The Nahullo


Horatio Bardwell “H.B.” Cushman (1822–1904) was the son of missionaries to the Choctaw nation. His parents, Calvin and Laura, left their home in Massachusetts in 1820 and moved to Mississippi to minister to the Choctaw people. Cushman, who was raised among the Choctaw, considered them to be his earliest and most faithful friends.

Having grown up with the Choctaw, and having a great affinity for them, Cushman became acquainted with their history, legends, and customs. In 1899, he published History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Indians; the book sheds much light on the traditions of the native inhabitants of the southeastern United States. In his work, Cushman wrote about the Nahullo giants of Choctaw legend. There is also a legend of mammoths and their extinction:

An ancient Choctaw tradition attributes the origin of the prairies along the western banks of the Tombigbee River, to some huge animals (mammoths) that existed there at the advent of their ancestors from the west to Mississippi. Their tradition also states that the Nahullo, (Supernatural) a race of giant people, also inhabited the same country, with whom their forefathers oft came in hostile contact. These mighty animals broke off the low limbs of the trees in eating the leaves, and also gnawed the bark off the trees, which, in the course of time, caused them to wither and die; that they roamed in different bands, which engaged in desperate battles whenever and wherever they met, and thus caused them to rapidly decrease in numbers; and that, in the course of years all had perished but two large males, who, separate and alone, wandered about for several years—each confining himself to the solitude of the forest many miles from the other. Finally, in their wanderings they met, and at once engaged in terrible conflict in which one was killed. The survivor, now ‘monarch of the forests, strolled about for a few years wrapt in the solitude of his own reflections and independence—then died, and with him the race became extinct.

Cushman went on to tell of the Nahullo, a race of light-skinned giants:

The word Nahoolo is a corruption of the Choctaw word Nahullo and is now applied to the entire White Race, but anciently it referred to a giant race with whom they came in contact when they first crossed the Mississippi river. These giants, says their tradition, as related to the missionaries occupied the northern part of the now States of Mississippi and Alabama and the western part of Tennessee. The true signification of the word Nahullo is a superhuman or supernatural being, and the true words for white man are Hattaktohbi. The Nahullo were of white complexion, according to Choctaw tradition, and were still an existing people at the time of the advent of the Choctaws to Mississippi; that they were a hunting people and also cannibals, who killed and ate the Indians whenever they could capture them, consequently the Nahullo were held in great dread by the Indians and were killed by them whenever an opportunity was presented; by what means they finally became extinct, tradition is silent.

Although the Nahullo were light-skinned according to the Choctaw tradition, according to Cushman, some believe they were of Native American descent:

Some have believed that the Nahullo were the Carib Indians, as they were said to be of gigantic stature and also cannibals, and who once inhabited our Gulf coast. They were found by Columbus in the West Indies, and they are still found in the isles of the Caribbean Sea and Venezuela. The early French writers of Louisiana called the Caribs by their Indian name Attakapas, and Attakapas Parish in Louisiana took its name from that tribe. The French translated Attakapas, man-eater. Attakapas is a corruption of the Choctaw words Hattakapa, (man eatable) which they (the French), no doubt, got from the Choctaws, who gave the tribe that name. I am inclined to believe that the Nahullo of the Choctaw tradition were not regular cannibals, but that they sacrificed human victims in their religious ceremonies, which in extreme cases may, perhaps, have required their officiates to eat a portion also of the victim's flesh. The same also of the Caribs, —hence Hattakapa (man eatable) instead of Hattakupa, eater.

John Francis Hamtramck Claiborne (1809–1884), a congressperson from Mississippi, wrote the following concerning Indian traditions of giants in his work Mississippi, as a Province, Territory, and State, With Biographical Notices of Eminent Citizens:

The Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks, or Muscogees, were in the occupation of a large portion of what now constitutes the States of Mississippi and Alabama, when the French first colonized the country. How long they had been here, and whence they came, is merely traditional and has never been established. The Natchez tribes, and the Caddo's on Red River, had preceded them, and these had been preceded by the mound builders. All the Indian traditions dimly shadow a gigantic race of people, their predecessors who were contemporary with the mammoth, and the fossilized monstrous reptiles. Birds and quadrupeds that have been frequently unearthed, all which became extinct by the wrath of the Great Spirit about the same time.

Claiborne went on and described two distinct groups of giants that once lived in the area:

The Choctaws preserve a dim tradition that, after crossing the Mississippi, they met a race of men whom they called Na-hon-lo, tall in stature and of fair complexion, who had emigrated from the sun rise. They had once been a mighty people but were then few in number and soon disappeared after the incoming of the Choctaws. This race of men were, according to the tradition, tillers of the soil and peaceable. There had likewise been a race of cannibals, who feasted on the bodies of their enemies. They, too, were giants, and utilized the mammoth as their burden bearers. They kept them closely herded, and as they devoured everything and broke down the forests, this was the origin of the prairies.

This cannibal race and the mammoth perished about the same time, by a great epidemic. Only one of the latter escaped, who made his home for several years near the Tombigbee. The Great Spirit struck him several times with lightning, but he presented his head to the bolt and it glanced off. Annoyed, however, by these attempts, he fled to Soc-te-thou-fah, (the present Memphis,) and at one mighty leap cleared the river, and made his way to the Rocky Mountains.

My book Giants: Men of Renown looks at giant legends from around the world. Pick up your copy!

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