siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

Q BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 103
Adair, a still earlier English writer, does not give a Choctaw
migration story distinct from that which he obtained from the Chick-
asaw.^ In the latter the Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Chakchiuma are
represented as having come from the west " as one people." However,
he vouchsafes us our earliest description of the hill of Nanih
Waiya, the site of the hole out of which Komans tells us this nation
came.
About 12 miles from the upper northern parts of the Choktah country, there
stand on a level tract of land, the north-side of a creek, and within arrow-shot
of it, two oblong mounds of earth, which were old garrisons, in an equal
direction with each other, and about two arrow-shots apart. A broad deep ditch
inclosed those two fortresses, and there they raised an high breast-work, to
secure their houses from the invading enemy. This was a stupendous piece of
work, for so small a number of savages, as could support themselves in it;
their working instruments being only of stone and wood. They called those old
fortresses Nanne Yah, " the hills, or mounts, of God." *
As usual, Adair has allowed himself to be carried away by his
theory of a Hebrew origin of the American Indians. The " Nanne
Yah " is actually Nanih Waiya, and, although he has translated the
first word correctly, the second certainly has no reference to the
Hebrew Yahweh. Most recent authorities, including the noted Choctaw
student, H. S. Halbert, spell this name Nanih Waiya. Halbert
says:
The adjective Waiya signifies "bending," "leaning over," but it is difficult
to see the appropriateness of the term as applied to the mound. According to the
conjecture of the writer, the tei'm was originally applied to the circular rampart,
which the Choctaws may have considered a kind of bending hill. And in
process of time the name could have become so extended as to be applied to the
mound and rampart conjointly, and ultimately restricted to the mound alone,
as is now the case in popular usage.°
Schermerhorn (1814) tells us that
An old Indian gave ... a very rational explication of the [Choctaw] tradi-
tion, that they sprung out of the mound between the forks of Pearl River.
The banks of these streams are a marsh, and at that time probably formed
an impassable ravine. There is an embankment, which served as a fortification
from one branch to the other, and which, with the ravines, encloses an area
of nearly three miles. He observed to the agent, S. Dinsmore, " that their
ancestors, when they arrived in this country, knew not what the inhabitants
were; for their own protection, therefore, they cast up this mound, and en-
closed and fortified this area, to plant their corn, and as a defence against
enemies. This mound served as a place for look-out, to give notice of the
approach of invaders. When this was accomplished, they sent out their hunters
to see what were the inhabitants of the land. These on their return reported,
that they could dwell in safety, that the land was good, and game in aliundance.
a See Forty-fouitn Ann. Kept. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., p. 174.
* Adair, Hist. Amer. Inds., pp. 377-378.
"Pubs. Miss. Hist. Soc, II, p. 224. For another explanation of the name see p. 13.