This website is dedicated to helping preserve traditional Chahta anumpa nan anoli (Choctaw stories). This is an ongoing project, and more materials will be added on a regular basis.
According to traditional narratives, under the leadership of two brothers Chahtah and Chikasah, the ancient Choctaw people migrated from present-day Mexico to present-day Mississippi.
E-mail: s_m_g_@outlook.com
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Choctaw man on horseback (1853) by H. B. Mollhausen
(Published with permission of the Oklahoma Historical Society)
This drawing from Catlin’s North American Indian Portfolio (1844) shows differences in the tolih (ball play) customs among the Choctaw and Sioux. The Choctaw played with a stick in each hand. The Sioux used one stick, which was generally held with both hands. The tail also differed. The Choctaw generally made the tail of white horsehair. The Sioux usually made the tail of quills. (Catlin Illustrations of the Manners 3-8)
This drawing from Catlin’s Illustrations of the Manners (1866) shows the Eagle Dance, in honor of that bird. Twelve or sixteen Choctaw men performed the dance. “Spears were stuck in the ground, around which the dance was performed by four men at a time, who had simultaneously, at the beat of the drum, jumped up from the ground where they had all sat in rows of four, one row immediately behind the other, and ready to take the place of the first four when they left the ground” (183).
Copyright © by Sandra M. Grayson. All rights reserved.