Bone pickers apparently were unique to the Choctaw. The Choctaw buried their dead on scaffolds much like the Plains Indians (they also wore their hair in Plains Indians style). After a prescribed length of mourning (prescribed by the medicince man or Ikbi), the bones were taken down and scraped clean by the bone picker who had especially long nails for this purpose. The cleaned bones were then bundled and placed in a common bone house. You can guess that this practice was repugnant to Europeans. One origin story talks about the carrying of ancestral bones in the long trek to Mississippi. I often think about the fact that no mention is made of the carrying of ancestral bones to Oklahoma and how the Choctaw have since been scattered. I have written a poem about this idea. George Ann >From: JohnnyMikeCraven@aol.com >Reply-To: CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST-L@rootsweb.com >To: CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: Re: [CHOCTAW-SE] Hopiah >Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 02:51:23 EDT > >In a message dated 7/21/2002 5:15:11 AM Central Daylight Time, >imafo2002@yahoo.com writes: > > > > > > Halito All: > > > > George Ann, I don't doubt that Byington is right, > > after all he is the authority. However, we have all > > seen the situation where Choctaw words, as many > > English words, have more than one meaning. This quite > > clearly must be a case like that or perhaps some other > > explanation is involved. > > My sources are the many translated names in > > history, such as Hopiah Isketena - Little Leader and > > Hopiah Humma - Red Leader. Unfortunately I am at a > > loss as to which meaning might have been used for my > > ancestor. > > I suggest two possibilities could have been at > > work here. One could have been that there indeed have > > been two definitions at work at the same time. The > > other could be that as the custom of bone picking died > > off, the meaning of the word changed. We have seen > > this occur as well, in many cultures. > > This is quite an interesting discussion, I'd like > > to get the answer, however so that I could get some > > clues about my ancestors. > > > > Imafo > > > > > >Hello Imafo and George Ann, > > I am not at all familiar with the term "bone-picking" or the >context >that it is used in. I suspect it has something to do with burial rites >amongst the Choctaws and perhaps other tribes as well. > > Could you all elaborate on the term a little for the rest of us on >the >list who don't know what the term refers to? > > Also wouldn't the role of someone who directs the burials of tribal >members naturally fall to the head priest, if there was such a thing in >Choctaw tribal culture and if there was such a thing as a head priest for >Choctaw religious ceremonies such as burials wouldn't this be the source of >the dual meanings of "hopia" as being both a leader and a "bone-picker"? > > John Craven > New Orleans > > >==== CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST Mailing List ==== >HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE.... >Send msg. to CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST-L-request@rootsweb.com >Put "one" word in "body" of message:... "unsubscribe" without the quotes >and spelled correctly. >Nothing in the subject line... Turn off signatures....... _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx