The southwestern area of the Maskoki territory was occupied by the
Cha'hta people, and in the eighteenth century this was probably the
most populous of all Maskoki divisions. They dwelt in the middle and
southern parts of what is now Mississippi State, where, according to
early authors, they had from fifty to seventy villages; they then
extended from the Mississippi to Tombigbee river, and east of it.
The tribes of Tuskalusa or Black Warrior, and that of Mauvila, which
offered such a bold resistance to H. de Soto's soldiers, were of
Cha'hta lineage, though it is not possible at present to state the
location of their towns at so remote a period.
On account of their vicinity to the French colonies at Mobile, Biloxi,
New Orleans, and on other points of the Lower Mississippi, the Cha'hta
associated early with the colonists, and became their allies in Indian
wars. The French and British traders called them Têtes-Plattes,
Flatheads. In the third French war against the Naktche a large body of
Cha'hta warriors served as allies under the French commander, and on
January 27, 1730, before daylight, made a furious onslaught on their
principal village, killing sixty enemies and rescuing fifty-nine
French women and children and one hundred and fifty negro slaves
previously captured by the tribe (Claiborne, Mississippi, I, 45. 46).
In the Chicasa war fourteen hundred Cha'hta Indians aided the French
army in its attack on the Chúka p'háraah or Long-House Town, as
auxiliaries (Adair, History, p. 354).
They continued friends of the French until (as stated by Romans,
Florida, p. 74) some English traders found means to draw the eastern
party and the district of Coosa (together called Oypat-oocooloo,
"small nation") into a civil war with the western divisions, called
Oocooloo-Falaya ("long tribe"), Oocooloo-Hanalé ("six tribes"), and
Chickasawhays, which, after many conflicts and the destruction of East
Congeeto, ended with the peace of 1763.
The Cha'hta did not rely so much on the products of the chase, as
other tribes, but preferred to till the ground extensively and with
care. Later travelers, like Adair, depict their character and morality
in very dark colors. In war, the Cha'hta east of the Mississippi river
were less aggressive than those who resided west of it, for the policy
of keeping in the defensive agreed best with their dull and slow
disposition of mind. About 1732, the ordinary, though contested
boundary between them and the Creek confederacy was the ridge that
separates the waters of the Tombigbee from those of the Alabama river.
Their principal wars, always defensive and not very sanguinary, were
fought with the Creeks; in a conflict of six years, 1765-1771, they
lost about three hundred men (Gallatin, Synopsis, p. 100). Claiborne
mentions a battle fought between the two nations on the eastern bank
of Noxubee river, about five miles west of Cooksville, Noxubee County,
Mississippi. Charles Dobbs, the settler at the farm including the
burying-ground of those who fell in that battle, opened it in 1832,
and found many Spanish dollars in the graves. It was some three
hundred yards northeast of the junction of Shuqualak creek with the
river. A decisive victory of the Cha'hta took place at Nusic-heah, or
Line creek, over the Chocchuma Indians, who belonged to the Chicasa
connection; the battle occurred south of that creek, at a locality
named Lyon's Bluff.[64]
[Footnote 64: Claiborne, Mississippi, Appendix, I, p. 485. 486.]
Milfort establishes a thorough distinction between the northern and
the southern Cha'hta as to their pursuits of life and moral character.
The Cha'hta of the northern section are warlike and brave, wear
garments, and crop their hair in Creek fashion. The southern Cha'hta,
settled on fertile ground west of Mobile and southwest of Pascogoula,
are dirty, indolent and cowardly, miserably dressed and inveterate
beggars. Both sections could in his time raise six thousand warriors
(p. 285-292). The mortuary customs, part of which were exceedingly
barbaric, are spoken of with many details by Milfort (p. 292-304);
their practices in cases of divorce and adultery (p. 304-311) are
dwelt upon by several other writers, and were of a revolting
character.[65]
[Footnote 65: Cf. B. Romans, E. and W. Florida, p. 86-89.]
No mention is made of the "great house" or "the square" in Cha'hta
towns, as it existed in every one of the larger Creek communities, nor
of the green corn dance. But they had the favorite game of chunké, and
played at ball between village and village (B. Romans, p. 79. 80). The
men assisted their wives in their agricultural labors and in many
other works connected with the household.[66] The practice of
flattening the heads extended to the male children only; the Aimará of
Peru observed the same exclusive custom.
[Footnote 66: B. Romans, p. 86. He describes education among the
Cha'hta, p. 76. 77; the sarbacane or blow-gun, p. 77.]
The collecting and cleaning of the bones of corpses was a custom
existing throughout the southern as well as the northern Indians east
of Mississippi river, and among some tribes west of it. Every tribe
practiced it in a different manner; the Cha'hta employed for the
cleaning: "old gentlemen with very long nails," and deposited the
remains, placed in boxes, in the bone houses existing in every
town.[67] Tombigbee river received its name from this class of men:
itúmbi-bíkpi "coffin-maker." The Indians at Fort Orange or Albany
(probably the Mohawks) bound up the cleaned bones in small bundles and
buried them: De Vries, Voyages (1642) p. 164; the Nanticokes removed
them to the place from which the tribe had emigrated (Heckewelder,
Delawares, p. 75 sq.) Similar customs were observed among the
Dakota-Santees, Shetimashas and several South American tribes.
Captain Smith mentions the quiogozon or burial place of Virginia
chiefs.[68]
[Footnote 67: B. Romans, p. 89. 90.]
[Footnote 68: Cf. Lawson, History of Carolina (Reprint 1860), p.
297. More information on Cha'hta burials will be found in H. C.
Yarrow, _Indian mortuary customs_; in First Report of U. S.
Bureau of Ethnology, 1879-1880; especially p. 185.]
The Cha'hta also had the custom, observed down to the present century,
of setting up poles around their new graves, on which they hung hoops,
wreaths, etc., for the spirit to ascend upon. Around these the
survivors gathered every day at sunrise, noon, sunset, emitting
convulsive cries during thirty to forty days. On the last day all
neighbors assembled, the poles were pulled up, and the lamentation
ended with drinking, carousing and great disorders.[69]
[Footnote 69: Missionary Herald of Boston, 1828 (vol. xxiv) p.
380, in an article on Religious Opinions, etc., of the Choctaws,
by Rev. Alfred Wright.]
The Chicasa are not known to have settled _west_ of the Mississippi
river to any extensive degree, but their southern neighbors and
relations, the Cha'hta, did so at an early epoch, no doubt prompted by
the increase of population. The Cha'hta emigrating to these western
parts were looked at by their countrymen at home in the same light as
the Seminoles were by the Creeks. They were considered as outcasts, on
account of the turbulent and lawless elements which made up a large
part of them.
On the middle course of Red river Milfort met a body of Cha'hta
Indians, who had quitted their country about 1755 in quest of better
hunting grounds, and were involved in frequent quarrels with the
Caddos (p. 95).
The French found several Cha'hta tribes, as the Bayogoula, Huma and
Acolapissa, settled upon Mississippi river. In the eighteenth century
the inland Shetimasha on Grand Lake were constantly harassed by
Cha'hta incursions. About 1809 a Cha'hta village existed on Washita
river, another on Bayou Chicot, Opelousas Parish, Louisiana. Morse
mentions for 1820 twelve hundred Cha'hta Indians on the Sabine and
Neche rivers, one hundred and forty on Red river near Nanatsoho, or
Pecan Point, and many lived scattered around that district. At the
present time (1882), encampments of Biloxis, who speak the Cha'hta
language, exist in the forests of Louisiana south of Red river.
The Cha'hta nation is formally, though not locally, divided into two
íksa (yéksa) or _kinships_, which exist promiscuously throughout their
territory. These divisions were defined by Allen Wright as: 1.
Kasháp-úkla or kashápa úkĕla (ókla) "part of the people;" 2. Úkla
iⁿhulá'hta "people of the headmen."
Besides this, there is another formal division into three ókla,
districts or _fires_, the names of which were partly alluded to in the
passage from B. Romans:
ókla fálaya "long people";
áhepat ókla "potato-eating people";
ókla hánnali "Sixtown people," who used a special dialect.
The list of Cha'hta gentes, as printed in Lewis H. Morgan, _Ancient
Society_,[70] stands as follows:
[Footnote 70: Published New York, 1877. pp. 99. 162.]
_First phratry:_ kúshap ókla or Divided People. Four gentes: 1.
kush-iksa, _reed gens_. 2. Law okla. 3. Lulak-iksa. 4. Linoklusha.
_Second phratry:_ wátaki huláta or Beloved People, "people of
head-men": Four gentes: 1. chufan íksa, _beloved people_. 2. iskuláni,
_small (people)_; 3. chito, _large (people)_; 4. shakch-úkla,
_cray-fish people_.
Property and the office of chief was hereditary in the gens.
As far as the wording is concerned, Morgan's list is not satisfactory,
but being the only one extant I present it as it is.
Rev. Alfred Wright, missionary of the Cha'hta, knows of six gentes
only, but states that there were two great families who could not
intermarry. These were, as stated by Morgan, the reed gens and the
chufan gens. Wright then continues: "Woman's brothers are considered
natural guardians of the children, even during father's lifetime;
counsel was taken for criminals from their phratry, the opposite
phratry, or rather the principal men of this, acting as accusers. If
they failed to adjust the case, the principal men of the next larger
division took it up; if they also failed, the case then came before
the itimoklushas and the shakch-uklas, whose decision was final. This
practice is falling in disuse now." A business-like and truly judicial
proceeding like this does much honor to the character and policy of
the Cha'hta, and will be found in but a few other Indian communities.
It must have acted powerfully against the prevailing practice of
family revenge, and served to establish a state of safety for the
lives of individuals.
More points on Cha'hta ethnography will be found in the Notes to B. F.
French, Histor. Collect, of La., III, 128-139.
The _legends_ of the Cha'hta speak of a giant race, peaceable and
agricultural (nahúllo)[71], and also of a cannibal race, both of which
they met east of the Mississippi river.
[Footnote 71: Nahúllo, nahúnlo means: greater, higher race,
eminent race; though the original meaning is that of "more
sacred, more honorable." A white man is called by the Cha'hta:
nahúllo.]
The Cha'hta trace their _mythic origin_ from the "Stooping, Leaning or
Winding Hill," Náni Wáya, a mound of fifty feet altitude, situated in
Winston county, Mississippi, on the headwaters of Pearl river. The top
of this "birthplace" of the nation is level, and has a surface of
about one-fourth of an acre. One legend states, that the Cha'hta
arrived there, after crossing the Mississippi and separating from the
Chicasa, who went north during an epidemic. Nanna Waya creek runs
through the southeastern parts of Winston county, Miss.
Another place, far-famed in Cha'hta folklore, was the "House of
Warriors," Taska-tchúka, the oldest settlement in the nation, and
standing on the verge of the Kúshtush[72]. It lay in Neshoba county,
Mississippi. It was a sort of temple, and the Unkala, a priestly
order, had the custody or care of it. The I′ksa A′numpule or
"clan-speakers" prepared the bones of great warriors for burial, and
the Unkala went at the head of the mourners to that temple, chanting
hymns in an unknown tongue.[73]
[Footnote 72: _Custusha_ creek runs into Kentawha creek,
affluent of Big Black river, in Neshoba county.]
[Footnote 73: Claiborne, Mississippi, I, p. 518.]
The curious tale of the origin of the Cha'hta from Náni Wáya has been
often referred to by authors. B. Romans states that they showed the
"hole in the ground," from which they came, between their nation and
the Chicasa, and told the colonists that their neighbors were
surprised at seeing a people rise at once out of the earth (p. 71).
The most circumstantial account of this preternatural occurrence is
laid down in the following narrative.[74] "When the earth was a level
plain in the condition of a quagmire, a superior being, in appearance
a _red man_, came down from above, and alighting near the centre of
the Choctaw nation, threw up a large mound or hill, called Nanne
Wayah, _stooping_ or _sloping hill_. Then he caused the red people to
come out of it, and when he supposed that a sufficient number had come
out, he stamped on the ground with his foot. When this signal of his
power was given, some were partly formed, others were just raising
their heads above the mud, emerging into light,[75] and struggling
into life.... Thus seated on the area of their hill, they were told by
their Creator they should live forever. But they did not seem to
understand what he had told them; therefore he took away from them the
grant of immortality, and made them subject to death. The earth then
indurated, the hills were formed by the agitation of the waters and
winds on the soft mud. The Creator then told the people that the earth
would bring forth the chestnut, hickory nut and acorn; it is likely
that maize was discovered, but long afterward, by a crow. Men began to
cover themselves by the long moss (abundant in southern climates),
which they tied around their waists; then were invented bow and
arrows, and the skins of the game used for clothing."
[Footnote 74: Missionary Herald, 1828, p. 181.]
[Footnote 75: Compare the poetic vision, parallel to this,
contained in Ezekiel, ch. 39.]
Here the creation of the Cha'hta is made coeval with the creation of
the earth, and some features of the story give evidence of modern and
rationalistic tendencies of the relator. Other Cha'hta traditions
state that the people came from the west, and stopped at Nani Waya,
only to obtain their laws and phratries from the Creator--a story made
to resemble the legislation on Mount Sinai. Other legends conveyed the
belief that the emerging from the sacred hill took place only four or
five generations before.[76]
[Footnote 76: Missionary Herald, 1828, p. 215.]
The emerging of the human beings from the top of a hill is an event
not unheard of in American mythology, and should not be associated
with a simultaneous _creation_ of man. It refers to the coming up of
primeval man from a lower world into a preëxistent upper world,
through some orifice. A graphic representation of this idea will be
found in the Návajo creation myth, published in Amer. Antiquarian V,
207-224, from which extracts are given in this volume below. Five
different worlds are there supposed to have existed, superposed to
each other, and some of the orifices through which the "old people"
crawled up are visible at the present time.
The published maps of the Cha'hta country, drawn in colonial times,
are too imperfect to give us a clear idea of the situation of their
_towns_. From more recent sources it appears that these settlements
consisted of smaller groups of cabins clustered together in tribes,
perhaps also after _gentes_, as we see it done among the Mississippi
tribes and in a few instances among the Creeks.
The "old Choctaw Boundary Line," as marked upon the U. S. Land Office
map of 1878, runs from Prentiss, a point on the Mississippi river in
Bolivar county (33° 37´ Lat.), Miss., in a southeastern direction to a
point on Yazoo river, in Holmes county. The "Chicasaw Boundary Line"
runs from the Tunica Old Fields, in Tunica county, opposite Helena, on
Mississippi river (34° 33´ Lat.), southeast through Coffeeville in
Yallabusha county, to a point in Sumner county, eastern part. The
"Choctaw Boundary Line" passes from east to west, following
approximately the 31° 50´ of Lat., from the Eastern boundary of
Mississippi State to the southwest corner of Copiah county. All these
boundary lines were run after the conclusion of the treaty at Doak's
Stand.
The _Cusha_ Indians, also called Coosa, Coosahs, had settlements on
the Cusha creeks, in Lauderdale county.