support our organization's work with endangered American Indian languages. . Players went through rigorous mental and physical preparations, including fasting, dancing, meditating and rubbing their bodies with traditional medicines. Today the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians are the federally recognized Choctaw tribes. The Choctaws lived on the upper courses of the Chickasawhay, Pearl, and Big Black Rivers as well as the west side of the Tombigbee River. Likewise, tanners would use these tools to create clothing and useful leather artifacts for Chickasaw citizens and to trade with neighboring tribes. Native American art,