Choctaw

Hundreds of years before Europeans landed on American soil, the Choctaw Indian Nation (Chakchiuma, Chatot or Hacha hatek, meaning “river people”) lived primarily in the southeastern United States, which included the Mississippi Valley and parts of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. In 1830, these Native American farmers were forcibly moved by the federal government to southeastern Oklahoma. This became known as the Trail of Tears, the result of the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the U.S. government to negotiate with Native Americans in the southern states for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi in exchange for their homelands.

These Muskogeans—as the group of Native Americans, which included the Choctaw, were called—were a matriarchal society. They have an interesting myth of origin. From 800 to 1500 c.e., their ancestors were located throughout the mideastern, southeastern, and eastern parts of the United States. This Mississippian culture is what Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León encountered when he arrived in America. However, they were already diminishing in number. There is a big question about the origins of the mound-building society that preceded them. The secular version implies that these descendants of the pre-Columbian Hopewellian culture were traveling through forests with the remains of their dead. They stopped at a creek to rest during winter. One of the indentations on the mountain located near them, called Nanih Waiya, meaning “productive mountain” or “mother mound,” was considered sacred. When spring arrived, the well-rested tribal members had an abundance of food from the surrounding vegetation. They decided to make this encampment their permanent home, naming it Nanih Waiya, which today is known as Winston, Mississippi.

According to Hernando De Soto's narratives, he may have been the first European to encounter the Choctaw. In 1540, he met the enormous Choctaw chieftain Tascalusa. Despite claiming he was a civilized Christian, De Soto attacked the tribe when they would not surrender their chief to be his enslaved servant. But the tribe did not go down without a fight, leaving the Spaniards with many casualties.