The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-09-13
LIFE AMONG THE CHOCTAWS
Their Civilization, Their Educational
System and Their Language.
Interview with Presbyterian Missionary
in the Indian Territory, Who Is Trans
latiDg the Bible Into Choctaw.

lev. Jobn EDWARDS baS been IN the city since
Thursday, visiting his brother-in.law, Rev R.
V. Hunter. Mr. Edwards lives at Wheelock.
Indian Territory, and is missionary Of the
Presby terrain Church. FL have BEEN" he said to
Journal reporter yesterday, "a missionary TO
the Choctaw nation thirteen years altogether.
first went there in 1851, and remained until the
outbreak of the war for the Union. I returned
three years ago, and during my last sojourn have
lived first at Atoka, and afterwards at Wheelock'
Atoka Is on the railroad, and ia business place.
nearly all its residents being white. Wheelock
is not town, but q mission station. My object
in going back to the nation is to translate the
Bible into the Choctaw language. The New
Testament was translated many years ago, and
the Old Testament as far as Second Kings. My
object is to carry 1t On. have completed and
printed the Psalms, and am now returning from
New York, where, for four months, have been
engaged in supervising the publication and cor
recting proofs
'The Cnoctaw is fne sounding tongue. de-
ciared by Walter Lowry, once United States
Senator and fully capable of judging, as being
the finest language in the world for oratory. It
is easy to learn enough of it for trading purposes,
but to learn it thoroughly IS very difficult 1t
has more words than most Indian tongues the
lexicon containing about ten thousand. The
Choctaws for over fifty years have had publtca-
tons in their language They use the Roman
alphabet, with some notifications There are
twenty-five letters They now have o regular
representative form of government and have
had for many years Their principal chief is
II nso - alan al
every two years. Thomas Mckinney has recently
been elected his successor. The Choctaw capital
is Tushkahomma They have general council,
consisting of Senate and House of Represent
atives, and have county, district, and supreme
courts The Choctaw nation had the prohibi::
tory liquor law thirty years before Maine, and
it was in their constitution thirty years before
Kansas had it. 1t is enforced fairly WELL par
ticularly as the United States inter-
course laws prohibit the introduction Of in
toxicating liquors into the Territory. AS
| to the general laws of the nation, they are not
as we'll enforced as they might be. Whipping is
a favorite punishment At recent district
court session three men were each sentenced to
have one hundred lashes, and nine others each
to have thirty nine lashes One who got one
hundred was thus punished for rape. and one
received thirty nine lashes for assault to commit
rape.
1.-THE Choctaws live almost wholly by agricult-
ure. They small farmers and generally
poor farmers, though some of them are quite
good few are large farmers. There is an
erroneous impression concerning the Indian
Territory. The land is not as many suppose,
very fertile. There is great deal of waste
land there and great deal of poor land. There
is considerable admixture of white blood with
the Indian race, and it is constantly increasing
The Choctaw lands held in common, and a
white man, by intermarriage, gets Choctaw citi-
zenship and equal rights in land, holding them
as long as he does not marry white woman.
| The native population Of the nation Is between
| 49, 600 and ID 000 They have two boarding
schools, each with 100 pupils-one at Spencer
for boys, and one at New Hope for girls. They
have orphan school at Wheelock for boys. 1t
has fifty pupils, and similar school for girls, at
Wheelock, has fifty pupils. They are paying
much attention to education. There is pro
vision for neighborhood schools that wherever
there are ten pupils a school may be established;
the teachers to be paid So a month for each pupil
The law makes attendance of chi ldren at school
compulsory, parents being lined for not sending
their children.
1.-THE Choctaws are generally quiet and or
derby, except when under the influence of liquor.
There have been a greater number of crimes
eince the war. owing to feuds originating then.
They wear citizens dress, and only in color
would be dstingushable from white people
They no longer wear moccasins or hunting shirts
Since ] have been back, | have not seen
The old shawl headdress. once so popu-
lar among them, has been given up
There are no blanket Indians among them
Their dwellings are mostlylog cabins. a few have
pretend to make living by hunting. AS to re-
ligious belief, some are Presbyterians. some
Methodists, some Baptists. some Cumberland
Presbyterians The Catholics have church at
Atoka, but no Indians have membership, so far
as / know Before the war the Presbyterians
outnumbered the Others but of late the other
denominations have gained upon the Presley
terians somewhat. The older men of the
nation, those who have seen the advance that
has been made, attribute their advancement
wholly to the missionaries of these churches.
The Presbyterian missionaries are the only ones
| who have given them books in their language
In reference to education, / neglected to say
they keep dozen boys and dozen girls at col
leges in the States. One of their young men, a
brother of the recently elected principal chief,
graduated at Yale divinity school last spring
1.-THE fact that white man, by marrying a
native woman, secures the rights of citizen in
the nation is strong inducement to many men
to lntermarry with the Choctaws. This, in
course of time will eliminate the Choctaw blood
and bring about solution of the Indian ques-
ton so far as they concerned OF the five
civilized tribes of the Indian Territory it has
bee been found by .,s enumeration that rS 30
proportion of the Cherokees who can read
as compared with the Choctaws is greater than
that of the latter nation. while the Creeks who
can read are fewer in number than the Choctaws
Sequoya, or George Guess, as he was called, was
Choctaw, who invented a syllable alphabet for
his people. 1t contains eighty FIVE characters,
and to read, all one need do is to mention the
names of the letters. A smart Cherokee will
learn to read in few hours Sequoya formed a
better phabet for them than a white man could
have made. The Choctaw alphabet is phonetic,
and therefore learned with greater ease than
English l suppose that fully 10000 of
| the Choctaw nation do not understand English.
the plan of making them English in language,
civilized in habits, Christian in religion 1t was
soon found that the thing had been reversed; that