The Choctaws were great storytellers. they have two stories of their origin, which they have passed on orally from generation to generation for many centuries.

One maintains that the Choctaw first lived somewhere in what is now the Western U.S. and then migrated to present day Mississippi. Although the story does not fully explain why the tribe left the West, some versions of it suggest that either their first homeland had become overpopulated or they wished to escape constant warfare with neighboring tribes.

Carrying the bones of their ancestors, the Choctaw journeyed eastward, a course indicated by a sacred pole that their leader, Chata, placed in the ground at the end of a day's journey. Every morning, they found the pole was leaning toward the East and set off in that direction, led by a white dog with with magical powers that slept at the base of the pole each night. For months the Choctaw wandered, crossing a great river (the Mississippi) and continuing east. Finally, one morning, they found that the dog had died and that the pole stood upright. the Choctaw took this as a sign that they had at last arrived to their new homeland.

To celebrate the occasion, the Choctaw built a large mound in which they buried their ancestors remains. Because the mound was slanted, they called it NANIAH WAIYA, or "leaning mound". The great oblong structure located in what is today southern Winston County in east-central Mississippi, stood nearly 40 feet high with a base of appoximately one acre and a summit of about a quarter of an acre. The Choctaw fortified from the mound with an eight-foot-high circular wallmeasuring one to two miles in circumference. Archaeologists believe that the mound was the location for political and religious meetings of the tribe from about 500 B.C. until the arrival of Europeans in the area in the early 1700's.

The Choctaw's second story of their origin states that they were created in the center of the Nanih Waiya by a great spirit and then crawled to the surface of the earth through a hole in the ground or a cave.
In another version of this creation story, the Creek and Chickasaw Indians came out of the mound before the Choctaw finally emerged. The other groups migrated to neighboring areas, but when the Choctaw surfaced, they dried themselves in the sun, looked around, and chose to settle on the land surrounding Nanih Waiya.

The early Choctaw left no written records of the way they lived, but archaeologists and other scholars have learned much about the Choctaws pre-history from studying artifacts - handmade objects they left behind, such as projectile points (arrowheads or spear points) and pottery. The written observations of the European explorers and travelers who visited the area as early as the 16th century also contribute information about the prehistoric Choctaw life.

the region the early Choctaw inhabited (now Mississippi,western Alabama, and eastern Louisiana) has a warm moist climate with mild winters, hot summers and ample rainfall. the area is covered with low running hills, blanketed with pine trees, and hardwoods are found along the many creeks. and rivers that flow through the land. The forests provided the Choctaw with firewood and building materials, and the wild plants, game and fish, abundant in the region, provided much of the food.

although the soil was not extremely rich, Choctaw men, women and children cultivated the river floodplains. All Choctaw land was held in common by the tribe, but individuals had a claim to any tract they cultivated as long as they did not encroach upon fileds already claimed by another Choctaw. If a Choctaw abandoned his or her field, control over it reverted to the tribe.

The Choctaw cleared their fields in midwinter by burning the underbrush and killing the trees by cutting off a ring of bark near the base of the trunks. In the spring, they planted corn (maize)- their most important crop - beans, melons, pumpkins, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, and sunflowers. The tribes farming tools included spades, and shovels made from cedarwood and hoes constructed from pieces of flint, the bones of an animal, such as the shoulder of a bison, or bent sticks.