SWANTON] INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 295

account of the hostility of the Chickasaw which they then aroused
that their ultimate destruction as an independent tribe took place.
 Light regarding this event is given us by Mr. H. S. Halbert in an
article on The Small Indian Tribes of Mississippi." a He says:
 About 1770 the tribe was almost exterminated by the combined forces of the
Choctaws and the Chickasaws. In 1836 this remnant was incorporated into the
Chickasaw Nation. At the time of their subjugation they occupied a narrow
territory between the Choctaws and the Chickasaws and extending from the
mouth of the Yalobusha on the west to the vicinity of the present town of
West l'oint on the east. We here quote a few lines from a letter received
several years ago from Mr. H. B. Cushman, of Texas, who in early life had
conversed with several aged Choctaw warriors who had served in the Choc-
chuma war:
 The Chocchumas built many forts in this territory, several of which were in
Oktibbeha County. In the center of their forts they erected tall poles, on
which they suspended scalps, beads, bones, and other savage paraphernalia.
When the wind blew through these trophies it made a peculiar noise, which
their prophets interpreted as the voice of the Great Spirit. informing them that
some Choctaw or Chickasaw was killing a Chocchuma. Forthwith a party of
young braves would go on the warpath, and the first Choctaw or Chickasaw
they met, whether old or young, male or female, they would kill, return home,
hang the scalp on the instructive pole, and await another oracular response."
According 1o Choctaw tradition, it was these hostile acts of the Chocchumas,
together with their frequent horse-stealing inroads into the Choctaw and
Chickasaw countries, that aroused the warlike wrath of the latter tribes and
caused the war that terminated in the destruction of the Clhoccluma nation-
ality. I here append the following traditions regarding this war. The most
noted stronghold of the Chocchunmas was built on Lyon's Bluff on the south
side of Line Creek, about 8 miles northeast of Starkeville. The creek here
makes a bend to the north, forming a horseshoe containing about 8 acres.
In the center is an artificial mound. A rampart, some traces of which could
still be seen a few years ago, extended across this neck of land, connecting,
as it were, the two ends of the horseshoe. This inclosure, known as Lyon's
Bluff, strongly fortified, was occupied by a large band of Chocchuma warriors
with their women and children. The place was besieged by the allied tribes.
The Choctaws occupied the south, in front of the rampart, while the Chicka-
saws were posted on the north side of the creek, so that there w:as no chance
of escape for the Chocchumas. For several days and nights was the siege
kept up, until the last Chocchuma warrior fell and the women and children
yielded to the mercy of the conquerors.
 The late venerable Mr. Howell Peden, of Clay County, from whom several
 years ago I received many Chocchuma traditions, informed me that in 1830
 there was living near Plymouth, on the Tombigbee, an old Chocchuma woman
 who was a girl or young woman during the Chocchuma war, and who was the
 last survivor of the massacre on Lyon's Bluff. She had been a cook in Jack-
 son's army during the Creek war of 1813. This fact is noted, as it gives a
 clue to the approximate date of the Chocchuma war. A woman over 50 would
 hardly be apt to serve as an army cook. Assuming this woman to be 7 in
 1770, she would have been 50 in 1813; 1770, then, may be accepted as the
 approximate date of the Chocchuma war.
 SPubs. Miss. List. Soc., v, 302-308.