Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in Anthropology

First Advisor

Robbie Ethridge

Second Advisor

Jay Johnson

Third Advisor

Tony Boudreaux

School

University of Mississippi

Relational Format

dissertation/thesis

Abstract

In late 1813, at a time of increasing violence on the Southern frontier, Chickasaw leader George Colbert (Tootemastubee) left his home and ferry on the Natchez Trace to move back to relative safety in the heart of the Chickasaw Nation. He returned to the place that had once been his father’s plantation and made what he described as a “shelter from the weather.” He later hired skilled craftsmen to build a large and finely carpentered new home on the site. The Colbert-Walker site (22Le1048), near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi, has long been said to be the location of this structure, which also served as the Chickasaw national council house during a transformative period in Chickasaw history. In September 1816 Colbert’s home was host to the Convention of Southern Tribes, where Andrew Jackson met with over seventy-five headmen from the Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Choctaw nations, including the famous Cherokee leader Sequoyah and the Choctaw chiefs Pushmataha and Mushulatubbee. Based on documentary, archaeological, and architectural research, I argue that 22Le1048 is the site of George Colbert’s home and council house. To establish the national historic significance of the site, I also review the events that took place there, including the 1816 Convention of Southern Tribes and the Treaty of Chickasaw Council House.

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