Peter Pitchlynn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Main article: Choctaw

Peter Pitchlynn
Peter Pitchlynn
Born	January 30, 1806 Noxubee county, Mississippi
Died	January 17, 1881 Washington City
Burial place	Congressional Cemetery
Residence	Mississippi, Oklahoma
Nationality	Choctaw
Other names	Hat-choo-tuck-nee ("The Snapping Turtle")
Occupation	Tribal chief

Peter Perkins Pitchlynn (30 January 1806 - 17 January 1881), or Hat-choo-tuck-nee ("The Snapping Turtle"), was a American Indian/European-American Choctaw chief.

Peter P. Pitchlynn was born in Noxubee County, Mississippi, January 30, 1806 as a Half-breed. His parents were Colonel John Pitchlynn, a white man, and Sophia Folsom, a Choctaw. He began his education by attending a Tennessee boarding school located about 200 miles from his home in Mississippi. Later he attended an Academy in Columbia, Tennessee. To complete his education he became a graduate of the University of Nashville. After he obtained his degree he returned to his home in Mississippi and became a farmer. ^[1]

Of mixed white and Indian ancestry, Pitchlynn was well educated in both traditions and served as an effective liaison with the federal government. Impressive in his bearing--"as stately and complete a gentleman of nature's making as ever I beheld," wrote Charles Dickens--he became principal chief in 1860. ^[2]

Pitchlynn was in Washington City, know today as Washington, D.C., in 1861 when the war started and immediately left hoping to escape the evils of the expected strife. He was there to address national affairs of the Choctaws but immediately returned home. But the Choctaws ... were not permitted to occupy neutral grounds, but were forced into the fratricidal strife, some on the one side and some the other, but to the inconceivable injury of all. ^[3]

Peter P. Pitchlynn was elected Principal Chief of the Choctaws in 1864 and served until 1866. After his tenure he retired in Washington City and devoted his attention to pressing the Choctaw claims for lands sold to the United States in 1830. In addition to being a regular attendant of the Lutheran Church, he was also a prominent member of the Masonic Order. ^[1]

In regards to the origin of the Choctaw, Pitchlynn said "according to the traditions of the Choctaws, the first of their race came from the bosom of a magnificent sea. Even when they first made their appearance upon the earth they were so numerous as to cover the sloping and sandy shore of the ocean ... in the process of time, however, the multitude was visited by sickness ... their journey lay across streams, over hills and mountains, through tangled forests, and over immense prairies ... so pleased were they with all that they saw that they built mounds in all the more beautifual valleys they passed through, so the Master of Life might know that they were not an ungrateful people. ^[4]

Pitchlynn addressed the President and several congressional committees in defense of Choctaw claims. He died in Washington City, in 1881 and was buried in the Congressional Cemetery, where the Choctaw nation placed a monument in recognition of his service and allegiance to his people. ^[2] Pitchlynn's mother Sophia Folsom Pitchlynn has the oldest known date on a tombstone in the of Mississippi. His cousin Frances Folsom (1864-1947) married President Grover Cleveland in the White House.

[edit] See Also

[edit] Citations

^ ^a ^b Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (HTML). Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
^ ^a ^b Foley, James; Marcia Foley. Peter Pitchlynn (HTML). Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
^ Cushman, Horatio [1899]. History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians. University of Oklahoma Press.
^ Swanton, John [1931]. Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians. The University fo Alabama Press.