Origins of the Choctaw Nation
Origins of the Native American Choctaw tribe are relative to what time period you ask about. Living Choctaws are prevalent in five states today due to earlier forced migration. Location of Choctaws prior to removal has been written about by English, French and Spanish traders. Oral tradition suggests Choctaws originated from a mound of earth referred to as "Beloved Mother". Different scholars have opposing ideas about the true origin of the tribe and even now certain tribal members are quick to point out which state their clan (or ogla) hails from.
Choctaw tribe is considered a sovereign nation independent of the United States by many countries in other parts of the globe. Today, the Choctaw tribe is split into five factions within Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Oklahoma and California with a population of a little over half a million Choctaws living on tribal lands. In the past, Choctaws were democratically governed by three regional chiefs or mikos under the advisement of a head chief. Issues like war were voted on in an assembly open to all members of the tribe (Swanton 95-96). Interestingly, the American imposition on the Choctaws has created another system of governance based on location.
In Mississippi, the Choctaws who refused to be removed from their homeland by American soldiers and missionaries were forced onto oppressive reservations there. Oklahoma Choctaws were the first members of the Five Civilized Tribes to be moved West in the poorly guided and tragically undersupplied Trail of Tears series of migrations. It is notable that these first groups traveling to Oklahoma did so voluntarily without military escorts based on the promises of land grant treaties (www.ChoctawNation.com). At the beginning of the last century prior to the First World War, the American military coerced many Choctaws to move to California. These patriotic Native Americans were eager to support the war effort working in munitions plants. They were disappointed to find the promised relocation funding and housing to be inadequate and most were unable to escape the poverty found in California to return to their families in Oklahoma (www.OklaChahta.org).
At the time of the European invasion of Native American lands, the Choctaw people mainly lived in Mississippi. Their residence there is confirmed in historical writings by American missionaries in the 1800's, French traders in the 1700's and Hernando de Soto's Spanish conquistadors as early as 1540 (Swanton 4). Archaeological evidence of prehistoric Choctaws living in Mississippi is especially abundant near the large mounds of earth called "Nanih Waiya" in what is now Winston County.
Oral tradition says that the Choctaw ancestors could remember living beneath the earth and found their way above ground through a tunnel passage or cave leading to the top of a tall mound of earth (Swanton 35-37). Details of this origin myth vary. Some suggest the mounds in Mississippi to be the point of origin, saying that the tribe emanated from the Nanih Waiya Cave on the other side of the creek nearby the Nanih Waiya Mound. These days, the cave's many entrances are closed to the public (McGinnis p. 165).
Other versions insist the origin story includes a chapter about the people migrating from an original Mother Mound located somewhere far West of Mississippi and that Nanih Waiya was built as part of a citadel complex upon their arrival (Swanton 10-35).
This migration legend suggests that after "fresh, moist" Choctaws "dried in the sun," they were led across forest and river by two brothers who had a wooden pole, much like an "axis mundi" that pointed them in the right direction to a fertile valley much like the Jewish exodus to their promised land. This migration was estimated to take about forty years or three generations. When members of the tribe died along this journey, their bones were respectfully packed and carried along. The story says that just as the people began to moan under the weight of their relatives' bones, the leaders had found their destination and the wooden pole planted in the ground at each night's campsite finally stopped leaning, directing them East and finally stood upright.
In celebration of finding their homeland, a community project was designed to honor the memory of the dead and create a civic monument. The Chief of the tribe asked that all the remains be stacked high and earth piled around it for as many days as it took to for the monument to look down on the treetops. The citadel was built around these earthen monoliths.
Mississippi's Nanih Waiya contains anthropological evidence of human remains in one of the mounds that suggests it was a burial site and limited crockery and arrowheads near the area within the wall remnants show traces of the civilization that once thrived in the area. (Swanton 21). Some accounts mention the remnants of a retaining wall around the perimeter of the area adjacent the two mounds (Swanton 8-10).
(video of a choctaw stickball game above, a field sport with no protective gear, a tiny ball, more incidental bloodshed than hockey and more tackles than football)
Bibliography:
McGinnis, Helen. Hiking Mississippi: A Guide to Trails and Natural Areas
University of Mississippi Press, 1994.
University of Mississippi Press, 1994.
Swanton, John R., Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians (Contemporary American Indians)
Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2001.
Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2001.Interesting Choctaw Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choctaw
www.choctawnation.com (Oklahoma band)
www.oklachahta.org (California band)
www.choctaw.org (Mississippi band)
http://www.jenachoctaw.org/ (Louisiana band)
http://www.aiac.state.al.us/MOWA%20tribal%20history.htm (Alabama band)
http://www.uwm.edu/~michael/choctaw/retrace.html (choctaw charity during irish potato famine)
http://www.natchezbelle.org/ahgp-ms/push.htm (pushmataha)
No comments:
Post a Comment