Choctaw Nation | "The earliest known printing of Choctaw laws …"

Choctaw Nation

The Constitution and Laws of the Choctaw Nation. Park Hill, Cherokee Nation [now Oklahoma]: John Candy, Printer, 1840

12mo (172 x 108 mm). Dampstained throughout. Original blue wrappers; dampstained. Dark green cloth chemise and slipcase, dark green morocco spine lettered gilt.

First edition, the Lester Hargrett - Frank T. Siebert copy of "the earliest known printing of Choctaw laws and the earliest known Oklahoma imprint of the laws of any government" (Hargrett). The constitution and laws were drawn up at a convention held 3 October 1838 at Nunihwaya, a prehistoric mound site and the sacred center of the Choctaws' original country (present-day Mississippi and western Alabama). This constitution superannuated the one adopted in Mississippi in 1826, which was known only in a manuscript copy. The work was compiled and edited by David Folsom, a prominent Choctaw. Rare: this is one of only five copies known to Dr. Siebert.

REFERENCE

Hargrett, Oklahoma 31; Hargrett, Constitutions and Laws 108; Foreman p. 40; Gilcrease p. 110; Streeter sale 1:549

PROVENANCE

Lester Hargrett — Frank T. Siebert (sale, Sotheby's New York, 28 October 1999, lot 900)