History of the Shakchi Humma Tribe

P.P. Pitchlynn, Speaker of the National Council of the Choctaw Nation and Choctaw delegate to the government of the United States

Oktibbeha county, Mississippi, as well as its sister counties, has been the scene of many hard struggles between the contending warriors of the different tribes, who inhabited the noble old state in years of the long past; not only from the statements and traditions of the Choctaws, who were among the last of the Indian race whose council-fires lit up her forests, and whose hoyopatassuha died away upon her hills, but also from the numerous fortifications and entrenchments, that were plainly visible, ere the ploughshare had upturned her virgin soil, and her native- forests still stood in their primitive beauty … Read more

The Meeting of Folsom and Nittakachih

When the council, convened for the adjustment and final distribution of the annuity, adjourned in such confusion, together with the animosity manifested and openly expressed by both contending parties the one toward the other, (a similar scene never before witnessed in a Choctaw council) I feared the consequences that I was apprehensive would follow; but hoped that the conflicting opinions then agitating my people would be harmonized upon calm reflection and the adoption of wise and judicious measures. But when I ascertained that Nittakachih and Amosholihubih were truly assembling their warriors, I began to view the matter in its true … Read more

North America Indian Names of Places in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana

The Indians all over this continent had names, traditions, religions, ceremonies, feasts, prayers, songs, dances all, more or less, with symbolism and allegory, adapted to circumstances, just as all other races of mankind. But the world has become so familiar with the continued and ridiculous publications in regard to everything touching upon that race of people that a universal doubt has long since been created and established as to the possibility of refinement of thought and nobleness of action ever having existed among the North American Indian race, ancient or modern; and so little of truth has also been learned … Read more

Important Men of the Choctaw Indians

The Choctaw Nation, from its earliest known history to the present time has, at different intervals, produced many great and good men; who, had they have had the advantages of education, would have lived upon the pages of history equally with those of earth’s illustrious great. The first of whom we have any historical account, is Tush-ka Lu-sa, (the heroic defender of Moma Bin-na, a Lodge for All corrupted first to Mobila, then to Mobile) who perished, with many thousands of his people, in that bloody tragedy of three and a half centuries ago, while de fending his ancient city against … Read more

Memoirs of John Pitchlynn

Peter Perkins Pitchlynn was the Choctaw Principal Chief from 1864-1866

John Pitchlynn, the name of another white man who at an early day cast his lot among the Choctaws, not to be a curse but a true benefactor. He was contemporaneous with the three Folsom’s, Nathaniel, Ebenezer and Edmond; the three Nails, Henry, Adam and Edwin; the two Le Flores Lewis and Mitchel, and Lewis Durant. John Pitchlynn, as the others, married a Choctaw girl and thus become a bona-fide citizen of the Choctaw Nation. He was commissioned by Washington, as United States Interpreter for the Choctaws in 1786, in which capacity he served them long and faithfully. Whether he … Read more

List 6, Choctaw Freedmen

List of Choctaw Freedmen whose names were omitted from final rolls because no application was made or by. reason of mistake or oversight. Shows the names of 281 persons, all minors except 4. The approved roll of minor Choctaw freedmen contains 473 names. The large percentage of omissions in this class is explained elsewhere. It is quite probable that there are others of this class whose claims have not yet been presented or disclosed.

Push-ma-ta-ha, Choctaw Indian Chief

Grave in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC, a National Historic Landmark. Peter Perkins Pitchlynn, d. 1881, Choctaw chief

Push-ma-ta-ha – Pushmataha (Apushim-alhtaha, ‘the sapling is ready, or finished, for him.’ Halvert). A noted Choctaw, of unknown ancestry , born on the east bank of Noxuba Creek in Noxubee County, Mississippi in 1764; died at Washington D.C., Dec 24, 1824.  before he was 20 years of age he distinguished himself in an expedition against the Osage, west of the Mississippi.  The boy disappeared early in a conflict that lasted all day, and on rejoining the Choctaw warriors was jeered at and accused of cowardice, whereon Push-ma-ta-ha replied “Let those laugh who can show more scalps than I can,” forthwith producing five … Read more

Missionaries among the Native Americans

According to traditional authority, the morning star of the Choctaws religious era, (if such it may be termed) first lit up their eastern horizon, upon the advent of the two great Wesley’s into the now State of Georgia in the year 1733, as the worthy and congenial companions of the noble Oglethorpe; but also, it flashed but a moment before their eyes as a beautiful meteor, then as quickly went out upon the return to England of those champions of the Cross, leaving them only to fruitless conjecture as to its import; nor was seen again during the revolutions of … Read more

Treaty of January 17, 1837

Treaty of January 17, 1837 page 7

The Treaty of January 17, 1837, was an agreement where the Choctaw tribe allowed the Chickasaws to create a district within Choctaw territory, known as the Chickasaw District of the Choctaw Nation. Amidst U.S. expansion policies like the Indian Removal Act, the treaty gave the Chickasaws autonomy and equal representation in the Choctaw council, excluding some financial rights. Boundaries for their district were defined, and the Chickasaws agreed to pay the Choctaws $530,000, with partial immediate payment and the remainder invested under U.S. supervision. Disputes would be settled by the Choctaw agent or ultimately the U.S. President. The treaty, signed in Doaksville, exemplifies Native American resilience and inter-tribal cooperation during forced negotiations due to American expansionism.

Pitchlynn Choctaw Family – List of Mixed Bloods

Peter Perkins Pitchlynn was the Choctaw Principal Chief from 1864-1866

The Pitchlynn Choctaw family, although represented by one of the smallest name lists in this study, has a long and noted history in the literature of the Old Southwest and Indian Territory (see Chart 18). The eldest Pitchlynn, Isaac, was still alive in 1804 although in ill health. His son, John Pitchlynn, Jr., is recorded as the Choctaw interpreter at the Treaty of Hopewell in 1786 and for nearly half a century was a respected and honored countryman in Choctaw country. John lived a long while on Old Woman’s Creek, a tributary of the Oknoxabee (or Noxobee) River which itself … Read more

The Discovery Of This Continent, it’s Results To The Natives

Columbus Landing on Hispaniola

In the year 1470, there lived in Lisbon, a town in Portugal, a man by the name of Christopher Columbus, who there married Dona Felipa, the daughter of Bartolome Monis De Palestrello, an Italian (then deceased), who had arisen to great celebrity as a navigator. Dona Felipa was the idol of her doting father, and often accompanied him in his many voyages, in which she soon equally shared with him his love of adventure, and thus became to him a treasure indeed not only as a companion but as a helper; for she drew his maps and geographical charts, and also … Read more

Memoirs of the Harkins Family

John Harkins, a white man, is the father of the Harkins family of Choctaws. His advent to the Choctaw nation was, as near as can be ascertained, about the year 1800 or soon afterwards. He was a man of high-toned principles, and contemporary with the Folsoms, Nails, Pitchlynns, LeFlores, Durants, Cravats, Crowders, and others of the long ago, who married among the Choctaws; all men, who, having cast their lot among that people made their interests their own, and sought, by every means in their power to elevate them in the scale of morality and virtue. John Harkins married a daughter of Major … Read more

The Meeting in 1811 of Tecumseh and Apushamatahah

Peter Perkins Pitchlynn was the Choctaw Principal Chief from 1864-1866

The meeting in 1811, of Tecumseh, the mighty Shawnee, with Apushamatahah, the intrepid Choctaw. I will here give a true narrative of an incident in the life of the great and noble Choctaw chief, Apushamatahah, as related by Colonel John Pitchlynn, a white man of sterling integrity, and who acted for many years as interpreter to the Choctaws for the United States Government, and who was an eye-witness to the thrilling scene, a similar one, never before nor afterwards befell the lot of a white man to witness, except that of Sam Dale, the great scout of General Andrew Jackson, … Read more