siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

SOURCE MATERIAL FOR THE SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL
LIFE OF THE CHOCTAW INDIANS
By John R. Swanton
INTRODUCTION
Each of the larger tribes which formerly occupied portions of the
Gulf region of our country had its own peculiar characteristics, and
this was as true of those known to have belonged to the same
linguistic stock as of tribes alien to one another in this respect. One
associates with the Natchez a developed solar worship with a temple
and perpetual fire, absolutism in government, and tragic funeral rites
with the Creeks a highly developed clan system, a confederate organi-
zation second in North America above Mexico to the Iroquois only,
striking annual ceremonies, and prowess in war ; with the Chickasaw
warlike prowess of a still higher order, second to none except perhaps
that exhibited by the Iroquois, and a social organization reminiscent
of both Creeks and Choctaw. The feeling of a student for the
Choctaw, however, might be described as of a powerful indefinite-
ness. Although during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the
disparity in numbers between this tribe and the Creeks was probably
not so great as it later became, the Choctaw were always, it is
believed, the more populous and they appear to have been six or
eight times as numerous as the Chickasaw. They lived as near to the
French as the Creeks did to the English and much nearer than the
Chickasaw. The important relation they bore to French colonial
dominion, since they covered the flank of the Louisiana colony and
the mouth of the Mississippi, was well recognized, and relations
between them and the French, Spaniards, and Americans in succes-
sion were constant and intimate. Friends and foes alike testify to
their courage, and a modified form of their language had become a
trade medium which extended throughout most of the territory of
the present States of Mississippi and Louisiana and along the whole
of the lower Mississippi River. Yet how poorly press agented were
the Choctaw is shown by the fact that this trade language received
its name either from the Chickasaw or the little Mobile tribe. The
fact of the matter is there were few customs observable among them
sufficiently striking to attract the attention of European travelers
little " copy stuff," in other words, such as would interest officers of
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