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Home
Introduction
The Chickasaw Village Sources
The Village Location Keys
Remaining Village Locations
The Decades and the Villages
 Historical Overview
Village Locations
1690-1700
1700-1710
1710-1720
1720-1730
1730-1740
1740-1750
1750-1760
1760-1770
1770-1780
1780-1790
1790-1800
Pre1690
Abbreviations
Figures (Maps)
Slide Show -
Current Village Locations
References
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Clues to the locations of the prehistoric Chickasaw are included in several of the visitors to the Chickasaw and their use of the phrases Old Fields, as noted earlier, and Old Town.
Speaking of Piomingo, McGee (Draper 2) narrated that "He was home about 1750 in the "Old Town". Note that Old Town was not one of McGee's named villages (see Table 1). The omission was not accidental for McGee (Draper 3) continued indicating that the Chickasaw, "left their towns & concentrated in Old Town, on Old Town Creek". This Old Town Creek is one and the same with the modern Town Creek and Old Town refers to just that, a previous Chickasaw occupation on that site. McGee (Draper 3) provided other Old Town references, "the Choctaws came boldly to the Old Town & burned one (of) their houses". Once again he is speaking of the location where the Chickasaws were attacked time after time by the Choctaw and other Indians in the 1740/50/60s. He also indicated (Draper 3) that Old Town was "where the King resided". McGee's Old Town location is fairly equivalent to Adair's ‘Present Settlements’ see Figure 1. Both Old Town and Present Settlements speak to the collection of villages residing there.
But McGee provided clues to an earlier Chickasaw occupation at Old Town. In fact, he indicated (Draper 6) that Old Town was the location where Chickasaw legend the "pole stood erect, & there they pitched their town and home."
McGee subdivided Old Town from the Old Fields (Draper 6) relating that "the "Old Fields" lay on the Southern bank of Old Town creek, stretching from some four or 5 miles above Old Town to down four or five miles below Long Town-making it some 13 or 14 miles long by about 4 broad, with here & there a copse of wood to dot the wide & long extended expanse." McGee described a larger area than the 1832 cession surveyors noted as Old Fields and prairies see Figure 2. This area is shown on Figure 14. Note that the area west of Adair's ‘present settlements’ represents a significant portion of McGee's Old Field area. Adair (Adair 1775 411) addressed the area west of the ‘present settlements’ when he noted, "one of the Chikkasah traders went from home, about ten miles . . . six of the miles was an old waste field, which the Chikkasah formerly had settled, when they were more numerous". Adair when he addressed the old waste fields was referencing Old Town. He confirms McGee that Old Town referred to a former Chickasaw settlement.
This larger area of Old Field stretched from Belden west about 4 miles to just short of Sherman. This Old Field also extended south of Old Town to the Tupelo airport and included Adair's Chookka Phaarah. Old Town offered a sanctuary due to its surrounding swamps. Had Nairne, in 1708 continued the beaver trade or had Bienville put a bounty on the beaver, as he had the Chickasaw horses, the Chickasaw would have had a difficult time surviving the French. This Old Field area is littered with Chickasaw pottery. Including the area shown in Figure 14, a few early, distinctive trade artifacts (a flat brass collar and buffalo brass effigies) have been found that point to an occupation about/post 1650. It was occupied by the Chickasaw for its noted defensive posture to fend off the "former" Iroquois attacks mentioned by Nairne (Nairne 37). Twice Old Town provided the Nation its sanctuary.
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