Choctaw Tales
Choctaw Tales
Stories from the Firekeepers
From the earliest stories recorded among the Choctaw in the 1700s to the most recent stories being told today, Choctaw Tales: Stories from the Firekeepers amasses the most comprehensive collection of oral traditions of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians ever published. Originally published in 2004, Choctaw Tales was a celebration of the art of storytelling, including myths, legends, supernatural tales, prophecies, historical anecdotes, tall tales, and animal stories. Through these stories, which include fifty new stories in this edition, Choctaw narrators create, express, and negotiate their beliefs, values, humor, and life experiences, as well as those of their ancestors before them. Their stories display the intelligence, artistry, and creativity of storytellers past and present. Choctaw Tales includes new and expanded materials to keep this valued resource current.
Nestled in the middle of Mississippi woodlands, the Choctaw have long been an elusive community to outsiders. Racial prejudice and historical mistreatment made the Choctaw wary of their neighbors. Many of their stories address this tension, both subtly and boldly. Virtually all the stories tackle either cosmological, historical, relational, or personal questions about the world and its inhabitants, offering complex responses in the guise of seemingly simple stories. For the Choctaw audience, the stories often need little explanation. However, a series of essays on Choctaw storytelling, coupled with careful annotation of each story and short biographies of each storyteller, help make this vibrant oral tradition understandable to today’s general audiences.
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION:Choctaw Tales is a fine addition to Tom Mould’s oeuvre on verbal art among the Choctaw, a large and important Native American people of the Southeastern United States. Viewed more broadly, it is also a major addition to the folklore literature of the Native peoples of Eastern North America.
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION:This is a good and intelligent collection of tales of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw people. It will be of value and interest to an academic audience and the general reader. It deserves a wide readership who will find the collection an engaging and thought-provoking read.
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION:[This book] adds to the knowledge and interpretation of Native American history and literature. Mould makes available narratives collected by ethnographers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, along with contemporary narratives. As he shows, oral traditions still serve this community.
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION:The stories in this landmark volume were collected from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, one of eight Choctaw bands in the state, by Mould, a professor of folklore, and his fieldworkers. Teachers, health workers, counselors at a Choctaw language camp, artists, basket makers, and elders—some speaking only Choctaw—contributed stories that have been passed on for centuries. These include two creation stories, one telling of the tribe’s migration to Mississippi from the West, the other telling of its emergence from a sacred mound, led by divine providence. Then there are the shukha anumpa (‘hog talk’), humorous stories that are either exaggerations of human foibles, often with a Christian moral, or animal stories, where cleverness is rewarded and pride punished. There are supernatural stories revolving around the devil, historical legends recounting the Choctaw removal to Oklahoma in 1830, and prophetic tales telling of coming disasters. Included are short biographies of all the storytellers and sixteen tales transcribed in Choctaw as well as English—making them especially valuable for future scholars.
Tom Mould is professor of anthropology and folklore at Butler University. He is author of Choctaw Prophecy: A Legacy of the Future; Still, the Small Voice: Narrative, Personal Revelation, and the Mormon Folk Tradition; and Overthrowing the Queen: Telling Stories of Welfare in America, which won the Brian McConnell Book Award and the Chicago Folklore Prize. Rae Nell Vaughn is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and has served as chief justice for the Choctaw Supreme Court, chief of staff for the tribal chief, chairwoman of the board of directors of a tribally owned business, and tribal archivist.
Contents
Foreword by Chief Phillip Martin 000
Preface to the Second Edition000
Preface to the First Edition 000
Introduction 000
THE STORYTELLERS 000
THE GENRES OF CHOCTAW STORYTELLING 000
Native Terms 000
Commentary and Context 000
Patterns of Performance 000
Synthesis: Supernatural Stories000
A Note on the Texts 000
CREATION STORIES AND MYTHS 000
The Choctaw Creation Legend 000
Nané Chaha 000
Men and Grasshoppers 000
Creation of the Tribes 000
Origin of the Crawfish Band 000
A Short Story of the Creation of the First Man000
The Creation of the Choctaw 000
The Migration Legend 000
Migration 000
Tradition of the Flood 000
The Flood 000
Lightning and Thunder 000
Thunder and Lightning 000
Fani Losa and the Sun 000
Dark Sun 000
The Origin of Corn 000
Corn-Finding Myth 000
Wild Geese and the Origin of Corn 000
The Geese, the Ducks, and Water 000
The Life of Dogs 000
How the Snakes Acquired Their Poison 000
The Owl000
Tashka and Walo 000
The Hunter of the Sun 000
Yallofalaiya 000
Nameless Choctaw 000
The Hunter and the Alligator 000
SUPERNATURAL LEGENDS AND ENCOUNTERS 000
The Girl and the Devil 000
The Eagle Story000
Skate’ne000
Hoklonote’she 000
A Story of Kashikanchak 000
Kashikanchak 000
The Spectre and the Hunter 000
The Hunter Who Became a Deer 000
The Man Who Became a Snake 000
Horse Man 000
Half Horse, Half Human 000
Kashehotapalo 000
Na Losa Falaya000
Manlike Creature 000
Okwa Nahollo—White People of the Water 000
Big Pond 000
The Water Choctaw 000
The Mermaid 000
Voices on the Mound 000
The Long-Haired Lady 000
Pa̱š Falaya 000
Nishkin Chafa—One-Eye 000
Headless Man 000
The Inhuman Na Losa Chito 000
The Demon Na Losa Chito 000
A Big Hog 000
Big, Black, Hairy Monster 000
Black Dog 000
Choctaw Bigfoot 000
Na Losa Chito’s Lair 000
The Black Stump 000
The Choctaw Robin Goodfellow 000
The Little People in Nanih Waiya Cave 000
Doors in Nanih Waiya Cave 000
Watcher in the Woods 000
Throwing Rocks 000
Throwing Competition 000
No Playing after Dark 000
The Floating Light 000
Lights 000
Kowi Anukasha 000
Medicine Woman 000
The Little Man 000
Pile of Rocks 000
A Witch000
Choctaw Doctors 000
Shape Changer 000
The Baseball Game 000
Dancing Lights 000
Hashok Okwa Hui’ga—Dew Drop (Will-o’-the-Wisp) 000
The Blue Light 000
Disappearing Lights 000
Lingering Spirit000
The Ghost 000
Spirit of the Dead 000
Two Brothers 000
HISTORICAL TALES 000
The Coming of Christianity 000
Helping the New Immigrants 000
White Men Bring Alcohol 000
Fighting the Muskogees 000
Crossing the Line 000
Pushmataha 000
Death of Pushmataha 000
Pushmataha’s Suspicious Death 000
Removal000
Hiding to Avoid Removal 000
Second Removal and Return 000
Sneaking Back from Oklahoma000
Land Swindling000
Grandfather’s Land 000
Burning Sticks 000
Escaping Slavery 000
Sinking Ship 000
German Surrender 000
Army Volunteer 000
Patriots 000
Go Back to Europe 000
Poll Tax000
Segregation in the Fields and at the Movies 000
Injustice at the Laundromat 000
Discrimination 000
Murder of Civil Rights Workers 000
Mississippi Burning 000
Banned 000
Troubling Times
Treated like a Dog 000
Framed for Murder 000
Whites-Only Water Fountain 000
Shortchanged
Overcharged 000
Some Bad, Some Good000
No Trust and No Choctaw 000
Served in the Back in High School 000
Eat in the Back 000
A Simple Hello
Believe It When You See It
Segregation Then and Now 000
Housing Discrimination000
PROPHECY 000
Changing Landscape and Intermarriage 000
Invention of the Airplane 000
Planes, Roads, and Culture 000
Intermarriage, Roads, and Changing Seasons 000
Changing World 000
Electricity, Plumbing, and Social Dancing 000
Cars, Roads, and Changing Values 000
Gender Roles, Roads, and Housing 000
A Fearful Future 000
A Great Illness 000
Prophecies of Disease 000
Snatched from Above 000
The Third Removal 000
War 000
Land Getting Old 000
Extinction 000
Snake Returns 000
End of the World 000
Big Fire 000
JOKES AND TALL STORIES 000
The Car 000
Running Water 000
Whatyousay 000
Time to Kill Hogs 000
The Horse’s Egg 000
The Funeral 000
The White Cat 000
The Man and the Turkey 000
Talking Frogs 000
A Praying Bear 000
The Dog Who Spoke Choctaw 000
The Trip to Arkansas 000
Tall Stories 000
The Lucky Shot000
Help from Above 000
ANIMAL STORIES000
The Ball Game 000
Race between the Hummingbird and the Crane 000
The Hummingbird 000
The Dove Story000
How the Biskantak Got Water for the Birds 000
Why the Buzzard Has More Offspring than the Owl 000
Why the Guinea Hen Is Speckled 000
Boatmaker 000
The Hunters and the Bears 000
Rabbit and the Bears 000
How the Bear Lost His Tail 000
How the Rabbit Got a Short Tail 000
How the Bullfrog Lost His Horns 000
How the Alligator Got His Back 000
Rabbit and Turtle Race 000
Race between the Turkey and the Terrapin 000
Turtle and Turkey 000
Why Terrapins Never Get Fat 000
Turtle, Turkey, and the Ants 000
Why There Are Seams in the Terrapin’s Shell000
Why the Turtle’s Shell Is Sewed Up 000
How the Terrapin Lost the Ability to Climb Trees 000
Possum’s Tail 000
Possum and Coon 000
The Panther and the Opossum 000
How the Possum Tricked the Wolves 000
Possum and the Fox 000
Possum and the Woodpecker 000
Why the Rabbit’s Skin Is Loose 000
Bear and Rabbit000
How the Rabbit Fooled the Turkeys 000
Rabbit and Fox Farm Together000
Rabbit Rides Wolf 000
Rabbit Gains a Wife 000
How Rabbit Made the Animals Angry 000
Rabbit and the Garden 000
The Cat Tricks the Mouse 000
Mouse, Rooster, and Cat 000
STORIES IN CHOCTAW 000
The Choctaw Creation Legend 000
Lightning and Thunder 000
Corn-Finding Myth 000
A Story of Kashikanchak 000
Kashikanchak
The Man Who Became a Snake
The Big Pond 000
Pa̱š Falaya 000
The Inhuman Na Losa Chito 000
The Black Stump 000
Cars, Roads, and Changing Values 000
The Funeral 000
The Dog Who Spoke Choctaw 000
Help from Above 000
The Dove Story000
How the Biskantak Got Water for the Birds 000
How the Possum Tricked the Wolves 000
The Cat Tricks the Mouse 000
Mouse, Rooster, and Cat 000
Annotations to the Stories 000
Notes 000
Sources Cited 000
Index 000
