[meteorite-list] Choctaw impact account

From: E.P. Grondine <epgrondine_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 15:05:14 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <1385420714.2744.YahooMailBasic_at_web161302.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>

TWO FRAGMENTS OF A CHOCTAW IMPACT TRADITION


The traditions of the Choctaws concerning the Oka Falama
[the Returned waters] is as follows:

FRAGMENT 1

In ancient time, after many generations of mankind had
lived and passed from the stage of being, the race became
so corrupt and wicked, brother fighting against brother and
wars deluging the Earth with human blood and carnage,

The Great Spirit became greatly displeased, and finally determined
to destroy the human race; therefore He sent a great prophet [the Peoples' Mourner] to them
who proclaimed from tribe to tribe, and from village to village,
the fearful tidings that the human race was soon to be destroyed.

None believed his words, and lived on in their wickedness;
as if they did not care, and the seasons came again and went.

Then came the autumn of the year,
followed by many succeeding cloudy days and nights,
during which the Sun by day and the Moon and Stars by night
were concealed from the Earth;

Then succeeded a total darkness,
and the Sun seemed to have been blotted out,
while darkness and silence with a cold atmosphere
took possession of earth.
Mankind wearied and perplexed, but not repenting or reforming,
slept in darkness but to awake in darkness.

Then the mutterings of distant thunder began to be heard,
gradually becoming incessant,
until it reverberated in all parts of the sky,
and seemed to echo back even from the deep center of the Earth.
Then fear and consternation seized upon every heart
and all believed the Sun would never return.

The Magi [Spiritual Guides]of the Choctaws spoke despondently
in reply to the many interrogations of the alarmed people,
and sang their death-songs
which were but faintly heard in the mingled confusion that arose
amid the gloom of the night that seemed would have no returning morn.

Mankind went from place to place only by torch-light;
their food stored away became mouldy and unfit for use;
The wild animals of the forests gathered around their fires bewildered,
and even entered their towns and villages seeming to have lost all fear of man.

Suddenly a fearful crash of thunder,
louder than ever before heard,
seemed to shake the Earth,
and immediately after a light was seen glimmering
seemingly far away to the North.

It was soon discovered not to be the light of the returning Sun,
but the gleam of great waters advancing in mighty billows,
wave succeeding wave as they rolled onward over the earth
destroying everything in their path.

Then the wailing cry was heard coining from all directions,
"Oka Falamah, Oka Falamah" ("The returned waters, The returned waters.").

Stretching from horizon to horizon, it came pouring its massive waters onward.
The foundations of the Great Deep were broken up.
Soon the earth was entirely overwhelmed
by the mighty and irresistible rush of the waters
which swept away the human race and all animals
leaving the earth a desolate waste.

Of all mankind only one was saved,
and that one was the mysterious prophet (The People's Mourner, below)
who had been sent by the Great Spirit
to warn the human race of their near approaching doom.

This prophet saved himself by making a raft of sassafras logs
by the direction of the Great Spirit,
upon which he floated upon the great waters that covered the earth,
as various kinds of fish swam around him,
and twined among the branches of the submerged trees,
while upon the face of the waters
he looked upon the dead bodies of men and beasts,
as they arose and fell upon the heaving billows.
....
Soon night came on,
and the Moon and stars again made their appearance,
and the next morning the Sun arose in its former splendor.

And the prophet looking around saw an island in the distance
toward which the raft was slowly drifting,
and before the Sun had gone down seemingly again into the world of waters,
the raft had touched the island,
upon which he landed and encamped,
and being wearied and lonely
he soon forgot his anxieties in sleep;
and when morning came, in looking around over the island,
he found it covered with all varieties of animals excepting
the mammoth which had been destroyed.
...

FRAGMENT 2

In the far distant ages of the past,
the people, whom the Great Spirit had created,
became so wicked that he resolved to sweep them all from the earth,
except Okla tabashih (the Peoples' Mourner) and his family,
who alone did that which was good.
...
The rain began to fall increasing in volume for many days and nights,
until thousands of people and animals perished.
[likely a Christian insertion by missionary]

Then it [the rain] suddenly ceased
and utter darkness covered the face of the earth for a long time,
while the people and animals that still survived
groped here and there in the fearful gloom.

Suddenly far in the distant north was seen a long streak of light.
They believed that amid the raging elements
and the impenetrable darkness that covered the earth,
the Sun had lost its way and was rising in the north.
All the surviving people rushed towards the seemingly rising Sun,
though utterly bewildered, not knowing or caring what they did.
But well did Oklatabashih (the Peoples' Mourner)
interpret the prophetic sign of their fast approaching doom.

Instead of the bright dawn of another long wished-for day,
they saw, in utter despair, that it was but the mocking light
that foretold how near the Okafalama (the Returning Waters) was at hand,

Rolling like mountains on mountains piled
and engulfing everything in its resistless course.
...

These Fragments Preserved by
H. B. CUSHMAN, in

HISTORY OF THE CHOCTAW, CHICASAW and NATCHEZ INDIANS
HEADLIGHT PRINTING HOUSE, GREENVILLE, TEXAS, 1899

and his Grandfather, a Christian Missionary,
both of whom thought it "proved" the "Flood of Noah"
Received on Mon 25 Nov 2013 06:05:14 PM PST