The Opelousas courier., 1886-12-04
THE CHOCTAWS.
Something About the Indians
]. OF Indlan Territory.
Their Language the Best for Oratorioal
Purposes in the World.

apolis journal reporter:
aIhe Choetaw is a fine sounding
tongue, declared by Walter Lowry, one
a United States senator. and fully cap
able of Judging, as being the finest
language in the world for oratory. 1t is
EASY to learn enough of it for trading
purposes, but to learn it thoroughly is
very difficult. It has more words than
most Indian tongues, the lexicon con-
tanning about 10, 900. The Choctaws
for over fifty years have had publications
in their language. They use the
Roman alphabet, with some modifica-
tions. There are twenty-five letters.
They now have a regular representative
form of government, and have had for
many years. Their principal chief is
| Edmund McCurtain. This officer is
elected every two years. Thomas Nc
Kinney has recently been elected his sue
cessor. The Choctaw capital is Tush-
kahomma. They have a general council,
consisting of a senate and a house of rep
resentatives, and have county, district
and supreme courts. The Choctaw ma
ton had the prohibitory Liquor law thirty
years before Maine, and it was in their
constitution thirty years before Kansas
had it. It is enforced fairly well, par
ticularly as the United States intercourse
laws prohibit the introduction of intoxi-
eating liquors into the territory. As to
the general laws of the nation, they are
not as well enforced as they might be.
zone of their young men, brother of
the recently elected principal chief,
graduated at Yale divinity school last
spring. The fact that q white man
by marrying a native woman, Sc
cures tho rights of a citizen in the ma
ton is aistrong inducement to many men
to intermarry with the Choctaws. This,
in course of time, will eliminate the
Choctaw blood and bring about a solu-
ton of the Indian question so fsr as they
are concerned. OF the five civilized
tribes of the Indian territory it has been
found by enumeration that IS per cent.
of them can rea J.. The proportion of
the Cherokees who can read, as com
pared with the Choctaws, isgreater than
that of the latter nation, while the
Creeks who can read are fewer in num-
Der than the Chectaws. Sequoya, or
George Guess, as he was called, was a
Choctaw, who invented a syllable alpha
bet 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 iha few hours. sequoya formed a
better alphabet for them than a white
man could have made. The Ghoctaw
alphabet is phonetic, and therefore
learned with greater ease than English.
I suppose that fully 10, 900 of the Choc-
taw nation do not understand English.
e'The Choctaws live almost wholly by
agriculture. They are all farmers and
generally poor farmers, though some of
them are quite good. A few are large
farmers. There is an impress
sion concerning Indian territory. The
land is not, as many suppose, very fer
tile. There is a great deal of waste land
there and a great dell of poor land.
There is q considerable admixture of
white blood with the Indian race. and
it is constantly increasing. The
ChoctaW lands are held in. common and
a white man, by intermarriage, gets
ChoctaW citizenship and equal rights in
land, holding them as long as he does
not marry a white woman. The native
population of the nation is between
Is, 900 and IA, 900. They have two
boarding schools, each with one hundred
pupils-one at Spencer for boys and one
New Hope for girls. They have an
school at Wheelock for boys.
t has fifty pupils, and similar school
or girls at Wheelock has fifty pupils.
They are paying much attention to edu-
There IS q provision for neigh
oorhood schools that wherever there are
EN- pupils a school may be established,
he teachers to be paid SO a month for
'aoh pupil. The law makes attendance
If children at school compulsory,
PARENTS being fined for not sending their
THE Choctaws are generally quiet
md orderly, except when under the in
Of liquor. There have been a
number of crimes since the war,
wing to feuds originating then. They
citizens dress, and only in color
would be distinguished from white peo-
lie. They no longer wear mocassins or
uniting shirts. Since + have been back, ]
have not seen more than half a dozen
shirts. The old shawl head /
lress, once SO popular among them, has /
'een given up. There are no blanket
indians among them. Their dwellings
re mostly log cabins; . few have very ]
God dwellings. Scarcely any of them
ioW pretend to make . living By hunt
ngg. !
As AstG Minor Curiosity. ]