The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-12-04
Ian AND DEMOCRAT BLOOMSBURY, COLUMBIA COUNTY, Pa
Origin Of 20. K"

In the language of the Choctaw In
dians, one of the most frequently re-
curing expressions is the oke with
which an affirmation or denial is con-
cluded. The oke pronounced with
strong accent on the last syllable) is
one of the substitutes for the copulat-
i've verb to be, which is wanting in
Choctaw. Oke, as pronounced in
Choctaw, has exactly the same sound
as the.alphabetic pronunciation OF the
letters o X in English.
The meaning Of the expression, as
nearly as it can be conveyed in English,
is. "That is true; that is all So A
few examples out of many that might
be cited will illustrate this. "The
Choctaw Indian is good fellow is
expressed thus: Hat,ack api huma
Chahta achukmah oke, in which hat
tack api huma means "1ndian" Otter
ally, man-body-red), achukman means
''good," and oke is the copulatlve ex-
preston, at is So In Rev. Cyrus
B,ington's Choctaw new testament,
the first sentence of Matt. V. II: aye
are the salt of the earth, is: Gakni in
huppi huchchia hoke, literally "the
earth its salt ye that is Sc
To General Andrew Jackson is at
tributed the introduction of the Choc-
taw word into our Anglo. American
speech. Before the war of 1912, in
voyages up and down the Mississippi,
and in trading expeditions over land
from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez,
Mississippi, through the Choctaw ma
iicn he was brought into frequent com.
munications with the Choctaws.
General Jackson, as everybody knows,
was prone to the use of downright and
energetic methods of assertion. Hear
ing this emphatic oke so frequently
uttered by the Chocyaw people, be
learned the meaning conveyed by it
TO the choctaw mind, and appropriated
it out of hand to his own purpose.
From him it passed over to the mul.
titude. This account of the origin OF
O. X. has been current in the South
for many years. If rot true, it is, to
say the least, ben trovato
No one who has ever read an auto
graph letter of General Jackson will
easily credit the story that he vas in
the habit, when he was president OF
the United States, of indorsing in
kaltem blue, applicants for office with
the letters o, X, under the belief that
these were the proper initials for cal
correct Jackson was no scholar
but he was no so ignorant of English
orthography as to fall into a blundel
of that sort He may have indorsed
documents with the letters O. *. as o
jocular symbol Of his favorite Choctaw
expression. The story that these let
tiers were seriously intended by him az
an abbrevation of coll konect wa'
probably, as Mr.. George Bancroft sug
gests, as posteriori invention of the
enemy-to-wit, the Whigs-durirg The
hot political contests in the days OF th'
roaring 40's.
That tie abbrevation o. X was coin
ed by Jackson himself and used by hin
long years before 1t passed into cur
rent slang finds curious confirmation il
an extract from the old court records
of Sumner county, Tennessee, quoted
by Parton in his Life of Jackson,
vol. /. p. 1876.
"Octobcr 6, 1890, Andrew Jackson
ESQ.,, proved bill of sale from Hugl
McGary to Casper Mansker, for
negro mar, which was o. K.' "k
common western mistake" adds Mr.
Parton, "for o. r., which means ord
cred recordered Hence, perhaps, tn
saying o. X.
| 1t is not more likely that the o. Il
of this entry WAS sugg' sted by Jack
son himself as brief method Of say
ing, after the Choctaw fashion, tha
the claim had been legally made out
American Magazine of History