The Trackers

In the last 200 years scientific discoveries have given us access to knowledge that has transformed our society, but I believe that in many ways our ancestors were more accomplished than we. In particular, the Chickasaws possessed many skills now lost, that enabled them to survive and to thrive in the forests and plains of North America, which was a wilderness in those times.

Not long ago I came across an article published in the Chickasaw Times in 1988, written by Dolores Ferguson. It described the tracking ability of the Chickasaws. In the early days the Chickasaws depended on their tracking skills to hunt and also to prevail against their enemies. One 18th century historian, Bernard Romans, noted that the Chickasaws "are the most expert of any perhaps in America in tracking what they are in pursuit of, and they will follow their flying enemy on a long gallop over any kind of ground without mistaking."

A Chickasaw warrior, when entering a clearing, would know immediately whether another party had travelled before him. He would be able to identify the tribe by the type of fire they built, and by the way they marked the trees with their axes. He would know how many were in a party and how long ago they passed. A Chickasaw once replied, when asked how he could find his way back home after a long journey, "Siah a chuffa kutah Ikhanah," or "I am the one who remembers." He went on to explain that he travelled with his eyes open and his mouth shut, unlike the white man who travels "with his eyes shut and his mouth open."

One legend tells of a warrior who returned home to find his store of venison stolen. After looking around he announced that the thief was a short, lame white man who carried a short gun and was accompanied by a short tailed dog. When questioned, he explained that the tracks were those of someone wearing shoes, hence a white man and not an Indian who would have worn moccasins. The tracks showed that the man stood on his toes to cut down the venison so he must have been short, and his foot print on one side was deeper than on the other indicating a limp. The warrior knew the man had a gun by the mark of its butt on the ground, and that it was a short gun by the height of the scratch the muzzle made on the bark of a tree it leaned against. Finally the warrior could tell that the tail of the man's dog was short by the mark it made on the ground when he wagged it.

In 1837, when the Chickasaws were forced to leave their homeland on the Trail of Tears, they had not lost their path finding abilities. About 1000 Chickasaws travelled independently from Mississippi to Indian Territory, refusing help from the agents hired by the government to assist them. There were many stories of groups from other tribes becoming lost in the swamps along the way, but not among the Chickasaws.

The Chickasaws had another opportunity to demonstrate their tracking skills in 1865 when a band of Comanches stole a herd of their horses. For over a month the Comanches tried to shake the Chickasaw trackers. Finally they were taken by surprise and forced to surrender. Unlike the US army in their encounters with the Indians, the Chickasaws made no reprisals. They  just reclaimed their horses and left the Comanches in peace.