<&um&. ^ <£rim& -^ /I^0*+K><> JAMES H. MALONE THE Chickasaw Nation A Short Sketch of A Noble People By JAMES H. MALONE JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY Incorporated Louisville, Kentucky 1922 W ' ' Copyright, 1922 By JAMES H. MALONE To My Dear Wife ESTELLE VERNEY MALONE To whom I owe so much, these pages are inscribed 500 i :0 CONTENTS Page Chapter I — As to the Origin of the American Indians i Chapter II — As to the Origin of the Chickasaw Nation 14 How the Indians Preserved Historical Events 16 Traditions of a Western Origin 16 Did the Separation Take Place in the West? 20 The Indians Were the Mound Builders 23 Traditions Also Point to an Asiatic Origin 26 Conclusion 27 Chapter III — The Dawn of History for the Chickasaws 29 De Soto Lands in Florida 31 De Soto Reaches the Chickasaws 34 The Original Chickasaws as They Were 36 Battle with the Chickasaws 40 What Caused the Conflict 48 Chapter IV — Topography of the Country Between the Chick- asaw Country and Chickasaw Bluffs 52 Dr. Rowland Has Shifted the Bulwark of His Defense . . 53 How Language Should Be Interpreted 55 The Trails of the Chickasaw Indians 57 The Short-Cut Trail, or Pigeon Roost Road 64 Pigeon Roost Creek and the Pigeons 70 The Trail from Holly Springs to New Albany 75 Chapter V — The Four De Soto Narratives Quoted and Compared 79 The Text of the Gentleman of Elvas 81 How the Governor Went from Quizquiz, and Thence to the River Grande 82 The Text of Biedma 83 The Text of Ranjel 85 Opinion of Professor Lewis Criticized 86 De Soto's Route to the Chickasaw Bluffs 92 v Contents Page Chapter VI — De Soto at the Chickasaw Bluffs 104 The Location of Quizquiz 115 De Soto's Camp Near a River Bank 118 Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca 122 The Account of Garcilaso de la Vega 125 De Soto at the Mississippi 129 De Soto Crosses the Mississippi 130 The Country Opposite Memphis Dovetails with the Narratives 132 Chapter VII — Where the Mississippi was Crossed, Contin- ued, and of the De Soto Memorial at Memphis 1 38 The Importance of the Discovery of the Mississippi River 139 The Great Abundance of Fish Taken Points to the Place of Discovery 144 Lusher 's Map as Reproduced by J. Paul Gaines 147 Article of Miss Mixon 151 The Map of Delisle Again 153 The De Soto Memorial Erected at Memphis, May 22, 1919 156 Address of Dr. B. F. Turner 158 The Tomb of De Soto 161 Address of Judge R. M. Barton 162 Address of J. Elmore Holmes Presenting Copy of De Soto 165 Response of Senor Don Emilio Zapico, the Spanish Consul 166 Minnesota and Mississippi Honor De Soto 167 Chapter VIII — The Home Life and Character of the Chick- asaws 170 Authentic Sources of Information 170 How the Original Chickasaws Appeared 174 Private Character of the Chickasaws 179 Language of the Chickasaws 181 Their Dwelling Houses 182 Contents Chapter VIII — Continued Page Courtship and Marriage 186 The Marital Relation in Other Respects and Chickasaw Nomenclature 187 The Treatment of Children 193 Food Given by the Indians to Civilization 195 What the Chickasaws Had to Eat 200 Chickasaw Medicine 204 Amusements of the Chickasaws 205 The Chickasaw Hunters and their Endurance 205 Their Government, Religion, etc 208 Making War 220 The Indians Were the Mound Builders 221 What We Might Learn from the Primitive Chickasaws . . 223 Jefferson on Indian Eloquence 227 Montaigne's Opinion of the Indians and their Govern- ment 229 Chapter IX — The Chickasaws from the Time of De Soto Un- til their First Treaty with the United States 232 Iberville and Bienville Meet the Chickasaws 239 Population of the Primitive Chickasaws 242 Chickasaws Friends of the English 243 Causes Leading to the Extirpation of the Natchez . . . 245 The Real Cause of the War made by the French on the Chickasaws , 247 Bienville Makes War on the Chickasaws 249 The Signal Defeat of D'Artaguette 251 The Battle of Ackia 255 A Perfect Chickasaw Day 263 Bienville's Second War upon the Chickasaws 264 Vaudreuil Makes War on the Chickasaws 269 The Chickasaws' Prowess on the Mississippi 271 The English Gain Control of the Gulf States 276 The Prophecy of Adair Fulfilled 278 The Chickasaws Neutral during the Revolution 281 Why Mississippians, Tennesseans, Alabamians and Kentuckians Should be Proud of the Chickasaw Nation 282 vii Contents Chapter IX — Continued Page Why the Chickasaws were Unconquered and Uncon- querable 283 Historic Chickasaw Country 285 Chapter X — Of the First Treaties between the United States and the Chickasaw Nation 292 The Right of Title by Discovery Established 293 The Indians Were Not Without Able White Defenders . 296 First or Unofficial Chickasaw Treaty 301 Treaties between the Chickasaws and the United States 305 The Treaty of 1786 306 The Treaty of 1801 308 The Treaty of 1805 309 Indians Encouraged to Contract Debts 311 The Treaty of 1816 312 The Treaty Preceding the Birth of Memphis 314 The Heart-Breaking Treaties of 1832 and 1834 317 Chapter XI — Short Sketch of Piomingo and Sequoyah; and herein of Men of the South 331 Piomingo, the Great Chickasaw Chief 332 George Washington to Piomingo 339 Piomingo, at the Nashville Conference, 1792 340 Piomingo Left to his Fate 343 Victory for the Unconquerable Chickasaws 346 Piomingo and Governor Gayoso 348 The Last Public Appearance of Piomingo 350 As to Family of Piomingo, etc 354 Sequoyah, the Cadmus of America 358 The Great Invention 362 Sequoyah in the Hall of Fame 366 The Last Days of Sequoyah 367 The South and Intellectual Men 368 The South After the Abolition of Slavery 373 The Fate of Haiti under Negro Rule 374 viii Contents Chapter XI — Continued Page How the South Prospered After Emancipation 378 The Attitude of Southern Men to the Union 380 The Negro in the 1920 Census 388 Chapter XII — The Story of the Chickasaws Continued Since the Treaties of 1832 and 1834 394 Centenary of Chickasaw Triumphs 394 The Chickasaws Purchase a New Home in the Choctaw Country 397 Treaty of Washington, 1852 398 Ancient Cemetery at Pontotoc 399 Treaty at Washington, 1855 400 The Chickasaws and the Civil War 402 Treaty of the Choctaws and Chickasaws with the Con- federate States of America 406 The Desolation of the Civil War 408 The Treaty of 1866 412 The Long Struggle for Racial Purity 415 Constitution and Laws of the Chickasaws 419 The Dawes Agreement \ 420 How Congress Set Aside all Indian Treaties 421 Illogical Argument against Ownership in Common . . . 434 Robbing Indians According to Law 438 The Judiciary Sustains Congress 446 In the Forum of Conscience 450 Chapter XIII — The Chickasaws in the Twentieth Century . . 455 The Chickasaw Guards 456 Competitive Drills 460 Chickasaw Guards in World-Wide War 461 Certain Indians Made Citizens 467 The Chickasaws as Citizens of Oklahoma 474 The Name Oklahoma a Chickasaw Word 478 The Present Chickasaw Population 481 Unsold Tribal Property 484 The Present Chickasaw Officials 487 ix Contents Chapter XIII — Continued i>age Indian Population of the United States 488 Official Washington vs. Official Washington 493 The Present General Condition of the Indians 500 Children in School 501 Christianity and the Chickasaws 504 Chickasaw and Choctaw Claim vs. United States 507 Chapter XIV — The World-Wide War and Herein of Otis W. Leader 510 Distinguished Service of Otis W. Leader 511 ILLUSTRATIONS Page James H. Malone Frontispiece Indian Pictograph Writing 1 6 De Soto at Chickasaw Bluffs 104 De Soto Memorial 156 Original Chickasaw 174 Chickasaw Hunting Scene 206 Bienville's Fort 256 Historic Chickasaw Country 285 Piomingo 331 Sequoyah 358 Governor D. H. Johnston 455 Otis W. Leader 510 Lusher's Map Redrawn by Gaines Back of Book xi FOREWORD SOUVENIR EDITION The first six chapters of this book were printed for private distribution by the author in May, 1919. In the foreword it was said : "During a somewhat protracted experience at the Memphis Bar, my attention was early called to the treaties of 1832 and 1834 between the United States and the Chickasaw Nation. "Under these treaties the Chickasaws ceded the last inch of that vast and splendid domain which they had conquered and occupied long before Columbus, sailing westward, looked upon the shores of what was called a new world. "There are lines of deep pathos in those treaties. From time to time my attention was called to the early history of the Chickasaws, and I made some notes, and still later wrote some fragmentary sketches upon the subject, more as a diversion than otherwise. In assisting with our approaching Centenary Cele- bration (May 19-24, 1919), I concluded, almost at the last moment, to print what I have already written as a souvenir, and as a small contribution to local history. "Should time and opportunity permit, I hope to complete what I design to call, The Chickasaw Nation; A Short Sketch of a Noble People.' " When the above was written, I supposed that more than half my work had been done, and had no proper conception of the great labor in the way of research into original sources of information that would be required. It turned out that in- stead of one half of the subject having been covered by the souvenir edition, in fact it was only about one fourth of the completed book. To the first six chapters small additions only have been made. The first chapter was written during a vacation upon the Muskoka Lakes, of Canada, in 1916, and then laid aside. Foreword For a diversion in 1917, I turned from the horrors of the world-wide war to the subject of this work, and accumulated considerable material; and while on a vacation in Atlantic City in the summer of 191 8, I put the additional matter somewhat in order and finally printed it in 1919, as indicated above. Subsequent Chapters— The seventh and eighth chapters were written in Oakland, California, while sojourning there in the summer of 1919; and then, more fully realizing that further researches were necessary, I spent six weeks in Washington, D. C, in the summer of 1920, examining authorities in the Congressional Library; and in Washington I wrote the ninth, tenth, and part of the eleventh chapters. Although engaged in the practice of the law all this time, I have taken time from other labors to complete my work, leaving to others a prosecution of further researches along the same lines. Quotations from Authorities— I have made more and fuller quotations from other books and authorities than is customary in works of this character, and my reasons therefor have been twofold : (1) While public as well as private libraries have greatly increased in the South of late years, still the great bulk of our people have access to but a small number of the authorities quoted; hence my desire to lay the same more fully before the reader. My attention was called to this by letters of inquiry from various persons desiring to obtain fuller information on the subjects treated. There is a working agreement between the larger libraries which permits one library to loan to another, for a short period, rare and valuable books, where a patron is engaged in research work. Through Charles D. Johnston, the efficient Secretary of the Cossitt Library, I obtained a number of rare books from xiv Foreword Washington and St. Louis. At best this system involves con* siderable delay, and it is far better to have direct access to the library. (2) My own experience has shown that authors frequently make a broad statement with only foot-note references to some books, and often when examined, the authorities either fail to support the text, or in some instances are contradictory thereto. It would seem the better plan to quote liberally, so that the reader may be afforded the opportunity of passing his own judgment upon the deductions made from authorities cited in support of the text. Bibliography- Believing that the average reader will prefer a continuous narrative without the usual foot notes, I have so written this book; but a bibliography, alphabetically arranged according to authors, follows this foreword. That list contains the works I have examined in the course of my studies of the questions involved. The explanatory note preceding the list of authorities shows my reasons for pursuing this course, and I hope it will be read in connection with this foreword. xv BIBLIOGRAPHY It will be seen that there are no notes in this book, which is unusual with works of this character. The purpose was to present a continuous narrative without interruption to examine notes, believing that this course will be preferred by the general reader. This bibliography is designed mainly for two purposes: (i) For the critical, who may desire to examine in detail and at length the authors to which I refer. For this purpose the scholar can find in this list of authorities the names of the authors alphabetically arranged, the title of books and pamphlets, and when, where, and by whom each was published, including the edition examined. I regret that the thought of preparing this bibliography did not occur to me until after a large part of the work had been completed ; otherwise it would have been more extensive and more accurate. (2) Many of the books examined are rare and not to be found in this section of the country, and believing that there should be a more critical and extensive research into the original sources of information respecting our country, it is hoped that others may be led to make more extensive explorations into the wealth of material which I have not been able to examine. From these sources the future analytical and critical his- torian will find the material ready at hand for a correct and philosophical history of our Southern Indians, and also for the early history of our part of the United States. Memphis, August, 1921. Abel, Annie H., "The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist"; The Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland, Ohio, 1915. Abel, Annie H., 'The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War"; The Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland, Ohio, 1919. xvii Bibliography Adair, James, "The History of the American Indians," by a resident of their country for forty years ; printed for Edward and Charles Dilly in the Poultry, 1775. (Rare.) Alaska Bureau of Education, Bulletin (191 9) No. 40, "Work of the Bureau of Education for the Natives of Alaska"; Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C, 1919. .Alvord, Clarence W., and Lee Bidgood, "The First Ex- plorations of the Trans-Allegheny Region by the Virginians, 1 650- 1 674"; The Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland, Ohio, 1912. American (Tenn.) Historical Magazine for the years 1898 and 1899; published by the Peabody Normal College, Nashville, Tennessee. American State Papers, Class 2, Indian Affairs; published by authority at Washington, D. C, by Gales and Seaton, 1832. Bacon, William J. (Editor), "History of the Fifty-Fifth Artillery Brigade"; designed, engraved, and printed by Benson Printing Co., Nashville, Tennessee, 1920. Bancroft, George, "History of the United States of America," six volumes; D. Appleton and Co., New York City, 1892. Bancroft, Hubert H., 'The Great Republic," by Master Historians; Syndicate Publishing Company, New York, London. Barrows, William, "The Indian's Side of the Indian Question"; Boston D. Lothrop Company, Franklin and Hawley Streets, 1887. Barton, Benjamin Smith, "New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America"; printed for the author by John Bisren, 1797. Bartram, William, "Travels through North and South Caro- lina, Georgia, East and West Florida"; Philadelphia: Printed by James and Johnson, 1791. Reprinted for J. Johnson, in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1792. xviii Bibliography Biedma, Luys Hernandez De, "An account of," Vol. II, p. 2, Trail Makers; edited by Edward Gaylord Bourne, New York, A. S. Barnes & Co., 1904. Binney, Charles C, "Protest against the Removal of Certain Restrictions on the Alienation of Indian Lands," pamphlet issued by Indian Rights Association, Philadelphia, 1908. Bonaparte, Charles J., and Clinton R. Woodruff, report on the alleged abuses and irregularities in the public service in the Indian Territory; Senate Document No. 189, 58th Congress, 2nd Session, February 20, 1904. Bossu, Captain M. Jean Bernard, 'Travels through that Part of North America called Louisiana"; translated from the French by John Keinhold Forster; printed for T. Davis in Raffel St., Covent Garden, London, 1771. (Rare.) Boudinot, Elias, "A Star in the West"; published by D. Fen- ton, S. Huchinson, and J. Dunham, Trenton, New Jersey, 1816. Bourne, Edward Gaylord, "Narratives of the Career of Hern- ando De Soto" (The Trail Makers) (Vols. I and II); New York, A. S. Barnes & Co., 1904. Bradley, Judge Joseph P., "Opinion of," in the case of Chero- kee Tobacco vs. United States, 11 Wallace 616, 20 L. Ed. 227. Burke, Charles H., "Speech of, on the Mott Report Relative to Indian Guardianship, etc.," in Congress, December 13, 1912; Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C, 1912. Cantwell, Harry J., "Brief and Argument before the Com- mittee on Indian Affairs, etc." Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes, 61st Congress, 2nd Session. (Pamphlet.) Carrington, Dr. Thomas S., "Health Conditions among the Alaskan Indians along the Yukon and Tanana Rivers." Pamphlet issued by Indian Rights Association, Philadel- phia, 1914. Catron, Chief Justice John, "Opinion of," in the case of the State vs. Foreman, 8 Yerger 256. xix Bibliography Chaplain, The (Regimental Chaplain), "The Story of the Sixteenth Infantry in France"; Printing-Office, Martin Flock, Montabaur, Frankfort o. M., Germany, 1919. Chickasaw Nation, "Constitution and Laws," with treaties from 1832 to 1866, inclusive; published by Davis A. Homer, The Foley Railway Printing Company, Parsons, Kansas, 1899. Choate, Joseph H., Letter of, relating to proposed legislation on the administration of Indian affairs; printed in the Con- gressional Record, April 7, 1916. Claiborne, J. F. H., "Mississippi as a Province, Territory, and State"; Powder & Barksdale, Publishers and Printers, Jackson, Mississippi, 1880. Colyar, A. S., "Life and Times of Andrew Jackson," press of Marshall Bruce & Co., Nashville, Tennessee, 1904. Cushman, H. B., "History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Indians"; Headlight Printing House, Greenville, Texas, 1899. Davis, James D., "History of the City of Memphis," containing old time papers; printed by Hite, Crumpton & Kelly, Memphis, Tennessee, 1873. De Tocqueville, Alexis, "Democracy in America" ; two volumes, translated by Henry Reeve, E. B., New Edition, London; Longmans, Green & Co., 15 East 16th Street, New York City, 1889. DeWitt, John H., "General James Winchester"; Tennessee Historical Magazine, 191 5. Drake, Samuel G., "The Aboriginal Races of North America"; Fifteenth Edition, revised by Prof. H. L. Williams, Hurst & Co., publishers, 122 Nassau Street, New York, 1880. Du Pratz, M. LeParge, "The History of Louisiana," or the western parts of Virginia and Carolina, translated from the French, a new edition; printed for T. Becket corner of the Adelphi, in the Strand, London, 1774. (Rare.) Eastman, Charles A., "From the Deep Woods to Civilization"; Little, Brown & Company, Boston, 1916. xx Bibliography Elvas, The Gentleman of, "Virginia Richly Valued"; trans- lated by Richard Hackluyt, at London. Printed by Felix Kyngston for Mathew Lownes, and to be sold at the signe of the Bishop's head in Paul's Churchyard, 1609. Elvas, the Gentleman of, "Relation of," Vol. I, p. 1, Trail Makers; edited by Edward Gaylord Bourne, A. S. Barnes & Co., New York, 1904. Farley, John W., Pamphlet, printed by the Author, Memphis, 1919. The Five Civilized Tribes, Laws, decisions, and regulations affecting the work of the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes, 1893 to 1906. Compiled by the Commissioners to the Five Civilized Tribes, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C, 1906. Fontaine, Edward, "How the World Was Peopled"; D. Apple- ton & Company, New York City, 1872. Foster, George E., "Sequoyah, the Cadmus and Modern Moses"; published by office of the Indian Rights Associa- tion, 1316 Filbert Street, Philadelphia. Foster, George E., "Talequah, Cherokee Nation"; B. H. Stone, Milford, N. H., by the author. Garcilaso de la Vega, L'Inca, "Histoire de la Conquest Floride," and traduite en Francois, par Sr. Pierre Richelet, A. Leide Chez Pierre Vander As., 1731. (Rare.) (Much of this work was translated into English for me by Robert B. Goodwin, of the Memphis Bar.) Gatschet, Albert S., "A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians," Vol. I; D. G. Brinton, Philadelphia, 1884. Goodspeed Publishing Co., "History of Tennessee"; Good- speed Publishing Co., Nashville, Tennessee, 1887. (This book is a compilation with many sketches of various citi- zens.) Grammer, Carl E., "Imprisonment without Trial"; March 1, 1919. Pamphlet issued by Indian Rights Association, Phil- adelphia, 1909. xxi Bibliography Grammer, Carl E., and Herbert Welsh, "Dangerous Legis- lation Proposed Affecting the Five Civilized Tribes." Pamphlet issued by Indian Rights Association, Philadelphia, January 20, 1916. Guion, Major Isaac, "Letters of," Seventh and Eighth Annual Report of Dr. Dunbar Roland, Director, etc. Press of Brandon Printing Co., Nashville, Tennessee, 1909. Halbert, H. S., "Small Indian Tribes," 5 Publications Mississip- pi Historical Society, p. 302; Oxford, Mississippi, 1902. Hamilton, Peter H., "Colonial Mobile"; Houghton, Mifflin and Company. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1898. Also edition of 1910. Harman, T. L., "Beginnings of Presbyterianism in Mississippi," 10 Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, p. 203; Oxford, Mississippi, 1909. Haywood, John, "Natural and Aboriginal History of Ten- nessee," up to the first settlement therein by the white people in the year 17 68 ; printed by George Wilson, Nashville, Tennessee, 1823. (Rare.) Haywood, John, "The Civil and Political History of Tennessee," exact reprint of the edition of 1823; published by W. H. Haywood, Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, Nashville, Tennessee, 1891. Heiskell, S. G., "Andrew Jackson and Early History of Ten- nessee"; Ambrose Printing Co., Nashville, Tennessee, 1920. Henderson, Archibald, "The Conquest of the Old Southwest"; The Century Co., New York City, 1920. Hodge, Frederick Webb, "Handbook of American Indians" (Bulletin 30, Bureau of • Ethnology) ; Government Printing Office, Fourth Impression, September, 1912. Imlay, Gilbert, "Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America," and particularly of Kentucky; printed for J. Debrett, opposite Burlington Court House, Piccadilly, London, 1792. (Rare.) xxii Bibliography Indian Rights Association, Incorporated, The Eighth, Fourteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Twenty-First, Twenty- Fourth, Twenty-Eighth, Thirty-Third, Thirty-Fifth, Thirty- Sixth and Thirty-Seventh Annual Reports of the Board of Directors, the last stating that the Board is endorsed by the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. Pamphlets is- sued by the Indian Rights Association, present office 995 Drexel Building, Philadelphia. Indian Treaties, 7 U. S. Statutes at large, edited by Richard Peters; Charles C. Little and James Brown, Boston, 1848. Irving, Theodore, "Conquest of Florida by Hernando De Soto"; George P. Putman & Son, 661 Broadway, New York City, 1868. Jackson, Helen Hunt, "A Century of Dishonor"; Robert Brothers, Boston, 1891. James, George W., "What the White Race May Learn from the Indian"; Forbes & Co., Chicago, 1908. Jefferson, Thomas, Monticello Edition. Issued under the auspices of the United States, Washington, D. C, 1904. Johnston, Douglas H., "Argument on Behalf of the Chicka- saws" against reopening the polls, etc., 191 o. (Pamphlet.) Johnstone, George, "In Council," Vol. I, p. 216, Mississippi Provincial Archives, 1763-1766, English Dominion, compiled by Dunbar Rowland, Press of Brandon Printing Company, Nashville, Tennessee, 1911. Kappler, Charles J., "Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties" (Vol. II, Treaties); Government Printing Office, Washing- ton, D. C, 1904. Keating, J. M., "History of the City of Memphis and Shelby County"; D. Mason & Co., Syracuse, New York, 1888. King, Grace, "De Soto in the Land of Florida"; The Mac- Millan Co., 1914. Latrobe, John H. B., "An Address to the Choctaw and Chicka- saw Nations" in regard to the Treaty of 1866; Baltimore, 1873. (Pamphlet.) xxiii Bibliography Lawson, John, "The History of Carolina"; by John Lawson, Gent., Surveyor-General of North Carolina; reprinted for W. Taylor at the Ship and F. Baker at the Black Bay in Paternoster Row, Raleigh, 17 14. Printed by Strother & Marcom at their book and job office, i860. (Rare.) Leftwich, George J., "Some Main Traveled Roads of Natchez Trace"; Publications of the Mississippi Historical Associa- tion, Century Series, Vol. I, p. 467, Jackson, Mississippi. Printed for the Society, 1916; also article by the same "Cotton Gin Port and Gaines' Trace," same series of Pub- lications, Mississippi Society Papers, 7 Vol., p. 262. Le Moyne, Jacob, "Narrative of"; an artist who accompanied the French expedition to Florida under Laudonniere in 1564, translated from the Latin by De Bry; James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1875. (Scarce.) LeNoir, W. B., "History of Sweetwater Valley"; Richmond Press, Inc., Richmond, Virginia, 1916. Leupp, Francis E., "The Indian and His Problem"; Charles Scribner's Sons, New York City, 1910. Leupp, Francis E., "Care of the Five Civilized Tribes," letter from the New York Evening Post, March 30, 1916. Pam- phlet issued by Indian Rights Association, Philadelphia, 1916. Lewis, Theodore H., "Route of De Soto's Expedition," Talie- pacana to Huhasene, Vol. 6, Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society; Oxford, Mississippi. Printed for the Society, 1902. Lewis, T. H., "The Chroniclers of the De Soto Expedition," 7 Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, p. 379; Oxford, Mississippi, 1903. Lincecum, Gideon, "Autobiography of," Vol. 8, Publications of Mississippi Historical Society; Oxford, Mississippi, 1904. Printed for the Society. xxir Bibliography Lincecum, Gideon, "Choctaw Traditions," about their settle- ment in Mississippi and the origin of their mounds, Vol. 8, Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society; Oxford, Mississippi. Printed for the Society, 1904. Lloyd, Elwood, "Etienne Brule," MSS address delivered before the Louisiana Historical Society, at the Old Cabadillo, New Orleans, August 5, 1916. Love, William A., "Lowndes County, Its Antiquities and Pioneer Settlers," 7 Publications of the Mississippi Histori- cal Society, p. 351, and another article, p. 373; Oxford, Mississippi, 1903. Love, William A., "The Mayhew Mission to the Choctaws," 11 Publications, Mississippi Historical Society, p. 363. Printed for the Society, 1910. Lowe, E. N., "Mississippi State Geological Survey," a revision with additions to Bulletin No. 12, 1919; Tucker Printing House, Jackson, Mississippi. Mansfield, McMurray & Cornish, "Argument against trans- fer of names of certain Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen," etc., February 8, 1907. (Pamphlet.) Marshall, Chief Justice John, "Opinion of," in the case of Cherokee Nation vs. State of Georgia, 5 Peters 1, 8 L. Ed. 1 on p. 30. Martin, Francois Xavier, "The History of Louisiana" from the earliest times, with appended annals by John F. Condon ; James A. Gresham, Publisher and Bookseller, 26 Camp Street, New Orleans, 1882. McKenney, Thomas L., and James Hall, "History of the Indian Tribes of North America"; published by D. Rice and A. N. Hart, 27 Minor Street, Philadelphia, 1855. McLaughlin, James, "My Friend the Indian"; Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York; The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1910. McMurray, Donald L., "The Federal Indian Policy and the Southwest"; Tennessee Historical Magazine, 1915. XXV Bibliography Meek, A. B., "Romantic Passages in Southwestern History"; y second edition, S. H. Goetzell & Co.,33 Dauphine Street, Mobile; 117 Fulton Street, New York City, 1857. Meserve, Charles F., "The Dawes Commission and The Five Civilized Tribes," report of president of Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina; pamphlet issued by Indian Rights Association, Philadelphia, 1896. Miller, Francis T., "America, the Land We Love"; William Thomas Blaine, New York, 1916. Mixon, Ada, "De Soto's Route West of the Mississippi River," Vol. 12 (no. 1), p. 70, Americana, The American Historical Society, Inc., New York City, 1918; also another article, Vol. 12 (no. 3) on p. 302. Monette, John W., "History and Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi"; Harper Bros., New York City, 1846. Montaigne, Michael De, "The Works of," by William Haz- litt, fourth edition, J. W. Moore, 193 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 1853. Mooney, James, "Myths of the Cherokees," in 19th Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1900. Moore, Charles B., "Aboriginal Sites on the Tennessee River," reprinted from the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Vol. XVI; Philadelphia, 1915. Moorehead, Warren K., "Our National Problem." Member of the United States Board of Indian Commissioners; pamphlet, no date, but published about 1913. Copies can be had of the author at Andover, Massachusetts. Morgan, Lewis H., "Ancient Society"; Henry Holt & Co., New York City, 1877. Murray, William H., "Address in the House of Representa- tives," April 24, 1914. (Pamphlet.) Murrow, J. S., "The Indian's Side." Pamphlet, no date, but published apparently about 191 2. The author was a missionary in the Indian Territory for fifty-five years. xxvi Bibliography Nichols, Irby C, "Reconstruction in De Soto County," n Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, University of Mississippi, p. 295; Oxford, Mississippi, 1910. Nuttall, Thomas, "A Journal of Travel into the Arkansas Territory in the Year 1919"; printed and published by Thomas H. Palmer, Philadelphia, 1821. Ogg, Frederick Austin, "Opening of the Mississippi"; The MacMillan Co., Ltd., New York City, 1904. Parker, Gabe E., "Report of the Superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1920." (Pamphlet.) Paschal, Edwin, "Old Times; Tennessee History"; published for the author, Nashville, Tennessee, 1869. Phelan, James, "History of Tennessee"; Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston & New York; The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1888. Pickett, Albert James, "History of Alabama and Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi"; republished by Robert C. Randolph of Sheffield, Alabama, 1896. Pike, Albert, "A Treaty of Friendship and Alliance," made and concluded at the North Fork village on the North Fork of the Canadian River in the Creek nation west of Arkan- sas, on the 12th day of July, A. D., 1861. By Albert Pike, with plenary power of the Confederate States, and commis- sions on the part of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. (Rare.) Putnam, A. W., "History of Middle Tennessee, or Life and Times of General James Robertson"; Nashville, Tennessee. Printed for the author, 1859. (Scarce.) Ramsey, J. G. M., "Annals of Tennessee"; Walker & James, Charleston, S. C, 1853. (Scarce.) Ranjel, Rodrigo, "Diary of," Vol. 2, Trail Makers, edited by Edward Gaylord Bourne; A. S. Barnes & Co., New York, 1904. xxvii Bibliography Ridpath, John Clark, "History of the World-Nations," in fifteen volumes (Vol. V); The Jones Bros. Publishing Co., Cincinnati; Merrill and Baker, New York. Ridpath, John Clark, "New and Complete History of the United States of America"; Merrill and Baker, New York. Riggs, Thomas, Jr., "Report of the Governor of Alaska for 1920"; Government Printing Office, 1920. Riley, Franklin L., "Life of Col. J. F. H. Claiborne," 7 Pub- lications Mississippi Historical Society, p. 217; Oxford, Mississippi, 1903. Robertson, John, "The Savage," by Piomingo, A Headman and Warrior of the Muscogulgee Nation; Knoxville, Ten- nessee. Republished by the Scrap Book Office, 1833. (Rare.) Rogers, Major Robert, "A Concise Account of North Ameri- ca"; printed for the author and sold by J. Millan, Book- seller, near Whitehall, London, 1765. (Rare.) Romans, Captain Bernard, "A Concise History of East and West Florida," illustrated with twelve copper plates and two whole-sheet maps. Printed for the author, New York, 1775. (Rare.) Roosevelt, Theodore, "Winning of the West," in six volumes; Gebbie and Co., Philadelphia, 1903. Rowland, Dunbar, "Did De Soto Discover the Mississippi River in Tunica County, Mississippi"? Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Centenary Series, Vol. 2, p. 144, and a second paper, p. 158; Jackson, Mississippi, 1918. Printed for the Society. Also "Old Biloxi," an address delivered May 8, 1920. Rowland, Dunbar, "Encyclopedia of Mississippi History," Vol. II, p. 54; Selwyn A. Brant, Madison, Wisconsin, 1907. Saunders, P. H., "Life of Col. Felix Labauve," 7 Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, p. 131; Oxford, Mis- sissippi, 1903. Sells, Cato," Reports to the Secretary of the Interior for fiscal years ending June 30, 1919, and June 30, 1920." (Pamphlets.) xxviii Bibliography Sequoyah, "Proposed State of," Document No. 143, 59th Congress, 1st Session. (Pamphlet.) Shea, John Gilmary, "Discovery and Exploration of the Mis- sissippi Valley," with original narratives of Marquette, Allouez, Membre, Hennepin, and Anastase Douay; second edition; Joseph McDonough, Albany, 1903. Simonds, Frank H., "History of the World War," Vol. I; Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, 191 7. Sniffen, Matthew K., "The Indians of the Yukon and Tanana Valleys, Alaska"; pamphlet issued by Indian Rights Asso- ciation, Philadelphia, 1914. Sniffen, Matthew K., "The Record of Thirty Years"; a brief statement of the Indian Rights Association. Pamphlet issued by Indian Rights Association, Philadelphia, April 15, 1913. Sniffen, Matthew K., Wm. Alexander Brown, Herbert Welsh, and S. M. Brosins, "Threatened Exploitation of Pima Indians." Pamphlet issued by Indian Rights Asso- ciation, Philadelphia, May 18, 1920. Spears, John R., and A. H. Clark, "A History of the Missis- sippi Valley"; A. S. Clark, New York, 1903. Swaney, W. B., "Safeguards of Liberty"; Oxford University Press, American Branch, New York, 1920. S wanton,' John R., "Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley" and adjacent coast of the Gulf of Mexico; Bureau of American Ethnology, Government Printing Office, Wash- ington, D. C, 1911. Swanton, John R., "An Early Account of the Choctaw In- dians"; reprinted from the memories of the American Anthropological Association, Vol. 5, No. 2; press of the New Era Printing Co., Lancaster, Pa., 1918. Sweetser, Kate Dickinson, "Book of Indian Braves"; Harper Bros., New York and London, 191 3. Taylor, Arthur R., "History of the Chickasaw Guards"; MSS, 1914. Thurston, Gates P., "The Antiquities of Tennessee and Adja- cent States"; Robert Clark & Co., Cincinnati, 1890. xxix Bibliography Upham, Warren, "Discovery of the Upper Mississippi River, etc.," Vol. 10, Part 2, p. 538; Minnesota Historical Collec- tions, 1900-1904, published by the Society, St. Paul, Min- nesota, 1905. Van Buren, Martin, "Autobiography of," edited by John C. Fitzpatrick; Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C, 1920; Annual Report of the American Historical Associa- tion in two volumes, Vol. 2. Warren, Harry, "Chickasaw Traditions and Customs, etc." Vol. 8, p. 543, Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society; Oxford, Mississippi. Printed for the Society, 1904. Warren, Harry, "Some Chickasaw Chiefs and Prominent Men," Vol. 8, p. 555, Publications of the Mississippi His- torical Society; Oxford, Mississippi. Printed for the Society, 1904. Also an article on Missions, same volume, p. 571. Wesley, John, "Wesley's Works," Vol. 3; brought out by John Emory, New York. By Carbton and Lanahan, year not given. (Rare.) Williams, Joseph S., "Old Times in West Tennessee," remi- niscences, semi-historic; W. G. Cheeney, Memphis, Tennes- see, 1873. Winsor, Justin, (Editor of) "Narrative and Critical History of America," Vols. 1, 2, and 7; Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York City; The Riverside Press, Cam- bridge. Winsor, Justin, "The Mississippi Basin"; Houghton, Mifflin and Co., Boston and New York City; The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1898. Young, J. P., "De Soto at the Chickasaw Bluffs," Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, Centenary Series, Vol. II, p. 149; Jackson, Mississippi, 1918. Printed for the Society. Young, J. P., "Fort Prudhomme," Tennessee Historical Maga- zine for iqi6, p. 235. Young, J. P., "Standard History of Memphis"; H. W. Crew & Co., Knoxville, Tennessee, 191 2. xxx The Chickasaw Nation CHAPTER I AS TO THE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS When Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain in August, 1492, going westward over an unexplored sea, the expectation of discovering a new world was far from his thoughts. It had for years been the dream of his life that there must be land beyond the limits of the Atlantic, and that by sailing to the West he could discover a nearer route to India than was at that time in use. The riches of India were believed to be almost boundless, and Venice and other centers of commerce had amassed wealth in trade therewith ; all of which fired the imagination of Columbus, who was naturally of an adventurous disposition, and withal a man of great daring and ability. After some months of sailing it took all the ingenuity and address of the great sailor to prevent an open mutiny of his crew, consisting of 120 men, who became discouraged, many of them fearing that they would be cast away upon what seemed to them a limitless waste of desolate waters. Finally when the crew was almost in a state of mutiny, one night Columbus descried a light and soon land loomed up in the distance, and then the vessels lay to, until next day, when they were overjoyed to behold a beautiful forested land from which friendly savages, perfectly naked, issued forth, looking upon the white men and their vessels with evident astonishment. Attired in scarlet Columbus with his principal officers and men bearing the standards of Ferdinand and Isabella were soon on the land, when the admiral fell on his knees, kissed the earth and returned thanks for his safe deliverance with tears of joy; and his example being followed by his men, he arose and with sword in hand declared that he took possession of the country in the name of his king and queen. The Chickasaw Nation In so doing he ignored the rights of the aborigines, whose ancestors had possessed the country as their own from time immemorial. He claimed the country by what is termed the right of discovery, or which might otherwise be termed the right of might. Long years afterwards in the year 1823, the Supreme Court of the United States through Chief Justice Marshall solemnly adjudged that in point of law the Indians had no real title to the country they occupied, but that European nations secured the title thereto by right of original discovery, which was the subject of barter and sale, regardless of the rights and claims of the aborigines who for ages had occupied, claimed, and owned dis- tinct and separate parts of the new world. (See the case of Johnson vs. Mcintosh, 8 Wheaton, 543.) Columbus named the island on which he landed San Sal- vador, and thinking that it was a part of India, he called the inhabitants Indians, and this designation has clung to the aborigines of America to this day, and will doubtless endure for all time. This is but one instance illustrating that, when an error has once fixed itself in the popular mind, it is next to impossible to correct it. In this instance the error is harmless; but in other departments of the many factors which go towards making up the onward march of civilization, like errors and delusions have greatly delayed progress in* many of the activities of human life. This memorable voyage of Columbus was the signal that soon brought forth many adventurous sailors, who sailed the seas over in the quest of fortune and fame; but years rolled by before it was known that in point of fact a new world had been discovered. Amerigo Vespucci, among others having crossed the ocean to the main land of the Western Hemisphere, so impressed his contemporaries with reports of his discoveries, that the new world became his namesake, and ever since has been known as The Chickasaw Nation America, an honor undeserved and that should have been be- stowed upon Columbus, but instead he was rewarded with poverty and chains. It was not until years afterwards that Ferdinand Magellan succeeded in passing around the southern extremity of America, and gave his name to the wild and dangerous straits through which he passed from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and the latter to this day bears the name he gave it. His dream was to prove that this world on which we live is a globe, but his dream ended with his life, April 27, 1 521, in the Philippine Islands which he discovered. Fortunately his lieutenant, Sebastine d'Elcano, proved a worthy successor to the great Magellan, and succeeding to the command, he sailed onward and after discovering many islands, finally doubled the southern extremity of the African continent and returned to the port from which he sailed, thereby proving to be true the theory of Magellan, and which in turn proved that America was a new world beyond the shadow of a doubt. Magellan had sailed with five ships, but only one, the San Vittoria, circled the earth, arriving at St. Lucar near Seville, September 7, 1522, after a voyage of more than three years. She had accomplished the greatest achievement in the history of the world up to that time, for she had circumnavigated the globe. The tremendous importance of this great voyage, and its effect upon the intellectual development of mankind lies far beyond the scope of these pages. The wise men, philosophers, and especially the ecclesiastical world, were thrown into a great discussion to account for a new world, peopled by many tribes and nations theretofore unknown, and likewise forested with innumerable new trees and plants through which roamed countless new animals, while the air was filled with birds and a feathered tribe totally unknown in the old world. The question debated was as to when and where all of these things were created, and especially were they created as a The Chickasaw Nation part of the acts of that six days' creation set forth in the sacred writings of the Christian religion. To doubt that all men were the descendants of Adam and Eve was to deny the authenticity of the Scriptures, and would probably have put in jeopardy the liberty or life of one so bold as to raise such a question. It is difficult for us now to realize how profoundly the question as to the origin of the American aborigines affected the learned men and ecclesiastics of that time, and even in com- paratively modern days. One of the early and favorite theories was a suggestion or argument put forth that when the ark of Noah finally rested on Mount Ararat that by unknown means some of its passengers became shipwrecked, so to speak, and in due course of time some of them reached the new world, and that the Indians were their descendants. Volumes were written to sustain this view. Other authors called attention to the fact that in the re- mote past Diodorus Siculus relates that the ancient Phoenicians discovered a large island in the Atlantic far beyond the pillars of Hercules, which abounded in all kinds of riches. Plutarch mentions what Plato said as to the information given in respect thereto by Egyptian priests. This is what is sometimes called the fabled Atlantis. Many believe even to this day that there was such an island known as the Atlantis, which formerly adjoined other islands, so that America might have been peopled from Europe by persons going from one island to another until the American continent was reached. The Azores islands are sup- posed by some to be the tops of the mountains on the Atlantis island at the time a great submergence took place in some prehistoric period. I was in the Azores in 1 91 2, and to me the island had a mountainous aspect. Another theory, and the one probably most written of and advocated by learned writers, is to the effect that the Indians were the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel; that is, that they are the lineal descendants of the Jews. Among these writers I The Chickasaw Nation read only one, viz. : that of James Adair, who published a lengthy account of the American Indians in London in 1775, which has never been republished and is a rare book. Adair was an English trader and commenced to trade with the Indians in 1735, and first traded with the Chickasaws in 1744, among whom he wrote the greater part of his book. The book contains 404 pages, of which 220 pages consist of what he denominates "arguments" in proof of his theory that the Indians are descendants of the Jews. There are twenty- three of these "arguments," each being about the usual length of an ordinary chapter. Adair was as perfectly conversant with the marriage, divorce, inheritance, burial, and all other rites, laws, and customs of the Chickasaws and neighboring nations, as a white man could well be; and at the same time he was perfectly conversant with the Old Testament; and the ingenuity dis- played by him in an endeavor to show a similarity between the ancient customs and laws of the Jews with those of the Indians is worthy of admiration. John R. Swanton, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, wrote me on March 21, 191 7, that by all odds the best account of the Chickasaw Indians was the work of Adair, even though it was marred by his "arguments" in favor of his favorite theory, for he knew the Chickasaws at first hand, and wrote what he saw and heard. In addition to the above theories there are two documents, one of Chinese and the other of Scandinavian origin, which undertake to relate the discovery of a country, the first by the Chinese early in the Christian era, wherein the kingdom of Fu-Sang was established, and it is claimed Fu-Sang was upon American soil, hence the descent of the Indians from the Chinese. The Scandinavian Vikings early discovered Iceland, and it is recorded in the sagas that about the year 981 A. D., Eric the Red, an outlaw of Ireland, discovered Greenland, and the same sagas or written legends which set forth these discoveries also relate that subsequent thereto the Vikings made frequent visits The Chickasaw Nation to the south to a land which had been discovered there by one Bjarni, and which was given the name of Vinland about the year 985 A. D. There is much diversity of opinion as to the trustworthiness of either the Chinese or Scandinavian accounts. There is a theory also that America was settled by Japanese, as many Japanese junks have drifted to the American coast, some empty, and some with men, but it is said there is no evidence of a Japanese woman having ever arrived in this way. A cold current flows from the arctic regions down southward by China, hence it is said no Chinese wreckage has ever reached American soil. On the other hand, what we call the Japanese current flows northwestward near the Japanese islands, and as the current runs at the rate of some ten miles an hour, wreckage could well reach America. While the origin of our Indians is by no means definitely known, still I am strongly inclined to believe that their original ancestors came across Bering Strait from Asia to Alaska at some very remote period. The straits dividing the continents are variously estimated to be only from thirty-six to fifty-six miles across, and in addition there are in it two islands of some con- siderable extent, and these are about midway between the shores of the two continents and are known as the Diomede Islands, and are inhabited by Eskimos. Besides, the straits are often frozen over in winter, so that the hardy natives would find no difficulty what- ever in crossing on the ice from Siberia to Alaska. In 1906, my wife and I were in Nome, Alaska, and after going upon the steamer Olympia to sail for Seattle, a large open boat came alongside containing a jolly family of Eskimos with the peculiarity that the heads of the men were shaved on top; and upon calling attention to this I was told these people were from the Diomede Islands, it being the custom of the men there to shave the top of the head, and that these people often came down the coast several hundred miles to visit at Nome and further down the coast. The Chickasaw Nation Previously on the same trip, after landing at Skagway, we crossed over the coast mountains on the Yukon and White Pass Railroad, and we reached White Horse, on the Thirty-mile River at the foot of the White Horse Rapids, where we took a steamer for Dawson City, the commercial and political capital of the Yukon territory, where we remained about one week. Taking another vessel, we continued our voyage down the great Yukon River to Fort Gibbon, where we changed to another steamer which carried us to St. Michaels, in the Bering Sea, and which is the entrepot for the Yukon River country. There we stopped a few days with the family of a friend, Walter Chidester, a very capable and observant man, then the agent for a great commercial concern in that distant part of the world. I had been much interested in the long voyage of 2,000 miles down the Yukon to observe what I could with respect to the native Indians, though not many were to be seen. As we ap- proached the sea, say for about 150 miles from the mouth of the river, it was extremely interesting to me to observe how the Indians gradually shaded off into the Eskimo type. The change appeared in the native garments, especially in the parka of the Eskimo, and in the little igloos shaped like beehives and well known from pictures we so often see. Mr. Chidester informed me that there were several en- campments of Eskimos on the seashore near his house, and that these hardy natives came from Asia along the Arctic Sea, and thought nothing of crossing Bering Strait and coming down the coast of Alaska, a distance of 500 miles, on a kind of summer trip. Next morning we went down to view the encampment. The boats they came in did not contain a piece of metal, and doubtless were of the same pattern and kind used from the most remote times. The boats were, according to my estimate, some forty feet long, and wide and deep in proportion to the length. The framework consisted of driftwood lashed together with rawhide, and the sides or hull was rough walrus rawhide, and, of course, entirely waterproof. The Chickasaw Nation On leaving their homes in Siberia, all they had to do was to launch their boat, pile in it their children and dogs with such provisions and cooking utensils as they had, and nothing re- mained except to paddle across the straits, and thence enjoy as happy a voyage down the coast as is given to the children of Nature. The Eskimos have the slanting eyes of the Japanese and Chinese, and are generally plump, very pleasing in their de- meanor, and many of them were very good looking, some of the women having a dignified, matronly appearance; and it was said no Eskimo was ever seen to strike a child. We arrived at Nome on Saturday and that night, under the electric lights of that outpost of civilization, the streets were full of Eskimos of all sexes and ages, dressed in varicolored furs, and these with miners and prospectors from many parts of the earth presented one of the most picturesque scenes I ever looked upon. As is well known, the Laps inhabit the northern arctic regions of Norway, Sweden, and a portion of Russia, their country being usually denominated Lapland. While they succeeded in domesticating the reindeer, still they have no organized govern- ment, and owe allegiance to the various countries in which they live. All ethnologists agree that the Laps are in no way connected with the Eskimos, but are probably related to the Finns, both being a branch of the Asiatic Mongolian race, about whose origin little is known. The best theory seems to be that the Laps in remote ages lived further south and were gradually driven north by their more powerful neighbors, and in course of time the only asylum that could afford them protection was the frozen North, which accordingly became their permanent home. On the shores of Arctic Asia the Eskimos commence and continue not only across the Bering Strait, but they inhabit all of the Northern shores and islands of North America, and 8 The Chickasaw Nation extend as far as Greenland, which is far out in the Atlantic Ocean. It was once a question how the Eskimos could get to Greenland, but it seems to be now well agreed that they could cross on the ice, and if need be, aided by their water craft. The Eskimos stretch over a distance of some thousands of miles, counting from those who live in Asia on eastward to Green- land, the Arctic Islands, and lands in the far frozen North; and it seems to be agreed that their speech shows a common origin. No other uncivilized people have ever been known to inhabit a country so extensive in length, and in all probability there is no intercourse between those separated by great distances. It would seem, therefore, that the Eskimos on the arctic shores of Asia were driven there by their Mongolian neighbors in the south, which finally became their home, as the Laps found a home on the northern shores of Arctic Europe. The features of the Eskimos are of the Mongolian type and I do not think there can be a reasonable doubt that they are of Mongolian origin. It is true that they have their peculiar characteristics, but their mode of life for ages in the arctic regions, with the intense struggle for existence peculiar to that life would necessarily show variations from the original type. All the Eskimos I have seen appeared to better advantage both in person and general deportment, as well as in the souvenirs of their own make which they offered for sale, than did the Laps whom I saw in northern Norway in 191 2, on a visit we made that year to the North Cape, commonly called the land of the midnight sun. Those Laps had a scrawny, dirty appearance, and the trinkets offered for sale seemed to me far inferior to the handi- work of the Eskimos. That the Indians of North America are either the descend- ants of Eskimos or Asiatics I scarcely think is doubtful. While the great Yukon River flows for the most part through a great plateau, with considerable forests on its banks, still these trees gradually fade away into mere scrub, within, say, one The Chickasaw Nation hundred miles of the mouth of the river. The evident reason is that trees can not grow on the desolate tundras near the sea, precisely as no trees are to be found on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. I was told that Eskimos lived on the desolate lower reaches of the Yukon, and in fact saw their igloos and could distinguish them by the parkas they wore. As is well known, Eskimos depend upon the seals, the walrus, and an occasional whale, and other denizens of the sea; whereas the Indian proper depends upon the creatures of the land for a subsistence. The struggle for existence in either mode of life is severe and would necessarily produce many variations from the original type. All travelers report that the greatest antipathy exists between Eskimos and the Indians, who sometimes stray upon the hunting grounds of each other. The Eskimos are often at enmity, the one tribe with another. Nothing is better known than that neighboring tribes of Indians were constantly at war, which is the case with practically all uncivilized peoples, and also the practice is not unknown among those nations who claim to be the leaders of civilization. It is well known that uncivilized peoples who depend upon the chase for sustenance, are nearly always nomads, spending months at a time on distant journeys, following up the game which furnishes them food and raiment. How easy would it be for a tribe forced up the Yukon by its enemies, or which should take a notion to spy out a happier hunting ground, to go in their canoes to the upper reaches of the Yukon in the summer time. Here they would find not only an abundance of fish in the river and its tributaries, as well as water fowl, but at certain seasons of the year there were to be found millions of caribou, as well as the lordly moose, not to mention other game. It is true the caribou migrate and at times go to the south, but it is well known that savage people follow migrat- ing animals, and by following these to their winter homes it 10 The Chickasaw Nation would be but a short step to find the countless herds of North American buffalo or bison, which stretched from Arctic America to the Gulf of Mexico. Again it is but 112 miles from the upper point of navigation on the headwaters of the Yukon to Skagway on the Pacific Ocean, where the sea never freezes over, and how easy would it be for the aborigines to cross the intervening range of mountains is shown from the fact that it is now crossed on a railway train. The Peace River country now in British Columbia, though far north, has a comparatively mild climate, owing to the warm Chinook winds which blow over the Japan currents of the Pacific and reach that country. This country would be a kind of half- way house between the arctic regions and the warmer parts of the country stretching toward the far South, for migrating bands of savages. In considering the possibility or probability of the settle- ment in America of the Indians, first coming across by way of Bering Strait, we should not consider the subject from the standpoint of a few hundred years, but upon the assumption that in all probability it took some thousands of years for the settle- ment of the American continents. Given sufficient time the dispersion might well cover the whole continent; and as a climate, the productions of the soil, and other conditions which make it easier to subsist and give leisure for thought and reflection have always been the means by which men have first discarded savagery and laid the founda- tion stone for ultimate civilization, we can realize why it was that there once existed in Peru and Mexico a civilization un- known on the North American continent. The warm climate and other favoring conditions in those parts of America where there once existed a prehistoric civiliza- tion have often been compared to like climatic conditions in the valley of the Nile and of the Euphrates and Tigris, where, so far as we know, our civilization had its beginning. It may be remarked here that the Natchez Indians who 11 The Chickasaw Nation gave their name to the city of Natchez in southern Mississippi on the banks of the great river of that name were further advanced in their form of government and an organized society than any other tribe of Indians who dwelt within the boundaries of the United States. No doubt the warm climate and favoring conditions of life were prime factors in the elevation of this unfortunate people, who were almost exterminated by the French, and as we will see, the remnants of that once noted tribe found an asylum and a home among the intrepid Chickasaws, who haughtily and successfully defied all the powers of the French when they demanded the surrender of the Natchez from the Chickasaws. I have never seen the ruins of South or Central America that have been uncovered and so extensively written about and photographed, especially in these later years. I passed on the train near the earth pyramids not far from Mexico City, and saw in that city the great Calendar stone and other remnants of a past civilization. In the same year (1908) we went down to the State of Oaxaca, far south of Mexico City, to see the ruins of Mitla, which are not far distant from Oaxaca. No one can view these ruins except with feelings of astonishment ; and yet we are told that when Cortez first passed through that country about 1520, that the half barbarous people who lived near these ruins had no more knowledge as to who were the builders of the splendid solid stone edifice which once adorned that country than have the half naked Indians we saw there. Between the city of Oaxaca and the ruins of Mitla stands the celebrated Tule tree, said to be the oldest and largest tree in the world. It measures 154 feet in circumference and was of sufficient importance to attract the attention of Alexander Von Humboldt, who placed a tablet on the tree commemorative of his visit (as I remember) in 1804, a part of which has been covered by new growth of the tree, which still continues to grow. It was on this trip that Humboldt traveled over South America, and thence northward up through Central America, 12 The Chickasaw Nation Mexico, and into the United States. He traveled over most of the world, especially through the remote and uncivilized coun- tries, was learned in almost every branch of knowledge and was one of the greatest intellectualities of the nineteenth century. Probably no man was better capacitated to express an opinion as to the origin of the American Indians than Humboldt. In Vol. i, p. 13, of The Great Republic by Master His- torians, Humboldt is quoted as saying: "It appears most evident to me that the monuments, methods of computing time, systems of cosmogony, and many myths of America, offer striking analogies with the ideas of eastern Asia — analogies which indicate an ancient communica- tion, and are not simply the result of that uniform condition in which all nations are found in the dawn of civilization." When Cortez with fire and sword and a savagery rivaling Attila, "The Scourge of God," destroyed the Montezumas of Mexico City, at the same time and under the plea of destroying paganism and extending the Christian religion he likewise destroyed all the the records of the civilization which he found in Mexico. In all probability the loss caused by this destruc- tion robbed mankind of the only clue which might have led to a knowledge of the origin of the American aborigines. In the present state of knowledge, the conclusion of Hum- boldt is about all that can now be said with any degree of cer- tainty upon this most interesting subject. 13 CHAPTER II AS TO THE ORIGIN OF THE CHICKASAW NATION As we have seen, the origin of the race of the American Indian is wrapped in mystery, so likewise when we endeavor to trace the early history of the Chickasaw nation as an integral part of the Indian race, we will likewise find that we are without authentic history and must depend upon legends and traditions as our only sources of information. I am by no means unmindful of the weakness, not to say untrustworthiness, of this kind of evidence; nevertheless, having no other, we will briefly look to these sources as fur- nishing some slight indication as to the earliest home of the Chickasaws. There are several versions as to the manner in which the Chickasaws reached their home in what is now north Mississippi, and there found an abiding place. De Soto was the first white man to enter their country in December, 1540, and there they were again found, after the lapse of more than a century, by the first white men who explored their country. It seems to me that these traditions point to Old Mexico as the original home of the Chickasaws. I have referred to Adair as an authority on Chickasaw history, and next to him, I regard H. B. Cushman as probably the most reliable of those who have given accounts of the Chicka- saws. Lincecum is also a good authority. In 1899 Cushman published a volume of 607 pages, entitled History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Indians, the Greenville, Texas, Headlight Printing House being the publisher, the paper being very poor but the type good. I had difficulty in procuring a copy of the book, which I finally did 14 The Chickasaw Nation through the efforts of my friend, W. W. Alsobrook, who had resided many years in Greenville, and who was told by a niece of Cushman that he died in 1904. Cushman states that his parents left Massachusetts in 1820, and went to the Choctaw Indians as missionaries, among whom they labored the balance of their lives, and died the sincere and admiring friends of the red men of the forest; that he was reared among the Indians and was intimately acquainted with them during the vicissitudes of a life extending to near four score of years ; that he had obtained in these years a fund of information not theretofore published, and he evidently deemed it a sacred duty to place it in permanent form for the benefit of posterity, and especially in justice to the Indians whom he admired and loved so much. The wrongs and injustices towards the Indians by white men evidently so oppressed the mind and sympathies of Cushman that throughout his lengthy book he constantly declaims against the oppressors of the Indians, and in this way detracts from the value of his conclusions as an impartial historian. However, his perfect sincerity and honesty of purpose in stating exactly what he saw and heard cannot be doubted. There is no index or even chapters to his book, and it would seem that the one thought constantly with him was to put in permanent form not only all he knew about the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Natchez Indians but to weave into his book what he knew of other Indians, together with his conclusions with respect to the treatment of the Indians in general by the white men of this country. The first 414 pages of the book are devoted to the Choctaws; the next 115 pages to the Chickasaws, and the remainder to the Natchez Indians, and various other subjects. I have thus referred to Adair, Cushman, and Lincecum, because I intend to quote from them liberally as authentic sources of information, which I do the more readily as the first two are practically out of the reach of the general reading public. 15 The Chickasaw Nation How the Indians Preserved Historical Events— The impression is general that the Indians were without any means of recording matters of great interest or import, and that they depended entirely upon their memories in transmitting current events to posterity, but Cushman says: "As aids to memory they used various devices, among which belts of wampum were the chief. Wampum was truly the archives of the tribe among all North American Indians. It was made of dressed deer skin, soft and pliable as cloth, and inter- woven with various shells cut into uniform size, carefully polished, strung together and painted in different colors, all of which were significant; white being the emblem of peace and friendship; red, the symbol of hostility and war. As the colors of the wampum were significant, so also were the length and breadth of these belts, and also the peculiar arrangements of the differently painted strings attached, each and all fully understood by the Indians alone. A belt of wampum was presented to one tribe by another as a remembrance token of any important event that was com- municated. They had many and various kinds of wampum; some in the form of belts of different breadth and length; some in strings of various width and length, all reaching back in regular order to centuries of the remote past, with an accuracy in- credible to the White Race. "The wampum was the Indians' history, the chronicles of the past; and the leaders of each clan of the tribe, from one generation to another, were carefully and thoroughly instructed by their predecessors for that particular business and were held in the highest esteem by all Indians everywhere. "Pictures, rudely carved on rocks and trees, were used to convey information, each figure being a true symbol understood and fully comprehended by the Indians wherever seen." (See pages 35-36.) It is evident that this mode of recording current events was far from perfect, and was liable to many misinterpretations. Traditions of a Western Origin— All agree, however, that the Chickasaws belonged to the Muskhogean family of Indians, the family name being spelled 16 i|;A«i) /** ^m^ *to&''W[' l^m^fms^^mf^^*^ ^ / ^^ The above pictograph is taken from Bernard Roman's Natural History of East and West Florida. He visited the Chickasaws in 1771. Explaining the above pictograph (p. 102) he says: "To give an idea of Indian hieroglyphick painting, I have subjoined the two following cuts; the first is a painting in the Creek taste, it means, that ten of that nation of the Stag family came in canoes into their enemy country, that six of the party near this place, which was at Oopah Ullah, a brook so called on the road to the Chactaws, had met two men, and two women with a dog, that they lay in ambush for them, killed them, and that they all went home with the four scalps; the scalp in the stag's foot implies the honour of the action to the whole family. "The second is Chactaw, and means that an expedition by seventy men, led by seven principal warriors, and eight of inferior rank, had in an action killed nine of their enemies, of which they brought the scalps, and that the place where it was marked was the first publick place in their territories where they arrived with the scalps." The Chickasaw Nation variously, as Muscogee, Muskogee, Muskhogies, Muscogulgee, etc. The principal nations composing the Muskhogeans were the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creek and Chockchoomas ; and the country occupied by them extended from the gulf of Mexico up the east side of the Mississippi River, then up the Ohio to the dividing ridge between the Tennessee and Cumber- land Rivers, and on eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. East Tennessee and the mountainous portions of Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky were occupied by the warlike and fierce Cherokees, who constituted a Southern branch of the Iroquois Indians, whose main country lay further north. There were included in the above general description of the Muskhogean country many small tribes who were not Muskho- geans; such as the noted Natchez Indians, the Biloxis, Tunicas, Tensas, Yazoos, Koroas, and Pascagoulas, but the members of these tribes were for the most part inconsiderable, while the Muskhogeans were much larger and warlike, often fighting each other. There appears to have been a well defined tradition among all the Muskhogeans, pointing to the West, and probably Old Mexico as their former home. It is of interest here to recall that the great Cherokee Indian, Sequoyah, conceived the idea that by tracing out some common idioms in the various Indian languages, he could eventually determine the origin of the Cherokees and other Indians; and in his old age he traveled to the far West and was overtaken by death at the advanced age of eighty-two, among the mountains of Tamaulipas, Mexico. Adair says the Choctaws and Chickasaws were the descend- ants of a people called Chickemacaws ; who were among the first inhabitants of the Mexican empire; and at an ancient period wandered eastward with a tribe of Indians called Choccomaws, and finally crossed the Mississippi River with ten thousand warriors. Cushman supposes that the names Choctaw and Chickasaw were derived from the above names, and says that in 1820 the 17 The Chickasaw Nation aged Choctaws related to the missionaries that their ancestors in a remote period dwelt in the far West, and being conquered and oppressed by a more powerful people, resolved to seek a new country, going to the East. A great council of the whole nation was called, and after great deliberation and much discussion, the nation started forth under the leadership of two brothers, Chahtah and Chikasah, both equally renowned for their bravery in war and their wisdom in council. After much prayer and supplication, the Great Spirit had revealed to their chief medicine men and prophets that they should erect a pole (Fa-bus-sah in their language) in the midst of their camp, standing straight up, and that each morning they should carefully observe the way it leaned and follow in that direction, and the first morning, as it leant to the east, they started on their long journey toward the rising sun. Each night the pole was set up in the midst of the camp, alternately by the brothers, Chahtah and Chikasah, and each morning it still pointed to the east, and for months they passed Over plains, mountains and through forests, much of the country abounding in game and inviting the pilgrims to settle there, but the talismanic pole continued to point eastward and the nation followed its silent admonitions. Says Cushman : "After many months of wearisome travel, suddenly a vast body of flowing water stretched its mighty arm athwart in their path. With unfeigned astonishment they gathered in groups upon its banks and gazed upon its turbid waters. Never before had they even heard of, or in all their wanderings stumbled upon, aught like this. Whence its origin? Where its terminus? This is surely the Great Father, the true source of all waters, whose age is wrapt in the silence of the unknown past, ages beyond all calculation, and as they then and there named it 'Misha Sipokni' (Beyond Age, whose source and terminus are unknown). * * * Is Misha Sipokni to be the terminus of their toils? Are the illimitable forests that so lovingly embraced 18 The Chickasaw Nation in their wide extended arms its restless waters to be their future homes? Not so. Silent and motionless, still as ever before, it bows to the east and its mandate, 'Onward, beyond Misha Sipokni,' is accepted without a murmur; and at once they pro- ceed to construct canoes and rafts by which, in a few weeks, all were safely landed upon its eastern banks, whence again was resumed their eastward march, and so continued until they stood upon the western banks of the Yazoo River and once more en- camped for the night; and, as had been done for many months before, ere evening began to unfold her curtains, and twilight had spread o'er all her mystic light, the Fabussa (now truly their Delphian oracle) was set up; but ere the morrow's sun had plainly lit up the eastern horizon, many anxiously watching eyes that early rested upon its straight, slender, silent form, observed it stood erect as when set up the evening before, and then was borne upon the morning breeze throughout the vast sleeping en- campment, the joyful acclamation! 'Fohah hupishno Yak! Fohah hupishno Yak!' (Pro. as Fo-hah, Rest, hup-ish-noh, we, all of us, Yak, here.) "Now their weary pilgrimage was ended, and flattering hope portrayed their future destiny in the bright colors of peace, prosperity, and happiness. Then, as commemorative of this great event in their national history, they threw up a large mound embracing three acres of land and rising forty feet in a conical form, with a deep hole about ten feet in diameter excavated on the top, and all enclosed by a ditch encompassing nearly twenty acres. After its completion, it was discovered not to be erect, but a little leaning, and they named it Nunih (mountain or mound) Waiyah (leaning), pro. as Nunih Wai-yah. "This relic of the remote past still stands half buried in the accumulated rubbish of years, unknown, disfigured also by the desecrating touch of Time, which has plainly left his finger-marks of decay upon it, blotting out its history, with all others of its kind — those memorials of ages past erected by the true native American, about which so much has been said in conjecture, and so much written in speculation, that all now naturally turn to anything from their modern conjectures and speculations with much doubt and great misgivings." (See pp. 64-65). Some years afterwards, Chahtah and Chikasah disagreed on some question of state, and decided to separate with their re- 19 The Chickasaw Nation spective followers, the choice of the countries to be decided by a. game of chance, with the result that the northern part of the country fell to Chikasah and his people, while the southern part fell to Chahtah and his followers. Did the Separation Take Place in the West— Dr. Gideon Lincecum lived among the Choctaws for years, and spoke their language fluently, and his autobiography will be found in VIII Publications, Mississippi Historical Society Papers, at page 443 ; and page 52 1 of the same volume there is an interesting account by Dr. Lincecum of the Choctaw traditions about their settlement in Mississippi, and the origin of their mounds, the account extending to page 542. On page 543 of the same volume, Harry Warren also has an interesting article on "Chickasaw Traditions, Customs, etc." While differing as to some of the details, still the accounts given by these three authors, and also that of Schoolcraft, as quoted by Warren, agree in the main, one important exception being that, ac- cording to Lincecum, the separation between Chahtah and Chikasah took place long before they reached their new home, for he says: "About thirty winters after they had stopped at Nunih Waya, a party of hunters who had progressed a little further north than usual, fell in with a camp of hunters belonging to the Chickasha tribe. After finding that they spoke the same lan- guage with themselves, the Chahtahs approached their camp in a friendly manner, and remained several days. The older men amongst them being familiar with the traditional history of the journeyings of their respective tribes, took much pleasure in communicating to each other an- account of their travels. From the point where the two tribes separated, the Chickashas diverged widely to the left, found an extremely rough and scarce country for some time, but at last, emerging from the mountains on to the wide spread plains, they found the buffalo and other game plenti- ful. They continued to travel with only an occasional halt, to rest the women and the feeble ones, until they came to the great river, at the place called by them sakti ahlopulli (bluff crossing) — 'White people call it now Chickasaw Bluffs,' said the old man. They made shift to cross the great river, and traveling onward, 20 The Chickasaw Nation the leader's pole came to a stand at a place called Chickasha Old Town in a high and beautiful country. The leader's pole stood at this place three winters, at the end of which time the pole was found leaning to the northeast. They set out again and crossed another big river (little prairie near Huntsville, Ala.). The pole remained there erect only one winter. At mulberry time the ensuing summer, the pole was found leaning almost directly to the south. They packed up, and crossing many bold running rivers, the pole still leaning onward, until they came to a large river, near where it emptied into the great okhuta (ocean). "At this beautiful country (below where Savannah, Georgia, now stands), the pole stood erect many winters. The fish, opa haksum, oko folush (oysters, clams), and all manner of shell fish and fowl and small game were plentiful. The people obtained full supplies of provisions with but little labor. In the process of time, however, the people became sickly, and they were visited with a very great plague. They called the plague hoita lusa (black vomit), because the people died, vomiting black matter resembling powdered fire coals and fish slime. All that took it were sick but a day or two and died so fast that the people became frightened and ran off, leaving great numbers of the dead unburied. They followed the leader's pole back nearly over the same route they went, until finally they returned to the place where the pole made its first stand (Chickasha Old Towns). Here it stood again, and remained erect until it rotted." Is it not almost a certainty that the great plague referred to was what in later years was known as the dreaded yellow fever, which, from time to time, decimated that coast until science decreed its doom? There are other evidences that the Chickasaws once lived near where Savannah, Georgia, now is and the sea coast, and it is a fact that they laid claim to a scope of country in that vicinity before Congress as late as 1795. It is also true that the Chickasaws, or a part of them, once lived at the Mussel Shoals, now in north Alabama, a fact stated by Piomingo at the Great Conference in Nashville in 1792, in giving the boundaries of the Chickasaw country. There is one other interesting feature of the above quotation from Lincecum, and that is, that the Chickasaws first crossed the 21 The Chickasaw Nation great river at the Chickasaw Bluffs, presumably where Memphis now stands. Since the foregoing was printed, I became acquainted with Honorable Charles D. Carter, through a correspondence, he being a Chickasaw by birth, and a member of Congress for many years from Oklahoma, of whom I will hereafter have occasion to refer with more particularity. Mr. Carter sent me the version which he heard many years ago, but I regret that space forbids its insertion here as an en- tirety. It is interesting to note, however, that, according to the legend of Mr. Carter, the bones of the dead already referred to were deposited west of the Mississippi, where the parting of the Chickasaws and Choctaws took place. That when the traveling hosts first saw the great river, they were amazed, one of the oldest and wisest prophets exclaiming. "Misha Sipokani," literally translated "beyond the ages," but figuratively meaning "the father of all its kind," distorted in its pronunciation by the white man, in all probability, into the name "Mississippi," with a free translation as meaning "the father of waters." Mr. Carter then closes the legend in these words : "They camped for the night on the banks of the great river, and since the leader's pole still leaned toward the east, the young men began to make rafts and canoes for crossing the river and proceeding on their journey. When the crossing was finally attempted, the little white dog which had so faithfully kept his course toward the rising sun was drowned, and upon reaching the opposite bank of the river, the sacred pole, after wobbling around and pointing in many directions, finally stood erect, and the medicine men interpreted this as an omen that the promised land had been reached. "Scouting expeditions were sent out by nearly all the clans in search of game and other food and to ascertain the exact char- acter of country to which the Great Spirit had led them. Finally the head man of a certain clan, the members of which were de- scribed as taller and of fairer skin than the rest of the tribe, appeared before the general council and asserted that, according to his best information and judgment, the promised land had not 22 The Chickasaw Nation yet been reached, that a much better country, more productive in soil, more bountiful in game, fruit, and fish, lay somewhat to the north and still farther toward the rising sun. After debating the question for many hours a vote was taken as to whether the move should be made, and it was decided by a large majority that the desired place had been reached and that no further move was necessary. Upon hearing the vote, the leader of the taller and fairer clan rose up and, striding majestically out of the council, dramatically uttered the following words: '"All those who believe the promised land is further towards the rising sun follow me.' "His entire clan arose and went with him, but few others. Upon seeing this the Choctaw warriors and some of their head men grabbed their spears, tomahawks, and bows and arrows as if to restrain this clan by force. But the old head minko arose, extended his hand above his head, palm out, and exclaimed: "'Hamonockma, ikia ahnishke, chickasha!' (Halt, follow them not, they are rebels!) 'Thus the division of the Choctaws and Chickasaws into two separate tribes came about, and on account of the old chief's reference to them as 'rebels,' this taller and fairer tribe were ever thereafter known as 'Chickasha.'" I must confess that I was much impressed with this version as to the circumstances under which it is said this parting of the Chickasaws and Choctaws took place. It is at least in keeping with the known after characteristics of the two nations. As far as authentic sources of information extend, the Chickasaws have always been a comparatively small nation, but imperious, warlike, and, as many of the earlier travelers say, overbearing and aggresive. We know that the Choctaws, while always far exceeding them in numbers, feaied them, and that the Chickasaws were inclined to treat them with disdain. According to the version of Mr. Carter, the name Chickasaw, or as written in the legend Chickasha, means rebel, and is some- what descriptive of Chickasaw characteristics. The Indians Were the Mound Builders — There is one feature of the migration legends treated at lnegth by Lincecum that seems to have been overlooked or not 23 The Chickasaw Nation treated by Cushman; and that is, the bringing by the Indians of vast quantities of the bones of their deceased ancestors to their new home. According to Lincecum, who claimed to have derived all of his information from the wise men of the Choctaws, the migration covered a period of forty-three years, and the people were loaded down with the bones of their ancestors to such an extent as to make further progress almost impossible. A safe depository for the repose of these bones was one of the chief reasons for building the great mound in their new home, as well as to raise a monument to their triumphant march and successful settlement towards the rising sun. Commencing at page 529, Lincecum says: "Men were then appointed to select an appropriate place for the mound to be erected on, and to direct the work while in progress. They selected a level piece of sandy land, not far from the middle creek; laid it off in an oblong square and raised the foundation by piling up earth which they dug up some dis- tance to the north of the foundation. It was raised and made level as high as a man's head and beat down very hard. It was then floored with cypress bark before the work of placing the sacks of bones commenced. The people gladly brought forward and deposited their bones until there were none left. The bones of themselves had built up an immense mound. They brought the cypress bark, which was neatly placed on, till the bone sacks were all closely covered in, as dry as a tent. While the tool carriers were working with the bark, women and children and all the men, except the hunters, carried earth continually, until the bark was all covered from sight, constituting a mound half as high as the tallest forest tree." (See pp. 529-530.) In a note to page 530, he says: "I visited this celebrated mound in 1843. I found it rounded off, oblong square, 200 yards in circumference at its base, eighty feet in height, with a flat space on the top fifty-two yards in length by twenty-five yards in width. The whole mound was thickly set with large forest trees ; 200 yards to the north of it is a 24 The Chickasaw Nation lake, which I suppose to be the place whence they carried the earth to construct the mound." Lincecum further set forth that he further learned that, in the remote past, the Chickasaws were threatening an invasion of the Choctaw country, when a great council was called, which resolved to and did build a great wall around their two principal mounds, also enclosing a space sufficient to contain all the women and children, as well as the aged and infirm, in case they were besieged. The wall was built of the height of two men, and had in it only two openings, one on the east and the other on the west, of five steps each in width, for the egress and ingress of the people until Nunih Waya should be actually invaded by the enemy. In a note to page 542 Lincecum says: "I went all round this earth wall in 1843. It seemed to be a complete circle, and from one and a half to two miles in circum- ference, the southeastern portion cutting the bluff of Nunih Waya Creek. Many places in the wall were still eight feet in height. The two gaps in the wall had never been filled up." Both Cushman and Lincecum attest that even in their day there were professional bone pickers, whose duties consisted in removing all the flesh of deceased Choctaws from the bones, which were carefully and religiously stored away in mounds, or rather, they were laid away in the common mausoleum of the Choctaws, each addition being carefully covered with earth until the mounds often reached large proportions. Quoting his Choctaw informant, Lincecum says: "Now, my white friend, I have explained to you the origin, and who it was that built the great number of mounds that are found scattered over this wide land. The circular conic mounds are all graves, and mark the spot where the persons for whom they were built breathed their last breath. There being no bone pickers at the hunting camps to handle the dead, the body was never touched, or moved from the death posture. Just as 25 The Chickasaw Nation it lay, or sat, as the case might be, it was covered up, first with either stones, pebbles or sand, and finished off with earth. In this way the custom of mound graves originated from the great mound graves, Nunih Waya, and it prevailed with the Choctaw people until the white man came with his destructive sense- killing 'fire water' and made the people all drunk." (See pp. 533-534-) Of course there were other structures erected for defensive and warlike purposes, such as the construction of the wall described by Lincecum. , Traditions Also Point to an Asiatic Origin— I will here quote at large from Cushman, which indicates an Asiatic origin for the Chickasaws, according to tradition, as fol- lows: "The ancient traditions of the Cherokees, as well as the ancient traditions of the Muscogees (Creeks) and the Natchez, also point back to Mexico as the country from which they, in a period long past, moved to their ancient possessions east of the Mississippi River. But whether they preceded the Choctaws and Chickasaws, or came after, their traditions are silent. "Milfort (page 269) says: Big Warrior, Chief of the Chero- kees, as late as 1822, not only confirms their traditions that Mexico was their native country, but goes back to a more remote period for their origin, and claims that his ancestors came from Asia, crossing Behring Straits in their canoes; thence down the Pacific Coast to Mexico; thence to the country east of the Mis- sissippi River, where they were first known to the Europeans. "Mr. Gaines, United States Agent to the Choctaws in 1810, asked Apushamatahaubi (pro. Ar-push-ah-ma-tar-hah-ub-ih), the most renowned chief of the Choctaws since their acquaintance with the white race, concerning the origin of his people, who replied: 'Ahattaktikba bushi-aioktulla hosh hopaki fehna moma ka minti' (pro. as Arn (my) hut-tark-tik-ba (forefather) hush-ih ai-o-kah-tullah (the west), mo-mah (all) meen-tih (came) ho-par-kih (far) feh-nah (very). "And the same response was always given by all the ancient Choctaws living east of the Mississippi River, when the inquiry 26 The Chickasaw Nation was made of them, Whence their origin? By this they only re- ferred to the country in which their forefathers long dwelt prior to their exodus to the east of the Mississippi River; as they also had a tradition that their forefathers came from a country beyond the 'Big Waters' far to the northwest, crossing a large body of water in their canoes of a day's travel, thence down the Pacific coast to Mexico, the same as the Cherokees. "In conversation with an aged Choctaw in the year 1884 (Robert Nail, a long known friend) upon the subject, he con- firmed the tradition by stating that his people came first from Asia by way of the Behring Straits. He was a man well versed in geography, being taught in boyhood by the missionaries prior to their removal from their eastern homes to their present abode north of Texas. The Muscogees, Shawnees, Delawares, Chip- peways, and other tribes also have the same traditions pointing beyond Behring Straits to Asia as the land whence their fore- fathers came in ages past. Some of their traditions state that they crossed the Strait on the ice, the Chippeways for one, but the most, according to their traditions, crossed in their canoes. But that the ancestors of the North American Indians came at some unknown period in the remote past from Asia to the North American continent, there can be no doubt." (See pp. 66-67.) Conclusion — From the foregoing, I think it may be safely concluded that the Chickasaws, Choctaws, and in fact the entire Muskhogean family, in remote times came to the country now comprising the Gulf States and reaching to the Atlantic Ocean, from the far west, and in all probability from what is now the Mexican republic, and more remotely from Asia. The legends and traditions to this effect had become a part of the religious history of the Indians. The wanderings of the Indians, under the leadership of Chahtah and Chickasah in quest of a new home, and their many privations and sufferings were not only as real, but as sacred to them, and of as deep a religious signification, as is the forty years of wandering in the wilderness of the Jews under Moses and Joshua, to the Israelites and the Christian world at the present time. 27 The Chickasaw Nation A great national event of such a character sinks deep into the consciousness of a people and will persist through ages. In addition to the wampum device, already noticed, for the preservation of historical facts, it was the custom of the Chicka- saws and Choctaws to select, say, about twenty youths of each generation, who were carefully instructed by their wise men in their past history as well as in all things deemed advisable for the public well being. If it be said that there are too many variations or differences in the traditions so handed down from generation to generation, then it may be truly replied that such variations are inseparable attendants upon all efforts to preserve records of past events. Thus, the four gospels recording the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth vary in many particulars, although he spoke as never man spake. However, taken as a whole, the gospels are complete. While Indian traditions fall in rank far below the written history of any civilized people, still my conclusion is as indicated above. The suggestion of Cushman that the Muskhogeans were driven from Mexico by the fire and sword of the marauder Cortez is entirely untenable, when we reflect that the expedition of De Soto was only some twenty years later than that of Cortez ; and that when De Soto passed the winter of 1 540-1 541 with the Chickasaws, they appear to have been well seated at their homes, and there was nothing to indicate that they had recently been driven from Mexico. 28 CHAPTER III THE DAWN OF HISTORY FOR THE CHICKASAWS The sixteenth century opened with the dawn of brighter days for civilized man throughout the world. A new world had been discovered, a quickening impulse had been given to art, science was awakening, and the diffusion of knowledge becoming more general, the renaissance was flowering into a fuller fruition. The shackles of ignorance and superstition which had bound the minds and hearts of mankind with far more rigor and cruelty than the iron which bound their bodies were being gradually unloosened; still centuries were to elapse before men were to be indeed really free, a consummation not even yet fully realized. The spirit of adventure and discovery, like a young Hercules, was rejoicing in its vigor and achievements. Soon Pizarro in Peru, Pedrarias in Central America, and Cortez in Mexico had overrun and devastated these countries; and returning to Spain brought enormous wealth, which excited the imagination, and it may be added the cupidity, of mankind. There had been born in Xerez (otherwise Jerez), in Spain, of a noble family, but without fortune, a boy named Hernandez, sometimes written Fernandez, and which is the equivalent for the English Hernando. It appears he lived at a place in Spain called Soto, and following the customs of those days he was, in after years, called Hernando De Soto; that is Hernando of Soto. He possessed talents more valuable than wealth, having a clear and vigorous understanding, a quick apprehension, and courage of the highest order, which made him a born ruler of men. He enlisted as a soldier of fortune in the Peru and Central American Expeditions; was a captain in Nicaragua, lieutenant-general in the conquest of Peru, and returning to Spain it is reported he brought with him, as his part of the spoils, one hundred thousand The Chickasaw Nation peso de oro, equivalent to about three hundred thousand dollars, an almost incredible fortune for those days. He was liberal and lavish of his wealth, lending a large sum to the emperor, and drew around him many of the most daring and ablest young noblemen and adventurers, some of them also of great wealth. Being now in the vigor of life De Soto appears to have resided in Xerez, and at court, probably, he met the widow of Pedrarias, with whom he had been acquainted in Nicaragua, first cousin to the celebrated Marchioness of Moya, lady-of-honor and life-long favorite of Ysabel of Castilla. With her he contracted for a love marriage with her daughter, named after her, Ysabel de Bobadilla, and De Soto sent her a wedding gift of six thousand ducats. As showing the devotion of the young wife, it may be re- marked that she accompanied De Soto on his ill-fated expedition to Florida as far as Cuba; that after waiting in vain for three years in expectancy of a happy reunion, she died of a broken heart in three days after hearing of the death of her lord in the wilds of America, and his burial in the great Mississippi River, which is inseparably linked with his name. Having achieved his highest ambitions in the land of his nativity, De Soto looked with longing eyes again to the new world , and dreamed of the acquisition of still greater wealth and the building of a new empire in Florida, a name denoting a vast and unexplored country, of indeterminate boundaries, co-extensive, probably, with one-half of the North American continent. In Florida Ponce de Leon had sought in vain for the fountain of youth, finding instead his own grave. Soon thereafter Cabeca de Vaca returned from Florida, stating that he and four others were the only survivors of the armament sent out under the command of Panfilo de Narvaez, to whom the "island of Florida" and the adjacent country had been granted, upon his successfully exploring and subduing the same. 30 The Chickasaw Nation Like Ponce de Leon, de Narvaez found death in his at- tempted subjugation of Florida; but these failures but fired the imagination and strengthened the purpose of De Soto to achieve the conquest of Florida. The details of this great enterprise is outside the scope of this sketch. Suffice it to say that, in consideration of the fitting out of an armament and the conquest and colonization of Florida, the emperor was to grant many concessions to De Soto, who was then made governor of Florida, and when successful in his enterprise, he was to be governor and captain-general, with the dignity of Adelantado for life, and high sheriff in perpetuity to his heirs, over a part of the conquered country. De Soto Lands in Florida— On Friday, May 30, 1539, De Soto disembarked his ex- peditionary force, which consisted, according to Biedma, of 620 men, 223 horses, besides many hogs, and equipments necessary for such an extensive expedition, the landing being made in the vicinity of the present Tampa, Florida. Quite soon after the expedition began its journey, it was so fortunate as to find with the Indians a Spaniard named Juan Ortiz, who had been captured nine years before while a member of the Narvaez expedition. He was entirely naked, brown, and in appearance an Indian, speaking their language fluently, which made him almost invaluable as an interpreter. His duplicity when the expedition reached the country of the Chickasaws was one of the causes that came near destroying the entire army. The one thing that led the expedition ever onward, further and further, was the expectation of finding gold and silver and other treasures; in short they were seeking a new El Dorado. They had only gone a few leagues on their journey when they came to the Province of Paracoxi, and the Gentleman of Elvas says : 'They were asked if they had knowledge or information of any country where gold and silver might be found in plenty; to 31 The Chickasaw Nation which they answered yes; that towards the sunset was a Province called Cale, the inhabitants of which were at war with those of territories where the greater portion of the year was summer, and where there was so much gold that when the people came to make war upon those of Cale, they wore golden hats like casques. "As the cacique had not come, Gallegos, reflecting, suspected the message designed for delay, that he might put himself in a condition of safety; and fearing that, if those men were suffered to depart, they might never return, he ordered them to be chained together, and sent the news to camp by eight men on horseback. The governor, hearing what had passed, showed great pleasure, as did the rest who were with him, believing what the Indians said might be true." This naive statement of the untutored red men furnishes an example of the manner in which the Indians sought to get rid of their unwelcome visitors; or in the lingo of the cantonments in these war times, they were simply "passing the buck" to De Soto and his men. From the four narratives it is next to impossible to mark out with any degree of precision the route followed by De Soto in his wanderings; but it is reasonably certain, speaking in present day geographical terms, that he passed northward from Florida into Georgia and possibly into South Carolina; thence northwest, and in crossing upper Georgia, De Soto sent two Spaniards with Indians northward to the Province of Chisca, for he was told by the cacique of Acoste that in the Province of Chisca there was a forge "for copper or other metal of that color, though brighter, having a much finer hue, and was to appearances much better, but was not so much used for being softer; which was the state- ment that had been given in Cutifachiqui, where we had seen some chopping-knives that were said to have a mixture of gold" (Elvas, p. 77.) It is generally agreed that this Chisca was in Tennessee; but it was not in middle Tennessee, where the map Bourne attached 32 The Chickasaw Nation to Vol. 2 of his Trail Makers places it. The pioneers in east Tennessee found near what is now Ducktown, in Polk County, an extremely rich copper district, which for years and now is being worked with great profit. Of course no gold was found, a fact not referred to by the two Spaniards, though they did report that the mountains were so high, "it was impossible the army should march in that direction"; and the same mountains stand this day, barring the approach to the copper district from the south, precisely as they did to the army of De Soto, now near four hundred years ago. The expedition then went southwestward until it came to Mauilla, near where Mobile, Alabama, now is; and there a great battle with the Indians was fought. It was the most disastrous to the expedition up to that time, the results of which are stated by Elvas : 'They who perished there were in all two thousand five hundred, a few more or less; of the Christians there fell eighteen, among whom was Don Carlos, brother-in-law of the governor; one Juan de Gamez, a nephew; Men Rodriguez, a Portuguese; and Juan Vazquez, of Villanueva de Barcarota, men of condition and courage; the rest were infantry. Of the living, one hundred and fifty Christians had received seven hundred wounds from the arrow; and God was pleased that they should be healed in little time of very dangerous injuries. Twelve horses died, and seventy were hurt. The clothing the Christians carried with them, the ornaments for saying mass, and the pearls, were burned there; they having set the fire themselves, because they considered the loss less than the injury they might receive of the Indians from within the houses, where they had brought the things together. "The governor learning in Mauilla that Francisco Maldonado was waiting for him in the port of Ochuse, six days' travel distant, he caused Juan Ortiz to keep the news secret, that he might not be interrupted in his purpose; because the pearls he wished to send to Cuba for show, that their fame might raise the desire of coming to Florida, had been lost, and he feared that, hearing of him without seeing either gold or silver, or other things of value 33 The Chickasaw Nation from that land, it would come to have such reputation that no one would be found to go there when men should be wanted; so he determined to send no news of himself until he should have discovered a rich country." This was a fatal decision for De Soto in his search for riches. He had lost up to this time 102 of his faithful followers, and was eventually to lose his own life in the wilderness. However, as he was seeking fame, he soon found it; for in the discovery of the Mississippi River he more surely enrolled his name in the annals of fame than if he had discovered mines of silver and gold richer than all his dreams of avarice. De Soto Reaches the Chickasaws— With both interest and pleasure we come now to follow in the footsteps of De Soto to the land of the Chickasaws. By some strange imperfection in the histories which have covered the countries where the Chickasaws formerly dwelt, scant notice has been given to that noble nation; and the debt of gratitude due to them from the English-speaking world has never been duly acknowledged. Some historians are like less learned people in at least one respect; and that is, they sometimes copy or repeat what others have said, without an inquiry into original sources of information. Error thus becomes self-propagating. Of this the Chickasaws have a right to complain, as well as all who are interested to know where De Soto discovered the Great Missis- sippi River, an event of world-wide importance. We are indebted to Edward Gaylord Bourne, professor of history in Yale University, for the narratives of De Soto pub- lished "in the Trail Makers Series"; but he has fallen into errors which have been followed by others, as will appear more at large hereinafter. On the first page of his preface, and speaking of the im- portance of De Soto's discoveries, he said: "It was the first extensive exploration of at least six of our Southern States, and their written history opens with the narra- 34 The Chickasaw Nation tives which tell its story; these same narratives contain the earliest descriptions which we possess of the life and manners of the Southern Indians so famous in literature and history — the Choctaws, the Cherokees, the Creeks, and the Seminoles; these narratives also record the discovery of the Mississippi River and the story of the first voyage upon it by Europeans." I commend what is said as to the historical value of De Soto's discoveries; but if Bourne is that careful and dependable his- torian which some would have us believe, then why did he omit in the above statement to mention the Chickasaw Indians, the only tribe mentioned in the De Soto narratives which can be identified by the name attributed to them by the De Soto nar- ratives, and which they bear to this day? Elvas and Ranjel wrote their name Chicaca; Biedma and Garcilaso, Chicaza; Adair, who knew them in 1735, and lived with them, wrote it Chickkasah; the great John Wesley in 1736 wrote it Chickasaws, while we now write the name Chickasaw, the name thus identifying this tribe, and this tribe only by name, of all those visited by De Soto, who found them at precisely the same place, where they continued to live until their removal to the Indian Territory in 1836. The De Soto narratives will be searched in vain for any of the names Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, or Seminole, or any near approach thereto. Why omit to mention not only the Indian nation which we know positively De Soto visited but which by its valor and superiority deserved especial notice; which en- tertained De Soto and supplied all his wants during a most severe winter; and when insulted and mistreated came near destroying the entire expedition? Does not such an omission and mistakes hereafter to be noted awaken a doubt as to the conclusions reached by those who make them as to matters of great moment, where others equally learned have come to a different conclusion? De Soto had lost up to the time he left Mauilla 102 of his faithful followers, and he turned northward, and on December 14, 35 The Chickasaw Nation 1540, he came to the River Chucaca, evidently named for the Chickasaws, and now known as the Tombigbee. When De Soto indicated his purpose to cross the river, the Chickasaws disputed his passage; whereupon De Soto sent an Indian messenger to the cacique "to say that if he wished his friendship he should quietly wait for him; but they killed the messenger before his eyes, and with loud yells departed. "He crossed the river the seventeenth of December, and ar- rived the same day at Chicaca, a small town of twenty houses. There the people underwent severe cold, for it was already winter, and snow fell; the greater number then were lying in the fields, it being before they had time to put up habitations. The land was thickly inhabited, the people living about over it as they do in Mauilla; and as it was fertile, the greater part being under cultivation, there was plenty of maize. So much grain was brought together as was needed for getting through with the season." (Elvas, p. 100.) The Original Chickasaws as They Were— We have followed De Soto into the land of the Chickasaws. He and his followers were the first white men to visit their country and to look into their faces. They were great travelers and ever on the alert, and the news that De Soto had put other Indians into chains and captivity, as well as the news of the battle at Mauilla, had doubtless reached the Chickasaws long before the expedition had reached their country. Biedma says the expedition was detained at the river three days before a passage was effected, which was finally accomplished and the expedition installed for the winter as shown above. It seems to me as this is the dawn of history for the Chicka- saws, and that history not written by them, but by the Spaniards, who delighted to call themselves christians, it is highly im- portant to inquire what manner of people were the original Chickasaws who roamed the forest when first seen by white men. Here is a brief pen picture of that splendid race now almost extinct 36 The Chickasaw Nation in the course of a few years. The average citizen believes that our Chickasaws were a shiftless kind of savage, wandering over the country, living in bark or skin tepees and depending entirely upon the chase and fishing for a living. This is a very great mistake. They were a self-reliant, self-respecting people; and it may be added they required others to respect them. They had good houses, suitable to their conditions and means of build- ing, to live in, those for the summer months being somewhat different from those they lived in for the winter, which were so constructed as to be warmer and more comfortable. Their houses were not only clean, but their lives pure, and their women were gracious, many of them very handsome; and what is more important, they were chaste and pure, for Haywood, regarded as the father of history in Tennessee, assures us that no Chickasaw girl was ever known to give birth to a child before wedlock. Of how many so-called civilized people can this be said? And, moreover, there were no orphans in the Chickasaw nation ; nor was there need for an orphan asylum. It is true that fathers and mothers died, leaving little children, and the fathers were often slain in battle, but under their system of laws governing these matters, when a child became motherless and fatherless, then that child was immediately placed with some near designated relative able to care for the child, who became thereby adopted into this new family, and was as much a member thereof, and received the same love and care as the children born to the parents of the family. And the Chickasaws made no difference between these adopted children and those of their own blood. Are not these matters of family purity, and the loving care and solicitude lavished upon helpless orphanage, evidences of a nobility of character worthy of imitation even among the most civilized and refined people on this globe? At the same time the Chickasaw warriors were the bravest of the brave, and for fidelity of character they were the peers of any nation of ancient or modern times. There was compara- 37 The Chickasaw Nation tively speaking, but a handful of them, estimated by various authorities, and at various times from 2,000 to 4,000 souls. The Choctaws, Creeks, and Cherokees mentioned by Bourne in the excerpt quoted above, each one of them, had as many warriors as the Chickasaws had warriors, women, and children, aged and infirm put together, and yet the Chickasaws were more than a match for any of these tribes, and defied all comers. Their home country and hunting grounds comprised the vast and splendid domain described by Piomingo hereinbefore quoted, over which they were the acknowledged overlords, and no Indian nation, however large, dared dispute their overlord- ship. As to their form of government, it was one of the purest democracies. There was a chief, sometimes called by writers a King, because his duties and prerogatives resembled those of a king. However, they were never guilty of the folly of having a hered- itary ruling king, or other hereditary rulers or classes. A Chickasaw became chief or a subordinate chief, by the choice of the nation solely because he had achieved that distinction by deeds for the nation that entitled him to leadership. He enjoyed that distinction only so long as his merits entitled him thereto. They never went to war except after the most careful deliberation of all the warriors, followed by fasting and prayer to the "Beloved One that dwelleth in the blue sky," for his aid and protection in the impending conflict. In war they neither gave or expected quarter, and would die at the burning stake without uttering a word of pain or a request for mercy. They were of a deeply religious nature, but superstition was a stranger to them. Unlike most uncivilized peoples, the appearance of a comet or an eclipse or an earthquake brought no terrors to them. These they regarded as a part of natural phenomena, under the guidance of the "Beloved One," who governed all things, and bestowed upon his children all of the good things which 38 The Chickasaw Nation their merits deserved. When that great philanthropist, General James Oglethorpe, about 1733, procured permission of King George to come to America and found a colony for the poor and oppressed people of England who could not make a respectable living for themselves and families, he took care soon after set- tling at Savannah, Georgia, to seek out and make a league of friendship with that small and distant nation, the intrepid Chickasaws, though they lived nearly a thousand miles in the western wilderness near the great Mississippi. The Chickasaws proved a bulwark of strength to Oglethorpe and his infant colony. When General James Robertson, that conspicuous character in the settlement of middle Tennessee, was striving to lay the foundation for his colony at the French Lick, he likewise sought out the intrepid Chickasaws and made a league of friendship with them; and but for their valor and fidelity his settle- ment would doubtless have been wiped from the face of the earth. When the Revolutionary war was over, and the North- western Indians beyond the Ohio and about the Great Lakes were carrying fire and destruction to the outposts of civilization, and "Mad" Anthony Wayne was striving to raise an army to succor civilization in the wilderness, President George Wash- ington, "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen," appealed to the Chickasaws to aid the United States, to which they cheerfully responded. It was a proud saying of the Chickasaws that they never raised the hatchet against the English-speaking people; and if / nobility of character and fidelity in the execution of every league , of friendship and treaty ought to be rewarded, then there was noth- ing too good for the people and the government of the United States to bestow upon the Chickasaws, but it has been said, and some- times I think with some truth, that republics are ungrateful; at least such has been proven to be the case so far as the Chickasaws are concerned. 39 The Chickasaw Nation Battle with the Chickasaws— It should be borne in mind that the appearance of white men, clad in coats and other vestments of metal armor, and mounted on horseback generally struck terror to the hearts of the Indians when they first looked upon white men, armored and mounted. In Mexico, upon the first appearance of Cortez and his followers, the Indians thought the mounted men and the horses on which they rode were unearthly, gigantic monsters which had come to destroy them and their country and that resistance would be useless. But we have seen that the Chickasaws were not to be so easily frightened, and though their weapons were inferior to those of the Spaniards; and though the latter had upon them coats-of-mail and were mounted on horses which were likewise protected by armour, still we shall see the Chickasaws gladly matched their prowess with that of the Spaniards in three separate contests. They did not ask the aid of other Indians, feeling themselves self-sufficient for any emergency that might arise. Three of the four narrators do not mention the name of the cacique or chief of the Chickasaws; but there is a sentence in Ranjel (p. 132) which, though somewhat involved, gives the name of the principal chief as Miculasa; while the Gentleman of Elvas gives the names of his two subordinate Chiefs as Alimamu and Niculasa. It frequently happens that the narrators give different names both to persons and places; but this is not strange when we remember that they had no guide as to the spelling, and guessed at spelling from the sound of the words, as best they could. Having taken possession, evidently against the will of the Chickasaws, De Soto sought to open up communications, seizing certain of the Indians and among them one that was much esteemed by Miculasa, the chief, who came to see De Soto on January 3, 1541, being borne upon the shoulders of his warriors. Biedmasays: 40 The Chickasaw Nation "He gave us deer skins and little dogs (of which the Spaniards were fond). The people returned, and every day Indians came and went, bringing us many hares and whatever else the country supplied." According to Elvas when Chief Miculasa came to see De Soto, "He came, and offered him the service of his person, territories, and subjects; he said that he would cause two chiefs to visit him in peace. In a few days he returned with them, they bringing their Indians. They presented the governor 150 conies, with clothing of the country, such as shawls and skins. "The name of one was Alimamu, of the other Niculasa." I have quoted from Elvas hereinbefore that "so much grain was brought together as was needed for getting through the sea- son." Or, stated in one sentence, Chief Miculasa offered to De Soto his personal services, those of his people and territories, and actually supplied everything necessary for man and beast of the entire army, consisting of some 250 men (Biedma, page 21) and at least 100 head of horses, hogs, etc. That this was a heavy burden to be suddenly placed upon an uncivilized people, does not admit of question, and at least shows that the Chickasaws were good livers. When the expedition had fairly settled down, Chief Niculasa asked De Soto to aid him in the suppression of his vassal, the chief of Saquechuma (or Sacchuema-Ranjel), who had rebelled against Niculasa. De Soto, taking thirty cavalry and eighty infantry, went to the province said to be in rebellion and found the houses deserted, which were burned up. Ranjel states that thereupon peace was made, and does not hint of any trick or dissimulation on the part of the Indians. However, the Gentleman of Elvas states that the whole affair was a dissimulation on the part of Niculasa, who wished to separate the army into two parts so that it could be the more easily destroyed; but that, owing to the 41 The Chickasaw Nation vigilance of the governor, his men were at all times on guard and no opportunity was afforded to make the contemplated attack. However this may be, it is certain that the governor was sending for the chief, and sending a horse upon which the chief was to ride in making his visits to dine with the governor, and we may well believe that the governor took occasion to make many fair and flattering speeches to the chief. The Gentleman of Elvas gives a very clear and the best account of the causes which led to the sanguinary conflict between the army of De Soto and the Chickasaws, on March 4, 1541, and the results thereof; and I do not think I can do better than to quote from him, beginning at page 102, as follows: "The governor invited the caciques and some chiefs to dine with him, giving them pork to eat, which they so relished, although not used to it, that every night Indians would come up to some houses where the hogs slept, a cross-bow shot off from the camp, to kill and carry away what they could of them. Three were taken in the act; two the governor commanded to be slain with arrows, and the remaining one, his hands having been cut off, was sent to the cacique, who appeared grieved that they had given offense, and glad that they were punished. This chief was half a league from where the Christians were in an open country, whither wandered off four of the cavalry, Francisco Osorio, Reynoso, a servant of the Marquis of Astorga, and two servants of the governor — the one, Ribera, his page, the other, Fuentes, his chamberlain. They took some skins and shawls from the Indians, who made great outcry in consequence and abandoned their houses. When the governor heard of it, he ordered them to be apprehended, and condemned Osorio and Fuentes to death, as principals, and all of them to lose their goods. The friars, the priests, and other principal personages solicited him to let Osorio live and moderate the sentence; but he would do so for no one. When about ordering them to be taken to the town-yard to be beheaded, some Indians arrived, sent by the chief to complain of them. Juan Ortiz, at the entreaty of Baltasar de Gallegos and others, changed their words, telling the governor, as from the cacique, that he had understood those Christians had been 42 The Chickasaw Nation arrested on his account; that they were in no fault, having of- fended him in nothing, and that if he would do him a favor, to let them go free; then Ortiz said to the Indians that the governor had the persons in custody, and would visit them with such punishment as should be an example to the rest. The prisoners were ordered to be released. "So soon as March had come, the governor, having de- termined to leave Chicaca, asked 200 tamemes of the cacique, who told him that he would confer with his chiefs. Tuesday, the eighth, he went where the cacique was to ask for the carriers, and was told that he would send them the next day. When the governor saw the chief, he said to Luis de Moscoso that the Indians did not appear right to him; that a very careful watch should be kept that night, to which the field marshal paid little attention. At four o'clock in the morning the Indians fell upon them in four squadrons, from as many quarters, and directly as they were discovered, they beat a drum. With loud shouting, they came in such haste, that they entered the camp at the same moments with some scouts that had been out; of which, by the time those in the town were aware, half the houses were in flames. That night it had been the turn of three horsemen to be of the watch — two of them of low degree, the least value of any in the camp, and the third a nephew of the governor, who had been deemed a brave man until now, when he showed himself as great a coward as either of the others; for they all fled, and the Indians, finding no resistance, came up and set fire to the place. They waited outside of the town for the Christians, behind the gates, as they should come out of the doors, having had no opportunity to put on their arms; and as they ran in all directions, bewildered by the noise, blinded by the smoke and the brightness of the flame, knowing not whither they were going, or were able to find their arms, or put saddles on their steeds, they saw the Indians who shot arrows at them. Those of the horses that could break their halters got away, and many were burned to death in the stalls. "The confusion and rout were so great that each man fled by the way that first opened to him, there being none to oppose the Indians; but God, who chastiseth his own as he pleaseth, and in the greatest wants and perils hath them in his hand, shut the eyes of the Indians, so that they could not discern what they had done, and believed that the beasts running about loose were 43 The Chickasaw Nation the cavalry gathering to fall upon them. The governor, with a soldier named Tapia, alone got mounted, and charging upon the Indians, he struck down the first of them he met with a blow of the lance, but went over with the saddle, because in the haste it had not been tightly drawn, and he fell. The men on foot, running to a thicket outside of town, came together there; the Indians imagining, as it was dark, that the horses were cavalry coming upon them, as has been stated, they fled, leaving only one dead, which was he the governor smote. "The town lay in cinders. A woman, with her husband, having left a house, went back to get some pearls that had re- mained there; and when she would have come out again the fire had reached the door and she could not, neither could her hus- band assist her, so she was consumed. Three Christians came out of the fire in so bad plight that one of them died in three days from that time, and the two others for a long while were carried in their pallets, on poles borne on the shoulders of Indians, for otherwise they could not have got along. There died in this affair eleven Christians and fifty horses, ioo of the swine re- mained, 400 having been destroyed, from the conflagration of Mauilla. "If, by good luck, anyone had been able to save a garment until then, it was there destroyed. Many remained naked, not having had time to catch up their skin dresses. In that place they suffered greatly from cold, the only relief being in large fires, and they passed the night long in turning, without the power to sleep; for as one side of a man would warm, the other would freeze. Some contrived mats of dried grass sewed together, one to be placed below and the other above them ; many who laughed at this expedient were afterwards compelled to do likewise. The Christians were left so broken up that, with the want of the saddles and arms which had been destroyed, had the Indians returned the second night, they might, with little effort, have been overpowered. They removed from that town to the one where the cacique was accustomed to live, because it was in the open field. In eight days' time they had constructed many saddles from the ash and likewise lances, as good as those made in Biscay." Garcilaso de la Vega gives substantially the same account as the Gentleman of Elvas, but adds some additional particulars, 44 The Chickasaw Nation among them that the Chickasaw chief chose a dark and cloudy night when a north wind was blowing furiously to make the attack. That the chief divided his forces into three bands, so as to make the attack simultaneously in three several places, the chief leading in person the force which attacked in the center. He adds : "Immediately the air resounded with the blasts of conch shells, the rumbling of wooden drums, and the yells and war whoops of the savages, who rushed like demons to the assault. Many had lighted matches, like cords, made of a vegetable substance, which, whirled in the air, would blaze up into flame; others had arrows tipped with the same. These they hurled upon the houses, which being of reeds and straw, instantly took fire, and the wind blowing strongly, were soon wrapped in flames." Ranjel says that the Indians "entered the camp in many detachments, beating drums as if it had been in Italy, and setting fire to the camp, they burned and captured fifty-nine horses, and three of them they shot through the shoulders with arrows." He added : "If the Indians had known how to follow up their victory, this would have been the last day of the lives of the Christians of that army, and made an end of the demand for carriers." We also learn from Garcilaso that the woman who was burned up was the wife of a worthy soldier, and that she was the only white woman that had accompanied the expedition from Spain. That she was a white woman is not stated by any of the other three narrators, and it will be seen that the sentence from Elvas in reference to her death is obscure, but not in conflict with Garcilaso. Her husband had left her behind when he rushed forth to fight, and she had escaped from the burning house, but returned 45 The Chickasaw Nation to save some pearls; and was cut off by the flames from her second retreat and was found burned to death. The loss of the Spaniards, according to Elvas, was eleven Christians and fifty horses; according to Ranjel, twelve Chris- tians and fifty-nine horses; while Garcilaso says forty Spaniards fell in combat and fifty horses perished and many more were wounded ; that the darts had been skillfully aimed at the vital parts of the horses. One horse had two shafts through the heart, shot from different directions. Another horse, one of the heaviest in the army, was killed, sped by such a vigorous arm that the arrow had passed through both shoulders and four fingers' breadth beyond. Biedma in his usual laconic style, says: "The Indians did us very great injury, killing fifty-seven horses, more than three hundred hogs, and thirteen or fourteen men; and it was a great, mysterious providence of God that though we were not resisting them, nor giving them any cause to do so, they turned and fled; had they followed us up, not a man of all our number could have escaped. Directly we moved to a cottage about a mile off." In the last conflict between the Spaniards and the Chicka- saws, as will be seen in the next chapter, the number of Spaniards who then lost their lives in battle is stated in a rather equivocal way ; but it seems certain that at least fifteen died on the forward march, and I am inclined to the opinion that as many Spaniards perished in the last as did in the first battle. The loss in the first battle of so much of De Soto's weapons, armor, horses, hogs, etc., was probably as great a weakening of the army as the loss of the lives of the Spaniards. We must always bear in mind that our source of informa- tion comes from the Spaniards, who no doubt colored their accounts to their advantage, and doubtless to the disadvantage of the Chickasaws. 4Q The Chickasaw Nation It will be noted that all four of the narratives state the loss of some 300 head of hogs, which were greatly prized by De Soto. How he contrived to carry with his army so large a number of these slow-moving and easily-wearied animals through the wilderness, and to so keep them that they constantly mul- tiplied, is one of the marvels of this extraordinary expedition. He saved enough, however, for stock, for after his death, May 21, 1542, his personal effects were sold at auction, and among these his hogs, which brought 200 cruzados per head, to be paid at the end of the expedition, upon a division of the fruits thereof, or if none, then within one year. From that time forward most of the people raised hogs and ate freely of pork. In an interesting article published by Mr. E. T. Winston, of Pontotoc, in his paper, The Advance, November 22, 191 7, he reviews this episode in the travels of De Soto with respect to the loss of so many of his hogs, many of which escaped into the wilds and became the progenitors of multitudes of wild hogs found by the earliest settlers in Mississippi. Mr. Winston felicitates the State of Mississippi as the place furnishing the time, the place, and the occasion when "hog and hominy" first met, although the meeting was destined to give rise to the near destruction of the De Soto expedi- tion, which furnished the hogs while the Indians furnished the hominy. It is well known that maize, or Indian corn, was a gift of incalculable value from the Indians of the new world to civili- zation, more of that grain being now raised in the United States that any other cereal, the crop for 191 7, being 3,247,512,000 bushels, valued at $4,871,268,000, a sum so great as to stagger the imagination. Lye hominy, so much used throughout the South before the Civil War, and now put up in cans by large corporations for general distribution through the channels of trade and commerce, is a very wholesome and nourishing article of diet, a gift of the Indians to the world, which the Chickasaws called "Tom-fulla." 47 The Chickasaw Nation What Caused the Conflict- It is perfectly evident from the account of the Spaniards that the attack by the Chickasaws upon the Spaniards was brought about by two causes which justly incensed the Indians. In the first place the Spaniards had appropriated corn and other provisions belonging to the Indians worth probably ten times the value of all of the Spanish hogs. Doubtless the Indians thought that a fair exchange was no robbery ; and conceding that some of these hogs were taken without permission, still it does seem a harsh and cruel punishment to have put two Indians to death therefor; and furthermore to have cut off the hands of a third one and sent him to his people. While I am well aware that the men at that day and time are not to be judged by the standards of the present, still the duplicity of Juan Ortiz turned the retributory sentence pronounced by De Soto on his fellows who had robbed the Indians into a perfect mockery of justice. It is true that De Soto had decreed the same punishment on his own followers, that he had visited on the Indians for a like offense; but he was deceived, and the ends of justice defeated by the deception of Ortiz and his confederates; but we may be as- sured that his falsehoods did not deceive the ever vigilant and intelligent Chickasaws. The most unfortunate phase of the matter is that in all probability the Indians were never made aware of the deception practiced upon De Soto by his own fol- lowers. In the next place the demand made by the Spaniards for porters was probably the immediate cause for the attack made by the Chickasaws upon the expedition. Nothing could escape the vigilance of the Chickasaws, for the smallness of the nation, surrounded by hostile neighbors, so much more numerous than themselves, made the trite saying, "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," a part of the very warp and woof of their existence. I doubt not that they had a complete history of the treatment of the Spaniards towards the Indians before reaching their country; and if so, they knew that if a tribe once furnished the 48 The Chickasaw Nation desired porters, they were not only compelled to carry burdens all day, but were compelled to make camp, and when camp was made, it was their duty to feed the stock, do the cooking, and in short, do all menial work; they were secured by chains in order to prevent escape, and carried as virtual prisoners, either to death, or so far from their people that they could never return again to their beloved country. Evidently the Chickasaws preferred death to such a fate, and were ready to stake their all on an unequal contest. This they did not only in the manner set forth above, but in a few days they renewed the attack, but without success. De Soto was almost completely cast down by the terrible assaults of the fear- less and intrepid Chickasaws. He had become convinced from appearances that the Indians were contemplating a battle, saying to his followers: "To night is an Indian night. I shall sleep armed and my horse saddled." He charged Luis de Moscoso, master of the camp, that he should take extra precautions that night in regard to the sentinels, since they were to start on their journey next day. Moscoso put on the morning watch three of the most useless men, mounted on the poorest horses in the camp. For his gross negligence in this regard De Soto deposed Moscoso, and appointed Baltazar de Gallegos in his place. In the next chapter I will take up the line of march from the Chickasaw country to the place where De Soto discovered the Mississippi River, and then we will see that the Chickasaws made a third attempt to destroy the Spaniards. As that chapter will deal particularly with the place at which the great river was discovered and is intended as an answer to those who contend that it was discovered in Tunica County, Mississippi, and who also affect to reject the narrative of Garcilaso de la Vega, "the Inca," I will not in that chapter quote from or say anything upon the authority of Garcilaso, though I consider his narrative an extremely valuable contribution to our knowledge of what really occurred during the De Soto expedition. 49 The Chickasaw Nation However, as showing the bravery and indomitable spirit of the Chickasaws, Garcilaso tells at length of the complicated and well-built fort the Chickasaws had constructed near a rapid river which we now call the Tallahatchie, and of the sanguinary conflict which there took place. I select these two excerpts (p. 306) as showing the prowess and intrepidity of the Chickasaws: "At the first discharge, Diego de Castro, Luis Bravo, and Francisco de Figueroa, were brought to the ground, mortally wounded. All three were pierced in the thigh, with arrows barbed with flint, for the savages, having gained some experience during their warfare with the Spaniards, always aimed at the thigh, which was never guarded. The Spaniards, seeing their companions fall, shouted to one another to rush in, and leave the Indians no time to gall them with their arrows. They charged furiously, and drove the enemy before them to the very portals of the fortress. "While Juan de Anasco and Andres de Vasconcelos attacked the savages on the flank, De Soto with twenty horses, charged upon the other. As the governor was spurring onward, an arrow struck him upon his casque with such force that it rebounded a pike's length in the air, and De Soto confessed afterwards that it made his eyes flash fire. Pressed by the united shock of horse and foot, the Indians made for the entrance of the fort, but these were so narrow that a great number were slaughtered with- out the walls. The Spaniards rushed in, pell-mell, with them. * * * "One of the savages who had escaped, desirous of showing his skill with the bow and arrow, separated himself from his companions, and shouted to the Spaniards, giving them to understand, by signs and words, that he challenged any archer to come out and have a shot with him, to prove which was the better marksman. Upon this, Juan de Salinas, a brave Austrian (Asturian?) hidalgo, who with some companions had sheltered himself among trees from the arrows, stepped forth, and walking down to the bank of the river, took his stand opposite to the Indian. One of his companions called to him to wait until he should come to guard him with his shield ; but Salinas refused to take any advantage of his enemy. He placed an arrow in his 50 The Chickasaw Nation cross-bow, while the Indian also selected one from his quiver, and both drew at the same moment. "The dart of Juan de Salinas took effect, and pierced the Indian's breast. He would have fallen, but was received in the arms of his companions, who bore him away, more dead than alive. The Indian's arrow pierced the Spaniard in the nape of the neck and remained crossed in the wound. Salinas returned with it in this state to his comrades, well pleased with his success. "The comrades of the fallen Indian allowed him to depart without molestation, as the challenge had been man to man." The bravery thus displayed, not only by the Chickasaws as a nation, but by the Chickasaw warrior who defiantly chal- lenged any archer of the De Soto army to single combat, com- mands the admiration of all who respect valor, and those who willingly offer their lives upon the altar of their country that their countrymen may enjoy the priceless privilege of freedom. Can any Mississippian, Tennessean, Kentuckian, or Ala- bamian whose home once lay within the domains of that splendid territory over which the Chickasaws were the acknowledged overlords, read the simple story left by the Spaniards of the fight for liberty made by the Chickasaws, and not be thrilled with emotions of admiration for those who first occupied their homes? Claiborne, the greatest of Mississippi historians, after giving an account of the battle of the Chickasaws with the Spaniards for freedom, eloquently concludes: "History records no bolder enterprise. A fortified camp, defended by the best soldiers of Europe, armed with what the Indians called thunder and lightning, attacked by naked savages with bows and war clubs: All honor to this noble race of war- riors — these native Mississippians who subsequently, in defense of their homes and fireside, defeated and disgraced three French armies sent to subdue them. And may this ever be the fate of the invader of the territory of a free people." 51 CHAPTER IV TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTRY BETWEEN THE CHICKASAW COUNTRY AND CHICKASAW BLUFFS On February 18, 191 7, Dr. Dunbar Rowland, Director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, published a paper in the Commercial Appeal, the purpose of which was to show that De Soto discovered the Mississippi River in Tunica County, Mississippi, at a point he cannot locate; and it may be added, nor can any one else. Soon thereafter Judge J. P. Young, author of the History of Memphis and other works, replied to Dr. Rowland in a very vigorous manner, insisting that De Soto discovered the great river at the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, named after that intrepid and splendid nation, the Chickasaws; these bluffs being their entrepot or landing, from which, on the bosom of the Father of Waters, they traveled in their water craft to the northern- most parts of their princely domains, which stretched up the Mississippi, then up the Ohio beyond the mouth of the Tennessee to the dividing ridge between it and the Cumberland River, in what is now the State of Kentucky. Memphis is built on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, and if Judge Young is correct, it was here that the great river was first discovered in May, 1541. Centenary Vol. II, Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, so ably edited by Dr. Rowland, has just come to hand, and contains the two papers referred to, together with a second paper by Dr. Rowland in reply to Judge Young. These papers having thus been put in permanent form, the purpose of this paper is to meet Dr. Rowland on his favorite arena, as disclosed in his last paper, and to show beyond a reasonable doubt that De Soto discovered the Mississippi, the 52 The Chickasaw Nation longest river in the world, at the point whereon Memphis is now situated. Like Judge Young, from childhood to young manhood I lived in Mississippi, in De Soto County, fifteen miles southeast of Memphis, and love that State; but the question is at what point was the river discovered, and this question must be an- swered according to the facts as they were, and not as we would have them to be. Dr. Rowland Has Shifted the Bulwark of His Defense— The discussion between the two eminent authors as disclosed in the papers is pitched on high ground, as become men of their character, and I would not have it supposed that in what I may say I desire in any way to make invidious criticisms, for my only purpose is to throw light on this most interesting question, and contribute, if I can, to its proper solution. That Dr. Rowland has shifted the main bulwark of the defense of his theory I think is quite plain, for in his first paper on page 145 of the work referred to, he says: "I freely admit in the outset that the claim of Memphis as the place where the great river was discovered has been accepted by some Memphians but that acceptance has, no doubt, been based on the narrative of Garcilaso de la Vega, 'the Inca,' which careful and complete investigation has shown to be unreliable, and not in accord with the narrative of the facts as given in all contemporary accounts." Further on I will challenge this conclusion as to the "Inca." But for the present mark that he says the claim of Memphis has been accepted "by some Memphians," the plain implication being that only "by some Memphians" claim that the river was dis- covered here, and that the claim has no other support. Judge Young met this claim of Dr. Rowland and utterly destroyed it, by showing that many historians, through a series of many years, had designated the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff as the place where De Soto discovered the Mississippi. What is of 53 The Chickasaw Nation prime importance is that among these authors cited by Judge Young, and from whom he quoted, was Bancroft, whose repu- tation as an accurate and accomplished historian is nation-wide, and I think it may be said he has international reputation, and greater than that of all the historians cited by Dr. Rowland, if it were possible to combine their several reputations in one. And, moreover, Judge Young also quotes from J. F. H. Claiborne, in Mississippi as a State and Territory, easily the most noted of all Mississippi historians, for Claiborne likewise supports the claim that the river was discovered where Memphis now stands. Evidently the idea that the claim of Memphis has been accepted only "by some Memphians" was exploded. In his second paper (p. 159) Dr. Rowland says that the most reliable source of information is found in original records. Next in importance, he insists, comes the topography and geology of the country through which the expedition passed. To these views I give my hearty assent, and upon this arena which Dr. Rowland has thus chosen, I wish to meet him. His statement that the geology of the country is the same is entirely correct; but his further statement that the topography is the same is only partially correct, for the Indian villages and forests are not only gone, but a large part of the hills on the route have been so gullied and gutted by rains and the elements since the country was denuded of its forests, the valleys so filled with sand, and the rivers and creeks so choked up and dwindled away, as to present only a faint topographical resemblance to the time of De Soto, now (19 19) 378 years ago. The late Ab Myers, of Byhalia, Mississippi, speaking to me on this subject many years ago, said that he had all the works of De Tocqueville, the noted French philosopher and writer, and that De Tocqueville in his travels through that part of the state, noticing the great quantities of sand in the soil, predicted that in 100 years after the settlement of the country, it would become a howling wilderness. It must be admitted that the prophecy 54 The Chickasaw Nation has been to some extent fulfilled, but quite enough remains for the present discussion. I hasten to add, parenthetically, that in recent years less cotton is being planted in the Mississippi uplands, while more livestocks of all kinds are raised, and these changes, coupled with diversification in farming, are working a transformation in the state. In a recent letter to me by W. T. Ross, cashier of the Holly Springs Bank, who has been connected therewith for forty years, he says: "Holly Springs was named for the beautiful spring sur- rounded by holly trees, but the sand has covered up the spring, and not a holly tree is to be seen. My father told me that when he came here in 1836, the spring was about thirty feet wide and ten feet deep, and would swim a horse. This spring formed a bold creek that emptied into Tallaloosa, southwest of the town." When Mr. Ross was a lad, the spring was still running pretty strong. On July 21, 1918, he walked with me over and through back yards to show me the spot where this beautiful spring once flowed, not a vestige of it or its beautiful trees being left, its site being in what appeared to be a back yard for cattle ! How Language Should be Interpreted— We all know that there is no direct communication between the minds of men, and that our thoughts, conceptions, and ideas must usually be conveyed by words, written or spoken. The frailty of human speech or written language to correctly convey what we wish others to know has often been lamented, and we are frequently forced to resort to rules of interpretation. Inter- pretation may be defined as the art of finding out the true sense of any set of words; that is, the sense which their author intended to convey. In order to do this we must view the situation of the party who wrote the words, as well as all his surroundings, so as to place ourselves in the position which he occupied. Applying the principle to the subject of this discussion we must inquire 55 The Chickasaw Nation what was the topography of the country through which the writers had to pass; what roads or trails, if any, could be made available, and their respective difficulties, and generally to put ourselves in their places so as to ascertain the true meaning of the language used. This leads us to a consideration of the topog- raphy of the country, and what was the most available route to pursue for the objects of the expedition. Manifestly, likewise, all that the narrators say must be considered and construed to- gether, and not quoted in part, much less garbled, as I think has been done. In Lieber's Hermeneutics, or the principles of interpretation and construction (p. 71), it is said: "In the first place it must begin with what is likewise the first rule of criticism. "We must convince ourselves that the text be genuine, that is that it has proceeded from the utterer from whom it purports to have proceeded, or from whom others assert it to have pro- ceeded ; or that it belongs to that period at which it is maintained that it originated. This is a rule of paramount importance in all departments, and not the least so in politics, whether it refer to documents issued by the highest authority, or to reports of speeches, or to conversational sayings of a political char- acter." The correctness of these principles is so obvious that it would seem unneccessary to appeal thereto; nevertheless, we will see further on a flagrant violation of the foregoing elementary and paramount rule, in that the texts of the narratives have been misquoted and garbled to a degree that is surprising. We need not impute any improper motive, and indeed may assume that everything has been written in the utmost good faith; never- theless, the question remains as to what is the true interpretation of the language used by the various narrators; and fidelity in strictly quoting the exact language as written lies at the very threshold of this discussion, and can not be evaded if we would rather pursue another course. 56 The Chickasaw Nation The Trails of the Chickasaw Indians— In the celebrated conference between the Chickasaw, Creek, and Cherokee Indians at Nashville in 1792, and Governor Blount, James Robertson, and others, Piomingo, the great Chickasaw chief, thus described the boundaries of their lands: "I will describe the boundaries of our lands. It begins on the Ohio at the ridge which divides the waters of Tennessee and Cumberland, and extends with the ridge, eastwardly, as far as the most eastern waters of Elk River; thence across the Tennessee, and a neck of land, to Tenchacunda Creek, a southern branch of the Tennessee, and up the same to its source; thence to the waters of the Tombigby; that is, to the west fork of Long Leaf Pine Creek, and down it to the line of the Chickasaws and Choctaws, a little below the trading road." In 1794 President George Washington gave to the Chicka- saws a certificate confirming to them their right to the territory so described by Piomingo. The expression often used with respect to the condition of this country at the time of its discovery, as being a pathless wilderness, has in it scarcely a vestige of truth. The trails or traces of the Indians extended hundreds of miles in all directions and they criss crossed each other over the whole continent, and over these the Indians constantly traveled on continuous trips thousands of miles. The Chickasaws were great travelers, and thought nothing of going to the far West, over their trails to Mobile on the Gulf, to Savannah and Charleston on the Atlantic, and to the Great Lakes in the far North, where they waged furious warfare with the Iroquois. The Indians, and the Chickasaws in particular, were past- masters in all woodcraft and knew the topography of the country and all its conditions almost by instinct; and as a general rule what may be termed their principal trails or highways ran along the crest of ridges in such manner as not only to avoid crossing water courses but passing over stony places or through thick 57 S / \ The Chickasaw Nation scrub and briars or dense timber, so as to protect their footgear, their clothing, and their flesh as well. Their trails or traces were far superior to any the white man could locate, and the early use by white pioneers of these Indian trails was a constant source of friction, for the Indians resented that use. As soon as state governments were organized, roads were laid out over these traces; and the United States govern- ment made these trails available. Thus, the Chickasaws had a trail leading from about where Natchez, Mississippi, now is on to the Cumberland River where Nashville is now situated, and the trail led thence onward to the Atlantic seaboard, over which the Chickasaws traveled. It became very necessary both for military and civil purposes to have a road over which wagons could pass from the growing settlement on the Cumberland to the settlement at Natchez on the Mississippi, and after long negotiations and much difficulty, the United States finally in- duced the Chickasaws, at the Chickasaw Bluffs, to enter into the treaty of October 26, 1801, by which the Chickasaws granted to the President of the United States, permission "to lay out, open, and make a convenient wagon road through their lands between the settlement of Mero District in the State of Tennessee, and that of Natchez in the Mississippi Territory, in such way and manner as he may deem proper; and the same shall be a highway for the United States and the Chickasaws." The ferries crossing all streams were reserved by the Indians, as these at that time were valuable. General Andrew Jackson laid out the road, following the Indian trail, which remained in use until superseded by the advent of railroads and steamboats. This celebrated Natchez trail was crossed by the no less important trail to the Chickasaws than that commencing at the Chickasaw Bluffs on the Mississippi River, and running thence southwardly to the Gulf coast where Mobile, Alabama, now is, and this great Chickasaw highway will next be noticed. 58 The Chickasaw Nation If you look into the history of James Adair, published in London in 1775, and their best early historian, or nearly any book of reference, you will see it stated that the Chickasaws were seated in north Mississippi, near where Pontotoc now is, 160 miles from the Mississippi River, some of them saying, from the river at the Chickasaw Bluffs. In a direct line it is not 100 miles from Memphis to Pontotoc, and I was puzzled for some time to under- stand how the Indian trail could be 160 miles long between those points. The explanation is that the old chroniclers in giving the distance computed it according to the great trail of the Chicka- saws, which could be used at all seasons of the year, and of course along high ground and the crest of a ridge nearly all the way. Thus, by leaving the Chickasaw Bluff and crossing Wolf River near Memphis at Raleigh, where the high land comes down in an abrupt precipice to the water, or even nearer Memphis, you can travel almost dry shod to Hardeman County near Boli- var; and thence taking the crest of the well known Pontotoc ridge southward you will pass over the highest ground in all Mississippi, about 700 feet above the sea, lying in Tippah County; and thence on to Pontotoc, and during all this journey you will scarcely cross a stream, a distance of about 160 miles. In Vol. I, Centenary Series (p. 467), George J. Leftwich has an interesting article entitled "Some Main Traveled Roads, Including Cross-Sections of Natchez Trace"; and speaking of the Chickasaw highway trail from the Chickasaw Bluffs to their home in north Mississippi, and leading onward to the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile, he says: "On the attached map is plainly marked out also the Bolivar Indian trail, which ran from Memphis to Mobile, by way of the Chickasaw towns in Lee County, and down the Tombigbee River to St. Stevens and Mobile; from the Chickasaw towns near Tupelo, it passed northwest by Ripley, by Bolivar, Tennes- see, on to the Chickasaw Bluffs. The Bolivar trail was the route, of travel followed by the Indians and pioneers, leading from the 59 The Chickasaw Nation Tombigbee country by way of Bolivar to Fort Adams (now Memphis) on the Mississippi; and afforded access for the Chickasaws and Choctaws to west Tennessee, which was known as the common hunting ground for the Indians who lived in Kentucky on the north, and the Chickasaws and Choctaws on the south. Williams, in his Old Times in West Tennessee, says that this road was pursued circuitously in order to avoid the crossing of the streams so numerous in the country farther south, which largely trend westward towards the Holly Springs country, which were harder to cross; Indians always avoid as much as possible water courses." Note that it is said the waters trend westward towards the Holly Springs country, and this is correct, for the headwaters of both the Tallahatchie and Coldwater Rivers commence in the Tippah Highlands. It should also be noted that the highlands of Tippah, the highest in the state, extend an elbow or a spur down into Marshall County, embracing Holly Springs, and over this high elbow or spur and across adjacent streams and their bottoms the Chickasaw short-cut, or dry weather trail, ran, this trail running in almost a straight northwest direction from the seat of the Chickasaws in what is now Pontotoc County to the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, the entrepot of that nation. Here a neck of high land projects itself to the edge of the river, making a high, precipitous bluff, the high land stretching back in the shape of a fan, making the bluffs an ideal place for a permanent landing of rare value to the Indians, and a place whereon to build a great city; hence the subsequent location of Memphis here, often called the Bluff City. These short-cut trails were indispensable to the Indians, for the news of an invasion or other matter of great importance could only be carried by a messenger running on foot, and the Chickasaws were celebrated in this respect. Thus, Adair tells of a young Chickasaw, who, on an emergency, and being pursued, ran from where Mobile, Alabama, is now located (a distance of 300 computed miles) in forty- two hours ; whereas Adair says he could scarcely make the same trip in 140 hours, though 60 The Chickasaw Nation riding a very superior saddle horse. This Indian carried no pro- visions, depending upon such herbs as he could snatch up on the way for sustenance, and yet not allowing him a moment to eat or to sleep, he traveled night and day at an average rate of over seven miles an hour for forty- two consecutive hours! When D'Artaguette came from Canada down the Mississippi in 1736, with his French and Indian army, for the avowed purpose of joining Bienville's army coming from the south to annihilate the Chickasaws, he landed his army at the Chickasaw Bluffs, and proceeded thence to the seat of the Chickasaws in north Mississippi, where both armies suffered an inglorious defeat at the hands of the invincible Chickasaws. In the discussion of any subject it is well to have correct data as a foundation on which to proceed; and as this has been some- what difficult to obtain with respect to the topography of the country in question, I will set it down for the benefit of those who may prefer accuracy to mere speculation or rhetoric. In a letter to me of date October 3, 1918, Dr. E. N. Lowe, the efficient geologist of Mississippi, says: "i. The annual rainfall in the latitude of Holly Springs is fifty inches, pretty evenly distributed over the region of Marshall and adjacent hill counties. "2. From my own measurements the highest point in Mississippi is at Blue Mountain, the Bald Knob, a few hundred yards northeast of Mississippi Heights School, rising to 690 feet above sea level. I have been informed that a point near Iuka rises to more than 700 feet, and I am inclined to believe this, though I do not know that it is true. Dr. F. T. Carmack of Iuka claims to have seen the altitude taken by government engi- neers. "3. The highlands about Holly Springs seems to be inde- pendent of the Tippah Highlands, separated from that ridge at the nearest point by about twenty miles of lower intervening regions. "4. Altitude of railroad station at Holly Springs is 602 feet ; a mile south of the station the railroad track rises considerably higher." 61 The Chickasaw Nation To the same effect I received a letter from Dr. W. T. Lowrey, the well known president of Blue Mountain College, which was founded by General M. P. Lowrey, the father of W. T. Lowrey, in 1873. The large hill called Blue Mountain acquired that name in the remote past, and long before the college was located there. Dr. Lowrey says he was told that the name originated with the young people of Ripley before the Civil War, when they drove through the country from Ripley to visit Colonel Brougher's family, who lived in a palatial residence which was located where the main dormitory of Blue Mountain College is now situated, commanding a fine view of the surrounding country. It is almost needless to add that the name Blue Mountain originated from the beautiful blue mountainous view here afforded. As might be expected, the adjacent country abounds in many bold springs of clear freestone, wholesome water, making the country very attractive and healthful, and an ideal location for an educational institution. C. C. Pashby for many years was connected with the engineer's office of Memphis, and for some time has been the city clerk, and is a man of accurate information, and in a recent letter he says : "Replying to your inquiries concerning the altitude of Memphis above the river and above the gulf, annual rainfall, etc.: "I beg to advise that the following points are given, together with their elevation above the zero point on the river gauge, and the elevation above the mean level of the Gulf of Mexico: Above Zero Above Gulf River Gauge of Mexico. Madison and Front 88 270 Jackson Mounds (De Soto Pk) 102 284 Bellevue & K. C. Junction 136 318 Mississippi & Trigg 138 320 Tri-State Fair 134 316 S. W. Corner Overton Park 100 282 The Chickasaw Nation "The zero gauge referred to is the lowest point where the river is supposed to have reached, at a date back in the eigh teen- seventies; though I have heard that it went some two or three feet lower since then. "I have consulted some of the United States reports in an effort to find the elevation of Holly Springs, but have been unable to do so. However, I did learn the elevation of the fol- lowing cities: Tupelo 279 feet Jackson, Tenn 396 feet Grand Junction 582 feet "The rainfall in this locality varies from about thirty-three inches to a record of something like seventy- two inches, with an average of about forty-five." It will be noted that there are considerable differences in the altitude of nearby places in Memphis, a fact to which I will refer further on, when I will show that the criticism of Prof. Lewis as to statements made by Garcilaso de la Vega with reference to the topography of the country where De Soto discovered the Mississippi, has no foundation upon which to rest. But to return to a consideration of the Chickasaw country, we find that the Chickasaws were located on the Pontotoc ridge, which increased in altitude going north, reaching its highest point in the Tippah Highlands and extending still further northward into Tennessee. This high land or ridge divides the waters flowing into the Mississippi from those flowing into the Gulf of Mexico; or it may be termed the height of land between these two great watersheds. All of the country to the west of this height of land quite uniformly slopes downward toward the Mississippi River; and, as might be supposed, the streams flow westward, those in Mis- sissippi taking a trend southward as they approach the river. We thus have these natural conditions: a warm climate; a heavy annual rainfall, and a gradually descending watershed, The Chickasaw Nation the soil of which has in it much sand, some of it impalpably fine, nevertheless sand. The rain and sunshine operating upon this country as the seasons succeed each other could not fail to wear down the country into a broken appearance, with almost in- numerable small streams and many more or less considerable streams, and with very rich alluvial bottoms. The sandy soil washing down with leaves and vegetable matter gradually ex- tended these bottoms, and from this rich soil spring giant white oaks, red oaks, and many other oaks, besides immense gums, hickories, ash, poplar, cypress, and many other varieties of the finest timber to be found in any country. This was precisely the character of country over which De Soto passed. The Short-Cut Trail, or Pigeon Roost Road- Having referred to the long trail which could be used to the best advantage at all seasons of the year and in all kinds of weather, I will now call attention to what, for want of a better name, I will call the short-cut trail, which was the shortest route or way between the Chickasaws' home in north Mis- sissippi and the Chickasaw Bluffs. Under the Chickasaw treaties of 1832 and 1834, all of the Chickasaw cession was laid off into sections, and the roads in Mississippi run on section lines, except where the roads of the white man adopted the Indian trails, and the Pigeon Roost Road falls into the excepted class, because it follows the ancient Chickasaw trail. It will now be described. This road was laid out by the Shelby County Court in 1828, when there was scarcely a handful of people in the then village of Memphis, and it ran along the Chickasaw short-trail or trace. The description of the road, as officially laid off, commences where Adams Street intersects Bayou Gayoso, the then corporate limits of the village, and after proceeding in a southeasterly direction with various calls and courses, it proceeds thus; 64 The Chickasaw Nation "Thence with said line of blaze bearing southeastwardly to the old Chickasaw trace on top of a ridge ; thence with the said trace, occasionally straightening the same on good ground, to the northeast side of a lagoon in the bottom (the lagoon eviden- tly being in Nonconnah bottom), thence with a line of chops and blazes to the creek (evidently Nonconnah) a short dis- tance below the ford on the old trace; thence up the bank of the creek to the old trace, and with it cutting across some lands as above to where the same crosses the State Line." By actual measurements recently made, Nonconnah bottom begins eight miles from Second and Adams Streets, opposite the courthouse in Memphis, passing along the old Chickasaw trail, as near as that can be now traveled in the city, and then along the line of the present Pigeon Roost Road. Nonconnah is, a con- siderable creek, and was much larger before the country was settled. In high water, even at this day, the creek is often a mile wide, and anciently its bottom was filled with lagoons and cypress brakes, and difficult to cross, except under most favorable conditions. To my knowledge during the Civil War the four long bridges over the sloughs, and the one over the main stream, were down, at least the most of them were, and a ferry was maintained across the main stream, over which I often passed. In the winter the road became so out of repair that for days and days no vehicle could pass over it. Nonconnah bottom was then infested by robbers, and three Federal soldiers were court- martialed and shot for committing rape in that dreaded bottom, my father, Dr. Franklin J. Malone, being a witness at the trial in Memphis. My father died January 24, 1873, and I rode from Memphis to the old home just across the line in De Soto County on horseback, as no vehicles were then passing over the road, it being difficult to pass on horseback, that winter being an excep- tionally bad one. On July 21, 191 8, I rode in my auto from Memphis to Holly Springs, a distance of forty-seven and nine-tenths miles, carefully noting the water courses crossed by the Pigeon Roost Road, and 65 The Chickasaw Nation I do not think that it can be surpassed for its many windings, turnings, and constant changes of courses, thus demonstrating its Indian origin. Leaving the court house at Memphis, Nonconnah bottom was reached at eight miles, after descending Brown's Hill, formerly rising abruptly to high land, and this high land extends to Mem- phis. The bottom is a little over one mile wide, and emerging from this bottom the land is not high for some miles, but low, and formerly swampy. This low level land may be designated, according to local description, as second bottom lands, and extends from the true or low bottom lands, about two miles, passing through the village of Oakville (formerly called Shake- rag), to a small creek or large branch with a good sized bottom, and then the road goes up on rolling land. Further on Ten-Mile Branch is crossed, its name implying its distance from Memphis. Capleville is reached at thirteen miles, and by it, or rather where it now stands, there flowed in 1859, and for years thereafter to my knowledge, a beautiful creek with delightful fish in it. Today what is left of it forms a big ditch not made by nature, but by the hand of man, about one-eighth of a mile to the north, in which you may sometimes see a muddy conglom- erate to which the phrase may be applied, "as dull as ditch water." The fate of this stream, on the upper waters of which, three miles distant, in my boyhood days I swam and sported, catching beautiful fish, is the common fate of all the streams through this section of the country. A few hundred yards beyond Capleville another creek is crossed. I will now give the small creeks and distances crossed from Memphis to Holly Springs from this point. At the State Line, 15.5 miles; 17.6 miles; 18.3 miles (Olive Branch passed); 20.8 miles; 23.8 miles (at Miller's); 25.6 miles (this is Coldwater River, with a bottom one mile wide); 29.3 miles; (Byhalia passed, 30.1), and at 30.9 miles (Byhalia Creek), and 31.7 miles (Byhalia Creek again crossed, at least this was the name given me); 34 miles; 34.7 miles, good sized creek near 66 The Chickasaw Nation Victoria; (passing Red Banks at 39 miles); 40.4 miles; 41.8 miles; 42.8 miles (good size); 43.7 miles (good size); thence to Holly Springs, 47.9 miles, from the point of beginning, which was opposite the court house in Memphis. I need scarcely add that every stream crossed has its bottom more or less wide, according to its size, and the abruptness of the hills rising from its bosom. These bottoms were veritable wildernesses to anyone com- pelled to cross them before the country was settled up. One of the most notable features of the landscape that could not fail to attract the attention of any observant person was the beautiful view afforded about two miles from Holly Springs, approaching that city on the Pigeon Roost Road from the northwest. The road leads up to the brow of a long hill, and the outlines of the city can be faintly seen in the distance apparently with a mountainous background, and with inter, vening lowlands between the observer and the city. Or, expressed in other words, the city was apparently silhouetted upon the horizon, with a mountainous background; a very pleasing view to those who live in a comparatively flat country. This feature of the landscape will be found to be very important when we come to carefully consider the descriptions given by the various narratives of the country over which De Soto marched his army. It is also an undeniable fact that upon the ridges and little plateaus throughout this region there were numerous depressions, locally called ponds, which are well described in the words of the Gentleman of Elvas as "pondy places," "basins or lakes." Sometimes these pondy places covered, say, only an acre, with aquatic plants and shrubs in them, drying up in midsummer; while others were deeper, and covered some acres, were clear of all trees or shrubs and could be designated as lakes; and on these, numerous ducks and other wild fowl found feeding places, and they never dried up. The river and larger bottoms were liter- ally covered with lagoons, and what are locally called cypress brakes, many of them containing deep water throughout the 67 The Chickasaw Nation year, having soft mud bottoms over which it was extremely difficult to pass. In reference to the cypress brakes, as they are locally called, it may be stated that they abounded in all the bottoms similar to that of Nonconnah, and deserve further notice. There are in the old world, as well as in America, many species of cypress, but the discovery in the Southern states of this country of what is called "Swamp Cypress," or "Bald Cypress," was a distinct surprise to botanists and naturalists in general. It is one of the loftiest trees, grows to a height of 170 feet, and of such massive trunks as to be sometimes from ten to fifteen feet in diameter, and usually grows in or near water, or on low land subject to frequent inun- dations. More than 100 years ago Bartram said of it: "This cypress is in the first order of North American trees. Its majestic stature is surprising. On approaching we are struck with a kind of awe at beholding the stateliness of its trunk, lifting its cumbrous top towards the sky and casting a wide shadow on the ground, as a dark, intervening cloud, which from time to time excludes the rays of the sun. The delicacy of its color and the texture of its leaves exceed everything in vege- tation." It is said to be remarkable in that it is little affected by the dryness or excessive moisture in the atmosphere, for on the same tree different forms of branches and foliage will sometimes be found to exist, which are capable of either aiding or preventing the escape of moisture. Another remarkable thing about this Southern cypress is a large conical excrescence which rises from the roots of the trees, called cypress knees, the cause or reason for their growth being unknown, and as to which much speculation has been indulged. They are hollow, and where the tree grows in water, the knees rise above the surface, there sometimes being as many as one hundred under a tree. Where the tree grows on land not sub- merged, there are no knees. Some cypress brakes in large bottoms 68 The Chickasaw Nation were miles long and wide ; and it can be readily seen that where the ground was submerged and with knees interspersed, it would form an almost impassable barrier. The wood of this cypress was and is extremely valuable for shingles, which last for forty years; besides, it was much used for fencing, interior paneling for doors, windows, etc., hence it was one of the first giants of the forest to fall under the woodman's ax, and now, alas, they have nearly disappeared from the bottoms of our upland country. There is one lone sentinel, like a spectre of the past, growing out of the north bank of Nonconnah, a few inches from the west side of the iron bridge on the Pigeon Roost Road, and evidently spared because the bridge would lodge against it, in case it should be moved by a great flood. It is a double or twin tree, and while not one of the giants of its tribe, still gives some faint idea of what those monarchs of the forest were like. A few feet below this same bridge there will also be seen a miniature island in midstream, on which small trees are growing. The passing throng would never suppose that as late as during the Civil War there was not only no island there but in its place there was a wide expanse of water, on whose bosom a ferry boat crossed and recrossed, carrying wagons, buggies, horses, men, and everything that traveled, for which the traveling public were compelled to pay exorbitant ferriage fees. Now a man could jump from one side of the creek to the other side almost, without wetting his feet; and still Dr. Rowland thinks the topography of the country is the same. I can scarcely ever cross the bridge referred to without casting a glance at the lone tree-sentinel and the little miniature island; and mute witnesses though they be, yet to me they speak in trumpet tones of the mutability of all wordly things, and of the infinite future to which we are fleeing with such incredible swiftness that even the scenes of our child- hood days seem like phantoms of the past! Some time since application was made to convert all of Nonconnah and its bottoms into a drainage district, and some 69 The Chickasaw Nation technicality has delayed the proceeding; but, sooner or later, the Gordian knot will be cut, and a dull ditch will be all that is left of the majestic stream once known as Nonconnah. In the fall of 191 7, and previous thereto, I rode in an auto from Holly Springs in the main southeastward direction, to- wards Pontotoc, and crossed Chewalla Creek (quite a stream), the main branch of Tippah Creek, sometimes called Tippah River, and crossing to the southwest of the Frisco road at Potts Camp, we then crossed another affluent of Tippah; these consid- erable creek bottoms have the main characteristics of the country from Holly Springs to Memphis, and in addition the country had a more mountainous and picturesque appearance, owing to the many hills rising abruptly from the bottoms. Since the foregoing was written, viz: on December 1, 191 8, again I went over the same road, Honorable C. H. Curd, long time editor of the Holly Springs Reporter, being a member of the party. After we had crossed the Kansas City or Frisco Railroad at Potts Camp, going southwest, and then crossed quite considerable creek bottoms, we ascended some high hills, rising abruptly from the bottom land. After going some two to three miles further, the ground was still higher, and Mr. Curd pointed out to us the top of a distant ridge, which he said was fourteen miles from us, and was the site of Holly Springs. He went with us to a high hill one mile west of Holly Springs, locally called Rocky Mountain, because of its height and the presence on its top of large sand stones, some ten feet in length and nearly as wide, a very unusual geologic feature for that section. Pigeon Roost Creek and the Pigeons — The names, Pigeon Roost Road and Pigeon Roost Creek, carry with them a meaning with respect to the country which furnished these names, if we but consider attentively those words. 70 The Chickasaw Nation At the risk of being charged with a digression, I will linger to consider these names and what they imply; especially as this digression will involve characteristics of the Chickasaw country, now our country; for it is unfortunately true that we give more attention to the histories, appearances, and stories of foreign countries than to that of our own, it matters not how interesting our own country, past and present, may be. The disappearance of the vast hosts of wild pigeons, whose flights in the heavens once almost obscured the light of the sun at noon, has proven one of the mysteries of nature. Their sudden disappearance from the face of the earth in modern times remains an unsolved problem. I remember as a small boy to have seen in 1859 innumerable numbers of these wild pigeons in flight, and they appeared to be fond of lighting in the large oak trees, especially white oaks, and I was told that they were feeding upon acorns. They chose the largest and strongest trees for a roost, because their great weight would tear down and strip the strongest monarchs of the forest. In Lincecum's autobiography already referred to, he de- scribed the great destruction to the timber in the Choctaw country, just south of the Chickasaw country, wherever the pigeons had a roost. As like causes produce like results, the immensity of these pigeon roosts and the consequent destruction produced thereby at one place furnishes a description where other roosts took place; and I will here insert excerpts from famous nature writers, the accuracy of whose observations cannot be doubted : "The associated numbers of wild pigeons, the numerous flocks which compose the general swarm, are without any other parallel in the history of the feathered race; they can indeed alone be compared to the finny shoals of herrings, which, de- scending from the Arctic regions, discolor and fill the ocean to the extent of mighty kingdoms. * * * The approach of the mighty feathered army with a loud rushing roar and a stirring breeze, attended by a sudden darkness, might be mistaken for a 71 The Chickasaw Nation fearful tornado about to overwhelm the face of Nature. For several hours together the vast host, extending some miles in breadth, still continues to pass in flocks, without diminution. The whole air is filled with birds; * * * they shut out the light as if it were an eclipse. At the approach of the hawk their sublime and beautiful aerial evolutions are disturbed like a ruffling squall extending over the placid ocean; as a thundering torrent they rush together in a concentrating mass, and heaving in undulating and glittering sweeps towards the earth, at length again proceed in lofty meanders like the rushing of a mighty animated river. * * * "In the Atlantic States, where the flocks are less abundant, the gun, decoy, and net are put in operation against the devoted throng. Twenty or even thirty dozen have been caught at a single sweep of the net. Wagonloads of them are poured into market, where they are sometimes sold for no more than a cent apiece. * * * The Honorable T. H. Perkins remarks that about the year 1798, while he was passing through New Jersey, near Newark, the flocks continued to pass for at least two hours without cessation; and he learned from the neighboring inhabitants that, in descending upon a large pond to drink, those in the rear, alighting on the backs of the first that arrived (in the usual order of their movements on land to feed), pressed them beneath the surface, so that tens of thousands were thus drowned. They were likewise killed in great numbers at the roosts with clubs." (Nuttall, Vol. II, pp. 3, 4, 6.) Audubon estimated the number of birds in one of these flocks at eleven hundred millions, and calculated that they would require more than eight millions of bushels of seeds and grains for feed each day. Another flock seen by Wilson was greater still. He judged them in flight to extend over two hundred and forty miles. He concluded that they must have numbered more than twenty-two hundreds of millions, and consumed above seventeen millions of bushels of seed and grains daily. "As the sun begins to decline, they depart in a body for the general roost, which is often hundreds of miles distant, and is generally chosen in the tallest and thickest forests, almost divested of underwood. Nothing can exceed the waste and 72 The Chickasaw Nation desolation of these nocturnal resorts. * * * The tall trees for thousands of acres are completely killed, and the ground strewed with massy branches torn down by the clustering weight of the birds which have rested upon them. The whole region for several years presents a continued scene of devastation, as if swept by the resistless blast of a whirlwind. * * * "The breeding places, as might naturally be expected, differ from the roosts in their greater extent. In 1807, according to Wilson, one of these immense nurseries, near Shelbyville, in Kentucky, was several miles in breadth and extended through the woods for upwards of forty miles. * * * Wilson often counted upwards of ninety nests in a single tree, and the whole forest was filled with them. * * * But their most destructive enemy is man; and as soon as the young are fully grown, the neighboring inhabitants assemble and encamp for several days around the devoted pigeons with wagons, axes, and cooking utensils, like the outskirts of a destructive army. The perpetual tumult of the birds, the crowding and fluttering multitudes, the thundering roar of their wings, and the crash of falling trees, from which the young are thus precipitated to the ground by the axe, produces altogether a scene of indescribable and almost terrific confusion. It is dangerous to walk beneath these clustering crowds of birds, from the frequent descent of large branches broken down by the congregating millions; the horses start at the noise, and conversation can only be heard in a shout." To the foregoing extract from Nuttall's book is appended the following note : "The most important of recent contributions to the bio- graphy of this species is Mr. William Brewster's article in The Auk for October, 1889. He tells there of a 'nesting' in Michigan in 1877 that covered an area twenty-eight miles long and three to four miles wide, and says: 'For the entire distance of twenty- eight miles every tree of any size had more or less nests, and many trees were filled with them." (Nuttall's Birds of the United States and Canada, Vol. II, pp. 4, 5, 7.) L. B. Jones, an intelligent citizen somewhat advanced in years, and who lives near Holly Springs, informed me that his grandfather settled on Pigeon Roost Creek at a very early date; 73 The Chickasaw Nation that he often heard both his grandfather and father relate their experiences with the wild pigeons which, in the years long passed, roosted in the forests of Pigeon Roost Creek, from which circum- stance the creek derived its name. From them he learned the pigeons came in vast flocks, lighting on the limbs of the trees, while belated ones perched on the backs of those who arrived first; and by thus piling or perching on the backs of each other, the weight of the pigeons became so great as to strip and tear down some of the largest trees of the forest. The people of that vicinity would go to the roost and bring back wagon loads of the pigeons, whose numbers seemed to be almost infinite. Beaumont M. Stratton, though a Confederate veteran with many scars of that great conflict on his body, is still youthful of heart and vigorous of body, and, as might be supposed, having reached the reminiscent age, is found of recalling his early recol- lections. His father, Major Thomas Stratton, moved from middle Tennessee to the southern part of Shelby County, in the early fifties, and at that time the most of the country was in woods and was a wilderness. Mr. Stratton says that, when a boy, he had often gone south in Mississippi to the bottoms of Coldwater River, and there saw the destruction wrought by the wild pigeons to the great forests springing from the rich alluvial soil. Many of the smaller trees were stripped of their limbs and broken down, while many monarchs of the forest had lost great limbs and were so stripped of their branches as to present mere shadows of their former proportions. Mr. Stratton further states that in those early years the wild pigeons were still passing over the country in great flocks of incredible numbers, so that at times their numbers were so great as to obstruct the rays of the sun, the shadow of the birds falling upon the earth so as to give the appearance of twilight, or the shades of evening. From L. B. Jones and C. H. Curd, mentioned above, I also learned that the north branch of Pigeon Roost Creek had its 74 The Chickasaw Nation head in the once famous springs which, with the adjacent holly trees, gave to Holly Springs its name. The main branch of the creek, however, originates beyond or south of Holly Springs. From these gentlemen and Judge J. P. Young, of Memphis, I learned that going south from Memphis on the Pigeon Roost Road, it deflects at Byhalia from the present Holly Springs road, trending in a more southward direction, leading on to Chula- homa, where Judge Young was born, and leaving Holly Springs about six miles to the east of its course opposite that city. This is in entire accord with Lusher's map. On Lusher's map of 1835 (hereinafter more particularly re- ferred to) the streams in the Chickasaw country are laid down with more deta r l and accuracy than upon any other map before or since that time; and while nearly all the streams have Indian names only, Pigeon Roost Creek forms an exception, and had on this map the same name it bears to this day. The fact is that the creek was so named on account of the vast pigeon roosts which formerly formed a conspicuous feature of its heavily timbered bottoms ; and bear in mind that this giant timbered country was the country to attract the pigeons for a roosting place. This roosting place must have been famous far and near, for it gave not only its name to the large creek in question, but to one of the most important thoroughfares leading to Memphis, a distance of some fifty miles. Lusher's map also shows that the short-cut Indian trail or trace crossed the headwaters of the Pigeon Roost Creek. This roost was undoubtedly known to the Chickasaws, for nothing of this character escaped their notice; and, moreover, it was doubt- less a great asset to them, where, at least in certain years, they found an unlimited supply of most palatable and wholesome food. Indeed, the existence of this roost may have been one of the reasons for the trail passing through that vicinity. The Trail from Holly Springs to New Albany— Not having personally traveled over the former Chickasaw trail from Holly Springs to New Albany, I wrote to Judge 75 The Chickasaw Nation Charles Lee Crum, of New Albany, for a description of that part of the country and received the following answer: "Before describing the country directly from New Albany to Holly Springs, I will say that I was born in 1867 where the village of Hickory Flat now is, which is fourteen miles northwest from New Albany, and twenty miles southeast from Holly Springs. My grandfather, Eli Crum, moved onto his farm at the very place where Hickory Flat now is, in December, 1837, at which time my father, W. A. Crum, was an infant three months old. This was before the Indians left. My father owned this place until his death in A. D. 1910. So you can understand that, having for years held this as the paternal home, and on account of its being nearly midway between New Albany and Holly Springs, and having lived for twenty-five years at the former place, I have had opportunity to know this country. Besides being a lawyer by profession, I have since my boyhood hunted wild game considerably and traveled over all this country, horseback and otherwise. "I have heard my father say repeatedly that the public road from Memphis to Pontotoc was originally laid out along what was an Indian trail. This highway ran from Memphis via Holly Springs, Potts Camp, and Winborn, about three-fourths mile north of where Hickory Flat now is, crossed Tallahatchie River about three-fourths miles southwest of the courthouse in New Albany, and thence to the town of Pontotoc and covered high ground, except in crossing the following streams: Chewalla, Tippah River, headwaters of Okalimetah, Ayers Creek (a very small stream), Big Creek (sometimes called Hell Creek), and Talla- hatchie. The crossings at the time of the earliest recollections of white settlers on Tallahatchie River, before bridges were built, were only two. One was at Rocky Ford, where Etta postoffice now is. The other was three-fourths mile southwest of New Albany courthouse, on what is now my farm property and im- mediately in the rear of my present residence, which is known as 'Riverside.' "There is a bluff immediately west of the ford at Rocky Ford, and there has been to my personal knowledge for forty years a very large rock just below this ford, which is nearly round in top appearance and which projected several feet above the low water forty years ago. The rock appears to have been a boulder 76 The Chickasaw Nation which rolled down from off this bluff. The hill which projects to the river here and makes this bluff has numerous such rocks on it now. It is about twelve miles on an air line from New Albany to Rocky Ford. I am not advised whether there was an Indian trail that crossed here, but it was a ford where the road crossed as early as the white settlers now living know. The river here runs on the south side of the low bottom, which low land is about one mile wide and many years ago was very slashy on north half. It is conceded that De Soto fought a battle with the Indians who had a village where New Albany now is, after leaving the Indian settlement east of Pontotoc. From New Albany to Rocky Ford, to travel south of Tallahatchie, would, in De Soto's time, have required covering a distance of twenty or thirty-five miles, for down the river in the low lands it was very swampy, even as late as I can remember, and covered with thick canes, rattan, and other vines and much undergrowth. Besides, there are several large creeks that run into Tallahatchie from the south that he would have been obliged to cross. 'Tallahatchie bottom at New Albany is less than 400 yards wide, and the crossing was at a swift place with a solid rock bot- tom, and Esq. Reaves, who was for many years the mayor of New Albany, has told me that an Indian ford was there before the white man used it in the early settlement for a public high- way. Here is where the Memphis and Pontotoc road first crossed Tallahatchie. "From all I have heard and read on the course taken by De Soto I am convinced that, after fighting the Indians here at New Albany, he crossed Tallahatchie at the rock bottom ford south of the town, traveled in a northwest direction along the trail via Hickory Flat (where there was an Indian village on my grand- father's place in 1837), Potts Camp, Holly Springs, and on to the Chickasaw Bluffs at Memphis. * * * "On each side of the river near this ford with rock bottom at New Albany were evidently Indian camps of minor importance. They were near large lakes which then existed and between them on high back-bones or ridges. These ridges are now in my farm and hundreds of arrow heads, tomahawks, pestle and mortar rocks and other relics have been found. My son, now sixteen, has several hundred arrow and spear heads of all sizes. At these minor camps the Indians evidently camped, fished, and hunted in good weather when the river was low." 77 The Chickasaw Nation Attention is called to the words in italics stating that the old Indian camps "were near large lakes which then existed and between them on high back-bones or ridges." These lakes, or pondy places, were scattered over the hill country of the Chicka- saws, as all observant persons know to have been the case, be- fore the country was deforested. In a subsequent letter Judge Crum says: "The channel of the old Tallahatchie River adjacent to the point in the river where the rock-bottom ford anciently existed, which is about three-fourths of a mile southwest from the court house at New Albany, was (until as late as 1898, at which time I purchased the land), very deep, with the banks of the river on the east side very high and perpendicular. In fact I live now on this high point that projects into where the old channel was then. "The topography then agreed very well with the description which the Spaniard, Garcilaso de la Vega, gave of it in his diary, considering the time that has elapsed. "As attorney for the Tallahatchie District I had a canal dug down the bottom for a distance of thirty miles. The width of the canal is thirty feet or more at its top end to sixty feet or more at its mouth at the west line of Union County. There is no place in the river where there was a solid rock bottom, except at New Albany, and although the canal is eighteen feet deep in places, we encountered no rock in digging it." It will thus be seen that the main topographical features of the country from Pontotoc on to the Chickasaw Bluffs are quite similar ; and these features should be borne in mind when we read the various narratives. 78 CHAPTER V THE FOUR DE SOTO NARRATIVES QUOTED AND COMPARED We come now to consider the four separate narratives of the De Soto Expedition. Dr. Rowland, following in the footsteps of Prof. Lewis, adopts the three narratives of the Gentleman of Elvas, Rodrigo Ranjel and Hernandez de Biedma, as edited by Edward Gaylord Bourne in the Trail Makers. They reject altogether the narrative of Garcilaso de la Vega. For the present I will follow their selection, because these three narratives so selected by them, when examined, especially in the light of the topography and geology of the country and the conditions surrounding the expedition, demonstrate that the Mississippi was discovered at the Chickasaw Bluffs. Later I will show that Garcilaso's is entirely worthy of credit, and if this is so, then they admit they are out of court. I will now briefly refer to the time each of the four narratives appeared in print, following exactly the order observed by Bourne as set forth in his preface. First: "The Gentleman of Elvas." This narrative purports to have been written by a Portuguese gentleman (not a Spaniard), and was first published at Evora, Portugal, in 1557. The narrative also purports to have been written by one who accompanied De Soto, but the writer did not reveal his name, and it is not known to this day. Some who reject Garcilaso, also reject the Gentleman of Elvas, but not so Bourne and his followers, who put great reliance thereon. Second: Bourne admits that "next in order of publication and equal in fame comes" Garcilaso, which was first published in Lisbon in 1605, or only sixty- two years after the death of 79 The Chickasaw Nation De Soto, and again re-published in Madrid in 1722. It is ad- mitted that Garcilaso was of noble birth, and that he was a historian of distinction, aside from his De Soto narrative. His narrative is rejected by some after the lapse of some hundreds of years, because he states that he was not a member of the expedition, but got his information from a nobleman, who did accompany the expedition and who, for a lifetime, had been Garcilaso's bosom friend and constantly related the incidents of the expedition, and these were supplemented by notes taken down by two privates in the expedition; so that the narrative is based on the testimony of three witnesses. Third: The narrative of Hernandez de Biedma, the king's factor, was drawn up in 1544, but not published until 1841, and then in French, by the French scholar, Ternaux-Campons, the first English edition appearing in 1850. On page XV, Bourne commends Biedma's narrative as an official account, though giving few details, "except as to directions and distances"; or in other words he is said to be accurate in giving details "as to di- rections and distances," which is an important admission, as shown further on. Fourth: Rodrigo Ranjel was the private secretary of De Soto, and his narrative did not come to light until 1866, when, according to Bourne, it was revealed in Oviedo's Historia General y Natural de las Indias. Bourne says also that he was convinced that Oviedo's account had imbedded in it Rodrigo Ranjel's journal in the same way as the journal of Columbus of his second voyage was preserved by Las Casas in his Historia de las India. It can readily be seen that the Ranjel account may have suffered important changes through the channels it has reached us; nevertheless, by the authors mentioned it is given first rank for accuracy, followed next by the Gentleman of Elvas, then by Biedma, while they reject altogether Garcilaso. We now meet them on their chosen ground. When doing this, however, I will quote the text of these three narratives, word for word, and I will decline to accept the 80 The Chickasaw Nation versions thereof by Prof. Lewis and followed by Dr. Rowland, for important words are not only left out, but interpolations are made without the least regard to the originals. These quotations will begin with the departure of De Soto from near the seat of the Chickasaw nation, in what is now Pontotoc County, for it seems to be now conceded that the expedition crossed Tallahatchie River near New Albany, where there is for that country a very unusual geological formation, namely a solid rock bottom for the river, the meaning of the Indian word Tallahatchie being rock river. The Text of the Gentleman of Elvas— "From some prisoners taken, the governor informed himself of the region in advance. On the 25th day of April (1541) he left Chicaca and went to sleep at a small town called Alimamu. Very little maize was found; and as it became necessary to attempt thence to pass a desert, seven days' journey in extent, the next day the governor ordered that three captains, each with cavalry and foot, should take a different direction, to get provisions for the way. Juan de Anasco, the comptroller, went with fifteen horse and forty foot on the course the governor would have to march, and found a staked fort where the Indians were awaiting them. Many were armed, walking upon it, with their bodies, legs, and arms painted and ochred, red, black, white, yellow, and ver- milion in stripes, so that they appeared to have on stockings and doublet. Some wore feathers, and others horns on the head, the face blackened, and the eyes encircled with vermilion, to heighten their fierce aspect. So soon as they saw the Christians draw nigh, they beat drums, and, with loud yells, in great fury came forth to meet them. As to Juan de Anasco and others it appeared well to avoid them and to inform the governor, they retired, over an even ground in sight, the distance of a cross-bow shot from the enclosure, the footmen, the cross-bow men, and targeteers putting themselves before those on horseback, that the beasts might not be wounded by the Indians, who came forth by sevens and eights to discharge their bows at them and retire. In sight of the Christians they made a fire, and, taking an Indian by the head and feet, pretended to give him many blows on the head and cast him into the flames, signifying in this way what they would do with the Christians. 81 The Chickasaw Nation "A message being sent with three of the cavalry to the governor, informing him of this, he came directly. It was his opinion that they should be driven from the place. He said that if this was not done, they would be emboldened to make an attack at some other time, when they might do him more harm; those on horseback were commanded to dismount, and, being set in four squadrons, at the signal charged the Indians. They resisted until the Christians came up to the stakes; then, seeing they could not defend themselves, they fled through that part near which passed a stream, sending back some arrows from the other bank; and because, at the moment, no place was found where the horses might ford, they had time to make their escape. Three Indians were killed and many Christians wounded, of whom after a few days, fifteen died on the march. Everyone thought the governor com- mitted a great fault in not sending to examine the state of the ground on the opposite shore, and discover the crossing-place before making the attack; because, with the hope the Indians had of escaping unseen in that direction, they fought until they were broken ; and it was the cause of their holding out so long to assail the Christians, as they could, with safety to themselves. How the Governor Went from Quizquiz, and Thence to the River Grande — "Three days having gone by since some maize had been sought after, and but little found in comparison with the great want there was of it, the governor became obliged to move at once, notwithstanding the wounded had need of repose, to where there should be abundance. He accordingly set out for Quizquiz, and marched seven days through a wilderness, having many pondy places, with thick forests, fordable, however, on horseback, all to some basins or lakes that were swum. He arrived at a town of Quizquiz without being descried, and seized all the people before they could come out of their homes. Among them was the mother of the cacique; and the governor sent word to him, by one of the captives, to come and receive her, with the rest he had taken. The answer he returned was that, if his lordship would order them to be loosed and sent, he would come to visit and do him service. "The governor, since his men arrived weary, and likewise weak, for want of maize, and the horses were also lean, determined to yield to the requirement and try to have peace; so the mother and the rest were ordered to be set free, and with words of kind- The Chickasaw Nation ness were dismissed. The next day, while he was hoping to see the chief, many Indians came, with bows and arrows, to set upon the Christians, when he commanded that all the armed horsemen should be mounted and in readiness. Finding them prepared, the Indians stopped at the distance of a crossbow shot from where the governor was, near a river bank, where, after remaining quietly half an hour, six chiefs arrived at the camp, stating that they had come to find out what people it might be; for they had knowledge from their ancestors that they were to be subdued by a white race; they consequently desired to return to the cacique, to tell him that he should come presently to obey and serve the governor. After presenting six or seven skins and shawls brought with him, they took their leave, and returned with the others who were waiting for them by the shore. The cacique came not, nor sent another message. "There was little maize in the place, and the governor moved to another town, half a league from the great river; here it was found in sufficiency. He went to look at the river, and saw that near it there was much timber of which piraguas might be made, and a good situation in which the camp might be placed. He directly moved, built houses, and settled on a plain a crossbow shot from the water, bringing together there all the maize of the towns behind, that at once they might go to work and cut down trees for sawing out planks to build barges. The Indians soon came from up the stream, jumped on shore, and told the governor they were the vassals of a great lord, named Aquixo, who was the suzerain of many towns and people on the other shore; and they made known from him, that he would come the day after, with all his people, to hear what his lordship would command him." The Text of Biedma— "We remained here perhaps two months, getting ready what were necessary of saddles, lances, and targets, and then left, taking the direction to the northwest, toward a province called Alibamo. "At this time befell us what is said never to have occurred to the Indians. In the highway over which we had to pass, without there being either women to protect or provisions to secure, and only to try our valour with theirs, the Indians put up a very strong stockade directly across the road, about 300 of them standing behind it, resolute to die rather than give back. So 83 The Chickasaw Nation soon as they observed our approach, some came out to shoot their arrows, threatening that not one of us should remain alive. When we had surveyed their work, thus defended by men, we supposed they guarded something — provisions perhaps — of which we stood greatly in need, for we had calculated to cross a desert of twelve days' journey in its extent, where we could have nothing to eat but what we carried. We alighted some forty or fifty men, and put ourselves on two sides, arranging that at the sound of the trumpet we should all enter the barricade at one time. We did accordingly, carrying it, although at some cost, losing on our side seven or eight men, and having twenty-five or twenty-six more wounded. We killed some Indians, and took others from whom we learned that they had done this to measure themselves with us, and nothing else. We looked about for food, although at great hazard, that we might begin our journey into the wilderness. "We traveled eight days with great care, in tenderness of the wounded and the sick we carried. One mid-day we came upon a town called Quizquiz, and so suddenly to the inhabitants, that they were without any notice of us, the men being away at work in the maize fields. We took more than 300 women, and the few skins and shawls they had in their houses. There we first found a little walnut of the country, which is much better than that here in Spain. The town was near the banks of the River Espiritu Santo. They had told us that it was, with many towns about there, tributary to a lord of Pacaha, famed throughout the land. When the men heard that we had taken their women, they came to us peacefully, requesting the governor to restore them. He did so, and asked them for canoes in which to pass that great river. These they promised, but never gave; on the contrary, they collected to give us battle, coming in sight of the town where we were; but in the end, not venturing to make an attack, they turned and retired. "We left that place and went to encamp by the riverside, to put ourselves in order for crossing. On the other shore we saw num- bers of people collected to oppose our landing, who had many canoes. We set about building four large piriguas, each capable of taking sixty or seventy men and five or six horses. We were engaged in the work twenty-seven or twenty-eight days." 84 The Chickasaw Nation The Text of Ranjel— "Tuesday, April 26, in the year aforesaid, 1541, the governor, Hernando de Soto, set out from the plain of Chicaca, and arrived at Limamufor the night; and there they searched for corn, because the Indians had hidden it, and they had to pass over a desert. And Thursday they came to another plain where the Indians had taken the position, having made a very strong barricade, and within it there were many Indian braves, painted red and deco- rated with other colors which appeared very fine (or rather, very bad, at least it meant harm to the Christians). And they entered the barricade by force, and with some loss by death and wounds on the part of the commander and his army, and with a loss greater beyond comparison on the part of the conquered; and it would have been still more if the Indians had not taken flight. "Saturday, the last day of April, the army set out from the place of the barricade and marched nine days through a deserted country and by a rough way, mountainous and swampy, until May 8th, when they came to the first village of Quizquiz, which they took by assault and captured much people and clothes; but the governor promptly restored them liberty and had everything restored to them for fear of war, although that was not enough to make friends of these Indians. A league beyond this village they came upon another with abundance of corn, and soon again after another league, upon another likewise amply provisioned. There they saw the great river. Saturday, May 21, the force went along to a plain between the river and a small village, and set up quarters and began to build four barges to cross over to the other side. Many of these conquerors said this river was larger than the Danube." It may be thought that my quotations are entirely too lengthy for the few sentences of pertinent matter, as compared to that which is not pertinent. My excuse is, first, I wish the reader to see the entire context, and thus at the same time do entire justice, and so that no one may say anything was omitted. It is almost unnecessary to add that all the italics in this article are my own, which I use in order to direct the attention of the reader to such parts as I deem pertinent to the points at issue. 85 The Chickasaw Nation Opinion of Professor Lewis Criticized— Dr. Rowland states that Theodore Hayes Lewis is a learned antiquarian, archeologist and historian, and that no historian has thought it wise to question his conclusions; but we have seen that Judge Young, a real historian, has sharply questioned the conclusions of Prof. Lewis. Moreover, though I am not an historian, or antiquarian or archeologist, still I am here and now to pointedly question the conclusions of Prof. Lewis, believing that no one, whatever may be his acquirements, has a right to preempt the discussion or an exclusive right to express an opinion on a matter so plain that any man of ordinary understanding can easily form an intelligent opinion. In point of fact, I believe that the phrase, "much learning doth make thee mad," which was so misapplied near two thousand years ago, to one of the greatest men the world ever heard, in the High Court of Appeals in a kingly palace, can be well applied to the two learned authors, in relation to this discussion. Let us see — On page 146, Centenary Series, No. II, Dr. Rowland quotes Prof. Lewis as stating the route of De Soto, after crossing the Tallahatchie, in these words: "On Saturday, April 30, the army left this enclosed place, turning to the westward." The three narratives will be searched in vain for any state- ment that the expedition turned at all, and least of all, westward. The statement is a complete interpolation. This is not by any means all, for it will be recalled that their favorite author, Bourne, commends Biedma's short narrative for accuracy "as to directions and distances." Now Biedma's narrative is the only one which undertakes to give the direction that De Soto took after leaving the Chickasaw nation; and as the two other narratives are silent on this point, certainly when the third one, commended for accuracy in this particular, gives 86 The Chickasaw Nation the direction, it must be accepted as true. What does Biedma say? "We remained here two months, getting ready what was necessary of saddles, lances and targets, and then left, taking the direction to the northwest, towards a province called Alibamo." Why was this direction, which so plainly and unmistakably pointed to the Chickasaw Bluffs, omitted; and why were the words "turning to the westward" interpolated, which so plainly pointed to Tunica County? Having thus airily and neatly constructed a paper-turning for the expedition in a paper direction westward, so as to reach "somewhere" in dear old Tunica, the next thought of the guide, philosopher, and friend of Dr. Rowland seems to have been to neatly construct a companion paper-route for the De Soto ex- pedition, especially adapted to the canebrakes, lakes, and fast- nesses of the Mississippi delta. However, acquitting the learned author of any intentional purposes to warp the plain story of the narratives, still, when examined, his account exhibits an almost perfect adaptation of a means to an end. Immediately following the sentence above quoted and criticized, Prof. Lewis says: " 'According to Elvas, the country they were now passing through was a wilderness of thick forests, having many marshy places that were ford able, and some basins and lakes (sluggish streams) that were not.' In another place he says: 'The land is low, abounding in lakes.' Ranjel says they passed over bad roads leading through woods and swamps." It would be difficult to more incorrectly misstate what was really said by the two narrators than is found in the above quotation from Prof. Lewis. Elvas will be searched in vain for the sentence ascribed to him in quotation marks, "the land was low, abounding in lakes." Where, then, did this sentence come from? 87 The Chickasaw Nation Here is what Elvas said: "He accordingly set out for Quizquiz, and marched seven days through a wilderness, having many pondy places, with thick forests, fordable however, on horseback, all to some basins or lakes that were swum." The sentence is involved and not well worded, although Elvas is especially claimed to be the best scholar among the narrators; still just how the Professor is able to interpret the above language to mean that there were some basins and lakes that were not fordable, when the narrator expressly states the reverse, I am unable to see. Moreover, it will be noted that the Professor uses the con- junctive "and" between basins and lakes; whereas Elvas uses the disjunctive "or" between them. As explained hereinbefore, in treating of the topographical feature of the small plateaus in the country southeast of the Fourth Chickasaw Bluffs, they abounded with marshy places, basins, or lakes. Elvas wrote basins or lakes; or as he had just said, "pondy places," evidently meaning that these places scarcely arose to the proportions of what we understand to be a lake. The Professor not only eliminates the qualified language of Elvas, but makes him convey the idea that the lakes were so large that they were not fordable, thus evidently pointing to the Mississippi swamps. But if the Professor erroneously and improperly stated what Elvas said, then he is worse than erroneous in quoting from Ranjel who, it will be remembered, is declared to be the most accurate of all the narrators. The Professor quotes Ranjel thus: "Ranjel says they passed over bad roads leading through woods and swamps." Ranjel said no such thing. What he recorded is in these words : 88 The Chickasaw Nation "Saturday, the last of April, the army set out from the place of barricade and marched nine days through a deserted country and by a rough way, mountainous and swampy," etc. I ask by what principle of interpretation or fairness did the Professor omit the word mountainous, which Ranjel used and which with marked precision described the Tippah Highlands, which reached down into Marshall County and over which the Chickasaw trail passed? He knew there was no mountainous country leading from where New Albany now is to the imaginary point in Tunica County where he was laboring to land De Soto. Indeed, after eliminating the word mountainous from Ranjel's account, he used the garbled statement to point his argument that the discovery was made in the Mississippi swamps; for he immediately adds : "This part of the route lay wholly within the State of Missis- sippi for, had it been toward Memphis, they would have passed through a hilly region instead of one of swamps." Yes, indeed, the country through which De Soto really did pass was in point of fact not only hilly but, to use the exact word of Ranjel, "mountainous," at least in appearance; and to use his other word there were parts of it "swampy." Paradoxical as it may seem at first blush, nevertheless, Ranjel perfectly described the two main features of the country traversed by the Chickasaw trail, when he used the words "swampy and mountainous." That is to say, the bottoms of Nonconnah, Coldwater, Tippah, and numerous other smaller streams which were crossed were filled with swamps, cypress brakes, pondy places, lagoons, morasses, and almost impenetrable thickets and forests, so as to make them veritable wildernesses; while the abrupt high hills of the Tippah Highlands, reaching down into Marshall County, gave that part of the country a mountainous aspect, and this top- ographical feature of the country remains to this day. And still 89 The Chickasaw Nation Dr. Rowland is surprised that any one should have the temerity to question the conclusions of Prof. Lewis! It is amusing to read the sentence of the Professor locating the point where the great river was discovered, the ipse dixit characteristic being its main feature. He says: "The crossing was made either at Council Bend or Walnut Bend, in Tunica County, in a straight line some twenty-five to thirty-eight miles below Memphis." That thi ; is a guess pure and simple, without one line of sup- port in any narrative, is perfectly apparent. There are dozens of bends on the river similar to these, and there is no pretense of a physical feature at either point to identify it as the landing place. There is likewise a significant silence on the part of Prof. Lewis with respect to the several Indian villages and the fields of growing maize, not to mention the hundreds and even thou- sands of Indians who had a permanent home at the place where the great river was discovered. The one thing that appears to have burdened the Professor's thoughts was to drive De Soto and his small army through the well nigh impenetrable swamps, morasses, cane brakes, sloughs, and lagoons of Tallahatchie and Coldwater River bottoms, not to mention that of the Mississippi, which are worse than those of the Yalobusha, the word "Yalobusha" in the Indian language meaning tadpole place. Apparently, in the opinion of the Pro- fessor, any old place in the Mississippi swamps, even a tadpole place, was quite eligible for a permanent home for the Indians. And again the Professor and his friend, Dr. Rowland, seem oblivious to the fact that it is actually a little farther, on an air line, from Pontotoc in the northeastern part of the state to the ubiquitous place in Tunica County where they claim the river was discovered than it is to the Chickasaw Bluffs, leading to which were well known and well traveled Chickasaw trails, affording a 90 The Chickasaw Nation far better road to the river; whereas no one pretends that there was any trail of the Chickasaws, or of any one else, leading to Tunica County. And finally, on this feature of the discussion, can the Professor and Dr. Rowland name any river that flows into the Mississippi in Tunica County? It is certain no mention is made of such a river by them, and it is an undeniable fact, resulting from purely natural causes, that no river flows into the Mississippi River on the east side, after Nonconnah, at the south end of the Chicka- saw Bluffs, until the mouth of the Yazoo is reached, 300 miles to the south. In fact the surface waters of Tunica and even those of De Soto, Marshall, and Benton Counties, bordering on Tennes- see, flow into Coldwater River, which deflects southward, and joins the Tallahatchie, after which their combined waters, with those of the Yalobusha further south, are known as the Yazoo River, entering the Mississippi near Vicksburg. Another thing is equally undeniable, and that is their favorite author, the Gentleman of Elvas, plainly states that while the Indians were menacing the expedition at the villages of Quizquiz, and before the expedition pitched camp by the great river, De Soto drew up his horsemen near a river-bluff to confront the Indians. This river formed then and forms now an unmistakable, and may I not add a controlling, feature of the country, forever destroying the Tunica County theory, and stamping the Fourth Chickasaw Bluffs, with Wolf River flowing into the Mississippi at its north terminus, and Nonconnah (almost a little river) flowing into the great river at its south terminus, as the place where white men first gazed upon the Father of Waters? Did the learned historians pass over this unmistakable feature of the country where the discovery was made sub silentio, because they were not conversant with the topography of the country; or because they read Elvas so inattentively as to over- look this important matter? I know not. Certain it is that when 91 The Chickasaw Nation further on Prof. Lewis undertook to disparage the claims of Mem- phis, he was alive to physical features, for he commented on the conformation of the plateau at the bluffs, in order to make a point for his argument, and in this I shall show that he was mistaken. It is also a little amusing that, after the learned historian lands De Soto over in the Arkansas swamps opposite Tunica County, and started him in a course northward and practically parallel with the great river, the suggestion is made that possibly some earthquake may have changed the topography of the country; and still Dr. Rowland, in his last paper, appeals to the topography of the country as unchangeable ! From this short review I believe the impartial reader will . conclude that eltrich and eerie and strange must be the mythical place in Tunica where, in the imaginations of the learned histo- rians, De Soto discovered the Mississippi; and, moreover, that they must appeal to the miraculous in order to conjure up even a shadow of support for their favorite theory. Indeed, the supposed place where the discovery was made is an arbitrary conception, as destitute of objective characteristics as the tropic of Capricorn. De Soto's Route to the Chickasaw Bluffs- Irrespective of any criticism of the theory of Prof. Lewis and Dr. Rowland, let us endeavor now to place ourselves near the home of the Chickasaw nation in April, 1541, and with the De Soto expedition when it was about to move forward in search of the new El Dorado, reminding us of the quest for the fabled golden fleece. Where were they and what roads lay before them? The Chickasaws had chosen as their home and the seat of their government the country lying now in and adjacent to Pontotoc County, Mississippi, as the very best for health, for abundance of everything necessary to their sustenance, as well as for beauty, and as being without a rival in the vast territory of which they were the acknowledged overlords. Their home was on the well known Pontotoc ridge, which runs north and south, the waters to the east running into the 92 The Chickasaw Nation Tombigbee, and those on the west of the ridge running into the Tallahatchie and Coldwater Rivers and thence into the Yazoo and on into the Mississippi. Of the home of the Chickasaws Bancroft speaks of it as a land "where the grass is verdant in midwinter; the blue-bird and the robin are heard in February; the springs of pure water gurgle up through the white sands to flow through natural bowers of evergreen holly; and if the earth be but carelessly gashed to receive the kernel of maize, the thick corn springs abundantly from the fertile soil. The region is as happy as any beneath the sun; and the love it inspired made its occu- pants, though not numerous, yet the most intrepid warriors of the South." Evidently the Chickasaws exercised that sagacity for which they were noted, in the selection of their home; and being great travelers with a large territory to guard and defend against all intruders, they had well defined trails leading to all important points, and especially to the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, which was their entrepot on the great river, for they were at home upon its bosom, Adair saying that they appeared almost amphibious. The trails of the Chickasaws leading in various directions were perfectly well known. De Soto had been wandering amid the wilds of the southern wilderness since July 15, 1539; besides, he had wandered in the tropical forests of South and Central America, and probably no man then living knew as much as he did about the difficulties of such traveling, or better how to choose the best way. It was scarcely necessary for the Gentleman of Elvas to inform us that "From some prisoners taken, the governor in- formed himself of the region in advance." We know he diligently sought information from every source, for this was necessary for self-preservation, the first law of nature. That, while he was for months living with the Chickasaws on the most friendly terms, he learned from them of the great river which, with its tributary, the Ohio, formed their western boundary and their highway for a thousand miles, no one can 93 The Chickasaw Nation doubt. For seventy-five years Cushman lived among the Choc- taws and Chickasaws, having been raised in their nations, their language being his language, and he says they "named it (the Mississippi) 'Misha Sipokni' (beyond age, whose source and terminus are unknown)." They knew all about the situation of this great river with respect to their country and every foot of their vast domains, and had highways suitable to their wants to all parts of it. De Soto necessarily learned the lay of the country before him and of the Indian trails which were unmis- takably marked out on the face of the earth. The Chickasaw long trail for winter as well as for summer, on top of ridges going almost directly north as far as where Bolivar, Tennessee, now is, then turning west and on to the Chickasaw Bluffs, was much out of the way; and moreover De Soto was moving the last of April, when presumably the short-cut route, approximately by way of where Holly Springs now is and onward northwestwardly along where the Pigeon Roost road now runs, was comparatively dry, and he had this road, or rather Indian trail, over which to travel. The long trail appears on Lusher 's map of 1835, as well as the short-cut trail. This article was mostly written before I knew there was such a map, which I will explain further on. There is also marked on Lusher's map of 1835 an inter- mediate trail, running with the long trail a short distance north from where New Albany now is; thence diverging westward where it crosses the headwaters of the Tallahatchie and Cold- water Rivers higher up than the short-cut trail, and still bearing northwestward follows the top of the ridge dividing the waters of Wolf River from those of Nonconnah Creek, the result being that it crosses neither Wolf nor Nonconnah, and does not pass over as large streams as the short cut. The disadvantages of this route consist in the fact that it is longer than the short cut, and being higher up towards the Tippah Highlands, it is more "mountainous." I went over this route some years ago and again in October, 191 7, going from Memphis out Poplar Street Boule- vard, by Collierville, there turning southward into Mississippi, 94 The Chickasaw Nation and some eight to ten miles from Collierville we crossed a very- low, flat expanse, the soil being evidently retentive of water and while in timber wet and swampy, and partly so even to this day, and of a pondy character. While for the most part the road is on high ground, still we passed over several streams, including Chewalla and Tippah, before reaching Potts Camp, beyond Holly Springs. The windings of the road and its characteristics un- mistakably stamp it as of Indian origin. There is a bare possibility that De Soto traveled this trail rather than the short cut, but I do not think that probable. Lusher'smap also shows what I have denominated the short- cut route or trail, leading from Memphis along approximately what is now the Pigeon Roost Road, over which, in my opinion, De Soto passed ; but it is due to say that this trail does not appear to cross Tallahatchie at New Albany, but further down and quite near where the Tippah flows into the Tallahatchie, running thence southwardly to one of the very few places marked on the map, Olacopotoo, which appears to be the modern Toccopola, a village of some 233 inhabitants in Pontotoc County. Here the trail forks; one fork runs almost due east, only twelve miles on section lines, to Pontotoc, which, of course, is marked on the map; while the other fork runs much further southward. I am frank to say that I do not believe that De Soto passed over this southern part of the short-cut trail, and my opinion is that he followed the main trail northwestward, crossing Tallahatchie where New Albany now is, on the rock bottom of the river. This is the conclusion also of Prof. Lewis. My opinion is that not far northward of New Albany, there was a trail connecting the main trail with the short-cut trail, precisely as the intermediate trail is shown on the map to diverge westward from the main trail, only about one mile northward from New Albany; or it may be that the divergence was from the intermediate trail to the short cut, thus making a saving of dis- tance of some twenty to thirty computed miles and crossing many less high hills. This view is precisely in accord with the 95 The Chickasaw Nation statement of Judge Crum, as to the route the short cut took from New Albany on to Holly Springs, and thence on to where Mem- phis now is, as quoted hereinbefore. While Holly Springs is not on Lusher's map, still it does show the short-cut trail as crossing the headwaters of Coldwater River, Byhalia, Red Banks and Pigeon Roost Creeks, and these streams are crossed today by the Pigeon Roost Road. It is due to say, however, that according to my reckoning the trail did not pass the spot where Holly Springs is now located, but passed some six miles westward. I feel quite sure that Dr. Lowe is entirely correct in saying that the high land whereon Holly Springs is located stands off to itself, and is entirely dis- connected with the Tippah Highlands, though some modern maps show otherwise. Lusher's map corroborates this statement of Dr. Lowe, in that it shows no streams passing over the immediate vicinity of Holly Springs, but does show streams radiating in various directions from that vicinity; from which I infer that the uplift or spur whereon the little city is located furnishes, at least in part, the origin of adjacent creeks. It is well here to note that the Indian trails or traces on Lusher's map are uniformly represented by continuous faint lines, and that none of the many Indian trails or traces are designated by a name. There is one trail, and one only, that forms a marked ex- ception to all other trails; and it consists of a dotted line, commenc- ing on the west side of the Mississippi River (with two dots on the west side thereof), the commencing point being opposite the name "Helena," evidently the present Helena, Arkansas, this being one of the few places on the map with an English name. This dotted line on the east side of the river trends east by north, passing near the southern end of Beaver Dam Lake, until it nearly reaches Coldwater River, where it is joined by another dotted line, commencing on the east side of the Mississippi River, about opposite the north end of Beaver Dam Lake, running thence eastward to where the two dotted lines meet; and thence 96 The Chickasaw Nation the dotted line crosses Coldwater and runs northeastward until it ends with joining a regular Indian trail about six computed miles from the point where the short-cut Indian trail crosses Pigeon Roost Creek, and about twelve computed miles southwest of where Holly Springs now is. This dotted line is plainly marked "Helena Trace;" whereas none of the many Indian traces or continuous lines have any names marked on them. It is evident that this "Helena trace" was of recent origin, and a pathway made by the white man ; and being the only trace trending east and west through the Mississippi swamps, it gives emphasis to the fact that there was no Indian trace or trail that led to the Mississippi River at any point, except to the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, to which three Indian trails led from the Chicka- saw home, where Pontotoc now is. And now as to maps in general and Lusher's map in particu- lar, I will say that I give scant credit thereto unless the maps were made upon actual survey. Thus, why should anyone put any great confidence in the favorite map of Prof. Lewis, viz : that of De L'Isle, published in 171 8, or 177 years after De Soto discov- ered the Mississippi; and this map, according to the Professor, was the first that undertook to locate the place where the river was discovered? Simply because a man is a cartographer, he is not inspired with the gift of location ; for at last the accuracy of the map must depend on the knowledge of the cartographer as to the real location of any place which he undertakes to place on a piece of paper. What source of knowledge did De L'Isle possess as to where the river was discovered that we have not? Probably he had not so much information as we, for the Biedma and Ranjel narratives have only recently come to light; and it is practically certain he knew absolutely nothing as to the topography of the country. Prof. Lewis rejects as worthless most of the maps relative to this matter. 97 The Chickasaw Nation To illustrate the utter worthlessness and unreliability of some of the work of cartographers, consult the Atlas, Vol. 10, p. 4, of the Century Dictionary, which undertakes to show the route pursued by various discoverers on this continent, and among them the route of De Soto. According to this map De Soto did not go far enough north in Mississippi to reach the Chickasaw country, and crossed the great river about where Vicksburg now is. Probably more money and talent were bestowed on bringing out that great dictionary than on any other in the history of this country, still no one who has carefully studied this matter can defend this so-called map, showing the route of De Soto through Mississippi. A word as to Lusher's map. The copy I examined belongs to Captain J. D. Fontaine, nestor of the Pontotoc bar, who kindly lent it to E. T. Winston of Pontotoc to send to me for examination, with many injunctions for safe keeping and its safe return. From outside to outside it is 18x24 inches, of fine workmanship, is on quite thin, but good paper, folds up book-like, with extra good binding, so that it can be carried in the coat pocket. This is the inscription on it: "Map of the land ceded by the Chickasaws to the United States in 1832 and 1834 from actual survey by Henry M. Lusher, draughtsman in the office of the Surveyor General of lands in Missis. Ceded by the Chickasaws, 1835. Approved John Bell, Surveyor of land in Missis. Ceded by the Chickasaws, Benja. Reynolds, Chickasaw Agent." Beneath the above in small print there is this: "Pendleton's Lithography, Boston Eddy. delt. on stone." Of course there was the usual display of capitals, etc., but I have made a literal copy of the verbiage ; from which I think it appears that the map is as authentic and correct as one could be made in 1835. The Indians had not then left Mississippi, but were still occupying their ancestral homes. In a letter Mr. Winston called my attention to what he termed the main Chickasaw trail, a part of which is indistinctly 98 The Chickasaw Nation shown on Lusher's map, and which, coming from the south, intersected the Tombigbee on the east, where Columbus now is. Winston then quotes from Claiborne, saying that De Soto followed an Indian, trail or buffalo path some five miles up to Lincecum's shoals, just above the mouth of the Tibbee and a little below the present town of Waverly. The Tombigbee here is bifurcated by an island, the first obstruction below Butahatchie. The gravel discharged from this stream lodged against the island and rendered both channels fordable a great part of the year, and this is the only point where the Spaniards could have forded in December. It was the crossing used by the Choctaws when going to their villages and hunting grounds east of the Tombigbee. The trail struck here a stretch of prairie between Tibbee and Hanging Kettle Creeks, and crossed the present Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Lookhattan, thence a little west of the railroad by Muldon, Prairie Station and Egypt. The early settlers of this portion of Mississippi remember the well worn, beaten trail, long disused but distinctly defined, and can to this day trace it from plantation to plantation. On leaving Egypt the trail tended northwest up the ridge known as Feathers ton's Ridge, through a series of glades three or four miles west of Okolona and up the second bottom on the east side of Suquatouchee Creek. There it struck Pontotoc Ridge four miles east of the ancient Chickasaw Council House. Near this point stood the first Chickasaw town, and in the vicinity the Spaniards went into winter quarters. Winston then gives the route of De Soto as passing thence up the Pontotoc Ridge to New Albany and thence (as he thought) along the short cut to the Chickasaw Bluffs ; and this in the opinion of Mr. Winston was the route over which De Soto traveled, and discovered the great river where Memphis now is. For years he has studied this matter very carefully from every angle, and being on the ground and undertaking the topography of the country thoroughly, his opinion is entitled to great weight. 99 The Chickasaw Nation Remember, there was no Indian trail towards Tunica County, or in that direction. If the Indians, going single file, found it impracticable to have a trail through these swamps, how could De Soto expect to cut out a way for his horses, army, their bag- gage, etc.? All Indian trails wind in and out in a tortuous manner, because they knew not only the impassable, but the bad places and these they went around. Although the Pigeon Roost Road has been changed and partially straightened out, first by order of the public authorities, then by the Pigeon Roost and Chulahoma Turnpike Company, chartered October 31, 1853, when the road was rebuilt and made into a plank road, still it is today one of the crookedest roads leading from Memphis, thus bearing the unmistakable impress of its Indian origin. Why attribute to De Soto the monumental folly of refusing to travel any one of three well defined trails leading to the greatest and best known headland in all the lower Mississippi valley on the great river, and on the other hand deliberately choosing to go through the impenetrable swamps where the Indians dared not make a trail for themselves? Bear in mind also that there was high land across the river from Memphis, where there are even to this day Indian mounds, where Mound City now is, evidently named after the mounds, and from which the Indians unquestionably had trails leading northward and westward. Looking now to the three favorite narratives of Prof. Lewis, we find that they point with unerring accuracy to the short Chickasaw trail as the one used by De Soto. Biedma is commended for giving the details for directions and distances, and he says, "we remained here two months (meaning near the Chicka- saws), getting ready what were necessary of saddles, lances, and targets, and then left, taking the direction to the northwest, towards a province called Alibamo." Mark, they went northwest, which accurately described the di- rection of the Chickasaw Bluffs, and is in accord with Lusher's map. 100 The Chickasaw Nation As the expedition started in the direction we claim, the next inquiry is as to the character of the country over which it passed, upon which so much stress is laid by Professor Lewis. He says Ran j el is the most accurate of all the narrators and we will quote not in part but the exact words used by Ranjel as follows : "Saturday, the last of April, the army set out from the place of barricade and marched nine days through a deserted country and by a rough way, mountainous and swampy, until May 8, when they came to the first village of Quizquiz, etc." Mark, in the first place, that they went "by a rough way," which implies that they were traveling over a "way," which means, I think, along an Indian trail, for in common parlance the trail might very well be termed "a rough way," as no doubt it was. But the important feature is that this rough way was "mountainous and swampy." At first blush the words "moun- tainous and swampy" might seem contradictory; but when reference is had to the topography and character of the country over which the expedition actually passed, I insist no other two single words could more accurately describe the road De Soto traveled. The abrupt hills on both sides of Holly Springs, being spurs from the Tippah Highlands, even to this day rear their heads skyward, as silent witnesses or sentinels attesting the verity of Ranjel's statement when he says the country was mountainous. This no man, however learned, can deny. It is equally certain that no mountainous country could be encountered by De Soto had he turned westward on leaving where New Albany now is, as Professor Lewis says he did. Was the Professor impressed with this important fact, when, in quoting Ranjel, he omitted the word "mountainous?" But it may be asked, what of the word "swampy" used by Ranjel; and I answer it very correctly fits the river and creek bottoms over which the Chickasaw trail passed. In view of the fact that the narrative of the Gentleman of Elvas seems to be much relied upon in this connection, I will next quote from that, which is as follows: 101 The Chickasaw Nation "He accordingly set out for Quizquiz, and marched seven days through a wilderness, having many pondy places, with thick forests, fordable, however, on horseback, all to some basins or lakes that were swum." The original sentence may have been in good Spanish ; if so, the last part has not been happily translated into English. Nevertheless the import of the text is clear, and the only ques- tion is, Did parts of the trail lead over or through places as above described? Unquestionably they did. The very fact that the Chickasaws had a long trail on top of the Pontotoc Ridge going directly north near to Bolivar, Tennes- see, and turning thence abruptly west, and that they also had the intermediate trail, both of which were so roundabout, and so much further to the bluffs than the less used Chickasaw short trail, of itself is a demonstration that the Indians regarded the short trail as a swampy, boggy, and dangerous trail, and not fit for use, except in dry seasons or in emergencies. Any observant man seventy years old, who knew or passed over the river and creek bottoms on this trail, or over the inter- mediate trail in his early years, will, without hesitation, state that they were covered with thick forests, and interpersed with canebrakes, lagoons, sloughs, cypress brakes, and the like, which made them near impassable and veritable wilder- nesses. Where is the man described that will dispute these facts? As stated by E. T. Winston, the Indians knew every foot of these trails, through the bottoms especially; knew the solid ground from that which appeared solid, but in reality was a quagmire; knew the shallow water from the deep water; the hard bottom from quicksand bottom ; and knew when and where to cross the streams or lagoons, sloughs, etc., and could pass over almost dry shod where De Soto and his men, burdened with armor and baggage, and with his horses, would find an almost impassable way. Who doubts the correctness of these deductions? 102 The Chickasaw Nation View the situation from another angle. J. J. Rawlings died in Memphis in 1900, aged ninety- two years, and was then the oldest inhabitant, an honored man, and altogether a picturesque charac- ter and in the evening of life he wrote some of his reminiscences, which are preserved in pamphlet form. He was born in 1808, came to the Bluffs in 1824, before Memphis was incorporated; and says that in 1826 or 1827, he and Marcus B. Winchester (the first mayor of Memphis) and W. D. Dabney (soon to be a very prominent man) went down into Mississippi to visit the Chickasaws, and be there when the Indian agent made his dis- bursements, so they could collect what the Indians owed. After dancing all night, for more than one night, with the dark-eyed beauties of the forest, these three hardy young pioneers started home, when Rawlings relates this incident: "On nearing home we were pressing our horses to reach a house we thought was ahead; we never found it. We got lost in Cold Water Bottom, a dark and dismal place. We worried about in the dark until we found it was no use. Our horses being very tired, we stripped them and turned them loose to eat pea vines. We commenced preparing to stay in that horrible place all night. Our first effort was to get a light — no matches in those days. We had spunk and steel and with all our efforts we could never get a fire. We gave it up for a bad job and spread our saddles on the ground. Sleep was not expected. Foxes and wolves were barking all around us, owls hooting — plenty of music; that was not the worst of it, there were millions of mosquitoes to the square inch and it was as much as we could do to save our lives from the infernal pests. Next day we reached home, after a sleepless night. On looking in the glass we did not know our- selves. You could not put the point of a pin on our faces and hands where there was not a mosquito bite." And still Professor Lewis would have us believe that it was almost a picnic trip for De Soto, in 1541, to go through these swamps with his army and horsemen, without a guide, where white men never trod before, and where even the Indians did not venture, except in dry weather or in great emergencies. 103 CHAPTER VI DE SOTO AT THE CHICKASAW BLUFFS We now come to a consideration of the topography and general lay of the land at and adjacent to the Fourth Chickasaw Bluffs whereon Memphis is enthroned, and declared by some of the most eminent historians to be the place where the Mississippi River was discovered by Hernando De Soto. The point where Madison Avenue intersects Front Street is locally considered about the center of the city, though not quite midway between the north and south extremities of the bluff where it intersects the Mississippi; and, moreover, this point is only about 400 to 500 feet from the water's edge; and doubtless for these reasons it is the first point mentioned by Pashby in stating the altitude of various places in the city. The bluff rises at Madison and Front eighty-eight feet above low water; and further below, at the Indian Mounds, called Jackson Mounds, and now forming De Soto Park, the bluff is one hundred and two feet above low water. Before the advent of the white man there sprang from the tops of these bluffs a giant forest, many of the trees being over one hundred feet high, so that the tops of this great forest rose over two hundred feet above low water. To any one passing the bluffs on the river, which flows through a flat alluvial delta, this great headland could not fail to make a deep and pleasing impression. And, moreover, the bluffs were but an extension or an elbow from the Pontotoc Ridge or Tippah Highlands, on the southern projection of which the Chickasaws had their home. Wolf River rises in Tippah County, flows first northward, then westward, and enters the Mississippi at the north end of the 104 ■ * % ' w€- ,;_ r" * / ■fer^f 5- tP Vjkb^ ^ ; : 301 * ^*J^CPll H^S^^^ / J* ! '^ Y^- &&CL £"&ftfi HJI^H^^ ,; ii'."\ v ^ /*'i M| The Chickasaw Nation bluffs ; and in this connection it is well to remember that for miles up stream from its mouth an abrupt bluff rises from its eastern and southern shores. Nonconnah was first called Chickasaw Creek, and would in Europe, be called a river. With its meanders it is probably fifty miles long. Its headwaters also commence in the Tippah High- lands, but lower down in Marshall County, Mississippi; and first trend a little north of west and then westward, flowing into the Mississippi at the southern end of the Chickasaw Bluff, only about four or five miles from the mouth of Wolf River. CD. Johnson, secretary of the Cossitt Library, called to my attention a quaint small volume, entitled The Navigator, the first edition of which appeared in 1801, written by a riverman for rivermen navigating the Mississippi and some of its tributaries, and having wood cuts of the Mississippi, very creditable for that early day. In reference to the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff the author says: "Wolf (called by Hutchins), Margot River. This is a hand- some little river on the left side. The French had a fort here just below the mouth of the river, called Assumption Fort, built in the year 1736, during their wars with the Chickasaws, but in the year following a peace ensued, and the fort was demolished. A good landing may be had at Wolf River, by pull- ing over after you pass the four islands above. "Fort Pike formerly stood just below Wolf River, but a better situation was pitched upon, and a fort built two miles lower down the bluff called Fort Pickering. "It occupies the commanding ground of the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, on the left bank of the Mississippi. "The United States have a military factor here, with a few soldiers. The settlement is thin and composed of what is called the half breed, that is, a mixture of the whites and Indians, a race of men too indolent to do any permanent good either for them- selves or for society. A landing may be had a little above Fort Pickering, but it is not a very good one. "The fourth bluff affords a commanding, airy, pleasant, and extensive situation for a settlement, and the soil is remarkably fertile. Opposite the bluff or Wolf River, on the right bank of 105 The Chickasaw Nation the Mississippi, there used to stand a Spanish fort, now demol- ished. When this post was in possession of the Spaniards, the commandant had a road cut in a straight line from the mouth of Chickasaw Creek (a small creek two miles below Fort Picker- ing) to Wolf River for the purpose of taking exercise on horse- back." Thus we see the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff was a conspicuous headland, Wolf River and Nonconnah being conspicuous streams entering the river at the north and south sides of the bluff respectively. These bluffs run back forming a backbone or ridge for many miles, and constitutes the watershed between Wolf and Nonconnah, the ridge extending back to the Tippah Highlands or Pontotoc Ridge, and being an elbow or arm therefrom. I learn from J. Paul Gaines, a well known civil engineer, that this ridge is called to this day Poplar Ridge, on account of the splendid trees which abounded thereon, locally miscalled poplars, and which furnished one of the most valuable timbers on this continent. In point of fact the so-called poplar is the tulip tree. In the flowering season the tulip tree bursts radiantly into bloom, with exquisitely scented and strangely colored flowers. Having a lofty gray stem and crown of beautiful leaves the tulip tree is one of the most notable trees of our forests, and at- tains in the South a growth of great luxury. It was on this ridge that the Chickasaws sometimes traveled from their home to the Chickasaw Bluff; and which I have denominated the intermediate trail, and which crosses few, streams, and which plainly appears on Lusher's map. It is possible that De Soto came over this trail, but not probable; for I believe he traveled over the short-cut trail, already fully described. That he came over one or the other is the important consideration, and this, I believe, appears beyond a reasonable doubt. Professor Lewis wrought out an argument against the sup- position that De Soto discovered the Mississippi River on the 106 The Chickasaw Nation Chickasaw Bluffs, based mainly on alleged quotations from Garcilaso de la Vega, one purpose of which, even if not so in- tended, served the purpose to discredit that eminent historian. Later I will undertake to show that he misquotes Garcilaso, called by him the "Inca"; but at this juncture my purpose is to show that the Professor was entirely ignorant of the topography and geology of the country in question; otherwise I believe he would not have made the statements he did. Bear in mind that his friend, Dr. Rowland, very correctly points out that an accurate knowledge of the topography and geology of the country is very essential to a right understanding of the matters involved. In order to have a clear understanding of the question here at issue I will quote that part of the Professor's alleged quotation from Garcilaso in the precise words of the Professor, as follows: "Because of many streams around there, they could not use their horses." The Professor then adds: "It will readily be seen that this description does not apply to Fort Pickering." The Professor evidently places reliance in the statement attributed to Garcilaso that there were "numerous streams" adjacent to the point of discovery. That there were numerous streams all over the bluffs cannot be successfully denied. As stated, what is called Poplar Ridge is a narrow ridge of land extending from the Tippah Highlands some fifty miles west- ward, stopping abruptly at the Mississippi River, the west end of the ridge consisting of what from time immemorial has been called the Chickasaw Bluffs. What was and is the character of the soil or ground of these bluffs? It is what is called a loess for- mation, consisting of a fine siliceous loam of a pale yellow color, having in it considerable sand, almost impalpably fine. Beneath 107 The Chickasaw Nation this formation there is to be found different colored sands of varying thickness, laying in different strata, and likewise there are strata of gravel. It may be added (though not pertinent to the present dis- cussion) that some three hundred feet below the surface a thick blue clay, impervious to water, is found, which when pierced, is found to lay upon a very fine white water-bearing sand, and from this sand gushes up the inexhaustible supply of pure artesian water with which the city is supplied. With a given high, narrow ridge of ground composed as above indicated, with an annual rainfall of about fifty inches, how could it be otherwise than that this ridge would, in course of time, be furrowed with numerous streams? And with a primeval forest, cane, and underbrush springing from the soil, and over the ground decayed vegetation holding water almost like a sponge, how could it be otherwise than that a part of the rainwater would percolate the loess, and flow along lower horizontal strata of sand or gravel, finding an outlet as springs, where these strata were cut by the streams, locally called bayous? This is precisely what took place. It would be a great mistake to suppose, as apparently as- sumed by Professor Lewis, that the lay of the land at the top of the bluffs and backwards towards the east was a flat expanse, for to the contrary it was much broken by numerous small streams. Even present appearances show this in part, but we must remember that the most of these small streams, hills, and hollows have been obliterated in the building of the city. Thus, my office is in the Cotton Exchange Building, a twenty-story sky- scraper, fronting Madison, Second, and South Court Streets opposite Court Square. No one now would ever suppose that formerly a small stream flowed where it now stands; and yet, when some years since the foundations of this building were laid, some bridge timbers, roots of trees, and the bed of a small stream were found twenty feet below the surface. 108 The Chickasaw Nation Very little of the storm water ran or runs now westward from the bluff into the river, because on an average not exceeding one 1,000 feet from the water's edge, the surface slopes eastward, carrying the water into Bayou Gayoso, which is about one- quarter of a mile from the river going east on Madison, the bed of the bayou being about forty feet lower than the bluff at Madison and Front. The bluffs were crisscrossed by numerous streams, the chief one being Bayou Gayoso, some five and a half miles long, run- ning in a main north by west direction, emptying into Wolf River about 2,500 feet from its junction with the Mississippi, and with its east and west forks, the Little Betty and De Soto, drains the southern and central divisions of the present city. The main affluent of Bayou Gayoso is Quimby Bayou, something less than four and a half miles long from its head to where it empties into Bayou Gayoso, and with its tributaries drains the northern part of the city. Probably there is not one person in ten thousand in Memphis today who is aware of the fact that as late as 1831 Bayou Gayoso spread out into a large lake just north of the old Louisville & Nashville depot adjacent to Second Street; still such was the case, and it was known as Catfish Bay, because of the abundance of fish, and especially catfish, to be found in its waters. Flat boats, fishing house boats and other water craft in the early days came from the Mississippi up Wolf and then into Gayoso for good fish and safe anchorage in Catfish Bay ; and many fishermen built little shanties on the shores of this bay. A movement was set on foot to clear them away, as unsightly and a nuisance, which fired the wrath of these Catfish Bay inhabitants. Old Ike Rawlings was considered a fixture in the mayor's chair and advocated the removal, but a young lawyer lately from Kentucky, named Seth Wheatley, took up the cudgel for Catfish Bay and its inhabitants and defeated Rawlings for mayor in 1 83 1. The end of Catfish Bay is thus set forth by Keating (p. 184): 109 The Chickasaw Nation "Two nights after Wheatley's election as mayor, a perfect sluice of tan-ooze and filth, from Carr's tannery, was sent into the bayou, and thus found its way to the bay; the waters of which were so polluted that the fish were killed and the water could no longer be used for any domestic service. Great in- dignation followed, much of it expressed in the adjectives and expletives usual to the orators of Pinch, but Catfish Bay was ruined, and the people quickly left it and its shores. Some of the boats were floated out, others were broken up, and the shanties were taken down and moved to other localities. The merchants and citizens were very liberal, and the change was effected in a very short time and at last with the best of feeling. After a few days all were quieted down, and the names Catfish Bay and Pinch Gut were dropped." Probably there are not a half dozen people in Memphis who know that the site of Carr's Tannery referred to was on a large bayou in the present Southern Railroad yards between Madison and Adams Avenues, bounded on the west by Lauderdale, and that this large bayou flows now through brick culverts under the surface since the building of the first railroad into Memphis in 1857. Speaking of fish it may be mentioned that in the early days numerous cool springs were dotted all along the course of these bayous, which cut deep down into the soil so that there was cool running water in the bayous all the year round. The veteran and retired banker, Miles S. Buckingham, in his reminiscent moods, is fond of telling how in early days, when the dogwoods were in blossom, he would take his hook and line any day and bring home a long string of the finest game fish, caught from the cool waters of the bayou south of Vance Avenue. What a beautiful, nay, was not the Chickasaw Bluff country an ideal place for a home of the children of the forest? Might we not expect permanent Indian villages on the bluffs proper and the adjacent country? 110 The Chickasaw Nation But we are not entirely left to conjecture as to the impres- sion which the Chickasaw Bluffs and the surrounding country would naturally make upon any stranger who first looked upon its primeval beauty. After the foregoing was written and printed, I read for the first time the History of Louisiana by Monsieur Le Parge Du- Pratz, first published in 1858. Not long after 1720 DuPratz made a trip from his home, then at Natchez, to the Chickasaw country, the first part of the journey being by land and the last part by water up the Mississippi, landing at the Chickasaw "Cliffs." The place of landing is not only described but also shown upon a map attached to the history, on which it is stated that it was made by the author in 1757, the map being an unusually fair representation of the adjacent country, and particularly shows the high ground bordering the river, thus very clearly and accurately representing the Chickasaw Bluffs, with the words "The Chickasaw Cliffs" printed opposite. After landing at the bluffs DuPratz states that they hid their boats, making an excursion into the adjacent country, where they found numbers of buffaloes, elk, deer, and other game, and likewise wolves, tigers, and catamounts, and describing it as a charming country. On page 150 he says: "I could have wished to end my days in these charming solitudes, at a distance from the tumultuous hurry of the world, far from the pinching gripe of avarice and deceit. There it is, said I to myself, one relished a thousand innocent delights, and which are repeated with satisfaction ever new. It is there one lives exempt from the assaults of censure, detraction, and cal- umny. In those delightsome meadows, which often extend far out of sight, and where we see so many different species of animals, there it is we have occasion to admire the beneficence of the Creator. To conclude, there it is that, at the gentle purling of a pure and living water, and enchanted with the concerts of birds, which fill the neighbouring thickets, we may agreeably contemplate the wonders of nature, and examine them all at our leisure." Ill The Chickasaw Nation As we have seen, the old Chickasaw trail came from the southeast after crossing Nonconnah and along the line of the present Pigeon Roost Road, then passed up Brown's Hill, thus ab- ruptly ascending from the low to high land ; and in a short distance there commences a beautiful expanse of almost level country, some six or seven miles from the courthouse in Memphis. In my opinion this was the vicinity of Quizquiz, the first village reached by De Soto near the great river. It must not be supposed, however, that Poplar Ridge afforded the only country adapted to permanent villages for the Indians. Quite to the contrary, the country north of Wolf River and south of Nonconnah furnished ideal conditions for permanent villages for the Indians; and, moreover, at one time how remote no one knows, they lived in the vicinity of the present Capleville, Tennessee, some twelve miles from Memphis, where there were in early days abundant springs, but now, alas! the most of them are gone, or else so shrunken as to be scarce shadows of their former proportions. Nearly due east of the Ila Douglass homestead, say eleven miles from Memphis and one mile from the Pigeon Roost Road, and across Little Nonconnah Creek, there is to this day in a culti- vated field, the remnants of a salt lick, covering about one-fourth of an acre of ground ; a geologic feature of the country as rare as it was valuable to the Indians. About a mile in a southeasterly direction from the lick there were in my boyhood days two old Indian fields surrounded by dense forests, about one-quarter of a mile apart. It was the custom of the Chickasaws to live apart to a large extent, doubtless being taught by experience that this contributed to their good health and general well being. One of these Indian fields is on the estate of my late sister, Mrs. Mary Lou Malone Ellis. About one mile west of the Pigeon Roost Road and some two miles west of the salt lick, there is upon the estate of the late George R. Tuggle, a considerable Indian mound, formerly having large trees standing thereon. These trees have been cut long gince, 112 The Chickasaw Nation and the adjacent ground put in cultivation. Near this mound and on top of a high ridge there were two pondy places, such as re- ferred to by the Gentleman of Elvas. When I was a boy, these pondy places were of considerable extent; in fact, were miniature lakes, having clear water in them the year round, and in winter I have often seen them covered with wild ducks and other wild fowls. One of them has been drained for agricultural purposes, and the other is much shrunken in size. George M. Douglass owns the property on which the salt lick can now be seen. His parents were among the early settlers, he now being on the shady side of seventy, but hale and hearty. He well remembers being shown when a boy a large tree, with low, heavy limbs, in which he was told the Indians sought a perch from which they could easily kill deer and other game (with their bows and arrows) which came to the lick for salt. Milton Blocker was born and has lived all his life at the pretty little village of Olive Branch, Mississippi, some seven miles southeast of the salt lick referred to, he now also being on the shady side of seventy, but very active and alert for his years. His father and mother settled on a large estate while the Indians were still in Mississippi, a part of which he now owns. He readily recalls hearing his mother, who lived to an old age, speak of the salt lick referred to, and its great value to the Indians, in drawing to it the abundant game of the country from far and near. As showing the uses to which the Indians put these rare salt licks, and the dangers attendant thereon, I will here insert an excerpt from Cushman (pages 486, 487) : "When watching at a deer lick at night by the light of the full-orbed moon, in which the writer has indulged years ago in the Mississippi forests then untouched by the ax, the hunter found as his rival in the same sport, the panther or the cata- mount, sometimes both; and whose presence was made known by the moving shadow cast upon the ground by moonlight, as he was preparing to leap from his perch upon a deer that had, 113 The Chickasaw Nation unconscious of danger, walked into the lick. An incident of this kind happened to a hunter in Oktibbihaw County, Mississippi, shortly after the exodus of the Choctaws. He had found a deer lick in Catarpo (corruption of the Choctaw word Katapah, stopped; referring to the obstructions in the creek by drifts) swamps, which was much frequented by the deer. He built a scaffold fifteen or twenty feet high on the edge of a lick, and on a beautiful night of the full moon, shortly after sundown, took his seat thereon. About ten o'clock at night a deer noiselessly entered the lick a few rods distant from his place of concealment, and began licking the salty earth; he was just in the act of shooting it, when his attention was attracted from the deer to a moving shadow upon the ground between him and the deer; he at once looked up to ascertain who his neighbor was, and was not a little surprised to see a huge panther standing on a projecting limb of a tree that reached nearly over and just behind him, and pre- paring to spring upon the unsuspecting deer. He thought no more of the deer, and gave his undivided attention to his rival, who had unceremoniously and clandestinely taken his seat a little higher and nearly over his head, without so much as say- ing 'by your leave.' Not being very fastidious just then, he quietly yielded the right of precedence to his fellow hunter above in all things pertaining to the deer quietly licking the salty earth below. For several minutes he gazed upon the huge beast as it maneuvered upon the limb, seemingly doubtful as to making a successful spring. Finally the panther made a tre- mendous leap from the limb, passing almost directly over the hunter's head, and lit directly upon the deer's back. The bleat- ing of the helpless deer momentarily broke the stillness of the forest, and then all was hushed. The panther pulled his victim to the outer edge of the lick, stood a moment, and then with mighty bounds disappeared in the surrounding forests. During all this the hunter sat quietly upon his perch, cogitating over the novel scene. But his reveries were suddenly interrupted by a wild and terrible yell, seemingly half human and half beast, fearful enough to awaken all the denizens of the forest for miles away; then came an immediate response from a distant point in the swamp. That was enough to bring the hunter's cogitations to a fixed determination, which was clearly manifested by the agility displayed in descending the scaffold, and the schedule time on which he ran towards home, leaving the two panthers 114 The Chickasaw Nation to enjoy their unenvied supper of venison in their native woods undisturbed. Often the hunter found the panther had preceded him at the deer licks; in all such cases, having previously resolved never to dispute precedency with any gentleman of that family, he quietly left him to the undisputed possession of the chance of venison for that night, particularly." As might well be supposed, the Chickasaw Indians well knew and appreciated the great value of salt licks; and in the ttreaty by which they ceded their possessions in West Tennessee, vhey especially reserved for their own use, and the emoluments expected therefrom, a considerable salt lick near Paris, Ten- nessee; out of which quite a scandal grew up and was fully aired in heated debates in Congress between the most eminent con- gressmen of that day. It was charged that certain politicians of high and low degree, closely connected with President Jackson, had taken advantage of their official positions to exploit and develop these salt mines for their own account; for salt wells were sunk there and considerable salt turned out in the early days, but not sufficiently abundant to justify continued operations. In Volume 9, page 252, of the American (Tennessee) His- torical Magazine, under date of July, 1904, there is a very interesting article by the late Governor James D. Porter, giving a good account of this salt formation, and the heated con- troversy to which the Chickasaw treaty in reference thereto gave rise. No one can doubt that at some former prehistoric period Indians had a permanent home near Capleville; but who the Indians were, or when they lived there, will probably remain a shrouded mystery, though the probability is they were Chickasaws. The Location of Qulzquiz— What was the site of Quizquiz, the first Indian village taken by the De Soto expedition, just before the discovery of 115 The Chickasaw Nation the Mississippi? This has to me been an interesting question, and I will now state my conclusions in reference thereto. It will aid the reader to turn back to the fifth chapter, in which appears verbatim the accounts given by the three narra- tives which have received the commendation of Professor Lewis and Dr. Rowland. No two of them agree as to the details, nor does the narrative of Garcilaso agree in its details with the other three. This is not surprising for obvious reasons. On the other hand, the main, or determinative, facts can be grasped from a consideration of the three narratives taken together and construed as one whole. From these it appears that the approach to the river was quite gradual; and that the expedition first came to a village called Quizquiz, then to another not named, and then to a third, where "they saw the great river"; that is, the Mississippi. Rodrigo Ranjel is much commended for his accuracy of state- ments, and as he more succinctly and clearly states the details connected with the discovery of the river, it is here repeated for convenience : "Saturday, the last of April, the army set out from the place of the barricade and marched nine days through a deserted country, and by a rough way, mountainous and swampy, until May 8, when they came to the first village of Quizquiz, which they took by assault and captured much people and clothes; but the governor promptly restored them to liberty and had everything restored to them for fear of war, although that was not enough to make friends of these Indians. A league beyond this village they came upon another with abundance of corn, and soon again after another league, upon another, likewise amply provisioned. There they saw the great river." How near the last village was to the river is not stated; but presumptively it was not far. It appears quite certain that Quizquiz was at least two leagues from the river; and while we understand that a league is 116 The Chickasaw Nation considered in this country to be three English miles, the real in- quiry is what was the length of a Spanish league ; for presumably the narrators had reference to the Spanish league. The Century Dictionary gives the Spanish league as 4.214 miles, and the Spanish judicial league as being 2.634 miles long. Which kind of the two Spanish leagues the narrators had in mind we have no means to determine; but I think we may safely as- sume that the two leagues which lay between Quizquiz and the river covered a space of from six to eight miles; and following the ancient Chickasaw trace, which is now the Pigeon Roost Road, Quizquiz was somewhere not far from Brown's Hill, named for Dr. Robert Frierson Brown, a pioneer land owner in that vicinity and an eminent physician. From Brown's Hill on to the old Bethel place, about or a little over a mile, there is an unusually level expanse of country, with barely enough inclination to drain the waters falling there- on; no doubt its beauty attracted the attention of P. C. Bethel, a man of great wealth, who built a palatial residence there before the Civil War, and though for over a generation it has been sadly neglected, it still rears its lofty roof towards the sky. As usual, Biedma is very laconic, saying that "the town (Quizquiz) was near the banks of the River Espiritu Santo"; that is, the river of the Holy Ghost, the name given it by De Soto. It is manifest that the word near, as used here, has no definite significance; but under the surrounding circumstances I think it may safely be said that at a distance of from six to eight miles, the town may have been very properly described as being near the great river. The Gentleman of Elvas, after mentioning the capture of Quizquiz, and the negotiations and circumstances attendant thereon, only mentions one and not two towns visited before reaching the Mississippi, but there is no real conflict here between him and Ranjel, for the supposition is that he omitted to mention the other town, either by inadvertence or because it was deemed an unnecessary detail. He does say, however, 117 The Chickasaw Nation "there was little maize in the place, and the governor moved to another town, half a league from the great river (meaning the Mississippi), where it was found in sufficiency." This was doubtless the third village mentioned by Ranjel, who did not state its distance from the river. It would seem therefore, that Quizquiz was approximately two and one-half leagues from the Mississippi. De Soto's Camp Near a River Bank- There are some other details which dovetail into our in- sistence that the Mississippi was discovered on these bluffs, to which no reference is made by those who deny the correctness of our conclusions. All the narratives agree that the Spaniards came upon the Indians suddenly, and Biedma says the men were away from the village working in the maize fields, and we know that at that time of the year the young corn must have been well advanced, though it was before roasting ears were ready for the table. However, in the various villages there was plenty of maize, that is, old corn, both for the little army and all the horses of De Soto. This shows a fruitful country, sufficient and more than sufficient to supply the permanent Indian villages; in fact the very best farming lands stretched out in many directions far beyond the necessities of the Indians. Why should we not expect permanent Indian villages in this stretch of the country so per- fectly adapted to their comfort and well being? De Soto captured all the women in Quizquiz, numbering, according to Biedma, 300, and among these was the mother of the cacique; and De Soto held these as hostages, sending word to the chief by one of the captives to come and he would turn his mother and the captives over to him, but the wily Indian evi- dently scented treachery, and declined the invitation. The after developments are not stated with clearness as to time or the exact place; nor is it anywhere stated what place De Soto pitched camp after taking into custody all the people in 118 The Chickasaw Nation Quizquiz. The cacique very properly demanded the uncon- ditional release of the captives, to which De Soto finally agreed, because his men had arrived weak and weary for the want of maize, and his horses were also lean. How long these negotiations were pending does not appear, but the probability is they covered at least one or two whole days. After stating these ne- gotiations, Elvas adds: "The next day, while he was hoping to see the chief, many Indians came, with bows and arrows, to set upon the Christians, when he commanded that all the armed horsemen should be mounted and in readiness. Finding them prepared, the Indians stopped at the distance of a crossbow-shot from where the governor was, near a river bank, where, after remaining quietly half an hour, six chiefs arrived at the camp," etc. It is evident that De Soto had drawn up his cavalry at his camp near a precipitous bank, in order to protect his rear. It is not said that he was near a river, but "near a river bank," from which expression I am inclined to the opinion that De Soto had pitched his camp upon the brow of Brown's Hill, or in that vicinity, where the descent from the high to the low ground was sufficiently abrupt as to afford protection to his rear, and un- questionably such conditions then prevailed, though much changed since then by the effacing ringer of the white man, of time, and the elements. If it be said Nonconnah is not a river, then my answer is that it all depends on the opinion of the person writing the nar- rative as to what constitutes a river. Usually the word river is understood to mean a considerable body of water flowing in a channel with a certain definite course, and with a perceptible current throughout the year. At that time Nonconnah unques- tionably came up to this definition of a river. But it is well known that in arid states like southern California and southern Texas, and doubtless in the arid portions of Spain, many streams which have no current for months at a time are called rivers. 119 The Chickasaw Nation It is perfectly possible that in the time of De Soto, now near 400 years ago, Nonconnah may have run at the foot of Brown's Hill, for the precipitous character of the hill or bluff indicates that anciently the stream washed its base, and such streams flowing through alluvial soil often change their courses. Today Nonconnah bottom proper is one mile wide, and going south after emerging from the bottom proper there is a low expanse over a mile long that must have abounded in pondy places and thickets, and must have been extremely bad to cross in the days of De Soto. Evidently Nonconnah bottom formed to some extent a natural barrier and protection to the Indians living on the Chickasaw Bluffs at that time, from incursions coming from the south . The narratives all agree that there were no natives then living in the country traveled over by the expedition, between Alibamo and Quizquiz, because of a war between the Indians. All agree that when the expedition appeared at Quizquiz, the Indians were taken by great surprise, the men being at work in the maize fields. If De Soto came over the short-cut or direct trail, his sudden ascent from Nonconnah bottoms up and upon high land, sub- sequently called Brown's Hill, with the seizure of all the inhabi- tants of the first village he reached, very naturally took the In- dians by complete surprise. It could not be otherwise. The conditions of the surrounding country demonstrated how it was the natural result for the Indians to be taken by surprise; thus dovetailing into the details of the story as given by the three narratives. If I was inclined to be dogmatic, I might here enter my ipse dixit, but I leave that course for others more learned, leaving the reader to draw his own conclusions. While I have stated my opinion as to the locality of De Soto's first camp after seizing all the inhabitants of Quizquiz, I am by no means dogmatically wedded to that opinion. However, there are certain main facts which loom up so plainly that they can not be mistaken. 120 The Chickasaw Nation (i) De Soto suddenly appeared and by surprise seized all the inhabitants of Quizquiz, including the mother of the cacique or chief, and this carried consternation to the Indians and called for a rescue. (2) De Soto, apprehending an attack, pitched his camp near a river-bank, and drew up in battle array all his cavalry, knowing that their appearance usually struck terror to the savages, who knew nothing of horses, and both men and horses being encased in armor, gave them the appearance of supernatural monsters, something on the order of the fabled centaurs of the ancient Greeks. This array had the desired effect, for, instead of fighting, the Indians, through the six chiefs sent to De Soto's camp, effected a release of all their people and agreed to supply the Spaniards with provisions. Thus hostilities were averted. (3) After all this had transpired, the Gentleman of Elvas says: "There was little maize in the place, and the governor moved to another town, half a league from the great river, where it was found in sufficiency. He went to look at the river, and saw that near it there was much timber of which piraguas might be made, and a good situation in which the camp might be placed, He directly moved, built houses, and settled on a plain a crossbow- shot from the water, bringing together there all the maize of the towns behind, that at once they might go to work and cut down trees for sawing out planks to build barges." (4) It thus clearly appears that after the first camp on the river bank, De Soto moved to another town half a league from his previous camp; and from this second camp he went and for the first time looked upon the Mississippi, after which he pitched his third or last camp within bow-shot of the water, and began building boats to cross the river. That De Soto pitched his first camp for defensive purposes "near a river-bank," is undoubtedly true. It is equally true that if he did not pitch that camp at or near the bluffs in the 121 The Chickasaw Nation vicinity of Brown's Hill, then the river banks of Wolf River were both sufficiently high and precipitous to furnish protection to the camp and could readily be reached by reconnoitering cavalry in less than an hour from Brown's Hill. It thus appears that there is not a single detail in the three narratives, that is not accounted for and in complete accord with the physical appearances or topographical features of the country at the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff. Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca— It will be noted that I have referred only to the three nar- ratives upon which Professor Lewis and Dr. Rowland have placed the seal of their approval, and I might safely leave the matter here. The learned historians, knowing full well that if the work of Garcilaso de la Vega is considered, they would not have the pretense of a defense for their Tunica theory, affect to discredit his narrative, and, not satisfied with this, misquote what he said in an important particular. Both from inclination and in justice to the truth of history I propose to look a little more deeply into the matter. If it be said that this is wandering somewhat from a sketch of the Chickasaws, I answer that the name and fame of the Chickasaws are wrapped up with that of De Soto and the dis- covery of the great river; and, moreover, that I am writing this as much for my own diversion as for any other purpose; sup- posing that it will be of more interest to my immediate family and personal friends than to the public at large. In the preface to his book, Conquest of Florida, brought out in 1 85 1, Theodore Irving (the nephew of Washington Irving) said: "Garcilaso de la Vega was a man of rank and honor. He was descended from an ancient Spanish stock by the father's side, while by the mother's he was of the lofty Peruvian line of 122 The Chickasaw Nation the Incas. His narrative was originally taken down by himself from the lips of a friend, a cavalier of worth and respectability, who had been an officer under De Soto, and for whose probity we have the word of the Inca as a guarantee. It was authenticated and enriched by the written journals or memoranda of two soldiers who had served in the expedition. He had the testi- mony, therefore, of three eye-witnesses. The Portuguese narra- tive, on the other hand, is the evidence of merely a single eye- witness, who gives himself out as a cavalier, or gentleman; but for this we have merely his own word, and he is anonymous. There is nothing intrinsic in his work that should entitle it to the exclusive belief that has been claimed for it. It agrees with the narrative of the Inca, as to the leading facts which form the framework of the story; it differs from it occasionally, as to the plans and view of Hernando de Soto; but here the Inca is most to be depended upon — the Spanish cavalier from whom he de- rived his principal information being more likely to be admitted to the intimate councils of his commander than one of a different nation, and being free from the tinge of national jealousy which may have influenced the statements of the Portuguese. "The narrative of the Portuguese is more meagre and concise than that of Garcilaso, omitting a thousand interesting anecdotes and personal adventures; but this does not increase its credibility. A multitude of facts, gathered and gleaned from three different persons, may easily have escaped the knowledge, or failed to excite the attention, of a solitary individual. These anecdotes are not the less credible because they were striking and extraordi- nary; the whole expedition was daring and extravagant, and those concerned in it men who delighted in adventure and ex- ploit." It may be added that the authors of the three narratives referred to are wholly unknown, except through their respective narratives; while Garcilaso was one of the most distinguished authors of his age, dying in 1616, the same year Shakespeare died in England, and his countryman, Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, died in Spain ; Garcilaso being a worthy contemporary of those two immortals in the literature of the world. His history of Peru is declared by a competent authority to be 123 The Chickasaw Nation "A source from which all subsequent writers on the subject have largely drawn, and still continues to be one of the chief authorities on ancient Peru." While he is chiefly remembered through this history, he was the author of other books which passed through various editions, some being translated into French and English; and as late as 1800, or nearly 200 years after his death, an edition of his works, in seventeen volumes, was brought out in Madrid. He was admired by his countrymen as a man of piety, virtue, modesty, and of devotion to letters, and held in the highest esteem as a historian. He was buried in the Cathedral of Cordova in one of the chapels called Garcilaso in his honor; where monumental inscriptions on each side of the altar record his valor (for he was at one time a gallant soldier), his virtues, and his literary merits. And this is the author whose narrative is rejected, admittedly superior to all the others in literary style, and the most famous; its rejection being upon the charge that it is spurious; that this good and distinguished man, without any motive therefor, palmed off a gigantic literary fraud upon the world ! Garcilaso realized that absolute accuracy in all its details was impossible under the circumstances, and Irving quotes him assaying: "I cannot hold myself responsible for the accuracy of the distances I give, for although I have spared no exertions, and have used all the diligence to arrive at the truth, yet I have been unavoidably compelled to leave much to conjecture. The Spaniards had no instruments with them by which they could compute distances; their main object was to conquer the country, and seek for silver and gold ; consequently, they gave themselves little trouble to note the route." 124 The Chickasaw Nation Nor is it a strange thing that Garcilaso should "have set down," as it was then phrased, the story of the three members of the De Soto expedition, when we recall the almost universal illiteracy of the times, as well as the custom for a man of some literary attainments to write the adventures of those who were unable to perform that service for themselves. There was then, as there are now in illiterate countries, many professional letter- writers, all of which is very natural when we recall the conditions which led to such customs, long since without any existence in highly developed countries. It was also a strange custom of those times for authors to withhold their identity; as witness the fact that no one to this day knows who was the author of the narrative of "The Gentle- man of Elvas" ; on account of which some say it should be rejected ; but when we consider the customs of those days, as well as the internal evidence in the narrative, its rejection would be an act of folly. I will now reproduce the narrative of Garcilaso as it appears in Young's History of Memphis, beginning on page 22, where we read that the account there appearing is from the French, con- tained in Richlet's version of Garcilaso, brought out in 1731. Robert B. Goodwin, a very accurate and scholarly member of the Memphis bar, made the translation for Judge Young, and kindly looked over and confirmed his translation at my request; and I have every reason to believe it is entirely correct, and it is here given. The Account of Garcilaso de la Vega— "The Spaniards in leaving Alibamo marched across a waste country, bearing always towards the north in order to get further and further away from the sea, and at the end of three days they came in view of the capital of Chisca, which bears the name of its province and of its ruler. This town is situated near a river which the Indians called Chucagua, the largest of all those encountered by our people in Florida. The inhabitants of Chisca, unaware of the coming of the troops, by reason of the war which 125 The Chickasaw Nation they were waging with their neighbors, were taken by surprise. The Spaniards plundered them and took several of them prison- ers. The rest of them fled, some into a forest between the village and the river, and others to the house of the cacique, which stood upon a high mound commanding a view of the whole place. The cacique was old, and then sick upon his bed, in a condition of great weakness. He was of such small stature and of such meagre visage that in that country the like had never been seen. Nevertheless, at the sound of the alarm and being sur- prised that his subjects were being plundered and being taken prisoners, he arose, walked out of his chamber with a battle axe in his hand and made the threat that he would slay all who might enter his lands without his leave. But as he was about to go forth from his house to confront the Spaniards, the women of his household, aided by some of his subjects who had made their escape from the Spaniards, restrained him. With tears in their eyes they reminded him of the fact that he was feeble, without men at arms, his vassals in disorder, and not in condition for fighting and that those with whom he had to do were vigorous, well disciplined, great in number and, for the most part, mounted upon beasts of such speed that none could ever escape them. "That it was necessary then to wait a favorable occasion for their revenge and to deceive their enemies in the meantime by fair appearances of friendship, thus preventing the destruction of himself and his subjects. 1 'These considerations caused Chisca to pause, but he was so chagrined by the injury which the Spaniards had done him, that, instead of being willing to listen to the envoys of the general in their demands for peace, he declared war upon them, adding that he hoped within a short while to cut the throat of their captain and all those with him. "De Soto, however, was not astonished at this, but sent others and they made excuses for the disorder created upon their arrival, and repeated the demand for peace. "For it was clear to De Soto that his men were discouraged on account of the constant skirmishing, and were encumbered with sick men and sick horses; that in less than six hours there had come to the side of the cacique not less than four thousand men, quite well equipped ; that in all probability he would get together a very much larger number; besides, that the lay of the land was very favorable to the Indians, and very unfavorable to the Spaniards, 126 The Chickasaw Nation on account of the thicket surrounding the town, which would make it impossible to use his cavalry; that finally, instead of making progress by fighting, the Spaniards were working their own destruction from day to day. These were the considerations which induced the general to offer peace. "But the larger part of the Indians who were assembled to deliberate upon the subject had quite contrary views. Some were for war, believing that to be the only means of recovering their goods and delivering their companions from the power of the Spaniards. They declared that there need be no fear of such people; that such earnest demands for peace as the Spaniards made afforded certain proof of their cowardice; finally, that it was fitting to apprise them of the courage of those whom they had just attacked by giving battle in turn, to the end that no stranger in future would have the temerity to enter their domain. But the other side contended that peace was their only means of getting back their property and their imprisoned countrymen ; that if there should be a battle, their misery would only be in- creased by reason of fire and the loss of their crops (which were still unharvested), resulting in ruin to the entire province and the death of many of their people. "For they said inasmuch as their enemies had come as far as their country, through so many trials and perils and through so many fierce tribes, their courage could not be fairly doubted. "Thus they said without any other proofs, peace ought to be made, and that if they were afterwards dissatisfied, they could break the truce to a much better advantage than they could on that day make war. This opinion prevailed and the cacique, dissembling his resentment, asked the envoys what they thought to gain by peace, which they seemed to desire so much. They answered, their lodging in the town, together with supplies for passing on. Chisca agreed to all on condition that they should set at liberty those of his subjects whom the Spaniards held prisoners, return all the goods that they had seized, and not enter into his house; and he warned them that the only alter- native would be war of extermination. "The Spaniards accepted peace on these conditions and released the subjects of Chisca, for they had no lack of Indian servants, and returned all the booty — consisting only of some sorry deerskins and clothing of small value. Thereupon the inhabitants abandoned the town with the supplies which they 127 The Chickasaw Nation had and the Spaniards remained six days, treating their sick. On the last day De Soto got leave from Chisca to visit him in his house, and after he had thanked him for the favor done his troops, he withdrew, proceeding the next day upon his journey of discovery." The italics are mine, and designed primarily to call attention to two matters which attest manifest errors on the part of the learned historians in question. (i) It will be recalled that Professor Lewis stated that after the expedition left the Chickasaw country, it turned west, not only without any support in any narrative therefor but in direct contradiction to Biedma, who says it went to the northwest. And now we see that Garcilaso states the course as "bearing always towards the north (not due north), in order to get further and further away from the sea." (2) It will be recalled also that the Professor quotes Garcilaso as saying that De Soto could not use his cavalry — "because of the many streams around there, they could not use their horses"; whereas we now see that what he really said was: "Besides, that the lay of the land was very favorable to the Indians, and very unfavorable to the Spaniards, on account of the thicket surrounding the town, which would make it impossible to use his cavalry." As no one visited the Mississippi River after the De Soto expedition, for a period of 132 years, how else was it possible for Garcilaso to obtain the information that a mound was located on the Mississippi where its discovery was made, except through members of that expedition? To assume that his narrative was a fiction necessarily concedes also that the author had more than a prophetic vision, or a prescience unknown to the children of men. It is not strange, therefore, that the ablest historians and the public at large have long since accepted the Fourth Chicka- 128 The Chickasaw Nation saw Bluff as the point of the discovery of the great Mississippi River. De Soto at the Mississippi— "High on a bluff they stood ; anear its base The Mississippi rolled its mighty flood. The lordly river, half a league in breadth, And flowing gently, parted in two streams Around a verdant island to the south. Titanic in his grandeur, yet serene And placid with a godlike majesty, The King of Rivers to the Christians' hearts Brought admiration, awe, and reverence. "De Soto viewed with fascinated eyes The scene before him. Into his troubled soul There came, he knew not why, a holy calm ; A deep yet tranquil joy surged through his heart, As with a great thanksgiving hymn to God. Faint in his ears, a whisper from afar Assured him that this river with his name Would be entwined forever; that this stream, More stately than the Danube or the Nile, Would be the artery, in a distant age, To some illustrious empire, more august Than that which centered on the Tiber's shore. Here would be giant cities, splendid halls, The homes of Commerce, Learning, Wealth, and Power. Here Art and Science would be honored ; here Would be the haunts of Story and of Song — Renowned in lays of poets yet to be, — Surpassing in romantic legendry The dome-crowned Arno or the vine-clad Rhine. He called it The River of the Holy Ghost. Long after all his men had sought the camp, Intent on little tasks that closed their day, De Soto, silent, mused upon the banks Of the Great River, that, with sacrifice Of toils and tears, his prowess now had won. Recumbent in a dim, secluded spot, 129 The Chickasaw Nation As in a sanctuary, he was lulled Into benign repose. Far to the west, The setting sun in benediction hung, And burnished heaving waves with melted gold ; Above the vast, deep western wilderness He paused, then sank, and left the quiet world To rest, to meditation and to sleep. The brilliant gold of sunset deepened slow To orange ; then the fragile floating clouds Took chastened tints of faded rose and pearl. The chirp of crickets beat with drowsy notes ; The cadence of cicadas, like a dirge, Sighed through the unillumined forest gloom ; The requiems of lone thrushes pined and yearned At rustic altars of umbrageous woods, — Soft evensongs at gentle evenfall For euthanasia of departing day. Through haunts sequestered and forsaken stole The sundown shadows; from its rich maroon To ashen twilight waned the afterglow. Soon melancholy purple dimmed the skies, And through the vesper gloaming, tremulous, The fair-faced, timid stars came one by one. The gray-winged gulls wheeled slowly, homewardbound. Then solemn Nightfall, like a sibyl, came, And in one great libation, from her urn Outgushed the darkness over earth and heaven ; But still De Soto mused beside the stream, Immovable — in silence, — lost in thought." Walter M alone, In Hernando De Soto. De Soto Crosses the Mississippi— It will be recalled that in the fifth chapter I referred to the fact that after Professor Lewis had, in his imagination, landed De Soto in the swamps of Arkansas, opposite some imaginary point in Tunica County, Mississippi, he suggested that some prehistoric earthquake may have changed the face of the earth in that vicinity. 130 The Chickasaw Nation This suggestion was the offspring of necessity, for it evidences the fact that the Professor must have realized all too well that there was not a single physical feature of that country which would dovetail with any one of the three narratives to which he gives his allegiance. Hence an appeal to some supposed or imag- inary cataclysm in nature to supply the want of solid facts; an appeal which makes it difficult to suppress a smile of incredulity. But, however this may be, one who merely searches for the real place at which the Mississippi was discovered by De Soto has no need to appeal to the miraculous, when he reads the three narratives of those who are acclaimed as credible witnesses, to see.and understand that the discovery was made where Memphis is now enthroned. What are the undisputed facts? We have seen that the eastern shores of the river where the discovery was made sustained a teeming population of aborigines, and that the physical features of the Chickasaw Bluffs, with its splendid hinterland, afforded almost an earthly paradise or happy hunting grounds for the red children of the forest. And so, likewise, the opposite or western shores of the Mississippi supported an equally large aboriginal population, and we have only to consider the physical features of the western hinterland to observe how well it fits in with the three narratives referred to. Biedma says (p. 26) : "On the other shore we saw numbers of people collected to oppose our landing, who had many canoes. We set about building four large piraguas, each capable of taking sixty or seventy men and five or six horses. We were engaged in this work twenty- seven or twenty-eight days. During this time, the Indians every day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, would get into two hundred and fifty very large canoes they had, well shielded, and come near the shores on which we were; with loud cries they would exhaust their arrows upon us, and then return to the other bank." Ranjel (page 137) estimated the number of Indians on the opposite shore to oppose the passage at seven thousand, and that 131 The Chickasaw Nation all of them had shields made of canes joined, so strong and closely interwoven with such thread that a cross-bow could hardly pierce them. The Gentleman of Elvas says (page 113) that the barge in which the cacique came had an awning at the poop under which he sat; and there from under the canopy where the chief man was the course was directed and orders issued to the rest. They were painted with ochre, wearing great bunches of white and other plumes of many colors, having feathered shields in their hands, with which they sheltered the oarsmen on either side, the warriors standing erect from bow to stern, holding bows and arrows. He added they were fine looking men, very large and well formed ; and what with the awnings, the plumes, and the shields, the pennons, and the number of the people in the fleet, it ap- peared like a famous armada of galleys. The Country Opposite Memphis Dovetails With the Narratives— With such a large population and splendid types of Indians inhabiting the western shores of the river where De Soto crossed, what should we expect but a fine country fit to produce and maintain such a people? Such was the country then and now opposite the Fourth Chickasaw Bluffs. It is a well known topographical feature of this section of the delta that there was an almost continuous ridge of high land, commencing from about where Mound City now is, and running in a westward direction to Crowley's Ridge, the high ground about forty miles from Memphis; that is, the delta is about forty miles wide opposite Memphis, and this high ground an almost continuous way across the Mississippi delta, with some occasional breaks therein. Of course, there were breaks in the ridge, and there were occasional lakes, bayous, and some rivers to cross, but there was sufficiently continuous high ground or ridges as to make it of 132 The Chickasaw Nation great importance to all who wished to cross the delta, and this was such a marked feature of the country that the United States made it available before the day of railroads for the construction of a military road over which to transport troops. Taking advantage of this feature of the country, the United States government long before the Civil War constructed a military road from the vicinity of Mound City, Arkansas, across the bottoms to Little Rock, Arkansas. As the name implies, there were Indian mounds at the site of that ancient village, and the mounds gave the place its name, and they are there today, silent witnesses to the fact that De Soto crossed the Mississippi where Memphis now is. When the Chickasaw Indians were moved across the river in the thirties, thousands of them were ferried from Memphis to Mound City, under the supervision of Marcus B. Winchester, who had been the first mayor of Memphis. There they commenced to cross the delta on their long journey to their new home, then in the far West. There was a considerable section around Mound City that was not subject to overflow, and in the early days there was a settlement and village there, for it was then a rival of Memphis for the supremacy of the valley. The Spaniards fully appreciated and well under- stood the value of such high land, and located grants around Mound City when they were the overlords of the country. It s also interesting to recall that only twelve to fifteen miles north from Mound City the traveler anciently and now may view the beautiful and well known Wappanocca Lake, famous for its un- rivaled fisheries, and myriads of ducks and waterfowls of all kinds. It has an outlet leading to the river, called Wappanocca Bayou, while another outlet leads to the Tyronza River. These bayous of the delta bear a great resemblance to canals, and these bayous are doubtless what the De Soto narratives called canals leading to the river from certain lakes. Indeed, some writers have insisted that these bayous were in fact canals constructed by some prehistoric people for the drainage of the country; and 133 The Chickasaw Nation I have heard men learnedly argue to this effect, and viewing these bayous as they appeared years ago, I could but feel the force of their arguments, though I was not convinced of the correctness of the theory. A recent map of Crittenden County, Arkansas, before me, prepared by the Rhodes Abstract Company, shows the country adjacent to Wappanocca Bayou and Lake plastered over with old Spanish grants ; and it may be added that the ground there is higher and the Indian mounds more numerous than at Mound City. It may be also added that, as you go north from Crittenden County, there is higher ground, and that Mississippi County, lying immediately north of and adjoining Crittenden, is regarded by many as the best county in the delta, owing not only to the fertility of its soil, but to its rolling and well-drained surface. Such is the goodness of this part of the delta that Professor Lewis in his article finally leads, or lands, De Soto in Miss- issippi County, though it is a thing to me incredible that he could have floundered his way so far north from a point some- where opposite Tunica County, Mississippi. Anciently, and as we all know until within recent years, in its approach towards the Chickasaw Bluffs, after the Mississippi passed Mound City, its direction was eastwardly, and op- posite the northern section of the Bluffs it turned abruptly southward around Hopefield Point. From the window of my office on the eleventh floor of the Cotton Exchange Building, facing Court Square, I can almost see the location of old Mound City. For many years the river has been gradually shifting its bed eastward at and beyond Mound City, and within the last two or three years it has cut a new channel, running almost south, by the old Hen and Chicken Islands just north of Memphis, and leaving Mound City far from the main channel of the river. With these unquestioned topographical features of the western country across the Mississippi from the Chickasaw Bluffs 134 The Chickasaw Nation before us, can any reasonable man doubt that De Soto was ignorant thereof, or failed to acquaint himself with the lay of the land, when ignorance in respect thereto might lead to the de- struction of every man in the expedition? What do the narratives disclose as to the route that was taken and the character of the country beyond the Mississippi? The river was high, bringing down many trees with its cur- rents, the Gentleman of Elvas (p. 115) stating that the river was near a half league wide; adding that a man standing on the shore could not be told whether he was a man or something else, from the other side. The stream was swift and very deep, always flowing turbidly, bringing down from above much timber driven by the force of the current. Biedma says (p. 26) that the river was near a league wide, and nineteen or twenty fathoms deep. On account of the swiftness of the current, Elvas says that they went up along the river about a quarter of a league, and landed about opposite the camps, and from this statement I suppose the landing place was about Hopefield Point. Having located De Soto on the west side of the river, how far did he have to travel to reach the Indian mounds, now the location of Mound City? The Gentleman of Elvas (p. 116) says: "The Rio Grande being crossed, the governor marched a league and a half to a large town of Aquixo, which was abandoned before his arrival. Over a plain thirty Indians were seen to draw nigh, sent by the cacique, to discover what the Christians in- tended to do, but who fled directly as they saw them. The cavalry pursued, killed ten, and captured fifteen. As the town toward which the governor marched was near the river, he sent a captain, with the force he thought sufficient, to take the piraguas up the stream. These, as they frequently wound about through the country, having to go round the bays that swell out the river, the Indians had opportunity to attack those in the piraguas, placing them in great peril, being shot at with bows from the ravines, while they dared not leave the shore, because of the 135 The Chickasaw Nation swiftness of the current; so that, as soon as the governor got to the town, he directly sent cross-bow men to them down the stream for their protection. When the piraguas arrived, he ordered them to be taken to pieces, and the spikes kept for making others when they should be needed." Anyone familiar with the country will unhesitatingly state that the Indian mounds adjacent to Mound City are about four to five miles from Hopefield Point, and any properly scaled map will show the same distance, and thus we have a verification of the estimate made by Elvas that it was a league and a half from the landing place to the first Indian village reached in the Province of Aquixo. Biedma says (pp. 27, 28), with respect to customs of the Indians across the river: "Arriving there as it is the custom of the caciques to have near their houses a high hill, made by hand, some having houses placed thereon, we set up the cross on the summit, and we all went on bended knees, with great humility, to kiss the foot of the cross. The Indians did the same as they saw us do, nor more, nor less; then directly they brought a great quantity of cane, making a fence about it, and we returned that night to our camp." From the context, I think this took place in Casqui. Who can doubt that the first village reached by De Soto across the river in the province of Aquixo stood where the Indian mounds at the ancient village of Mound City now rear their worn proportions above the surrounding plain, mute witnesses to the verity of the De Soto narratives, and which have stood there from that time "whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary?" From the province of Aquixo, De Soto next visited the provinces of Casqui and Pacaha, and speaking of these Ranjel (p. 140) says: "In Aquixo and Casqui and Pacaha, they saw the best villages seen up to that time, better stockaded and fortified, and 136 The Chickasaw Nation the people were of finer quality, excepting those of Cofitachequi. The commander and the soldiers remaining some days in Pacaha, they made some incursions further up country." From these statements we learn two things, that the country possessed the capabilities of producing the numerous and fine specimens of aborigines who were menacing the expedition while camped on the Chickasaw Bluffs; and that De Soto here» as was the case long before he reached the Mississippi, made "incursions" or side trips, and did not follow continuously in any one given direction. It is a difficult matter to follow in the footsteps of the De Soto expedition, unless that path crosses some great and imperishable landmark like the Mississippi River, or describes or refers to such commanding topographical and indestructible features of the country through which it passed as to fix the route pursued with reasonable certainty. That De Soto discovered the Mississippi River on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluffs, the present site of the city of Memphis, I submit appears beyond a reasonable doubt. 137 CHAPTER VII WHERE THE MISSISSIPPI WAS CROSSED, CONTINUED; AND OF THE DE SOTO MEMORIAL AT MEMPHIS The foregoing six chapters were published almost at the last moment prior to the Memphis Centenary in May, 1919, and as a souvenir thereof. I had at that time no intention of adding anything more with respect to where the Mississippi was discovered by De Soto, but, somewhat to my surprise, the general impression seemed to be that my main purpose in The Chickasaw Nation was to prove that De Soto discovered the Mississippi at the present site of Memphis. John R. Swanton, one of the learned doctors of the Bureau of Ethnology, wrote me regretting the title of the booklet, because, while the subject of the place of the discovery of the great river was of especial interest to scholars and students of history, he feared they would fail to see the booklet, owing to its title; that is, they would be mislead by the title. But I am too much imbued with the duty of paying a belated tribute to the original Chickasaws to change the title of this little book; and, moreover, when I commenced to write on the place where the river was discovered, I merely intended to write a short newspaper article in answer to my friend, Dr. Rowland; but the matter grew to such proportions that I concluded to incorporate it with some previous fragmen- tary sketches on the Chickasaws; hence the appearance of the souvenir. Nor have I, upon reflection, the least inclination to change the title, believing that the name and fame of De Soto, the discoverer of the Mississippi, are inseparably wrapped up with that of the intrepid Chickasaws, who controlled its shores and those of the Ohio for a distance of some two thousand miles; 138 The Chickasaw Nation LJ^ and because what is here set down is as much for my own di- version as otherwise. I am well aware that the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff was not at its discovery in the possession of the Chickasaws, for it was a prize of such strategic importance that, from time to time, it changed hands; and as noted hereinbefore, a part of the Chicka- saws once lived on the shores of the Atlantic near Savannah, Georgia, and afterwards at the Mussel Shoals in North Alabama; but eventually, with the aid of the Cherokees, they swept the Shawnees and all Northern tribes from south of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, and became the overlords of the splendid domain hereinbefore described. The Importance of the Discovery of the Mississippi River- Living upon the shores of this great river we often lose sight of its vast importance and value; not only for the means of transportation furnished by it and its great network of tribu- taries, and the inexhaustible stores of food sporting beneath its waves, but of its great valley, the cream jug of the continent, and capable of producing more for the sustenance of both man and beast than any other valley upon the globe. Why should not its discovery and the place of the discovery be of worldwide inte rest? One arm of the Missouri River, the great affluent and main stem of the Mississippi, rises in the far-away Rocky Moun- tains of Wyoming, in the Yellowstone Lake of the Yellowstone National Park, and this park with its many geysers, lakes, rivers, and mountains constitutes a wonderland without a replica on the globe. The other great arm of the Missouri, the Milk River, arises in northwest Montana, in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, in Glacier National Park, the child of the everlasting glaciers, and after flowing across the boundary line for some distance in British Columbia, returns to the United States and finally finds its way to the great Mississippi, and rolls with its billows ever 139 The Chickasaw Nation onward and southward, passing Memphis, until finally it reaches the Mexican Gulf, and there flings its fond heart into the ocean, the great mother of all waters. The headwaters of the Milk River constitute the real source of the great Mississippi, there being a continuously flowing stream from this source, 8,000 feet above the sea, to the Mexican Gulf, a distance of 4,221 miles, making it the longest river in the world. Another stem of the Mississippi has its origin in Lake Hernando De Soto, Minnesota, 2,553 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. We are accustomed in thinking or speaking of the far sources of the Mississippi to have in mind only the western sources mentioned ; but who ever thinks of its eastern sources, or reflects that the waters of the beautiful and famous Lake Chautauqua, whose northern affluent arises only eight miles from the waters of Lake Erie, pours through its southern outlet, the Chadakoin River, thence into the Conewango, the Allegheny, the Ohio, the Mississippi and finally into the Mexican Gulf 3,796 miles from the point of beginning? And yet this is true. This was the well known route which the Indians traveled over, from what is now Canada to the far shores of the Mexican Gulf; long before Columbus reached this country; and as it was the route over which the primitive Chickasaws traveled in their forays into the far North, some account thereof may not be out of place here. It is a significant fact that the first definite mention made of Piomingo is that he was on the Ohio River in 1770, at the head of a company of Chickasaw warriors, on his way to chastise the Seneca Indians, who then lived in what is now western New York. I am indebted to Elwood Lloyd of Memphis and formerly of New York, for a copy of a most interesting address he delivered before the Louisiana Historical Society on August 5, 191 6, giving an account of the travels of Etienne Brule, in whose memory, at the solicitation of the Chautauqua Society of Natural Science, 140 The Chickasaw Nation Lloyd and a companion made a canoe voyage from Lake Chau- tauqua to the Gulf of Mexico, commencing the voyage on November 23, 1915, that being the three hundredth anniversary of Brule's voyage on the same lake, he being the first white man to navigate its waters. According to Lloyd, when Champlain came from France to Canada and founded Quebec in 1608, Brule, then a lad of sixteen years, was a member of his party; after being left as a hostage with the Huron Indians, he learned their language, assumed their dress and became a subordinate chief, living with them for years. He was the first white man to see Lakes Superior, Huron, and Erie; and in 1615 Champlain sent Brule with twelve Huron warriors in two canoes to the country of the Adastes, whose home was then in what is now northern Pennsyl- vania. The route taken by Brule was from beautiful Lake Simcoe in Canada, across Lake Erie, landing at what is now known as Barcelona Harbor, New York; then a portage of eight miles over the hills and again launching into the waters of Lake Chautauqua, thence following its outlet through the Chadakoin, then into the Conewango, the Allegheny, and then, as Lloyd verily believes, as far south on the Mississippi as the mouth of the Arkansas, if not to the mouth of the Mississippi. It is more than probable that Brule was the first white man to navigate the upper waters of these sources of the Mississippi, and Parkman concluded that he went as far south as the mouth of the Arkansas, which was by no means improbable. Lloyd's license to navigate the Vagabond is probably the only one of its kind ever issued, and leaving out the formal caption is as follows : "District of New York, Port of Mayville. "These are to certify all whom it doth concern: "That Elwood Lloyd, master or commander of the Canoe Vagabond, burden 100 pounds or thereabouts, mounted with two repeating guns, navigated with Jolly Folk, American built, and 141 The Chickasaw Nation bound for New Orleans, Louisiana, via Lake Chautauqua, Chadakoin, Conewango, Alleghany, Ohio, Mississippi Rivers, having on board joy potentialities, good cheer, happiness, con- tentment, and sundry articles needed in the pursuit of real life in the open — also a thorough appreciation of the nature, harmony and the worth of our fellow-men with whom the cruise shall bring us in contact. Hath here entered and cleared his said vessel, according to law. Given under our hands and seals, at the City Hall of Mayville, New York, this twelfth day of November, one thousand nine hundred fifteen, and in the one hundred thirty-ninth year of the independence of the United States of America. Lewis M. Smith, W. S. Patterson, City Clerk. Mayor of Mayville." I think Lloyd is entirely correct in saying : "This ancient route of Lake Chautauqua was known and used by the Indians for a period before the coming of the French to America. It is referred to on Captain John Smith's map of Virginia of 1 612 (by inference) from data obtained four or five years before; also in his General History of Virginia, 1642, from the same early information. And in 1610, Lescarbot, in his La Nauvelle France also mentions this great circuit made for the purposes of trade. From Butterfield. (Appendix XII, also page 76, Note 1)." I give these details as to this great prehistoric route so frequently traveled by all the Indians, including the Chicka- saws, for men have looked at me with incredulity when I referred to the Chickasaws taking this and like long journeys by land, for they were almost amphibious, swimming like ducks, and on land they could travel far faster than the best rider on the best horse, covering several hundred miles on a single run, as we will see further on. Their near and numerous kinsmen to the south, the Choc- taws, could not swim, nor did they take kindly to the water or go to war with distant tribes; but they would fight like lions when their country was invaded; and it is almost ludicrous to read of 142 The Chickasaw Nation an invading foe when defeated by the Choctaws fleeing to the nearest river, because they knew the Choctaws could not swim, and must perforce halt on the river banks. It is believed that Lloyd is the only white man who ever made a continuous canoe trip from Lake Chautauqua to the Mexican Gulf, and he computed the distance covered by his canoe, christened Vagabond, at 3,796 miles, explaining that he was unable to travel the same course followed by steamboats in navigable waters, which made his canoe course somewhat longer, though he computed each day the distance traveled, and entered it in the ship's log at night before retiring. I will note parenthetically that Lloyd's character and experiences are unique, and coupled with a pleasing personality, render him extremely companionable. His father was from Wales, his mother from Scotland, and while on a visit to Canada, she crossed the border into Michigan, where Lloyd was born. His parents took him to East India when he was four years old, his father being in the English diplomatic service, and there he remained until he was fifteen. He later became special corre- spondent for the London News traveling through Japan, China, and other oriental countries; also through Australia, New Zeal- and, the Fiji Island, and South America, and spent many months living with and among the Hopi and Navajo Indians on our Western plains, and when the world-war broke out, he was in the South Pacific Islands, and coming to Memphis on his way to navigate some Arkansas affluents of the Mississippi, he met his destiny in the person of Miss Anna Mary Marshall, a charming girl, married and settled down at the Memphis suburb, Neshoba, a beautiful Chickasaw word which means wolf in English. Let us return to the Mississippi River. ~V* This lordly river flows through belts of barley, flax, wheat, corn, cotton, sugar, and oranges, and with its tributaries affords sixteen thousand miles of navigable water, and its basin is capable of supporting a population of two hundred millions, or twice the 143 The Chickasaw Nation present population of the entire United States. Its valley has been called the trough of the continent. The south wind sweep- ing up from the tropical waters of the Mexican Gulf mingle with others coming from toward the Pacific, and together they course northward to precipitate their waters, not only to create the sources of the Mississippi but the headwaters of the Red River of the North and the Saskatchewan flowing into far-away Hudson Bay, as well as those of the great McKenzie River, which empties into the frozen sea of Arctic North America. The average alti- tude of this vast sweep of country is not great and combined with the generous rainfall referred to makes it a fairly tillable country up to near the arctic circle. The Mississippi Valley has no equal or counterpart upon the globe; and it and the lordly Mississippi River flowing therethrough form a combination that challenges admiration. And it is worthy to be remembered that the great river was discovered by De Soto in 1541, or seventy-nine years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, and sixty-six years before the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America. And likewise it should always be borne in mind that the Chickasaws, in their cypress bark canoes, commanded the navigation of the great river for some two thousand miles, which of itself gave them a mastery not only of their own country but far beyond the limits thereof. The Great Abundance of Fish Taken Points to the Place of Discovery- All of the De Soto narratives call attention to the vast number of fishes taken by the natives in waters adjacent to their villages and near the river and some connected therewith, one being called an estuary. Elvas and Ranjel are in conflict as to the dates of the cross- ing and the villages reached across the river. While Ranjel states that the river was crossed June 8, Bourne (note 2, p. 138) 144 The Chickasaw Nation says the date should be June 18. However this may be, we know that there is a lake adjacent to Mound City, the first village reached as I insist, and it is a well known topographical feature of this country that the highest land lay on the borders of these lakes, and on these the mounds were built. As soon as the river was crossed, the narratives speak of presents of fish made the expedition, and the vast number taken, Elvas (p. 123) saying that however great the number taken, "there never was any lack of them." He then describes such fish as he said were not to be found in Spain; and in the description of one, the fish he said was called "bagre," weighing from 100 to 150 pounds, we readily recognize the great Mississippi catfish, and in the smaller the delicious channel catfish; in the one he calls "peel-fish" he describes with accuracy the great Southern or blue sturgeon, which, until re- cently, in our ignorance we called the shovelbill cat and fed to the hogs as worthless. This fish is now recognized as one of the most valuable fishes in America; from its eggs caviar is made, rivaling the famous Russian caviar, and has sold for $3.00 per pound, one fish sometimes producing thirty pounds. When the meat of this fish is smoked, it readily sells in Eastern markets at sixty to seventy cents per pound, and is in much request. In still another fish described by Elvas, but not named, we readily recognize the great Mississippi alligator gar, or more properly called the gar pike, which he correctly described as being the size of a hog and having teeth. There are two other native varieties of sturgeon, one the rubber nose, usually weighing when dressed from seven to twenty- two pounds; but there was shown to me by H. J. Conrad in Memphis in the spring of 1918, one five feet long which weighed when dressed 150 pounds; and there hung by its side a great Mississippi gar pike which weighed up to 250 pounds, the most voracious fish that swims our waters, and justly termed the wolf of our rivers and lakes. The other sturgeon is called the hack- leback and weighs from three to five pounds, and is a most ex- 145 The Chickasaw Nation cellent fish. Many other fish are to be found in these waters, such as the delicious salmon trout, bass, croppie or speckle perch, bream, sun fish, buffalo, etc. But there are other foods in our Southern waters besides fish, and among these may be mentioned loggerhead and moss- back snapping turtles, the dressed meat of which sells from fifteen to twenty cents per pound. Then there are several varieties of the terrapin family taken in our waters, such as juniatas, mobilianers, sliders, cooters, etc., and these are practi- cally all shipped west to Oregon and California, or to New York, Chicago, and other Eastern markets, where they command ready sales at high prices as substitutes for the celebrated dia- mond back terrapins of Chesapeake Bay. Where was the De Soto expedition when it reached this piscatorial paradise, if not on the banks and in the vicinity of Wapanocca, Hatchie Coon, Blackfish and adjoining waters, some of these emptying into the upper reaches of the St. Francis River, and altogether making such a network of fishing and game preserves as were without a rival in Arkansas or elsewhere? Where is there a real sportsman, or any man within a thou- sand miles of Memphis, who ever wet a line or shouldered a gun, and who has not heard of these famous fishing waters, which are covered as soon as the snow flies with myriads of ducks and all the water fowls so dear to the heart of the sportsman? These lakes begin in the upper part of Crittenden County (which is opposite Memphis), extending thence northward, all in easy reach. As might be expected, their attractiveness made of them prizes which were eagerly sought, and they were acquired by hunting and shooting clubs whose members came for hundreds and even thousands of miles to enjoy the rare sport there to be had. Many of these, in fact the most of them, being non-resi- dents of Arkansas, served to engender strife between the care- takers of these clubs and residents in their vicinity; which led in some instances to bloody conflicts ; and then the state legislature 146 The Chickasaw Nation took a hand, enacting statutes designed to bar out non-residents from these preserves, the constitutionality of which was assailed in the courts through a series of years, finally reaching the State and Federal Supreme Courts. All agree that at the date the river was crossed, it was at flood tide, which was not unusual at that season of the year. Judge J. P. Young states as a fact, from a lifetime of experience and observation, that in olden times, before the era of the Mississippi levees, when the river was in flood opposite Memphis, the lower Arkansas delta north of Helena and opposite Tunica County, Mississippi, would be so inundated as to have made it an impossibility for De Soto, had he been alone, much less with his army, to have marched through it or up it, unless they were amphibious and could swim like fish. At such a flood time the Arkansas delta north of Memphis must have been bad enough for travel, Ranjel (p. 138) saying it was the worst encountered in all Florida; but to the south of Memphis it would have been impossible to have moved the army of De Soto on either side of the river. Lusher's Map as Reproduced by J. Paul Gaines— In Chapters IV and V Lusher's map is referred to, and my opinion as to maps in general is expressed, while Lusher's map is commended for accuracy and its history given. At the time those pages were written J. Paul Gaines, a very capable civil engineer, had charge of public works in the way of road construction and drainage projects of considerable magni- tude in the country adjacent to Pontotoc, Mississippi; and read what I had written with respect to the topography of the country under review. Being pleased with what he read, he called to see me, saying that the descriptions given were accurate to a sur- prising degree; but that in order for the non-professional man and people unacquainted with the topography of the country to 147 The Chickasaw Nation grasp the situation, Lusher's map should be so redrafted as to bring into plain view the trend and direction of the Indian trails, which, taken in connection with the natural drainage of the country, would furnish an object lesson easily understood, and he proffered to redraw the map as indicated, as his contribution to a clear understanding of the situation. I gladly accepted his offer, and he redrew the map precisely as the original, with the exceptions that he left out the section lines, and showed the location of the counties created in the Chickasaw cession since the map was made in 1835, and indicated the Indian trails by heavier lines than in the original, so as to bring them into plain view, but not otherwise altering them in any respect whatever. In order to obtain a map small enough not to encumber this volume, the redraft was necessarily reduced in making a cut thereof; the map will be found at the end of this volume, for careful examination. In indicating the boundaries of the new counties, Mr. Gaines drew some of the county lines rather large in yellow, which, when reproduced, gives a black appearance; but as these lines usually run at right angles, whereas the Indian trails are continuous straight or curved lines, they can be easily distinguished. In the process of reduction some of the names of rivers and places are very faint, but they can be easily read with an ordi- nary magnifying glass. Before I knew of the existence of Lusher's map, I had de- scribed the three Indian trails leading from the vicinity of Pontotoc to the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff. The topography of the country indicated that these well known trails had been in existence from time immemorial, and this was the foundation upon which I grounded my opinion as to the route taken by De Soto. It was gratifying, when, almost by chance, my attention was called to Lusher's map, which cor- roborated in every particular my prior statements with reference to these well known Indian trails, and attention is now called to this map at the back of this volume. Lusher did not name a 148 The Chickasaw Nation single Indian trail. I will now call attention to the three Indian trails in question as they appear on the map. (i) The most westerly trail, leading from the vicinity of Pontotoc to the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, is the shortest trail, used in great emergencies or under unfavorable traveling con- ditions. This I have designated and described as the short-cut trail; and leading out from Memphis it is almost coterminous with the present Pigeon Roost Road, and almost parallel with the Frisco Railroad track, indicating that the Indians well understood how to select the best road between two distant termini. (2) The next trail to the northeast of the one just referred to is what I have designated and described as the intermediate trail, leading out from the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, on top of what is locally called Poplar Ridge, practically coterminous with the present Poplar Boulevard, out to Collierville, Tennessee, and parallel with the Southern Railroad track. At Collierville it curves more southward, and thence onward it threads in between the headwaters of Wolf River and Nonconnah, and further on those of Coldwater, and joins the next trail to be described in the present Union County, Mississippi. (3) The third trail I have described and designated as the all-the-year-around trail, leading north from Pontotoc and its vicinity, forking with the intermediate trail in the present Union County, and threading its way on top of the well known Pontotoc Ridge between the headwaters of the streams flowing into the Gulf of Mexico on the east and those flowing into the Mississippi on the west. Shortly after entering Tennessee the trail trends westerly, and soon intersects near the present Lagrange, Tennes- see, another trail running north, which terminates abruptly, because Lusher was only mapping the Chickasaw Cession, and, of course, this did not extend into Tennessee. But it is well known that this trail ran northward to approximately where the present town of Bolivar, Tennessee, now is, and that it then turned westward, running along the ridge dividing the waters of 149 The Chickasaw Nation Wolf River from those of Hatchie River, and crossing Wolf near the present city of Memphis, where the high land comes down to the edge of the water. Although this was the longest of the three trails, being about 1 60 miles in length, still as it led over the height of land, or the top of ridges dividing the waters of various streams, it could be passed over almost dry shod at any season of the year ; hence the designation I have given it. Having called attention to the three trails leading to the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, attention is now called to the fact that there is not a single Indian trail leading west from the vicinity of Pontotoc to the Mississippi River in Tunica County or elsewhere. As pointed out heretofore, the only trail leading westward to the river is the dotted line, marked Helena Trace, having one western terminus at Helena, Arkansas, and another a little above on the east bank of the river, at a place marked "Mrs. Mc- Kinney." These two dotted lines soon converge and meet, and trending eastward join the Indian trail just above Chulahoma and disappear. It is the only dotted trace on the map, and the only one having a name given it, and for reasons given herein- before is not an Indian trail, but that of the white man and, of course, of recent years. There are other things shown on this map which emphasize the fact that there were no Indian trails leading through the swamps and morasses of the Mississippi River, and among them at- tention is called to the abrupt termination of the Indian trail run- ing south from Panola County to Nelson's Bluff on the Talla- hatchie River, where it comes to an abrupt termination. Why this abrupt termination? Evidently the hill land terminated at this bluff, and that automatically worked a termination of the trails. I doubt not that as the Chickasaws were at home on the bosom of any stream, and as we well know they commanded 150 The Chickasaw Nation navigation on the Mississippi and its tributaries, where these waters formed the boundaries of their country, we may safely assume that when they had occasion to go upon the broad waters of the Mississippi in a westerly direction, they went to it in their water craft, upon the waters emptying into the Mississippi. So likewise we observe on this map lower down that some three separate trails running southward converge and unite not far north of Grenada, and after turning west, abruptly terminate on the banks of the Yallobusha River. Mr. Gaines informs me that this point marks the termination of the hill land and the commencement of the low, swampy country. Can any one doubt that this overland Indian trail abruptly terminated here, because at this point, where the Mississippi swamps began, the Indians embarked in their water craft as the only feasible manner or way in which to reach the Mississippi? While in his wanderings the narrative of the De Soto ex- pedition often speaks of occasions when De Soto constructed boats for use on various rivers, no one pretends that when he discovered the river he approached it by water. To insist that De Soto refused to travel overland from his encampment in north Mississippi, over any one of the three well known and used trails described above, and that he led his small army, encumbered with its armor for both men and horses, not to mention his drove of hogs, through the well nigh impene- trable Mississippi bottom with its rivers, swamps, lagoons, cypress breaks, and morasses, where the Indians never ventured to blaze a trail for traveling Indian file, is to ascribe to him a piece of monumental folly too great for the most credulous. And, moreover, it was a task no one like situated could have accomplished. Article of Miss Mixon— Among the many notices of the souvenir edition referred to was a lengthy editorial from the pen of Honorable J. N. Heiskell, one of the editors and proprietors of the Arkansas Gazette, the 151 The Chickasaw Nation oldest and one of the ablest journals of this section, having reached its centenary in 1919. This editorial contained the longest, most comprehensive, and accurate summary of the sub- ject treated of all the articles that came under my notice; and was followed by another editorial in which attention was called to a previous article in the Gazette by Miss Ada Mixon, of Wash- ington, D. C, who claimed that the Mississippi was discovered "a day's journey" south of Helena (wherever that may be); and I was given the privilege to state my views on the subject (and which appeared) in the Gazette, August 31, 1919, followed by a well written article from Miss Mixon the following September 28th. I do not deem it necessary to make any reply to the article of Miss Mixon further than to say she quotes only in part what Bancroft and Winsor are supposed to have said with respect to Garcilaso de la Vega, and in fact she ascribes to Winsor what in point of fact he never said, but was said by John Gilmary Shea. It would appear that she fell into this error by assuming that Justin Winsor was the author of that great work in eight volumes entitled Narrative and Critical History of America, whereas he was its editor only, being the author only of certain subjects, while many other distinguished writers were the authors of other parts of the work. Thus John Gilmary Shea is the author of the article entitled, Ancient Florida, found in Vol. 2, page 23, and the language quoted by Miss Mixon can be seen at page 290, and is the language of Shea and not Winsor. I regret that she did not quote Shea in full, but the purport of what she claims this author and Bancroft said was a criticism of Garcilaso de la Vega that a spirit of exaggeration prevails throughout the volume, though (as she adds), it was accepted by Irving and others. The main point for which I referred to Garcilaso was that he states as a fact that there was a high mound near the Mississippi River where it was discovered, on which the Chief Chisca lived, and which Garcilaso describes. There is not a word in any of 152 The Chickasaw Nation the other three narratives contradicting this statement of fact, they simply not mentioning the mound. The statement of a fact, such as the existence of a mound, can not be said to be an "exaggeration" such as was meant by the authors referred to, who were referring to the elaborate details sometimes given by Garcilaso of events which were also men- tioned by the other narratives in a few words, and without any elaboration; both of them stating that his book was a very valuable contribution in working out the details of the De Soto expedition. Shea was not only the author of the chapter quoted from, but also of the Critical Essay on the Sources of Information, appearing at page 231, as shown by a facsimile of his autograph attached thereto. In this article (p. 291) Shea says: "As to the point of De Soto's crossing of the Mississippi there is a very general agreement on the lowest Chickasaw Bluff," citing Ban- croft in a note as an authority. However, Winsor was the author of the well known historical work, the Mississippi Basin, and at page 6 he says, "De Soto crossed the river at the Chickasaw Bluffs." Bancroft and Winsor stand preeminent as American his- torians, and Claiborne stands equally preeminent among local Mississippi historians, and all three agree that De Soto crossed the Mississippi at the Chickasaw Bluff. The reason for their preeminence is that each was naturally gifted with good judgment and an analytical mind, and these natural gifts were accompanied by a lifetime of painstaking study upon the subjects each respectively treated. The Map of Delisle Again— It will be recalled that in Chapter V ante I gave my want of faith in maps generally, and in the Delisle (sometimes spelled De L'Isle) map in particular. At that time I had not seen a copy of this map, but recently a copy of it was called to my attention at page 472, Vol. 2, of The New and Complete History 153 The Chickasaw Nation of the United States of America by Ridpath, to which is attached this note: "Route of De Soto and Moscoso, as worked out by the great French geographer Guillaume Delisle, and published in Paris about 1705. It is of course impossible to identify the course with exactness, and there are many divergent opinions as to different halting places, but this probably comes near the facts." A casual glance at this Delisle map shows it to be almost ludicrous as a representation of the country which it proposes to delineate. First: It represents the river Tombigbee (called by its French name Tombeckbe) as rising in the mountains of western Kentucky, whereas we all know that its headwaters arise in northern Mississippi. Second: The map is supposed to show the route of De Soto in 1540, or the year before the river was discovered, and it represents De Soto as approaching the Mississippi approxi- mately within a day's journey, and reaching the village of Chisca. It then represents De Soto as turning back and re- tracing his steps until he had recrossed the Tombigbee, after which he turned southwest and went down to Mauilla (variously written as Mobilia, Mauvilla, Mavilla, etc.), where a great battle was fought, near the present Mobile, Alabama. Who is there so credulous as to believe that De Soto was within a few hours' march of the Mississippi River in 1540, and then deliberately turned his back to it, and retraced his march as indicated above, traveling out of his way over a thousand miles, which consumed a year's time of toilsome wanderings through the wilderness, before he reached the river in May, 1541? Third: The map shows the villages of the Chickasaws (written Chicachas) on the west side of the Tombigbee and north of the three mouths of the St. Francis River, and north of where Memphis now is. 154 The Chickasaw Nation Where is the man that will now claim that this Delisle map correctly shows the location of the Chickasaw nation, or that the St. Francis has, or then had, three mouths? Seemingly not content with this location of the Chickasaw village, the map again locates the Chicachas (Chickasaws) down somewhere in what is now Mississippi, but there is nothing to indicate the presence of villages at this point, as is the case with the above location in what is now west Tennessee. Fourth: The map represents the route of De Soto as cross- ing the Mississippi River at some undesignated point south of where the St. Francis River empties into the Mississippi River, by way of three separate and distinct mouths or branches. It was news to me, and, I believe, to the people of this section of the country, that the St. Francis has or ever had more than one mouth emptying into the Mississippi. As stated, there is absolutely nothing on the map to indicate that the crossing was in what is now Tunica County, Missis- sippi, or that the crossing was below where Helena, Arkansas, now is. No one pretends, not even Delisle himself, that he had ever visited this section of the country; and doubtless he was never in America. How any reasonable man can pin his faith to such an imaginary map, or can attach the least importance thereto, I confess I am unable to comprehend. And yet it is upon such insubstantial and so-called historical data, that we are asked to accept the theory of Prof. Lewis, viz: that De Soto discovered the Mississippi River (to quote his language) "either at Council Bend or Walnut Bend in a straight line some twenty-five to thirty-eight miles below Memphis." There are dozen of bends in the river similar to those men- tioned, and there is no pretence of a single physical feature at either point to identify it as the place of discovery, and the very language used suggests a mere guess as to where the river was discovered. 155 The Chickasaw Nation The De Soto Memorial Erected at Memphis, May 22, 1919— The week of May 19th to the 24th, 1919, was set aside by the Memphis and Shelby County Centennial Celebration Association to properly celebrate the centenary of the city and county which occurred that year. The officers and members of the executive committee were as follows: B. A. Bogy, President, Frank N. Fisher, Vice- President, Henry C. Loeb, Treasurer, E. O. Bailey, Secretary, Roy C. Moyston, Executive Secretary; B. A. Bogy, James H. Malone, Judge J. P. Young, E. O. Bailey, H. C. Loeb, Frank N. Fisher, R. L. Jordan, H. R. Chears, R. R. Ellis, C. W. Miller, George B. Coleman, Walk C. Jones, J. B. Edgar, T. A. Robinson, C. A. Gerber, Bishop T. F. Gailor, W. R. Herstein, E. P. Mac- Nicol and Roy C. Moyston, members. The foregoing executive committee set aside May 22, 1919, for the De Soto Memorial Exercises, and forwarded to his Ex- cellency Juan Riano, at Washington, D. C, the Royal Spanish Embassador to this country, an invitation to be present, and to accept on behalf of their Majesties, the King and Queen of Spain, a handsomely bound copy of Walter Malone's Epic, Hernando De Soto, to be presented on behalf of the citizens of Memphis on the date mentioned. His Excellency finding it impossible to be present, on account of previous engagements, named Sen. Don Emilio Zapico, Spanish Consul at New Orleans, to represent Spain and his Excellency, and he attended. The volume, Hernando De Soto, was specially bound according to the latest book-binding art, at a cost of $250; the inscription therein to their Majesties was the work of A. A. Andrews of Memphis, Tennessee, and its beauty and artistic execution were equal to the binding and the handsomest I have ever seen, such being also the opinion of all who saw it. As to the De Soto Memorial, it was not what we desired it to be, but what the funds at the command of the committee would allow. I well remember that when the sub-committee, composed of Dr. B. F. Turner, Chairman, Judge J. P. Young and James H. 156 The Chickasaw Nation Malone, reported the character of the memorial to be erected, Bishop Thomas F. Gailor feelingly and earnestly inquired if that was all that could be done, adding that a proper memorial should cost at least $50,000. The situation being explained to the Bishop, I added that it was our earnest hope and expectation that his vision would in due time be realized, and that when the year 1941 dawned upon Memphis, the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the great river here, there would indeed be a great celebration in Memphis; that an equestrian bronze statue of De Soto, of heroic size and with proper allegorical figures below, would be unveiled to replace the one now to be erected. The Bishop acquiesced, but with evident regret. It affords me pleasure to add that, since the foregoing was written, Bishop Gailor was unanimously elected president of the Executive Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, being the first person to hold that exalted position, and it is almost needless to add with universal satisfaction to the great Church over whose councils he presides. The memorial consists of a considerable ledge of rough dark grey granite, with bronze tablets thereon, containing these in- scriptions: North side. "Near this spot Hernando De Soto discovered the Mississippi River in May, 1541." On top. "When first visited by the white man, this spot was the site of the fortress of Chisca, the chief of the Indian tribe which inhabited this region, and whose principal village stood a short distance eastward. The nearby eminences are mounds which were constructed by aboriginal inhabitants and are of unknown antiquity." East side. "The Chisca mound was utilized in 1863 during the Civil War as an artillery redoubt and magazine fortress, Fort Pickering; and the top of the mound was excavated for that purpose." West side. "This park, comprising eleven acres, was pur- chased in 1912 by the Board of Park Commissioners, composed 157 The Chickasaw Nation of Robert Galloway, J. T. Willingham and Dr. B. F. Turner, and dedicated to the use and pleasure of the citizens of Memphis; in perpetuity; and this memorial stone has been erected to com- memorate its interesting traditions and historic associations." The memorial rests at the base of the larger of the two Indian mounds, a picture of which was taken for the Chamber of Commerce, and is here reproduced preceding this subtitle. Judge J. P. Young presided, and Dr. B. F. Turner made the first address, which follows : Address of Dr. B. F. Turner— "Fellow Citizens: "We are assembled today to affix the stamp of our appre- ciation upon one of Memphis' choicest possessions; and to dedicate a memorial, in material as nearly imperishable as possible, to the extraordinary combination of associations, legendary, prehistoric, and historic, which are identified with this spot. Other places there may be upon which Nature has laid her hand as caressingly as she has done here to produce the beautiful and the picturesque. Other places may possess the halo of romance and legend equal with this. Others still may bear the impress of man's activities before the date of written history. And others still may have the marks of history of the recent past. But where else find we the picturesque and the beautiful in Nature, the romance of legend, the indubitable evidences of the prehistoric, and the stern realities of rugged history of events of yesterday associated together to invest one spot with such rare interest and charm. It is not inappropriate, therefore, that I should take occasion at this moment to men- tion briefly the combination of associations which renders the spot upon which we stand today one of unusual interest and which we propose to perpetuate in bronze and granite. "In the upward progress of the human race certain spots favorable to its activities become the center of accounts more or less accurate, more or less mythical, of these primeval struggles. Such a spot is this. Situated favorably for tribal development, offensive and defensive, this very spot gives evidence of having been the center of a teeming population from a remote antiquity. The inhabitants who were found here when first the white man 158 The Chickasaw Nation set foot upon these bluffs possessed accounts of races ante- cedent to themselves. Archeological researches reveal evidences of successive flourishings and extinctions of primitive races at this very place. We push aside the curtain which separates the present from the past, hoping to secure a better vision of the mysteries behind the obscuring veil. But little is revealed. A vista of events long past stretches before us in ever deepening twilight to terminate in the gloom of the unreal and the legendary. And, so, round this spot the imagination lingers and repopulates it with the savage man who once disputed the possession of this ground with the wolf, the panther, and the bear, and whose crude stone weapons are still occasionally revealed by the upturning spade or the wash of the summer shower. "Again in the upward march of human development a point is reached where the hand of man has fixed upon the face of Nature monuments indicative of his tireless energy and con- structive genius. All up and down the Mississippi valley are to be found huge mounds of earth erected, it would seem, with infinite labor and always at what would seem to be points of especial advantage for one purpose or another. Such a point is this. Here one, upon the slope of which we stand, and out yonder scarce a hundred yards another, stand two such struc- tures, erected by a vanished race; by hands long since returned to dust. The people whom the white man found here were using them, but it is not at all certain that they erected them. Indeed there are competent archeologists who assign their origin to far earlier and quite different races. If so, who then were they and when passed they this way and whence departed? Nor are the purposes for which these ancient monuments were erected posi- tively ascertained. If for defense, then what a story of conflict, strife, victory, or defeat might they unfold, could they but speak today. If incidental to some savage worship, some primitive religion, then what sacrificial orgies, what fantastic and myster- ious rites may have transpired where we stand today. If they be tombs, then what memento of some long- forgotten headman, chief, or savage potentate may still remain enclosed within their mysterious depths. "Here they have stood in silent majesty to our certain knowledge for four hundred years or more: And by ample archeological evidence for a period vastly longer than that; with infinite dignity impressing us with the durability of some of 159 The Chickasaw Nation man's achievements as well as the ephemeral character of things he regards as stable. And long after we, too, have gone our way, they still will stand, mysterious sentinels along the high- way of human achievement. "Then came a day when Out of the forest across the valley yonder and from over the ridge to the eastward beyond, along the age-old trail that led from this spot to the regions of the sources of the Tombigbee, came an intrepid band of warlike wanderers, a handful of adventurers led by one of the boldest spirits identified with our country's history, the great De Soto. With unflinching courage they had dared the dangers of a trackless ocean in vessels hazardously inadequate to our eyes. Arrived upon an unknown shore they had plunged into forest, morass, lagoon, and the currents of mighty rivers, intimidated neither by the fierce inhabitants of the jungle, the deadly miasmas of the swamp, nor the ambush of opposing savages. Along this trail they came, up to this very spot, where sat in all barbaric regalia old Chisca, the chief of a sturdy but uncivilized race. Here, upon this spot, the imperious De Soto, animated by a patriotism no less exalted than the courage which sustained him, planted the flag of Spain and claimed the region all about for his beloved king and queen. And here he gazed across the reaches of the mighty current flowing at his feet to the vast forests beyond and became inspired to further conquests westward. And here the haughty Chisca demanded the occasion of such intrusion by a stranger and disputed any other sovereign right to his domain. And there, on the slopes below us, eastward, they met in sanguinary struggle, and the haughty chieftain bowed in submission to his foe. And here somewhere, within the murky depths of the Father of Waters, all that was mortal of the great explorer awaits the call that some day will assemble friend and foe together. "A full three hundred years pass by, and with them vanishes a race. The followers of the mighty Chisca no longer seek their sustenance upon their hunting grounds. Wide fields of corn and cotton have replaced the forest; and where once stood wigwams now are seen the dwellings of an industrious and happy people. The ancient trail has been replaced by a railroad system. And then a great upheaval tears the nation asunder and brothers stand deadlocked in fratricidal strife. Here, on this spot, a Federal army guards the reaches of the Mississippi. Over there, to the south and east, scarce out of sight from here, 160 The Chickasaw Nation Confederate forces scan their every move and vigilantly await a possible opportunity to attack. And this old mound, hoary with the passing centuries, awakens from its age-long sleep to witness scenes of martial activity. Its top is excavated. Up its slopes cannon are dragged. Its side is perforated with an ammunition magazine. It becomes an artillery redoubt. And soldiers ma- neuver on the spot whereon we stand today, awaiting the on- slaught of the foe or perfecting the formation for attack. "Small wonder then that, as we stand here today, beneath the shade of these tremendous trees, gazing across the great river flowing at our feet to the vast forest beyond, the sun's rays glint- ing on the murky waters with a sheen of bronze, we dream, as did the great De Soto, of an almost infinite past of human ac- tivity enacted on this spot; of an imperishable empire limited only by the waves of the two great oceans. "And so we give today this memorial stone whereon are recorded on tablets of bronze, the various incidents and events associated with this remarkable spot, to you, our fellow citizens, and to our children and all future generations, that they may hold sacred the evidences of that struggle upward which untold gen- erations in the past have made toward the sublime heights upon which they dwell. And may this spot, which bears the evidence of so much human achievement, be consecrated to their use and pleasure for all time to come. "Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, and while we stand here in sight of the great river which was discovered here by that great and intrepid explorer, Hernando De Soto, in whose bosom his mortal remains were buried, and whose waves were his winding sheet, I deem it appropriate to repeat some lines from Hernando De Soto: The Tomb of De Soto— "De Soto sleeps beneath his river's waves; No prouder, no more lasting monument Hath any being of terrestrial birth. The dying Theban, crowned with victory, For mausoleum had his battlefield, And childless, yet exclaimed exultingly: 'Two fairest daughters leave I unto Thebes — Leuctra and Mantinea, deathless names!' The giant Alps, where sleep eternal snows, 161 The Chickasaw Nation Where rush wild tempests everlastingly, Where raging torrents leap, where eagles soar, And rocky summits blend with clouds of heaven, These make a tomb for Wingelried and Tell, Stout-hearted patriots of their mountain land. Magellan — he who sought to round the world — Who gave his life to prove the earth a globe — The stormy ocean shouts his glorious deeds, Spreading his fame from pole to pole. De Soto's mighty river, leading on Ten thousand tributaries to the sea — A tomb as lordly as a demigod's, Magnificent and everlasting — bears From Norland snow-peaks' fountain-urns of ice To the far sunland vales of plumy palms, The name of him who gave it to the world. — Walter M alone." Judge R. M. Barton, representing Mayor Monteverde, was next called on by the chairman, Judge J. P. Young. Address of Judge R. M. Barton— "Mr. Chairman, Dr. Turner, Ladies, and Gentlemen: "Our mayor finding at the last moment this morning that conflicting duties would prevent his presence at these cere- monies, delegated to me the honor and duty of representing him and authorized me to speak for him and the people of Memphis, and accept this trust. "So appearing and speaking, it is with pleasure and gratifi- cation, I assure you, that he and they accept this most fitting work of the Centennial Committee, this historic monument of granite and bronze. "It is accepted in trust, to be protected, maintained and treasured by the city and people of Memphis, with a deep sense of appreciation of its lessons and significance. We will treasure it both because it is a memorial of the valor and heroism of our immediate countrymen on both sides of the struggle between the states — whose memories we would keep green, and because it is a monument to that gallant band of Spaniards who were the 'path finders' of modern civilization in this section of our country. 162 The Chickasaw Nation 'They were the first white men to penetrate this then savage and unknown wilderness, and at this point discovered the great river on whose banks we now stand. "Nowhere in the annals of the world do we find a grander or more sublime exhibition of daring and heroic endeavor and endurance than that of De Soto and his small force. "It will forever stand in our history as one of the most wonderful accomplishments of human courage, valor, and daring. "It is one of the great climaxes in the development of civili- zation — the turning point of the currents of life on this great continent. The light of Eastern civilization was then turned on this hitherto unknown world — they first brought to this country the banner and cross of the Christian religion, which we now claim as the abiding foundation of our own civilization. They opened the field for the more peaceful messengers of the Prince of Peace. "To them, our great predecessors, we owe admiration and respect; we would honor and perpetuate their feats of valor and endurance, and remembering, undertake to weave into our own lives something of their heroic endeavor and courage. "It is a matter of congratulation and pleasure that we have with us today and are honored by his presence, Senor Don Emilio Zapico, the official representative of the great sovereigns and people of Spain, who is here to participate in these ceremonies and received for them a testimonial of our respect and admiration. "And (turning to Don Zapico), I wish to say, Senor, that we feel it not only an honor to have you with us as the representative of your honored sovereigns and people but it is a distinct pleasure to have met such a charming and genial representative, who meets so fully our ideal of the gallant, courteous Spanish gentleman. "Ladies and gentlemen, as compared with the illustrious Spanish nation, and the other great nations of Europe, we, as a nation, are very young — a mere stripling. "In our childhood, we must tell the Senor that we cannot hope to point out any great, beautiful palaces of the olden times, like his Alhambra. We have no grand old specimens of archi- tecture, no pictures of the old masters, no relics of ancient great- ness, culture, and accomplishment. "I regret to say we cannot at this time even grace our hos- pitality with an offering of old wine — we are young, and the Senor will find that our ladies are all young — he has already re- 163 The Chickasaw Nation marked on their beauty. He sees the springtime all round him in the budding foliage and flowers. "But notwithstanding our youth, he will find that we are not unacquainted with nor unmindful of the ancient and present glories of the Spanish nations. We know the great part the Spanish rulers and people have taken in the world's history, discovery, and development, especially on this western continent. It is familiar to every school boy and girl. We know much of the beauty and charm of Spanish learning and literature, of the many noble traits of and graces and beauty of the Spanish character and people. Many of the Spanish classics have been translated and read by us and infused into our own literature. "Our own local poet, Judge Walter Malone, has sung in imperishable verse of the valor and deeds of the great Spanish warriors and discoverers, of which you will have witness. "Our own writer, Washington Irving, has given us vivid pictures of the glories and beauties of Spain. Some of your words we have adopted as our own. Your wise proverbs have become our common property, Senor Zapico, when we give wings to our imagination, and have daydreams of wealth, greatness, beauty, and grace. We speak of them — our dreams — as 'build- ing castles in Spain.' "And so, although young and lacking in the ancient glories and beauties of Spain to offer for your entertainment and pleasure, we respect your great sovereigns and people, and appreciate your presence on this occasion, and if I may be permitted to use what I understand to be a characteristic expression of that so noted and gracious hospitality of the Spaniards, we say to you, of such as we have, 'It is all yours.' "And now, Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen, while we as a people are mainly of the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic races, and have inherited their language, laws, traditions, and institutions, we can and do claim as part of our history some of the traditions and glories of the Latins of Spain, France, and Portugal. We honor their achievements and would absorb into our own national life and character the influence and spirit of their valor, endur- ance, and accomplishments. We would emulate that Spanish pride of which we have heard much, that pride which comes from a consciousness of true gentility, of unf earing manhood, of untainted honor, which yields to all others that full consideration which it demands for itself — that birthright of a Spanish gentle- 164 The Chickasaw Nation man. We will accept, guard, and treasure this monument as an everlasting memento of them and as an incentive to our coming generations to study their history and emulate their spirit, and with this feeling and this purpose, I, on behalf of the mayor, city and people of Memphis, accept for them this monument so appropriately erected and presented at this time." Address of J. Elmore Holmes Presenting Copy of "De Soto"— "Mr. Chairman, Senor Zapico, Ladies, and Gentlemen: "We come to this historic bluff, near where the great Hernando De Soto discovered the Mississippi River, to engage in this ceremony in honor of him who has blazed the way for our modern civilization. At the same time we come to honor the nation he represented and the civilization which sent him on his mission of exploration. "We Americans are greatly indebted to Spain for the in- trepid spirit of her explorers and soldiers who made it possible to open up this New World. "It is true that there are many Spanish names which are household words here. In the first chapter of our American history their Majesties King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella play the important part of giving financial aid and support to the dis- covery of America. Balboa, Ponce de Leon, and Hernando De Soto occupy unique and important places in our American history. "The county immediately to the south of us, and in the State of Mississippi, bears the name of De Soto and the county seat is Hernando. We have our De Soto Street and our Hernando Street in this great city. "The author of the volume which I hold in my hand was born and reared in De Soto County, Mississippi, and he received the inspiration which enabled him to write the great epic poem in the forests of the Chickasaw Indians, and he has put into song the undying fame of Hernando De Soto and the greatness of Spain. "It is no wonder then, Senor Zapico, that on the hundredth anniversary of our great city we should feel bound to express to you, and to your great country, and to your great king and queen, this debt of gratitude which we feel ! "Allow me to read the beautifully executed inscription on the first page of this book from the artistic pen of our townsman A. A. Andrews, which is in these words : 165 The Chickasaw Nation "'Presented to their Majesties Alfonso and Victoria, King and Queen of Spain, in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the city of Memphis and county of Shelby, State of Tennessee, U. S. A., in memory of the intrepid sons of Spain who braved so much to open the eyes of the civilized world to the new America.' "Senor Zapico, it now becomes my very pleasant duty to present to you on behalf of Memphis and Shelby County, and on behalf of the Centennial Committee, this beautifully bound volume, which tells the story and gives the connecting link be- tween the prehistoric and the historic, and in presenting this volume to you, we ask you to transmit it to their Majesties King Alfonso and Queen Victoria with every expression from us of our profound sense of gratitude to Spain ; and also as an expression of our friendship and the friendship of the American people. And will you permit us also to indulge the hope that the friendship which now so happily exists between our country and your country may last not for a day, but that it shall endure through the ages yet to come?" Response of Senor Don Emilio Zapico, The Spanish Consul— "Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: "I have the honor and pleasure of being present on this auspicious occasion to represent the government of their Majes- ties, the King and Queen of Spain. "As our people treasure the memory of the heroic accom- plishments of the great Spaniards of the past and of the mighty part Spain has taken in the history and progress of the world, we are pleased with the courtesy of your invitation to be rep- resented on this occasion, and gratified by the spirit of friendli- ness shown by your people and by the evidence of your apprecia- tion of the great deeds of our compatriots by the erection of this monument in granite and bronze. As of old, we still prize that spirit of dauntless endeavor and courage to which you pay tribute, and of which their Majesties of Spain are our high exemplars. We find a touch of kinship in your recognition of this, and we feel that we can indeed claim to have been and still are in accomplishment and in spirit a part of the history and life of this great country. These things demonstrate that the mighty impulses and effects of great deeds die not with the immediate 166 The Chickasaw Nation events and actors, but are immortal, moving down the ages with ever-widening influence and increasing force. And may our part in, and your just and generous recognition of, these heroic events draw our countries still nearer together in purpose, efforts, and spirit. "We are glad that not only in this monument of granite and bronze but in the imperishable verse written by your own great poet, Judge Walter Malone, you have celebrated the deeds of which we are justly proud. "The beautiful copy of the great poem Hernando De Soto which you have so kindly presented to their Majesties will be gladly received and will be prized by them for its beauty, for the spirit which prompted the gift, and for the wonderful poem itself. "On behalf of their Majesties and on behalf of the govern- ment and people of Spain I greet you and again thank you for the beautiful volume I now hold in my hand, and it will be care- fully treasured and forwarded to their Majesties, the King and Queen of Spain." Minnesota and Mississippi Honor De Soto — The present adult generation was taught that the Minnesota branch of the Mississippi River arose in Lake Itasca, but the rising generation will be taught that the source of this great branch of the Mississippi is Lake Hernando De Soto, named in honor of the intrepid explorer of that name, and in so honoring his memory Minnesota honored herself. In a letter to me October 24, 1919, Warren Upham, Secretary of the Minnesota Historical Society, states that Lake Hernando De Soto is in the north edge of Becker County, two and a half miles south from the west arm of Lake Itasca, and that Lake Hernando De Soto is the highest lake sending water, by under- ground seepage, to the Mississippi. Its area is two hundred and twenty acres, of very irregular outlines, with numerous arms> peninsulas, and islands. Its height above Lake Itasca, deter- mined by leveling, is one hundred and one feet, and its maximum depth is twenty feet. According to the most reliable information from leveling by United States surveys, railroads, and a special 167 The Chickasaw Nation series of levels by J. V. Brown in 1891, the height of Lake Itasca was ascertained to be fourteen hundred and fifty-seven feet above mean sea level. Its maximum depth in the southeast arm is about eighty feet, and its natural range of low and high water was only about eight inches, but the dams of lumbermen raised it some two or three feet for a few years, but that was many years ago. In 1 891 Minnesota established the Itasca State Park, containing 22,000 acres, about the sources of the Mississippi in Clearwater, Becker, and Hubbard Counties, dedicated as a great playground for its people; a wise act. On February 9, 1836, the State of Mississippi created the county of De Soto, lying in the extreme northwest corner of the State, bounded on the west by the Mississippi River and on the north by the State of Tennessee. It was so named in honor of the great explorer, and the county seat was named Hernando, thus giving the full name of Hernando De Soto to the county and the site of the county government. A portion of the county lies in the upper reaches of the fertile Mississippi delta, but the greater part lies in the high, rolling, plateau region, and though there is considerable sand in the soil, it is capable of producing most abundant crops of many varieties, and altogether a delightful place of abode. We learn from Saunders (p. 132) that Hernando was first named Jefferson, and that before the Civil War De Soto County became the abode of many wealthy and aristocratic families. Among the prominent men of antebellum days may be men- tioned: General James R. Chalmers, Judge H. H. Chalmers, G. D. Shands, Thomas W. White, Col. Felix Labauve, Judge James Bright Morgan, Dr. Thomas A. Iredale, Dr. Franklin J. Malone, and his son John T. Malone, Finley Holmes, and his son Francis Holmes, Dr. J. H. P. Westbrook, R. H. Vance, and the afterwards distinguished General Nathan Bedford Forrest. 168 The Chickasaw Nation In this county my youngest brother, Walter Malone, was born February 10, 1866, and there I lived until 1872, when I removed to Memphis. So far as my information extends, the naming of the county and county site in honor of the memory of De Soto is the only instance in which the public authorities have taken any notice of the intrepid explorer who spent the winter of 1 540-1 541 among the Chickasaw Indians in what is now north Mississippi. We of the south have given scant attention to the preservation of local history, while our Northern brethren wisely convert such matters into a public asset. I was delighted to learn from Judge Charles Lee Crum that he intended to place a marker or monu- ment at the rock bottom ford on the Tallahatchie River where De Soto crossed that river in 1541, only a few days before his discovery of the great river. On January 1, 1920, the Memphis Historical Society passed a resolution commending the purpose of Judge Crum, and it is to be hoped that such an example will quicken a public interest in matters of this kind. 169 CHAPTER VIII THE HOME LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE CHICKASAWS A history of a people which is confined to the changes in their forms of government, and those who effect those changes, including the wars and revolutions experienced by every nation, fails to give a comprehensive picture of that people. As we have reached that period when the Chickasaws have clearly come into the light of authentic history, I will endeavor to enter into some details, so that it may appear who and what manner of people they were when first discovered roaming the forest as the untutored children of nature. This has proven not an easy task, for the Indians were without a written history, and much that has been written and said of them has not only emanated from prejudiced sources but from persons who were without adequate means of information; and consequently much misinformation has been spread abroad on this interesting subject. Manifestly it is desirable to know them in their aborigi- nal state, and before changes took place from their contact with the white man, which has wrought many changes in them and threatens their very existence at a future day. This is a subject of deep interest to every reflecting man, for it involves questions with respect to the history of the whole human race and the final destiny of civilized mankind. Authentic Sources of Information— Obviously our first care should be to seek for authentic information; that is, information from authors who had their information at first hands, who had the means of seeing and knowing the Chickasaws as they were in their primitive condi- tion, and who had the ability and desire to correctly record what 170 The Chickasaw Nation they saw and heard. Hereinbefore I have given my reasons for relying upon the works of Adair, Cushman, and Lincecum, and after the examination of many books I desire to especially commend the writings of William Bartram, John Lawson, and Albert James Pickett for accuracy and as bearing internal evidence of a desire coupled with ability to relate the story of the Indians as they saw and knew them. As the works of these authors are comparatively rare books, and when accessible must be carefully read in order to sift out those parts relative to the Chickasaws, I deem it not improper to give a short notice of each of them. William Bartram was the son of John Bartram, botanist to the King of Great Britain and Fellow of the Royal Society under whom the son (William) received his training. At the request of Dr. Fothergill of London, Bartram sailed from London in April, 1773, to search the western parts of Caro- lina and Georgia for the discovery of rare and useful productions of nature, chiefly in the vegetable kingdom, and he landed in Charleston, South Carolina, in the spring of 1773, and spent several years in exploring Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia, and what is now the southern portions of Alabama and Mississippi, going up the Mississippi and also the Tombigbee short distances, but did not visit the Chickasaw country, though he often speaks of them, having seen bands of their men but not their women. He was a thoroughly equipped botanist, and his descriptions not only of the flora and fauna but of the aborigines of the country impressed me as of the first order, while his graceful style of writing has not been excelled by any of the early ex- plorers. He speaks of the Muscogulge (which is now written Musk- hogean) as the principal tribe inhabiting the country from the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida to the Mississippi, and of the Chickasaws and Choctaws as their confederates. They were all, in fact, members of the Muskhogean family, but were often at war with each other. 171 The Chickasaw Nation John Lawson came to America in 1700, landing at New- York, but after a fortnight stay he put out from Sandyhook and in fourteen days arrived at Charleston, S. C, where he became Surveyor General of Carolina, North and South Carolina being one and the same at that time. His book consists in part of a journal he kept with a history of what he saw and learned in Carolina. Lawson represented the Lords proprietors under the cele- brated charter of Charles II to Edward, Earl of Clarendon, and associates, by which that gay monarch granted in 1663 and 1665, that vast territory called Carolina and vaguely described as lying within certain degrees of latitude on the Atlantic, and ex- tending back to the "South Sea," for such was the name by which the Pacific Ocean was called at that time. Lawson's book contains a full report to the Lords proprietors, and was first published in London in 1714, and republished in Raleigh, N. C, in i860. Unfortunately Lawson was murdered by the Indians on a subsequent trip to Carolina. This rare book was placed in my hands by Judge L. B. Mc- Farland, veteran and retired member of the Memphis bar. He had read the first part of this sketch of the Chickasaws, published as a souvenir to the Memphis Centenary, and becoming very much interested in the subject and its treatment, he made many valuable suggestions as to the subject matter of succeeding chapters. Albert James Pickett, was an Alabamian (my native state) and the author of a history of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, the book appearing in 1 851, the copy I read being a republication by Robert C. Randolph in 1896. Pickett would travel hundreds of miles to verify a single matter which he deemed of importance, and spent a lifetime in laborious efforts to present an accurate history from the earliest times. While he was thus engaged in what he declares was his life work, he often became despondent, and thought of destroying his 172 The Chickasaw Nation material; but fortunately persevered to the end, his book now- being regarded as a classic on the subjects treated. While Pickett was preparing his history of Alabama, Theodore Irving was preparing his Conquest of Florida, which revealed to Americans the narrative of Garcilaso de la Vega of the De Soto expedition, and Irving paid a glowing tribute to the work of Pickett. Upon further reflection I have concluded to list with the three above mentioned authors Captain Bernard Romans, of the English Army, who traveled extensively through the South- west, visiting the Chickasawsin 1771. In 1775 he brought out his book, Natural History of East and West Florida, now a rare book, and though comparatively small, at the last sale a copy brought $450- While rather dogmatic, Romans was an unusually intelli- gent writer, gathering a great mass of information relative to what are now some of the Southern States. He was also an artist of considerable talents, and not only drew valuable maps of the country, with its harbors, bays, and inlets, but also drew with pen and ink what he termed characteristic warriors and women of the various tribes of Indians visited by him. Among these he drew what he called a characteristic Chick- asaw warrior, which is the earliest attempt I have met with to portray the appearance of a primitive Chickasaw, who were not inclined, I infer, to have their pictures taken. This drawing is reproduced in Chapter VIII. If it be said that these authors were not treating specifically of the Chickasaws, still they treated of them in part, and, more- over, they were treating especially of the great Muskhogean family of Indians, which comprised the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, and these with the Cherokees occupied almost exclusively that vast territory stretching from the eastern shores of the Mississippi, from the Gulf of Mexico, far into Kentucky and thence eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. These five tribes of Indians were farther advanced than any Northern 173 The Chickasaw Nation tribe, and hence became known and designated as "The Five Civilized Tribes." The Cherokees were not nearly related to the other four tribes, but belonged to the Southern branch of the Iroquois Indians, and for the most part lived in the mountainous regions of Virginia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Alabama, and Georgia. They were a splendid type of an uncivilized people, and the fact that Sequoyah, a man of splendid intellect, sprung from them, marks the Cherokees as a remarkable people. It may be here recalled that while the Chickasaws were far less numerous than any other of these notable aboriginal tribes, being less than one-tenth of the combined populations of the five tribes, still they were more than a match for any one of them, being often called the unconquered and unconquerable Chicka- saws. They had no superiors upon this continent. It has been a question with me in the preparation of this work as to the best method to present the facts, so that errors might not supervene, as far as that is possible, and yet avoid unneces- sary details. I have concluded to make literal quotations in many instances, so that the truth may appear as presented by those who saw and heard for themselves the things which they wrote. How the Original Chickasaws Appeared— Bartram was a botanist of the first order, and his labors in the unexplored regions of the new world, along the lines of his life work, in the discovery of new plants and varieties of known forms and their proper classification, have stood the test of more than a century, and he stands preeminent in this branch of science. He must therefore have been an unusually close observer, and likewise had the capacity to accurately record what he saw. His writings were by no means solely confined to questions of 174 The above is reproduced from Captain Bernard Roman's drawing from life in 1771, it being what he called (p. 59) a "Characteristick Chickasaw head," and the earliest I have found. Apparently it was drawn with pen and ink. The Chickasaw Nation botany, but he wrote of everything he saw and heard in his extensive trips through the wild Indian countries, including the Indians as he saw them and knew them during the years he spent among them. He says (p. 258) that the Indians named him Puc-Puggy, which in their language meant Flower Hunter; and as the Indians were quick to distinguish persons who came among them on friendly missions from those who came for mercenary or unworthy purposes, we may be sure that the Indians were free and far more communicative with him than the ordinary pioneer, and that his means of knowing them were of a superior order. I will therefore let Bartram picture the Chickasaws for the reader : "The males of the Cherokees, Muscogulges, Creeks, Semi- noles, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and confederate tribes of the Creeks, are tall, erect, and moderately robust; their limbs well shaped, so as generally to form a perfect human figure; their features regular, and countenance open, dignified, and placid; yet the forehead and brow so formed as to strike you instantly with heroism and bravery; the eye though rather small, yet active and full of fire, the iris always black, and the nose common- ly inclining to the aquiline. "Their countenance and actions exhibit an air of mag- nanimity, superiority, and independence. "Their complexion, of a reddish brown or copper colour; their hair long, lank, coarse, and black as a raven, and reflecting the like lustre at different exposures to the light. "The women of the Cherokees are tall, slender, erect, and of a delicate frame; their features formed with perfect symmetry, their countenance cheerful and friendly, and they move with a becoming grace and dignity. "The Muscogulge women, though remarkably short of stature, are well formed; their visage round, features regular and beautiful; the brow high and arched; the eye large, black, and languishing, expressive of modesty, diffidence, and bashfulness; these charms are their defensive and offensive weapons, and they know well how to play them off, and under cover of these alluring graces are concealed the most subtle artifices; they are, however, 175 The Chickasaw Nation loving and affectionate. They are, I believe, the smallest race of women yet known, seldom above five feet high, and I believe the greater number never arrive to that stature ; their hands and feet not larger than those of Europeans of nine or ten years of age; yet the men are of gigantic stature, a full size larger than Euro- peans; many of them above six feet, and a few under that, or five feet eight or ten inches. "Their complexion much darker than any of the tribes to the north of them that I have seen. This description will, I believe, comprehend the Muscogulges, their confederates, the Choctaws, and I believe the Chickasaws (though I have never seen their women), excepting some bands of the Seminoles, Uches, and Savannucas, who are rather taller and slenderer, and their com- plexion brighter." It will be observed that Bartram in speaking of the smallness of the women of some of the tribes states that, as he had not seen the Chickasaw women, he could not speak as to them, but Cushman knew them well during a long life, and of them (p. 448) he says : "The ancient Chickasaws were deservedly celebrated for their handsome young women; and seldom have I looked upon such specimens of female grace and loveliness as I have seen among the Chickasaws three-quarters of a century ago in their former homes east of the Mississippi River, nor do they fall much below at the present day. Their eyes were dark and full, and their countenances like their native clime — always beaming with sunshine — whose sympathetic smiles chased fatigue away and changed the night of melancholy into day. They were truly beautiful and, best of all, unconsciously so. Oft was I at a loss which most to admire — the graceful and seemingly perfect forms, finely chiseled features, lustrous eyes, and flowing hair, or that soft, winning artlessness which was so pre-eminently theirs." The Chickasaw women were of good size, as well as beautiful, and shared with their men that martial spirit which was such a distinctive characteristic of the Chickasaws, referring to which Adair (p. 319) says: 176 The Chickasaw Nation "It is usual for the women to sing the enlivening war songs in the time of an attack; and it inflames the men's spirits so highly that they become as fierce as lions. I never knew an in- stance of the Indians running off, though from a numerous enemy, and leaving their women and children to their bar- barous hands." That human nature has been and is about the same, in all parts of the world and among all womankind as well as mankind, is evident from the fact, as stated by Adair, that the Chickasaw women, being conscious of the exquisite beauty of their forms, sometimes carelessly and coquettishly allowed their drapery to so hang as to half conceal and half reveal the symmetry of their limbs slightly above the knee. The foregoing lines were written at Oakland, California, where I was sojourning for a short while, when all of that country was on the tiptoe of expectancy in anticipation of the arrival in the Bay of San Francisco of the great armada of the Pacific naval fleet, the largest assemblage of American war vessels in our long history; and these vessels were scheduled to arrive in a few days, that is, September I, 1919. Every form of entertain- ment for the visitors, from Secretary Daniels down to the Jackies, was being arranged, among them being a proposed bare- foot dance in Grecian costume by the girls of exclusive Berkley; but the Berkley mothers were determined to protect the "morals" of the Jackies, and were endeavoring to have the dance "tabooed." There was much in the press pro and con, and among them a correspondent of one of the principal papers, wisely concealing his identity under the non de plume of "Artist," after quoting the girls as saying that the dance is "art of the highest form," and that "the boys were not going to see the dancers, they are going to see the dance," answered rather jocosely, "Maybe, girls, maybe"; and that "the only art likely to be lost sight of in the shuffle is the art of modesty." Pickett (pp. 58, 59) says: 177 The Chickasaw Nation "The Indians of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Missis- sippi were so similar in form, mode of living, and general habits, in the time of De Soto and of others who succeeded him in pene- trating these wilds, that they will all be treated, on the pages of this chapter, as one people. The color was like that of the Indians of our day. The males were admirably proportioned, athletic, active, and graceful in their movements, and possessed open and manly countenances. The females, not inferior in form, were smaller, and many of them beautiful. No ugly or ill-formed Indians were seen, except at the town of Tula, west of the Mis- sissippi." After the Chickasaws had ceded all of their rights in West Tennessee, and it was being settled by the whites, Williams in his Old Times in West Tennessee (p. 69) says of the Chickasaws that they were proverbially polite, friendly, and wholly in- offensive. To the nearest settlers they would bring in the finest haunches of venison, fat gobblers, and bear meat. They hunted for the most part for the peltries, curing only as many venison hams as they could conveniently pack away on their ponies. Practically all travelers and observers state that they never saw among the Indians a hunchback, club-footed, or otherwise naturally deformed Indian. It is generally believed that upon the birth of every Indian child it was carefully examined, and if it was found to be in any manner deformed, it was not allowed to live, because they thought the deformity was an unmistakable token of divine displeasure, and that it was best for the child and the tribe to thus dispose of the unfortunate at its birth. This reminds us of similar customs among the ancient Greeks, and of the rather acrimonious discussion in the press recently relative to the advice given by an eminent physician to summarily dispose of a new-born infant, which could neither enjoy health nor possess a sound mind. Nor was this the only method of weeding out the mental and bodily unfit Indians; for Pickett (p. 106) and Lawson (p. 380) 178 The Chickasaw Nation both set out at some length the manner of initiation of the young men and women into full fellowship, Lawson calling it an abom- inable custom, which continued for weeks and sometimes for months. The young men and women, though separately initiated, were placed in large dark houses, where they were nearly starved, and were compelled to drink certain nauseous decoctions which, in some instances, made them raving maniacs, and from the hardships of the initiation many died, while others made their escape. Lawson thus states the reasons given by the Indians for this custom: "Now the savages say if it was not for this, they could never keep their youth in subjection ; besides that it hardens them ever after to fatigues of war, hunting, and all manner of hardship, which their way of living exposes them to. Besides, they add, that it carries off those infirm, weak bodies that would have been only a burden and disgrace to their nation, and saves the victuals and clothing for better people that would have been expended on such useless creatures." Private Character of the Chickasaws— Bartram (pp. 487, 488) says: "If we consider them with respect to their private character, or in a moral view, they must, I think, claim our approbation, if we divest ourselves of prejudice and think freely. As moral men they certainly stand in no need of European civilization. "They are just, honest, liberal, and hospitable to strangers; considerate, loving, and affectionate to their wives and relations; fond of their children; industrious, frugal, temperate, and per- severing; charitable and forbearing. I have been weeks and months amongst them and in their towns, and never observed the least sign of contention or wrangling: never saw an instance of an Indian beating his wife, or even reproving her in anger. In this case they stand as examples of reproof to the most civil- ized nations, as not being defective in justice, gratitude, and good understanding; for indeed their wives merit their esteem and the most gentle treatment, they being industrious, frugal, careful, loving, and affectionate. 179 The Chickasaw Nation "The Muscogulges are more volatile, sprightly, and talka- tive than their Northern neighbors, the Cherokees; and, though far more distant from the white settlements than any nation east of the Mississippi or Ohio, appear evidently to have made greater advances towards the refinements of true civilization, which cannot, in the least degree, be attributed to the good examples of the white people." Upon this same subject Lawson (pp. 320, 321) says: "They will endure a great many misfortunes, losses, and disappointments without showing v themselves, in the least, vexed or uneasy. When they go by water, if there proves a head wind, they never vex and fret as the Europeans do, and let what misfortune come to them as will or can happen, they never relent. Besides, there is one vice very common everywhere, which I never found amongst them, which is, envying other men's happiness, because their station is not equal to, or above their neighbor's. Of this sin I cannot say I ever saw an example, though they are a people that set as great a value upon them- selves as any sort of men in the world, upon which account they find something valuable in themselves above riches. Thus, he that is a good warrior is the proudest creature living; and he that is an expert hunter is esteemed by the people and himself; yet all these are natural virtues and gifts, and not riches, which are as often in the possession of a fool as a wise man. Several of the Indians are possessed of a great many skins, wampum, ammuni- tion, and what other things are esteemed riches amongst them; yet such an Indian is no more esteemed amongst them than any other ordinary fellow, provided he has no personal endowments which are the ornaments that must gain him an esteem among them; for a great leader amongst the Indians is no otherwise respected and esteemed than a man that strains his wits and fatigues himself to furnish others with necessaries of life that live much easier and enjoy more of the world than he himself does with all his pelf. "If they are taken captives and expect a miserable exit, they sing; if death approach them in sickness, they are not afraid of it; nor are they ever heard to say, 'Grant me some time.' They know by instinct, and daily example, that they must die; where- 180 The Chickasaw Nation fore they have a great and noble gift to submit to everything that happens, and value nothing that attacks them." The Chickasaws were conspicuous for possessing the noble traits as described above, which is attested by every observant writer upon the subject. Language of the Chickasaws— Bartram (p. 517), after stating that the language of the Chickasaws was similar to that of the Muskhogean family, says that their language is very agreeable to the ear, courteous, gentle, and musical ; that the letter r is not found in one word of their language. That the women in particular speak so fine and musically as to represent the singing of birds; and when heard and not seen, one might imagine it to be the prattling of little children. The men's voices were stronger and more sonorous, but not harsh, and in no instance guttural. DuPratz settled among the Natchez Indians as early as 1720, was engaged in the wars resulting in the extermination of that splendid tribe, and was a contemporary of the wars of the French in their attempted extermination of the Chickasaws, and wrote fully of the same, as we will see in the next chapter; and probably no one had a better means of knowing the Chickasaws and the extent to which their language was spoken by other Indian nations than he. Speaking of the Chickasaws (pp. 310, 311) DuPratz says: "The nation of the Chickasaws is very warlike. The men have very regular features, are large, well-shaped, and neatly dressed; they are fierce, and have a high opinion of themselves. They seem to be the remains of a populous nation whose warlike disposition had prompted them to invade several nations, whom they have indeed destroyed, but not without diminishing their own numbers by those expeditions. What induces me to believe that this nation has been formerly very considerable is that the nations who border upon them, and whom I have just mentioned, 181 The Chickasaw Nation speak the Chickasaw language, though somewhat corrupted, and those who speak it best value themselves upon it." Or, stated in other words, the Chickasaws imposed their language on adjoining Indians, and it was a badge of honor among them to be able to speak in the language of the haughty Chickasaws. Captain Bernard Romans, who visited the Chickasaws in November of 1771, after stating that the Chickasaws were cruel, insolent, and haughty, adds (p. 59) that, although it was one of the smallest nations, still it was regarded as the mother nation on this part of the continent, and that their language was adopted universally by most, if not all, of the Western tribes. Nuttall (p. 288) says: "The language of the Chickasaws, it appears, was not unknown on the western side of the Mississippi; the Caddoes or Cadodaquoix, divided into several branches, as well as the Natchitoches, although possessed of a peculiar language, as well as all the Indians of Louisiana, generally, were more or less acquainted with the Chickasaw or Mobilian." Pickett (p. 133) and practically all other writers are in accord with the above authorities, some saying that the Chicka- saw was the trade language in general use up and down the Mis- sissippi and its tributaries. Roosevelt (Vol. 1, p. 61) states that while the whole Chick- asaw nation never probably exceeded four thousand souls, that it was the only one closely knit together, and that the whole tribe acted in unison as one man. This undoubtedly was one of the main reasons why they were never conquered, and why they imposed their language so universally on all neighboring tribes. Their Dwelling Houses— The common belief that the Chickasaws lived in skin tepees or in the open is a great misapprehension, for, upon the 182 The Chickasaw Nation first discovery of them by the De Soto expedition, they were found living in houses, with outhouses for the storing of their grain and provisions in every way suitable to their wants and situa- tion. The Gentleman of Elvas (p. 53) informs us that through- out the cold country every Indian had a winter house, plastered inside and out, with a very small door, which was closed at dark, and a fire being made within, it remained heated like an oven, so that clothing was not needed during the night-time. He had like- wise a house for summer, and near it a kitchen, where fire was made and bread baked. Maize was kept in barbacoa, which was a house with wooden sides, like a room, raised aloft on four posts, and had a floor of cane. The difference between the houses of the masters, or principal men, and those of the common people was, besides being larger than the others, they had deep balconies on the front side, with cane seats, like benches; and about are many barbacoas, in which they brought together the tribute their people gave them of maize, skins of deer, and blankets of the country. These were like shawls, some of them made from the inner bark of trees, and others of a grass resembling nettle, which, by treading out, became like flax. The women used them for covering, wearing one about the body from the waist down- ward, and another over the shoulders, with the right arm left free, after the manner of the gypsies. The men wore but one, which they carried over the shoulder in the same way, the loins being covered with a bragueiro of deer-skin, after the fashion of the woolen breechcloth that was once the custom of Spain. The skins were well dressed, the color being given to them that was desired, and in such perfec- tion, that, when of vermilion, they looked like very fine red broadcloth ; and when black, the sort in use for shoes, they were of the purest. The same hues were given to blankets. Elvas added that the Indians kept their houses clean, and Law- son was astonished to observe how sweet they kept them, which he said would not be possible if Europeans lived in the same manner. 183 The Chickasaw Nation Adair who first went as an English trader among the Chick- asaws in 1744, and for years lived with and knew them, confirms Elvas (p. 406), and adds that every dwelling house had a small field pretty close to it; and, as soon as the spring of the year admitted, there they planted a variety of large and small beans, squashes, peas, pumpkins, and the smaller sort of Indian corn, which usually ripened in two months from the time it was planted; though it was called by the English the six weeks' corn. Around this small farm, they fastened stakes in the ground, and tied a couple of long split hickory, or white oak saplings, at proper distances to keep off the horses; though they could leap fences, yet many of the old horses would creep through the inclosures almost as readily as swine, to the great regret of the women, who scolded and gave them ill names, calling them ugly mad horses, and bidding them "go along, and be sure to keep away." Cushman (p. 577) says the Southern Indians had spades and shovels made of cedar, picks, axes, and hoes- made of stone, spoons made of horn, and mortars and pestles made of stone with which they prepared their corn for bread, and added that many of the Chickasaws and Choctaws used them to his day. Closely connected with the character of the dwellings is that of the character of their towns, or assemblage of villages, as they appeared to Romans in 177 1. He says (p. 62) that they were then living in a large Savannah, about three miles in diame- ter, and though the soil looked barren, still it produced a grass of which the cattle were so fond as to leave the richest cane brakes for it, and that they thrived to admiration thereon, and that there was a profusion of wild strawberries in season. In this expanse they had one town of the length of about one mile and a half, though very narrow and irregular; and this town was divided into seven parts, which Romans and Pickett (p. 134) say were named as follows: 184 The Chickasaw Nation Mellattau, hat and feather. Chatelan, copper town. Chuckafalaya, long town. Hickihaw, stand still. Chucalissa, great town. Tuckahaw, a certain weed. Ashwickbooma, red grass. The last was once well fortified with palisades, and there they defeated D'Artaguette. Adair's description of the Chickasaw country is lengthy, but not as clear as it might be, and is thus condensed by Gatschet (p. 91): "The Chikkasah country lies in about thirty-five degrees north latitude, at the distance of one hundred and sixty miles from the eastern side of the Mississippi * * * "About half way from Mobile to the Illinois, etc. The Chikkasah are now well settled between the heads of two of the most western branches of Mobile (now Tombigbee) River and within twelve miles of Tahre Hache (Tallahatchie) * * * In 1720 they had four contiguous settlements, which lay nearly in the form of three parts of a square, only that the eastern side was five miles shorter than the western, with the open part toward the Choktah. One was called Yanena, about a mile wide and six miles long, * * *; another was ten miles long, and from one to two miles broad. The towns were called Shatara, Chook- hereso, Hykehah, Tuskawillao, and Phalacheho. The other square, Chookka Pharaahor, or "The Long House," was single and ran four miles in length and one mile in breadth. It was more populous than the whole nation and contains at present * * * scarcely 450 warriors." The great length in miles given by Adair would ordinarily imply a much larger population than the Chickasaws really had. The explanation consists in the fact that the Chickasaw houses were ordinarily not built close together, but usually each house was separate and apart from the others, with a plot of ground near for such cultivation as they desired. 185 The Chickasaw Nation No doubt experience had taught them also that this practice made for good health and cleanliness. They had, of course, in times of invasion, their palisades or fortified strongholds, as we will see in Chapter IX, when their country was invaded by the French in 1736. Courtship and Marriage— The mating of the young man and woman has been, is, and always will be a matter of the profoundest importance, not only to the immediate contracting parties, but to the public at large. Its importance was fully appreciated by the Chickasaws, who had, in all probability, a clearer insight into its real significance than any other tribe on the continent. So high an authority as Judge Haywood in his Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennes- see (p. 291), now a very rare book, states that no Chickasaw young woman was ever known to give birth to a child before wedlock. Of what civilized or Christian nation can this be affirmed? Cushman (p. 498), who knew the Chickasaws so well, thus succinctly states courtship and marriage among them: The ancient manner of Chickasaw courtship was not very taxing upon the sensitiveness of the bashful, perspective groom; since, when he wished to make known to any young lady of his tribe the emo- tions of his heart in regard to her, he had to send but a small bundle of clothing carefully tied up in a large cotton handker- chief (similar in dimensions to a medium-sized table cloth, very common in those primitive days of ignorant bliss, when fashion and folly were unknown), by his mother or sister, to the girl he desired to make his wife. This treasure of acknowledged love was immediately taken possession by the mother of the wished- for bride and kept for a few days before presenting it to her daughter; and when presented, if accepted, it was a bona fide acknowledgment on her part of her willingness to accept him as her husband, of which confession he was at once duly notified; if otherwise, the subject was there and then forever dropped, and 186 The Chickasaw Nation the disappointed and disconsolate swain found consolation in the privilege in all such cases, of presenting another bundle of clothes wrapped in a similar mantle of cotton, to some other forest beauty in which his country so profusely abounded. But best of all, the swain, whether bold or timid, was always spared that fearful and dreaded ordeal of soliciting the "yes" of the "old folks," as his mother took that imperative and obnoxious duty upon herself, and was almost always successful in the ac- complishment of the desired object. The coast being clear of all breakers, the elated lover painted his face in exact conformity to the latest and most approved style, donned his best suit, and sought the home of his betrothed with fluttering heart, who, strictly on the lookout, met him a few rods from the door, and proudly and heroically escorted him into the house where they, themselves, in the presence of friends and relatives, performed the marriage ceremony by the man presenting the woman with a ham of venison; or a part of some other eatable animal of the chase; she at the same time presenting him with an ear of corn or sack of potatoes, all of which betokened the man should provide the household with meat, and the woman with bread. Thus they were made man and wife, and so considered by all. The Marital Relation in Other Respects, and Chickasaw Nomenclature — Fidelity to her husband was one of the virtues of the Chickasaw married woman, but her husband could put her aside, though be it said to the credit of the men, this was rarely done. Infidelity was followed by the severest punishment, both to the man and the woman, though the punishment of the woman was more severe than that of the man. When the crime was proven against the woman, the enraged husband, accompanied by some of his relatives, would surprise and beat her most un- mercifully, and sometimes cut off her hair, or nose, or lip. It is worthy of note that those married women who thus became 187 The Chickasaw Nation disfigured were the handsomest and the most tempting, which exposed them to the snares of the young men. However, they did not fail also to punish the guilty man, for the Chickasaws commonly began with the adulterer, because, of the two, he was more capable of making his escape; they generally attacked him at night, by surprise, least he should make a des- perate resistance, and blood be shed to cry for blood. They fell on eagerly and mercilessly, whooping their revengeful noise, and threshing their captive with their long-knobbed hoop-flails; some over his head and face; others on his shoulders and back; his sides, legs, and arms were gashed all over, and at last, if he happily seemed to be insensible of pain, then they cut off his ears. It would seem that the Indians, as the white, punish the women more severely than the men; their reasons therefor, as given to Adair (p. 145), are as follows: "When I asked the Chickkasah the reason of the inequality of their marriage-law, in punishing the weaker passive party, and exempting the stronger, contrary to reason and justice; they told me it had been so a considerable time, because their land being a continual seat of war, and the lurking enemy forever pelting them without, and the women decoying them within, if they put such old cross laws of marriage in force, all their beloved brisk warriors would soon be spoiled, and their habitations turned to a wild waste." Adultery was severely punished by all the Indian tribes, according to Adair (p. 145), except the Cherokees, whom he states lived under a petticoat and allowed their women full liberty. When a woman's husband died, the widow was compelled to go into mourning, usually for four years; three years under the Chickasaw laws and customs. Every evening, and at the very dawn of day, for the first year of her widowhood, she was obliged through the fear of shame to lament her loss in very pronounced 188 The Chickasaw Nation and audible strains, the particulars of which are set forth by Adair (p. 146). For a considerable time after the death of her husband the widow was required to sit out day and night in front of his house in all kinds of weather and to go through certain ceremonies, which were so severe as often to waste her person away. After the expiration of one year, if the brother of the deceased husband saw fit to cohabit with the widow, then she thereby became his wife, and Adair says that sometimes the widows not only made themselves exceedingly pleasant to their brothers- in-law, but would sometimes get them drunk in order to make them yield to their blandishments. And then again, when an obstinate brother-in-law refused to be attracted by their charms, they would set upon him and beat him, reviling him with the worst kinds of epithets. Morgan in his Ancient Society (which came out in 1877, p. 163) states that the Chickasaws were thus divided into twelve gentes, arranged into two phraties, as follows: I. Panther (Koi) Phatry (1) Koninchush, Wild Cat; (2) Hatafushi, Bird; (3) Nunni, Fish ; (4) Issi, Deer. II. Spanish (Ishpanee) Phatry (1) Shauee, Raccoon; (2) Ishpanee, Spanish; (3) Mingko, Royal; (4) Hushkoni, Skunk; (5) Tunni, Squirrel; (6) Hochon- chabba, Alligator; (7) Nashoba, Wolf; (8) Chuhhla, Black-bird. Gaschet in his Migration Legends of the Creek Indians (p. 96) states, as, indeed, Morgan does, that Morgan got his information from Rev. Charles C. Copeland, an American missionary residing with this tribe, and adds that "Copeland states the descent is in the female line, that no marriage takes place among individuals of the same gens, and 189 The Chickasaw Nation that property as well as the office of chief is hereditary in the gens." The following list inserted below will how show considerably he differs from Gibbs: Panther Phatry (Koa). Its gentes: (i) Kointchush, Wild Cat; (2) Fushi, Bird; (3) Nanni, Fish; (4) Issi, Deer; Spanish Phatry (Ishpani). Its gentes: (1) Shawi, Raccoon; (2) Ishpani, Spanish; (3) Mingo, Royal; (4) Hushkoni, Skunk; (5) Tunni, Squirrel; (6) Hotchon tchapa, Alligator; (7) Nashoba, Wolf; (8) Tchuhla, Black-bird. Surprise has naturally been expressed because the second phatry was called Spanish, and the explanation usually given is that this name was adopted after the visit of De Soto and his army and the battle therewith in 1541. This is no doubt true, for this memorable episode in their history must have engraven it- self upon the consciousness of the Chickasaws. Referring to that part of the above extract from Gatschet in which he quotes Copeland as saying that property, as well as the office of chief, is hereditary in the gens, if he means to say that the office of chief was hereditary in the sense that the office of chief descended from relative to relative among the primitive Chickasaws, either in the male or female line, then he is certainly mistaken. I have seen it stated that leaders were chosen from a certain gens, or phatry, or yakissah, and while this was possibly true, it is not probable, for a leader was always chosen on his own personal achievements, and not otherwise. While a chief or leader was respected, honored, and obeyed as such in the council or in the performance of official duties, still the Chickasaws were so jealous of their personal liberty that, in their domestic affairs, the humblest Chickasaw was the peer of the greatest ; as witness this sentiment expressed by Levi Colbert (Yakni Moma Ubih) in his public reproof to General Coffee, as set forth in Chapter X, and to the circumstances under which he was raised to leadership, as set forth further on in this chapter. 190 The Chickasaw Nation It is of interest to note that by ancient primitive laws the Chickasaws were wisely prohibited from marrying within certain degrees of relationship; and accordingly the tribe was divided into yakissah, which means in English, here stops. If the man violated the law by marrying a woman in his own yakissah, he forfeited his own rights and privileges, and also those of his children; but the wife forfeited nothing. Like some other primitive peoples descent was established through the female line rather than through that of the male, doubtless based upon the possibility that an illegitimate heir might be imposed upon the father by a wanton wife, which could not be the case if the descent was traced through the female line. Cushman says (p. 528), "the ties of kinship converged upon each other until they all met in the granddaughter; and thus every grandson and granddaughter became the grandson and granddaughter of the whole tribe ; since all the uncles of a given person were considered as his father also; and all the mothers' sisters were mothers; the cousins, as brothers and sisters; the nieces, as daughters; and the nephews as sons." As pointed out by McLaughlin (p. 225) this has led to great confusion in tracing relationship among North American Indians, and the federal government has endeavored in recent years to intro- duce a simpler system of nomenclature among the Western Indians. It is obvious, however, that this was of little consequence to the original Chickasaws, because laws of descent were of very slight importance to them, as in most cases the chief property of the warrior was interred with his bones, and to them it was incomprehensible how the ownership of property should make the owner thereof entitled to the least consideration in respect thereto; a principle of sociology which might well be followed among so-called civilized and enlightened peoples. But to the Chickasaws this mode of reckoning relationship had a very salutary effect on the tribe, in that it bound each 191 The Chickasaw Nation member not only to the nearest blood kin, by the endearing terms of father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, etc., but bound each by the same endearing terms to the whole nation. Thus they were so bound together as to create unity of thought and purpose; and, as pointed out by Mr. Roosevelt, the Chicka- saws excelled all other of their confederates in this respect. A child was not always named at its birth, but often was; and the name when given might be suggested by some circum- stance at or after its birth. Thus we learn from McLaughlin (p. 223) that the noted Sioux chief, Rain-in-the face, was given that name in infancy, because the mother had left the child under the shade of a tree strapped to a board, according to custom, while she was busied in the wigwam with household duties ; while all at once a neighboring woman ran in and told the mother that a sudden shower was raining in the face of the papoose; whereupon the father exclaimed, "It is a sign; let him be called Rain-in-the-face." While this is his name in English, we are assured that the soft Sioux syllables in which the name was pronounced can not be rendered into English with the same soft, musical effect. It is well known that the translations of the meaning of Indian names into English cannot be happily done, as in the fore- going instance; but worse still the translations often give a meaning entirely at variance with its real meaning; only one instance of which need be given. A few years ago the papers had a great deal to say about Young-man-afraid-of-his-horses, a conspicuous warrior of the West; and the name thus rendered suggested that, when a young man, the warrior became frightened or startled upon a stampede of his horses, or some like episode. His name in the Indian language was Tasunka-Kokipapi, the real meaning of which in English is, that such was his capacity in battle that the mere sight of his horses inspired fear in his enemies. 192 The Chickasaw Nation A Chickasaw sometimes had a name bestowed upon him for acts of heroism, as in the case of Levi Colbert, as he was known to the Americans. When he was a mere youth, a party of Creek warriors invaded the country of the Chickasaws while all the Chickasaw warriors were from home on a hunting excursion, so that the women and children stood in peril of a wholesale massacre. Young Colbert at once formed the old men and boys into a war party, and went at once to meet the invaders, whom he successfully drew into an artfully planned ambuscade, all of whom were put to death, not one being left to tell the story of their fate. The Chickasaws were not slow to detect true merit, and when the warriors came home and the story of the heroic deed was established after a careful investigation, then in solemn conclave, with all the sacred services of the Chickasaws, the hero was given the title of Itta WanibaMicco, which meant in English the seat occupied by the ancient Chickasaw chief in council assembled, and he became one of their great leaders. This is the same Colbert who years afterwards sternly rebuked General John Coffee in public in 1832, when Coffee offered to bestow upon him a very large estate in the articles of the proposed treaty; which Colbert very properly construed in the nature of a bribe to procure his consent to the treaty. The Treatment of Children- According to Cushman (pp. 488, 489), the greatest care was bestowed upon their children by the Chickasaw mothers, whom they never allowed to be placed upon their feet before the strength of their limbs would safely permit; and the child had free access to the maternal breast as long as it desired, unless the mother's health forbade its continuance. Children were never whipped by the parents, but, if guilty of any misdemeanor, were sent to their uncle for punishment, who only inflicted a severe rebuke or imposed upon them some little penance, or, what was more frequent, made appeals to their feelings of honor 193 The Chickasaw Nation or shame. When the boys arrived at the age of proper discrimi- nation — so considered when arrived at the age of twelve or fifteen years — they were committed to the instructions of the old and wise men of the village, who, at various intervals, instructed them in all the necessary knowledge and desired qualifications to constitute them successful hunters and ac- complished warriors. As introductory lessons they were in- structed in the arts of swimming, running, jumping, wrestling, using the bow and arrow; also, receiving from those venerable tutors those precepts of morality which should regulate their conduct when arrived at manhood. The most profound respect was paid everywhere to the oldest person in every family, whether male or female, and whose decisions upon all disputed points were supreme and final, and were received with cheerful and implicit obedience. No matter how distant their blood relations might be, all the members of a family addressed its head as father or mother, as the case might be; and whenever they meant to speak of him (their natural father), they said, "My real father," in contradistinction to that of father applied to the chief or head of the family. And what is equally important and a very interesting trait of character among the ancient Chickasaws is that there were among them no orphans in the full sense of that word as common- ly used. It is true that fathers and mothers died, leaving help- less children, but these were adopted either by relations or other members of the nation, under well defined and understood laws, according to which the adopted child became, in the view of the Chickasaws, as much a child of that family as those who were born to the father and mother thereof. Cushman says (p. 493) that he bears testimony to this noble trait, the care and solicitude for helpless orphanage, from a personal experience of seventy-five years, and adds: "I have seen, time and again, in many families among the Chickasaws and Choctaws from one to four adopted orphan 1U The Chickasaw Nation children; and they were adopted, not through mercenary motives — the hope of gain — but in the true spirit of the word, actuated by the divine principle of justice and compassion for the father- less, motherless, and homeless, adopted in the full meaning and sense of the word, to be protected, cared for, and loved, not to be enslaved for the few dollars and cents that anticipation whispered would be made out of them by adoption. And one might live a lifetime in a family of adopted orphans, and, unless told, he would not even suspect but that all the children were of the same parentage." Food Given by the Indians to Civilization- It may be well at the outset to recall that to the new world, and the Indians thereof, we are indebted for what are now staple articles of food, without which civilized men could scarcely endure. Indian corn or, as the Spanish called it, "maize," was first found in use by the Indians; and while there has been much discussion as to its origin, we know that it was extensively culti- vated and used by the Chickasaw Indians when De Soto entered their country in December, 1540. The time of the year when the new corn was what we call roasting ears was a time of feasting and great rejoicing, and celebrated with religious ceremonies and thanksgivings to "The Beloved One that dwelleth in the blue skies" for re- membering and blessing the red men by quickening the seed cast in the ground, and bringing the corn into fruition in the full ear for the sustenance of the children of the forest. These ceremonies were of the deepest religious significance to the Indians. What a priceless gift Indian corn has been to civilized man can be somewhat realized when we recall the momentous call to arms by President Wilson, April 6, 191 7, in aid of our Allies who were staggering under the blows of the Germans and their Allies, in the world-wide conflict, the most stupendous in the annals of the world. At once a call, indeed a command, came from Washington to plant more corn, with the result that the crop in the United 195 The Chickasaw Nation States alone for 191 7 amounted to 3,247,512,000 bushels, with an estimated value of $4,871,268,000, a sum so large that it can scarcely be comprehended. Moreover, we know that if the crop of that year had been a failure, starvation would have prevailed in England and France, and the cause of the Allies would have been imperiled, if not lost. In many foreign countries corn like- wise is a staple article of food; it is doubtless the most valuable of any crop raised in the world; and certainly by far the most valuable of any single crop grown in the United States. Both the white potato (misnamed Irish potato, because without it Irishmen could not endure) and the yam, or what we call the sweet potato, were in use by the Indians, and were gifts by them to civilization. The crop of white potatoes in the United States alone for 1917 amounted to 461,908,000 bushels, of the estimated value of $1,152,500,000; while the sweet potato crop was 88,150,000 bushels, valued at $88,150,000; and while this potato has heretofore been used mostly in the South, its real value has in recent years been so clearly shown that its use in the North is growing very fast. It is likewise well known that the white potato is more ex- tensively used in and more indispensable to many European countries, including Germany, than to America, its home. It is an undeniable fact that if the potato crop of Germany for 1917, or previous years of the war, had been an entire failure, then this would have brought Germany to her knees, a result that most of the great nations of the world at war with her were un- able to bring about by force of arms during four years of incessant warfare. The tomato originated in the Andean mountains, was used by the Indians, who gave it to civilization, and while it is not of that commanding importance of corn and potatoes, it is now regarded as almost an indispensable table dish. What would Thanksgiving Day be without the king of the gallinaceous tribe of birds, miscalled the turkey, and which had nothing to do either with Turkey or the unspeakable Turk? 196 The Chickasaw Nation Some think that the name originated from one of its calls which resembles the repeated word, turk, turk, turk; and this theory is probably correct. It has been contended by enthusiastic admirers of the bird that the turkey created Thanksgiving Day; but however this may be, it is the premier table bird of the globe; and it was so plentiful among the Chickasaw Indians that Adair says he could go out with a good stout stick and his mastiff, and knock over any number in a short while, no gun being necessary to kill them. The wild turkey was so numerous that the Chickasaws had no occasion to raise them; and, moreover, the wild turkey has a delicacy of flavor which makes it superior to the best domestic turkey, a fact attested by connoisseurs at the present time. While on the subject of gifts by the Indians to civilization, it may be of interest to recall that tobacco likewise falls into this class; and I mention it last and regard it as the least valuable of all, if, indeed, it has not proven to be a positive detriment to mankind. Smoking was in universal use among the Indians who used it on ceremonial occasions to give significance to the matter in hand, and as a solemn act attesting the verity of such engage- ments as were then concluded. Thus in the consummation of treaties, leagues of friendship, or other like matters of great import, it was customary for the high contracting parties to attest the sincerity of their motives by smoking, thus sealing their engagements; and from these well known facts there arose the well known phrase of smoking the pipe of peace. I think it may be said that before the advent of the white man the Indians were temperate in the use of all things; but the bringing of the accursed intoxicating drinks, called by the Indians "firewater" and like evils which came with the whites, carried death and destruction to the children of the forest. 197 The Chickasaw Nation It may be added that the Indians only smoked, and did not chew tobacco, it being left for the civilized white man to invent that filthy habit, as well as the making and dipping of snuff. Tobacco is generally classed as a stimulant or narcotic, and its use among all men, the civilized as well as the uncivilized, and wherever man may be, from the arctic regions to the tropics, is more general, permeating more different conditions of human existence, than any other substance of a like character. There were raised in the United States alone in 191 7, 1,221,186,000 pounds of tobacco, and in the same year tobacco was imported here of the value of $25,481,979; for it is grown from the subarctic to tropical regions, and in nearly all parts of the earth, the value of the world crop, being, as near as I can estimate, from $300,000,000 to $400,000,000 per annum. If these vast sums spent for tobacco were spent for warm clothing arid nourishing food for the children of the men who now throw the same away to buy tobacco, who doubts that the change would be most advantageous for future generations? Just as I had nearly finished this book, there appeared in the Literary Digest of July 9, 192 1, quite an interesting article, "Corn from Grass in Eighteen Years." It was explained that for some years botanists had surmised that the original ancestor of our Indian corn was a grass called teosinte, a native of Mexico and Central America, and that, acting on this supposition, Luther Burbank, the wizard of the plant world, had proven this surmise to be true. It appears that in 1903 Burbank (whom I had the pleasure of meeting casually in 1909) commenced his experiments with the grass teosinte, and at the end of eighteen years he succeeded in evolving an ordinary ear of Indian corn, such as was found in use by the Indians when this country was first discovered. The original article was contributed to the Post Dispatch of St. Louis, by Robert H. Moulton, who says in part: 198 The Chickasaw Nation "It was the savage Indian, says Burbank, who gave us, here in America, the most important crop we have. It was the Indian who found the wild grass, teosinte, covering the plains and de- veloped it into corn. Or, to turn it the other way around, it was the desire of the Indian for a food plant like this which led the teosinte grass, by gradual adaptation, to produce maize. On Burbank's farm there grows, today, this same teosinte which the Indian found. It bears tiny ears, with two rows of cornlike ker- nels, on a cob the thickness of a lead-pencil, and from two to four inches long, slightly less in length than an average head of wheat. "From its earlier stage of 'pod' corn, in which each kernel was encased in a separate sheath, or husk, like wheat, teosinte rep- resented, no doubt, a hard-fought survival and adaptation like that of the flowering violet. And when the Indians came into its environment, it responded to their influence as the pansy responded to care and cultivation in its new dooryard home. "Where teosinte had formerly relied upon the frosts to loosen up the ground for the seed, it found in the Indian a friend who crudely but effectively scratched the soil and doubled the chance for its baby plant to grow. Where it had been choked by plant enemies, and starved for air and sunlight by weeds, it found in the Indian a friend who cut down and kept off its com- petitors. Where it had been destroyed by animals before its maturity, it found the selfish protection of the savage as grateful as if it had been inspired by altruism. "Planted in patches, instead of struggling here and there as best it could before, the teosinte grass found its multiplication problem made easier through the multitude of pollen grains now floating through the air. And so, by slow degrees, it responded to its new environment by bearing more and bigger seed. As the seed kernels increased in numbers and size, the cob that bore them grew in length. From two, the rows of kernels increased to four, to six, to eight, to fourteen. Here, again, the selfish motives of the savages served to help the plant in its adaptation, for only the largest ears and those with the best kernels were saved for seed. So, under cultivation, the wild grass almost disappeared, and in its place there came, through adaptation, the transformed Indian corn." I reproduce a small portion of this article, which was illus- trated, because I believe the origin of Indian corn will prove of 199 The Chickasaw Nation interest to all reflecting men In the next place, rude as were the agricultural methods of the Indians, we see that, by their rude manner of cultivation, they did succeed through generations of continued efforts, in evolving from a small spear of grass the most important cereal now raised by civilized men. What the Chickasaws Had to Eat— The Chickasaws not only had from the vegetable kingdom what they raised in their gardens and fields, but there were many things growing wild which made splendid dishes, and Adair and others assure us that there were no better cooks than the Chick- asaw women, or who could in their earthenware utensils prepare more kinds of savory dishes. In the months of April and May strawberries were found profusely scattered amid the grass of the undulating prairies that lay along the banks of the rivers and creeks, and here and there scattered amid the hills and valleys of the forests ; then summer too yielded her immense store of blackberries on every side; in turn, followed autumn with prodigal abundance of hickory nuts of several varieties, walnuts, pecans, huckleberries, wild plums, persimmons, wild grapes, and muscadines, all of excellent flavor. The wild plum is still found in some places in our country, and was known as the Chickasaw plum; is very fine in flavor and makes a good preserve. Bartram (p. 38) says that, though a native of America, he never saw it growing wild in the southeast, and added, "I suppose it to have been brought from the south- west beyond the Mississippi by the Chickasaws." The woods were full of game, such as deer, elk, bear, and oc- casionally the lordly buffalo or bison, with innumerable smaller game, and water fowl and also the turkey, the king of the galli- naceous tribe. As a general rule the upland wooded country was comparatively free from underbrush, caused in part by fre- quent fires, kindled of purpose by the Chickasaws each fall, but in the spring the vegetable kingdom broke forth in beauteous forms of flowers, with a profusion of wild peas, upon which, in 200 The Chickasaw Nation due season, the deer and other game fed and fattened. Made ready for the table, garnished with the wild parsley growing on the river banks, they were enough to suit the taste of the most fastidious. Adair says the wild turkeys lived principally on a small red acorn, and in March they grew so fat that they could not fly further than 300 or 400 yards; that, not being able to soon take flight again, they were easily run down with horses and hunting mastiffs, and that in the unfrequented places of Mississippi they were so tame as to be shot with the pistol, of which the troops, with whom he was marching on their way to the Illinois country, frequently availed themselves. These inexhaustible stores of wild game were at the complete command of the Chickasaws long before the advent of the white man; for Elvas (p. 57) says that "the Indians never lacked meat. With arrows they get abundance of deer, turkeys, conies (rabbit), and other wild ani- mals, being very skillful in killing game, which the Christians were not." Then again in their creeks and rivers innumerable schools of fish of all varieties and kinds abounded, and these they took with the utmost ease. As showing how completely at home the primitive Chickasaw was in the water and in the capture of large fish which hid themselves under rock walls projecting in the river, I will here quote from Adair (p. 404) . "They have a surprising method of fishing under the edges of rocks that stand over the deep places of a river. There, they pull off their red breeches, or their long slip of stroud cloth, and wrap- ping it round their arm, so as to reach to the lower part of the palm of their right hand, they dive under the rock where the large cat fish lie to shelter themselves from the scorching beams of the sun, and to watch for prey ; as soon as those fierce aquatic animals see that tempting bait, they immediately seize it with the greatest violence, in order to swallow it. Then is the time for the diver 201 The Chickasaw Nation to improve the favourable opportunity; he accordingly opens his hand, seizes the voracious fish by his tender parts, hath a sharp struggle with it against the crevices of the rock, and at last brings it safe ashore. Except the Choktah, all our Indians, both male and female, above the state of infancy, are in the watery element nearly equal to amphibious animals, by practice; and from the experiments necessity has forced them to, it seems as if few were endued with such strong natural abilities — very few can equal them in their wild situation of life." The Chickasaws knew how to preserve their meats and pro- duce, by drying and otherwise, for future use, and as fats or oils are essential for human food, they extracted these from the fat of animals, and especially of the bear, which the early writers assure us was one of the sweetest kinds of oils and the best in which to prepare food for the table. The country abounded in many kinds of nuts, including the shell-bark hickory, or what we locally call the "scalybark," and these were gathered by the hundreds of bushels and stored for future use. There are few better or sweeter nuts. Bartram says, "I have seen above an hundred bushels of these nuts belonging to one family. They pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers, preserves the most oily parts of the liquid: this they call by a name which signifies hickory milk; it is as sweet and rich as fresh cream, and is an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially hominy and corn cakes." As some may be curious to learn of the dishes that found their way to the table of the Indians, I will here again quote from Bartram (p. 239) : "Early in the morning our chief invited me with him on a visit to the town, to take a final leave of the White King (meaning the writer). We were graciously received, and treated with the utmost civility and hospitality: there was a noble entertainment 202 The Chickasaw Nation and repast provided against our arrival, consisting of bears' ribs, venison, varieties of fish, roasted turkies (which they call the white man's dish), hot corn cakes, and a very agreeable, cooling sort of jelly, which they call conte; this is prepared from the root of the China briar: they chop the roots in pieces, which are after- wards well pounded in a wooden mortar, then being mixed with clean water, in a tray or trough, they strain it through baskets; the sediment settles to the bottom of the second vessel, is after- wards dried in the open air, and is then a very fine reddish flour or meal: a small quantity of this mixed with warm water and sweetened with honey, when cool becomes a beautiful, delicious jelly, very nourishing and wholesome. They also mix it with fine corn flour, which, being fried in fresh bear's oil, makes very good hot cakes or fritters." That the Indians, like all other races, were at times im- provident and found themselves wanting in the necessaries of life is entirely true; but there was this redeeming feature of their characters, and that is, all the provisions that they possessed were considered common property to the extent that they would divide with each other the last morsel they possessed. This resulted from that splendid characteristic of the American Indian that he did not covet what his neighbor had, and of course was entirely unmercenary. We are told in our sacred writings that the love of money is the root of all evil ; wherefore should we not admire the primitive Indian, who, before his contamination by contact with the white man, was free from this vice? As previously stated I was in the Yukon country of British Columbia, and Alaska in 1906, and this was not long after the discovery of gold in Arctic America, which precipitated one of the maddest rushes from all parts of the globe, and of nearly all races of mankind to those regions, in a maddening search for gold, the almighty dollar. But upon special inquiry I learned from all sources that no Indian or Eskimo of that country was ever known to prospect or search for gold, or in any way join in the search for hidden treasures. 203 The Chickasaw Nation That country and its inhabitants were then very much in the same condition as at creation's dawn, and, owing to the severity of the climate, the natives found the struggle for exist- ence extremely severe, and sometimes starvation entirely de- populated a whole community. In order to procure for them- selves and families the necessaries of life, they would hire out and work, but search for gold, never. Chickasaw Medicine— The Indians were thoroughly conversant, it would seem, with every herb, bush, and tree in the wilderness within which they lived. Many of these were used for medicinal purposes and with astonishing effect according to the persons who lived amongst them. For instance, Adair says that, although there were many snakes and many of them poisonous, such as the rattlesnake, the Indians had no fear of them, because they compounded certain herbs which rendered the poison entirely innocuous. He says that when bitten by a venomous snake, the Indian would commence chewing certain herbs with which he was provided and swallowing the same, and although he passed through paroxysms and rigors of pain, that without an exception the poison failed to take effect, except as stated, and the Indian was soon well. Likewise they had remedies for nearly every complaint, which were very efficacious. Adair (p. 234) says: "For my own part, I would prefer an old Indian before any chirurgeon (surgeon) whatsoever, in curing green wounds by bullets, arrows, etc., both for the certainty, ease, and speediness of cure; for if those parts of the body are not hurt, which are essential to the preservation of life, they cure the wounded in a trice. They bring the patient into a good temperament of body by a decoction of proper herbs and roots, and always enjoin a most abstemious life; they forbid them women, salt, and every kind of flesh-meat, applying mountain allum as the chief ingredient." 204 The Chickasaw Nation I have heretofore referred (ante p. 26) to the autobiography of Dr. Gideon Lincecum, and where it can be found, and as to its value in Chickasaw history, and here will note that he thought so well and favorably of the Indian remedies that by appoint- ment he met in the wilderness what we would call a noted Indian medicine man, with whom he spent several months, in order to be initiated into the mysteries of Indian medicine; from which Lincecum claimed to have derived very valuable information. Amusements of the Chickasaws— As might well be supposed, the Chickasaws were given to amusements of various kinds, and especially of the ball game; but as this was an amusement common to all the Indians, I refer the curious reader to Bartram (pp. 506, 507), where the game and the way in which it was played is described. While Cushman frankly states (p. 493) that the Chickasaws were great gamblers, betting on most anything, still they never bet on a ball game, that being strictly forbidden. It has been stated that the Chickasaw men spent the most of their time playing on flutes, the flutes being made of cane or the tibia of the deer. If such had been the case, then it would have been impossible for them to have been the most intrepid and unconquerable warriors upon the continent, a fact admitted by all. That they were fond of music and the dance, of which there were many kinds, is well attested; but deeming these details not essential here, the reader is referred to Cushman (p. 499) and other writers who fully treat of the same. The Chickasaw Hunters and Their Endurance— As hunters and trackers the Chickasaws had no superiors. Pickett (p. 134) says: "Of all the Indians in North America, they were the most expert in tracking. They would follow their enemy on a long gallop over any kind of ground without mistaking, where per- 205 The Chickasaw Nation haps only a blade of grass bent down told the foot print. Again, when they were leisurely hunting over the woods, and came upon an indistinct trail recently made by Indians, they knew at once of what nation they were by the foot prints, the hatchet chops upon the trees, their camp fires and other distinguishing marks. They were also esteemed to be admirable hunters, and their extensive plains and unbroken forests afforded them the widest field for the display of their skill." When hunting or upon the war path, if they came upon deserted camp fires or human footprints, they could tell to what tribe the party belonged and whether friend or foe. They said that the white man traveled with his eyes shut and his mouth open; meaning that the white man was idly talking and did not observe where he was going or the things around him. On the other hand they said that an Indian would travel all day and not say anything, but see everything. When on the war path or in the chase, the Chickasaw was always silent. With a view to accuracy, and lest it might be supposed that I overestimate the skill of the primitive Chickasaw, I will here quote at large first from Cushman and then from Adair. Cushman (p. 527) says: "As an illustration of their skill in discerning and inter- preting landmarks and signs, I will here relate a little incident proving the wonderful skill and ingenuity displayed in ascer- taining facts with regard to anything of which they desired to inform themselves. "In the years of long ago, a Chickasaw had a ham of venison taken from his little log house in which he kept his stock of pro- visions during the absence of himself and family. He described the thief as being a white man, low stature, lame in one leg, having a short gun, and accompanied by a short- tail dog. When requested to explain how he could be so positive, he answered: 'His track informed me he was a white man by his shoes (Indian wear moccasins) ; he stood on the toes of his shoes to reach the venison ham, which told me he was a low man; one foot made a deeper and plainer impress upon the ground than the other as he walked, which told me he was a lame man; the mark made by the The above was drawn from life by Jacob LeMoyne in 1564. He was an artist accompanying the French Huguenot settlement in Florida under Laudonniere, nearly all of whom were soon destroyed on account of religious rivalries, LeMoyne being one of the few to escape. Romans (p. 66), speaking in 1771 of the various methods of hunting by the Chickasaws, says: "They hunt like their neighbors with the skin and frontal bone of a deer's head, dried and stretched on elastic chips; the horns they scoup out very curiously, employing so much patience on this, that such a head and antlers often do not exceed ten or twelve ounces; they fix this on the left hand, and imitating the motions of the deer in fight, they decoy them within sure shot." The Chickasaw Nation breech of a gun upon the ground and the one made by its muzzle upon the bark of the tree against which it had leaned told me he had a gun, and it was a short gun; the tracks made by a dog told me of his presence; and the impress he made where he sat upon the ground to the end of that made by his tail, as he wagged it, was but a finger's length, which told me the dog's tail was short. What white man would ever have thought to look for, or dis- covered such evidences in identifying a thief?" As showing the personal bravery and unconquerable spirit and almost endless endurance of the native Chickasaws, this exploit of a young Chickasaw warrior, whose name is not even mentioned, is thus set forth by Adair, beginning at page 395: "When the Chickkasah were engaged in a former war with the Muskhoge, one of their young warriors set off alone against them, to revenge the blood of a near relation; his burning heart would not allow him to delay its gratification and proceed with a company, after their usual forms of purification were observed, in order to gain success. He was replete with martial fire, and revenge prompted him to outrun his war virtue; however, he pursued as mortifying a regimen, as if he had been publicly fed like a dove, by the scanty hand of a religious waiter. But, as he would not wait a few days, and accompany the reputed holy ark, they reckoned him irreligious, by depending on the power of his own arms, instead of the powerful arm of the supreme fatherly chieftain, Yo He Wab, who always bestows victory on the more virtuous party. He went through the most unfrequented and thick parts of the woods, as such a dangerous enterprise required, till he arrived opposite to the great and old beloved town of refuge, Koosah, which stands high on the eastern side of a bold river, about 250 yards broad, that runs by the late dangerous Alebahma fort, down to the black poisoning Mobille, and so into the gulph of Mexico. There he concealed himself under cover of the top of a fallen pine tree, in view of the ford of the old trading path, where the enemy now and then passed the river in their light poplar canoes. All his war store of provisions con- sisted in three stands of barbecued venison, till he had an op- portunity to revenge blood, and return home. He waited, with watchfulness and patience almost three days, when a young man, 207 The Chickasaw Nation a woman, and a girl passed a little wide of him, about an hour before sunset. The former he shot down, tomahawked the other two, and scalped each of them in a trice, in full view of the town. By way of bravado, he shaked the scalps before them, sounded the awful death whoop, and set off along the trading path, trusting in his heels, while a great many of the enemy ran to their arms, and gave chase. Seven miles from thence, he entered the great blue ridge of Apalache mountains. About an hour before day, he had run over seventy miles of that mountainous tract; — then, after sleeping two hours in a sitting posture, leaning his back against a tree, he set off again with fresh speed. As he threw away his venison, when he found himself pursued by the enemy, he was bound to support nature with such herbs, roots, and nuts, as his sharp eyes with a running glance directed him to snatch up in his course. Though I often have rode that war path alone, when delay might have proven dangerous, and with as fine and strong horses as any in America, it took me five days to ride from the aforesaid Koosah to this sprightly warrior's place in the Chickkasah country, the distance of 300 computed miles; yet he ran it, and got home safe and well, at about eleven o'clock on the third day; which was only one day and a half, and two nights." Their Government, Religion, Etc. — I have seen it stated in reference to all the North American Indians as a race, and also specifically of the Chickasaw Indians, that they had no religion ; while others declared they had no laws or form of government. Any reflecting man who considers the splendid discipline and known achievements of the Chickasaws in the field of battle against all their warlike neighbors, so as to maintain for generations an undisputed sway over so vast a territory though so few in numbers, must realize that they con- stituted no unorganized mob without laws or religion. Such would have been an impossibility. The difficulty has been that much that has been said and written of our Indians has been by men ignorant of them and their ways, and who jumped to conclusions without proper knowledge and due consideration. All know that our Indians The Chickasaw Nation even to this day are very reticent, and I think are justified to a certain extent in entertaining a suspicion of the white man, until they have cause to regard him otherwise. This is the universal testimony of all writers who spent long years among them, who respected the Ind ans and had gained their confidence, a fact to which Cushman so frequently alludes in reference to the Chickasaws. They did not differ from men generally in their dif- fidence in speaking of their laws or religion, such as they had. These were not written, but had been evolved from experience and observation through countless ages, so that they constituted a part of their very existence and were sacred to them from the prying eyes of the ordinary white man, who, failing entirely to understand the character of the Indian and his beliefs and laws, no doubt often treated them, not only with indifference, but with contempt and ridicule. There is nothing which so provokes one as to have what religion he may profess, or which he was taught by his parents, treated with ridicule or even lightly, or to inti- mate that he has no religion, or that it is a false religion. That the average white man was constantly posing as the possessor of the only religion which could be regarded as sacred, we may rest assured; and that likewise he did not hesitate to treat with indifference, and probably with ridicule, the sacred beliefs of the Indians, was no doubt equally true. Under such conditions the Indian was usually silent. One of the chief characteristics of the Indians was that they were a very practical people, and in all probability the idealism of the Christian religion was difficult for them to grasp. That there were among them considerable, not to say great, intellects can not be denied, and these were usually in places of authority, and to them the rank and file looked for advice. It should be remembered also that, while representations of all the white nations who came among them professed to be ardent Christians and sought to convert the Indians, still these Christians were divided into various sects, which hated each other with a fervor unknown at this day; and, moreover, the various white nations, 209 The Chickasaw Nation such as the British, French and Spanish, were not only at deadly enmity the one with the other, but waged against each other the most cruel wars, in order to gain possession of the very country, the most of which by fraud and chicanery they had wrested from the Indians; and every artifice was used to enlist the Indians under the banner of one or the other, and with such success that the Christians in this way fomented the most cruel and bloody wars between the Indians, who were thus made to fight the battles of the Christians, the one against the other. And even in modern times we learn from Leupp that the Indians were always greatly perplexed at the difference between the various religious sects, and the hostility toward each other. The shades of differences were too subtle, or else to their under- standing so immaterial as to excite incredulity. However, the Indian was very practical in his religion as in all the affairs of life, and the married state, or rather the teachings of the various sects in respect thereto, caused great confusion. Thus Leupp tells us (p. 296) that an Indian with irony in his tone and a sly shrug of his shoulder called his attention to a visit of a Mormon apostle, who had four wives and declared that this was right and good in the sight of the Lord ; while a Protestant missionary who preached at the agency had only one wife, declaring it was a sin to have more than one; but that the Roman Catholic priest who came occasionally to bless the children had no wife at all. Such conditions could not fail to make an unfavorable im- pression upon Indians of intelligence, especially when they saw their countrymen slowly but surely vanishing before the rising tide of the white invaders. While they said little, I think their attitude, in general, was probably expressed by the conduct of the great Cherokee, Sequoyah, the inventor of a syllabic alphabet adapted to the Cherokee language, and without a rival in the history of the civilized world. It is said that when he heard that types of his alphabet were to be cast, so as to print the Bible in the Cherokee language, 210 The Chickasaw Nation he merely expressed his regret that he had invented the alphabet, though it had cost him years of toil, and made his name immortal. With respect to the Chickasaws the unanimous testimony from all sources attest their intrepidity, their entire fearlessness, and even almost contempt of death. We are not surprised therefore to learn (Cushman, p. 502) that the ancient Chicka- saws, unlike their kindred, the Choctaws, entertained no super- stitious views in regard to the eclipse of the sun or moon; re- garding it as a phenomenon inexplicable, and to be the height of folly to be alarmed and worried with respect to that over which they had no control, a sensible conclusion indeed. They called an eclipse, either of sun or moon, hushi luma (sun hidden). Sometimes a total eclipse of the sun was termed hushi Mi (dead sun), and sometimes hushi kunia (lost sun). They called the moon hushi ninak aye (the sun of the night) . I have endeavored to trace out the real form of the Chicka- saw form of government, as well as the fundamentals of their religious beliefs, a somewhat difficult task, owing to their ret- icence on these subjects; and after a careful consideration and comparison of all accounts thereof, as recorded by writers who were in a position to know, I have selected the account of Bartram (p. 493 et seq.) ; where he thus summarizes the facts in reference thereto : "The king, although he is acknowledged to be the first and greatest man in the town or tribe, and honored with every due and rational mark of love and esteem, and when presiding in council, with a humility and homage as reverent as that paid to the most despotic monarch in Europe or the East, and when absent, his seat is not filled by any other person, yet he is not dreaded; and when out of the council, he associates with the people as a common man, converses with them, and they with him, in perfect ease and familiarity. "The mico or king, though elective, yet his advancement to that supreme dignity must be understood in a very different light from the elective monarchs of the old world, where the progress to magistracy is generally effected by schisim and the 211 The Chickasaw Nation influence of friends gained by craft, bribery, and often by more violent efforts; and after the throne is obtained, by measures little better than usurpation, he must be protected and supported there, by the same safe means that carried him thither. "But here behold the majesty of the Muscogulge mico. He does not either publicly or privately beg of the people to place him in a situation to command and rule them: no, his appearance is altogether mysterious; as a beneficent deity he rises king over them, as the sun rises to bless the earth! "No one will tell you how or when he became their king; but he is universally acknowledged to be the greatest person among them, and he is loved, esteemed, and reverenced, although he associates, eats, drinks, and dances with them in common as another man; his dress is the same, and a stranger could not distinguish the king's habitation from that of any other citizen by any sort of splendor or magnificence; yet he perceives they act as though their mico beheld them, himself invisible. In a word, their mico seems to them the representative of Providence or the Great Spirit, whom they acknowledge to preside over and influence their councils and public proceedings. He personally presides daily in their councils, either at the rotunda or public square: and even here his voice, in regard to business in hand, is regarded no more than any other chief's or senator's, no farther than his advice, as being the best and wisest man of the tribe, and not by virtue of regal prerogative. But whether their ultimate decisions require unanimity, or only a majority of voices, I am uncertain; but probably where there is a majority, the minority voluntarily accede. "The most active part the mico takes is in the civil govern- ment of the town or tribe ; here he has the power and prerogative of calling a council to deliberate on peace and war, or all public concerns, as inquiring into and deciding upon complaints and differences ; but he has not the least shadow of exclusive executive power. He is complimented with the first visits of strangers, giving audience to ambassadors with presents, and he has also the disposal of the public granary. "The next man in order of dignity and power is the great war chief; he represents and exercises the dignity of the mico, in his absence, in council; his voice is of the greatest weight in military affairs; his power and authority are entirely independent of the mico, though when a mico goes on an expedition, he heads The Chickasaw Nation the army, and is there the war chief. There are many of these war chiefs in a town or tribe, who are captains or leaders of military parties; they are elderly men, who in their youthful days have distinguished themselves in war by valour, subtility and intrepidity; and these veteran chiefs, in a great degree, con- stitute their truly dignified and venerable senates. "There is in every town or tribe a high priest, usually called by the white people jugglers, or conjurers, besides several juniors or graduates. "But the ancient high priest or seer presides in spiritual affairs, and is a person of consequence; he maintains and ex- ercises great influence in the state, particularly in military affairs; the senate never determine on an expedition against their enemy without his counsel and assistance. These people generally believe that their seer has communion with powerful invisible spirits, who they suppose have a share in the rule and govern- ment of human affairs, as well as the elements; that he can pre- dict the result of an expedition; and his influence is so great that they have been known frequently to stop and turn back an army when within a day's journey of their enemy, after a march of several hundred miles; and indeed their predictions have surprised many people. They foretell rain or drought, and pretend to bring rain at pleasure, cure diseases, and exercise witchcraft, invoke or expel evil spirits, and even assume the power of directing thunder and lightning. "These Indians are by no means idolaters, unless their puffing the tobacco smoke towards the sun, and rejoicing at the appearance of the new moon, may be termed so. So far from idolatry are they that they have no images amongst them, nor any religious rite or ceremony that I could perceive; but adore the Great Spirit, the giver and taker away of the breath of life, with the most profound and respectful homage. "They believe in a future state where the spirit exists, which they call the world of spirits, where they enjoy different degrees of tranquillity or comfort, agreeably to their life spent here: a person who in his life has been an industrious hunter, provided well for his family, an intrepid and active warrior, just, upright, and done all the good he could, will, they say, in the world of spirits live in a warm, pleasant country where are expansive, green, flowery savannas and high forests watered with rivers of pure waters replenished with deer and every species of game; 213 The Chickasaw Nation a serene, unclouded and peaceful sky; in short there is fulness of pleasure, uninterrupted." It should be borne in mind that Bartram in the foregoing summary was giving an account of the form of government and religion of the great Muskhogean family as a whole, but, as might be expected, there were some minor differences among this great family; as, for instance, the chief or king among the Chickasaws was known by the designation of mingo, and this word was often combined with another referring to some event which brought the bearer into prominence and gained for him the leadership of the nation. Thus, their great leader in the time of Washington was Piomingo, or in English, the Mountain Leader or Chief. It will hereafter be seen that the first official treaty concluded with the Chickasaws in 1786 was signed by "Piomingo, head warrior and first minister of the Chickasaw nation; Minga- tuska, one of the chiefs; and Latopoia, first beloved man of the said nation, commissioners plenipotentiary of all the Chickasaws." Referring again to the Chickasaw religion, it gives me pleas- ure to reproduce in haec verba a dialogue between the great John Wesley and a young Chickasaw chief, as recorded by Mr. Wesley in his justly celebrated journal. I had seen in a book by an author who had considerable personal acquaintance with the Chickasaws, a reference to a rather flattering statement by Mr. Wesley with respect to the Chickasaws. I could not find in our we]l equipped Memphis public libraries an unabridged copy of Mr^WesleVs works ; but this deficiency was supplied from the library of my friend of many years' standing, John R. Pepper, to whom Southern Methodism and the extension of the Christian religion in general owes so much. When I did at last find what Mr. Wesley said of the Chicka- saws, it was quite the reverse of what he was quoted as saying, for what he really said of them was (p. 49), 214 The Chickasaw Nation "They are eminently gluttons, eating, drinking, and smoking all day, and almost all night. They are extremely indolent and lazy, except in war; then they are the most inde- fatigable and the most valiant of all the Indians; but they are equally cruel with the rest, torturing and burning all their prisoners, whether Indians or European." It should be said, however, that Mr. Wesley was careful to precede this statement by recording that he had no knowledge of them, except what he learned from traders, never having visited their country, and that it was difficult to pick out from such reports any consistent account of these Indians. We know from authentic sources that the reports made to Mr. Wesley with reference to the Chickasaws were grossly unjust in most respects. In this connection it may be remarked that I found that much that was written or rather reported of the Chickasaws, a well as of the Indians in general, was incorrect and misleading, which is well illustrated by what it was said was the rather flattering estimate placed upon the Chickasaws by Mr. Wesley. Turning now from what Mr. Wesley said was told to him in general terms with respect to the Chickasaws, and coming now to what he recorded as to their religious beliefs, we can not avoid being struck by the entire misapprehension of those who have with such assurance stated that they were entirely without any religious beliefs. In Vol. 3, page 28, Mr. Wesley gives a conversation which took place between himself and a young Chickasaw Indian chief on Tuesday, July 20, 1736, which is in these words: "Five of the Chickasaw Indians (twenty of whom had been in Savannah several days) came to see us, with Mr. Andrews, their interpreter. They were all warriors, four of them head men. The two chiefs were Paustoobee and Mingo Mattaw. Our con- ference was as follows : Q. Do you believe there is one above who is over all things? 215 The Chickasaw Nation A. Paustoobee answered, 'We believe there are four beloved things above: The clouds, the sun, the clear sky, and He that lives in the clear sky.' Q. Do you believe there is but One that lives in the clear sky? A. We believe there are two with him, three in all. Q. Do you think he made the sun and the other beloved things? A. We cannot tell. Who hath seen? Q. Do you think he made you? A. We think he made all men at first. Q. How did he make them at first? A. Out of the ground. Q. Do you believe he loves you? A. I do not know. I cannot see him. Q. But has he not often saved your life? A. He has. Many bullets have gone on this side, and many on that side; but he would never let them hurt me. And many bullets have gone into these young men; and yet they are alive. Q. Then, cannot he save you from your enemies now? A. Yes, but we know not if he will. We have now so many enemies round us, that I think of nothing but death. And if I am to die, I shall die, and I will die like a man. But if he will have me to live, I shall live. Though I had ever so many enemies, he can destroy them all. Q. How do you know that? A. From what I have seen. When our enemies came against us before, then the beloved clouds came for us. And often much rain, and sometimes hail, has come upon them; and that in a very hot day. And I saw, when many French and Choctaws and other nations came against one of our towns; and the ground made a noise under them, and the beloved ones in the air beheld them; and they were afraid, and went away, and left their meat and drink, and their guns. I tell no lie. All these saw it too. Q. Have you heard such noises at other times? A. Yes, often; before and after almost every battle. 216 The Chickasaw Nation Q. What sort of noises were they? A. Like the noise of drums and guns and shouting. Q. Have you heard any such lately? A. Yes; four days after our last battle with the French. Q. Then you heard nothing before it? A. The night before, I dreamed I heard many drums up there; and many trumpets there, and much stamping of feet and shouting. Till then I thought we should all die. But then I thought the beloved ones were come to help us. And the next day I heard above a hundred guns go off before the fight began; and I said, 'When the sun is there, the beloved ones will help us; and we shall conquer our enemies.' And we did so. Q. Do you often think and talk of the beloved ones? A. W^e think of them always, wherever we are. We talk of them, and to them, at home and abroad; in peace, in war, before and after we fight; and indeed, whenever and wherever we meet together. Q. Where do you think your souls go after death? A. We believe the souls of red men walk up and down, near the place where they died, or where their bodies lie; for we have often heard cries and noises near the place where any prisoners had been burned. Q. Where do the souls of white men go after death? A. We cannot tell. We have not seen. Q. Our belief is, that the souls of bad men only walk up and down; but the souls of good men go up. A. I believe so too. But I told you the talk of the nation. (Mr. Andrews: They said at the burying, they knew what you were doing. You were speaking to the beloved ones above, to take up the soul of the young woman.) Q. We have a book that tells us many things of the beloved ones above; would you be glad to know them? A. We have no time now but to fight. If we should ever be at peace, we should be glad to know. Q. Do you expect ever to know what the white men know? A. (Mr. Andrews. They told Mr. Oglethorpe they believe the time will come when the red and white men will be one.) 217 The Chickasaw Nation Q. What do the French teach you? A. The French black kings (so they call the priests) never go out. We see you go about; we like that; that is good. Q. How came your nation by the knowledge they have? A. As soon as ever the ground was sound and fit to stand upon, it came to us, and has been with us ever since. But we are young men; our old men know more; but all of them do not know. There are but a few, whom the beloved ones choose from children and are in them, and take care of them, and teach them. They know these things; and our old men practice; therefore they know. But I do not practice; therefore I know little." It will be noted that in the storm and the thunder and lightning accompanying the same, the Chickasaws believed that thereby the "Beloved One who dwelleth in the blue sky" made manifest his presence to his children, who were so near to nature and nature's God. It will be recalled that on May 20, 1736, or only some two months before this interview with Mr. Wesley, these young Chickasaws had fought in the battle wherein D'Artaguette was so signally defeated, and that before the finish of that battle a great storm arose, sweeping over the scene of conflict. Likewise a fearful storm arose when De Soto came near being destroyed by the Chickasaws in 1541, for the Spanish chroniclers inform us that had it not been for this storm, in all probability, not a single man would have survived the onslaught of the Chickasaws. Should we be surprised that the primitive Chickasaws in- terpreted these and like natural phenomena as due to divine interposition, or as phrased by Christians, due to a special providence? I reproduce this entire conversation the more readily, as I believe its existence is not generally known, and for the additional reasons that Mr. Wesley evidently was not prepossessed in favor of the Chickasaws, and finally because he was writing on a subject to which he devoted his life, and having an engaging and sympathetic personality, he evidently inspired the young 218 The Chickasaw Nation Chickasaw chief to open his heart to the man who thereafter became famous as the founder of the Methodist denominations throughout the world, though he died a faithful adherent of the church of England, which we usually denominate the Episcopal Church. The burial referred to was that of a beautiful and popular young woman, whose death shocked the entire community, Mr. Wesley officiating; and it will be noted that though the young Chickasaws did not understand the English language, still they well understood from the manner of the speaker and otherwise, the pur- port of what Mr. Wesley said, for nothing escaped their vigilance. It may be that Mr. Wesley drew an unfavorable opinion of the Chickasaws from their frank statement that they did not then wish a missionary sent to their people; they giving as a reason that their nation was then engaged in war and that occupied all their time and attention. This conversation took place on July 20, 1736, and we know from authentic history that in May of that year the Chickasaws had met in a most sanguinary war the army of Bienville coming from Mobile, and that of D'Arta- guette coming from the great Northern lakes, who planned by overwhelming numbers to meet and utterly destroy the entire Chickasaw nation, instead of which the Chickasaws defeated both armies; and again defeated Bienville in 1739, Vaudreuil in 1752, and Regio in 1753. From their point of view it was not a time for missionaries. When we consider that what this young Chickasaw said was, so to speak, spoken on the spur of the moment; that in all proba- bility he never knew it would be taken down, and expressly disclaimed full knowledge on the topic of conversation, I think it shows a clear insight into the principles of religion of his nation, and that their religion was of a much higher order than is gen- erally believed to have been professed and taught by the Amer- ican aborigines. Finally on this subject of so much interest to the student of history, it may throw some light upon the subject to consider how 219 The Chickasaw Nation the Chickasaws decided to make war, and how war was conducted by them in such ways as to gain divine favor. Making War — The usual view that the Chickasaws went to war upon most trifling occasions is entirely incorrect. If they received mis- treatment from another nation, the matter was carefully looked into. No one except the warriors and men of the best judgment were called into counsel ; and they had one custom which it would be well for white people to observe and that is, that while one was speaking, no other Indian was ever known to interrupt him by asking a question or otherwise. Those in attendance would listen to what was being said with profound silence. When a speaker had concluded what he had to say, then another would speak, until all who desired to be heard had been extended that right. After a full discussion they came to a conclusion and often would send an embassy in an endeavor to adjust the trouble, if it were probable that that could be accomplished. Otherwise they went to war. They did not do this, however, without going through elaborate religious ceremonies of a stated kind and character, wherein they fasted and denied themselves nearly all comforts. Likewise, while on the march looking for the enemy, they were extremely abstemious, so that the hardships of the journey were made exceedingly great by abstaining from food and drink such as is usual and customary. Adair (p. 382) says: "When I roved the woods in a war party with the Indians, though I carried no scrip, nor bottle, nor staff, I kept a large hollow cane well corked at each end, and used to sheer off now and then to drink, while they suffered greatly by thirst. The constancy of the savages in mortifying their bodies, to gain the divine favour, is astonishing, from the very time they beat to arms till they return from their campaign. All the while they are out, they are prohibited by ancient custom the leaning against a tree, either sitting or standing; nor are they allowed to sit in the day time, under the shade of trees, if it can be avoided ; nor on the ground, during the whole journey, but on such rocks, 220 The Chickasaw Nation stones, or fallen wood, as their ark of war rests upon. By the attention they invariably pay to those severe rules of living, they weaken themselves much more than by the unavoidable fatigues of war; but, it is fruitless to endeavor to dissuade them from those things which they have by tradition as the appointed means to move the deity to grant them against the enemy a safe return home." How different is this account of Adair from the popular impression as to the conditions under which the Chickasaws waged war. And yet we know that he not only lived among the Chickasaws many years, but he tells us that the most of his book was written while a resident among them. It is now a rare book, a copy costing about $100, if you could be so fortunate as to find one for sale; for I know of none in Tennessee, and cer- tainly there is none in our Memphis public libraries. The Indians Were the Mound Builders— Although in the second chapter I treated of this subject to some extent, still not having quoted Cushman, and as his means of arriving at a correct conclusion in reference thereto were of a very superior order, his views are entitled to great weight, and I quote from him (p. 588, 589) on this interesting subject: ''Be that as it may this truth, that the present North American Indians and their ancestors have inhabited this con- tinent during a period embracing ages of the past, none will deny who have studied and made themselves acquainted with the many existing facts; and that, from all that has been gathered, it is much more conclusive that the mounds were erected by them than that they are the works of some long extinct race of people entirely different from that of the Indians. Therefore, let Requiescat in pace be the epitaph of the mound question for all future time to come; and also, let this age of sentimentality, sensation, and the love of the marvelous come to an end, at least, upon that subject, that it may seek other fields for the gratifica- tion of its seemingly incomprehensible thirst for a knowledge of that which never existed. All nations, both civilized and un- civilized, have long lost the memory of their barbaric state; and 221 The Chickasaw Nation only traditions, here and there, speak of the ancient past. All mankind, in every age of the world, have been mound builders; and the same principle that leads to the erection of mounds still exists in human nature. The various modern monuments of to-day are but ways of memorizing events which in ages past would have led to the erection of mounds. "Yet mournful to the contemplative mind are the records of departed greatness. These few still existing mounds of other ages, these dumb oracles of the prehistoric past, standing as monuments on the pedestal of years, points also to the ruins of earth's other empires, and call to her most potent nations with a voice more impressive to the heart than the tongue of a Tully; more symphonious than the harp of Homer; more picturesque than the pencil of Appelles, saying: 'In us behold thine own destiny, and the doom of the noblest achievements, the mutabil- ity of all human greatness and all human grandeur, and around and before us, whose wild and hurried life precipitates the hour of our own dissolution, are strewn the crumbling fragments of an empire, equally as extended as those of the east; but the setting sun sheds its last ray upon their tumbling temples once hallowed by the footsteps of worshipping thousands, and the mellow moonbeams glimmer through the mosscovered walls and gloomy galleries, now nearly gone to decay; their sanctuary is broken down, their glory is departed forever, and the generations hence, in viewing the mounds of their sepulture, will inquire with won- dering thoughts what manner of beings they were." In a note to Gates P. Thurston's The Antiquities of Tennessee and Adjacent States (p. 20) it is said that Professor Cyrus Thomp- son of the Bureau of Ethnology insists that the ancient works in northern Mississippi were built chiefly by the Chickasaws, and this is repeated on page 23. With respect to the burial of their dead by the Chickasaws Cushman (p. 496) says: "The ancient Chickasaws, unlike the Choctaws, buried their dead soon after life became extinct ; placing in the grave with the corpse, if a man, his clothes, war, and hunting implements, pipe and a few provisions; if a woman or child, the clothes and other 222 The Chickasaw Nation articles the deceased may have prized in life, and a few pro- visions." I have seen it stated by other writers that the Chickasaws buried the dead where life became extinct; if on the trail or on a journey, interment at once took place; or if at home, then in or near the house where the death occurred. As the Chickasaws were a very practical people, I doubt not that they disposed of the dead at once and as indicated above; and from this I am strongly inclined to the opinion that while in very remote times they may have built mounds, I do not believe that they engaged in such work for generations before the advent of the white man. On the other hand I have no doubt that the Indian mounds throughout our country were built by our North American Indians; or stated in other words there was not a distinct race of people from the North American Indian commonly called the Mound Builders, who erected the many mounds throughout North America. What We Might Learn from the Primitive Chickasaws— It is not intended by what is here written to suggest that we should turn back the tide of civilization, or revert to the life of the primitive Chickasaws; nevertheless we might learn val- uable lessons in various ways from their mental attitude and mode of life. First of all, they were not covetous or mercenary; for no Indian was allowed to go hungry or want for any of the necessaries of life while another Indian had that which the un- fortunate one needed, his wants being supplied as a matter of course, and without the expectation of any recompense. All land and the natural products of the soil, as well as of the streams and waters of all kind, were held in common, so that there were no poor or rich people among them, as among the whites. It followed that burglary, robbery, and stealing were practi- cally unknown among the Chickasaws, for the needy had only to ask and they received. 223 The Chickasaw Nation When war was made on them, or they went to war, then they robbed and despoiled precisely like the whites. While the Chickasaws had many more varieties of food than is generally believed, still in ordinary times they were by no means gluttons, and scarcely ever used condiments or sauces, and thoroughly masticated their food. The constant use of their teeth in grinding their food to liquefaction gave them and the Indians in general nearly perfect teeth, yet to be seen in skulls now dug up, the enamel still being hard and glistening, as though they had not been buried for centuries. They needed no den- tist. Drunkenness, tuberculosis, smallpox, venereal diseases, and the like were unknown to them. Upon ceremonial and other important occasions they en- dured long fasts; and by frequent bathing, often preceded by what we now call a turkish bath, they hardened their bodies; and by living in the open their powers of endurance were phenomenal. They were equally at home in the water or upon the land, and on the great Mississippi in their cypress bark canoes, they command- ed the navigation of that great river and its near tributaries, and upon the land they were both feared and respected far and wide. The Chickasaw women were noted for their chastity, and their men said it bemeaned a man to question the purity of their women. If there was an infraction of the marital vow, condign punishment followed for both offenders, the man's punishment coming first. While the man could put away his wife, similar to our divorce law, this was very seldom done. It is a popular fallacy to suppose that the women did all the work while the men were idle. The women, in addition to caring for the children, did the cooking, sewing, planting, and the like; still in these tasks they were assisted by the children and old men, their labors making them strong and robust, so that parturition, which now proves death and near death to many white women, was a function so natural as to cause neither pain or fear. 224 The Chickasaw Nation Women enjoyed many prerogatives, and among them was that all relationship was traced through the mother and not the father, the children being hers and not his. The men did all the hunting, trapping, and fishing, which was often dangerous and always laborious; for we should remember that their weapons and their snares and traps for taking game were very crude, fashioned by stone knives, stone hammers, etc., and they de- pended on these to secure their daily food; whereas fishing and hunting with us is a costly sport. The men also fought in the wars; conducted nearly all the religious rites and ceremonies and made laws, though the women had important prerogatives in these matters. The men also had the task of memorizing all tribal records and treaties, which involved astonishing feats of memory, and in some tribes the men did the skin dressing and even made the clothing of their wives. The Chickasaws were a very religious people. Paustoobee said to the great John Wesley in 1736, "We believe there are four beloved things above; the clouds, the sun, the clear sky and He that lives in the clear sky"; and they never went to war or en- gaged in any great undertaking until after fasting and prayer and elaborate religious ceremonies. They taught their religion to their children, and there were no orphans among them, for if the parents died, their children were adopted into the families of their kindred, and under their laws they were the same in the adopted family as though born therein. Writers often remark that no Indian was ever seen to strike a child, and yet the child was taught strict obedience, the boys and girls being taught their duties at an early age; and when adolescence arrived, each was taught what that meant, and the importance of fatherhood and motherhood, and what marriage meant, and what part they were expected to take therein; lessons that the white man has not yet learned how to impart. From the very beginning the mother was careful to teach the infant to breathe through its nose and not through the mouth — so conducive to good health. 225 The Chickasaw Nation The ceremonial by and through which the boys and girls were initiated into manhood and womanhood were exceedingly severe, and to us cruel and inhuman, sometimes ending in mad- ness or death. They argued that such was necessary in order to weed out all those incompetent to meet the full responsibilities of life in every emergency, and it is said there were no hunchback or deformed Indians, each being nearly a perfect specimen. The primitive Indian was the closest student of nature and as James observes (p. 68), "He knows every plant, and when and where it best grows. He knows the track of every bird, insect, reptile, and animal. He knows all the signs of the weather. He is a past-master in woodcraft, and knows more of the habits of plants and animal life than all our trained naturalists put together." I believe that as regards our national sport of baseball we could learn a good lesson from the Chickasaws, whose national sport was also a ball game. While the Chickasaws, like all other races of men, sometimes gambled, still they drew the line at their ball game, betting on which was strictly prohibited. Gambling recently so corrupted our national sport of baseball as to lead to the employment of a United States District Judge at Chicago to clarify the sport, and this employment with other matters caused the Judge to be denounced in Congress, where articles of im- peachment were preferred, a scandal that could not have hap- pened among the Chickasaws. I will add that the Chickasaw was essentially the child of the outdoors in the closest touch with all nature; and Eastman (p. 189), whose Indian name was Ohiyesa, rejoiced to know that in one respect the white man was learning from the Indian, in that the American Indian is the acknowledged hero and exemplar of the Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, organizations which have sprung up in recent years, and which promise so much good for coming generations. 22G The Chickasaw Nation And, finally, we might learn from the primitive Chickasaw that serenity of mind and temperament which he so assiduously practiced, so that he did not fret or repine at the disappointments and vexations of life, the common lot of mankind. These he regarded as he did the appearing of a comet, an eclipse, or an earthquake, as a part of natural phenomena beyond his control, and so made the best of ill fortune; hence he did not commit suicide or suffer a nervous prostration as does the white man. He knew that in the orderly process of nature he must die, and awaited that event without fear or useless repining. He loved his nation passionately, and was every ready to sacrifice his life upon the altar of his country; and if captured and tied to the stake, amid the rising flames he denounced and derided his en- emies, and shouting the glories of his country he yielded up his spirit to the "Beloved One who dwelleth in the blue sky," with the assurance that he was but exchanging the trials of this life for the joys of another country, the only one more beautiful and dearer than his own. Is there not something in a character like this worthy to be preserved as a national asset? Jefferson on Indian Eloquence— I can not forbear in this connection to call attention to the splendid oratorical abilities of the North American Indians, attested by so many writers. In his Notes on Virginia (Vol. II, p. 80) Thomas Jefferson combats the statement of Buffon that not only would European animals in general but European men also would degenerate in the climate of the New World; and after telling of the fine physical appearance of the aborigines, he next treats of their fine intellectual faculties, which he described in terms of great praise. Speaking of their eloquence he said we had but few samples of their ability in this respect, because their speeches were usually delivered in their councils; but referred to the speech of the justly celebrated Logan in these words: 227 The Chickasaw Nation "Imay challenge the whole orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and of any more eminent orator, if Europe has furnished more eminent, to produce a single passage superior to the speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, to Lord Dunmore, then governor of this State." That masterpiece of eloquence is given by Jefferson in these words (Vol. II, p. 89): "I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, 'Logan is the friend of white men.' I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it: I have killed many: I have fully glutted my vengeance: For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one." As showing the unfairness of many people, not to say ma- levolence in connection with the Indians in general, I wish to recall that this speech of Logan was delivered in 1774; that Jefferson wrote his notes in 1781 and 1782, and they were printed in Paris in 1784, containing this speech. Soon the authenticity of the speech was denied, and in 1797 it was declared to be a forgery in the public prints, and the intimation was that Jefferson was the forger. In an appendix to his Notes on Virginia (Vol. II, p. 304) he not only indignantly denied the charge but published a number of the affidavits of prominent and disinterested men who deposed of their own knowledge to the true authenticity of the speech, as given by Mr. Jefferson. It may be here remarked that Jefferson states that what he said of the aborigines was from personal knowledge or from 228 The Chickasaw Nation authentic sources, remarking (p. 81) he regarded as of no value the mere chance reports about them, placing no more credence therein than he would to the fables of Aesop. The name of Mr. Jefferson recalls that the Chickasaw chief Mushalatubbee first met General Lafayette at the home of the sage of Monticello; and he again met Lafayette at Washington on his last visit to America in December, 1824, when, according to Drake (p. 402), Mushalatubbee made this agreeable speech to General Lafayette: "You are one of our fathers. You have fought by the side of the great Washington. We will receive here your hand as that of a friend and father. "We have always walked in the pure feelings of peace, and it is this feeling which has caused us to visit you here. We present you pure hands, hands that have never been stained with the blood of Americans. We live in a country far from this, where the sun darts his perpendicular rays upon us. We have had the French, the Spaniards, and the English for neighbors; but now we have only the Americans; in our midst and with whom we live as friends and brothers." While the Chickasaws were noted as warriors and not for oratory, still, when occasion required, they expressed them- selves well and eloquently. Montaigne's Opinion of the Indians and Their Government — Michael De Montaigne published his justly celebrated essays and philosophical reflections in 1580, or exactly forty years after De Soto first looked into the faces of the Chickasaws. His book has proven such a vast fountain of knowledge and philosophy that it has been translated into many languages, and new editions, elaborately annotated, continue to issue from the press, even to our day, while countless thousands of other books have since been published and forgotten. From Montaigne's inexhaustible fountain countless millions have drunk and con- tinue to drink, even the great Shakespeare freely borrowing 229 The Chickasaw Nation therefrom; and as we might expect, Montaigne was greatly interested in the new world and the new people found there, and made it a point to personally see and converse with some Indians who were brought to France to see and converse with King Charles the Ninth, the then king of that country. Mon- taigne tells us that there was a very reliable man of his own household who had spent some ten to twelve years in the new country among the Indians, and that this man had at "divers times brought me several seamen and merchants, that the same time went the same voyage." Having thus informed himself from the best sources, he treats at length of their government, their religion, their meat and drink, their wars, their habits, and modes of thought, in what sense they were barbarians, and then philosophizes (p. 115) in part as follows: "I am sorry that Lycurgus and Plato had no knowledge of them : For, to my apprehension, what we now see in those natives does not only surpass all the images with which the poets have adorned the golden age, and all their inventions in feigning a happy state of man, but, moreover, the fancy, and even the wish and desire of philosophy itself. So native and so pure a sim- plicity as we by experience see to be in them could never enter into their imagination, nor could they ever believe that human society could have been maintained with so little artifice. Should I tell Plato that it is a nation wherein there is no manner of traffic, no knowledge of letters, no science of numbers, no name of magistrate, nor political superiority; no use of service, riches or poverty; no contracts, no successions, no dividends, no proper- ties, no employments, but those of leisure; no respect of kindred, but in common; no clothing, no agriculture, no metal, no use of corn (wheat) or wine ; and where so much as the very words that signify lying, treachery, dissimulation, avarice, envy, detraction, and pardon, were never heard of — how much would he find his imaginary republic short of this perfection? Viri a diis recentes, 'Fresh from the hands of the gods.' " It may be of interest to note that Montaigne expressed his deep regret that these Indians had left their own country to 230 The Chickasaw Nation visit France, saying they did so (p. 119), "not foreseeing how dear their knowledge of the corruptions of this part of the world one day (will) cost their happiness and repose, and that the effect of this commerce will be their ruin." 231 CHAPTER IX THE CHICKASAWS FROM THE TIME OF DE SOTO UNTIL THEIR FIRST TREATY WITH THE UNITED STATES We will now take up the thread of the story of the Chicka- saws where we left it off with the conclusion of Chapter III in April, 1 54 1. The veil of oblivion, so far as authentic history is concerned, which was for a short time lifted from the primitive Chickasaws, by the De Soto expedition in 1 540-1 541, again descended, and we know nothing of the Chickasaws until the time when Marquette descended the Mississippi River in 1673, a period of 132 years. It will be recalled that the Chickasaws came near destroying both De Soto and his entire expedition, and that at the end of the last battle an intrepid and daring Chickasaw archer challenged the whole army of De Soto to a trial of skill, man to man in single combat. We may be assured that the Spaniards never failed to record what took place, upon occasions of this character, more favorably to themselves. According to their story though, Juan de Salinas, an Asturian hidalgo, accepted the challenge, armed with a crossbow fashioned by all the skill of the white man and doubt- less shod with steel, while the Chickasaw archer had only his rude bow and arrows, tipped with a flint all wrought out by his own hands and without tools; still the trial of skill was a draw, each being wounded and received by their respective companions in arms. That the primitive Chickasaws were always the same, ever the same, and everywhere the same, is well illustrated by the very first word they were heard to utter by Marquette, 132 years after De Soto's entire army had been challenged to single combat by The Chickasaw Nation the intrepid Chickasaw archer, whose name I regret to say was not even recorded by the Spaniards. This word Marquette at first construed to mean a declaration of war. On page 47 of John Gilmary Shea's Discovery and Explora- tion of the Mississippi Valley, Marquette's narrative of 1673 is quoted from as follows: 11 I hailed them in Huron, but they answered me by a word which seemed to us a declaration of war. They were, however, as much frightened as ourselves, and what we took for a signal of war, was an invitation to come near, that they might give us food; we accordingly landed and entered their cabins, where they presented us wild-beef and bear's oil, with white plums, which are excellent. They have guns, axes, hoes, knives, beads, and double glass bottles in which they keep the powder. They wear their hair long and mark their bodies in the Iroquois fashion; the headdress and clothing of their women were like those of the Huron squaws. "They assured us that it was not more than ten days' journey to the sea; that they bought stuffs and other articles of Europeans on the eastern side ; that these Europeans had rosaries and pictures; that they played on instruments; that some were like me, who received them well. I did not, however, see any one who seemed to have received any instructions in the faith; such as I could, I gave them with some medals." While the names of these Indians are not given, still in a note on the preceding page (46) it is stated : "Marquette had now reached the country of the warlike Chicachas, whose territory extended several hundred miles along the banks of the Mississippi, and far to the eastward, where they carried on a traffic with tribes who traded with Europeans. — F." These were no doubt Chickasaws, who we well know traded with Englishmen who landed their wares on the Atlantic coast and brought them overland to the Chickasaw country. There can be no doubt that Marquette was correct in stating that, as early as his trip (1673) down the Mississippi, the Chicka- 233 The Chickasaw Nation saws had been in communication with Europeans on the eastern side, as he expressed it; that is to say, with the earliest English settlers in Virginia and Carolina; and such is the statement of Claiborne (p. 57). In 1912 Clarence W. Alvord and Lee Bidgood brought out their work, The First Explorations of the Trans- Allegheny Region by the Virginians, 1650-1674, bringing forth the practically in- accessible and original accounts of Abraham Wood, Thomas Batts, Robert Fallam, and James Needham, who were the first white men to visit the regions lying beyond the Virginia and North Carolina Blue Ridge. It is stated and proven (p. 52 et seq.) that General Abraham Wood, a unique character, as early as the year 1654, or at various times in the decade following that year, visited the banks of the Ohio and in all probability reached the Mississippi River. Wood sent out various exploring parties, and among them Thomas Needham at different times, and he was the first white explorer to reach the Cherokee country (p. 82), visiting them, if not on the Tennessee, then on one of its main branches, the French Broad or the Little Tennessee River, in the year 1673. However, before Needham could reach home, he was treacherously mur- dered by an Indian guide Occaneechi, who had accompanied previous exploring parties, for which he had been well rewarded by Wood. In 1 67 1 Batts and Fallam, traveling in company, reached the banks of the New River, which empties into the Kanawha, and it in turn flows into the Ohio. In Robert Fallam's journal (p. 191), under date of September 17, 1671, upon reaching the New River, he states that they first proclaimed the king in these words : "Long live Charles the Second, by the grace of God king of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and Virginia, and of all the territories thereunto belonging, Defender of the Faith, etc." 234 The Chickasaw Nation Thereupon guns were fired and trees were marked as a manual token that the expedition had taken possession of this new and delightful country in the name of the king of Eng- land. These explorers kept journals, now made accessible by Alvord and Bidgood, from which it now appears that the English took possession of the Mississippi Valley two years before Marquette descended the Mississippi, and eleven years before La Salle reached the mouth of the Mississippi and affected to take possession of the country in the name of Louis XIV of France, naming it Louisiana. So far, therefore, as formal proc- lamations of this character are concerned and treated as vesting title to the new country in the sovereign thus proclaimed, the English title by priority outranked the French title. It is also pointed out (p. 20) that such distinguished writers as Francis Parkman and Justin Winsor are in error in upholding the French claim as opposed to that of the English for priority of discovery. While I found nothing to show that these early explorers reached the Chickasaws, and in fact I do not suppose they went to the Chickasaw country, still there is no doubt that these early English explorers were sending their goods to and trading with the Indians in what was then the far Western unexplored country, including the Chickasaws. Indeed, Marquette records that in 1673 the Chickasaws had guns, axes, hoes, knives, beads, and double glass bottles in which they kept their powder ; and in a note to the text it is stated that these articles had been obtained in traffic with tribes who traded with Europeans to the east, and this clearly means that these articles came from the English settled in Virginia and Carolina. This was the beginning of the acquaintance of the Chicka- saws with the English-speaking people, and in the years to come this acquaintance ripened into alliances of commerce and like- wise of offense and defense, which has lasted without inter- ruption to this day, a period of near three hundred years. 235 The Chickasaw Nation In the memorable expedition of Sieur Robert Cavalier de La Salle down the Mississippi River in 1682, he floated down the river, after stopping at the mouth of the Ohio, according to Father Zenobe de Membre (who was a member of the expedition and kept a journal), forty- two leagues, when the expedition made a landing on February 24, 1682, and built what was called Fort Prudhomme. As the locality of Fort Prudhomme has been repeatedly misstated by some of the best historians, who supposed it to have been built on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, the present site of Memphis, I will briefly state the facts in reference thereto. Says Father Zenobe : "On the 24th those whom we had sent out to hunt all re- turned but Peter Prudhomme; the rest reported that they had seen an Indian trail, which made us suppose our Frenchman killed or taken. This induced the Sieur de La Salle to throw up a fort and intrenchment, and to put some French and Indians on the trail. None relaxed their efforts till the first of March, when Gabriel Minime and two Mohegans took two of five Indians whom they discovered. "They said that they belonged to the Sicacha (Chickasaw) nation, and that their village was a day and half off. After showing them every kindness, I set out with the Sieur de La Salle and half our party to go there in hopes of learning some news of Prudhomme; but after having traveled the distance stated, we showed the Indians that we were displeased with their duplicity; they then told us frankly that we were still three days off. (These Indians generally count ten or twelve leagues to a day.) We returned to camp, and, one of the Indians having offered to remain, while the other carried the news to the village. La Salle gave him some goods, and he set out after giving us to under- stand that we should meet their nation on the banks of the river as we descended. "At last Prudhomme, who had been lost, was found on the ninth day and brought back to the fort, so that we set out the next day, which was foggy." Upon this slender base, and without a proper knowledge of the locality, and with some touches of imagination thrown in, 236 The Chickasaw Nation a story was built up from time to time, to the effect that this landing place was where Memphis is now located, that is, on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff; that La Salle built a fort and cabins there, and proclaimed it and all the country about it from ocean to ocean to belong to his king, Louis XIV, and named it Louisi- ana; while others pointed to the story as showing that on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff the pioneer building of a future and great state was first begun. This is a pretty story, but unfortunately it is not true. Many persons have labored under the mistaken belief that there was only one Chickasaw Bluff on the Mississippi River, north of the present northern boundary line of the State of Mississippi, which intersects the river on the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude; whereas there are four such bluffs, Memphis being on the fourth bluff. These bluffs are mere extensions of the west Tennessee plateau to the Mississippi River, the first touching the river at what is now Fulton, Tennessee, opposite the lower end of Island 33, some sixty- two miles by river above Memphis; the second is at Randolph, about ten miles by water below the first bluff; the third is opposite Island 34, while the fourth is but an extension of what I have called the Tippah Highlands, with Wolf River flowing into the Mississippi at the north, and Nonconnah, form- erly called Chickasaw Creek, flowing into the Mississippi some four to five miles below the mouth of Wolf, the bluff rising abruptly from the water, with a fine hinterland stretching back eastwardly, heretofore particularly described, on which Memphis was built. Returning now to the plain story as indicated above, La Salle landed on the first highland, which was the first Chickasaw Bluff, and one of his hunters, named Peter Prudhomme, having become lost, a temporary entrenchment or fort was thrown up, while members of the expedition went in search of the lost hunter, who being found on the ninth day, the expedition pro- ceeded down the river, calling the place Prudhomme after the 237 The Chickasaw Nation man who was lost for nine days. Those who may be curious to study the details of this incident in the voyage of La Salle, which has been so misunderstood, are referred to an excellent article by Judge J. P. Young in the Tennessee Historical Magazine for 1916 (p. 235), to which reference is here made. The facts, though briefly stated, show that the Chickasaws were on the date mentioned, viz: February 24, 1682, in pos- session of what is now west Tennessee, but that the main seat of their villages or homes was some several days' travel southward, presumably about where De Soto found them in 1540, or 140 years prior thereto, in what is now north Mississippi. Among the documents and papers published in the Pierre Margry collection (which being in French I could not read), there is attached to the front of Volume 3 what purports to be a copy of an ancient map of North America from the 50th degree to the 25th degree of north latitude, and, of course, this takes in the country from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, both inclu- sive. It is stated that the map shows the country as discovered by Sieur La Salle in the years 1679, 1680, 1681 and 1682. While the map is far from perfect, still it is as nearly correct as could be expected when made at such an early date. It is of interest to note that the villages of the Chickasaws are plainly shown on the map at or about the place where De Soto found them, while in a large scope of country opposite them on the west of the Mississippi, there is a note stating that, while there are Indian villages there, their names are unknown; and likewise as to a large scope of country to the east of the Chickasaws, there is a note that the names of the savage inhabi- tants are unknown. Thus we see that the intrepid and warlike Chickasaws were a conspicuous people, who had made a lasting impression from the most remote times upon the whole country, their name and fame reaching far beyond the limits of the great territory over which they were the supreme overlords. 238 The Chickasaw Nation Iberville and Bienville Meet the Chickasaws — We next hear of the Chickasaws in 1702, when they met the two celebrated brothers, Pierre Lemoyne, Sieur d' Iberville, usually called Iberville, and Jean Baptiste Lemoyne, Sieur de Bienville, usually called Bienville, at the time they were founding the present city of Mobile, Alabama. The father of these noted brothers was Charles LeMoyne, born in Normandy, France, in 1624, who emigrated to Canada in 1 64 1, where he climbed the ladder of fortune and fame. He dis- tinguished himself in the wars with the Iroquois and the English, was ennobled by Louis XIV in 1668, as Sieur deLongueuil. He was intensely patriotic and was the father of fourteen children, all of whom were noted, three of whom died in the wars with England. Iberville and Bienville were born in Canada, but, inheriting the patriotic fervor of their father, set sail for the far South, and in 1702 they founded the present city of Mobile, Alabama, and in 17 1 8 Bienville founded the present city of New Orleans, Louisiana. These noted brothers were far-seeing men, and, while laying out the site for Mobile, Iberville, the older, and therefore in command, was taken sick while on a trip to Pensacola; he sent two Canadians to Mobile with directions to Bienville to let Tonty pick ten men to visit the Choctaws and Chickasaws. Tonty was to make presents to these nations, conclude peace, and bring them to Mobile, so that treaties of peace and friendship might be concluded. We learn from Hamilton, an excellent authority (2nd Ed., p. 57), that on Sunday, March 25 (1702), Tonty returned with seven chiefs and principal men of the Chickasaws (Chicachas) and four Choctaw chiefs. Iberville made them presents of considerable powder, ball, and lead, twelve guns, besides hatchets, knives, kettles, beads, gun flints, and other small things. Next day he addressed them in due form, Bienville acting as inter- preter, exhorting the two nations to conclude peace and abandon the English, who only aimed at making slaves of them. He 239 The Chickasaw Nation cited the death of over eighteen hundred Choctaws, the capture of over five hundred prisoners who were sold away, and the loss of over eight hundred Chickasaws during this war of eight or ten years. If they would drive out the English, he would make the Illinois cease war upon them, and would establish a trading station, where they could obtain all kinds of goods in exchange for skins of beef, deer, and bear. The talk was satisfactory, and general peace was arranged. Word was sent to the Illinois, to Davyon among the Tonicas, Foucaut among the Arkansas, and St. Cosme at the Nadeches (Natchez), and the governor wrote also to the grand vicar of Quebec, at the Tamaroas, to send missionaries among the Chick- asaws and Choctaws as soon as possible. With the returning Chickasaws was sent back a little St. Michel child to learn the language. Iberville heard much that he would find useful as to numbers and location o c the several tribes. The promised trading-post was to be established on the upper Mobile River between the two tribes, three or four leagues from the Cha- quechoumas and twelve or fifteen from the Chickasaws. We note here that from the comparatively small Chickasaw nation seven chiefs and principal men were brought by Tonty to this all-important conference, whereas only four chiefs came from the much larger Choctaw nation, and also that a little child was sent back with the Chickasaws to learn their language, none being sent to the Choctaws. Iberville and Bienville no doubt fully appreciated the fact that this small Chickasaw nation at that time constituted the dominant factor to be reckoned with by France in solving the all-important problem of the free naviga- tion of the Mississippi River. Over its waves it was imperatively necessary to France that her pioneer soldiers of fortune and colonists should have undisputed sway and rule; otherwise her possessions along the St. Lawrence and great lakes of the far North could not be consolidated and bound together with those in the far South, with Mobile as the principal base for colonization on the Mexican Gulf. 240 The Chickasaw Nation We also note that notice of this treaty was sent to the Illinois Indians, the hereditary enemies of the Chickasaws and friends of the French; to Davyon among the Tonicas, Foucaut among the Arkansas, also the enemies of the Chickasaws and friends of the French; to St. Cosme among the Natchez, and also that Iberville wrote to the grand vicar in far-away Quebec to send Catholic missionaries among both the chickasaws and choctaws, the object being to bind these Indians by the ties of the church as well as by the terms of the treaty. Plans were thus maturing for at least two French coloniza- tion stations on the lower Mississippi, and one each on the Ohio and Missouri, with more to be added as soon as practicable. Hamilton (p. 59) very correctly observes: "Perhaps we may say that he (Iberville) thus foresaw the necessity for New Orleans, Memphis, Louisville, and St. Louis, if he did not select these sites." By and through these plans the French would have over the Mississippi, as well as over its tributaries and the streams flowing into the gulf, a network for river trade with the Indians and for colonization, while the English would have to transport their wares and colonists on pack horses overland across the Allegheny Mountains, at much greater expense and delay; and in process of time these noted brothers, Iberville and Bienville, dreamed of the day when pressure from the north, the south, and the west would eventually drive the thin line of English settlements on the Atlantic into the sea, thus bringing America under the ex- clusive sway of the lilies and cross of France. It was a noble dream, an ambition worthy of these dis- tinguished French brothers. However, destiny ruled otherwise, and the lion and the eagle now dominate the American continent. Much credit for this is due to the Chickasaw nation, a story as yet not fully told ; and a desire to contribute to a better understanding of the debt due 241 / The Chickasaw Nation the Chickasaw nation from the English-speaking world was one of the main inspirations for extending this sketch. It may be noted in passing that, while Iberville had in preparation plans for attacking the English settlements on the Atlantic, he was attacked with yellow fever and died at a com- paratively early age in Havana, in the year 1706. Further on we will frequently meet Bienville in the further progress of this sketch. Population of the Primitive Chickasaws— While there were legends among the Chickasaws that an- ciently they numbered ten thousand souls, this was probably an overestimate; but it is not at all impossible that their numbers had greatly diminished when they first came under the light of historic times. The Spaniards under De Soto gave no estimate of their numbers. Adair states they had been much more numerous than in his time, one of the two divisions, the "Long House," then numbering not more than four hundred and fifty warriors, which would indicate a population of 1600 to 1800 persons. He gives no estimate of the other division, but as- suming it to be about the same, the population of the entire nation was between three thousand and four thousand souls. In the battle with D'Artaguette in 1736, the French esti- mated the Chickasaw warriors in that conflict at five hundred, and six days thereafter in the battle of Ackia at four hundred and fifty warriors; while the United States commissioners who signed the treaty of peace with the Chickasaws in 1786 estimated the whole number of their warriors at eight hundred. At the same time the same commissioners estimated the warriors of the near neighbors of the Chickasaws, with whom they were fre- quently at war, as follows : The Cherokee nation, 2,000 warriors ; Upper and Lower Creek warriors, 5,400; Choctaw warriors, 6,000, and the Chickasaw warriors as stated above at only 800, the total number of the four tribes being 14,200 warriors. According to these estimates, which were probably the most accurate of any at that day, the Chickasaws were outnumbered 242 The Chickasaw Nation by the Choctaws nearly seven to one; by the Creeks six to one, and by the Cherokees nearly three to one ; and the marvel of all who traveled among them, and who knew them and the other nations mentioned, was how they managed to come off victorious in all conflicts, not only with their warlike neighbors, as well as with all other Indian nations from the far North or the West, who often invaded their country, but also in their conflicts with the Spanish and French. Chickasaw* Friends of the English — From the earliest dates at which we hear of the Chickasaws, succeeding the settlements made on the Atlantic coast and west- ward by various European nations, the Chickasaws were the firm friends of the English. On the other hand the Choctaws, Natchez, Creeks, and others favored first the Spaniards and then the French, and again the Spaniards, while the Chickasaws were always true to the English. There can be no doubt that the whites fomented wars between the various tribes to subserve their own selfish purposes. We learn from Claiborne that in 1705 the Chickasaws sold some Choctaw families to English traders, who carried them to Carolina where they were sold as slaves. No doubt the Chicka- saws were incited to this by the English traders, but in the end punishment was visited on the Chickasaws and not the English traders, as we learn from the sequel. Naturally, the sale of the Choctaws into slavery created a rupture between the Choctaws and Chickasaws when the news arrived, at which time there happened to be some seventy Chickasaws at Mobile. Being afraid to undertake to pass alone through the territory of the Choctaws, they begged Bienville for an escort, which was given. On arriving at the first village of the Choctaws the chief said he would not oppose their passage through his country, but he desired to reprimand them for their treachery in the presence of the French escort and took his stand in the center of the square, 243 The Chickasaw Nation having in his hands a pipe and a plume of eagle feathers. The Chickasaws were then invited to sit around him in a circle, and a cordon of Choctaws formed around them. The chief then began a tirade against the Chickasaws, ending by saying "you deserve to die ,"and dropped his plume, which was a signal to strike, and most of the Chickasaws were slain before they could arise. The Chickasaws having thus been murdered in the presence of the French escort, they believed that the massacre had taken place with the connivance of the French, and forever thereafter became the deadly enemies of the French ; at least such was the opinion of Claiborne (p. 29). I do not doubt that the treacherous acts of the Choctaws in the presence of the French escort created a bitter enmity to- wards the French ; but I believe that the antipathy reached far back to the remote past, even to the days of 1541, when De Soto violated Chickasaw hospitality and thereby made them his deadly foes. I am not unmindful of the fact that De Soto commanded Spaniards and not Frenchmen; but we must remember that both the Spanish and French people belong to the great Latin family and have very many traits and characteristics in common. Each made it a point to have with every expedition and settlement a Catholic priest, who indeed were themselves among the boldest of early explorers. In this connection it will be recalled that the young Chickasaw chief Paustoobee in a conversation with Mr. Wesley in 1736 called the French priests black kings, and said they did not go among the people as did Mr. Wesley. When we remember that nothing escaped the vigilance of the Chickasaws, and that they selected a certain number of the young men of each generation, to whom was imparted the im- portant history of the past for the future guidance of posterity, can we doubt that the Chickasaws of 1700 were perfectly familiar with the De Soto war in 1541, with a clear and accurate concep- tion of those who composed that expedition so as to enable them 244 The Chickasaw Nation to dovetail their characteristics with the early Spanish and French settlers? I do not doubt it for one moment, and this was the begin- ning of their enmity which never ceased, a true characteristic of the North American Indian. So far as my researches have extended, the first official visit of an Englishman to the Chickasaws was that of Captain Young, a British officer, who, according to Claiborne, met the Chickasaw chief in a grand council in 1715, the purpose of Captain Young being to attach the Chickasaws to the government of the English king. Causes Leading to the Extirpation of the Natchez- While it is generally stated by writers that the Chickasaws incited the Natchez to attack the French, and while no doubt the Chickasaws sympathized and advised with the Natchez, still I think too much stress has been laid on the Chickasaw enmity to the French as the provoking cause of the war which led to the extermination of the Natchez, that splendid and furthest ad- vanced tribe of Indians on the American continent north of Mexico. I am fortified in this conclusion after a very careful reading of Monsieur Le Parge DuPratz's history of Louisiana, which first appeared in 1758 in French. He was a French officer and warmly attached to his native country. He settled among the Natchez in 1720, and was a participant in the Natchez wars and had his information at first hands. After stating that the Natchez Indians cordially welcomed the early French settlers and that the French would have perished but for the unfailing and continued assistance of the Natchez, he then states the causes of the first war, which may be thus briefly summarized : In 1723 a young French soldier extended credit to an old Natchez warrior, who was to pay the debt in corn; the soldier 245 The Chickasaw Nation made demand for the corn, and the old warrior replied that the corn was not yet hard; but that as soon as it was ripe, it would be delivered. This was answered by an insult from the white soldier, and in the altercation which ensued the old warrior was shot to death, and the complaint of the Indians was only met by a mild reprimand of the young soldier. DuPratz then very properly observes, "Revenge is the predominant passion of the people in America; so that we ought not to be surprized if the death of this old warrior raised his whole village against the French (seep. 37)." A war ensued, and six years thereafter, that is, in 1729, the Natchez massacred nearly every Frenchman in the colony, or about 700 persons. DuPratz gives at length and in much detail the causes leading to this catastrophe, which may be thus condensed : The Sieur de Chopart had been commandant of the Natchez post, from which he was removed on account of some acts of injustice. Soon thereafter M. Perrier was appointed comman- dant general, and upon his arrival Chopart represented that he had commanded the post (in the language of DuPratz) "with applause," and thereby prevailed on Perrier to reappoint him. Chopart at once summoned the Sun of the White Apple, and notified him that he and all his people must vacate at once the village of the White Apple, which was at least a square league in extent, as he wished to build thereon a new town for the French. Says DuPratz (p. 80). "The commandant doubtless supposed that he was speak- ing to a slave, whom we may command in a tone of absolute authority. But he knew not that the natives of Louisiana are such enemies to a state of slavery that they prefer death itself thereto; above all, the Suns, accustomed to govern des- potically, have still a greater aversion to it." 246 The Chickasaw Nation The massacre of the French led in turn to the massacre of the Natchez, who had in the meantime fled in a body across the Mississippi and found a new home on Silver Creek, about sixty leagues from the mouth of Red River. Nearly all the Natchez were put to the sword; the few taken prisoners were cast into slavery by the French and thus disposed of. According to Du- Pratz (p. 95): "Some time after, these slaves were embarked for St. Domingo, in order to root out that nation in the colony; which was the only method of effecting it, as the few that escaped had not a tenth of the women necessary to recruit the nation. And thus that nation, the most conspicuous in the colony, and most useful to the French was destroyed." The italics are mine. The Real Cause of the War Made by the French on the Chickasaws — The sentence last quoted from DuPratz concludes Chapter XII of his history, and the first sentence of the next (Chapter XIII, p. 96) is as follows: "The war with the Chickasaws was owing to their having received and adopted the Natchez : Though in this respect they acted only according to an inviolable usage and sacred custom, established among all the nations of North America; that when a nation, weakened by war, retires for shelter to another, who are willing to adopt them, and is pursued thither by their enemies, this is in effect to declare war against the nation adopting." While this was indeed the only ostensible reason for this war, it was not in point of fact the true reason ; which was that the country of the Chickasaws lay exactly between the French pos- sessions in Louisiana in the far South and their possessions in the far North upon the great lakes and along the shores of the St. Lawrence. A chain of forts and uninterrupted communications along the Mississippi River could never be maintained between 247 The Chickasaw Nation these distant colonies, so long as the Chickasaws commanded the eastern shores of the Mississippi. We learn from Adair that, in their canoes made of the bark of the giant cypress, they fared forth upon the bosom of the Father of Waters and that they were as much at home on the water as on the land; and DuPratz (p. 97) records how they captured on the Mississippi and put to death some Frenchmen who were transporting powder, etc., between Bienville and D'Artaguette in preparation for the ensuing war. Bienville, with the full approval of the home government, determined to extirpate the Chickasaws, as had been done with the Natchez, and forever cement the possessions of the French in the far North with those in the far South; but not only the right, but the fates were against him. In vain the Chickasaws plead with Bienville, pointing out that they could not with self-respect /TK>t-90 ~*r- 7ZcfT'c/r*so* Hoi** rrrr * rrrrno rrrr^ -— The Chickasaw Nation As will be seen by the inscription thereon, the plat was drawn by George Gaines Tindall, September 2, 1903, after a survey, and afterwards redrawn at my request on March 12th, 1 92 1, by J. Paul Gaines, a descendant of the same family from which sprang General Edmond Pendleton Gaines and Colonel George Strother Gaines, both of whom bore a conspicuous part in the settlement of the Southwest, and who were both descend- ants of Edmond Pendleton of Revolutionary fame. George Strother Tyndall was named for Colonel George Strother Gaines, and still survives, never having married, living in Monroe County, Mississippi, enjoying life in the seventy-fifth year of his age. The road leading to the east and marked Cotton Gin and Okolona Road is a part of what is designated Gaines' Trace on Lusher's map, so named for Col. George S. Gaines, and at one time formed the southeastern boundary of the Chickasaw country. This Bienville fort was seen by Captain Bernard Romans in 1 77 1, when he visited the Chickasaws that year. At the time Leftwich wrote in 1903, it had been much de- stroyed and worn down by the combined forces of man and the elements. The dark lines showed the embarkment as far as it could then be traced, the remainder being doubtless destroyed by cultivation and erosion. The mound was about fifty yards square, elevated some eight feet above the surrounding plain, upon which there was a dwelling house. The round mound shown on the plat was composed largely of mussel shells, what is usually called kitchen-midden, these not being uncommon along Southern rivers, showing that anciently the mussel was an important article of food with the Indians. The place to which the arrow points on the river and which is designated thus, "Cannon Hole 470 yards from Mound," may be thus explained : About one hundred years ago some cannon were discovered in the river at that place, and it was first claimed that they were left by the De Soto expedition ; but the suggestion 257 The Chickasaw Nation leading to inquiries it was pointed out that such cannon as De Soto had were left in Alabama, and the better opinion now is that, although the De Soto expedition was armed with the arquebuse, the ancient predecessor of the modern high-powered rifle, still even his ammunition for these gave out before he reached the Tombigbee. It was next claimed that these cannon were left there by Bienville; but it was shown that he had no cannon with him at the fort in 1736; and the final, and in all probability the correct, conclusion is that the cannon were left there by Vaudreuil upon his defeat by the Chickasaws in 1752, he having also landed at this old fort. The water craft of Bienville are supposed to have been anchored near the "Cannon Hole," and guarded by the fort. The Chickasaw villages lay to the northeast, less than thirty miles distant. Bienville had in vain through his scouts sought to get in touch with D'Artaguette, and, of course, knew nothing of his previous signal defeat and capture. If Bienville had scouts and spies abroad eager for any sign or intelligence useful to his army, it must be remembered that there were no hunters or trackers equal to the Chickasaws, who could read a story from even one bent blade of grass or an upturned leaf; and they well knew how to cover up their tracks, so that though the battle with D'Artaguette had just been fought, the enemy found no sign thereof, nor obtained any intelligence of his situa- tion. Leaving some twenty to thirty men in charge of the stockade, to guard the provisions, the munitions, the water craft, and the sick, Bienville commenced his march toward the Chickasaw towns, taking with him twelve days' rations. It is significant that he found it difficult to hire sufficient number of the renegade Choctaws to carry the necessary powder and balls. Evidently they feared the Chickasaws. The first part of the march was much broken, and the streams were at flood tide from recent 258 The Chickasaw Nation rains, making the march toilsome through the timber, but the Chickasaw villages lay in the shape of a triangle upon the prairies. I can not refrain here from copying the picture drawn by Pickett of the beautiful home of the Chickasaws, soon to run red with human blood. "Soon, however, the French were relieved by the appearance of the most beautiful country in the world. The prairies were stretched out wide before them, covered with green grass, flowers, and strawberries, while forests of magnificent trees were to be seen in the distance. A breeze gently played over the surface of the lovely plains, and a May day's sun warmed all nature into life. The sleek cattle were everywhere grazing upon these sweet meadows of nature. The nimble deer bounded along, and droves of wild horses, of every variety of color, with lofty tails and spreading manes, made the earth resound with their rapid tread. Alas! alas! to think that the inhabitants, whom the Great Spirit had placed in a country so lovely and so enchanting, were soon to be assailed by an army of foreigners, assisted by their own neighbors." Bienville finally pitched his camp some six miles from the Indian houses which could be seen across the prairie, and here again he endeavored to hear something from D'Artaguette, failing in which his first plan was to encircle the Chickasaws and commence his attack on the town of the Natchez, as D'Artaguette had done only a few days previously; but the Choctaws had become very impatient and insisted on attacking an advanced Chickasaw village, which, they said, could be easily taken and which contained a large amount of provisions. Here we note that the capture of provisions was the controlling feature in the selection by the Choctaws of a point for attack, precisely as it had been with the Illinois and other Indians under D'Artaguette. However, the ever vigilant Chickasaws were prepared for any emergency and had well fortified themselves by forts protected with heavy palisades covered with heavy timbers, this topped off with clay so as to prevent fires as far as possible. 259 The Chickasaw Nation In addition there were fortified houses, so arranged as to admit of cross firing to the best advantage. Behind the pali- sades the earth had been excavated, and loop holes cut through the palisades, so the defenders could shoot through the port- holes with a minimum exposure of their bodies. Bienville, after considerable consideration, finally yielded to the Chevalier Noyan and other officers, precisely as D'Artaguette had done, and about two o'clock in the afternoon of May 26, 1736, he ordered the attack, placing Noyan at the head of a col- umn composed of fifteen regular soldiers drawn from the eight French companies, a company of grenadiers, forty-five volun- teers and sixty-five Swiss mercenaries. In order to protect the French soldiers a kind of movable breastworks had been constructed, and these were called man- telettes; and as the lives of the negroes seemed not to have been regarded of much value, the negroes' part in the battle was to carry these mantalettes in front of the white soldiers, thus converting them with their mantalettes into shields of protection. Evidently not only Bienville but the negroes as well were ex- pecting the Chickasaws to use only bows and arrows, though the British flag waved proudly over the fortifications, and a few English traders were on the inside of the fortress, who, though given leave by the French to depart, gallantly declined the offer, casting their lot with the Chickasaws who had been ever faithful to them. When the French came within gunfire of the village of Ackia, the Chickasaws poured out a murderous fire, not of arrows, but of powder and lead which they had captured a few days before from D'Artaguette. At the first fire one negro was killed and another was wounded and seeing that their mantalettes were no protection against the unexpected and murderous fire, they threw down the mantalettes and precipitately fled. The painted and plumed Choctaws thus having their visions of provisions rudely dispelled, ceased in their war-whoops, and likewise took to their heels, never joining in the battle. The Chickasaw Nation Not so with the French, who, under the leadership of Cheva- lier Noyan, fought their way into the village, carrying three fortified cabins and setting fire to others, but they had not so much as reached the main fort which lay at some distance further onward. Already many soldiers had fallen to the right and to the left, but when the Chevalier de Contre Coeur fell, consternation spread among the French. When the Chevalier De Noyan endeavored to rally hismen, he was startled to find that only the officers and a few of the volun- teers were ready to obey orders, the others having sought safety in flight behiruti the cabins first taken. Captain de Lusser had fallen also, and, being panicstricken, no exhortations, threats, or promises of reward could induce them to retrieve their cowardly conduct. The officers, burning with indignation, rushed forward at the head of the few soldiers, but almost immediately Noyan, Lieutenant Grondel of the Swiss, Captain D'Hauterieve of the grenadiers, Montbrun, DeVelles, and other officers and men received severe wounds, for the Chickasaw balls were flying in every direction. De Noyan, though severely wounded, dis- patched his aid, De Juzan, to bring up the soldiers hiding be- hind the cabins, but he fell almost at once, and instantly a party of Chickasaws rushed up to scalp the Swiss Grondel, when a sergeant and four soldiers rushed to the rescue, when a fire from the fort killed all four. Then an act of heroism worthy of note took place. A private named Regnisse, seeing the desperate condition of Grondel, who was lying senseless among the dead men who gave their lives to save his, rushed forward and bore the unconscious body of Grondel to the ranks of his friends, without himself receiving a scratch from the whistling bullets of the Chickasaws, though the almost lifeless body of Grondel received another wound. When afterwards Bienville offered to promote Regnisse, the noble fellow declined, saying that, as he could neither read or write, he was not competent to become an officer. It is also 261 The Chickasaw Nation worthy to mention that Grondel was one of the bravest of the brave, and not only recovered but afterwards was highly pro- moted. I read with amused interest the fleeing of the negroes at the first outset, when two of them were shot down, as it seemed such was characteristic of that volatile race; but justice to them requires that we should remember that they were not armed, and that they were used to a great extent as mere human shields. Simon, their black leader, being rallied by the whites upon the conduct of his company, in the evening immediately after the combat, was stung by their taunts. At that very moment a drove of horses came down to slake their thirst not far from some fortified houses of the Chickasaws. "I will show you," said Simon, "that a negro is as brave as any one" ; and at once he ran around the horses next to the Chickasaws, who were shooting at him, threw a rope around a beautiful white mare, tied it to her nose, and vaulting upon her back, rode back to the French camp, unscratched, amid the plaudits of the soldiers, thereby earning for himself the soubriquet of "Simon, the brave." It is also worthy of notice that while the French were quite careful to note all the deeds of heroism performed by the French, the Swiss, and even Simon the Black yet no act of bravery or daring, nay not even the name of a single Chickasaw warrior is recorded in any of the accounts given of who participated in the signal defeat of D'Artaguette, at the battle of Ackia, or in the defeat of Vaudreuil. That there were heroes and acts of heroism to match, and in all probability to excel, those of the French which were recorded, we know, for otherwise the invincible Chickasaws would not have triumphed over their foes. This may be taken as one instance which shows that the Chickasaws received scant credit for their meritorious acts at the hands of the French. 262 The Chickasaw Nation The Chevalier De Noyan, though severely wounded, dis- patched a courier to Bienville with the news of his perilous situation, and asked for a detachment of soldiers to relieve him as much as possible by removing the dead and wounded and aiding the living to effect a retreat. Even then a band of Chick- asaws was hovering on the flank, and when Bienville sent Beau- champ with a detachment of troops to the rescue of Noyan, many of them fell under the fire of the Chickasaws; but Beauchamp succeeded in rescuing the living and many of the dead. While the battle of Ackia lasted only three hours, it added new laurels to the achievements of the Chickasaws, and at the same time brought sorrow and disgrace to Bienville. A Perfect Chickasaw Day- According to the chroniclers of old the day of the battle of Ackia was what we would call a perfect Mississippi day. The noise and tumult of the bloody conflict were hushed as twilight approached; the cool breezes sweeping over the broad prairies were laden with the perfumes of the wild flowers which carpeted the earth with beauty, and afforded sustenance for the half-wild horses and kine which now went down to the rushing waters to slake their thirst. The mocking bird (in the Chickasaw language, hushi buebaha), the king of the forest, on topmost branch of the topmost tree, was pouring forth the melodies of nature. And now the sun was setting in a blaze of glory behind the distant trees beyond the prairie. This filled the souls of the Chickasaws with a glow of fervent religious enthusiasm; for it will be recalled that in a previous chapter (VIII) in answer to the great John Wesley shortly after this battle, viz: on July 20, 1736, Paustoobee, the young Chickasaw chief, said: "We be- lieve there are four beloved things above; the clouds, the sun, the clear sky, and He that lives in the clear sky." Was not here now plainly visible to the Chickasaws the three beloved things which are visible, while the invisible they as firmly believed was looking down upon them from the blue sky, 263 The Chickasaw Nation shedding the glorious radiance which made the heavens smile and filled their souls with heavenly delight? Were they not the free, wild children of Nature? By slow and painful marches Bienville reached his water craft and finally Mobile, and then New Orleans, but with only a remnant of those who went forth to extirpate the Chickasaw nation. On his way to Mobile he learned of the fate of D'Arta- guette. No one realized more than Bienville the disastrous results of the Chickasaw campaign, but his ill will was insatiable, and he nursed his wrath for years to keep it warm. The incidents connected with this retreat and its immediate effect upon the French settlements are both important and interesting, but they lay far beyond the scope of this sketch. Bienville's Second War Upon the Chickasaws— There have been few plans of colonization on a vaster scale than those embraced in the settlement of Louisiana, embracing all of North America west of the Alleghenies and taking in the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and from the warm Gulf of Mexico to the frozen ocean of the arctic regions in the far North. While our judgment upon the policies pursued in the execution of these vast schemes may greatly differ from those of the French, yet we can not withhold our admiration for the boldness of their plans, their gay contempt of danger, their patience, their suffering in their endeavors to conquer and people the new world for the glory of France, for all of their efforts were cast in heroic moulds. And we must remember also that what Bienville and his coadjutors did was done for the glory of France, and that Bien- ville is remembered and revered as the real founder and father of New Orleans and Mobile, where his labors are still cherished as a true patriot. 264 The Chickasaw Nation Our point of view is necessarily somewhat different; and as already indicated, Bienville, before reaching his home on his retreat from the disaster of the battle of Ackia, had formulated plans for a second expedition against the Chickasaws for the purpose of their extermination ; for this small nation was the one and only obstacle which stood between the French and their bold plans to capture the North American continent for the French people. To avoid the error of his previous plans, which led to the failure of the meeting of the army from the North with that of the army from the South under his own command, which he regarded as the fatal defect in his plans, he now planned to have the two armies meet at Fort St. Francis, in the present state of Arkansas, and from thence to proceed to the Chickasaw Bluffs, where Memphis now is, and there to build a fort, and using this as a base to invade the country of the Chickasaws and effectuate their extermination. The army was at first employed in building a fort on the Chickasaw Bluffs, which was completed on August 15, 1739, and that being the day on which the Catholic Church celebrates the festival of the Assumption of the Virgin, it was named Fort Assumption. Martin then says: "Labuissoniere, who had succeeded the unfortunate Cheva- lier D'Artaguette in the command of Fort Chartres, arrived a few days after with his garrison, a part of the militia of the Illinois, and about two hundred Indians. He was followed the next week by Celeron and St. Laurent, his lieutenants, who commanded a company of cadets from Quebec and Montreal, and a number of Canadian Indians. "The force from New Orleans consisted of the Louisiana regulars and militia, the companies of marines, lately landed from France, and upwards of sixteen hundred Indians, so that Bienville found himself at the head of upwards of twelve hundred white and double that number of Indian and black troops. "This comparatively very large army unaccountably spent six months in making preparations for its march." 265 The Chickasaw Nation I can conjecture no reason for this long and unexplained delay of attack on the part of Bienville, except the dread he must have entertained for the unconquerable Chickasaws. Here we find him at the head of 3,600 troops, one-third of them white, hardy pioneers, many of them regular soldiers, besides his Indian allies; and opposed to them the small Chickasaw nation which, according to the greatest estimate of the French, could not muster over five hundred warriors; or, comparatively speak- ing, the French outnumbered the Chickasaws over seven to one. Moreover, the French had the best guns and ammunition, including cannon, which the French government with all its resources could supply, while the Chickasaws had no cannon and necessarily inferior small arms and other munitions. This was the largest army of its kind which had ever assembled on the Chickasaw Bluffs prior to that time. While Bienville knew full well the small number of the Chickasaws whom he was to meet in mortal combat, he also knew that each Chickasaw was every inch a warrior, that they fought like infuriated lions, neither asking or expecting any mercy; and, moreover, that when the stake was great, and the issue supreme, the Chickasaw women joined in the combat, not only encouraging the men by their presence and songs, but also fighting like tigresses. While the French were lying idle in their fort, disease ap- peared, and many of the men sickened and died; provisions ran so short that they were forced to kill horses for food, and gaunt famine joined with disease as the beginning of the New Year claimed more victims, so that not many over one hundred white soldiers, regulars, and volunteers were fit for service. On March 15, 1840, or exactly seven months after the com- pletion of the fort, Bienville ordered Celeron with something over one hundred white troops in the center and with all of his numerous red and black allies on the wings, to march for the Chickasaw country, and that in case they asked for peace to grant it. When this numerous army approached the first village, the Chickasaws came out and asked for peace, saying they had been 266 The Chickasaw Nation instigated to war by the English from Carolina, and that they had recently taken two Englishmen prisoners and were ready to surrender them in token of their good faith; they asked that Celeron depute one of his officers to enter the village with them to see the two prisoners, and St. Laurent was sent for that pur- pose. As soon as he entered the village, the Indian women derided him and demanded of the men the head of St. Laurent, and he was seized and confined in a cabin while his fate was being debated, the result being that the counsels of the more moderate prevailed, and St. Laurent kept his head on his shoulders, upon his promise, however, in the name of Celeron to grant peace to the Chickasaws. Thereupon several of the Chickasaws returned with Celeron to Fort Assumption, where the pipe of peace was smoked and passed around in due Indian form, as a token that Bienville confirmed the peace offered by Celeron, which was but in compliance to his previous orders. It is also added that the Chickasaws surrendered the two Englishmen, but their names are not given, nor their fate recorded, which, in my judgment at least, raises a question as to this part of the story. In closing his account of the second war against the Chicka- saws, Martin (p. 178) says: "The Fort of the Assumption was raised, and Labuisson- niere and Celeron ascended the river with those of their men whom disease and famine had spared. The force from New Or- leans stopped at the river St. Francis to dismantle the fort, and then floated down to the city. "Thus ended the Chickasaw war, undertaken by Bienville to compel these Indians to surrender the Natchez, who had found an asylum among the former. Peace was made on the promise of the Indians of one of the villages of the enemy, to be in future the devoted friends of the French — purchased at the price of many valuable lives, at a vast expense besides, and with great distress and toil. The French chief acquired no military glory from the war." 267 The Chickasaiu Nation In stating the facts with respect to this second war of Bien* ville against the Chickasaws, I have followed closely the history of Francois Xavier Martin, first published in 1827. This remark- able man was born in Marseilles, France, March 17, 1762, and died in New Orleans, December 10, 1846, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, having presided as Judge and Chief Justice in Louisiana for thirty-six years, the last fifteen years of which he was entirely blind, but discharged every duty with great credit and ability. Blessed with an iron constitution and great mental ability, coupled with unusual perseverance and an un- tiring will he was the author of over twenty books. He never married, was miserly and niggardly, and died the owner of an estate of $400,000, which he willed to his brother in an un- witnessed holographic will, written long after he was totally blind, which gave rise to an acrimonious litigation in which the judges of the Supreme Court where he so long presided, sustained the validity of his will. As was natural, he sympathized with his compatriots, the French, but was an unusually impartial historian. The pride of Bienville was wounded and his spirits humbled by the results of the wars with the Chickasaws, and on March 26, 1742, he sent his letter of resignation to the French minister, couched in part in these words : "If success had always corresponded with my application to the affairs of the government and administration of the colony, and with my zeal for the service of the king, I would have rejoiced in devoting the rest of my days to such objects; but, through a sort of fatality, which, for some time past, has obstinately thwarted my best concerted plans, I have frequently lost the fruit of my labors, and, perhaps some ground in your excellency's confidence; therefore have I come to the conclusion that it is no longer necessary for me to struggle against my adverse fortune. I hope that better luck may attend my successor. During the remainder of my stay here, I will give all my attention 268 The Chickasaw Nation to smooth the difficulties attached to the office which I shall deliver up to him; and it is to me a subject of self gratulation that I shall transmit to him the government of the colony, when its affairs are in a better condition than they have ever been." While we rejoice at the triumph of the Chickasaws, still no one can read this letter of Bienville, who had spent his life in the wilderness of the South in the vain endeavor to win it for France, without cherishing for his memory profound respect and ad- miration for his countless heroic deeds in contending with the savages of the wilderness. It may here be noted that when he left Louisiana for France, he was sixty-five years old, and lived to the extreme age of near ninety years, but never for one moment lost interest in Louisiana, and when the king of France on November 3, 1762, by what is called the secret treaty, during the last days of Bienville, ceded Louisiana to Spain, he begged the king in vain with tears in his eyes, not to place the subjects of France under the tyrannical Spanish . Vaudreuil Makes War on the Chickasaws— On May 10, 1743, the Marquis De Vaudreuil succeeded Bienville; and as might have been expected, the resentments which grew out of the Choctaws having twice joined the French in an effort to exterminate the Chickasaws led to almost incessant conflicts between the Chickasaws and Choctaws, but it is not deemed necessary to enter into the details of these petty wars. It is important to note, however, that the Chickasaws not only once but twice sued for peace with Vaudreuil, sending to him soon after his arrival four of their chiefs, but his answer was that he would not treat with them until they had driven all the English from their country, and not even then until they had made peace with and came in concert with the Choctaws, with whom they were then at war. These terms the Chickasaws could not comply with, and about this time the Choctaws became torn asunder by two 269 The Chickasaw Nation parties in the nation, one party favoring the Spaniards, while the other favored the English. In this feud the Spanish party caused the great Choctaw chief Red Shoes to be assassinated. There can be no doubt that both the English and the Spaniards fanned the fire of discord among both the Chickasaws and Choc- taws for their own benefit and to the detriment of the Indians. Again the Chickasaws sued for peace, saying now that they would make peace with the Choctaws; again Vaudreuil was obdurate, writing to his government that "by the failure of the expeditions undertaken against them between the years 1735 and 1740, the Indians have arrived at the conclusion that we cannot conquer or destroy them; and until we erase from their minds the impression of our inability to subdue them, by giving full retaliation for our unsuccessful operations against them, the honor of our arms will remain tarnished." He consumed some two years in making preparations to fall upon and destroy the Chickasaws, who were suing for peace, and what for? Because the honor of the French had been "tarnished" by their defeat when they invaded the land of the Chickasaws and sought their destruction, but who successfully defended their ancient home. It would serve no good purpose to go into details, and suffice it to say that Vaudreuil gathered seven hundred white soldiers, some sixty-five of whom were Swiss mercenaries, to- gether with a large force of Indians, and in 1752 he invaded the land of the Chickasaws, going up the Tombigbee and landing at Cotton Gin Port, and from thence marched overland to the Chickasaw towns, where he met defeat in practically the same manner as did Bienville sixteen years before, although he did burn some of their houses and laid waste some of their fields. What an inglorious campaign was this! Many years afterwards some cannon were found in the Tombigbee River at or near Cotton Gin Port, and it was re- 270 The Chickasaw Nation ported that they were left there by De Soto in 1541 ; but this is doubtless incorrect, the probability being that they were left there by Vaudreuil on account of low water, it being supposed that Bienville did not undertake to transport the cannon which he had procured in 1736. In a note to Pickett (p. 303) it is said that De Soto brought with him but one piece of artillery, which he left in Florida. The De Soto narratives are singularly silent as to the artillery. The Chickasaws' Prowess on the Mississippi- Reference has previously been made to the fact that the Chickasaws, though living far inland, were almost amphibious and ruled on the waves of the Mississippi and Tennessee, and this was one of the secrets of the immense prowess of this small nation. As a continuation in chronological order of their story and showing in what manner they ruled upon the broad bosom of the Father of Waters, I can do no better than to copy from a letter written by Jean Bernard Bossu, a captain in the French army, written when traveling through this country at the fort of Tombecbe, the 30th of September, 1759 (Vol. 1, p. 309): ' 'Before I finish my letter, I must say a word of the Tchica- chas, or Chickasaws. This nation is not so numerous as the Choctaws, but more terrible, an account of their intrepidity. All the Northern and Southern Indian nations, and even the French, have attacked them, without ever being able to drive them out of their country, which is the finest and most fruitful on the continent. The Chickasaws are tall, well made, and of an unparalleled courage. In 1752 and 1753 they attacked Messrs. Benoist and de Reggio, who commanded the convoys from the Illinois station, descending the river Mississippi: these Indians always choose some advantageous situation to make an attack in; their most common post is at the rocks of Prudhomme, since the river being narrow there, they can annoy the boats, which have no decks. "It is believed that the Chickasaws killed Messrs. Bouffelet and de la Mosliere; these two officers, though they were very brave, fell into an ambuscade for want of experience, not knowing 271 The Chickasaw Nation the topography of the country they were in any more than General Braddock. "An officer ought, therefore, always to apply to this, in order to avoid surprises, or else, therefore, always be on the defensive and prepared." It will be noted that the usual point of attack is stated to have been at Proudhomme, the river being narrower there. The place thus referred to was no doubt the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, which, as shown hereinbefore, at an early date became erroneous- ly called Proudhomme. Dr. Barton in his New Views of the Origin of the American Indians (1797, p. 48) says: "From the accounts which I have collected from the Chickassah, I con- cluded they crossed the Mississippi nearly opposite the Chicka- saw Bluff"; and this accords with what they told Dr. Lincecum many years afterwards, and we know full well that from ancient times it has been their chief entrepot. I have quoted at large from this letter of Captain Bossu, because it is dated only seventeen days after the defeat of Mont- calm by Wolfe, September 13, 1759, on the Plain of Abraham at Quebec, and because he was on the ground in the Tombigbee country at that particular time, and being a French officer he was there in all probability at the instance of his government to spy out the situation and make report of what he observed that would be important for the French government to know. His visit was only seven years after the defeat of Vaudreuil by the Chickasaws, that being the third signal defeat of the French and their many Indian allies, as well as white mercenaries, by the unaided Chickasaws. I say unaided Chickasaws, because, while the English flag was run up at the battle of Ackie, there could have been only a few English traders at most who were with the Chickasaws, no one claiming the presence of English troops. Only four years after the visit of Captain Bossu to the Tombigbee country, France, by the treaty of 1763, ceded the Chickasaws and contiguous countries to England, thus forever surrendering all her claims to what Bossu described as "the finest 272 The Chickasaw Nation and most fruitful (country) on the continent," and thus also forever destroying the cherished ambition of Bienville, which caused him in retirement to shed bitter tears of disappointment, after he, Vaudreuil, D'Artaguette, and their faithful followers and Indian allies had endured so many hardships and had sacri- ficed so many lives in the vain endeavor to extirpate the invincible Chickasaws, who stood like lions in the pathway of the French in their cherished ambition that the lilies of France and the cross of her church should dominate the North American continent. Who can doubt for one moment that one of the main, if not controlling, reasons, which induced the French to surrender all hopes of retaining this fair country, was the previous impossibility to defeat the intrepid Chickasaws, and the picture drawn by Bossu showing that they were still invincible? Nor did Bossu overdraw the picture. It will be recalled that Adair, the English trader, first went to live for some years among the Chickasaws in 1744, or only eight years after the signal defeats of Bienville and D'Artaguette, and what is also important to remember, only eight years before the signal defeat of Vaudreuil by the Chickasaws; and as Adair tells us that the greater part of his book was written in the Chickasaw country, he was but recording passing events, trans- piring within his own observation, when speaking of the Chicka- saws and the manner in which they fought the French and thwarted all of their plans to control the lower Mississippi River and its valley. Commencing at p. 354 Adair gives a summary of these struggles, and further on says : \ "Flushed with this success, many parties turned out against the French, and from time to time hunted them far and near; — some went to the Mississippi, made a fleet of cypress-bark canoes, watched their trading boats, and cut off many of them without saving any of the people. The French finding it im- practicable for a few boats to pass those red men of war were obliged to go in a fleet, carry swivel-guns in their long pettiaugres, 273 The Chickasaw Nation with plenty of men ; but always shunning the Chikkasah side of the river, and observing the strictest order in their movements by day, and in their stations at night. The walking of a wild beast, I have been assured, has frequently called them to arms, and kept them awake for the whole night, they were in so great a dread of this warlike natjon. The name of a Chikkasah be- came so dreadful, as it was hateful to their ears. And had it not been more owing to French policy than bravery in uniting all the Mississippi and Canada Indians in a confederacy and enmity against them, Louisiana settlements would have been long since either entirely destroyed or confined to garrison." Bancroft (Vol. II, p. 234) says: "The great object of the crown was the establishment of its power in Louisiana. The Chickasaws were the dreaded enemies who had hurried the Natchez to bloodshed and de- struction; in their cedar barks, shooting boldly into the Mississip- pi, they interrupted the connection between Kaskaskia and New Orleans. They maintained their savage independence and weakened by dividing the French empire. They made all set- tlements on the eastern bank of the Mississippi unsafe from the vicinity of New Orleans to Kaskaskia. They welcomed the English traders from Carolina to their villages; they even en- deavored to debauch the affections of the Illinois, and to extirpate French dominion from the west. After nearly two years' preparation, in 1736, the whole force of the colony at the south, with D'Artaguette and troops from his command in Illinois and probably from the Wabash, was directed to meet, on the tenth of May, in their land. The government of France had itself given directions for the invasion, and watched the issue of the strife." I do not place very great reliance upon the deduction made by even so distinguished a writer as Bancroft, unless it appears that he has made a special study of the subject upon which an opinion is expressed. The reasons for this view are obvious. George J. Leftwich of Aberdeen, Mississippi, is an eminent lawyer, and has contributed several valuable historical papers upon local Mississippi history, and now has in preparation a 274 The Chickasaw Nation volume on the Tombigbee country; and in a recent letter to me he says : "I am now making a study of the state of Louisiana under the French and Spanish regimes, and every day I am more and more impressed with the services done the English-speaking race by the Chickasaws, under the direction of English traders during the formative period of the Southwest. Could the French and Spanish have overrun these hardy warriors, there is no telling now the consequences." May we not go further and say that, to a great extent, the English-speaking peoples, the world over, owe a debt of gratitude to the invincible Chickasaws, in that to them is due the credit in a large measure that the English-speaking people now dominate, not only the North American continent, but the uncivilized as well as all civilized mankind? In this connection we should remember that not only were all the more numerous neighbors of the Chickasaws, that is, the Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees, and Seminoles, hostile to the English, and often in league with the French, but the lesser tribes and near neighbors of the Chickasaws were the allies of the French. Thus, Halbert in an interesting article on "The Small Indian Tribes of Mississippi" (5 Miss. Hist. Soc, pp. 302, 307) states that the Southern Indians were so dissatisfied with the treaty of 1763, under which the French ceded their rights east of the Mississippi to Great Britain, (to quote) that " Representatives from all the Indian tribes south of the Ohio River held a general council at Mobile in the spring of 1764 to decide what course to pursue regarding the now all- absorbing power of the English. Many of the Indians, and in some cases whole tribes, resolved to expatriate themselves, and follow the French to Louisiana. The tribes that carried this resolve into effect were the Tensas, Biloxis, and Pascagoulas; also many of the sixtown Choctaws, and a part of the Coshattees and Alibamos." 275 The Chickasaw Nation Practically single-handed and alone the intrepid Chickasaws defied not only the French empire but all of the Indian allies of the French and so successfully that their victories read almost like romance. The prowess of the Chickasaws upon the great Mississippi was no doubt one of the main factors which won for them the glory of a triumphant end of all their struggles with the French and their Indian allies. It is almost needless to say that the Chickasaws were con- spicuous by their absence from the great Indian council at Mobile in 1764 to shed tears over the withdrawal of the French, and to exile themselves by following the French to Louisiana. And, likewise, the Chickasaws were also conspicuous in alone rejoicing at the withdrawal of the French, which meant also that England was to exercise undisputed sway over the land of the Chickasaws and adjacent Indian countries east of the Mississippi. In the future critical and analytical historians will not fail to give to the Chickasaws that meed of praise for their valor and unconquerable spirit; and what is more important will accord to their primitive warriors the just tribute of having been the de- termining factor which turned the scale against the French and in favor of the British, thus making the English-speaking people the overlords on the American continent. The English Gain Control of the Gulf States— The long struggle between England and France for suprem- acy in what now constitute the Gulf States, and over the waters of the Mississippi, ended with the treaty of Paris, concluded on February 10, 1763. By that treaty (to quote), "The most Christian king cedes to his Britannic Majesty the river and the port of Mobile and all that he possesses on the left side of the river Mississippi, with the exception of New Orleans and the island on which it is situated." Out of this territory on October 7, 1763, by proclamation of the king, there was laid off the British Province of West Florida ; 276 The Chickasaw Nation and on November 20, 1763, George Johnstone, a son of Sir James Johnstone, was appointed the first governor of the new province, presumably through the influence of Lord Bute, then premier of England, and like the Johnstones a Scotsman. It appears Governor Johnstone did not arrive to take charge of west Florida until October, 1764, and he then found the Indians in a perfect ferment, as he believed, incited thereto by the French. He estimated the fighting men of the Creeks at 3,600, those of the Choctaws at 6,000, while he estimated all the Indians surrounding the province at 12,000 men, while his own force was small and weak. Already the Choctaws were in so bad a temper that they were sending the bloody hatchet, their symbol of war, to the other nations. The Chickasaws are not mentioned in the first reports, doubtless because they were giving no trouble. On March 26, 1765, so far as my researches have disclosed, the Chickasaws first appear in a council of the governor with the Choctaws, the Chickasaws being represented by Paya Mattaha, their principal leader, and other chiefs, while the Choctaws were represented by Alibamon Mingo and several other great medal chiefs, as well as two small medal chiefs. In his address to the Chickasaws, among other things, Governor Johnstone said : "You, generous friends of the Chickasaw nation, who have so long adhered to the interest of the English, whom neither dangers could startle nor promises seduce from our interest, I hope there is little more necessary with you than to renew our ancient alliance, which, as it has continued for many ages to the mutual advantage of both nations, I hope will continue until this earth is dissolved and the great Day of Judgment shall come when God will pronounce on the actions of men; rewarding those who have behaved justly and punishing those who have held a con- trary conduct." 277 The Chickasaw Nation After many speeches had been made, on the next day Governor Johnstone further said : "And first I speak to you, Chickasaw warriors. The king looks upon your nation as a son brought up in the house of his father, who had been from his infancy dutyfull and had by that means merited his paternal tenderness and care by which he was preserved and defended from numberless surrounding dangers; so has it been with you till this day, which is clear and bright, and the paths from your towns to every country round are safe and clear, and your father rejoices at your happyness and con- tinues to love you." By wise policies Governor Johnstone pacified the various Indian tribes as near as that could be done at that time and with his small garrison. Years were to elapse, however, and wars and rumors of war were to follow in close succession, before enduring peace between the Indians and whites was to appear; and then only after the Indians hostile to the whites were removed from their ancient homes to new homes in the far West; but this is another story far beyond the purview of this sketch. The Prophecy of Adair Fulfilled— As we are now approaching the end of the days of the primi- tive Chickasaws, and in the next chapter are to take up the treaties between them and the United States, it may be well here to recall that to a certain extent the nation had come partially within the light of history; for Adair had gone to trade among the Indians in 1735, and first went among the Chickasaws in 1744, to whom he was warmly attached, and among them he tells us that he wrote the most of his book; and it has been said, how true I know not, that he was married to a Chickasaw woman. Boudinot says (p. 211) that some time about 1774 or 1775 Adair came to Elizabeth, New Jersey, and applied to Mr. Livings- ton, afterwards governor of the State and well known for his literary attainments, to correct his manuscripts, which had been prepared under most disadvantageous circumstances in the 278 The Chickasaw Nation wilderness. The political troubles were then such that Adair, who was then on his way to Great Britain, was advised not to risk being detained, but to get off on the first vessel leaving and have his manuscripts examined after arriving in England ; this he did, his book appearing in 1775. Boudinot adds that as soon as the Revolutionary War was over, he sent to London and obtained a copy of Adair's book, which he carefully read, after which he strictly examined a gentleman, "then a member with him in Congress of excellent char- acter who had acted as our Indian agent to the southward during the war (without letting him know the design) and from him found all the leading facts mentioned herein fully confirmed by his own knowledge." At the end of Adair's book there is what he calls an appendix, or advice to statesmen. In this appendix he sets out in a very plain and striking manner the futility of the English government in dealing with the early settlers, or what he calls Provincials, as well as with the Indians. He repeatedly admonishes his countrymen that the Provincials should have a constitutional form of government, and makes it plain that the Provincials or early settlers would never submit to be ruled by pampered princelings sent from England. He likewise insisted that the treatment of the government towards the Indians should be of a more kindly character, having due regard to the rights of the aborigines. He urged that the Indians should be properly com- pensated for their lands, especially the Chickasaws; and on page 459 he says: "Should Great Britain duly exert herself, as the value of this place requires, by the assistance of our old Chikkasah allies, the other Indian nations would be forced to pursue their true interest by living peaceably with us; and be soon enticed to become very serviceable both to our planters and the enlargement of trade." 279 The Chickasaw Nation On page 463 he says : "The continent of North America, if properly cultivated, will prove an inexhaustible fund of wealth and strength to Great Britain; and perhaps it may become the last asylum of British liberty, when the nation is enslaved by domestic despotism or foreign dominion; when her substance is wasted, her spirits broken, and the laws and constitution of England are no more, then those colonies sent off by our fathers may receive and en- tertain their sons as helpless exiles and ruined refugees." By a strange sort of coincidence, at the very time I read the foregoing excerpts (May, 191 7) the Right Honorable Arthur James Balfour and other special ambassadors from England had just arrived in Washington City, there to seek the assistance of the United States in preventing the destruction of Great Britain in the world-wide war, in which the commerce and the very existence of England itself was threatened. And at the same time there was hoisted for the first time in the history of the world the flag of the Unites States over Westminster Abbey, alongside of the Union Jack; thereby signifying the union of the English- speaking people of the world in defense of democracy and the rights of humanity against autocracy. Adair published his book in 1775, and it would seem with prophetic vision, because what he foresaw or conjectured took place 152 years after he gave his book to the world. As one who speaks the English tongue, and who believes in the great destiny of that people, I rejoiced when America joined hands with England in defense of the ideals of all English- speaking people, and will here quote from Vol. V, p. 199, of Ridpath's history of the world-nations: "The British writers of the period took up our favorite characters, and published panegyrics on Washington and Lincoln and Grant and Lee. Mutual admiration was fanned, and 280 The Chickasaw Nation the bards broke out with their rhapsodies. William Watson and Alfred Austin, the new poet laureate, were answered in America by Robert Underwood Johnson, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and other American poets of first rank, who strove to express the prevailing aspiration of Great Britain and the United States for a closer touch and a more cordial fraternity. "Among these expressions of poetic enthusiasm rising into the realm of race affinities and international relations, we may select the following sonnet byWalter Malone, as a fitting con- clusion to this brief section of the history of the British Empire. "Beneath the arctic peaks of silent snow; Through tropic isles enwreathed with orange blooms; Where brown Gibraltar like a giant looms; Where furnaces of red Sahara glow; In spicy groves, where softest breezes blow; In tangled Hindu jungles' deepest glooms; By mummied Pharaoh's immemorial tombs, The Saxon legions conquer every foe. "So Alfred's spear and Nelson's sword shall be Guards for the flag that Washington unfurled; With might of Cromwell, Lincoln, Blake, and Lee Our gauntlet at invaders shall be hurled ; Lords of the land and emperors of the sea The eagle and the lion face the world!" The Chickasaws Neutral During the Revolution— Not long previous to the Revolutionary War we have seen that the Chickasaws came under the firm and wise administration of Governor Johnstone of west Florida, and that for long years they had been the faithful friends and allies of the English. Adair had first gone to live among them in 1744; and no doubt his intelligence and probity of character served to bind their attachment to the English. The next year after he left America the Declaration of Inde- pendence was written by Jefferson, who had always been friendly to the Indians, and he and the early settlers spoke the English language, and belonged to the great English-speaking race. 281 The Chickasaw Nation No doubt the Chickasaws were sorely puzzled ; and situated as they were, they acted wisely and discreetly by remaining entirely neutral during that great conflict. As soon as peace came, they as wisely aligned themselves with the United States of America. I know of but one instance in which the Chickasaws came near measuring their prowess with American soldiers, and that occurred in 1780, when Colonel James Clark erected in the Chick- asaw country, not far below the mouth of the Ohio, a fort from which to make incursions into the Miami country north of the Ohio; which he did, burning the Pequa and Chillicothe villages. Justly indignant at this unwarranted aggression, the Chicka- saws besieged the fortress in 1781, when Clark hastened to the rescue with reinforcements from Kaskaskia, and the Chickasaws withdrew. The Americans, doubtless realizing that they were wrong, soon afterwards dismantled the fort and left the Chicka- saw country, and the Chickasaws quietly retired to their homes. Why Mississippians, Tennesseeans, Alabamians and Kentuckians Should be Proud of the Chickasaw Nation— Though it may appear a digression, I can not forbear at this place to recall the description given by the great Chickasaw Chief Piomingo, at the celebrated conference in Nashville in 1792 where he so described in one short sentence the boundaries of the Chickasaw country that an engineer would have had no difficulty whatever in its delimitations. Translated into present geographical terms it embraced north Mississippi, all of west Tennessee, and part of middle Tennessee, part of western Kentucky, and portions of north Alabama, a princely domain, over which the Chickasaws, though so small in numbers, were the undisputed overlords. I can not do better than to conclude the chapter with the closing words of Pickett (p. 298) to Chapter XIV of his most excellent history of Alabama. 282 The Chickasaw Nation "The Chickasaws have never been conquered. They could not be defeated by De Soto with his Spanish army in 1541 ; by Beinville with his French army and Southern Indians, in 1736; by D'Artaguette with his French army and Northern Indians; by the Marquis De Vaudreuil with his French troops and Choc- taws, in 1752; nor by the Creeks, Cherokees, Kickapoos, Shaw- nees, and Choctaws, who continually waged war against them. No! they were 'the bravest of the brave'; and even when they had emigrated to the territory of Arkansas, not many years ago, they soon subdued some tribes who attacked them in that quarter. "Young men of northwestern Alabama and northeastern Mississippi! Remember, that the bravest race that ever lived once occupied the country which you now inhabit, once fished your streams, and chased the elk over your vast plains. Re- member that, whenever that soil which you now tread was pressed by the feet of foes, it was not only bravely defended, but drenched with the blood of the invaders. Will you ever dis- grace that soil, and the memory of its first occupants, by sub- mitting to injustice and oppression, and finally to invasion? We unhesitatingly give the answer for you, 'No, no, never!' Why the Chickasaws were Unconquered and Unconquerable- Writers often express surprise at the wonderful achieve- ments of the Chickasaws in their contests for supremacy with other Indian tribes so much greater in numbers, as well as at the many defeats which the French suffered at their hands. I think that an attentive consideration to their history and characteristics furnish a solution to the question so often asked, what were the reasons that this comparatively small nation was almost invincible? Roosevelt in his Winning of the West very correctly states that they were more closely knit together than any of their more numerous neighbors, and always acted in unison. Here we see that they had the good sense not only to appreciate the wisdom of the aphorism that in union there is strength, but they made this aphorism a part of their national life, which was the all- important consideration. The Chickasaw Nation We have seen in this chapter their prowess upon the Missis- sippi River and how they harried the French when navigating that great artery of trade and traffic in pioneer days ; and likewise it will be recalled that when, with the aid of the Cherokees, they swept the Shawnees from the Cumberland River country and drove them north of the Ohio, that great contest was known as the battle of the canoes; thus showing that their prowess on the affluents of the Mississippi was felt by their Indian enemies. As shown in the seventh chapter, while the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff was their great entrepot, still they had well used trails leading southwest, ending abruptly where Nelson's Bluff touches the lower Tallahatchie River and where the Yalabusha River touches the foothills; and from these points we may be assured they fared forth in their cypress bark canoes to wage relentless warfare upon their enemies, for on their rivers they were perfectly at home and ruled the waves as certainly as England has ruled on the waves of the oceans. Other tribes were doubtless like the Choctaws, who were helpless on the water. In modern times it has become axiomatic, or nearly so, that sea power means world power, and it can readily be seen what an immense advantage the Chickasaws possessed over other tribes who were helpless upon the water where the Chickasaws were almost supreme. While the primitive Chickasaws were a deeply religious people, we have seen that probably they were less superstitious than any other tribe of Indians. They never went to war, except after not only war councils but also elaborate religious ceremonies accompanied by long continued fasting. When they did go to war, it was with that religious fervor and zeal which often counts for so much in winning a war. There was still another matter which I regard as of great moment, and that was the superb characters of the Chickasaw women, who were what Caesar's wife was or should have been, and that was above suspicion; and we have seen that they were so regarded by their men. When Adair inquired of a sage Chickasaw why in this respect the Chickasaws were so particular, 284 CHICKASAW CO. QAmo/** The Chickasaw Nation and he might have added and different from some other Indians, the answer was in substance that they were a small people, and were often at war with their more numerous neighbors, and that it was of supreme importance that the blood of the Chickasaw warriors should continue to run pure, and this could not be if their women were dissolute. This was but the enunciation of what I understand is now an accepted truism, and that is that no people can long persist when their women become dissolute; and on the other hand that whatever calamities, such as wars, famines or pestilence may over- take and crush a people, they may still rise superior to all earthly misfortunes where the motherhood of that people is of the lofty character of the ancient Chickasaw women. As these were the outstanding characteristics of the Chick- asaws as a nation and individually, why should we be surprised at their achievements, or that they earned the title of the un- conquered and unconquerable? Historic Chickasaw Country— Before leaving the remote historic past of the Chickasaws and their ancient home in Mississippi, at the especial solicitation of E. T. Winston, at present the mayor of Pontotoc, Mississippi, and who is an authority on historic localities in that section of the State, I have had a cut made of that most interesting portion of north Mississippi, which will be found at the conclusion of this chapter. As shown on the map it was prepared by the well known civil engineer J. Paul Gaines, of Memphis, who, as already pointed out, was well equipped for this work, and to whom I am indebted for three of the cuts appearing in this volume. For the precise location of these historic localities I am in- debted to Mr. Winston, who for many years has made an especial study of this most interesting subject. Judge Charles Lee Crum, of New Albany, Mississippi, furnished me with a map drawn to scale of the place where De Soto crossed the Talla- 285 The Chickasaw Nation hatchie in i54i,andof other important historic points near thereto, and this has been much reduced in size and made an insert in the upper right hand corner of the Gaines map, showing the de- tails of the crossing by De Soto of the Tallahatchie. A short explanatory statement may aid the reader to a better understanding of the details of the map. Winston and Professor Lewis agree that the camp of De Soto in the winter of 1 540-1 541 was located in what is now the south half of the southwest quarter of section 21, and the north half of northwest quarter of section 28, of township 11 and range 3 east, of the Chickasaw Cession, in Pontotoc County, and it is so designated near the south end of the map. Professor Lewis concluded that De Soto crossed the Talla- hatchie in April, 1541, near where New Albany now is in Union County, and not at Rocky Ford, some fifteen miles down the river; and in this opinion Winston and Crum concur. There is a very slight difference between Winston and Crum as to the precise point of crossing in this: Winston states the place of crossing as in section 8, township 7 and range 3 east, whereas the map which Crum sent me shows the crossing in section 7 just across the line dividing sections 7 and 8. However, as the dif- ference, comparatively speaking, is inappreciable, and as Crum's home abuts the crossing, his map was followed, upon the sup- position that he was the better judge as to the precise point of the crossing. It will be recalled that the river here has a solid rock bottom, a very unusual feature, from which, in all probability, the river took its name, as Tallahatchie means rock river. Moreover, the river is narrow at this place, and the river valley is also narrow, making it an ideal place for crossing by primitive men. Next comes the location of the place where D'Artaguette and his army of French, Canadians, and Indians, were defeated on May 20, 1736, by the Chickasaws. This place is now in section 17, township 10, and range 3 east, some seven miles north of the site of De Soto's camp, where, 195 years previously, the 286 The Chickasaw Nation Chickasaws came so near destroying De Soto and his Spanish army. This place is also the site of Old Pontotoc, near Pontotoc Creek. The free translation of the original Chickasaw word for Pontotoc means hanging grapes, on account of the abundance of that wild fruit which hung from the trees along Pontotoc Creek, and this creek, much reduced in size and shorn of its primeval beauty, is about all, according to Cushman, to mark the site of this important historic locality. Turning now to the map, some fifteen miles northeast of the place where D'Artaguette met his signal defeat, there will be seen designated on the map, ' 'Battle of Ackia, May 26, 1736," where the Chickasaws so signally defeated Bienville and his army of French, Swiss, negroes, and Indians only six days after they had nearly annihilated the whole army of D'Artaguette. It will also be noted that the site of the battle of Ackia lies at the edge of the Chickasaw Old Fields, a beautiful prairie country in the present Lee County, and where most of the Chickasaws lived at that time. The battle of Ackia was in what is now section 21, township 9, and range 5 east. There are other very interesting historic localities shown on this map, located by Gaines in the sections, townships, and ranges as given by Winston, but these numbers I deem it unnecessary to repeat, though a short reference to these localities may be of sufficient interest to deserve a few words of explanation. In the section next north of the Camp of De Soto there is marked, "Stuarts," which was the home of the Rev. Thomas C- Stuart, the beloved missionary to the Chickasaws, an account of whom is given hereafter in Chapter XIII. In the third section to the north is marked on the map, "Monroe Mission," estab- lished by Stuart in 1821, and named in honor of James Monroe, then president of the United States. Some two miles east of the Monroe Mission appears "Tak- shish," sometimes written Tokshish and Taxish, which was the home of General William Colbert, already mentioned, and where 287 The Chickasaw Nation he died. His widow, Minney, sold the place to Rev. J. A. Ware, a Baptist minister, who built a church on the land, in which he preached for forty years, and services are still held there. The property now belongs to a son of the Reverend Ware. Some four miles directly north of Takshish is marked "Treaty Pontotoc," that is to say, this was the place where treaties were debated and entered into. Some three miles northeast of the treaty house there is indicated on the map "Old Pontotoc," where once stood the ancient Council House of the Chickasaws. At the place marked "James Colbert," some two miles south of where the battle of Ackia was fought, and some six miles west of the present city of Tupelo, a tavern was kept by James Colbert, of the same noted family as were William and Levi Colbert. At this tavern the old Natchez Trace was crossed by the present Tupelo and Pontotoc Road, later known as Walkers Cross Roads, and later still as Bissell's post office. Near the west edge, about midway of the map, there is marked the Indian name of "Olocopotoo," now called Tocopola. D'Artaguette is supposed to have traveled with his army over the trail passing Olocopotoo, and, according to local tradition, after his defeat and death the small remnant of his army camped the first night after the battle at Olocopotoo. Some three miles south of the present New Albany there is designated on the map "Kings," for there it is said lived the last "king" of the Chickasaws; but we have seen that in point of fact they had no such official as a king. The whites often designated their leaders as kings upon the erroneous assumption that they had a king. The name of this chief was Issaship, and the nearby creek on Lusher's map is written Issaship, but it is now called Kings Creek, and the place referred to is called Kings. The foregoing is a summary of the information furnished by Winston, upon which Gaines drew the map. In the first draft Gaines indicated the location of the various railroads running 288 The Chickasaw Nation through the country in question, but on reflection he concluded to leave these out and represent only the old primeval trials, with only present day county lines and the location of a few modern towns for better identification of ancient historic places. Referring again to the map furnished me by Judge Crum, a much reduced copy whereof appears on the map of Gaines in the upper righthand corner, it will be seen that there are numbers thereon as follow: 1,2, and 3. No. 1 represents the place where the courthouse is situated in New Albany. The point 2 is about one thousand feet southwest of the courthouse, where a broken Spanish sword was dug up in 1901, while across the river, fifteen hundred feet almost due west from the courthouse, at the point 3, a Spanish coin was found with the year 1539 stamped thereon, that being the year that De Soto sailed from Havana on his memorable expedition. While on this subject, it may be noted that J. B. Jarratt, a Confederate veteran, still hale and hearty, owns an ancestral estate of about one thousand acres six miles southeast of Holly Springs, he being the uncle of General Arthur R. Taylor. On August 3, 1919, Mr. Jarratt wrote me that there grew in the yard of his plantation home a large oak tree, measuring four feet in diameter five feet from the ground, and that as it died, he had it cut down in 1901, and that three inches from the center of the tree he found a thin hand-made horse shoe, different from any he had ever seen, and which he believed was left there by the De Soto expedition, and he thought that it was either put around the young tree or fastened to it, as he counted over three hundred rings on the stump of the tree. The Jarratt property is of a tableland character, but the hills are not distant. Within 125 feet of the ancient oak referred to» two fine cool springs pour out their limpid waters, while there are several others in that vicinity, making it an unusual and pleasant place for camping. The land owned by Mr. Jarratt, with three adjoining sections, was reserved by the Chickasaw Indians after most of 289 The Chickasaw Nation the tribe had left for the West, on account of the many fine cold and bold springs in the vicinity which form Spring Creek, that flows to this day through these sections. There is an Indian mound in the Jarratt garden, and many flint and other Indian implements found there bear testimony that this place was at one time a favorite camping ground of the Chickasaws and no doubt for other primitive men for ages past. I was never so impressed with the value of a bold cool spring in a warm country to traveling primitive men, as when I visited the ruins of Delphi in Ancient Greece, in the year 1912. Landing at Itea on the Corinthian Gulf, we wound in and out on the side of the mountain until we reached the place where the most famous Delphic Oracle of Apollo uttered to many genera- tions of men the world over those oracles which were supposed to issue from Divinity. Why was this spot chosen for this most famous of all oracles? By the side of the narrow road as it winds around the base of the celebrated mount Parnassus, which here rises to a great height of solid perpendicular stone, there issues from its base a bold cold spring of clear, limpid water, than which there was nothing more inviting and necessary to primitive traveling men in a warm country. In time it became a camping ground, and later was selected for the site where the priestess of Apollo for ages gave to a listening world those famous oracles which so profoundly affected the destiny of men and of nations. According to local tradition De Soto traveled in this vicinity, and certainly to the sick and wounded of his little army there could scarcely have been a better or more restful spot for a camp. Moreover, according to Jarratt, his place was on the ancient line of travel from the crossing at New Albany on toward the Chickasaw Bluffs over the trail now represented by the modern Pigeon Roost Road. I am not unmindful of the supposed discovery of De Soto, relics all over a vast scope of our country, some of which have so little to recommend their verity as to invite many jesting remarks 290 The Chickasaw Nation from thoughtful students. Nevertheless, owing to the high characters and intelligence of Jarratt and Crum, I submit what they say on this most interesting subject to the thoughtful consideration of the reader. 291 CHAPTER X OF THE FIRST TREATIES BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE CHICKASAW NATION The writing of this chapter I would fain have omitted, but this sketch would be incomplete without it. I commence with feelings of contrary emotions, because the treaties themselves were unjust to the Chickasaws, and often not creditable to the United States; and, moreover, while the Indians kept the terms of the treaties, the white man as uniformly disregarded them. And yet George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who did more probably than any two men in laying the sure foundations on which this great republic has become the torch of liberty enlightening the world, were the two statesmen who more than all others combined, also laid down the policies which should govern the relations between the United States and the North American Indians. But, as it was recognized both by Washington and Jefferson that the Chickasaws, on account of their high character and fidelity to the American people, had an especial and peculiar right to invoke the solicitude of the United States government, it does seem to me that they deserved more consideration than has been extended to them. It may be observed in limine, that there was then a mere federation of States and even after the adoption of the con- stitution of the United States, the various States, including North Carolina and Georgia, denied the right of the national authorities to treat with the Indians, insisting that this pre- rogative belonged more properly to the respective States, and these claims gave rise to much debate and confusion for years afterwards. In addition numerous private individuals and companies made purchases, many of them tainted with fraud, 292 The Chickasaw Nation from various chiefs representing themselves, or in some instances pretending to represent their tribes, and this became a fruitful source of discussion in and out of legislative halls, and in the courts. Eventually it was correctly held that the federal govern- ment had the exclusive right to make treaties with the aborigines. The Right of Title by Discovery Established— But the great question of debate which lay behind these questions was, whether any power resided in the federal govern- ment, or that of the States, to dispossess the Indians, or force them against their will to sell their lands and remove to distant and unknown lands and to contend with the people there found in bloody conflict, in an endeavor to dispossess them of the land where from time immemorial they had lived and the ashes of their ancestors reposed. The solution involved the discussion of fundamental principles not only of international law and usages but the abstract principles of right and wrong; and the debate was long continued, fervid, and acrimonious, the result being that it was declared the Indians had no legal right to the land on which they lived, though by a divided court in Tennessee, the judges voting two to one. Paradoxical as it may seem, this determination that the Indians had no legal right to the homes they had occupied and enjoyed for ages was declared to be based upon the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who spoke as never man spake; and who said, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." Chief Justice Catron, who was afterwards for twenty-seven years an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, quoted from Lord Coke as follows : "All infidels are, in law, perpetual enemies, for the law presumes not that they will be converted; that being a remote 293 The Chickasaw Nation possibility, for between them, as with the devils, whose subjects they be, and the Christian, there is perpetual hostility, and can be no peace; for the Apostle saith (II Cor. 6:16) 'And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?' (Calvin's case, 7 Co. 33:4 Inst. 155.) 'This,' adds Judge Catron, 'was the undoubted national law, in the days of Coke and of James the first ; and disgusted as we may be with its bigoted manner of assertion and indiscriminate execu- tion, yet it continued to be as much the law at the revolution, as that the oldest son took the whole estate.' " Judge Catron further said. "The Pope claimed the right to dispose of all countries pos- sessed by infidels ; a right that it would have been deemed as absurd to deny before and during the fifteenth century, as it would now be absurd to admit." The Pope, as the successor of St. Peter, and vicar and representative of Jesus Christ, was supposed to have a right of domain over all the kingdoms of the earth. Alexander the sixth was applied to, and granted in full right to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain all the countries inhabited by infidels, which they had discovered or should discover. As it was necessary to prevent this grant from interfering with that formerly made to Portugal, he appointed that a line, supposed to be drawn from pole to pole, a hundred leagues to the westward of the Azores, should serve as a limit between them; and in the plenitude of his power, bestowed all to the east of this imaginary line upon the Portuguese, and all west of it upon the Spaniards. Zeal for propagating the Christian faith was the consideration employed by Ferdinand in soliciting this bull, and is mentioned by Alexander as the chief motive for issuing it. This title was then deemed completely valid to authorize the monarchs of Spain to extend their discoveries, and to establish their dominion over such portion of the globe. The same motive that impelled the Popes, in the fifteenth century, to send forth the Portuguese and Spaniards to conquer, 294 The Chickasaw Nation equally influenced the English in a more enlightened age. Calvert, the governor of Maryland, sent out by Lord Baltimore, in 1632, to form a colony as soon as he landed on the shore, took posses- sion of the country, "for our Savior, and for our sovereign lord, the king of England." So when the first charter of Carolina was granted by Charles the second, the motive assigned was to propa- gate the blessings of religion and the civilizing of a barbarous land. Such men as Lords Clarendon and Berkley aver, "that being excited with a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the gospel, they desire a certain country in the parts of America, not yet cultivated and planted, and only in- habited by some barbarous people, who had no knowledge of God." The conclusion reached is thus stated by Judge Catron (8 Yerger, p. 277), "We maintain that the principle declared in the fifteenth century as the law of Christendom, that discovery gave title to assume sovereignty over, and to govern the unconverted natives of Africa, Asia, and North and South America, has been recognized as a part of the national law, for nearly four centuries, and that it is now so recognized by every Christian power, in its political department." On the next page it was added : "Refined sensibility and elevated philanthropy may hold what it will, the truth is, neither our theory or practice has ever allowed to the Indian any political right extending beyond our pleasure. The principle, in its application, is general, extending to all the Indian nations and tribes on this continent, to which the Cherokees form no exception. Theirs is not a case of conscience before this court, but a case of law! Let it be noted that though the right to despoil the Indians of their homes was made to depend on the teachings of Jesus, still in the next breath it is said in effect that this is done in defense of the plain dictates of conscience." The Chickasaw Nation As pointed out in the first chapter, the result reached by the United States Supreme Court (8 Wheaton, 543) was practically the same as that reached in Tennessee, though the language used is more guarded than that of Catron, Chief Justice Marshall saying : "In the establishment of these relations the rights of the original inhabitants were in no instance entirely disregarded, but were necessarily, to a considerable extent, impaired. They were admitted to be rightful occupants of the soil, with a legal as well as a just claim to retain possession of it and to use it according to their own discretion ; but their rights to complete sovereignty, as independent nations, were necessarily diminished, and their power to dispose of the soil at their own will, to whomsoever they pleased, was denied by the original fundamental principle that discovery gave exclusive title to those who made it." In reading these decisions we are forcibly reminded of the mentality of a medieval robber baron, and of the medieval in- tolerance of one Christian sect against the other, which hesitated not to lead a victim to the stake, simply because of a difference in the interpretation of the words of Jesus. Nay, more, men were then burned at the stake simply because of their opinions with respect to the character and revolutions of the heavenly bodies. Thus, Giardino Bruno was burned at the stake at Rome in 1600, merely because he taught that the planet on which we live is small as compared with other members of the solar system, and that daily it revolves on its axis. But posterity eventually, though tardily, vindicated the nobility and heroism of his character, and in 1903 it was my privilege to look with admiration upon his magnificent bronze statue, erected upon the spot in the market place at Rome where he had been burned three hundred and three years before that time. The Indians Were Not Without Able White Defenders- It must not be supposed that the Indians were without white men of high standing and great ability to defend their 296 The Chickasaw Nation cause; far from it. The gifted William Wirt with marked ability and untiring zeal represented them before the United States Supreme Court, in conjunction with Mr. Sergeant. The great Daniel Webster and other men of high standing recommended the Cherokee Indians to employ Mr. Wirt, who had been the attorney-general of the United States, and was at once one of the greatest orators and writers, as well as one of the most learned lawyers, of that or any other day. Mr. Wirt, appreciating that his employment, although unsolicited, would bring to him unmerited criticism and misrepresentation, as it did, first cor- responded with Mr. Madison, Chancellor Kent, and the most distinguished lawyers and statesmen of that day, as to the pro- priety of entering into the cause, its merits, etc; with the result that being convinced that a great wrong had been visited on the Indians, he entered the lists in their interest, and threw all of his genius and soul into the cause, known as the Cherokee Nation vs. the State of Georgia, 5 Peters, p. 1. The bill as prepared by him set forth that from time im- memorial the Cherokee nation had composed a sovereign and independent state, and in that character had been repeatedly recognized, and still stood recognized by the United States in the various treaties subsisting between them. That the Chero- kees were the occupants and owners of the territory in which they resided before the first approach of the white men of Europe to the Western Continent, "deriving their title from the Great Spirit, who is the common father of the human family, and to whom the whole earth belongs." That the Cherokee nation have been and were the sole and exclusive masters of this ter- ritory, governed by their own laws, usages, and customs. The bill then averred that George the second, monarch of several islands on the eastern coast of the Atlantic, had pre- sumed to issue a charter to certain persons for a part of the coun- try in America, lying between the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers. That the foundation of this charter is asserted to be the right of discovery to the territory granted, simply because a 297 The Chickasaw Nation ship, manned by the subjects, about two centuries and a half before, sailed along the coast of the Western Hemisphere, from the fifty-sixth to the thirty-eighth degree of north latitude, and looked upon the face of that coast, without even landing on any part of it. This right of discovery, as claimed to exist among European nations, in so far as it affected the rights of the Indians was denied, to which principle the Indians had never assented, and which they denied to be a principle of the natural laws of nations or obligatory on them. The bill was very lengthy, but I think the foregoing will serve to show the main issue in plain language, the design being to challenge the principle claimed that England had the title to that part of the country referred to, because of its discovery as set forth, and was authorized by international law to grant the same to whomsoever she pleased, regardless of the rights of the Indians. There was no appearance whatever for the state of Georgia, that state occupying a moody and menacing attitude, evidently prepared to challenge the jurisdiction of the court in case its decision was favorable to the Indians. Jackson was president and it was well known that he was hostile to the purposes of the bill. The case was elaborately argued and briefed both by Mr. Sergeant and Mr. Wirt; and after due consideration Chief Justice Marshall delivered the opinion of the majority of the court, dismissing the bill and holding that the Cherokees were not in law a nation, and consequently not entitled to maintain the suit, and upholding the principle of law usually denominated title by original discovery. It is proper to state that Mr. Justice Thompson delivered an elaborate dissenting opinion in favor of the Indians, in which Judge Story concurred, he being then one of the most distin- guished jurists of the day, and moreover the author of many law books, among them being Story's Equity Jurisprudence new 298 The Chickasaw Nation editions of which with elaborate notes continue to be brought out even to this day, it being a standard authority. Spencer Jarnagin, a lawyer of great ability, then a United States Senator from Tennessee and a Memphian, represented the Cherokee nation before the Supreme Court of Tennessee, and in his efforts in their behalf left no stone unturned. And, likewise, there were able and distinguished men in and out of Congress who defended the rights of the aborigines; and while the result was as indicated above, still their labors had a wholesome effect upon public opinion, which served to aid men like Washington and Jefferson to mete out to the Indians such justice as they received. On the other hand there were the unreasoning many who regarded a dead Indian as the only good Indian, and acted ac- cordingly, and they found advocates in men occupying high places. Thus when it was ascertained that in violation of the treaty with the Cherokees white settlers were on Cherokee property, and the president ordered their removal on August 19, 1797, John Sevier sent out a circular letter addressed to the inhabitants settled on the Cherokee lands, expressing his sympa- thy, saying that it was painful "to hear the cries of the people of this state against a partial conduct in favor of a savage tribe that can only be noticed for their atrocious murders, robberies, and desolate wantonness to commit every diabolical crime that could possibly suggest itself to a savage invention." Notwithstanding this indictment that the Cherokees could only be noticed for the diabolical crimes mentioned, there was then living Sequoyah, a Cherokee, born on what is now Tennessee soil, who was soon to give to the world the Cherokee syllabic alphabet, the most perfect in the history of the world, which made his name immortal, placed him among the intellectual aristocracy of the world, and his bronze statue is now in the statuary hall in the capitol at Washington, presented to the 299 The Chickasaw Nation United States by the State of Oklahoma, though that of General Sevier is not found there as yet. In the next chapter will be found a short sketch of this remarkable man. The words and attitude of Sevier may be taken as typical of the average frontier politician, and the influence thus exerted on public opinion can well be imagined. It was difficult for those who were entrusted with public office to administer Indian treaty rights in their purity and integrity. If we turn to the acts in legislative halls, the picture is in no wise different from the attitude taken by the average politician of that day; as witness the treatment of Georgia to the Cherokees and Creeks. We recall that the great philanthropist James Oglethorpe obtained permission from King George to found a colony in the Southern wilderness; and the doors of the prisons were opened so that men who were there imprisoned under English law for no other reason than that they were not able to pay their debts might be given in the new world another chance in life; and Oglethorpe brought with him John and Charles Wesley to preach the gospel to the Indians. The Indians met Oglethorpe in the noble spirit which in- spired him, and granted him lands and all he desired of them; and we also recall that the great Indian chief Tomochichi was lionized, taken to England and presented to the king and that then, while the white man was weak and the red man strong, nothing was too good for the Indian. Now, look at the reverse side of the picture not quite one hundred years afterwards, when the white man was strong and the red man was weak. On p. 139 Foster gives an act of Georgia passed December 20, 1829, as follows: "It is hereby ordained that all the laws of Georgia are ex- tended over the Cherokee country. That after the first day of June, 1830, all Indians then at that time residing in said territory 300 The Chickasaw Nation shall be liable to such laws and regulations as the legislature may hereafter prescribe. That all laws, usages, and customs made and established and enforced in said territory, by said Cherokee Indians, be, and the same are hereby, on and after the 1st day of June, 1830, declared null and void; and no Indian, or descend- ants of an Indian, residing within the Creek or Cherokee nations of Indians shall be deemed a competent witness or party to any suit in any court where a white man is a defendant. 1 ' "Such," says Drake, "is a specimen of the laws framed to throw the Indians into entire confusion, that they might be more easily overcome, destroyed, or forced from the land of their nativity." First or Unofficial Chickasaw Treaty— That the Chickasaws entered into a treaty either with the State of Virginia or North Carolina, and in all probability with the latter, either in 1782 or 1783, appears to be established be- yond doubt, but it was never reported to Congress and never preserved; hence there have been considerable conjectures in reference thereto. Ramsay (p. 489), usually a good authority, says that he had been entirely unable to ascertain where or when this treaty was held, the boundaries agreed upon, etc.; though Putnam says (p. 167) it was dated in June, 1783, while Governor Blount in a letter to the Secretary of War, January 14, 1793, states that it was concluded in 1782. This treaty is usually called the Donelson and Martin treaty, and was concluded where Nashville now stands, and probably at the residence of James Robertson. This treaty would have been lost sight of entirely, except for the fact that about 1793 the Cherokees set up some claim to what was called the Cumberland lands; but it was pointed out that these lands formerly belonged to the Chickasaws and were by them ceded under the Donelson and Martin treaty. The Shawnees at a remote past day had come from the North and settled about where Nashville now is, and thus came in 301 The Chickasaw Nation contact with the Chickasaws and Cherokees, resulting in many conflicts. Finally the Chickasaws, in what is termed the naval or "canoe fight," upon the waters of the Cumberland, or, as it was then called, the Shawnee River, defeated the Shawnees and swept them north of the Ohio, and thus became the undisputed masters of the Cumberland lands. Paschal says (pp. 33, 34) that, according to tradition, this took place about one hundred years prior to the Watauga set- tlement; that the Shawnees joined the Indians in the North known as the Six Nations, but occasionally made incursions into the lands from which they had been driven for purposes of war and hunting. Lenoir (p. 28) reminds us that Ramsey said, "This defeat of the Cherokees probably saved the Watauga settlement," the most famous settlement not only in Tennessee but in all America. Speaking of the celebrated Watauga compact, Henderson (p. 198) likewise says, "The government then established was the first free and independent government, democratic in spirit, representative in form, ever organized upon the American continent." Haywood in his Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, (p. 240), says that after the Chickasaws had helped the Cherokees to drive out the Shawnees, the Cherokees then turned upon the Chickasaws, and adds: "They met the thunderbolts of war at the Chickasaw Old Fields, shortly before the year 1769, and gave them a most signal overthrow, compelling them to retreat by the way of the Cumberland River and the Caney Fork, where, as they marched, they enclosed themselves in forts as a safeguard against the assaults of their incensed enemy, by practicing upon whom they expected to keep alive their own military spirit." Gatschet (p. 92) says of the Chickasaws: 302 The Chickasaw Nation They were constantly engaged in quarrels and broils with all their Indian neighbors; sometimes with the cognate Cha'tah and with the Creeks, at other times with the Cheroki, Illinois, Kickapu, Shawano, Tonica, Mobilians, Osage, and Arkansas (Kapaha) Indians. In 1732 they cut to pieces a war party of the Iroquois invading their territory, but in 1748 co-operated against the French with that confederacy." According to Oliver Day Street of Guntersville, Alabama (Moore, p. 172), the Shawnees occupied the region of the Great Bend of the Tennessee River in northern Alabama, between 1660 and 1 72 1, but Dr. John R. Swanton has expressed the opin- ion that this occupancy of that region was not of long duration. By a treaty between the United States and the Shawnees, entered into January 31, 1786, the country assigned to them lay on the waters of the Miami and Wabash Rivers. The Cherokees were crowding down on the settlers of the Cumberland in a menacing manner, threatening their very ex- istence, and in the letter of Governor Blount above mentioned, he was combating the claim of the Cherokees, saying that those lands had belonged to the Chickasaws before the Revolutionary War, and that a large part of that nation had lived north of the Tennessee, and claimed and owned the Cumberland country, a fact that was acknowledged by the Cherokees in the conference at Nashville in 1792. In this letter Blount gave six reasons for his position, the last one being in these words: "6th. A Cherokee chief, at the treaty of Long Island of Holston, expressed himself in the following words: 'You, Carolina Dick (Colonel Richard Henderson), have deceived your people; you told them we sold you the Cumberland lands; we only sold you our claims they belong to our brothers, the Chick- asaws, as far as the headwaters of Duck and Elk Rivers.' "For this quotation I am indebted to Colonel Tatham, of Richmond, who recorded the proceedings of the treaty. It will be observed that the line here described well agrees with that described as bounding the claim of the Chickasaws, by the mountain leader (Piomingo) at the conference at Nashville." 303 The Chickasaw Nation In making this quotation it is not my intention to cast the least reflection upon Colonel Henderson, who was a man of honor and distinction, and one of the ancestors of our fellow citizen General Arthur R. Taylor. The extract was used by Governor Blount to show the inconsistency of the last pretended claims of the Cherokees to the Cumberland lands; for the language used by the wily Cherokee chief shows that he was quite capable of drawing a very fine, if not deceptive, distinction, its purpose doubtless being to conceal his own duplicity. I have seen it stated by good writers that west Tennessee and western Kentucky were not owned by any tribe of Indians ; but this is an entire misapprehension, as indicated above and shown in the succeeding chapter (XI), which contains a sketch of Piomingo, and which should be read in connection with this chapter as showing the relations of the United States towards the Chickasaws after American independence. Moreover, Major Robert Rogers of the English army, in his travels through America, the date not given, but prior to 1765, as we learn he borrowed the money to have his journal published that year, has this to say : "Below the river Ohio, on the east side of the Mississippi, down to its mouth, the country is owned and inhabited by the Chickasaws for near two hundred miles to the eastward. This nation can raise 10,000 fighting men. The soil of their country is sandy, and not so good as that above described; however, it produces rice and indigo to good perfection, of which the French have made sufficient proof. "The Chicketaws generally live in large towns; their chief settlements are not far from the banks of the Ohio, on the streams that flow into it from the east. "Their houses are not very elegant; however, they have the art of making them tight, which necessity obliges them to do, to secure themselves against the flies, which are here very trouble- some at some seasons of the year. They keep cows, hogs, and horses, the latter in great abundance. They raise plenty of corn, beans, potatoes, etc., but have very little game, except deer. 304 The Chickasaw Nation "The Tanesee is wholly uninhabited below the mountains to where it joins the Ohio; but the country upon it is claimed by the Chickasaws, a brave, warlike people, who have but one town, situated on a plain by a small creek that rises about thirty miles south of the Tanesee. "Their town is picqueted in, and fortified with a fort. They build their houses much in the same form as the Chicketaws. They raise corn in great abundance, and have large droves of horses, some black cattle, and swine. They can raise about five hundred fighting men. "The Chicketaws, their neighbors, are not at all troubled with a spirit of jealousy, and say it bemeans a man to suspect a woman's chastity. They are tall, well shaped, and handsome featured, especially their women, far exceeding in beauty any other nation to the southward." I have thus quoted at large from Rogers, because while he was under the impression that what he calls the Chicketaws were a different people from the Chicktaws, and while his estimate of the number of the former and the extent of their country was doubtless too great, still it is evident from the characteristics given and the descriptions of their country that they were but different branches of the Chickasaw nation, one of which was then firmly seated on the Tennessee River not far from the Ohio. Treaties Between the Chickasaws and the United States- It appears that the United States, having determined to enter into treaties with various Indian nations, selected com- missioners for the purpose of negotiating the same, directing them to first ascertain, as near as possible, the gun men, that is, the men able to bear arms, among the Southwest Indians. On page 39 of Indian Affairs in a letter dated Hopewell on the Keowee, 2nd of December, 1785, of Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, Joseph Martin, and Lach'n Mcintosh, to his Excellency Richard Henry Lee, Esquire, President of Congress, they make their estimate of the gun men of the Southern Indians, as follows : 305 / The Chickasaw Nation Cherokee nation, 2,000; Upper and Lower Creek nation, 5,400; Chockataws, 6,000; Chickasaws, 800; making a total of 14,200 warriors. This was in all probability a fair estimate, though, of course, it is impossible to verify its accuracy. In the succeeding chapter (XI) it is shown that General James Robertson, the father and founder of Nashville, was an ardent friend of the Chickasaws; that Putman says Piomingo, then the great Chickasaw chief, loved General Robertson as he loved no other white man, and that General Robertson in- fluenced Piomingo to go to the far distant Hopewell on the Keowee, in the present State of South Carolina, there to con- clude a treaty between the Chickasaws and the United States. This was the first treaty of its kind between the contracting parties. I will take up these various treaties, beginning with the first, concluded in 1786, and ending with those of 1832 and 1834, which, for want of better terminology, I call "the heart-breaking treaties" ; for under these the Chickasaws were forced to leave the home De Soto found them in two hundred and ninety years before, and which they had spilt their life-blood for ages to defend, and to seek a home in the far West, where they were to enter a deadly conflict with the people already occupying that country. The Treaty of 1786— The first treaty between the Chickasaw Indians and the United States was concluded January 10, 1786, and begins as follows : Articles of a Treaty— "Concluded at Hopewell on the Keowee, near Seneca Old Town, between Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, and Joseph 306 The Chickasaw Nation Martin, Commissioners Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, of the one part; and Piomingo, Head Warrior and First Minister of the Chickasaw nation; Mingatushka, one of the leading chiefs; and Latopoia, first beloved man of the said nation, Commissioners Plenipotentiary of all the Chickasaws, of the other part." First, the United States received the Chickasaw nation into their favor and protection, and the Chickasaws agreed to restore any persons or property within their boundaries and acknowl- edged the protection of the United States. The third article sets forth the boundaries of the Chickasaw country substantially as stated, and by Piomingo in the next chapter (XI). The fourth article is in these words: "If any citizen of the United States, or other person not being an Indian, shall attempt to settle on any of the lands hereby allotted to the Chickasaws to live and hunt on, such persons shall forfeit the protection of the United States of America, and the Chickasaws may punish him or not as they please." Here we see that, while the United States government was weak and the Indian strong, the United States government was willing to withdraw its protection from any person who settled in the Indian country, and in addition, gave the Chickasaws the right to punish such person as the nation saw proper. As we proceed with a review of these treaties, it will be seen how arrogant became the white man; how he trampled his own solemn treaties under foot, and disregarded every right which he had acknowledged belonged to the Indian. The eleventh article is in these words: "The hatchet shall be forever buried, and the peace given by the United States of America and friendship re-established between the said States on the one part, and the Chickasaw nation on the other part, shall be universal ; and the contracting 307 The Chickasaw Nation parties shall use their utmost endeavors to maintain the peace given as aforesaid, and friendship re-established." On behalf of the Indians the treaty was signed by Piomingo, Mingatushka, and Latopoia, by making their marks. The Treaty of 1801— The next treaty is dated October 24, 1801, and granted to the United States the right to make a road from what is now Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi, the first article being in these words: "The Mingco, principal men, and warriors of the Chickasaw nation of Indians, give leave and permission to the President of the United States of America, to lay out, open, and make a con- venient wagon road through their land between the settlements of Mero District in the State of Tennessee, and those of Natchez in the Mississippi Territory, in such way and manner as he may deem proper; and the same shall be a highway for the United States and the Chickasaws. The Chickasaws shall appoint two discreet men to serve as assistants, guides, or pilots, during the time of laying out and opening the road, under the direction of the officer charged with that duty, who shall have a reasonable compensation for their services; provided always, that the necessary ferries over the water courses crossed by the said road shall be held and deemed to be the property of the Chickasaw nation . "Art. II. The commissioners of the United States give to the Mingco of the Chickasaws and the deputation of that nation goods to the value of seven hundred dollars, to compensate him and them and their attendants for the expense and inconvenience they may have sustained by their respectful and friendly at- tention to the president of the United States of America, and to the request made to them in his name to permit the opening of the road. And as the persons, towns, villages, lands, hunting grounds, and other rights and property of the Chickasaws, as set forth in the treaties or stipulations heretofore entered into between the contracting parties, more especially in and by a certificate of the President of the United States of America, under their seal of the first of July, 1794, are in the peace and under the protection of the United States, the commissioners of 308 The Chickasaw Nation the United States do hereby further agree that the president of the United States of America shall take such measure from time to time, as he may deem proper, to assist the Chickasaws to pre- serve entire all their rights against the encroachments of unjust neighbors, of which he shall be the judge, and also to preserve and perpetuate friendship and brotherhood between the white people and the Chickasaws." It will be noted that the Chickasaws were paid not a penny for this valuable grant, but that $700 was given to the Mingco and deputation of that nation to compensate them for the expense of their attendance and the inconvenience they had sustained by their respectful and friendly attention to the president of the United States. Attention further on will be called to these gratuities given the chiefs. While the Chickasaws thus gave away this right of way, they, of course, realized that the worst feature of the treaty was that it necessarily opened up their country to be overrun by all classes of white men, good and bad; and so they endeavored by the wording of the second article, weak though it was, to renew and ratify the terms of the first treaty, which absolutely forbids intruders to come into their country. It will be seen that they refer to the certificate given by the president, of date July 1, 1794. The date should have been July 21 instead of July 1, and had reference to a certificate given personally to Piomingo by President Washington, on July 21, 1794, confirming to the Chickasaws the boundaries of their lands, as given by Piomingo at the conference at Nashville in 1792, referred to in the succeed- ing chapter. The Treaty of 1805— The third treaty was executed July 23, 1805, and begins thus: "Articles of arrangement made and concluded in the Chick- asaw country between James Robertson and Silas Dinsmoor, commissioners of the United States, of the one part, and the 309 The Chickasaw Nation Mingco chiefs and warriors of the Chickasaw nation of Indians on the other part." The first and second articles are in these words: "Art. I. Whereas the Chickasaw nation of Indians have been for some time embarrassed by heavy debts, due to their merchants and traders, and being destitute of funds to effect important improvements in their country, they have agreed and do hereby agree to cede to the United States, and forever, quit claim to the tract of country included within the following bounds, to-wit: "Beginning on the left bank of the Ohio, at the point where the present Indian boundary adjoins the same, thence down the left bank of Ohio to the Tennessee River, thence up the main channel of the Tennessee River to the mouth of Duck River; thence up the left bank of Duck River to the Columbian highway or road leading from Nashville to Natchez, thence along the said road to the ridge dividing the waters running into Duck River from those running into Buffaloe River, thence eastwardly along the said ridge to the great ridge dividing the waters run- ning into the main Tennessee River from those running into Buffaloe River near the main source of the Buffaloe River, thence in a direct line to the great Tennessee River near the Chickasaw Old Fields or eastern point of the Chickasaw claim on the river; thence northwardly to the great ridge dividing the waters running into the Tennessee from those running into Cumberland River, so as to include all the waters running into Elk River, thence along the top of the said great ridge to the place of beginning; reserving a tract of one mile square adjoining to and below the mouth of Duck River on the Tennessee, for the use of the chief O'Koy or Tishumastubbee. "Art. II. The United States on their part, and in con- sideration of the above cession, agree to make the following payments, to-wit: Twenty thousand dollars for the use of the nation at large, and for the payment of the debts due to their merchants and traders; and to George Colbert and O'Koy two thousand dollars, that is, to each one thousand dollars. This sum is granted to them at the request of the national council for services rendered their nation, and is to be subject to their individual order, witnessed by the resident agent; also to Chi- 310 The Chickasaw Nation nubbee Mingo, the king of the nation, an annuity of one hundred dollars, during his natural life, granted as a testimony of his personal worth and friendly disposition. All the above payments are to be made in specie." Indians Encouraged to Contract Debts- Here we see a vast territory stretching from the mouth of the Ohio River along its bank to the dividing ridge between it and the Cumberland River and running hundreds of miles east- ward and embracing a vast territory, for which the Indians received $20,000 and the payments of debts due to their mer- chants and traders, and comparatively small debts owed by some of their chiefs, evidently to peddlers and sutlers who have always borne reputations for fraud and deceit. In the Tennessee Historical Magazine for 191 5 there are two very interesting articles by Donald L. McMurry (pp. 21, 106) on the Indian policy of the federal government, 1 789-1801, and on pp. 114 and 115 he says: 1 'Jefferson, in his desire to civilize the Indian, was by no means impelled solely by his interest in their welfare. The advantages to the white settlers were also apparent. In a letter to Jackson, Jefferson states that the two principal reasons for keeping agents among the Indians were, first, the preservation of peace, and, second, the acquisition of more of their lands through leading them to agriculture. 'When they shall cultivate small spots of earth, and see how useless their extensive forests are, they will sell from time to time, and help out their personal labor in stocking their farms, and procuring clothes and comforts from our trading houses.' He suggested to Governor Harrison, of Ohio, the advantage of having the influential men among the tribes in debt to the trading houses 'because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individual can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of their lands.' " 311 The Chickasaw Nation It was with regret that I read the advice given to encourage the Indians to incur debts so as to force them to sell the land where the ashes of their heroic dead reposed, and which so often had been bathed with their blood; although long before that, in an article read before the Memphis Historical Society, February 7, 191 7, I had stated that such was the evident policy of the government. The primitive Indians were but children of the forest and were by nature incapable of mercenary feelings or motives, and consequently nothing was easier than to have conscienceless trad- ers and sutlers pile up debts against them at extortionate prices. Was this, the admitted policy of the government, right ? It is proper to state here that when Mr. Jefferson saw the rising tide of white settlers flowing into the Chickasaw country, and realized that the nation which had never wavered in its fidelity to the United States would be submerged, he endeavored to formulate a plan by which they could remain in their ancient homes, and act as a kind of buffer state against the French and the Spaniards, who then had interests in North America. Afterwards when, during his administration as president, he acquired from the great Napoleon the vast territory called Louisiana, this opened the way to settle the various Indian tribes in the wilderness beyond the Mississippi. He probably realized that it was now too late to make an exception of the Chickasaws, however deserving they were. The Treaty of 1816— The fourth treaty purports to have been executed on Sep- tember 20, 1 816, at the Chickasaw Council House, some iour miles southeast of Pontotoc. 312 The Chickasaw Nation The United States was represented by Andrew Jackson, D. Meriwether, and Jesse Franklin, and signed by a number of Indian chiefs. The country ceded and the consideration therefor is thus set forth in the second and third articles of the treaty: "Art. II. The Chickasaw nation cede to the United States (with the exception of such reservations as shall hereafter be specified) all right or title to lands on the north side of the Ten- nessee River, and relinquish all claim to territory on the south side of said river, and east of a line commencing at the mouth of Caney Creek, running up said creek to its source, thence a due south course to the ridge path, or commonly called Gaines' Road, along said road southwestwardly to a point on the Tom- bigby River, well known by the name of the Cotton Gin Port, and down the west bank of the Tombigby to the Choctaw boundary. "Art. III. In consideration of the relinquishment of claim and cession of lands made in the preceding article, the com- missioners agree to allow the Chickasaw nation $12,000 per annum, ten successive years, and $4500 to be paid in sixty days after the ratification of this treaty into the hands of Levi Colbert, as a compensation for any improvements which individuals of the Chickasaw nation may have had on the lands surrendered; that is to say $2,000 for improvements on the east side of the Tombigbee and $2,500 for improvements on the north side of the Tennessee River." What a mockery it all was when we consider that for this magnificent domain ceded to the government, covering portions of Tennessee, north Alabama, and northern Mississippi, the Indians only received $12,000 per annum for ten years, or $120,000, and $4,500 to be paid for their improvements. By Article VI a few of the principal chiefs were to receive $150 each in cash or goods, and a few more were to receive $100 each; this last, no doubt, being used as in the nature of a bribe to secure the execution of the treaty. 313 The Chickasaw Nation The Treaty Preceding the Birth of Memphis— The fifth treaty was executed October, 1818, and proclaimed by President Monroe on January 7, 1819, and begins thus: "To settle the territorial controversies, and to remove all ground of complaint or dissatisfaction that might arise to in- terrupt the peace and harmony which have so long and so happily existed between the United States of America and the Chickasaw nation of Indians, James Monroe, president of the United States, by Isaac Shelby and Andrew Jackson, of the one part, and the whole Chickasaw nation, by their chiefs, head men, and warriors, in full council assembled, of the other part, have agreed on the following articles, which, when ratified by the president and Senate of the United States of America, shall form a treaty binding on all parties." That portion of the country ceded in this treaty is thus described : "Art. II. To obtain the object of the foregoing article, the Chickasaw nation of Indians cede to the United States of America (with the exception of such reservations as shall be hereafter mentioned) all claim or title which the said nation has to the land lying north of the south boundary of the State of Tennessee, which is bounded south by the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, and which land, hereby ceded, lies within the following boundary, viz: Beginning on the Tennessee River, about thirty-five miles by water, below Colonel George Colbert's ferry, where the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude strikes the same; thence due west, with said degree of north latitude, to where it cuts the Mississippi River at or near the Chickasaw Bluffs; thence up the said Mississippi River to the mouth of the Ohio; thence up the Ohio River to the mouth of the Tennessee River; thence up the Tennessee River to the place of beginning." By this cession the Chickasaws gave to the United States all of west Tennessee; all of their possession in western Kentucky; 314 The Chickasaw Nation and what they had left in north Alabama; for which the United States agreed to pay installments of $20,000 per year for fifteen years, making the insignificant total sum of $300,000, with some small reservations to members of the tribe. Commencing as far back as 1783 North Carolina had already made large grants of land in west Tennessee and in Kentucky, and the State of Tennessee did the like after it came into being, in absolute defiance of previous treaties with the Chickasaws, and after this time the treaties with the Chickasaws were scarcely regarded with the dignity of a scrap of paper. As far back as 1783, John Rice, under the authority of North Carolina, entered 5,000 acres on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluffs, beginning at the mouth of Wolf River and running southwardly with the Mississippi about one mile, and thence eastwardly for the complement of acres entered ; and this entry was immediately followed by one to John Ramsey also for 5,000 acres, lying im- mediately south of the Rice tract. John Rice was killed by some Indians in 1791, near the present site of Clarksville, Ten- nessee, and left by will his 5,000 acres to his brother Elisha, who about 1794 sold it to John Overton of Nashville for the expressed consideration of $500; and afterwards Overton conveyed one half thereof to Andrew Jackson for the expressed consideration of $100; though the late John Overton, Jr., of Memphis, assured me that in point of fact his grandfather received nothing for the conveyance, he and General Jackson being the warmest personal friends. General James Winchester and his brothers acquired portions of the Jackson interest, and the 5,000 acres were owned by these persons when the treaty of 1818 was concluded, by which •,;-. j for the first time the Indian title was extinguished. «Sf Jackson was much criticized for some time for taking partrin this treaty, because of his interest in the Rice grant, and because 315 The Chickasaw Nation some of his old soldiers had made purchases of land on or near the Bluffs, from the Indians, not knowing of the Rice entry, which accordingly took precedence. Overton, the Winchesters, and Jackson were the proprietors of Memphis and were active in the order named, and a few days after President Monroe signed the Chickasaw treaty, viz: in January, 1819, they signed an agreement to lay out the city of Memphis, which was named by General James Winchester, an officer of distinction ; and who in the same year, by appointment of President Monroe, ran the line under the Chickasaw treaty, locating the 35th degree of north latitude, along which a public road now runs in Shelby County, known as the Winchester. State line road. There had been a tradition that this line, when located, would run along where Poplar Boulevard now is, and consequently would take in a part of Memphis; and the labors of Winchester were at once protested both by the Chickasaws and the State of Mississippi, which had been admitted into the union in 1817, in entire dis- regard of the rights of the Chickasaws. This controversy lasted for years, but under acts of the legislature passed in Mississippi and Tennessee respectively in the years 1827 and 1828, a joint commission was appointed which located the line in Shelby County, about four miles south of the Winchester line, to the disappointment both of the Chickasaws and Mississippi. Those who may wish to pursue the details of these interesting matters further are referred to the two excellent articles on General James Winchester in the Tennessee Magazine of History for 191 5 (pp. 79, 183) by John H. DeWitt. I will only add that John Overton was a Revolutionary soldier, was a distinguished jurist on the Supreme bench, after his purchase of the Rice grant, and more than any other man, seconded by Marcus B. Winchester, afterwards the first mayor of Memphis, was the real founder of Memphis. 316 The Chickasaw Nation The Heart-Breaking Treaties of 1832 and 1834— Cushman was born in the Choctaw nation about 1824, and lived among them and the Chickasaws for some seventy-five years, so that he was to a large extent the contemporary of the men and events when the treaties of 1832 and 1834 were con- cluded. He says that when the treaty of 1830 with the Choc- taws was signed, by which they were to receive only five per cent interest from the federal government, Levi Colbert at once asked his friend Mr. Stephen Daggette to calculate for him the interest on $400,000 at five, six, seven, and eight per cent respec- tively, and when the result was handed to him, he exclaimed, "God! I thought so," explaining that he wished to keep the calculations, as he knew that soon the United States would come to demand the Chickasaw homes, and he wished to be prepared as near as that was possible. It was not long before the faithful agent of the Chickasaws, Benj. Reynolds, a facsimile of whose signature appears on a copy of Lusher's map made a part of this sketch, was ordered to round up the Chickasaws to enter into the proposed treaty, the council being held at the house of a Chickasaw Topulka, a corruption of Tarpalah ; or in English to halloo, or make a noise. I do not think I can do better than to quote what Cushman (p. 522) in part says took place: "Three treaties (or rather articles) were drawn up, but were promptly rejected by the watchful and discerning Chickasaws. Then the fourth was written by the persistent Coffee; but with the following clause inserted to catch the noble and influential chief, Yakni Moma Ubih, the incorruptible Levi Colbert, which read as follows: 'We hereby agree to give our beloved chief, Levi Colbert, in consideration of his services and expense of entertaining the guests of the nation, fifteen sections of land in any part of the country he may select.' 'Stop! Stop! John Coffee!' shouted the justly indignant chief in a voice of thunder, 'I am no more entitled to those fifteen sections of land than the 317 The Chickasaw Nation poorest Chickasaw in the nation. I scorn your infamous offer, clothed under the falsehood of "our beloved chief," and will not accept it.' A frown of disappointment momentarily rested, no doubt, upon the face of Coffee." As a circumstance showing how completely the average Indian was at the mercy of the white man, and although we have seen that Colbert well understood what interest meant, and had a six per cent interest clause inserted in the treaty of 1832, it was with the greatest difficulty that this could be made plain to and understood by the rank and file of the Chickasaws. Finally their interpreter, Ben Love, illustrated it as a hen laying eggs, that is, that one hundred dollars would lay six dollars each twelve months, which they clearly understood. Nor should we, on reflection, be surprised at this; because an Indian could not conceive that one person would charge another for the mere loan of something; for if one Indian had meat or bread or any necessary of life, and another had not, then and there he that had divided with him that had not, and that was the end of it. It will be seen from the cessions previously made that the United States had already forced the Indians, in consideration of a mere song, to cede all of their vast territory and domain, except what they owned in north Mississippi. The State of Mississippi had already been created in 181 7, in defiance of the treaties with the Chickasaws. This treaty was entered into October 20, 1832, and commences thus: "Articles of a treaty, made and entered into between Gen. John Coffee, being duly authorized thereto by the president of the United States, and the whole Chickasaw nation, in general council assembled, at the Council House, on Pontotoc Creek on the twentieth day of October, 1832." 318 The Chickasaw Nation The preamble is in these words: "The Chickasaw nation find themselves oppressed in their present situation ; being made subject to the laws of the States in which they reside. Being ignorant of the language and laws of the white man, they cannot understand or obey them. Rather than submit to this great evil, they prefer to seek a home in the west, where they may live and be governed by their own laws. And believing that they can procure for themselves a home, in a country suited to their wants and conditions, provided they had the means to contract and pay for the same, they have determined to sell their country and hunt a new home. The President has heard the complaints of the Chickasaws, and, like them, believes they cannot be happy, and prosper as a nation, in their present situation and condition, and being desirous to relieve them from the great calamity that seems to await them, if they remain as they are, he has sent his Commissioner Gen. John Coffee, who has met the whole Chickasaw nation in council, and after mature deliberation they have entered into the fol- lowing articles, which shall be binding on both parties, when the same shall be ratified by the president of the United States by and with the advice and consent of the Senate." The first article is in these words : "Art. I. For the consideration hereinafter expressed, the Chickasaw nation do hereby cede to the United States all the land which they own on the east side of the Mississippi River, including all the country where they at present live and occupy." The compensation they were to receive is thus stated: "Art. III. As a full compensation to the Chickasaw nation for the country thus ceded, the United States agree to pay over to the Chickasaw nation all the money arising from the sale of the land which may be received from time to time, after deduct- ing therefrom the whole cost and expenses of surveying and selling the land, including every expense attending the same." Or stated in other words, the government did not propose to pay them one cent out of its treasury, but simply proposed to 319 The Chickasaw Nation put up at auction upon the block the property of the Chickasaws and pay over to them what it might bring at a forced sale, de- ducting therefrom the expenses attending the sale, the Indians to receive the net surplus. The Indians expressed a desire to find a home within the territory of the United States, and the United States agreed to bear the expense of this removal, but, mark you, such expenses so advanced were to be deducted from the proceeds of the Indian land when sold. The treaty, of course, does not disclose the amount of the sales realized for the Indians, but it is a fact that the government long and unnecessarily delayed the sales of these lands ; and as we will see further on, did not properly account there- for, until years afterwards upon the urgent complaint of the Chick- asaws. According to the best information obtainable, the lands sold under this treaty amounted to 6,442,400 acres, or over 10,000 square miles, for which they ultimately received $3,646,000. The twelfth article of this treaty is in these words: "The Chickasaws feel grateful to their old chiefs for their long and faithful services in attending to the business of the na- tion. They believe it a duty to keep them from want in their old and declining age. With those feelings they have looked upon their old and beloved chief Tishomingo, who is now grown old, and is poor and not able to live in that comfort which his valuable life and great merit deserve. It is therefore determined to give him out of the national funds one hundred dollars a year during the balance of his life, and the nation request him to receive it as a token of their kind feelings for him, on account of his long and valuable services. "Our old and beloved Queen Puccaunla is now very old and very poor. Justice says the nation ought not to let her suffer in her old age; it is therefore determined to give her out of the national funds fifty dollars a year during her life, the money to be put in the hands of the agent, to be laid out for her sup- port, under his direction, with the advice of the chiefs." Here is a fair sample of the parsimony, of the ingratitude, and the cruel treatment which the white men of this country 320 The Chickasaw Nation meted out to this noble nation of Indians. This old Chief Tishomingo was then nearly one hundred years of age, and practically helpless, and on his way, after being practically driven from his native country where the ashes of his ancestors for untold ages had rested, he reached Little Rock, in what is now Arkansas, and there died, no doubt from fatigue and ex- posure, at the age of one hundred years. Think of it — a noble queen, so old, decrepit, and blind that she could not wait upon herself, and acknowledged by the treaty to be a queenly woman, and in reward for a lifetime of service is granted the pitiful sum or annuity of $50. If it be said that these engagements were made upon the part of the Indians only, and not by the United States, then so much the worse for the United States; for if there remained in the breasts of the United States officials a spark of gratitude or of compassion, a sufficient provision out of the millions in profits which this country had made out of the Chickasaw lands should have been made for these old people who had spent a lifetime of service for the United States. It is almost needless to say here that Tishomingo County and Tishomingo Creek, whereon was fought a great Indian battle, and during the Civil War whereon was fought another great battle, were named after this great chief, while what is called the Tishomingo gravel, thousands of tons of which form streets in the city of Memphis, as well as hundreds of miles of roads throughout this country, was called after the same great Chicka- saw chief. On October 23, 1832, a supplementary and explanatory treaty, with regard to that last spoken of, was entered into between the United States and the Chickasaw nation, embodying many provisions, one being in these words: "In the provision of the fourth article of the treaty, to which this is a supplement, for reserves to young men who have no 321 The Chickasaw Nation families, it expresses that each young man who is twenty-one years of age shall have a reserve. But as the Indians mature earlier than white men, and generally marry younger, it is de- termined to extend a reserve to each young man who is seventeen years of age. And as there are some orphan girls in the nation whose families do not provide for them, and also some widows in the same situation, it is determined to allow to each of them a reservation of one section, on the same terms and conditions in all respects with the other reservations for the nation generally, and to be allowed to the same ages as to young men.' The Indians prayed that the government grant to them certain mail routes, and among them one running from Memphis, Tennessee, by their offices and to the Cotton Gin Port in Mis- sissippi, which was a well known settlement and town at that day and time. As showing that the Indians were appreciative of the services of any one to them, or any one who faithfully discharged his duties as connected with them, the following is instructive on that subject: "John Donley has long been known in this nation as a mail carrier; he rode on the mails through our nation when a boy and for many years after he was grown; we think he understands that business as well, if not better than any other man, and if he is given the contract, the nation will set apart a section of land for his use while he remains here in this country, which section he may select, with the advice of the chiefs, anywhere that suits him best, so as not to interfere with any of the reserves, and he may use it in any manner to live on, or make such improvements as may be necessary for keeping his horses, or to raise forage for them." On May 24, 1834, articles of convention and agreement were proposed by the Commissioners on the part of the United States in pursuance of the request made by a delegation representing the Chickasaw nation, and in which it is recited the articles have been agreed to. The second article is in these words: 322 The Chickasaw Nation "Art. II. The Chickasaws are about to abandon their homes, which they have long cherished and loved; and though hitherto unsuccessful, they still hope to find a country adequate to the wants and support of their people, somewhere west of the Mississippi and within the territorial limits of the United States: should they do so, the government of the United States, hereby con- sents to protect and defend them against the inroads of any other tribe of Indians, and from the whites; and agree to keep them without the limits of any State or Territory. "The Chickasaw pledge never to make war upon any Indian people, or upon the whites, unless they are so authorized by the United States. But if war be made upon them, they will be permitted to defend themselves until assistance be given to them by the United States, as shall be the case." Here we see that having by this treaty forced the Indians to remove from the small territory to which they had been re- duced by oppression, and to leave the land their fathers had held and owned for generations, by a kind of excuse for so doing, and with a view of forcing a reluctant consent on the part of the Chickasaws, the United States government bound itself in the most express terms, if the Chickasaws found a home within the limits of the United States never to erect that country into a territory, much less a State. Nevertheless, in keeping with the faithlessness of all previous treaties, the government not only created what was called the Indian Territory where the Chicka- saws found a home but afterwards created it a State in utter disregard of the rights of the Indians and treaty obligations. It will not do to say that the various treaties were even voluntarily agreed to by the Indians, for it is well known that intimidation and a species of threats and coercion were used by the agents of the government to compel the Indian to sign these treaties. If there remains a doubt in the minds of any man on this subject, he has but to read the proceedings of the convention or council which took place when the Choctaw tribe of Indians were compelled to sign the Dancing Rabbit treaty, by which they The Chickasaw Nation were forced to abandon their homes in the lower part of Missis- sippi, and also to seek a home in the West. These things were all set down at the time and can be found in the publications of the Historical Association for the State of Mississippi, and cannot be read without producing a sense of shame; and so were nearly all of the treaties forced upon the Indians; and when H. H. (the pen name of Helen Hunt, Jackson), giving a history of the treatment of many tribes of Indians by the United States government, entitled it A Century of Dishonor, I think she well named her book. The next article of this last treaty makes provision for Indian orphans ; and thereafter many provisions are made with respect to the removal not necessary here to mention. On May 24th, 1834, upon the same date as the preceding treaty, articles supplementary were entered into, and provisions were made for carrying the old chiefs Levi Colbert and Isaac Alberson to some watering place on account of their illness and the valuable services they had rendered the nation, and that there should be paid to these old chiefs $3,000 to defray certain in- debtedness. The second article is in these words : "Art. II. The Chickasaw people express a desire that the government shall at the expense of the United States educate some of their children, and they urge the justice of their applica- tion on the ground that they have been faithful and friendly to the people of this country, that they have never raised the toma- hawk to shed the blood of an American, and have given up heretofore to their white brothers extensive and valuable portions of their country, at a price wholly inconsiderable and inadequate ; and from which the United States have derived great wealth and important advantages; therefore, with the advice and consent of the president and Senate of the United States, it is consented that three thousand dollars for fifteen years be appropriated and applied under the direction of the Secretary of War for the edu- cation and instruction within the United States of such children, male and female, or either, as the seven persons named in the 334 The Chickasaw Nation treaty to which this is a supplement, and their successors, with the approval of the agent, from time to time may select and recommend." The statements in the foregoing articles to the effect that the Chickasaws had never raised a tomahawk to shed the blood of an American, and had given up to their white brethren ex- tensive and valuable portions of their country at a price wholly inconsiderable and inadequate, was not only signed by the Indians but by the Commissioner of the United States, and he and the president, and the Senate of the United States, in rati- fying and confirming this treaty and confirming the above statements to be true, thereby attested the nobility and fidelity of the Chickasaw Indians, and at the same time attested their own want of appreciation of that noble people. That the Chickasaw Indians had a keen perception of what is right and wrong is shown by the fourth article of the treaty in these words : "Art. IV. Benj. Reynolds, agent at the time of paying their last annuity, had stolen from him by a negro slave of the Chickasaws, a box containing one thousand dollars; the chiefs of the Chickasaw people, satisfied of the fact, and hence unwilling to receive the lost amount from their agent, ask, and it is agreed, that the sum so stolen and lost shall be passed to the credit of their nation by the United States, to be drawn on hereafter for their national purposes." It would be a great mistake to suppose that the Chickasaws did not fully understand their rights, and that the chief desire of their hearts was to remain in their ancient homes, in defense of which they successfully defeated all invaders for ages. They were passionately fond of their country. This was shown when white men first looked into their faces in 1540, and when they came near destroying the army of De Soto. They showed their devotion to their homes in the successive defeats of Bienville, D'Artaguette, Vaudreuil, Regio, the 325 The Chickasaw Nation Iroquois, Illinois, Shawnee, Arkansas, Cherokee, Creek, Choc- taw, and all other Indian tribes which invaded the land they loved so well. In their first official council with Governor Johnstone in 1765, in answer to their demand, he guaranteed that they would never be disturbed in their country; in the first official treaty with the United States in 1786, their freedom from molestation in their country was guaranteed to them ; in the great conference at Nashville in 1792, their great Chief Piomingo stated the bound- aries of their country, because he said he expected the white man would take the lands of Cherokees, because of spilling the blood of the whites, and for fear they might mistake that of the Chickasaws for the Cherokees', he wished the boundaries of the Chickasaw lands well understood, and produced a map which the United States commissioners had furnished him at the treaty of 1786; and on July 21, 1794, he procured from the hands of President Washington a statement confirming the boundaries as he stated them at Nashville in 1792. In all subsequent treaties we have seen how pathetically the Chickasaws clung to the vain hope that they would not be driven like cattle from the homes they loved so well. Nor should it be supposed that they were deceived as to the real purpose of the whites and the ultimate fate of the Indians, however specious might be the speeches made to them, or the arts of diplomacy that were used to deceive the children of the forest, for not a word or tone of the voice, or the movement of a muscle of the face, escaped their ever- watchful eyes. I do not know that I can do better than to reproduce three speeches which illustrate what is here said. On pp. 135, 136, 137 Boudinot says: "The writer of this was present at a dinner given by General Knox to a number of Indians in the year 1789 at New York; they had come to the president on a mission from their nations. The house was in Broadway. A little before dinner, two or three of the sachems, with their chief or principal man, went into the 326 The Chickasaw Nation balcony at the front of the house, the drawing-room being up- stairs. From this they had a view of the city, the harbour, Long Island, etc. After remaining there a short time, they returned into the room, apparently dejected; but the chief more than the rest. General Knox took notice of it, and said to him, 'Brother! what has happened to you? You look sorry! Is there anything to distress you?' He answered, 'I'll tell you, brother. I have been looking at your beautiful city — the great water, your fine country — and see how happy you all are. But then, I could not help thinking, that this fine country and this great water were once ours. " 'Our ancestors lived here. They enjoyed it as their own in peace. It was the gift of the Great Spirit to them and their children. At last the white people came here in a great canoe. They asked only to let them tie it to a tree, lest the waters should carry it away. We consented. They then said some of their people were sick and they asked permission to land them and put them under the shade of the trees. The ice then came, and they could not go away. Then they begged a piece of land to build wigwams for the winter. We granted it to them. They then asked for some corn to keep them from starving. We kindly furnished it to them, they promising to go away when the ice was gone. When this happened, we told them they must now go away with their big canoe ; but they pointed to their big guns round their wigwams, and said they would stay there, and we can not make them go away. Afterwards, more came. They brought spirituous and intoxicating liquors with them, of which the Indians became very fond. They persuaded us to sell them some land. Finally they drove us back, from time to time, into the wilderness, far from the water and the fish and the oysters. They have destroyed the game, our people have wasted away, and now we live miserable and wretched, while you are enjoying our fine and beautiful country. This makes me sorry, brother, and I cannot help it.'" On p. 137 Foster says: "Just as the Cherokees were beginning to take a prominent stand in civilized ways, the United States was scheming to pos- sess their land and to drive them by fair means or foul from their native soil. No better portrayal of the very shameful condition 327 The Chickasaw Nation of affairs which were agitating the Cherokees at this time (1830) can be produced than in the reply of Speckled Snake to the speech of President Jackson. It was as follows: '"Brothers, we have heard the talk of our great father; it is very kind. He says he loves his red children. Brothers! When the white man first came to these shores, the Muscogees gave him land, and kindled him a fire to make him comfortable; and when the pale faces of the South made war on him, their young men drew the tomahawk, and protected his head from the scalping knife. But when the white man had warmed himself before Indian's fire, and filled himself with Indian's hominy, he became very large; he stopped not for the mountain tops, and his feet covered the plains and the valleys. His hands grasped the eastern and even the western sea. Then he became our great father. He loved his red children, but said, "You must move a little farther lest I should by accident tread on you." With one foot he pushed the red men over the Oconee, and with the other he trampled down the graves of his fathers. But our great father still loved his red children, and he soon made them another talk. He said much; but meant nothing but ''Move a little further, you are too near me." I have heard a good many talks from our great father, and they all began and ended the same. Brothers! When he made us a talk on a former occa- sion, he said, "Get a little further; go beyond the Oconee, and the Ockmulgee; there is a pleasant country." He also said, "It shall be yours forever." ' " 'Now, he says, "The land you live on is not yours ; go beyond the Mississippi ; there is land ; there is game ; there you may remain while the grass grows or the water runs." Brothers! Will not our father come there also? He loves his red children and his tongue is not forked.' " At the Sycamore Shoals in what is now east Tennessee, Daniel Boone, Colonel Richard Henderson, and others had collected the Cherokee Indians to buy from them a great tract of country between the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers. There was no authority in law for private individuals thus to treat with Indians for the purchase of a portion of their coun- try; and, moreover, this was but a part of a plan to secure a color of title to the Cherokee country; for, on November 5, 1768, the 328 The Chickasaw Nation Six Nations had assumed to convey to the king of England their pretended title to a great body of land beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains and down to the Tennessee, embracing a large por- tion of the fairest part of Tennessee. Phelan (p. 17) very correctly observes, "This was the beginning of a mournful repetition which still continues at the end of what has been aptly termed 'a century of dishonor.' " A few Cherokees were present, and it was pretended that they ratified the act of the Six Nations who pretended to cede Cherokee territory; and afterwards it was sought in various ways to commit the Cherokee people to a cession of a large part of their territory, and the meeting at the Sycamore Shoals, in what is now Carter County, east Tennessee, was procured by Boone, Henderson, and others, for the same purpose, though, as pointed out above, this action was without authority of law. Oconostota was one of the principal Cherokee chiefs, the bravest of the brave, and in an impassioned speech he very properly opposed the cession, saying: "This is the beginning. Whole nations have passed away, and there remains not a stone to mark the place where rest the bones of our ancestors. They have melted like the snow before the rays of the sun, and their names are not recorded, save in the deeds and the charters of those who have brought destruction upon them. The invader has crossed the great sea in ships; he has not been stayed by broad rivers, and now he has penetrated the wilderness and overcome the ruggedness of the mountains. "Neither will he stop here. He will force the Indian steadily before him across the Mississippi ever towards the west, to find a shelter and a refuge in the seclusion of solitude. But even here he will come at last; and there being no place remaining where the Indian may dwell in the habitations of his people, he will proclaim the extinction of the race, till the red man be no longer a roamer of the forests and a pursuer of wild game." After quoting Oconostota as above Phelan (p. 19) adds: 329 The Chickasaw Nation "But the best words and the best actions of the fated race have never availed against that irresistible and unpitying person- ification which is called the spirit of civilization. Oconostota himself signed the treaty against which he made his eloquent protest." This is an idealistic sketch of Piomingo (the name meaning Mountain Leader), the great Chickasaw chief in the time of George Washington, who was a warm friend and admirer of the distinguished Chickasaw. CHAPTER XI SHORT SKETCH OF PIOMINGO AND SEQUOYAH; AND HEREIN OF MEN OF THE SOUTH To the average reader history is at best but dry reading, and too often it consists only of the sanguinary conflicts of a people and the intrigues and schemes of those who are in political charge of public affairs. The private character and home life and aspirations of the rank and file of the ordinary individual composing the nation is usually overlooked, with the result that the picture we have of a people is often very incomplete. In the short sketches of Piomingo and Sequoyah I hope to give some conception, incomplete though they be, of the real character of these two Indians who attained distinction not only among their fellow countrymen but among the whites as well. Piomingo was a full-blooded Chickasaw Indian, while the father of Sequoyah was a white man and his mother an Indian, some writers saying that she was of mixed Indian and white parentage, though I am inclined to the opinion that she was an Indian of the whole blood. It has proven a very difficult task to trace out in a short sketch the characteristics of these two men, especially as to Piomingo, an account of whom naturally finds a place in giving the story of the Chickasaws. I have chosen to combine a sketch of Sequoyah with that of Piomingo, both because he was the most intellectual Indian of whom I have read, and also because he was born on what is now Tennessee soil, my adopted home, and in which I have spent the greater part of my life. 331 The Chickasaw Nation Piomingo, the Great Chiekasaw Chief— The first treaty concluded between the Chickasaw nation and the United States was dated 1786, at Hopewell, which is in the present State of South Carolina, and is signed by Piomingo by making his mark, who is therein described as head warrior and chief delegate of the Chickasaw nation. In other documents and books the name is spelled in various ways, as Piamingo, Opiamingo, Opia Mingo, Opoiaming, Pyo Mingo and Opaya Mingo. In the treaty referred to and in official documents the name is usually spelled Piomingo, except those of William Blount, who often spelled the name Opoiamingo, and there is one letter from the great Chickasaw to James Robertson, of December 1st, 1795, signed Opiamingo, while the United States named a vessel for him with the name of Opoiamingo but I think Blount had the name so written. I am satisfied that the chief could neither read nor write and necessarily depended on others to perform this service for him. He no doubt realized how unsatisfactory this was, for in the letter signed as above indicated he requested that William Mizell should write the answer thereto, saying he could both talk and write correctly. All concur as to the meaning of the name in the original, which is Mountain Leader. It is well known that the word Mingo meant in Chickasaw, leader or chief, and, according to the custom of the Indians, this warrior having performed some exploit in some way con- nected with a mountain, he was made their leader, and so named accordingly. I have followed the usual official spelling of the name, writing it Piomingo, giving the i the sound of e, and putting the accent thereon. Little, indeed very little, is known of the early history of the Chickasaws when Piomingo was a child and arrived at young manhood; of this period we know nothing of Piomingo, and even his later life seems to be obscured by oblivion. 332 The Chickasaw Nation He was of the greatest service to the white settlers, especially in middle Tennessee, and to the history of their struggles we are indebted for all that we know of Piomingo. But when in a great measure through his influence the Spaniards were forced in 1797 to abandon Fort San Fernando, which Governor Gayoso had caused to be built where Memphis now stands, his further services were scarcely needed, and as Tennessee had then become a sovereign state, and the federal government had by treaty extinguished all of the pretentions of Spain to occupy the Chicka- saw Bluffs or obstruct the free navigation of the Mississippi River, we hear little or nothing of Piomingo. So long as he was the power to be depended upon to save the white settlers from destruction by the Creeks and Cherokees, he was fawned on by the whites. When they no longer needed his protection, they allowed his name to sink into oblivion. The first reference that I have seen to Piomingo is contained in the account given by Henderson of what were called the "Long Hunters," who were hunters going on long hunting trips through the Indian countries, spying out the best parts of the country and incidentally gathering up furs and such produce as the country afforded. On page 125 Henderson says: " Indians often lurked in the neighborhood of these hunters, plundering their camp, robbing them, and even shooting down one of their number, Robert Crockett, from ambush. After many trials and vicissitudes, which included a journey to the Spanish Natchez and the loss of a great mass of peltries when they were plundered by Piomingo and a war party of Chickasaws, they finally reached home in the late spring of 1770." There is a note to the text referring to the Narrative of William Hall, Draper MSS., Wisconsin State Library. In a letter to me of October 28, 1920, Joseph Schafer, Superintendent of the Wisconsin State Library, says: "Mr. Henderson's authority for the paragraph you cite was Dr. L. C. Draper's manuscript Life of Boone in our possession. 333 The Chickasaw Nation Dr. Draper was an exceedingly careful student, and obtained his facts from many pioneers, of whom Gen. William Hall was one. General Hall's informant was Isaac Bledsoe, one of the Long Hunters. Bledsoe, however, was one of the group who returned to the settlements after Station Camp Creek was robbed. The portion concerning the Chickasaw reads as follows: (Draper MSS. 3B52.) 'On the 6th day of April, 1770, half or more of the party returned to the settlements, while (Uriah) Stone, (Casper) Mansker, Baker, Gordon, Hogan, Brooks, and four others built two boats, two trapping canoes, laded them, together with furs and bear meats, and descended the Cumberland. * * * Reaching the mouth of Cumberland, and finding their bear meat likely to spoil, they rendered it into oil, and poured it into the lightest boat for market. And here, also another misfortune befel them, in being robbed of two guns, some ammunition, salt, and tobacco, by Piomingo or the Mountain Leader, John Brown, and twenty-five Chickasaws, on their way to war against the Senecas. The guns were the heaviest loss, for they soon re- placed the other articles from some French boats they met.' "That is the only mention of the Chickasaw warriors. Draper's authority for this statement was John Haywood, History of Tennessee (Nashville, 1823). Haywood based his account on Mansker's recollections. It may have been that Dr. Draper also obtained some information for himself, since he corresponded with the descendants of the Long Hunters and wrote in the same manuscript volume sketches of their lives. Mansker lived long in the Cumberland country, dying December 20, 1820, on Mansker's Creek in Summer County, Tenn. Dr. Draper secured some information concerning the Chickasaws from Malcolm McGee (10U106-126). "He says (10U109) that Piomingo was born about 1750 and died about 1796. McGee was among the Chickasaws in 1768." This is the only account I have seen which professes to give the year of the birth and death of Piomingo, and I know that the statement that he died about 1796 is incorrect, for he met Col. Guion and other notables on the Chickasaw Bluffs on August 16, 1797, the details of the conference appearing hereinafter. He must have been dead when the treaty of 180 1 was signed, for his name does not appear therein. 334 The Chickasaw Nation I am inclined to believe that Piomingo was born earlier than 1750, for he would have been only twenty years old in 1770, when he is said to have "robbed" this party of Long Hunters; and moreover he was then the dominant power among the Chickasaws, which he would scarcely have been if only twenty years old, and only forty-seven years old in 1797 when we last hear of him. I am impressed with the idea that he was then considerably older than forty-seven, though it must be confessed that this is more of a conjecture than otherwise. The statement that this party of Long Hunters was "robbed" by Piomingo comes from the Hunters, and no doubt from the view point of Piomingo and his band of warriors, such was not the case, and that fair exchange was by no means robbery in the ordinary acceptation of that word. What right had the Long Hunters in the country of the Chickasaws? Were they not there without leave or license; and, moreover, not as mere travelers passing through the country, for it will be noted that their boats were loaded with furs, bear meat, and oil which they had, so far as the Chick- asaws were concerned, nolens volens appropriated to their private uses? No doubt the Indians felt no compunctions in this small reprisal, and they are entitled to their point of view, though this was seldom granted them. In this, our first introduction to Piomingo, it will be noted that he was at the head of a band of warriors on their way to wage war with the Seneca Indians in the far North, for they then probably lived in the present State of New York, over a thousand miles from the home of the Chickasaws. The Chicka- saws were great travelers as well as warriors, and they were known, feared, and respected over a vast country far beyond the limits of their own domain, and at this time Piomingo was the one dominant spirit controlling the destinies of his nation. 335 The Chickasaw Nation Captain Bernard Romans records (p. 305) that on Septem- ber 21, 1 77 1, after leaving Mobile on his way to the Chickasaw country. "Opaya Mingo, a Chickasaw warrior of our train, was this morning sick, on which occasion I saw one of his companions cut his temple with a flint, and, applying a cane about four inches long to the scarification, sucked it till he nearly filled it with blood, then threw it out, and repeated it several times; this is something like cupping; we were obliged to leave these two behind * * * " Though the name thus given is spelled very differently from the usual way, still we have seen how differently the name has been spelled by various writers, and I believe the above excerpt from Romans refers to the subject of this sketch. We are not surprised therefore to learn from Putman (p. 249) that Piomingo, the head warrior and chief delegate of the Chicka- saws, and his associates were induced by General James Rob- ertson, the founder of Nashville, to leave their homes in what is now north Mississippi, and make a long overland journey to Hopewell on the Keowee, in the present State of South Carolina, to conclude the first official treaty between that nation and the United States. Speaking of Piomingo Putman says, "He loved no other white man as he did General Robertson," and it may be added that General Robertson availed himself of the friendship of Piomingo to induce the Chickasaws to enter into this treaty, and why? For the obvious reason that Robertson's settlement, where Nashville now is, was threatened with destruction by the powerful Cherokee and Creek nations, and he wished to bind to the United States and to his settlements the small but warlike Chickasaw nation in whom he could place absolute confidence, especially as long as the Chickasaws were led by Piomingo. This treaty was signed on January 20, 1786, and known as the treaty of Hopewell. It is discussed in Chapter X of this volume. 336 The Chickasaw Nation It was afterwards approved by President George Washington, who became a fast friend of Piomingo. Five years after the treaty of Hopewell with the Chickasaws, that is, in 1791, the depredations of the Cherokees and Creeks at the instigations of the Spaniards threatened the very existence of the settlement of Robertson on the Cumberland. There is little doubt in my judgment, as well as that of others, that the settlement would have been entirely destroyed and the pioneers murdered and scalped, but for the restraining influence of the small Chickasaw nation, headed by Piomingo, whose principal abode was in northern Mississippi some hundreds of miles from the Cumberland settlement. But a still fiercer conflict was then going on north of the Ohio River between the Northwestern Confederation of Indians and renegade whites, under the leadership of Little Turtle, and the regular federal army under the leadership of Gen. Arthur St. Clair. The prize at stake was the princely domain of what we now call the Northwestern States, beginning with Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and embracing contiguous States, the very heart of this continent at the present time. It was a trial of strength between the aborigines on the one part, and that of the white man on the other; the savage against civilized man. The final result long wavered in the balance. While Rob- ertson, Blount, and others importuned the government at Wash- ington for interposition and protection for the Cumberland settlement, no relief came, but upon the contrary they were importuned to enlist their men and the Chickasaw Indians to march hundreds of miles to the relief of General St. Clair, then in command of the regular army. So far as the Indians were concerned, Putman says (p. 362), 337 The Chickasaw Nation "The scheme proposed was to offer inducements to the Southern Indians to join the American army. To set Indians to fight Indians; Greek to meet Greek, dog eat dog,' said Rains, when he saw two rascals fighting." This resolution was not reached until after an acrimonious discussion among the white people at large, but Putman adds, "The humanity of this measure was condemned by at least one of the members of the cabinet at Washington." All honor to that one member. The whites held back, and only through the persuasion of Governor Blount and General Robertson a small force was organized and marched, but the Chickasaws proved more sus- ceptible to the entreaties of the whites, for Putman says (p. 362), "Consultations' were held with Piomingo, the Mountain Leader, or principal chief of the Chickasaw nation, about sending some warriors to join the army of the United States, north of the Ohio. He was informed that orders had been received from the War Department to enlist soldiers in this Territory, to be marched to Fort Washington or Cincinnati, and that it would be agreeable to the Department to have a company of Chickasaws marched to the same point, to act in concert with the United States troops. They should receive the same rations and pay as others in the service. Piomingo engaged to command a company of forty or fifty Chickasaw braves, to act as spies or render other services. He came with them to the residence of General Robertson, where they were more fully equipped, commanded, and instructed. Thence they marched to join General St. Clair." In addition Piomingo was assured that during his absence his people would be protected from the incursions of their enemies, but this promise was not observed and with the consent of the commander he sent back about one-half of his followers to pro- tect those at home. Putman adds that Piomingo and his followers being disgusted at their treatment and the want of discipline left for their homes on November 3, 1791, and on the next day Little Turtle, chief of the Miamis, overwhelmingly defeated St. Clair The Chickasaw Nation at Marys, completely routing his army, leaving six hundred slain, St. Clair losing his cannon and most of his baggage. The Northwestern Confederation of Indians was greatly elated, for they had defeated the regular army commanded by St. Clair, who had won distinction as an officer in the Revolu- tionary army. Their plan was to form a coalition with the Southern Indians, including the powerful and hostile Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Indians, and thus wipe out once and for all time the white invaders. George Washington to Piomingo — The outlook for the entire country was gloomy and fore- boding, and President Washington shared in this feeling of uneasiness. Fidelity is said to be the noblest characteristic of human nature, and knowing the fidelity of Piomingo we are scarcely surprised to find hid away in Class II, Indian Affairs, page 249, this letter: "Message from the Secretary of War to the Chickasaw nation, dated 17th February, 1792. "To Piomingo, the mountain leader, and the other chiefs and warriors of the Chickasaw nation. "Brothers: "Your father, General Washington, the great chief and president of the United States, has commanded me to send you this talk. Receive it, therefore, as an evidence of his affection, and the affection of the United States towards the Chickasaw nation. "He heartily thanks Piomingo and the other Chickasaw warriors for joining our troops the last season. * * * ****** ***** "The president of the United States is very desirous to reward the attachment of Piomingo and the warriors who were with him at Fort Washington (now the site of Cincinnati, Ohio), and he now sends to Piomingo and two other principal chiefs great silver medals, and each a suit of rich uniform clothes; and further, he has ordered presents to be sent from Fort Washington to the Chickasaw nation generally, of such articles as shall be useful to them. 339 The Chickasaw Nation "The Chickasaws must send a message to the commanding officer at Fort Washington, giving him sufficient notice of the time when and the place where they will receive the goods. "These goods are sent as presents and as an evidence of the attachment of the United States to the Chickasaws, and a reward for their friendship. "If Piomingo should, with other chiefs, choose to join their arms with ours in the cause of the next campaign, let them repair to Fort Washington by the first of June next, where they shall be well armed, well fed, and, also, after the campaign, well rewarded for their services, in money or goods, as they shall best like it. "After the next campaign, our beloved chief, General Washington, invites Piomingo and three other great chiefs to repair to Philadelphia. He wishes to convince them by a personal interview how desirous he is of promoting the happiness of the Chickasaws. "The chiefs who shall come forward shall be kindly received, well treated, and returned to their own country enriched with presents. "Given at the city of Philadelphia, etc." We learn from Haywood (p. 424) that the Chickasaws again responded to this appeal, sending a band of warriors to aid the American army under the command of General "Mad" Anthony Wayne, who had succeeded General St. Clair, and who finally defeated and routed the Northwestern Indians under Little Turtle, on August 20, 1794, at the battle of the Fallen Timbers, near the falls of the Maumee. This decisive defeat, supple- mented by the treaty of Greenville on August 3, 1795, resulted in the opening of the Northwest to civilization. Piomingo at the Nashville Conference, 1792— 7 ^ fijfVuiC Commencing on page 284 (ibid) there is given an account of the noted conference near Nashville, commencing August 7, 1792, between Wm. Blount, Governor, etc., Brig.-General Andrew Pickens on the one part, and Chenambe, king of the 340 '.vf-* The Chickasaw Nation Chickasaws, Piomingo, Wolf's Friend, and representatives of the Cherokee nation. Governor Blount spoke to the headmen and chief of the Chickasaws and Choctaws, addressing them as friends and brothers, and among other things said : "Another object is publicly to present Piomingo, the Col- berts, and their followers, who joined the arms of the United States of last year, and fought against their enemies, hearty and sincere thanks for their services, and to present them each with a rifle." Gov. Blount declared that they did not want the land of the red men, although that report had been put out by Indians not friendly to the United States. Wolf's Friend made a very vigo- rous reply and under a parenthesis this appears (ibid) on page 285: "Wolf's Friend meant thus to give his dissent to the estab- lishing of a post at the mouth of Bear Creek, as agreed by the treaty of Hopewell. Since his arrival on the conference ground, he had repeatedly told his people and the Choctaws that the Americans had hard shoes, and if they permitted them to estab- lish that post, they would tread upon their toes. Knowing that he had made use of these arguments was the inducement for speaking in such positive terms that trade would shortly be afforded from that place, hoping that would be an inducement sufficient for him to agree to it. Wolf's Friend is a great man: in council ranks among the first of his nation; has a considerable property, is a large man, of a dignified appear- ance; he appeared at the conference in scarlet and silver lace, and in the heat of the day with a large crimson silk umbrella over him." Piomingo was the principal speaker on behalf of the Chicka- saw Indians. What he had to say was brief, but very pointed. Upon page 286 in a few words he gave a remarkably accurate description of the boundaries of the country belonging to the Chickasaw nation, in these words: 341 The Chickasaw Nation "Piomingo. I will describe the boundaries of our lands; It begins on the Ohio at the ridge which divides the waters of Tennessee and Cumberland, and extends with that ridge east- wardly as far as the most eastern waters of Elk River ; thence to the Tennessee, at an old field, where a part of the Chickasaws formerly lived, this line to be so run as to include all the waters of Elk River, thence across the Tennessee and a neck of land to Tenchacunda Creek, a southern branch of the Tennessee, and up the same to its source; then to the waters of Tombigby, that is, to the west fork of Long Leaf Pine Creek, and down it to the line of the Chickasaws and Choctaws, a little below the trading road." * ******* He said further : "I want no long talk on the subject; the Cherokees are bloodthirsty; they never go out but they bloody their weapons in the white people, and I knew the whites, in retaliation, would take their land; this I have before said, and for fear they should take mine, supposing it to be the Cherokees', is my reason for explaining the boundary." It will be noted that Governor Blount was careful to assure the Chickasaws that the white men did not want the land of the red men, although he added that report had been put out by those unfriendly to the United States. We learn from Haywood (P- 33°) that General Pickens said to the Chickasaws: "We shall look upon it that your enemies are ours and ours yours." These assurances were thus given in plain and unmistakable language; it is to be regretted that these assurance were sub- sequently repudiated over and over again by the whites. It may here be noted also that in a letter addressed to the Chickasaws (3 Amr. His. Mag. (Tennessee), p. 350, also 4 ibid, p. 94) President Washington on July 21, 1794, confirmed the 342 The Chickasaw Nation boundaries of the Chickasaws as above defined by Piomingo; and Haywood (p. 425) states that President Washington de- livered his letter to Piomingo in person. Piomingo Left to His Fate— During these trying times, when Americans were not living up to the promises so often made to the Chickasaws, it should also be remembered that they were sorely tempted to enlist under the Spanish flag, but fidelity to their word forbade such a course. Thus, Drake (p. 402) states that in 1793 the Spaniards made large offers to the Chickasaws to induce them to forsake the Americans, but that these offers were treated with contempt by Piomingo. The Chickasaws under the leadership of Piomingo by going first to the assistance of General St. Clair in 1791, and in sub- sequent campaigns under General Wayne north of the Ohio, incurred the deadly hatred of the Creeks and Cherokees, who were in deep sympathy with the purpose of Little Turtle and his followers to completely destroy the white settlers. A superficial glance at the recorded murders, assassinations, robberies and like crimes committed by the Creeks and Cherokees on the Cumberland settlements is a sickening record, and these acts of barbarism were continued through a course of years, growing worse after the defeat of St. Clair in 1791 and until peace was declared following the defeat of Little Turtle. Piomingo was especially marked out for assassination or destruction by some means fair or foul ; and for a long time it was supposed that he was dead. While gloom was hanging over the whites, Putman announces the reappearance of Piomingo in these words ! "But here is our old friend Piomingo, the Mountain Leader of the Chickasaws, redivivus! The report and belief of the last fall was that he had been killed by the Creeks, and that his young warriors, in seeking for retaliation, had killed a Cherokee instead of a Creek, which act the Cherokees proposed to let pass un- 343 The Chickasaw Nation avenged, if the Chickasaws would unite with them in war against the Creeks. The life of Piomingo had been threatened by the Shawnees and Creeks. He had been hunted as a partridge on the mountain, and his absence had given currency to the report that he had been killed." Instead of espousing the cause of Piomingo, the whites, acting under instructions from Washington, were endeavoring to placate the Creeks and Cherokees, who were even then de- ceiving President Washington and plotting to destroy the Chick- asaws. Haywood says : 'The sympathies of the white people, and their good wishes, were enlisted on the side of the Chickasaws. A strong disposition prevailed among all ranks to aid the Chickasaws rather than suffer their extirpation by the Creeks. The latter, without inter- mission, had spilled the blood of the white people for twenty years, and now were levying war against the only red people upon earth who were friends of the United States, and who had lately fought by their sides in the army of General Wayne and in two preceding campaigns, and had shed their blood in defence of the white people. They had become the objects of Creek vengeance for their partiality to white men. The public voice called loudly for assistance to be sent to them." Only the year previous, that is, in 1794, Piomingo had visited President Washington and Putman (p. 525) says: "He received pledges of friendship from the head of the government, attention from the heads of departments, was 'Nock-en-e-ized', or as we say lionized, made a big man of, clothed, dubbed with a title, loaded with presents, and sent on his way to his nation a gratified Indian." In the succeeding year Piomingo and his nation being threatened with extermination by their Indian enemies, how natural was it for him to appeal to President Washington? 344 The Chickasaw Nation In the meantime, that is, in May, 1795, the Spaniards under Governor Gayoso had crossed the Mississippi from Fort Esper- anza, and completed the building of a Spanish fort which he named Fort San Fernando, after the king of Spain. Against this aggression Piomingo vigorously protested, and on July 10, 1795, Governor Gayoso wrote a letter of friendship to Piomingo, seek- ing to explain that all of his purposes were friendly to him and his people. Piomingo promptly forwarded this letter to General Robertson, who in turn forwarded it to Washington. On August 22, 1795, President Washington delivered to a deputation of Chickasaws a "talk," a copy of which, bearing his veritable signature thereto, was sent to General Rob- ertson. Two paragraphs (Putman p. 512) are as follows: "My children: I sincerely regret the difficulties in which you are involved by the mistaken opinions which have been entertained of the intentions and obligations of the United States to interfere in the disputes of the Indian nations among one another, unless as friends to both parties, to reconcile them. In this way I shall do everything in my power to serve the Chick- asaw nation. The Commissioners at the conference at Nashville had no authority to promise any other interference. General Robertson did wrong in telling your nation, last year, that he expected the United States would send an army against the Creeks this summer. Your strong expectation of seeing such an army, and probably other encouragements of support, may have led you to strike the Creeks, which now occasions so much dis- tress. It seems, also, that the commissions which were given to a number of the Chickasaw chiefs were not truly interpreted. They were expressly confined to operations against the Indians northwest of the Ohio. "The act of the Spaniards in taking possession of the Chicka- saw Bluffs is an unwarrantable aggression, as well against the United States as the Chickasaws, to whom the land there belongs. I shall send talks, and do what else shall appear to me proper, to induce the Spanish king, or his governor, to remove their people from that station, and to make no more encroachments on your lands." 345 The Chickasaw Nation The deep disappointment not to say chagrin justly felt by Piomingo is not recorded. He bore his deep disappointment with that fortitude and philosophy so characteristic of the North American Indian. Piomingo and his people were thus left to their fate, although be it said to the credit of General Robertson, though forbidden to take the field for the Chickasaws, he rendered every assistance in his power otherwise to mitigate their perilous situation. It may not be inappropriate here to note that General Robertson died at the Chickasaw agency in west Tennessee, September I, 1814, among the Chickasaws, who loved him so well, and to whose welfare he was ever devoted. In 1825 his remains were reinterred at Nashville with marked honors by the people, and Judge Haywood, the State historian, delivered an appropriate eulogy upon his life and character (Putman, p. 18). Since the foregoing was written, I find that President Roose- velt in his Winning of the West (V. p. 304) says that : "To its shame and discredit, the United States at first pro- posed to repeat towards the Chickasaws the treachery of which the British had just been guilty to the Northern Indians; for it refused to defend them from the Creeks, against whom they had been acting, partly it is true for their own ends, but partly in the interest of the settlers. The frontiersmen, however, took a much more just and generous view of the affair." And speaking of the subject of this sketch under the name of Opiamingo (Vol. I, p. 32), Mr. Roosevelt says he was the most noted war chief among the Chickasaws. Victory for the Unconquerable Chickasaws— The Creeks pretending to desire peace with the Chickasaws, General Robertson went in person to the Chickasaws to provide for a release of prisoners then held by the Chickasaws. He had 346 The Chickasaw Nation scarcely performed the duties of this mission and returned home, when he was doubtless greatly surprised to receive from Piomingo an account written, as Putman says (p. 526), by his white secretary. Haywood (p. 461) thus succinctly summarizes the complete and just victory of the Chickasaws over their enemies. "On the 29th of September Piomingo, by letter, communi- cated to General Robertson an affair which had recently taken place between the belligerents. About a thousand Creeks had come to break up the Chickasaw nation. They brought white people with them, and drums and ammunition for a long siege. A great number of them were on horseback. As they gave way, the warriors of Big Town attacked them and put them to the rout. The Chickasaws pursued them about five miles, their horsemen upon the flank and their foot upon the rear. The Chickasaws took from them all their baggage and clothing, except their flaps, the only clothes they had on when they began the attack. The baggage consisted of their blankets and other clothing, except their flaps, their ammunition, kettles, and their provisions. The loss of the Chickasaws was six men killed and one woman. Of the Creeks were found twenty-six men killed, and many more must have been wounded. About two hundred Chickasaws were engaged in defeating this great army of the Creeks. In a few days afterwards the Chickasaws presented a memorial to the Creek nation. In it they accuse the Creeks of perfidy in coming to attack them when General Robertson was there obtaining the prisoners from the Chickasaws which they had agreed to deliver. ''General Robertson, they said, believed that the Creeks were in earnest for peace, but the next morning he heard their guns. If you want peace, send your flag; your prisoners shall come. The Mad Dog, in council, said they had no tongue for peace, but the Creeks had not lost the use of their legs, for the Chickasaw horses had not been able to overtake them. They had not pursued far, for they returned to consult with General Robertson on the peace which they so much desired. We are willing for peace, said the Chickasaws, but not afraid of war. If you thirst for blood, we will sell ourselves dearly. They set forth the advantages and blessings of peace, and the madness of 347 The Chickasaw Nation rushing into war. We are a small nation, and the Creeks have long insulted us. If war continue, we will send out our war parties and head them, but we seek sincerely for peace. They finally besought to bury in oblivion all former heart burn- ings." Piomingo and Governor Gayoso— Having reached that time in the career of Piomingo when he appears for the last time, so far as my researches have extended, and as he was the representative of the Chickasaws, and to a large extent also of the United States in the dispute between Spain and America as to which was entitled to sovereignty over the Chickasaw Bluffs, while His Excellency Manuel Gayoso De Lemos, governor general of Louisiana and west Florida, rep- resented the king of Spain, it may not be out of place to give a pen picture of that distinguished governor, and skilled diplomat, who matched his skill against the unlettered Chickasaw chief. It will be recalled that the Spaniards under Gayoso had commenced the erection of a fort on the present site of Memphis in 1795, against which Piomingo protested. It seems that a very influential chief of the Chickasaws, known as Wolf's Friend, had been won over to the Spanish side by Gayoso, and that Wolf's Friend had assumed on the part of the Chickasaws to sell to the Spaniards the Chickasaw Bluffs. In a letter to his wife Gayoso thus describes the manner in which he took possession of the Bluffs on May 30, 1795. "Yesterday I passed from my post of Esperanza (then the Spanish name for Hopefield) over to the Chicacha Bluffs, where I now write. I hoisted the king's flag and saluted it in the most brilliant manner from the flotilla and the battery. It being St. Ferdinand's day (the name of my Prince), I gave the post that name. It was a pleasant day, and withal my birthday, and nothing was wanting to complete my happiness but your pres- ence. "The chiefs are to visit me tomorrow, and then I shall count the days, the hours, and moments until I can be with you." 348 The Chickasaw Nation This is a gay picture, and though it may be thought some- what out of place here, I can not forbear to insert here that Gayoso is said to have died July 18, 1799, and in 1 Monette, p. 544, there is a quotation from Ellicott's Journal (pp. 215, 216) giving the estimate placed by Ellicott upon the character of Gayoso, as follows: "As the governor of an arbitrary monarch, he was certainly entitled to great merit. It appeared, in an eminent degree, to be his pride to render the situation of those over whom he was appointed to preside as easy and comfortable as possible; and in a particular manner he directed his attention to the improve- ment of the country by opening roads, which he considered the arteries of commerce. He was educated in Great Britain, and retained to a considerable degree, until his death, the manners and customs of that nation, especially in his style of living. In his conversation he was easy and affable, and his politeness was of that superior cast which showed it to be the effect of early habit, rather than an accomplishment merely intended to render him agreeable. "His passions were naturally so strong, and his temper so remarkably quick, that they sometimes hurried him into difficul- ties from which he was not easily extricated. It was frequently remarked of him, as a singularity, that he was neither concerned in traffic, nor in the habit of taking douceurs, which was too frequently the case with other officers of his Catholic majesty in Louisiana. He was fond of show and parade, in which he in- dulged to the great injury of his fortune, and not a little to his reputation as a good paymaster. He was a tender husband, an affectionate parent, and a good master." Notwithstanding the natural ability and great accomplish- ments of Gayoso, Piomingo withstood all of his blandishments and arts of diplomacy, and, as we have seen, forwarded to General Robertson, July 10, 1795, the letter of Gayoso. The fidelity of Piomingo to his word of friendship to General Robertson, and through him to the United States, at the very time when this country had left him practically to a fate which 349 The Chickasaw Nation he thought would probably end in his death and the destruction of his people, is worthy of the profoundest admiration. Haywood (p. 459) quotes Piomingo as saying to General Robertson, "But you shall hear that I died like a man." Fortunately, however, as we have seen, on September 29, J 795» two hundred Chickasaws completely vanquished a Creek army of one thousand warriors, who had in reserve another one thousand fighting men ; and thus to the end this small but intrepid nation sustained the soubriquet of the unconquerable Chickasaws. The Last Public Appearance of Piomingo— After the Chickasaws had thrust back the Creeks in the signal defeat mentioned, it is difficult to understand why the United States did not take possession of the Chickasaw Bluffs and oust the Spaniards and destroy their fort. A vacillating policy was pursued by the United States government for near two years, but finally Major Isaac Guion was selected as the military and diplomatic agent of the United States to secure the final evacuation of various Spanish forts east of the Mississippi River, including that of San Fernando erected on the Chickasaw Bluffs in 1795. He left Fort Washington (where Cincinnati now is) with a detachment of United States troops, and reached the Chickasaw Bluffs in July, 1797, arrangements having been previously made for Piomingo and the Chickasaws to meet him upon his arrival. "He was directed to sail with the flag conspicuously dis- played, notifying any Spanish post of his approach and offer the exchange salute for salute but stop for nothing but an official order or menace, in which case he was to deliver a protest and either return or take a position within the limits of the United States and to defend it to the last extremity." (7th and 8th Ann. Repts. Miss., 1908-1909, p. 26.) He was the first to hoist the Stars and Stripes upon the Chickasaw Bluffs, and soon erected the first American fort, 350 The Chickasaw Nation which he named Fort Adams. Piomingo, now advanced in years, was erroneously called king of the Chickasaws by Guion, who states that Piomingo was detained to defend his town against his old enemies the Creeks, and did not arrive until August 10, 1797, and two days thereafter there also arrived Wolf's Friend, the wily but able chief attached to the Spanish cause, and soon afterwards there also arrived William Colbert, the noted half- / breed Chickasaw chief. ' Guion determined to have in the present day expressive language of the street, a "show-down," and accordingly invited Colonel Charles Howard, in command of the Spanish troops across the river, to attend with his staff a meeting to be held on the Bluffs, September 16, 1797, and in his journal thus states what occurred : "On the 1 6th we met and Colonel Howard came over with two of his officers, made a great many apologies, as it was only to gratify the Wolf's Friend who had, he said, insisted on his presence, and begged that when they distributed their presents, I would come over and be a witness in like manner, which I instantly declined, observing that I had no manner of objection to his being present at what was to be said or done here, that I had very little to say to them more than to recommend them to live peaceably among themselves, and in good neighborhood with the Indians and subjects in the Spanish territory. William Colbert, who anticipated the Wolf's Friend's design, began with an animated and bold talk; he told that chief he knew his in- tention was, if possible, to turn us away and replace his friends the Spaniards; but this should not be while he was living; that the works we were beginning were done with his consent and his people's, and wished to know who was the chief man in his nation that should make nothing of his promise. That when we were satisfied staying, or doing anything on that ground, we might at our pleasure go, but not before ; that he had heard that the Wolf's Friend had talked of force, but that he would do well to recollect who were the warriors of his nation ; that before the Americans should be forced from this ground, he would be killed by their side and buried here. This strong talk, seconded by a short but strong one from Piomingo, sealed up the great orator's 351 The Chickasaw Nation mouth and confounded the Spanish visitants who came prepared to hear everything else. Thus the conference ended; and the day following the goods were displayed and given to them. "The liberality of the supply, the superior quality of the goods at once surprised and contented all present ; especially after the Spaniards had made their donation, which was not more than one-fourth part as much in woolens and linens; and the remain- der of tinseled frippery, ridiculed and treated with contempt by Piomingo. I heard no word of dissatisfaction from any of them after this, all desirous of our stay, willing that we should put up what works we pleased." I will add that William Colbert had, in one of the expeditions north of the Ohio, led the Chickasaws who went there at the solicitation of President Washington to aid General St. Clair, and afterwards General Wayne, in their campaigns against Little Turtle, commanding the Northwestern Confederation of In- dians, Piomingo having led the first band of Chickasaws. In the war of 1812 Colbert served nine months in the regular infantry, and upon his return he led a party of his warriors against the hostile Creeks, whom he pursued from Pensacola almost to Apalachicola, killing many and bringing back eighty- five prisoners to Montgomery, Alabama. He was styled a general when he visited Washington at the head of a Chickasaw delegation in 18 16. In his autobiography (p. 294) President Van Buren states that many of the Chickasaws and Choctaws fought by the side of General Jackson in the famous battle of the Horse Shoe. It is interesting to note here that in this same letter Major Guion states that there were then (1797) only four white families on the Bluffs, and that they had only come there two and three years previous thereto. The most conspicuous of the white men was Kenneth Ferguson, a Scotchman, a decided Spanish subject, and connected with the house of Panton & Lesley, of Pensacola, and was the 352 The Chickasaw Nation same alluded to in the Wolf's Friend letter of the 2nd of April. Ferguson was extensively engaged in the Indian trade, and was placed there by Governor Gayoso for the special purpose of winning over the Chickasaws to the Spanish cause. The other man of importance was William Mizell, a native of North Carolina, supposed to have followed the fortune of the British arms in the late war, as he was in Pensacola when the Spaniards took that place. Guion adds that Mizell was an in- offensive man, that he was no friend to the Spaniards, and had been of much service in interpreting for the Chickasaws, among whom he had lived for sixteen years. He was furnished some rations and Guion promised to mention him to the Secretary of War, in order that if he judged it proper, Mizell might receive some reward for his services. This is the same Mizell that Piomingo referred to in a letter of September I, 1795, to General Robertson, asking that Mizell be appointed as his interpreter, as he was in every way com- petent to attend to their business. Guion also recorded: "John Brown and his brother, both steady good Chickasaws, have requested me to call your recollection to a claim their nation has on ten miles square of lands in the State of South Carolina opposite Augusta on the Savannah River and Horse Creek; they say that the Secretary of War has a plat of the land in question, and that they wish for some decision on this business. That Governor Blount had promised them his good offices in this affair, but hearing of his defeat, they applied to the executive through me." Here we are reminded that the Chickasaws had put in this claim previously in 1795, precisely as the Brown brothers stated to Guion; and it is a fact that the Chickasaws at one time lived on the Atlantic coast near Savannah, or at least a part of them lived there. As I have not seen any further reference to this claim, the probability is that it was "pigeonholed," and allowed a peaceful demise. 353 The Chickasaw Nation As to the Family of Piomingo, Etc.— It is to be regretted that so little is known with respect to the family of Piomingo, which may be accounted for in part because at that early day the home of the Chickasaws was far from white settlements, and the further fact that every Chicka- saw was judged on his or her own merits, and did not shine in the reflected glory of some distinguished relative, a rule of social life which more pretentious civilized people might well follow. We learn from Putman (p. 524) that the wife of Piomingo was a tall Indian woman, named Molle-tulla, and that women of her rank wore a sack long enough to hide the strip of stroud or baize around the waist and hips, with moccasins and leggins ornamented by beads and tinkling bells. The hair was braided and hung down the back like a mandarin's. When Piomingo was greatly honored by the president, General Robertson had instructions to equip the wife of Piomingo with clothing and ornaments. As to the children of Piomingo we know little, except that he had a son who is mentioned more than once as a messenger between his father and the Little Turkey, a noted Cherokee chief who was the uncle of Piomingo. When in the noted conferences at Nash- ville in 1792 the boundaries of the Chickasaw country were defined by Piomingo and objections were interposed by some Cherokees, Piomingo promptly replied that when his uncle, the Little Turkey, was informed that the Cherokees should have the privilege of hunting on the hunting grounds of the Chickasaws, he would be entirely satisfied. Upon various occasions the Little Turkey spoke of his nephew, the Mountain Leader, in terms of equal confidence and respect. When we remember that the Cherokees and Chickasaws were often at war the one with the other, it is greatly to the credit of these two chiefs that their personal relations appear always to have remained most cordial, though each was loyal to the last degree to his own people. In a letter of William Blount to General Robertson of Sep- tember 10, 1795, it is stated that Piomingo in a letter to President Washington had requested the president would take into con- 354 The Chickasaw Nation sideration his children, and particularly his daughter, whom he wished to be taught to read and write; and his request was granted, under the limitation that no permanent order would be made until the probable expense had been reported. From the solicitude thus manifested by the great Chickasaw chief for the future welfare of his children, we may be assured that he was a kind and indulgent father. Piomingo was honored in various ways; thus we learn in a letter of David Henly, United States agent, to Captain Gordon, of September 26, 1795, that Gordon had been appointed to command the boat Opiomingo, loaded with goods consisting of calicos, woolens, lead, powder, etc., being a present from the president of the United States to the chiefs and Chickasaw nation. John Overton was placed in charge, with directions to land the goods at the Chickasaw Bluffs. When Mr. Charles D. Johnston of the Cossitt Library handed me for examination Imlay's topographical description of the Western territory and particularly of Kentucky, which was brought out in 1792, he also handed me a detached old map, which he supposed was a part of Imlay's work. It had thereon this inscription: "London, published as the act directs, December 27, 1794, by H. D. Symonds, No. 20 Paternoster Row." From the dates I do not think the map belongs to the book. The map appears to be a good representation of the new Kentucky country and adjoining territories down to and including the great bend in the Tennessee River, embracing the Mussel shoals, together with many of the traces or roads in use through the country represented. Only two of these traces reach down into what is now Tennes- see. One of these commences at the southern border of the map, crosses the Tennessee at the mouth of Bear Creek, running thence northeasterly to Nashville on the Cumberland. 355 The Chickasaw Nation It is marked "Mountain Leader's Trace," evidently being so called in honor of Piomingo. This was evidently what was afterwards called the Natchez trace, ceded to the United States in 1 80 1 by the Chickasaws. Further north in Kentucky the map shows many traces crisscrossing the country, but the most of them have no designa- tions or names. In 1810 John Robertson brought out a volume in Philadel- phia under the pseudonym or pen name of Piomingo, "a headman and warrior of the Muscogulgee nation," under the title of The Savage. It is now a rare book; the copy I procured was republished at Knoxville, Tennessee, at the Scrap Book office in 1833. In the preface it is stated that Piomingo sprang from the wilderness far from the haunts of civilized man and that he inhaled with his first breath a love for savage independence, and that his intercourse with white men had not contributed to lessen his original prepossession in favor of the wild dignity of nature. The preface closes in these words: "The good people of this republic have long derived amuse- ment from the journals of polished travelers through barbarous nations: let us for once reverse the picture and see what enter- tainment can be drawn from observations of a savage upon the manners and customs, vices and virtues, of those who boast the advantages of refinement and civilization." The title of the first paper is "Recollections of Infancy," and commences thus : "The existence of things is not strange; but the power of perceiving this existence is, beyond comprehension, wonderful. Where shall we look for the origin of mind ? Whence sprang the young idea? Was it produced by the immediate agency of the Almighty One? or is it a necessary emanation from the great fountain of nature, the soul of the universe? Our first thought 356 The Chickasaw Nation has perished forever: no exertion of ours can bring it up from the gulf of oblivion: yet we may awaken the recollection of times long past ; we may bid the scenes of childhood pass again before us; and remember with pleasure the early excursions of the un- fledged mind." The little book contains 324 pages and discusses many subjects, some in the form of essays and some dialogues, in which Piomingo is made to take a conspicuous part. It was the proud boast of Piomingo that neither he nor any of his people ever raised the hatchet against the white American settlers, and he fought with them against various Indian tribes. He was an Indian worthy to sign a treaty for his people with George Washington, representing the United States. He was a man of distinction and note throughout this section and far beyond the confines of the territory of the Chickasaw tribe of Indians; and yet, when I asked the legislative council of the city, as mayor of Memphis, in 1908 to name one of the principal thoroughfares of this city in his honor, I do not think a single member of the council had ever heard his name mentioned before. This was not all. Several letters were written and published in the papers asking where the barbarous name came from, the writers being wholly ignorant of the history of their own state and city. Almost by way of jest, upon motion of Dr. B. G. Henning, the council named old Madison Street Piomingo, which name it bears today. We are thus reminded of the old Latin saying, "Sic transit gloria mundi" — "so passes away earthly glory." Nevertheless, I maintain that no people can be a great people or attain to a full and broad view of life who are without high ideals; and no people who fail to cherish the early history of their country or of the great and distinguished men who have preceded them can attain to that high rank of civilization shared by the distinguished states, nations, and people of their day and time. 357 The Chickasaw Nation Sequoyah, the Cadmus of America — According to Foster near two hundred years ago many Protestants of the archbishopric of Salzburg, Bavaria, were forced to leave their homes on account of religious persecution, and sought homes in various countries where religious freedom was allowed. These people were descendants of the ancient Vindelici and Boii, and one band landed at Charleston, South Carolina, and under the guiding hand of General James Ogle- thorpe, they settled on the Savannah River, where they laid out a village which they named Ebenezer, the settlement in 1736 numbering some two hundred people. About 1739 there came from Bavaria to Ebenezer a family of Swabia, Franconia ancestry, very different in character from the first settlers, being influenced by the hope of gain and having no religious aspirations. To this family was born a boy named George Gist ; who grew up in ignorance, could speak only a few words in English or Cherokee, and was noted only for his cun- ning, lazy, and shiftless disposition, so that he could not procure a peddler's license, in lieu of which he became an illicit Indian trader. This boy was destined to become the father of the most illustrious North American Indian, the intellectual peer of the wisest men in the history of mankind. The Cherokee nation composed the Southern branch of that great Iroquois family of Indians occupying the mountain- ous portions of what we now call Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. They were a bold, brave, and self-reliant people, capable of the greatest endurance, and of a warlike temperament. They were devotedly attached to their mountain homes* in defense of which they were ever ready to sacrifice their lives and all they had. The Cherokees had marked out a path from Augusta, Georgia, to their country, over which horsemen could ride to all parts of the Cherokee country. George Gist is said to have taken this path for the Cherokee country, with two pack horses laden with merchandise suitable for trade with the Indians. 358 Bronze statue of Sequoyah, presented by the State of Oklahoma to the United States, and now in Statuary Hall, in the Capitol at Washington. The Chickasaw Nation There he met a Cherokee Indian girl who pleased his fancy, and she evidently was flattered by his professions, and they became husband and wife according to the customs of her people; and to her obligations in the marriage relation she was ever faithful, and proved a devoted mother, judged by the highest standards of the most enlightened people. She came of a good family, her father being a chief in Great Echota, the town of refuge in the Cherokee nation, for they had a city of refuge similar to that of the ancient Jews, Great Echota being situated on the little Tennessee River, in what is now Monroe County, east Tennessee. Speaking of the Indian wife, at p. 17 Foster says: "While our Dutch peddler smoked his home-made pipe around the fire or joined in the chase when his indolence would allow, she cultivated the maize, even cleared a piece of land for tillage; she helped put up a wigwam; she prepared and dried the skins, and fashioned them into clothing, and cooked his food over the wigwam fire. She even butchered the game, saddled the horses, and cared for them on his return; she brought the wood, fetched the water, and yet, though practically a slave, as she knew no better way, she was accounted a very happy woman. Her hope of happiness was based on her devotion to her husband; so the more she did for him, the more contented she became." It is a singular fact that I have not seen the name of this remarkable woman in any of the books I have been able to read. I have written many letters to various persons, endeavoring to ascertain her name and at least some of the circumstances con- nected with her life. In a letter to Senator Robert L. Owens by Commissioner Sells, of January 21st, 1921, it is said, "I am informed by Mr. Frank Boudinot, an attorney residing at the Northbrook Courts, this city (Washington), that the name of the mother of Sequoyah, was Wut-teh." A letter directed by myself to Mr. Boudinot failed to elicit any reply. 359 The Chickasaw Nation In this letter of Commissioner Sells, he also states that the native or Indian name of Sequoyah was Sikwayi, which accords with the various articles I have read. Gist soon wearied of this new life, and deserted his faithful and devoted wife, stealing away clandestinely and was never heard of again, sinking into oblivion which he so well deserved. In due course, about the year 1760, in the village of Taskigi on the Little Tennessee River, in what is now Monroe County, Tennessee, a baby boy was born to the deserted Indian mother, and it is said the mother named the babe Sequoyah (in the Indian tongue — Sikwayi), because in the musical Cherokee language that name meant, "He guessed it"; that is, the faithless father guessed it would be a boy. It may be added, however, that there is a dispute as to the origin of the name, and that Sequoyah generally was known among the white people as George Guess, which name he appears to have assumed, and he used the name "Guess" as a trade mark, by stamping it on the silver ornaments he made as a silversmith. The Cherokees to this day cherish his Indian name, and proudly call him Sequoyah. The mother of Sequoyah had eight acres of land, some horses and cattle, and maintained herself and child by her own exertions, the boy soon joining his mother in her labors, making a new kind of wooden milk pan, building a milk-house over a cool gushing mountain spring; and when she contrived to get a small stock of goods, she taught him how to be a good judge of furs, and he went on hunting and trading excursions in the valleys of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers, and came home laden with furs. Upon him the mother lavished all the fond affections of a mother's heart, and from her he evidently inherited all the energy and perseverance of his nature; while from his remote white ancestry through his father it is probable he inherited his meditative and philosophical traits of character, this being an illustration of what is termed a reversion to the original type of some ancient ancestor. 360 The Chickasaw Nation The large Spanish, French, and English coins which came into his hands were fashioned into rings, bracelets, necklaces, and other ornaments with so much skill that he became the most famous silversmith in all the land. He also turned his attention to art, and without a teacher drew sketches of deer, horses, cows, and other familiar objects, and though rude at first his skill so improved that his sketches presented a very good resem- blance to the objects they were designed to represent; and he also became a most famous story-teller, and altogether we are not surprised that he easily became the most popular Cherokee in all the tribe. Having lost his mother, it is said his home became the rendezvous for all the wild and gay young Indian warriors, and that Sequoyah for a time became dissipated, but exercising that strong will for which he was noted, he eventually cast aside for- ever his indulgence in intoxicating liquors. Sequoyah eventually married, and speaking of his wife Foster (p. 69) says: "This wife which Sequoyah took was no common Indian maiden. In form she was like the women of her race; she was tall, erect, and of a delicate frame; her features formed with perfect symmetry, and her countenance was cheerful and amiable. Both in her soul and that of Sequoyah was a higher intuition than appeared to be bestowed on any other of the Cherokee tribe. For a time their sympathies were one, and for a time their lives were markedly happy. For all nature spoke in plainest utterances to them that which it only whispered unto others. 1 'Every bird that sung, every scene of Nature seemed to in- spire new thoughts and awaken new aspirations in Sequoyah. "Even the wind playing melodies on the tree leaves seemed to him like words of the Great Spirit, which his sensitive nature translated into words of wisdom. "Nature was his teacher, through which he lived a life beyond the ken of all others in the Cherokee tribe. But as the honey- moon wore off, he became more meditative and philosophically inclined, and she more thoroughly practical. She worked and he dreamed, and thus their lives grew widely apart. She became a 361 The Chickasaw Nation virago and on many a morning, in later years, the voice of Se- quoyah's wife could be heard giving her lord 'Jesse' for the lack of such industry as she exclusively held in esteem. 'However,' says, Boudinot, the Executive Secretary of the nation, 'he seemed to have taken all his scoldings with great equanimity. No doubt he put himself in her place and made full allowance for the disagreeable prospect from her standpoint.' " The Great Invention— We have seen that from early childhood Sequoyah evinced an inventive talent and that he became an expert silversmith, but the crowning work of his life was his invention of the Chero- kee syllabic alphabet, the simplest, most complete, and the most perfect in the long history of mankind. I realize that this is a sweeping statement, nevertheless it is true in every respect. If it should be supposed that this alphabet was but the product of genius, unaccompanied by study, toil, and self denial, there could not be a greater mistake. The germ, or underlying principles, involved in its produc- tion no doubt engaged the profound thoughts of Sequoyah for years before he gave himself entirely over to working out its details. As might be expected, there are various reasons assigned as to the causes which led Sequoyah to enter upon years of labor to produce his alphabet. Some ascribe it to a taunting remark made by some of his companions, when, around the camp fire, Sequoyah casually stated that he could invent an alphabet equal to that of the white man. The party was discussing some written pages of a letter that had been found on a white captive prisoner, which they called "speaking leaves." Stung by the incredulous taunts of his companions, it is claimed that then and there Sequoyah registered a secret vow to make good his statement. It is also said that in the troubles of the Cherokees with the white settlers, when the latter began encroaching on the territory of the Indians, it became a much debated question as to the source of the superiority of the white 362 The Chickasaw Nation man over the Indian. Sequoyah in early life was a hunter and trader in furs, but met with an accident which made him a cripple for life. He was naturally of a contemplative disposition and had an inventive turn of mind. His physical affliction gave him more time for thought and reflection, and he came to the conclusion that the ability of the white man to read and write and thus transmit his thoughts, not only to the present, but future generations, was the mainspring of the superiority of the white man. About the year 1809, without knowing any language except that of the Cherokee, and never having gone to school a day in his life, and, of course, without any education whatever, or any knowledge of the arts of the white man, he set to work to invent an alphabet for the Cherokees, and, retiring to the woods, and listening to all sounds, and comparing them with the words of the Cherokee language, after twelve years he put forth, in 1821, his alphabet, consisting of eighty-five characters. In the meantime he was ridiculed and laughed at; but nothing could dampen his ardor or check his labors. Not only many of his Indian friends, but the agents of the United States government residing among the Cherokees believed that his mind was affected, being unable to comprehend the na- ture of his labors. The first plan of Sequoyah was recognizing sounds in nature which corresponded to tones in the Cherokee language, and then to represent this sound by drawing a picture of some natural object which made the sound; but he found that these pictures and characters so multiplied that no one could remember them, and after long labors along these lines, in which he had the assistance of his wife and children, he was finally compelled to abandon the plan. The philosophy underlying the final plan upon which Sequoyah created his syllabic alphabet was to have one letter to represent each and every sound the human throat can utter. One letter would represent in this way parts of different words, The Chickasaw Nation with the result that the number of characters would be com- paratively small. Foster (p. 102) quotes Phillips in Harpers Magazine of September, 1870, as explaining more in detail the principles upon which the alphabet was constructed as follows : "Sequoyah discovered that the language possessed certain musical sounds, such as we call vowels, and dividing sounds, called by us consonants. In determining his vowels he varied, during the progress of discoveries, but finally settled on the six, a, e, i, 0, u, and a guttural vowel sounding like u in ung. These had long and short sounds, with the exception of the guttural. He next considered his consonants, or dividing sounds, and estimated the number of combinations of these that would give all the sounds required to make words in their language. He first adopted fifteen for the dividing sounds, but settled on twelve primary, the g and k being one and sounding more like k than g, and d like t. These may be represented in English as g, h, I, m, n, qu, t, dl or tl, ts, w, y, z. It will be seen that if these twelve be multiplied by six vowels, the number of possible combinations or syllables would be seventy-two, and by adding the vowel sounds which may be syllables, the number would be seventy-eight. However, the guttural u, or sound of u in ung, does not appear among the combinations, making seventy- seven. "Still his work was not complete. The hissing sound of 5 entered into the ramification of so many sounds, as in sta, stu, spa, spe, that it would have required a large addition to his alphabet to meet this demand. This he simplified by using a distinct character for the s (00) , to be used in such combinations. To provide for the varying sounds g and k, he added a symbol, which has been written in English ka. As the syllable na is liable to be aspirated, he added symbols written nah and kna. To have distinct representatives for the combinations rising out of the different sounds of d and t, he added symbols for ta } te, ti and another for dla, thus tla. These completed the eighty-five characters of his alphabet of syllables and not of letters." At the time Sequoyah completed his alphabet, he was living in a log cabin in Georgia in comparative poverty; and as he had 364 The Chickasaw Nation spent so many years in working out his theory in poverty, the general opinion was that he was at least partially demented; hence he was unable to convince any one of the practical utility of his marvelous alphabet. As some of the Cherokees had moved to the new Arkansas country, he visited them there, and endeavored to have the Chero- kees there understand his alphabet, and finally succeeded in having one write a letter to a friend back in Georgia, which he brought with him on his return home; and while his people wondered greatly when it was read, still they were not convinced. Sequoyah called a meeting of the most prominent men among the Cherokees, and also explained his alphabet to Col. Lowrey, the Indian agent, who lived only three miles from his cabin, and to all of them he explained in detail the principles of his alphabet; still they could not comprehend it. Sequoyah had taught his alphabet to his little daughter, Ahyokeh, then only six years old, and sending her away he wrote down any word or sentiment his friends named, and when called back, she readily read what had been written. While Col. Lowrey at first thought that Sequoyah was deceiving himself, he finally began to doubt whether he was the deluded schemer which others thought him to be. The syllabary was soon recognized by the Cherokees as an invaluable invention, and such was its simplicity and adapta- bility to the Cherokee language that money or schools and acade- mies were unnecessary, for it could be easily learned in the tepee, or on the trail, and in a few months thousands of Cherokees could read and write in their language with ease and facility, thereby placing that nation far in advance of any other Indian tribe. The Cherokees, in recognition of Sequoyah's invention, presented him with a medal, and in 1828 he visited Washington and attracted much attention. In the treaty of that year he was given $500.00 by the United States Congress for the great benefit he had conferred upon the Cherokee people in the invention of his wonderful alphabet. 365 The Chickasaw Nation Sequoyah in the Hall of Fame- In 191 1 the Legislature of the new State of Oklahoma honored itself in the passage of an act to place in the rotunda of the Capitol, the Hall of Fame at Washington, D. C, a splendid bronze statue of Sequoyah, as a famous man from that state. The presentation was made, and the statue unveiled on June 6, 1917, Honorable Charles D. Carter, member of Congress from the third district of Oklahoma, himself a distinguished descendant of the intrepid Chickasaws, being chairman of the meeting. The presentation speech was made by Senator Robert L. Owen, of Oklahoma, he being of Cherokee descent and a man of distinguished ability; and among other things he said: "It is a strange thing that no alphabet in all the world reaches the dignity, the simplicity, and the value of the Chero- kee alphabet as invented by Sequoyah. The European alphabet goes too far in providing analysis of sound and permits such large variations in spelling that it is a task of years to learn how to spell correctly in any of the European languages. With the Sequoyah alphabet a Cherokee could learn to spell in one day. "Thus the labor of years was saved to the student. So great an intellectual accomplishment was this that Canon Kingsley named the great red cedars of California, which towered as high as four hundred feet into the air and which were twenty- five feet through at the base, 'sequoias,' because they were typical of the greatest native North American Indian." Upon the same occasion Speaker Champ Clark said : "When I was a boy, my father believed in phonetics and I believe in phonetics. Sequoyah invented simply a large and complete phonetic system in which everything is spelled by sound, which is the correct way. If he had lived two thousand years ago and had invented his alphabet and had got people to use it, one-fifth of the time of the usual life could have been saved. (Applause.) On the average, we spend one-fifth of our lives learning how to spell and we don't know yet. (Laughter and applause.)" 366 The Chickasaw Nation Many eloquent addresses were made upon the unveiling of the bronze statue of Sequoyah, which may be read, commenc- ing at page 5683 of the Congressional Record of date July 16, 1917. The Last Days of Sequoyah— Where the mortal remains of Sequoyah rest, no man knows, though it is generally conceded that he died amid the towering peaks of the Rocky Mountain ranges. His ancient ancestors occupied the loftiest peaks of the Appalachian Mountains, and as intellectually he towered far above the average man, it seems fitting that he should have sought the lofty ranges of the West, after his people had been driven from their homes in the East, to breathe his last, and yield up his spirit to "The Beloved One who dwelleth in the blue sky." This short sketch will not admit of the various versions as to the circumstances attending the last days of Sequoyah, much less the speculations as to where his body now sleeps ; but in reference to his later years this much may be said: In 1823 he took up his permanent residence in Arkansas, where a portion of the tribe had been removed. He took a prominent part in the treaties by which the Cherokees, or the most of them, were moved from their homes in North Carolina to the West. In his declining years Sequoyah withdrew from activities among the Cherokees, and once again gave himself over to speculative ideas. He conceived the idea that there should be elements of a common speech and grammar among the various Indian languages, and he traveled far and near among many tribes in a vain endeavor to demonstrate the correctness of his theory. There was a current tradition to the effect that in ancient times a band of Cherokees, forsaking their mountain home and kindred in the Appalachian range, had crossed the Mississippi River and found another home in a distant range of mountains in the West. 367 The Chickasaw Nation This legend appealed to the imaginative mind of Sequoyah and he went in quest of this lost band ; but death overtook him at the age of eighty- three, in August, 1843 (it is said), near San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico. There amid the towering Mexican Sierras his tired and rest- less body fell asleep, and there today stand the great mountains, fit monuments over his mortal remains. Though Sequoyah was a pagan to the last, may we not indulge the fond hope that when the mortal put on immortality, the vagrant Mexican breezes caught up the restless spirit of Sequoyah, and bore it far beyond the clouds to the happy hunting grounds of his Indian forefathers, according to the myths which he learned as a child at the knees of his Indian mother in the far- away mountains of our beloved east Tennessee? The South and Intellectual Men— In late years there has arisen a tendency for some men to proclaim that on account of climatic conditions in the South full intellectual development there is not possible. This silly drivel comes, of course, from men who do not live in the South. The assumption is based on so-called scientific principles as to the effect upon the body and mind of the climate in which people live, the products of the soil, their environment and so on, reaching the conclusions as above indicated. In Chapter VIII it was pointed out that in pre-revolutionary days, while the colonists were weak and time sufficient had not elapsed for their full development, it was then somewhat fashion- able among certain classes in European countries to proclaim that such were climatic and other conditions in America as to form an impassible barrier to the full intellectual development of men and the animal world in general. The celebrated French natu- ralist, Buffon, undertook to prove this theory upon scientific principles, and such was the effect produced by such writings that Thomas Jefferson, in his notes on Virginia, combated the position of men like Buffon, insisting that it was a theory devoid The Chickasaw Nation of any substantial basis. No one, even in Europe, will now claim that Buffon was right or that Jefferson, a Southern man, was wrong. If the intellectual capacities of men are to be controlled by their natural and climatic environment, then, as the Indians of America were, so to speak, natural products of the respective localities, attention is called to the fact that Piomingo, the un- lettered full-blooded Chickasaw chief proved to be a worthy match for the Spanish and French diplomats ; and that whether on the field of battle, or in the arena of diplomacy, he withstood all the wiles of those opposed to the Americans, including the seductive influence of money. Did he not possess a wonderful judgment of men, not to say prescience of the future, when he chose on all occasions, and under the most adverse circumstances, to bend his people to the cause of the Americans rather than to that of France or Spain? Sequoyah was born and reared in sunny Tennessee, and his early manhood was spent in Georgia, and he lived in that State during the many trying years of toil, poverty, and self-denial which he spent in producing his syllabic alphabet, the most perfect in the annals of the world, and which made his name immortal. The English-speaking people owe a debt of gratitude to the Chickasaw nation, who were men of the South, that can never be repaid. In the United States official Handbook of American Indians (p. 463) the definition given of the "Five Civilized Tribes" is in these words: "A term used both officially and unofficially in modern times to designate collectively the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole Indians, in the Indian Territory, applied on account of the advance made by these tribes towards civilized life and customs." It is almost needless to state that the Five Civilized Tribes were all men of the South, the most of them living in the Gulf 369 The Chickasaw Nation States; or to add that no other tribe or tribes, however far they may have lived northward, approached the Five Civilized Tribes in those intellectual and other attributes which won for them the designation which of itself proclaims their superiority to all other North American Indians. The mere mention of the name of Thomas Jefferson recalls that he was the author of the Declaration of Independence, which has proven to be the very sheet anchor for the preservation of the liberties of mankind throughout the civilized world. And there were other Southern men whose labors and whose genius made possible the building of a superstructure upon the Declara- tion of Independence, eventuating in our republican form of government, without a parallel in the history of mankind. In the remotest parts of the earth, wherever men are denied their rights of freedom, liberty of speech or religion, they look with longing eyes and prayerful hearts to the great American republic as the very symbol of all that is good and great in governmental affairs. And how can we think of those who made this great government possible and not recall the name of George Washing- ton, whose place in history by the common consent of mankind is described as "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen?" James Madison, the author of the Madison Papers, more than any one other man, wrote the Constitution of the United States; and James Monroe was the author of the justly celebrated Monroe Doctrine, which was at Versailles by the unanimous vote of all the great powers of the earth, upon the motion of Woodrow Wilson, made a part of the League of Nations; so that the Monroe Doctrine is now, by the unanimous consent of civilized men, one of the most important parts of international law, safeguarding the rights of all men. And so sure as day follows night, the United States will become a member of the League of Nations, or some similar association, the fundamental principles of which were fashioned by Woodrow Wilson, who, more than any other one man, wrote 370 The Chickasaw Nation that imperishable document, and by the presentation of its claims upon the hearts and consciences of mankind has caused it to be adopted by forty-one nations of the earth up to September, 1920. Alphabetically arranged (see Literary Digest, September 25, 1920, p. 37) those nations are as follows: "Present membership of the League of Nations: Argentine Republic Greece Persia Australia Guatemala Poland Belgium Haiti Portugal Bolivia Hedjaz Rumania Brazil India Salvador British Empire Italy Serbia Canada Japan Siam Chile Liberia South Africa China Netherlands Spain Colombia New Zealand Sweden Cuba Norway Switzerland Czecho-Slovakia Panama Uruguay Denmark Paraguay Venezuela France Peru "Ecuador is considering the treaty of peace in the current Congress. Nicaragua has ratified, but the formalities of deposit- ing the ratification are not yet complete. Honduras has completed the parliamentary stage of ratification. The United States eligible to original membership." is Is it creditable to the United States that, on account of partisanship, prejudice, and a want of that broad vision of the future possessed by those who laid the foundation stones of this great republic, this country so far has failed to become a mem- ber of that League? All of those men of the South mentioned above, whose labors so eminently contributed to the formation of our republic, occupied legislative and executive relations to the new experiment for the government of men ; but there was another no less import- 371 The Chickasaw Nation ant department of the government, namely the judicial depart- ment, presided over first by that justly distinguished Northern man John Jay, as Chief Justice; and he resigned from that great office because he could see there no field for the develop- ment of his genius. He was succeeded soon by a Southern man, John Marshall, of whom President Garfield (Swaney, p. 133) said: "Marshall found the constitution paper; and he made it power. He found a skeleton, and he clothed it with flesh and blood." Not only in America both North and South, but among all thoughtful and reflective men throughout the world, such as James Bryce, now Lord Bryce, it is declared that to John Mar- shall the world is indebted for the interpretation, development, and practical application of the constitution of the United States to the varying conditions of the country as new questions arose, so that its interpretation has proven the government to be all that was hoped for it by the most sanguine expectations of the great men who fashioned its foundations. Without making invidious comparisons, may we not ask if the labors and genius of these Southern men had been eliminated from the labors of others in the formative process of the making of this great republic, would mankind now enjoy the priceless example, and the people of the United States the priceless bless- ings of our present form of government? The Pilgrims of New England and their descendants delight in the blare of the trumpet, whereas the cavaliers who settled Virginia and their descendants are of a different temperament. Witness the celebration in this year, 1920, of the tercentenary landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth all over the country, in- cluding a fine pageant in Memphis; and yet there were earlier settlements in Virginia, and the significant fact that in the year prior to the landing of the Pilgrims, that is, in 1619, the first legislative assembly upon the American continent met in Vir- ginia and passed laws, was scarcely commented upon. 372 The Chickasaw Nation The Literary Digest of October 23, 1920, quotes G. K. Chesterton, the noted English writer, as commenting upon this subject as follows : "It is a commonplace to say that Virginia was the very throne of the authority of the Revolution. From Virginia came Washington, its hero, and Jefferson, its prophet. The State was known as the Mother of Presidents. It was felt as a sort of council chamber of the Fathers of the Republic. Not to follow its pivotal political history through a thousand other things, it is enough to say that, in the Civil War, the adherence of Virginia to the side of local patriotism, which happened to be the losing side, was certainly the fact which almost turned it into the winning side. In Virginia, in that dark hour, arose the greatest of American generals, who was perhaps the noblest of Americans. I really can not imagine why a history which begins with Raleigh and ends with Lee, and incidentally includes Washington, should be utterly swept aside and forgotten in favor of a few sincere, but limited, non-conformists, who happened to quarrel with Charles I." Without joining in the rather caustic criticism, yet what is said of Virginia and Virginians is commended to those who constantly criticize the South. The South After the Abolition of Slavery— But, says another, see how far the South has lagged behind the balance of the country in material progress. Where is the candid man who does not know that this want of so-called prosperity in the things which go to make up riches according to the modern acceptation of that term, is due primarily to the ravages and direct results of the Civil War, by which the Con- stitution was so amended as to abolish slavery by the sword instead of by the methods pointed out by that instrument? How many of the critics of the South will take time to remember that if the convention which adopted the Declaration of In- dependence, had adopted it as written by Jefferson in those parts with respect to slavery, that slavery would have received therefrom its death blow. 373 The Chickasaw Nation In The Safeguards of Liberty (p. 41) by W. B. Swaney, of Chattanooga, this fact is clearly pointed out, and that the original draft of the Declaration as drawn by Jefferson was amended upon the motion of Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. In 1 7^4 Jefferson drafted a bill to abolish slavery in all of the North- western territory, and also in what is now Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and this bill failed of passage by only one vote, and Jefferson wrote in his diary, "Thus we see the fate of millions unborn hanging on the tongue of one man, and Heaven was silent in that awful moment!" Not only was slavery abolished and the capital therein invested, but fire and sword destroyed homes, barns, cattle, factories, schools, and churches, leaving the South in the dust and ashes; and as if this was not sufficient, the wild partisans passed what was called the reconstruction laws, by which the flower of the manhood of the South was disfranchised and their former slaves made their political rulers. This was an impossible state of affairs among what is termed the Anglo-Saxon people, but which I prefer to designate the English-speaking people; for this blood runs purer in the South than in any other section of this great country. Needless to say, it was but a question of time when the white men of the South took over the political control of every Southern State, which they will never surrender, for this political control means the salvation of both the white and colored population. The Fate of Haiti Under Negro Rule- Almost within the shadow of southern Florida lies the beautiful Island of Haiti, so named from an Indian word meaning mountainous ; for while there is much low land upon which grow all tropical fruits, and the finest coffee, sugar, and tobacco, still other parts are quite mountainous with extended high plateaus, where grow other harvests of the temperate zone, affording an equable and delightful climate not surpassed anywhere; while in the mountains are to be found gold, silver, copper, tin, coal, 374 The Chickasaw Nation and iron. In short it is a land where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile; and why? On December 6, 1492, now over four hundred years ago, Columbus discovered the beautiful island and named it His- paniola (Espanola), which in English means Little Spain, because in his estimation it represented all that was beautiful and good and was the crowning jewel of all his discoveries which made his name immortal. The great navigator set about at once to build towns and roads, to cultivate the soil, open mines, and develop the marvelous resources of the beautiful island; and when he passed from earth to heaven on May 26, 1506, though his re- mains were first interred in Seville, Spain, in 1542 they were exhumed, carried over the sea, and interred in that part of Hispaniola now called Santo Domingo, where they reposed until 1 795-1 796, and were re-exhumed, and transferred to the Cathedral in Havana, Cuba; whence, after the Spanish-American War of 1898, they were finally removed back to Seville, Spain, where, let us hope, they may peacefully repose forever. Upon the whole island Columbus found some two million Indians, and in course of time these aborigines were exterminated, and as slave labor proved profitable in cultivating the rich soil, the island was flooded with negro slaves from Africa by the same means that they were imported into our Southern States, and these importations were especially great in the western part of the island, which is more correctly called Haiti, while the eastern part is called Santo Domingo, the two parts of the island being now and for many years since, governed by separate and distinct forms of government, the one part having no political connection with the other. What is said here pertains to the western part of the island designated Haiti, where the population became overwhelmingly African. In the course of time the hold of Spain became loosened and the grip of France thereon became more rigid, until it passed entirely under French control. The French revolution with all of its aftermath and dissolutions in the parent country loosened 375 The Chickasaw Nation her control over Haiti and its hordes of negro slaves, and then appeared that remarkable negro, Toussant TOuverture, who set up a revolution for the freedom of his fellow bondmen; but he was betrayed and enticed to make a visit to Paris, where he was thrown in jail and there died. He was succeeded by another notorious negro leader, Jean Jacques Dessalines, who carried on the revolt, and by means of the greatest atrocities the whites were assassinated and butchered, their estates confiscated, and in -1804 the negroes were the supreme overlords of Haiti, with Dessalines at the head of their government, but he was assassi- nated in 1805. Under the preceding French rule roads were built, radiating throughout the country, magnificent chateaux, the homes of the gentry and landed proprietors, dotted the valleys and the hills, and prosperity and civilization rose to a high pitch, as it should have done in this favored land. Its future was the brightest of any part of the new world. Did this prosperity and civilization continue under negro rule, or did everything of promise for the future wither and perish ? The sequel will furnish an answer. The savages in the wilds of Africa never exhibited less capacity in governmental affairs or to govern themselves than did these negroes of Haiti, although many of their ancestors had been in Haiti over a century, during which time they had em- braced the Christian religion and should have become much advanced beyond their savagery in Africa. During the first one hundred years of negro rule, that is, up to the year 1903, twenty- five presidents held office, and of these fifteen were driven out of office by revolutions; thirteen of these were banished to foreign lands, while two were allowed to remain to die at home, while they did quite promptly. Three others died in office from as- 376 The Chickasaw Nation sassinations, while still three others died in office from unex- plained causes, but it can be easily surmised that their deaths were not from natural causes. Another died of wounds received from revolutionists, while still another committed suicide, and wonderful to state, one out of the twenty-five served his full term of office, lived to a good old age and died a natural death! After the lapse of the first hundred years of home rule by negroes in Haiti, instead of improvement, matters grew worse, and chaos followed not only in domestic affairs but in the foreign relations of Haiti; so that the United States, under the prin- ciples of the Monroe Doctrine, at the suggestion of France, was compelled through her navy and army to take charge of the country in 1915, thus taking up the white man's burden, which is still borne by this country. In the meantime the houses and palaces built by the French were destroyed, the cultivated fields became as the primeval jungle, while the roads were choked and made impassable by the growth of the giants of the forests, and desolation and want reigned supreme. What effect did these things have on the two million of negro peasants? In the December, 1920, National Geographic Magazine (one of our best periodicals) there are three articles on Haiti ; one by G. H. Osterhout, Jr., another by Sir Harry Johnston, and a third apparently by a member of the editorial staff, which are illumi- nating, and on page 500, speaking of the degradation of the entire populace of Haiti at the present time, it is said: "The country became entirely overrun by bands of robbers, who generally operated in more or less well defined districts. These bandit bands increased in boldness and were called 'cacos,' 'the caterpillars, because, like caterpillars, they covered the earth at certain seasons and, like caterpillars, they ate everything. The bands ranged in number from ten to several hundred, each under a chief hostile to every other chief, united only in the 377 The Chickasaw Nation desire to plunder and rob, and stopping at no crime or atroc- ity." The negroes having thus retrograded to the lowest depths of savagery and degradation, we are not surprised to learn that in the course of this century of negro misrule the beautiful French language, which all spoke in 1804, likewise disappeared, and though French was the so-called official language, only three per cent of the population could read and write. There grew up in the place of the French language a jargon sometimes called Creole. This, of course, is an unwritten language, and one of the many difficult problems now confronting American control is whether our government will undertake to educate the blacks of Haiti, and if so, will they be educated in the French or English language. The object lessons thus afforded to the people of the South by the negroes in Haiti, together with similar examples disclosed by history of the incapacity of the negroes for self-government, much less for the government of civilized white men, were of such a striking character that it was not possible for sensible men to differ in the conclusions to be drawn therefrom. How the South Prospered after Emancipation— I well remember that in certain quarters after the Civil War it was predicted that as slavery was abolished, the "lazy" white men of the South would allow their fields, and especially those of cotton, the surplus crop of the South, to go to waste, and that the South would lose its supremacy in raising this indispensable commodity of the world. Turning from vain theories and prophecies to results ac- complished what do we find? In a letter to me of September 28, 1920, Henry Hotter, for a generation secretary of the Memphis Cotton Exchange, states that while he could not find the value of the cotton raised The Chickasaw Nation in i860, the last full year of slave labor, still there were raised that year 3,849,469 bales, and that taking the tables showing the high and low prices of middling cotton that year, he figured the crop to have been worth approximately $290,000,000. He also stated that in the year 1919, there were raised 11,326,536 bales of cotton, the value of which with the cotton seed was $2,516,544,520, or nearly ten times the value of the crop of i860, a sum so vast as almost to stagger the imagination; and bear in mind that beginning with the world-wide war hundreds of thousands of colored people left the South for the North, being attracted by the higher wages offered, especially by Northern war industries. If any one should suppose that these results came about without a struggle, then nothing could be further from the truth. In its poverty for years the South could only raise this great crop, and as it was altogether fashioned into the fabrics of commerce in the North and foreign countries, she was compelled to accept the pressure of foreign capital, that is, what it was willing to dole out. Commencing some thirty years ago the South began in a feeble way to spin cotton, and long since it has wrested from an unwilling world supremacy to a large extent in the manufacture of cotton, so that far more thereof is now spun in the South than in the North. Another common error is the supposition that the cotton crop is about the only crop raised in the South ; whereas the total value of all crops raised in the South in 191 9, excluding live stock, was $7,022,012,000; and as is well known, the live stock industries in the South are now expanding by leaps and bounds; while the approximate value of all minerals produced in the South for 1919 was $1,350,000,000, and in 1918 the South's forest products amounted to 15,809,000,000 board feet of lumber cut, estimated to be of the value of $500,000,000, or thereabout. After the close of the Civil War the net public indebtedness of the United States was between $2,000,000,000 and $3,000,000,- 379 The Chickasaw Nation ooo, and it was freely predicted that the sum was so great that it could never be paid, and that repudiation was inevitable; and yet the whole of it could have been paid by the South's single cotton crop for the year 19 19-1920. In a public statement on October 20, 1920, Henry G. Hester, secretary of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, and for the past fifty years an authority on matters pertaining to cotton, declared that for the years 1916, 1917, 1918, and 1919 the South received for its crops of cotton, including the seed, the enormous sum of over $7,970,000,000. But again, outside of her boundaries the South is thought of as purely an agricultural region; and so it was in the days of slavery; but not so now, for the approximate value of all manu- factured products in the South in 191 9 was in the neighborhood of $10,000,000,000. For most of the foregoing statistics I am indebted to Richard H. Edmonds, editor of the Manufacturers Record of Baltimore, whose prominence in this line is well known. During the Civil War the men of the South fought as never men fought, almost without means and equipments; and when overpowered by overwhelming numbers and means, they sur- rendered ; and having appealed to arms, they accepted in good faith the arbitrament of the sword. They would not now have slavery or a divided country. However, when they laid down their arms, they did not lay down their principles, or their unconquerable wills. Of these no earthly power could deprive them ; these sustained them in their saddest hours, and these form the inspiration for the future. The Attitude of Southern Men to the Union- Trie attitude and feelings of Southern men subsequent to the Civil War were well expressed by L. Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi, in the United States Senate when he said: "Mr. President, I am too much exhausted to detain the Senate longer. I have said nothing today that was intended to 380 The Chickasaw Nation stir up any feeling of animosity between individuals or sections. I belong to that class of public men who were secessionists. Every throb of my heart was for the disunion of these states. If that deducts from the force of the statements that I have made today, it is due to candor and to you to admit it. I confess that I believed in the right of secession and that I believed in the propriety of its exercise. I will say further that it was a cherished conception of my mind — that of two great free republics on this continent, each pursuing its own destiny and the destiny of its people and their happiness according to its own will. "But, sir, that conception is gone; it is sunk forever out of sight. Another one has come in its place; and, by the way, it is my first love. The elements of it were planted in my heart by my father, they were taught by my mother, and they were nourished and developed by my own subsequent reflection. May I tell you what it is, sir? It stands before me now, simple in its majesty and sublime beauty. It is that of one grand, mighty, indivisible republic upon this continent, throwing its loving arms around all sections, omnipotent for protection, powerless for oppression, cursing none, blessing all!" Can it be wondered at that such sentiments excited ap- plause in the galleries. Lamar afterwards was appointed to, and up to the time of his death was a distinguished member of, the Supreme Court of the United States. It is also interesting to recall that in 1910 President William H. Taft, a republican in politics, appointed Edward Douglass White, of Louisiana, a former soldier of the South in the Civil War, to the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, the most august tribunal in the history of the human race, and it is almost needless to add that Judge White continues to discharge the high functions of his office with univer- sal satisfaction, and as a worthy successor of Marshall and Taney. Almost needless to say, the building of schools and the ex- pansion of the public school system for both white and colored children, the building of colleges, hospitals, churches, and all 381 The Chickasaw Nation those things necessary to the full development of a people, have kept step with material progress ; and in these the South will find that expression in all the lines of intellectual activity worthy of her past history. When these lines were being written (while sojourning at the capital of the nation), a grateful government bore to their last resting place the mortal remains of Dr. William Crawford Gorgas, of Alabama, and his body now lies almost within the shadow of the roof-tree of Robert E. Lee. The yellow fever scourge years ago decimated New York and Philadelphia, and ravaged all the Atlantic coast up to and into New England; but in later years it had most fearfully ravaged the Southern states. It was left for the genius and devotion of Dr. Walter Reed, of Virginia, to discover in the mosquito, stegomya faciata, the cause of yellow fever, and the nation has erected at the capital the Walter Reed Hospital as a slight token of the gratitude of mankind for his labors to alleviate the suffering of humanity. Later Doctor, afterwards General, Gorgas, by his labors and devotion, so practically applied the discoveries of Reed as to forever free Cuba, the hotbed of yellow fever infection, from that fearful plague; and later by the same means he so freed the Panama Zone of that dread disease as to make the building of the great Canal possible. Still later he freed South American countries of the same pestilence and his services were sought and given habitable portions of far-away Africa; and while on his way to a distant part of the British empire, at the solicitation of his Britannic Majesty to alleviate human suffering, he, who had saved thousands of lives, was suddenly stricken and passed from life to eternity amid the tears of a grateful world. Upon the important, difficult, and interesting question already briefly adverted to, viz: how would it be possible for Southern white men and their former slaves and the posterity of each respectively to live in harmony after the abolition of slavery, 382 The Chickasaw Nation the ablest and wisest of men have expressed their various opinions with much foreboding for the future. De Tocqueville as early as 1835, after his visit to America in 1 83 1, discussed what would happen at some distant day when in all probability slavery would be abolished and the slave made a freeman. He stated that, in the South, the race of whites formed an aristocratic body, imperious and of haughty demeanor, proud of themselves and proud of their race; and that in case the slaves were made free they would have three prejudices to contend with: the prejudice of a master toward his slave, the prejudice of race, and the prejudice of color; and expressed the opinion that the two races could not, as freemen, continue to occupy the same country, fortifying his opinion in Note 1, page 379, Vol. I, in these words : "This opinion is sanctioned by authorities infinitely weightier than anything that I can say: thus, for instance, it is stated in the 'Memoirs of Jefferson' (as collected by M. Conseil), 'Nothing is more clearly written in the book of destiny than the emancipation of the blacks; and it is equally certain that the two races will never live in a state of equal freedom under the same government, so insurmountable are the barriers which nature, habit, and opinion have established between them." After further stating the very great fecundity of the negro race as compared to that of the whites inhabiting the Southern states, and because of the warm climate in the South De Tocqueville concludes his opinion as follows: "The fate of the white population of the Southern States will, perhaps, be similar to that of the Moors in Spain. After having occupied the land for centuries, it will perhaps be forced to retire to the country whence its ancestors came, and to abandon to the negroes the possession of a territory which Providence seems to have more peculiarly destined for them, since they can subsist and labour in it more easily than the whites." 383 The Chickasaw Nation The American Commonwealth by the great historian James Bryce, now Lord Bryce, is generally conceded to be the ablest work upon our republican form of government, at least the ablest emanating from a European. When he was in Memphis in April, 1908, it was my good fortune to be seated with him upon more than one occasion; and stating to me that he was well aware that in the South the blood of the English, Scotch, and Irish ran almost pure among the whites, he asked many questions as to the relative increase of the white population as compared to that of the colored ; the tendency of each to migrate to the towns and cities, or to the North; the movement of people of the North to the South; the disposition of the negroes to exercise the elective franchise, and as to their ability to vote intelligently under what is commonly called the Australian system of voting, as well as many other questions, such as the probability of national woman suffrage, then seemingly a mere distant possibility. He then stated in general terms what he had more fully expressed in his great work, viz: that the American people had developed almost a genius for solving seemingly impracticable political problems, saying he believed that the white people of the South in due course would correctly and properly work out a plan by which the white and colored races would live in the South in peace and harmony; and so they will, despite the theo- ries and misgivings of the wisest men. Almost needless to say, this happy result will not be reached by the extremists on either side; far from it. Some years ago there appeared a book with the title Our Brother in Black, by Atticus G. Haygood of Georgia, then a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church South and a former gallant soldier of the South in the Civil War, in which he reviewed the history of the negro in the South in a sympathetic manner, and appealed to the Southern whites for fair and generous treatment towards the negroes. The late Dr. Booker T. Washington was himself a slave, but proved to be probably the wisest of his race in the broad 384 The Chickasaw Nation view he took of this difficult question and by his teachings and example proved himself an admirable leader for his people, and let us hope that his teachings will endure for ages. I think it worthy of note here, that when first elected bishop the highest honor his church could confer on him, Haygood declined the great office, because he believed that his services were more needed as President of Emory and Henry College, for which he was much criticised and even censured. If vindication was necessary, it came in due course years afterwards when he was re-elected and accepted the great office, because he thought he was answering the call of his Lord. When the conviction came to him that it was his duty to write Our Brother in Black there came a great struggle within, knowing that he was writing so far ahead of his times that he would be denounced by the unthinking, and the institution of learning over which he presided would be injured; but he said, "I promised God then, on my knees, if he would help me, I would not fight back if the people attacked me for my decision." It is one of my pleasant recollections that I once had the privilege of hearing the clarion voice of this fearless man of God at the First Methodist Church in Memphis. When in Memphis, he preached to the whites in the morning, and never failed to preach to the colored people at night. The writings and example of men like Bishop Haygood and Dr. Washington will point the way to the solution of the race problem in the South. My father, Dr. Franklin J. Malone, and his forebears from that time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the con- trary, were slave owners ; he was a man of considerable acquire- ments, served in the Mexican war as surgeon under the appoint- ment of President James K. Polk, was a member of the first constitutional convention of Mississippi after the Civil War; was of a reflective disposition and withal a man of sagacity in business affairs. Having spent his life in the practice of medicine in Alabama, Mississippi, and in the borders of Tennessee some 385 The Chickasaw Nation fifteen miles southeast of Memphis, in my early life I often heard him speak of the probable relative increase in the white and colored population in the South, being well aware of the predictions of De Tocqueville in respect thereto. He differed from De Tocqueville, saying that freedom would result in a loss of that rapid increase in population during slavery, and finally result in a greater ratio of increase on the part of the whites than that of the colored people, and time has vindicated his predictions. He pointed out that as a slave was the most valuable personal property of Southern men, that for self -protection if not from worthier motives, the slave was well housed, well and warmly clothed and shod, well fed on wholesome food, compelled to keep regular hours, and when sick had good medical services, as well as other necessary attentions to restore his health. When freedom came, all of these restraints and comforts were cast to the winds, thus opening the door to all diseases, especially tuberculosis, then called consumption, which greatly increased among them and was practically always fatal in what was called galloping consumption; also venereal diseases, and such infectious diseases as smallpox and the like. What he particularly complained of was his inability to have the medicines prescribed, regularly and properly admin- istered to the patient, and to have proper food prepared, and generally to secure proper nursing, saying that the failure to observe his directions in these respects led to many unnecessary deaths; not that the attendants meant to be unkind, but on account of inattention, and a seeming inability to comprehend the absolute importance to strictly observe the directions given. In 1919 there issued from the press at Memphis a most interesting monograph, Statistics and Politics, by John W. Farley, a well known and able Memphis lawyer, and a life-long and consistent Republican in politics, which is brimful of exact statistical information upon the negroes of the South; and on pages 23 and 24 he says! 386 The Chickasaw Nation "Between 1900 and 1910, the white population increased more rapidly than the negro in each of the Southern States where negroes are most numerous. Migration of whites to the South and of negroes to the North accounts, in part, for this difference. "High negro mortality, both adult and infant, and low birth rate among the negroes is perhaps the principal factor in account- ing for this difference. In the South the only States where the negroes increased faster than the whites were Arkansas, Okla- homa, and West Virginia. These increases can be accounted for by migration from other States. "There is a general impression that negroes have large families. The 1910 census exploded that theory. This census disclosed there was a decrease in all the Southern States of negroes under five years of age. Various explanations have been given for this decrease, few of which are correct. The real reason is low birth rate and high infant mortality. "The reasons for this condition are economic, sociological, disease, hygienic and migration. The negro race affords a great field for research by the biologist. * * * "Investigation discloses that in the territory within a hundred miles of Memphis, that is, in east Arkansas, west Tennessee, and north Mississippi, in which a large percentage of the population is negroes, part of the Black Belt of the Missis- sippi Valley — that there are few negro children, except in the hill counties of Mississippi. In 1910 the city of Memphis, having a total population of 131,105, forty per cent of which were negroes, the average number of persons per white family was 4.5, and the average number of persons per family among the negroes was only 3.5. * * * "As it takes an average of not less than four persons per family to perpetuate a race, these facts would indicate that when the negro ceases to lead an agricultural life as a race, he dies. "The conditions under which • negroes live in cities are not conducive to adult longevity, and he is consumed in the white heat of industrialism. "So that what was once predicted, that the negro would outnumber the whites in the South within a few years, is ab- solutely without foundation at the present time. For the South, losing negroes by migration, high death rate, and low birth rate, is gaining whites to such an extent that the proportion between 387 The Chickasaw Nation the negro and white population is increasing in favor of the whites. In addition to its normal increase in the Southern white population, which is greater than that of the negroes, it is also gaining whites by migration. "The acuteness of the negro problem has forever passed from the South." The Negro In the 1920 Census— Since the foregoing was written, the Census Bureau on June 24, 1 92 1, released for use information with respect to the popu- lation by color, and which confirms the views expressed herein- before with respect to the continued decrease of the percentage of negro population in the United States. This is especially so in the South. The Bureau adopted for the line between the North and South the northern boundaries of Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Oklahoma; and the West as that part of the country lying west of the eastern limits of Mon- tana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. The negro population for 1920 was 10,463,013, as compared to 9,827,763 for 1910. This shows a percentage of increase of only 6.5 per cent, while the percentage of increase in the 1910 census was 1 1.2, and for the decade from 1890 to 1900 the in- crease was 18 per cent. It is also important to note in what sections the small in- crease occurred, that is to say, in the West 55.1 per cent of the increase occurred, and 43.3 percentage of the increase was in the North, while in the South the percentage of increase was only 1.9. The increase of negro population in the South was almost ar- rested. The total numerical increase during the last decade was 635,250, of which 472,418, or nearly three-fourths, took place in the North and West, while only 162,832, or about one-fourth, was reported in the South, despite the fact that about eighty-five per cent of the total negro population is still found in the South. 388 The Chickasaw Nation The negro population is distributed as follows: In the South, 8,912,259; in the North, 1,472,163; in the West, 78,591; total, 10,463,013. In Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisi- ana there has been an actual decrease in the negro population during the last decade. The rate of increase in the white population during the last decade was sixteen per cent, while the white increase for the decade ending in 1910 was 22.3 per cent. The bulletin referred to did not give details as to the in- crease of the white population in the Southern States, but the figures given show the following results : 1920 1910 South Atlantic States 9*648,935 8,071,603 East South Central States. . 6,367,547 5,754,326 West South Central States. 8,117,045 6,721,491 24,133,527 20,547,420 20,547,420 Increase 3,586,107 By simple calculation it will be found that the percentage of increase in the white population of the South in the last decade was slightly over 17.5, while, as stated above, the average per- centage of white increase in all the States was only sixteen per cent, a difference in favor of the South of 1.5 per cent. This is the result, notwithstanding, as is well known, that nearly all of the foreign immigrants find homes either in the North or West, comparatively few coming South. It thus appears that each day the South is growing whiter and whiter, her increase springing mainly from that sturdy stock of unconquerable wills, which Farley delights to speak of as the Anglo-Saxon race of men, the name Anglo-Saxon being found in the charters of Alfred the Great. 389 The Chickasaw Nation These same Anglo-Saxons under Alfred drove the invaders from their shores, and once again settled down as the overlords of their own country, their sway remaining unchallenged to this day. So surely as the laws of the survival of the fittest, the prin- ciples of evolution, still sway the destinies of men and of nations, just as certainly will the remote posterity of these Anglo-Saxons in the time of Alfred, now living in the South, be and remain the supreme overlords of the States where their ancestors subdued the wilderness. The exodus of the colored people to the North, I am con- fident, will be of advantage to all concerned ; for in no other way will the whites there realize the difficulties the whites of the South labor under; thereby lessening their criticisms of the South, while the negroes will learn the folly of the fanatical and false appeals made to them for purely political purposes. There is another most interesting feature attendant upon migration of colored people from the South to the North, es- pecially since the world-wide war, viz: The numerous race riots which for the first time have broken out in Washington, the capital of the nation, in Chicago, East St. Louis, Phila- delphia, Ohio, and in far-away Duluth, near the Canadian border, and last, but not least, in "Bleeding Kansas." It will be recalled that in its early history Kansas became the scene of a bitter and bloody struggle over the negro. It was in this state that the infatuated and fanatical John Brown gained national notoriety, which so fired his imagination that he rushed to his fate at Harper's Ferry. At a still later date and after emancipation, Kansas held out itself as the promised land for the negroes of the South, the safe asylum to which they were eloquently conjured to emigrate, and many heeded the voice of Kansas, and made that state their home. 390 The Chickasaw Nation And yet the dispatches in December, 1920, startled the public with the news that a place in Kansas, by some strange coincidence called "Independence," was the scene of a bloody race riot, following close upon the heels of similar race riots in the other Northern cities mentioned above. Unfortunately, lynching of negroes have occurred in the South too frequently, but the origin of these lynchings was at first on account of the unspeakable crime of black men against white women, and then spread to the punishment of other crimes, the lynchings being confined to the perpetrator of the offense. In these many new race riots of the North a feature of the conflicts has manifested itself never heard of in the South, viz: almost without exception the mob turns from the perpetrators of the offense to the negro race in general, winding up with an at- tack on the negro section of the city, thus venting its wrath by an attempt to run the negroes from the country. This reminds us again of DeTocqueville, who stated it to be a strange fact that, while in the North slavery was abolished, still he found the white people there less tolerant of the negro and his peculiarities than the white people of the South were, who manifested a kindly interest and sympathy for the blacks entirely unknown in the North. Time has proven the correct- ness of his observations in this respect. That great American general, Ulysses S. Grant, had felt the shock of the half clothed and ill-fed soldiers of the South on many far-flung and bloody fields of battle, and learned to respect them. When General Lee at Appomattox offered his sword as a token of his surrender, General Grant with a lofti- ness of spirit that did credit to his magnanimity, declined to accept it. 391 The Chickasaw Nation He was afterwards president for eight years, the saddest years for the South, and no one possessed better opportunities for knowing the South than he. The Manufacturers Record in an editorial recently had this to say: "The time may come when the Anglo-Saxonism of the South will be the saving factor in curbing the Bolshevistic agitators of aliens and those dominated by aliens throughout much of the North and West. Those who have for years be- moaned the fact that the South did not share in the great inrush of foreign population may yet rejoice that in the Providence of God this section does not have that problem to the same extent as the West and the North must endure." Upon reading the foregoing the son of General Grant wrote the following note, published in that journal of November 6, 1 91 9 (p. 136), as follows: Annapolis, Md., October 26, 1919. "To the Editor the Manufacturers Record, Baltimore, Md. "Dear Sir : I enclose a clipping from your paper of September 18, 1 919. It may interest you to know that I have heard my beloved father several times make this same remark. That was forty years ago and more. "Respectfully, "Jesse R. Grant." Those men of small vision in the North and mostly moved by partisan bias would do well to remember what General Grant so often said, and who thereby vindicated the wisdom as well as the patriotism of the Southern people. It is one of my pleasant recollections to have met General Grant in Memphis, after his memorable trip through foreign lands after he had served as chief magistrate of this great re- public. 392 The Chickasaw Nation This may be called a digression; so be it, but the questions discussed are of the profoundest interest, not only to both the white and the colored races but to all students of the history of the human races. Moreover, we will see in the next chapter that the Chicka- saws were slaveholders, and that the United States, to its dis- credit, sought to force upon them miscegenation, which to the credit of the Chickasaws they fought under most disadvantageous circumstances, through a course of many years, to a triumphant termination. 393 CHAPTER XII THE STORY OF THE CHICKASAWS CONTINUED SINCE THE TREATIES OF 1832 AND 1834 The original inspiration for writing this sketch was, by a recital of the plain facts constituting the story of the primitive Chickasaws, to pay a just tribute to their illustrious dead. Their deeds of unexampled heroism some two hundred years ago to a large extent won for the English-speaking people the continent of North America. Being a firm believer in the great destiny of the English- speaking peoples, it is my sincere desire to see them brought closer and closer together, and moved by a common impulse to guide the destiny of the human race onward and upward. In keeping with my original purpose, this sketch would naturally end with the treaties of 1832 and 1834; but as it has expanded in details far beyond my original design, I have concluded to extend it, so as in a short compass to bring the story down to the present time. Singularly, I have never personally met a Chicka- saw Indian. I hope that an awakened interest in the story of the Chickasaws may eventuate in paying a just, though tardy, tribute to their ancient heroes who sleep east of the Mississippi in that great domain over which once they were the undisputed overlords, by an amelioration of the conditions surrounding their posterity of the present day as well as in the years to come. Centenary of Chickasaw Triumphs— By a strange kind of coincidence it so happened that the year 1836 was chosen by the United States government to round up the Chickasaws, and at the point of the bayonet to drive them from their ancient home in what is now north Mississippi and 394 The Chickasaw Nation force them across the Mississippi to the far West, there to war with the fierce wild Indian who then roamed over the vast Western plains. The year 1836 was the one hundredth anniversary, the cen- tenary year, of the signal defeat by the Chickasaws on May 20, 1736, of D'Artaguette, and six days thereafter, or on May 26, 1736, of the no less signal and important defeat by the Chickasaws of Bienville at the battle of Ackia, accounts of which are set forth in the ninth chapter, ante. It is true that these conflicts did not mark the end of the endeavors of the noble French pioneers to win the North Ameri- can continent for the lilies of France, but they did mark the be- ginning of the end. We have seen how Bienville in 1739 again invaded the Chickasaw country, backed by the authority and power of the imperial government of France, and when he was forced to retire as governor of Louisiana, because of the uncon- querable spirit of the Chickasaws, that he was succeeded by Vaudreuil, who, by the special authority of the French govern- ment in 1752, again invaded the land of the Chickasaws, there to meet the fourth defeat of French arms against the intrepid Chickasaws. We have seen how Pickett rejoiced to recall that the primi- tive Chickasaws, called by him the bravest of the brave, once were the overlords of this section of our great country, moving his soul to appeal to the young manhood of this country to cherish the memories of their noble example in a patriotic devo- tion to their country. And yet, so short are our memories, and shall I add such has been the paucity of our gratitude, that I have searched in vain for even a reference to the fact that the year chosen to drive the Chickasaws from their ancient homes in 1836, marked the cen- tenary of the sanguinary conflicts which, to such a great extent, determined that the English and not the French should dominate this continent, and that this led to the formation of our present republican form of government, the hope of the world. 395 The Chickasaw Nation The Chickasaws having failed to find a home in the West, pursuant to the treaty of August 31, 1830, which it appears was not ratified (2 Kappler, p. 1035), they were rounded up by United States troops and forced to abandon their homes, and seek another in the far wild West, inhabited then by still wilder tribes of the red men; and as has already been noted by Pickett, there they came in conflict with the aborigines of that country, over whom they finally prevailed. Some years ago by chance I came across the deposition of Marcus B. Winchester, the first mayor of Memphis, in which he briefly referred to the great number of Chickasaws whom he had ferried across the great Mississippi at Memphis in 1836, on their way to the far West; this being the same place where, according to Lincecum and Barton, their conquering ancestors had crossed the same river, coming from the West some five hundred years prior thereto. It would serve no good purpose, if indeed it was possible, to picture the suffering and agony of the Chickasaws in making this trip; and suffice it to say that many perished on the way, and those who may be desirous of pursuing the subject further, are referred to Cushman, who gives many details in respect thereto. I can not forbear, however, to acquaint the reader with the painful impression made upon Alexis Charles Henri Clerel De Tocqueville, the celebrated French statesman and philosopher, upon seeing the first detachment of the Choctaws cross the Mississippi River in 1831 at Memphis. Upon his return to France he brought out in 1835 his monumental work, Democracy in America, the first book of reasoned politics on democratic government in America. After a review of the characteristics of the Indians, their proud and haughty disposition, their passionate love of freedom, their bravery and fearlessness of death, and their contempt for servitude, he states that the settlement of the colonists in America, resulting in driving away the game, was depriving the Indians of their very means of subsistence; and that in his opinion it was but a short time when they would 396 The Chickasaw Nation entirely perish from the face of the earth. In Vol. I, page 34S he says: "At the end of the year 1831, whilst I was on the left bank of the Mississippi at a place named by Europeans Memphis, there arrived a numerous band of Choctaws (or Chactas, as they are called by the French in Louisiana). 'These savages had left their country, and were endeavoring to gain the right bank of the Mississippi, where they hoped to find an asylum which had been promised them by the American government. It was then the middle of winter, and the cold was unusually severe; the snow had frozen hard upon the ground, and the river was drifting huge masses of ice. The Indians had their families with them; and they brought in their train the wounded and the sick, with children newly born, and old men upon the verge of death. They possessed neither tents nor waggons, but only their arms and some provisions. I saw them embark to pass the mighty river, and never will that solemn spectacle fade from my remembrance. No cry, no sob was heard amongst the assembled crowd; all were silent. Their calamities were of ancient date, and they knew them to be irremediable. The Indians had all stepped into the bark which was to carry them across, but their dogs remained upon the bank: As soon as these animals perceived that their masters were finally leaving the shore, they set up a dismal howl, and, plunging all together into the icy waters of the Mississippi, they swam after the boat." The Chickasaws Purchase a New Home in the Choctaw Country— By a treaty concluded January 17, 1837, at Doakville, near Fort Towson in the Choctaw country, between the Chickasaws and Choctaws, it was agreed that the Chickasaws were to have the privilege of forming a district within the limits of the Choctaw nation, a large part of that people having theretofore moved from their ancient home in southern Mississippi and acquired a home in the West. The Chickasaws were to have an equal representation in the general council of the Choctaws and were put on an equal footing, with some minor exceptions. A designated portion of territory was set aside for the Chickasaws, for which they were to pay five 397 The Chickasaw Nation hundred and thirty thousand dollars, thirty thousand of which was paid in cash, the balance on time. Speaking of this purchase Reford Bond, in a hearing before a subcommittee on Indian affairs (p. 66), on August 17, 1914, very correctly said : "It is a historical fact that when the Chickasaws purchased an interest in the Choctaw nation West, they were placed on a scope of country immediately adjacent to the plain Indian or the wild tribes. They stood on the very frontier and beat back and fought off the hostile raids and encroachments of the warlike Comanche, Kiowas, and Apache. They stood on the very threshold of danger and stayed the hand of the aggressive Cheyenne and brave Arapahoe. They did all this for the Choc- taw tribe. They stood between the Choctaw nation and danger. They purchased their rights for a valuable consideration. Could a bona fide purchaser have made a greater sacrifice?" At this time, as Bond observes, the Chickasaws "were armed in part with a bow and a quiver of arrows; were armed in part with a rifle, a bullet mold, and a shot pouch. They were poorly clad and scantily provisioned. The entire path of their emigration is marked by the tombstones of their fallen." For some years after this treaty these two peoples were re- ferred to as composing a composite tribe or nation, or as the Choctaws and Chickasaws. Treaty of Washington, 185£— On June 22, 1852, at Washington, the first treaty was entered into between the United States and the Chickasaws after their removal to the West, the most of it consisting of just complaints of the Chickasaws with respect to the failure of the United States to dispose of their lands in north Mississippi, which the United States promised to do; and also promised to have an account taken of the management and disbursement of the Chickasaw 398 The Chickasaw Nation funds, the Indians claiming that they had been subjected to losses and expenses which properly should have been borne by the United States. The gross mismanagement of the sale of these lands of the Chickasaws by the United States can scarcely be considered without the conviction that dishonesty was one of the controlling factors. Speaking of the just complaint of the Chickasaws in reference to their unjust treatment in this most important matter to them, Congressman William H. Murray on April 24, 1914 (p. 41), in the House of Representatives compared the treatment of the Chickasaws to that of the Choctaws, saying: "They left with the government the selling of the residue of the land in Mississippi. When the government sold it, they got $8,000,000 for it, but it cost the Indians $6,000,000 for the government to sell it, leaving the Indians a residue of $2,000,000, and then the Indians had to pay twenty-five per cent of it to attorneys to fight the government for the $2,000,000, and won, but it was fifty-five years before they got that $2,000,000. 'This, my friends, brings us to the proposition, why is it that those Indians employ attorneys? They employ attorneys because it has never cost them more than twenty-five per cent, but when they have left it to the government they have had to pay from seventy-five to one hundred per cent plus. They em- ploy attorneys because it is good business sense." Ancient Cemetery at Pontotoc— There is couched away this pathetic provision with respect to the Chickasaw lands in Mississippi: "Provided that a tract of land, including the graveyard near the town of Pontotoc, where many of the Chickasaws and their white friends are buried, and not exceeding four acres in quantity, shall be and is hereby set apart and conveyed to the said town of Pontotoc, to be held sacred for the purpose of a public burial ground forever." Thus we find this note of pathos hid away in the dry ver- biage of a formal treaty, reminding us that the memories of the 399 The Chickasatu Natioft Chickasaws still brooded over the scenes where reposed the ashes of their intrepid ancestors. I learn from E. T. Winston, of Pontotoc, that the cemetery referred to is still kept up by an association of ladies, and that the grave of Rev. T. C. Stuart, who was affectionately called "Father Stuart," is neatly kept up in an attractive part of the cemetery. In January, 1821, the centenary of the founding of the Monroe Mission Station will occur, for in that year Rev. Stuart first preached the Christian religion to the Chickasaws, carrying the gospel into the wilderness of north Mississippi, where he spent a lifetime of service to his Master among the Chickasaws, winning their unbounded love and affection, and dying, his tired body found repose among his red brethren to whom he had ministered so long and whom he loved so well. Why should not the Christian people of that vicinity fittingly celebrate the centenary referred to by appropriate ceremonies and services? I regret to learn that the Indian graves have not been marked or kept up. I am told that the portion of the cemetery where their ashes repose remains intact ; and it is to be hoped that there will be a quickening interest aroused to care for the last resting place of those ancient Chickasaws whose history reads like a page torn from the book of romance. Difficulties having arisen between the Choctaws and Chicka- saws with respect to the line of boundary between them, commis- sioners were appointed by the respective nations, and on Novem- ber 4, 1854, a treaty was concluded at Dookville, fixing this line to the satisfaction of both parties. Treaty at Washington, 1855— The political connection existing between the Choctaws and Chickasaws having given rise to unhappy and injurious dis- cussions between them with a view to a readjustment of their 400 The Chickasaio Nation relations, a treaty was entered into between themselves and also with the United States, at Washington, on June 2, 1855, or exactly three years after the first treaty referred to above. The future boundaries between the Chickasaws and Choc- taws were established, and the United States guaranteed to them the lands within the respective limits, so that each and every member of either tribe should have an equal and undivided interest in the whole ; provided no part was to be sold without the consent of both tribes, and also provided that said land should revert to the United States in case the Indians became extinct or abandoned the same. I may be wrong, but I think such provisions were not creditable to the United States. How different had the terms and the very tone of these treaties become, since the first one in 1786, which James Robert- son had Piomingo to travel near a thousand miles overland to conclude, in order that protection might be furnished by the Chickasaws to the feeble, infant white settlement at Nashville? Then the Chickasaws were referred to as the Chickasaw Nation, the word nation being spelt with a big N; now the same people are referred to as a tribe, using a small t, all of which evinces a small spirit in those who at that time represented the United States. But the other clause, making the United States the residuary legatee of the Chickasaws, in case they become extinct, I can not trust myself to properly characterize. By their cruel ex- pulsion from their old home under military escorts, their numbers had been decimated, and before they could adjust themselves to new surroundings, and become acclimated in their new home, disease had made other great inroads among them, and it was then a matter of doubt and speculation whether they could withstand these changed conditions; many believing, and the verbiage of this treaty suggested, that their complete extinction was near at hand; and the United States demanded to be and was made in effect, the residuary legatee of the lands for which 401 The Chickasaw Nation Chickasaw money had been paid into the treasury of the Choc- taws, and to which the United States had not the shadow of a claim. It was the same as if some big bully would approach a feeble old man, supposed to be near death, and suggesting his early demise, should demand to be made his legatee. For certain land relinquished the Choctaws were to receive six hundred thousand dollars and the Chickasaws two hundred thousand dollars ; there were provisions that all existing laws were to remain in force until the Chickasaws should adopt a constitu- tion and laws superseding the same; and other provisions were made not deemed necessary to mention, except that this treaty was to abrogate all previous treaties inconsistent therewith. Of course there was the usual twaddle about the United States taking the Chickasaws under their protection, to remove intruders on their lands, etc., which the grantees never kept, or intended to perform. The Chickasaws and the Civil War— The secession of South Carolina on December 20, i860, from the Union was fraught with profound importance to all the Indians; and especially to the Five Civilized Tribes, who were owners of slaves, and were themselves men of the South; and, moreover, the people in Arkansas and Texas were their nearest neighbors, and with whom they were more intimately connected in a business and official way than any other part of the country. The year i860 was disastrous to the Western country, in- cluding the Indian territory, on account of a severe drouth, and the Indians were in need. The Secretary of the Treasury then held in trust for these Indians stocks to the amount of $3,449,- 241.82, and all of this was due from Southern States, except $166,000 due from Indiana and Pennsylvania and $251,330 due from the United States, and, of course, the Indians were told that in case they did not take sides with their brothers of the South, they would forfeit all the Southern States owed them. 402 The Chickasaw Nation In a speech of William H. Seward in the campaign of i860 "The National Idea, Its Perils and Triumphs," he said: "The Indian territory, also, south of Kansas must be vacated by the Indians." This was used with telling effect among all the Indians, and when it is recalled that the most of the United States officials, as well as the missionaries, were pro-Southern, and many of them intense partisans favoring secession, and that the Confederate Congress took immediate and vigorous action to win over the Indians, it is not surprising that they succeeded, especially as the United States seemed entirely apathetic so far as the Indians were concerned. In her preface to American Indian as Slaveholder and Seces- sionist (p. 14), Annie Heloise Abel very properly says: "It was the Indian country, rather than the Indian owner, that the Confederacy wanted to be sure of possessing; for Indian territory occupied a position of strategic importance, from both the economic and military point of view. The possession of it was absolutely necessary for the political and the institutional consolidation of the South." While her writings show that she had no sympathy with the movement for secession, that most unfortunate movement for the South as well as for the nation, still it was evidently her purpose to be fair ; and speaking (p. 83) further on the matter she said : "No one can deny that, in the interests of the Confederate cause, the project of sending emissaries even to the Indians was a wise measure, or refuse to admit that the contrasting inactivity and positive indifference of the North was foolhardy in the extreme. It indicated a self-complacency for which there was no justification. "More than that can with truth be said; for from the stand- point of political wisdom and foresight, the inactivity where the Indians were concerned was conduct most reprehensible." So far as my researches have extended, the Chickasaws were the first of the Indians to take official cognizance of the move- 403 The Chickasaw Nation ment of the secession of the Southern States; for on January 5, 1861, both houses of the Chickasaw legislature passed a joint resolution instructing their Governor, Cyrus Harris, to appoint four commissioners for the Chickasaw nation, to meet like com- missioners representing the Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole Indians, "for the purpose of entering into some compact, not inconsis- tent with the laws and treaties of the United States, for the future security and protection of the rights and citizens of said nations in the event of a change in the United States," etc. It will be noted that secession was not proposed, but on the contrary the proposed action was for the mutual protection of the various tribes, not inconsistent with the laws and treaties. It was left for the Creeks to appoint the time and place of meeting. They named the Creek Agency and February 17, 1861, as the place and time for the conference. There were but few delegates in attendance and none from the Chickasaws or Choctaws, the reason therefor not being known; nor is it known what action, if any, was taken. John Ross, the principal chief of the Chero- kees, was opposed to a withdrawal from the Union, though at times he aided those who were for secession. On February 7, 1861, the Choctaws passed resolutions expressing their feelings and sentiments in reference to the political disagreement between the North and the South and stating their deep regret, with the expressed hope that an ami- cable agreement would be arrived at; but in case that could not be done, they declared they would follow the natural affections, education, and institutions of the Choctaw people which in- dissolubly linked them to the Southern people, and to their near neighbors in Arkansas and Texas. In April, 1861, it is said a delegation of Choctaws and Chickasaws in Washington assured the commissioners of Indian affairs that they intended to remain neutral ; but it may be added that this was impossible, for John Ross failed in his efforts to have the Cherokees remain as neutrals, 404 The Chickasaw Nation though they lived north of the Chickasaws and Choctaws bordering on Kansas, and the rank and file of the Cherokees were more disposed to cling to the United States than were the other members of the Five Civilized Tribes. On May 8, 1861, B. Burroughs, brigadier-general of the Arkansas troops, wrote Cyrus Harris, governor of the Chicka- saws, that he had just received news that Arkansas by a vote of sixty-nine to one had seceded, as had Tennessee also; that the United States had withdrawn her troops from the Indian country; that Arkansas was then in arms, and offering to extend protection to the Chickasaws. On May 25, 1861, the Chickasaw legislature, after reciting the impending dissolution of the Union, declared its independence, and as the government had withdrawn the Federal troops, and withheld unjustly and unlawfully Chickasaw money, placed in the hands of the government as trustee, in violation of existing treaties; and as the Chickasaws, by their geographical situation, their institutions, and sympathies, were bound to the people of the Southern States, they cast their fortunes with them. At the same time it was also resolved that the Chickasaws take pos- session of all forts and arsenals to be held for the Chickasaw people, and the other Indian nations and tribes were called upon to join the Chickasaws in defending their country from invasion; and all the Chickasaw people were urged "to meet the conflict which will surely, and perhaps speedily, take place, and hereby call upon every man capable of bearing arms to be ready to defend his home and family, his country, and his property, and to render prompt obedience to all orders from the officers set over them." The State of Texas had appointed a commission, composed of James E. Harrison, James Bourland, and Charles A. Hamilton, to visit the Indian country and urge their co-operation with the Southern people; and on February 27, 1861, this commission entered the Chickasaw nation, the Choctaw, and other tribes, 405 The Chickasaw Nation appealing to them to join the South. In the meantime the United States authorities did practically nothing to retain the allegiance of the Southern Indians. The Five Civilized Tribes were then fast advancing in civili- zation, as shown by the report of this commission (Miss Able, p. 94) for in respect thereto the commission said: "These nations are in a rapid state of improvement. The chase is no longer resorted to as means of subsistence, only as an occasional recreation. They are pursuing with good success agriculture and stock raising. Their houses are well built and comfortable, some of them costly. Their farms are well planned and some of them extensive and all well cultivated. "They are well supplied with schools of learning, extensively patronized. They have many churches and a large membership of moral, pious deportment. They feel themselves to be in an exposed, embarrassed condition. They are occupying a country well suited to them, well watered, and fertile, with extensive fields of the very best mineral coal, fine salt springs, and wells, with plenty of good timber, water powers which they are using to an advantage. Pure slate, granite, sandstone, blue limestone, and marble are found in abundance. All this they regard as in- viting Northern aggression, and they are without arms, to any extent, or munitions of war." Treaty of the Choctaw and Chickasaws with the Confederate States of America— This treaty was signed July 12, 186 1, by Albert Pike, who represented the Confederate States, and by commissioners rep- resenting respectively the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. Though after the Civil War had ended, the Chickasaws and Choctaws were dealt with harshly by the United States, and even threatened with a forfeiture of all their rights for entering into this treaty, yet who will now blame them for what they did? General Albert Pike was a distinguished lawyer long a resi- dent of Arkansas, had been a captain in the Mexican war, and well known to the Indians, for he had been their counsel in most important litigation, and at that time was an author of note, 406 The Chickasaw Nation having written many beautiful poems; he was an honored resident of Washington, D. C, for many years before his death, and looked up to as the head of the Masonic fraternity in the United States; and withal a man of commanding appearance, possessing that indefinable something which pleases; and as the Choctaws and Chickasaws were themselves men of the South, sharing with the whites their political views, especially those with respect to slavery, as they were likewise slave holders — who can blame them for entering into this treaty with the people among whom they lived, and whose material interests were the same as theirs? This is the longest treaty entered into by these Indians up to that time, being quite voluminous, the Confederate States taking the Indians under their protection, and guaranteeing not to permit the Northern States or any other enemy to overcome them ; and likewise guaranteeing as follows : That the country of the Choctaws and Chickasaws was to be held by them in fee simple, "so long as grass shall grow and water run;" that no state or territory should ever pass laws for the government of the Indians ; that no part of their country should ever be annexed to any other territory or province; nor should any attempt be made, except upon their unsolicited application, to erect their country by itself into a state or territory; that they should jointly be entitled to a delegate to represent them in Congress; that if they afterwards desired to form a republican form of government, and they desired their country and people to be admitted, they should be "admitted into the confederacy as one of the Confederate States, upon equal terms in all respects, with the original states, without regard to population, etc." All Indians were to be competent witnesses, and all intruders were to be removed from their country; and many other guarantees were given, safeguarding the rights of the Indians in a fairer and better manner than in any treaty theretofore. It is true that the Indians were also guaranteed the right to continue as slaveholders, and that they agreed to furnish to the 407 The Chickasaw Nation Confederacy a regiment of ten companies of mounted men, which they did, but who would expect them to have done otherwise? This treaty is called the Pike Treaty, and is one of the fairest, manliest treaties that was ever offered the Chickasaws; and is a credit to General Pike ; to whose memory the succeeding generation has attested its affection by the erection in the Capitol of the nation a splendid bronze portrait statue of heroic size. James D. Richardson, himself an author and for many years a member of Congress, wrote this of Albert Pike : "It has been well said that Albert Pike was a king among men by the divine right of merit; so majestic in appearance that wherever he moved on highway or byway, every passerby turned to gaze upon him and admire him. Six feet two inches tall, with the proportions of a Hercules, and the grace of an Apollo! A face and head massive and leonine recalled in every feature some sculptor's dream of a Grecian god. His long, wavy hair, flowing down over his shoulders, added a strikingly pic- turesque effect, and the whole expression of his countenance told of power, combined with gentleness, refinement, and benev- olence. "God never made a gentler gentleman, a better citizen, or a truer man. He climbed Fame's glittering ladder to its loftiest height. He died amid his books and pictures, his birds and flowers, with a full faith in a glorious immortality. The world is his mausoleum and all mankind his mourners." The Desolation of the Civil War- It would serve no good purpose to here enter into lengthy details as to the part taken by the Chickasaws in this fratricidal conflict between the white men of the North and South, the result of which was that the Five Civilized Tribes were crushed between the upper and nether millstone. Albert Pike had, at the request of President Jefferson Davis, undertaken to make treaties with the Indian tribes, for he prob- ably possessed their confidence more than any other white man and as he was a great linguist he doubtless could speak to them in their own tongue. He negotiated these treaties under great 408 The Chickasaw Nation difficulties, and then he was commissioned a brigadier-general charged with the duty of organizing an Indian army for the defense of their own country, and not to enter into campaigns beyond the limits of their own country, and, of course, the Confederacy obligated itself to furnish the Indian army with arms, ammunition, clothing, and tents, and the men were to receive the customary pay. I may here state that none of these promises were fulfilled. Pike states that he was then over fifty years of age and consented to act for the Confederacy at the urgent solicitation of Mr. Davis, with many misgivings as to the final result; and unfortunately there soon arose between him and Generals Thomas C. Hindman and Theophilus Holmes one of the bitterest controversies that marked the history of that unhappy conflict, culminating in a second arrest of General Pike at Tishomingo, in the Chickasaw country, on November 14, 1862, and his resignation from the army. However, soon after his appointment to take charge of the Indian country, Pike began a vigorous campaign to organize the Indians into an army, first securing a considerable sum of money from the Confederacy, clothing, arms, ammunition, and those indispensable equipments necessary for an army. These being secured he appealed to the Indians to enlist for services and found a ready response. A Choctaw and Chickasaw regiment enlisted at once, as did other Indians, except that some of the Cherokees and Creeks held back, considerable numbers joining the Federal forces. Further on there was an entire brigade of Chickasaws and another of the Choctaws in the Confederate services, and Pike says: "We had fifty-five hundred Indians in service under arms, and they were as loyal as our own people, little as had been done by any one save myself to keep them so, and much as had been done by others to alienate them. They referred all their diffi- culties to me for decision, and looked to me alone to see justice done them and the faith of treaties preserved." (Abel, American Indians as Participants in the Civil War, p. 349.) 409 The Chickasaw Nation In this connection it should be remembered that many of the Cherokees and Creeks, besides nearly all the Indians from the Western plains, enlisted under the flag of the United States and fought against their brother Indians. Thus we see the net result was that the Indians who did so much to remain neutral in this fratricidal war of the whites were drawn into the bloody conflict, and made to destroy each other for the benefit of their white oppressors. The money, clothing, arms, ammunition, and supplies which Pike had procured for the Indians were from time to time com- mandeered for the use of the whites, and then General Pike was ordered to march his Indians from their country to take part in raids to Kansas and Missouri, and very naturally he held back, but finally did march them into Arkansas, where in March, 1862, there was fought the battle of Pea Ridge or Elkhorn Tavern, which proved disastrous to the Confederacy. Crimination and recriminations between Pike, Hindman, Holmes, and others were the order of the day, and after the resignation of Pike he issued a proclamation to the Indians giving his reasons for his course, but urging them to continue faithful to the Confederacy, but President Davis wrote Pike strongly disapproving the issuance of the proclamation. Never- theless the Indians again rallied to the cause of the Confederacy, Pike attributing it to the effect his proclamation had upon them. On December 30, 1862, Pike took up his facile pen and wrote a letter to General Holmes, reviewing the controversy, bitterly denouncing Holmes and Hindman, and speaking of the effect their course had upon the Indians he said in part: "The Federal authorities were proposing to the Indians at the very time when you stopped their clothing and money, that, if they would return to the old Union, they should not be asked to take up arms, their annuities should be paid them in money, the negroes taken from them be restored, all losses and damage 410 The Chickasaw Nation sustained by them be paid for, and they be allowed to retain, as so much clear profit, what had been paid them by the Confeder- ate States. It was a liberal offer and a great temptation to come at the moment when you and Hindman were felicitously com- pleting your operations, and when there were no breadstuffs in their country, and they and their women and children were starving and half-naked. You chose an admirable opportunity to rob, to disappoint, to outrage, and exasperate them, and make your own government fraudulent and contemptible in their eyes. If any human action can deserve it, the hounds of hell ought to hunt your soul and Hindman's for it through all eter- nity." It is but just to Hindman and Holmes to recall that they were far from Richmond, that the Confederate treasury was nearly always empty, that they were charged with the responsi- bility of meeting the well fed, well armed and equipped Federal forces in the far West, while the Confederates had scarcely any of these absolute necessities for actual warfare; wherefore they felt it their duty to commandeer everything in sight as a necessary war measure. Hence they seized everything which Pike had so carefully and laboriously gathered for the purpose of fulfilling his promises to the Indians in order to secure treaties from them, and to enlist them under the flag of the Confederacy. This Pike could never forgive. Probably no other man could have so won over the Indians as did Pike. The one absorbing idea with him was to win the Indians for the South, and this being done his soul revolted when they were deprived of the things necessary to defend their country, and in addition to leave it undefended and go to Arkansas there to fight the white man's war. Notwithstanding their bad treatment, the Chickasaws and Choctaws clung to the Confederacy as long as there was the least hope, though long before the end came, it was evident that the Indian country was practically lost to the Confederacy. Thus 411 The Chickasaw Nation we see that fidelity of character was still a leading characteristic of the Chickasaw nation. Believing that further details of this most unfortunate struggle would serve no good purpose, I will pass from it, referring those who wish to look more deeply into the matter to Miss Abel's American Indians as Participants in the Civil War. The Treaty of 1866— We learn from Latrobe (p. 3) that when in September, 1865, the Chickasaws and Choctaws met the United States Com- missioners at Fort Smith, Arkansas, they were told that they were at the mercy of the government; "that a portion of the land hitherto owned and occupied by you must be set apart for the friendly tribes in Kansas and elsewhere, on such terms as may be agreed upon" ; and that they "had made themselves liable to a forfeiture of all their rights of every kind, character, and description which had been promised and guaranteed to them by the United States." While the Indians refused to sign the treaty demanded, Latrobe says they instructed their delegates to "yield all claims due those nations on the part of the United States, sooner than to be induced to force or sacrifice any principle of honor which is due to the people and posterity in regard to the territory that is so dear to them"; and he estimates that all the funds, annuities, etc., which the Chickasaws and Choctaws were prepared to sacrifice rather than be despoiled of the homes they had been forced by the government to purchase, then aggregated $3,683,873.32. This sum represented every penny that was left of their sacrifices ; and as the personal property of these Indians consisted chiefly in the 412 The Chickasaw Nation value of their slaves which were freed, while the remainder of their personal belongings had to a great extent been wasted away by the fortunes of war, they were, so to speak, in the dust and ashes. The difficulties surrounding the Chickasaws and Choctaws were extraordinary; but the Supreme Court of the United States in the comparatively recent case of Jones vs. Meehan, 175 U. S., page 1, has so well pointed out the helplessness of the Indians in ordinary cases that I will quote one sentence from the opinion : "In construing any treaty between the United States and an Indian tribe, it must always be borne in mind that the negotiations for the treaty are conducted on the part of the United States, an enlightened and powerful nation, by representatives skilled in diplomacy, masters of a written language, understanding the modes and forms of creating the various technical estates known to their law, and assisted by an interpreter employed by them- selves; that the treaty is drawn up by them and in their own language; that the Indians, on the other hand, are a weak and dependent people, who have no written language, and are wholly unfamiliar with all the forms of legal expressions; and whose only knowledge of the terms in which the treaty is formed is that im- parted to them by the interpreter employed by the United States, and that the treaty must then be construed, not according to the technical meaning of the words to learned lawyers, but in the sense in which they would naturally be understood by the Indians." Being thus threatened by the United States, what could the Indians do except to employ counsel, associated with others, to contend for at least a modicum of justice. The "justice" thus secured proved very costly to the Indians, who were mulcted by their attorney and his assistants, according to Cantwell (p. 9), in the sum of $750,000; for which they secured the treaty of April 26, 1866; under which slavery was abolished; and as the third article has given rise to much controversy, as well as litiga- tion in the courts, it will here be copied at large: "Art. III. The Choctaws and Chickasaws, in consideration of the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, hereby cede to the 413 The Chickasaw Nation United States the territory west of the 98 west longitude, known as the leased district, provided that the said sum shall be invested and held by the United States, at an interest of not less than five per cent, in trust for the said nations, until the legis- latures of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations respectively shall have made such laws, rules, and regulations as may be necessary to give all persons of African descent, resident in the said nations at the date of the Treaty of Fort Smith, and their descendants, heretofore held in slavery among said nations, all the rights, privileges, and immunities, including the right of suffrage, of citizens of said nations, except in the annuities, monies, and pub- lic domain claimed by or belonging to said nations respectively; and also to give to such persons who were residents as aforesaid and their descendants forty acres each of the land of said nations on the same terms as the Choctaws and Chickasaws, to be selected on the survey of said land, after the Choctaws and Chickasaws and Kansas Indians have made their selections as herein pro- vided; and immediately on the enactment of such laws, rules, and regulations, the said sum of $300,000 shall be paid to the said Choctaw and Chickasaw nations in the proportion of three- fourths to the former and one-fourth to the latter, less such sum, at the rate of one hundred dollars per capita, as shall be sufficient to pay such persons of African descent before referred to as, within ninety days after the passage of such laws, rules, and regulations, shall elect to remove and actually remove from the said nations respectively. And should the said laws, rules, and regulations not be made by the legislature of the said nations respectively, within two years from the ratification of this treaty, then the said sum of three hundred thousand dollars shall cease to be held in trust for the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, and be held for the use and benefit of such of said persons of African descent as the United States shall remove from the said territory in such manner as the United States shall deem proper, the United States agreeing, within ninety days from the expiration of the said two years, to remove from said nations all such persons of African descent as may be willing to remove ; those remaining or returning after having been removed from said nations to have no benefit of said sum of three hundred thousand dollars, or any part thereof, but shall be upon the same footing as other citizens of the United States in the said nations." 414 The Chickasaw Nation Among many other provisions of the treaty it was also provided that a council consisting of delegates from both tribes was to convene annually, the powers and duties of which were defined, but the superintendent of Indian affairs was to be the executive of the territory, with the title of "Governor of the Ter- ritory of Oklahoma"; by the tenth article the prior treaty obligations of the United States were reaffirmed and the payment of annuities renewed; all the lands which had theretofore been held in common were to be surveyed, and allotments to be made in severalty to each member of the tribes; and, of course, all in- truders were to be kept out of the Indian country, which the government never had done, and which now it did not intend to do, nor did it do. In reference to these last provisions, it is only necessary to note that out of the country of the Indians the Territory of Oklahoma was created, and a white man made its chief exec- utive, a prophecy that soon the Indians were to be despoiled of their country. The Long Struggle for Racial Purity— On August 16, 1867, the Chickasaw nation adopted a con- stitution which will compare favorably with any of those of the various States, the opening sentence being in these words: "We, the people of the Chickasaw nation, acknowledging with gratitude the grace and beneficence of God in permitting us to make choice of our form of government, do, in accordance with the first, second, fourth, and seventh articles of the treaty between the United States, the Choctaws, and Chickasaws, made and concluded at Washington City, June 22, A. D. 1855, and the treaty of April 28, A. D. 1866, ordain and establish this constitu- tion for our government, within the following limits, to wit:" Returning now to Article III of the treaty of 1866 quoted above it will be seen that the United States held in trust $300,000 belonging to the Chickasaws and Choctaws, and that section directed that in case the Indians did not within two years admit 415 The Chickasaw Nation their former slaves as members of their tribes, then within ninety days the United States bound itself to remove the freedmen from the Indian country, and give to them the $300,000 which in point of fact belonged to the Indians. In a report of January 3, 1907, of F. E. Leupp, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to the Secretary of the Interior, it is said: "The Choctaw and Chickasaw nations have been far more generous to their former slaves and their descendants than the white people have to their ex-slaves. They have allowed them an interest in their lands, which the white slave owner did not do, and have permitted them to use the lands of the nation for more than forty years without paying one cent of rent therefor:" (Mansfield, McMurry & Cornish, p. 9.) Why should the government, in the face of these undisputed facts, continue its efforts through a series of years to force the Indians to do still more for their former slaves than the whites had, and force upon them a species of social equality with the negro, except upon the assumption that an Indian had no rights which a white man was bound to respect? In 1866, again in 1876, and still again in 1885, the Chicka- saws refused to admit their former slaves as members of their tribe, a portion of the preamble and Section 1 of the act of October 22, 1885 (Cantwell, p. 87), being as follows : "And whereas, The United States has failed to remove said freedmen, agreeable to the stipulations of said treaty, and left them here among us for a long time, recognized by us as occupy- ing the same status as other United States citizens; and whereas, the Chickasaw people in justic to their posterity have not made said laws, rules, and regulations as provided for in the aforesaid article of said treaty for the following reasons, to-wit: "ist — That the Chickasaw people can not see any reason or just cause why they should be required to do more for their freed slaves than the white people have done in the slave-holding States for theirs. 416 The Chickasaw Nation 11 2nd — That it was by the example and teaching of the white man that we purchased, at enormous prices, their slaves and used their labor, and were forced by the result of their war to liberate our slaves at a great loss and sacrifice on our part, and we do not hold or consider our nation responsible in nowise for their present situation. "Section i. Be it enacted by the legislature of the Chicka- saw nation, That the Chickasaw people hereby refuse to accept or adopt the freedmen as citizens of the Chickasaw nation upon any terms or conditions whatever, and respectfully request the governor of our nation to notify the Department at Washington of the action of the legislature in the premises." This was the manly attitude of the Chickasaws, notwith- standing (Cantwell, p. 50) states other Indians admitted negroes as members of their tribes. All honor to the Chickasaws for taking this bold stand for racial purity; for thereby they proved themselves worthy descen- dants of the primitive Chickasaws, who were known personally to Judge John Haywood, the pioneer historian of Tennessee, himself a pioneer, and who declared that no Chickasaw woman was ever known to give birth to a child before wedlock. The former slaves of the Chickasaws, no doubt being in- stigated thereto by scheming lobbyists and lawyers so-called, sued to recover the $300,000 mentioned, but the United States Supreme Court in 1904 dismissed the case, saying that as the freedmen had remained in the nation, cultivating as much land as was necessary for the support of themselves and their families, and had not been adopted into the Chickasaw nation, they were not entitled to the fund. (See United States vs. Choctaw and Chickasaw Nation, 193 U. S. 115.) It would seem that this decision should have ended the struggle, but the rapacity of claim agents knows no law, and they then took their fight to the floors of Congress, where the con- troversy continued for some years. I am indebted to William L. Lawrence of Tishomingo, Oklahoma, for much information, including a copy of the Argu- 417 The Chickasaw Nation ment in 1 910 of Douglass H. Johnston on behalf of the Chicka- saws against the reopening of the Chickasaw rolls, so as to admit their former slaves to membership as Chickasaw Indians; and in closing his argument (p. 24) Governor Johnston said : "Again, the African race is prolific. The Indian race, under present conditions, is not. The numbers of the Chickasaw tribe have been decimated, at first by destructive wars, now by their changed conditions of life, and it will be but a few generations until the full-blood Indian will be no more. But as the Indian citizen vanishes, the negro 'Chickasaw,' if such he is made by Congress, will multiply, and the time will not be far distant, if this iniquity is visited upon us, when the name of Chickasaw will carry with it opprobrium and reproach instead of honor. "Our people have no prejudice against the negro as such, and have always treated him, freedman as well as slave, with kindness and forbearance; but we do object to his classification as a member of our tribe, and the white race, under similar conditions, would have the same feeling. "Our common property now amounts to lands and money worth approximately $25,000,000. Such unjust legislation will deprive us of the greater part of this heritage; but this is not all, for it will also rob us of something far dearer, namely, the pride of race, which our people have so long cherished. "These negroes are not clamoring for this recognition of their own accord, nor would this class of claims ever have been heard of had it not been for the activities of claim agents and attorneys, lured on by the rich prize to be gained by success. "If then the greedy hand of the despoilers can not be kept from us, far better to give them our lands and money, but keep our rolls pure, so that in the future, as in the past, a Chickasaw can hold his head aloft among any people of the earth and say 'I am an original American and a Chickasaw.' "Douglass H. Johnston, "Governor of the Chickasaw Nation." In the speech of Honorable William H. Murray already referred to, he paid the highest tribute to Governor Johnston for his fine sense and integrity of character, also saying that he was related to General Albert Sidney Johnston, who fell upon the 418 The Chickasaw Nation field of battle at Shiloh, and whose loss was a terrific blow to the hopes of the soldiers of the South. Murray also stated that at that time (1914) Johnston had been Governor of the Chickasaws for fourteen years, and as he is still in office at this time (1921), it will be seen that for over twenty years he has guided the destinies of his people, and it may be added under the most disadvantageous circumstances. In a letter to me of January 21, 1921, Cato Sells says: 'The freedmen were adopted in most of the Five Civilized Tribes, namely, Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, and Choctaw Tribes, but the Chickasaws persistently refused to adopt them as mem- bers of the tribe. For the reason that the other Five Civilized Tribes adopted them as members of their tribes, it is customary in computing the number of Chickasaw enrollers to include the number of freedmen enrollers in totaling the membership of the Five Civilized Tribes." What a tribute is this to the Chickasaws, marking them as a peculiar people, to withstand all the power and blandishments of the government, as well as the example of the more powerful tribes so closely associated with them, in preserving the purity of the blood which coursed through the veins of their noble ancestry ! Notwithstanding these plain facts with respect to the long struggle of the Chickasaws for racial purity and integrity, all of which can be so easily verified, still in standard encyclopaedias and reference books it is usually stated that the Chickasaws adopted their freedmen in 1873, which is but one instance of misinformation so often to be met with, not only in the daily press, but in standard works and in books of history. Constitution and Laws of the Chickasaws— In this story, as we are approaching the time when the United States repudiated all of its solemn treaties with the Indians, and in order that we may have a clear understanding of 419 The Chickasaw Nation the facts, we may here pause for a moment to note that in 1899 there was published by the Chickasaw nation a volume of 560 pages, containing their constitution and laws up to that time. The contents of the volume were certified by Honorable Charles D. Carter, National Secretary of the Chickasaw nation, and it may be added that the laws therein contained, organic as well as statutory, will compare favorably with those of any state of the Union. It may be further stated that Mr. Carter was elected to Con- gress as a member from Oklahoma upon its admission to the Union in 1907, and so continues to the present time (192 1), having recently been elected for a new term expiring in 1923. He has served with distinction as a representative Chickasaw and as the representative of white constituents as well, and while the House was controlled by the Democrats, he was Chair- man of the Committee on Indian Affairs. The Dawes Agreement — Having reached a period when the Indians were reduced to the last extremity and were at the complete mercy of the whites, outside interference became so frequent and vital that it is scarcely necessary for further details, but a brief reference will be made to what is called the Dawes agreement of March 21, 1902. That is of such recent date that many will recall notices of the proceedings as contained in the newspapers; and though I had no special interest in the matter or reason to take a preju- dicial view, still a strong impression was made on my mind that it was more in the nature of a brow-beating affair than otherwise; by which the Indians were forced against their wills to grant what the white man demanded. The so-called agreement is very elaborate, and among other things provided that there shall be allotted to each member of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes 320 acres, and to each freed- man forty acres, the allotments to include the improvements of the allottee. All the residue of their lands was to be sold at 420 The Chickasaw Nation public auction, the net balance to be paid into the treasury of the United States, to the credit of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, the distribution to be made of the proceeds to the Indians per capita, the whites well knowing that the Indians would soon spend the money, as they would fall easy victims to the designing whites, and, of course, these results followed, so that the Indians were thus despoiled of their landed estates to the enrichment of the whites. This was bad enough, but there was a worse feature of the socalled agreement; that is to say, it was made unlawful for an Indian to "enclose or hold possession in any manner by himself or through another, directly or indirectly, more land in value than that of three hundred and twenty acres of average allottable lands"; a violation of this so-called agreement was made a mis- demeanor punishable by fine and imprisonment. These inhuman, cold, and cruel provisions are so shocking as not to need comment. Coal, asphalt, and other minerals which might be found in the land were to be sold at public auction, and the net proceeds placed to the credit of the Indians in the United States Treasury. How Congress Set Aside All Indian Treaties— For a better understanding of the situation it is necessary to recur to some former proceedings. On May 7, 1894, the Dawes Commission made its report to Congress, and among other things (174, U. S., p. 448) it said: "This section of country was set apart to the Indian com- munity beyond and away from the influence of white people. We stipulated that they should have unrestricted self-govern- ment and full jurisdiction over persons and property within their respective limits, and that we would protect them against 421 The Chickasaw Nation intrusion of white people, and that we would not incorporate them in a political organization without their consent. Every treaty, from 1828 to and including the treaty of 1866, was based on this idea of exclusion of the Indians from the whites and non- participation by the whites in their political and industrial affairs. We made it possible for the Indians of that section of country to maintain their tribal relations and their Indian polity, laws, and civilization if they wished so to do. And, if now the isolation and exclusiveness sought to be given to them by our solemn treaties is destroyed, and they are overrun by a population of strangers five times in number to their own, it is not the fault of the government of the United States, but comes from their own acts in admitting whites to citizenship under their laws and by inviting white people to come within their jurisdiction to become traders, farmers, and to follow professional pursuits." I undertake to say that the statements above to the effect that the Indians invited the white intruders into their country and were responsible for their presence among the Indians is not only untrue but without excuse. No one with the least in- telligence can attentively read the Indians' treaties without being struck with their long struggle to live apart from the whites, as witness the clauses in the various treaties by which the government bound itself in the most solemn manner to ex- clude all white intruders from among them. Francis E. Leupp, under whose administration as Indian Commissioner the policies represented by the Dawes Commis- sion were put in force, and which he approved, though apparently sometimes with misgivings, speaks very plainly (p. 44) on this subject, saying: "In actual life and in his natural state, however, the Indian wants nothing to do with us or our civilization; he clings to the ways of his ancestors, insisting that they are better than ours; and he resents the government's efforts to show him how he can turn an honest dollar for himself by other means than his grand- fathers used — or an appropriation from the Treasury. That 422 The Chickasaw Nation is the plain English of the case, strive as we may to gloss it with poetic fancies or hide it under statistical reports of progress." On the previous page (p. 43) Mr. Leupp says: 'The truth is that, in spite of the analogy traceable between the customs of all races in their primitive state, the Indian has a distinct individuality; and nothing shows it more convincingly than the way he has survived his experiences as a victim of conquest." No one who has attentively considered this subject can for one moment doubt the correctness of what Mr. Leupp says with respect to the peculiar ethnographic characteristics of the North American Indians. In other words, our Indians have no counter- part on this globe, and their mental and moral characteristics are as fixed and immovable as are to be found among any of the vari- ous races of men. We have the decision of the United States Supreme Court so late as 1886 (119 U. S. 30, L. ed., p. 315) showing the utter help- lessness of the Indians to protect themselves, as follows: 'These Indian tribes are the wards of the nation; they are communities dependent on the United States; dependent largely for their daily food; dependent for their political rights. They owe no allegiance to the States and receive from them no pro- tection; because of the local ill feeling, the people of the States where they are found are often their deadliest enemies. From their very weakness and helplessness, so largely due to the course of dealing of the federal government with them, and the treaties in which it has been promised, there arises the duty of protection, and with it the power. This has always been recognized by the executive, by congress, and by this court, whenever the question has arisen." No one knew the helplessness of the Indians to protect them- selves from white intruders for the reasons set forth above, better than the members of the Dawes committee; that is, if they had the least intelligence, which they unquestionably had. 423 The Chickasaw Nation It is difficult to understand how the truth could have been more distorted. Note, also, that the Supreme Court pointedly declared that from the very helplessness of the Indians (to quote), u There arises the duty of protection, and with it the power. This has always been recognized by the executive, by Congress, and by this court whenever the question has arisen." And yet the Dawes Commission reports to Congress that it was the fault of the Indians that the white intruders had come among them, and these statements were apparently ac- cepted by all departments of the government as true. The truth is that when the Five Civilized Tribes were driven from their ancient homes east of the Mississippi to make room for the early settlers, the country selected for them, and called the Indian Territory, was thought to be a wild and barren coun- try and was then subject to the inroads of the wild roving bands of the plain Indians, making life there insecure. After these savages were conquered and the country made secure and habitable by the Five Civilized Tribes, not only the great agricultural possibili- ties of the country became a striking fact, but, in addition, vast deposits of coal, oil, and gas were discovered. Then it was that, whetted by cupidity, the whites became as hungry wolves, seek- ing all they could devour, and intruders overran the Indian country, while the United States, which acknowledged the help- lessness of the Indians, and its duty by treaty and morally to exclude the intruders, with the power so to do, quietly looked on and did nothing. Hence the Dawes Commission. If history teaches anything, it is that no law can break down racial characteristics and convert one race into another; nor can this be accomplished by centuries of oppression, or by philanthropic propaganda. Take the case of the East Indian, whose civilization reaches back far beyond the civilization of the Englishman ; and though 424 The Chickasaw Nation the civilization of the English is far superior to that of the East Indian, and though for generations the East Indian has been under the guardianship of the English, still all know that socially and racially there is an impassable gulf separating the two peoples, notwithstanding both belong to the great Aryan race. The narrow Irish sea only separates England from Ireland, but will the racial barrier between them ever be broken? Again, only an imaginary line separates the Irishmen of Ulster from Irishmen further south, and still they can no more mix than oil will mix with water. These are not exceptional cases in history, as witness the results of the Russian war with Turkey in the seventies; for as soon as the Turkish power was broken over a large part of her domain in Europe, there reappeared the nations of Bulgaria, Roumania, and Serbia, these peoples having been so long sub- merged by the Turks and kept in a state of vassalage, that they had almost been forgotten by the world; and yet centuries of vassalage had in no way changed the ethnic characteristics of these peoples. Or take the case of the two German empires, the one ruled by the Hohenzollerns, and the other by the Hapsburgs; and these respectively ruled over and had in subjection other races of men, bending every energy and form of force to Germanize them, and all to no purpose. As soon as freedom came as a result of the mad war inaugurated by the two German emperors, by which they were dethroned, there emerged from the wreck and ruin of the bloodiest war in the annals of the world, the submerged peoples, and geography has been re-written so as to number among the nations of the earth ancient Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Jugo- slavia, or the kingdom of the Southern Slavs, while Armenia, and other submerged peoples in Asia, are still struggling for racial independence. Again Leupp very correctly points out (p. 3) that in discuss- ing the Indians we should always bear in mind that there is as 425 The Chickasaw Nation wide a diversity between different groups as we find among Caucasians. The Hopi Indians, leading a precarious existence on the desert plains of the far West, are no more to be compared to the splendid specimens of manhood and womanhood among the members of the Five Civilized Tribes, when first seen by Euro- peans, than the fine manhood in England could be compared at that time to the half wild and unlettered men who occupied the Caucasian mountains, or the degraded and down-trodden serfs of the Russian steppes. And yet it is not unusual to class all Indians alike. Attention is called by Murray (p. 40) to this important fact, in his address before Congress already mentioned, when he said: "Before going into the subject, however, I want to take the liberty of calling the attention of Congress to the difference between Indian tribes as being quite as great as between other races. The Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma are quite distinct from the prairie tribes on the west side of the State or in other sections of the country, who wear blankets and who are the subject of hero stories of the wild West of which you read Three of these tribes were never savages — the Chickasaws, the Choc- taws, and the Cherokees. There is only one other civilized tribe, and that is the Pueblo, and possibly the Navajo. The Five Civilized Tribes and the Pueblo Tribe are the only Indian tribes that hold their land in fee simple. The Pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico were given a grant by Spain, ratified later by Mexico, and then by the United States. The Five Civilized Tribes have held their land in fee simple since long prior to the Civil War. They have had civil government fully officered with chief executives, legislatures, courts, and public schools, operated by themselves, controlled without any supervision of the govern- ment or of Congress, ran ad libitum by themselves. "Their courts, while crude in a measure, gave manifest justice. I hold in my hand a printed copy of the Chickasaw statutes, enacted by their legislature, and enforced in their courts." Leupp also points out that the Indian is not haughty or taciturn with those he knows and respects ; that he is a congenial 426 The Chickasaw Nation companion, a lively story teller, and himself full of humor; that he has an oriental code of ethics which holds hospitality so sacred that you are absolutely safe as his guest while under his roof; and Leupp joins with Dr. William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, in declaring that if you remove the alluring gloss which the poetic genius of Homer has spread over the conduct of the warriors who fought at Troy, then you have in the American Indian a type of those ancient classic Greek heroes, wherefore Dr. Harris called them "Homeric Chil- dren." Instead of being always quarrelsome Leupp declares (p. 7) "there is not a white community whose members will go further out of their way to avoid hard feelings with their neigh- bors than the member of an Indian tribe or band." When factional differences arose, they were often settled by conferences; if not, there was that private vengeance such as is usually found among primitive people, and when war was declared, the maxim "All is fair in war" was the watchword; but was this not the watchword in the late world-wide war which staggered mankind by its atrocities? Leupp also states (p. 11) upon the testimony of experienced Indian traders that Indians were more honest in paying their debts than white men, and we all know that food was always considered common property with the Indians and the hungry were free to eat, though it was the last morsel of the pos- sessor. W 7 e learn in the sacred Scriptures that the love of money is the root of all evil, not a mere part, but of all evil. While the love of money is the besetting sin of the white man, of this deep dyed sin the Indian is guiltless. There is nothing of the mercen- ary in his character. When in Alaska in 1906 I was struck with the universal testimony to the fact that no Indian was ever known to prospect for gold or other precious metals; but if hungry, he would work for the miner to obtain food. 427 The Chickasaw Nation Leupp also points out (p. 13) that contrary to the common belief the labors necessary for the subsistence of the family were well divided between husband and wife. Leupp says (p. 18): "In all my wanderings among the Indians I have never seen a parent strike a child, and have very rarely heard an impatient exclamation from either side." Might not the white man learn a lesson from the Indian in the loving care of his offspring? On pages 12 and 13 Mr. Leupp adds: "Because he does not open his heart to a stranger or fly into a passion under abuse, we hear that the Indian is without feeling. On the contrary, he is one of the most sensitive of human beings. Stolid as a stone under his enemy's tortures, he may be broken in spirit by the death of a child. He feels keenly any slight put upon him, and, though he may not retort in kind, a harsh or contemptuous word from a friend cuts him to the heart. He is an artist by instinct, responsive to every form of beauty in natural objects, and filled with awe in the presence of whatever is massive or otherwise grand. Crude as are the materials of which he composes them, his war bonnet, his hunting shirt, his ceremonial costume for great occasions, his home-made blankets and saddle- cloths, baskets and pottery, his decorated weapons, his shell chains and silver bracelets, all wear the stamp of a genius which needs only encouragement to win recognition far beyond the boundaries of a curio cabinet. I have sat with a party of Indians of all ages in a remote corner of our country and listened to a musical programme ranging in variety from rag-time to Bach, and noticed that the most emphatic manifestations of approval from the red people were reserved for classic or semi-classic selections which would have put an uneducated white audience to sleep." And on page 54 Leupp adds : "To find the real Indian we must go into the wilder country where white ways have not penetrated. Here we find him a man 428 The Chickasaw Nation of fine physique, a model of hospitality, a kind parent, a genial companion, a staunch friend, and a faithful pledge-keeper. Is not this a pretty good foundation on which to build?" I have thus quoted at considerable length from Mr. Leupp, because he probably more than any other executive set on foot the execution of what I regard as the little less than infamous policies underlying the laws put upon the statute books by the Dawes Commission. And yet Leupp was doing what he con- sidered his duty under the law, and seemingly approved thereof. Nevertheless from the tone of his writings I am impressed with the thought that in much that he did he felt in his heart as did General Crook, as quoted in the preface (p. vi) to A Century of Dishonor, where we read: "General Crook expressed the feelings of the army when he replied to a friend who said, 'It is hard to go on such a cam- paign,' 'Yes, it is hard; but, sir, the hardest thing is to go and fight those whom you know are right.' " No one probably, from actual contact, knew the Indians better than did General Crook. He evidently abhorred their cruel treatment by the government. They were the wild, free children of Nature and the call of the wild thrilled their every fiber, planted there by Divinity, which they could not repress if they would. And knowing this, when our government rounded up the Five Civilized Tribes about the early thirties, and forced them at the point of the bayonet to seek a home in the wild West, it bound itself by the most solemn treaties never to allow the white man to intrude on them there ; and then to its discredit it repealed its treaties. Nevertheless, apologists say that the Indian invited white intruders to despoil them of their homes a second time. Turn from these bold and unsupported statements to the recorded facts and see how false they are. Thus, in Senate Document No. 143, 59th Congress, 1st session, "Proposed State of Sequoyah," on page 14 we read as follows: 429 The Chickasaw Nation "At a general convention of the commissioners of the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, Cherokee, and Seminole nations at South McAlester, November 12, 1896, it was declared by suitable resolutions, among other things, that the earnest and repeated insistence of the United States demanding a relinquish- ment of the tribal governments would involve the follow- ing: "Our people must relinquish a government to which they are most deeply attached, they must give up their customs and habits, which have become essential to their happiness. "They must conform to duties and habits to which they are totally unaccustomed and which would be irksome and un- pleasant in the extreme, and especially to the thousands of non- English-speaking people. "Each individual will have to build new outside fences on north and south, east and west lines, according to the lines newly surveyed by the United States. "Our citizens will have to move houses, fences, corrals, etc., and change their orchards, water supply, fields, etc., and other establishments to conform to these new lines of survey. "Our citizens would lose their free pasturage of cattle that have formerly grazed on the open range, will require the building of fences around small pastures for such cattle, and providing necessary forage for such stock. "Our people who have formerly gotten their winter's supply of meat and annual food from swine on the open mast will be compelled to bring them home and build especial close pens and provide food for them. "Our people will be driven to abandon all the previously constructed roads, and must of necessity build new roads for traveling north and south, east and west, which will impose a new expense on our people. "Our people will, under the new conditions, be required to come in close personal contact with numerous impecunious persons from other States, who will endeavor to better their condition in the Indian country and will subject our people to the same line of small, exasperating, and aggressive trespassing that drove the Indians in Kansas, the Shawnees, Delawares, and Pottawatomies, and others, out of the State for refuge in the Indian Territory." 430 The Chickasaw Nation Dr. Barrows (p. 195) quotes Francis A. Walker, Indian Commissioner, in his book, The Indian Question, as saying: "There is scarcely one of the ninety- two reservations at present established (1874), on which white men have not effected a lodgment; many swarm with squatters, who hold their place by intimidating the rightful owners; while in more than one case the Indians have been wholly dispossessed, and are wanderers upon the face of the earth." Who knew better than Walker the real facts, or doubts that he spoke the truth? Dr. Barrows brought out his book, The Indians' Side of the Indian Question, in 1887, and entertained great hopes that the proposed Dawes policies would eventuate in great good to the Indians, though he pointed out that it all depended on the good faith of the governing officials in the protection of Indian rights under the law as written. On page 104 he quotes Senator Dawes assaying: "Government has never kept its promises to the Indians, and there are no indications that it ever will." Entertaining these views how could any one expect the Dawes laws to be fairly administered ? It is evident that the controlling thought underlying the new policy foreshadowed in the report of the Dawes Commission was to cut up by the roots every Indian treaty, take from the Indians their lands, cut them up, compel each Indian to accept a few acres in severalty, then throw the balance on the open market, well knowing that the average Indian was not fitted to continue in the ownership thereof, and that eventually the white man would supersede the Indian in the ownership of Indian lands. To a large extent this object has been accomplished, and the nefarious work is still marching on. To illustrate how completely the nefarious plan to despoil the Indians of their lands, so that the ownership thereof might be enjoyed by the white man, is succeeding, I will here quote from a letter of Honorable Gabe E. Parker, Superintendent of the 431 The Chickasaw Nation Five Civilized Tribes, of November 19, 1920, in answer to my question, About what is now the number of the acres owned in fee by the Chickasaw Indians? Mr. Parker answers : "Approximately 2,987,000 acres were allotted to Chickasaws by blood and intermarriage, and 180,000 acres to Chickasaw freedmen, making a total of 2,197,000 allotted to all classes of enrolled Chickasaws. It is estimated that from fifty per cent to seventy-five per cent of the Chickasaws have alienated their land, leaving approximately 650,000 acres still held by them individually in fee. All of the tribal land in the Chickasaw nation has been allotted or sold, except approximately three hundred acres still belonging to the tribe. There remains un- sold tribal property in the Choctaw nation worth approximately $12,000,000, in which the Chickasaws own about one-fourth interest." No one would expect the average Indian to be able to keep the cash he received from the sale of the unallotted land, and as to the land allotted in severalty we see that which the whites anticipated has taken place, and that from fifty to seventy-five per cent of the Chickasaws have not where to lay their heads, made homeless in the country which was theirs by right, and which they owned in fee simple, not only under the Choctaw treaty of 1830, under which the Chickasaws claim they purchased part of the Choctaw country by and with the consent and agree- ment of the United States government, but also in pursuance of this treaty the United States government issued its patent or deed to the Indians, the conveying part whereof is in these words as shown (p. 6) by Bond : "That the United States of America, in consideration of the premises and in execution of the agreement and stipulation in the aforesaid treaty, have given and granted, and by these patents do give and grant, unto the said Choctaw nation the aforesaid 'tract of country west of the Mississippi,' to be conveyed by the aforesaid article, 'in fee simple to them and their descendants, to 432 The Chickasaw Nation inure to them while they shall exist as a nation and live on it,' liable to no transfer or alienations, except to the United States or with their consent." How could the United States, with any show of justice, against the will and over the protest of the Chickasaws repudiate its own fee simple deed? As stated above Leupp was the Indian Commissioner when the so-called Dawes agreement with the Indians was put into force and effect, and in 1910 he published The Indian and His Problem, which I have read with much interest, and though he favored the Dawes policy, still he was a witness to the abhorrence of the Indians to that policy; for on page 85 he says: "For a number of years after the allotment system had become well established, most of the Indians used to resist stubbornly the efforts of the government to give them lands in severalty. They would run away when the Allotting Agent with his crew of assistants came into their neighborhood, and conceal themselves in the thicket, or ride back over the hills, leaving only a cloud of dust to mark their pathless course. If they had long enough warning of his coming, they would dis- appear in the night, so that he would find nothing but an empty camp. The allotment statutes, however, had anticipated such a contingency by providing that, should any Indian refuse or neglect to make his own selection of land, it should be officially made for him after a specified interval of waiting." In this connection we should remember the clauses in the Dawes so-called agreement, forbidding the ownership by any Indian of any large amount of land, which were evidently in- serted in order to prevent such capable Indians as might by chance appear to become the owners of large tracts, thus paralyz- ing all capable or ambitious Indians, so as to make all Indians indiscriminately an easy prey to the white land grabber. 433 The Chickasaw Nation Illogical Argument Against Ownership in Common— The argument of Senator Dawes and all those who, from the beginning, have lent a helping hand in despoiling the Indians of their right to hold their land in common, usually assumed the form of an interrogatory; thus, why should the Indians be allowed to hold thousands of acres in common, only cultivating a small part thereof, instead of cutting it up into small tracts so that it might be owned in severalty and cultivated in small farms by poor white people? In the first place it is sound law, and fortified by common sense, that a person has a right to use his own land in any manner he sees fit, so long as his use thereof in no way injures other people. When the Chickasaws, as well as all the Five Civilized tribes, were literally driven from their ancient homes east of the Mississippi at the point of the bayonet of United States troops they were guaranteed by our government the right to forever hold their property in common; for this was a fundamental principle of their conception of what was just and right among themselves ; and this conception was as sacred to them as religion itself, and was a part of their spiritual life. To deprive them of this sacred right was worse than to rob them of their worldly goods. But was the white man logical, nay, was he even sincere when he said the Indians should not be allowed to own their land in common in the Indian territory, which is only a part of the State of Oklahoma, because the poor white man had an un- challenged right to cultivate all this continent in small tracts suitable to his means? Let us see. The fertile Mississippi delta, more fertile than the valley of the Nile, much of which formerly belonged to the Chickasaws, is now mostly owned by wealthy men in large tracts, from one thousand to ten thousand acres often being owned by one man, while the poor man is forced to a state of tenantry. Large parts 434 The Chickasaw Nation of the blue grass regions of Kentucky are owned in tracts com- prising thousands of acres, where the millionaire raises nothing but fine race horses, for his amusement, and no poor man would think of asking to cultivate these race horse preserves. Like conditions obtain all over this country, and in New England large parts of counties, comprising thousands of acres, have been bought up by millionaires and converted into game preserves where the plow-share is never permitted to enter; and what for? Merely to satisfy the whim or caprice of the wealthy men; to experiment in raising wild game, but not for general use; and as for the poor man, he is permitted to live on a crust of bread, softened by the tears of poverty, and would probably be suspicioned of lunacy, were he to insist on a right to cultivate a part of the preserve to make bread and meat for himself and family. Nor is this all, for nearly all the absolute necessities of life are monopolized by the rich, and niggardly doled out to the poor; as witness the ownership of petroleum, stored in the bowels of the earth by a beneficent Creator for his children, the sons of men. And, yet, this indispensable commodity, with its almost countless derivatives, is owned in monopoly by a very few in- dividuals, who are rich beyond the dream of avarice. King Croesus, who ruled over a vast region, was so rich in his day, according to the conceptions of what was then a wealthy man, that his very name was coined into the language of men as a symbol of the greatest possible measure of wealth. And yet the riches of Croesus were but as "thirty cents" when compared to the wealth of the present day coal-oil magnate. It can now be said as truly as of old, "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands moan!" Nor judged by other standards, can our refusal to allow the Indians to hold their land in common, be justified. The United States has set apart various forest, game, and other preserves by the hundreds of thousands square miles, many times greater in area than several Indian territories, all to be held 435 The Chickasaw Nation in common forever for the pleasure, and not cultivation, of all the people and to be enjoyed by them in common, and where wild game of all kinds may thrive in natural luxuriance, making of it a veritable happy hunting ground — according to the conception of the primitive Indian an ideal heaven ; and yet the Indians may own nothing in common; and why? simply because he is an Indian. But leaving aside the Indian's religion and philosophy of life, which made it necessary that all land should be held in common, so that there might be no rich or poor Indians, how can the conduct of the white man be justified in the light of the Christian religion which he professes? St. Paul was one of the greatest men who ever trod this earth, and said: "And all that believed were together, and had all things common"; and he also warned us that the love of money was the root of all evil. Jesus of Nazareth taught that we should take no care for tomorrow, what we would eat or what we should drink, saying: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Now all of this so fits in with the Indian conception of religion and philosophy that we are not surprised when Eastman says (p. 142) that when he was unfolding to the far Western Indians for the first time in their lives the teachings of Jesus as to self-denial, and as to sharing our last morsel with our neighbor, an Indian at once spoke up, expressing his surprise, saying that was the religion of the Indians, while another of the older men, after long reflection, said: "I have come to the conclusion that this Jesus was an Indian." The sad truth is that we preach one religion, but practice another. Eastman is a Sioux Indian, has a finished university training, is a physician, a lecturer and author of note, well and widely known for his great intelligence and accomplishments. 436 The Chickasaw Nation His book From Deep Woods to Civilization is well worth reading by any one who may desire to have a true insight to Indian psychology. Chapter VIII (p. 116), treating of war with the politicians, graphically sets forth his disillusionments as to the supposed honesty of public officials by the swindling operations of the white underlings among reservation Indians, how by "short changes" the unlettered Indians were fleeced of thousands of dollars on pay day. When a loud protest went up from missionaries and honest white men, an honest inspector was sent to the reservation, who made a report exposing the fraud. This report was promptly suppressed, and another agent sent out, and by manipulations he whitewashed the whole affair, and many of the honest men who sought to do justice to the Indians were traduced, while others were dismissed from the service, and Eastman, who was physician to the reservation, was given to understand that he would be transferred to another field in the service, but he indignantly resigned, severing his connection with the govern- ment. The case was carried to Washington to the President and even to Senator Dawes (p. 133), the professed special friend of the Indians, but the politicians were so bulwarked and buttressed at Washington that fraud and corruption triumphed. Chapter IX (p. 136), "Civilization as Preached and Prac- ticed," is a revelation as to the lobbyists at Washington, and how almost impossible it is to present the justice of any Indian complainant for redress before Congress; but these discreditable details lie outside the scope of this sketch. We are not surprised to learn that when Eastman became thus disillusioned, he was sorely tempted to return to the wild woods and the faith of his fathers ; but finally the example of the many men and women who not only preached, but practiced the Christian religion, thereby making their religion a part of their lives, won the day (p. 151) for Eastman and for the white man's 437 The Chickasaw Nation civilization, which would scarcely have been possible, except for his unusual intellectual endowments and accomplishments. Bobbing Indians According to Law- Reference has elsewhere been made to various devices by which the whites cheated the Indians, from the low device of short counting and changing money, all the way up to more complicated cheating; but the rapacity of the whites did not stop with these processes, for they devised methods which I denominate robbing the Indians according to law. To the average reader this would seem a thing incredible in the light of the twentieth century; nevertheless it is only too shamefully true. The grafters had become so bold that on March 7, 1904, President Roosevelt appointed Charles J. Bonaparte and Clinton Rogers Woodruff, Special Inspectors in the matter of alleged abuses and irregularities in the public service of the Indian Territory. The inspectors were men of known ability and integrity, and set about the performance of the duties imposed upon them in an earnest manner, after which they made an elaborate report, embraced in Senate Document 189, 58th Congress, 2nd Session, which is illuminating to those who may desire to read the whole story; but obviously only slight reference can be made thereto in this sketch. Suffice it to say that many abuses were pointed out, and it was also pointed out (p. 26) that the real Indians in Oklahoma were fast dying out (to quote): "Not, in most cases, from disease or vice, but, in the striking and pathetic words of one of them who testified before us, for want of hope; or, in other words, because their present environ- ment is so unsympathetic, and the impossibility for them to hold their own in the competition to which they are already exposed, and which will grow more severe every day hereafter, is so mani- fest that the future holds out to them no prospect which makes life worth living. One of the witnesses examined before us, a man 43S The Chickasaw Nation of life-long experience with Indians, and, as it seemed to us, exceptionally impartial and guarded in his statements, described the average full-blood Indian as about the equal, intellectually and morally, of a white child of ten; and the facts disclosed by our inquiry lead us to believe that this description contains an exceptionally large measure of truth." It would be difficult to state in so few words the unhappy and almost hopeless situation for the Indians. With the unexpected wealth that was developed in the Indian country by the exploita- tion of its mineral wealth and vast deposits of oil, there was a field opened for the grafters possibly without a parallel in the history of this country, and they lost no time or means in pil- fering to the uttermost farthing. Because a full-blood Indian proves as easy a victim to be cheated and swindled as a child of ten years, it must not be concluded that in all respects he is the same as a mere child; far from it. I have endeavored to show elsewhere that the ownership of property in severalty is repugnant to every instinct and moral conception of the Indian; and so ingrained is this conception in his mental and moral make up, that it is a part of his very exist- ence; hence he is as a child in respect to these matters. Let the home of the same Indian be invaded, or should he be called to arms, then he is not only as fearless as the bravest of the brave, but will suffer torture and death without one word of complaint, and rather deride and defy his enemy to the last breath, thus proving his contempt of death and his unconquerable will. Rev. J. S. Murrow went as a missionary to live among the Indians of Oklahoma in 1857, called, as he says, by the Holy Spirit, while that country was wild and supposed to be barren to a large extent, devoting his life to the spiritual welfare of the Indians, and so continued up to at least 1912, when he published a pamphlet, The Indian's Side, in order that the world might realize, at least in part, the infamy of grafters in robbing the Indians, for whose welfare Murrow had devoted fifty-five years of his life. 439 The Chickasaw Nation In order that it may not be supposed that I have incor- rectly overstated the situation I will quote from Murrow (p. 28), who says : "All Indians love their children devotedly, and are exceed- ingly kind to them. Of course, among all civilized people, aye and uncivilized too, parents, when living, are the natural guard- ians of their own children. But those brutal grafters conceived a plan to get an order from Congress or from the Secretary of the Interior, granting to white men the right to become guardians, not only of orphans but also of all Indian minors. In this they succeeded, and the federal judges, some six or eight for the whole territory, were empowered to appoint guardians for all Indian minors and were given jurisdiction over all probate business. This was before statehood. As soon as this was done, hundreds of Spirits of Greed came from all parts of the United States, seeking the guardianship of Indian minors, especially orphans, of whom there were a great many. Probably the world never saw before such an interest in orphan children. Of course, these men cared nothing for the persons of the children, but were especially anxious about their estates. Scores of Spirits of Progress traveled all over the full-blood settlements, buying up minor children. They paid all the way from five to twenty-five dollars for a child, with some candy, tobacco, toys or cheap jewelry thrown in for good measure. Then they went before some federal judge, with letters of application for the guardian- ship of the children on their lists. "I sat in a court room one day and heard a man from Kansas City, who was a great land speculator and lumber dealer, make application to a federal judge for the guardianship of one hundred and seventy-five Choctaw children. This man had secured a large number in the Chickasaw nation. He did not conceal his purpose to file these children's allotments in the great rich pine forests of the Choctaw nation. If he had succeeded, it would have made him several times a millionaire. Fortunately, how- ever, the judge had some conscience and declined to grant the request. However, the man has now immense claims on Indian lands." We also learn from Murrow (p. 29) that the grafters made it a business to look up any sick Indian, take him some tempting 440 The Chickasaw Nation food, and if death appeared to be near, then a doctor was em- ployed, and in return the grafter managed to have a will drawn, conveying the estate of the sick Indian to this white angel of mercy ! I will forbear to quote further from Murrow, lest it might be assumed that the natural sympathy by reason of his spiritual labors had clouded his vision as to the material mistreatment of the people to whom he had dedicated a life of service for his Lord. From official sources, however, the shameful story is also told in language more forcible, if possible, than that of Murrow. Warren K. Morehead, a member of the United States Board of Indian Commissioners, also brought out a pamphlet of forty- two pages soon after that of Murrow appeared, entitled Our National Problem, and he called Oklahoma The Land of Guardians! Morehead traveled all over Oklahoma in 1913 to learn for himself the truth as to the grafting to which the members of the Five Civilized Tribes were subjected, and having thus learned at first-hands the truth, he published the details of case after case, giving names of the grafters, names of their victims, and how robbed, the amounts pilfered, and, in short, facts pertaining to each case, all of which can be read by any one who may wish further details. Morehead wrote to me May 9, 1921, that if any of the statements in the pamphlet had not been true, the persons mentioned would probably have sued him for libel long since; but as Morehead is still in the service and militant, it may be as- sumed that the grafters are consoling themselves for the expose by the comforting reflection that they now enjoy the fruits of their frauds. On page 35 Morehead says: "I never dreamed that the famous Five Civilized Tribes, once so prosperous, had sunk into such poverty and distress, until I beheld with my own eyes what our removal of restrictions has brought about. 441 The Chickasaw Nation "Mr. Kelsey, Mr. Mott, Mr. Gresham, Commissioner Wright, and all the other loyal men now engaged in fighting a heroic battle in Oklahoma, are powerless unless Congress will do for the Oklahoma Indians today what it should have done several years ago. Our public men should realize that unless we afford the protection to which these poor people are clearly entitled by every law of both God and man, we will plunge the remnants of the famous Five Civilized Tribes into the depths of despair. It is not mere rhetoric, it is not an exaggeration, but on the contrary it is the cold, naked truth that unless we revolu- tionize and remedy conditions in the State of Oklahoma, we shall have tens of thousands of homeless paupers to support." Let us take another step and view the situation as exposed in the halls of Congress, December 13, 191 2, in an address by the Honorable Charles H. Burke, then a Representative from South Dakota, and recently (1921) appointed by President Harding Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Mr. Burke thus denounced the Oklahoma courts : "Mr. Chairman, on former occasions I and others on this side of the House have questioned the integrity and the honesty of the probate courts of Oklahoma, and I want to say right now at the outset that, in my opinion, in the probate courts in that portion of Oklahoma where the Five Civilized Tribes reside some of the judges are corrupt and dishonest, and a large number of them are indifferent in the discharge of the duties of their office, so far as the affairs of Indian minors and Indians generally are concerned, and particularly in guardianship matters." As might be expected, Mr. Burke was often interrupted by questions from other members, and I must content myself with only one other extract from his speech, because it gives the cold statistical information which exposes the infamy practiced more fully than mere words of description. We read further on p. 9 as follows : "Mr. Burke of South Dakota. Before I get through, I will give the gentlemen some figures on that. Summing up the 442 The Chickasaw Nation aggregate of the eight counties, for I have not time to take each county, it shows that the total number of so called professional guardianships is 2,320. Total amount of funds handled $3,896,693.06 Total amount of attorneys' fees 346,095.39 Total court costs 138,205.46 Total guardian fees 279,18249 Total expense of guardianship 763,483.34 "Percentage costs of administration, as I have already stated, 19.3 per cent of the amount handled. "It also shows: "Total number of competent guardianships is 534. Total amount of funds handled $1,346,523.07 Total amount of attorneys' fees 21,762.41 Total court costs 11 ,295.92 Total guardian fees 19,972.58 Total expense of guardianship 53,030.91 "Percentage cost of administration, 3.1 per cent of the amount handled. "These two classes include only guardianships of tribal minors. This aggregate shows the total number of white guardianships is 203. Total amount of funds handled $328,536.00 Total amount of attorneys' fees 3,117.94 Total court costs 2,625.51 Total guardian fees 2,021.40 Total expense of guardianship 7>755-85 "Percentage cost of administration, 2.3 per cent of the amount handled." It will be observed that the amounts handled by the so-called professional guardians were about three times those handled by legitimate Indian guardians, while the amounts handled by white guardians for white children were only about one-tenth in 443 The Chickasaw Nation amount of those handled by white grafters for Indian children, showing the richness of the spoils handled by the grafters. It is also a significant fact that while the percentage of cost of administration by the grafters was 19.3 per cent of the amount handled, that of legitimate guardians for Indian children was only 3.1 per cent of the amount handled, while that of white guardians for white children was only 2.3 per cent of the amount handled. It thus appears that the Oklahoma courts awarded to white grafters nearly nine times more for the administration of the estates of Indian children than the same courts allowed white men for the administration of the estates of white children. And, yet, beginning with the first opinion of Marshall down to and including the latest deliverance of the United States Supreme Court, it has been said and repeated thousands of times that the United States is the guardian, and the Indians are its wards, for whose welfare the deepest solicitude is always ex- pressed; that the Indian problem is a political one, over which Congress has unbridled control, and that the halls of Congress afford the only asylum to which the American Indian can flee for protection. What a mockery! This is by no means all. There was attached and made a part of the speech of Mr. Burke the report of M. L. Mott, the able Creek lawyer for the Creek nation, to the Secretary of the Interior on this subject, upon which favorable comment was made, it being an exhaustive study of the details of guardianships embraced in the summary given by Mr. Burke and quoted above, of 2,320 cases of Creek guardian- ships, whereas there were 4,339 additional Creek guardianships not reported upon at all, not to mention guardianships for Indian children of other nations. As to these 4,339 cases, Mr. Mott says the guardians had made no reports, or the papers and court files were in the hands of guardians, or inaccessible, and in all of these cases it was found impossible to secure reports. It thus appears that in a majority of the guardianships so-called, no reports were made, and who doubts that this was 444 The Chickasaw Nation because in most instances the entire estates of Indian minors were appropriated outright by their white "professional" guar- dians. Mott pointed out that the grafters had persistently and tenaciously contended that the full-bloods were competent to manage their own affairs; and that this they would continue to clamor for with a view of despoiling them of their homesteads; and time has vindicated what he said. On page 31 he says: 'Trior to the act of May 27, 1908, the Indian land grafters in Oklahoma had secured from full-blood Indians deeds to thous- ands of tracts of inherited lands. These deeds were secured by all kinds of fraud and for comparatively no consideration, and the lands so conveyed were worth into the millions." In a letter of Joseph H. Choate, dated April 3, 1916, he pointed out how helpless the full-blood Indian was to contend with the white grafter, and that the Supreme Court had recently so adjudged in the case of Tiger vs. Western Investment Co., 221 U. S., 286-297, and Mr. Choate quoted from that opinion as follows : 'That full-blood Indians of the Five Tribes are, as a class, incompetent must be assumed, not only from the legislation of Congress with respect to them, but from the finding of the Court of Claims where, in the case of Brown & Gritts vs. United States (44 C. Cls., 283), it was expressly found that full-blood Cher- okees, whose right to alienate their lands was forbidden by the legislation contemporaneous with that involved in the case at bar, were, as a class, unable to speak the English language and incompetent to guard their interest from designing persons who were constantly attempting to induce them to part with their property at grossly inadequate compensation." It may be here noted that Mr. Choate was then an honorary president of the Indian Rights Association, with headquarters in the Drexel Building, Philadelphia, which for years has rendered the greatest service to all who under most disadvantageous con- 445 The Chickasaw Nation ditions have labored for at least a modicum of justice for the Indians. The Association depends for means upon dues paid by a benevolent membership, who feel it a sense of duty to pro- tect, as far as possible, the friendless aborigines of this country. M. K. Sniffen is at present the able secretary of the Association, and on April 15, 191 3, in a paper, The Record of Thirty Years, summarized the activities of the Association during that period, and annually the Association issues a report of its activities ; and to these sources I must refer those who may desire to look deeper into the subject. The Judiciary Sustains Congress- Congress having cut up by the roots ever treaty made with the Indians, there was nothing left except to appeal to the United States Supreme Court, and I regret that this appeal was made in vain. We learn from Leupp (p. 82) that the Indian Rights Association made that appeal in the name of Lone Wolf, a prom- inent Kiowa chief, and the opinion in the case can now be read in 187 U. S. 553, 47 L. Ed., p. 299, delivered on January 5, 1903; and according to Leupp it blasted every hope of the Indians and their white friends. In substance the opinion declared that the questions involved were of a political character, and that Con- gress might at will, without let or hindrance from the judiciary, disregard every treaty made with the Indians from the foundation of the government, for which there was no remedy. Believing that this opinion, as well as others that preceded it, are unsound both in law and the very right of the matter, a short review of the questions involved will disclose the reasons for my opinion. Article VI of the United States Constitution reads, in part, as follows : "All treaties made, or which shall be made, under the auth- ority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwith - standing." 446 The Chickasaw Nation The Indians had a right to believe that this clause meant what it said. The noted case of the Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia, 5 Peters 1, 8 L. Ed. 25, has been already commented upon, wherein it was held that the American Indians were not a foreign state, but that they had a right of occupancy of the country in their possession, the court declaring on page 48 that the "Indians have rights of occupancy to their lands as sacred as the fee simple, absolute of the whites;" and this quoted excerpt has been repeatedly af- firmed in subsequent cases. Chief Justice Marshall, answering in part the argument of William Wirt, said : "So much of the argument as was intended to prove the character of the Cherokees as a State, as a distinct political society separated from others, capable of managing its own affairs and governing itself, has, in the opinion of a majority of the judges, been completely successful. They have been uniformly treated as a State from the settlement of our country. The numerous treaties made with them by the United States recognize them as a people capable of maintaining the relations of peace and war, of being responsible in their political character for any violation of their engagements, or for any aggression committed on the citizens of the United States by any individual of their community. Laws have been made and enacted in the spirit of these treaties. The acts of our government plainly recognize the Cherokee nation as a State, and the courts are bound by those acts." At this time the United States was comparatively weak and the Indians comparatively strong, and their standing as a State, perfectly competent to enter into a treaty, was freely acknowl- edged and judicially determined. The Chief Justice said further: "Their relations to the United States resemble that of a ward to his guardian. They look to our government for pro- 447 The Chickasaw Nation tection; rely upon its kindness and its power; appeal to it for relief to their wants; and address the president as their father." In this connection it is well to recall that whatever resent- ments may have been cherished by the whites towards the Cherokees or other Indian nations, none could be cherished against the Chickasaws. They never raised the hatchet against the English-speaking whites, and notwithstanding their warlike spirit, they never shed the blood of any man who spoke the English language. On the contrary they were always their allies and unfailing friends in war as well as in peace. When in 1 832-1 834 the United States forced the Chickasaws to agree to leave their homes in north Mississippi, in order that the whites might possess and enjoy the same, they expressed their desire to find another home within the domains of this country west of the Mississippi, and the treaty then reads: "Should they (the Chickasaws) do so, the government of the United States hereby consents to protect and defend them against the inroads of any other tribe of Indians, and from the whites; and agree to keep them without the limits of any state or territory." The meaning of this language is plain and unmistakable, and in substance is the same as that used in similar treaties with other Indian nations when they were removed from their ancient homes east of the Mississippi to give room for the whites. The Supreme Court based its decision upholding the power or authority of Congress by statute, at will, to override solemn treaties with the Indians, upon the broad proposition that a treaty between nations rests alone upon the good faith of the respective nations, and that for a breach the final and only recourse is a declaration of war by the aggrieved nation. This is sound law and good logic where the contracting parties are foreign states, the one toward the other; but is it applicable 448 The Chickasaw Nation where the Indian nation is declared to be not a foreign nation, and, moreover, where the relation of the United States towards the Indians is declared to be that of a guardian towards his ward? I insist that there is neither in law or in morals any legal analogy between the two cases. In their weakened and helpless condition at the times the later decisions were made, the idea of the Indians declaring war against the United States all know would have been the height of folly, and the court never intimated that such a thing was to be thought of or was in the contemplation of either party to the Indian treaties. Again, as the United States was the guardian of the Chicka- saws, how could the guardian, consistently with any acknowl- edged principles of law or justice, ruthlessly and against the will and over the protest of its ward violate the terms of its solemn treaty, and in effect turn its ward out of house and home, which it had purchased from the Choctaws by and with the consent of the guardian? To tolerate such conduct would be to justify the acts of a guardian who would fashion the shield designed to protect the ward into a sword for the purpose therewith to thrust it into the vitals of the ward. Nor am I alone in this opinion. It will be found that in the Lone Wolf and other cases, the Supreme Court refers, as an authority, to the earlier case of Cherokee Tobacco vs. United States, n Wallace 616, 20 L. Ed. 227, the opinion of the court being delivered by Judge Swayne in 1870. There appeared for the Indians such distinguished counsel as Albert Pike, A. H. Garland, Benj. F. Butler, Robert W. Johnson, and Elias C. Boudinot; and speaking of them Judge Swayne said: "The views of counsel in this court have rarely been more elaborately presented"; reminding us of the efforts of that great lawyer, William Wirt, thirty-eight years prior thereto, in defense of the rights of the same nation before the same court, but all in vain. 449 The Chickasaw Nation In this tobacco case a tax had been levied on Cherokee tobacco, in acknowledged violation of a solemn treaty with that nation; but the validity of the tax was upheld, the Cherokee treaty to the contrary notwithstanding. That great lawyer, Judge Bradley, with whom concurred Judge Davis, dissented ;and among other things JudgeBradley said: "The case before us is, besides, a peculiar one. The exempt jurisdiction here depends on a solemn treaty entered into between the United States government and the Cherokee nation, in which the good faith of the government is involved, and not on a mere municipal law." This excerpt contains the germ of the principle of law for which I contend. The court had declared over and over again that the government bore a fiduciary or trust relation towards the Indians, and that its treaties with them were unlike treaties with a foreign power, were sui generis, and the engagements of the government therein must be sacredly kept. It has likewise been declared by that court that, where private rights are secured or protected under an ordinary treaty, the courts have jurisdiction to enforce such rights at the suit of the injured party. (Head Money cases 112 U. S. 580, 598, 28 L. Ed. 798; quoted in re Cooper 143 U. S. 472, 36 L. Ed. 232.) Then why should not the United States courts have pro- tected the peculiar rights of the Indians under its treaties? In the Forum of Conscience- Can the violation of Indian treaties be defended in the forum of conscience? I think not. The German emperor, William II, is quoted as having said in 1900, "If one wishes to decide something in this world, it is not the pen alone that will do it, if unsupported by the power of the sword." When early in August, 1914, the British Ambassador, Sir Edward Goschen, called upon Von Bethmann-Hollweg, the 450 The Chickasaw Nation Imperial German Chancellor, to take his final leave, stating as his reason the declaration of war by England against the German empire, the German chancellor expressed his great surprise that England should declare war for a "scrap of paper." The "scrap of paper" referred to was the treaty of 1839, in which the British had guaranteed the integrity of Belgium, and reaffirmed it in 1870, the German government being a party to the treaty. This deliberate violation of the terms of a treaty not only brought the British empire into the world-wide war against Germany, but so shocked the conscience of mankind that eventually the United States was drawn into the conflict, and in addition it arrayed nearly every civilized nation against Germany; so that the phrase, "a scrap of paper," has become current as words of reproach, representing the entire faithlessness of the German empire. As a result of the Germanic view-point that a treaty is but "a scrap of paper," ten millions of men perished upon the field of battle, while twenty other millions of men were made lame and halt, or otherwise disabled, and millions of still other men, women, and children have suffered worse than death, and civili- zation itself was almost upon the brink of destruction. In the meantime the German empire, at least for the time being, has perished, its people are in sackcloth and ashes, and the German emperor who inspired the thought of treating a solemn treaty "as a scrap of paper," is a fugitive from justice, and the subject of the execrations of all mankind. Were not the treaties of the United States with the Indians, if anything more sacred than the treaty of England and Germany guaranteeing the integrity of Belgian soil? Private enterprise raised large sums of money to quicken the public conscience, and thus aroused Congress to make large 451 The Chickasaw Nation appropriations to create a public reserve or park named Sequoia, after the great Indian Sequoyah; so that posterity might enjoy the pleasure of looking upon the largest and tallest trees upon the globe; and likewise public enterprise and governmental appro- priations have joined in the good work of saving from destruction the remnant of the vast and countless millions of bisons or buffaloes, which once roamed over North America, so that these distinctive American animals might not perish from the face of the earth. If the mere insensate trees and the brutes of the earth are worth so much for preservation, are not the red men, possessing some of the finest characteristics which ennoble human nature, the free, wild children of Nature, worthy of our greatest solicitude, and worthy of preservation as we found them, and as our Father in heaven fashioned their minds and bodies? I think so; nay, I know it. I believe that the Albert Pike treaty, of all those written, represents the best thought and philosophy upon which our treatment of the Indians should have been grounded. Briefly stated, it provided that the country of the Choctaws and Chicka- saws was to be held by them in fee simple (not a mere occupancy right), and that this was to continue "so long as grass shall grow and water run"; that no state or territory should ever pass laws for the government of the Indians; that no part of their country should ever be annexed to any other territory or province; nor should any attempt be made, except upon their unsolicited application, to erect their country by itself into a state or territory; that they should jointly be entitled to a delegate to represent them in Congress; that if afterwards they desired their country and people to be admitted into the Union, as a separate state, they should be allowed so to do, without regard to population, upon equal terms in all respects as one of the original states. These were the terms for which the Indians had struggled from the beginning, and such as they were entitled to, and it 452 The Chickasaw Nation furnished a road of honor that both races could have traveled and which the whites should have forced its own people to pursue. I believe that Helen Hunt Jackson in telling the story of the Indians as treated by the United States government, well and truly called her book A Century of Dishonor. I note that Mr. Leupp (p. 82) says "that what has been so sweepingly denounced as a 'cen- tury of dishonor' might better be described, as far as the govern- ment's operations are concerned, as an era of mutual misunder- standing." It is noticeable that the " mutual misunderstandings" are not pointed out by Mr. Leupp. The Indians always knew what they wanted ; that is to be let alone ; this the whites equally well understood and which they as deliberately denied. How helpless the Indians were in this respect Mr. Leupp himself demonstrates, in telling in what respects he endeavored to ameliorate their conditions ; and among other things he attempted to turn a large surplus of Crow country into a horse farm, as the tribe was noted for its horsemanship; but he tells us (pp. 91, 92) the plan "died of inanition so uniformly fatal to Indian enterprises which have not a big profit for some white man directly behind them." This is the whole story in a nutshell. Not only indifference on the part of the whites but a reckless disregard of the known and acknowledged rights of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians has led to their present unfortunate condition. If Mr. Leupp, with all of his natural ability and accom- plishments, joined with that prestige which was his as the oc- cupant of a high governmental office in the Indian service, could not secure the passage of a comparatively small piece of remedial legislation for the Indians, what chance did or does the friendless Indian stand to secure legislation, however just, where white men have opposing claims, or suppose such legislation will infringe on their designs? 453 The Chickasaw Nation And the Supreme Court says that the halls of Congress furnish the last and only refuge of the Indians for that justice so long denied them! Will a brighter day dawn for the Indians? 454 DOUGLASS H. JOHNSTON The last governor elected by the Chickasaw nation and still in office to look after the interests of the Chickasaws. CHAPTER XIII THE CHICKASAWS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Having traced the story of the Chickasaws, as the light of history has fallen upon them, since De Soto marched his army into their country on December 17, 1540, now nearly four hundred years ago, we are to close this short sketch of them in an endeavor to acquaint the reader in a short space how they appear in the white light of the twentieth century. This is not an easy task. That the Indian has a distinctive individuality all his own, and worthy of preservation as a national asset, is convincingly shown by the fact that he is here today, notwithstanding his conquest and the hardships of war, pestilence, and famine which he has endured for generations. He has shown his fortitude, stoicism, and steadfastness of character; he has demonstrated his love of freedom, in proof of which he has shown his contempt of death ; and he has also shown his contempt of the petty worries and burdens of life, which caused in 1920 over six thousand whites in this country to commit suicide, or more suicides than every man, woman, and child in the Chickasaw nation, while countless other whites have suf- fered nervous breakdowns; and amid all of the changes through which he has been called upon to pass, so repugnant to his nature and temperament, the Indian has emerged with a keenness of observation that should excite our admiration. He needs no apologist. And, moreover, the North American Indian has left the indelible impress of the nobility of his character upon the people who succeeded him in the possession of this continent. It would be strange if it, were otherwise. 455 The Chickasaw Nation Before bidding a final adieu to the ancient Chickasaw nation, whose prowess so successfully withstood all invaders of their vast territory east of the Mississippi for so many generations, I will pause to record a short sketch of the Chickasaw Guards, a famous military company of Memphis, named in honor of the intrepid Chickasaw nation, whose chief entrepot was where Memphis now is. The Chickasaw Guards— Consciously or unconsciously, when the Chickasaws were forced to leave in 1836 the last remnant of that great domain over which for centuries they had by their prowess remained the undisputed overlords, they left upon the white men who succeed- ed them the imperishable impress of their martial spirit — a monument to their valor more lasting than stone and more enduring than brass. An account of the valor and martial spirit of their white successors in the various subsequent wars lies outside the scope of this sketch; but at the risk of being charged with a digression, I will here give a short account of the Chickasaw Guards, worthy successors to the Chickasaw warriors of the most ancient times. For the facts connected with this story in detail I am in- debted to General Arthur R. Taylor, a life-long friend, who in 1 901 prepared for his own library a manuscript ''History of the Chickasaw Guards," which I regret to say has never been printed, and which should find a place in our libraries, thereby filling an important place in local history. As late as 1874 remnants of Carpet Bag Misrule were still in evidence in the South, especially in those parts of Mississippi and Arkansas contingent to Memphis. There had been out- breaks, which created an uneasy feeling, and apprehensions were expressed of more violent public disorders, and the means to check or ward off future conflicts, restore confidence in the en- forcement of law and order, and safeguard the welfare of all 456 The Chickasaw Nation concerned, became a matter of the most serious discussion in private meetings as well as in the public press. In June, 1874, W. P. Martin, a deputy sheriff, in waiting on the Criminal Court, invited some friends to a meeting in the Criminal Court room, which at that time was at the corner of Second Street and Jefferson Avenue, and out of this meeting there grew up the most famous military company in times of peace, whose members distinguished themselves in times of war, known to the annals of this part of the country. At a subsequent meeting the company was organized. This meeting occurred on June 30, and sixty-five names were enrolled. R. P. Duncan, who had served in the Virginia army as a staff officer, with the rank of major, and General G. W- Gordon, who, as a commander of a Tennessee brigade, had won fame under Johnston and Hood in the western army, were placed in nomination for the office of captain. The two candidates were law partners. Major Duncan was present, and on being elected made a neat speech, accepting the office. W. P. Martin, in compliment to his exertions in organizing the company, was made first lieutenant. James R. Wright, who under that great soldier, Robert E. Lee, had served the Confed- eracy as sergeant in the Norfolk Blues through the entire war, was made second lieutenant; P. A. Ralston, third lieutenant. The election of non-commissioned officers resulted in the following selections : L. W. Mix First Sergeant Richard Wright (that matchless soldier, perfect gentleman, and devoted friend to all) Second Sergeant Robert D. Speed Third Sergeant C. L. McKinney Fourth Sergeant C. M. Bowen Fifth Sergeant A. A. Smithwick First Corporal 457 The Chickasaw Nation J. A. Wooldridge Second Corporal N. B. Camp Third Corporal W. A. Sneed Fourth Corporal All of the above were elected by written ballot. Of the commissioned officers, Duncan, Wright, and Ralston were present. Sam T. Carnes, who was absent (having been called to New York that day), was defeated for ensign by John H. Poston, the majority thinking Carnes too small a man to be trusted with the company flag. At that time the ensign was also the secre- tary and treasurer of the company. Lieutenant Ralston, who with two others had been appointed to select a suitable name for the company, submitted two names, viz: 'The Bluff City Rifles," and 'The Chickasaw Guards." The vote having been taken, "Chickasaw Guards" was chosen. Eighteen prospective members whose names were on the list never appeared, and the following is a list of the privates, many of whom were promoted from time to time, holding the highest ranks in the military organizations of the state. Privates Agee, G. W. Armstead, R. A. Bectal, George Bettis, R. C. Bragg, F. S. Buchanan, E. C. Carnes, S. T. Cole, C. M. Crook, George Frierson, Frank Frierson, L. S. Gordon, G. W. Harris, R. W. Kelso, Hal. Martin, Branch McDowell, S. I. McNutt, W. C. Moon, W. D. Park, Frank Penn, Lytt. Pillow, R. G. Proudfit, A. H. Semmes, J. M. Semmes, R. 458 The Chickasaw Nation Smith, B. Voorhies, C. J. Smith, Wash. G. Williams, Mc. Taylor, A. R. Wooldridge, B. L. Wright, C. P. Viglina, P. A. Wright, T. A. In due course there came up for discussion the kind, and especially the color, of the uniforms to be adopted by the com- pany, which called forth much fervid oratory. The late much respected G. W. Agee made an impressive speech, and concluded by saying, "That for this body to adopt the blue would be a disgrace to the bleaching bones of the historic dead now lying on the battlefield of Shiloh." Notwithstanding this eloquent and earnest appeal, those present voted to adopt the blue color, thus showing that a spirit of conservatism brooked over the members of the company. Nor was the company organized too early, for thirty-eight days after its organization, or on August 7, 1874, it was ordered to Somerville, Tennessee, in the adjoining county of Fayette, to put down what was supposed to be an impending riot or outbreak ; but the very presence of the company, under arms, calmed the excited populace, and no further disorder occurred. The trouble originated in an altercation between a Mr. Herndon and a radical negro leader by the name of Warre. The brave, though reckless Oscar Burton, came to the assistance of his friend Herndon, and managed to get in the first shot, wounding Warre, who fled the country and escaped. The Rives brothers, the three principal Carpet Bag office holders in that county, came to the rescue of Warre, and attempted to arrest Burton, and though Burton was shot in thirteen different places, he sur- vived the conflict, and succeeded in killing all three of the Rives brothers. 459 The Chickasaw Nation Competitive Drills— The company grew in strength in the public esteem and, as the company vainly supposed, in drilling and tactics; never- theless, there is no teacher like experience, as the company sadly learned in answering the challenge of the Porter Rifles and other military companies to undergo a competitive drilling at Nashville on June 21, 1876, whereat the Porter Rifles were easy winners over the Chickasaw Guards, who returned to Memphis wiser though sadder men. I believe it was Wendell Phillips who said, "What is defeat? Nothing but education ; nothing but the first step to something better"; and this was the meaning of the Nashville defeat to the Chickasaws; for on October 24, 1876, in answer to another challenge, the Porter Rifles met defeat at the hands of the Chickasaws, who then entered on a series of triumphal conquests all over the country. During the yellow fever epidemics at Memphis in 1878 and 1879, the Chickasaw Guards planned and carried out the most successful military tours known to America up to that time, visiting St. Louis, Missouri, Chicago, Illinois, Indianapolis, Indiana, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, Nashville, Tennessee, and other cities, where they gave exhibition drills for the benefit of the yellow fever sufferers, winning for the company a nation-wide reputation for the best drilled company in the country, and carrying off countless honors. From this list the drill teams of 1878, 1879, 1880, and 1882 were made up and are known as the Old Chickasaws. General Taylor furnished me with this list. The Chickasaw Drill Team S. T. Carnes, Capt. Richard Wright, 1st Sgt. N. B. Camp, 1st Lieut. Chas. E. Waldran, 2nd Sgt. T. A. Lamb, 2nd Lieut. A. R. Taylor, 3rd Sgt. Harry Allen, 3rd Lieut. R. W. Harris, 4th Sgt. W. L. Clapp, 4th Lieut. Sam A. Pepper, 5th Sgt. 460 The Chickasaw Nation Walter W. Talbert, 1st Corp. Sam J. Hayes, 2nd Corp. John C. Henderson, 3rd Corp. A. H. Proudfit, 4th Corp. Privates Allen, Richard H. Allen, Tom H. Anderson, Kellar Asher, Allen Bailey, H. W. Bradley, J. M. Chappell, Lamar Chidester, W. C. Chiles, Hayes Clapp, J. W. Cooper, Robert T. Crews, Frank Crook, Geo. W. Donelson, L. R. Duval, A. L. Edmonds, J. Howard Guion, H. L. Harris, Chas. Q. Hessig, Fred. Houchens, J. B. Hunter, Harry A. Johnson, Tom F. Johnson, Walter M. Jones, James B. Jones, W. A. (Sergeant) Joseph, C. A. Kirkland, James McNutt, W. C. Parrish, H. J. Peters, I. F. Phillips, Sam H. Proudfit, James P. Raines, Hunter Sannoner, J. A. Semmes, Raphael Smith, Preston Sneed, W. A. Speed, John S. Steel, W. J. Tyler, Jno. W. Waldran, John D. Warner, William White, Tom W. Wildberger, W. P. (Sergeant) Wright, L. B. Wright, Tom A. Chickasaw Guards In World-Wide War- Further discussion along these lines would lead to unneces- sary details. Suffice it to say that what are now called the Old 461 The Chickasaw Nation Chickasaws had on their list a son of Admiral Raphael Semmes, sons of President Jefferson Davis, General Preston Smith, and General Gideon Pillow; and the company was at one time com- manded by General George W. Gordon, one of the youngest Confederate brigadier-generals, who at his death was a member of the United States Congress from the Memphis District. Another member, W. L. Clapp, was afterwards one of the best mayors Memphis ever had; and in addition the company furnished the only two brigadier-generals commanding the National Guards up to the beginning of the late world-wide war, viz: Brigadier-General Samuel T. Carnes and Brigadier- General Arthur R. Taylor, both of whom survive, enjoying the unbounded respect and confidence of their fellow-citizens. Isaac F. Peters, now of Los Angeles, California, afterwards be- came Colonel Peters. General Taylor has given certain descriptive names to the company, according to given epochs in which the various mem- bers served. Thus, the company from its organization in June, 1874, to 1885 is designated the "Old Chicks"; and the company then being turned over to younger men, he designated them as "Inter- mediate Chicks"; while in 1891 another set of new men took charge, called the "New Chicks," and rendered signal services to the state in 1 891 -1892 in what was then called the Coal Creek war, an uprising in the coal fields in east Tennessee, the company being under the command of Captain Harry Allen in 1891 and Captain Wm. H. Kyle in 1892. The "New Chicks," under Captain Wm. H. Kyle, now Major Kyle, U. S. A., of Washington, D. C, spent nine months on the Mexican border, and afterwards entered the world-wide war ; and it is a remarkable fact that ninety per cent of them were made commissioned officers, and by their deeds of daring on the fields of France and Flanders added new luster to the name of the famous Chickasaw Guards, worthily bearing the name of the Chickasaws who, by their intrepidity and unconquerable spirit 462 The Chickasaw Nation and prowess, so greatly contributed to make it possible for the English-speaking people to possess and rule the continent of North America. I am indebted to Captain Walter C. Chandler, now State Senator, Major William H. Kyle, of Washington, D. C, and Captain Joe R. T. Ransom, all of whom were members of the Chickasaw Guards and served with distinction in the world-wide war, for a roster of the Chickasaw Guards, rank and file, as of the beginning of the great war. Alphabetically arranged that roll is as follows : Lieut. Marshall C. Adams Pvt. James Alexander Lieut. Henry G. Armstrong Lieut. Robert W. Bailey, Jr. Lieut. C. Grovenor Beard Sgt. Arthur M. Bowen, Jr. Lieut. Frank S. Bright Lieut. Jos. W. Bruce Capt. Hugh E. Bucking- ham Capt. Eugene Calahan Lieut. Albert A. Campbell Lieut. Alfred B. Carter, Jr. Lieut. Thomas W. Carter Lieut. Charles H. Cham- berlin Major Reed M. Chambers Capt. Hugh C. Chandler Capt. Walter C. Chandler Capt. William H. Chand- ler, Jr. Lieut. John Clough Capt. Charles E. Craddock Lieut. Thomas K. Creson Lieut. Earl Culpepper Sgt. Elgin H. Curry Sgt. Jas. S. Davant, Jr. Pvt. George Dixon Capt. Andrew J. Donelson Capt. Frank T. Donelson Lieut. Frank M. Dooley Sgt. Richard R. Douglass, Jr. Capt. James S. Driver, Jr. Lieut. Thomas W. Deupree Major Enoch Ensley Capt. Leonard E. Farley Pvt. George H. Fox Lieut. George S. Fox Lieut. William E. Franklin Major Will Ganong Capt. Frank D. Grantham Lieut. George Gunby Corp. Marco C. Gunn Lieut. Julius Gunther Sgt. Joseph Gregory Hays Capt. Robert G. Heard Bugler Ferdinand Heckle 463 The Chickasaw Nation Lieut. Hugh M. Heiskell Sgt. Jesse Hunt Cook Robert B. Hunt Pvt. Mann Hunter Lieut. Will Johnston Sgt. Harry M. Joy Capt. William M. Joy Capt. Guy E. Joyner Major Milton Knowlton Capt. William H. Kyle Lieut. Frank S. Latham Corp. Henry M. LeBos- quett Lieut. Joseph Duncan Mal- lory Lieut. Harold G. Mattison Major Silas McBee, Jr. Lieut. William P. Mc- Donald Capt. Max McKay Lieut. Albert Miltimore Lieut. Eugene C. Mitchell Sgt. George D. Mitchell Pvt. George Moriarty Major Waddy W. Oursler Pvt. Lucius Patton Corp. Sam Pepper, Jr. Capt. Julian Phelan Lieut. John Postell Lieut. Lucas Proudfit Capt. Ira A. Ramsey Capt. Joe R. T. Ransom Pvt. Oswald P. Ransom Lieut. Paul Ravises Lieut. George Read, Jr. Sgt. Leon Reed Capt. James D. Rhea Capt. Jules B. Rozier, Jr. Mechanic John Sadler Lieut. Edward Sanford Capt. William A. Schmitt Capt. William P. Scoby Capt. James C. Scrubbs Sgt. Douglass Shepherd Pvt. Percy Sholars Lieut. Russell B. Simmons Lieut. Harry Smith Capt. William M. Stanton Lieut. Thomas S. Tate Corp. George E. Tatum Lieut. Herbert Taylor Sgt. Wallace C. Thompson Lieut. Leslie Walden Sgt. Herman Ward Lieut. Allen Wardle Lieut. William T. Watson Lieut. Richard Welsh Lieut. Robert Wilkinson, Lieut. Auvergne Williams Sgt. Paul S. Wolf It is thought that this furnishes a remarkable showing, in that ninety per cent of the company were either commissioned or non-commissioned officers in the greatest of all wars. From an examination of the roll it will be seen that there were six 464 The Chickasaw Nation majors, twenty-five captains, forty-two lieutenants, twelve sergeants, five corporals, eight privates, one bugler, one mechanic, and one cook, making a total of one hundred and one for the entire company. In referring to the fact that so many of the company filled offices, I would not have it understood that I depreciate the great service and the just meed of praise due to the privates in the ranks, who, daring all dangers, regardless of what they wore, with no golden collar, epaulette, or star, offered all they had, placed life itself upon the altar of their country, strong of arm and stern of heart. It has happened that some of the ablest men remained privates in great wars; thus Private John Allen of Lee County, Mississippi, in which the Chickasaws once lived, and where they fought and won the battle of Ackia, was a private throughout the civil war, and for years afterwards was a distinguished con- gressman; the late United States Senator Thomas B. Turley and our fellow-citizen West J. Crawford, so long president of the Commercial Appeal Publishing Co., both served as privates in the ranks of the soldiers of the South, and were honored by the people of Memphis; and Sergeant James S. Davant, Jr. whose name appears in the foregoing roster as sergeant, declined an offered captaincy in the great war, preferring to remain with the boys in the ranks. When the Chickasaw Guards returned from the Border in the spring of 191 7, they were mustered out of the federal service but were again called out April 13, 191 7, and again were sent to Nashville to rejoin the famous First Tennessee Infantry Regi- ment, over one hundred years old. While on the Border, some of them had taken examinations for commissions in the Officers' Reserve Corps. When the training camps opened May 15, 1917, those who had received commissions were ordered to report to Fort Oglethorpe and their commissions became effective. Many others from the company attended either the first or subsequent training camps, and received their commissions. Upon being 465 The Chickasaw Nation commissioned their connection with the old company was severed, and they went to whatever organization they were assigned, as in the case of Joe R. T. Ransom, who was ordered within ten days after reporting to Oglethorpe to report to Governors Island, N. Y., for foreign service, and when he arrived at Governors Island, he was assigned to the famous 16th Infantry, First Di- vision, and so sailed with the first troops to go to France, em- barking June 9, and sailing June 12, 1917. We shall see in the fourteenth or concluding chapter that Sergeant Otis W. Leader, a Chickasaw Indian, likewise served in the famous 16th Regiment, where he won undying fame, which we would naturally expect from a descendant of the un- conquerable Chickasaws. As showing that modesty usually accompanies intrepidity, it may be mentioned that the foregoing list was furnished me by Captain Joe R. T. Ransom, from whom I had several notes, and we had some interviews, and after all of these, I learned to my astonishment, in a casual conversation with Captain A. J. Donelson, that Captain Ransom was decorated with the French croix de guerre (with palm) for bravery in action during the Franco-American offensive near Soissons, July 18-23, 1918. In the manner indicated above officers from the ranks of the Chickasaw Guards were scattered in almost every division and branch of the service. Several members of the Chickasaw Guards were wounded, but I regret I could not procure a complete list of these. Five of them made the supreme sacrifice while serving their country abroad, as follows: Sergeant Jesse Hunt, with a machine gun batallion, was killed in action at Soissons, France, September 23, 1918. Lieutenant Frank S. Latham, in the aviation service, was accidentally killed in the training area at Issouden, France, on August 21, 1918. 466 The Chickasaw Nation Lieutenant Henry Guion Armstrong, in the aviation service, was killed while flying over No Man's Land by a stray shot from our own artillery, in the Argonne Forest, near Verdun, France, on October 4, 191 8. Lieutenant Herbert Taylor, serving in the infantry, was wounded in action at Chateau Thierry, July 24, 191 8, and soon died of his wounds. First Lieutenant Thomas S. Tate, of the 81st Division In- fantry, was killed in action November 9, 191 8, only two days before the armistice, in the Woevre Valley near Grimecourt. In addition to the foregoing it may be mentioned that Lieutenant H. Allen Wardle enlisted in the aviation service at Memphis in April, 191 7, and after training both in this country and France, he was Ferry Pilot at Orly Field, Paris, from March to June, 1 91 8; was shot down and captured by the Germans near Ham, while flying in an English scout plane from Norwich, England, to Paris, France, June 26, 1918; remained a prisoner until after the Armistice, arriving in France, through Switzer- land, in December, 191 8, and received an honorable discharge in February, 1919. Major Reed M. Chambers served with distinction in the aviation department, commanding the first American Aero to go to the front. He was in command of the 94th Aero Squadron, having succeeded Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, when the "ace of aces" returned to the United States. Major Chambers was officially credited with having destroyed seven enemy airplanes and un- officially credited with four other victories. He was awarded the distinguished service cross with three citations, the Legion of Honor, and the croix de guerre with four citations, returning home laden with honors. Certain Indians Made Citizens — It appears that no general law provided a means for United States citizenship of the Indians until February 8, 1887, when 467 The Chickasaw Nation Congress passed the general allotment act, which provided for the general allotment of lands in severalty, and declared all Indians born within the limits of the United States, who should comply with certain conditions, to be citizens of the United States. This act was followed in 1906 by what was called the Burke act, under which the issuance of a fee simple patent was made the primary legal requirement for citizenship. However, the act of 1887 excluded from its provisions as to citizenship the members of the Five Civilized Tribes, composed of the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees, and Seminole Indians. By the act of March 3, 1901, the general allotment law was so amended as to make every Indian in the Indian Territory eligible to be a citizen of the United States, and under this law the members of the Five Civilized Tribes, who had received allotments, and their children became citizens of the United States. Under these laws the right to exercise the elective franchise was conferred upon all Indians who had become citizens. This the rank and file of the Indians never sought, and, indeed, did not want. However, the right to vote was used as a catchword to further the extension of the Dawes' Policy. As might well have been anticipated, the wily political white "boss" was lying in wait and lost no time in "rounding up" and voting the unsuspecting Indian, thereby debauching the ballot to such an extent as to call for further amendments of the law. Those who may desire to know more of the details of these discreditable matters may learn of them from Mr. Leupp (p. 36 et seq.), though he favored the so-called Dawes Laws. In the fourth section of the constitution of the State of Oklahoma, of date July 16, 1907, it is declared: "The people inhabiting the State do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title in or to any unappro- priated lands lying within the boundaries thereof, and to all 468 The Chickasaw Nation lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian tribe or nation ; and until the title to any such public land shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the jurisdiction, disposal, and control of the United States." By the forty-third section of the same constitution it was also provided : 'The qualified electors of the State shall be male citizens of the United States and male persons of Indian descent of the United States who are over the age of twenty-one." The result is that the Chickasaw Indians are now full- fledged citizens, both of the United States and of the State of Oklahoma. It should be borne in mind, however, that the great bulk of the Indians held their lands in tribal or communal interests, but these communal interests have been broken up to a large extent by transferring the tribal or communal title into individual ownership under the various allotment laws. Under these allot- ment laws the Indians did not have the right to dispose of their property for a period of twenty years, and in some other patents there was a period of trust for the same length of time. Thus there arose the anomalous situation of citizens of the United States and of the State, and yet they were not free to dispose of their lands, the right of disposition being wisely withheld under the protection of the laws of the federal government. On the one hand the Indian Commissioner has been besieged by misguided persons, who assumed and no doubt supposed that they were the friends of the Indians, to cut off all restrictions and allow all Indians, whatever their various capacities were, to sell and dispose of their property at will. There was, of course, as there probably always will be, crafty men lying in wait to fleece the unsuspecting Indian of his patrimony as soon as legal restraints were so loosened as to make the Indian an easy victim. The policy of the present Indian Commissioner has 469 The Chickasaw Nation been to give full control over their property to Indians who, he was satisfied, were qualified to look after their business affairs. The present Indian Commissioner, Hon. Cato Sells, has been in office, as I understand, since 19 13, and in his report to the Secretary of the Interior for the year ending June 30, 1920 (p. 40), says: "This tentative plan brought encouraging results and largely decided me in announcing the 'Declaration of Policy' of April 17, 191 7, which provides that a broad, liberal policy shall henceforth prevail, to the end that every Indian of twenty- one years or over, as soon as ascertained to be as competent to transact his own business as the average white man, shall be given full control of his lands and funds and thus cease to be a ward of the government. This policy was further greatly en- larged by the subsequent declaration to give a fee patent to, or release from United States control in other ways, every allottee (twenty-one years of age and competent) who had at least one- half white blood. "Under these broader policies, the total number of Indians released from government supervision has reached nearly 21,000, Oklahoma sharing a large percentage. "In the years prior to 1913 somewhat over 6,000 fee patents had been issued, and from that year to the date of the new policy about 3,542 fee patents were issued, approximating 9,500. It will be seen that under this liberal procedure many more Indians have been released from government control since 191 7 than were released in all prior years. "Under various acts of Congress the restrictions on the control of lands of many of the Five Tribes' allottees were ab- solutely removed, and the Indians and intermarried whites given full responsibilities of citizenship. As rapidly as con- ditions will properly permit, we hope to place in the hands of every Indian who is competent the full control of all his trust property; and I venture to suggest that it would be in the in- terest of all the good citizens of Oklahoma, not only as a business proposition but for other high considerations, to give encourage- ment to every Indian released from government control, to the end that his property may be kept intact and that he may be 470 The Chickasaw Nation shielded from those who might seek to involve him in transactions that would result in the loss of his lands or money. "I have held to the principle of protecting the Indian in his property rights until he shows a reasonable capacity for taking care of himself in competition with the white man, believing that this is scarcely a greater service to the one than to the other. No State can thrive on the pauperism of any considerable element of its population. There is something wrong with the social, civic, and economic standards of any State where there is a large, improvident class of citizens." I have thus quoted at large, so that the present status of the Indians might correctly appear, and also that the views of the Commissioner as to the future policy to be pursued may appear in his own language. The statement that the state should be protected against the pauperism of any considerable element of its population, I suppose is pointed at the Indians, the fair implication being that reference is had to their presumed future pauperism. In my view this is but an extension of the time old and un- just policy that has marked the treatment of the North American Indian by the government from the beginning. Mark, the state is to be protected from the Indian and his supposed pauperism, at least such is the inference to be drawn from the language. The welfare of the Indian is evidently regarded as of secondary consideration. The benevolent suggestion that it would be to the interest of all good citizens to give encouragement to every Indian released from government control, so that he might be shielded from those who would fleece him of his lands or money, would be amusing, if it did not carry with it the suggestion of a conscious- ness that such a fate awaits many defenseless Indians. Such benevolent suggestion would have no more effect to stay the hand of rapacity and greed than a soft southern zephyr would have when caught in the embrace of a cyclone on a western plain. 471 The Chickasaw Nation The vice of the position and theory of the Commissioner consists in the assumption that in the government's treatment of the Indian his interests must be entirely subordinated to those of the whites; that is, the Indian is to be treated as an intruder, and his presence is to be tolerated only upon certain conditions, pains, and penalties as may be conducive to his neighbor, the views and interests of the Indian to the contrary notwithstanding. True, it is not so phrased by officials, but that is what their theory or treatment means when reduced to its last analysis. What right has the white man to complain of the presence of the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma? Take the case of the Chickasaws; they were found by the white man possessed of their ancient domain east of the Missis- sippi for generations before the white man came, and looking on the outline of the new world claimed to own it in fee, under the so-called right of title by reason of original discovery, though, of course, his discovery was second to that of the Indians. When by the right of might the Chickasaws were despoiled of their ancient homes and driven west, the white men directed him to buy a new home there, which he did, receiving a patent in fee from the government, guaranteeing that no white man's govern- ment would ever rule over him and that he would be allowed to hold the title to his new home in common, and not in severalty, and that no white man should ever intrude upon him in his new home. Reford Bond very correctly stated to the congressional sub-committee in 19 14 that no innocent purchaser, for value in due course of business, ever possessed a more perfect title to his property than did the Chickasaws to their new homes in the West. Did the government respect its treaties, its patents, or its solemn engagements? Not in the least. The United States not only allowed white intruders to enter but erected first a territorial and then a state government over 472 The Chickasaw Nation the Indian country, first having abolished the right of the Indians to hold their property in common over their most solemn pro- test, and it is now insisting that the day be hastened so that an opportunity may be afforded the whites to secure what little land is still held in severalty by some of the Indians, under the plea that the state should not suffer from the presence of pau- pers ! Disguise it as they may under plausible verbiage, these are the plain facts. In the first place the Indians are not paupers; but if so, who made them such? When George Washington called upon Piomingo and the Chickasaws to come to the rescue of federal troops under General St. Clair and General Wayne in their battles with the Northwestern Confederation of Indians north of the Ohio, fighting under Little Turtle, did he then call them paupers? When General James Robertson sought the protection of the same Chickasaws to prevent the destruction of the infant white settlement where the capital of Tennessee now stands, did he then intimate that they were paupers, or that their room was preferred to their company? In 1888 Chief Justice Fuller (130 U. S. 122), quoting largely from Professor Pomeroy's Equity Jurisprudence, said: "Whenever the legal title to property is obtained through means or under circumstances which render it unconscientious for the holder of the legal title to retain and enjoy the beneficial interest, equity impresses a constructive trust on the property thus acquired in favor of the one who is truly and equitably entitled to the same, although he may never, perhaps, have had any legal estate therein; and a court of equity has jurisdiction to reach the property either in the hands of the original wrong doer, or in the hands of any subsequent holder, until a purchaser of it in good faith and without notice acquires a higher right and takes the property relieved from the trust." (Pomeroy's Eq. Jur., Sec. 1053.) 473 The Chickasaw Nation These principles have received the unanimous approval of all the courts and text writers, but, of course, they were written in respect to the private rights of men as against each other; but is not the obligation of this great republic to respect its solemn engagements, and not wrest from others their property, as sacred, nay, more sacred, than the obligations and duties of private citizens? When the government perpetrated these wrongs on the defenseless Indians, it had constituted itself the self-styled guardian of the Indians. Having despoiled its wards of their estates, why does not the government stand in the relation of trustee to the Indians thus despoiled, to the uttermost farthing? If the government was compelled to respond to the just claims of the Indians, according to these principles of equity jurisprudence, then, so far from being paupers, the Chickasaws would be rich beyond the dream of avarice. The Chickasaws as Citizens of Oklahoma — It is a far cry from the wild banks of the Chucaca (Tom- bigbee) River in the wilderness of the new world, when Hernando De Soto first looked into the faces of the intrepid Chickasaws in 1540 to the white light of the twentieth century at the capital of Oklahoma, the youngest and one of the proudest states of the American commonwealth. De Soto found the Chickasaws of his day to be imperious, self-respecting, self-contained lovers of their homes and of freedom, which they prized more than life itself. Their descendants today are citizens of the great State of Oklahoma, self-contained and self-respecting; and, moreover, still lovers of their homes and country, for we shall see that upon the ensanguined fields of France and Flanders they proved their love of freedom and that they are worthy descendants of the primitive and unconquerable Chickasaws, who now sleep east of the great Mississippi River. 474 The Qhickasaw Nation What momentous changes have taken place since 1540, as generation after generation and century after century have rolled into the silent eternity of the past! The pope still sits upon the throne of St. Peter in the Vati- can, but possesses only the shadow of the prerogatives and powers of his predecessors in the fifteenth century ; when in the plenitude of his power he gave to Spain all the worlds and peoples that might be discovered west of an imaginary line drawn from pole to pole, one hundred leagues west of the Azores; while to Portugal he made a like gift of all other worlds and peoples that might be discovered east of the imaginary line referred to. So late as 1870 the people of Italy, under the leadership of Garibaldi, wrenched from the successor of St. Peter the last remnant of his temporal power; while in the spiritual kingdom his sovereignty is challenged by the far-flung ranks of the many creeds marching under the banners of Protestantism, the spiritual children of Martin Luther, who died six years after De Soto first saw the Chickasaws. As to the proud and disdainful kingdoms of Spain and Portu- gal, while the one still remains a kingdom and the other is now a republic, still they are but shadows of their ancient proportions. Upon the continent of North America, as successors to the Indians, there has sprung up the great American common- wealth, which, in wealth, in numbers, and in prowess, stands almost without a rival among the great powers of the globe. Amid all of these wonderful changes the Chickasaws are still here, and can give a good account of their struggles and present condition. If a survival of the fittest is to be taken as the acid test of worthiness to survive, then the existence of the present day Chickasaws attest the nobility of the characters of the primitive Chickasaws, who, though so small in point of numbers, yet ex- cited the wonder and admiration of all of the earliest travelers in the wilderness of America at their prowess and the dread and respect for them entertained by all other Indian nations, though 475 The Chickasaw Nation many of them exceeded in numbers ten times all of the Chickasaw people. I have searched in vain to ascertain the exact number of the Chickasaws at the time of their removal from Mississippi in 1836. As near as I can ascertain, in 1822 they numbered 3,600 souls; and having adapted themselves to the modes of life and sentiments of their white neighbors, they were slaveholders and were a pros- perous people. After their removal westward, and having settled on the western confines of the Choctaw country, the wild Indians of the plains made warlike inroads upon the Chickasaws, but were so summarily chastised that the Chickasaws were left free and soon began a new prosperity. I see it stated in some reference authorities that after their removal the Chickasaws began to lag behind the other Indians in the Territory, the reason ascribed being that they had become lazy, owing to their large annuity of $60,000 to be distributed among their population, then estimated at 4,200 souls. This was before the Civil War and after they had been admitted into the council of the Choctaws, the two nations becoming to a certain extent one composite people. It should be borne in mind, however, that their rights and prerogatives were not as full as those of the Choctaws, whom they had always defeated in battle, especially in the French wars, and upon whom it is to be presumed they looked as scarcely their equals. Chaffing under these handicaps they appealed to the President and succeeded in securing a separate government for themselves, and after this it is agreed that they began anew to make rapid progress. The people inhabiting the Indian Territory proper began a movement for statehood, which eventuated in the adoption of a constitution in 1905, the new state to be called Sequoyah, in honor of the great Cherokee of that name, an honor that his memory was entitled to in every respect. I have examined with interest and profit the memorial (Senate Document No. 143) 476 The Chickasaw Nation which was presented to Congress in January, 1906, praying Con- gress to admit the proposed new State of Sequoyah; but it was ruled otherwise. When the movement for statehood became assured, the Chickasaws were its active supporters, and Honorable William H. Murray, a Chickasaw by marriage, presided over the convention which adopted the present constitution of Oklahoma, and many Chickasaws were members of that convention, among them being Honorable Charles D. Carter, who has represented his district in Congress since statehood. Governor Lee Cruce, a Chickasaw by marriage, was the second governor of Oklahoma and the Chick- asaws have taken a prominent part in public affairs. It would be a mistake to suppose, however, that the Chick- asaws have only displayed ability in the political field, for not long since colored supplements of a Washington paper carried the picture of Frank Overton Colbert in his studio as an artist, he being a descendant of the noted Chickasaw family of Colberts, for some generations conspicuous and able leaders of the Chicka- saw people, noted hereinbefore. Mr. Colbert made his home in Washington for several years, finally removing to New York, where he made an exhibition of thirty of his paintings in a Fifth Avenue gallery. Colbert is still a young man and described in the Daily Oklahoman of May 8, 192 1, as dark, dapper, and alert, with an unwavering glance, sleek black hair, sharp nose, and uncommonly graceful in his walk and gestures. For the first time in the history of New York, an American Indian, in the person of Colbert, exhibited his painting on Fifth Avenue. It is said he has tried to express the religious myths of the Hopi, Navajo, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Sioux Indians, and that all are exquisitely drawn, subtle and beautiful in color, and have a rare savor of the earth and the emotional simplicity of the aboriginal American. The success of this young Chickasaw reminds us that Leupp declared the aboriginal American possessed a highly artistic 477 The Chickasaw Nation temperament, though, of course, owing to his almost entire want of culture along these lines, it found expression only in the rudest manner. The Name Oklahoma a Chickasaw Word— I have often seen it stated that the beautiful and musical name of Oklahoma, meaning red people, is from the Choctaw language; and while I do not profess to understand either the Choctaw or Chickasaw language, still I venture the opinion that its original derivation was from the Chickasaw tongue. There was an ancient town in the Chickasaw country, and now in Marshall County, Mississippi, named Chulahoma, or in English red fox, and the well known road, and its forerunner, the Indian trail leading therefrom to the Chickasaw Bluffs, the chief entrepot of the Chickasaws, and still in use, is also known as the Chula- homa Road, thus indicating that this word, so like the word Oklahoma, was of Chickasaw origin. Again, the beautiful word Coahoma, ancient of days, now the name of the fertile and well known county in north Mississip- pi, was originally the name of the noted Chickasaw chief of that name, coahoma meaning red panther or red cat. Coahoma was known to the English also as William McGillivray, and lived to an old age. We learn from Warren (p. 560) that Coahoma served under Washington, and was commissioned by him as a captain in the United States Army, stationed at Fort Pitt, now Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Warren adds that in a letter to himself from J. N. Walton, dated Aberdeen, Mississippi, May 15, 1881, he says: ,'I have seen his commission, and it is now in the possession of his son near Fort Towson, Choctaw and Chickasaw nation, West." In all probability the war in which Coahoma was commissioned a captain by Washington was the war in the Northwest in 1791 and subsequent years, in which the United States troops were 478 The Chickasaw Nation commanded first by General St. Clair, and afterwards by Gen- eral Wayne, while the Northwest Confederated Indian Tribes were led by the great Indian chief, Little Turtle. Piomingo was also commissioned a captain by Washington and served in that war. The name Coahoma is strikingly like that of Oklahoma. Where is there a more musical word and pleasing to the ear than Okolona, the name of the charming little city of Chickasaw County, Mississippi, the former home of the Chickasaws? We learn from Leftwich (7 Miss. Hist. Soc, p. 270) that this city was named for a herdsman of the noted Chickasaw, Levi Colbert, on account of the quiet manners of the herdsman, he being named "Okolona, which means calm or peaceful." It is not a long step from Okolona to Oklahoma. Bancroft (2, p. 97) first writes of the Chickasaws as the cheerful, brave, and invincible allies of the English, the most intrepid warriors of the South ; after which he speaks of the Choc- taws, and in reference to their language he adds: "Their dialect of the Mobilian so nearly resembles that of the Chickasaws that they almost seemed but one nation." The reference would seem to mean that he regarded the Chickasaw tongue as the dominant language. The reader is here referred to what is said in Chapter VIII under the sub-title, "Language of the Chickasaws," where it will be seen that the Chickasaws had so imposed their language upon all of their more numerous neighbors that it was adopted as the trade language over a vast country far beyond the limits of their own very extended domain. DuPratz (p. 310), who knew the Chickasaws as early as 1720, Romans (p. 59), who visited them in i77i,Nuttall (p. 288) in 18 19 and Pickett (p. 133), as well as practically all the early writers, join in stating that the Chickasaw language was used almost universally among all adjacent tribes. DuPratz, than whom no one possessed better opportunities to know whereof he spoke, added: "Those who speak it (Chickasaw) best value themselves upon it." 479 The Chickasaw Nation In other words neighboring nations considered it a badge of honor to be able to speak in the Chickasaw tongue. In a letter to me, Mrs. Anna Guy Addington, a Chickasaw, proud of her ancestry, writes that the name Oklahoma in the Indian tongue is soft and musical, and unlike the pronunciation of the whites; thus reminding us of what that eminent writer and traveler Bartram (p. 417) said of the Chickasaw language, to the effect that it was soft, musical, and pleasing to the ear, and that the women in particular spoke so fine and soft as to remind you of the prattling of children or the singing of birds. As is well known, the Choctaws outnumbered the Chicka- saws some four or five to one, and the Choctaws yielded to white pressure in Mississippi earlier than did the Chickasaws, the great bulk of the Choctaws moving to their new home in the West in 1831, leaving a minority of their numbers in Mississippi, who ever since are known as the Mississippi Choctaws. The Chickasaws had failed in more than one effort to find a suitable home in the West, but eventually purchased there a part of the Choctaw country, to which they removed in 1836; and under an agreement the two nations for many purposes became one composite body, and thereafter were called and known as the Choctaws and Chickasaws. The Chickasaws were so greatly outnumbered, and in addition there were certain restrictions thrown around them that they became restive, and finally through an appeal to the president secured complete autonomy, as shown hereinbefore. Roosevelt has very correctly said that the Chickasaws were more closely knit together than any other of the great Muskhogean confederation, and the whole nation worked in unison. No doubt this was the spirit causing them to chafe at somewhat losing their identity while connected with the Choctaws. The Choctaws, though so greatly outnumbering the Chick- asaws, feared them, and to the discredit of the Choctaws, as noted by their ardent friend Cushman, they joined the French army marching from the South in 1736, to meet another French 480 The Chickasaw Nation and Indian army coming down from what is now Canada, in the Chickasaw country, for the purpose of exterminating the Chicka- saw nation; but both armies met an ignominious defeat at the hands of the invincible Chickasaws. A like army of French and Choctaws from the South met in the Chickasaw country a like French and Indian army coming from Canada in the year 1839, and with no better success than in 1836. These campaigns have been the wonder and admiration of all historians, the details whereof appear at large in the ninth chapter, ante. To the public at large, however, in recent years, the Choc- taws apparently were the dominant factors; and hence, even in the derivation of a word such as Oklahoma, as the Choctaw and Chickasaw languages were so nearly the same, it was assumed that the word was of Choctaw origin ; whereas in point of fact it was in all probability derived from the Chickasaw tongue. Since the foregoing was written, in a letter to me from Reford Bond, the eminent Chickasaw attorney at law, it is stated that his mother, Mrs. Adelaide Johnson Bond, speaks the Chicka- saw language fluently and that the name Oklahoma has the same meaning in the Chickasaw and Choctaw languages. Wherefore, as the Chickasaw language was unquestionably the dominant language, it would seem that the deduction that the word Oklahoma is of Chickasaw origin, is correct. I may add that the mother of Mrs. Bond was named Rebecca Courtney Johnson, and was reputed, when young, the champion swimmer among the Chickasaws; and it is said that when the Chickasaws moved west, she plunged into the turbid waters of the Mississippi and swam unaided across to its western shore. The Present Chickasaw Population— The present population of the Chickasaw nation, as usually given, is stated as 10,966, but in this aggregate there are in- 481 The Chickasaw Nation eluded the descendants of their former slaves, who number 4,662, and these being deducted from the above total leaves the whole Chickasaw population, 6,304 souls. Other Indians having adopted their former slaves as members of their tribes, their freedmen are properly numbered as members of their respective tribes; but this the proud Chickasaws per- sistently refused; nevertheless, the government as persistently classifies Chickasaw freedmen as Chickasaws, probably more from force of habit than otherwise. After carefully going over the statistics as to population in the report of Sells (p. 70) and of Gabe E. Parker, Superin- tendent for the Five Civilized Tribes, ending June 30, 1920 (p. 7), it seems that the total number of Chickasaws as stated above is made up of full-bloods, half-bloods, etc., as follows: Full bloods 1,515 Mixed, three-fourths or more 258 One-half to three-fourths 708 Less than one-half, including intermarried whites . .3,823 Total 6,304 But of these I understand there are intermarried whites 645 This leaves the present number of Chickasaws by blood 5,659 The tables showing the distribution of common school funds among the Chickasaws, as well as a letter from Superintendent Parker, show that the great bulk of the Chickasaws live in the country and not in cities or towns. In their primitive state, it will be recalled that, while they lived in towns, which was necessary for safety and defense, still their houses were not close together, but some distance apart, having near them their open plots of ground for cultiva- tion. 482 The Chickasaw Nation It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that they still prefer the open country, and the free life there, which is not to be found elsewhere. The above is a creditable showing, and while the details of the population show a considerable infusion of white blood, that is no doubt explained by the fact that Chickasaw women, ac- cording to all early travelers, were exceptionally attractive; and, moreover, we learn from Haywood that they were exceptionally virtuous, while we learn from that early (1758) traveler, Major Robert Rogers, that their men "were not at all troubled with a spirit of jealousy, and say it bemeans a man to suspect a woman's chastity." Major Rogers, that rather remarkable writer, then adds in reference to the Chickasaws : "They are tall, well shaped, and handsome featured, es- pecially their women, far exceeding in beauty any other nation in the Southland." In this connection it will be recalled that Adair, who first went to their country in 1744, and lived among them for several years, also speaks in glowing terms of the beauty, grace, and coquettish manners of the Chickasaw girls. Who would blame the sturdy young white pioneer for falling easy captives to the dark-eyed daughters of the forest as thus pictured, especially when they prized themselves so highly, and were more highly prized by the young Chickasaw warriors. If we look to the number of white intermarriages among the remaining four civilized tribes, we will find that, proportionately speaking, there are over four times as many whites intermarried among the Chickasaws as among the four remaining tribes. Thus, Sells (1820, p. 64) reports the total number of Indians by blood among the Five Civilized Tribes as 75,519 and the inter- married whites among them as 2,582. On page 70 Sells gives the intermarried whites among the Chickasaws as 645. By simple calculation it will appear that, 483 The Chickasaw Nation whereas among the four remaining civilized tribes there are slightly over thirty-six Indians by blood to every intermarried white, there are only a little over eight Chickasaws by blood to each intermarried white; thus showing a very marked preference of whites for the Chickasaws as compared to the remaining four civilized tribes, at least in the matter of intermarriages. I can not, however, refrain from expressing the hope that the day may be distant when the last true type of the proud and intrepid Chickasaw may cease to appear among the many people who will mingle and commingle in this great republic, once the exclusive home of the aboriginal American Indian. In that far distant day in the future, when the history of the Chickasaws is written in the clear light of truth, free from bias and prejudice, many a proud dame, as well as gallant man, will with pride, in tracing their descent, count back to the time when some Chicka- saw was the progenitor of their families, as even now it is a badge of honor for the first families of Virginia to count Pocahontas among their ancient forebears. Unsold Tribal Property- Mr. Parker, the Superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes, in his 1920 report (p. 8) gives his estimate of the value of the unsold Choctaw and Chickasaw tribal property as follows: Estimated Value of Unsold Tribal Property (Including amounts uncollected from sale of lands and minerals.) Tribal schools and improvements $105,000.00 2,219 town lots 40,000.00 Unsold lands, including timber lands, and surface of segregated coal and asphalt lands 680,975.00 Amount uncollected from land sold 1,755,14743 Amount uncollected from sale of coal and asphalt minerals 1,220,829.79 Coal and asphalt mineral deposits 11,273,715.98 Total $15,075,668.20 484 The Chickasaw Nation Approximately three-fourths of these properties belong to the Choctaws, and the remainder to the Chickasaws. This is a very considerable aggregate of values, and, as I understand, it represents all that is left of the once vast tribal properties held in common by these two nations, and all that remains to be disposed of as Congress may direct. In Vol. II, p. 282; of the Handbook of American Indians, compiled by the United States Bureau of Ethnology, and re- garded as a standard authority, there is set forth in detail many popular fallacies with respect to our Indians. Among them is mentioned the belief by many that the Indians were nomads, whereas, in point of fact, they both claimed and occupied well defined districts or parts of the country, their rights thereto being acknowledged and respected by all other Indians, except when in some war of conquest or otherwise, a tribe was subdued and its country in whole or in part was taken over by the victor, precisely as do civilized countries at the present day. Another popular fallacy pointed out in the authority re- ferred to is the idea that individual Indians or families owned parts of their country in severalty, as is the custom among white people; whereas such a conception was repugnant to an Indian's views of right and justice; for they held tenaciously to the idea that the right and title to the soil was vested in the whole tribe, which owned it in common for the equal benefit of all the members of the tribe, each one of whom had the unquestioned right to occupy and cultivate any portion of the common property not in the actual occupancy of another. This view as to common ownership in the tribe was but the natural sequence of that admirable trait of their character, and that is, they were absolutely without mercenary ideas. From this conception it followed that an Indian would, without ques- tion or hesitancy, divide his last morsel of food with another who was in need. To these characteristics I have already re- ferred; hence we are not surprised that the Indians fought in and out of season every attempt to destroy the common owner- 485 The Chickasaw Nation ship of their property. Living with this conception of property there could be no such thing as poor people and rich people in a tribe, nor were there any class distinctions whatever. These conceptions are ingrained into the hearts and minds of the Indians, and the proposed forcible ownership of property in severalty outraged their feelings. Moreover, it has a very practical side to the Indian; and that consists in the inability of many of them, and especially the full bloods, to rid themselves of the idea of communal ownership, and what is more unfortunate, their inability to change their very natures so as to compete with the average white man in the ownership of property in severalty, and to make a competency for himself and family according to the white man's conception. It is a notorious fact that the average Indian has no conception of the value of money ac- cording to the views of the whites; hence he falls an easy victim to the unscrupulous. In view of these facts, would it not be a wise and humane policy to convert at least the greater part of the unsold communal tribal property of the Chickasaws and Choctaws into a tribal trust fund, to be controlled by a board composed of members of the respective nations, the income of the fund to be ad- ministered and paid out, not per capita, but for the benefit of such members as, owing to sickness, physical or mental inca- pacity or otherwise, need either permanent or temporary as- sistance. A charter could be taken out so that there could be a corpo- rate entity to administer the fund, and to this corporation benevo- lent persons could make gifts, donations, and legacies, as could also governmental agencies, and in this way a fund sufficient in amount would accumulate to meet the beneficent purpose for which it was designed. The regular stock argument always at hand and often used, to the effect that a per capita annuity paid to Indians has the tendency to make them lazy and create paupers of them, would not apply here, because when it appeared to the Board that any one was taking advantage of the trust fund 486 The Chickasaw Nation to live in idleness, then a cessation of payments would dis- illusion him as to the objects of the beneficent tribal fund, and he would be summarily thrown on his own resources. If the United States were to create such a fund outright for indigent Chicka- saws, it would be but returning to them a paltry part of that vast debt, not only of gratitude but of property, of which, in years gone by, it so unjustly deprived them. It may truthfully be said that these are but the suggestions of one who has never mingled with the Indians, and there- fore is without practical experience as to their necess- ities or wishes. It may be answered that the source from which they come is at least entirely disinterested, and the subject under con- sideration is one upon which any one of intelligence is entitled to form and express an opinion. The Present Chickasaw Officials- It is difficult for persons unfamiliar with Indian affairs to realize the very numerous, varied, and large monied values of the matters which must be handled by the Superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes, not to mention all other Indians falling under the care of the Indian Commissioner. In his 1920 report (p. 6) Mr. Parker says: "The cashier handled a total of $47,668,996.02, including receipts and disbursements of all classes of funds, perhaps the largest in the history of the office. "The correspondence continued heavy during the year. Approximately 1,000,000 pieces of mail were handled." In order to properly dispatch this business, due regard being had to the respective rights of the various tribes, it is manifest not only that trained men representing the government should be in authority, but in addition representatives of each nation are necessary to look after the varied interests of the various nations inter sese. 487 The Chickasaw Nation The following constitute the present officials representing the Chickasaw nation and their respective salaries: Salary Douglas H. Johnston, Governor, Emet, Okla- homa $3,000.00 Ludie Johnston, Tribal Secretary, Milburn, Oklahoma 1 ,000.00 Eastman Johnston, Tribal Interpreter, Tisho- mingo, Oklahoma 300.00 J. Hamp Willis, Mining Trustee, Kingston, Oklahoma 4,000.00 Reford Bond, Tribal Attorney, Chickasha, Oklahoma 5,000.00 Indian Population of the United States— In this connection it may be of interest to note the present Indian population throughout the United States, exclusive of Alaska; according to the report of Commissioner Sells for 1920 (p. 64), the aggregate Indian population is 336,337; but this includes 23,405 freedmen and 2,582 whites by intermarriage. Deducting these there are left 310,350 Indians by blood, and if to these we add 2,582 whites by intermarriage, we have as the total Indian population, 312,932. These figures are doubtless approximately correct, and are according to the report of the Indian Commissioner. There has been the greatest diversity of opinion as to the probable Indian population of North America when Columbus first discovered the new world. In Vol. II, p. 287, of the Handbook of American Indians it is said: "A careful study of population conditions for the whole territory north of Mexico, taking each geographic section sep- arately, indicates a total population, at the time of the coming of the white man, of nearly 1,150,000 Indians, which is believed to be within ten per cent of the actual number. Of this total 488 The Chickasaw Nation 846,000 were within the limits of the United States proper, 220,000 in British America, 72,000 in Alaska, and 10,000 in Greenland. The original total is now reduced to about 403,000, a decrease of about sixty-five per cent. The complete study is expected to form the subject of a future bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology. (J. M.)" This is probably as near correct as any estimate that can now be made. There has also been considerable difference of opinion as to the Indian population in comparatively recent years. In 1836, the year of the removal of the Chickasaws to the West, the superintendent of Indian affairs reported the Indian population as 253,464; the United States census for 1850 at 400,764, though for the same year Schoolcraft (an excellent authority) put the figure at 388,229; for i860 the Indian office reported 254,300; the United States Census for 1880 at 322,534; same for 1890 at 248,253; report of the Indian office for 1910 at 270,544; same for 1910, 304,950; same for 1920 at 336,337. It may be of interest to give the present Indian population throughout the various States, as given by commissioner Sells (p. 64) for 1920 as follows: Alabama 909 Arizona 42,400 Arkansas 460 California 16,241 Colorado 796 Connecticut 152 Delaware 5 District of Columbia 68 Florida 454 Georgia 95 Idaho 4,048 Illinois 188 Indiana 279 Iowa 345 Kansas 1 ,466 Kentucky 234 Louisiana 780 489 The Chickasaw Nation Maine 892 Maryland 55 Massachusetts 688 Michigan 7,5io Minnesota 12,681 Mississippi 1 ,400 Missouri 313 Montana 12,377 Nebraska 2,461 Nevada 5,900 New Hampshire 34 New Jersey 168 New Mexico 21 ,530 New York 6,432 North Carolina 8,268 North Dakota 9,018 Ohio 127 Oklahoma 1 19,255 Oregon 6,629 Pennsylvania 300 Rhode Island 284 South Carolina 331 South Dakota 23,010 Tennessee 216 Texas 702 Utah 3,057 Vermont 26 Virginia 539 Washington 11,114 West Virginia 36 Wisconsin 10,319 Wyoming 1 ,748 Total 336,337 We thus have a total of 336,337 Deduct the number of negroes 23,405 Also intermarried whites 2,582 25,987 Which leaves Indians by blood in the States. . . 310,350 Add the total Indians and Eskimos in Alaska . 26,231 Grand total Indians and Eskimos 336,581 490 The Chickasaw Nation In a letter to me of March n, 192 1, from L. A. Kalbach, acting Commissioner of Education, it is stated that the Eskimos fringe the shores of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, the Eskimos being very different from the Indian population, which he divides into three separate and distinct races as follows: The Athabascans, who live on the interior watersheds of the Yukon, Kuskokwim, and Copper Rivers; the Aleuts, who occupy the Aleutian chain of islands which project far towards Asia, dividing the Pacific Ocean from Bering Sea; and the Thlinkets, who dwell in the Sitkan Archipelago, constituting the most southern of the Alaskan Indians. I regret that Mr. Kalbach was unable to give me the numbers in each group separately, or even the number of Eskimos separately, his only available information being that the "native" population of Alaska according to the census of 1920 was 26,231. According to the report of Thomas Riggs, Jr., Governor of Alaska for 1920 (p. 59), the nations of Alaska can be developed so as to become a great factor in the economic life of the Territory, there being now found among them in the southern part of Alaska clergymen, teachers, merchants, and navigators, while others own their homes and fishing vessels, and a few are com- paratively wealthy. The other natives of Alaska have not im- proved so fast, due in a great measure to the inaccessibility of their homes, though the Eskimos who inhabit the Yukon delta, Seward Peninsula, and the Arctic coast are being rapidly develop- ed through school facilities for the young, and reindeer herding for the adults. In 1892, and continuing for ten years, 1,280 rein- deer, through the initiative of Dr. Sheldon Jackson, were im- ported by the government from Siberia to Alaska, and these had increased, according to the opinion of Governor Riggs (p. 63), in 1820, to 180,000, while others estimated the number at 200,000, and large quantities of reindeer meat are now shipped to the States, there finding a ready market, with the confident belief that Arctic America will eventually prove one of the important areas for the meat supply of the States. 491 The Chickasaw Nation To those who may desire further particulars of these far- away native Americans, their country, its game, and other resources, I refer them to the report of Governor Riggs and Bulle- tin 1919, No. 40, Work of the Bureau of Education for the Natives of Alaska, 191J-IQ18. It may be noted, however, that the most important Alaskan industry is that of its fisheries, salmon being the most important, but large quantities of halibut, herring, cod, whales, clams, trout and miscellaneous fish are taken, the normal value approxi- mating $50,000,000, but owing to over-fishing this great national asset is seriously menaced. Some fifteen years ago the fur seal herd of the Pribilof group of Islands in Bering Sea, and especially on St. Paul and St. George Islands, was on the verge of extinction, owing to indis- criminate pelagic sealing; but after many years of international diplomacy measures of protection were adopted, by which the herd of fur seals has increased to approximately 525,000 animals, yielding the government a net annual sum of approximately $3,000,000. The fisheries now need drastic measures similar to those that saved the fur seal from extinction; and the sea otter, whose fur is most highly prized, is now near extinction, only one pelt being reported as taken from a body found dead, valued at $300. The average values of some other pelts are as follows: black fox, $150.00; blue fox, $130.00; blue Pribilof Island fox, $195.31; cross fox, $35.00; silver gray fox, $55-335 white fox, $46.00; white Pribilof Island fox, $55.33; glacier bear, $30.00: land otter, $25.00; lynx, $42.00; mink, $9.00; martin, $32.00; fur seal, $50.00; wolf, $19.00; arctic hare, 20 cents, while the squirrel pelts are at the bottom and valued at 3 cents only. What is called the Northern herd of caribou of approximately 60,000 animals, is reported as somewhat depleted, owing to over-hunting by the natives, due to a shortage of last year's fishing, while what is called the international migratory herd of 492 The Chickasaw Nation 300,000 caribou was split into a greater number of runs, possibly due to mining activity on the Stewart River. As stated above, the aggregate of 336,337 for the United States, exclusive of Alaska, contained 23,405 negroes and 2,582 intermarried whites; and I take it for granted that in the totals given for the various decades, the negroes and intermarried whites were also included therein. Upon the whole it would appear that many of the Indians have become to a large extent adapted to their present surroundings and environments, and are to a certain extent stabilized in the matter of health and a reasonable and normal increase in population, though it would seem that the full-bloods are doomed to extinction at not a very distant day. In the Handbook of American Indians (Vol. II, p. 285) the current belief that a half-breed or Indian of mixed blood is a moral degenerate is classed among ' 'popular fallacies"; and it is declared that in various parts of the country there are many mixed bloods of undoubted ability and of high moral standing, and there is no evidence to prove that the low moral status of the average mixed bloods of the frontier is a necessary result of mixture of blood, but there is much to indicate that it arises from his unfortunate environments. This is unquestionably true. Official Washington vs. Official Washington- One of the most difficult of all things to obtain is correct in- formation. Though it may seem strange, this applies to official- dom at Washington as well as elsewhere. There are thousands of people in Washington holding sinecure positions, and when a letter is sent there for information, it usually is sent to one of these who know little and care less about the importance of full and correct information. 493 The Chickasaw Nation About the only way the average citizen can receive attention to inquiries is to approach officials through a Senator or Congress- man, and then there is no assurance of obtaining precise informa- tion. I spent considerable time in procuring the information set out above in detail as to the Indian population in the States as well as in Alaska, and was no little surprised upon seeing in the morning paper a dispatch from Washington of June 23, 192 1, stating that the Indian population of the various States was only 242,959 as compared to a reported Indian population in 1 910 of 265,683. Here is a decrease in Indian population during the last decade of 22,724, of which 18,876 of the decrease was reported from Oklahoma. The door for fraud was wider open in Oklahoma than else- where. As seen hereinbefore, according to the report from the Indian Bureau the total Indian population in the States in 1920 was 310,350, and deducting therefrom 242,959, reported by the Census Bureau of the same date, we have a discrepancy of 67,391. No one pretends that in point of fact there was any such decrease in the Indian population. The dispatch stated that the decrease was probably due in part to the enumeration as Indians in 19 10, and as whites in 1920, of persons having only slight traces of Indian blood, and this is repeated in an article on the subject in the Literary Digest of July 9, 1921, that being the reason assigned at Washington. In a letter to Senator Kenneth McKellar I asked for specific information, numbering my inquiries, so as to elicit precise in- formation on various matters, with a view of getting at the very roots of this great discrepancy, not only between the census re- ports of 1 910 and 1920, but between those reports and those from the Indian office set out at large hereinbefore. I received an answer from the Director of the Census, but not full answers to the questions asked. The letter from the Director is as follows. 494 The Chickasaw Nation "Your letter of June 28, 1 921, addressed to Senator McKellar has been referred to this bureau for reply. "According to the returns of the Fourteenth Census, taken as of January 1, 1920, there were 242,959 persons in continental United States returned as Indians. This represents the returns made on the population schedules by the census enumerators, who obtained the information, so far as possible, from the head or some other member of the family. It is obviously impossible to make the census figures check to the reports of the Indian Office. No special schedule for Indians was used at the Fourteenth Census, as in 1910, and no data was collected for Indians other than that collected for the population in general. The enumera- tors were instructed to return persons as Indians who reported themselves as such or who were adjudged to be Indians in the communities in which they resided. It is undoubtedly true that many persons with a small per cent of Indian blood did not re- turn themselves as Indians at the census. "No inquiries were made at the Fourteenth Census regarding Indians who were freedmen, per cent of Indian blood, or inter- marriage with whites. The children of Indians intermarried with whites are, in most cases, reported as Indians. "According to the returns of the Fourteenth Census (1920), there were 26,558 persons in Alaska returned as Indians, of whom 13,698 were reported as Eskimos." Where is there any reflecting person who is willing to accept from complacent Washington officialdom the reasons put forth for the great and striking discrepancies in the various reports as to the Indian population in the year 1920? Evidently there are reasons therefor. These reasons are not creditable to the whites. The years preceding the census of 1910 were the years in which the United States tore up by the roots every Indian treaty, thereby abolishing the rights of the Indians to hold their land in common, and compelling them to accept small parts in severalty, the balance of their property to be sold and the proceeds to be distributed per capita among the Indians. 495 The Chickasaw Nation It was then enacted that in order to ascertain who composed the Indians of the various tribes to share in the allotments to be made and to share in the per capita distributions, rolls should be made up showing who were Chickasaws, Choctaws, Cherokees, etc., and this was done. This opened a wide door for whites to commit perjury in order to have themselves enrolled as Indians, so that they could thereby not only have valuable land allotted to them and their families but also get a share of the millions upon millions to be distributed per capita among real Indians. Perjury is an ugly word. I regret to use it. The government undertook to make up these rolls, and on the floor of Congress in 1914 Murray (p. 42) charged that the government made a criminal ' 'botch" of it. He explained that there had been admitted to the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indian rolls 4,000 fraudulent claimants who secured a judgment in their favor by the Supreme Court of the United States for $20,- 000,000 worth of property. Nearly every law firm of ability in Oklahoma was in the service of these fraudulent claimants, but a firm was finally retained which, after seven years of battle, succeeded in the almost impossible task of securing a reversal of the previous judgment of the United States Supreme Court. It seems that one of the main instrumentalities by which this result was obtained was the creation by Congress of a citizenship court to purge these rolls, the result being that of the 4,000 claimants all were declared fraudulent except 133. Space forbids further extensive details as to other fraudulent paddings of other Indian rolls, and it is clear that there was not a thorough purging thereof, this being commonly reported and believed. However, it may serve to enlighten the public in general to place on record at least one sample of the manner in which by frauds and perjuries white men had themselves officially enrolled as Indians. 496 The Chickasaw Nation On page 42 Murray says: "To illustrate the frauds in those cases, there is one that I remember distinctly now, which was admitted with eighty-seven claimants, taking nearly $400,000 worth of property. When they found their written evidence, the testimony that they were Indians was sworn to by five of the most prominent men of the State of Arkansas. Mr. Cornish went to Arkansas and asked one of the judges of that State who was supposed to have been a witness, 'What do you know about this testimony'? The judge ejaculated, T never heard of it; I never swore to that.' Then Cornish went to a prominent lawyer whose deposition was in the case, and that lawyer protested, 'I never heard of it.' So with all the others of these five witnesses. Then he hunted up the notary public who had certified to the depositions and jurat, and found that the notary had died five years before the depositions were taken. Not only the testimony but the jurat of the notary public were forged in the office of the lawyer representing these eighty- seven claimants. The entire case was manufactured out of blue sky. Of course, they were wiped from the rolls. So with the balance of them." When the fraudulent claimants were stricken from the rolls, they, and especially their many hungry lawyers, set up a howl as they saw millions slipping from them, and even the paper of a United States Senator, wittingly or unwittingly, joined in the systematic propaganda, charging that the court had been bribed. That court was composed of Judge Adams of North Carolina, Judge Weaver of Ohio, and Judge Foote, of California, and it became the duty of the court to fix the fee of Mansfield, Mc- Murray, and Cornish, attorneys who succeeded in purging the rolls then under review, and their fee was fixed at $750,000, or four and one-half per cent of the amounts saved their clients, whereas the fraudulent claimants had agreed to pay their attorneys, in case of success, from twenty-five to fifty per cent of the anticipated recoveries. So widespread and bold became this insolent propaganda that a libel suit was instituted, and it is almost needless to say 497 The Chickasaw Nation that the cause of the fraudulent claimants and their attorneys went down in defeat. If any one should suppose, however, that this defeat put an end to systematic efforts to reopen and pad Indian rolls, then he could scarcely be more mistaken; but this is another story. Raids on the rolls of all other Indians were made, supported by perjuries and subornation of perjuries, and from this class of whites such expressions as "there is no good Indian except a dead Indian," have their origin. As seen above, 4,000 whites (less 133) succeeded not only in having themselves enrolled as Indians but in hoodwinking the United States Supreme Court, the greatest tribunal in the world, into solemnly declaring that they were Indians; that is to say, adjudging that white was red. Every one of these whites, as well as all other fraudulent whites, the exact number of whom will never be known, were enrolling themselves as Indians, and, of course, the Indian Commissioner could but report them as Indians, whatever his private opinion may have been. In order to make a showing in keeping with the farce that was being enacted, there can be no reasonable doubt that these fraudulent claimants returned themselves as Indians when the census of 19 10 was taken. By the time the 1920 census was reached, the opportunity had passed when by perjuries these whites could amass a fortune overnight by reporting themselves as Indians; and no doubt thousands, either themselves or through members of their families, as was permitted by the census office, truly returned themselves as whites. Here no oath was required. Having succeeded in having their names enrolled in the Indian office by perjury and subornation of perjury, a much greater difficulty confronted fraudulent claimants, and doubt- less they were less free to declare the truth when faced by former oaths. This explains, at least in part, the great difference between 498 The Chickasaw Nation the census report of the Indian population and that made by the Indian office. The 1920 Official Census report is doubtless approximately correct ; and who doubts that the great apparent decrease in the Indian population, in the decade preceding 1920, is due to the fact that thousands of white men were fraudulently enrolled and had reported themselves as Indians? If any doubt lingers as to whether the proper deductions have been drawn as to the reasons for the apparent decrease in the Indian population, then I think that lingering doubt will disappear when the Indian and Eskimo populations of Alaska, as reported by the Census Bureau for 1920, is compared with the returns of the Commissioner of Education for Alaska, under whose jurisdiction this matter comes. In Alaska a white man could not get rich overnight by swearing he was an Indian, hence there was no temptation to perjury; and what do we find? The Official Census for 1920 shows the combined Indian and Eskimo population for Alaska 26,558 The Bureau of Education for the same period reports the combined Indian and Eskimo population 26,231 327 The census office actually reports 327 more natives in Alaska than does the Board of Education. As stated above, the door for fraud was wider open in Okla- homa than anywhere else, and we are scarcely surprised to read that of the "reported" decrease in the Indian population of 22,724 in the decade from 1910 to 1920, 18,876 of this decrease occurred in Oklahoma. Doubtless the official report of the census office for 1920 is approximately correct; and taking that as a basis the number of native aboriginal Americans may be thus stated: 499 The Chickasaw Nation Indians in the various States of the Union. .. .242,959 Indians in Alaska 12,860 Eskimos in Alaska 13,698 Total aborigines in the States and Alaska 269,517 I was surprised to learn that there were more Eskimos than Indians in Alaska. If we deduct from the number of aborigines as reported by the Indian office and the Bureau of Education in Alaska, which we have seen aggregate 336,581, the aggregate as reported by the census office, 269,517, we have a discrepancy of 67,064. The Present General Condition of the Indians — Closely connected with the present population of the various Indian tribes there arises the inquiry as to the present general conditions that surround our Indians; and upon this important inquiry it is encouraging to read from the 1920 report (p. 10) of Commissioner Sells as follows: The Indian's industrial progress is especially noteworthy. "Their individual funds on deposit have increased in the last eight years in excess of $20,000,000. During that period they have expended for homes and modern farm implements $18,000,000, and have added $13,000,000 to their capital in live stock. "The Indian's transformation from a game hunter and wan- derer to a settled landholder and home builder is everywhere evident. Nearly 37,000 Indian farmers are cultivating almost a million acres, 47,000 are engaged in stock raising, and their live stock is worth close to $38,000,000. Their last year's income from the sale of crops and live stock was approximately $14,- 000,000. The Indians are dependable wageworkers. Their annual earnings in public and private service exceed $3,000,000. Their number receiving rations and supplies not paid for in labor has decreased one-half in the last seven years. "There are not many defenders of the earlier processes of treaty making and treaty breaking, but the constructive plan, followed now for nearly a third of a century, of allotting the 500 The Chickasaw Nation Indians land in severalty, of conducting hospitals and schools for physical and mental betterment, and providing them guid- ance in the productive use of the soil and its related industries, if not a perfect one, is the best plan yet devised for a dependent people, and is amply justified by results." Commissioner Sells deserves commendation for resolutely opposing, during his eight years as Indian Commissioner, the exploiting of Indians at fairs or shows, by having them dressed fantastically* and engaging them in weird dances and the like for the amusement of the passing throng. There is much in the native life and primeval characteristics of the North American Indians that is worthy of preservation, and these will be preserved, but not by exploiting the Indians, indicated above. It is wrong to take the unthinking Indian away from his family and friends to make up the so-called Wild West Shows, in order to garner in a few dollars for the white showman. It is far better for the Indian to remain at home with his family, care for them, his stock, and his farm, than to wander over the country, living apparently in an uncivilized condition, thereby turning his thoughts and aspirations rather to the past than to the future, where his final destiny is to be wrought out. Children in School- Commissioner Sells for 1920 (p. 44) reports that of the twenty thousand children of the Five Civilized Tribes who attended school seventeen thousand were in the public schools, and all were encouraged to enter these schools as an effective agency for shaping their lives along correct lines of citizenship. But we learn from the report of A. S. Wyly, Supervisor, etc., attached to the report of Gabe E. Parker (p. 46) for 1920, that, on account of the innate timidity and reticence of many of the Indian chil- dren, and I take it especially of the full-bloods, that the tribal boarding schools still have a distinct field of usefulness not covered by the public schools. 501 The Chickasaw Nation This is a matter of great importance and should always be borne in mind. It would be worse than useless to endeavor to force these innately reticent and timid children into the public schools. Racial characteristics can not be thus broken down, but instead the possibilities of future development of the Indian child would be destroyed. In reference to the boarding schools Wiley (p. 45) says: 'The boarding schools are maintained only in the Five Tribes for the education of Indian children exclusively. Eight private, State, and denominational schools have contracts for the education of 602 Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian pupils, but these schools also enroll white children. The public schools are open to all Indian children." * * * And on the next page (46), in reference to academic and industrial instruction, he further reports: "The course of study adopted in 191 5 for Indian schools is in use, with some modifications to meet local conditions, at the tribal boarding schools. The course combines in a practical way academic and industrial training and instruction and is designed to prepare Indian boys and girls to meet the everyday problems of life, to make them self-reliant and self-helpful, and to assist them to assume the duties and obligations of American citizenship. "At schools where girls are enrolled, there are facilities for teaching sewing, cooking, laundering, nursing, and home making. With the exception of Cherokee and Bloomfield, separate cottages are provided for this work. The boys are taught farming, stock raising, dairying, carpentry, etc., with special emphasis on farming and allied subjects. Carpenter shops are provided, and, while the industrial equipment generally is not all that is desired, it is sufficient for substantial compliance with the requirements of the course of study. "Attention is called to the table submitted herewith giving information concerning the boarding schools. There were 1 ,409 children enrolled, with 836 full-bloods and 288 others of one-half Indian blood or more. The average attendance was 1,060, and 44 pupils completed the course of study. The tribal boarding 502 The Chickasaw Nation schools still have a distinct field of usefulness, as they are in the main accommodating Indian children who do not have first-class school facilities at their homes and who, on account of their innate timidity and reticent disposition, would perhaps not attend public schools where white children are in the majority. The course of study is peculiarly adapted to the economic needs of the Indian, and affords instruction and training that could not be obtained in the average rural school. The boarding schools should be continued as long as there are available tribal funds." Upon reading the report of the Supervisor, A. S. Wyly (p. 49), it appeared that in the eleven counties of the Chickasaw nation, 3,082 Chickasaw children were accounted for, apparently as in the common schools; and seeing in other places that there were Chickasaw children in tribal boarding schools, non-reserva- tion and contract schools, I wrote the supervisor and received from him a letter of February 23, 192 1, in which he states that the Chickasaws and Choctaws are closely associated, and that, in his opinion, from the above aggregate of 3,082 children, there should be deducted 582, as representing approximately Choctaw children embraced therein, thus leaving 2,500 as the school population of Chickasaw children between the ages of six and twenty-one years; and that of this number he estimated that there are enrolled. In the public schools about 2,050 Add to this number (in public schools) : Chickasaw children in tribal boarding schools ... 137 Chickasaw children in nonreservation schools . . 27 Chickasaw children in contract schools 209 Total Chickasaw Indians in school 2,423 This, I presume, is approximately correct, and if so, it makes a good showing. Mr. Wyly estimates that of all the Chickasaw Indians not exceeding twelve or fifteen per cent are unable to speak English ; while Reford Bond writes: The Chickasaw Nation "In my judgment every Chickasaw in Oklahoma can speak some English when moved by the proper spirit, and about ninety per cent of the Chickasaws have a fairly good English vocabulary." Christianity and the Chickasaws— Draper well observes, "No spectacle can be presented to the thoughtful mind more solemn, more mournful than that of the dying of an ancient religion, which in its day has given consolation to many genera- tions of men." As fidelity was one of the outstanding characteristics of the Chickasaws, we are not surprised that they did not readily relinquish their ancient faith, but clung to its consolations long after the white man had invaded, and many of them had settled and lived among them for years. The conversation between John Wesley and the young Chickasaw chief Paustoobee, in 1736, is set out in full in the eighth chapter, and it will be recalled that when Mr. Wesley asked the young chief whether the Chickasaws desired a missionary to visit and teach them the Christian religion, Paustoobee very frankly said no; adding that they were then at war and did not know whether they would survive or not, but in case peace returned, they would be glad to be taught. The Chickasaws had just fought Bienville in the battle of Ackia, and six days prior thereto had defeated D'Artaguette, and the war, as we know, was by no means at an end, but lasted for years. According to Haman (10 Pub. Miss. Hist. Soc, p. 212) Rev. Joseph Bullen, of Worcester, Massachusetts, was the first minister to preach the gospel to the Chickasaws, having been sent out by the Presbyterian Missionary Board of New York, in 1779, as a missionary to the Chickasaws, to serve one year only, which he did. He then received a second com^iission for a term of three years, and about the middle of March, 1800, he set out with his 504 The Chickasaw Nation wife and children from Windham County, Vermont, on his long and perilous journey, and at Bedford, Pennsylvania, several of his family were taken sick, and one daughter just blooming into womanhood passed from the cares and hardships of the wilderness to that reward for which the father had dedicated himself and family. No one can contemplate without feelings of admiration that long line of godly men and women who, forsaking all the comforts and pleasures of civilized society, traversed the wilds of America to endure the hardships and discomforts of the wilder- ness, often at the cost of life itself, in order that they might point the untutored Indians to the life of Jesus, that thereby they might be led upward and heavenward. Their only recompense was a consciousness that they were serving their Lord and the consolations of that religious faith and those Christian graces which, under all temporal ills, ever sustain the faithful Christian and adorn the pathway of his earthly pilgrimage. But for these godly lives, and those also of many laymen, some of them government officials, who practiced in their lives the precepts they taught, the Indians would never have embraced Christianity, the teachings of which were so often the very antithesis of the treatment they received at the hands of the whites. The Reverend Bullen reached the Chickasaws and preached to them, but his term having expired, there was an hiatus in religious efforts for the Chickasaws until the year 1819, when the synod of South Carolina resolved to send the Gospel to the South- western Indians, and sent out Rev. David Humphries and Rev. Thomas C. Stuart, the latter then a young licentiate, and they finally reached the Chickasaws ; but Humphries concluded he was unfitted for the work. Not so with Stuart, who put on the whole armor in the service of his Master; and in 1820 the Chickasaws in council assembled granted permission to him to establish a mission among them, and the new king, Ishtehotopa, granted a charter to that effect. In January, 1821, Mr. Stuart selected 505 The Chickasaw Nation the place to establish his permanent mission on the Chickasaw Trail, eight or nine miles south of the present Pontotoc, Missis- sippi, and named it Monroe Mission, in honor of the then Presi- dent of the United States. Houses were built, a farm opened, a school established and the Gospel was preached to the Indians with much success, though the preaching was through an in- terpreter. Stuart continued his work among the Chickasaws until their removal west in 1836, and feeling a longing to be with and minis- ter to them again, he visited their country in the West in 1856; and after his return he stated that he had an exceedingly pleasant visit, but not unmingled with sad reflections, as so many with whom he had gone to the house of God in happier days had long since passed away. Stuart was universally respected and loved by both the Indians and whites, and was affectionately called Father Stuart; he lived until his ninetieth year, passing from time to eternity and his heavenly reward in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1883. His ashes were carried to and interred in the old Chickasaw cemetery near Pontotoc, Mississippi, there to rest, side by side with the mortal remains of his red brethren, whom he had served so long, and who loved him so well, some account of which may be seen in Chapter XII, ante. According to Love (11 Pub. Miss. Hist. Soc, p. 401), among others who were missionaries to the Chickasaws may be men- tioned Rev. William C. Blair and Mrs. Blair, 1823- 1830; Rev. Hugh Wilson and Mrs. Wilson, 1823-1835; Rev. James Holmes and Mrs. Sara V. Holmes, 1824- 1833; while the assistant mis- sionaries were Prudence Wilson, 1822-1835; Emeline H. Rich- mond, 1825-1833; Samuel C. Pearson and Mrs. Pearson, 1828- 1829; and John L. Mosby, 1831-1833. We also learn from Miss Abel {Slaveholders and Secession- ists, pp. 41 and 42) that at the beginning of the Civil War the Methodist Episcopal Church South had a strong membership among the Chickasaws, and Reford Bond writes that at the present time the Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Chris- 506 The Chickasaw Nation tians, and Catholics are all represented among the Chickasaws and we may conclude that practically all of them have embraced the Christian religion. It may be mentioned that the Reverend James Holmes, D. D., and his wife, Mrs. Sara V. Holmes, moved to and lived in Tipton County, Tennessee, for many years, leaving a consider- able posterity, they being the grandparents of the late noted lawyer Holmes Cummins, and of Embry R. Holmes, now and for years past a writer upon the staff of the Commercial Appeal. Chickasaw and Choctaw Claim vs. United States— A reproduced photograph of Governor Douglass H. John- ston can be seen at the beginning of this chapter, and as shown hereinbefore he was the last governor elected by the Chickasaw people, and he has been retained in office for many years, under the title of governor, to represent the Chickasaw people in the many complicated and important questions which arise from time to time. He has proven a wise counselor. Neither space or a history of the Chickasaws will admit of any sketch of his activities; but some time since he issued a message of the deepest interest to the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, and as it seems to me very meritorious, I will give a summary of the claim which he has presented with force on behalf of the Chickasaws and Choctaws against the United States, arising under the treaty of 1866, which is treated at large herein- before. The claim arises in particular under the third article of that treaty which is quoted in haec verba in the chapter referred to; wherefore it is only necessary here to give a summary of the claim. By the treaty of 1866 the Chickasaws and Choctaws ceded certain lands to the United States for certain specified purposes ; that is, for the settlement thereon of friendly Indians, some of whom were being forced out of Kansas by the rising tide of white emigration, and their settlement there would aid them and the 507 The Chickasaw Nation whites settling in the places from which such Indians were re- moved. The treaty also provided for the fund of $300,000 heretofore discussed, and which was to be held by the United States in trust, and to be used to remove the freedmen in these two nations, in case they were removed ; but if the tribes adopted their freed- men as members thereof, then the $300,000 was to go to the tribes. As we know, the Chickasaws refused to adopt their former slaves, and while there is some question made as to the adoption of the freedmen by the Choctaws, still the freedmen were in point of fact never removed, and the Chickasaws never received any part of the $300,000. The claim of the Chickasaws is that the conveyance of the lands in question was in the nature of a lease, and that while the treaty uses the word "ceded," that the Indians did not understand that "ceded" was used in its technical sense; the undisposed part of these lands by the Indians now aggregate some 6,000,000 acres which were disposed of by the United States to white settlers, from whom they received many millions of dollars, and the Chickasaws and Choctaws have a righteous claim against the United States therefor. In support of the claim it is pointed out that certain friendly Indians settled on a part of the "ceded" land, and that Congress, recognizing the equity of the tribes, appropriated money to compensate the Chickasaws and Choctaws, the land being described as "leased district," thus showing that Congress under- stood the wording of the treaty to mean precisely what the In- dians have always claimed they understood its meaning to be. The claim of the Indians was presented to the Court of Claims, which decided the case in favor of the Indians; but on appeal to the United States Supreme Court the decision of the lower court was reversed, it would seem, upon the technical meaning of the word "cede." However, the right of the case was so apparent that, in its opinion, the court said further that an equitable claim on behalf of the Indians could be presented to Con- gress, and this is the object of the appeal of Governor Johnston. 508 The Chickasaw Nation It would seem that when this claim is finally to be passed upon by Congressmen who are in no way responsible for mis- treatment of the Chickasaws by their predecessors, Congress should remember : (i) That the warlike and intrepid Chickasaws never shed the blood of a man who spoke the English tongue, but that un- ceasingly they fought by his side against all comers, Spanish, French, and all hostile tribes; and especially remember the blood they shed and the sacrifices they made to win this continent for those who speak the English language. (2) That they were forced at the point of the bayonet to become exiles from their homes east of the Mississippi, which they in a great measure won for our race, and that promises and guarantees were so lavishly given and so faithlessly broken. (3) The tragic circumstances under which the treaty of 1866 was forced upon them under threats of confiscation and other dire punishments, and that the small modicum of justice to the Indians therein contained was only obtained after a long and seemingly hopeless struggle, through the aid of counsel, at a cost to them in money of $750,000, poor as they were. (4) That Congress itself has recognized that the Indians understood that this land was "leased," and not "ceded"; that the Supreme and other Courts have said thousands of times that an Indian treaty must be interpreted as meaning precisely what the Indians understood it to mean, and not otherwise; and that the Indians understood it to mean that the land was merely "leased," and not "ceded." (5) That while the Supreme Court decided against the Indians, still the Court of Claims, composed of learned lawyers, decided in favor of the Indians; and that even the Supreme Court recognized the propriety of Congress affording the identical relief now prayed for by the Indians. 509 CHAPTER XIV THE WORLD-WIDE WAR; AND HEREIN OF OTIS W. LEADER The law of compensation runs like a thread through all the activities of mankind, and in war as well as in peace, though we do not often bear this in mind. The late world-wide war, the most stupendous, and in many respects the most atrocious, forms no exception to the general law of compensation, at least in so far as the North American Indian was concerned. Though a conquered and subject race, still their wills are unconquered, and it may be added in many cases unconquerable, and this, coupled with a serenity of mind and temperament characteristic of the race, together with a courage worthy of profound admiration, won for them an enviable record not sur- passed by any race which participated in the great conflict. We can not deny that there are many things in the history of the treatment of the Indians by our government which the Indians have just cause to resent; and likewise there are many reasons why they should not love the white man and his govern- ment. Nevertheless, the Indian usually does not lose his poise, and it became apparent to them that what menaced the white man menaced them also and their well being; in short, that their destiny was wrapped up in the destiny of all Americans, and without hesitation they threw themselves and all they had or held dear into the great conflict, cheerfully enlisting and going abroad to strangle autocracy on foreign soil. Those who have read this sketch attentively will not be surprised at this, for, of all men, probably the Chickasaws were excelled by none in their contempt for class distinctions. They had no leaders except those who won leadership by deeds of daring or otherwise; and even in council the greatest leader had only his own vote, while 510 SERGEANT OTIS W. LEADER A young Chickasaw who was decorated for distinguished services in action in the World War, and whose portrait was painted by order of the French Government as a typical aboriginal American The Chickasaw Nation out of council he was treated precisely like other members of the tribe, for they detested sycophancy, and when a distinguished leader passed from time to eternity, there was no such foolish law as that his heirs would inherit his honors or title. It did not take the Indian long to see which was the right side or where his duty called him, and we are not surprised to read that ten thous- and Indians were in the service, the most of them enlisting as volunteers, not waiting for conscription. Their subscriptions to the various Liberty loans, Victory loans, etc., approximating $25,000,000, certainly is a good show- ing in this respect; they likewise organized branches of the Red Cross, and formed knitting and sewing societies, all these activi- ties extending to far-away Alaska. It was wisely ordered that, in entering the service, Indians must not form separate companies or commands, but must enlist along with white troops upon an equal footing in all respects. The unanimous testimony of all Indian agents, school superintendents, and those in authority throughout the country is to the effect that the experience of the Indians, serving side by side with the whites, was the best possible training that they could have received. Thus, instances are given where full- bloods entered the service unable to speak English, but returned home with a good English vocabulary, while the timid gained confidence and a soldierly bearing of the highest order. And as to those who entered the army with a fair education, their constant contact with better educated whites rendered them conscious of their deficiencies, generating a worthy emulation for self-improvement, which was noted in all Indians who saw active service. Distinguished Service of Otis W. Leader— At the beginning of this chapter there is reproduced the photograph of Sergeant Otis W. Leader, whose distinguished services in the great war aic mentioned by Commissioner Sells (p. 17) in his 1919 report, though he is therein reported as a 511 The Chickasaw Nation three-fourths Choctaw, whereas he is in point of fact a Chickasaw. The error arose owing to the fact that Leader, although born a Chickasaw, was enrolled as a Choctaw. Governor Johnston wrote that he knew the father of Leader, that father and son were Chickasaws, the son attending a Chickasaw school, and that it not infrequently happened that a Chickasaw was en- rolled as a Choctaw and a Choctaw as a Chickasaw, mentioning an instance where twin brothers were enrolled, one as a Chickasaw and the other as a Choctaw. A letter from Leader confirmed the fact that by birth he was a Chickasaw, and he proved himself a worthy descendant of the primitive Chickasaws, who were the bravest of the brave; and a brief account of Leader's services will here be given. Leader was a resident of Oklahoma when a state of war was declared, but it so happened that on April 5, 191 7, while in Fort Worth, Texas, in the interest of some parties desiring to purchase cattle, an idle rumor reached him that he was suspected of being a German spy, and> stung by the imputation, on April 17, he applied to the McAlister, Oklahoma, recruiting station for ser- vice, and was accepted and given two weeks to wind up his affairs. Reporting to Oklahoma City, May 1, he was transferred to Fort Logan, Colorado, from there to El Paso, Texas, and assigned to Company H in the famous 1 6th Infantry regiment, of the regular army and sailed with that command overseas about June 1, 191 7, arriving at St. Nazaire, France, June 25, and, on the morning of the 26th, the boats glided through the locks amid the welcoming cheers of the French, for the arrival of these, the first American troops, was hailed as a very bene- diction from heaven, bringing renewed hope of victory which had been so long deferred as to make the heart sick. The other regiments to share this distinction with the Sixteenth were the Eighteenth, Twenty-sixth and Twenty-eighth. With bands playing and colors flying, the hardened veterans of the famous Sixteenth first encamped on French soil, and among these hardened veterans was the Chickasaw lad fresh and raw from the 512 The Chickasaw Nation plains of Oklahoma. How lonely he must have felt amid so many veterans of another race, three thousand miles across the sea and in a foreign land; and all these changes had taken place within the short space of two months and three weeks; and yet we will see that this Indian lad was soon to prove in valor, courage, and resourcefulness the equal of any of the vast hosts that landed on foreign soil to challenge autocracy and to offer their lives that freedom might not perish among men In due course the regiment marched to its first encampment and then came rain and mud, but neither storm or sunshine interfered in any way with the hard discipline that was to follow at once to train these first Americans for trench warfare, under the tutelage of French officers who for three years had endured all its horrors. Then came also the trip to Paris, and the second battalion of the Sixteenth was there when the historic words were uttered by Pershing, "Lafayette, we are here!" It so happened, or was so ordained, that these first American troops arrived in Paris on July 3, and, on the glorious fourth Paris threw off for the time being her weeds of mourning, and amid a strange intermingling of tears and laughter, shouts of joy and songs and music that stirred the souls of men, they marched through the streets of Paris. The parade was reviewed by President Poincare and Marshal Joffre, and, as the troops passed, the people exclaimed, "What giants they are!" but the Americans marched stolidly along, looking neither to the right or the left; and it was said that there was a faraway look in their eyes, as though a premonition had crept into their consciousness that a in few short days hundreds of this famous regiment would be cold in death, while other hundreds, torn by shot and shell, would be left as mere human wrecks to spend the remainder of their days in pain and anguish, many of them languishing for days and years, and languishing, to die. • The fair women of France were there with tears and kisses, and with their elegant lace handkerchiefs they wiped the sweat and the grime from the bronzed brows of these men, who, for- 513 The Chickasaw Nation saking their peaceful homes in far-away America, had crossed the seas to give their lives that France and the world might be free. Then came the hard training at Gondrecourt, soon to be followed on November 3, 1 91 7, by the Bathlemont raid, care- fully planned by the Germans, who cherished the hope that by this first blow at the Americans, German prowess would so triumph as to cow and break the spirit of the invading hosts, but destiny and valor ruled otherwise. It was about ten o'clock at night when the second battalion of the Sixteenth relieved the French along the rim of a hill that butted out toward the Rhine — Marne Canal; and this, their first tour of duty in the trenches, was in what was apparently a quiet sector, and the stillness of the desert brooded over the scene. But the Huns, ever alert, succeeded through traitorous signals from Bathlemont, in learning of the very hour when the Americans relieved the French; and now the day (der tag) had come to throw the German veterans, with three years' training in trench warfare, upon the unsuspecting and comparatively raw American troops, and wipe them out of existence. About three o'clock in the morning of November 3, 1917, hell's warfare suddenly broke loose; No Man's Land and the heavens were illumined by a blinding flare, while ton upon ton of Krupp shells from Krupp artillery swept the American sector, accompanied by the rattle of machine guns. The wily Hun had cut the wires, so that no call for relief could be sent to the Ameri- can artillery. The heavy German shells ripped up the American trenches, while torpedoes tore away the wire barricade for the onrush of the Germans, and some two hundred and fifty of the raiders, long drilled and trained for this very moment, rushed upon the Americans, and at last Americans were at grips with the Germans, and with the result that the world was soon to know that the Germans had met their destiny in the unconquer- able freemen of America. When daylight came, it was seen that 514 The Chickasaw Nation a sergeant and ten of his men had been taken by the Germans, that five were wounded, and that Corporal James B. Gresham, Privates Thomas Enright and Merle D. Hay, all of Company F, were lying in the muddy trenches, cold in death, the first Ameri- cans to make the supreme sacrifice for America and the world. The Chickasaw lad, Leader, was there in the strife with one of the two machine gun crews supporting the left flank of Company F, upon which the attack was made ; and while this was a minor action, in so far as the casualties were concerned, still it stirred all America, and, it may be added, Europe as well. At the second battle of the Marne, Leader was a corporal in charge of one of the two machine gun crews, and while ad- vancing in the face of the enemy, his entire gun crew and gun were blown off the face of the earth, he alone surviving. Recovering from shell shock, Leader seized a rifle and ad- vanced under fire with the infantry, being lost three days from his company, and while the infantry had the attention of the Germans, Leader crawled through an oatfield, down a small branch or ditch, and in this manner worked his way in behind the enemy and was within sixty feet of them before discovered, and having them covered with an automatic rifle, captured two machine guns and eighteen prisoners. This occurred on July 28, 19 18, the third day out, in the second battle of the Marne, at the Aisne-Marne sector. The strategy of the young Chickasaw had worked like a charm. The American infantry was advancing on the crews of these machine guns under a withering fire. When the Germans suddenly discovered the young Indian in the rear, with his automatic rifle leveled on them, they naturally supposed that he had ample reinforcements at hand, and losing their nerve, they likewise lost the day, surrendering unconditionally. Who doubts that the courage, the genius for strategy, and the inspiration which enabled this young Chickasaw to outwit and overcome the trained and hardened Prussian Guards in the most colossal war in the annals of the world, was inherited by 515 The Chickasaw Nation him from his ancient progenitors, who came near destroying De Soto and his army in 1541? The battle of Soissons was the great counter-offensive of the Allies, and the famous Sixteenth Regiment was in the midst of the battle, and when relieved on the fifth day, the casualties for the whole regiment were, killed, 204; wounded, 940; missing, 590; total 1,734, an d still they fought on to the last. The chaplain of the regiment (name not given) has this to say (p. 10) in the story of the Sixteenth. "The story of the regiment involves at every turn the story of that larger military unit of which it is a part, the Division. The history of the First Division in France has not yet been written, and the world at large has yet to learn of its heroic achievements. Let it be here recorded that the Sixteenth is proud, above all else, because it belongs to the invincible First, — first to arrive in France; first in sector; first to fire a shot at the Germans ; first to attack ; first to conduct a raid ; first to be raided ; first to capture prisoners ; first to inflict casualties ; first to shed its blood ; first in the number of casualties suffered ; first to be cited in general orders; first in the number of division, corps and army commanders and general staff officers produced from its personnel." This was the command under which the fate of the Chicka- saw lad was thrown by the fortunes of war, and he proved him- self a worthy member of that famous regiment. In conclusion it may be said that Leader fought and was wounded and gassed at Cantigny, May 28, 1918; fought at Soissons, Chateau-Thierry, July 18, 1918; fought in St. Mihiel Salient, September 12, 1918; fought in the Argonne Forest, October 1, 191 8, where he was again wounded and gassed; was cited for distinguished service, and was awarded the distinguished service cross. It is also of interest to note that this young Chickasaw was selected by the French government as a model aboriginal Ameri- can, and the French artist De Warreux painted his portrait, 516 The Chickasaw Nation which now graces the art museum in Paris, and that his portrait likewise hangs in the capital city of Oklahoma. Was not the selection of the Chickasaw lad, Otis W. Leader, by the great French republic to have his portrait painted as a typical aboriginal warrior a strange fortune, a strange destiny? Ten thousand American Indians, representing every tribe from the warm waters of the Rio Grande to the frozen seas upon the far-away shores of the Arctic Ocean, were in France, battling side by side with French soldiers for the freedom of mankind. A worthy inspiration prompted the French nation, as a mark of its appreciation, to select one from the ten thousand, whose portrait should grace their hall of fame as a silent testimonial of the nation's administration and gratitude for the courage, intrepidity, and nobility of character which prompted these Indians to for- sake their far-away homes and offer their lives for French freedom upon French soil. Was it a strange fortune, or are we justified in believing that destiny and an overruling Providence so ordered it, that of all the Indians in France a Chickasaw Indian whose ancestors were the inveterate foes of the French, and rescued from their dominion that vast domain of our country east of the Mississippi, should be selected as one out of ten thousand? Whatever may be the conclusion of the casuist or philosopher with respect to this matter, I do not think we should be surprised to learn that at the first call of their country, present day Chicka- saws promptly answered that call, as Piomingo and his Chicka- saws promptly answered the call of George Washington, and as their more remote ancestors answered the call of Englishmen before the Revolutionary War; for fidelity was always one of the noble traits of their character, and they were ever found side by side with English-speaking men, wherever they were called by the fortunes of war or peace. The uniform testimony of all is that Leader is quite modest and retiring in his temperament and disposition, and it may be 517 The Chickasaw Nation added that at the end of the war he returned to the farm near Gerty, Oklahoma, where on April 30, 1920, he was married to Miss Myrtle Smith, of Oklahoma city. In giving the story of Leader it should be noted that there were many other young Chickasaws who saw service abroad, many being wounded and gassed, while still others gave their lives in defense of their country, but had I all the facts, space would forbid an extensive account thereof However we may take the story of Leader's distinguished services as convincing evidence that the blood of the unconquerable spirit and in- domitable will of the primitive Chickasaw still courses through the veins and animates the souls of our modern Chickasaw citizens of Oklahoma and of the United States of America. Nor should it be supposed that the Chickasaws formed an exception, or that other Indians were less ready to offer their all upon the altar of their country in defense of the freedom of mankind. In this connection I will quote from Commissioner Sells (pp. 17 and 18) in his 191 9 report, omitting his reference to Leader, where he says: "Among those who won the croix de guerre was volunteer John Harper, a full-blood Uncompahgre Ute, of which details are lacking at this time ; Chester Armstrong Fourbear, a full-blood Sioux of South Dakota, cited for bravery in swift running as a messenger at Bellicourt; Ordnance Sgt. James M. Gordon of Wisconsin, cited for rescuing while under shell-fire a second lieutenant of the French army who was wounded while on an inspection tour; Nicholas E. Brown, a full-blood Choctaw, who when killed was a corporal in the I42d Infantry, composed largely of Oklahoma Indians, the honor being posthumously awarded; Marty Beaver, a full-blood Creek, on the military records as Bob Carr, an orphan boy who enlisted in Company F, I42d Infantry, Thirty-sixth Division, details at present lacking. "Alfred G. Bailey, a Cherokee of Oklahoma, had been in regular service with General Pershing in Mexico. He was a sergeant when killed in action in France and was awarded the distinguished service cross for creeping into the enemy's lines m The Chickasaw Nation alone far in advance of his regiment, where, unaided, he killed two German machine gunners and captured a third with his gun. "Walter G. Sevalia, of Brule, Wis., a corporal in Company F, Seventh Engineers, was cited for extraordinary heroism in action near Breuilles, France, in November, 191 8. He swam the Meuse under terrific fire, with a cable for a pontoon bridge, and later carried another cable over the Est Canal and across an open field covered by enemy guns. At this time he was wounded, but returned, bearing a message of great importance. "Probably no more brilliant instance is recorded than that furnished by Private Joseph Oklahombi, a full-blood Choctaw, of Company D, 141st Infantry, whose home is at Bismark, Oklahoma, and who received the croix de guerre under the order of Marshal Petain, commander-in-chief of the French armies of the east. A translation of the order follows: 11 'Under a violent barrage, dashed to the attack of an enemy position, covering about 210 yards through barbed -wire entangle- ments. He rushed on machine-gun nests, capturing 171 prisoners. He stormed a strongly held position containing more than fifty guns, and a number of trench mortars. Turned the captured guns on the enemy, and held the position for four days, in spite of a constant barrage of large projectiles and of gas shells. Crossed No Man's Land many times to get information con- cerning the enemy, and to assist his wounded comrades!' "Such deeds of highest service to unborn generations are a part of the glorious conclusion wrought by American arms and will out-live all memorial bronze and marble, for they will inspire the song and story of immortal tradition, and though recorded history may fail, these things that have been written into the psychology of human freedom and justice will endure." The last sentence quoted from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs is indeed eloquent, and breathes a noble spirit of patrio- tism not often to be found in the usually prosaic official report to the head of one of the great departments at Washington. It is believed, however, that it will meet a hearty response in the heart of every patriot who may read this report. Paradoxical as it may seem, when this country called on the North American Indians to leave their homes and offer their 519 The Chickasaw Nation lives upon the altar of this country, upon foreign soil, many of these Indians were not citizens of the United States, whose flag they were called to defend, although their ancestors occupied and owned this country for ages before Columbus set sail in 1492, which eventuated in the discovery of a new world. The laws of the white man denied to them this citizenship. Hon. Charles D. Carter has labored greatly in this matter, and did succeed in passing a bill through the House making nearly all the Indians citizens, but this bill was defeated in the Senate. On June 5, 191 9, Honorable Homer P. Snyder, Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs in the House of Representa- tives, introduced a bill granting citizenship to certain Indians, and this bill became a law on November 6, 19 19. This act pro- vides that every American Indian who served in the military or Naval establishments of the United States, and who has received an honorable discharge, is now a citizen of the United States, if he so desires. This was a tardy though well deserved act of justice. This citizenship was not given, however, until the spirits of some of these Indian lads were standing guard upon the banks of the Meuse and the Marne, beneath the silent moon; and while they fell upon the field of battle with their faces to the east, their hearts were at home in the west upon the open plains of far- away America. Of them it may be said in the words of Theodore O'Hara, a soldier of the South, "On fame's eternal camping-ground Their silent tents are spread, But glory guards, with solemn round, The bivouac of the dead." No storied urn or sculptured stone tells us of the valor, the patriotism, and the deeds of daring of the aborigines of America, and about all that there now remains in our country to remind 520 The Chickasaw Nation us of this noble people are a few soft and beautiful Indian names, scattered here and there, especially the names of rivers and streams This is especially so in the ancient homes of the Chickasaws east of the Mississippi, where nearly all the rivers and streams bear Chickasaw names. Each of these, as it flows silently ever onward towards the ocean, the mother of all waters, whispers softly of the intrepid and unconquerable warriors who once sported upon its waves, and who were as much at home upon the bosom of the deep as upon the land. Sitting besides these streams, if we but give leave to our memories to wander to the days when the Chickasaws were the unchallenged overlords of their vast domains, like the sweet memory of a dream, they whisper to us of their deeds of daring and the nobility of their characters. But are not the Chickasaws and all of the North American Indians entitled to something more than beautiful dreams? Is the day not near at hand, is it not here now, when these beautiful tributes of praise and patriotism, so eloquently por- trayed by the Indian Commissioner, should be translated into belated acts of justice, acts of a material character, and in that way repair, as far as that can be done, the many injustices of the past? We may at least indulge the hope that as a new congress succeeds a new congress in the coming years, with the bright light of truth shining upon the national Indian problem, a better and a brighter day will dawn for the Chickasaws, as well as for all other North American Indians. 521 INDEX INDEX Abel, Annie H., quoted 403, 406, 506 Ackia — Battle of 255 Country adjacent described . 256 Adair, James — His book 6 Prowess of Chickasaws on water 273 Quoted 201, 202, 204, 207, 208, 220 His prophecy fulfilled 278 Adultery, how punished 187 Agee, G. W., mentioned 459 Agriculture, progress in South 378 Alaska, Indian — Population of 490 Industries of 492, 493 Allen, "Private" John, men- tioned 465 Allotments, laws as to 468 Alsobrook, W. W., mentioned. . 15 Altitude, Chickasaw country ,62, 63 Of Memphis 104 Alvord and Bidgood, their book and researches 234 Amusements of Chickasaws . . 205 Appearance of Chickasaws 174,175,176 Armstrong, Henry Guion, killed in world-wide war . . 467 Atlantis, the 4 Azores, the 4 Bancroft, George — On place where Mississippi was discovered 54 Home of Chickasaws 93 Estimate of 153 Chickasaws on rivers 274 Barton, R. M., address De Soto Memorial 162-165 Bartram, William — His character and writings . 171 Quoted 175, 179, 181, 202, 211-214 Batts and Fallam explora- tions 234 Bayou Gayoso, described, fish in 109 Bethel Place, residence of P. C. Bethel 117 Biedma, Hernandez de — His narrative and character. 80 Quoted at large 83, 84 Bienville, Jean Baptiste Le- moyne, Sieur de — Sketch of 239 Makes war on Chickasaws 249, 250 His fort described 256 Second war with Chicka- saws 264, 265 Letter of resignation 268 Blocker, Milton, mentioned. . 113 Blount, Gov. W., at Nashville, conference 341 Bonaparte, Charles J., special report as to abuses in In- dian country 438 Bond, Re ford- Quoted as to title of Chicka- saws 398 Attorney for Chickasaws . . 488 As to English, spoken by Chickasaws 503 Bossu, Jean Bernard, on Chickasaws 271 Bourne, Edward G., discov- eries of De Soto 34, 36 Bradley, Judge J. P., opinion in Cherokee Tobacco Case 450 525 I n d e x Brown, John, claims Chicka- saw land near Savannah . . 353 Brown's Hill named for Dr. R. F. Brown 117 Brul^, Etienne, discoveries of 140,141 Bryce, James, on Southern people 384 Buckingham, Miles S., men- tioned 110 Burke, Hon. Charles H.— His address in Congress exposing professional guardians 442 New Indian commissioner. 442 Carnes, Gen. Sam. T., men- tioned 458,460 Carter, Charles D.— Quoted on Chickasaw tra- ditions 22, 23 Served with distinction 420, 520 Chairman Sequoyah memo- rial 366 Former Secretary of Chicka- saws 420 Mentioned 477 Catfish Bay 109 Catron, Chief Justice John, on right of title by dis- covery 293 Cemetery, ancient, at Pon- totoc 399 Centenary of Memphis — Executive Committee 156 Of Chickasaw triumphs 394 Chalmers, Judge H. H. — Mentioned 168 General J. R., mentioned ... 168 Chambers, Major Reed M., noted aviator in world- wide war 467 Chandler, Walter C, men- tioned 463 Character — Private, of Chickasaws 179 What we might learn there- from 223 Children, treatment of. . 193-195 Chautauqua, Lake of, empties into Mississippi 140 Cherokees — Claim lands of Chickasaws 303, 328, 329 Number of warriors 306 •Branch of Iroquois 358 Chesterton, G. K., on charac- ter of early Virginians. . . 373 Chickasaws — Origin of 14 Traditions as to origin of . 16, 17 Separation from Choctawsl9, 20 Dawn of history for 29 Reached by De Soto 34 The original 36 Who and what they were ... 37 Battles with De Soto 40 Receive De Soto 41 Cause of battle with De Soto 48 Chiefs of, in 1540 40 Challenge of Spaniards to single combat 50 Trails of 57-60 Endurance in running 60 Their home country 92 Long trail to the Mississippi 94 Their intermediate trail .... 94 Their short-cut trail 95 Water route to Great Lakes 140, 142 Home life of 170 Their appearance 174-176 Private character 179, 180 Their language 181-183 Dwelling houses 183 Names of towns 185 Courtship and marriage 186, 187 Marital relations 187-189 Names of 192, 193 526 Index Chickasaws — Continued Treatment of children . . 193-195 Food given to world 195-197 What they ate 200-203 Their medicine 204 Amusements 205 As hunters 205,206 Their endurance 206 Their government 208-212 Their religion 213-219 Making war 220 Mound builders 221-223 What we might learn from them 223-227 Eloquence 227-229 History from De Soto until first treaty with United States. . . . 232 and following Their country in 1682 238 Meet Iberville and Bien- ville 239 Population of 242 Friends of English 243 Why hostile to French 244 Cause of war with French . 247 Defeat D'Artaguette. . . .251-254 Defeat Bienville 255-263 Second war with Bienville 264-268 War with Vaudreuil 269, 270 Prowess on Mississippi Riv- er 271 Defied the French 276 First council with English. . 277 Historic points in Chicka- saw country and map of same 285-291 Defeat Shawnees 302 Country of, described by Rogers 304,305 Treaties with United States . . 305-325 Claim country near Savan- nah 353 Story since 1832 394 Chickasaws — Continued Centenary of triumphs. .394, 395 Exiled in 1836 394 Removal west 396 Purchase new home 397 In Civil War 402 Treaty with Confederacy . . 406 Desolations of Civil War. . . 408 Clung to South 411 Treaty of 1866 412-415 Struggle for racial purity . . . 415 Constitutions and laws of, 419,420 Dawes Agreement 420, 421 All treaties with, abrogated 421-424 Protest against dissolution of tribal government . . 430 Despoiled of land 431-433 In the twentieth century, characteristics of 455> Left impress on people who succeeded them 455 Equitable claims 473 Made citizens 474 Present population of. . .481,482 Unsold property 484-487 Board for indigent suggest- ed 486 Present officials 488 School children 501-504 Present religion 505-507 Claim vs. United States507-509 In world-wide war 511-519 Appeal in their behalf, for justice 521 Rolls padded by white per- jury 496 Chickasaw Bluffs — Fourth described 104 Beauty of 110,111 Country opposite 133 The four located 237 Earliest settlers 353 527 Index Chickasaw Guards — Short sketch of 456 Naming 458 First service 459 First defeat of 460 Successful tours 460 Rank and file of 460 In world-wide war 462 Casualties among 467 Honors in great war 464 Chidester, Walter, mentioned . 7 Chisca village described by Garcilaso 125 House of cacique on high mound 126 Cacique or chief spoken of, Chisca 126 Chisca, village in East Ten- nessee 32 Choate, Joseph H., quoted. . . 445 Choctaws — Cushman among 14 Origin of 17-27 As Mound Builders 24 Could not swim 143 War with Chickasaws 244 Number of warriors 304 Join French against Chick- asaws 250, 260, 266 Torn by dissensions 270 Favor French 275 D'Tocqueville on removal . . 397 Citizenship — Conferred on certain In- dians 468 Conferred on Chickasaws . . 475 Participants in world-wide war made citizens 520 Civil War— Chickasaws in 402 Chickasaws sought by South 403 Neglected by North 404 Desolation of 409 Claiborne, J. F. H.— Admiration for Chickasaws . 51 On cause of hostility of Chickasaws to French . 244 Clapp, W. L., mentioned 462 Clark, Champ, on Sequoyah . . 366 Colbert, Frank O., Chickasaw artist 477 Colbert, Levi, high character of 317 Colbert, William, speech for United States 352 Career of 411 Columbus — Voyage of discovery 1 Claims by right of discovery 2 Congress sets aside all trea- ties 422 Constitution and laws of Chickasaws 420 Cotton crop, value of 379 Cotton Gin Port, described ... 255 Courtship and marriage. . . 186, 187 Crawford, West J., mentioned 466 Creeks — Number of warriors 306 Defeated by Chickasaws. . . . 347 Crum, C. L — On country from Holly Springs to New Albany 76 To erect De Soto marker. . . . 169 Map of historic points . . . 285, 289 Cummins, Holmes, men- tioned 507 Curd, C. H. , trip with 71 Cruse, Gov. Lee, second gov- ernor 477 Cushman — His book 15 Quoted 16, 19, 114, 207, 221 Cypress — Brakes, described 68 Bald, described 68 Lone sentinel 69 528 Index D'Artaguette, Chevalier, sig- nal defeat 251 Davant, James S., Jr., com- mended 466 Dawes, agreement 420 Dawes commission report 422-424 Dr. Barrows on 431 Criticized 424-431 Illogical argument vs. own- ership in common 434 Indians defrauded by 468 De L'Isle— His map- 97 Further considered 154 De Soto, Hernando — Early life 29 Lands in Florida 31 Reaches Chickasaws 35 Battles with Chickasaws. . . 40 How received by Chick- asaws 41 Cause of battles 48 Narratives quoted and com- pared 79 Route to the Mississippi River 92 At Chickasaw Bluffs 104 Camps near a river bank .. . 118 Crosses the Mississippi 131 At the Mississippi 129 Lake in Minnesota named for 140, 168 Fish taken where Mississip- pi was discovered 145 Memorial at Memphis erect- ed 156, 157 Tomb of, by Walter Malone. 162 Honored by Minnesota and Mississippi 168 Had no cannon 257 De Tocqueville, Alexis — Mentioned 55 On slavery in the South. . . . 383 On removal of Choctaws 397 Discovery, right of title by . . . 293 Douglass, G. M., mentioned . . 131 Duncan, R. P., captain of Chickasaw Guards 458 Du Pratz, M. LeParge, describes primeval beauty of Memphis Ill Quoted 245,246 Eastman, Charles A. — Quoted 436 His book and works 437 Edmonds, Richard H. — Gives statistics on Southern crops and industries .... 380 Editorial on Southern peo- ple 392 Ellis, Mary L. M., mentioned. 113 Eloquence of Indians 228-230,327,328,329 Elvas, Gentleman of — His character and narrative 79 Quoted at large 81 Endurance of Chickasaws .... 206 English — Chickasaws, friends of 244 Gain control of South 277 First council with Chicka- saws 278 First in Mississippi basin explorations 235 Eskimos — Appearance and origin of . . . 7 Number in Alaska 494 Farley, John W. — His monograph 386 Statistics and politics 386 His views as to negro prob- lem 386 Ferguson, Kenneth, early set- tler 353 Fish taken by De Soto 145 Five Civilized Tribes — Defined 370 Driven from home 425 Their character 427 529 I n d e x Fontaine, Captain J. D., men- tioned 98 Food given to world by In- dians, of Chickasaws . .115, 201 Forrest, N. B., mentioned .... 169 Foster, George E., quoted. 301, 328 Freedmen, Chickasaws refuse to adopt 416 French — Cause of hostility of Chick- asaws to 255 Extirpate Natchez 246 Cause of war with Chicka- saws 248 French Nancy, adopted by Chickasaws 255 Gailor, Bishop Thomas F.,on De Soto memorial 157 Gaines, J. Paul — Mentioned 106 Reproduces Lusher 's map. . 148 Reproduces Tindall's map. . 257 Drawn map of historic points in Chickasaw country 286 Garcilaso de la Vega — His character and narrative 79, 122 Quoted 50,123-125 Gayoso, Bayou — Described 109 Fish in 110 Gayoso, Manuel De Lemos — Writes to Piomingo 345 Conference with Piomingo. 348 His character 346 Pen picture of 349 Gentes, how Chickasaws were divided into 190 Gist, George, father of Sequo- yah 358 Goodwin, Robert B., trans- lates Richlet's Florida 125 Gordon, Gen. George W. — Member Chickasaw Guards 458 Mentioned 462 Government of Chickasaws . . . 209 Grafters preying on Indians. . 439 Grant, Jesse R., gives views of Gen. Grant 393 Grant, U. S., on Southern peo- ple 392 Guardians — Professional 440 How they robbed Indian orphans 440 Statistics as to frauds of . . . . 443 Guion, Major Isaac, at Chicka- saw Bluffs 351 Haiti, fate under negro rule . . . 375 Halbert, H. S., quoted as to smaller tribes 275 Hamilton, Peter H., an ex- cellent authority, quoted. 239 Hay good, Atticus G., on the negro problem 385 Helena Trace 97 Henderson, Col. Richard — Mentioned 303 At Sycamore Shoals 329 Historic points in Chickasaw country and map thereof. 286 Hog and hominy first meet. . . 47 Holly Springs — Name of 55 Roads to 96 Holmes, Finley, mentioned . . . 169 Holmes, Francis, mentioned . . 169 Holmes, J. E., address of 166 Holmes, Rev. James, and Em- bry M 507 Home of Chickasaws 93 Life of 171 Houses of Chickasaws 183 Hunt, Sgt. Jesse, killed in action 467 Hunters, Chickasaws as 206 530 / nd e x Iberville, Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur de, sketch of 239 Indians — Origin of 1 Origin of the name 2 Probable origin 7-13 How they preserved histor- ical events 16 Their rights to the soil 293 Had able defenders 297 Encouraged to make debts. . 311 Interest on money 319 Well understood purposes of whites 327 Eloquence of 228-230, 234 Helplessness of, shown 424 Wide divergence as to 426 Desire for ownership, in common 434 Robbed according to law. . 439 Easily cheated 439 Conception as to Jesus 436 Certain, made citizens 468 Progress of 493 In world-wide war 510-519 Participants in world-wide war made citizens 520 In census of 1920 474 Rolls of, padded by per- jury of whites 495, 496 Indian Rights Association, work of 446 Interpretation of language.. 55 Jackson, Andrew, acquire in- terest in Rice Grant 316 Jackson, Helen Hunt — Her book, A Century of Dishonor 453 Japanese, discoveries of 6 Jarratt, J. B., on supposed De Soto relics 289 Jefferson, Thomas — On the Indians 228 Endeavors to befriend Chickasaws 311 On slavery 374 Johnston, Gov. Douglass H., argument against adop- tion of slaves, presents claims vs. United States 418 Johnstone, George, Governor of west Florida 277 Jones, L. B., quoted 74 Judiciary sustains congress in abrogation of all treaties. 446 Justice of its views criti- cized 446 Opinions of, in the forum of conscience 451 Kyle, William H., mentioned. 463 Labauve, Felix, mentioned . . . 169 Lafayette, Marquis D. — Speech of Mushalatubbee to, 229 Lamar, L. Q. C, on the Union 381 Language of Chickasaws 181 Laps, appearance and origin of 7 La Salle, Chevalier de, expedi- tion of 236 Latham, Lieut. F. S., killed in world-wide war 467 Latrobe, John H. B., counsel for Chickasaws 413 Lawrence, Wm. L., assistance of 418 Lawson, John — His character and writings . 215 Quoted 180 Leader, Otis W. — Sketch of his distinguished service in world-wide war 511 Receives distinguished ser- vice cross 518 His portrait painted by French 518 League of Nations will be eventually adopted 371 531 Index Leftwich, Geo. J. — Indian trails 59 Quoted as to Bienville's fort 256 On Chickasaws 275 Leupp, Francis E.— As Indian commissioner .... 423 Quoted 426 Why quoted 429 Lewis, Theodore H.— Mentioned 79 As historian, etc 86 His conclusions criticized. 86-107 Lincecum, Dr. Gideon — Among the Choctaws 20 As to Mound Builders 24 Quoted 20,24-26 Literary Digest — Quoted as to League of Na- tions 371 Quotes Chesterton 373 Lloyd, Elwood, canoe trip on Mississippi 141 Logan, speech of 228 Lone Wolf, case of 449 Love, W. A., quoted 507 Lowe, Dr. E. N. , letter of 62 Lusher's map referred to, as reproduced by J. Paul Gaines. (See at back of this book.) 75,95-98 Paul Gaines 147 Lynchings of negroes in South and North 391 Magellan, Ferdinand, nearly circumnavigates the globe 3 Malone, F. J.— His death mentioned 65 Mentioned 169 On fate of the negro 385 His views of 386 Malone, John T. , mentioned . . 169 Malone, Walter — De Soto at Mississippi 129 Presentation of Hernando De Soto to King and Queen 164 Tomb of De Soto 162 Place of birth 169 Manufacturers Record — Statistics from 380 Editorial on Southern people 392 Maps — As to their value 97 Of DeLisle 97,154 Lusher's (see at back of this book). Of historic points in Missis- sippi (see at close of Chapter IX) 286 Marquette, Pierre, quoted as to Chickasaws 234 Marriage and divorce, pro- hibited within certain de- grees 187-191 Marshall, John — On right of title by dis- covery 296 Opinion in Cherokee case . . . 447 Martin, Francis Xavier, sketch of 268 Martin, W. P., mentioned 458 McFarland, Judge L. B., men- tioned 173 Medicine of Chickasaws 204 Memorial, De Soto, inscrip- tions 158 Memphis — DuPratz describes the beau- ty of primeval site of . . . 104 De Soto discovers Mississip- pi River on site of 116-133 Fort Prudhomme not site of 239 Centenary of 156 Birth of 314 532 Index Minnesota names lake for De Soto 168 Missionaries, their lives of de- votion to the service of the Indians 505 Mississippi names county for De Soto 168,169 Negro population decreased 380 Historic points in and map of same 286 Mississippi River — Importance of discovery 140 Described 140-143 Number of fish taken 145 Prowess of Chickasaws on . . 272 Mitla, ruins of 16 Mixon, Miss Ada, article of. . 152 Mizell, William, early settler . 353 Mobile, founded by Iberville and Bienville 150 Montaigne, Michael De, his opinions of Indians 230 Moorehead, Warren K., his work and pamphlet quoted !" . . . 441 Morgan, J. B., mentioned.. . . 169 Moscoso, Luis de, master of the camp 49 Mott, M. L., report of 445 Mounds (Indian) — Where Mississippi discover- ed 126 Near Indian villages 136 Mound Builders — Indians were 24 Chickasaws as 221 Mound City, Arkansas, coun- try adjacent described. . . . 100 Murray, William H. — Mentioned 447 Quoted 427 President Const. Con 477 Murrow, Rev. J. S. — His services and pamphlet . . 439 Quoted 440 Mushalatubbee, speech of, to Lafayette 230 Names of Chickasaw towns . . 185 Of children 192 Natchez — The furthest advanced 12 Cause of extirpation 246 Not due to Chickasaws .... 246 Nashville — Conference in 1792 57, 340 Robertson, father of 306 National Geographic Maga- zine, quoted from on con- ditions in Haiti 377 Needham, Thomas, explora- tions of 235 Negro — Rule in the South over- thrown 374 Incapacity to rule shown in Haiti 375 Sentiments of South to- ward 385 Decreasing in population in census of 1920 385-389 New Orleans, founded by Bienville 239 Nome, Alaska, visit to 8 Nonconnah, Creek — And its bottom described . 65, 105 A small river 120 Oconostota, speech of, to Hen- derson, etc 330 Oglethorpe, James — Founds Georgia 300 League with Chickasaws ... 39 Oklahoma, name of probably a Chickasaw word 479 Origin of Indians 1, 14-27 Origin of Chickasaws 14-27 Origin of Muskhogeans 27 633 Index Orphans of Indians, how robbed by law 440 Ortiz, Juan, captivity 31 Overton, John — Buys rice grant 316 Founder of Memphis 316 Owen, Robert L., on Sequoyah 366 Ownership in common, ar- gument for 434 Parkman, Francis, error as to English explorations 235 Pashby , C. C, letter of 62 Paustoobee, young Chickasaw chief, gives religious views 216 Perrier, M., extirpates the Natchez 247 Peters, Col. Isaac F., men- tioned 462 Phelan, James — Quoted on century of dis- honor 329 Quotes speech of Oconosto- ta 330 Pickett, Albert J.— His writings and character. . 173 Quoted 178,185,206 His tribute to Chickasaws . . 282 Pigeons, wild, described 71 Pigeon Roost Creek 75 Pigeon Roost Road, described 65 Pigeon Roost and Chulahoma Turnpike 100 Pike, Albert- Treaty by 407 His character 408 Letter to Holmes 410 Piomingo — Describes boundaries of Chickasaws 57 Sketch of , 331 Could not read 332 Meaning of name 332 Birth and death 333 Piomingo — Continued First heard of 333 Friend of Robertson 337 Aids St. Clair and Wayne 338-344 Washington's letter 340 Nashville conference 340 Describes Chickasaw coun- try 342 Marked for assassination . . . 344 Conference with Gayoso . . . 348 Last appearance 351 Speaks for United States.. 352 Family of 354 Honored 355 Street named for 357 Pontotoc — City of 95 Ancient cemetery 400 Pontotoc, county of 93 Pontotoc Ridge described. . . .59-93 Pope gives worlds to Spain and Portugal 394 Poplar Ridge 107 Population — Of primitive Chickasaws 243, 477 Of Choctaws 243 Of Creeks 243 Of Cherokees and others. . . . 243 Present Indian 481 Present Chickasaw 482 Present Indian 488 Porter, James D., article by . . 115 Prudhomme Fort site not that of Memphis 236 Quizquiz — Location 116 Near Mississippi River. ... 116 De Soto captures 118 Rainfall in Chickasaw coun- try 61 Ranjel, Rodrigo — Character and narrative 81 Quoted at large 85 534 Index Ransom, Capt. Joe R. T. — Mentioned 464 Decorated for bravery in action 467 Rawlings, J. J., character and quoted 103 Religion — Of Chickasaws 213-215 Embrace Christian 505 Reynolds, Benj., remembered by Chickasaws 325 Riano, Juan, embassador men- tioned 156 Rice and Ramsey Grants on Chickasaw Bluff 315 Robertson, James — League with Chickasaws. ... 39 Founder of Nashville 306 Died among Chickasaws. . . . 346 Rogers, Major Robert, on Chickasaws 304 Romans, Bernard — Visits Chickasaws 182 Quoted 185 Roosevelt, President — Appoints special inspectors for Indian country .... 439 Quoted 182 Ross, W. T., quoted as to name, etc., of Holly Springs 55 Rowland, Dr. Dunbar — On where Mississippi was discovered 52 Shifts his defense as to topography and geology 55 Conclusions questioned .... 107 Salt licks and value 112 Game at 114 Prized by Chickasaws 115 Schools, Chickasaw children in 502 Sells, Hon. Cato— Policy as Indian commis- sioner 470 Quoted 470,471 Policy discussed 471 Commended 501 On service of Indians in world-wide war 519 Sequoyah — Statue in Statuary Hall 299 Sketch of 358 Mother of 359 Devoted mother 360 Skilled silversmith 361 Wife of 362 Invents syllabic alphabet. . . 362 Philosophy of invention. . . . 364 Alphabet described 364 Teaches little daughter .... 365 In the Hall of Fame 366 Last days of 367 Born in Tennessee 360-366 Proposed state of 430, 476 Shands, G. D., mentioned 169 Shawnees, thrust by Chicka- saws from Tennessee . . . 302 Shea, John Gilmary — Quoted 152 Quotes Marquette 234 Simon, the Brave, account of his bravery 262 Slavery — Jefferson on 374 Chickasaws refuse to adopt slaves 416 Sniffen, M. K., mentioned .... 446 South, the, and intellectual men 368 Five Civilized Tribes 370 Southern men's labors in for- mation of United States 370 Parts taken by Jefferson, Washington, Madison, Monroe, Marshall, Wil- son 370 535 I n d e x South, the, and Intellectual men — Continued After abolition of slavery . . . 374 Example of Haiti 375 After emancipation, pros- perity of 379 Attitude towards union 381 Grant, U. S., on people of, in census of 1920 392 Speckled Snake, speech to Jackson 328 Story, Joseph, dissents in fa- vor of Indians 299 Stratton, B. M., as to wild pigeons 74 Stuart, Rev. T. C, centenary of labors for Chickasaws . 400 Swaney, W. B — On Marshall 372 Safeguards of liberty, on Jefferson 374 Swanton, John R. — On Adair 5 Mentioned 139 Tate, Lieut. Thomas S., killed in world-wide war 467 Taylor, Gen. Arthur R — Mentioned 304 His history of Chickasaw Guards 457 Mentioned 464 Tindall, George Gaines, map reproduced 257 Tishomingo, annuity provid- ed.... 320 County, etc., named for. . . 321 Topography — Of Chickasaw country 62 Of Chickasaw Bluff 104 Trace of Chickasaws — Superiority of 57 To Natchez ceded to United States 59 Trace of Chickasaws — Con- tinued To Chickasaw Bluff 59 Short cut 65-95 From Holly Springs to New Albany 76 Indian traces everywhere over country 58 Helena, on Lusher's map 97 Trails, see Trace. Treaties — The first treaties with the Chickasaws 292-306 Title by discovery 293 First or unofficial, with Chickasaws 301 Of 1786 307 Of 1801 308 Ceding Natchez trail 308 Of 1805 310 Of 1816 313 Preceding birth of Memphis 314 Heart breaking, of 1832-34. United States agrees never to disturb Chick- asaws in new home 318 Of Washington, 1852 399 Of Washington, 1855 401 Not creditable 401 Treaty with Confederacy . . . 407 Of 1866 413 Congress set aside all, abro- gation of in the forum of conscience 451 Claim of Chickasaws vs. United States under treaty of 1866 508 Tuggle, George R., mentioned 113 Turley, Thomas B., mentioned 466 Turner, Dr. B. F — Address of dedication of De Soto memorial 159 Upham, Warren, describes Lake Hernando De Soto. . 168 536 Index Vance, Re. H., mentioned 169 Vaudreuil, Marquis De, war with Chickasaws 270 Vikings, discoveries of 6 Walker, Francis A., quoted on white intruders 431 War- How made by Chickasaws . . 220 World-wide, Indians in 510 Chickasaws in 512 First Americans killed 514 Wardle, Lieut. H. Allen, cap- tured in world-wide war . . 467 Washington, Booker, a wise counsellor 385 Washington, George — Letter to Piomingo 340 Confirms boundaries of Chickasaw country 344 Lionizes Piomingo 345 Talks to Chickasaws 345 Wayne, Gen. Anthony, aided by the Chickasaws 344 Wesley, Rev. John, interview with Chickasaw Chief 216 Westbrook, J. H. P., men- tioned 169 Wheatley, Seth, mentioned ... 110 White, Chief Justice E. D., appointed 382 White, T. W., mentioned 169 Winchester, James- One of proprietors of Mem- phis 316 Locates state line 316 Winsor, Justin, misquoted . . 152 Winston, E. T — On hog and hominy 47 De Soto's route 99 Mentioned 400 Furnishes data for map of historic points in Chick- asaw country 286 Wirt, William, ably defends Indians 297 Wolf River described 105 Wolf's Friend- Character 400 Friend of Spaniards 352 Wood, Abraham, early explo- rations 235 Woodruff, Clinton R., special report on abuses in Indian country 439 Wutteh— Mother of Sequoyah 360 Devoted wife and mother. . . 360 Wyly, A. S., report as super- visor 503 Young, Judge J. P.— On where Mississippi was discovered 52 Pigeon Roost Road 75 His article on Fort Prud- homme 238 Zapico, Emilio — His visit to Memphis 156 Address accepting copy of Hernando De Soto 167 Zenobe — Father DeMembre 236 Quoted 2 36 537 LUSHfXS MAP ~ as xerxosucra OJL J". PAUL Oi/l/rtCZ. C£- OSI£j rfam*.* of Cot/*s n/ytcf t we U/fder \score4J do /?*/ .AMDS IN MlSSiSSiff I _, c«4*4 \>i tv,« CHIC KA5AW5 Um* Un it%* State* ■ < lilt* It i^ c-£*4+^> 14 DAY i] 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. 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