Customer Reviews

History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians

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This book is not for everyone, but if you have a real interest in the history & culture of the Native Americans of the Southern U.S.(especially Mississippi)you ought to take a look. Cushman's first hand knowledge particularly of the Choctaws is extensive. Reading this will give you a better understanding and respect of a culture that deserved more inclusion in American History. Many of the legends and historical events are fascinating and are little known. It also helps to clear up some fallacies about all three tribes. Cushman does pontificate and ramble through much of this book, even though it is abridged specifically to eliminate much of this.There are some inaccuracies as well but all in all it is fascinating and may be the most accurate and detailed history of these people.

This is an excellent book for history students, particularly Native American history students. This may well be the only book in existence which attempts to document the oral history of the Chickasaw and Choctaw people. The forward of the book explains how it had been recovered from an old publication and edited for content. The story is told from the personal experiences of the son of Christian missionaries who personally grew up in the company of the Chickasaw and Choctaw people. In this book he recalls personal experiences he had, along with sharing stories he was told. Because this book was originally written in the late 1800s, you will encounter an "old English" style of writing and discourse which may be awkward to those unfamiliar with this out of date speech (anyone who has studied Shakespeare or other old English literature, for example, should have no difficulty). This book does not flow like a progressive story, but is rather a collection of facts and individual stories. The author's description of the "Pole Games" for example is quite exciting, and there are other accounts of great bravery and perseverance that was required for survival. I recommend this book to any serious student willing to make the effort to plug through the book. You will be rewarded with a history that few of your piers will posses.

This is a very touching, albeit a "James Fennimore Cooper" like description of a way of life long forgotten and not seen since the days of the War of 1812 in the States of Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. While this account is wordy the mind pictures created by H. B. Cushman are poetical in their scope, bright and colorful as the friends he writes about and spring from a love for the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Nations. The sequences and timing are often of little importance to H. B.. What is important to him is that we understand the real life, acts and symbolism of a group of people who understood what it meant to be "noble" in their purpose and life.

You will gain an entire palette of new colors by which you can paint the history of these early "First Nation People."