My name is Chochmo and I am apart of the Chickasaw tribe. We live on what we call the Southwest region We are looking for a place to make our home. The tribe and I decide that we would make a grass roof, and mats woven together to make walls for our teepee because we don’t have tools to cut down trees for wood.

 When we get wood-cutting tools we will make borders around the village by building walls that are reinforced with tree trunks. We will call them palisades and they will keep us safe from attack.

The tribe and I are going hunting to get food and clothes. We are entering the woods right now actually. Right away we can spot out a single deer. I hope we will find turkeys to get their YUMMY legs. I am pulling out my bow to shoot him where he won’t suffer and will not damage any of the meat. I’m pulling back the arrow. WOOSHH!

We are proceeding into the forest and from all we see, there doesn’t seem to be many animals we have only the deer I shot. We need the deer to make breech clothes and their pelts for some leggings or we could use it for a skirt for the women of our tribe. If we could find a cow we could get leather moccasins but no cows here.

 The men and I have made a decision to leave the woods. We have got more turkey meat back at the village. We made something we call an axe to cut trees for wood. Then eventually we got enough wood to make a village and it took a very long time but it is finally done!!

I am in my house thinking of ways to attract more food. I got a tattoo on my arm because I shot a deer and got food for my village. The head chief gave me the tattoo to honor my accomplishment of supplying food for the tribe.

I am in a tribal meeting deciding what we should name our homeland. “ I think we should name it North Carolina” says the chief. “ No!! says everybody I say “we should name it Mississippi”. Everybody else agrees. A woman shouts “The river nearby should be called the Mississippi River”. Everybody agreed.

 We are deciding at this time what to name the biome. One man says “ I think we should call it lands of grass. Nobody liked it. Then all of a sudden a child shouted out “I think grasslands”  Everybody loved the idea. “grasslands it is” I said

 I am going out to explore Mississippi. I am hoping to find plants like the Honeysuckle or the Blue Iris. I might hunt a few animals along the way if I can find some but the main thing is the plants. I am going right this second to explore the 10 mile journey to where the beautiful Blue Iris usually grows.

 Hopefully I will also find nuts, berries, plums. We need these because we don’t like to just live off of meat we need fruit. WE need they herbs because one of the men could get injured while hunting. We mostly use herbs for medicine. I will not wonder too far because the Choctaws are neighbors to us.

 I am walking in to the humongous forest. I am looking for a Honeysuckle. Wait! I See an elk! I am pulling back my arrow. I will hit it where it won’t suffer but won’t damage the meat.

 “WOOSH”, the arrow says as it flies through the air with incredible speed and pierces the elk exactly where I wanted it to. I have lots of luck today because where I shot the elk there was a patch of Blue Iris. (Some common animals are deer, elks, turkeys, and mocking birds.)

 I am freezing right now as I walk along the gravel roads of the village. The bad thing about Mississippi is it is nice in the summer but freezing cold in the winter. “It’s not even cold yet” said the chief. Then I said “well I only have a robe to warm me and you have about ten layers of clothing”. “Whatever” said the chief.

 We also have to have summer and winter houses for the temperature. The summer houses are made of grass and woven mats. Winter homes are made of material that keeps you warm like clay, decayed oyster shells, or coarse chalk. We normally don’t wear shirts but in the winter we have to wear long coats made of animal pelts.

The tribe and I make some pretty smart decisions about where to put our village. We decided to put it near a river bank (The Tombigbee River) for a close source of water and transportation. We used the animals in the river as food.

 We used the mud along the river banks as a building material for our house walls. To keep us warmer in the winter, a portion of our home was built into the ground to keep the gusts of wind from blowing into the house.

 The U.S Government relocated us to a new “Indian Territory” . We had to take a journey on foot and horse to Oklahoma. I don’t want to go because I am familiar with the land in Mississippi, but the new place uh… not so much.

 We are also joining up with the Choctaw tribe. My tribe would rather be independent, but in order to survive, we have to make sacrifices.

 I think the relocation of the Chickasaws wasn’t fair because the colonists fought for freedom and they took away the Chickasaws’ freedom. I thought no matter what color a person is or what they believe in, they were free in America.

 This made me think that if we were unfair to one race, then why were we not unfair to all races? As citizens of this country, we should treat each person equally no matter what their race is.

 The project went fine. I really liked my tribe, even though I was a little slow, I caught up at home. I enjoyed finding out about how the Chickasaws lived their everyday lives.

 I didn’t really like that we moved at such a fast pace. I think I did pretty good because I got a good amount of information. I would give myself about a 94% out of 100 because I worked a long time on it and I had to correct lots of errors.

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