George Strother Gaines:
Mississippi Friend to the Local Native Americans
By Jabe Fincher
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2012 Jabe Fincher
George Strother Gaines:
Mississippi Friend to the Local Native Americans
By Jabe Fincher
George Strother Gaines was a well-trusted and honorable man among the Indians and the whites. Learn about his life from author Jabe Fincher.
George Strother Gaines was born in Surry County (later Stokes County), North Carolina on May 1, 1784. At the young age of twenty-years, he received a federal appointment as assistant factor at the Choctaw Trading House at St. Stephens in 1804. His appointment as factor became official in 1807, and he was named postmaster at St. Stephens, Alabama.
The Choctaws were Gaines' principle customers at the trading house, but the Chickasaw from the upper Tombigbee region, Creeks living on the Black Warrior and Alabama Rivers, and white settlers from the lower Tombigbee and Tensaw settlements (*) purchased goods from Gaines. The Native Americans of the area, especially the Choctaws, were good friends of, and trusted, Gaines. He worked closely with the Indians and learned many of their customs and beliefs.
One belief or custom was the Choctaw method of dealing with the dead. Instead of burying their dead, the corpse was wrapped in a blanket and placed on a scaffold in the yard of the family. The body remained on the scaffold until the flesh was in an advanced stage of decay. At this time a professional bone picker was employed to remove the bones from the flesh, wash them, and place them in a small box. After this, the box was placed in the bone-house of the village. "Gaines, in his Reminiscences stated that the services of the Choctaw volunteers with our troops on the eastern frontier seemed to convince them that burying the dead was better than scaffolding, etc. They relinquished their ancient custom and buried, though they did not believe this mode as respectful to the memory of the deceased."