The people on the Pearl River may have come from the far west. The people of the Northeastern district may have descended from the prehistoric inhabitants from near Moundville in western Alabama. The different creation traditions suggest that the Choctaw were not one tribe at first. While the Choctaw have little presence in present-day Arkansas, they were an influence on the development of the state. In both traditions, the Choctaw first settled near the mound they considered sacred. The other tradition holds that the Choctaw emerged from the ancient Nanih Waiya mound. One is that they came from the far west and were led eastward by a sacred pole that was placed in the ground each night one morning, the pole did not lean but stayed straight upright near a mound they called Nanih Waiya (Leaning Hill), in what was to become Mississippi. There are two widespread traditions within the Choctaw about their origins. The three divisions each had some distinguishing cultural practices, which may indicate they had separate origins and that the Choctaw came together as a single people only in more recent times. When first encountered by Europeans, the Choctaw were located in three geographic divisions in the area that is now Mississippi and western Alabama. The Choctaw are of the Western Muskogean language stock, which is also the same stock as the Chickasaw.
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