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S WANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL. AND CEREMONIAL LIFE 125
A half-breed Choctaw, married to a Chickasaw, encountered by
the missionary Hodgson in 1820, told him
That great changes had taken place among Indians, even in his time—that
in many tribes, when he was young, the children, as soon as they rose, were
made to plunge in the water, and swim, in the coldest weather ; and were then
collected on the bank of the river, to learn the manners and customs of their
ancestors, and hear the old men recite the traditions of their forefathers.
They were assembled again, at sunset, for the same purpose ; and were taught
to regard as a sacred duty, the transmission to their posterity of the lessons
thus acquired. . . . He said, that this custom is now abandoned by all the
tribes with which he is acquainted, except, to use his own words, " where there
is, here and there, an old ancient fellow, who upholds the old way "—that many
have talked of resuming their old customs, which the whites have gradually
undermined; but are unable, from the loss of their traditions.^
From other matters communicated to Hodgson by this Indian and
from the statement, reiterated by several of our best authorities,
that most of the Choctaw were unable to swim, it is evident that
this man's testimony applied rather to the Creeks or Chickasaw
than to the Choctaw, and it is therefore of but slight assistance, nor
do our later authorities mention the subject in other than an inci-
dental way. Claiborne but confirms the testimony of all other
writers on the southeastern Indians when he says : " In all that
concerns the child, the oldest maternal uncle, or if he is dead, the
nearest male relative in that line is consulted. Instances frequently
came before the Commissioners," he adds, " where a wife, though
living happily with her husband, was induced by the maternal uncle
to take her children and go west after ' leaving him,' as one of them
expressed it, ' without cook, child, or comrade.' . . .
" It is the right of the wife, when a separation takes place, to
take all the children to aid her to live, and even after her death her
relatives have a claim to them paramount to the father." °^
Cushman says
But little restraint, parental or otherwise, was placed upon their children,
hence they indulged in any and all amusements their fancy might suggest.
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 in the chase, they only yearned for the time when they might
emulate them in heroic achievements ; and one would very naturally infer
that these boys, ignorant of all restraint from youth to manhood, would have
been, when arrived at 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
«« Hodgson, Travels, pp. 278-279.