Choctaw Bible History (3)

**List: Choctaw Ministry the Bible ( the Bible ) Choctaw... CHOCKTAW. "I.--GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT AND STATISTICS. A LARGE extent of territory, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Cumberland River, if not to the Ohio, bounded west by the Mississippi, and east by the country of the Cherokees and Creeks, constituted the ancient area of the Chocktaw language.   The Chicasas, a people politically distinct from the Chocktaws, but speaking the same language, and evidently belonging to the same stock, occupied the north of this territory.   All the southern portions were inhabited by the Chocktaws, sometimes called Flatheads, from a practice prevalent among them, in common with other Indian tribes, of artificially flattening the head in infancy.    The Chocktaws have been always more addicted to agriculture than to warfare or the chase.   As early as the year 1772 they were considered more advanced in civilisation than any of the neighbouring tribes.   They did not disdain to assist their wives in the labours of the field; and Bernard Romans, in his Natural History of Florida, says of them, that they might be considered as a nation of farmers rather than of savages.   "Their way of life in general (remarked that old writer) may be called industrious; they will do what no other uncompelled savage will do, that is, work in the field to raise grain."   The number of Chocktaws capable of bearing arms was estimated by Bernard Romans at less than 3000: according to a late estimate of the War-department, the Chocktaw nation consists of 18,500 souls, of which number about 15,000 are already settled on lands west of the Mississippi, allotted to them by the United States, on condition of their ceding certain portions of their ancient territories. II.--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE.    Although this language is constructed upon the same grammatical principles as all the other American languages, its uniform system of inflections, and its peculiar method of compounding words, render it more simple and easier of acquisition to Europeans than any other language of its class.   It is comparatively free from the perplexing multiplicity of forms which obstruct the progress of the learner in most of the cognate languages.   The terminations of words are not varied under the two general divisions of animated beings and of inanimate objects.   Gender is denoted by affixing to the noun a distinct word signifying male or female.   Nouns have no plural form; but this defect is supplied some- times by affixing a word indicative of multitude, sometimes by adding the plural form of the possessive pronoun, and sometimes by means of verbs and adjectives, many of which, especially the former, are susceptible of inflections denoting plurality.   There are no prepositions, their office being in this, as in other American languages, subserved by verbal inflections; but there are several inseparable particles which are employed, as in our own language, in the formation of compound words.   It is probably on account of the comparative simplicity of its structure, that the Chocktaw has been adopted by the French as a general medium of communication with all the Indian tribes residing near the Chocktaw country. III.--VERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE.    Several detached portions of the Scriptures and summaries of Scriptural history have, at various times, been printed in Chocktaw, and inserted in books of elementary instruction.   The first separate edition of any portion of the Scriptures in this language consisted of a version of the Acts, which appeared at Boston in 1839, at the expense of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions.   The translation had been drawn from the original, and bore many indications of the care with which it had been executed: a detailed table of contents, and other useful notices, were printed at the end of the volume.   An edition of the Epistles of St. John, and another of the Epistle of St. James, appeared at the Park Hill Mission-press, the one in 1841, and the other in 1843.   The Gospels, translated from the Greek, and considered faithful representations of the original, were printed separately, at Boston, during the year 1845, for the American Board.   In 1849 an edition, in 2000 copies, of a Chocktaw version of the entire New Testament was printed by the American Bible Society. The translation had been effected by the Rev. Alfred Wright and his fellow- mies.: full and satisfactory evidence was obtained as to the value of the work, and there is every prospect of its extensive usefulness.   Various portions of the Old Testament have since been issued by the American Society--comprising the books of Joshua, Judges, Euth, the 1st and 2nd books of Samuel, and the 1st and 2nd books of Kings.   The last mentioned of them was published at the Society's house in 1856, under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Edwards, of the Chocktaw mission."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only] CHOCKTAW.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: n.d. John 1:1-14 unknown.]

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