American Indian Culture and Research Journal

In the northeastern corner of Winston County, Mississippi rises an oval mound that covers about an acre and is approximately 40 feet in height. Its name is Nanih Waiya, the sacred mound of the Choctaws. Various origin traditions of the tribe center around the mound. According to one story, the great spirit, Hushtahli, created the Choctaw in the center of the mound, and they emerged into the light from its top. Old Hopankitubbe (Hopakitobi), . . . was wont to say that after coming forth from the mound, the freshly-made Choctaws were very wet and moist, and that the Great Spirit stacked them along on the rampart, as on a clothes line, so that the sun could dry them. As if the great spirit had indeed made the Choctaw out of wet earth, the missionaries who first came into their territory to Christianize them felt that they were like malleable clay, ready to be shaped into the likeness of the Christian god and to become good Christians and Americans. However, it soon became obvious that the Choctaws were not ready to be molded to the will of the missionaries. Indeed, the missionaries often found themselves being bent to the will of tribal leaders even as they tried to bring the Choctaws to spiritual salvation. They were drawn into the secular and political concerns of the tribe as much as they were able to bring Christian conversion to tribal members.