"In "Choctaw Traditions about Their Settlement in Mississippi and the Origin of Their Mounds," Lincecum translates a portion of the Skukhaanumpula - the traditional history of the tribe, which was related to him verbally by Chata Immataha, "the oldest man in the world, a man that knew everything." It explains how and why the sacred Manih Waya mound was erected and how the Choctaws formed new towns, and it describes the structure of leadership in their society."--Jacket.

Today the Choctaws are remembered as one of the Five Civilized Tribes, removed to Oklahoma in the early nineteenth century; a large band remains in Mississippi, quietly and effectively refusing to be assimilated. The Choctaws are a Muskogean people, in historical times residing in southern Mississippi and Alabama; they were agriculturalists as well as hunters, and a force to be reckoned with in the eighteenth century. Patricia Galloway, armed with evidence from a variety of disciplines, counters the commonly held belief that these same people had long exercised power in the region. She argues that the turmoil set in motion by European exploration led to realignments and regroupings, and ultimately to the formation of a powerful new Indian nation. Through a close examination of the physical evidence and historical sources, the author provides an ethnohistorical account of the proto-Choctaw and Choctaw peoples from the eve of contact with Euro-Americans through the following two centuries. Starting with the basic archaeological evidence and the written records of early Spanish and English visitors, Galloway traces the likely origin of the Choctaw people, their movements and interactions with other native groups in the South, and Choctaw response to these contacts. She thereby creates the first careful and complete history of the tribe in the early modern period. This rich and detailed work will not only provides much new information on the Choctaws but illuminates the entire field of colonial-era southeastern history and will provide a model for ethnographic studies.

SINCE YOU’RE READING my second book, you already know who I am. You know my name is Isaac, that I’m ten years old, soon to be eleven, and you know I am a ghost. I am not dead, not in the usual way. I am not buried and gone, but I am a ghost. I have learned to travel by closing my eyes and thinking where I want to be. That’s how ghosts do it. I can disappear so no one can see me or I can gradually float into sight, as you will recall. But I didn’t tell you everything about being a ghost. I didn’t want to terrify you. But you’re older now—you can handle it.

Premise: "A secret underground civilization of Choctaws, deep beneath the Ouachita Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma, has evolved into a high-tech culture, supported by the labor of slaves kidnapped from the surface."

Will "poisoned" Indians conquer the United States in the twenty-first century? Is there anything that can be done to stop them? Can the United States's oldest and most loyal Indian military ally, the Choctaws, stop them? Or do Choctaws pose the most difficult problem of all? In this provocative and incendiary book, D. L. Birchfield bluntly points out what few are willing to say: America's population superiority is now meaningless; its population density is a crippling liability; and the United States has a dangerous "Indian problem." If you don't know about the American betrayal of the Choctaws, or whether Choctaws are still loyal to the United States, or why the third largest Indian nation in North America is virtually unknown to Americans, sit back and hold on as Birchfield pulls back the curtain to reveal a startling future, with an irreverence and disdain for convention that is anything but subtle.

"Nellie M. Thompson has thrived even before she learned to read at the age of 88. A descendent of Chief Pushmataha ... her powerful memoir tells of growing up as a Choctaw Indian in the small-town Midwest of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and eventually California in the late 1940s. Her faith in God was shaped after she was healed of polio by an Indian medicine man at the age of eight-- this experience dictated her personal commitment to a lifetime of service. She herself became an Indian Medicine woman treating human ailments with herbs and Indian techniques. This inspiring account of a Choctaw Indian woman, whose courage and faith in God move her through many difficult trials, weaves memorable anecdotes into a fresh, first-hand perspective of her history and culture."--Provided by publisher.