Effects of Removal on Choctaw Medicinal Plant Usage

Bibliography

When the Choctaw Nation was removed to Indian Territory, they were sent to lands with completely different environments. Of those who left the fertile Mississippi River valley, most moved to Oklahoma and stayed in the more wooded portion in eastern Oklahoma because it was more similar to home, but some were forced farther west to the drier plains. Others took a detour during the migration and settled in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, just north of New Orleans.

Many traditional practices were forbidden or discouraged on reservations during the civilization and assimilation training. This research was intended to discover if or how the changes in environment and resources after removal affected the herbal medicine and healing practices of the Choctaw.

Primary Sources:

Bushnell, David I.. The Choctaw of Bayou Lacombe, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. Washington: Govt. Print. Off., 1909. Accessed April 12, 2014. https://archive.org/stream/choctawbayoulac01bushgoog#page/n4/mode/2up

Includes a list of plants collected by Bushnell in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana between Jan 1 & April 15, 1909 with the Choctaw name, botanical name and usage by the Choctaw.

Edwards, John. "The Choctaw Indians in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century." Chronicles of Oklahoma 10, no. 3 (1932): 415. Accessed online April 8, 2014. http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v010/v010p392.html

Brief description of medical practices, no specific reference to herbs.

Lincecum, Gideon. "Autobiography of Gideon Lincecum." Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society 14 (1898): 443-519. Accessed April 1, 2014. https://archive.org/stream/publications08missuoft#page/520/mode/2up

Autobiography. Includes descriptions of Lincecum's experience in the woods with Choctaw doctor Eliccha Chito learning herbal medicine. p494-498.

Lincecum, Gideon and Joanne Birch. "The Gideon Lincecum Virtual Herbarium." Gideon Lincecum Collection, 1821-1933. The University of Texas, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and The Plant Resources Center. Accessed April 1, 2014. http://w3.biosci.utexas.edu/prc/lincecum/index.html

Samples and documentation of medicinal usage of certain plants collected by Gideon Lincecum. Lincecum lived among the Choctaw Indians in Mississippi from 1822-1825.

Swanton, John Reed. Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians. [Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 103], 235-238. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1931. Accessed April 4, 2014. https://archive.org/stream/bulletin1031931smit#page/n11/mode/2up

Includes information from Swanton's interview with Simpson Tubby, a Mississippi Choctaw Methodist Minister. (pp 235-238 plants), (pp 4, 127 Simpson)

Taylor, Lyda Averill. Field Notes and Ethnographic Material on Alabama, Choctaw, and Koasati (latter incomplete), Plus a Partial Southeast Comparative Ethnology of Southeastern U.S 1936-1940 (part). Manuscript 4658, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Accessed April 18, 2014. http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!748!0

Archive of field notes and ethnographic material on Alabama, Choctaw and Koasati (Coushatta).

Taylor, Lyda Averill. Field Notes. Accessed April 18, 2014. http://sirismm.si.edu/naa/viewer/MS4658_4_Notebook_Gallery/

Images of field notes and ethnographic material on Alabama, Choctaw and Koasati (Coushatta).

Taylor, Lyda Averill. Plants Used As Curatives by Certain Southeastern Tribes. Cambridge, MA. Botanical Museum of Harvard University, 1940. Accessed April 21, 2014. http://www.herbalstudies.net/_media/resources/library/Plants-Used-As-Curatives.pdf

Information on plants used by the Choctaw gathered by the author through field research. Possibly in Louisiana, based on the research on Alabama, Choctaw & Koasati (Coushatta) Indians shown in field notes.

Secondary Sources:

Austin, Daniel F.. Florida Ethnobotany. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2004. Accessed April 19, 2014. http://books.google.com/books?id=7qgPCEiI4WMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Cross referenced plant habitat information.

Birch, J. L. 2004. The Gideon Lincecum Herbarium: A Floristic and Ethnobotanic Analysis. M.A. Thesis. School of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. Accessed April 1, 2014. http://w3.biosci.utexas.edu/prc/lincecum/Birch_2005.pdf

Analysis of Lincecum’s Herbarium collection with historical documentation.

Campbell, T. N.. "Ethnology - Medicinal Plants Used by Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek Indians in the Early Nineteenth Century." Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 41, no. 9 (1951): 285-290. Accessed April 9, 2014. http://biostor.org/reference/134410

Analysis of Medicinal plants, referencing Lincecum, Taylor and Swanton collections.

Eaton, Amos. A manual of botany for the northern and middle states of America ; containing generic and specific descriptions of the indigenous plants and common cultivated exotics, growing north of Virginia ; to which is prefixed a grammar and vocabulary ; Also the Natural Orders of Linneus and of Jussieu, with the Medicinal Properties of Each Order. Albany: Websters & Skinners, 1824. Accessed April 28, 2014. https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=9vY-AAAAYAAJ&rdid=book-9vY-AAAAYAAJ&rdot=1

Used for the explanation of old terms for medicinal usage, such as secernant, sudorific and anodyne.

Erichsen-Brown, Charlotte. Medicinal and Other Uses of North American Plants: A Historical Survey with Special Reference to the Eastern Indian Tribes. New York: Dover Publications, 1979.

List of plants by general location found, with quotations from historical texts referenced.

Galloway, Patricia, Clara Sue Kidwell and William C. Sturtevant, Ed. "Choctaw in the East." In Handbook of North American Indians. Vol 14. Southeast, 499-519. Washington (D.C.): Smithsonian institution, 1978.

Description of Choctaw Culture in Mississippi, including references to environment, plants used and medicine.

Gremillion, Kristen J. and William C. Sturtevant, Ed. "Environment." In Handbook of North American Indians. Vol 14. Southeast, 53-63. Washington (D.C.): Smithsonian institution, 1978.

Maps and descriptions of environment in Choctaw territory before and after removal.

Kidwell, Clara Sue and William C. Sturtevant, Ed. "Choctaw in the West." In Handbook of North American Indians. Vol 14. Southeast, 520-524. Washington (D.C.): Smithsonian institution, 1978.

Description of Choctaw Culture in Oklahoma Indian Territory after removal, including references to cultural changes, environment, plants used and medicine.

Moerman, Daniel E.. Native American Medicinal Plants: An Ethnobotanical Dictionary: [The Medicinal Uses of More Than 3000 Plants by 218 Native American Tribes]. Portland: Timber Press, 2009.

Descriptions of Native American medicinal plants, preparations, uses, and locations found, with sources.

Swanton, John Reed. Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians. [Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 103]. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1931. Accessed April 4, 2014. https://archive.org/stream/bulletin1031931smit#page/n11/mode/2up

Includes information from Swanton's interviews with Simpson Tubby, a Mississippi Choctaw Methodist Minister.

Websites:

Kidwell, Clara Sue. "The Effects of Removal on American Indian Tribes." NationalHumanitiesCenter.org. Accessed April 8, 2014. http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/ntecoindian/essays/indianremovale.htm

Very generic information on herbs used in Oklahoma by the Choctaw.

Moerman, Daniel. "Native American Ethnobotany." University of Michigan - Dearborn College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters. Accessed April 8, 2014. http://herb.umd.umich.edu/

Database of Native American medicinal plants, preparations, uses, and locations found, with sources.

"eFloras.org Home." eFloras.org Home. Accessed April 15, 2014. http://www.efloras.org/

Database with information on some plants with native territory and habitat.

"NPIN: Native Plant Database." Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Accessed April 15, 2014. http://www.wildflower.org/plants/

Database with information on plants with native territory and habitat.

The Plant List (2013). Version 1.1. Published on the Internet; Accessed April 15, 2014. http://www.theplantlist.org/

Database with information on historical scientific names and synonyms of plants.

"PLANTS Database." USDA PLANTS. Accessed April 15, 2014. http://plants.usda.gov

Database with limited information on scientific name synonyms and native territory of plants

Elisa Verratti, 2014