296


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY


 After the destruction of this Chocchuma stronghold the Choctaws next cap-
 tured a Chocchuma fort, situated some 3 miles northwest of Starleville,.on the
 spot afterwards occupied by the residence of Dr. Calvin Cushmian, the mis-
 sionary. Tradition has failed to preserve any details of the capture of this
 place.
 About 6 miles west of Bellefontaine, on the old Grenada road, is the site
 of a Chocchuma village. The chief who lived -there, Chula Homma (Red Fox),
 is said to have been one of the most powerful chiefs of this tribe. The village
 was captured and burned by the Choctaw. Chula Homnima and his warriors
 were all slain, and the women and children became the slaves of the con-
 querors. When the whites first visited that region, about 1S33, they found
 living on the site of the village an Indian, Coleman Cole, who claimed to be a
 grandson of one of the captive women. From him a party of surveyors learned
 the tradition of the village.
 According to tradition, the animosity of the Choctaw and Chickasaw toward
 the Chocchuma was so fierce and unrelenting in this aboriginal war that they
 killed every dog, cat, and chicken found in the Chocchunma villages.
 The Mr. Cushman referred to in this quotation gives a longer
 account of the war, which he represents as having taken place in
 1721, and as lasting three years.a He adds that a descendant of the
 last survivor, named Coleman Cole, became a chief of the Choctaw
 and died in 1884 at his home a few miles east of Atoka, Choctaw Na-
 tion, Indian Territory." As may be seen by the foregoing quotations,
 his date must be far too early, and the bloody protracted struggle he
 described is neither true to Indian life nor possible when the tribe so
 destroyed did not count more than a hundred and fifty souls. Very
 likely a bitter struggle, though a short one, took place before the
 Chakchiuma were finally absorbed into the Chickasaw, but the im-
 portance of that particular struggle was probably magnified by
 memories of the numberless other contests we know to have taken
 place between the same combatants during the ages preceding.

 THE TAPOSA

 The Taposa were on Yazoo river some distance-according to
La Harpe, 8 leagues-above the tribe just considered.' They are
spoken of as allies of the Chickasaw,b and Du Pratz states that their
language lacked the r sound,f but most accounts give nothing
more regarding them than the name. In 1699 De Montigny esti-
mated the number of their cabins and those of the tribe just con-
sidered at 70," while Du Pratz (1718-1726) assigns them 25 by them-
selves., Ultimately they were probably absorbed into the Chickasaw.
 SII. B. Cushman, Hist. of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Indians, 242-246.
 SLa Harpe, Jour. Hist., 311, 1831.
 SDu Pratz, Hist. de La Louisiane, II, 226.
 d Compte Rendu Cong. Internat. des Am6r., 15th sess., I, 36.


[BULL. 43