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Title
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Pushmataha: A Choctaw Leader and His People
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Date
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2004
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Bibliographic Citation
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Lincecum, Gideon. 2004. Pushmataha: A Choctaw Leader and His People. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
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annotates
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As Greg O’Brien notes in the introduction to the book, Lincecum had a habit of exaggeration and embellishment, but his proximity and familiarity with the subject matter makes this a potentially useful resource.
This short book is a republication of two pieces of Choctaw ethnology written by Gideon Lincecum. Lincecum, a self-taught ethnologist who lived from 1793 to 1874, spent a considerable portion of his life living among Choctaw and became fluent in their language. These works were posthumously published in the Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society in 1904 and 1906, respectively. The first piece is a traditional narrative of the origin of the Choctaw people, related to Lincecum by a Choctaw elder named Chahta Immataha. This account describes the early Choctaw’s flight into what is now Mississippi, the settlement of Nanih Waiya, and the origins of Choctaw mound building and burial practices. The second, longer piece, is a biography of the prominent chief Pushmataha, based on Lincecum’s own encounters with the chief and interviews with other Choctaws. Lincecum describes Pushmataha as a capable and noble leader, describing his testimony in a murder trial of a Choctaw accused of murdering a white American, his early hunting exploits, his actions in the Choctaw’s conflicts with the Muskogee and Ovashashi, and his diplomatic dealings with the United States in the 1800s.