The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-08-12
CHOCTAWS IN LOUISIANA.
The Habits and PecNliarkties of thu
Remnant Ofa Vanishing Race.

a reporter ascertaining that Fathe
Rouquette had just returned from .
visit to the Choctaw tribe Of Indians
repaired to the Archiepiscopai resi-
dence, at the corner OF Ursulines ant
Charities streets, for the purpose of in
terviewing the venerable priest. a-u
Father Rouquette, whose poetic ina
gination finds much to divert and
please it In the life and customs OF this
primitive people, loves to go forth and
minister to them, and at the same
! time pursue his studies Of human and
inanimate nature, the results of which
have found their way into his poems
and romances. es-.
Father Rouquette's attachment to
''his Indians" as they are jocularly
termed, is reflected in his own simple
habits, for the room into which the
venerable Father ushered the, scribe
was devoid of any appearance of lux
ury, and his aged form was clad in at
tire humber than the ordinary garb
worn by priests. The table at which
the reporter seated himself was cover
ed with books, papers and herbs, and
these covered nearly all the furniture
in the apartment. -, ,......
"Could you tell me something about
the tribe you visited, Fatherc'' asked
the scribe. - ,a.- -" "6-.l &C..
<'I visited those who reside in st.
Tammany parish, at, Vaudeville
Bayou Lacombe and Madisonville.
Their language is one of the most beau
tiful of the languages of the earth. The
Choctaws are a mild tribe, they possess
many domestic virtues, they feel deep.
iy, and never saw any people who
love their children more. They can
be heroic without appearing to make
any effort to be so. They cannot ex-
press themselves in English and
French, knowing only how to utter
few commonplaces in those tongues.
In their own language they have
words to express the lightest shades of
emotion, and their Thoughts or feelings
can be graphically and warmly por-
trayed. I counted; eighty-s1x persons
in ALL" .'.'i. 70 "'''.'''>L -
ssTell me something more about their
language. please ?" -...-.. s.,..s!tis
esIt sounds as if it was born with or
among the Souththern languages. For
instance, asetele the e's> being pro-
nounced as If they had the French ac-
cent acute, signifies the mouth of a
river, while in Greek tho work tstal-
asse' signifies tho same thing. It has
very nearly the same letters as the In.
dian words, but they are transposed.
The recurrence of vowel sounds in the
words Of the Choctaw language is; one,
of its remarkable features and gives it
a musical sound. Palata ! p! signifies
home sick, and ohoyo means a Choc-
taw woman or squaw. The Choctaw
language is much softer than the Eng
lish, and its alphabet docs not contain
the letters which give the harshest
sounds-such as E, z,r,c and x. X
serves the purpose of G, and KS is sub
stituted for X. For instance Bogue
Chitto is written Box Chitto. These
two words signify bayou and big. This
is another feature of the languagc-the
noun is first mentioned and the adjcc-
tive qualifying it follows. ,Chookefy
is sheep and usi means little, and
these two words together, meaning
sheep little, signify alamb. Most OF the
names of the squaws and some Of the
men terminate in ina, such as Ohoyo-
ina, squaw like; Achuk ma lima, good
like or good natured. On account of
my inclinations l am called Chahata
ina, of Choctawlike. L think that the
conjugation of their verbs is much
more perfect than our system, for they
can convey their thoughts with much
more expression than in our system
For instance, if 1 wish to say: sNou
must come,' and desire to convey
these words as a prayer or entrcaty, l
say, sIshmintachlske.' 1t, however, I
wish to use the expression rs a COM
mand, as an imperative mandate,
say: 1shmintashke,' which has more
Of the ring of an order about it, ...
When asked other omissions concern