Chicksawhe

Chicksawhe lies in central Mississippi, in the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain, a land of low hills, pine woods and river bottoms between the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast. Streams such as the Pearl and Big Black rivers drained the rolling country, and communication followed the rivers and the traces through the forest as much as overland tracks. The Gulf moderates the climate and brings abundant moisture.

This was Choctaw country. The Choctaw, including the western division called Oklafalaya, the "long people", lived in towns and farms along the waterways, growing corn and hunting in the woods. Hernando de Soto's expedition passed through what is now Mississippi in 1540 and 1541, and the French, settled on the Gulf coast from 1699, traded with the Choctaw and fought the Natchez, whose revolt at Fort Rosalie in 1729 brought down their nation. The region became part of Mississippi Territory in 1798, and Mississippi joined the Union in 1817. In the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830 the Choctaw gave up their remaining lands in Mississippi, and most were removed west in the following years.