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Transcript

Choctaw Mythology

Additional Myth

One day ages ago Choctaw realized that the only thing he could not yet teach his people was what happened to the sun god at the end of his daily journey. Two braves named Tashka and Walo (brothers of course) volunteered to follow the sun and find the answer for their revered ancestor. Leaving the area around Nanih Waiya the brothers spent long years following Hashtali by day and sleeping by night.

Tashka and Walo were both very old men by the time they reached the far western waters which the sun god and his mount dive into each night. Because the two brothers had learned much magic in their journey they were able to walk across the waters (like Nayanazgeni and Tobadzistsini in Navajo myths) and eventually reached the entrance to Hashtali’s home. This entrance was a doorway floating on the waters. Tashka and Walo climbed down through this door in the roof of the sun god’s house.

Once inside they encountered Hashtali and since it was a moonless night his wife Hvashi was there, too. The couple were startled because no human had ever reached their home before. The two gods questioned Tashka and Walo about their journey and its purpose. In addition Hashtali decided to test the brothers’ worthiness by having his wife boil a huge pot of water and submerging the two elderly men in it. (“My host hath strange notions of hospitality.”)

After the brothers survived being boiled Hashtali rubbed their skin until it was red and chafed, but still they did not cry out. Judging them worthy he welcomed them to stay overnight and presented them to each of his daughters. Come morning he allowed Tashka and Walo to ride with him on his giant buzzard as they flew out of the other doorway of the sun god’s home, the one that opened on the waters in the east.

Flying along, Hashtali informed his passengers that he would drop them off at the Choctaw people’s home near Nanih Waiya but that they would die if they ever told anyone about what they had witnessed in the sun god’s house. Tashka and Walo were welcomed back by Choctaw, who hadn’t aged a bit, but when they realized that everyone they had known and loved had died during their decades-long journey to the house of the sun god they decided they did not want to live anymore.

At the huge dinner Choctaw feasted the brothers with that night they told him all about everything they had seen and, as Hashtali had warned, they promptly died. The sun god welcomed them into his celestial court to marry some of his daughters and they were thenceforth worshipped by men, one as the god of the dawn and the other as the god of dusk, to herald the sun’s emergence in the morning and to welcome him home in the evening. Their skin was forever reddened by the boiling and scraping Hashtali had subjected them to and that is why the sky is often red near sunrise and near sunset.

Background Information

  • Choctaw mythology is related to the Choctaws, a Native American tribe originally from the Southeastern United States, particularly Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.
  • In the 19th century, the Choctaws were known as one of the "Five Civilized Tribes."
  • The Choctaw and their ancestors have lived in the Mississippi region for about 4000 to 8000 years.

Important Gods/Goddesses, Heroes, and Creatures

Nanishta: the chief and creator deity of Choctaw mythology.

Hashtali: the sun god of the Choctaw people (married to the moon goddess).

Chotaw: the eponymous first man and progenitor of the Choctaw people.

Hatakachafa: known as "Nameless One" who is the hunting god and wolf divinity, originally mortal.

Eskeilay: the grasshopper goddess whose name means "mother of the unliving." She was human in form but with antennas.

Bohpoli: a nature deity small in stature (2 feet tall).

Uncta: the great bronze-colored spider god. He could take on both human and giant spider form. Stole fire for Choctaws and gave advice and prophecies.

Abohli: the goddess of swamps and undergrowth. Usually manifests herself as a human-sized swirling tornado of light floating through the swamps and carrying a pipe. Will-o-the-wisps are her children.

Hvashi: the moon goddess and the mother of the corn goddess. Wife of the sun god.

Ohoyochisba: the corn goddess and daughter of the sun god and moon goddess.

Heloha (female) and Melatha (male): the Choctaw version of the Thunderbirds.

Creation Myth

At the beginning there was a great mound. It was called Nanih Waiya. It was from the mound that the creator, Nanishta (or in some stories Hashtali, as they are often conflated in the myths) fashioned the first of people. These people crawled through a long, dark cave into daylight and became the first Choctaw.

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