The Choctaws and Chickasaws, according to "Adair", one of the earliest writers on the subject, descanted from a people called "Chickemicaws", who were among the first inhabitants of the Mexican empire.
At an early period they began to wander toward the east, in company with the Choccomaws. After a time they reached the Mississippi river and crossed it, arriving in the country with an aggregate force of ten thousand warriors.
The Choccomaws established themselves upon the headwaters of the Yazoo, the Chickasaw upon the northwestern sources of Tombigbee and the Choctaws upon the territory now embraced in Southern Mississippi and Southwestern Alabama. They thus gradually became three distinct tribes; but the Chickasaws and Choccomaws were generally known by the name of the former, while the Choctaws spoke the same language, with the exception of a difference produced by the intonation of the voice.
According to "Pickett," the Chickasaws, although at the period of 1771 a small nation, were once numerous, and tier language was spoken by many tribes in the Western States. They were the fiercest, most insolent, haughty and cruel people among the Southern Indians. They had proved their bravery and intrepidity in constant wars.
In 1541, they attacked the camp of DeSoto in a most furious midnight assault, threw his army into dismay, killed some of his soldiers, destroyed all his baggage and burnt up the town in which he was quartered. In 1736, they whipped the French under Bienville, who had invaded their country, and forced them to retreat to Mobile.
In 1753, M.M. Bevist and Regio encountered defeat at their hands. They continually attacked the boats of the French voyagers upon the Mississippi and Tennessee.They were constantly at war with the Kickapoos and other tribes upon the Ohio, but were defeated in most of these engagements. But with the English as their allies, they were eminently successful against the Choctaws and Creeks, with whom they were often at variance.
The Chickasaws were very imperious in their carriage toward females, and extremely jealous of their wives. Like the Creeks, they punished adultery by beating with poles until the sufferer was senseless, and then concluded by chopping the ears, and for the second offence the nose or a piece of the upper lip.
Notwithstanding they resided so far from large streams, they were all excellent swimmers, and their children were taught that art in clay holes and pools, which remained filled with water unless the summer was remarkably dry.
Of all the indians in American, they were the most expert in tracking . They would follow their flying ( fleeing) enemy on a long gallop over any kind of ground without mistaking, where perhaps only a blade of grass bent down told the footprint. Again,
when they were leisurely hunting over the woods, and came upon an indistinct trail recently made by indians, they knew at once of what nation they were, by the footprints, the hatchet chops upon the trees, their camp fires, and other distinguishing marks.
They were also esteemed to be admirable hunters, and their extensive plains and unbroken forests afforded the wildest field for the display of their skills. In 1771 their grounds extended from Middle Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio and some distance into the territory of the present State of Tennessee. But this extreme northern ground they visited with caution, and only in the winter, when their enemies were close at home. They were often surprised on the sources of the Yazoo, but below there, and as far east as the branches of the Tombigbee to Oktibbeha, they hunted undisturbed. This last point they regarded as the boundary between them and the Choctaws. With the latter they had no jealousies in regard to the chase, and they sported upon each others grounds when not at war. Although the country of the Chickasaws abounded with that valuable animal, the beaver, they left them for the traders to capture, saying " Anybody can kill a beaver." They pursued the more noble and difficult sport of overcoming the fleet deer, and the equally swift and more formidable elk.
