianity, drove them to 
 justly abhor the white race, and to justly retaliate upon 
 them' sixty fold, if justice can be found in retaliation any- 
 where. 
 
 But Perier was disappointed in carrying out his warlik e 
 designs against the Chickasaws, and thus avenging th e 
 imagined insult offered to the governor of an obscure littl e 
 
456 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 French Colony somawhere in the wilds of America; for in 
 1733, Bienville after an absence of eight years, was rein- 
 stated as governor in the place of Perier. It was at this 
 time the king of France fully determined to firmly establish 
 his supreme authority throughout the entire valley of the 
 Mississippi, then called Louisiana. But that little, yet 
 seemingly indomitable, Chickasaw Nation, stood in the path, 
 as did the Iroquois years before at the Great Lakes of the 
 North; and though the French openly derided the Chicka- 
 saws, yet they secretly dreaded them, and not without just 
 cause. It was they, who had influenced and encouraged the 
 Natchez to attack and destroy the F.rench at Fort Rosalie, 
 November 28th, 1729, which however, ultimately resulted in 
 the overthrow and annihilation of the unfortunate (Natchez 
 themselves. It was the\' who had successfully debarred all 
 communication betwjeen the French colonies at Kaskaskia and 
 New Orleans, by sustaining their independence, thus weak- 
 ening the French upon the continent by a division of their 
 possessions; while the English traders from Virginia and 
 the Carolinas — the uncompromising rivals and inveterate 
 enemies of the French in securing afoot-hold by which to 
 establish their permanency upon the territories of the 
 southern Indians — were welcomed by the Chickasaws in all 
 their towns and villages find throughout their entire terri- 
 tory. Therefore to speedily secure and successfully retain 
 the eastern valley of the Mississippi for the French, it was 
 necessary to first overthrow the Chickasaws; and, either by 
 utter annihilation or reducing them to abject subjection, 
 destroy the power of that defiant and seemingly unconquer- 
 able people. "They must be wiped out" was the fiat of the 
 French, and thus were they made an object for extermina- 
 tion by as formidable combination of enemies as ever sought 
 the destruction of a single Nation; yet, over that seemiijgly 
 irresistible combination, as will be fully shown, they suc- 
 cessfully and gloriously triumphed, after a long and fearful 
 struggle of eighteen consecutive years, alone and unaided 
 except by a few Natchez refugees. 
 
 After Bienville was reinstated, he at once resolved to 
 put into execution the hostile measures of Perier against 
 ^e Chickasaws, and spent the whole year (1734) in futile at- 
 tempts to induce the Choctaws to make war upon that still 
 resolute and defiant people; but at this juncture of affairs, a 
 Choctaw chief by the name of Shulush Humma (shoes redj 
 appeared upon the stag? amid those vacillating scenes of 
 strife and carnage, who proved to be as shrewd a diploma- 
 tist as he was a brave and consummate warrior; and well un- 
 derstood how to shuflle his cards to the best advantage, as 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS i 457 
 
 he oscillated between the assumed humble solicitations of 
 the Eng^lish and the French foi* the favor of his coveted air 
 liance, with a skill that would have done crfedit to, and elic- 
 ted the admiration and praise of the greatest statesmen of 
 civilized Nations.y. But the French proved unsuccessful; for 
 Bienville inducec^Shullish Humma to undertake a war expe- 
 dition with a thousand warfiors ag-ainst the ■ Chickafeaws, 
 with whom Bienville also sent Lesuer, a French officer,. with 
 thirty soldiers. But the ever vigilant Chickasaws had 
 learned of the whole proceedings, and at once sent a dele- 
 gation under a white' flag to meet them and buy/them off 
 wilh English goods of which they had a large amount; in 
 this they happily succeeded; and the war party returned 
 home, without attempting any further -.demonstrations of 
 hostilities, except Shulush Humma; who, for no other' ap- 
 parent reason than that of shame to return to Bienville: with- 
 out having made some demonstration, attacked a little 
 Chickasaw village with a few of his warriors as.he. was on 
 his way home; but was at once repulsed, with a loss of four 
 of the attacking party. ■ ■ 
 
 Bienville could scarcely resti-ain his feelings of bitter 
 disappointment at the unexpected turn of affaii-s; and 
 though greatly disconcerted, he appeared indifferent so far 
 as to renew the former treaties of alliance with the Choc- 
 taws, as he well knew the salvation of the French colony de- 
 pended wholly upon the friendship and the aid of that then 
 powerful tribe of skillful and fearless warriors. But dur- 
 ing the interval of those protracted negotiations, the Choc- 
 taws, through some unknown cause, became divided into two 
 parties, or factions, one in favor of the English, the other 
 of the French, both of whom had been making, for many 
 years, the most indefatigable efforts to secure to their re- 
 spective and exclusive interests that, then, justly drfeaded 
 Nation of Indian warriors. 
 
 But the ever watchful Chickasaws, aided alone by the 
 avenging Natchez refugees, were not idle during the slow 
 and dubious negotiations of the Ff-ench with the Ghoctaws 
 to secure and rptain their ..alliance, but boldly attacked the 
 French whenever and wherever an pppprtiinity presented 
 itself; and especially the Natchez, enraged 'with a burning 
 sense of their long series of wr6ngs, outrages arid misfort- 
 unes at the hands of the French, sought everywhere to 
 avenge their nation's destruction, and deeply. felt: 
 
 "What though the fields be lost 
 I All Is not lost— the unconquerable will 
 
 And study of revenge, Immortal hate, 
 And courage never to submit or yield, j; , , 
 And what IS else not to be overeome. " 
 
458 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 ' But the Choctaws evidently cherished a desire for peace 
 for having captured three Frenchmen, an officer named Du- 
 Cader, a sergeant, and a private soldier, they requested 
 DuCader to write to Bienville and inform him that they de- 
 sired peace; and as a manifestation ofth^ir sincerity, they 
 made the soldier the bearer of the letter to ,Bienville, re- 
 questing him to also confirm the statements set forth 
 therein. The soldier arrived safely |n New Orleans, and 
 delivered the letter to Bienville, informing him also of the de- 
 sires of the Chickasaws. But Bienville at once wrote back 
 to DuCader, that he would not make peace with the Chicka- 
 saws; nor would he sacrifice the interests of the French Na- 
 tion to the safety of two men; therefore he and the sergeant 
 must make the best of their misfortune by escaping, other- 
 wise suffer the consequences. DuCader and the sergeant, 
 under the disguise of securing peace, flid eventually outwit 
 the Chickasaws and made their escape, returning safely to 
 New Orleans. 
 
 It was now plainly evident that Bienville had determined 
 not to accept any terms of peace with the Chickasaws, but 
 had fully resolved to prosecute the war of .extermination 
 which he had inaugurated against them, until that brave 
 little Nation of patriotic heroes was totally and forever blot- 
 ted out. A resolution afterwards adopted by the English, 
 the successors of the French, against all Indians; and when 
 they, in turn, handed over the sceptre of power on the North 
 American continent,v Canada excepted, to the United States, 
 they also bequeathed to them, as a sacred legacy, the in- 
 junction, "Extermination of the North American Indians"; 
 and how faithfully they have persisted to the accomplish- 
 ment of that desired object, with unwavering diligence and 
 unfaltering resolution, unsurpassed in the annals of the 
 world, the feeble little remnant of that once free and happy 
 people still left sufficiently testify. 
 
 Bienville immediately wrote to the French Minister of 
 Marine earnestly asking for four additional companies of 
 troops to be added to his forces, then amounting to only two 
 hundred men; and with which h# did not feel justified in 
 risking the "glory and honor of the Ii>ench arms" in a battle 
 with the Chickasaws, "who could call into the field foVir 
 hundred and fifty warriors." His appeal was acknowledged 
 by the arrivil,' soon after, of more troops; and Bienville, 
 without further delay, commenced his preparations for an 
 exterminating expedition against the still resolute and de- 
 fiant Chickasaws, with an avowed determination to wipe 
 them out as a Nation and take possession of their territory. 
 Elated with the flattering prospect of the complete success 
 
HISTORY Ol!' TtiE INDIANS. I 4S9> 
 
 of his plans, he organized two armies, one in Mobile, then in 
 the Choctaw Nation; the other in Illinois; the former to be 
 commanded by himself, the latter by D'Artag-uette, then 
 governor of the Illinois district.: The two were to form a 
 junction by the 31st of March, 1736, in the Chickasaw Ter- 
 ritory at the village, where, 196 years before, DeSoto had 
 wintered, and had received a just rebuke to his folly in re- 
 garding that people to be a race of "savage cowards." 
 Bienville had instructed D'Artaguette to meet him with all 
 the French troops he could possibly collect, and also with as 
 many warriors of his Indian allies'as he could get. This in- 
 vasion, with the avowed purpose of exterminating the Chick- 
 asaws was planned and undertaken by the direction of the 
 French government, "whose solicitude was anxiously turned 
 jto it with high anticipations of a successful result." 
 
 But, as precursive of failure, Bie'nville was unable to- 
 leave Mobile with his army until the 4th of April; and slowly 
 ascending the devious windings of the Tombigbee river, the 
 troops reached Fort Tombigbee on the 23rd, which had been 
 built 250 miles above Mobile on the western bank of the 
 river by a party sent forward for that purpose. At this, 
 fort Bienville secured the aid of 600 Choctaw Warriors (his 
 old friends and allies) by presents and promised rewards- 
 for each a.n,(l every Chickasaw scalp, which increased his 
 force to twelve hundred men. Thus prepared to wreak his 
 long cherished vengeance, Bienville again began his tedious 
 way up the windings of that crooked stream to a point then 
 called "Tunmuntucche (Where the bow was strung)" — cor- 
 ruption of the Choctaw word Tumuhushi, signifying village. 
 — and afterwards known as Cotton Gin Port, twenty-one 
 miles southeast of the famous great village of the Chicka- 
 saws then called Chikasahha, but afterwards the "Chickasaw- 
 Old ffields," which he reached- on the 22nd of May, and: 
 there landing his army, he threw up a temporary fortifica- 
 tion, in which he placed his artillery, and sent out Choctaw 
 scouts to obtain information of D' Artaguette. On the 25th 
 of May, with sanguine expectations of soon "honoring the 
 French arms" by successfully defeating and exterminating 
 that little Nation of heroic patriots, Bienville, leaving a 
 strong guard to protect his boats; took up his line of march 
 toward Chikasahha, and arrived within three miles of it the. 
 samejiay, and there encamped for the night, during which 
 the Choctaw scouts returned, but without having ascertained 
 anything concerning D'Artaguette. Bienville at once des- 
 pairing of all hopes of D'Artaguette's co-operation, resoled 
 to risk an attack alone, being numerically as three to one^f 
 the Chickasaws; therefore, before daylight on the morning- 
 
460 mSTORV OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 of the 26th, he stealthily marched upon what he expected to 
 lind a village of unsuspecting and sleeping inhabitants; a 
 plan so judiciously adopted and successfully executed by the 
 modern Sherman and Sheridan style of "military heroes" 
 whose military fame Tested alone upon their skill in pounc- 
 ing upon sleeping Indians and butchering them regardless 
 of age or sex. 
 
 But Bienville's disappointment in not finding D'Ar- 
 taguette in v waiting was only surpass'ed by finding the ever 
 vigilant Chicicasaw warriors, who had kept themselves well 
 posted in all his imagined Secret movements, calmly waiting 
 for him, fully, .prepared and ready to extend to him the 
 hearty, livelyand entertaining reception due him as the rep- 
 resentative of the "honor of the French arms" (.upon whose 
 escutcheon they read "Extermination, root and branch, to 
 all Chickasaws") frdta behind the strong fortifications with 
 which they had encircled their ancient and houored city over 
 which the British flag also waved in flaunting defiance, while 
 here and there within the fortifications were seen a few 
 prodigal sons of Old England, as they, like spectres, flitted 
 with hurried steps from side to side. 
 
 The Chickasaws had protected theii- favorite city with 
 five forts, each well provided with loop-holes; also a. larger 
 one constructed of logs placed upright and firmly in the 
 ground in near and convenient proximity to the five smaller 
 parts, and in addition to this they had strongly fortified 
 houses. During the first day Bienville miade two unsuccess- 
 ful efforts to storm this Chickasaw log and dirt citadel, but 
 was quickly driven back, with great loss; for upon both 
 charges the innumerable loop-holes that studded the forti- 
 fications seemed a zone "of fire and a hail-storm of leaden 
 bullets swept the ranks of the besiegers. Kor three succes- 
 sive days did the Frc'nch attempt to scale the log and dirt 
 walls of that little fort, but to meet with defeat, for the 
 Chickasaw warriors met them at every [point and heroically 
 disputed every inch of ground. Thus for three days in 
 seemingly "doubtful scale the battle hung"; each charge 
 meeting with repulse, and forcing the assailants back be- 
 yond the reach of the rifles whose ihessengers of death 
 were directed by the keen eyes and steady nerves of as brave ( 
 and resolute patriots as ever defended home and native 
 land from the usurping footsteps of tyranny and oppression. 
 It IS stated, the French soldiers had provided them selves 
 with wooden breast-plates as a protection from the Chicka- 
 sawarrows, which it was believed would be the only weapon 
 wi% which they would have to contend. No wonder their 
 astonishment was great, when, instead of a shower of ar- 
 
' , HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 461 
 
 rows to rebound' from their breast-plates, a hailstorm' of 
 leaden bullets greeted them, against which their wooden 
 shields were as gossamer. ,) i ;. 
 
 But the six hundred Choctaw wan-iors regarding the 
 French as nothing short of idiots to thus ch'arge upon and 
 shoot at logs instead of a visible enemy, remained at a Com- 
 mendable distance during the three days fight,, calmly con- 
 templating and discussing the apparent folly and 
 seeming indiscretion of the French; and easily discerning 
 ^^ the inevitable result of such a mode of proceedings they at 
 once bade the French and Chickasaws an informal adieu, 
 and sought their distant Tiomes by devious ways and means 
 known to themselves alone., The morning of the 29th of 
 May, 1735, found Bienville badly whipped and in inglorious 
 retreat with his army for his boats, vigdrously pursued' b'y 
 the victorious and exulting Chickasaws, who followed closely 
 upon the heels Of the retreating and disorganized soldiers, 
 pouring into their unpaddied backs voUej- after volley \of 
 leaden messengers of death; and thus terminated Bienville's 
 exterminating invasion of the Chickasaw country, a disas- 
 trous defeat with the loss of mafey men killed, wounded and 
 capture^. " f- 
 
 On May 30th, Bienville, throwing his few pieces of light 
 artillery into the river, hastily embarked with his army, and 
 greatly humilated and despondent in regard to the "honor 
 of the French arms" entrusted to his care, paddled down the 
 river, leaving the brave Chickasaws in quiet possession of 
 their homes and country, and, on the last of June, landed his 
 crest-fallen troops on the banks of the Bayou St. John. 
 -Thus was Bienville justly chastised,, under a just provi- 
 dence, by the indomitable Chickasaws with a force lessthan 
 one-half of their assailants fully confidertt of success yet de- 
 testable in the avowed use of their anticipated - victory. 
 Truly, if ever gallant defense of country and homes merited 
 the admiration and applause of mankind, those ancient 
 Chickasaws did. 
 
 The cannon thrown into the river were found in its bed 
 near Cotton Gin Poi't, during a low stage of the water, by 
 the early settlers of ihe state of Mississippi, and were be- 
 lieved by the uninformed and credulous, to have belonged to 
 DeSoto, and thus marked the spot where he crossed the 
 Tombigbee river in his memorable raid through the Chicka- 
 saw territories in 1740 arid 1741. 
 
 But What of D'Artaguette and his invading army from 
 the Illinois district? Alas! Bienville learned the sad intelli- 
 gence after he returned to New Orleans that D'Artaguette 
 had arrived in the Chickasaw territory according to the time 
 
462 HISTORY OF THE iJlDIANS. 
 
 desigpnated, hence many days in the advance of him, and 
 when he had advanced close to Chikasahjia he also, as 
 Bienville afterwards did, sent out Indian scouts to obtain tid- 
 ing's of him, who soon returned without gaining any infor- 
 mation. But the next day a courier brought a letter, to D' 
 Artaguette informing him that Bienvillfe would not be able 
 to reach Chikasahha before the first of May, and also instruc- 
 ted him to govern his movements in accordance thereto, 
 upon which D'Artagfuette immediately called a council of his 
 officers and Indian chiefs who at once, and unanimously, ad- 
 vised an immediate attack; to which D'Artaguette yielded, 
 and forthwith marched on with His army numbering 130 
 French soldiers and 360 Indian warriors, and made a bold 
 and fierce attack upon Chickasahha. But equal was their 
 astonishment, with that of Bienville afterwards, when SCO 
 Chickasaw warriors and 30. Englishmen suddenly made a 
 furious charge upon them from behind a hill, near the mouth 
 of a creek called Nita Bok (Bear Creek) and with such fear- 
 less impetuosity accompanied with the terrible Chickasaw 
 hoyopatassuha (war-whoop) that the Indian allies fled pro- 
 miscuously in wild disma^, though the French soldiers 
 stood their ground and bravely fought until forty-five of their 
 number were killed, then began a slow and orderly retreat, 
 which was soon discovered by the Chitkasaws who, with an 
 exultant war-whoop, made a fearless charge upon them 
 which at once destroyed all order among the soldiers and 
 caused them to fly panic-stricken, terminating in a complete 
 and disastrous rout. Shouting their wild and exulting war- 
 cry, the victorious Chickasaws pursued the frantic fugitives, 
 killing fifty and wounding many others. At this juncture 
 the hand of Providence seemed to be stretched out in behalf 
 of the French fugitives; for a furious sstorm suddenly arose 
 and raged with such terrific fury that further pursuit was 
 stopped, or scarcely one would have survived to narrate the 
 story of their utter destruction. The victory of the Chica- 
 asaws was complete, and the booty secured in the camp out- 
 fit of the French was highly prized, especially the guns and 
 ammunition which amounted to 450 pounds of powder and 
 12,000 bullets, which they soon after brought into re- 
 quisition in defeating Bienville. Also a large amount of pro- 
 visions were taken and many horses captured. But D'Arta- 
 g^uette was not as fortunate as Bienville. He and Vincennes, 
 the second in command, and a Jesuit priest were taken pris- 
 oners and all were burned at the, stake according to the 
 North American Indian mode of revenge, and also in strict 
 accordance with the example set before them in 1731 by 
 (rovernor Perier, who had burned the three Chickasaw war- 
 
HISTORY OF THE hTd^ns. 463 
 
 riors sent by their Nation to seek the alliaVice of the Illinois 
 Indians, but Unfortunately fell into his hands while on their 
 mission. If the seeking , of aid from others merited death 
 at the stake, how much more does seeking the destruction 
 of an entire Nation merit a similar fate. The Chickasaws, 
 but executed the old primitive law — "An eye for an eye and 
 a tooth for a tooth"— in perfect harmony with their white 
 foes when killing Indians. ' i 
 
 A youth sixteen years of age, it is stated, led the> Sur- 
 vivors of that unfor|tunate battle safely back froni their dis- 
 astrous defeat to their homes in Illinois; and thus terminated 
 the expedition- of D'Artaguette to assist Bienville in the utter 
 extermination of the Chickasaws. Many prisoners were 
 also taken by the Chickasaws in the defeat atld retreat of 
 Bienville to his boats, all of whom perished at the stake. Dur- 
 ing the fearful tragedy, a Jesuit Priest, also a prisoner, pro- 
 posed to his- fellow prisoners, as they waited their inevitable 
 doom, that they all march together into the fire and thus' ex- 
 hibit to the Choctaws how Frenchmen could die; to which all 
 ■ consented, provided he would lead the way. Then com- 
 mending their souls to God, they together chanted the 
 miserere as the signal for starting, and all calmly and reso- 
 lutely marched up and threw themselves into the flames and 
 perished together. The Chickasaws were so astonished at 
 this unexpected movement that they looked on the scene in 
 silence and made no opposition whateve^;. and such was the 
 finale of Bienville's hopes to destroy the peace-seeking 
 Chickasaws root and branch. Had he been taken prisoner 
 by the Chickasaws and suffered death at the stake, instead 
 of his soldiers, even mercy mi^ht have exclaimed: \"He. 
 merited his fate." But such personages, who will sacrifice 
 the lives of thousands of their own people' to gratify a re- 
 vengeful spirit in seeking the deestruction of the objects of 
 their hate, are always endowed with that character .'of 
 travery and great presence of mind that ' enables them to 
 bring "self " safely out of all danger, no matter how great, 
 sufiicient evidence of the advantage possessed over the com- 
 mon soldier in having a military education which so plainly 
 inculcatds the art of keeping before in all reti'eats from a 
 pursuing enemy. ' 
 
 Years afterward, the old Chickasaws oft rehearsed to 
 the missionaries the traditional account of their two great 
 victories over, the French, and proudly displayed to their 
 view, as trophies, many relics of the two battles which com- 
 >memorated the defeat of D'Artaguette and Bienville. 
 
 There is a little incident connected with the battle in 
 which D'Artaguette and his army ^ere destroyed that mer- 
 
464 -HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 its a place in memory, while bordering- on the romantic, yet 
 ting-ed with melancholy and sadness. In the pursuit of the 
 fugitives. of D'Artaguette's routed and fleeing army a young- 
 Chickasaw warrior named HHkukhlo hosh (the humming- 
 bird) captured a littlfe French girl S years of age, named 
 Nancy. The chivalric young warrior spared the child, and, 
 captivated by her wonderful beauty, there and then resolved, 
 in the coming future, to make the pale-face maiden his wife. 
 In acjbordance therewith The Humming Bird watched over 
 his little captive protege and prospective wife from innocent 
 childhood to bea,utiful womanhood with zealous care, having" 
 her trained and educated in strict accor'dance with the most 
 approved Chickasaw style of etiquette, while he ever mani- 
 fested to her a proper reserve, attended with the greatest 
 respect and devotion as she grew to womanhood. In the 
 course of years his unwearied and undeviating devotion was 
 reciprocated by French Nancy, as she was called-f which be- 
 ingdiscovered by her attentive guardia:n and faithful lover, 
 he at a proper time solicited the hand of his fair protege in 
 marriage, and was accepted. Indue time the nuptial cere- 
 mony was performed in accordance to Chickasaw custom 
 and usages, while the flowers and birds of the forest con- 
 tributed their incense and music, and the Chickasaw maid- 
 ens envied the bliss and good fortune of the strange but 
 beautiful flower that had budded and bloomed as an exotic 
 among them. French Nancy raised a family and lived to a 
 great age. , Rev. T. C. Stuart, the missionary, stated he saw 
 her and mide her acquaintance in 1821, at which time she 
 was 91 years of age, according to the year she was captured 
 (1735) by Hlikukhlo, at the^ge she was said to be at the time 
 of her captivity. She remembered some of the circum- 
 stances of her capture and seemed to delight in narrating 
 them. She still retained her European features, said Rev. 
 T. C. Stuart, but in every other respect was Chickasaw. 
 She was respected, honored and loved by the entire Chicka- 
 saw Nation, and regarded as a living monument of their 
 victory over their inveterate enemies, the French. She died 
 and was buried at Monroe, the old missionary station. 
 
 Through the instigation of The French the war was 
 continued between the seemingly infatuated and blinded 
 Choctaws and Chickasaws during the entire year 1737, yet 
 without any perceptibly advantageous results to either. A 
 long and bitter experience seemed wholly inadequate to teach 
 them the selfish designs of the French. No one can believe 
 the friendship of the French for the Choctaws was unas- 
 sumed. They were unmerciful tyrants by whatever stand- 
 ard one may choose to* measure them, and without a redeem- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 46S 
 
 ing quality as fax- as their dealings with ]the North American 
 Indians go to prove; and their, .desire for thp good of ' that 
 race of people utterlyl out' of the question; and with fequal 
 truth may the same be affirmed of the entire'White Race, 
 whose universal opinion was just wise enough to' measure the 
 Red Race by the standard found in their own souls; there- 
 fore the North American Indian^ were called savages, anil 
 have been so denominated to this day, and are now made the 
 foundation of innumerable and, ridiculous myths. But Bien- 
 ville, still chafing like an eijiraged bear, undei- the mortifica- 
 tion of his defeat by the brave and 'p^ifriot^c Chickasaws, 
 which but increased his desire and determination to destroy 
 them and blot out their very name, devpted tjie year 1739 to 
 preparation for another exterminating inyasion into, the 
 country of that sedmingly indomitable people; and, as an in- 
 troductory step to the more successful accomplishment and 
 full realization of his designs, he sent an embassy, in March 
 1739, to the Choctaws to conciliate their good will and obtain 
 l:heir aid. And strange as it may apjpear, Bienville secured 
 thirty-two villages out of forty-two to the interests of the 
 French, while, through the instigation and influence of Shu- 
 lush Humma, the. remaining ten decided in favor of the 
 English. , 
 
 And now, for the first time in their history, the Cbocr 
 taws were divided, into two parties. ' Shulush Humma, elated 
 with his success in securing to himself, even ten villages, 
 made a clandestine visit, with about a hundred of his war* 
 riors, to the English settlements in now the State of Georgia, 
 but for what purpose, it was never satisfactorily ascertained. 
 By some, it was thought, he desired to adopt measures of 
 mutual action between the English and his party against the 
 French; by others, that he was influenced alone by, the hope 
 of reward. Be it as it may, he, through the influence of 
 some unknown cause, suddenly changed his course of action," 
 and, returning home, at once declared himself in favor of the 
 French; soon after which he, to establish his sincerity, 
 burned three English warehouses and then started, without 
 delay, with a band of his warriors, on a war expedition, 
 against the Chickasaws, ' 
 
 Bienville was greatly pleased at the turn Shulush 
 Humma had taken, as with the assistance of the entire Choc- 
 taw Nation, his long cherished hopes of exterminating-^ the 
 Chickasaws would now be fully realized,. But to make his , 
 second attack upon them a sure and coiilplete success with- 
 out the possibility of failure, he adopted every measure pos- 
 sible that might strengthen his plans; therefore called into 
 requisition all the available troops he could command not 
 
466 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 only in Illinois and Canada, but even obtained troops from 
 France; and still to be more sure, he chose a diflferent route 
 from that by the way of the Tombigfbee river, to again in- 
 vade th^ country of that little Nation of heroes for the 
 avowed purpose of their exterminatioUi He bow determined 
 to ascend the Mississippi river to a point on its banks, to be 
 previously ascertained, nearest to Chikasahha, from which he 
 had been so uncivilly and expeditiously induced to leave a 
 few years before; this point was found to be near the 
 mouth of a little creek called Margot, a few miles below the 
 present city of Memphis, Tennessee, and about 120 miles 
 from Chikasahha, the object of his unrelenting- and diaboli- 
 qal vengeance, but whose sun of ancient glory still lingered 
 on the western horizon, as if loth to set, and still displayed 
 an effulgence of patriotism, which few nations could sur- 
 pass, not even boasting France, of which Bienville was a 
 subject. 
 
 The forces to be drawn from Illinois and Canada were 
 to assemble on a river then St. John in now the state of 
 Arkansas, with their headquarters on the bluff then called 
 Chickasaw Bluff, on which is now located Memphis, Ten- 
 nessee. By the last of June, 1739, 1200 French soldiers and 
 2400 Indian warriors (allies of the French) had congregated, 
 and the doom of the Chickasaw patriots seemed inevitably 
 sealed. But the hand of Providence was again stretched 
 out for their protection; for inexplicable causes delayed the 
 French" army at the place of rendezvous during the whole 
 .summer; in the intervening time, many soldiers, especially 
 those from France and Canada, fell victims to the diseases 
 peculiar to that malarial climate; in addition to this, their 
 supply of provisions failed, as fully half, whiqh had been 
 forwarded from Fort St. Francis failed to reach their place 
 of destination; and also 250 horses and 60 beeves, sent 
 from Natchitoches, were lost enroute; nor was the march- 
 ing route to Chikasahha fully established until nearly two 
 months of exploration had been spent, by which time (Jan- 
 uary 1740) their provisions were exhausted. 
 
 But Bienville, still smarting and fretting under the rec- 
 ollection of his severe chastisement, and burning with a 
 spirit of revenge that the utter exterm'iuation of the Chicka- 
 saws could only quench, obstinately refused to accede to any 
 measures that tended to giving up the expedition, until 
 coerced by, a council of war convened in February, which 
 declared a retreat absolutely indispensable. Immediately 
 the mam body of the army began its retreat down the Mis- 
 sissippi river, March. 1740. But Celeron, the commander of 
 the Canadian troops, with 100 Canadian soldiers and 500 In- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 467 
 
 <lian warriors, determiii/ed, upon his own responsibility, to 
 ,:g-o on to Chikasahha, and at once tfeok up his line of march 
 accordingly. But the Chickasaws, ever on the alert, and 
 fully aware of the great army organized to invade their 
 country with the avowed purpose to exterminate their Nation 
 without regard to age or sex, and also of the approach of 
 Celeron, whom they believed (fortunately for him) was but 
 -the van of the French army, sent an embassy to him to treat 
 on measures of peace. Celeron at once accepted their prop- 
 osition, and told them to report to Bienville, whom they 
 soon overtook on his retreat to New Orleans. The Chicka- 
 saws evidently did not comprehend the true state of affairs 
 at that time, for, had they truly known the demoralized state 
 •of the French, the peace embassy, instead of following after 
 Bienville, would hav? hastened home, and at once prepared 
 to receive Celeron, ^Vhom they could easily halve defeated, as 
 they^ had D'Artaguette and afterwards Bienville. 
 
 But Bienville gladly (yet unmanifested) accepted the pro- 
 positions of peace, yet stated to them that the terms agreed 
 upon would not include the Chocktaws in the stipulations, 
 and, therefore, theiy would still continue the war against 
 them, and he would also continue to pay to the Choctaws the 
 promised reward for every Chickasaw scalp taken by them 
 until they should satisfactorily remunerate to them for the 
 many injuries (creatures of Bienville's own begetting) they 
 had done them. Celeron at pnce returned to Fort Assump- 
 tion, on the blufffi, which he destroyed apd then started 
 with his soldiers for their distant Canadian homes; while 
 Bienville, with his troops, sought his southern post at New 
 Orleans, there to hide his deep mortification under the cloak 
 of false pretences. And thus his second exterminating cam- 
 paign against the Chickasaw patriots also evaporated in 
 smoke — the mountain labored — and brought forth a diminu- 
 tive mouse. And that brave little handful of heroes whom 
 Bienville once declared "so formidable as to threaten the ex- 
 istence of the colony," and afterwards represented them "as 
 being the source of not much . uneasiness to the colony," 
 nobly held their own, and still maintained their independence 
 in spite of Bienville and his efforts to execute his threats. 
 
 Peace was then proclaimed to have been established be- 
 tween the Chickasaw Nation and the Kingdom of France; 
 but it was a peace that left the Chickasaws the undaunted 
 and unconquered lords of their own country, while to the 
 jurisdiction of France, over the vast expanse of Indian ter- 
 ritory which she claimed it left but an empty name. 
 
 To the honor and praise of the Chickasaw people, it may 
 truly be said: They fought single handed and alone for 
 
 ( 
 
468 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 eighteen years against the French arid their numerous In- 
 dian allies, kept them out of their country and maintained 
 their independence to the last. Truly, history no where 
 upon its pages, ancient or modern, records a nobler or 
 braver little nation of people than the Chickasaws of North 
 America. They defeated D'Artaguette and Bienville in 1736; 
 Marquis of Vaudreuil in 1752, and Regio in 1753; and in 1771 
 sustained their authority over an extensive country, em- 
 bracing the territory from middle Mississippi north to the 
 mouth of the Ohio river, and from the Tombigbee river west 
 to the Yazoo. 
 
 The French regarded the treaty of peace which Bien- 
 ville had made with the Chickasaws as of no weight or im- 
 portance, and totally failing of the desired intent, since the 
 Choctaws still maintained that they had not as yet (1741) 
 received any compensation for the injuries (more imaginary 
 than real) inflicted upon them by the Chickasaws, which be- 
 ing supported by the French as a justifiable pretext to keep 
 up ^lostilities between the Choctaws and Chickasaws, so 
 much desired by Bienville, who had not forgotten the chas- 
 tisement inflicted upon him by the latter for his temerit}' in 
 entering their country uninvited; the Chf)ct;iws still impera- 
 tively demanded the coveted remunei-ation. Consequently 
 these two nations were. still at war, greatly to the joy and 
 satisfaction of the wily French, who, with all their boasted 
 friendship for the Choctaws, secretly rejoiced equally at the 
 weakening and destruction of the one or the other of those 
 two war-like nations, as the sequel will prove, while an in- 
 comprehensible infatuation seemed to effectually close their 
 eyes, especially the Choctaws, against seeing the dark de- 
 signs and artful hypocrisy of the French in regard to both 
 nations. 
 
 But in their fratricidal conflicts the Choctaws, being 
 fully supplied with guns and ammunition by the French, 
 often got the advantage of the Chickasaws; and who, at var- 
 pus times, seemed to be threatened with the fate of the 
 Natchez— utter destruction and extinction — as their numbers 
 Were fast being thinned and their strength ebbing away. 
 At this crisis of affairs the different little bands of Natchez, 
 who had found a temporary asylum among the noble and 
 generous Chickasaws from their inveterate enemies, the 
 French, and who had bravely ^ssist«d them in defense of 
 their country, now, having learned that their presence but 
 entailed idditional tiV)uble upon their generous and noble 
 protectors, withdrew from them and sought safety among 
 the Cherokees, who openly extended to them the hand of 
 pitying cliarily. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 469 
 
 Yet thousands of the White Race still regard the Red 
 Race as being wholly void of hurnanity, ig-enerosity; iii short, 
 of every principle that distinguishes man fi-om the brute. 
 How great the opportunity for compassion to exercise its, 
 virtues upon such incomprehensible ignorance, whifch, with' 
 aU the visible light that proclaims the absurditv of such er- 
 roneous views still clings to them with the tenacity of death, 
 yet claiming- to be civilized and informed upon the current 
 events of this progressive agel What-though dame Fortune 
 has not been so generous in the bestdwal of her favors upon 
 the Red Race as upon the Whitel since Nature has been 
 equally as getjerous in her endowments of nol^le vii'tues to 
 the Red as to the White; yea, more so, in withholdibg from 
 the former the many dark vices with which, she has endowed 
 the latter, while .bestowing upon her Red children those 
 noble virtues which have called forth as great sacrifices, in- 
 duced as arduous labors, excited as ardetit hopes, awakened 
 as high joys and produced as noble patriotism in the breast 
 of the Red Race as ever was experienced or manifested 
 in that of the White; nor have the grossest supersti- 
 tions, the wild and absurd fancies that have presented 
 themselves before mankind and received their homage, been 
 found to any grfeater extent among the North Ame;rican In- 
 dians than the European world, with all its boasted litei'ary, 
 scientific and religious attainments, while all the Christian 
 virtues, moral stamina and social graces are found in the ed- 
 ucated and Christian Indians as are found in the educated 
 and Christian Whites. \ 
 
 With the Chickasaws and Choctaws there was no Iruce 
 with a liar or slanderer. Their detestation of the one and 
 abhorrence for the other were deep and abiding. The 
 same may be said of all North American Indians, if the 
 statements of the early explorers and missionaries may be 
 relied on. They were never aggressive or oppressive' in 
 disposition, or abusive of anyone. They were firm of 
 purpose, and of deep moral convictions, as understood by 
 the light of nature. They were temperate in all their habits, 
 and warmly sympathetic in their natures, shedding a 
 brightness everywhere, while their 'charitable dispositions 
 were manifest to all. To their friends they were lovable in 
 -the full sense of the word, and no one who was brought into 
 close contact with them could fail to love and admire them; 
 and the nature of the' warfare so long waged upon them is 
 wholly responsible to the miserable and unreasonable mis- 
 conception of their true characters, and the result of the 
 personal rancor of the whites whose desire for their lands 
 caused the uninformed to regard all Indians as incarnate 
 
470 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 devils, without a 'redeeming- trait; therefore, the Indian has- 
 been and is to-day, the targ'et ag-ainst whom the scum of hu- 
 manity have opened their batteries of abuse, slander and 
 falsehood, while no weapon that money or influence can com- 
 mand has been left unused in their desperate efforts to dis- 
 credit that innocent and helpless yet noble and unfortunate 
 race With all mankind. 
 
 I am fully aware that this statement will not pass un- 
 challenged by the thousands whose knowledge of Indian, 
 characteristics rest alone upon hearsay; nevertheless it is 
 true and defies successful refutation. Such may deny it, 
 but the truth Remains all the same. 1 speak from the per- 
 sonal experience and knowledge of a long life sustained and 
 confirmed by the testimony of all the old missionaries who 
 have labored among the Indians during the last two cen- 
 turies, and whose advantages for ascertaining the truth 
 the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in regard to all 
 that pertains to the North American Indians, surpassed all 
 others in the world, and whose veracity none will question 
 who have any knowledge of those self-sacrificing men of 
 God. 
 
 Contemplate the noble sentiment expressed by that little 
 remnant of Natchez Indians, whose nation had been blotted 
 out a short time before by the French, in retiring from the 
 Chickasaw Nation, when they learned that their presence 
 but entailed upon their noble and generous benefactors the 
 deeper animosity of their mutual enemies, the French, 
 whose heart so hard, so lost to every principle of humanity 
 as not to sympathize with those forlorn Natchez Indians,, 
 whose deep gloom and despondency inust have shrouded 
 their souls in darkest night, as they contemplated their help- 
 less a-nd hopeless condition and looked out upon the dark 
 cloud of desolation that hung o'er their future, beyond which 
 not a ray of light gave promise of a returning morn bring- 
 ing peace and joy to them. 
 
 But whence the cause of all this human woe? Its foun- 
 tain head may be traced to the insatiable avarice of the 
 white man, which has sw.allowed up all the finer sensibilities 
 of his heart and left him a wild demon roaming over the 
 earth, with destruction and woe closely following upon his 
 heels. Verily, he who would deliberately add a single pang 
 to the vast and fearful catalogue of sorrow already endured 
 by that forlorn race of people still lingering within ihe juris- 
 diction of these United States is worse than a brute, and his 
 cavilings about the Indians proceed alone from profound 
 ignorance and equal depravity of hcal't. Therefore, "let 
 him not quit his belief that a pop-gun is a pop-gun, although 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 4^71 
 
 the ancient and honorable of eai;th afiarm it to be, the crack 
 of doom." ' 
 
 The closing- of the year 1743 still found the inconsider- 
 ate, deluded and misguided Chickasaws and Ctoctaws en- 
 gaged in devastating war, as the Choctaws, with an incom- 
 prehensible infatuation and blindness, had now declared, 
 through the influence of the French, that they would con- 
 tinue the war until the Chickasaws were driveh from their 
 ancient domains or entirely exterminated ; and the first 
 clause, a't least, of their fratricidal threat seemed about to 
 be verified, for many of the Chickasaws were then seeking 
 ^n asylum among the English in the Caroliiias, the Choctaws 
 little dreaming they, in turn, were soon tobe as deeply hu- 
 miliated by the French, into whose hands they were so inju- 
 diciously, blindly and foolislily playing, when trying to re- 
 duce and humiliate their brethren and kinsmen, the Chicka- 
 saws. 
 
 About two miles south of West Point, Mississippi, there 
 are, or were many years ago, two mounds standing in a lii;ie ' 
 of north and south, about 140 yards from each other. The 
 tradition of both the old-time Chickasaws atid Choctaws state 
 that, in the years of the long past, a great battle was fought 
 near where the two mounds now stand, between a company 
 of Chickasaw and Choctaw warriors. The battle proved to 
 be a drawn one, and both parties .agreed to bury their dead 
 without molestation, the one by the other. A large hole was 
 excavated by each party in which they plalced their respect- 
 ive dead, and filled up the grave, and then erected the 
 mounds over their dead and buried warriors. The Chicka- 
 saws' dead occupied the northern and the Choctaws' the 
 southern. This battle, no doubt, was one among the many 
 they fought in their fearful conflicts with each other in be- 
 half of the English and French, and today stand, in silence 
 and solitude unknown, as living monuments of those fi-atri- 
 cidal wa,rs that so v(reakened both nations, to the secret joy 
 of both the English and the French. 
 
 At this juncture of affairs. May 10th 1743, the marquis 
 of Vaudreuil arrived at New Orleans, and assumed com- 
 mand of the colonies, Bienville, having been again deposedi 
 As soon' as the Chickasaws learned that Bienville had been 
 superceded by a new governor, they sent four of their 
 chiefs, at the close of the year 1743, to sue for peace; but 
 Vaudreuil informed them he would enter into no treaty wifli 
 them. Unless they would drive all English traders from their 
 territories; and not even then would he treat with them un- 
 less in concert with the Choctaws. Thus again were the 
 Chickasaws, baffled in their efforts to make peace. The 
 
472 ' HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 f9ur chiefs then requested time to lay his terms of peace 
 before their people. 
 
 Early in the following year, the Chickasaws again sent 
 an embassy to Vaudreuil and informed him they would ac- 
 cept his fit-st proposition, if he woulii supply them with 
 goods and ammunition as the English had done, but still 
 Vaudreuil would take no action in the matter without first 
 obtaining the sanction of the Choctaws. Great indeed 
 was his surprise in learning that the Chickasaws and Choc- 
 taws were at that very time endeavoring to establish peace 
 between themselves, without his knowledge. Such a thing 
 the French from the first had labored tb prevent; therefore 
 Vaudreuil determined at once to defeat the object, if pos* 
 sible, of all such negotiations between the two long hostile 
 Nations, and immediately went to work for the accomplish- 
 ment of that end; first, by postponing the making of a treaty 
 himself with the Chickasaws; second, bj using every means, 
 right or wrong, to again revive the animosity so long exist- 
 ing between the two Nations, and to again put into renewed 
 action their former hostilities, then temporarily slumber- 
 ing. 
 
 Alas I he succeeded but too well in this nefarious designs 
 against the interests and welfare of those two kindred 
 tribes, who seemed deaf to the demands of their own na- 
 tional safety, prosperity and happiness, in .not learning from 
 sad experience long before that both the English and French 
 desired nothing more of them than to see them waste away 
 their national strength against each other. But, ui;ifortu- 
 nately for them, they seemed under the complete control of 
 those two great foreign rivals, who, with jealousy, were con- 
 tending everywhere for the possession of the Indians' terri- 
 tories from the Atlantic to the'Pacific; and, therefore, con- 
 tinually led the inconsiderate, deceived and unfortunate 
 North American Indians everywhere into suicidal hostilities 
 against each other which tended so rapidly to their destruc- 
 tion anil final extermination. But to the eternal condemna- 
 tion before the tribunal of a just God, of both the English 
 and French, they made every effort in this civil discord, not 
 to conciliate, but to infiame the passions and strengthen the 
 animosities of the Chickasaws and Choctaws by the most 
 unjust and diabolical means that the corrupt heart of man 
 could conceive.. 
 
 1^ But down to the year 1746, the undaunted and seemingly 
 invincible Chickasaws were still maintaining their ground 
 against fearful odds; while the Choctaw.*, now becoming 
 weary with their long protracted wars against them, and 
 also relenting in their continued hostility towards them, 
 
HISTORY pF THE INDIANS. 473 
 
 many of them became their friends and even allies; among', 
 the most prominent of whom Stood th^ venowned Shulush! 
 Humma, who by his daring deeds had become a terror to 
 the Chickasaws, and also Alabaman Mingo (a corruption of 
 Ullabanoh Miko, the only child of a chief), who had long 
 been considered as a firm .friend of the French; still, the 
 French retained many friends among the' Choctaws, who 
 were now called "^he French party"; and those who were 
 disposed to be lenient to the Chickasaws and had extended 
 to them the hand of peace and friendship were called "the 
 English party." ' 
 
 But now the judgments of God seemed about to be vis- 
 ited upon the Choctaws for their inconsiderate hostility to- 
 wards, and cruel wars against, the Chickasaws, through the 
 instigations alone of the covetous' French, by sending upon 
 them an infatuation more fatal to themselves than were their 
 hostilities to the ; Chickasaws, which seemed for the timfe 
 being must, and vi^ould, terminate in nothing less than their 
 own destruction, for early fen the year 1748 the animosity of 
 the two parties arose to that degree that a civil war, fierce 
 and bloody, was the actual result, to the infinite delight of 
 both the French and English, who with great complacency, 
 looked on and secretly exulted in the self-destruction of the 
 foolish Choctaws, who seemed t6 ha^e lost their reason. 
 E^ch party formed themselves into small bands and made 
 hostile excursions, the one against tlie other. Also, the 
 English faction made excursions against the-French, and the 
 French faction against the English. A band of the English 
 party made an attack upon a German settlement under the 
 jurisdiction of the French, killed a German, wounded his 
 wife and took captive their daughter. And the leader of the 
 band was in turn killed by his own brolher, who was also a 
 leader of one of the bands, of the French party; also a 
 bi-other of Shulush Humma, who had been sent on an em- 
 bassy to the Carolinas with a small parljy to solicit aid from 
 the English settlements, was attacked by a company of the 
 French party and had eight warriors slain. On July 14th a 
 French party rushed upon a village of an English party 
 and slew thirteen, among whom were two noted chiefs, upon 
 which the English party, maddened with the desire of retal- 
 iation, rushed upon a village of the French party, and there 
 a fierce and desperate hand-to-hand fight with tomahawk and 
 knife ensued, in which both sides lost grievously, but result- 
 ing in th.e defeat of fhe English party with a loss of eighty 
 killed and an equal number wounded, whom they carried off 
 in their retreat, but many of whom afterwards died. Many 
 such fratricidal battles followed in quick succession, the 
 
474 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. .' 
 
 English party alw^s sustaining the greater loss. Such an 
 ihsane warfare and foolish destruction of life, sapping the 
 very foundation of their national existence, finally put the 
 Ghoctaws to thinking, which soon jjrought them to their 
 senses. Both parties mutually begaii to see that they were 
 cutting each others' throats for the sole benefit and the en- 
 tire satisfaction and gratification of their \vorst enemies, the 
 English and French pale-faces. 
 
 At once a council of ihe old and'wise men of the Nation 
 was .convened to deliberate upon the uAhappy state of affairs 
 and to devise measures to bring about a cessation of hostili- 
 ties and restore peace and friendship among their people. 
 After a few days of calm and solemn deliberation, the chief 
 cause of the unfortunate state of affairs was traced to Shu- 
 lush Humma, and the immediate verdict of the council was. 
 de^th to him; and in accordance thereto, that noted chief and 
 consummate warrior was slain by a deputation, appointed for 
 that purpose, while returning ojie day to his home with a 
 company loaded with English goods. It was hoped that the 
 death of Shulush Humma would be effective in restoring- 
 peace and harmony to the Nation, and it would have been 
 had not the English, still desiring to weaken as much as- 
 posgible their old enemies, the Choctaws, determined that 
 peace should not be made between the two contending fac- 
 tions if it was possible to prevent it; therefore they clandes- 
 tinely secured the appointment of a brother of Shulush 
 Humma to the chieftaincy of that renowned chief's party,. ^ 
 and thus thwarted the good designs of the council and pro- 
 trjcidal war, during which the English were diligent in ex- 
 tending their own selfish interests to the serious injury of 
 their unfortunate dupes, the contending Choctaws, who con- 
 tinued ^he devastating atrife until 1750," when it terminated 
 with the advantage on the part of the French faction, at 
 which time only two of the thirty-two villages still adhered 
 to the interests of the English; who, having lost 130 of their 
 warriors in a terrible battle that shortly afterwards ensued, 
 now sought peace of the French, who granted it with this 
 humiliating proviso: "That the punishment of death should 
 be inflicted on any and every Choctaw who should kill a 
 Frenchman, be he chief or common warrior; and if any one 
 or more Choctaws should attempt to rescue the guilty party,, 
 or parties, from the punishment of this sentence, then the 
 entire Choctaw Nation should unite, assist and inflict death 
 also on all those who attempted to rescue the guilty party, or 
 parties; and also that death should .be inflicted upon any 
 Choctaw who should lead an Englishmen into his village; nor 
 in such a case, should retaliation for his death be sought by 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 475 
 
 any one of his Nation; and also they Should put to death the 
 Englishman thus introduced; and also the Choctaws should 
 continue hostilities against the Chickasaws so long as they 
 existed as a Nation." 
 
 The humiliating terms were accepted and peace among 
 the Choctaws once more assumed her pacific sway, but too 
 late; learning what miserable dupes they had been made by 
 the wiles of the perfidious French and jEnglish; and only to 
 ' realize to what a humiliating extremity they had reduced 
 themselves by destroying each other and those of their 'own 
 race — the Chickasaws and Natchez-^to secure the friend- 
 ship of the pale-faces, who never felt an emotion of that 
 noble principle for them or any of their race. 
 
 AlasI what Christian heart but weeps over the mis- 
 fortunes of the North American Indians, and sympathizes 
 with them in their mistakes in the selection of friends, since 
 they were totally ignorant of the duplicity and incapable of 
 .comprehending the avarice of the white men's hearts, and 
 thereby unfortunately judged them from the stand-point of 
 their own honest and truthful hearts which had never felt 
 the gnawings of avarice, nor knew deceit when dealing with 
 supposed friends. / < 
 
 The Chickasaws, now also reduced to the verge of de- 
 struction by their long struggle with the combined 'forces of 
 the French and the inconsiderate Choctaws, once more sued 
 for peace with the Frpnch; but to their solicitation, Vaud- 
 reuil coolly replied, "That, he would consider^ the matter." 
 But the truth is, he did not want to treat with the Chicka- 
 saws upon any terms of peace whatever; for he still hoped 
 to be able to execute his former resolution, imbibed from 
 Bienville, against them, nothing more nor less than absolute 
 extermination. Therefore in a letter written shortly after 
 to his government, he stated: "With regard to the Chicka- 
 saws, we must postpone all action, and patiently wait until^ 
 we can organize and make another expedition against them"; 
 and assigns his reasons for acting with such, vindictive 
 crueltv and base injustice against that peace soliciting and 
 peace desiring Nation of noble patriots, that, "By the failure 
 of the expeditions undertaken against them between the 
 years 1735 and 1740, the Indians have arrived at, the con- 
 clusion that we cannot conquer or destroy them; and until 
 we erase from their minds the impression of our inability 
 to subdue them, by giving full retaliation for our unsuccess- 
 ful operations against them, the honor of our arms will re- 
 main tarnished.," ... 
 
 But after two years of consideration on the solicitation 
 of the Chickasaws for peace, Vaudreuil, instead of giving 
 
476 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 them a reply pro or con, spent the intervening time in the 
 organization of another war expedition against them, lest 
 "the honor of our arms remain tarnished ;" and, in 1752, he 
 started with 700 French soldiers and a large body of Indian 
 warriors to exterminate that brave and heroic' nation of 
 people, fully believing that it had falleia to his good fortune 
 "to erase fron^ their minds the impression of our inability 
 to subdue them." But alas, for his anticipated good fortune! 
 His expedition proved as complete a failure as the previous 
 three, for the Chickasaw heroes, at Chika«;ihha, where they 
 had repulsed D'Artaguette and Bienville seventeen years 
 before, also, whipped Vaudreuil, and he, too, sought safety 
 and found it in an inglorious retreat, without erasing from 
 the minds of those indomitable Chickasaw warriors "the 
 impression of our inability to subdue them ;" and also post- 
 poned "giving full retaliation for our unsuccessful opera- 
 tions against them," lest "the honor of our arms will remain 
 tarnished," to some more propitious time in the future, as 
 Bienville had done, but which never came. Yet he was blest ' 
 with the consoling reflection that he had done something, at 
 least, in the way of "giving full retaliation for our unsuccess- 
 ful operations against them;" since he lOuld state in his 
 report tliat he had been enabled, though in full retreat, "to 
 burn a few deserted Chickasaw villages, destroy a few fields 
 of corn, and kill a few cattle of the enemy" — neither Bien- 
 ville nor D'Artaguette could say as much — and "the honor of 
 our arms will" not now "remain tarnished." For the sake 
 of humanity it ii to be hoped so. 
 
 In 1753 Vaudreuil was appointed Governor of Canada, 
 and Kerleree took the place of Vaudreuil as Governor of the 
 Louisiana Colony; and shortly after, in a letter to his Gov- 
 ernment, August 20, 1753, he said: "I am satisfied with the 
 Choctaws. I believe them true to theif plighted word, and 
 it is necessary that we should be the same to them. They 
 are a people who reflect and reason more logically than it is 
 generally supposed." More truthful words could not have 
 been uttered in regard to the North American Indians; yet a 
 truth, which the White Race have ever been reluctant to ad- 
 mit. 
 
 - After the appointment of Vaudreuil as Governor of 
 Canada the French made no more "exterminating expedi- 
 tions" against the Chickasaws. But Kerleree, shortly after 
 he had taken the place of Vaudreuil, had an interview with 
 several chiefs of the Arkansas tribes at New Orleans and 
 whose good will he won by his affected generosity and seem- 
 ingly great friendship and hospitality manifested towards 
 them; nor was he unmindful of the "failure of the expedi- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 477 
 
 Mi 
 
 tioas undertaken against the Chickasaws"; therefore, lest 
 "the honor of our arms remain tarnished," he embi-aced the 
 opportunity offei-ed to induce i the chiefs of. the Arkansas 
 tribes to make war upon the Chickasaws whom they had been 
 taught hff bitter experience to fear, therefore still hated; for 
 that indefatigable Nation still presented the same bold and , 
 defia;nt front to the French, though greatly reduced in num- 
 bers and strength. Kerleree also made strenuous efforts to 
 induqe those chiefs to make war upon the Cherokees, ,who 
 had entailed the hatre4 and animosity of the French, because 
 they had extended the. hb^nd. of pity and protection, in con- 
 nection \yith the Chickasaws, ,, to the homeless and forlorn 
 little barid of Natchez, who had escaped the wholesale 
 slaughter of their people by the hands of their common and 
 unrelenting enemy, the French. ' , . 
 
 That the Choctaws were once a numerous and powerful 
 people, even at the beginning of their hostilities with the 
 French; and I that their warriors, were among the most sa- 
 gacious and fearless men that ever went into battle, no 
 stronger evidence is necessary than the fact, they stood 
 alone and maintained their independence against the com- 
 bined forces of the Canadian, Illinois and Louisiana colonies, 
 together with the soldiers , sent from France and their 
 numerous Northern Indian allies, also the Choctaws, t\ita 
 the most dreaded, nation of warriors, except the Chicka- 
 saws, among the North American Indians, from 1716 down 
 the njarch of time France ceded her j North American ,pos- 
 sessions to England in 1763; defeating four French armies, 
 well organized and equipped, and their Indian allies, - sent 
 against them, each of which, in numbers and munitions of 
 war, was superior to them as the ratio of three to one, and 
 driving them from their territories; and though Romah 
 states, in his "Barnard Roman's Florida, page 571." "In 
 1771, this once powerful and warlike tribe could not number 
 over three hundred warriors," yet the combined forces of 
 their White and Red enemies failed to conquer them. 
 
 The following letter written by Governor Claiborne of 
 Mississippi, in 1802, to Samuel Mitchdl, United States Agent 
 to the Chickasaws, expresses much trurth in regard to .the 
 Indians: ■ ■ 
 
 "I am well pleased with your effoi'ts to advance the hap- 
 piness of our Chickasaw brethren. I hope, under yVr _ tu- 
 torage, that they will soon\acquire the habits of civilization. 
 Exert all your influence to induce the men to ■ have fixed 
 abodes, cultivate the soil, and encourage the womeri to habits 
 of domestic life. Continue to supply them with wheels and 
 cards, scissors, thimbles, needles, and thread. Retain a 
 
478 HISTOKY OF THE' INDIANS. 
 
 competent weaver constantly in your lemploy and persuade a 
 few young girls to learn the art from him. ^A competent 
 man of undoubted morals must be j*ocured who must take 
 the necessary pains to teach them, and I will see him liberally 
 compensated. It is desirable to place a few intelligent In- 
 dian lads with your wheelwright and blacksmith. In all 
 cases it is my express injunction that the white mechanics, 
 you are authorized to employ, shall be men of sober habits 
 and of good character. They are to be th^re not only as ar- 
 tisans, but as teachers, to set an example to an untutored 
 people, entrusted to my guardianship by their great Father, 
 the President, and he demands that they shall be tlreated as 
 his children, and not, in any instance, be exposed to the evil 
 example of bad white men. Say to my old friend. Major 
 Colbert, his wish to have his son educated in and by the 
 United States shall be promptly recommended by me; and, 
 I doubt not, will be so directed by the President. A trad- 
 ing house for the accommodation of t^ie Chickasaws has been 
 established at the Bluffs, and the factor has b^en instructed 
 
 TO SELL AT PRICES MERELY TO COVER COST AND CHARGES. Com- 
 plaint of undue charges must be made through you to me. 
 You did right to exert your influence for peace between the 
 Chickasaws, Choctaws and Osages. The United States is 
 bound by treaty to restrain the tribes within their limits 
 from warring against tribes in the Spanish dominion." 
 
 What if the noble, humane and Christian sentiments ex- 
 pressed in the above letter by Governpr Claiborne had been 
 adopted and truly carried out by the Government and people 
 of the United States from the date of the above letter to the 
 present, who now could justly describe the happy and pros- 
 perous condition of every Indian tribe within the jurisdic- 
 tion of the. United States? 
 
 In 1792, in a council held at Chickasaw, Bluffs, where 
 Memphis, Tennessee, is now located, a treaty was made 
 with the Chickasaws, in which they granted the United 
 States the right of way through their territory for a public 
 road to be opened from ^ Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, 
 Mississippi. This road was long known, and no doubt, re- 
 membered by many at the present time by the name 
 "Natchez Trace." It crossed the Tennessee river at a 
 point then known as "Colbert's Ferry," and passed through 
 the present counties of; Tishomingo, Ittiwamba, Lee, Pan- 
 totoc, Chickasaw, Choctaw, thence on to Natchez, and soon 
 became the great and only thoroughfare for emigrants pass- 
 ing from the older states to Mississippi, Louisiana and 
 South Arkansaw. Soon after its opening, it was crowded by 
 fortune seekers and adventurers of all descriptions and 
 
mSTOEY OF THE INDIANS. 479 
 
 characters, some as bad as it was, possible for them to be, 
 and none as good as they mig-ht b6. ' 
 
 One of the most noted desperadoes in those early days 
 of Mississippi's history was a man named Mason, who, with 
 his gang of thieves and cut-throats, established himself at a 
 • point on the Ohio river then called "The Cave in the Rock," 
 ^ and about one hundred miles above its junction with the 
 Mississippi river. There, under the disguise of keeping a 
 store for the accommodation of emigrants, keel and flat 
 boatmen passing up and down the river, he enticed them 
 into his powrer, murdered and i-obbed them; then sent their 
 boats and contents to New Orleans,; through the tands of 
 his accomplices to be sold. He, at length, left "The Cave 
 in the Rock," and sought a new locatioti on the Natchez 
 Trace, where he established himself, and soon attained to 
 such a power, that he and his well organized band of outlaws 
 became a terror to all from the banks of the Mississippi 
 river to the hills of Alabama, and Tennessee. Over this 
 wide extended territory he was "monarch of all he sui"veyed" 
 for several years; and though many efforts were made by 
 the law abiding citizens to kill or capture him and break up 
 this nest of land pirates, yet he always managed to out-wit 
 his pursuers and elude their grasp. Ultimately a strong 
 I party organized themselves at Natchez and wfent in pursuit 
 of the daring robber, resolving to kill or capture him at all 
 hazards but was out-generaled by the sagacious and ever 
 w^atchful desperadoes., The Company having arrived on the 
 banks of the Pearl river, soon learned that the object of 
 their search was in the vicinity, but before miking an at-, 
 tack upon him, thej concluded to dine, feed and rest their 
 horses. During this, two of the company, allured by the an- 
 ticipated delight of a swim, plunged into the cool and clear 
 waters of the river and swam to the opposite bankj but to 
 give themselves into the hands of the Vigilant Mason, who, 
 Cognizant of all the proceedings and designs, had closely 
 watched their maneuvers, by which he soon found himself 
 •enabled to accomplish by stratagem,, what he could not per- 
 haps, by force. ' ' 
 
 Having secured the two thoughtless and inconsiderate 
 fathers, Mason at once assumed a bold and defiant attitude, 
 and called out to his would-be capturers on the opposite 
 bank and informed them that all further demonstration of 
 hostilities on their part would be follow;ed by the instant death 
 of their two captive friends; and also stated if they wished 
 to save the lives of their two companions' to stack their guns 
 and ammunition at once on the banks of the river at a desig- 
 nated place and he would send for them; if they manifested 
 
480 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 the least disposition to interfere with his messenger his two 
 prisoners would be instantly slain; bat if they punctually 
 and obediently complied with his demand he would return 
 tlieir two friends, unharmed, to them, at the same time 
 pledging his word of honor to the performance of the same. 
 The deniands of Mason werp duly obeyed and several of his 
 party swam across the river and took possession of the guns, 
 while the two captives were placed in full view ■with rifles 
 pointing in unpleasant proximity and in direct line to their 
 heads. Then Mason released his prisoners and bade them 
 return in the way they came; to which they gladly and with- 
 out hesitation complied. He then sternly ordered the crest- 
 fallen company to mount their horses and return to Natchez, 
 adding that it would not be healthy for them to indulge in a 
 hunt again for him, as he would not let them off so gently if 
 they should again fall into his hands. 
 
 Treachery finally effected what all other means failed to 
 accomplish. Shortly after, a man of high standing and his 
 two sons were robbed by a party of Mason's band, as they 
 were passing along the Natchez Trace, though they received 
 no bodily injury. After tlieir return home. Governor Clai- 
 borne, of the Mississippi Territoi-y, offered a large reward 
 for Mason, dead or ;ilive, a copy of which soon found its way 
 to the Notorious bandit, over which, it is said, he manifested 
 , much merriment. But the reward proved too great a temp- 
 tation ifor two of his band, and they treacherously slew 
 Mason knd carried his head in secret triumph to Gov. Clai- 
 borne. It was at once recognized by many of the citizens. 
 But the joy of the two traitors in anticipation of the reward 
 was of short duration, since among the many spectators 
 were the two sons, who, with their father, had been robbed 
 shortly before, and who at once recogn^ized the two scoun- 
 drels as being of the party who had rblsbed them. At once 
 they were arrested, tried, convicted, and paid the penalty of 
 their crjmes upon the gallows. And thus was broken up 
 one among the most notorious gangs of robbers thatlnfested 
 the Natchez Trace. 
 
 However, another daring gang sprang up a few years 
 after the death of Mason, under the leadership of one John 
 A. Murrell.'whoalso sought upon the Natchez Trace their 
 victims to murder and plunder during the years 1830 and 
 1840. And numerous were the bloodydeeds and daring rob- 
 beries committed by those bold free-booters upon the lonely 
 traveller who had the nerve to venture through that long 
 stretch of wilderness and solitude alone : and the thefts 
 of horses and negroes from the planters, especially the 
 negroes, whom they enticed away under the promise of 
 
■HISTpRY OP THE INDIANS. ' . 481 
 
 takiug them north,; to a free state; then, after selling and 
 stealing them a fewtipies under .the pretense to the deluded ; 
 negroes of getting money to defray t,heir/expensfesto,a free 
 state, they would kill them, and .;sinkitheirib6dies in a river 
 or lake. - Murrell was finally captured, tried and condemned 
 to life imprisonment in ,the . penitentiary ai Nashville, Ten- 
 nessee. .After, a fewyears i of 'confinement he pro/es^sed 
 religion (jt was said), , and, his; health failing, he was eventu- 
 ually pai'dpn^jl, then became,^ preacher of i the Gospel, and 
 shortly, afterwards died.- ' • ■■' > , • , , : 
 
 General Andrew Jackson led , his victorious, army along 
 this road (the Natchez Trace) oni'his return from ^New Or- 
 leans, in 1815.' Before steani boats t.egan to plough the 
 waters of the: Mississippi river.all kiiids'of produce were 
 transported to New Orleans " iti keel and, flat boats from.the 
 upper countries. When arriving there both boat and cargo 
 were sold, and the owners "vCith their employers returned 
 home, some on horseback apd mof-e on foot, by the way of 
 the "Old Natchez Trac^e." Bands of those rough and fear- 
 less boatmen fllodced along on thei old trace, to their distant 
 homes in North Mississippi, Tennessee tind Southern Ken- 
 tucky. The intervening wilderness of forests were illu- 
 minated with the camp-fires, and the midnight silence of the 
 then vast solitudes broken byitheir-bacchanalian revelries. 
 All characters blended together in those sti-aggling bands of 
 wild and reckless humanity; the jolly boatmen whose lives 
 were spent on the bosom of th^ majestic "Misha Sipokni" 
 and in the romantic and fascinating jolifications of the 
 camp; men of education and refinement; adventurous yoi},th, 
 who never before^ was .but of sight of the smoke of his 
 native village or humble hon^e; the slJurdy farmer; the 
 shrewed trader; the calculating merchant; the wily gam- 
 bler, and the daring robber, were, to a greater or less extent, 
 . represented. 
 
 But the "Old Trace" has long since been effaced by the 
 ploughshare and buried in the field o^ f orgetf ulness amid 
 the corn and cotton plantations, togethei" with the thi-obbing 
 hearts, tljen buoyant with hope , and felated with joy, dis^ 
 tracted with fear or burdened with care that followed itg 
 windings an'd dubious ways through the Chickasaw and Choc-i 
 taw Nations nearly a century ago, and §ang or wept, laughed 
 or sighed along that old forest road, and have become as si^ 
 lent and as little remembered as the multitudes that once 
 thronged the busy str'eets of ancient Tyre, while oblivion 
 has woven her raven web and thrown^ it upon the "Old 
 Natchez Trace" to be remembered "never more." 
 
 . "Natchez-Under,-The-Hiir' was, at that early day, thg 
 
482 HISTORY . OF THE IKDIANS. 
 
 "sine qua non" as the point of rendezvous for the rough and 
 care-for-nothingf men who navigated the keel and flat-boats 
 on the Mississippi river ere they were superseded by the 
 steamboat. At that early day the city of Natchez was an 
 excellent market for the products of the "upper country," 
 consequently hundreds of heavily and richly-laden boats 
 often congregated there, to the great dread of the law-abid- 
 ing and peaceful inhabitants residiqg in the upper part of 
 the city, then known as "The Bluff;" for the wild and law- 
 less boatmen knowing no restraint, and without the fear of 
 God or man, indulged their caprices in every kind of rowdy- 
 ism known to man; and often breaking through the ac- 
 knowledged limits of their own district, "Natchez-Under- 
 The-Hill," they carried the city "On The Bluff " by storm, 
 not unlike a genuine cyclone of .the present day, riding 
 rdugh-shod over the law and* every physical obstruction that 
 impeded their headlong course. Then, having had their 
 "fun," during which they had drank and destroyed all the 
 whisky they could lay their hands upon, they returned to 
 the plateau "under the hill" with songs and hideous yells, 
 where, perhaps, they would meet with another gang of their 
 own faith and order, and a fight would ensue, in which the 
 Herculean strength thei*e and then displayed has no parallel 
 except in Homer's description of the fabulous wars between 
 the gods. Thus did those specimens of American freemen 
 spenfl their leisure hours in drinking whiskey, yelling, fid,- 
 dling, dancing and fist-fighting, the latter seeming a direful 
 jiecessity, an unconquerable appetite, which, like hunger, 
 |must be appeased at all costs; and even when quietness had 
 assumed her sway in camp, often it would be unexpectedly 
 .and unceremoni6usly disturbed by some aspirant to fame 
 'loudly crowing forth- his defiance like a game cock, which 
 ..wj^s sure to be answered by another in a different part of the 
 camp, and the natural result is easily guessed, since he who 
 boasted according to the approved style of the game cock, 
 virtually proclaimed he had never been whipped, and, there- 
 .fore occupied a dangerous eminence, as some equally ambi- 
 tious ftapirant was sure to be in hearing of the midnight 
 ^challenge, and equally ready to dispute his claim to such dis- 
 tinction. 
 
 Still those apparently lawless men had a code of honor 
 among themselves to which they strictly adhered and impli- 
 citly obeyed. "Fair play" was a jewel among them; and in 
 all disputes and difficulties they invariably took up the cause 
 of the weaker, and always espoused that of the aeed. riirht 
 or wrong. o > b 
 
 In 1794 .the United, States Government secured the aid of 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 483 
 
 several companies of Chickasaw warriors to co-operate with 
 its troops against some of the northwestern tribes of In- 
 dians with whom it had become involved in war; and though 
 the cause is not now known, yet it may with safety be easily 
 guessed, as, like the English and French before it, so it also 
 arrayed one tribe against another in its own wars with that 
 credulous people until partially destroyed, then gobbled up 
 all (allies and enemies) at a swoop. The following is a war 
 commission given by George Washington, then President of^ 
 the United States, to a Chickasaw chief called Mucklesha 
 Mingo (corrupted from Mokulichih Miko — to outdo or excel 
 — chief. The chief who excels: 
 
 George Washington, President of the United States of 
 America. To all who shall see these presents greeting: 
 
 "Whereas, I am authorized by law to employ such a 
 number of Indians and for such compensation as I shall 
 think proper, within certain limitations, to act against the 
 hostile tribes northwest of the Ohio. 
 
 "And, whereas, it is expedient that in case of such an 
 event oertain chiefs should be previously designated; and 
 having full confidence in the well tried friendship of Muckle- 
 shamingo a chief of the Chickasaw Nation, I do hereby ap- 
 point him to rank and to receive pay as Captain of Militia 
 while he shall actujJly be in the service of the United States, 
 and co-operating with the troops thereinto belonging. And 
 I do hereby direct that on such occasions he be respected 
 accordingly. <- 
 
 Given under my hand at Philadelphia, this the 20th of 
 July, in the year of our Lord 1794, and in the 19th yekr of 
 the Independence of the United States. 
 
 "G. Washington. 
 "By command of the President, J. Knox." 
 
 After the French lost their claimed possessions upon the 
 North American continent and were driven therefi-om, the 
 Chickasaws, from that time to the present, have been at 
 peace with the world of mankind; and though they never 
 •wholly recovered from the long devastating wars with the 
 French, yet they fully maintained their independence to the 
 last. 
 
 Their country lay adjoining the Choctaws on the north; 
 and, like that of the Choctaws, Svas as fertile and beautiful 
 a country as the eyes of man ever looked upon; as it ap- 
 peared under their- own and Nature's rule, it indeed pos- 
 sessed a charm that fascinated the admirers and lovers of the 
 •gi-and and the beautiful. There was a beauty bordering on 
 the sublime in the spring, as nature unfolded and spread out 
 her forest rpbes; also, a loveliness in the summer, with her 
 
484 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 shady hills and valleys; a quiet, too, in the calm and mel- 
 low autumn, with the variegated hues, falling' leaves and 
 , tranquil scenes, which language cannot depict, or even im- 
 agination conceive. D With no undergrowth whatever the 
 great variety of majestic trees of centuries growth covered 
 the hills and valleys; yet with the ground everywhere con- 
 cealed under a thick carpet of grass one to two feet high, in- 
 termixed, especially on the prairies, with wild flowers of 
 every shade of color, covering the face of the entire earth. 
 In the months of April and May slirawberries were found 
 profusely scattered amid the grass of the undulating prairies 
 that lay along the banks of their rivers, and creel^s, and here 
 and there scattered-amidjthe hills and valleys of their forests; 
 then summer too yielded her immense store of black- 
 berries on every side; in turn, followed autumn with prodi- 
 gal abundance of hickory nuts of several varieties, walnuts, 
 pecan, huckle berries, wild plums, persimmons, wild grapes, 
 muscadines, all of excellent flavor; while from early spring 
 to late autumn, among the wide extended branches of the 
 forest trees high above the verdant carpet of greeh that lay 
 spread out beneath by the accomplished hand of nature, 
 their forest orchestra, unsurpassed by the art of man, filled 
 the groves with melody iind rivaled, with their bright and 
 variegated plumage, the hues of the^owers that bloomed 
 ■beneath, seemingly but "to waste their sweets upon the de- 
 sert air." The scene seemed indeed as if the hand of en- 
 chantment had suddenly raised a forest on the bosom of :i 
 primitive prairie. 
 
 There amid tho§e magnificent parks of primitive nature, 
 deer in great numbers, grazed with their cattle and hofses, 
 while everywhere could be seen flocks of wild turkeys 
 feeding under the forest trees whose tops seemed alive with 
 jolly squirrels, all undisturbed only as the swift arrow from 
 the noiseless bow or the deadly bullet from the unerring rifle 
 demanded food for the Chickasaw; while the vast canebrakes 
 along all the water courses abounded with carnivorous ani 
 mals of various kinds in great numbers, furnishing skins ami 
 furs to supply the necessities of the Idrds who justly claimei: 
 dominion over those vast solitudes and their various quad 
 ruped occupants, and who were as noble a race of unlctterLM 
 men and women as ever lived upon earth; wholly free b\ 
 fortunate ignorance from the thousand debasing and ruin 
 ous vices. 
 
 But to one who has witnessed all the changes which hav. 
 taken place m the native characteristics df the southern In 
 dians in their former independence and happiness as als. 
 m the appearance of their ancient domains since their firs 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 48S - 
 
 •settlement by the White Race, all seem as a dream of the 
 night or romance of the imagination; and he finds it diffi- 
 cult to realize the features of that forest wilderness which 
 was the home of his boyhood days, alike with that of the 
 red man. The humble little cabins of the generous and 
 hospitable Indians, their little fields of corn, pumpkins, 
 potatoes and beans that furnished their suftplies of bread, 
 etc., have long since been swallowed up in the wide-extended 
 group of the cotton fields of civilization, and the\yast forests 
 have disappeared, leaving no trace of their former loveliness; 
 and when he reflects on their original aspect, his thoughts T 
 seem to revert to a period of time greatly more remote than . 
 it really is ; and the view from one extreme to' the other ap- 
 pears as that of an opposite shore, over a wide expanse of 
 "v^ater, whose hills, valleys and forests present a confused 
 but romantic scenery, losing itself in the distant horizon,^ 
 though doubling the retrospect of life ; and did not the defi-\ 
 nite number of his years teach him the contrary, he would 
 imagine himself much older than he really is. But how dif- 
 ferent it must be with those "who have passed theiif lives 
 amid cities and ancient settlements, whei-e the same hn-, 
 changing aspect presents itself from year to year. There 
 the y6ars .come and go with no striking events Or great 
 changes to mai'k their different periods,, and give them an 
 imaginary distance from each other, and life passes away as 
 an illusion or dream', to close in bitter murmurings of its 
 shortness. 
 
 A few years after the exodus of the Chickasaws and 
 Choctaws, and before the tide of white emigration had set 
 in the most prominent feature of their forsaken counti-y 
 was its profound solitude, even the days seeming more soli- 
 tary than the nights; nor did the gobbliilg of the wild turkey, 
 the chattering of the squirrel, the chirping of a bird, ming- 
 ling with the tapping pf the woodpeckerv upon the hollow 
 limb of a. decaying tree, seem to enliven the silent and lone- 
 ly scene; and he who roamed through the solitudes of the 
 forests, as bequeathed, to the White Race by the Chickasaws 
 and the Choctaws in 1830, was truly alone and far away 
 from -the din of civilized and domesticated life. ■ The fad- 
 ing rays of the declining sun received not the requiem of 
 the song of the laborer returning from his toil; but its sil- 
 ence was interrupted by the howl of the wolf and the cry of 
 the panther issuing from the canebrakes in quest of their 
 prey upon the highlands; nor were his returning rays on 
 the morn anndunced by the voice of the domestic cock, but 
 by the hoot of the owl as he sought the deeper solitudes of 
 
486 mSTORV OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 the dark swamp to doze away the unwelcome light of 
 day. 
 
 Though such a hunter's paradise will never be found 
 again upon the North American continent; yet hunting alone 
 was not wholly ^free of danger, and though the hunter was 
 seldom without bis dog, thtT'true and faithful animal to man 
 of the brute creation, whose native sagacity taught him to 
 be as watchful as Argus and who saw everything and heard 
 every sound, and the acuteness of whose scent gave warn- 
 ing of all approaching enemies, yet when in eager pursuit of 
 his game, with hope and fiear alternately predominating in 
 his breast, his path was sometimes beset with hidden ene- 
 mies» Under his footsteps the sluggish, yet spiteful, rattle- 
 snake, then abundant, might be coiled in watchfulness to in- 
 flict a deadly wound upon all intruders into his retreat; or 
 the wily panther stretched upon the limbs of a tree might 
 suddenly drop from his perch upon hini to dispute the right 
 of man's supremacy over the brute creation, as also his 
 cousin, the catamount, which, in those early days, not unfre- 
 quently trie'd his physical strength with man, though he paid 
 dearly for his temerity, since his sharp teeth and keen claws 
 proved of little avail against the long, keen-edged knife wield- 
 ed by the hand of the sturdy hunter; though the latter al- 
 ways bore, as trophies of his victory, the unmistakable evi- 
 dence 6i his enemy's valor. 
 
 When watching at a deer lick at night by the light of 
 the full orbed moon, in which the writer has indulged years 
 ago in the Mississippi forests then untouched by the ax, the 
 hunter found as his rival in the same .sport, the paqther or 
 the catamount, sometimes both; and whose presence was 
 made known by the moving shadow cast upon the ground by 
 moon-light as he was preparing to leap from his perch 
 upon a deer that had, unconscious of danger, walked into 
 the lick. An incident of this kind happened to a hunter in 
 Oktibbihaw county, Mississippi, shortly after the exodus 
 of the Choctaws. He had found a deer lick in Catarpo 
 (corruption of the Choctaw word Katapah, stopped re- 
 ferring to the obstructions in the creek by drifts) swamps, 
 which was much frequented by the deer. He built a scaf- 
 fold 15 or 20 feet high on the edge of a lick, and on a beauti- 
 ful night of the full moon, shortly after sundown, took his 
 seat thereon. About 10 o'clock at night a deer noiselessly 
 entered the lick a few rods distant from his place of con- 
 cealment, and, began licking the salty earth; he was just in the 
 act of shooting it, when his attention was attracted from the 
 deer to a moving shadow upon the ground between him and 
 the deer, he at once looked up to ascertain who his neighbor 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 487 
 
 was, and was not a little surprised to see a huge panther 
 standing on a projecting limb of a tree, that reached nearly 
 over and just behind him, and preparing to spring upon the 
 unsuspecting deer. He thought no more of the deer, and 
 gave his undivided attention to his rival who' had unceremo- 
 nit)usly and clandestinely taken his seat a little higher and , 
 nearly over his head without so much as saying "By your 
 leave." Not being very fastidious just then, he quietly 
 yielded the right of precedence to his fellow hunter above, in 
 all things pertaining to the deer quietly licking the salty 
 earth below. For iseveral minutes he gazed upon ,the huge 
 beast as it maneuvered upon the limb seemingly doubtful as 
 to making a successful spring. Finally the panther made a 
 tremendous leap from the limb, passing almost directly over 
 the hunter's head, and lit directly upon the deer's back. 
 The bleating of the helpless deer momentarily ; broke the 
 stillness of the forest, and then all was hushed. The 
 panther pulled his victim to the outer edge of the lick, s\po6. 
 a moment and then with mighty bounds disappeared in the 
 surrounding forests. During all this the hunter sat quietly 
 upon his perch cogitating over the novel scene. But his 
 reveries were suddenly interrupted by a wild and tfcrrible 
 yell, seeminly half human and half beast, fearful enough to 
 awaken all the denizens of the forest for miles away; then " 
 came an inlraediate response from a distant point in the 
 swamp. That was enough to bring the hunters cogitations 
 to a fixed determination, which was clearly manifested by : 
 the agility displayed in descending the scaffold, and the 
 schedule time on which he ran towards home, leaving the 
 two panthers to enjoy their unenvied supper of venison in 
 their native woods undisturbed. Often the hunter found 
 the panther had preceded him at the deer-licks; in all such 
 cases, having previously resolved never to dispute preced- 
 ency with any gentleman of that family, he quietly left him 
 to the undisputed possession of the chance of venison for 
 that night particularly. 
 
 The Chickasaws, 'at the time the missionaries were 
 established amo^ig them, as the Choctaws and other south- 
 ern tribes, lived in rude log houses provided with a. few 
 culinary articles (all they desired), and with skins and^furs, 
 elaborately dressed and finished, for thei*- bedding; all of 
 which were principally made by the women, who were 
 equally skilled in the art of making earthenware for all do^ 
 mestic purposes, as they were proficient in the art of pre- 
 paring the skins and furs of various animals for domestic , 
 use, which their forests so bountifully supplied. Their 
 shoes,, called moccasins, were principally made of the skins 
 
488 HISTORY bF THE INDIANS. 
 
 of deer thoroug'hly dressed by a process, unequalled by the 
 art of the whites, and beautifully ornamented with little 
 beads of various colors. 
 
 As ornaments, the men wore four or five broad crescents 
 of tin highly polished, or of silver when to be obtained, sus- 
 pended upon the breast, one above the other, and one around' 
 the.head. They also used little beads in ornamenting their 
 leather garments, intermingled with fancy embroidery. 
 Their favorite embellishment, as with all North American ^ 
 Indians, was the vermilion paint with which they decorated 
 their faces. This mode of decoration was conlined to the 
 mpn. ■ ■ ^ . 
 
 The women, as their white sisters, wore ornaments sus- 
 pended from their ears, bracelets around their necks, and 
 also strings of various kinds of gaudy beads. 
 
 The ancient Chickasaws were deservedly celebrated for 
 their handsome yoling women; and sSeldom have I looked 
 upon such specimens of female grace a:nd loveliness as I have 
 seen among the Chickasaws three quarters of a century ago 
 in their former homes east of the Mississippi river, nor do 
 they fall much below at the present day. Their eyes were 
 darlc anA full and their countenances like their native clime — ' 
 always beaming with sunshine — whose sympathetic smiles, 
 chased fatigue away and changed the night of melancholy 
 into day. They were truly beautiful and, best of all, uncon- 
 sciously so. Oft was I at a loss \Mhich most to admire — the 
 graceful and seemingly perfect forms, finely chiseled fea- 
 tures, lustrous eyes and flowing hair, or that soft, winning 
 artlessness which was so pre-eminently theirs. 
 
 To the Chickasaws, as to all the North American In- 
 dians, worldly honors iind distinctions ^hat arose from wealth 
 or family connections were as empty bubbles — unworthy of 
 their consideration or anxiety. Ignorant of commerce, so 
 they were utterly ignorant of the wealth and luxuries of the 
 civilized world, withall their attending vices, nor did they 
 desire to know. Therefore, they lived in peaceful content- 
 ment and died in blissful ignorance of the empty distinction 
 of wealth or rank; thus all were upon a natural equality; all 
 dressed alike, and all met as equals everywhere, at all times 
 and upon all occasions. The virtues of their primitive sim- 
 plicity were indeed tnany. Punctuality and honesty in their 
 dealings, and unassumed hospitality to strangers were hab- 
 itual; unalloyed friendship and cordiality to their neighbors 
 universal; and all seemed as members of one great, loving 
 family, connected by the strongest ties of consanguinity. 
 
 The greatest care was bestowed upon their children by 
 the Chickasaw mothers, whom they never allowed to be 
 
HISTORY, OP THE INDIANS. 489 
 
 placed upon their feet before the strength of their limbs 
 would safely permit; and the child had free access to the 
 mat.ernal breast as long- as it desired, unless the mother's 
 health forbade its continuance. Children were never whipped 
 by the parents, but, if guilty of any misdemeanor, were 
 sent to their uncle for punishment (the same as the Choc- 
 t<aws), who only inflicted a severe rebuke or imposed upon 
 them some little penance, or, what was more frequent, made 
 appeals to their feelings of honor or shame. When the boys 
 arrived at the age of proper ' discrimination — so considered 
 when arrived at the age of 13 or 15 years^they were com- 
 mitted to the instructions of the old and wise men of the 
 village, who, at various intervals, instructed them in all the 
 necessary knowledge and desired qualifications to constitute 
 them successful hunters and accomplished warriors. As 
 introductory lessons they were instruc,ted in the arts of 
 swimming, running, jumping, wrestling, usitig the bow and 
 arrow; also, receiving , from those ' venerable tutors those 
 precepts pf morality which should regulatetheir conduct 
 when arrived at manhood. The most profound respect (a 
 noted charrcteristic of the North Americtin Iiwlians) was 
 paid everywhere to the oldest person in every family, 
 whether male or female, and whose decisions upon all'dis- 
 puted points were supreme and final, and were received with 
 cheerful and implicit obedience. No matter how distant 
 their blood relations might be, all the members of a family 
 addres'sed its head as father or mother, as the case might 
 be; and whenever^ they meant to speak of him (their natural 
 father), they said, "My real father," in contradistinction to 
 that. of father applied to the chief or] head of the ffimily. 
 
 The Itinerant white trader, with his smuggled whiskey, 
 was, has ever been, is and will ever be, the patent instru- 
 ment in the hands of the devil of demoralization among all 
 Indians, and counteracted the moral and religious influence, 
 teachings and regulations of the missionaries of the long ' 
 ago, as well, as of the present day. Still those devoted 
 teachers of righteousnessof the long pasf succeeded ineffect- 
 ually removing forever many of their ancient superstitious 
 customs ^and befiefs in almost and incredible short space of 
 time. The power and influence of the "Medicine Man," the 
 magic power of their personal totemp, and alike that of the 
 Rain Maker, the Prophet, soon vanis^ied before the light of 
 the Gospel of the Son of God, as mists before the morning 
 sun; and it was truly affecting to witness with what deep and 
 unfeigned interest they listened to the history of the Cross, 
 as narrated by those true and devoted servants of God, sev- 
 enty-five years ago; and how soon, under the Divine guid- 
 
490 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 ance, they seemed to comprehend aftd feel the regenerating" 
 influence of revealed relig'ion. With unfeig'ned astonish- 
 ment they heard the story of the atonement. For a man to^ 
 yield his life to the demands of a violated law for the life he 
 had taken, or that a friend mig-ht die for a friend, was their 
 own law and creed; but for one to voluntarily die for a known 
 and inveterate enemy — yea, for the Son of the Great Spirit 
 to willingly die for those who despised and reviled him re- 
 quired more than the logic and eloquence of the missionaries, 
 could accomplish; but it pleased the Divine Spirit to enlighten 
 their understandings, and they soon manifested an earnest 
 faith clearly visible in their prayers, daily walk and coijver- 
 sation and in their lives and deaths. Thus God himself 
 proved the whites that the live Indian was as good as the live 
 white man, and in many respects better. 
 
 As the art of writing was unknown to the Chickasaws, 
 before the advent of the missionaries among them; their 
 historyrested alone upon tradition, in common with the In- 
 dian race, handed down through succeeding generations; 
 and that a correct, truthful and enduring knowledge of their 
 traditional love might be imparted to each generation, as, 'in 
 turn, it took its place upon tne stage of life, and which each 
 was taught to regard as sacred and to cherish with the 
 greatest fidelity, that, in their turn, thfy might also be able 
 to transmit it to their successors with the exact minute- 
 ness they had received it, the young men, as the future 
 repositories of the past, were, at various intervals, sum- 
 moned before the aged patriarchs of the Nation to have re- 
 hearsed to them the sacred things in which they had been 
 previousl}' instructed, and which were soon to be wholly 
 entrusted to their care, that it might be ascertained whether 
 there would be found any omissions from forgetful ngss, or 
 additions proceeding from flights of youthful fancy, or the 
 pruriency of invention; thus evincing a regard for histori- , 
 cal narrators highly commendable and worthy of imitation 
 by all recorders of events. 
 
 It was a general custom among all the southern Indians, 
 and no doubt of the northern Indians also,.when they be- 
 lieved a just cause of war against another tribe had pre- 
 sented itself, to pursue a certain preliminary course, though 
 similar to a great extent, yet must be regarded as having its 
 origin in a custom which became the law of Nations. In all 
 such c^ses the old men of the Nation constituted the council 
 of war; who deliberated with great gravity and solemnity 
 upon a question involving such momentous and dubious re- 
 sults. But in all tfieir delibei-ations, whether issues of the 
 highest or lowest importance were at stake, the one speak- 
 
HISTORY Of THE INDiANS. 491 
 
 ing was nCver interrupted under'any circumstance ; and 
 even in social convei-sation but one talked while the others 
 listened in profound silence and with strict attention. This 
 was a universal characteristic among all southern Indians, 
 which I have learned by personal observation among the 
 Chickasaws and Choctaws during a life of over seventy-five 
 years, and also by reliable information from others who 
 lived for many years among other tribes; and it was difficult 
 for them to reconcile the chattering of the whites in their 
 social gatherings with their ideas of propriety and good 
 sense, when hearing them all talking at the same time, to 
 them apparently without a listener. 
 
 Du Pratz, in 1716, when speaking of this noble charac- 
 teristic of the southern Indians, says he had often rioticed 
 the smile that played upon the lips of the Natchez Indians 
 on many occasions, and had asked them the reason, but in- 
 variably received the same reply — "What is it to you?" 
 Finally one, after frequent solicitations, answered: "If we 
 smile when we see you talking together it is because you re- 
 mind us of a flock of cackling geese." Verily, Mr. Natchez, 
 if you could attend a modern "social," fully understanding 
 the English language, your sense of justice and honor would 
 compel you to make humble acknowledgments to every goose 
 you met, for the insult offered (though inadvertently) to her 
 race in illustrating the senseless chatterings of a "social" 
 by the significant language of her illustrious family in loving 
 association assembled. 
 
 But to return to the council of war. If, after due delib- 
 eration, they concluded that their Nation had been wronged 
 to such a degree as to justify their action, an embassy was 
 immediately sent to seek redressl If granted, the "Pipe of 
 Peace" was then, smoked and a renewal of friendship estab- 
 lished. 
 
 The "Pipe of Peace," which was tastefully decorated 
 with a profusion of fanciful ornaments, the white feathers 
 of the eagle being the most conspicuous, wa's respected , 
 everywhere by the North American Indians, and the bearers' 
 of that sacred emblem were always safe in going and re- 
 turning under any and all circumstances. 
 
 But if satisfactory explanation was refused, the em- 
 bassy hastily returned home, and the warriors of the Na- 
 tion at once "summoned in council, in which war measures 
 were discussed and adopted during which the "Pipe of War" 
 was smoked; this pipe was similar in shape to the peace- 
 pipe, with the exception that the colors Of its ornamfents 
 were different, red being the most prominent. 
 
 During these preliminaries, the opening tribe not un- 
 
492 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 mindful of the gathering storm, were also performing- their 
 war ceremonies. With some tribes, a declaration of war 
 was made b)- leaving a hieroglyphic picture near a principal 
 village of the Nation against which war was declared, and 
 executed in such a manner as to be fully comprehended by 
 the challenged who the challengers were. If the challenged 
 did not desire war, an embassy bearing the pipe of peace 
 was, immediately sent to the offended Nation with full powers 
 of negotiating for combined peaceful relations between the 
 two nations, which most always terminated successfully. 
 
 When preparing for war, the Chickasaws, like their en- 
 tire race, of whom I have read or personally known, painted 
 their faces in such a manner (known only to the North 
 American Indians) as to give the face an expression of fierce- 
 ness that must be seen to be justly comprehended. A few 
 days before going upon the war-path a day was solemnly 
 appointed for a great feast, consisting of all the varieties of 
 food that could be obtained; but every night previous to the 
 daj' of the feast those contemplating going upon the war- 
 path engaged in the war-dance during the greater part of the 
 nights dressed in all the paraphernalia of Indian warfare. 
 The warriors also came to the prepared feast fully oquijjped 
 with every necessai^y appertaining to the war-path, but with 
 no superfluous articles whatever that might have a tendency 
 to impede their actions. Before they partook of the waiting 
 repast some celebrated old chief or noted old warrior, with 
 the war-pipe in his hand, who, from the decrepitude of age, 
 had been placed upon the "retired list" among the seers and 
 prophets of, the Nation, delivered a speech to the war-going 
 company, in which he rehearsed his own exploits, not in the 
 spirit of self-adulation, but as an honest exhortation to them 
 to emulate his deeds of heroic valor; then encouraged them 
 to go in trusting confidence; 'to be great in manly courage 
 and strong in heart; to be watchful, keen in sight and fleet 
 in foot ; to be attentive in ear and unfailing in endurance; to 
 be cunning as the fox, sleepless'as the wolf and agile as the 
 panther; not to be eager beyond prudence; and when wis- 
 dom so dictates, to flee as the swift antelope, as your lives 
 are of great worth to your Nation, and even one life neces- 
 sarily or unnecessarily sacrificed, will bring surniw to the 
 hearts of your people. But to the appreciation of which no 
 outward manifestation whatever was made, as an Indian 
 warrior is ever silent" upon any and all emotii)ns of his heart, 
 yet the aged orator plainly read its significance in each silent 
 and attentive face, and was satisfied. Then he filled the 
 war-pipe with prepai-ed sumac leaves and tobacco; lighted 
 it; drew a few whiffs, then passed it to the war-chief, the 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS; ' ' 49S 
 
 leader of the forth-going war-party, who also drew a few 
 puffs, and from him it went thfc rounds of the entire iparty, 
 each in profound silehce drawing a whiff or two 'snd then 
 passing it to the next in turn. After this impressive' cere- 
 mony they turned to the prepared feast and did ample justice 
 thereto; after Which, the "wai'-post," painted red, was set 
 up, at which the chief of the wa.r-paLtrty rushed and struck 
 with his tomahawk with all his strength, as if one of the 
 enemy. Then foUbwed his warriors in regular order, each 
 doing the same. 
 
 Then followed again the war-dance, the finale of the war 
 ceremonies, which continued two or three consecutive nights 
 during the 'intervening days of which their relatives an4 
 friends observed a^strict fast and engaged in solemn and 
 supplicating prayer to the Great Spirit for their success 
 against their enemies,'and their safe return. ~ '' 
 
 The Chickasaws were addicted, to oiie vice, the vice of 
 gambling. They bet on the proper handling and the skill- 
 ful shuffling of his ball-sticks, the fleetness of his feet, 
 and his power of endurance; while his white brother risked 
 his money on the proper handling and skillful shuffling of 
 his paper cj^rds. , i ' 
 
 Among the many redeeming traits of the Chickasav^rs 
 (though they did b^t on their ball-plays — a custom long lost 
 in the shadows of the dim' historic past) there was one 
 that "hides a multitude of sins" — it ts their care for and 
 protection of their orphans; and it is the universal testimony 
 of all personally acquainted with the various traits of Indian 
 characteristics, that no race of people, of whose history 
 there is any record, ever excelled the North American In- 
 dians in this particular vii'tue. Never have there been found 
 among the Chickasaws or Choctaws homeless and friendless 
 orphan children, thrown out to shift for themselves, and left 
 "to root pig or die." I speak from a personSil knowledge of 
 seventy-five years and know of what 1 speak; and I am sus- 
 tained in the assertion, broad as it may seem, by the United 
 testimony of all the missionaries who labored among them 
 east of the Mississippi river, arid s6me of whom came with 
 them to their present place of abode; and not only does this 
 noble and God-approved virtue belong to the Chickasaws and 
 Choctaws, but also to all North American Indians, and the 
 missionaries among them everywhere have publicly attested 
 its truth. I have seen, time and again, in many families 
 among the Chickasaws and Choctaws from one to four adop- 
 ted orphan children; and they were adopted, not through 
 mercenary motives— the hope of gain— but in the true spirit 
 of the word, actuated by the divine principle of justice and 
 
494 HISTORY OF THE INDLAKS. 
 
 compassion for the fatherless, motherless and homeless, 
 adopted in the full meaning and sense of the word, to be 
 protecfed, cared for and loved, not to be enslaved for the few 
 dollars and cents that anticipation whispered would be made 
 out of them by adoption. And one might live a lifetime in a 
 family of adopted orphans, and, unless told, he would not 
 even suspect but that all the children were of the same 
 parentage. 
 
 The ancient Chickasaw divisions of the tribe were called 
 Yakissah, (here stops). In reference to family connections 
 in marrying they were the same as the Choctaws, No per- 
 sons of the same Yakissah were allowed to marry. Also 
 they have been called In Chukka Holhtenah Hochifo, most 
 frequently abbreviated to Inchukka l^^lhte chifo, his house 
 {or clan) is numbered and named; and with the same refer- 
 ence as Yakissah, and also Iksa of the Choctaws. If a man 
 violated the law by marrying a woman of his own Yakissah 
 (or house), he forfeited his own rights and privileges, and 
 also his children of the same; but the wife forfeited noth- 
 ing. 
 
 The Chickasaws, like their brethren, the Choctaws, 
 never betrayed any trust reposed in them. No matter what 
 whether of great value or of little consequence, was left in 
 their charge to be taken care of, that confidence was never 
 betrayed. They were true to their friendship, never being 
 the first to violate its sacred ties; yet bitter in their ani- 
 mosity, even as all the fallen race of unfortunate Adam. 
 But like all their race of the long ago, they too possessed but 
 little idea of compensation; therefore were easily made the 
 victims of unprincipled white traders who well knew how to, 
 defraud them, and had no compunctions of conscience to use 
 that knowledge to their own pecuniary advantage, though to 
 the utter impoverishment of the Indian. But the Chicka- 
 saws, beginning to realize that they received very little in re- 
 turn for a very large amount given, adppted a very proper 
 plan, as they thought, to test the honestv of all white 
 traders, but which gave them completely into their hands. 
 It was this: They first offered for sale the most indiffer- 
 ent article they had in whatever the line of barter consisted, 
 and asked a higher price for it than its intrinsic value; and 
 if the white man accepted it without dispute, it was sufficient 
 evidence to them that he did not design to wrong" them, and 
 their confidence in his integrity was firmly established. 
 But if the trader refused to make the purchase in harmony 
 with the Chickasaw's offer, the bargain was at once closed 
 by the suspicion that the white man intended to defraud 
 them. But the Whites soon learning the Chickasaws' 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 495 
 
 method of testing their honesty (though utterly void of the 
 virtue), at once bought the first article offered at the full 
 price set upon it by the owner without a whimper, and thus 
 gained their confidence; and without hesitation, entered the 
 door of trade thus opened and continued to defraud the mis- 
 guided Chickasaws. 
 
 The ancient Chickasaws had four laws only; all of which 
 -were strictly adhered to and rigidly enforced throughout the 
 entire Yakissahs of the Nation. First, the law of murder, 
 which placed the slayer wholly and exclusively iuthe hands of 
 of the oldest brother of theslain, who never failed to execute 
 the law ■ wjiose claims were thus entrusted to his care and 
 keeping, the standing verdict of which was "An eye for an 
 eye and a tooth, for a tooth." — death. In case the deceased 
 Tiad no brother or brothers, then one of the next nearest and 
 •oldest male relative became the self-appoint6d exeeutioner\0f 
 Ihe violated laW in which no delinquent \vas ever found. Nor 
 <lid anyone, nol even the nearest relations^ of the iSlayer, in- 
 terfere in the matter in any way whatever— eitljijjr to assist 
 or oppose. If the slayer fled, which was very seldom if ever 
 the casfe, his oldest brother, and if he had no brother, then 
 ^ the next nearest and oldest relative in the male line Was 
 slain in his place; after which he could (return in safety and 
 without the fear of molestation, but to be ostracised and for- 
 ever stig-matized as a coward wherever he went, a punish- 
 ment more to be dreaded by all North American Indians 
 than a hundred deaths. In all such cases a woman was never 
 slain in the place of a man. On account of this rigid and in- 
 exorable custom of dealing with him who had slain hjs fel- 
 lowman, murders were very few and far between, as the 
 slayer well knew the inevitable consequence that would follow 
 unless he fled to parts unknown, which would be attended 
 -with eternal disgrace to himself, family and kindred, at" the 
 ■sacrifice also of his brother's life, or next nearest male rela- 
 tive. ■• 
 
 Second, whipping for minor offenses; after which the 
 culprit was reinstated to favor without any disgrace being 
 attached to his name for his offense or punishment. He had 
 violated the law, but had paid the penalty thereunto attached. 
 The claims of the law were satisfied arid therefore it was a 
 thing of the past, to be mentioned no more, and it never was. 
 Fourth. The property of deceased parents descended 
 to the brothers and sisters of the deceased, and not to their 
 own children. 
 
 Tons a strange, unjust and inconsistent law; but of 
 which I was informed, as above recorded, by Governor Cyrus 
 Harris, in 1886, who was regarded as among the best posted 
 
496 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 of the Chickasaws in regard to their laws and customs when 
 living in their ancient domains, and whose veracity was 
 never questioned by all who knew him, either among his own 
 race or that of the white. 
 
 Up to the time the Chickasaws moved west (1836-'38), 
 their country was divided into three districts, viz: Tisho- 
 mingo, Sealy and McGilvery. At the time of their exodus 
 west to their present places of abode, Tishomingo (properly 
 Tishu Miko, chief officer or guard of thie king) was the chief 
 of the Tishu Miko district; Samuel Sealy, of the Sealy dis- 
 trict, and William McGilvery, of the McGilvery district. 
 
 The Chickasaw ruler was styled king instead of chief; 
 and his chief officer was called Tishu Miko. 
 
 Ishtehotohpih was the reigning king at the time they 
 left their ancient places of abode east of the Mississippi 
 river for those west. He died in, 1840^ He was the last of 
 the Chickasaw rulers who bore the title, king. After his 
 death the monarchical form of government, .which was 
 heredi1|^i:y, as I was informed by Go\^r nor Cyrus Harris, 
 was abolished, and" the form of Republicanism a4opted. 
 The power of their kings was very circumscribed, being only 
 about equal to that of their present governor. The kjng's 
 wife was called queen, but clothed with no authority what- 
 ever, and regarded only as other Chickasaw wompn. 
 
 That Tishu Miko was a wise counselor and brave war- 
 rior among the Chickasaws is about all that has escaped 
 oblivion, as little has been preserved of his life by tradition 
 or otherwise. He was the acting Tisliu Miko of Ishteho- 
 tohpih at the time of the removal of his people to the west. 
 He died in 1839, the year before his royal master. He was 
 appointed during life as one of the chief counselors to Ishte- 
 hotohpih; and when he advised the king upon any mooted 
 question, so great was his influence over the other counsel- 
 ors, as, Coventor Harris stated, that they at once unani- 
 mously acquiesced to his propositions, but invariably with 
 the reiterated exclamation, "That's just what I thought! 
 That's just what I that!" while the king said but little, but 
 generally adopted the suggestions of Tishu Miko. 
 
 Tushkaapela (Warrior-Helper) was a former Chltkasaw 
 king, but was made an Invalid for llf€;*by an accident which 
 rendered him unable to walk in an upright position, but 
 slowly crawled about by means of a buck's horn in each 
 hand extended behind hlra, and his feet thrust forward, pre- 
 senting an object of great compassion. His wife was named 
 Pakarli (blossom), corrupted by the whites Puc-caun-la. 
 
 The ancient Chickasaws, unlike the Choctaws, burled 
 their dead soon after life became ej^tlnct; placing in the 
 
"■ History of' the indians. 497' 
 
 {^I'.'ivc with the corpse, ■ if a man, his' 'clothes, war and' 
 hunting implements, pipe and tobacco, and a few provisions; 
 If a woman or child, the clothes and other little articles the 
 deceased may have prized in life, and a few provisions. A, 
 Chickasaw widow m.,qurned twelve full moons for her de- 
 ceased husband, wh'ile the other relatives prolonged their 
 mou^-ning only three; at the close of- which a Special Cry 
 was appointed at night, which was kept up until the break: 
 of day; then the end of the hair of the moui^ners was clipped 
 and a string handed to them with which they tied up their 
 hair, which had been permitted to hang loose over their 
 shoulders from the death of their kindred to the end of the 
 three moons, the appointed time for mourning. 
 
 Suicide was sometimes committed by the ancient 
 Chickasaws, but very seldom. When it was,' it was invari- 
 ably done with their favorite instrument' of death, the 
 rifle. , 
 
 Many of their doctors were well informed in the medi- 
 cinal properties of various herbs *and roots found in nature's 
 pharmacopoeia, and were remarkably successful in their 
 practice, espScially in cases of common fevers, the bite of 
 snakes, and many other ills to which frail humanity is so 
 subject everywhere; they were more skilful years ago than 
 at the present day, relying principally upon the white doc- 
 tors located among them. 
 
 But much practical sense would the best white physic 
 cians of the long ago have displayed, and much useful^infor- 
 mation obtained concerning the medicinal virtues of ma>ny^ 
 herbs which Nature then presented in her wild botamical 
 garden (now forever lost) if they had humbled their foolish 
 pride of imagined superiority over the Indian enougk to &ave 
 studied his pharmacy a little more attentively. 
 
 When living in the ancient domains of their fathers the 
 Chickasaws had many native women among them who pi"ac~ 
 ticed the healing art; and not a few (Si them became quite-. 
 adepts in their profession. A few female physicians are stilL 
 found among them. 
 
 Some of the most skillful doctors were regarded by 
 their people as being not only wise in the knowledge of the 
 medicinal properties of various herbs and foots which their 
 boundless forests furnished so abundantly, but also gifted- 
 with the power of making it rain when so inclined; but they 
 did not make as frequent illustrations of that power by act- 
 ual e5<perim '-"it, as did some of the Chpctaws. ' ' 
 
 As a.noug all North American Indians, as far as I have 
 been able to ascertain, so too had the Chickasaws those priv- 
 ileged personages, the Rain Maker, Medijclne Man and the 
 
498 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Prophet, or Seer. The first, in seasons of protracted drouth, 
 was invoked to exert his mysterious power to bring about an 
 abundant shower; the second to interpretdreams and charm 
 away spells, and the third to lift the veil from the dim and 
 mystic future. But in this they differed not from all the 
 human race whose minds^had not been illuminated by the di- 
 vine rays of the g^ospel of^ the Son of God. 
 
 The ancient manner of Chickasaw courtship was not 
 very taxing- upon the sensitiveness of thebashful, perspective 
 groom ; since, when he ^yished to make known to any young 
 lady of his tribe the emotions of his heart in regard to her, 
 he had byt to send a small bundle of clothing carefully tied 
 up in a large cotton handkerchief (similar in dimensions to a 
 medium-sized table cloth, ve»-y common in those primitive 
 days of ignorant bliss, when fashion and folly were un- 
 known) by his mother or sister to the girl he desired to make 
 his wife. This treasure of acknowledged love was imme- 
 diately taken possession of by the mother of the wished-for 
 bride and kept for a few days before presenting it to her 
 daughter; and when presented, if accepted, it was a bona 
 fide acknowledgement on her part of her willingness to ac- 
 cept him as her husband, of which confession he was at once 
 duly notified; if otherwise, the subject was there and then 
 forever dropped, and the disappointed and disconsolate 
 swain found consolation in the privilege extended to all such 
 cases, that of presenting another bundle of clothes wrapped 
 in a similar mantle of cotton, to gome other fcJrest beauty in 
 which his country so profusely abounded. But best of all, 
 the swain, whether bold or timid, was always spared that 
 fearful and dreaded ordeal of soliciting the "yes" of the 
 "old folks, " as his mother took that imperative and obnox- 
 ious duty upon herself, and was almost always successful 
 in the accomplishment of the desired object. The coast 
 being clear of all breakers, the elated lover painted his face 
 in exact conformity to the latest and most approved style, 
 donne(^ his best suit, and sought the home of his betrothed 
 with fluttering heart, who, strictly on the lookout, met him 
 a few rods froni the door, and proudly and heroically es- 
 corted him into the house where they, themselves, in the 
 presence of friends and relatives, performed the marriage 
 ceremony by the man presenting the "woman with a ham of 
 venison; or a part of some other eatable animal of the chase; 
 she at the same time presenting him with an ear of corn, or 
 sack of potatoes, all of which betokened the man should pro- 
 vide the household with meat, and the woman with bread. 
 Thus they were made man and wife, and so considered by 
 all. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 499 
 
 The Chickasaws, as all the human race in all ages past, 
 indulg-ed in that time honored amusement, the dance. Their 
 ancient national dances were the same as the ChoctawS; 
 Hoyopa-hihla . (war-dance); Hakshup-hihla, (scalp-danc?)'; 
 ■ToUh-hihla, (ball-play dance^; Tanschusi-hihla (green corn 
 dance); Yunnushhihla, (buffalo dance.) Then followed the 
 social or fun-making dances, such as Akanka-hihla, 
 (chicken dance); Issuba-hihla, (horse dance); Shut-tun-nih- 
 hih-la (tick-dance); all of which excelled, in purity of senti- 
 ment,' many of the civilized exotics, adbpted by us, in this 
 refined age of Christian progress, such as the "round- 
 dance," etc., if all be true that is stated about them by those 
 who still retain some idea of decency and respect for its just 
 claims. But I judge only from hear-s,ay, never having wit- 
 nessed the "heart-refining . and soul-elevating" perform- 
 ances. ■ ■ ■ ■ I ■•.' 
 
 In a few only of their social dances, all of which were 
 performed in the open aii', men- ahd woman participated to- 
 l^ether. Rarely more than one niusician at a time engaged 
 in that department of the entertainment, whose music was 
 of that quality which soon satisfied the ear of even the most 
 fastidious; he sat sometimes on 4 block of wood, and some- 
 times on his mother earth, upon whose non-chiding bosom 
 the dancers also as recklessly "tipped the fantastic toe," as 
 he unyieldingly beat a little drum, accompanied its monoto- 
 nous tones with his voice in a chanting l^ind of soothing lul- 
 laby, to the facinating powers of which the dancers gave 
 joyous heed. 
 
 The Chickasaws had two dances sacred to the women 
 alone and in which they only engaged. One was called Iti- 
 lusahihla (Blackwood dance); the other, Itakhalusahihla 
 (Blackmouth dance), which, no doubt, might justly dispute 
 for rivalship with their pale-face sisters, when in their part- 
 ners' scientific embrace in the performance of the fashion- 
 able "round dance" — at least as far as external appearance 
 indicates — judging only from "hearsay," however. 
 
 They also had a dance called Tanspichifah (crushed or 
 pounded corn), in which various meats were mped and cook- 
 ed, now called Tarns-pe-sho-fah. This dance was only per- 
 formed before the door of a house in which lay the sick and 
 only indulged in at the injunction of the alikchi (doctor) who 
 was attending the sick; this ancient dance of the years of 
 the long past is still kept up among the Chickasaws by some 
 of the full bloods. 
 
 When a doctor was called in to see a patient if after ex- 
 erting his skill in the knowledge of the medicinal virtues 
 known in nature's pharmacy, he^found his patiient gradually 
 
500 , HISTORV OF THI': INDIANS. 
 
 growing-, worse, he ordered a Tanspichifah hihla. At once 
 it was announced by sending messengers throughout the 
 neig-hborhood, and the appointed day found tl^e friends as- 
 sembled. Then a straight line was drawn from the centre 
 of tfie doorway of the house in which the sick was confined, 
 to a smooth and straight pole fifteen or twenty feet in length, 
 gaily decorated, that had been firmily set up eight or ten 
 rods from the door. Two guai*ds called Tishu, each armed 
 with a long stout switch, were each stationed at the oppo- 
 site end of the line, whose duty was to prevent anything, 
 man or beast from crossing the mystic line either way. In 
 the meantime a fire was kindled a short distance to one side 
 over which was suspended a large iron vessel filled with 
 pounded corn and meats. The ground having been previ-r 
 ously and cleanly swept for a little distance each side of the 
 line from the door to the erected pole, and all things being 
 ready for the dance, the bed upon which the patient rested 
 was drawn into a position in the room fronting the door, to^ 
 give the patient full view of the merry dancers, see the gaily 
 decorated pole, and hear the tones of the little drum as it 
 responded to the quick and vigorous strokes of the musi- 
 cian; that thus the thoughts of the sick might be diverted 
 from the depressing influences of the mind dwelling too 
 long upon the malady with which he or she was afflicted. 
 Then the Alikchi brought out two women from the house 
 gaily decorated with ribbons and beads of various colors, and 
 alsohaving thimbles or rattles made of dry luksi hakshtip (ter- 
 rapin shell) attached to their moccasins or the skirts of their 
 dresses, and placed them together on one side of the line, 
 while several men stationed themselves on the opposite 
 side of the line; then the Alikchi returned to his duties in 
 the sick room, the musician started his favorite tune on "his 
 harp of" less than ."a thousand strings," and the dancing 
 commenced; the men confining their exercises strictly to 
 one side of the line.^and the two woman to that of the other, 
 each being extremely cautious not to step over its magic 
 bounds. From one to two women only danced at the same 
 time; when wearied they gave place to others to whom were 
 handed the little bells or luksi hakshups taken from their 
 ankles and dresses, which the fresh ;dancers attached to 
 their persons in like manner as the others had done. 
 
 The leader or director of the Tanspichifah was called 
 Tikbahika (going first). The above generally commenced 
 an hour or two before suh down and continued until the 
 shades of twilight began to appear, then gave place to the 
 partaking of refreshments found previously prepared in the 
 iron vessel around which both dancers and spectators gath- 
 
HISTORY Ot' THE INDIAN, 501 
 
 •crert in liappy merrimeht and partook (if so inclined) of the 
 Tanspichifah repast. During the hours devbted to the dance, 
 the doctor, true to his trust, had been attentive to the fluct- 
 uating symptoms of his patient; administering at one titne 
 a decoction of different herbs; at another, performing his 
 mystic ceremonies, among which was the vigorous rattling 
 of a dry gourd, into which had been placed some pebbles, 
 over the head and around the body of his confiding patient, 
 and squirting from his mouth, at different intervals, a quan-' 
 tity of the decoction upon the exposed breast of his patient. 
 After the retreshments the dancing was resumed, but in the 
 house instead of the yard, where it was kept up until a late 
 hour of the night, all spectators being without; during 
 which the monotonous tinkling and i-attling of the thimble 
 bells arid terrapin shells, in discordant hartaiony with the in- 
 defeasible little drum,'which gave forth its tones in seem- 
 ingly inexhaustible quantities ' to the measured blows of the 
 relentless and indefatigable musician, all mingling with the 
 voices of the dancers chanting^, E-yih-hah-hehl E-yih-hah- 
 ' hehl^ was enough, it did seem, to kill or cure; or, at lesist, to 
 forever put to flight the "Evil Spirit" which the worthy 
 disciple of Esoulapius had declared to be present, and baf- 
 fled his healin'g skill by counteracting the efficacy of his 
 medicines and mystic ceremoiiies. , 
 
 However, if the patient recovered, in spite of all the din 
 produced by the cohtest between the doctor' and the "Evil 
 Spirit" for the victory, the doctor bore off the palm; and his 
 skill was deservedly undisputed, his reputation justly estab- 
 lished and the honor of his profession nobly maintained. 
 But if otherwise, and the "Evil Spirit" won the victory by 
 counteracting the virtues of his medicines and mystic cere- 
 monies, > causing the death of his patient, the doctor, unwil- 
 ling still to yield the palm of victory ±d the "Evil Spirit," 
 readily, as a worthy guardian of the reputation of his high 
 ■calling, found a more honorable cause for his defeat than 
 that by an "Evil Spirit," and, , what was still better, more 
 suitable to the credulity of his patrons— even as many of his 
 pale-faced brothers of like profession; therefore,he solemnly 
 -and with great gravity announced that his patient had been 
 ;shot by, an Isht-ul-bih (Witch-ball) from an invisible rifle in 
 the hands of an invisible witch which left no visible signs of 
 its mysterious power; but the secret effects of which were 
 beyond the skill of any and all human doctors, to which his 
 ■dupes gave ready assent; and thus the reputation of the in- 
 visible and indefeasible power of the hattakyushpakummi 
 (Witch) was confirmed, and the alikchi was enabled to come 
 
502 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 out of the contest with a reputation unimpared, to his entire 
 satisfaction, and so the matter ended. 
 
 The ancient Chickasaws. like the Choctaws, had their 
 apeci^ed cries over the graves of their dead. At the day 
 appointed, the relatives, friends and neighbors assembled 
 and one little group after another tooV their seats on the 
 ground in a circle around the grave, then drew their shawls 
 and blankets over their heads and comiihenced their doleful 
 lamentations, which must be seen and heard to form any 
 just idea of the scene. The "cry" continued for several 
 days and nights, then terminated with a feast; after which 
 the name of the deceased was pronounced no more. The 
 dead are with the past; for them how fruitless our despair,, 
 was their final and just conclusion. 
 
 The Chickasaw mother, as her Choctaw sister, was 
 blessed in one particular amid all her trials. She, too, was- 
 exempt from the curse which the Sacred Writings declare 
 was imposed upon parturition; and the hecessity of a doctor 
 or midwife on such occasion was unknown. A woman, about 
 to become a mother, retired to some private place alone, and 
 in a few hours returned with her child, and quietly resumed 
 her occupations. 
 
 The ancient Chickasaws, unlike their kindred, the Choc- 
 taws, entertained no superstitious views in regard to the 
 eclipse of the sun or moon; regarding it as a phenomenon 
 inexplicable, and to be the height of folly to be alarmed and 
 worried over that which they had no control— a sensible con- 
 clusion indeed. They called an eclipse, either of sun or 
 moon, hushi luma (sun hidden). Sometimes a total eclipse of 
 the sun was termed hushi illi (dead sun), and sometimes 
 hushi kunia (lost sun). They called the moon hushi ninak 
 aya (the sun of the night). 
 
 The traditions of the Chickasaws are silent in regard ta 
 the flood; at least nothing has been preserved upon that sub- 
 ject. Rather strangel since th^ Choctaws, to whom they 
 were so closely allied by consanguinity, and the Cherokees, 
 Muscogees, Shawnees and many other tribes spoke of it in 
 their traditions. 
 
 Pakitakohlih (hanging grapes)( from which the present 
 town Pontotoc, Mississippi, derived its name, was a town 
 known to the French, in the days of Bienville, by the name 
 Chikasahha; and afterwards to the English as '-Chickasaw 
 Old Town"; then to the Americans as "The Chickasaw Old 
 Fields"; and was, according to Chickasaw tradition (no doubt 
 correct) the same "Old Town" in which De Soto wintered 
 with his army in 1540, and over whose beads the Chickasaws 
 burned to expel him from their territories, after his insolent 
 
HISTORY OF^THE INDIANS. 503 
 
 and unjust clemancl; but which -they afterwards rebuilt. 
 The venerable "Old Town" was known to the Spaniards at 
 an early day by the name Chicaco; and truly no spot of ground 
 m the Southern States has deservingly greater military fame 
 than "Old Chicaco." This ancient town of the Chickasaws 
 was located, in the years of the far back, upon the banks of 
 a little stream to which they also g-ave the name Pakitakoh- 
 lih, on account of the profusion of wild grapes that hung in 
 tempting clusters upon its shady banks; and though nothing 
 now remains to. tell where the ancient "Chicaco" once stood, 
 and "Ilium Fuit" is all that is remembered of its eventful 
 history, still Pakitakohlih continues its gentle meanderings 
 by the perished city of the dead, as the only imperishable 
 monument of Chickasaw patriotism, gently murmuring its 
 lowly requiem to its departed shades, while the winged har- 
 monist of the South (hushi bulbaha — mocking bird) is still 
 seen lingering around th6 scene caroling its orchestraJ. hymns 
 of nature that once waked the dark-eyed Chickasaw maiden 
 to inhale the morning air laden with the sweet perfumes of a 
 world of flowers, and cheered the early hunter as he started 
 on the dubious chase. * 
 
 But where are they, the once numerous, free and happy 
 Chickasaws, who, "In the years gone by; stood alone and 
 maintained their independence' eighteen years against the 
 combined efforts of the French and their Indian allies to 
 carry out their nefarious designs, "Extermination to the 
 Chickasaw Nation," but were defeated and driven back as 
 oft as they put their hostile feet upon Chickasaw soil? They 
 too, with their chivalry and glory, have passed away leaving 
 no trace behind them, except in the little handful that still 
 survives, yet retaining to the last the same chivalrous un- 
 yielding, and unconquerable spirit of their noble ancestors 
 two centuries ago; and though _, 
 
 "No storied urn, no sculptured Btqne, 
 
 No marble record of their fame ! 
 
 Tells of their deeds; but not unknown, 
 
 Have passed away without a name 
 
 Those heroes bold, for every stream 
 
 That murmurs by, with scarce a motion, 
 
 Like the sweet memory of a dream, , 
 
 Bears a soft Indian name to ocean." 
 
 As to the Choctaws two years before, so to the Chicka- 
 saws, places of rendezvous were appointed in different lo- 
 calities at which they were commanded to congregate, prep- 
 aratory to their being driven off; and, like flocks of sheep, 
 for the slaughter, they were herded together in little groups 
 under the guidance of their respective chiefs, who, oile after 
 
S04 HISTORY OF THIC INDIANS. 
 
 another, moved off with his little band tovvards the setting' 
 sun, cruelly banished from tjieir ancient homes, arid with- 
 out the shadow of a just or reasonable cause. Here was 
 seen a disconsolate mother callings her unconscious children 
 from their childish and joyous gambols beneath the forest 
 oaks to fall into ranks with a starting- group; then, as she 
 took her place in file, turned her face again and again to take 
 one more long lingering look upon the loved scenes of her 
 youth and advanced years; while the loud laugh of the white 
 teamsters, who accompanied them, at some rough remark 
 made by some one of their number when driving by, jarred 
 like a discord in some mournful tune upon that mother's 
 .heart, but aroused her not from her reveries. 
 
 How true it is that often the heaviest burdens of life arc 
 those at which the world laughs, but of which the over- 
 TVeighted heart cannot and will not speak! There are some 
 misfortunes — some sorrows — that dwarf all others ; and 
 such indeed were those of the Chickasaws when defrauded 
 •of their ancient homes, and bade depart,they knew not where. 
 They saw only -merciless force behind them, and blind 
 chance before them ; which, like that in nature, smites with 
 the tornado the lonely forest or the p'lecipled country. They 
 had the courage to rush to arms against the wrong and in 
 ■defense of their rights, but knew too well how futile would 
 he their effort; yet they felt like they wpuld rather even 
 make the effort to push back an avalanche than cower before 
 it. But alas, the dark shadows of an evil future never before 
 had spead over them as now; but it seemed they were com- 
 ing nearer and nearer, closing in, remorseless and relent- 
 less, stealing upon them like vindictive, unpitying foes. It 
 -was indeed a time of sad, yet cherished memories with them 
 — a memory, cherished with love and honor, still only a mem- 
 ory. Truly, where else is there so human, so enthralling 
 grief that so wrings the spectator's hpart! 
 
 There, too, was seen the brave ' w^arrior and fearless 
 hunter, as he turned away from his hunting grounds with 
 its many objects sacred to memory and dear to his heart, 
 taking his place in front of his family circle; and as they 
 bade their final adieu to the graves of their ancestors, their 
 iomes and native land, inherited from ^ long line of noble 
 ancestry, they moved off in silence with not an eye mois- 
 tened with a tear, nor emotion depicted on a counte- 
 nance. And though it, belongs to the Indian's nature to con- 
 ceal his emotions of grief, and he refrains from tears, yet 
 none feel more deeply or are subject to more intense agony 
 of soul, or possess deeper affection of heart than the North 
 American Indian. I speak from personal knowledge gained 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. " 505 
 
 from personal acquaintance and association during- a life of 
 over seventy-five years with the Choctaws and Chickasaws; 
 and what is said of them may be said,\yith equal truth of 
 the entire North American Indian race. / ' 
 
 The Indian's emotions may well and justly be compared 
 to the hidden tires in the deep caverns of the yolckno, whose 
 existence is not known till the fiery torrent breaks its bounds 
 and the consuming streams of lava roll oyer cities, towns 
 and villages. ' i 
 
 In all that assembled throng, where noble forms and 
 fearless hearts sat erect and silent, with stern faces and 
 tearless eyes, there was not a single ChickasaWj man' or 
 -woman, who would not have accepted death in any form, or 
 -to endure in any degree— even that of burning at the stake 
 <a bold assertion, yet I make it in confidence of its truth )-!-if 
 by such a sacrifice or suffering he or she could have rescued, 
 the country of their inheritance and the home of their na- 
 tivity fi-om the grasp of the White Race and given it as a 
 sure possession- to their people. Let blissful ignorance 
 smile with incredulity, and conceited prejudice sneer, since 
 nothing more nor less can be expected of siich. ■* 
 
 And I know also that they would have resisted to the last 
 Avarrior the arbitrary power tha't drove them'frOm their an- 
 cient possession had but a ray of' hope promis'ed success. 
 But there was none, not even a feeble glimmering; therefore 
 they bowed submissively to the decree of the Great Spirit 
 (as they afiirmed) and turned from the land dearer than life 
 to go to that which they had never seen and did not love; and 
 the grand old forest, as they left it with robes of green and 
 autumnal vesture of beauty and myriads of game which na- 
 ture had reared and fed for the benefit of her forest chil- 
 dren, soon also melted away before the white man's Ipve of 
 destruction of all that is public, as dry stubble before the 
 fire, all — Chickasaws, forests and game^— disappeared, to be 
 seen no more; 
 
 But did they leave behind them the religion of the 
 "World's Redeemer as taught them by the faithful mission- 
 aries? Not at all. They took it with them as their most 
 sacred treasure, and worshipped the God of their salvation 
 under the canopies of the forest oaks in the wilderness of 
 their new homes for a few years. Then arose, here and 
 there, amid the forests alog cabin church and a school-house, 
 over which waved the defying flags bearing the motto. 
 Onward, and upward, with undeviatihg faith and un- 
 wearied patience from this dark and shadowy vale of doubt 
 and' fear to that blissful immortality whence comes the 
 Eternal Truth. . ' ■ ' ,- 
 
506 ■^ HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 Next, in regular succession, comes a sufficiency of com- 
 modious and comfortable churches and school-houses; and 
 1861 found them a thorouq^hly civilized. Christianized, pros- 
 perous^ contented and happy people. Then came our civil 
 war, into which we dragged them, vi et armis, and out of 
 which we sent them stripped of everything. Yet, Phoenix 
 like, again they arose from the ashes of desolation and stood 
 once more as a people whose indomitable resolution is un- 
 surpassed in the annals of mankind. 
 
 But still not satisfied, we again have entered their little 
 garden of contentment, with the determination, this time, 
 to divide their lands in serveralty as the introductory wedge 
 to the destruction of their nationality and our ipmediate 
 possession of their country, hurling them headlong, without 
 chart or coiiipass, sail or rUdder, to shift for themselves 
 among a race who possess but one characteristic "get 
 money," and but one belief "no good Indian but a dead In- 
 diat." ^ 
 
 But, as that of the Choctaw country, so it may equally 
 and truly be said .that a more beautiful and richer country 
 could not be portrayed on the canvass of nature than was 
 also that of the Chickasaws now forming the north half of 
 the State of Mississippi. They, as the Choctaws, annually 
 burned the grass of their forests throughout their entire 
 country; and thus the landscape was unobscured by any 
 wood undergrowth whatever, while the tall forest trees, 
 "standing so thick as to shade the entire ground, spread their 
 giant arms over the thick carpet of grass beneath, varie- 
 gated with innumerable flowers of all , colors arraying the 
 earth in wild beauty, and filling the air with fragrance ; while 
 the incessant and merry warblingsof their untaught orches- 
 tra (nature's dowry) from the unwearied throats of innu- 
 merable and gaily plumaged birds, fascihated the scene and 
 made the heart glad; and in the autumn season, the Indian 
 summer of those days of seventy-five years ago, when the sun 
 rose a coppered disk casting no shadow until risen several 
 degrees above the horizon; then, as it declined toward the, 
 west, passing through all shades from a bright gold to blood 
 red and becoming invisible an. hour or two before it sank 
 below the western sky; nature was ktill not without its at- 
 tractive beauties, though the foliage had changed to bronze 
 by the kiss of winter frosts; on every side grapes, musca- 
 dines, plums, persimmons of excellent flavor, and other 
 autumnal fruits in rich profusion greeted the eye and grati- 
 fied the taste of the most fastidious, while the reproachful 
 chatterings and nimble gambols of the numberless squirrels 
 that gaily sported among the extended branches of their 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 507 
 
 native woods ; and the herds of deer and flocks of turkeys 
 that roamed o'er the uplands, and amid the tangled cane- 
 orakes on the water courses where the bear, panther, cata- 
 mount, wolf and innumerable smaller animals made their 
 homes, all invited the hunter to the enjoyment of an endless 
 variety of wild and fascinating- amusement unsurpassed in 
 the annals of a hunter's paradise. Truly, that is happiness 
 which breaks not the link between man and nature. 
 
 For several years after the departure of the Chickasaws 
 not a vestig-e of change was seen; no sound of the woodman's 
 ax, or even the distant crowing of the domestic cock an- 
 nouncing the approach of white civilization,, broke the pro- 
 found silence of the vast forests, undisturbed by man, yet 
 swarming with animal life. Travel where you would, though 
 no sign indicating the presence of man was seen, yet you 
 felt not alone; above you countless warblers rendered the 
 air resonant with the wild but sweet music of nature's har- 
 mony; before you the wild turkey flapped his broad wings, 
 carelessly and seemed only to change his position that he 
 might the better observe the actions and ascertain the inten- 
 tions of the new and white-faced intruders upon his ancient 
 heritage; while here and there droves of deer crossed and 
 re-crossed your path at different intervals, sometimes run- 
 ning with fleetest feet, at others quietly grazing, then gaily 
 gamboling in the tall, waving grass which, to an imaginative 
 mind, might have appeared as Naiads sporting upon the 
 wind-disturbed bosom of some enchanted lake; and, as even- 
 ing let her curtains down and twilight shades appeared, the 
 ancient bird of the goddess Minerva booted his accustomed 
 lays of wisdom, as a reminder that familiarity breeds con- 
 tempt and sometimes worse; therefore, in commendable 
 modesty, sought safety in prudential distance, leaving you 
 alone to your refieetionfe. Such scenes and sounds greeted 
 the eye and regaled the ear of the traveler as he plodded his 
 way through the wilderness of Chickasaw and Choctaw for- 
 ests as handed to the White Race seventy years ago by tha.t 
 noble race of people when banished to the West by arbi- 
 trary power, in 1832 and '36, and where their condition, for 
 several years, was little better than that of the hapless sea- 
 men who had been put ashore by their comrades upon some 
 desolate island far out in the ocean. Yet it was declared to 
 be just and right, since the "pi-ogress of Christianity an(^ 
 white civilization demanded it." 
 
 Who that beheld that lovely land and enjoyed its ro- 
 mantic scenes, but still delights to dwell in memory upon 
 its former charms, as it then lay in all its primitive loveli- 
 ness and glory, fitted up and bequeathed by the Great 
 
508 HISTOKY OF TIIIC INDIANS. 
 
 Spirit to his Chickasaw children for their abode; but 'Out 
 of which they were cruelly and shamefully defrauded by 
 the United States in a treaty concluded October 20th, 18j2, 
 .at the Council House on Pakitakalih Creek and ratified 
 March 1st, 1833, by the United States Senate. 
 
 This treaty having the same designs against the Chick- 
 asawsj-and as effectually accomplished as that against the 
 Ghoctaws two years before on the banks of Bok Clukfi Luma 
 Hihlah, September 28th, 1830, was made and entered into by 
 John Eaton and John Coffee, on the part Of the United States, 
 and seventy-three members of the Council, on the part of 
 the Chickasaw Nation. 
 
 There were four Chickasaw families at that day, as I 
 .-was informed by Governor Cyrus Harris.'who kept their 
 houses so neatly, and their yards so free of all grass, weeds 
 and rubbish of all kinds, that they were called by the whites, 
 ^'The clean house Indians." Three of the heads of the four 
 families were brothers, and the othrer a brother-in-law to the 
 three. The chief or the head man of the four families was 
 named Chikasah nana ubih (pro. Chik-a-sah nar-nar-ub-ih, 
 and sig. A Chickasaw who kills anything), and his two broth- 
 ers, the one Ishkitahah (pro. Ish-ke-tar-hah and sig. No 
 mother or mother gone.) The other, Innihtowa (pro. In-nih- 
 to-wah, sig. Warm the ball,) The brother-in-law was named 
 Aiyuka ubih (pro. Ai-yu-kah ubih and sig. Each one kill, or 
 to kill each cine). 
 
 At an early day a few white men of culture and of good 
 morals, fascinated with the wild and romantic freedom and 
 simplicity of the Chickasaw life, cast their lot among that 
 brave and patriotic nation of people. 
 
 I read an article published in Mississippi a few years 
 ago, ■wUiich stated that, a man by the name of Mcintosh, 
 commissioned by British authorities to visit the Chickasaw 
 Nation and endeavor to keep up its artcient hostility to the 
 French, was so delighted with the customs and manners of 
 that brave, free and hospitable people that, after the accom- 
 plishment of his mission, he remained among them; then 
 marrying a Chickasaw woman he became identified with the 
 tribe; that he became an influential character among the 
 Chickasaws; thathe/ound the whole Nation living in one 
 large village in the "Chickasaw Old Fields"; that he per- 
 suaded them U scatter, take possession of the most fertile 
 and watered la!nds, and live where game was more plentiful; 
 that he planted a colony at a place called Tokshish (cor- 
 ruption of Takshi-pro. Tark-shih, and sig. Bashful) sev- 
 eral miles south of Pontotoc; that this colony became the 
 
' HISTORY 'OF THE INDIANS.' 509 
 
 favorite residence of the white reneg-ades, etc. All of which 
 is without even a shadow of truth.' • , > ,. 
 
 True, a man by the name of Mcintosh once visited the 
 Chickasaw Nation as stated; but, after his diplomacy was 
 accomplished, departed and returned lio more. There never 
 was a Mclntpsh identified in any way with the Chickasajws at 
 that early day, nor has there been one from that day to this. 
 The only white men adopted and identified with the Chicka- 
 saws at that early day were James, Gunn, Log-an Colbeipt, 
 John Gilchrist, Malcomb McGee, James Allen and John By- 
 num. and their descendants are still among- the Chickasaws, 
 An aged daughter of John Bynum, with whom I am person- 
 ally acquainted, as also with her children, was, in 1890, still 
 hovering upon the stage of human life, as bright an example 
 of true Christian piety as ever waited for the Divine Mas- 
 ter's final summons to a blissful immortality. 
 
 At'the time of the establishment of the Christian Mis- 
 sion among the Chickasaws under the jurisdiction of that 
 noble and true Christian philanthropist, Rey. T. C. 
 Stuart, Malcomb McGee (erroneously published as Malcottib 
 McGecbe) was a venerable and highly, venerated character ' 
 among the appreciative Chickasaws of all true moral worth. 
 He was born, according- to his own statements, of Scotch 
 parents in the city of Ne^^ York about the year 1757. 
 Shortly after his parents arrived in America, his father en- 
 listed in the Colonial army in an eixpedition against. the 
 French, and was killed at the storming of Ticonderoga, only 
 a few months before young Malcomb was born. 
 
 About this time marvelous runfors of the vast and mag- 
 nificent plains of Illinois, covered by innumerable herds of 
 buffalo, wild horses, deer and great varieties of othei" wild 
 animals, excited the cupidity of the adventurous, aftd a com- 
 pany of enthusiasts resolved to go to that imagined earthly 
 paradise, among whom was the young widow McGee. In. 
 those.days of the distant past, to reach that point in the "far 
 west" from New York, New Orleans had* first to be reached 
 by sea/ thence up the Mississippiriver by a keel-boat worked 
 by hand, which took months of arduous toil and great priva- 
 tion to make a voyage from New Orleans to St. Louis. The 
 adventurous journey, however, was undertaken and success- 
 fully, accomplished by those' lovers of the romantic. But in 
 that then world of wilderness the young widow McGee soon 
 found herself reduced to extreme poverty, with none near 
 who were able to assist her. At this time a man by the 
 name of Mcintosh visited the distant little colony on the 
 Illinoisriver;. learning her distressful situation, and moved 
 with pity, he advised her to let him adopt young Malcomb 
 
SIO HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 as his own son under the promise of being a father to the 
 boy in raising- and educating him. In her extreme poverty 
 aJid feeble prospects of doing anything for him in regard to 
 an education, she finally consented, but with great reluc- 
 tance, and gave Malcomb, then about ten years of age, to the 
 care and guardianship of Mcintosh. But what an ordeal for 
 ■that mother's heart and that orphan boy, who had never seen 
 his father, as cruel fate now decrees their separation (which 
 proved a final one), the one to remain in the wilderness of 
 the west ; the other to g[o with a stranger to a wilderness far 
 in the east, to the land ot the Muscogees, among whom Mc- 
 intosh had selected his future home; and afterwards marry- 
 ing among them was adopted and became one of that war- 
 like people, whose descendants from that day to this have 
 been a prominent family among the Muscogees, i^ow known 
 as the Creeks. | 
 
 How different were those white men of that early day 
 who cast their lot among the southern Indians from those 
 who, of later years, have sought, and still seek, citizenship 
 among that people! The former sought the moral advance- 
 ment of the people among whom they had cast their lot; and 
 who, when followed by the self-sacrificing missionaries, did 
 all they could to assist them in the promulgation of religion 
 and education among their newly adopted people — being like 
 them' free of all avarice; the latter being influenced wholly 
 through selfish motives, without a thought or care for the 
 good of the Indians, have ever been, and still are, a wither- 
 ing blight upon the labors of the missionaries — a mildew 
 upon theic- hopes and a curse, in the plurality of cases, to 
 the Indians upon whom they intrude, as far as virtue and 
 morality are concerned. AJasl through what an ordeal has 
 the Red Race of the North American continent been forced 
 to pass since first made acquainted with the White. 
 
 But true to his trust, the generous Mcintosh proved a 
 father and faithful friend to the homeless orphan Malcomb, 
 and, a few years after his return to the Muscogees, took 
 him to Mobile, then occupied by the French, and placed him 
 in a school under the jurisdiction of a French family, who, 
 shortly after his guardian had left became so tyrannical, 
 oppressive and abusive, that young Malcomb resolved to 
 free himself from their cruelty by bidding them an in- 
 formal adieu which would place him fjorever beyond their 
 power; and soon he embraced the opportunity presented, to 
 put his resolutions into effect, by some Indian traders visit- 
 ing Mobile, to whom he attached himself on their return, 
 and thus was enabled to rejoice again in the freedom of a 
 forest home, among that race of people who never forsook u 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 511 
 
 homeless and friendless orphan. He did not, however, re- 
 turn to his former home under the roof of his benefactor, 
 Mcintosh, but stopped an^ong- the Cho'ctaws with whom he 
 remained several years, during' which he married a Choctaw 
 maiden by the name of Kanah hoyo (a seeker for somebody). 
 He lived happily with Kanahhoyo for several years, who 
 then dying^, he returned to the Chickasaws, his old friends, 
 and solicited citizenship which was readily and cheerfully 
 granted. After living -rt^ith them a few years, he married a 
 Chickasaw widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Harris, who was the old- 
 est daughter of Molly Oxberry, aild the mother of Governor 
 Cyrus Hai-ris, of the Chickasaw Nationi- ' 
 
 Malcomb McGee acted interpreter to the Chickasaws in ' 
 all their negotiations with the United States for nearly forty 
 years. He was greatly attached to the Rev. T. C. Stuart,' 
 and when the Chickasaws were driven from ' theii/ homes to 
 their present ones Malcomb McGee resolved to remain \vith 
 Mr. Stuart; and in his yard he lived nearly twelve years in a 
 neat little log house erected by his noble missionary' friend 
 for his special use and benefit. But about the year 1848 his 
 daughter and her husband pkid him a visit from their wes- 
 iern home, and on their return persuaded him to return withv 
 them to their western home, but he survived only a year af- 
 ter his arrival. He died in the ninety-second year of his age 
 and was buried at Old Boggy Depot, in the land of the Choc- 
 taws, also his long and faithful friends; and of Malcomb Mc- 
 gee and his Chickasaw and Choctaw friends, it well may be 
 said: 
 
 "He that does the best his circumstances allow, 
 "Does well; acts nobly; Angels could do no more." 
 
 ^ James Gunn, whose name is commemorated in that of a 
 town called Gunntown, situated in Lee county, Mississippi, 
 ■was one among the six white men previously mentioned, 
 who at an early day cast their^lot of life among the Chicka- 
 saw people, preferring the happy fircedom of that heroic 
 nation of people to all that was offered among their own 
 race. James Gunn was a native Virginian, and also a fear- 
 less and indomitable loyalist, who stood for the crown in the 
 troubled days of Charles the First and the Roundheads ; and 
 ■when the revolution proved triumphant, and the rising glory 
 of these United States had been announced, and also seemed 
 summoned to take their position among the great nations of 
 earth, the old royalist, disdaining the society of successful 
 rebels, bade an adieu forever to the home of his youth, and 
 sought a more congenial one among the true native sons and ' 
 freemen of North America. He secured a wife among the 
 
312 HISTOKY OF THIC INDIANS. 
 
 \ 
 
 wild forest flowers of the noted Chickasaw beauties of that 
 long ago, selecting one named Okashuah (Stinking Wa- 
 ter); a name, though not of classic ^ame or enviable signifi- 
 cation, it is reasonable to presume, yet did not detract from 
 her merits as an amiable and devoted wife and mother in 
 any particular whatever. They had only one daughter, 
 named Molly, who married a Cherokee warrior named Ox- 
 berry, and her oldest daughter by this, marriage was named 
 Elizabeth, who became the mother of Governor Cyrus Har- 
 ris; and another of her daughters, by the same marriage, 
 was, in 1890, living near Colbert Station, Chickasaw Nation, 
 I. T., at the advanced age of ninety-six, and is known as 
 Grandma Alberson. Molly was also the mother of the cele- 
 brated Chickasaw beauty named Rhodk. James Gunn died 
 in 1826; his age has not been preserved; but, it is said, he 
 was a very old man at the time of his death. 
 
 Many young white sprigs who visited the Chickasaw 
 Nation with the view of speculation, when they saw Rhoda, 
 the Chickasaw belle, the fairest rose that bloomed in the for- 
 ests wild of that romantic age, felt their, visions of lands, 
 negroes, mules, cotton bales and speedy fortunes vanish as 
 mists before the morning sun; and though they sighed and 
 wooed, gazed in meditative solitude at the moon. and stars, 
 and in hours of thoughtful mood gave birth to imaginative 
 verse on the Chickasaw nymph, 
 
 "Whose glossy looks to shame might bring 
 "The plumage of the raven's wing," 
 
 and in humble, yet loving, attitude, with promises many and 
 fair, solicited her heart and hand, but 'twas all in vain. The 
 inexorable Rhoda could not fancy those sprigs of white no- 
 bility, nor judge a single one of them as a better substitute 
 for a husband than many of the Chickasaw youths who had 
 I never felt the blighting curse of avaHce, nor would sacrifice 
 a friend at the shrine of jts demands; therefore turned away 
 from them and gave her youthful heart to one of her own 
 race, Samuel Colbert, a son of Major James Colbert; the ex- 
 odus of her people soon following her nuptial day, she, with 
 them, bade a final adieu to the fair scenes of her joys and 
 soon the loveliness of the forest flower fiassed from the mem- 
 ory of its former admirers as the evening star behind the 
 western hills— to be thought of "Never More." She became 
 the mother of one daughter, but after living several years 
 with her husband a final separation, from some unknown 
 cause, took place between her and hier husband. Several 
 years after which she married a man by the name of Joseph 
 Potts, who took a dose of strychnine through niistaUc for 
 
mS'lOKY OF THE INDIANS. S13 
 
 quinine, in 1862, while at the house of Governor Cyrus Har- 
 ris, and died Tfrom its effects in half an hour. A son of Govr 
 ernor Harris found the vial of strychnine in the road a feW 
 rods from the house and brought it in, believing it to be a 
 vial of quinine some one had accidentally dropped, and hence 
 the fatal and lamentable result. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OP CYRUS HARRIS, EX-GOVERNOR OP 
 THE CHICKASAW NATION. 
 
 Cyrus Harris, who was of the House Emisha taluyah 
 (pro. E, we, mish-ar, beyond, ta-larn-yah, putting it down)' 
 was born, as he stated to me, three miles south of 
 Pontotoc, Mississippi, on the 22nd of August, 1817. He 
 died at his home on Mill Creek, Chickasaw Nation. He 
 lived with his mother until the year 1827, when he was sent 
 to school at the Monroe Missionary Station, at the time that 
 Rev. Thomas C. Stuart, that noble Christian missionai-y and 
 Presbyterian minister, had charge of the school, and iil 
 which niany Chickasaw youths, both male and female, were 
 being educated. In 1828, he was taken to the state of Ten-- 
 nessee by Mr. Hugh Wilson, a minister also of the Old 
 School Presbyterian faith and order, and placed in an Indiaa 
 school located on a small , stream calted Roberson Fork, in 
 the county of Giles. This humble little Indian' school wsds* 
 taught by a man named William R, McNight. Cyrus^* at 
 the close of the year 1829, had only been taught the rudi- 
 ments of an English education, to spelf in the spelMirg-book 
 and read in the New Testament. In the early part of the 
 year 1830, he took up the study of geography and reading in 
 the first and second, readers, which termiaated his school- 
 boy days, as he returned home that year aoud, nevei*. attended _ 
 school again. Wh^ he returned to his home- Meffeund. it vay 
 cated; but learned that his mother had moved' to) aiJ. pkce 
 near a little lake theij known as , Ishtpufahaiyip .(pro». Ifeij/ttr. 
 pbon-faH, Horn, haijip, lake), eighteen miles south-west of 
 the present city of Memphis, Tennessee. Thither he at., 
 once turned his steps, and soon found his mother in her iisew.- 
 home, where he remained but a short time (then tMatteem 
 years of age) as he was soon sent to stay a while wiithi an oldi 
 lady as company for her,, whose husband a short tirae before,, 
 had been killed by a Choctaw who had heen adopted by the 
 Chickasaws. 
 
 Cyrus remained a few months with the bereaved widow, 
 but he became so lonely, there being no neighbors nearer 
 than three mile^, that his boyish heart could ehdure it no 
 longer; though he amused himself the best he could by hunt- 
 ing and shooting rabbits, squirrels and birds with his bow 
 
514 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 and arrows, often visiting' his mother living a few miles 
 distant. He again returned to his mother but to remain a 
 short time as before; as his uncle by marriage, Martin Col- 
 bert, a most excellent man employed him to come and assist 
 him with his stock. 
 
 Cyrus Harris who spoke both the Chickasaw and English 
 languages, having learned from a friend that there was a de- 
 mand for interpreters, sought at onc^ the land office estab- 
 lished at Pontotoc, three miles from the home of his birth, 
 and fortunately succeeded in securing a position as clerk in 
 a dry goods store, and also to interpret for one John Bell, 
 who was then Surveyor General, but kept a trading house. 
 He remained only a short time as clerk, ior he soon obtained 
 a more lucrative position in that of acting as interpreter for 
 the deputies of John Bell and one Robert Gordon who were 
 partners in buying lands. At this time the United States 
 Agent and the Chickasaw commissioners were busy in locat- 
 ing lands. Land speculators followed up the agent and com- 
 missioners, that no opportunity might be lost in which a 
 profitable speculatioh might be made. 
 
 Cyrus Harris now became an indispensable personage in 
 the firm of Bell & Gordon. In 1839 the land sales were 
 brought to a close and the Chickasaws were then informed, 
 without equivocation, that their room was more desired, than 
 their presence; and as nothing more could b6 made out of 
 them, they could now go West or to the devil, it made no dif- 
 ference which, so they were expeditious in the matter. Cy- 
 rus Harris was appointed as one of the interpreters to in- 
 form the Chickasaws to meet at once in council and appoint 
 the day in which they would depart from their ancient heri- 
 tage, now passed into the hands of the Philistines; and the 
 long cherished and loved scenes that make life doubly dear 
 to the heart. The Whites having now no longer need of the 
 cloak of friendship and good will to hide the hideous defor- 
 mity of their hypocrisy, hurled it from them with unassum- 
 ed disgust and stood forth in their native ugliness. 
 
 The Chickasaws at once took up their line of march 
 westward, feeling that rather than abide such a tempest of 
 rascality as was daily exhibited before their eyes in the wild 
 and crazy scuffle for a few acres of earth by which to quench 
 their raging thirst for gain, they would flee even from heaven 
 did such a stream of strife and corruption threaten an en- 
 trance there. 
 
 On the first of November, 1837, Cyrus Harris, with his 
 mother and a family of friends, left forever their homes and 
 native country, now in the clutches of their assumed friends, 
 the Whites, to join the cmigratioii, then awaiting iransp jital 
 
HISTORV of the INDIANS. 515 
 
 tion at Memphis, Tennessee, which soon arrived, and the 
 greater part of the Chickasaws, under the jurisdiction of 
 one A. Upshaw, the emigration agent, left for Fort Coffee, 
 Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, by way of steamboats. 
 Cyrus Harris and mother, with a few other families, went 
 through by land to Fort Coffee. ''When they had arrived 
 there they learned that their friends were encamped near 
 Schullyviile (Schully, a corruption of the word Tuli — the full 
 word being TulihoUsso — money paper, or paper money; a 
 place where the Government paid them their annuities), but 
 the "ville" part of it is unquestionably English. 
 
 Harris remained in camp at Schullyviile about two 
 weeks; then, with several families, started to find a desira- 
 ble place for settling, and finally located on Blue river. 
 This was in 1838. While living there he was induced to 
 enter the political arena of his country. In 1850 a council 
 was convened at Boiling Springs, in Ponola (Cotton) county, 
 in which he was appointed to accompany Edmond Pickens 
 to Washington City to arrange some national business, which 
 proved ineffectual from some injudicious recommendation. 
 
 On . returning home Mr, Harris sold his place on Blue 
 riyer and settled at Boggy Depot. He resided there a year, 
 sLnd again sold out and moved to a point on Pennington 
 ■Creek, about a mile west of Tishomingo, where he remained 
 ■until November, 1855. Not satisfied there, he once more, 
 sold and moved to a place on Mill creek, where he still lived 
 in 1884. In 1854 he was again appointed a delegate, with 
 several others, to Washington City. In 1856, after the adop- 
 tion of the Chickasaw Constitution, he was elected governor 
 of the Chickasaw Nation. Having served two .years, with 
 commendable discretion and sound judgment, he was re- 
 -elected, and filled the gubernatorial chair for two more 
 years, sustaining himself with equal credit and honor, after 
 which he was elected two more terms, serving his people 
 -with the same integrity. During his four terms of eight 
 years, peace, harmony aijd prosperity prevailed throughout 
 i:he Chickasaw Nation. 
 
 In 1876 ex-Governor Cyrus Harris was again brought be- 
 fore the Chickasaw people as a candidate for the office of 
 Governor, but was defeated by his opponent, B. F. Overton, 
 Tvho served his people faithfully and satisfactorily through 
 his first term, and at the next election was re-elected. In 
 1880 Cyrus Harris was again brought out by his friends, con- 
 trary to his wishes, and was pronounced elected by the Leg- 
 islature, but, it was said, votes were counted out just enough 
 to illegally elect his friend, B. C. Burney, ^a man highly es-' 
 -teemed by the people. Ex-Governor Harris then and there 
 
516 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS, 
 
 announced that he had forever withdrawn from the political 
 field, and he has strictly adhered to his determination. 
 
 Since writing- the above the sad tiding^s of the death of 
 ex-Governor Cyrus Harris, that noble patriot and true phil- 
 anthropist, was announced in the followinjf obituary: 
 
 "Died at his residence, Mill Creek, Chickasaw Nation, 
 Friday, the 6th, Qyrus Harris, ex-governor of the Chicka- 
 saws. He was buried on the 7th inst. at the family ceme- 
 tery in Mill Creek." 
 
 "To record the passage from life to eternity is the sad- 
 dest and gravest duty that falls to the lot of the journalist. 
 The more so, when he announces the death of one whose 
 loss will be deeply and widely regretted ; one beloved of all 
 men, whose place can never be filled in 'the homes and hearts 
 of his people. In recording the death of ex-Governor Har- 
 ris, we are fully aware of this fact; for not within the range 
 of man's recollection has any member of the Chickasaw 
 tribe impressed, himself so favorably, so deeply and effect- 
 ually upon his generation. 
 :: 1 "His public and .private character were Wi^ought in the 
 same mould; both equally incbrruptibje. The low, the 
 base, the a.varJcious, were elements foreign td his existence, 
 while the chambers of his heart were fever lighted for the 
 reception of such warm impulses and philanthropic ideas as^ 
 are rarely met with, save 'in natures of the noblest type. 
 Despite his progressive idea's, Cyrus Harris was an Indian 
 in the truest sense, a patriot and a leader of his people. His 
 ' country was his greatest care; so whether engaged in legis- 
 turej in administration, or dwelling peaceably in his humble 
 cottage, his heart and brain were alike harnesked ^o his 
 country's welfare. His generosity and his self-sacrifice- 
 were finely displayed in his lafet executive act. His election 
 /by the people being disputed by the House, in order to avoid 
 political trouble, he withdrew arid retired into private life. 
 
 "There is no reward in this world for that which is in- 
 corruptible; naught save the approbation of the good and 
 the wise. But how meager that reward, after a lifetime of 
 unselfish labor. Therefore, may' the wish grow sppntane-: 
 ously in every sorrowing heart, that a new and everlasting 
 recompense lies within reach of the departed chief. 
 
 "To the griefrstricken relatives of Governor Harris, and 
 to the Nation that mourns a true friend and a wi^e counsel- 
 lor, the Independent offers its most sincere and lasting sym- 
 pathy." 
 
 Verily, that no truer words than the above ever formed, 
 an obituary, may safely be said, is the universal response df 
 all who were personally acquainted with him who forms 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 5l7 
 
 * 
 
 this subject, a man, though' a North American Indian, of 
 whose race , ig^norance and egotism declare there is none 
 .go6d_but thpse dead, yet unsurpassed, in noble virtues, moral 
 stamina and social graces; and whom neither flatteries, nor 
 censures, proflEered wealth nor homes, could seduce from 
 the path of virtue and honor. , , . ;• 
 
 Loga,n Colbert married a native Chickasaw woman by 
 whom he had four sons, George, John, William and Levi; 
 all of wliom arose to prominence, and, exerted a salutary, in- 
 fluence among their people, and became men of authority 
 and distiiiction. He also had another son by a teecond 
 marriage, named James, \ ,who fell not behind his dis- 
 tingiuished brothers. , . ;-,;.., ' ;» 
 
 Why Logan Colbert came to cast his lot , at sp early 
 an age and so far fi'om the land of his nativity, ,among' the 
 people so remote from all the English settlements, are prob- 
 lems that never will be solved, though: it may be conjectured 
 with some show of probability, that he came with some of 
 the early English traders and adventurers who. assisted the 
 Cbickasaws in their wars against the Fre,nch. At an early 
 day he was a renpwned leader among them, , and to that de- 
 gree of celebrity, that on^ of the names given to the Missis- 
 sippi river by'the early French w'riters, during the days of 
 their wars with that people with whom he had identified 
 himself, vvas Rivere de Colbert sustaining the conjecture, 
 that Logajn Colbert was the name 'of i)\e most famous, chief 
 <tinong the Chickasaws; who at thai time sway ed| the sceptre 
 of absolute authority over .the country along the east banks 
 of the Mississippi river to the great annoya,nce and danger of 
 the fe^rench in ascending and descending that mighty stream. . 
 Though little else of the life of Logan Colbert has escaped 
 oblivion, except he lived, he died; yet his name has been 
 handed down to posterity in that of his noble line of descend- 
 ;ants, wlio figure upon the pages of.Chick^a\v history as be- 
 ing among the influential families of that Katio%' 
 
 Colonel George Colbert, in the prosperous days of the 
 Chickasaw people, lived three or ,four miles vvest of what is 
 now kndwn as the town of Tupelo, Mississippi, (Tupelo is a 
 corruption of Tuhpulah— To call oj- shout), George Colbert 
 befcame to be the most wealthy of the four brothers and was, 
 in his personal appearance and manners, very prepossess- 
 ing. He did ' not act in any public capacity, yet he exerted a 
 .great personal influence as a private citizen. He was a true 
 conservative in sentiment and in spirit. He regarded his 
 people, the Chickasaws, uninfluenced by the, Whites and un- 
 coritaminated by their vices, as having reached the point of 
 national progress most favorable to virtue and earthly hap- 
 
518 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 piness; therefore, he opposed" all innovations as an evil which 
 wisdom, virtue and patriotism loudly disapproved; and seem- 
 ingly with much justice, since the Chickasaws (like the Choc- 
 taws) were a virtuous people before the Whites came and in- 
 troduced their vices among them; therefore, he was an out- 
 spoken enemy to missions, to schools, .to whiskey, in short, 
 to all the good as well as the evils that were being imported 
 into his then happy country, having learned bv experience 
 and observation that the evil introduced by the Whites coun- 
 terbalanced the good in point of amount as five to one; yet 
 he failed to shape' the policy of his Nation in accordance 
 with his views, for the missionaries came and iatroduced 
 Christianity and established it upon a firm basis in spite of 
 the whiskey-traders-and others who followed closely in their 
 wake, with all their concomitant vices, who seemed to delight 
 in thwarting the noble efforts of those devoted and self-sac- 
 rificing men of God (even as they do at the present day)^ 
 that they might the more easily drag the Indians down to 
 their own degraded level, / 
 
 To escape the demoralizing influences of such degraded 
 characters, and not the missionaries, did George Colbert 
 advocate the emigration of his people to the remote wilds 
 of the west, where he hoped and believed the evil tide of 
 innovation would be arrested wh*ich threatened to engulf his 
 people, if they remained in their ancient domains, and sweep 
 away in its mighty current of iniquity all the Chickasaw old 
 land marks of their moral foundations. In that distant land,, 
 so remote (then considered) from the whites, he fondly cher- 
 ished the belief that his nation would throw off the manners 
 and customs of the whites which they had already adopted, 
 and return to the old paths of that simplicity of life in which 
 their progenitors^had walked for ages unknown. But he 
 was doomed to disappointment, for not only the missionaries, 
 went with his people to their new homes to be found in the 
 west, but the whiskfcy peddler and his congenial spirits, not 
 to be thus cheated out of their victims, soon followed on 
 their track with the zeal of their master, the devil, where 
 they have been hovering around theoutskirts of the Chicka- 
 saw Nation, and often sneaking within, from that day to this, 
 as they have been doing around in the territories of all In- 
 dians; and though the Chickasaw people, alike with all their 
 race, have had to fight the devil and his imps in an unequal 
 contest, being hampered by the government of the United 
 States in its laws regarding its worthy sons of freedom, 
 whose proclivities lead them to indulge their "glorious inde- 
 pendence" regardless of all laws and every principle of 
 truth, justice and honor, in regard to whiskey in particular; 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. | 519 
 
 yet the Chickasaws and Choctaws have made that wilder- 
 ness, to which they were banished, blossom as the rose, 
 while Georg-e Colbert sleeps beneath the soil under the 
 shades of the forest trees in the present country of his 
 noble people, the Chickasaws. He lived and died firmly ad- 
 hering to the principles which he believed to be the greatest 
 interest to his country. He was a true patriot, and loved 
 the simple manners of the olden times, and could not yield 
 them to give place to modern customs with their accompany- 
 ing vices; and who' can blame him? Alas! the Indians,, 
 everywhere on this North American continent, have been 
 compelled to pay a higher price for the few crumbs of Chris- 
 tianity that they have been allowed to pick up and convert 
 to the use of their starving souls than any race of people 
 that ever lived, since the divine command of the world's. 
 Redeemer bade his apostles, "Go ye into all the world and 
 preach my Gospel." 
 
 General William Colbert was a man of a military turn, of 
 character, and in that capacity rose, to considerable dis- 
 tinction in the "Creek War" of 1814. He won the confidence 
 of General Andrew Jackson in that war, by his manly bear- 
 ing and noble conduct, and was presented by Jackson, as a 
 testimonial of his esteem, with a fine military coat made 
 after the American style, which Colbert carefully kept to 
 the close of his life as one among the most highly treasured 
 relics of the past, and only wore it on important national 
 occasions. He lived a few miles south of a little place then 
 known as Tokshish a corruption of the word Takshi, (bash-, 
 ful). He died in 1826, honored by his people while living, 
 and mourned by them when dead as an irreparable national 
 loss. 
 
 Major Levi Colbert resided near a place then known as 
 Cotton Gin. He was truly a man wise in thecouncils of his 
 Nation and valiant in defense of his Nation's rights. In 
 early manhood, or rather in boyhood, he was elevated by an 
 act of gallantry to the high position of "Itta wamba micco," ' 
 as has been so oft published by different writers, and mean- 
 ing, as given in the wisdom of their interpretation, "Bench 
 Chief, or King of the Wooden Bench." There is no such 
 word in the Chickasaw language as "Itta wamba micco," and 
 it can be but the fabrication of imaginative ignorance. The 
 Chickasaw words for Bench Chief (if there ever was such a 
 personage among them) would be, Aiobinili (a seat) falaia 
 (long) Miko (chief) pro. Ai-ome-bih-ne-lih-far-li-y^h Meen- 
 koh. The chief on the long seat or bench— in oui- phrase- 
 ology, The Chief in the Chair of State. 
 
 Major Levi Colbert's act of gallantry, by which he was 
 
520 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 at once elevated to the high position of chief; consisted in 
 having defeated, when but 'a youth, a war party of Mus- 
 •cogees who had invaded the Chickasaw Nation, at a time 
 when all the warriors of the invaded district were away 
 from home on a hunting excursion. Young Levi at once 
 collected the old men and boys and formed them into a war 
 company and started for the depredating Creeks, whom he 
 successfully drew into an artfully planned ambuscade, by 
 which all the Muscogees were slain, not one being left to re- 
 turn to his own country apd tell of their complete destruc- 
 tion, The little stream upon whose banks the battle took 
 place was afterwards called (so says a writer in one of his 
 publish'^d articles) "Yahnubly," and gives its signification 
 as "All killed"; but unfortunately for his ei;udition, no such 
 word is known in the Chickasaw language.. There is, how- 
 iever, the word yanubi'h (pro. yarn-ub-ih) in their language 
 but its signification is iron-wood. While the Chickasaw 
 words for "All killed" (same as the Choctaw^ are moma- 
 iubih; the land or place where all were killed. 
 
 When the warriors returned from their hunt and learn- 
 «d of the battle and to whom t}ie safety of their families was 
 due, and alsp the honor of the victory, U council was imme- 
 diately called and the young hero summoned to attend; w.hen 
 he appeared and the statement of facts had been laid before 
 them, they, without a dissenting voice, and as men who 
 quickly discerned true merit and knew how to appreciate it, 
 elevated him to the responsible position of a chief in their 
 .Nation. , ' ' 
 
 The follc^wing publication appeared a few years ago as a 
 valuable piece of Chickasaw history,: "Ittawamba was the 
 name of an office. The word signifies King of the Wooden 
 Bench. The ipdividual who held the high title was elected 
 by the national council, Apart of the imposing ceremony 
 by which the officer elected was initiated was as follows: 
 'At a giv^n signalhe jumped from a wooden bench to the 
 floor in the hall of state where the magnates of the Nation 
 sat in conclave. At the moment his feet, touched the earth 
 the vvhole of the assembly exclaimed Ittawambal The hon- 
 ored individual who heard this voice became the second mag- 
 istrate of the Nation. Thus he received the orders of Chick- 
 asaw Knighthood, Ittawamba micco, or Bench Chief.'" 
 
 No doubt of it. But the greater mystery is, how anyone 
 could jump "from a y/ooden bench to the floor in the hall of 
 state, and "the moment his feet touched the earth," not to 
 become instantly a notorious "Bench Chief." Verily, a prob- 
 lem that must be left for 'solution to the unprecedented wis- 
 dom of the author of the above historical piece of informa- 
 
t HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. , 521 
 
 tion. But the whole article is such an exhibition of pitiable 
 nonsense, that in reading it to some Chickasaw friends, they 
 all exclaimed: "What a fooll" - ' 
 
 The most ridiculous, absurd and utterly false articles 
 are continually appearliig in print, ia regard to the Indians, 
 from the pens of those whose knowledge of that unfortunate 
 people, against whom lies enough have been fabricated and 
 published to^satisify the devil, is about as much as might' be 
 expected to be found in an African Bfishman. ■ . . 
 
 But be what "Ittawamba" may, nevertheless the young 
 initiate, Levi Colbert, after his initiation into its wonderful 
 mysteries, proved himself worthy to be not only a "king of 
 the, wooden bench," but also, by his talents, purity of prin- 
 ciples, energy and force of character, a • king upon a regal 
 throne to bear rule over a nation, For several years 'he 
 shaped the policy, and presided over the destinies of the 
 Chickasaw people with wisdom and discretion. 
 
 On the 27th and 28th of September, i830, the Choctaws, 
 by a treaty with John Coffee and John Eaton, United States 
 commissioners, ceded, their lands east of the Mississippi 
 river to the United States. Major Levi Colbert, having 
 heard what they had done, immediately called upoii his 
 friend, Mr. Stephen Daggette, and asked him to calculate 
 the interest for him of four; hundred thcAisand dollars at 
 five, six, seven and eight per cent. The Choctaws had taken 
 government bonds at five per cent. ; -Major Colbert at once 
 seeing that they had be^n badly and hiost outrageously 
 swindled, exclaimed in a loud and highly excited tone pf 
 voice, "Godl ' I thought so." He then informed Mr. Dag- 
 gette that he was anxious to obtain ithe calculation, thathe 
 might be enabled to explain it to bis people in their own lan- 
 guage. He, also stated to Mr. Daggette that "the United 
 States would soon make an effort to buy the lands of the 
 Chickasaws also, and I want to be ready for them." 
 
 This conversation between Levi Colbert and Mr. Dag- 
 gette took place two years bfefore the treaty with the Chick- 
 asaws', which was made on the 20th of October, 1832, at the 
 house of a Chickasaw called Topulka— a corruption of Tah- 
 pulah; (to halloo or make a noise), but wasrknown, says>a 
 writer of the yahnubbih and Ittawamba order of expounders, 
 in his publication, as "Pontaontac," which he also interprets 
 as signifying "Cat Tail Prairie"; but unfortunately for him 
 also, the ■ Chickasaw words for his classic name "Cat Tail 
 Prairie" areKutus HasimbishOktak (pro. Kut-oos (cat) Har- 
 sim-bish (tail) Oke-tark (prairie); therefore he also must 
 seek elsewhere than in the Chickasaw language for his , Pon- 
 taontac" and its signification "Cat Tail Prairie," as there is 
 
522 HISTORY OF THK INDfANS. 
 
 no such word in the Chickasaw language, nor in any other 
 North American Indian language, it is reasonable to sup- 
 pose. Pontotoc, the name of a town in north Mississippi, 
 is a corruption, as has been before stated, of the words Pa- 
 ki Tukohli — grapes hung up; hanging grapes. 
 
 But such are the gross and ridiculous errors made by 
 those of the present age who not only prove their terrible 
 ignorance by their unmerciful butchery of the Indian lan- 
 guages, but equally so in the exhibition of their shame- 
 ful prejudice unreasonably, cherished against that unjustly 
 persecuted people, concerning whom, in every particular, 
 they assume to be infinitely wise; and though totally ignor- 
 ant of the subject, presume to talk and write about them 
 with arrogant duplicity to the infinite injury of the Indians 
 and disgrace of their languages. 
 
 When the United States had resolved to gobble up the 
 Chickasaw country also, as they had the Choctaws' two 
 years before, John Coffee was sent to the Chickasaw Nation 
 to order Ben Reynolds (the Chickasaw ^ Agent) to imnie- 
 diately assemble the chiefs and warriors in council to effect 
 a treaty with them. 
 
 Three, treaties (or rather articles) were drawn up, but 
 were promptly rejected by the watchful and discerning 
 Chickasaws. Then the fourth was written by the persist- 
 ent Coffee ; but with the following clause inserted to catch 
 the noble and influential chief, Yakni Moma Ubih, the incor- 
 ruptible Levi Colbert, which read as follows: "We hereby 
 agree to give our beloved chief, L^vi Colbert, in considera- 
 tion of his services and expense of entertaining the guests 
 of the Nation, fifteen sections of land in any part of the 
 country he may select." /'StopI Stop! John Coffee!" shout- 
 ed the justly indignant chief i^n a voice of thunder, "I am no 
 more entitled to those fifteen sections of land than the poor- 
 est Chickasaw in the Nation. I scorn your infamous offer, 
 clothed under the falsehood of 'our beloved chief,' and will 
 not accept it, sir." A frown of disappointment momentarily 
 rested, no doubt, upon the face of Coffee. 
 
 Then a fifth treaty was written out by Coffee, and the 
 council again called together to consider upon its merits; 
 and which, after due deliberation, was finally accepted. 
 The Chickasaws agreed to take United States bonds, but 
 were unable to satisfactorily comprehend the six per cent 
 promised them, until their interpreter, Ben Love, illustrated 
 It as a hen laying eggs. That one hundred dollars would 
 lay six dollars in twelve months, which they at once fully un- 
 derstood. But Ahl had that old hen inconsiderately roosted 
 one night in or near the Great Temple of American Liberty. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 523 
 
 where would she have appeared ere the dawn of the return- 
 ing morn? Echo but answers, "Geptle shepherd tell u& 
 where"! 
 
 Ishtehotopa, the king, first walked up with a countc 
 nance that betokened the emotions of one about to sign hi& 
 country's death warrant, and with a sad heart and tremb- 
 ling hand made his mark. Then Tishu Miko advanced 
 with solemn mien and did likewise; then the other chiefs 
 with countenance sad and forlorn; and last of all, the pure, 
 the noble Levi Colbert, whom gold could not buy, or cause to 
 sever from the path of honor. '' 
 
 Soon after the treaty had been signed, Major Levi Col' 
 bert stated to Mr. Daggette he was not satisfied with some 
 clauses in the treaty which he did not at first correctly un- 
 derstand. Mr. Daggette advised him to go immediately to 
 Washington and get it changed to his satisfaction before it 
 was confirmed by the Senate. Colbert, with other delegates, 
 started immediately to Washington City, but only got as far 
 as his son-in-law, Kilpatrick Carter's, iil Alabama, where he 
 was taken sick and died, to the great sorrow and loss of the 
 Chickasaw Nation. The other delegates continued their 
 journey to Washington, and secured the desired alteration 
 in the treaty. 
 
 What attractive pictures for an art gallery would the 
 scenes presented at that treaty between the Chickasaw Nar 
 tion and the United States in 1832, at the humble home of 
 Tahpulah, and the one two years before between the Choc- 
 taws and the United States. The United States, a great and 
 powerful nation, professing to be governed in all its actions 
 by the principles alone of Christianity. The Chickasaw and 
 Choctaw Nations, weak, poor and unlettered, making no pro- 
 fessions to intellectual attainments whatever. The former 
 using its skilled ingenuity in deception, misrepresentation 
 and falsehood to defraud ; the latter, sustained by truth and 
 honor, watching and deliberating how best to successfully 
 meet the dire attack and come out of the unequal contest 
 with that alone that- justice awards. The one representing 
 the people of civilization and Christianity; the other, the 
 people of unpretending and unsophisticated nature. The 
 one offering bribes: the other refusing to be bribed. The 
 one called Christian; the other called heathen. But God is 
 the judge. 
 
 But, in justice, it must and shall be said of the Chicka- 
 saw Agent of 1832, Benj. Reynolds, that he was an honest 
 man. As agent to the Chickasaw people for the United 
 States Mr. Reynolds annually paid them twenty thousand 
 dollars for several consecutive years as annuity. Previous. 
 
524 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 to the treaty Mr. Daggette affirms he assisted Mr. Reynolds 
 in\ paying to the Chickasaws their annuities, and that Mr. 
 Reynolds distributed the last cent among- them, giving to 
 €ach his or her dues honestly and justly, though every op- 
 portunity was offered to defraud them, and lived and died an 
 honest and pure man; and then, no doubt, went above to re- 
 ceive the glorious welcome, "Well done, thou good and faith- 
 ful servant." Such a government agent to the Indians at the 
 present day of boasted civilization and progress would be a 
 national prodigy, and ought to be, if possible to be found, 
 set up in a glass case at all the expositions the world over as 
 worthy to be ranked with the Eight Wonders of "the world 
 as the meritorious Ninth. ' 
 
 James Colbert, the youngest of Logan Colbert's sons, 
 was also, as his renowned brothers, a man of great integ- 
 rity .and firmness of character. He acted, for many years, 
 in the ' capacity of the national secretary. The archives 
 of the Chickasaw Nation were placed in his hands for safe 
 keeping, the majority of which being in his own hand writ- 
 ing; and truly it may be said, antiquaries, in coming years 
 of the far future, may decipher with much interest and 
 profit, the documents written by James Colbert. 
 
 Thomas Love, who, at an early day, also identified 
 himself, with the Chickasaw people by marriage, had six 
 sons, viz: . Henry, Benjamin, (who acted in the capacity of 
 interpreter for the Chickasaws for manj' years) Isaac, 
 Slone, William and Robert. All of whom have died, except 
 Robert, who was known as Bob Love. 
 
 The Chickasaw^, in common with all the Indians of the 
 South, possessed many fine orators .whose orations were 
 eloquent, persuasive and full of animation; and it is a ques- 
 tion >of great doubt if the White Race ever found among 
 their uneducated citizens a single orator who coula respect- 
 ably compare with hundreds of unlettered orators among 
 the Indians of the South, or even of any of the North Ameri- 
 can Indians. As a race of people the Chickasaws were tall, 
 elegantly proportioned, erect and muscular, with a square 
 forehead, high cheek bones, compressed lips and dark pene- 
 trating eyes. In their councils (like all other Indians) grave 
 and dignified, and never indulged, under any circumstances, 
 in noisy harangues; they spoke slowly, distinctly and to the 
 point. It is, and has always been, the universal declaration 
 and belief of the Whites that the North American Indians 
 are taciturn, grave, and never smiled or indulged in merri- 
 ment or laughter under any circumstances. This is a great 
 error, and but a repetition of the same old edition of the 
 ■ same old story, which, like all else said and written and pub- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. S2S, 
 
 lished about the North American Indlatis, was begotten by 
 ignorance, conceived in duplicity and brought forth in pre- 
 judice — to say the least of it. Never did a more jovial, good 
 natured and light hearted race 6i people exist upon earth 
 than the North American Indians. True, they were grave 
 and taciturn in the presence of strangers, and the reason is 
 obvious. The white people (excepting the old missionaries- 
 of the long ago), in all their actions amang .them, and in all 
 their conduct toward them, have ever and everywhere as- 
 sumed an air of superiority over them, ■ which the Indians 
 have ever justly denied; and which justly created in their 
 minds pity for the foolish self-conceit^ and egotism of the 
 Whites, which seemed to them a lamentable weakness un- 
 known and unseeu .before. ill the human race; and also! cre- 
 ated equal contempt for such a display .of ,' presumption and 
 "evident want of sound; judgment, or irather of cotrimon 
 sense; the. natural consequeijces of which, were taciturnity 
 and gravity, when in the presence of such self-imagined au- 
 gust specimens of humanity. . ; 'i ■;!;./.! . ; 
 
 Even many ministers of the gospel,: sent- among the 
 Indians, by the various denominations of the states to preach 
 to them, preach themselves instead of Christ, by indulging- 
 in unmistakable- bantam- rooster airs of i the superiority ■ of 
 the whites over the red, detailing their opinions: concerning- 
 the progressive renovation that would have certainly ensued 
 in eyery department of their national and social affairs had 
 the Indians, from their first acquaintance i with* the White 
 Race, had the good fortune to have-enjoyed the advantages 
 of their eH;hical wjsdom and profound theological erudition, 
 Often have I been an eye witness to mant ^uch exhibitions 
 of clerical imbecility , during my frequent sojbtirns among" 
 the Chickasaws and Choctaws within the last ten yealrs; and 
 though as loquacious as Brazilian parrots, yet -'Pretty' Poll 
 wants a cracker" was in isubstance, thecUmas of theii*, ser- 
 mons, as Self was so highly esteemed a personage that they ' 
 were oblivious toall else. (, ,1 
 
 But such was riot the style of men, who in 1815-20, pro- 
 claimed the glad tidings of great joy to the Southern Indians. 
 Far from it. They were men of deep piety; of firm resolu- 
 tions; of Christian humility; of self sacrificing zeal; of humble 
 submission to the will .of God; of unshaken faith in the 
 promise, "Lol I am wHJh you even to the uttermost pa.rts 
 of the earth"; of indefatigable energy to lead the Red Race, 
 long wandering in the paih of moral darkness, into the fold 
 of Christ; of unalloyed love for their souls and desire for 
 their salvation; of unassumed sym-pathy for them as human 
 beings to whom the knowledge of man's Redemption 
 
626 HISTORY OF THli INDIANS. 
 
 through the Son of God had never been proclaimed; of ad- 
 miration for their many virtues unsurpassed by any nation 
 of people upon earth, to whom the Gospel of Jesus Christ 
 had never been preached. ' Therefore, they visited them at 
 their homes in their humble log cabins; sat down among' 
 them in the familv circle upon the bear skins spread upon 
 the cleanly swept dirt floor; and there proclaimed to tbem 
 concerning Him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote; 
 slept upon their bear and panther skins in humble grati- 
 tude for as much, when remembering, their. Savior had not 
 where to lav his head; ate of their venison, tafulatobi 
 ibulhto (hominy mix«d with beans), and botahkapussa (cold 
 
 flour). 
 
 They sang and prayed with them in the morning; then 
 went with them to their little fields of growing corn and in- 
 structed them in the art of agriculture and imparted to them 
 new ideas of home comforts. Thus they taught them every 
 where and on all occasions, both by precept and example. 
 They acknowledged them as human beings; and for them 
 also Christ purchased salvation upon the cross. Self was 
 not in all their thoughts, only to preserve it for usefulness in 
 the cause of their Divine Master in bringing the Red Race 
 of the south into his fold. What was the result ? Mutual 
 confidence and disinterested love and friendship prevailed 
 everywhere between the appreciative Indians and those mis- 
 sionaries, men and women, all true servants of God; and 
 the five civilized tribes (as they are now called) stand today 
 as living monuments of the salutary eflFects of the teachings 
 of those self-sacrificing men and women of seventy-five 
 years ago^true ^nd devoted servants of Jesus Christ in the 
 salvation of their fellow men found and acknowledged in the 
 North American Indians. 
 
 The ancient Chickasaws were the most famous trailers 
 of all .the southern Indians. Their skill in this art was truly 
 astonishing, and seemed almost superhuman. I call it an 
 art; and it is as much so as is painting or sculpture, while 
 almost as few become proficient in it as in the hai^dling of 
 brush or chisel. Art, or by whatever name it may be called, 
 yet it requires constant praetice and much knowledge of 
 nature, in all its variations, to learn it thoroughly ; and I be- 
 lieve it more natural for an Indian to become a trailer of 
 man or beast than a white man, as they seemed to acquire 
 by intuition what the white has to learn from a life-time of 
 study. Here and there, I'll admit, a- white man may be 
 found who becomes an expert, yet the boasted leaders of 
 civilization fall far behind the natural-born trailers, the North 
 American Indians. Who could learn, through the medium 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 527 
 
 t)f books or any other wa^' of instruction, but that of a life- 
 time experience, to determine the agje of a trail of man or, 
 beast correctly, or tell the number of an enemy and how 
 long- since they had passed the spot which you may be ex- 
 amining? Yet the ancient Chickasaw warrior, in his palmy 
 days seventy-five years ago, could do it, and even what tribe 
 of Indians had made a given trail, its age, and all the partic- 
 ulars as correctly as though he had seen them pass. Truth- 
 fully did an Indian once exclaim : 
 
 '"White man travel with his eyes shut and mouth open," 
 alluding to his propensity to talk. "Indian travel all day; 
 say nothing^ but see everything." How true! Nothing es- 
 caped his obseryation, whether alone or with othersj while 
 the white maii talks incessantly knd sees nothing but the 
 g-eneral features of the things he is passing; therefore, can 
 sparcely retrace his steps for any great distance in a country 
 he has never traveled before; while it is impossible to lose an 
 Indian in any country, no matter how strange Or new. No 
 matter how difficult or circuitous has been the route by which 
 he has arrived at any place, the Chickasaw would, with ease, 
 find his w^y back whence he started without hesitating a 
 moment which course to pursue. When asked how he did it 
 he may reply, Siah (I am) a chu£Fa [one) kutah (who) ikhanah 
 (remembers); though often he would make no reply. No 
 matter how loquacious he may have been at home or else- 
 where, when upon the warpath or the chase he was silent. 
 The North American Indian was nearly as certain 
 in predicting ' the weather as a barometer, and his 
 knowledge of the characteristics of the wild aniipals of his 
 ancient forests woiild be a prize indeed to the naturalist. 
 
 As warriors and hunters the Chickasaws of seventy-five 
 years ago had few equals, but no superiors, among the North 
 American Indians. They were unerring marksmen with 
 the rifle and capable of enduring seemingly incredible fa- 
 tigue. They would follow the tracks of their game and the 
 signs left by their human enemies for hours, where the eyes 
 of the white man would not detect any sign of a foot-print 
 whatever. When hunting or upon the war-path, if they 
 came upon deserted camp-fires or human foot-prints they 
 could tell td what tribe they belonged and whether friends 
 or foes. 
 
 As an illustratibn of their skill in discerning and inter- 
 preting landmarks and signs, I will here relate a little inci- 
 dent proving the wonderful skill and ingenuity displayed 
 in ascertaining facts with regard to anything of which they 
 desired to inform themselves. 
 
 In the years 0,f long ago, a Chickasaw had a ham of veni- 
 
528 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 son taken from his little log- house in which he kept his stock 
 of provisions during- the absence of himself and family. 
 He described the thief as being a wh'ite man, low stature, 
 lame in one leg^, having a short g-un, and accompanied by a 
 short-tail doe^. When requested to explain how he could be 
 so positive, he answered: "His track informed me he was a 
 white man'ty his shoes, Indian wear moccasins; he stood on 
 the toes of his shoes to reach the venison ham, which told 
 me he was a low man; orte foot made a deeper and plainer 
 impress upon the ground than the other as he walked, which 
 told me he was a lame man; the mark made by the breech of 
 a gun upon the ground and the one made by its muzzle upon 
 the bark of the tree against which it had leaned, told me he 
 had a gun and it was a short. gun; the tracks m4de by a dog- 
 told me of his presence; and the impress he made where he 
 sat upon the ground to the end of that made by his tail, as 
 he wagged it, was but a fing-er's length which told me the 
 dog's tail was short." What white man would ever have 
 thought to look for, or discovered such evidences in identi- 
 fying- a thief? ' - 
 
 A;mong the ancient Chickasaws, descent was established 
 in the female line ; thus the ties of kinship converg-ed upon 
 each other until they all met in the ^granddaughter ; and 
 thus every grandson, and granddaughter became the grand- 
 son and granddaughter of the whole tribe, since all the un- 
 cles of a given person were considered as his fathers also ; 
 and all the mothers' sisters were mothers; the cousins, as 
 brothers and sigters; the nieces, as daughters; and the 
 nejihews as sons. They, as all their race; believed in the 
 existence of one great, everywhere-present and- over-rulings 
 spirit, whom they held in the highest reverence, and de-' 
 voutly, worshipped; as to him were attributed the gifts of 
 peace, prosperity and happiness, abundant harvests of corn, 
 beans,; pumpkins and success in war and the chase. They 
 also equally believed in the existence of an evil spirit, ta 
 whom they attributed the cause of all niisfortunes ; and here 
 came in the power and influence of the wonder-working 
 "medicine man," or "prophet." who professed to have at- 
 tained to a thorough knowledge of both good and evil spirits, 
 and also the ability to command their linfluence for good or 
 evil, by fasting and prayer and mystic' ceremonies. . 
 
 However, the usages, manners, customs, beliefs and 
 habits of life, national and social amusements of the Chicka- 
 saws were, in many respects the sanie as the Choctaws, and 
 what may be said of the one, may with equal truth be said of 
 the other. 
 
 Among the ancient Chickasaws and Choctaws there 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 529 
 
 was a tradition concerning the origin of a little lake 
 in Tibih swamp,' Oktibiliha county, Mississippi. This 
 isolated lake which I have oft visited on fishing excui-- 
 sions, has long been known as Greer's lake, and is about 
 a half a mile long and one hundred feet or more wide. The 
 tradition is as follows: In the years of the long past, 
 many generations before the advent of the White Race, a 
 Chickasaw hunter and his wife, with two little children, 
 (a boy and girl) were camped in the 'tibih swamp near a 
 little hole of water formed by the roots of a fallen tree. One 
 morning the hunter and his wife went out in pursuit of 
 game leaving their children, as usual, in camp. On their 
 return late in the evening, they were stupified with horror 
 and amazement to find that their camp was swallowed up by 
 the earth, and this lake lay stretched over the spot. But 
 while gazing upon the scene perplexed and terrified, they 
 beheld two enormous snakes switiiming upon the newly 
 formed lake and coming directly towards them, which 
 caused them tO' flee from the spot in great consterna- 
 tion. The sudden formation of the lake was ascribed by 
 tbem to some miraculous agient, and by the same power, 
 their children had been transformed into the two great 
 water snakes; and such was the credulity of the Chickasaws 
 and Choctaws in the account given of the wonderful event 
 by the Chickasaw hunter and his wife, that down through 
 all subsequent years, even to the time of their emigration 
 west, the lake and its immediate surroundings were held in 
 superstitious awe. Nor would they live lior approach any- 
 where near it. Varied and many were the views concerning 
 its' strange and sudden formation; all, however, agreeing 
 that it was brought into existence by the wrath of the -Great 
 Spirit, and became the abode of evil spirits ever after- 
 wards. 
 
 The ancient Chickasaws once practised the custom ofex- 
 tinguishing the fire in every house in their Nation at the close 
 of every year, and let them so remain during three succes- 
 sive days and nights, while the ' occupants retired to the; 
 woods where they remained. By this means they believed 
 they would rid themselves of all witches and evil spirits; 
 since, when they came three successive nights and found no 
 fire they would conclude the family had left their former 
 place of abode to return no more; therefore they also would 
 depart to never return. Then all the Chickasaws returned 
 to their homes, built new fires and were happy, being freed 
 from the fear of witches. 
 
 \ 
 
THE NATCHEZ. 
 
 On February 11th, 1700, De Iberville, Bienville, Perri- 
 caul and Tonti ascended the Mississippi river as far west as 
 the present city of Natchez. ^ They were kindly received (so 
 states the journalist) by the great chief, or sun, as he was 
 termed, sijrrounded by six hundred of his warriors, who, 
 according to their own account, had formerly been a great 
 nation. On t^e 13th the party left Natchez and visited the 
 villages of the Taeiisas, the customs and habits of whom 
 were the same as, the Natchez,, being evidently a branch of 
 the latter. During their stay the sacred temple of these 
 Indians was striick' by lightning and burned to ashes. To 
 'appease the Sun God, the poor, infatuated women threw 
 tbemselve^, and parents, their children, into the consuming 
 flames of th6 burning temple. Perricaul, who was orte of 
 the 'witnesses 'of the fearful scene, thus wrote of it: "We 
 left the Natchez and coasted along to the right, where the 
 river is bordered with high, gravelly banks for a distance of 
 twelve leagues. At the extremity of these bluffs is a place 
 called Petit Gulfj on account of the whirlpool formed by the 
 river for the' distance of a quarter league. Eight leagues 
 higher up we came to Grand Gulf, which we passed a short 
 distance above, on the right hand side. We landed to visit a 
 village four leagues in the interior. These Indians are 
 called the Taensas. We were well received, but I never saw 
 a more sad sight, frightful and revolting spectacle than that 
 which happened the second day, Ifjth of April, after our 
 arrival in the village. A sudden storm burst upon us. The 
 lightningstruck the temple, burned all their idols and re- 
 duced the whole to ashes. Quickly the Indians assembled 
 around; making horrible cfies, tearing out their hair, eleva- 
 ting their hands to heaven, their tawny visages turned to- 
 ward the burning temple, invoking their Great Spirit to 
 come down and extinguish the flames. The fathers and 
 mothers then brought their children, and alter having stran- 
 gled them, threw them into the llaines. M. Do Iberville was 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. . ( 531 
 
 \ ■ 
 
 horrifiRclat seeing such a cruel spectacle, aiiid gave orders ' 
 to stop it, by forciblytaking from them thejittle innocents- 
 but with all our efforts, seventeen penshed in this manner,' 
 and had we not restrained them, the number would have 
 been over two hundred." 
 
 Father Le Petit, Superior of the Jesuits, in speaking of 
 the Natchez Indians, whom he had visited at an early day, 
 says: "They inhabited a beaijitiful country, and were the 
 only tribe that seemed to have an established worship, .This 
 temple resembled an earthen oven, or the back of a tortoise, 
 and was one hundred feet in circumference. They entered 
 it by one small door, and there was no window. Above, on 
 -the outside of the roof, were three wooden eagles painted 
 red, yellow and white. In front of the door was a shed 
 where the guardian of the temple kept wateh. All around 
 was a circle of painted pickets, cappedi with' the skulls of 
 their enemies who had fallen in battle. The interior wa!s 
 lined with shelves on which were Isaskets, holding the bones 
 of their favorite followers, who had been strangled, to at- 
 tend their masters in the spirit world, made of, bark, pro- 
 vided by the patriarchs of the tribe. No woman, except 
 the mother and sisters of the Great Sun, was allowed to 
 enter the sacred edifice. The common people dared oialy to 
 approach the threshold. The sun was their, deity ;' their 
 vgreat chief was called by the same name,. and hfe, in turn, 
 called the sun hisbrother. Every morning: at dawn, attend- 
 ed by his retinue, the chief ascend^ed a mound to converse, 
 with his celestial brother. As soon as, the, sun appeared in 
 the heavens, the chief saluted with . a long howl,"' add then 
 waved his hand f rorii east to west, and directed what course 
 he should travel! When this personage dies, they demolish 
 his house and throw up amourid,'and on that they build a; 
 •dwelling for the brother of the sun." 
 
 Perieault, who was at Natchez in l703, and at which time 
 the Great Female Sun died, says: "She was really the Great 
 Sun in her own right. Her husband, who was not of the 
 blood royal, was strangled by their eldest son, so that in 
 death, as in life, he might be her submissive a,ttendant and 
 howl to her ghost! On the ontside of her bouse they, placed 
 all her effects on a scaffold and on these they deposited the 
 Wo corpses. They likewise put there the bodies of twelve 
 children whom theyhad just strangled. These children had 
 been brought by their parents, by order of the eldest son of 
 the deceased, who had the right, as her successor, to put to 
 death as many as he thought necessary to wait on her in the 
 land of, spirifs. Fourteen oth^r scaffolds were greeted, 
 ■decorated with vines and rude paintings. These were in- 
 
532 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 tended for the bodies of the victims, whose nearest rela- 
 tives, dressed in festive robes, surrounded them with look& 
 and gestures expressive of satisfaction. They then in pro- 
 cession marched to the great square in front of the temple 
 and began to dance. Four days thereafter they again form- 
 ed in procession and began what is called the 'March of 
 Death' from the square to the house of the deceased. The 
 fathers and mothers of the strangled children held the bodies 
 in their arms. The oldest of these did not appear to be over 
 three years. The relatives of these infants, with their hair 
 closely shaven, began to howl in tbe most frightful manner.. 
 But the adults who were about to die danced around the 
 house of the dead princess, until finally it was set on fire 
 by her eldest son and successor. All then marched to the 
 great temple. The parents who carried their strangled in- 
 fants then threw them on the ground and began to dance. 
 When the body of the deceased princess was deposit in 
 the temple, the intended victims were undressed and seated 
 on the ground. A cord with a noose was passed around each 
 of their necks and deer skins thrown over their heads. The 
 relatives, wh9 were the executioners, then stood to the right 
 and left of each victim and, at a given signal, all were stran- 
 gled. The bodies were placed on sciaffolds and the bones, 
 when dry, were deposited in baskets in'the temple, and con- 
 stituted a sort of patent nobility. It was a privilege and an 
 honor to die with the Sun." 
 
 Even as late as 1730 the Natchez had their temple in 
 which ware kept their sacred ^re continually burning. Ac- 
 cording to their traditions, Du Pratz says: "Their territo- 
 ries extended to the River Manchos, or Iberville, which is 
 about SO leagues from the sea, to the River Wabash, which 
 is distant from the sea about 450 leagues, and that they had 
 about 800 suns, or princess." 
 
 The Natchez, if tradition may be believed, also came 
 from Mexico where they had lived for centuries; and after 
 the fall of the Montezuma Empire, to whjch they were allies, 
 they, alike, with the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Muscogee, 
 fled from Spanish tyranny. They, too, followed the rising 
 sun from west to east, continuing a waadering life for many 
 years, and finally reached the Mississippi river, which they 
 crossed, and settled at a point on the river where the city 
 Natchez now stands, which was named for them. At that 
 time they were a numerous people, occupying a territory 
 extending from Natchez to Wabash, and claiming many 
 hundred sons, or members of the royal family. In 1716, 
 the French built Fort Rosalie upon the bluff upon which 
 Natchez now stands, in which they quartered a company of 
 
HISTORY Of the INDIANS. 533 
 
 1 
 
 soldiers. la 1720, DePratz visited the Great Sun of the 
 Natchez, and was informed by him, that the Natchez were 
 •once a great people extending over a vkst region of country, 
 and ruled by many suns; that one of the keepers of the 
 Temple let the holy fire go out, and in his fright substituted 
 profane fire, thus endeavoring to conceal his negligence; but 
 which caused them to be visited by a dreadful disease which 
 ravaged their country for many years, sweeping thousands 
 of their people,, into an untimely grave. As the ancient 
 Persians, the Natchez kept a perpetual fire burning in their 
 temples, which was never permitted for a moment to be- 
 come extinguished. It is stated by some of the early 
 writers, that the Taensas and Mobelians, who were eventu- 
 ally merged into the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, also 
 kept a perpetual fire burning in their temples, when known 
 by the Europeans in 1721. It is said of the Natchez, "that 
 the sight was never shocked by the appearance of deformity," 
 such as are so frequently observed among the White Race; 
 and with equal truth, the same may be said of all the North 
 American Indians. As all their race, so the Natchez used 
 the bow and arrow as their instrument of offense and de- 
 fense, which they used effectively against their enemies in 
 w^ar, and supplying themselves with the flesh of the great 
 variety of wild animals in which their endless forests then 
 abounded. They were also skilled in the art of dressing the 
 ■skins of animals, and thus provided themselves with comfort- 
 able clothing, suitable for both summer and winter, using as 
 needles for sewing purposes, the sharp bones of birds, and 
 for thread the sinews of small animals. Their houses, as 
 those of all their race, were made of rude materials, with 
 •one door for ingress and egress, without floor or chimney, 
 but a little hole left in the roof about the centre of the room, 
 through which the smoke might pass out, if so disposed. 
 The Natchez women are said to have teen very proficient 
 in making earthen ware for their domestic purposes, such 
 as pots, cupfe, bowls, etc.; and also very skillful in the art 
 of dying the skins of animals, their favorite colors being red, 
 je'llow, white and black, used in alternate stripes, The 
 men were skilled in managing their canoes, some of which 
 measuring from twenty to thirty feet in length, by two or 
 three in width. In short, what has been said in regard to 
 the ancient manners and customs of the Choctaw and Chick- 
 asaw, Cherokee, Muscogee and Seminole Indians is equally 
 applicable to the Natchez, differing only (as all others, how- 
 ever) in their t^aditions of the origin of man, the flood, 
 funeral ceremonies and burial of the dead. 
 
 In regard to the origin of man, the tradition of the 
 
534 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Natchez affirms that the Great Spirit molded the first man 
 out of clay, similar to that out of which they made their 
 earthen ware, and being pleased with his work, breathed 
 life into it. After the first man was created, he f the man), 
 suddenly was taken with a, violent parOx)'sm or fit of sneez- 
 ing, when suddenly a strange something jumped from his 
 nose to the ground, where it commenced to bop and dance 
 about, growing larger and larger, until it soon assumed the 
 form of a woman and finally grew to be a perfedt woman. 
 
 They also had another tradition in substance as folloWs: 
 In ancient times a man and woman appeared among them who 
 descended from the sun. They were so dazzlingly bright that 
 human eyes could not look upon them. The man informed 
 them that he had seen their wretchedness and inability to 
 properly govern themselves, and had been influenced through 
 cbmpassion to leave his bright abode in the sun and descend 
 to earth that he might instruct them how they might live 
 happily. He therefore gave them some moral precepts, 
 among the most important were, first^not to kill a man but 
 in self-defense; secon4^to have but one living wife; third — 
 to be truthful; fourtli — to be strictly honest; fifth — to be 
 temperate; sixth — to be generous; seventh — to be charita- 
 ble; eighth — to help t^e poor in their difitress. 
 
 The stranger's appearance and moral precepts inculca- 
 ted greatly impressed the Natchez, and they at once conven- 
 ed in solemn council during the quiet hours of the night and 
 resolved, upon dud deliberation, to request the man to be 
 their chief; and the next morning, with much pomp and cere- 
 mony, proceeded to the house to which the stranger and his 
 wife had been consigned for the night and earnestly solicited 
 him to become their chief. He at first declined their intend- 
 ed honor, assigning as his reason that he knew they would 
 not conform to his'teachings, and ini^o doing, he was grieved 
 to state to them, tne Natchez would vvork their own destruc- 
 tion, terminating^ in utter extermination. But ^e Natchez, 
 earnestly pressing their request, the stranger finally yielded 
 to their solicitations, but with the following proviso: That 
 they would emigrate to a country which he would also lead 
 them, where tney would be more prosperous and happy; 
 and that they would strictly yield obedience to the laws and 
 regulations he would establish .for them, and that their fu- 
 ture chiefs should be chosen from hisjdescendants. To all 
 of wnich they acceded. He then commanded fire from the 
 sun which^he gave them with positive instructions to keep it 
 burning in two temples by the use of walnut wood stripped 
 of its bark as fuel, wbich temples were to be built at the two 
 extreme boundaries of the territory, to be inhabited by 
 
 / 
 
fflSTORY OF THE INpiANg, 535 
 
 them. Eight men were selected, by his instruction to serve 
 as priests for each temple, whose imperative duty was, to, 
 guard the sacred fire by regular turns, and death was to be 
 the punishment of him who should, upon, his watch, let the! 
 fire go out; since their i mysterious law-giver and chosen 
 chief predicted to them the most dreadful calamities if thie 
 fire ever was extinguished in both temples at the same time. 
 And more, if by accident or otherwise, 'the .firie should be- 
 come extinguished in one of the temples the. keepers were. to 
 quickly relight it by obtaining fiire from tbe other temple, , 
 and from now>here else; still the guardians of the temple in 
 which the fire had been suffered ^o go out should not be perr 
 mitted to obtain it from the other temple peacefully, since , 
 blood must be spilt on the floor of the temple, as an atoning 
 sacrifice to the dffended spirits; therefore, the onie should re- 
 sist the other in obtaining the desired, fire, and, the other; 
 should obtain it, even at the cost of sliedding blood. Im-, 
 plicit obedience was eyer given to their foreign chief — the 
 Lycurgus of the Natchez — who lived to an unusual old age^ 
 and made, and was ever regarded as the founder of their laws 
 and institutions. After his death they gave his descendants 
 the title of Suns, from their supposed origin, who ever after- 
 wards ruled, without opposition, in the inherited and prom- 
 ised right of their great : progenitor^the mysterious law- 
 giver from the sun. 
 
 Their tradition of the flood was: In ages past a mighty 
 flood of waters destroyed mankind, but a few who escaped 
 to a very high mountain, and by them the earth was again 
 repeopled. They believed in a Great Spirit, the creator and 
 ruler of the world, whom they . regarded as being so .good, 
 kind and benevolent, that it was impossible for him to do 
 wrong or to harm anything, even if he desired to do so. They 
 believed, however, in a multiplicity of evil spirits, by v^vhom 
 all evil in the world was produced ; that once a mighty chiefs 
 ruled over these spirits, and he committed so much mischief 
 in the world among mankind that the Great Spirit chained 
 him in a dark prison; and the evil spirits, his subjects, have 
 not, since the loss of their chief, manifested so great desire 
 to do mischief in the world, especially when humbly peti- 
 tioned by respectful pi'ayers. 
 
 They had many great national festivals, partaking much 
 of a religious character, since they were instituted and ob- 
 served with a special view of returning thaliks to the Great 
 Spirit for his continued care and protection. 
 
 They reckoned time by moons. Their year began in 
 March and' was divided into thirteen moons; this being .done 
 that the course of that planet might corre^spond with that 
 
536 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 of the sun, thus completing the year. At each new moon a 
 great feast was celebrated, which was named from the fruits 
 peculiar to that season, or the particular game that was 
 hunted during that moon. They celebrated the beginning 
 of the new year (March) with' the moon festival, called the 
 deer, to them one of their greatest and most important festi- 
 vals, as resting upon an ancient tradition which was: In 
 the far distant past, a great sun, hearidg an unusual tumult 
 in a distant part of his village, hastened to the spot to learn 
 its cause, and was taken prisoner by the warriors of a hos- 
 tile nation who had made an unexpected attack upon his vil- 
 lage, having taken it completely by surprise. His people 
 soon recovering, however, from their momentary confusion 
 arising from the unexpected attack, and frantic by the wild 
 cry that was heard throughout the village that their chief 
 had fallen into the hands of their enemies, rushed in a solid 
 body to his rescue, and soon routed them with fearful 
 slaughter, and rescued their chief. In commemoration of 
 this great achievement so honorable in the archives of their 
 nation's history, the warriors, at the new moon of the deer, 
 engaged in a sham battle, in which the Great Sun took an 
 active part. Dividing themselves into two companies, the 
 one representing the warriors of the Great Sun, and the 
 other that of the enemy, the former designated by a white 
 feather in the head-dress, the latter by a red. They con- 
 cealed themselves in ambush in close proximity to the house 
 of the Great Sun. The warriors of the red feathers, under 
 the leadership of a chief renowned for deeds of daring, first 
 crept from their place of ambush and stealthily advanced 
 toward the house of the Great Sun. As soon as they came 
 in view, they rushed upon it with fearful yells. Then the 
 Great Sun rushed from his house, assuming great bewilder- 
 ment, as if suddenly awakened from sleep; shouting their 
 fearful war-whoop, the assumed enemies rush upon the be- 
 wildered chieftain and triumphantly carry him off. At this 
 juncture the warriors of the white feathers riish from thei-r 
 place of concealment with deafening yells to the rescue of 
 their chief, in which were combined the .wildest tones that 
 could express the passions of the human heart, and threw 
 themselves with terrific desperation upon the warriors of 
 the red feather, and then and there was exhibited a wild 
 scene of mimic warfare indescribable bv words; and in 
 which even the Great Sun himself was not an idle spectator, 
 for his voice arose above the fearful din in words of cheer to 
 his warriors, while his wooden tomahawk was seen gleaming 
 in ascending and descending mimic strokes amid the strug- 
 gling throng, apparently performing deeds of valor worthy 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 537 
 
 it 
 
 ihe Great Sun. Finally, the warrioi-k of the red feather 
 seemingly began to waver, then fled in wild confusion wor'se 
 confounded, hotly ' pursued by those of the white feather 
 many miles; then they of the white feather returned to the 
 village, bearing their chief amid shouts of victory and glad- 
 ness. In speaking of these mimic battles, the French wri- 
 ters, who were eye witnesses of the novel scene, state that 
 they were true to nature in all their particulars, producing a 
 complete illusion. 
 
 The second (April) was called the moon of strawberries, 
 in which the- women and children gathered this delicious 
 fruit. The third (May) was called the moon of old corn, in 
 which they feasted upon the corn made the year before, 
 cooked in many different ways. The fourth (June), was 
 called the moon of watermelons, the fifth (July) was called 
 the moon of peaches. The sixth (August) was called the 
 moon of blackberries. The seventh (September) was called 
 the moon or new corn. The eighth (October) was called 
 the moon of the turkey. The ninth (November) was called 
 the moon of the buffaloes. The tenth (December) was 
 called the moon of the bears. The eleventh (January) was 
 called the moon of the geese; then followed February the 
 moon of the walnuts, chestnuts and other nuts. At each re- 
 turns of these moons they indulge in festivals of feasting 
 and dancing, contributing, at the same time, a full share of 
 all the delicacies to their honored chief, the Great Sun. 
 
 That they might perpetuate the blood of the Great Suns 
 in all its purity, as given to them by the mysterious stranger 
 of traditional lore, the Natchez established as the funda- 
 mental law of their nation, that the right of succession to 
 the exalted position of Great Sun must descend to the men 
 through the female line alone. Thus th^ female descend- 
 ants of the Great Sun held the title of nobility, and 'the 
 honor of giving birth to the chief; and the grandson of a 
 Great Sun held a medium place in rank, and his great 
 .grandson ranked with the common people. 
 
 But alas for the poor Natchez! An evil day brought the 
 pale-faces among them in the year 1716, who built the fort 
 Rosalie among them and in it garrisoned, as a matter of 
 course, a body of soldiery as a protection in their intended 
 aggressions upon and usurpations of the Indians' rights; 
 -and from that day the sun of the Natchez's happiness began 
 to wane, but to speedily set forever in the oblivion of utter 
 extermination. As an introduction, Cadillac, on his way up 
 the Mississippi river to search for gold and silver, stopped 
 at Natchez. As soon as the Indian chiefs learned of his ap- 
 proach they marched out in state to meet him, and according 
 
S38 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 to their custom, presented the calumet of peace to him in 
 token of their desired friendship with him. Cadillac be- 
 came greatly offended at what he regairded as presumption 
 of the Indians in supposing that he would contaminate his 
 pure patrician lips with the touch of their vile pipe. He ac- 
 cordingly treated the peace desiring Indians as uncouth ani- 
 mals thrusting themselves into his august presence; and un- 
 ceremoniously departing without having consented to smoke 
 with them, he impressed the Natchez who could not compre- 
 hend his rough manners toward thenj, oj understand the 
 nature of his pride, with the belief that he meditated war 
 upon their tribe and was secretly preparing to make an at- 
 tack upon them; and finding a few French strolling about 
 in their village after the departing of Cadillac, and regarding 
 them as spies, they killed them. Hence the origin of the 
 first misunderstanding between the Natchez and the French. 
 Then following in the wake of Cadillac, came Bienville 
 on the 24th of April, with a compajiy of soldiers and en- 
 camped on an island, situated in the Mississippi river, oppo- 
 site a village of the Tunica Indians, fifty miles from the 
 Natchez. Without delay he sent a Tunica warrior to the 
 Natchez with the infohmation that he was coming to estab- 
 lish a trading post among them, to exchange with them 
 English goods for their furs. Bienville had been informed 
 that the Natchez were'ignorant of the fact, that he knew of 
 their killing the Frenchmen a short time before, therefore 
 he assumed to have come to them as a friend and would be 
 benefactor, that he might the better accomplish his precon- 
 certed, nefarious designs against them. Gayarre, in his 
 history of Louisiana, Vol. I. p. 140, says: "Three Natchez, 
 as delegates representing their tribe, came to/ Bienville on 
 the 27th of April, 1716, and tendered to him the calumet, as 
 the ensign of peace." But Bienville refused to smoke with 
 them, and pretended to consider himself as not being 
 treated with that respect to which he was entitled, since 
 their great chief had not come in person to welcome him, the 
 chief of the French. "I see," said he, ''that your people are 
 not pleased with the idea of my forming a settlement in 
 their territory, for the purpose of trading with them. 
 Otherwise they would have expressed their satisfaction in a 
 more becoming manner. Be it so. If the Natchez are so 
 thankless for what I meant to be a favor, I will alter my de- 
 termination, and give ray preference to the Tunicas, who 
 have always shown themselves such great friends to the 
 French." What an artful dissembler! 
 
 After this speech, to hide his treachery the more suc- 
 cessfully, Bienville caused the three envoys to be feasted and 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. ' 539 
 
 treated with the greatest hospitality add respect; and on 
 their return to their villages sent a Frenchman with them 
 with instructions to extend an invitation to the Natchez 
 chiefs to a conference on the island on which he was en- 
 camped. This greatly embarrassed the Natchez since they 
 were at a loss as to the best course to be pursued. Soine 
 were of the opinion that it would be imprudent for their* 
 chiefs to thus place themselves in the hands of the French, 
 who inig:ht tave heard of the killing of the Frenchmen, and 
 had nbw come under the assumed gat"b of peace and friend- 
 ship to entrap their chiefs and wreak' vengeance upon them. 
 Others on the other hand argued that, from the fact of the 
 French having xome in such a smail number, was sufficient 
 proof that they were still ignorant of the death of their 
 countrymen, and did not intend to act as enemies. Fur- 
 thermore, that the chiefs, by refusing to .accept Bienville's 
 invitation, would incur his displeasure, and' he would estab- 
 lish a trading pdst amohg the Tunicas, and thus enrich their 
 rivals, to the great injury of the Natchez. This argumeiat 
 prevailed, and in an evil hour for the Natchei;' 'chiefs, their 
 visit to Bienville's camp was resolved upon, and too late they 
 learned, even as all their race have learned from that day to 
 this, that for hypocrisy and treachery the pale-faces cknnot 
 be, surpassed, and fr6m that hour a system of oppression 
 was inaugurated by the French against the Natchez to ex- 
 terminate them, unequaled only by that adopted and prac- 
 ticed by the Americans for the effectual destruction of the 
 entire Indian race upon the North American continent, pi-os^ 
 ecuted with unrelenting; vigor to the present day upon the 
 still surviving little remnant, with an assumed Christian zeal 
 for their civilization and happiness that is truly astonishing' 
 since so utterly void of reality. . / 
 
 In 1725 a son of one of the Natchez chiefs was murdered 
 by a French sergeant which caused the Indians to kill ^ a 
 Frenchman named M. Guenot, in retaliation, a reconcil- 
 iation, however, was soon made, but ■was not satisfac- 
 tory to Bienville, He therefore hastened from New Orleans 
 with 500 men, attacked the Natchez wherever met, burned 
 their towns and destroyed their fields, upon which a war was 
 inaugurated, resulting iri»^he defeat of the Indians, whb sued 
 for peace. This- was granted on their giving^'up one of their 
 chiefs to be executed, who'was accused by. the French of be- 
 ing the chief instigator of the war. He was at once slam, 
 and thus closed the second war of the French with the Nat- 
 chez, lii 1736 Bienville returned to France, and Perier Suc- 
 ceeded him as governor in 1727.' Bienville, by his cruelty 
 and oppression, had entailed the hatred of the Natchez upon 
 
540 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 all Frenchmen; in this they were encouraged by the Chick- 
 asaws who, it has been 'said, had alsfo projected a general 
 confederation of all Indian tribes to drive the French from 
 iheir territories. 
 
 In 1729 an officer by the name of Chopart was comman- 
 der of the French settlement. Chopart was naturally of a 
 haughty and tyrannical disposition — a fit subject to lord it 
 over a helpless people. But his oppressive tyranny became 
 so great that it could not be longer endured with any degree 
 of patience by the colony; therefore, complaint was made to 
 Governor Perier at New Orleans who summoned Chopart 
 into his presence. He was tried and found guilty of great 
 abuse of power, and would have been justly punished but for 
 the interference of influential friends (always found by such 
 characters even at the present day) who secured his pardon 
 from the governor. The pardoned tyrant returned, of 
 course, to his colony, and in as much as he then acted with 
 justice and humanity toward the French who had resources 
 to a higher authority, the more did he oppress and abuse the 
 Indians who had no higher power to which they could appeal. 
 At this time the Indian company gave instructions to Gover- 
 nor Perier to induce the Indians to remove to a greater dis- 
 tance from the French colony, assigning as a reason, that 
 further collisions with the Whites might thus be obviated. 
 But why not induce the intruding French to remove to a 
 greater distance to obviate further collisions with the In- 
 dians? Yes, why? What a system of injustice! Yet prac- 
 ticed to the letter from that day to this by the Whites against 
 all Indians. i 
 
 Chopart, exulting in the prospects of being able to 
 avenge his wounded pride upon some one, now emptied the 
 bottles of his long smothered wrath upon the devoted 
 heads of the unfortunate Natchez, treating them with 
 €very insolence he could devise, and heaping upon them 
 every outrage and, insult that he could 'suggest, hoping thus 
 to force them to leave their country and homes to the quiet 
 possession of the French, a successful plan of robbery 
 adopted to get possession of the Indians' lands. One day 
 he summoned the Great Sun to his presence, and, with a 
 haughty contemptuous demeanor, informed him that he had 
 been iustructed by Governor Perier to take possession of 
 the White i^pple, one of their most beautiful towns, situated 
 five or six miles from Fort Rosalie; and for them to re- 
 move somewhere else out of the way of the plans of the 
 French, at the same time, giving the command in the most 
 insolent and authoritative tone of voice. The chief turned 
 his eyes full upon Chopart with a calm but inquisitive gaze 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 541 
 
 of astctniahinent, and said: "My white brother cannot be in 
 earnest, but only desires to try the temper of the Indians. 
 Is my white brother ignorant of the fact that the Natchez, 
 built that village many thousand moons ago, and have lived 
 there ever since"? "Insolent barbarian"! exclaimed Cho- 
 part, in utter contempt, "Call me not brother. Between 
 thy race and mine there are no kindred ties; nor do I parley 
 with any of your race. Let it suffice you, that when I com- 
 mand, you must obey." The lioble chief, concealing his 
 emotions, with a calm manly voice, replied: "Brother, such 
 language was never before addressed to me; nor have your 
 people ever before taken our property from us by force. 
 What they wished of ours, we freely gave or they pur- 
 chased. We prefer peace to war with your nation. There 
 are other lands of ours which we can spare to your people; 
 take them! What more can we do? In the centre of the 
 White Apple is our temple, in which the bones of our ancest- 
 ors have reposed since we came from the far west to live on 
 the banks of the Great River, and it is dear to our hearts." 
 
 "No more of your foolish talk to me," replied the inso- 
 lent Chopart. "Soon a vessel," he continued, "from our 
 great town down the river will arrive, and if the village of 
 the White Apple is not given into my possession by the time 
 the vessel arrives. I will send you bound in chains to our 
 great chief. I have no more to say. Go." "Tis well," re- 
 sponded the Indian; "and I go to my people and speak the 
 words before their old and wise men in council." The com- 
 mand of their mighty chief to convene in council was hastily 
 obeyed; and when he laid before them the insolent and out- 
 rageous demands of Chopart, the greatest indignation was 
 manifest upon every face, though no outward expression of 
 words portrayed the slumbering hatred that now rankled 
 in their breasts against their insolent, domineering and op- 
 pressive intruders. What was the result of the council? A 
 resolution was unanimously passed to invite the Yazoos, 
 Choctaws, Chickasaws and other contiguous tribes, who had 
 also experienced the insolence and oppression of the pale- 
 faces, to bury their former animosities for the sake of the 
 common good, and unite in one grand alliance and great 
 brotherhood against their common foe, and by one united 
 effort free their country from the oppressive yoke and 
 cruel tyranny of the pale-face strangers. 
 
 Without delay embassadors were sent to all the sur- 
 rounding tribes to lay their proposition before their wise 
 men convened in^solemn council. The embassadors carried 
 little bundles of an equal number of sticks, and to each tribe, 
 who should adopt the resolution, a bundle of the sticks was 
 
542 HISTORY/ OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 given with instructions to withdraw a stick from the bundle 
 daily, and the last stick was to designate the day that the 
 combined attack upon the E'rench wa^ to be made through- 
 out their entirejjcountry. This manner of keeping any ap- 
 pointed day was anciently practiced by all the southern In- 
 dians. In a few'da)'s the embassadors returned with the in- 
 formation that not a single tribe to which they had been sent 
 had refused to accept the proposition, and all would make the 
 attack on the day appointed. Unfortunately for the Natchez 
 the uncommon movements and unusual activity of their war- 
 riors aroused the curiosity of the women. Unfortunately, 
 , also, for the Natchez the mother of the, then ruling Great 
 Sun cherished an uncommon friendship for the French, and 
 her curiosity had become greatly excited by the frequent . 
 secret meetings of all the wise men of the Nation and also 
 by the going and coming of the embassies who had departed 
 ju and returned from all directions, and she had determined 
 to solve the mystery; and in the accomplishment of her res- 
 olution she proved herself a successful Delilah. Alas, who 
 can outwit a woman's excited curiosity! for this Indian 
 queen mother so artfully wrought upon her kingly son that 
 ihe disclosed the whole plot, even the most important secret 
 for, the successful accomplishment of her treasonable de- 
 signs, where, in the Great Temple was concealed the chron- 
 ometer of the Natchez, the bundle of sticks, her knowledge 
 of which proved the successful overthrow of, her chieftain 
 son, as the secret obtained by Delilah, that of Samson. 
 
 To conceal her feelings from her unsuspecting son, she, 
 of course, readily and easily assumed to enter heartily into 
 the plot, though she had determined to warn the French of 
 their impending danger, if it could be -done without the be- 
 trayal of herself. More than once she shrewdly managed to 
 get word to Chopart of the threatened storm, but he regard- 
 ed the admonitions as idle stories purposely circulated by 
 the Indians to drive them from the resolution of seizing their 
 village, the White Apple. The French manifested by their 
 conduct no knowlege of their fast approaching doom, not- 
 withstanding her warnings, sent them, the queen-mother, 
 unrelenting in her efforts to save them^ scci'etly entered the 
 temple and withdrew several of the sticks from the bundle, 
 and thus destroyed the concert of action agreed upon among 
 the tribes, by bringing on the attack of the Natchez at an 
 earlier day. The traitoress hoped by this means that a few 
 French might escape and warn the rest of the colony. But 
 in spite of all the warnings received by Chopart, he still ad- 
 hered to the ^amc fatal incredulity, applying the insulting 
 
HISTORY OF THte INDIANS. . 543 
 
 epithet of cowardice to those who spolce to him of the rumoi's 
 that were afloat. •' ' 
 
 The next day after the convening of the grand council 
 of the Natchez, the Great Sun presented himself' at Fort 
 Rosalie, and expressed a willing-ness to Chopitlrt to comply 
 -with his order to evacilate the village of the white people; but 
 humbly requesting a little mbre time .to Select a place to 
 which they might transport their effects; to which Chopart 
 acceded, allowing him until the latter part of December, 
 but with this proviso, that the, Natchez should pay to him 
 (Ghopaiit), during the interval, one barrel of cdrn, a certain 
 number of fowls, a certain quantity of furs and bear's oil, 
 for each cabin of the White Apple 'village. The Great Sun 
 and Chopart then parted; the one 'elated with' his prospect 
 of gain, the other with his prospect of reVenge. But the 
 fatal day* the 29th of November 1716, 'came, and ere the sun 
 had reached the meridiah, the French were involved in one 
 common destruction; in one short hour the work was com- 
 plete; and with the loss of only^ twelve warriors, the Natchez 
 slew two hundred and fifty of their Merciless French in- 
 truders and haughty oppressors. Chbpartj,. the last to re- 
 ceive his just reward, fled to ' his gar den hoping there tb 
 conceal himself; but he was found, drag'ged forth and handed 
 over to the lowest class of the Natchez ^warriors, who; beat 
 him to death with their war clubs, the highest taking no part 
 in his death, as they considered it dishonorable to imbue 
 their hands in the blood of so contemptible a wretch; Two 
 men only were spared, one a tailor^ and the other a wagoner, 
 and three hundred women and children. The Natchez,' still 
 ignorant of the queen-mother's theft Of the sticks, and that 
 their attack was premature, and believing that the other 
 tribes had acted in concert with them) consequently the 
 French throughout their entire country were cut off, gave 
 themselves up to feasting and dancing. ' 
 
 In the wide extended arrangement of- the plot to destroy 
 the French, the destruction of New Orleans 'had been as- 
 signed to the Choctaws,' and the destruction of the little 
 French forts^, scattered here and there over the country, had 
 been assigned to the weaker tribes.' * Thus the extermina- 
 tion of the French would have' been complete but for the 
 concert of action berhg destroyed by the stolen sticks from 
 the chronometer of the Natchez. ' 
 
 Afew days after the desti-uctioli of the French at White 
 Apple the Choctaws sent an embassy to the Natchez to learn 
 the cause of the premature attack Upon the French, thus 
 causing a failure of concerted action against ^their common 
 foe. When they arrived at the White Apple they angrily 
 
544 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 demanded of the Natchez an explanation of their strange 
 and incomprehensible conduct and breach of faith. To 
 which the Natchez replied that they had made the attack on 
 the very day indicated by the last stick, and that if any one 
 had violated their word it was the Choctaws in not making- 
 the attack also at the time they themselves had made it ; at 
 the same time intimating cowardice on the part of the Choc- 
 taws as a reason for their failure. To which insinuation the- 
 Choctaw deputation took great offense, and at once departed, 
 telling the Natchez that henceforward and forever they 
 would have no further alliance with them,4jut ever consider 
 them as unworthy of trust, while the Natchez hurled back 
 upon them the accusations of perfidy and cowardice. 
 
 In a few days after the departure of the first Chickasaw 
 embassy another one came from a different district of the 
 Choctaw Nation, and were as much dissatisfied in their in- 
 terview with the Natchez, regarding the explanation of their 
 premature attack upon the French as the former. But 
 learning that ,the Natchez contemplated killing the two men 
 and the three hundred women and children whom they still 
 held as prisoners, the Choctaw embassy boldly marched in a 
 body to the public square and struck the red post — a chal- 
 lenge of defiance among all Indians — boldly declaring that 
 the Choctaws would no longer be the allies of the Natchez, 
 but would henceforward be the allies of the French, and if 
 tbe^ dared kill a single one of the French prisoners then in 
 their hands, every warrior of their great Nation would come 
 in a body against them. This defiant threat brought the 
 Natchez to due reflection and the two men and three hundred 
 women and children were saved. Having given this salutary 
 advice to the Natchez, the Choctaws departed, leaving the 
 seemingly unfortunate Natchez in a state of great perplex-^ 
 ity as to the proper step they should take in so dubious a 
 state of affairs. 
 
 When Governor Perier learned of the destruction of the 
 French at Fort Rosalie he immediately sent a courier to the 
 Choctaws with instructions to inform them that Governor 
 Perier desired to have a talk with them. The Choctaws at 
 that time were the most powerful of all the tribes, and great 
 doubts were entertained by them in their th^ critical state 
 of affairs, as to the course the Choctaws would pursue, and 
 it was highly important that their friendship should be se- 
 cured. The destruction of Fort Rosalie by the Natchez had 
 thrown the French into great excitement, consternation and 
 dread, filling their minds with fear as rumor whispered to 
 their excited imaginations the uprising of the Indians in one 
 grand concert of action against them. And Governor Perier 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 545 
 
 states: "So great was the fear tHat the Chauaches, a little 
 tribe of only thirty warriors, dwelling- a few miles above 
 New Orleans, were even a subject of dread to the French. 
 This induced me to have them destroyed by our negroes, 
 who executed the mission with great promptness and se- 
 crecy, setting an example before the small tribes higher up 
 the river that held them in check. If I had been so disposed ' 
 I could have destroyed all those nations, which are no service 
 to us, by the negroes; but who, on the other hand, may in- 
 fluence our blacks ^:o revolt." But he might the more truth- 
 fully have said that he caused the "innocent and harmless 
 Chauaches to be murdered by the negroes, that he might 
 create an enmity between the negro and Indian race, as he 
 no doubt had misapprehensions as to the negroes remaining 
 quiet in the then excited state of affairs, and not attempt, by ' 
 joining the Indians, to assert their rights to freedom. What 
 a volume of oppression, wrong and cruelty towards the 
 North Americans, from first to last, might be written from 
 the sentiment expressed in Governor, Perier's, ''which are 
 no service to usl " 
 
 On the l()th of January, l^lV, Perier's fears and anxie- 
 ties were greatly quiete'l when he was informed that Le 
 Sueur, a French ofi&cer, with seven hundred Choctaw war- 
 riors, was on his march against the'Natchez. Alas, for the 
 Natchez! Dame fortune seemed to frown upon them from 
 every side, and to have consigned them to a speedy destruc- 
 tion, for they seemed unable to resist the temptation of etl-^ 
 joying the rich booty taken from the French, though appre- 
 hensive of the storm that was gathering around them, and 
 whose muttering thunders in the distance might have been 
 audible had not every sense been swallowed up in the indul- 
 gence of feasting and dancing, oblivious to all else. Alas, 
 how quickly does sorrow oft tread upon the heels of joj'I 
 Unfortunate and inconsiderate Natchez! On the 27th of Jan- 
 uary, 1730, while indulging in feasting and dancing on the 
 banks of a small creek, in thoughtless security, Le Sueur 
 with his seven hundred Choctaws broke suddenly and un- 
 expectedly upon them and turned their merriment into wail- 
 ing by killing feixty, taking captive twenty and rescuing fifty 
 four French women and children ere Ihey could rally and re- 
 treat to two forts they had erected in expectation of a storm 
 which they felt would, sooner or later, burst with great fury 
 upon them. But this was only the preclude to what the 
 Natchez least expected would follow. , 
 
 On the 8th of February, pari of the French forces, ren- 
 dezvousing among the Tunicas, arrived at Natchez under 
 the command of Loubois and united with the Choctaw under 
 
546 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 LeSueur, followed by the remainder on the next day. On 
 the 14th, the united forces of the Choctaws and French 
 made an assault upon the two forts, which were bravely de- 
 fended by the Natchez. The French brougfht four pieces of 
 artillery to bear upon the two little forts, which they had 
 succeeded in plantiogf on an eminence five hundred yards 
 distant, and for six consecutive hours hurled their balls 
 against the two forts with no effect whatever, the Natchez 
 responding with two pieces of artillery, taken in the capture 
 of Fort Rosalie, with like effect. The total failure of the 
 French to produce any effect upon the forts, was humiliat- 
 ing to the French commander, but a source of amusement 
 to the Choctaws; as he had promised them that he would 
 knock down the two forts over the heads of the Natchez in 
 two hours. The ineffectual cannonading was kept up seven 
 days; the Choctaws, in the meantime, laughing and deriding 
 the incompetency of the tanapoh chitoh (big guns); becom- 
 ing wearied at noise without effect, the Choctaws threaten- 
 ed, on the morning of the 23d, to return home if the affairs 
 of the siege were not prosecuted in a better mjinner. This 
 threat of the Choctaws had the desired effect; and on the 
 24th, the four pieces of artillery were brought to uear upon 
 the two little forts at a distance of three hundred yards, and 
 then the Natchez were told that it was determined to blow 
 them up, even at the sacrifice of the French captives in 
 their possession. 
 
 The near proximity of the artillery, together with that 
 of the threat, so intimidated the Natchez that they sent a 
 female captive to make propositions of peace, who remained, 
 without any response being returned to the Natchez. On 
 the 25th a flag was hoisted by the Natchez as a token of 
 peace. Upon seeing this, a Choctaw chief went near to 
 one of the forts, and cried out to the Natchez, "Who 
 ever knew before that' the Choctaws encamped around 
 the fort of an enemy for many weeics? I^earn from this how 
 great is the friendship of the Choctaws for the' French. It 
 is folly for you who are so much less in numbers than 
 the Choctaws to still refuse to give up to the French their 
 women and children. I and my warriors have determined 
 to stay here and keep you in those two forts until you perish 
 by hunger." Upon hearing this the Natchez promised to 
 dehi'er all their French prisoners to the C/.octaws, on the 
 condition that the French would remove to the bank of the 
 river with their artillery. The French assenting to this 
 proposition, the following stipulations were agreed upon by 
 the two belligerent parties: That the French were to with- 
 draw to the banks of the river; the Natchez to deliver their 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 547 
 
 , French captives to the Choctaws, and be allowed to remain 
 
 in quiet and peaceable possession of their country and 
 
 ^homes. All of which was ag-reed upon on the 26th, and thus 
 
 terminated the siege, the French having lost fifteen men in 
 
 the affair. 
 
 Still the French commander, not regarding himself in 
 honor bound to the adherence of his word, like thousands at 
 the present day, when given to an Indian, had determined, 
 as soon as he had released the French captives in the hands 
 of the Natchez, to recommence hostilittes against the 
 Natchez to their utter extermination. 
 
 But the Natchez, having learned by sad experience to 
 rely no more upoij the promises of the French, had deter- 
 mined to retreat. On the morning of the 27th they handed 
 over all the French women aod children to the Choctaws, 
 who, in turn, delivered them to the French, and on the same 
 day the Choctaws departed for their homes. But on the 
 29th, when the French commander again appeared before 
 the two forts to execute his infamous determination against 
 the Natchez, he found them empty, and their former occu- 
 pants flown. ' 
 
 Thus was finished this expedition against the unfortu- 
 nate Natchez, for the succcessful and speedy termination of 
 which the honor (if honor there be) is due to the Choctaws; 
 for they alone influenced the Natchez to yield; and to the 
 Choctaws only would the Natchez consent to deliver their 
 French prisoners, and then made good their retreat with 
 honor to themselves and without loss;- bidding an eternal 
 adieu to their native hills and ancient possessions to seek a 
 place of rest they knew not where, and leaving .their aban- 
 doned homes to the possession of the French. 
 
 The different tribes, acting in the beginning of the war 
 as allies to the Natchez, retui-ned to their former' allegiance 
 with the French, and assisted them in destroying the 
 Natchez wherever found. "Since their flight," said Perier, 
 "I have had fifty of them killed or taken prisoners. I 
 buried here six of them, four men and two women." 
 
 At this exhibition the whites seemed as pt;oud of the 
 horrid scene, as the ancient Romans were of the mutila- 
 tion of human beings by wild beasts in the arena, above 
 which sat civilization in the shape of Governor Perier, prov- 
 ing human nature to be the same at bottom, however modi- 
 fied at the surface, whether it remains in the original naked- 
 ness of barbarism, or conceals itself under the varied 
 garments of civilization, as is so well established in the op^ 
 pression and cruelty perpetrated by the American people of 
 the I'Jth centurv upon the Red Race of this contnient. 
 
548 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 
 
 Was not this savage act of cruelty, perpetrated by those 
 who assumed to be Christians, regarded by the Indians as 
 an approval of their custom? 
 
 Soon after this act of the French, a band of Tunica 
 warriors brought to New Orleans a poor Natchez woman 
 whom they had captured while lingering amid the scenes of 
 her youth, that called up in memory the loved ones then scat- 
 tered to be united no more, and Governor Perier had her 
 burned to death on a high platform erected especially for the 
 ceremony, and to witness which all New Orleans again turn- 
 ed out in state. While slowly being consumed and suffering- 
 tortures most intense, that forlorn Natchez woman far away 
 from kindred and friends and alone, shed not a tear nor ut- 
 tered a groan, but bore her tortures \vith Indian fortitude; 
 yet reproached her captors, the Tunicas, who stood around 
 in bitter epithets declaring the speedy destruction of their 
 people. The dying woman's prediction proved true; for the 
 Tunicas returned home but to be surprised by a band of 
 the homeless Natchez and their nation in turn nearly exter- 
 minated. 
 
 To what a state of utter desperation must tlic NutcJicz 
 have been reduced, to perform such deeds of daring, and to 
 manifest such a thirst for revengel But for what else had 
 they to live? Their country gone, kindred ties severed never 
 to be reunited, their people scattered as autumn leaves be- 
 fore the gale. But why thus? The pale-face saw their 
 Eden, coveted it; and because they dared fight for^their God 
 inherited right as God approved heroes, they must abide the 
 decree — extermination. 
 
 The Tunicas were destroyed by a brave and resolute 
 band of the Natchez, who had found 'a temporary asylum 
 among the generous Chickasaws, though the exterminating- 
 French believed that all the Natchez had sought refuge west 
 of the Mississippi river. But this heroic and indomitable 
 people, scattered in detached bands here and there, did not 
 fail to continually give satisfactory notice to the French that 
 they were not all exterminated. Therefore, Governor Pe- 
 rier resolved that they should be; and in accordance with 
 that resolution he, on the 4th of January, 1731, personally 
 took command of his army, which had been instructed to 
 rendezvous at the mouth of Red river. But where to find 
 the place where the Natchez had conceakd themselves was a 
 problem which presented itself before him not easy of solu- 
 tion. As delay would accomplish nothing towards gratify- 
 ing his thirst for Indian blood, he immediately ascended the 
 Red river; thence into Black river; thence into a stream 
 then known as Silver river; thence into a small lake, near 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 549 
 
 ■which he had heard the Natchez were concealed, where he 
 arrived on January 19th. Again, fortune frowned upon the 
 poor persecuted Natchez, for on the next day a Natchez boy, 
 wandering- too far in his eager pUrsuit of the chase, fell into 
 -the hands of his merciless foes, and, tinder the fear of terri- 
 blfe threats, betrayed the retreat of his people ; and on the 
 21st the unfortunate Natchez found themselves completely 
 surrounded; and on the 24th, fearing the little fort which 
 they had constructed, and in which their women and chil- 
 dren were placed would be stormed, and in that case they 
 would be left to the mercies of a brutal soldiery, made over- 
 tures of peace, to which Perier replied, "That he would hold 
 no parley with them, unless they would first give up the 
 negro slavey they had in their possession, and their chiefs 
 would then come out half way between the fort and the 
 French to have an interview with him." 
 
 Twenty negroes were at once given up. After much 
 hesitation, and how well founded the sequel will show, the 
 Great Sun, the Little Sun, and a subordinate chief came out 
 of their little fort, at 4 p. m. and advanced to the half-way 
 ground and there met Perier with whom to have a consulta- 
 tion. After a few words had been exchanged, a rain com- 
 menced falling; upon which the perfidious Perier suggested 
 the propriety of entering a vacant cabin, near by, to which 
 they readily consented but the moment they entered they 
 were made prisoners by a company of soldiers concealed 
 therein. As night came on the rain increased, and during 
 the night became a fearful tempest; during which the subor- 
 dinate made good his escape. On the next day (25th) forty- 
 fiVe men and four hundred and fifty women and children 
 surrendered to the mercies of their foes during the day. 
 But the night following being again dark and rainy, the rest, 
 about two hundred, fortunately made their escape. Pterier' 
 began his return on the 28th.; and in his dispatches, as our 
 great Indian butchering generals, the "heroic" Sheridan and 
 Sherman, did not forget the indispensable "Too much 
 praise cannot be awarded the officers and men for their gal- 
 lant conduct against fearful odds and under adverse circum- 
 stances"; but forgot to mention, even as his "gallant" coun- 
 terparts of the present era, the base treachery he adopted 
 to get the Indian chiefs into his hands. When he returned 
 to New Orleans, betook his Natchez prisoners with him 
 nilmbering forty-five men and four hundred and fifty women 
 And children, besides the Great Sun and Little Sun, whom 
 he so treacherously got into his hands, and then sent every 
 one of them to St. Domingo, and there sold them as slaves, 
 thus executing his threat against them. Extermination, 
 
550 HISTORY OF THK INDIANS. 
 
 because they had the manly courage to resist oppression, 
 and fight to the death against merciless tyjrants. 
 
 The little remnant of Natchez left, though in the last 
 stage of hopeless despair, instead of yielding, nobly and 
 bravely nerved themselves to desperate deeds of revenge, 
 for they still could call into the field about three hundred 
 warriors. But they were at last defeated, then all hope fled, 
 and the few scattered remnants, in three different bands, 
 sought safety where best they could find it; one ^ought ref- 
 uge among the Christian hearted Chickasaws, who gener- 
 ously gave them a home and protection. But even there they 
 were not idle, for they sought every opportunity to avenge 
 the destruction of their Nation and people, by attacking the 
 French whenever and wherever found. 
 
 In 1733 a few still survived and still fought; for Bienville, 
 being at that time reappointed to the governorship in the 
 place of Perier, said, in a dispatch written on the 15th of 
 May, 1733, "That the Tunicas had issured him that the 
 Natchfez were not destroyed, but were composed of three 
 bands; the smallest had fled nortl^ some distance from their 
 ancient villages; the next was on the banks of the Missis- 
 sippi river, opposite the Yazoo river, and the third and larg- 
 est had been received among the Chickasaws who had given 
 them land on which to live." He closed by saying: "I shall 
 use every effort to constantly harass them." 
 
 The two bands that still clung near their old homes, and 
 seemed so reluctant to leave forever the. banks of that noble 
 river, the Mississippi, became so constantly harassed by - 
 the French that they were finally driven to seek a safer 
 place of refuge; therefore, they also retreated to the Chicka- 
 saws and joined the band that had preceded them and found 
 shelter and protection among that magnanimous people. 
 
 Their nation had perished; the remaining little remnant 
 of survivors went west, and were dispersed among the 
 various Indian tribes of that then little known country to the 
 white race, and were lost as a distinct people. However, it 
 has been stated through the medium of the press that a 
 small tribe of Indians have been discovered in southern 
 Arizona who are Idolators; that they are in reality sun wor- 
 shippers, but make small images out of clay with faces sup- 
 posed to represent the sun, although bearing little if any 
 resemblance to it; that they do not associate with other 
 tribes and are very seldom seen by white men. In this re- 
 spect at least they may be regarded as being extremely for- 
 tunate. That the idols have large, round bodies and heads, 
 with eyes and mouth and ears— beams radiating from the 
 eyes over the face. These Indians keep these idols in rude 
 
raSTORY OF THE INDIANS. SSI 
 
 houses or wig-wams, and at certain seasons of the year they 
 hold a sun dance, which is with them a religious ceremony. 
 They have no other forna of worship, although a few of them 
 were at one time induced to abandon their idols by the Jesuit 
 priests. If the story be true,, there is a good reason to be- 
 lieve that they are the descendants of the few Natchez who 
 fled west in 1733, at the destruction of their nation by the 
 French. ^ , 
 
 But the beneficent God of man's creation be praised that 
 
 "There Is a world, where Bouls are tree, 
 Where tyrants taint not Nature's bliss; 
 If death that world's bright opening bo, 
 Oh I who would live a slave In this ? " 
 
 Noble racel Unaccustomed to crouch under oppression,, 
 and when the evils of submission became greater than those 
 of resistance, how could it but beget a convulsive burst of 
 indignation and courage, supported by the hope of success- 
 fully driving back the merciless invaders of their country 
 and homes! 
 
 But how vain the struggle against the irresistible, 
 power of supei*ior intelligence, crazed to become rich, and 
 the strength of civilization without mercy, honor or truth^ 
 a power without morality, unscrupulous and unprincipled, 
 which came among them to wring from them their country,, 
 upon which to build its own greatness, though at the cost 
 of the utter annihilation of its primitive inhabitants; a power 
 from the Alpha to the Omega, which placed the administra- 
 tion of justice, when dealing with the Indians, in the hands 
 of its highest functionary — ^Avarice, ami there left it; thus 
 it came a war of helpless sheep against ravenous wolves, 
 untutored men against demons, to whom dissimulation, dis- 
 honesty and avarice were as paws to the hungry tiger. 
 Endless promises, false excuses, elaborate tissues of cir- 
 cumstantial falsehoods, unblushing chicanery, and extermi- 
 nating war, untempered with mercy in regard to age or 
 sex, innocent or guilty, were the weapons adopted and 
 practiced, in the successful and speedy accomplishment of 
 their determination to destroy, and exterminate the North 
 American Indian race: therefore they went implacable in 
 enmity and void of pity; and the pertinacitywith which they 
 have adhered to their purpose needs no further confirma- 
 tion. 
 
 The historic Indian is with the past, and his bones are 
 resting in the grave with his pre-historic ancestry ; while 
 his surviving descendant, shorn of all his former chivalry 
 and independence, is left alone to battle with the prejudice 
 of the exterminators of his race, who for 200 years have 
 
552 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 been pressing it toward that period of evolution we call civ- 
 ilization, but in reality extermination. 
 
 But alas, as a fallingf star tumbling^ from its primitive 
 place near the g-ates of heaven, bathed in primitive glory, so 
 has been the fallingf of the North American Red Race, that 
 noble, brave and wonderful people, into the dank clouds of 
 misfortune and woe, tracking their lone and sorrowful course 
 down through the deep midnight of despair to helpless ex- 
 termination and hopeless oblivion; and though their spring 
 freshness and summer bloom have forever faded away, leav- 
 ing no hope of a returning morn, still their silent, yet dig^ni- 
 jied despair, impresses an involuntary respect and admira- 
 tion — even as a fine nature becomes by the sorrows that 
 blight and the misfortunes that mildew and destroy. But 
 will that time never come when that spirit of love that seeks 
 the good of the poor, unfortunate Indian will be truly felt 
 and acted upon, and that spirit which is wise in mercy and 
 has no element of vengeance, shall speak in the actions of 
 our congress, sounded in sermons from our pulpits and 
 pleaded in our prayers at the throne of grace. 
 
 Truly the life of the North American jLnd'mn of the 
 present day is, and long has been, a strange comedy to all 
 who observe, and a fearful tragedy to those who reflect. 
 But have they not endured enough? Can they endure more 
 and still exist? Nay verily. Already have they turned their 
 gaze to the skirmishers that line the other shore, iis they 
 sadly and hopelessly, yet silently and heroically move for- 
 ward in their uncomplaining (since unavailing) wretched- 
 ness. 
 
 The North Americans everywhere were quick to ob- 
 serve; prone to meditate on all they observed, and possessed 
 an imagination fertile, expansive and daring ; they imbibed 
 with eagerness and retained in a tenaciious memory; and be- 
 fore their prospects, under the sustaining and fostering care 
 of the loving and loved white missionary, were destroyed 
 i^nd their hopes forever blighted by ruthless hands, their 
 lives were like an April day. True, they had experienced 
 reverses, but as the sun of their lives sank in the west the 
 rainbow of the white man's promise aWhlle bent beautifully 
 above them; but, alas, only to be driven back from their 
 hopes by realizing the utter falsity of that promise. Ah, 
 suspense and hope deferred! these are the two emotions 
 which serve to kill the human heart, to darken and blight 
 human existence. Therefore, soon in their faces, where 
 never before seen, were visible strength and weakness, man- 
 hood and helplessness. 
 
 It is attested by thousands of Christian witnesses 
 
HISTORY OP THE INpiANS. 553 
 
 now living who personally know, and thousands of Christian 
 witnesses long since dead, who left their testimony behind 
 them in their writings down the revolving' years back to over 
 two centuries ago, that the North American Indians every- 
 where welcomed the religion of Jesus Christ; that they ad- 
 mired the civilization of the White Race, and delighted to be 
 taught in the useful arts and sciences, while they abhorred 
 and dreaded the accompanying vices attending that civiliza- 
 tion, as exhibited before them by the lawless, who ever fol- 
 lowed close on the heels of the servants of God. 
 
 It is a truth, though known to few, that the problems 
 which the North American Indians have presented, ever 
 since their first introduction to the White Race, and still 
 present to this generation iu the little remnant, still sur- 
 viving, are worthy the consideration and study of even the 
 most learned; and that the events which have formed their 
 known history during the last two centuries are worthy 
 to take rank among the marvels of history. Nor do multi- 
 plied thousands have the least conception of the changes 
 which that peculiar, but none the less worthy, people have 
 experienced and the efEect they have had upon them. Truly 
 the one statids to the other in the relation of caufee to effect. 
 But what the future has in store for them may closely be 
 guessed by their present condition in their transition from 
 the old to the new order of things under the weight of the 
 hand of merciless coercion; yet what many tribes have been 
 enabled to accomplish for the intellectual, moral and ma- 
 terial improvement, amid all their vicissitudes, wrongs and 
 sufferings, few, very few, also know; therefore, millions, 
 without any investigation whatever, but upon vague rumor 
 alone, believe that no Indian is or can be fittted to enjoy the 
 blessings of Christianity, though the belief is as faulty as 
 its premises are absolutely false. 
 
 May a just and merciful God grant that others shall rise 
 up in the defense of this part of His fearfully perse- 
 cuted race of mankind, whose pens more efiicient than 
 mine shall relate to future generations it's wrongs and suf- 
 ferings ; its love of country and freedom ; its heroic defense 
 of both; its patience and silence in misfortunes unparalleled 
 in the history of mankind ; its calm resignation in humilia- 
 tion, after prodigies of justifiable resistance against over- 
 whelming numbers, while laboring under the most adverse 
 surroundings ever known in the history of man fighting 
 for country, freedom, justice and truth. 
 
 And though here, as in the middle watches of the night, I 
 close my labors, yet I must leave the reader in great doubt 
 of a fairer m6rn ever dawning upon the Red Race of the 
 
554 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 United States, as such a morn can scarcely be expected, oi" 
 even hoped for, in an age abounding- more with vice than vir- 
 tue, as this hitherto has ^abounded and still abounds, with 
 fair prospects of indefinite continuance; since the manifes- 
 ted desire and unyielding determination of the government 
 and people of the whole country have lp.ng been, still are and 
 will ever be, to exterminate their Indian wards — forever blot 
 out their institutions and every vestige of their entire race; 
 but hoping and believing that in its ciblivion would also be 
 forgotten the means adopted for the accomplishment of the 
 result; therefore, thousands still mock at and deride this 
 people, while others oppress, persecute and slander. 
 
 But in this account of the true Native Americans, this 
 peculiar and, in many respects, wonderful part of God's 
 created races of man,' I regret not that I have wandered far 
 from the old and beaten track in which former writers have 
 walked in their accounts given of that people known as the 
 Red Race of North America; and truly believe that I have 
 thereby escaped many of the ruts into which they have, 
 with here and there an exception, alike and invariably fallen; 
 though in passing throu"^h the shad;0wy lands of legend 
 and myth, where many of the pen pictures are, to an un- 
 justifiable and inexcusable extent, injaginary, I deny not 
 but here and there a slender web of fiction, but free of in- 
 tended or known falsehood, may be foimd upon its pages;, 
 as I have sought from many sources, whatever hues and 
 colors which were considered best adapted to and interest 
 and variety to its pages; and if it only tends to bring others 
 into sympathy for the Indian race of this continent, one of 
 its principal missions will be accomplished. 
 
 True, I have rejected much which might have been 
 written, for which, perhaps, many may think that fact de- 
 serves more praise than to be pardoned for that which has 
 been published. Be it as it may; I murmur not at the verdict 
 of the reader; nor make any appeal to posterity. I sought 
 not for human adulation, that ephemeral thing so difficult to 
 obtain and so worthless when obtained; therefore, if it 
 quickly dies, amenl as, in so doing, it will save trouble for 
 those who are inclined to injure from' any attempt to kill 
 that which will inevitably soon perish of its own self. 
 
 But let this be added, the subject matter of this narra- 
 tive was begun and ended with a full knowledge of the task 
 that lay before me; and so involved was it in uncertainty, 
 and so tinged with romance and fiction,, that had not the in- 
 terest of and justice to the North Aiperican Indians, de- 
 manded, at least, that an attempt should be made to shed a 
 ray of true light upon their history, I would not indeed have 
 
raSTORY OF THE INiyANS. 555 
 
 ventured to attempt to lift the veil arid bid a thoughtless 
 world look in again upon that mystic people, and thereby ex- 
 pose them once more to its idle and heartless gaze, chilled 
 with the frosts of incredulity. 
 
 I have endeavored to draw a true picture of the repre- 
 sentative type of southern Indians and their wrongs, as 
 found in the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Muscogee (kow 
 Creek) and Seminole, as they appeared in the four epochs of 
 their kttown history; from" the time of De Soto's invasion 
 into their territories; during the period of the establishment 
 of the French colonies among them; during the transition 
 period following the advent of the Protestant missionaries 
 to them, and their final banishment to the then inhospitable 
 and little known "Wild West," and as they appear, and are 
 to-day, as a civilized and Christian people. 
 
 Hoping my labors will not be viewed in a wrong light, 
 yet ready at all times to defend my position as the abiding 
 friend of the true native North American race, I here bid 
 the reader a kind adieu, as my narrative is finished; my man- 
 hood's years far behind, with life's declining sun lingering 
 upon its western sky; the years of the past hold the native 
 Americans' wrongs, and time will tell the rest in the years 
 to come. 
 
 Noble race! I honor you and I love you. We've been 
 friends together through the years of the Long Ago, enough 
 for us to know. We'll be so still in all our years to come; 
 nor time nor distance, though our paths of life diverge, 
 shall ever efface from our memory's, page those words 
 of truth. 
 
NORTH AMERICA'S MOUNDS AND MOUND 
 
 BUILDERS— THEIR ORIGIN 
 
 AND DESIGN. 
 
 What a sad record is the history of the human race 
 from the creation of Adam down along the long-.flig-ht of 
 ages to the closing scenes of this the 19th century! How 
 replete in strife and confusionl each nation seemingly in 
 turn, to entail upon itself the just retrHiutions of a merciful 
 God, whose long forbearance could no longer endure its de- 
 grading idolatry and presumptuous wickedness. Yet, who 
 can but admire with emotions of astonishment as he gazes 
 upon or reads of those ancient temples and mighty struc- 
 ures of human skill that stand as living mementos to the 
 present age, of pre-historic man, but whose purposes of 
 erection are, with him, forever buried amid the mists of 
 ages past. 
 
 The Sphinx and the great pyramid Cheops, with heads 
 towering high, still look down in mournful silence upon the 
 surrounding desolation as dumb historians of remote ages 
 past. While, equally sad and mournful are the still visible 
 wrecks of fallen cities, some having been lost to the world 
 for many hundred years after their destruction; all alike 
 have passed away, to be remembered but in tradition, fable 
 and song, leaving, here and there a few moss-covered walls 
 and towers crumbling in turn to dust, 'with their undeciph- 
 ered hieroglyphics — all as mementos of the desolating 
 povyer of long succeeding years, still frowning on the mys- 
 teries of a people who bequeathed to posterity only such 
 monuments as future testimonials of their history. 
 
 But respect for the dead and a just regard fo'r their dis- 
 position by burial have been distinctive characteristics in 
 man in all ages and countries of both the civilized and unciv- 
 ilized world. There are two classes of primitive tombs, 
 both of the highest antiquity, the tumulus or mound of earth 
 heaped over the dead and the subterranean or excavated; the 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 557 
 
 former is the most ancient form of sepulture and has been 
 the universal mode among- all primitive nations. But what 
 avs'akens sadder emotions than the contemplation of the cem- 
 etery of a nation or a racel Still as those cities of hoary an- 
 tiquity on the Eastern Continent, with all their great inheri- 
 tance of centuries past, their Pyramids, walls and other dif- 
 ferent and wonderful structures of architectural skill, have 
 ever been of the deepest interest to the modern student, so 
 too, the mounds, stone implements of every description, 
 hieroglyphics, pottery, etc., shreds and patches of succeed- 
 ing generations, present many things of interest, though 
 like the detached fragments of some beautiful mosaic, which 
 demand the skill of the expert to replace them, or like geolo- 
 gical strata, upheaved by a series of convulsions which with- 
 out some knowledge of their history, cannot be reduced to 
 order. In gazing upon these silent relics of the long past, 
 these charnel houses of departed ages, their still calm lulls 
 the soul to a melancholy, yet pleasing, repose, as the imagi- 
 native mind goes back and contemplates the various phases 
 in the stream of life which they have witnessed during the 
 slowly revolving centuries of their existence, and seem to 
 respond to the inquiry, "What of your record? — that long 
 panorama of history that has been enrolled before you by 
 passing ages is but a part of what lies before." 
 
 Behind the white race now in possession and far behind 
 the Indian, whom the whites have dispossessed, is that un- 
 . known people whose receding memory the archaeologist still 
 seeks to save, since it is the most convenient race to be 
 brought in for all the riddles, myths and mysteries of the 
 Continent in all future to come. Many of the mounds, 'tis* 
 true, are of such ancient date that they seem almost parts 
 of the original land surface; yet have a history which, if 
 only known, would far surpass all the fairy tales of -romance 
 and fiction that were ever written or imagined; standing in 
 their original strength disdainful of all assistance. 
 
 Each continent has memorials of its long lost and forgot- 
 ten races; and America's mounds, fortifications, pottery, 
 metal remains, all interest us in the question, who were 
 they? One responds "The Ten Tribes of Israel." An- 
 other shouts, "The Tartans." Each savant having a theory 
 of his own and, in attestation of its truth, unhesitatingly 
 sacrificing his bottle of ink at the shrine of his deity; but, 
 after all, they are still lost races; and though I have not be- 
 come a convert to the sundry theories accounting for their 
 origin and di&appearance, yet have only been enabled to sat- 
 isfactorily prove for myself, each in its turn, about as clearly 
 as our modern exegesists demonstrate the meaning of 
 
558 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 baptizo; for many and diversified are the opinions advanced 
 by those who have attempted to solve the mystery of their 
 orig-in, their builders and their purposes. And, thoug-h 
 time, which antiquates antiquities, has spared these minor 
 monuments; yet, who were proprietaries of these bones, or 
 what bodies those ashes made up, is a question above anti- 
 quarianism — not to be determined by man. But where is 
 the antidote against the power of time? Our fathers find 
 their graves in our short memories and sadly tell us how we 
 may be buried in our survivors. 
 
 By many theSe mounds, walls and fortifications, found in 
 various portions of the North American continent, are pro- 
 nounced as the work of an extinct race of the human family, 
 anterior to the occupancy of the country by the Indians — a 
 feeble remnant of whose descendants, through the plenti- 
 tude of our great mercy, are still with us; while others as 
 strenuously contend that they were constructed by the an- 
 cestors of our present Indians. The former, among whom 
 are many learned antiquaries, base their opinion upon the 
 belief that the Indiana, "being few in number and unskilled 
 in the arts, were wholly unable to have erected such works." 
 
 All, however, would perhaps concede that if the ancient 
 cities, pyramids of stone, rock walls, artificial lakes walled 
 in with immense pieces of stone, said to be lately discovered 
 in Mexico and various other portions of the North American 
 continent, and so published in the journals of the present 
 •day, were true, there are strong grounds upon which to 
 predicate a belief that a race of people prehistoric to the an- 
 cestors of our Indians' ancestry, once inhabited the Western 
 Continent and were the builders of these massive structures, 
 some of which excelling in grandeur the great pyramid of 
 Egypt — the mighty Cheops. 
 
 The following'published, in a Texas journal, of 1883, is 
 sufficient as one example. 
 
 A Recently Disco vjcred Lost City of Micxico. — 
 Ancient ruins have recently been discovered in Sonora, 
 which if reports are true, surpass anything of the kind ever 
 found on this continent. With equal truth the writer, 
 might have added, or on any other continent. "The ruins* 
 are said to be about four leagues' southeast of Magdalena. 
 There is one pyramid which has a base of 4350 feet and 
 rises to a height of 750 feet; there is a winding roadway 
 from the bottom leading up an easy grade to the top, wide 
 enough for carriages to pass over, which is said to be twen- 
 ty-three miles in length; the outer walls of the road-way are 
 laid in solid masonry from huge blocks- of granite in rubble, 
 and the circles are as uniform and the grade as regular as 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 559 
 
 could be made at this date by our best engineers. The wall 
 however, is only occasionally exposed, being- covered over 
 with debris and earth, and in many places various kinds of 
 indigenous plants and trees have grown up, giving the pyra- 
 mid the appearance of a mountain. To the east of the py- 
 ramid a short distance, is a small mountain about the same 
 size, and rises to about the same height; and, if reports are 
 true, will jjrove more interesting to the archaeologist than 
 the pyramid. 
 
 "There seems to be a heavy layer of a species of gypsum 
 about half way up the mountain, which is as white as snow, 
 and may be cut into any conceivable shape, but sufHciently 
 hard to retain its shape after being cut. In this layer of 
 stone a people of an unknown age have cut hundreds upon 
 hundreds of rooms, from five by ten to sixteen or eighteen 
 feet square. - ^ , 
 
 "These rooms are cut out of solid stone, and so even 
 and true are the walls, floor and ceiling, so plumb and level, 
 as to defy variation. There are no windows to the rooms, 
 and but one entrance, which is always from the top. The 
 rooms are but eight feet high from floor to ceiling.^ The 
 stone is so white that it seems almost transparent, and the 
 rooms are not at all dark. On the walls of the rooms are 
 numerous hieroglyphics and representations of human 
 forms, with feet and hands of human beings cut in the stone 
 in different places. But, strange to say, the hands all have 
 five fingers and one thumb, and the feet have six toes. 
 Charcoal is found on the floors of many of the rooms, which 
 would indicate that they built fires in their houses. 
 
 "Stone implements of every description are to be found 
 •in great numbers in and about the rooms. The houses or 
 rooms are one above the other, three or four stories high ; 
 but. between each story there is a jag or recess the full 
 width of the room below, so that they present the appear- 
 ance of large steps leading up the mountain." The writer 
 closes the account of this wonderful discovery with the fol- 
 lowing grave soliloquy: "Who these people were, and in 
 what age they lived, must be answered, if answered at all, 
 by the wise men of the east." To which all will respond a 
 hearty amen! 
 
 Another writer, with equal assurance of not bejng ac- 
 credited with too much love for truth, states through the 
 mediutn of the press to the credulous portion of the world, 
 that there is to-day a "Walled Lake" in Wi-ight County, 
 Iowa, 160 miles from Dubuque, evidently the work of man. 
 He thus writes: "Here is a prehistoric reservoir — an arti- 
 ficial lake — a body of water covering nearly 300 acres, with 
 
560 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 a wall built up all around it, not a stone in which can be less 
 than 100 pounds weight, and some as heavy as three tons, 
 and yet there is not a stone to be found within ten miles of 
 the lake. The wall is ten feet high. The country is prairie 
 land for miles around, except a heavy belt of timber that en- 
 circles the lake. This timber is oak, and it is plain that the 
 trees were planted. The water in the lake is twenty-five 
 feet deep." And the writer thus closes his story with the 
 healthy questions as follows: "Who built that wall? How 
 were those immense stones moved?" And last, though not 
 least, "And how did they keep the water back when building 
 the wall?" 
 
 But if such a "Sonora Pyramid" and "Iowa Lake" act- 
 ually exist to-day on this continent, as they seem to exist in 
 the prolific brains of these sensational writers, it could not 
 be reconciled with the theory of being the work of our In- 
 dians or of their ancestors ages ago. But. as an imaginative 
 pre-histdric race evidently built the two lately discovered 
 Wonders of pre-historic antiquity, it is evident it has contrib- 
 uted enough tp the history of the Western Continent for the 
 study of the antiquarian in that line; therefore, let the build- 
 ing of the other curious mounds scattered over the various 
 portions of the North American continent be ascribed to the 
 Indians, to whom it justly belongs, as there is ample evidence 
 that they were built at different ages of the world by differ- 
 ent tribes of the American Indians — not controlled by 
 science, but directed to a certain purpose then necessary. 
 Some of them were erected as symbols of some particular 
 virtue or deity taught by that religion for whose service they 
 were built and to whose mysteries they were consecrated. 
 Some, as memorials of great national events, as Nunih Wai- 
 yah of the ancient Choctaws and Chickasaws, erected in 
 commemoration of their arrival from the "Far West" (Mex- 
 ico) to the now State of Mississippi in the periods of the long 
 forgotten past. But there they once stood in their primitive 
 beauty like a marvelous, beautiful dream; the expression of 
 the religious faith" and hope of their builders, the North 
 American Indians of past years, and there they would have 
 remained, as far as human fore-sight could predict, until the 
 trumpet of the mighty arch angel should end their mission 
 or etheral fires restore their materials to their original ele- 
 ments, but for their destroyers whose imagination had filled 
 them with silver and gold. 
 
 But that the mounds found scat,tered over diflFerent 
 states were erected by the ancestors of the present Indian 
 people, some, ages before the advent of the White Race to 
 this continent, and others since, there is abundant evidence, 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 561 
 
 even to satisfy (if such a thing is within the range of a pos- 
 sibility) the infatuated lovers of the marvelous;, and that 
 they were thrown up by different tribes and for" different 
 purposes, some as cemeteries; some as sacrificial altars; 
 some as memorials of great events (as the famous Nunih 
 Wai3'ah); some as the honored places for the erection of the 
 houses of the chiefs; and some for signaling by fire from 
 their tops, (an ancient custom as well as modefn to some 
 extent) of carrying intelligence, successfully practiced by the 
 North American Indians. The Indians inhabiting ^ the 
 prairie regions of the "Far West" resorted principally to 
 smoke signals, in connection with fire signals on the top of 
 mounds; to give warning of danger to their scattered bands, 
 especially when on a raid in an enemy's country. The 
 signals were made to ascend in detached columns, or puffs, 
 by firing a dry bunch of grass and partially smothering it 
 with a blanket, shawl or other suitable article, until a consid- 
 erable quantity of smoke had accumulated thereunder, then 
 quickly slipping the shawl to one side, then back again at 
 short intervals, which caused the smoke to ascend in puffs 
 similar to that often seen ascending from the smoke-stack 
 of a locomotive. The warning signal never failed to be seen 
 by the ever watchful eyes of the Indian warrior, who was 
 ever on the alert, whether anticipating danger or not. As 
 soon as d few puffs of smoke had ascended,' the burning 
 grass was extinguished; then each one of the raiding party 
 from his point of the prairie acknowledged the warning by 
 doing the same; and though scattered mileis apart on the 
 broad prairie, each one was made aware of the impending 
 danger, and gave proper heed thereto by retreating at once 
 to a pre-arranged point of rendevouz 50 or 60 miles to 
 the rear. / 
 
 The mounds in the densely timbered reg'ions east of the 
 Mississippi river were mostly found to be erected on the 
 hills and bluffs of the river vallejrs, from which, as a centre, 
 they extended to other more distant joints. Upon these 
 mounds signal fires were made, which were fully understood 
 in all their significations by all Indians; and thus a commu- 
 nication was established between different parts of then- 
 country, and important information communicated to their 
 wide-extended towns and villages, since the light on a mound 
 thirty, forty and even sixty feet high, erected on the high 
 bluffs and points, some of which a hundred or more feet 
 high themselves, could be seen up and down the valley forty 
 miles distant. 
 
 Thus, from the highest mounds on those great bluffs, 
 which then looked out upon as fair an inland picture as it was 
 
562 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 possible to conceiy^!, those signal mounds of the pre^bistoric 
 North American Indians and their descendants, flashed their 
 fires in their great signal system extending all over their 
 country, fire answering fire atad wreathes of smoke speaking 
 to other wreathes of smoke, all conveying messages from 
 the lakes of the north to the gulf of the south. 
 
 Som« tribes erected them as sites ifor the houses of their 
 chiefs find families, 6{ which there is abundant proof; others 
 as cemeteries for, the bones of their dead, which is also sus- 
 tained by undoubted evidence, and others again as means of 
 defense, sustained by the best authority. Yeit there are 
 many who still endeavor to inculcate the belief that these 
 mounds and 'old fortifications scattered here and there over 
 the western continent, many of which are visible even to the 
 present time, were the work of a race of people who inhabi- 
 ted the continent long prior to the Indians; and who were 
 far advanced beyond them in civilization and were even 
 familiar, to some extent, with the arts and sciences, basing 
 their opinions upon the belief that the Indians, being "^'un- 
 skilled in any of the arts," arid also being "few in number, 
 were wholly unable" to erect such works. 
 
 But the so often repeated assertion that the North Amer- 
 ican Indians, when discovered by the "Europeans, were un- 
 skilled in any of the human arts, and also few in number, is 
 not sustained by the , writings of the early explorers of the 
 continent anywhere. All who are familiar with the writings 
 of the early discoverers and explorers, jcnow what a numer- 
 ous' population was found everywhere, from Maine to Cali- 
 fornia, and from the Carolinas to Oregon, and what ingenuity 
 was displayed by the natives everywhere in the building of 
 fortifications, temples, canoes and making bows and arrows. 
 And when we take into consideration that they were not ex- 
 clusively an agricultural people, and engaged in no pursuit 
 principally but that of war and the chase; they had more 
 time to engage in s^uch occupations as erecting mounds, for- 
 tifications, etc., than any other people oh the globe, especially 
 since time to them was a matter of no consideration what- 
 ever. The writers, who accompanied De Soto in his advent- 
 urous expedition (lS4o) from Florida to Arkansas, state that 
 the mounds were thrown up for the purpose of building on 
 their tops the houses of their chiefs, while his subjects 
 erected their houses around the base ; and they even describe 
 the manner in which the earth was carried to the place. 
 
 On the 18th of may 1838, a party of literary and scien- 
 tific gentlemen from Natchez, Mississippi, examined two 
 square mounds three and a half miles below the city, 
 between the blulT and tlic river, about a mile from tlic 
 
Sid^oiv ' ^ir -tttii' miiiANs. ' ' 563 
 
 'j-W.6r ahd'oriWi^hth bf;'a riiile' fi^orii' {Ht "tjluffi" 'rising- 
 frdrii II to, 16 fe^tafjove'tlre leVel li^jin '^vhJ,ch' 'they dre'tised. 
 The tWo mounds stood about iSOO feiet a^kt't/rafag-ing north 
 and south of each, 6ttiei% the largfer' being: 66 fei6t sqiiafe, and 
 16 feet hig-b, and tbe other 33'f^et'square aiid' 11' feet high. 
 An excavation was made'in the Iktter tte^r'th the 'bottom 
 and, as usual huttian bones and numterOusafld'vy,i;ibdi^'tJieces 
 of Indian pottery; aiid trinkets \<^ere fi)und' at 'different 
 depths; as both structures were' similar, iio eifcaWtioii was ' 
 made in the larger otie.''"Oii, the '^Oth '6f'Miy,'l83$i a party 
 of 25 men from , Natchez vifeited a'lai-ge,'iiJ6!ind'istariding 
 about 10 miles'ekst of thit city;' .On'apt)rdachiiig- the! iktiund 
 
 .from the west, stated tfie writer, ' it pr^seh.ts the'appeiii-aiice 
 of along-, straight battery of 'earth, -willi ' A .sloping, regular 
 
 'front and platforni at the 'top, "with' a few moderate ' ele- 
 vations or towers 'iipon'the't4rrace,''the" wholfe' being. Over- 
 looked by an abrupt tower at the easterh' ,eiid tdiiyards 
 Natchez; which rises nearly ashigh' above the terrafcfe' Or 
 platform as that does above the circumjacent'plain. " In ap- 
 proaching the niound on the ,'soilthex-n side, it pi'esents a 
 most imposing and martial charactei-, atid the traces ,of,,de- 
 sign are so apparent that the Observer' cahbot but ascribe it 
 to the' work of marii and .involuntarily feels that so ' etior- 
 motis a pile must have beeii the creation of heads that 
 planned, alid hands that labored through long periods of 
 tirne. Its magnitude howCyer did' liot impi-ess the beholder 
 at first -with , its full proportions; but after ascending its 
 ^teep face to the broad terrace,' ' vifhic.h is itself ' thebase of 
 the 'great western tower and 'til^o of four "other bmaller 
 ones, and glancing at the general outline of thfe foundation 
 mound, , which has the appearance of '&. parallel6g'4faira, with 
 a regulai- southern ^ide and ain irregular front oh th'^,' north, 
 then walking ovei* the terrace which includes an 'ai-ed 'of 
 nearly five acres, and lookiiiy- up at the western tower," it- 
 self a parallelogram (perhaps once a perfect ' biie) of 80 or 
 mox'e feet in length and SO in breadth, the mind, fully com- 
 prehends the vastness of the' structure, and' allows due 
 
 ' honor to the pire-historic aticestors of the North American 
 Indian race, who have left behind them such a mysterious 
 hieroglyphic of power, speaking a language of grandeur, 
 yet without a relic of a single vvord that we may translate 
 into the elements of history. The height, of the great ter- 
 race, from its base, was, in 1838, 45 feet by measurement, 
 and of the great tower above the terrace, 38 feet, making 
 83 feet in all above the plain. , "'''\ 
 
 The human skeletons, from the great length of time 
 they had been immured, prevented the examining party from 
 
564 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 obtaining' but few perfect specimens of craniology. At the 
 depth of about two feet from the surface they found the 
 skeleton of a full sized man from which, no doubt, much 
 earth must have washed away during the long vears that had 
 passed since there entombed. The skull was mdisputably a 
 compressed one of a Flat Head Indian, or one whose head in 
 infancy had undergone the compressing- process, a custom, 
 it is said by the early writers, practiced by the ancient an- 
 cestors of the present Choctaws, 
 
 The sides of the larger mounds are nearly wholly en- 
 cased about one foot beneath the surface of the earth with a 
 kind of rubbish resembling slack baked bricks, regardless 
 of regularity of form, as if laid upon the original steep faces 
 of the mound to prevent the washing away of the soil. 
 This rude roofing, formed of a clay base, mixed with hair or 
 moss, like modern mortar, may once have been continuous, 
 or it may not have been otherwise than it was when discov- 
 ered; in either case it was a sufficient security against the 
 action of rain water. The soil above the rubbish was filled 
 with fragments of pottery, pieces of human and animal 
 bones, charcoal and the debris of the top of the mound and 
 of the smaller towers which seem to have been almost en- 
 tirely washed away. The pottery four^d was made of differ- 
 ent colors; some pieces were brick colored; others slate color- 
 ed; others white. The pieces were large enough to show the 
 shape and curve of the circumference of the vessels of 
 which the pieces were a part. Some of the pieces proved 
 the original to have been of beautiful structure. 
 
 In visiting the "Castine Mounds," near the Cahokia 
 creek, in Illinois, a writer says: "After a drive of an hour 
 and a half the second group of eminences, known as the 
 Castine Mounds, appeared upon the prairie at a distance of 
 three or four miles; the celebrated Monk Hill, the largest 
 monument of the kind yet discovered in North America, 
 heaving up its giant form, forest clothed from in the midst; 
 as it is first beheld, surrounded by the lesser heaps, it is 
 mistaken by the traveler for an elevation of natural origin; 
 as he draws nigh, and at length stands at the base, its stu- 
 pendous magnitude, its lofty summit, towering above his 
 head and throwing its broad shadow far across the meadow; 
 its slopes plowed with yawning ravines by the torrents of 
 centuries, descending to the plane ; its surface and declivi- 
 ties perforated by the habitations of burrowing animals, and 
 carpeted with tangled thickets; the vast size of the aged 
 oaks rearing themselves from its soil, all confirm his impres- 
 sion that no hand but that of the mightiest could have reared 
 the enormous mass. At that moment, should he be assured 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 565 
 
 that his vast earth-heap was of origin demonstrably artifi- 
 cial, he would smile, but credulity the most sanguine would 
 fail to credit the assertion. But when, with jealous eye, 
 slowly and cautiously, and with measured footsteps he has 
 ciccled its base; when he has surveyed its slopes and decliv- 
 ities from every position, and has remarked the peculiar 
 uniformity of its structure, and the mathematical exactitude 
 of its outline; when he has ascended to its summit, and 
 looked around upon the piles of a similar character by which 
 it is surrounded ; when he has taken into consideration its 
 situation upon a river bottom of a nature decidedly diluvial, 
 and, of consequence, utterly incompatible with the natural 
 origin of such elevations; when he has examined the soil of 
 which it is composed, and has discovered 'it to be uniformly, 
 throughout the entire mass, of the same mellow and friable 
 species as that of the praiifies at its base ; and when he has 
 listened with scrutiny to the facts which, on examination of 
 its depths, has thrown to light of its nature and its contents, 
 he is compelled, however reluctantly, yet without a doubt, to 
 declare that the gigantic pile is incontestibly the workman- 
 ship of man's hand." But when, by what race of mankind, 
 and for what purpose? What changes they have undergone, 
 what vicissitudes and resolutions, like massive waves, have 
 rolled at their base during the centuries that have come and 
 gone, who can conjecture? As the gloomy s^nd silent pyra- 
 mids of Egypt, for ages unnumbered, have looked down 
 upon generation after generation as they came and went, 
 and whose existence remains a mystery, so too do the 
 mounds of North America pointour inquiry back beyond 
 the grasp of human thought into the shades and mists of 
 centuries past, and bid us seek their origin and history 
 there. But their design was evidently for various purposes 
 some as cemeteries, some as fortifications, some as watch- 
 towers or vedettes, for religious ceremonies and memorials. 
 The largest of the Castine group of about fifty is Monk 
 Mound, whose base is said to be nearly six hundred yards 
 in circumference and in height nearly a hundred feet. Its 
 form is that of a rectangle, lying north and south; and upon 
 the latter extremity, which commands the view doWn the 
 bottom, is spread out a broad terrace, or rather a steppe to 
 the main body, about twenty feet lower than the summit, ex- 
 tending the whole length 'of the side and is said to be one 
 hundred and fifty feet in breadth. At the left extremity of 
 this terrace winds up the sloping pathway from the prairie 
 to the summit of the mound, A well, it is also stated, has 
 been sunk on the western side of the mound (Mound Monk) 
 to the depth of ninety feet which penetrates the heart of the 
 
566 , HISTORY OF THE JNDIANS. ,, 
 
 mcjund, but cannot,, r^acji, froip its depth,, |lo\yer than, the 
 leyelpf the surrpupding pj^in. ,,,And it|is,stated, when it \vas 
 excavated, fragmeiits of , pottery, decayed ears of corn and 
 various, other articles yyere brought .iipfrpm a depth of sixty 
 five.lfeet; surely a, conclusive proof, .'jf trjie, , that i\ is, of ar- 
 tificial structure. The mound fs supposed toliave talien its 
 name from a society of ecclesiastics of, the La 'l^rapjpe order 
 whp dvi^elt there for njaii'y year^ in the e^irly part of the pre- 
 sept;century. , ',, , ;.,.,', ■,,, ,:\ , .,■.■ i, ' . 
 
 Garcellasso rfe la Vega, says, if^ laying off the ground for 
 a tdwni the first thing ^hat the Indians did, was the erection 
 of a mound, upon fhe top of which, the , houses of the chief 
 and his faniilyai;4, attendants were built; and at the base a 
 large square was laid off, around whjcb the principal war- 
 riors built their .houses, while, ^be coihmop people placed 
 theirs on the opposite side of the mpiind from • the square. 
 
 !A.11 the early explorers repe^itedly state that they saw 
 the inoun4s in allpa^t^ of the country thj-ough which they 
 passed. Here then vve learn qf Mpynd Builders (Indians) 
 nearly three arid a .ialf centuries , ago. They were also 
 thrownup as a means of defepsi^. ^hen the French under 
 Bienville defeated the Natchez Indians in 1730, and drove 
 them from their country, where the city of Natchez, Mis- 
 sissippi, now stands, and for vvhpm the city was named, 
 they established themselves upon the Lower Washita, 
 Louisiana. Two years after they were again attacked and 
 defeated by the Frer^ch, yet they had in those two years 
 constructed mounts and embankments covering an area of 
 400 acres, which they used as means of defense against the 
 French in thejr second attack upon them. This is attested 
 by several authors, some of whom were eye witnesses. 
 This was done neai-ly 200 years after De S)to's invasion. 
 Some of these mounds were, very large, and were still to be 
 seen 40 years ago; and no doubt still stand as monuments 
 of the thrilling scenes which once were enacted there, dur- 
 ing which a once proud, prosperous, and happy people were 
 blotted out as a nation, Truly what sad emotions must 
 awaken in the heart of the Chris,ti?in when he contemplates 
 and ponders upon such dramas acted in:nature's vast theatrel 
 Who can mistake them? Verily, life is a storm, and war 
 and bloodshed are its gloomy clouds. 
 
 McCuUoh, in his "Researches," p. 516, says, when 
 speaking of the larger mounds: "They were sites for the 
 dwellings of the chiefs, for council houses, temples and cem- 
 eteries, which fancy and conceit have! constructed into va- 
 rious shapes and variously situated, one to the other." All 
 know, who have any knowledge of the early history of the 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 567 
 
 western continent, that these mounds and fortific-itions have 
 been found scattered all over the continent, and whenever 
 or wherever a mound has been excavated, human bohes, 
 together with vai-ious ornaments, wampum, pottery, arrow 
 heads, all of rude manufacture, have been found, tlearly 
 indicating' their Indian origin. On' the land of Judge Mes- 
 sier, 21 miles from Fort Gaines, Ala., were, years ago, a 
 very remarkable group of mounds. The largest was 70 feet 
 in height artd 600 in circumference, and Was covered with 
 large forest trees, estimated to be, froin appearance, from 
 400 to 500 years old. A shaft has been sutik in the centre 
 to the depth of 60 feet, and at its lower portion a bed of hu- 
 man bones, five feet in thickness, and in a perfectly decom- 
 posed state, was discovered. Two in this group of mounds 
 are thirty feet in height,' having hea.rth-st6nes on the top 
 similar to the largest, with charred wood iaround them, evi- 
 dently showing that they were used fof sacrificial purposes. 
 A wall of earth encloses the three largest^ outside of which 
 are four, twenty feet high (Pickett, Vol; 1, p. 168^ 
 
 The Choctaws, who lived in large villages before their 
 exodus from Mississippi to the west^ first placed their dead 
 upon scaffolds, near the villages; and those living in the 
 country near their homes, where they were carefully 
 guarded from the beasts and birds of prey; until decomposi- 
 tion had thoroughly accomplished its work. Afterwards on 
 a previously appointed day, the remaining flesh was picked 
 from the bones by officials called Bone-Pickers many of 
 whom I have seen in the days of my bdyhood. When their 
 duty had been performed, the bones were deposited in a box 
 and carried away and placed in the common bone-house, and 
 there sacredly kept until the appointed day rolled around 
 for a general bone-burying; which was once a year. Then 
 all from neighboring villages and country brought, in 
 solemn and imposing ceremony, the boxes containing the 
 bones of their dead to the place of interment where they 
 were laid away in one common grave, into which were cast 
 as memorial tokens various articles, such as earthen pots, 
 bows and arrows, tomahawks, ornaments, etc.; all of which 
 were first covered with ashes and charred coals, then filled 
 up with earth; then over all was erected a mound. The 
 same cemetery or mound was used as a place of deposit for 
 the bones of their dead for a long series of years, until it be- 
 came in size and height inconvenient, and then another spot 
 was chosen, upon which, in like manner, another mound 
 gradually arose. That the custom of the ancient ChoCtaws 
 in disposing of their dead was also practiced by many of the 
 North American Indians, is evident from the fact that, in 
 
S68 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 digging: into these mounds, wherever found, after passing 
 through a stratum of earth about two feet in thickness a bed 
 of ashes and charcoal is first met, then a bed of human 
 bones together with fragments of pottery, arrow heads, and 
 Indian ornaments; then follows another stratum of earth, 
 which is succeeded by a stratum of asbes and charcoal, then 
 of human bones, pottery, ornaments and arrow points, thus 
 on to the bottom. It is a conceded fact that, in nearly every 
 mound that has been excavated, there have been found 
 human bones, with more or less of various articles such as 
 broken pottery vessels, implements of stone and copper; 
 flint heads of spears and arrows; figures of various birds 
 and reptiles, shells and teeth of carnivorous animals; orna- 
 ments of silver, tin, copper and beads. 
 
 I read the following in the American Antiquarian over 
 the signature of H. F. Buckner: 
 
 "Mr. Maxwell, in a historical address, says: 'My con- 
 viction is that the high grade of military skill displayed by 
 the Mound Builders at Carthage, Alabama, attests a' know- 
 ledge of the necessities of attack and defense unknown to 
 the mode of warfare practised by the tribes found here by 
 DeSoto.'" 
 
 Mr. Maxwell does not state in what respect the high 
 grade of military engineering skill displayed by the Mound 
 Builders at Carthage, Alabama, attests a knowledge of the 
 necessities of attack and defense unknown to the mode of 
 warfare practiced by the tribes found here by De Soto. 
 However, I will here state that the old Shakchih Humma 
 fort, within the enclosure of which was established the mis- 
 sionary station among the Choctaws, called Hebron, of, which 
 I have already spoken, and where I spent many years of my 
 life, displayed as "high grade of military engineering skill" 
 and attested a "knowledge of the necessities of attack and 
 defense" equal to our high grade of military engineering 
 skill displayed in the military forts erected throughout the 
 present Indian Territory, of which I have had an occular 
 demonstration. 
 
 "Who the Mound Builders were it is impossible to de- 
 termine," continues Mr. Maxwell. "They were not built by 
 the ancestors of the tribes found here by DeSoto, as they 
 pretended no knowledge of their construction, traditional or 
 otherwise." 
 
 Truly, a poor basis upon which to predicate the above 
 broad assertion; since De Soto's expedition was made alone 
 for the purpose of finding gold, while to learn the history of 
 the Indians, whom he regarded as a species of the human 
 race scarcely above the brute creation, was not in all his 
 
/ 
 
 HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. * 569 
 
 thoughts; nor did the Indians, unasked, ever mention the 
 subject of their history to the white man— never. 
 
 "The only tradition they had or have is, that their fore- 
 fathers found the mounds when they emigrated from the 
 Mexican Empire to the east of the Mississippi river, exter- 
 minated the ancient inhabitants and appropriated the coun- 
 try, so that we are compelled to go back to remote ages for 
 the only reasonable solution." 
 
 The above is an egregious error, as far as the Choctaws 
 dnd Chickasaws are concerned, for their traditions were 
 utterly silent in regard to the mounds, except that of Nunih 
 Waiyah (of which I have already spoken), which is one among 
 the largest, if not the largest, ever found in the now state of 
 Mississippi. 
 
 Is it not greatly inconsistent and unreasonable for Mr. 
 Maxwell to boldly assert, "My conviction is that the high 
 grade of military engineering skill displayed by the Mound 
 Builders at Carthage, Alabama, attests a knowledge of the 
 necessities of attack and defense unknown to the mode of 
 warfare practiced by the tribes found here by De Soto," and 
 then at once assert that the Indians, ignorant of all know- 
 ledge "of the necessities of attack and defense," could ex- 
 terminate the ancient inhabitants (Moi^nd Builders) and ap- 
 propriate the country to their own use? 
 
 Buckner, quoting from Maxvfrell's address, continues: 
 
 "Prcscott says (vol. 2, pp 368 and 391) that the ancient 
 Aztecs, long before the days of Montezuma, had a tradition 
 that when they entered the "Mexican valley they found simi- 
 lar mounds containing just the same kind of materials as I 
 found in those at Carthage, Alabama, and that two of the 
 largest had been dedicated to the worship of the sun and 
 moon (another proof that they were built by the ancestors 
 of our Indians, among whom the Natchez Indians were wor- 
 shippers of the sun even after they had settled upon the 
 banks of the Mississippi river), and that two of the largest 
 were dedicated to the worship of the stars, and served as 
 sepulchers for the great men of the Nation besides." 
 
 Exactly. They served as sepulchers for the great men 
 of the Nation, for which the ancient Natchez of Mississippi 
 erected the mounds, as wefll as other North American tribes. 
 "That the plane on which they stood was called Micoati, or 
 The Path of the Dead." Another proof that they were the 
 ancestors of the North American Indians, for the word Mi- 
 coati is a corruption of the Choctaw words. Miko, king or 
 chief, and aiantah, to occupy; i. e., occupied by the king or 
 chief; and "Now, when the laborer turns up the ground, he 
 still finds numerous arrow-heads and blades of obsidian." 
 
570 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 ■ i . . t. . I ■ I . ' ( . 
 
 The same things that^are found in alHhe mounds scattered 
 over the North American continent, with' the' exception of 
 obsidian, as thiere wfire no volcanoes east of the Mississippi 
 river, "which attest the war-like charactei* of its primitive 
 population." -Still additippal proof thaf they were the ances- 
 tors of the North American Indians. 
 
 Continuing, Mr. Buckner says: "I prefer to leave it still 
 open for investigation until greater pains shall have been 
 taken to explore the archaeological wonders of this country." 
 And which no discovery will ever prove the mound builders 
 to be others than the ancestors of the North American In- 
 dians, , 
 
 "Of one thing we are sure, the Choctawfe loved the bones 
 of their ancestors and of their people. This unlocks the 
 mystery of their funeral rites. They believed in immortal- 
 ity and eternal life; and such was their veneration for their 
 dead that they picked the flesh from their bones. Knowing 
 that they could not carry all their remains, and when forced 
 to remove from one place to another, it was the business of 
 certain appointed persons to carry these bones with them 
 until they could be again deposited in a place of rest and 
 safety." 
 
 The last clause above is but one of the thousand errors 
 published about the Indians, The ancient Choctaws, it is 
 true, did pick the bones of their dead, after having been 
 placed upon a high scaffold and decomposition had com- 
 pleted its work, but never for the purpose Mr. Buckner has 
 above stated. ,After the bone-pickers (appointed for that 
 business) had picked all the flesh from the bones which de- 
 composition had not wholly destroyed, the bones were taken 
 down and placed in a box, then the box was carried to the 
 bone-house, and therein placed; and wh6n the bone-house be- 
 came full of boxes all were taken to the cemetery-mound 
 and placed thereon and covered with earth to the depth of 
 about three feet. When this custom was abolished, the 
 Choctaws adopted the mode of burial in a sitting posture; 
 then this mode was abolished and that of the whites adopted 
 which is continued to this day. The Choctaws, as all North 
 American Indians of whom I ever read, or with whom I 
 was personally acquainted, never carried the bones of their 
 dead from one place to another, but buried them, and woe 
 to him who desecrated the mound cemetery by digging into 
 it, or in any way disturbed its sacred "contents. But to re- 
 turn from my 4igression. 
 
 Bartram, in his "Travels," page 5*16, positively asserts 
 that the Choctaws, when the bone-houses were full, took the 
 bones and buried them in a common grave and erected a 
 
HISTORY OF THE, INDIANS. ,, 57,1- 
 
 motind overlhem. And it is ev^d,en,t t.hp.t,^^Jj^e bone-houses of. , 
 the ancient Chocta,ws, when', fir,st;, Jtijiown ;'^o ithe. .!EIu.ropeans.',' , 
 were but triiniature temples <3f their ancestors jyhq.prjeqed^^ ', 
 thetn centuri'es.before.; , Bai-tram alsp discoveired many petu-. [ 
 liar .mounds in. East, , Florida, during his , .early.'fekplorations ' 
 thrpugh'the now southern' states. Some We^-.^'scji^are; sur-,' 
 rounded,,1?y, \yallsof earth,, and, others were | pyramidal of ■ 
 great hejight. "From tl^e riv^r St. John, soutii,wa,l-dly to' the' 
 point. of. the peninsula of Florida," he states,, "aire to be 
 seen high pyramidal mounds, with', spacio.us,', an^ ex|;ended,, , 
 avenues.ieadinjg from therp,put of' the,,town;,t6 |an artificials^ 
 lake or pond of water." In afapther plac^.iie says: V'Atj' 
 about 50 yards distance from ihe, .landing plaicje, stands a H^ag-^ 
 nificeiat, Indian mound.. But wh?^t gi-eauy cohtribut'edtdthe- ,, 
 beauty.pf the scene was la.npble Iiidian highway, \yhich led | ■ 
 from the great mound in a straight lipe.thirie^-fpurths of,a ., 
 mile, through a forest of live oaks to ! the verge. of ,ani oblpng] , 
 artifi.ctai lake, which was, on, the edge of'an pxtensiye .level 
 savannah. This grand highway /was abpi^t, fifty yards wide,, 
 sunk a little below the, common leyel, and the earth thrown. , 
 on each side, making a. hank about two feet high." . ' ; ,, . . 
 
 Charlevoix and Tantiboth spe^k of Indians wlip mhabi-; , 
 ted the region of country around Lake Michigan, who were 
 well skilled in the art of erecting mounds and fortifications. 
 Charlevoix also states that the jWyandots and tlie Six Nations, 
 disinterred their dead and took the bones firom their graves 
 where they had lain for several years and carried them to a 
 large pit previously prepared, in which they deposited them, 
 with the property of the deceased, filling up the pit with 
 earth and erected a mound over it. 
 
 A string of sleigh-bells much corroded, but still capable; 
 of tinkling, is said to have been found among the flint, and 
 bone implements in excavating a mound in Tennessee; while . 
 in Mississippi, at a poiiit where De Soto is supposed to have 
 camped, a Spanish coat-of-arms in silver, one blade of a pair 
 of scissors, and other articles of European manufacture, 
 were found in a mound—evidently which had been picked up 
 by some Indian after the Spaniards had ;gone,; and buried 
 with him at his death as being among, his treasur;ed posses-, 
 sions while living. '. . , 
 
 Two copper plates were found in a Georgia mound, 
 upon whlich were stamped figures resembling the_sculptures., 
 upon the Central American ruins, tlie workmanship of which 
 is said to be far superipr to; that displayed in the articles of 
 pottery, stone and boiie found in the mound; though, aside ^ 
 from these plates , nothing. was found , to indicate a.cpnnec- 
 tion between the mound builiders and the A^tjecs or the Pue- / 
 
572 ' HISTORY OF THK INDIANS. 
 
 bios. Still their orig'in is not inexplicable; since it is reason- 
 able to conclude that communications between the inhabi- 
 tants of Central America, Mexico and the North American 
 Indians, were possible and even actually existed. But ad- 
 mitting this impossible, yet, it is not unreasonable to sup- 
 pose that the two copper plates may have found their way 
 from Central America to Me-xico; thence to Spain through 
 some one of Cortez's army; thence to Georgia by some one 
 in the army of De Soto only twenty years after. And, as 
 the string of sleigh-bells, Spanish cOat-Of-arms and scissors 
 were obtained by the Indians from De Soto's army so too did" 
 ■the Spaniards obtain the copper plates from the Aztecs; and 
 North American Indians, in turn, from the Spaniards, more 
 reasonable and easier to reconcile with truth, than to be- 
 lieve that the two copper plates, found in the Georgia mound, 
 were the workmanship of a race of people ages prior to 
 the ancestry of the North American Indians. And though 
 several human skulls have been found in North America, 
 which upon examination, have led to the belief that they be- 
 longed to the human race living before the glacial period, 
 yet that is not sufficient to overturn the reasonable belief 
 that the races' of that ancient epoch are those of to-day, the 
 same cranial and facial forms being found, in spite of the 
 lapse of years and change of environment. Besides in re- 
 gard to the copper plates found in a mound in Georgia, it is 
 an established fact that the Indians were acquainted with 
 copper three centuries ago. Hudson in exploring the 
 north in 1609, found the Indians using copper pipes and 
 ■wearing ornaments of the same metal. He states: "They 
 had red copper tobacco pipes, and other things of copper 
 ■they did wear about their necks." De Soto also found that 
 the Southern Indians used copper as well as stone axes, of 
 which I have seen many in Mississippi. 
 
 It is an admitted fact that the ancient fortifications of the 
 Southern Indians corresponded exactly with those of the 
 Northern; and it has also been conclusively shown, by care- 
 ful examination and comparison, that the skulls of the so- 
 called "Mound Builders" and the ancient people of Mexico, 
 also the Incas of Peru, together with the Southern 
 Indians of this continent, are so similar that the conclusion 
 is irresistible that they are of the same race of people. 
 Thomas, in his writings upon this subject, affirms: "This 
 proof is conclusive that the Southern Indians, when first 
 visited by the Europeans, were the builders of the mounds 
 of that region, which brings those works down to a date sub- 
 sequent to the entry of the civilized tribes of Mexico," 
 Now, it is certain, according to the statement of the early 
 
mSTORY OF THE INDIANS. 573 
 
 missionaries sent among them, that all the tribes of the Gulf 
 States, as well as many others of different localities upon 
 the continent, if not all, had traditions of western, north- 
 western and southwestern origin. Many of which I have 
 learned from the lips of the Indians themselves. 
 
 I will here insert the names of a few of the mounds 
 found in various localities upon the North American conti- 
 nent: 
 
 Eagle Effigy, mound discovered in Georgia and measuring 
 from tip to tip of the wings, 132 feet; is made of stones and 
 surrounded by a circle composed also of stone. 
 
 The Great Serpent mound, discovered in Adams county, 
 Ohio. Another effigy mound, and erected on a hill formed 
 by the junction of a ravine, with the main branch of a creek 
 known as Brush creek, which rises ISO feet above the creek. 
 The hill is said to be in a wild region of country, and affords 
 an extensive view, The form of this mound is said to be 
 irregular, crescent shaped, and points to the northwest; thus 
 pointing, seemingly, to the direction whence its builders 
 came to the continent, while being erected as a memorial of 
 that event. The traditions of all the tribes with whom I 
 am personally acquainted, and of all of whom I have 
 read, point to the northwest as the direction of the 
 country whence they came to this. The entire length, ac- 
 cording to MacLion's measurement of the serpent part, is 
 116 feet, and the space of the extended jaws, 100 feet; the 
 oval figure, 113 feet long and 50 feet wide; the head portion 
 is 55 feet. Mr. Squier affirms that the length, if extended, 
 would reach 1000 feet, while Prof. Putnam, of Harvard, says 
 it would reach to the distance of 1415 feet. 
 
 The Cahokia Mound, standing near St. Louis, is said to 
 be the largest artificial mound upon the continent. It is 700 
 feet long by 500 feet wide at the bas6, and 90 feet high, cov-- 
 ering 8 acres of land, with ^bout 20,000,000 cubic feet of con- 
 tents — so it has been declared. 
 
 Many effigy mounds have been found in Wisconsin. 
 Some are over 150 feet long and about 15 feet in width, and 
 varying from 1 to 4 feet high. 
 
 Besides the effigy mounds there are Memorial Mounds, 
 Cemetery Mounds, Signal Mounds, Mounds erected for the 
 houses of chiefs, etc., scattered over the various Southern 
 States. 
 
 But who has ever found the line between the so-called 
 Mound Builders and the North American Indians? No one. 
 Nor will it ever be found. The Indians not only erected 
 mounds for various specific purposes, l^ut fortified their vil- 
 
S74 fflSTORy Ap TliE INlilANS. 
 
 la^es with walls, and ditches filled with Abater; also with rows 
 of palisades interwoven with branches of trees. 
 ' ' At Tampa Bay, where De Soto is said to have landed in 
 his wild Search for gold, his chroniclers state "That the 
 house of the chief was erected near the shore on a very high 
 mound made, by hand." 
 
 And GarSillasso says: "The town and the house of the 
 Cazique (chief) Ossachile" (Choctaw words corrupted from 
 Ossi, eagfle, chahlih, swift) are like those of the other 
 caziq'ues." 
 
 Biedmari says; "The caziques of this' counti'v, (sup- 
 posed to be how Arkansas) make a custom of raising, near 
 their dwellings, very high hills, on which they sometimes 
 build their huts. • 
 
 La Harpe, in visiting the Indians on the lower Missis- 
 sippi in 1820, says: "They are dispersed oVer the country 
 upon mounds of earth made with their own hands." 
 
 The Natchez, who were exterminated by the French in 
 1739, were also Mound Builders. DuPratz, who had lived 
 among them in 1718, says of their customs, "Their tem- 
 ple was about 30 feet square, and erected on a mound 8 
 feet high; that the house of the chief was built on a mound 
 of the same height arid sixty feet over the surface. (Father 
 Le Petit, Note, page 142,) 
 
 ■ Charlevoix, "a Jesuit priest, describes the mounds 
 
 erected to a considerable' extent in his writings, he says: 
 
 "When a chief died, the mound upon which his house was 
 
 erected, was abandoned, and a new one thrown up for his 
 
 successor." 
 
 Colden says of the Iroquois, "They make a round hole 
 in which the body is placed, then they raise the earth in a 
 round hill over it." ' 
 
 It was the custom of the ancient Choctaws to gather the 
 bones of all who had died during several years, which had 
 been saf^lyj kept in their bone-houses in boxes, bury them all 
 together in' a common grave and then erect a mound over 
 thenl^ It is also stated that the ancient Iroquois, at the ex- 
 piration of every eight or ten years, gathered together the 
 bones of their dead and erected a mound over them. 
 
 Catlin, in his North American Indians (p. 95), states that 
 when he visited the pipe-stone quarry in Dakota, in 1832, he 
 saw a conical mound 10 feet high which had been erected 
 over the buried body of a young man who was accidentally 
 killed two years before. 
 
 Jefferson, in his "Notes on Virginia". (p. 191), in refer- 
 ence to the mounds, says : "A party of Indians passing 
 about 30 years ago through the p:irt of the country wlu-ic 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 575 
 
 ihis mound is, went through th^ woods directiy, to, (t without 
 , any instruction or inquiry; and haying -stfiid about .It some- 
 time) with expressions of , grief, .'ttieY returned, to tKe hig^h 
 road, which they had left ;?ibout a halt dozen miles,tp pay! the 
 visit, and pursued their journey.",,, 1*.hey, had. titit, visited 
 ihegraveof their loved ones for the iast,time.|(|. (/ 
 
 The types of the human skulls taken from tliose ancient 
 mounds said to have been erepted by a pre-historicjt:^ce,,9.nd 
 now. called "Mound Builders"— -a race i, claimed io be far /su- 
 perior to, our Indians — are , chai-actei;istic, . not onl^, of jthe 
 ancient Mexicans, Peruvians and other,, anciei^it tribes of 
 South America, but also of the ancient Natchez, Muspogees, 
 Choctaws, Cl^ickasaws, Cherokees, Seminoles, Yamases,,and 
 others of th^ North American continent. And it, is aeon- 
 ceded fact that all Indians ever found in North aI^d South 
 America possess many common features. I have seen, the 
 native Indians of Mexico, Arizona and California, and recog- 
 nized them at otice to be of the TSTorth Api.erican Indian race. 
 I have seen them singly. and in groups; given special atten- 
 tion to their features, the expression of their eyes,, their 
 walk and manner of sitting, their . manner of carrying tlieir 
 babes and heavy burdens, and found them all to be exactly 
 the same as the southern Indians over seventy years ago., 
 
 The Indians of North America, as well as those of South 
 America, when first known to the whites down to the years 
 they were banished to the then wilderness west of the.iVIis- 
 sissippi river, lived everywhere in villages and towns upon 
 the sites of which stand today many of oiir, towns and, pities: 
 Natchez, Mobile, New York and others. Carter, in 1535, 
 visited an Indian village named Ho-che-la-ga; De Soto, 1540, 
 and all the early explorers, La SaUe and, others down to 
 Lewis and Clark, in 1804; thence to the missionaries, in 
 1815; and thence to their banishment west of the Mississippi 
 river, found- thie Indians everywhere living in tovvns and, vil- 
 lages, proving the, long reiterated assertion that they were 
 nomadic, to be without even the shadow of truth upon which 
 to lay a foundation. They had fixed habitations, even as the 
 whites, who move from place to place ten times as often as 
 the Indian. 
 
 All their ancient villages and towns were fortified. 
 Charlevoix, in his "Travels in North America, says: "The 
 Indian villages in Canada were surrounded with double, 
 and sometimes triple, rows of palisades, interwoven with 
 branches of trees. The Pequod villages, destroyed by 
 the English, in 1631, were surrounded by palisades. 
 
 Champlain, who, in 1615, invaded, with thje Hurons as 
 allies, the territory of the Iroquois, found their villages 
 
576 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 strongly fortified. Biedman says: "We .journeyed two 
 days, and reached an Indian village in a plain, surrounded 
 by walls and a ditch filled hy water, which had been made 
 by the Indians." Brackenridge, in his "Views of Louisi- 
 ana," says: "The custom of palisading appears to have 
 been general among fche Northern Tribes." 
 
 "Mavilla" (now Mobile, Alabama,) says Biedman, "stood 
 on a plane surrounded by strong walls." The earlj' explor- 
 ers found it the same in Mexico, Central and South America. 
 Yet, regardless of all the indisputable proofs to the contrary, 
 the works of the Indians have been ascribed to another, and 
 entirely different race of people called "Mound Builders," 
 though their imagined works are exactly similar to those 
 known to be the work of the Indians, a common design per- 
 vading the whole everywhere with the same stone implements, 
 axes, flint pointed arrowheads etc., also=the same kind of per- 
 sonal ornaments, silver, tin, copper, etc., all proving that 
 they are, and can be no other, than the works of our Indians' 
 ancestors, if testimony is any longer valid. Well and truth- 
 fully has Brackenridge said in his "Views of Louisiana" 
 (p. 182), "We are often tempted by a fondness for the mar- 
 velous to seek out remote and impossible causes for that 
 which may be explained by the most obvious." Not only 
 tempted, but yield to the temptation with wonderful alacrity. 
 The mounds are evidentlj' the work of .the Indians and their 
 ancestors back through ages past; and, with equal truth 
 it may be said, they also lived in perma'pent stockaded to^yns 
 and villages, manyof which much larger than many of our 
 towns and villages that imagine themselves to be what they 
 are not and never will be, by assuming the cognomen of city; 
 equally as absurd and ridiculous as the Don Quixote idea of 
 creating an imaginative, prehistoric race of people, and call 
 them "The Mound Builders"; since the fact is, the more the 
 subject is studied the more does truth point to the Indians 
 and their ancestors as the true Moand Builders, whose 
 mounds once so beautifully dotted various portions of this 
 continent; though now defaced and destroyed by the level- 
 ing influence of ages, together with the destructive charac- 
 teristics of the White Race; yet leaving the imagination of 
 these modern knights of Lamanca a wide field in which to 
 indulge their sentimental propensities. 
 
 In Morgan's "Ancient Society," page 12, he says: "The 
 Ojibway Indians were peculiarly skilled in making stone 
 pipes, of which many showed elaborate skill in the carv- 
 ing." 
 
 The Indians were also skilled in the art of pottery, as 
 is fully proven by the numerous examples of their work 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 577 
 
 seen by the early explorers. DuPratz spoke particularly 
 of the skill of the Natchez Indians in the art of pottery. 
 Catlin also of the same thing among the Mandan Indians. 
 He says: "I have seen specimens of pottery, which have 
 been dug up in Indian mounds and totabs in the Southern 
 and Middle States, placed in our Eastern museums, and 
 looked upon as a great wonder, when here this novelty is at 
 once done away with, and the whole mystery, where wo- 
 men can be seen handling and using them by hundreds, and 
 they can be seen every day in the summer, allso, molding 
 into many fanciful forms and passing them through the 
 kilns, where they are hardened. Others, after careful ex- 
 amination_of the contents and remains of the mounds exca- 
 vated in different and various states, claimed to be the work 
 of a pre-historic race wholly different from our Indian Race, 
 whom thej"^ named "The Mound Builders," have found them 
 to be, in all respects, exactly like those found in the mounds, 
 known to have been built by the Indians, and also in and 
 around old Indian villages. The Southern Indians had 
 spades and shovels made of cedar, picks, axes and hoes of 
 stone, and spoons of horn; together with the mortar and 
 pestle, with which they prepared their corn for bread, and 
 the Choctaws and Chickasaws use them to this day. 
 
 It has been reiterated time and again that the Indians 
 had no traditions concerning the origin and design of the 
 mounds, and for this reason it had been asserted that the 
 mounds are the work of an extinct race of such antiquity as 
 to precede the ancient traditions of the Indians. But in this, 
 as in the majority .that has been written about that people^ 
 "zeal without knowledge" is rriore manifest than truth. The 
 traditions of the Indians, until within the past ten yearSj 
 have always and everywhere, been pronounced as myths, 
 absurdities unworthy of credence, though in every instance 
 where they have been put to the test by discovery, they have 
 invariably been confirmed by truth. Besides the Indians 
 everywhere were utterly silent before the whites in regard 
 to the manners, customs and traditions of their tribes, and 
 would only converse upon these subjects with those whites 
 in whom they had the most implicit confidence, such as the 
 missionaries and other intimate white friends who had won 
 their love and confidence; and the great wonder is that so 
 much of their ti-aditional history has been handed down to 
 us. And it may be truthfully asserted that, through the 
 old missionaries of seventy-five and a hundred years ago, 
 the only true history, national and traditional, of the North 
 American Indians, has been preserved and handed down to 
 the present day; for they alone, of the white race, from first 
 
578 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 to last, seemed to be the Indians' true friend, and proved it 
 to the Indians' entire satisfaction by their deeds and daily 
 walk among them, many of them for over a half century, 
 while all others seemed to delight only in killing, plundering 
 and defaming them; therefore, though they possessed many 
 traditions in regard to the memorial mounds, effigy mounds 
 and others, they have been silent, ever silent, upon the sub- 
 ject; and thus have we forever closed the doors of knowl- 
 edge against ourselves in regard to the history of that past, 
 and which we now would gladly read; but "too late" only 
 ;hoes from those scenes of that mysterious unknown. 
 
 As late as when Lewis and Clark, in 1804, explored Ore- 
 
 , )n, they saw the Western Indians throw up embankments 
 
 .'round their towns, and saw a newly erected mound six feet 
 
 ligh and twelve feet in diameter at the base which the Maho 
 
 Indians had erected over the body of a chief. 
 
 De Soto, also the e^jplorers who followed him two cen- 
 turies afterwards, discovered towns strongly fortified with 
 breast-works of timber, around which were cut large ditches. 
 And it is not impossible that the very kind of implements 
 used in erecting the mounds by the ancient Indians w£re the 
 same used in cutting those old intrenchments. And the 
 most reasonable conclusion that can bxi arrived at is tliat 
 these ancient relics of the prehistoric past, scattered here 
 and there over the different States of the South and West, 
 are the work of the ancient Indians, and the probabilities are 
 so evident that I am naturally and reasonably confident; yet, 
 if driven back upon positive proof, I frankly acknowledge 
 that I am not able to support it, even as he of opposite opin- 
 ion is also unable to support his theory bj"^ positive proof. 
 
 The mounds — those silent memorials of North Ameri- 
 can antiquity — now mutilated, desecrated, misinterpreted, 
 have lost all meaning. Once, those signs and symbols in 
 heaped up ' earth might have been read, had the 
 champions of liberty and the equality of the entire human 
 race, only extended their professed noble characteristics to 
 the descendants of the builders of thoSe memorials, so in- 
 stinct with the characteristics of a people over whom they 
 had just begun to extend their power. Then they were tan- 
 gible symbols and signs expressing truths known only to 
 Indians, in which they would have instructed the white race 
 had it proved itself their friend and protector, instead of 
 ■their foe and destroyer. Therefore they were ever reserv- 
 ed towards the whites in ^general, and never revealed their 
 most sacred signs and symbols of the present or past con- 
 cerning their race to any white man, except to those who 
 ,by long acquaintance, had completely won tlieir confidence; 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 579- 
 
 and it may b'e truthfully affirmed that, few ever reached 
 that high place in the Indian's heart except the faithful and 
 loving' missionaries;^ they, and they only, ever penetrated be- 
 neath the surface into the inner life and secrets of the North 
 American Indians. 
 
 But they, being more intent upon the moral and intel- 
 lectual improvement of the living Indians, gave little care 
 concerning the dead. And those sentimental writers of the 
 present day who claim the Mound Builders to be a race of 
 people far antecedent to the Red, from the fact that the In- 
 dians gave a negative reply to all interrogatories made to 
 them concerning the mounds, therefore were utterly ignor- 
 ant in all things concerning. them, are but the willing dupes 
 of the Indians who keep, as much as possible, from the 
 Whites all things relating to their past. I speak from 75 
 years experience. In 1884 I was in the Choctaw Nation and, 
 upon being introduced to an aged Choctaw, born in his na- 
 tive domains, east of the Mississippi river, I commenced in- 
 terrogating him in his own language when, after replying to 
 a few questions, he suddenly fixed his keen, black eyes upon 
 me and said: "For what purpose do you ask me such ques- 
 tions?" The Choctaw friend who had introduced roe to the 
 old veteran came to ray relief most fortunately by telling 
 him who I was; that I was the true friend of all Indians and 
 could be trus'ted. The old man again turned his ej'es upon 
 me, but svith a coniiding smile which I fully comprehended, 
 and I found no trouble in obtaining a cheerful reply to any 
 and all my questions. 
 
 Again Colonel Cleiborne, of Natchez, Mississippi, who 
 was then writing a history of the States of Florida, Georgia, 
 Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, but died before com- 
 pleting it, and in which necessarily came the five tribes who 
 formerly lived in said States, viz: Choctaws, Chickasaws, 
 Cherokees, Muscogees (Creeks) and Serainoles, stated to me 
 in a letter that he had written several different letters of in- 
 quiry to prominent Choctaws whose names had been given 
 him, but never received a single replyi and asked me if I 
 could tell him the reason. I at once wrote to him and gave 
 him the desired information. In my travels in the Choctaw 
 and Chickasaw Nations, during the last ten years,, I have fre- 
 quently met aged persons of both tribes with whom I had 
 the pleasure and honor (yes, honor, and of which I am not 
 ashamed even in these my declining years) of being school- 
 mates, whose confidence in me is still as firm and unshaken 
 as mine in them, and whose assistance in gathering material 
 for this book has been great, for which. I Jhere acknowledge 
 
580 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 my deep and sincere gratitude. God bless my Indian friends 
 everywhere! 
 
 Yes, the mounds were tangible signs used to express 
 truths known only to their builders — ^the Indians; symbols 
 thrown together in that peculiar connection which the white 
 man is left to interpret the best he can, all to end only in 
 wild conjecture and romantic speculation ; while the build- 
 ers, now deprived of all originality and of nearly all remem- 
 brance of their former selves, still survive. But, alas, it is 
 the hour when the last day of their liberty perished with no 
 hope of another's dawn; while their future is still darkened 
 with a cloud that hangs motionless above them, as they 
 slowly drift before the monsoon of continued oppression as 
 it rises higher and higher; while the edhoes that seem whirl- 
 ing on its wings grow louder and louder as if to greet their 
 approaching doom ; and slow chords of deep-toned woe 
 swell in waves of bitter grief which seem to give voice to all 
 kindred spirits in hopeless despair, as they mingle with the 
 wind that rushes hither and thither in wild and fitful 
 gusts. Verily, what but a sensational, rhetorical flourish is 
 our cry: "Liberty, freedom and independence to all nations 
 of mankind?" since we have denied the Red Race the right 
 of a nation to be a nation, and made their lives a joyless jour- 
 ney to a premature and unjust- extermination, that we might 
 establish thereon our own freedom whpse motto is, "Might 
 is right," and will be as long as a weaker nation exists over 
 whom we are able to ride with impunity; an<l, as proof of 
 which, the little remnant of that once numei-ous and happy 
 people are still a living monument. 
 
 North America may be truly regarded as an olden land 
 with a modern history. That ages ago it was peopled 
 by a numerous race, the ancient ruins left by their former 
 occupants and scattered from the great northern lakes to 
 the Pacific ocean, afford ample proof. But the origin and 
 history of the pre-historic Indians, evidently as far as now 
 known, the ancestors of our North American Indians, are 
 lost in the mists of antiquity; and the lengthening shadows 
 of time afford to us only a dim conjecture as to who they 
 were, whence and how and at what period, amid the cycles of 
 ages past, they came to this continent. 
 
 Some presume to trace the Indians back to the Neo- 
 lithic age; while others affirm that the Eskemo Indians were 
 preceded by the Cave-men, and that they are of Ameri- 
 can origin. While Abbott,, in his "Primitive Industry," page 
 520, says: "The Eskimo appear to have been the last wave 
 of an aboriginal American race, which has spread over the 
 continent, following principally the rivers and water courses 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 581 
 
 and at last peopled the aea-coasts, and must once have lived 
 much further south." Andseemmgly,mproof of which, Brin- 
 ton, in his "Myths of the New World," says: "The traditions 
 of the Tuscarawa Indians that place their own arrival on the 
 Atlantic coast in the year 1300, also refer to a tribe of people 
 that were, at least, much like the Eskimos." 
 
 An educated Tuscarora Indian, named Cusick, and 
 whose tribe, when driven from now the state of North Caro- 
 lina by the whites in 17 i2 moved north and united them- 
 selves with the five confederate tribes, making the sixth, 
 affirms in his writings that an ancient tradition of the Iro- 
 quois states that their ancestors lived in Canada along the 
 banks of the St. Lawrence river; that the Mohawks, then 
 inhabiting the now state of New York, were the oldest tribe 
 of Indians then known in that region of country; that four 
 other northern tribes united with the Mohawks and formed 
 a confederacy consisting of the Mohawks, Onondagas, Onei- 
 das, Senecas and Cayugas, and held their great national 
 councils on the banks of the St. Lawrence; that far distant 
 south there was also another great nation, to which the five 
 confederates, in council assembled, sent a chief; as embas- 
 sador to said nation, with whom a treaty of peace was made; 
 that in the course of many years, the warriors of the great 
 southern nation (which, no doubt, were the ancestors of the 
 present Cherokees, whose ancient traditions affirm that thej' 
 once lived farther north, and were ultimately driven south 
 by their "allied enemies,") trespassed in tbeir hunting ex- 
 cursions upon the territories of the confederate tribes, as- 
 suming'the right of erecting forts here and there. That this 
 considered encroachment, and also violation of the treaty, 
 resulted in a protracted war that finally terminated in the 
 utter defeat of the intruders, who hastened to return to their 
 own country. (But the lovers of sensation and the marvel- 
 ous have pronounced these old antiquated forts and ruins to 
 be the work of their much-loved "Mound Builders" of pre- 
 historic ages past.) .That the-ancient Lenni Lenapes (now 
 known as the Delaware Indians) were the uncompromising 
 enemies of the Iroquois, and in a protracted war with the 
 Iroquois they were defeated; that then the LenniLenape ti-ibe 
 migrated south and settled near the Hurons (a traditional 
 off -shoot of the Iroquois) with whom they formed an alliance; 
 that, at that time, a strong and powerful tribe inhabited a 
 large territory south of them, and were called the Allegewi; 
 that, in the course of time the two allied tribes (the Hurons 
 and Lenni Lenapes) were involved in a war with the AUegfewi, 
 who, being defeated, migrated, in turn, southward. Hecke- 
 
582 HISTORY OF THK INDIANS. 
 
 weilder, that noted and pious missionary among the Lenni 
 Lenapes, confirms the traditions related by Cusick. 
 
 It is well known that Cai^ada was first colonized by the 
 French in 1641 and remained in their possession until the 
 capture of Quebec by General Wolfe in 1759. But during 
 the intervening time between their possession of the coun- 
 try and its loss, they learned that the territory lying east of 
 the western end of Lake Erie, and from the great northern 
 lakes to the Chesapeake bay on the south, was owned and in- 
 habited by a confederacy of five Indiait tribes, then known 
 as the Senecas, Mohawks, Onondagas, Oneidas and Cayugas; 
 but to whom the French applied the general name Iroquois, 
 meaning "The Long House," and the English, "The Five 
 Nations." In 1712 the Tuscaroras joined the confederacy, 
 then they were known as "The Six Nations," and bear that 
 name to this day. i 
 
 Here was indeed a confederation — a true republic in all 
 respects — whose ties of unity were made long before the ex- 
 istence of the western continent was even dreamed of by the 
 White Race, and whose bonds of ratification were never vio- 
 lated and stand as firm today as when first made, and are 
 held as sacred by the remaining few of the descendants, as 
 are held, by the whites, the principles of the Christian re- 
 ligion. 
 
 The Indians, having no written language, preserved and 
 handed down their history to future generations through 
 tradition, much of which could have been obtained a century 
 and a half ago, and even a century ago, which was authen- 
 tic and would have added much to the interest of the history 
 of the continent of which we boast as our inheritance, 
 though obtained by the extermination of a race of people 
 whose wonderful history, had it been obtained as it once 
 could have been, would have been very interesting and bene- 
 ficial to future generations, throwing its light back o'er ages 
 unknown, connecting the present with the past. The tradi- 
 tions of all Indians had been preserved for ages back by car- 
 rying them from one generation to another by the means of 
 careful and constant repetition. The ancient Choctaws se- 
 lected about twenty young men in the jurisdiction of each 
 chief, who were taught the traditions of the tribe, and were 
 required to rehearse them three or four times a year before 
 the aged men of the nation, who were thoroughly posted, 
 that nothing might be added to or taken from the original 
 as given to them. Besides, it is well known to all who are 
 acquainted with the known history of the North American 
 Indians, that before the whites had commenced the war of 
 extermination upon them they all iiideil the ineniorios of 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. "583 
 
 those to whom were entrusted the preservation of their tra- 
 ditions by symbols, called by the whites wampum, and which 
 they regarded, judging- from their own standpoint, as the 
 Indians' money. The Indians had no money, but they held 
 their wampum in as sacred veneration as the true Christian 
 holds his Bible, of which the Indians had never heard. The 
 wampum was their true and veritable history — more reliable 
 than many histories of the present day. 
 
 The wampum, or belt rather, was made of strong, 
 broad pieces of dressed buckskin beautifully adorned with 
 beads of various colors, to which were attached innutoei-able 
 skins of dressed buckskin, at the end of which were also at- 
 tached the symbols, composed of various things, such as 
 different kinds of shells, stones, bones, quills, carved pieces 
 of wood, teeth of bears and panthers; points of buck horns, 
 rattlesnake rattles, and other things too numerous to 
 mention. But each article attached had its meaning even as 
 the printed letters or words in a book have a meaning, yet 
 read and understood alone by the Indians. Those young 
 men were also yearly required to interpret these symbols as 
 well as to rehearse the traditions entrusted to their memory; 
 and so faithfully and correctly were they required to inter- 
 pret the signification of each symbol, and rehearse each tra- 
 dition that generations would pass, and yet the wampum 
 and tradition keepers of every tribe could read the wampum 
 as easily and correctly as an educated white man could 
 read a book; and tell the story of the tradition in their ex- 
 treme old age as fluently and correctly as when they had 
 first been entrusted with it in the bright days of their man- 
 hood. 
 
 Several of those ancient wampums are said to still exist 
 among the feeble remnants of the once powerful confederacy 
 of the six tribes, who, when in their palmy days, together 
 with all their race, had no memories of yesterday to annoy 
 them nor cares for the morrow to perplex. One, it is said, 
 contains upwards of 7000 strings of symbols relative to their 
 war with the Hurons assisted by Champlain and a few of 
 his companions, to whom they attributed their defeat by 
 the Hurons, and for which they never forgave the French, 
 and ever remained the inveterate and uncompromising ene- 
 mies of all Frenchmen. One of the wampums still pos- 
 sessed by the confederacy is said to date back to the year 
 1540, and contains much concerning the treaties and the wars 
 with the whites. But who, among the whites could read 
 those ancient wampums, even if they possessed them? And 
 even if any one of the forlorn remnant of that confederacy 
 who could read them, was requested so to do, would he 
 
584 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 comply to that request? Never. Broil him on a bed of 
 burning- coals, yet he would refuse to gratify the idle curi- 
 osity of any one. Could the ancient wampums of the North 
 American Indians speak to-day, what a thrilling history 
 would they narrate. But our ancestors were too deeply in- 
 terested in other pursuits to pay any attention to their civ- 
 ilization and Christianizing, and to the collection and preser- 
 vation, which would have contributed so largely to our 
 knowledge of the past history of this continent. 
 
 Many of late have tried to ascertain the exact date of 
 the organization of the confederacy of the five tribes, but 
 only to end in foolish conjecture and wild speculation. One 
 of their traditions, it is said, places it in the year 1539, but 
 this is declared by others to be too recfent a date by nearly 
 a century; while Corriplanter, a noted Seneca chief, who died 
 in 1836 at the advanced age of 105, stated that his tribe, the 
 Senecas, once had a wampum that contained the date of the 
 organization of the confederacy; that he had been taught to 
 read the wampum in early manhood; that he had often 
 read it in his peoples' counsels, and also in the yearly coun- 
 sels of his tribe, and had also heard it read by others fre- 
 quently; that it was destroyed in the burning of their vil- 
 lages by Sullivan and his soldiers in \7')'>; that he, and the 
 chiefs, Blacksnake, Redjacket, and a few old men of his- 
 tribe, partly restored it a few years after. But it too has 
 forever vanished. 
 
 Cornplanter, it is said, often repeated many portions of 
 different wampums, incidents and events that were known to 
 have taken place between 1530 and 1540 and recorded in the 
 wampum — the true symbolic history of the Indians, read by 
 them alone. But far back through the decades beyond the 
 above mentioned years of the past, Cor-nplanter stated there 
 was a wampum in which was recordefd the true history of 
 the organization of this wonderful republic, which took place 
 at the occasion of an eclipse of the sun. He says: "A dark- 
 ening of the big light of the Great Spirit, which occurred 
 during one of the months when corn was beinj^ hoed, and 
 before the year 1540. I do not know when this occurred, 
 but remember the statement I read in the wampum, which 
 said it was an entire darkening of the bi^;- light of the Oreat 
 Spirit many years ago in the long past." The scene of the 
 formation of the confederacy was in central New York, It 
 is stated that there was a total eclipse of the sun on the 29th 
 of July, 1478. which, however, was too late in the season to 
 fulfill the statements recorded amid the strings of the 
 wampum. But it is also known that there was a total eclipse 
 of the sun, visible in central New York, on the 2Sth of June, 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 585 
 
 1451, which must be the date of the formation of the confed- 
 eration of the five tribes, afterwards named Iroquois . by the 
 French. 
 
 Cornplanter stated that the Indians regarded the event 
 as one long to be remembered, and gave it great prominence 
 among the records of their historical wampum, on account 
 of the strange and peculiar circumstances of its occurrence, 
 He stated that a party of young Seneca warriors, then on a 
 hunting expedition, entered the territories of the Mohawks 
 and recklessly made pi-isoners of several children — boys and 
 girls — ^with whom they at once retreated to their own coun- 
 try. A large party of enraged Mohawk warriors hastened 
 in pursuit, accompanied by a strong band of Onondaga war- 
 riors. When the Mohawks and Onondagas had arrived near 
 the territories of the Senecas, the Mohawks sent a small 
 delegation of their warriors to the Seneca villages, with in- 
 structions to try to settle the matter amicably, and thus 
 avoid the death of their captive children. But the haughty 
 Senecas turned a deaf ear to the embassadors of peace and 
 bade them return to their own; then placed the captive 
 children under a strong guard on a hill near their village, 
 that the Mohawk and Onondaga warriors might see them 
 slain as they made their expected attack upon .the village; 
 but as the Mohawks and Onondagas were considering what 
 best to do, and the Senecas standing ready to slay their cap- 
 tives at the first demonstration made to .rescue them, the 
 attention of one of the little captive girls was drawn to the 
 peculiar appearance of things around, and looking up at the 
 sun saw the great black shadow that seemed to be spreading 
 itself over its disk. With a loud shriek she pointed to the 
 sun, to which every eye was instantly turned, and at once 
 the whole scene was changed from a spirit of war and re- 
 venge to that of superstitious horror and fear that cannot 
 be described, nor scarcelj' imagined. 
 
 I have witnessed the eif ects of an eclipse upon the Choc- 
 taws before they had been taught by the missionaries its 
 true cause. But at this auspicious moment, when no 
 thought occupied the mind of either captives or warriors but 
 that of astonishment and dread, an aged chief, who well 
 knew the desolating effects of war, solemnly arose and, with 
 eyes resting upon the fading sun and finger pointing upward, 
 called out in a loud tone of voice, "See! The Great Spirit 
 is spreading his hand over the face of his great light as a 
 manifestation of his displeasure at our proceedings this day, 
 and thus commands us to make peace at once lest he hide 
 his great light from us forever; and never again to make war 
 upon the Mohawks and Onondagas but to ever regard them 
 
586 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 as brothers; and to which if you will comply he will remove 
 his hand from over his great light, arid it shall continue, as 
 it ever has before, to give us light." At once all gladly and 
 cheerfully agreed to the proposition; and soon the eclipse 
 began to pass off, to the great joy of the tribe; and as soon 
 as the sun shone out in its usual brightness and splendor, 
 all were wholly convinced of the anger of the Great Spirit in 
 their prospective war, and equally so, in the assurance 
 given of his pleasure in their promise to live in peace with 
 the \Iohawks and Onondagas. At once a deputation, with 
 the captives, was sent to the waiting but still confused and 
 bewildered Mohawks and Onondagas, who were told what 
 the Great Spirit had said, and what the Senecas had resolved 
 and desired to do. To all of which the)' readily acquiesced 
 and all returned to the Seneca village. 
 
 A council was called, a treaty was *made and ratified by 
 the three tribes, and they became as one nation. The news 
 of the established confederacy, with tbe strange particulars 
 of its conception and birth, soon reached the neighboring 
 tribes — the Oneidas and Cayugas — who, in compliance to 
 the commands of the Great Spirit, joined the confederacy 
 without delay. And thus, if tradition be true, wbich no 
 doubt it is, was formed a confederacy pledged by all the sol- 
 emn and mysterious ceremonies of that peculiar people, 
 whose descendants still linger with us as feeble shadows of 
 their once great and happy people — sparks still lingering in 
 the ashes of an exterminated race — of four centuries ago, 
 never again to war against each other, nor refuse to assist 
 each other in war against the common enemy, or in any mis- 
 fortune or distress. From that day to this the stipulations 
 of that solemn treaty have never been violated, according to 
 their latest traditions, and they have ever lived as a mighty 
 brotherhood, though four hundred and forty-eight years 
 have passed since the formation of that mighty league of 
 friendship and love, the most wonderful ever known to man, 
 and with a history never to be duplicated upon earth. 
 
 As the Pyramids of ancient Egypt — those miracles of 
 stone that have defied the ravages of ages — must be ascrib- 
 ed to the era of some great, dominant people, whose history 
 is hidden in the silent mysteries of the past, and from whom 
 the nations of the east have descended; so too may these 
 ancient mounds and fortifications (and also those ruins of 
 ancient cities and large reservoirs of water, if true) be as 
 justly ascribed to a pre-historic race that is lost in the mists 
 of the past, but from whom the North American Indians 
 have also descended. 
 
 And though the advent of man upon earth is lost in the 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 587 
 
 I 
 
 gloom of pre-historic years, and the lohg dark night of igno- 
 rance and superstition that succeeded, yet these silent mon- 
 uments of the long ago display to our wondering vision, 
 great nations and races of people, inhabiting widely remote 
 portions of the globe, possessing various types and phases 
 of civilization and different characteristics of mind, which 
 distinguish their descendants of today. But whence the 
 different races of mankind had their birth, and through 
 what cycles of time they have been developing their growth; 
 where, when and how they lived, are questions which receive 
 no response from the aiihals of history, the voices of tradition 
 or even the revelations of inspired prophesy. Difficult, in- 
 deed, is it to wander through the mazes of discussion, and 
 the no less intricate mazes of diversified opinions, which but 
 bewilder the investigator; and though fascinating as the 
 field of research has been, still nothing offers- so wide a 
 scope of conjecture as that which the antiquarian finds in 
 studying the ruins and relics of that people who centuries 
 ago inhabited the North American continent. 
 
 But while these researches and discoveries throw but 
 little light upon the origin or the character of its early in- 
 habitants, yet reveal enough to conclusively prove that a 
 race existed uponithis continent ages ago, who possessed a 
 knowledge of many of the arts unpractised and seemingly 
 unknown by the natives when discovered by the Europeans. 
 With many it has been a cherished theory that the ^inhabi- 
 tants, who first peopled the Western continent, came by 
 land at a period when it was united by a bond of union with 
 the Eastern continent, afterwards ruptured by internal 
 commotions and upheavals, was severed from and into a dis- 
 tinct continent. But from what part of the world, at what 
 period, or by what means they reached this country, can 
 only be conjecture; but that the emigrants were a partially 
 civilized people, and to a large extent an agricultural people 
 there are good reasons to believe, nor can it be successfully 
 disproven. The art of the North American Indians of the 
 last two or three centuries is said to be the exact equivolent, 
 in point of advancement to that of Europe and the Orient of 
 the stone age. The amount of material is limitless and cor- 
 responds remarkably with that found in the very substrat- 
 ura'of those localities wh«re man seems to have first begun 
 his ascent towards civilization. Many of the scientists of 
 the present day seem inspired to activity by the knowledge 
 of the fact that the North American continent affords the 
 best opportunity the world has ever known to study the be- 
 ginning of those things which constitute human progress— 
 
588 HISTORY OB' THE INDIANS. 
 
 an opportunity which by the encroachment of civilization is 
 rapidly passing away. 
 
 It is said that, already upwards of 15000 specimens of 
 the handiwork of the "Mound Builders," the study of which, 
 in connection with the survey of the mounds themselves and 
 their surroundings, is gradually leading to a solution of cer- 
 tain archaeologic riddles, which but a few years since ap- 
 peared insolvable. Under the new light the ' mysteries 
 which have attached to the. mounds ahd to their unknown 
 builders are thought to be disappearing to a great extent, 
 but only by exchanging conjecture for truth. 
 
 Be that as it may; this truth, that the present North 
 American Indians and their ancestors have inhabited this 
 continent during a period embracing ages of the past, none 
 will deny who have studied and made themselves acquainted 
 with the many existing facts; and that, from all that has 
 been gathered, it is much more conclusive that the mounds 
 were erected by them, than that they are the works of some 
 long extinct race of people entirely different from that of 
 the Indians. Therefore, let "Requiescat in pace" be the 
 epitaph of the mound question for ail future to come; and 
 also, let this age of sentimentality, sensation, and the love of 
 the marvelous' come to an end, at least, upon that subject, 
 that it may seek other fields for the gratification of its seem- 
 ingly incomprehensible thirst for a knowledge of that which 
 never existed. All Nations, both civilized and uncivilized, 
 have long lost the memory of their barbaric state; and only 
 traditions, here and there, speak of the ancient past. All 
 mankind, in every age of the world have been mound builders; 
 and the same principle that leads to the erection of mounds 
 still exists in human nature. The various modern monu- 
 ments of to-day are but ways of memorizing events which in 
 ages past would have led to the erection»of mounds. 
 
 Yet mournful to the contemplative mind are the records 
 of departed greatness. These few stiil existing mounds of 
 other ages, these dumb oracles of the pre-historic past, 
 standing as monuments on the pedestal of years, point also 
 to the ruins of earth's other empires, and call to her most 
 potent nations with a voice more impressive to the heart than 
 the tongue of a Tully ; more symphonious than the harp uf 
 Homer; more pictui-esque than tjje pencil of Appelles, say- 
 ing: "In us, behold thine own destiny, and the doom of thy 
 noblest achievements, the mutability of all human greatness 
 and all human grandeur;" and around and before us, whose 
 wild and hurled life precipitates the hour of our own disso- 
 lution, are strewed the crumbling fragments of an empire, 
 equally :is extended as those of the east; Init tiie setting sun 
 
HISTORY OF THE mJolANS. 589 
 
 sheds its last ray upon their tumbling temples once hallowed 
 by the footsteps of worshipping thousands, and the mellow 
 moonbeams glimmer through the moss-covered walls and 
 gloomy galleries, now nearly gone to decay; their sanctuary 
 is broken down, their glory is departed forever, and the gen- 
 erations hence, in yiewing the mounds of their sepulture, 
 will inquire with wondering thoughts what manner of beings 
 they were. 
 
 How must the hearts of the remaining few Indians throb 
 with anguish as they contemplate the destruction of their 
 i-ace and the gloomy destiny of their own children. With 
 what swelling hearts must they survey the once extended 
 boundaries of their empire! Alas! the grief of years en- 
 shrouds their souls, as they bow the .knee of meek submis- 
 sion to the Great Spirit. Unhappy people! Who can but 
 weep over the ruined hopes of your declining race ! It is a 
 truthful saying, that, human happiness has no perfect 
 security but in freedom; freedom, none but in virtue; virtue, 
 none but in knowledge; and neither freedom, virtue 
 nor knowledge has any vigor or iinmortal hope, except in the 
 principles of the Christian faith, and in the sanctions of the 
 Christian religion. The birds that droop their plumage in 
 the cage, pine for the open field and flowery grove, where 
 they may sing their songs of joy and lave their pinions in 
 the free light of heaven. The vilest reptile that crawls upon 
 the earth, the noblest bieast that roams the forest flies in ter- 
 I'or from its tyrant or repels the oppression that would de- 
 prive it of its freedom. So man naturally sighs to be free. 
 Still tyranny, that demon of desolation, has stalked over the 
 world for ages and bound in cruel bondage the noblest of the 
 earth, and still in this 19th century of boasted freedom seems 
 to be again emerging, like the phoenix, from the dust of ages. 
 Alas! what is man, or a race of men, whose neck is beneath 
 the foot of the despot? 
 
 Bishop Whipple of Minnesota says: "Some years ago 
 an Indian stood at ray door, and as I opened it he knelt at my 
 feet. Of course I bade him not to kneel. He said : 'My 
 father, I knelt only because my heart is warm to a man who 
 pitied the Red man. I am a wild man. My home is 500 miles 
 from here. I know that all the Indians east of the Missis- 
 sippi river had perished and I never looked into the faces of 
 my children that my face was not sad. My father had told 
 me of the Great Spirit, and I have often gone out intq the 
 woods and tried to talk with him.' " Reader, here was a hu- 
 man being traveling SCO miles, to learn of God; yearning and 
 striving for a knowledge of the world's Redeemer, but to 
 whom and his race we have given powder and lead instead of 
 
S90 HISTORY OP THK INDIANS. 
 
 the bread of life with our war-cry 'No good Indian but a 
 dead Indian.' " 
 
 AlasI that it should be a principle of mankind to hate 
 those they have wrong-ed — even as dogs rush upon one of 
 their number that has been shot and not instantly killed and, 
 rendered ferocious by his cries, tare him to pieces. Un- 
 happy race! Amid the protracted woes of thy present life 
 how can you forget the fearful history of thy past — the hun- 
 ger and thirst of the heart and the fire and frenzy of the 
 brain! 
 
 Ah, when I look around over the wretched lives of the 
 present feeble remnant of the Red Race of this continent, 
 and then contemplate them as I knew them seventy-five 
 years ago, I can but say: Each life is a woe! Truly, fear- 
 ful and rugged has been their path of Kfe from freedom and 
 bliss to slavery and woe — so replete in strife, confusion and 
 death! uttering their last groan in the wail of final despair; 
 while the quality of confidence is now an utter stronger to 
 their hearts; for they have experienced enough to harden 
 them against the White Race of the entire world. They 
 now realize that they are beyond the regions of all hope; 
 )fet they seem to yield to a certain exterior resignation to 
 their fate. The world has lost its poignant interest in them; 
 it is nowa pageant upon which they are looking for the last 
 time while indifferent to lift a hand to stay it in its course, 
 even had it been within their power. Though, at times, 
 they rebelled at their fate, and a wave of resistance swept 
 over them, as with one hand they carried the woes of the 
 present and, with the other, held up the glowing lamp of 
 the romantic past; but a sense of its unreality told them 
 that they grasped at a substance to find a shadow. The 
 coming of one event changed even the atmosphere; at one 
 moment their breath is a new and invigorating hope, the 
 next, parched and dead. They see a covetous eye, a hated 
 face. Their lips are apart; their teeth are set and their 
 brows knit with the force that they summon to their souls 
 to endure, as all now are but memories far off amid the 
 shadowy past. 
 
 And now, as to the odium and even defamation that may 
 be attached to or hurled against me on account of my mani- 
 fested love for and adrjiiration of the North American Indian 
 Race, I here submit to it all without a murmur or complaint. 
 And those who wish may search the world over to find terms 
 or ideas to express their contempt of me, or any other friend 
 of that noble but unfortunate race, and I will remain silent 
 and passive, while their anathemas enter one ear and, meet- 
 ing no obstruction, pass harmlessly out at the other, and 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 591 
 
 still continue to be their devoted, admiring' and loving friend 
 all the same; while I continue through life to rehearse to 
 myself the words of the noble Catlin, that true friend of the 
 North American Indians in toto because he knew them as 
 they ought to be known, 
 
 "HaTB I any apologyto make (or loving the Indiana? 
 
 The Indians hare always loved me, and why should I not love the Indians. 
 
 I love the people who have always made me welcome to the best they had . 
 
 I love the people who are honest without law, who have no jails and no poor-houses. 
 
 I love the people who keep the commandments without ever having read them or heard 
 
 them preached from the pulpit. 
 I love a people who never swear; who never take the name of God In vain. 
 I love a people who love their neighbors as themselves. 
 
 I love a people who worship God without a Bible, tor I believe that God loves them too. 
 I love a people whose religion is all the same, and who are tree trom religious raus. 
 I love a people who have never raised a hand against me or stolen my property, where 
 
 there was no law to punish tor either. 
 I love a people who never have tought a battle with white men except on their own 
 
 ground . 
 I love and don't fear mankind where God has made and left them, tor they are children. 
 I love a people who live and keep what is their own without looks and keys. 
 I love all people who do the best they can, and, Ohl how I love a people who don't live 
 
 tor the love of money. ' ' ^ 
 
 I can and do here attest that there is not a single virtue 
 in the above tribute that did not justly belong to the North 
 American Indians; and with that true philanthropist — the 
 noble Catlin — who c6uld and did discern and appreciate 
 merit wherever found, ev^n in deformity. I do accede heart- 
 ily to all his "loves" above manifested, and can and do also 
 add: 
 
 I love the same people who also never first betrayed or 
 deserted a known friend under any circumstances whatever. 
 
 I love the same people who never spoke evil of any one 
 behind his back, not even of a known enemy. ■* 
 
 I love the same people whose pledged words to any one 
 were as sacred as their lives. 
 
 I love "all people," too, of whom I can affirm, possess in 
 like quality and quantity, the known virtues of the Norih 
 American Indians uncontaminated with the blood of the Cau- 
 cassian or Anglo Saxon race. 
 
NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN NAMES. 
 
 The Indians all over this continent had names, tradi- 
 tions, religions, ceremonies, feasts, prayers, songs, dances — 
 all, more or less, with symbolism and allegory, adapted to 
 circumstances, just as all other races of mankind. 
 
 But the world has become so familiar with the continued 
 and ridiculous publications in regard to everything touching 
 upon that race of people that a universal doubt has long since 
 been created and established as to the possibility of refine- 
 ment of thought and nobleness of action ever having existed 
 among the North American Indian race, ancient orj modern; 
 and so little of truth has also been learned regarding the 
 real and true inner life of that peculiar and seemingly . isola- 
 ted race of mankind, that to-day only here and there can one 
 be found who, from a lifetime association and intimate ac- 
 quaintance, is well versed in Indian thought, feeling and 
 character, and able to unfold and record the solution of that 
 imagined mystery, known as "The Indian Problem," since 
 they learned it from the Indians themselves. From the In- 
 dians' own lips they were taught its elucidation, and only as 
 it could be taught and learned, but never again can be taught 
 and learned. 
 
 Even as various nations of antiquity of the eastern con- 
 tinent have left the evidences of their former occupation by 
 the geographical names that still exist, so to have the North 
 American Indians left their, evidences upon the western (in- 
 dependent of all written history) that they have likewise 
 possessed this continent during unknown ages of the past. 
 The artificial mounds, fortifications, lakes and ponds with 
 their original names and those of rivers, creeks, moun- 
 tains, bluffs and hills, remain to this day; and here they 
 will remain long after the lips that spoke the language 
 are hushed in death, even continuing to repeat the voices of 
 that prematurely and mercilessly exterminated people. 
 
 But alas, how mutilated the orthography and how er- 
 roneous the translation of the original Indian namesi What 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. S9S 
 
 a manifestation of the utter want of even the most remote 
 idea of anything^ constituting' their language! 
 
 As an illustration I will here insert a few examples 
 taken from a publication bearing date February 2nd, 1898, 
 aaid to which is the signature, "John Hawkins in Phila- 
 delphia Times," with the caption "Names from Indians" 
 and also the important announcement, "Some Interesting 
 Information Concerning Their Origin. They Contain Curi- 
 ous Bits of Nature, Thought or Fancy, History or Tra- 
 dition." 
 
 From among the names mentioned I have selected a few 
 which Mr. Hawkins says are "Choctaw names," giving also 
 HIS orthography and translation: 
 
 First. — "Chitimacha (La.) — They possess cooking ves- 
 sels." Original, Chi-im-ai-ya-chih, Thine to conquer. But 
 the Choctaw words for "They possess cooking vessels" are: 
 Original, Ah-la-bush-li ha-lul-li in. Cooking vessels possess- 
 they. 
 
 Second. — -"Owatomy, Straight." Original,. Owa-to-my, 
 Hunting in the sunshine. 
 
 Third.— "Oklahoma (Beautiful land)," Original, Ok-la- 
 hum-ma. Red people. 
 
 It is published in our school histories of the United 
 States that Oklahoma is a Chickasaw word meaning "Beauti- 
 ful Country." The Chickasaw words for beautiful country 
 are yakni iukli. 
 
 Fourth. — "Chicola, The place of foxes." Original,, 
 Chu-la ai-an-tah; Fox there. 
 
 Fifth. — "Arkansas (Bow on the smoky water)." In the 
 Choctaw language, Sho-bo-ta oka chas-sa-la, means smoking 
 water bow, i. e. Bow on a foggy lake. 
 
 Sixth. — "Tennessee, River of the great bend." The 
 name given by the ancient Choctaws is Ta-nak-bi chi-toh. 
 bok. Big Bend river. 
 
 Seventh. — "Missouri, Great muddy river." But the Choc- 
 taw words for great muddy river are, Huch-cha. hla-chi-ko 
 chitoh. Missouri, if a Choctaw word, is a corruption of 
 Mish-o-hof-fih, Continually rubbing off. 
 
 Eighth. — "Alabama, here we rest." Original. Ul-la 
 ba-noh hosh, The only child. The Choctaw words for 
 "Here we rest" are Fohah hup-ish-no yak. 
 
 Ninth. — "Mississippi river, the great river." OriginaL 
 Mish-a-si-pok-ni, Aged beyond. The Choctaw words for 
 great river are bok chi-toh, or Huch-cha chit-oh. Original, 
 Misha-sipokni Huchcha.— A river whose age is beyond com- 
 putation. 
 
 Tenth. — Mr. Hawkins says : "A South Carolina river 
 
594 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS^ 
 
 Twhich now bears the prosaic name of Broad, was known to 
 the Indians (Choctaws) as Eswawpu'ddenah, .the dividing- 
 river, after a bloody battle between the Catawbas and Chero- 
 Icees. The name Piscataway has much the same meaning." 
 But the Choctaw words for "the dividing river" are, Hush- 
 koli bok, and Piscataway is a corruption of the Chocfaw 
 Tvords, Pus-ka ta-hah, Bread all gone, or Without bread. 
 
 In the Fort Smith, (Arkansas) Elevator,- February 4th, 
 1887, the following appeared: 
 
 "Among the Choctaws— An interesting article from 
 ihe Cincinnati Graphic, by John R. Music: » 
 
 The Choctaw tradition states that they traveled east, 
 \intil from the summit of a mountain range they beheld a 
 -well watered and beautiful land. In rapture they exclaim- 
 •ed: Tsi-gar-ma-kee (Chickamauga) good." But the Choc- 
 law word for good is A-chuk-ma, and Chickamauga is a cor- 
 •Corruption of the Choctaw words Chik-emai-ab, (may, can, or 
 must, shall or will go in). There is no such word as Tslgar- 
 makee in their language, and, it is reasonable to believe, in no 
 other Indian language. Mr. Music thus continues: "The 
 largest town in this region shows the contact of the Choc- 
 taws with the Cherokees, Tsatak (Choctaw) and nu-ger 
 i{taken out of the water). Here they drew a dead Choctaw 
 •out of the water." Truly the "Choctaws" of Mr. Music 
 must be a tribe of Indians known only to himself. The 
 •words of the North American Choctaw Indians for "dead 
 (Choctaw taken out of the water" are (in our phraseology) 
 Il-li (dead) Chah-tah (Choctaw) shu-e-kuch-ih (pulled out) 
 liosh (the) o-ka (water). He also asserts that one of the 
 -ancient clans of the Choctaws was named "Hottah Inholata" 
 signifying "beloved of the people." But the Choctaw words 
 for "beloved of the people," are Ih-o-lih-to-pah (beloved) okla 
 r(people) ho (the), the Prep, of is understood before okla, Be- 
 loved of the people. 
 
 Another, under the signature of Henry Inman, asserts, 
 •through l^he columns of the Greenville (Texas) Banner, Oc- 
 tober 9th, 1889, that the signification of Apusbamataha, the 
 name of the renowned Choctaw Chief, is "The Warrior's 
 Seat is Finished." 
 
 But the Choctaw words for "the warior's seat is fin- 
 ished," are Tush-ka ai-ome-bin-i-li ak-oke-ta-hah. Apusha- 
 /mataha is a corruption of the noted chief's true name. 
 Jvriginal, A-num-pa-ish-ta-ya-u-bi, a messenger who kills. 
 
 Literally, a messenger of death, i. e., one whose rifle, 
 liow or tomahawk, was alike fatal on the war path or in the 
 •chase. 
 
 By request of friends I have here given a few Choctaw 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 595 
 
 and Chickasaw ancient names of places, towns, villages, 
 rivei-s, creeks, lakes, mounds, blufEs, etc., in the now States 
 of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and 
 others, with the derivations, corruptions, originals, ortho- 
 graphy and significations. T first give the corruption, fol- 
 lowed by the original and signification : 
 
 Appalachee. Original, Ap-ah-li-chih, (an ancient Choc- 
 taw clan), To whoop at. 
 
 Apalachicola, a town and river in Florida. Original, Ap- 
 e-lu-chih kolih, Help to break. 
 
 Apookta. Original, A-yuk-pa (an ancient Choctaw vil- 
 lage in Mississippi). A place of happiness. 
 
 In a late publication it is stated that Alabama is a corrup- 
 tion of the Choctaw words, "Alba, vegetation," and "amo, 
 igather." 
 
 But the Choctaw woi'ds for "vegetation gather" are 
 Hush-uk (herbage, grass, etc.,) It-tun-a-hah (gathered). I 
 know of no such word as "Alba" in thfe Choctaw language. 
 It has the word "amba," signifying However, and the word 
 "amo," signifying The. 
 
 Alabama is a corruption of the Choctaw words Ul-la-ba- 
 noh hosh. The only child, and was the name of a noted Choc- 
 taw chief who figured in 1746, contemporary with Shulush 
 Humraa, another noted Choctaw chief, during the wars of 
 the French against the Chickasaws. 
 
 The old interpretation of the word Alabama as being a 
 Choctaw word signifying, "Here we rest, or rested," is a 
 myth. The Choctaw words for "Here we rest, or rested," 
 are yak (here) hup-ish-no (we — all of us) fo-hah (to rest, or 
 rested). 
 
 A-bo-ha kub-lo humma. Strong Red House. The name 
 of an ancient and noted Choctaw chief of the Ok-la hun-na-li 
 iksa, Six People, Iksa, Clan. 
 
 Allamucha. Original, A-lum-a-ka, A hiding place. The 
 name of an ancient Choctaw town situated near the Ala- 
 bama line in Lauderdale county, Mississippi. 
 
 Ai-ik-hun-a, A place of learning, a school. The name of a 
 Choctaw village in which was established a missionary sta- 
 tion in 1821. 
 
 luka. Original, Ai-yu-pi, A place of bathing. The name 
 of a town in north Mississippi. 
 
 Boguefaliah. Original, Bok-fa-lai-yah, Long creek, in 
 Mississippi. 
 
 Buckatunnee. Ori^^inal, Bok-it-tun-a-hah, collected to- 
 gether. A large creek in Mississippi. The junction of sev- 
 eral creeks which, uniting, formed Bokittunahah. 
 
596 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Betapinbogue. Orig-lnal, Ni-ta-pin-bok, One Bear creek. 
 A largfe creek in Mississippi. 
 
 Buttihatche. Original, But-ih huch-cha, White Sumac 
 river. The name of a creek in Mississippi. 
 
 Biwier. Original, Bai-yi-wai-yah, Leaning white oak. A 
 creek in Mississippi. 
 
 Bok-sba-ha, Pearl river. The ancient Choctaw name of 
 Pearl river. 
 
 Biahela. Original, Bai-yi-il-ah, White oak by itself, lone 
 white oak. The name of a place in Mississippi. 
 
 Bulookta. Original, Bo-luk-ta, Square. A place in Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
 Bok-ta-nak-bi chi-toh, Big Bend river. The ancient 
 Choctaw name of the Tennessee river. 
 
 Boque Hooma. Original, Bok-hum-ma. Red creek in 
 Mississippi. 
 
 Conehatta. Original, Ko-nih-hut-a, whitish pole cat. 
 The name of a creek in Mississippi. 
 
 Caila. Original, Co-i-il-li, dead panther. The name of 
 a creek in Mississippi. 
 
 Chicopah. Original, Shik-o-pah, a plume. The name of 
 a missionary society in Alabama. 
 
 CuUeoka. Oj-iginal, Kul-ih-o-ka, water spring, or spring 
 water. The name of a town in Tennessee. 
 
 Chickahomin)'. Original, Che-kiho-mai-yih, to become 
 red quickly. A creek in Virginia. A stream of water 
 which, according to an ancient Choctaw tradition, suddenly 
 changed its natural color to that of a coffee color, or brown. 
 
 Chuk-fi-lum-a hih-lah bok, Dancing rabbit creek. The 
 name of a small creek in Mississippi, upon whose banks the 
 Choctaws, in 1830, ceded the last acre of their ancient pos- 
 sessions east of the Mississippi river to the United States. 
 
 Chaff elia. Original, Sa-fa-la-yah, lam long. The name 
 of a creek in Mississippi. 
 
 Copiah. Original, Ho-pai-i, War Chief. The name of a 
 county in Mississippi. 
 
 Chulahoma. Original, Chu-la-hum-ma, Red Fox, The 
 name of a creek in Mississippi. 
 
 Chulatchee. Original, Chu-la-huch-cha, Fox River. 
 Name of a stream in Mississippi. 
 
 Chinchehoma. Original, Chish-a-hum-ma, Red Post Oak. 
 The name of an aged Choctaw, whom I personally knew in 
 my youth, and for whom a little stream took its name. 
 
 Chattanooga. Original, Cha-hah-nu-chi, Tall wild flax. 
 
 Chitimacha. Original, Chi-un-ai-ya-chih, Thine to con- 
 quer. A place in Louisiana. 
 
HISTORY OP THE INDIANS. 597 
 
 Calolarchi. Original, Ko-loh-lich-ih, To cut in many 
 pieces. The ancient name of a Choctaw village. 
 
 Chickasawha. Original, Chik-a-sah-si-ah, I am a Choc- 
 taw. The name of an ancient Chickasaw town in which De 
 Soto and his army wintered in 1541. 
 
 Chunkey. Original, Chuki, A martin— the name of a 
 small stream in Mississippi. 
 
 Chualley. Original, Chu-ah-la bok. Cedar creek.— The 
 name of a creek in Mississippi. 
 
 Catahoula. Original, Ka-wah-chu-la, barking fox.— The 
 ancient Choctaw name of a lake in Louisiana, and now the 
 name of a Parish in Louisiana. 
 
 It is published that the word "Catahoula" is a Choctaw 
 word derived from "Okatahulo" and,' meaning "Beloved 
 lake." But the Choctaw words for Beloved Lake are Ok- 
 hut-ah Ho-li-to-pa. There is no such word in the Choctaw 
 language as Okatahulo." 
 
 Chickamauga — A tributary of the Tennessee river. 
 Original, Chik-emai-ah, may, can or must, shall or will, 
 go in. 
 
 Caloos&batchee. Original, Chas-su-lah huch-cha, crook- 
 ed river. The ancient Choctaw name of a river in southwest 
 Florida. 
 
 Cbauaches. Original, Chah-a-chih, to. ennoble. The 
 name of an ancient Choctaw Iksa (clan), which dwelt a few 
 miles north of New Orleans and consisted of only thirty war- 
 riors with their families whom Governor Perier caused to be 
 wholly exterminated, in January, 1717, by negroes — the 
 slaves of the French colony; the particulars of which are 
 .given in "History of the Natchez." 
 
 Coashatta. Original, Ko-i-sak-tih, panther bluff. The 
 ancient Choctaw name of a bluff on the Bigbee river in Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
 Coahoma. Original, Co-i humma, red panthier. The 
 name of a county in Mississippi. 
 
 Coosa. Original, Chu-sah, tapering. The name of an 
 ancient Choctaw family who were remarkable for their slen- 
 derness. 
 
 Etowah. Original, He-to-ka, ball ground. The ancient 
 Choctaw name of a river in Georgia upon whose banks was a 
 noted ball ground. 
 
 EastabUtchie. Original, I-ah-ta-ba-shih, to go mourning. 
 The ancient name of a creek in Mississippi, famous for its 
 fatal sickness; therefore, whoever lived upon its banks would 
 have cause to mourn. 
 
 Faket chee poonta. Original, Fa-kit-chi-pin-ta, very 
 
598 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 small turkey. The name of an ancient Choctaw village situ- 
 ated on the Bigbee river in Mississippi. 
 
 Falukta bunnee. Original, Fa-lak-na-bun-ah, fox squir- 
 rel doubled up. The name of an ancient Choctaw village on 
 the banks of the Bigbee river in Mississippi. 
 
 Hatche camesa. Original, Huch-cha chu-lo-sah, "quiet 
 river. A river with a quiet current. 
 
 Hatchatigbee. Original, Ha-cho-tuk-ni, loggerhead turtle. 
 The ancient Choctaw name of a bluff oil the Bigbee river in 
 Mississippi. 
 
 I read the following in The Globe Democrat, July 18,. 
 1896: "Habalo chitto, the name of a river in Mississippi, 
 which means big fight." But the Choctaw words for "big 
 fight" are it-tib-ih chi-toh. 
 
 Habalo chitto. Original, Ha-bo-lih chi-to-lit, greatly di- 
 minished. The ancient Choctaw name of a large stream 
 which had diminished in depth, owing to the washing from 
 the hills. 
 
 Hobakin loopa. Original, Ho-ba-chi yuk-pa, laughing 
 echo. The ancient Choctaw name of a shoal in the Bigbee 
 river in Mississippi. 
 
 Hiyoowunnie. Original, Hi-oh-lih un-i, standing berries. 
 The name of an ancient Choctaw town situated on Chick-a- 
 sah-hah creek, a tributary of Pearl river in Missisisippi. 
 
 Hushookwa. Original, Hash-o-kak. something su- 
 perior which cannot be- treated with impunity. The 
 name of an ancient Choctaw town in which Peter P. Pitch- 
 lynn was born. Truly an appropriate name for the birth- 
 place of that renowned Choctaw orator and fearless states- 
 man, once known among the whites in Washington City as 
 the Calhoun of the Choctaw. 
 
 Humecheto. Original, Hum-ma-chi-toh, Big Red. The 
 ancient Choctaw name of a creek in Choctaw county, Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
 Ittibano, Original, It-ti-ba-no-wah, walking together. 
 The nanl'e of an ancient Choctaw village in Mississippi. 
 
 Issaquena. Original, Issiok-hina, Deer Branch. The 
 name of a town in Mississippi. 
 
 Koonowa. Original, Ka-no-wa, the walker. The name 
 of an ancient Choctaw hunter. 
 
 From the "Globe Democrat, July 18th, 1896," from the 
 New Orleans Picayune, the following derivation and inter- 
 pretation given by one I. H. Watkins, of the Chickisaw word 
 Itawamba, the name of a county in north Miassisippi. He 
 gives the original as "Ita-taka-lombi," with the interpretation 
 thereof, "Go and kill." Now the words in the Chickasaw 
 language for go and kill are, mi-ah miclj»a-ub-ih. The Choc- 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. . 599 
 
 taws have identically the same, words nor have either any- 
 other words for "go and kill," The word "Ita-taka-lombi"' 
 is utterly foreign to both languages. 
 
 Itawamba. Original, It-i-ai-o-bin-i-ll, Wooden seat. That 
 is, the seat occupied by the ancient Chickasaw chief im 
 council assembled. Sometimes it was called Ai-o-bin-i-li,. 
 Bench or seat; fa-lai-a, (long) mi-ko (chief), i. e. Long Bencb 
 Chief ; or Chief of the Long Bench. In our phraseology,. 
 The Chair of State. 
 
 Loosascoona, Original, Lusa-ko-nih, black pole cat^ 
 the name of a creek in Mississippi. The ancient Choctaws 
 had four different names for that odoriferous little animal. 
 
 Ko-nih, the general name. 
 
 Ko-nih chuk-cho, a large striped species. 
 
 Ko-nih lu-sa, small, black species. 
 
 Ko-nih shup-ik, a peculiar kind having snouts like pigs„ 
 and feeding by rooting, according to the Choctaw tradition- 
 But had become extinct long before the advent of the mis- 
 sionaries in 1818. Evidently the ant-eater of Mexico. 
 
 Lobutchy. Original, Lah-buch-ih, to make warm. Ther 
 name of a creek in Mississippi. 
 
 Looxapalia. Original, Luk-si-toh-pul-a-lih, Swimming: 
 terrapin, a town and creek in Lamar county, Mississippi. 
 
 Lucarnatchie. Original, Lus-sah lucha, wet swamp. 
 
 Lapantie bogue. Original, La-pit-tah bok, buck creek- 
 The ancient Choctaw name of a creek in Mississippi. 
 
 Meshoba. Original, Mi-ah-shoh-bih, go in advance untiE 
 evening. The ancient Choctaw name of a place in Missis- 
 sippi. 
 
 Mouma. Original, Mo-yum-a, every one. The name of 
 an ancient Choctaw Iksa (clan) in Louisiana. Now the name 
 of a town in the same State, but changed to the name Homer. 
 
 Mishawaka. Original, Mish-a-wa-yah, raised in abund- 
 ance beyond. The name of a town in Indiana. 
 
 Mokea lusha. Original, Bok-lus-a, black creek. An an- 
 cient Choctaw village in Mississippi. 
 
 Mingo ho ma. Original, Mi-ko hum-ma, red chief. A_ 
 place in Mississippi. . . ~ 
 
 The Choctaws and Chickasaws had two traditional 
 names for the Mississippi river, as follows: 
 
 Occochappo. Original, O-^a-chash-po-hosh, The ancient 
 
 waters. , . , u 
 
 Father Allouez, a Jesuit- priest, when exploring the 
 country from Quebec to Lake Superior, in 1669, first heard 
 of a great river (which proved to be the Mississippi river)) 
 
 called — 
 
 Mecassheba. Original, Mi-ko Si-ah, Kmg I am. 
 
600 HISTORY OF THE INDi'aNS. 
 
 Neslw»l»a. Original, Na-sho-ba, Wolf. A county in Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
 Nittayuma. Original, Nit-a-yum-ma, Bear yonder. The 
 name of a creek in Mississippi, 
 
 Natchez. Original, Na-chuf-fih, to break oflf from. A 
 town in Mississippi named after an ancient tribe of Indians 
 that formerly inhabited the country on the Mississippi river; 
 exterminated January 25th, 1733 by the French under Bien- 
 ville, 
 
 Noxuljee, Original, Nak-sho-bih, offensive odor. The 
 name of a creek and also a county in Mississippi. It took 
 its name according to Choctaw tradition, from a great battle 
 fought upon its banks in the remote past, between the Choc- 
 taws and Muscogees. The Muscogees were defeated and 
 left their slain upon the battle field which were thrown into 
 the creek by the Choctaws; and such were the number that 
 the decomposing mass polluted the air for miles around. It 
 was fought in 1790 according to Choctaw tradition, with 
 500 warriors slain. 
 
 I read the following in the St. Louis Globe Democrat, of Ju- 
 ly 18th, 18%: "There isin the same state (Mississippi) a creek 
 called Noxubee. The change from the Original in this 
 word has also been very striking. The Indian form of the 
 word was Ok-a-mak-shobi. " There is no such word in the 
 Choctaw or Chickasaw languages. 
 
 Nanna Wayah. Original, Nunih Waiyah, leaning 
 mound. The name of a mound in Mississippi, previously 
 mentioned. 
 
 Ok-la-ta-ba-shih (the people's mourner) was the Noah of 
 the Choctaws, in their tradition of the flood, who made a 
 boat into which he placed his family and provisions and thus 
 saved them — truly an appropriate name. 
 
 Oska loosa. Original, Os-si lu-sa, black eagle, A town 
 in Illinois. 
 
 Opelousas. Original, O-pah lus-sah, swamp owl. The 
 name of a place in Alabama. 
 
 Oaktoma. Original, Ok-toh-bi, to be foggy. The name 
 of a creek in Mississippi. \ 
 
 Okefinokee. Original,{0-ka-hi-o-lih, waters tending. A 
 swamp in Georgia. 
 
 Ossachile. Original, Os-si-chah-li, swift eagle'. The 
 name of an ancient Choctaw chief whom De Soto visited 
 in 1540. 
 
 Omaha. Original, 0-mi-ha.(if a Choctaw word), it must 
 be. Said to mean "To go against the current." 
 
 Osceola. Original, Os-si-o-lacbih, Singing Eagle. The 
 renowned Seminole chief and patriot. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 601 
 
 Okolona, Origiflal, Ok-la-lok-on-lih, People gathered to- 
 gether. A town in Chickasaw county, Mississippi. 
 
 Os-ki-fa-kop-lih, Stripped Cane. A large and lengthy 
 •creek in Mississippi known as Trimcane. 
 
 Ocklawaha. Original, Ok-la-yan-ha, People subject to fe- 
 ver. The name of a river in Florida. 
 
 Okeion. Original, Oka-i-ah, Moving water. The name 
 ■of a little place in Mississippi. 
 
 The beginning of the creek Oka ittibihha (by abbrevia- 
 tion Oktibihha) was known to the Choctaws as O-ka-ai-it-tu- 
 f a-ma (The coming together of the waters), and refers to 
 the junction of the seven large creeks which form it, viz: 
 
 First. — Catarper. Original, Ka-ta-pab, checked or pushed 
 back; i. e., water retarded by drifts. 
 
 Second. — Os-ki Fa-kop-lih, cane stripped of its leaves; 
 so called by the Choctaws from the abundance of switch cane 
 jfrowing upon its banks, with which, when stripped of its 
 Jeaves, they made their beautiful baskets — literally the place 
 where the cane is trimmed. 
 
 Third, — Bai-yih (white oak) Wai-yih (leaning over). 
 
 Fourth, — Bok (cr^ek) Fa-lai-ah (long). 
 
 Fifth.— Hush-ih- (sun) Bok (creek). 
 
 Sixth. — Ba-cha-ya Bok (line creek), which divided the 
 Choctaw and Chickasaw nations on the north, when living 
 east of the Mississippi river. 
 
 Seventh. — Sukatanchi. Original, Shuk-ha Ni-a-chih, 
 hogs fattened. The place where hogs are fattened. 
 
 Okahola. Original, O-ka-ho-yah, Filtered water. The 
 name of a town in Marion county, Mississippi. 
 
 Oktibbehaw. Original, O-ka-it-tib-ih-ka, The water 
 fight. A county in Mississippi. The name given by the 
 -ancient Choctaws to a large creek flowing into the Bigbee 
 river above the town of Columbus, Miss., now known as Tibi, 
 <corruption of Ittibih, having fought). It took its name, ac- 
 cording to Choctaw tradition, from a great battle fought 
 between the Choctaws and Musco^ees years before the ad- 
 vent of the whites, in which the Muscogees occupied the 
 north side of the creek and the Choctaws the south, shooting 
 iheir arrows across the creek. The Choptaws were de- 
 feated, but soon reinforcements returned and drove the 
 Muscogees out of their country. 
 
 Opelika. Original, Ok-pul-ila-ka, The liljr by itself— the 
 lone lily. The name of a missionary society in Alabama. 
 
 OktarkthalapuUa. Original, Ok^tark-toh-boko-lih, bluish 
 white prairie. A beautiful prairie in the southwestern part 
 of Oktibbehaw county, Mississippi, six miles southwest of 
 Starkville, known, before brought into cultivation, as "The 
 
602 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 Blue Prairie." It was a peculiar looking^ prairie, presenting a 
 lonely and melancholy appearance, neq^rly round, perfectly 
 level and extending nearly two miles eich way without a tree 
 or shrub upon it, but covered with a carpet of grass stand- 
 ing (in the summer season) from two to three feet in height. 
 It was the last prairie between Starkville and tbe Mississippi 
 river, surrounded by magnificent forests of oak and pine, m 
 which were found wild game in sufficient quantities to glad- 
 den the heart of the most fastidious lover of the chase; in 
 which I, with other congenial spirits, fully shared and enjoy- 
 ed many years ere progress blotted it out. 
 
 Okahatchee. Original, Ok-la-huch-cha, river people. 
 An ancient Choctaw village whose people used river water. 
 
 Oaklehy. Original, Ok-la-le-lih, People who plow. The 
 name of an ancient Choctaw village in which several white 
 families lived. 
 
 Otocklawfa. Original, Ok-tah-lau-a, Many prairies. A 
 town in Mississippi. 
 
 Oaktewally. Original, O-ti-wa-lih, Exhibiting chestnuts. 
 The name of a little town in Mississippi. 
 
 Okatomie. Original, Ok-a-to-mih, Sunshine in water. 
 The name of an ancient Choctaw village in Mississippi. 
 
 Okenachitto. Original, Ok-hin-a-chi-toh, Big stream. 
 The Chocktaw name of a large creek in Mississippi. 
 
 Okshaw^Ii. Original, Ok-shau-a-lih, Light complexion. 
 The name of an ancient Choctaw town, among whose peo- 
 ple were many of fair complexions. 
 
 Osyka. Original, Os-si-ka, The Eagle. A town in Pike 
 county, Mississippi. 
 
 Ofahoma. Original, O-fi-hum-ma, Red dog. Town in 
 Leake county, Mississippi. 
 
 Okachickama. Original, O-ka-chukma, Good water. 
 The capital of Yalobusha county, Mississippi. 
 
 Yalobusha. Original, Ya-lo-ba-ai-a-sha, Tadpoles, 
 abound. 
 
 Onalaska. Original, CVna-lu-chah, To arrive being wet. 
 A town in Arkansas. 
 
 Okatibbee. Original, 0-ka-it-tib-ih, Water fight, i. e. A 
 battle across the water. A town in Lauderdale county, 
 Mississippi. 
 
 Oktoc. Original, Ok-tak, prairie. A town in Oktibbeha 
 county, Mississippi. 
 
 Pillahatchee. Original, Pil-lah-huch-cha, far oflf river. 
 A river in Rankin county, Mississippi. 
 
 "Ponchatoula, a Choctaw word," says the St. Louis 
 Globe DumockAT of July 18, 1896, "is a corruption of Pan- 
 chagoul.'i, which, according to the declaration of the well in- 
 
I 
 HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 603 
 
 formed superintendent of the Choctaw schoolsin Mississippi, 
 a gentlemen who speaks the Choctaw language fluently^ 
 means pond lilly." The Choctaw words for "pond lily" afe 
 Haiyip (pond) Okpul (lily). 
 
 Pasgagoula, Original, Pus-ka-ok-la, people having 
 bread. A town in Jackson county, Mississippi. 
 
 Solgohachia, a town in Arkansas. Original, Sok-ko- 
 huch-cha, Muscadine river. 
 
 Panola. Original, Po-no-la, cotton; the name of a coun- 
 ty in north Mississippi. 
 
 Pachuta. Original, Pa-sho-hah, to handle, a town in 
 Perry county, Mississippi. 
 
 Piache. Original, Pi-e-shih, to care for us, the name 
 of an ancient Choctaw town which De Soto passed through 
 in October, 1540. 
 
 Puchcheyanshoba. Original, Pu-chi-yo-shu-bah, pigeon 
 to be lost — Strayed Pigeon, ancient Choctaw village. 
 
 Pantotoc. Original, Pa-ki-tak-oh-lih, grapes hung up — 
 Hanging Grapes, the name of a town in north Mississippi. 
 
 Seneasha. Original, Si-nih-ai-an-ta, sycamore abound, 
 the name of a little branch in Mississippi, 
 
 Shetimasha. Original, Shit-til-e-mah-ai-a-shah, Habitation 
 of the disdainful. The Shittilemahaiasbah Indians of St. 
 Mary's Parish, Louisiana, are evidently a remanent of an 
 ancient Choctaw Iksa (clan), a few feeble sparks still linger- 
 ing in the ashes of their exterminated Iksa. 
 
 Senatobia. Original, Sin-ih-toh-bih-a, My white syca- 
 more. The name of a town in Tate county, Mississippi. 
 
 Shubuta. Original, Sho-bo-tah, Smoking. A little town 
 in Clarke county, Mississippi. 
 
 Siboglahatcha. Original, Is-su-ba-ok-la-hU-cha, Horse 
 river people i. e. People living, on h(!)rse river. A creek and 
 town in Calhoun county, Mississippi. 
 
 Suqualak. Original, Shauwa-lah, widely branching. A 
 town in Noxubee county, Mississippii. The name also of a 
 small creek emptying into Noxubee near the great ball play 
 ground, upon which, in 1790, was fought the great battle be- 
 fore mentioned. 
 
 Sukatanche. Of iginal, Shuk-ha ne-a-chih, fattened hogs; 
 i. e.-, the place where hogs fatten. A large creek in north 
 Mississippi and town in Kemper county, Mississippi. 
 
 Tangipahoa. Original, Tun-chi-pa sho-hab, corn hand- 
 led — Vvhere corn was bought and sold. 
 
 Tallula. Original, Ta-lo-ho ah, continually singing. The 
 name of the falls of a river in Georgia, said to be 536 feet. 
 
 Talluhah. Original, Tal-lu-hah, a bell. A town in Lou- 
 siana. 
 
604 HISTORY OK THE INDIANS. 
 
 Tuskogee. Original, Tush-ka-ko-cha, weather warrior, 
 i. e., a warrior who foretells the weather. 
 
 Tallasfaa. Original, Ta-la-ai-ar-sha, Palmetto abound. 
 The place of palmettoes. 
 
 Toonisuba. Original, To-no-lihis-su-ba, rolling horse. 
 A place in Mississippi. 
 
 Talletuluck. Original, Ta-le-tul-i, Palmetto rock. Pal- 
 metto by a rock. A town in Kemper county Mississippi. 
 
 Tacaleeche. Original, Tak-a-li-chih, to put down, 
 town in Benton county Mississippi. Town and river in 
 Panola county Mississippi. 
 
 Tullahoma. Original, Tul-i-hum-ma, red stone, rock or 
 iron. Town in Jones county Mississippi. 
 
 Wantubbee. Original, Ai-an-ta-ub-ih, To be at and kill. 
 A little place in Mississippi. 
 
 .Winona, Original, Wa-ton-la, A crane. A town in Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
 Yakanookane. Original, Yak-ni-nak-ish-wa-na, Cat fish 
 land. A creek ip Oktibbehaw county, Mississippi. 
 
 Yoconapatawfa. Original, Yak-ni-pa-tuf-fih, Land 
 ploughed. 
 
 Waupanuckee. Original, Wak-chah-iiu-sih, To sleep 
 wide a part. A town in the present Chickasaw Nation. 
 
 Tallula. Original, Til-oh-lih, to break off. A town in 
 Issaquena county, Mississippi. 
 
 Issaquena. Original, Is-si-ok-hena, deer branch. A 
 town in Mississippi. 
 
 Tillitoba. Original, Tul-i-toh-bi, gray rock. A town in 
 Yalobusha county, Mississippi. 
 
 Taloeah. Original, Ta lo ah-i-ah, to go singing. A town 
 in Marion county, Mississippi. 
 
 Tamolah. Original, Ta mo-ah, lost. A town in Kem- 
 per county, Mississippi. 
 
 Tallase. Original, Tul-li-ai-sha, rocks abound. An an- 
 cient Choctaw village which De Soto visited in 1540. 
 
 Toccopola. Original, Tosh-bo-ko li, mouse colored. A 
 town in LaPayette county, Mississippi, 
 
 Toomsuba. Original, Ta-is-su-ba, because or in as 
 much as a horse. A town in Lauderdale county, Mississippi. 
 
 Topisaw. Original, Tah-pi-sah, to see now. A town in 
 Pike county, Mississippi 
 
 Talawah. Original, Ta-lo ah, singing. A town in Mar- 
 ion county, Mississippi. 
 
 Tubby. Original, Ub-ih, to kill. A town in Itawamba 
 county, Mississippi. 
 
 Tooanoowe. Original, To-mih-no-wa, walking in the sun- 
 shine. The nephew of Tumoachi. 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANS. 605 
 
 Tamoachih. Original, Turn o a-chi, you lost. Chief of 
 the Yamacaws, with whom Oglethorpe established a never 
 violated treaty. 
 
 Yamacaw. Original, Yum-mak-ka-sha-pah, That one 
 to be a part. The name of an ancient clan of Choctaws at 
 the time Oglethorpe founded Savannah, Georgia, February 
 1st, 1733. ^ 
 
 Tuscola. Original, Tah-ok-la, ' Now a people. A town 
 in Leake county, Mississippi. 
 
 Chickasaw'bogue. Original, Chik-a-sah-bok, Chickasaw 
 creek. Town in Mobile county, Alabama. 
 
 Choccolocco. Original, Chuk-cho-sok-koh, Thick maple 
 or maple grove. Town in Calhoun county, Alabama. ^ 
 
 Choctawhatchie. Original, Chah-tah-huch-cha, Choctaw 
 river. Town in Henry county, Alabama. 
 
 Senauki. Original, Kin-nak-li, Limping. The wife of 
 Tumoachi, 
 
 Clayhatchie. Original, Chash-ah-huch-cha, Rattling or 
 rippling river. Town in Dale county, Alabama. 
 
 _ Enitachopco. Original, E-nit-tak ok chah, we awaken 
 at day. A town in Clay county Alabama. 
 
 Looxapalia. Original, Luk-si-ok pul-a lih, swim ing ter- 
 rapin. A town and creek in Lamar county Alabama. 
 
 Loachapoha. Original, Lau-a-chih-fo-hah, making many 
 to rest. Town in Lee county Alabama. 
 
 Talladega. Original, Tal-a-ti-hah, pulled up palmetto. 
 Town and county in Alabama. 
 
 Tallahatta. Original, Tal-a-hut-a, standing palmetto. 
 A town in Clark county, Alabama. 
 
 Tallassahatchee. Original, Tal-a-sa-huch-cha, I am the 
 palmetto river. A town in Calhoun county, Alabama. 
 
 Tallula. Original, Tul-u-la, a bell. A town in Fayette 
 county, Alabama. ( 
 
 Talucah. Original, Ta-lo-ah, singing. A town in Mor- 
 gan county, Alabama. 
 
 Tallapoosa. Original, Tul-i-po-shi, Iron dust. A county 
 in Alabama. 
 
 Tuscahoma. Original, Tush-ka-hum-ma, red warrior. 
 A town in Choctaw county Alabama. 
 
 Tuscaloosa. Original, Tush-ka-lu-sa, black warrior. 
 A town and county in Alabama. 
 
 Tuscumbia. Original, Tush-ka-um-ba chi, I'ainmaker 
 warrior. A town in Colbert county, Alabama. Name of an 
 ancient Chickasaw chief renowned as a medicine war chief 
 and contemporary with the famous Chickasaw chief, John 
 Colbert. 
 
606 HISTORY OF THE INDfANS. 
 
 Wauchula. Original, Lau-a-ch u-la, many foxes. A 
 town in De Soto county, Florida. 
 
 Chuluota. Original, Chu-la-an-tah, a fox stays — where 
 foxes abound. A town in Orange county, Florida. 
 
 OUtahatchee. Original, Ok-tak-huch-cha, Pr<iirie river. 
 A town in Hamilton county, Florida. 
 
 Oclawaha. Original, O-ka-lau-a-ha, Many times water. 
 Town in Lake county, Florida. That is, in riding over the 
 country your way is obstructed by lakes, lagoons and ponds. 
 
 Chattahoochee. Original, Chuk-lih-huch-cha, Rapid 
 river. A town in Fulton county, Georgia, and river in 
 Georgia. 
 
 Chenubee. Original, Chi-a-ub-ih, You kill. Town in 
 Webster county, Georgia. 
 
 Chokee. Original, Cho-ki, A martin. Town in Lee 
 county, Georgia. 
 
 Ossahutchee. Original, Os-si-huch-cha, Eagle river. A 
 town in Harris county Georgia. A river upon which eagles 
 abound. 
 
 Sallacoa. Original, Sa-la-ko-fah, I made a notch. A town 
 in Cherokee county, Georgia. 
 
 Chinchuba, Original, Chin-is-su-ba, thy horse. Town 
 in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. 
 
 Chepola, Original, Che-pu-li, Town in St. Helena 
 Parish, Louisiana. The name given by the ancient Choc- 
 taws to a favorite dance, the termination of a protracted 
 feast and general good time. 
 
 Chacahoula. Original, Chit-oh-hul-wa, large soft shell 
 turtle. A town in Terre Bonne, Louisiana. 
 
 Coushatta. Original, Kau-ah-shak-ba, broken arm. A 
 town in Red River Parish, Lousiana. 
 
 Hitchiti. Original, Hish-i-it-ih, hairmouth — whiskers. 
 An ancient Choctaw clan. A remnant ®f which are now liv- 
 ing among the Creeks, Indian Territory; they did not move 
 in 1833 with the Choctaws, but remained east of the Missis- 
 sippi river, until the exodus of the Creeks and came with 
 them, and with whom they have still remained. 
 
 Professor Campbell, of the Presbyterian College, Mon- 
 treal, believes that he has found the key to the Hittite fof 
 Biblical fame) inscriptions, and has sent the result of his 
 investigation to the Society of Biblical Archaeology. It is 
 said that the most striking and important feature of this 
 work is the identity established by Professor Campbell, as 
 he believes, between the Aztecs and the Hittites. He con- 
 cludes a statement of his discovery in the Montreal Witness, 
 as follows: "It is interesting to know that we have on this 
 continent the remains of a people who played a great part in 
 
HISTORY OF THE INDIANa. 607 
 
 ancient history. It is also gratifying to learn that by the 
 establishment of the Hittite oripi-in of the Aztecs, evolutions 
 in philolog"y and ethnology will receive its death blow." 
 
 Now, if the Aztecs be of Hittite origin, and the Choctaws 
 and Chickasaws of Aztec origin, of which there is more than 
 a probability — if their ancient legends and traditions are re- 
 liable — may not the Choctaw words Hishih itih (the name of 
 one of their ancient Iksas^ be itself a corruption of the 
 Hittite, and not only confirming their eastern traditional mi- 
 gration in the years of ages passed, but also pointing back 
 even to a Hittite origin ? 
 
This preservation photocopy was made and hand bound at 
 
 BookLab, Inc., in compliance with copyright law. 
 
 The paper is Weyerhaeuser Cougar Opaque 
 
 Natural, which exceeds ANSI 
 
 Standard Z39.48-1984. 
 
 1993