Ms. Bush, and various aspects of land and territories

   Bush Home was born in Indian Territory. Her real name was Bushpo Houma (or Humma, Hooma, Hoomah, Houmah, Hummah, Homa, Huma, etc), which means "Red Blade" or "Red Knife"in Chahta language. (One can see this in the Chahta name 'Oklahoma'. In Chahta language Okla means people, and Homa means Red. After the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and the start of Indian Removal, the Indian Country West of the Mississippi River was named Oklahoma, as the land where they, the Red People, would dwell.) No one really knows exactly when Zacharrah met Ms. Bush, and most folks these days don't realize that at one time the Carolinas and Georgia claimed lands extending all the way to the Mississippi river (see map here: Map Link). Ms. Bush is suspected to have originated in present day Neshoba County, Mississippi near the present-day village of House, in an area which until fairly recently was called Muckalush or Mogalusha, for the largest of the Choctaw villages, Imoklasa. In fact some of her ancestors still live there.

 Mogalusha

   She was familiar with a vast expanse of territory as the Choctaw frequented the region crossing the Tombigbee River extending into present day Alabama to the East, and through present day Alabama and Mississippi up to lower Tennessee in the North, to the Gulf Coast in the South, and to the Mississippi River to the West. 

   However, the land along the Gulf Coast had been variously claimed by Spain, Britain, and France (it all gets a bit confusing really). But the Spanish and British did divide much of this into an East and West Florida (sort of they were colluding against the newly formed United States of America), which included the entirety of the present day coasts of Alabama and Mississippi. And the State of Georgia under treacherous influences really pulled some doozies with land, which harmed many good hard-working people who belonged to the land far into the future.

   Bushpo Houma's name was Americanized to Bush Home. She must have been of immense help navigating the virgin wilderness. There were really no roads, only Buffalo trails, and the great untamed rivers. The trails required a ticket from the Indian Affairs agent of the U.S. government, and were not wide enough to handle the narrowest of wagons. So, folks used a combination of flatboats, with the women often having to pole the craft while the men fought various hostile tribes; and 'Rolling Hog-heads'. The Indian lands were disputed between tribes and the boundaries often overlapped causing very confusing treaty arrangements that were a big source of the tensions that sometimes occurred between the American settlers (who were often of mixed-blood), the U.S. Government, and various Native Tribes. This is also very complex and will be discussed soon. It is significant because much of real American history is the story of various mixed-blood peoples, as well as Africans, and Europeans. But the predominate history of the Deep South is the story of mixed-blood families torn between Machiavellian European Governments, new Native prophecies with associated mutations in religious practices, conflicts between various Native tribes regarding over-lapping land claims, and devious actions by the wealthy and empowered over the Natives as well as loyal American citizens who had just recently thrown off the yoke of a cruel and oppressive imperialistic taskmaster.

   An interesting fact regarding Bushpo Houma is that she still owes money to the Choctaw Trading House, and according to noted Choctaw Historian and author of Choctaw Woman: Mela Comes Home, Richard Johnston; Bushpo Houma is identified in the Choctaw Trading House records as the Indian who warned the citizens of Fort Mims about the Creeks preparing to attack them prior to the massacre. I had contacted Mr. Johnston because he had written that Bushpo Houma was a male. However, various family records and discussions with some older folks in Texas, Louisiana, and in several counties in Mississippi indicate otherwise, and I have not seen this discounted. Although there is a possibility of two identically named Choctaws, I have reason to believe differently. She still owes $58.30 to the Trading House, I'll post a link below.

First Choctaw Trading House