Pushmataha
Pushmataha,
a Choctaw Warrior
Charles
Bird King (1785-1862).
Hand-colored lithograph, Plate 16. McKenney, Thomas L. & Hall, James. History of the Indian Tribes of North America. Philadelphia: F.W. Greenough, 1838-1844.
Pushmataha (ca. 1764-5 - 1824) (Choctaw), was a warrior noted for his vengeance on other Native Americans, notably Creeks and Seminoles, against whom he fought with Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812. He was supportive of Whites and signed land cessions of his Nation. He was painted by Charles Bird King on a visit to Washington, D.C. in 1824, shortly before his death from alcoholism and exposure. He was buried in the Congressional Cemetery with full military honors.
Great
warrior
All
Choctaw Indian boys readily participated in war parties as soon as the older
men allowed. Warfare was basic to male success; boys did not become men or earn
a title until they participated in a successful war party. On the other hand,
women held innate spiritual power through their ability to create life through
childbirth. Success in war proved to everyone that a Choctaw male had mastered
at least a minimum amount of spiritual power, since spiritual protection and
performance of special rituals was absolutely necessary to military triumph.
Those who excelled as war leaders — such as Pushmataha — were expected to assume
larger roles within Choctaw society as diplomats and chiefs. Pushmataha earned
his renown as a warrior and war leader in fighting against the Caddo and Osage
Indians west of the Mississippi River.
Choctaws
had always traveled periodically throughout the lower Mississippi River Valley,
but by the 1770s they were forced to travel farther afield for their annual
deer hunts. Ever since Britain had become the major European power in the Gulf
Coast region after the Seven Years War ended in 1763, hundreds of unregulated
fur traders poured into Choctaw country seeking to exchange rum and other European
goods with the Southeastern Indians for deerskins. Choctaws thus killed more
deer than ever before and quickly depleted the deer herds in their hunting territory
east of the Mississippi. As a result, it became necessary for Choctaws to travel
to new hunting lands west of the river.
Other
Indian groups, such as the Osages and Caddos, already lived in those western
lands and they resented the Choctaws intruding into their hunting territories.
Because Choctaws, especially Pushmataha and other young men, wanted access to
the deer in the west and needed to participate in war in order to become men,
sporadic warfare between the Choctaws and groups like the Osages and Caddos
continued throughout the late 1700s and early 1800s
Pushmataha's
war exploits became famous throughout the lower Mississippi Valley. He killed
numerous enemies of the Choctaws, often single-handedly, while escaping injury
and capture, and he led other Choctaw warriors in successful attacks. Although
the details of Pushmataha's war exploits as portrayed by Lincecum and Cushman
stretch believability, there is little doubt that Pushmataha achieved greatness
as a warrior. All of these military actions earned the respect of other Choctaws,
and several chiefs and spiritual leaders bestowed the title which we know him
by today. Pushmataha, or rather “Apushamatahahubi,” means “a messenger of death;
literally one whose rifle, tomahawk, or bow is alike fatal in war or hunting.”
A mystery surrounding Pushmataha is the identity of his parents. They may have been killed by the Creeks or other enemies of the Choctaws when he was young, as Lincecum reported. Most likely they were commoners because Pushmataha expressed uneasiness about his kin ties throughout his life. There existed leading or elite families among the Choctaws, and formal leadership positions were often passed down through the generations of these families. Pushmataha had no such kinship connections, but his exceptional record of achievement based upon the traditional measures of success in war and mastery of spiritual powers meant that he should assume a chiefly position. Even Choctaws who could possibly inherit a chiefly role had to first demonstrate their abilities in war and the spiritual realm. Such accomplished men who had been molded by traditional Choctaw notions of proper behavior could be counted upon to conduct themselves in constructive ways with foreigners and to protect Choctaw interests. Accordingly, such men became diplomats and represented their people in meetings with Europeans, Americans, and other Indians.
As an adult, Pushmataha resided in the Six Towns Division of the Choctaw Confederacy, and it was that division he represented in diplomatic meetings. There existed among the Choctaws three principal geographic and political divisions: the western, eastern, and Six Towns (or southern) divisions. The western division villages were scattered around the upper Pearl River watershed, and the eastern division towns were located around the upper Chickasawhay River and lower Tombigbee River watersheds. The Six Towns were distributed along the upper Leaf River and mid-Chickasawhay River watersheds.
Sometime around 1800 Pushmataha became a leading chief and began playing a major role in negotiations with other peoples, especially the Americans. He quickly developed a well-deserved reputation for his eloquent speaking abilities, and he was able to persuade both Choctaws and Americans with his sharp logic and lyrical speaking style. The first formal treaty with the United States that he took part in was the Fort Confederation meeting in 1802. From that point onward, Pushmataha played an important role in all dealings between the Choctaws and the United States.
When the neighboring Creek Indians, then located in present-day Alabama, killed more than 500 Americans at Fort Mims, Pushmataha assumed his position as war leader. He quickly organized a Choctaw military force to assist General Andrew Jackson in fighting against the Creeks.
"...It
is told of Pushmataha, the great and beloved District Chief of the early Nineteenth
century, that when a white man once called him a coward he purchased a barrel
of gunpowder, carried it to the village, lighted a firebrand, calmly seated
himself on top of the barrel, and invited his accuser to join him while he applied
the match to the powder. Needless to say, the white man declined the challenge."
Excerpt from "The Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic" by Angie
De
Pushmataha’s name is sometimes spelled Pushmatahaw, the word meaning “The warrior’s seat is finished.” In 1824 he went to Washington “to brighten the chain of peace.” where he was treated with great attention by President Monroe and John C. Calhoun, then secretary of war, to whom he made the speech here given, a copy being now preserved in the official records of the War Department. Soon afterward he died. One of his last requests was that he might be buried with military honors. The procession that followed his body to the Congressional Cemetery was estimated to be more than a mile in length, the sidewalks, stoops and windows of houses being thronged along the way, and minute guns being fired from the hill of the capitol.
John Randolph, in a eulogy pronounced in the Senate, characterized him as “one of nature’s nobility; a man who would have adorned any society.” On his tombstone he is described as “a warrior of great distinction; he was wise in counsel, eloquent in an extraordinary degree, and, on all occasions and under all circumstances, the white man’s friend.” Andrew Jackson said he was “the greatest and the bravest Indian he had ever known.” During a visit to Lafayette, who was then in Washington, Pushmataha, being accompanied by other Indians of his tribe, made the following speech:
“Nearly
fifty snows have melted since you drew your sword as a companion of Washington.
With him you fought the enemies of America. You mingled your blood with that
of the enemy, and proved yourself a warrior. After you finished that war, you
returned to your own country, and now you are come back to revisit the land
where you are honored by a numerous and powerful people. You see everywhere
the children of those by whose side you went to battle crowding around you and
shaking your hand as the hand of a father. We have heard these things told in
our distant villages, and our hearts longed to see you. We have come; we have
taken you by the hand and are satisfied. This is the first time we have seen
you; it will probably be the last. We have no more to say. The earth will part
us for ever.”
Pushmataha was taken ill just after this visit to Lafayette. On his death-bed he said to his Indian companions: “When you shall come to your home they will ask you, ‘Where is Pushmataha?’ and you will say to them: ‘He is no more!’ They will hear the tidings like the sound of the fall of a mighty oak in the stillness of the woods.”
Pushmataha
and Andrew Jackson
For
that assistance, Jackson was forever grateful, but when the American general
returned to Choctaw country in 1820 to negotiate the Treaty of Doak's Stand,
which called for Choctaw removal to lands west of the Mississippi River, Pushmataha
resisted. The lands in the west (present-day Arkansas) were too poor to support
agriculture and hunting, Pushmataha told Jackson. In addition, Pushmataha pointed
out that white settlers already lived on those lands. He knew that they would
not leave voluntarily simply because the U.S. government had decided that those
lands now belonged to the Choctaws.
Pushmataha tried to get a promise from Jackson to evict the white settlers, but this issue was never settled and it brought Pushmataha and other chiefs to Washington D.C. in 1824. They sought compensation for those Arkansas lands that they could never settle because of the large numbers of whites already living there. During the 1824 negotiations, Pushmataha became sick and died. He was buried with full military honors in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
What are we to make of Pushmataha's life? On one level he was the last of his kind: a chief who came to power through traditional means by performing great war deeds and demonstrating his mastery of spiritual powers. He resisted attempts of the United States to take away Choctaw lands. He is often portrayed as culturally conservative and as an opponent of the Protestant missionaries who arrived among the Choctaws beginning in 1818.
Like all chiefs of his generation, Pushmataha knew that the Indian world was changing rapidly. He tried to ensure that his offspring would be able to participate in leading roles in that new world. He sent one of his sons, who had already been taught how to speak English and to read and write by American officials, to a missionary school in 1820. Pushmataha, a man who had risen from commoner to great status, attempted to preserve that elite status for his own children. In that new world business skills determined success, while the spiritual powers of Pushmataha's era meant less and less for chiefs and other elites. Thus, Pushmataha represents a major transitional figure in Mississippi history: a man with deep roots in a traditional past who also realized that major changes were required by Choctaws for them to compete on an equal footing with Americans.