The Chickasaws were pre-eminently a tribe of warriors; but, after a series of wars with the Choctaws that were kept alive by the French and English, their numbers became greatly reduced. It has been estimated that in these fratricidal wars without grievances toward each other fully fifty thousand warriors were killed on both sides! Neither Choctaws nor Chickasaws had any written laws, but their government rested entirely upon custom and usage. One of their unwritten laws was "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth;" consequently deliberate murder was scarcely known. As they had no money, their traffic consisted of a mutual exchange of such commodities as either possessed. There was no employment for hire, and of course there could be no contracts to be broken; hence there was no need for lawyers, judges or courts. There were no beggars and no tramps. A chief wore no crown, had no body guards, or power to give validity to his commands; but by that devotion to nature and the imaginary beings by it controlled which he divined but could not comprehend, to these alone he paid homage both in war and peace.
They paid the utmost respect to their dead, yet had vague ideas of future rewards or punishments. A future existence was to them a free gift of the "Great Spirit," and to them to be a brave warrior meant a sure arrival after death at the "happy hunting grounds." The Choctaws formerly disposed of their dead upon high scaffolds, where, covered with a bear skin or other large robe, the body was secure from wild beasts. After the flesh was rotted from the bones, the remains were taken down and the remaining flesh was carefully picked off by men who made this a business. The bones were then carefully laid in a box, which, when full, was buried in a cave. |
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