Part 4 - Chapter 11

The Choctaw Indians in the eighteenth century. 

The Choctaw Nation, was the only one of the "Five Civilized" tribes that aligned itself with the French in the eighteenth Century. They lived in southern Mississippi between the Creek Confederacy and the smaller tribes that flanked the Mississippi River. The Choctaws were caught geographically in the middle of the European power struggle for dominance of the land east of the Mississippi river. Even though they allied themselves with the French, they still sought out English made goods.

"It is true that there was [as] much English cloth as there is in all the large villages where there is little else."1

In the eighteenth century, the main Indian rival of the Choctaws was the Chickasaws, who ironically, were historically closest to the Choctaws. This war was ignited and kept burning by the European powers. However, this feud, also, caused divisions in the Choctaw tribe and led to a civil war in 1748.2

There is very little material that exclusively described the Choctaws's dress in the eighteenth century. Swanton attributed this to the fact that there was nothing distinctive about Choctaw customs in respect to the other tribes in the southeast.3 However, the Choctaw practiced head flattening and were known as long hairs, for the males in the tribe let their hair grow very long.4

Swanton was able to transmit some information from an anonymous manuscript Relation de la Louisianne about the eighteenth century dress of the Choctaw. Although, Swanton does not date the manuscript, contextual clues point to the fact that the following descriptions probably referred to the period under discussion.

"When a band reaches Mobile in the time when presents are given out, which is usually the month of March or April, they stop three leagues from the town, and send a messenger to inform the commandant of their arrival, and ask for bread and brandy. What their need is sent to them in proportion to their numbers, and the next day they arrive in ceremonial costume, which consists in a cloak without lining, a very dirty shirt, and a bad breechclout: the greater part have only one skin, of deer, bear or bison, on the body."5

This "cloak without a lining" was actually in French a "capot" which can be translated as a "Mackinaw coat of blanket material".6

Another form of ceremonial dress was used at dances.

"When they hold these ceremonial dances, each wears on his head a crown, made of a piece of otter skin to which is fastened as many broken white feathers as they have killed men in their lives."7

As has been stated previously, tribes often used tattoos for purposes of identification. "Each family has its quarter tattooed on the stomach and on the arms."8

As was common with many of the other Southeastern tribes, the Choctaws were adept at spinning. They spun bison wool to make garters and they also combined fibers to create a durable cloth.

"they also make a tissue [material], partly of this wool, and partly of fibre from a very strong herb which they spin. This tissue is double like the two sided handkerchiefs and thick as canvas, half an ell wide and three quarters long. That serves them as a skirt."9

This combining of fibers appears to be unusual; however, with a paucity of accounts, it might have been more prevalent than the literature demonstrates.

Albert James Pickett, a nineteenth century historian, made an observation that as early as 1745 economics was a major determinant in the Indians' form of dress.

"The dress of the male Choctaw was similar to that of the Creeks, and was influenced in its style by his wealth or poverty."10

Swanton stated that "As a whole their manner of life was similar to that of the Creeks."11

This statement by Swanton, is hard to reconcile with the eighteenth century accounts of the Choctaw because many of them state how dirty and slovenly they were and do not refer to the Creeks in such a manner. Louis LeClerc Milfort who lived with the Creeks for nineteen years described the Choctaw's dress but did not describe that of the Creek. From the fact that he only described that of the Choctaw's and from the other information that he gave in his Memoirs, it can be supposed that the rest of the Indians dressed in a manner that was not unusual to the time and place.

"These savages are so lazy and so dirty that they never clean any parts of their bodies, which, being almost naked, are covered by a filth to which time gives the color of soot. For clothing they wear only a strip of woolen cloth or of deerskin which they pass between their thighs, and the two ends of which, fastened with cords, they use as a belt."12

Swanton, in BAE 103, added some more information on their dress. He stated that the men wore a large pouch made from otter, beaver, fox, or racoon skins in which to carry their "grease, gun wadding, and patching". The band to which the Choctaw brave belonged could sometimes be identified by the type of pouch he wore. The tribal doctors, also, carried such a pouch. When the pouch was large it was made from the whole skin of the Beaver. The head served as the opening and the tail hung down on the side.13

"The women wear a kind of petticoat of the same cloth, which covers them from the waist to the knees; the rest of the body is bare; a few of them, richer than the others, because they are wives of good hunters, wear coverings of white, red, or blue wool on their shoulders.

"They [the men14] are very fond of wearing small bells similar to those attached to dog collars in Europe. When they can get them by some barter, or for money, they attach them to a kind of garter made of buckskin, and tie them below the knees. The young men who have this ornament are proud of it, and believe they are more pleasing to the young women, who, for their part, in order to appear pretty, pierce the lower part of the dividing membrane of their nose, and slip through them a ring to which is attached a pendant in the shape of a pear, and similar to our ear pendants."15

Milfort, also pointed out that men wore nose rings, too.16

During the same time period, Captain Bernard Romans traveled through the Southeast and recorded his findings. He wrote about the different tribes of Indians that he encountered. As to the Choctaw, he wrote:

"They are well made both men and women; the women have agreeable features and countenances, but their nasty way of life in general disfigures them; those that are cleanly are really attractive; the women disfigure the heads of their male children by means of bags of sand, flattening them into different shapes, thinking it adds to their beauty; both men and women wear long hair, except some young fellows who begin to imitate the Chickasaw fashion, and both sexes mark their faces and bodies, particularly the women with indelible blue figures of fancy, among which is a great deal of voluted work of vast variety."17

A Dr. Hall on a journey from St. Augustine to Tallahasse in 1775, also mentioned that:

"The Choctaws are flat headed both before & behind like the Cariebbs, this mark of disinction they value, & form the head with two flat boards and bandage when young, the Choctaws have large strong features, & ware their hair thick & long, the women have theirs shaped to the forehead & combed smooth."18

This description is one of the few that even refers in some detail to the way the women wore their hair. It is, also, hard to know whether two or more methods were used to flatten the children's heads to account for the information from the above two descriptions.

Romans, remarked about the Choctaw, that due to the vast number of English traders among them, they, like the Chickasaw, had many half breed Indians among their nation.19

Most of the narratives of the eighteenth century do not report the fact that the Indians were still producing cloth and not solely relying on European products. Romans described the cloth making process that he observed among the Choctaw.

"They prepare a kind of cloth out of the bark of a species of Morus [mulberry tree], and with its root dye it yellow;20

"The Chactaws put its inner bark in hot water along with a quantity of ashes and obtain filaments, with which they weave a kind of cloth not unlike a coarse hempen cloth.21

"They likewise make blankets and other coverings out of the feathers of the breast of wild turkies by a process similar to that of our wig makers, when they knit hair together for the purpose of making wigs."22

The women, also, spun buffalo wool.23

Another report about the Choctaws during the same period can be found in H. B. Cushman's book, History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Nations, which he wrote in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The following information was taken from a manuscript of Nathaniel Folsom who was born in North Carolina in 1756.24

"The woman's dress was a petticoat that came just below the knees, and a head gear [not described]; and in the winter a tight woolen jacket with bright buttons in front. They had an abundance of blankets by sewing the feathers of turkies together."25

Once again, an Indian woman is depicted as wearing a jacket probably as a bodice. According to literature about colonial clothing, white women were depicted as wearing jackets as bodices usually only on very informal occasions. Normally, jackets worn as bodices were associated with the dress of servants or slaves.26 In Robert L. Klinger's book, Distaff Sketch Book, 1774-1783, he sketches clothes that might have been worn together on an "undress" (very informal) occasion. These consisted of a jacket worn as a bodice, (and sometimes labeled as a bodice), a petticoat, and a kerchief over the shoulders. He further stated that jackets were made in "all colors of silk, linen, cotton, and wool, usually lined with fine linen."27 Obviously, slave's jackets were not lined in fine linen nor made of silk.

Klinger's depiction of a jacket, also referred to as a bodice, gives further evidence to the fact that the same article of clothing might have various names. To confuse the issue further, waistcoats were also refered to as bodices without any further descriptions. In addition, due to these various names, men's descriptions and labeling of lady's apparel as well as variations in style, it is often hard to pinpoint the origin of a garment and know exactly how it was made or looked. For that reason, the discourse about the jacket is possibly lengthier than might appear to be warranted. To see illustrations of these articles, refer to Part 4, Introduction, Costume Plate # 17.

As with the Chickasaws, few Europeans described the Choctaws, so their dress must be discerned from only a few records and from comments of the eighteenth century travelers who stated that they were similar to other Southeastern Indians.

Since the Choctaw was the only nation from the "Five Civilized" tribes who had allied themselves to the French, the Treaty of Paris created a total change for them in imperial control. The Choctaw did not accept or reject English control. However, when the American Revolution commenced, they were actively on the side of the Americans against the English.28

The Spanish exercised the same initiatives for sovereignty over the Choctaw as they did with the Creeks and Chickasaws.29


1. Mississippi Provincial Archives 1729-1740, "Letter from Perier to Maurepas", Volume 1, p. 102.

2. Debo, The Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic, p. 28.

3. Swanton, "An Early Account of the Choctaw Indians", Memoirs of the American Anthropologist, Volume V, Pt. 2, 1918, p. 53.

4. Swanton, BAE 137, p. 504.

5. Swanton, "An Early Account of the Choctaw Indians", Memoirs of the American Anthropologist, Volume V, Pt. 2, 1918, p. 56.

6. McDermott, A Glossary of Mississippi French, p. 42.

7. Swanton, "An Early Account of the Choctaw Indians", Memoirs of the American Anthropologist, Volume V, Pt. 2, 1918, p. 66.

8. Ibid., p. 66.

9. Ibid., pp. 67-68.

10. Albert J. Pickett, History of Alabama, p. 130.

11. Swanton, BAE 103, p. 44.

12. Milfort, My Sojourn in the Creek Nation, pp. 123-124.

13. Swanton, BAE 103, p. 42.

14. The French uses the masculine for they "Ils aiment.." From the manuscript collection of Swanton in the Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution. Mss #4987 from old Mss #4128, folder #2.

15. Milfort, My Sojourn in the Creek Nation, pp. 123-124.

16. Ibid., p. 124.

17. Bernard Romans, A Concise Natural history of East and West Florida, p. 82, 1962 facsimile edition.

18. Hall-Pennant Document. Thomas Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK

19. Bernard Romans, A Concise Natural history of East and West Florida, p. 82.

20. Ibid., p. 85.

21. Ibid., p. 142.

22. Ibid., p. 85.

23. Ibid., p. 96.

24. Cushman, History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Indians, p. 326. From an old manuscript left by Nathaniel Folsom in the possession of his grandaughter, Czarina Folsom. The Gardner Collection, folder #4 from Thomas Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK

25. Ibid., p. 330.

26. Alice Morse Earle, Costume of Colonial Times, p. 143; Peter F. Copeland, Working Dress in Colonial and Revolutionary America, p. 176. Copeland took the information from South Carolina and American General Gazette, 27 March, 1776.

27. Robert L. Klinger, Distaff Sketch Book, 1774-1783, p.30.

28. Angie Debo, The Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic, pp. 30-31.

29. Ibid., pp. 31-33.