Mobilians
That the Mobilians, as they have been called by the early writers, were a clan of the ancient Choctaws there can be no doubt whatever The early French colonists established in the south under Bienville called the Choctaws, Mobilians and Pafalaahs (corruption of the Choctaw words pin, our, Okla, people, falaiah, tall), and also called the Chickasaws Mobilians; they also state that the Choctaws, Pifalaiahs or more properly, Hottak falaiahs (long or tall men) and Mobilians spoke the same language. The present city of Mobile in Alabama was named after the Mobila “Iksa,” or clan of Choctaws by Bienville at the time he laid its foundation. Moma binah, or Mobinah (from which Mobile is derived) and Pifalaiah are pure Choctaw words. According to the ancient traditions of the Choctaws, and to which the aged Choctaws now living still affirm, their people were, in the days of the long past, divided into two great Ikeas; one was Hattak i ho-lihtah (Pro. har-tark, men, i, their holihta, ho-lik-tah, fenced; i, e. Their men fortify). The other, Kashapa okla {as Ka-shar-pau-oke-lah): Part people, i. e. A divided people. The two original clans, subsequently divided into six clans, were named as follows: Haiyip tuk lo hosh, (The two lakes.) Hattak falaiah (as, Har-tark fa-lai-yah hosh. The long man or men. Okla hunnali hosh (as Oke-lah hun-nar-lih hosh. People six the Kusha (Koon-shah) being broken. Apela, (A help.) Chik a sah ha, (A Chckasaw.)
In 1721, a remnant of the Mobilians were living at the junction of the, Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, but finally united with other clans of the Choctaws, their own people, and thus became extinct as an iksa. The laws of the great Iksas or families, Hattak i holahta and kash ap a okla, for bade the marriage of: any person, either male or female, belonging to the same clan; which, as the laws of the Medes and Persians, were unchangeable; and to this day, the same laws relating to marriage are strictly observed.
From the destruction of Mobila by De Soto, a long, starless night of nearly two centuries throws its impenetrable veil over the Choctaws shrouding their history in the oblivion of the past. But that they, with other southern tribes, were a numerous and also an agricultural people as far back as the fifteenth century there is no doubt; though agricultural to a small extent in comparison with the whites; yet to a sufficient degree to satisfy the demands of any people to who avarice was an entire stranger, and who adhered to the maxim “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
When De Soto passed through Georgia, his route was lined with towns, villages and hamlets, and many sown fields, which reached from one to the other. The numerous log-pens were full of corn, while acres of that which was growing bent to the warm rays of the sun and rustled in the breeze. “On the 18th of September, 1540, De Soto reached the town of Tallase, a corruption of the Choctaw words Tuli, rock, and aisha, abound, i. e. the place of rocks.”
It stood upon a point of land almost surrounded by a main river. Extensive fields of corn reached up and down the banks. On the opposite side were other towns, skirted with rich fields laden with heavy ears of corn. On the third day the of march from Piache, they passed through many populous towns, well stored with corn, beans, pumpkins, and other provisions.”
But the six great southern tribes, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Muscogees, Seminoles and Natchez possessed too grand a country not to attract the eyes of the fortune hunters of all Europe, and excite their cupidity to the highest degree; therefore, the French in Louisiana, the Spaniards in Florida, and the English in Virginia and the Carolinas, early sought to establish a foothold in the territories of those warlike and independent tribes by securing, each for himself, their trade, with a view of ultimately conquering them and thus getting possession of their territories and country. As early as 1670 the English traders and emissaries had also found their way to the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Muscogees; and but few years had passed before their designs, together with those of the French and Spaniards, were plainly manifested.
By each exciting the Indians and influencing them to drive the others from their territories, each hoping thus to ultimately secure these regions for their own country and their personal interests. As the French had artfully gained and held the friendship and confidence of the Choctaws, so had the English secured and held that of the Chickasaws; hence those two brave, and then powerful tribes, were induced to make frequent wars upon each other, and thus each foolishly but ignorantly furthering the designs of their mutual foes against themselves, the Choctaws weakening and destroying the Chickasaws for the benefit of the French, alone, and the Chickasaws for the benefit alone of the English; neither caring a fig for either the Choctaw or Chickasaws, only so far as prosecuting their designs the one against the other, each with the hope of driving the other out of the country, and then, being enabled easily to subjugate the Indians by their weakened condition, they would soon secure their country; therefore, the more Indians killed, no matter by whom or by what means, the better. Thus were the grasping hands of the two unscrupulous rivals manifested as long as they possessed any power or authority upon the North American continent now forming the United States?