Homastubbee (d. ca. 1809) was the principal chief of one of the three geographical divisions of the Choctaws. In an address to U.S. commissioners in 1801, he asked that the United States carry through with an intention to provide the Choctaws with instruction in spinning and weaving and with tools and agricultural implements. He participated in other treaty negotiations in 1802 and 1805. Homastubbee’s name often appears in conjunction with the title “Mingo,” which in his case acknowledged his position as a leader of one of the major tribal divisions. As shown by TJ’s writing it “Omah Stebbé” in the notes printed above, the name appears with various spellings (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832-61, 38 vols. description ends , Indian Affairs, 1:662; Charles J. Kappler, comp. and ed., Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 5 vols. [Washington, D.C., 1975], 2:57, 64, 88; Greg O’Brien, Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750-1830 [Lincoln, Neb., 2002], 102-3; Clara Sue Kidwell, Choctaws and Missionaries in Mississippi, 1818-1918 [Norman, Okla., 1995], 17; Valerie Lambert, Choctaw Nation: A Story of American Indian Resurgence [Lincoln, Neb., 2007], 27; Grayson Noley, “1540: The First European Contact” and “The Early 1700s: Education, Economics, and Politics,” in Carolyn Keller Reeves, ed., The Choctaw Before Removal [Jackson, Miss., 1985], 56-7, 96).

has come far to state affrs his nation: in September, Puckshunubbee headed a group of leaders who proposed a cession of land to clear the Choctaws’ debts to traders. Forwarding that petition, U.S. agent Silas Dinsmoor advised Dearborn that a Choctaw delegation would be traveling to Washington. In addition to Homastubbee and Puckshunubbee, the group included three other men. Dearborn referred to all of them as chiefs. The notes printed above are TJ’s record of what Homastubbee and Puckshunubbee said in conference with him on 13 Dec. Homastubbee opened his address by identifying the delegation as leaders, “fathers,” of their nation. The meeting with TJ appears to have followed the protocols of a Choctaw council meeting, with speakers going in turn by seniority. It was common for orators in council meetings to pause after each sentence to allow hearers to express their approval. From TJ’s notes, it seems likely that in this meeting an interpreter translated each sentence into English during that pause (Dinsmoor to Dearborn, 30 Sep., 2 Oct., recorded in DNA: RG 107, RLRMS; Dearborn to Dinsmoor, 9 Jan. 1804, in DNA: RG 75, LSIA; Sturtevant, Handbook description begins William C. Sturtevant, Handbook of North American Indians, Washington, D.C., 1978- , 15 vols. description ends , 14:508; Vol. 41:401–3).

sent a talk from ft. adams askg. a factory on tombigby: in an address to commissioners James Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins, and Andrew Pickens in a treaty conference at Fort Adams in December 1801, Homastubbee directed a portion of his remarks to the president of the United States. The mingo asked for a trading store at Fort Stoddert, which was on the Mobile River downstream from the confluence of the Tombigbee and the Alabama, or at Fort St. Stephens, which was on the Tombigbee. The government established a trading factory at St. Stephens in 1802 (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832-61, 38 vols. description ends , Indian Affairs, 1:662; Kidwell, Choctaws and Missionaries, 22; Vol. 39:277n).

Choctaws called the division of their nation located in the watershed of the chickasawhay River the six towns people (Kidwell, Choctaws and Missionaries, 3-4).

heard of 3. fathers. 1st. decd. 3d here: that is, three presidents of the United States, the first of whom was deceased. Some of the Choctaws at the treaty negotiation with the federal commissioners in 1801 had met George Washington in Philadelphia (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832-61, 38 vols. description ends , Indian Affairs, 1:662).

For what lay behind Homastubbee’s request to return home by land, see TJ’s reply of 17 Dec.

Speakers at the conference at Fort Adams in 1801 pointed out the limitations of having only one interpreter for the three divisions of the Choctaws (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832-61, 38 vols. description ends , Indian Affairs, 1:661-2).

their talk all one tho a little way apart: the Choctaw and Chickasaw languages, although not identical, were closely related (Sturtevant, Handbook description begins William C. Sturtevant, Handbook of North American Indians, Washington, D.C., 1978- , 15 vols. description ends , 14:71; 17:109).

land begins on bank of talahatche yazoo: the Tallahatchie River is an upper tributary of the Yazoo. Little Prairie, located on the Arkansas River a few miles above where that river enters the Mississippi, had been the site of a French trading outpost beginning in the seventeenth century. Before and during the American Revolution, a British post on the eastern bank of the Mississippi marked the vicinity of Little Prairie to the west (Jeannie M. Whayne, Thomas A. DeBlack, George Sabo III, and Morris S. Arnold, Arkansas: A Narrative History, 2d ed. [Fayetteville, Ark., 2013], 43, 68).