Choctaw Culture Research Paper

Culture of the Choctaw Indians The culture of the Choctaw Indians evolved across the centuries merging European-American influences, although relations with France, Spain, and England significantly influenced it as well. They were well known for their rapid modernization, developing a written language, changing to yeoman agricultural methods, and the lifestyles of European-American and African-Americans imposed on their way of life and their culture. The Choctaw society has its roots embedded in the Mississippian mound-building era. The early religion of the Choctaw consisted of a belief in a good spirit and an evil spirit. Furthermore, the Choctaws anciently considered the sun as a goddess crediting it with life and death. Nan Pisa, meaning the one who sees, denoting the respect the Choctaw people had for the sun. Choctaw ambassadors spoke only on sunny days. If it happened to be cloudy or raining on the day of an assembly, the Choctaw would postpone the conference with the pretense that they needed more time to confer on deliberations until the sun came out. …show more content…
The elders used stories to communicate morals and values. Stories would also recount their perspective of history and retell the endeavors of heroes that had long since passed. Storytelling still remains the channel the Choctaws use to recount the dispossessions remembered through the eyes of their people who were rounded up by American officials to drive them from their homelands in the 19th century. Choctaws are well known for sharing their wisdom and knowledge through words and believe that words have a life of their own. Because words are viewed as having so much potential for doing good or producing harm, Choctaws chose words very