Peter Pitchlynn

Infobox Person

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caption = Peter Pitchlynn
birth_name =
birth_date = January 30, 1806
birth_place = Noxubee county, Mississippi
death_date = January 17, 1881
death_place = Washington, D.C.
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resting_place = Congressional Cemetery
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residence = Mississippi, Oklahoma
nationality = Choctaw
other_names = Hat-choo-tuck-nee ("The Snapping Turtle")
education = University of Nashville
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occupation = Tribal chief
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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. cite web
url = http://www.choctawnation.com/history/index.cfm?fuseaction=HArticle&HArticleID=9
title = Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
accessdate = 2008-02-05
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publisher = Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma]

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. cite web
url = http://www.marciesalaskaweb.com/peterpitchlynn.htm
title = Peter Pitchlynn
accessdate = 2008-02-05
author = James and Marcia Foley
last = Foley
first = James
coauthors = Marcia Foley
date =
format = HTML
work =
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Pitchlynn was in 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. cite book
last = Cushman
first = Horatio
title = History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians
origdate = 1899
url =
accessdate = 2008-02-04
publisher = University of Oklahoma Press
location =
chapter =
chapterurl = ]

Peter P. Pitchlynn was elected Principal Chief of the Choctaws in 1864 and served until 1866. After his tenure he retired in Washington 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.

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. cite book
last = Swanton
first = John
title = Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians
origdate = 1931
url =
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publisher = The University fo Alabama Press
location =
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chapterurl = ]

Pitchlynn addressed the President and several congressional committees in defense of Choctaw claims. He died in Washington, 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. cite web
url = http://www.marciesalaskaweb.com/peterpitchlynn.htm
title = Peter Pitchlynn
accessdate = 2008-02-05
author = James and Marcia Foley
last = Foley
first = James
coauthors = Marcia Foley
date =
format = HTML
work =
publisher = ] 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.

ee also

*Apuckshunubbee
*Pushmataha
*Mosholatubbee
*Greenwood LeFlore
*Phillip Martin
*List of Choctaw Treaties

Citations

External links

* [http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/Research/Rosters/List_NativeAmericans.html Congressional Cemetery: Native Americans List]