The Cherokee is one of the few so-called savage nations which is increasing, and not decreasing, in numbers. It is, also, the most industrial of all the American families; the Cherokee landholder having, in some cases, as much as five hundred acres under tillage, and possessing slaves as well. Lastly, a native Cherokee has reduced the language to writing—the alphabet (which will be noticed in the sequel) being syllabic.
THE CHOCTAHS.
Area.—Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, parts of Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Bounded by the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic, the Catawba, the Cherokee, and the South Algonkin areas.
Divisions.—a. Choctahs b. Muscogulges, Muskohges, or Creeks.
Sub-divisions.—a. Of the Choctahs, the Chikkasahs. b. Of the Creeks, the Hitchittee and Seminoles.
The Choctahs flatten the head.
The Choctah civilization is partially industrial, differing but little from that of the Cherokee.
The Choctah family has, probably, been a family of encroaching area, the population which it displaced being represented by—