fifty yards from it, in the southern part of Winston County, and about
four hundred yards from the Neshoba County line. The mound is oblong in
shape, lying northwest and southeast, and about forty feet in height.
Its base covers about an acre. Its summit, which is flat, has an area
of one-fourth of an acre. The mound stands on the southeastern edge of
a circular rampart, which is about a mile and a half in circumference.
In using the word "circular," reference is made to the original form
of the rampart, about one-half of which is utterly obliterated by the
plow, leaving only a semi-circle. This rampart is not or rather was
not, a continuous circle, so to speak, as it has along at intervals,
a number of vacant places or gaps, ranging from twenty to fifty yards
wide. According to Indian tradition, there were originally eighteen
parts or sections of the rampart, with the same number of gaps. Ten
of these sections still remain, ranging from fifty to one hundred and
fifty yards in length. All the sections near the mound have long since
been leveled by the plow, and in other places some of the sections
have been much reduced. But on the north, where the rampart traverses
a primeval forest it is still five feet high and twenty feet broad
at the base. The process of obliteration has been very great since
1877, when the writer first saw Nanih Waiya. Some of the sections that
could then be clearly traced in the field on the west have now utterly
disappeared. About two hundred and fifty yards north of Nanih Waiya
is a small mound, evidently a burial mound, as can be safely stated
from the numerous fragments of human bones that have been exhumed from
it by the plow and the hoe. The great number of stone relics, mostly
broken, scattered for hundreds of yards around Nanih Waiya, shows that
it was the site of pre-historic habitations. In addition to this,
the bullets and other relics of European manufacture evidence the
continuity of occupancy down within the historic period. The magnitude
of these ancient works--the mound and the rampart--together with the
legendary traditions connected with them, leads one irresistibly to
the conviction that this locality was the great center of the Choctaw
population during the pre-historic period. It should here be stated
that the symmetry of the mound has been somewhat marred by a tunnel
which was cut into it in the summer of 1896 by some _treasure-seekers_,
who vainly hoped to unearth some wonderful bonanza from out the deep
bosom of Nanih Waiya.
The name Nanih Waiya signifies Bending Hill. _Warrior_, the absurd
spelling and pronunciation should be repudiated by the map and the
history maker. 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
term 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.
According to the classification of the archæologists, Nanih Waiya is
a pyramidal mound, which kind of mounds is found almost exclusively
in the Gulf States. The chroniclers of De Soto's expedition speak
constantly of the mounds, and of these writers, Garcilaso de la
Vega tells us exactly how and why they were made. According to his
statement, in building a town, the natives first erected a mound two
or three pikes in height, the summit of which was made large enough
for twelve, fifteen or twenty houses to lodge the cacique and his
attendants. At the foot of the mound was laid off the public square,
which was proportioned to the size of the town. Around the square the
leading men had their houses, whilst the cabins of the common people
stood around the other side of the mound. From the "lay" of the land,
the writer is satisfied that the public square at Nanih Waiya was on
the north, between the mound and the small burial mound. In regard to
the rampart, it was, no doubt, surmounted by palisades, as De Soto's
writers particularly describe the palisaded walls, which surrounded the
Indian towns. As to the gaps in the rampart, the writer is convinced
that these gaps were left designedly as places for the erection of
wooden forts or towers, as additional protections to the town. The
Knight of Elvas describes the town of Pachaha as being "very great,
walled, and beset with towers, and many loop-holes were in the towers
and the wall." La Vega mentions the towers made at intervals of fifty
paces apart in the stockade wall of Maubila, each tower capable of
holding eight men. Dupratz describing the circular stockade forts which
he had seen among the Southern Indians, expressly states that "at every
forty paces a circular tower juts out." Other statements from early
writers could be given showing that wooden towers were built along at
intervals in the stockade walls that surrounded the ancient towns of
the Southern Indians. These statements, no doubt, give us the correct
solution to the mystery of the gaps in the earthen rampart at Nanih
Waiya.
While there can be no doubt but Nanih Waiya was the residence of the
cacique and his attendants, in accordance with the statements of La
Vega, other statements induce the belief that the summit of this mound
was sometimes used as a place of sun-worship. Sun-worship, it should
here be especially noted, was not performed as an isolated ceremony,
so to speak, but came in as part of the programme in the transaction
of all tribal business, both civil and military. The Choctaws were
sun-worshippers, as were all the other branches of the Choctaw-Muscogee
family. They regarded the sun as the type or essence of the Great
Spirit. And as the Sun, or rather Sun-God, warms, animates and vivifies
everything, he is the Master or Father of Life, or, to use the Choctaw
expression, "_Aba Inki_," "the Father above." In like manner, according
to their belief, as everything here below came originally from the
earth, she is the mother of creation. Sun-worship, it may here be
stated, prevailed to some extent, though in a much attenuated form, as
late as seventy years ago among the Choctaws, as is evidenced by the
actions of the Choctaws of that day during an eclipse of the sun. Even
at the present day some faint traces of this sun-worship may be seen
in the antics of a Choctaw prophet at a ball play. The chroniclers
of De Soto's expedition give us frequent hints as to the prevalence
of sun-worship among the Indian tribes of the countries which the
Spanish army traversed. Two centuries later, William Bartram, in his
description of the Creek rotunda, which was erected upon an artificial
mound, gives an elaborate account of the ceremonies in the rotunda
connected with partaking of the black drink. He states that the chief
first puffed a few whiffs from the sacred pipe, blowing the whiffs
ceremoniously upward towards the sun, or, as it was generally supposed,
to the Great Spirit, and then puffing the smoke from the pipe towards
the four cardinal points. The pipe was then carried to different
persons and smoked by them in turn.
Imagination, perhaps, would not err, if going back a few centuries,
we could depict scenes similar to this as often enacted upon the flat
summit of Nanih Waiya. And, perhaps, the superstitious reverence
which the Choctaws have ever manifested towards this mound may be a
dim traditionary reminiscence of its once having been a great tribal
center of solar worship. The aboriginal mind, in sun-worship, from
viewing the sun as the Father of Life, as without the light and warmth
of the sun nothing would spring into existence, no doubt instinctively
turned to the earth as the Mother of Creation. If there was a father
there must be a mother. In the course of time, what more natural that
the pre-historic villagers living at the base of Nanih Waiya, with its
tremendous pile ever looming up before their eyes, should finally come
to regard it as the mother of their race. As far back as history and
tradition run, Nanih Waiya has ever thus been regarded by the untutored
Choctaws of Mississippi. During the various emigrations from the State,
many Choctaws declared that they would never go west and abandon their
mother; and that just as long as Nanih Waiya stood, they intended to
stay and live in the land of their nativity.
There is another evidence that Nanih Waiya was a great national center
during the pre-historic period. The ravages of civilization have
still spared some traces of two broad, deeply worn roads or highways
connected with the mound, in which now stand large oak trees. The
remnant of one of these highways, several hundred yards long, can be
seen on the east side of the creek, running toward the southeast. The
other is on the west side of the creek, the traces nearest the mound
being at the northeastern part of the rampart, thence running towards
the north. Many years ago this latter road was traced by an old citizen
of Winston county full twenty miles to the north until it was lost in
Noxubee swamp, in the northeastern part of Winston County. These are
the sole traces of the many highways, that no doubt, in pre-historic
times, centered at Nanih Waiya.
Nanih Waiya is a prominent feature in the migration legend of the
Choctaws, of which there are several versions. While the versions all
agree, to some extent, in their main features, as the immigration
from the west or northwest, the prophet and his sacred pole, and the
final settlement at Nanih Waiya, there is still much diversity in the
respective narratives in regard to the details and other minutiae.
The most circumstantial narrative is that of the Rev. Alfred Wright,
published in an issue of the _Missionary Herald_ of 1828. The version
given in Colonel Claiborne's "_Mississippi_," pages 483, 484, is a
very unsatisfactory version. The writer of this paper wrote this
version in 1877, and sent it to Colonel Claiborne, who inserted it in
his history. It was taken down from the lips of Mr. Jack Henry, an
old citizen of Okitibbeha County, he stating that he had received it
in early life from an Irishman, who had once lived among the Choctaws
and who had heard the legend from an old Choctaw woman. As will be
seen, the legend was transmitted through several memories and mouths
before being finally recorded in printer's ink. It came not direct from
Choctaw lips, and no doubt, was unconsciously colored, or its details
imperfectly remembered in its transmission through the memories of
the two white men. The version which is given below came direct from
the lips of the Rev. Peter Folsom, a Choctaw from the nation west,
who was employed in 1882 by the Baptists of Mississippi to labor as a
missionary among the Mississippi Choctaws. Mr. Folsom stated that soon
after finishing his education in Kentucky, one day in 1833, he visited
Nanih Waiya with his father and while at the mound his father related
to him the migration legend of his people, which according to Mr.
Folsom, runs as follows:
In ancient days the ancestors of the Choctaws and the Chickasaws
lived in a far western country, under the rule of two brothers, named
Chahta and Chikasa. In process of time, their population becoming very
numerous, they found it difficult to procure substance in that land.
Their prophets thereupon announced that far to the east was a country
of fertile soil and full of game, where they could live in ease and
plenty. The entire population resolved to make a journey eastward in
search of that happy land. In order more easily to procure subsistence
on their route, the people marched in several divisions of a day's
journey apart. A great prophet marched at their head, bearing a pole,
which, on camping at the close of each day, he planted erect in the
earth, in front of the camp. Every morning the pole was always seen
leaning in the direction they were to travel that day. After the lapse
of many moons, they arrived one day at Nanih Waiya. The prophet planted
his pole at the base of the mound. The next morning the pole was seen
standing erect and stationary. This was interpreted as an omen from
the Great Spirit that the long sought-for land was at last found. It
so happened, the very day that the party camped at Nanih Waiya that a
party under Chikasa crossed the creek and camped on its east side. That
night a great rain fell, and it rained several days. In consequence of
this all the low lands were inundated, and Nanih Waiya Creek and other
tributaries of Pearl River were rendered impassable.
After the subsidence of the waters, messengers were sent across
the creek to bid Chikasa's party return, as the oracular pole had
proclaimed that the long sought-for land was found and the mound was
the center of the land. Chikasa's party, however, regardless of the
weather, had proceeded on their journey, and the rain having washed all
traces of their march from off the grass, the messengers were unable to
follow them up and so returned to camp. Meanwhile, the other divisions
in the rear arrived at Nanih Waiya, and learned that here was the
center of their new home, their long pilgrimage was at last finished.
Chikasa's party, after their separation from their brethren under
Chahta, moved on to the Tombigbee, and eventually became a separate
nationality. In this way the Choctaws and the Chickasaws became two
separate, though kindred nations.
Such is Mr. Folsom's version of the Choctaw migration legend. This
national legend is now utterly forgotten by the modern Choctaws living
in Mississippi. All, however, look upon Nanih Waiya as the birthplace
and cradle of their race. She is "ishki chito," "the great mother."
In the very center of the mound, they say, ages ago, the Great
Spirit created the first Choctaws, and through a hole or cave, they
crawled forth into the light of day. Some say that only one pair was
created, but others say that many pairs were created. Old Hopahkitubbe
(Hopakitobi), who died several years ago in Neshoba County, was wont to
say that after coming forth from the mound, the freshly-made Choctaws
were very wet and moist, and that the Great Spirit stacked them along
on the rampart, as on a clothes line, so that the sun could dry them.
Soon after the creation, the Great Spirit divided the Choctaws into two
"iksa," the "Kashapa Okla," and the "Okla in Holahta," or "Hattak in
Holahta." Stationing one iksa on the north and the other on the west
side of the sacred mound, the Great Spirit then gave them the law of
marriage which they were forever to keep inviolate. This law was that
children were to belong to the iksa of their mother, and that one must
always marry into the opposite iksa. By this law a man belonging to the
Kashapa Okla must marry a woman of the Okla in Holahta. The children
of this marriage belong, of course, to the iksa of their mother, and
whenever they marry it must be into the opposite iksa. In like manner
a man belonging to the Okla in Holahta must marry a woman of the
Kashapa Okla, and the children of this marriage from Kashapa Okla must
marry into the Okla in Holahta. Such was the Choctaw law of marriage,
given, they say, by Divine authority at Nanih Waiya just after the
creation of their race. The iksa lived promiscuously throughout the
nation, but as every one knew to which iksa he belonged, no matrimonial
mistake could possibly occur. This iksa division of the Choctaws still
exists in Mississippi, but is slowly dying out under the influence of
Christianity, education, and other results of contact with the white
race.
The Choctaws, after their creation lived for a long time upon
the spontaneous productions of the earth until at last maize was
discovered, as they say, on the south side of Bogue Chito, a few
miles distant from Nanih Waiya. There are several versions of the
corn-finding myth, in all of which a crow and a child are main factors.
Some of the versions state particularly that the crow came from the
south, "Oka mahli imma minti tok." Other versions are silent on this
point. The version here given is a translation by the writer of a
version which was written down for him in the Choctaw language by
Ilaishtubbee (Ilaishtobi), a Six Towns Indian. It is as follows:
A long time ago it thus happened. In the very beginning a crow got a
single grain of corn from across the great water, brought it to this
country and gave it to an orphan child, who was playing in the yard.
The child named it _tauchi_, (corn). He planted it in the yard. When
the corn was growing up, the child's elders merely had it swept around.
But the child, wishing to have his own way, hoed it, hilled it, and
laid it by. When this single grain of corn grew up and matured, it
made two ears of corn. And in this way the ancestors of the Choctaws
discovered corn.
"The great water" referred to in the above myth is the Gulf of Mexico.
"Okachito," "great water," is the term invariably applied by the
Mississippi Choctaws to the Gulf. If there are any traces of historic
truth in the myth, we may infer that it contains a tradition of the
introduction of corn into the Choctaw country across the Gulf of
Mexico, from South America or from the West Indies. Professor J. W.
Harshberger, in his monograph on the nativity and distribution of maize
concludes that its earliest home was in Central America, whence it
spread north and south over the continents of America. In his map in
which he gives the lines of travel by which maize was distributed, he
has two lines in South America. One of these lines extends southward
between the Andes and the Pacific as far down as Chili. The second
line, after leaving the Isthmus of Panama, goes eastward along the
north coast of South America until it enters Venezuela. From Venezuela,
it goes to the West Indies and from the West Indies to Florida. This
line of maize distribution harmonizes with the Choctaw tradition
embodied in the myth that maize came into the Choctaw country from
across "the great water," that is, from across the Gulf of Mexico. We
learn from the early Spanish writers that there was intercommunication
between the natives of Cuba and those of Florida. This being the case,
corn could have been introduced among the pre-historic peoples of
the Gulf states, across the Gulf, directly or indirectly from South
America. To add completeness to the matter, according to Professor
Harshberger's map, maize was introduced among the ancient peoples of
the States lying north of the Gulf States by a line of distribution
running from northern Mexico. It may be still further added that maize
was certainly introduced into the Gulf States and into the Mississippi
Valley before the beginning of the mound-building era, for only a
sedentary agricultural people were capable of building the mounds.
Returning from this digression, the question may be asked, when was
Nanih Waiya built, who were its builders, and how long was it in
building? As to the last question, it would be a moderate estimate
to say that it would take two Irishmen, equipped with spades and
wheelbarrows, full ten years of constant toil to build Nanih Waiya
and its rampart. The evidence shows that the earth used in making the
mound was carried at least one hundred yards--an additional amount of
toil that must be taken into consideration in making an estimate of the
time consumed in building Nanih Waiya. Furthermore, it can be safely
stated that the two supposed Irishmen could accomplish as much in one
hour in the way of dirt-piling as three pre-historic natives with their
rude tools of wood and stone, and baskets or skins for carrying the
earth, could accomplish in one day. Nanih Waiya then must have been a
long time in building. There must have been frequent interruptions of
work to allow its builders time to raise crops, or in some manner to
procure their supplies of food. The probabilities are, that while the
work of building the rampart and the towers was carried on continuously
until they were completed, so as to have the people of the place
well protected from their foes, the work of building the mound was
a gradual one. A small or moderate sized mound may first have been
built for the cacique and his attendants. In course of time, perhaps
by his successor, the mound may have been made larger and higher, each
succeeding cacique adding to its size until it attained its present
dimensions. In short, the mound may have been the successive work of
two or three generations.
As to the builders of Nanih Waiya, all the evidence shows that they
were Choctaws. There is no evidence that any race preceded the Choctaws
in the occupancy of Central Mississippi. And it is not at all probable
that the Choctaws would have held this mound in such excessive
reverence if it had been built by an unknown or alien·race.
During the decadence of the mound-building custom, the mounds were
gradually made smaller and many of these small mounds reveal relics
of European manufacture, thus giving indisputable evidence of their
modern age. From these facts it can be safely assumed that the larger
the mound, the greater, presumably, is its antiquity. Nanih Waiya then,
being the largest mound in Central Mississippi, may possibly date back
to about fifteen hundred years ago, as the fifth century is given by
the archæologists as the beginning of the mound-building age, which
age lasted about one thousand years. It may be sufficient to say that
Nanih Waiya is very old and was built by the Choctaws themselves, or
possibly, granting it a very remote antiquity, by the primordial stock,
from which, by subsequent differentiation, the various branches of the
Choctaw-Muscogee family were formed.
In regard to the modern history of the mound, one event may be placed
on record. At some time in 1828, at the instance by Colonel Greenwood
Leflore, a great national council of the Choctaws convened at Nanih
Waiya. The object of this council was the making of new laws so as to
place the Choctaws more in harmony with the requirements of modern
civilization. On this occasion severe laws were enacted against
drunkenness and against the practice of executing women as witches.
This assembly is remarkable as being the only known national Indian
council held at Nanih Waiya within the historic period. How many
Indian councils similar to this the mound may have witnessed in the
pre-historic past can never be known.
This imperfect sketch of the Choctaw sacred mound is brought to a close
with a hope, that, as long as Mississippi stands, so long may Nanih
Waiya stand, steadfast and immovable, the greatest of Mississippi's
pre-historic monuments.
INDEX
PAGE
Aberdeen$1 $20
Aberdeen Cathedral, 85n
Abou Ben Adhem, 30
Abraham, 70
Adams, 49
Adams County, 142, 170, 176, 177, 207, 218
Adams, George, 152, 153, 161
Adams, Daniel, 162n
Adams, Wirt, 162n
Addison, 19
Affleck, 202
Africa, 86
Agricultural & Mechanical College, 124
Alabama, 72, 113, 127, 131, 148, 151n, 152n, 168, 185
Alabama Historical Society, 157
Alabama History:
Brewer's, 151n, 153
Colonial Mobile, 158n
Memorial Record, 152n
Picket's, 151n
Alabama River, 158
Alcorn, Gov. J. L., 121, 196, 197
Alexandria, 176
Allan-Bane, 71
Allan, James Lane, 8
"Alone," a poem, 33
Alston's Lake, 163
Altamaha, 127, 128
America, 113, 125, 126
American, 17, 20, 159, 212, 219
American fiction, Library of, 66
American Historical Association, Publication of, 94n
American Historical Review, 159n, 219
American Philosophical Society, 93, 95, 105, see _Transaction_
Ames, Gov. Adelbert, 122, 189, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199
Amite River, 86, 165
Anderson, Mrs. Albert, 67
Anderson, Thomas D., 153
Animalculæ, Account of, 98
Annalen of Physics, 98
Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 86n
Archer, Judge Stevenson, 149, 162
Archives, 94
Aristotle, 16
Arkansas River, 105
"Arlington," 216
Arthur's Home Journal, 31
Ashly, 160
Asia, 101
Astronomy, 26
Atlantic Monthly, 38, 67
"Attala," 207
Attorneys, Federal in Mississippi, 153, 154
"Auburn," 216
Augustan Age of literature, 15, 16
Austin, Mississippi, 66
Bailey, 86
Bailiff, J. S., 196
Bance River, 158
Banks, Sir Joseph, 102
Banks, Sulton, 179, 183
Bantam River, 25
Baptist, 160, 228
"Bard of the Quarters," 20
Barksdale, E., 121n, 194
Barksdale, W. R., 196, 197
Burnet, Daniel, 166
Barton, Dr. Benjamin Smith, 99
Barton, 'Squire, 65
Bartram, 91, 101, 110, 226
Baton Rouge, 86, 87, 88, 100, 211
Bayou Tunica, 162, 163
Beacon Hill, 49
Beaver Creek, 165
Beauvoir, 72
Beechers, The, 24, 25
Beers, Prof., 17
Bedford's Magazine, 75
Bell, Mrs. Helen D., 5, 201
"Bellman," The of, '76 27
Benbroke, Dr., 204
"Bench and Bar of Mississippi," 147n, 150n, 151n, 152n, 153n
Benjamin, Judah P., 73
Benoist, Gabriel, 160
Benson, 77
Berkeley, Governor, 12
Bernard, Joseph, 160
Beverly Farm, 39
Bienville, 209
Big Bayou Sara, 165
Bingaman, Adam L., 217
Black Creek, 166
Bledsoe, Oscar F., 154
Blount, I. T., 196
"Blue and the Gray," The, 32, 38
Blythe, Andrew K., 154
Bogue Chito, 165, 230
Boileau, 16
Bondurant, Prof., A. L., 5, 43
Bonner, Dr. Charles, 43, 44, 45
Bonner, Ruth Martin, 45
Bonner, Samuel Wilson, 45
Bonner, Sherwood, 43-68
Borneo, 101
Boston, 48, 49, 51, 52, 56, 174
Boston Courier, 66, 67
Boston Ploughman, 47
Boundary line (31 degree), 92, 93, 111, 125, 157, 168, 212
Bourbon County, 128
Boyer, Captain John, 160
Boyd, 43
Boyd, Miss Anna W., 176
Boyd, S. S., 217
Brabston, Miss Martha B., 177
Branch, Miss Virginia, 202
Brandon, Gerard, Esq., 5, 207
Brandon, Gov. Gerard C., 210
"Brandon-Hall," 216
Breazeale, D. W., 179
"Breer Rabbit," 45
Brewer's History of Alabama, 151n, 153n
Briant, John W., 170
Briggs, 107
Bristol, 21
Broome, Mrs. Dr., 202
"Brotherhood for the Diffusion of Light," 83
Brough, Prof. C. H., 3, 5, 113
Brown, Gov. A. G., 214
Browne, 107
Bruin, Judge Peter Bryan, 148, 149, 150
Bryant, W. C., 17
Buckatanne River, 158
Bunker Hill, 174
Burnet, Daniel, 179, 180
Burns, Robert, 9, 16
"Burning Casque," a poem, 37
Burr, Aaron, 151n, 214
Burruss, Rev. John C., 172, 174
Bush, 82
Butterworth, Samuel F., 153
Byron, 16, 39, 41, 70
Cable, George W., 8, 55
Calhoun, John C., 24
California, 152n, 175
Calusa, California, 152n
Calvit, Thomas, 179
Campbell, Anthony, 154
Campbell, Judge David, 149, 152
Cane, Account of, 96, 97
Capen, Nahum, 47, 48
Carolinas, The, 211
Carolinians, 24, 126
Carondelet, Baron de, 159, 163
Carpet-bag government, 121, 122, 189, 192, 196
Cartwright, Dr., 217
"Case of Eliza Blelock," The, a sketch, 57
Cashell, Miss Julia, 202
Catchings T. C., 196
Catholicism, 211
Cavalier, 24
Centennial Hymn, 32
Chahta, 228, 229