siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEKEMONIAL. LIFE 183
Their devoted love of country may be traced to their traditions and customs.
No people cherished more reverence for the dead. If a member of a family
died from home, no matter hovp far, it was the ancient usage to carry his
body back; or if that was impracticable, his ashes or his bones. To prove that
a man had been buried in or adjacent to the house that he occupied, was
considered conclusive proof of occupancy and domicile ; a custom that prevailed
so long and universally in the tribe, the Commissioners adopted it in their
adjudications."
In Hodgson's time (1820) the pole-pulling ceremony had
already replaced scaffolding and bone-picking. His information is
based in part on direct observation.
As soon as it appeared to be twelve o'clock by the sun, three of the Indian
women covered themselves with blankets, and approached a little spot in the
garden, enclosed by six upright poles, on the highest of which were suspended
several chaplets of vine leaves and tendrils: here they either sat or kneeled
(the blankets preventing our seeing which) for about twenty minutes, utter-
ing a low monotonous wailing. This mournful ceremony they repeat, at sunrise,
noon, and sun-set, for ninety days, or three moons, as the Egyptians
mourned for Jacob threescore and ten days. I have since been informed
by a very intelligent Indian, that the period of mourning is sometimes extended
to four or five moons, if the individual be deeply regretted, or of eminent rank
and that it is occasionally determined by the time occupied in killing the
deer and other animals necessary for the great feast which is often given at
the pulling up of the poles.
At the celebrated ceremony of the " pole-pulling," the family connexions
assemble from a great distance; and, when they are particular in observing
the ancient customs, they spend two or three days and nights in solemn prep-
aration and previous rites. They then all endeavour to take hold of some part
of the poles, which they pluck up and throw behind them without looking,
moving backward toward the East. They then feast together, and disperse to
their several homes. . . .
Till within ten or fifteen years, the Choctaws generally killed the favourite
horses or dogs of the deceased, and buried them, with his gun and hatchet, in
his grave. They still sometimes bury the gun ; but it is too frequently stolen
and they now satisfy themselves with believing that the spirits of the horses
and dogs will rejoin that of their master at their death.^^ The settlement of
White people among them, and occasional intermarriages, have undermined
many of their customs. The Choctaws formerly scaffolded their dead, in a
house appropriated for the purpose, in their different towns ; and in these
houses, the various families were kept distinct. Sometimes they bury them
in their dwellings, like the ancient Egyptians."
The Missionary Herald gives the following account of the pole-
pulling ceremony just before the Choctaw emigration
The ceremony of pole-pulling, mentioned in the preceding letter, has pre-
vailed in all parts of the Choctaw nation, and is attended with great rioting
and dissoluteness. Perhaps no one thing tends so much to debase the people,
•*' Claiborne, Miss., i, p. 517.
" At an earlier date articles were placed on the scaffold where the body was first laid.
The disposition then made of the horse and dog Is not clear.
"Hodgson, Travels, pp. 270-271.