While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Chakchiuma
(Choctaw: saktchi 'crawfish,' huma 'red,' probably referring
to a clan totem). A tribe speaking a Choctaw-Chickasaw dialect, formerly
living on Yazoo river, Miss., and, according to Iberville (Margry, Dec.,
iv, 180, 1880), between the Taposa below them and the Outapo or Ibitoupa
above, in1699. At that time they were probably the most populous of the
Yazoo tribes, and spoke the Chickasaw language. They were an important
tribe at the time of De Soto's expedition (1540-41) and lived in a walled
town. During the 18th century they were included in the Chickasaw
confederacy, and had the reputation of being warlike. Adair (Hist. Am.
Inds., 66, 352, 1775) mentions a tradition that they carne to the east
side of the Mississippi with the Choctaw and Chickasaw and settled on the
Tallahatchie, the lower part of which was called by their name.
Jefferys (French Dom., i, 163, 1761) states that in his time they occupied
50 huts on the Yazoo river.