siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL. LIFE 81
Cushman mentions two original moieties, " subsequently divided
into six clans," thus confirming Wright, but the names which he gives
to the latter are wholly different, including those of the three great
geographical divisions, and three of the smaller local groups.
They are the Okla falaya, Haiyip atokola, Okla hannali, Konshak,
Chickasawhay, and Apela (" a help ") , all but the last of which
are well kiiown.^^
The remaining divisions apparently correspond to the local groups,
or " house names," of the Chickasaw, Perhaps Dr. Gideon Lincecum,
an old resident among the Choctaw before they removed from Mississippi,
best expresses the internal organization of the nation when
he says, speaking of the three major territorial divisions of the Choctaw
Nation, "each district was subdivided, with but little system,
into Iksas, or kindred clans, and each of these Iksas had its leader."
My own informant, Simpson Tubby, said much the same thing. " The
same iksa was spread through a number of towns, and there might be
several in each." He attributed exogamy to the iksa instead of to
the moieties, of which he remembered nothing, saying, "If it was
found that two people of the same iksa had married, they were sepa-
rated even though they belonged to different towns. Sometimes a
man pretended that he belonged to an iksa different from that of a
woman whom he wished to marry, when in fact it was the same,
and did marry her, but as soon as the truth was known they were
separated." In the breakdown of an old exogamic system, however,
among tribes having clans and moieties, it commonly happens that
clan exogam.y is maintained for a time after moiety exogamy has
been abandoned.
In fact these local groups seem to have been of all sizes and grades
of importance, and were probably frequently increased by subdivision
or the incorporation of foreign elements and decreased by the dying
out of older iksas. At the present day it is impossible to make any-
thing like a complete list of iksas, and I do not feel sure that the
names which I give are all properly used in this coimection. They
are the following : Bok Chito, " Big Stream," on the stream so called
(Bogue Chitto), which flows into Pearl River near its head, the
only iksa to remain aloof from missionary teachings; Biasha, "Mul-
berry place," still living a few miles west of Philadelphia, Miss.;
Okla hannali, " Sixtowns," in and about Jasper County, Miss. ; Okla
untuklo, " Seven towns," near Hays, about 23 miles southwest of
Philadelphia; Yakan-okani, "Land Creek," just west of Carthage,
in Leake County, Miss. ; Haiyip atokola, " Second lake," or " Two
lakes," in the northeastern part of the old Mississippi territory ;^^
'8 C. B. Cushman, Plist. Choc, Chick., and Natchez Iiids., p. 73. Tosslbly Apela Is
intended for Athlepele (see pp. 65, 74).
Cushman speaks of a Choctaw named Apakfolichipubih, a contemporary of Apushmataha,
belonging to this iksa. (Cushman, p. 336.)