The Choctaw Warriors of Chucalissa: Finding Music History in Museum Archives

By Grace McCommon

PhD Candidate – University of Memphis

Within many Southeastern Indigenous cultures, including the Choctaw of Mississippi and Oklahoma, the divine gift of music is said to have been given to the People at the time of creation. From this perspective, it could be argued that music has been a vital part of Memphis’ history for as long as people have lived here, which archaeological evidence suggests is at least 14,000 years. When we consider Memphis’ extensive Indigenous history together with the importance of music and dance within Native cultures, it becomes strange to only consider Memphis as a musical city because of twentieth century pop culture.

Enter Chucalissa. We are an archaeological site and museum located in southwest Memphis, dedicated to telling the story of the pre-Contact society that constructed the mound complex found on our museum grounds. Our museum opened in 1956, and in 1959, museum director Charles Nash made one of the most impactful decisions in our museum’s history: Choctaw families from nearby Lauderdale County and central Mississippi were recruited to live on the museum grounds and serve as cultural guides. Since then, several Choctaw families have continuously defined Chucalissa, making it a truly unique institution within the State of Tennessee.

Over the course of the families’ tenures at our museum, their cultural knowledge was and continues to be applied to many of the museum’s events and educational materials, including festivals, beadwork, and pottery. As we would later find, one of their more unique contributions was their musical output.

The Project

As both a music educator and PhD student in musicology at the University of Memphis, I was tasked with redesigning the museum’s educational programming concerning Native music and dance cultures. Leading hundreds of students through Memphis’ earliest musical traditions was an incredible experience, and it forced me to radically recontextualize what I considered to be “Memphis music.” Additionally, this shift in thought satisfied my other academic half as a musicologist. Not only was I challenging students’ perceptions of “Memphis music,” but I was also broadening my skills as a researcher and music historian. As enlightening as the research and lectures were, they remained a step removed from Chucalissa specifically; musical instruments, often made of organic materials, rarely preserve well and were not recorded by archaeologists excavating at Chucalissa. Therefore, there was nothing directly linking the study of Native music cultures to the history of our museum.

That changed during the spring of 2025, when we found boxes of reels and tapes tucked away in cabinets beneath display cases in our main exhibit hall. With no indication as to how long the materials had been kept there, we quickly found that many of the recordings came from the museum’s early years, dating back to the late 1950s and early 1960s. Familiar names of past employees, including Choctaw families, were peppered across the backs of reel boxes and tape cases like an extended family photo album – an unprecedented view into the interpersonal history of our museum.

Chucalissa Exhibit Hall. Materials were found in cabinets below exhibit displays. Photo taken by author on October 23, 2025.

With easy access to both the University of Memphis Libraries and the Memphis Public Library, we decided to digitize the materials to see what our predecessors had left behind. Digitizing this newly uncovered material not only allowed us to study past museum administrations’ efforts to understand the site and the culture that created it, but it also allowed us to more thoroughly acknowledge the impact of the Choctaw families that lived and worked here.

Most of the material was digitized at the Efrim and Caroline S. Fruchtman Music Library at the University of Memphis, though we also had the privilege of collaborating with the Memphis Public Library’s History Department and the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University. By the end of the project, we recovered eleven cassette tapes, fourteen 8-Track tapes, thirteen reel-to-reel tapes, and six cartridge tapes totaling over eight hours of material. Most pertained to routine museum educational materials like introductory presentations, history lectures, translations, archaeological field notes, and even field recordings from both the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations. Despite this wealth of material, another unique item – only four minutes long – captured our attention: a lonely 7-inch vinyl record.

The Choctaw Warriors

A Chucalissa Release by the Choctaw Warriors. Photos taken by author.

With the help of music librarians at the University of Memphis, A Chucalissa Release by The Choctaw Warriors was digitized on March 24, 2025. Due to the titles of the two tracks (“Choctaw Stomp Dance” and “Quail Dance”) and the apparent direct association with the museum, we expected to find traditional or pre-European contact-style recordings. While that certainly would have been a welcome addition to our project findings, we were happily mistaken. In true Memphis fashion, The Choctaw Warriors, undeniably influenced by Carl Perkins and Scotty Moore, had made a rock and roll record.

Initial research yielded no information on the record, the label, or the band. The breakthrough finally came in August of 2025 when I found newspaper clippings of a band called The Yazoo Warriors from Forest, Mississippi. Despite no clear understanding yet of why the group’s name may have been changed for the record, we reasoned that it was likely that The Yazoo Warriors were The Choctaw Warriors listed on the record for several reasons. First, The Yazoo Warriors, which consisted of five Choctaw musicians that blended Choctaw song and dance with rock and roll instrumentation, performed at Chucalissa on May 1, 1960, under the name ‘Yazoo Warriors’ – a direct connection between Chucalissa and The Yazoo Warriors. Secondly, Yazoo Warriors guitarist Grady John had been employed by Chucalissa as a guide since 1959. Finally, initial dating estimates for the record were nearly contemporaneous with the Chucalissa performance date. Before finding The Yazoo Warriors, we estimated that the record was likely produced in the latter half of the 1960s (though no exact production date has been determined) due to the musical styles and probable influences, the prevalence of independent record labels springing up around Memphis at the time, and the bulk of the other newly digitized materials also having been made around this period.

Commercial Appeal (Memphis), April 30, 1960, 17.

The final piece of the puzzle regarding the identification of the band came in September of 2025, when continued digitization of the museum’s reel-to-reel collection revealed more recordings of The Choctaw Warriors, introduced by an employee of the museum. These reel-to-reel recordings from 1971 captured what appears to have been an informal jam session or rehearsal of the “Choctaw Stomp Dance” and “Quail Dance.” After the band’s performance, the employee on the recording states that The Choctaw Warriors are “self-taught, self-styled, Choctaws of the new generation.” The employee also specifically names Tony York as the vocalist, confirming that The Choctaw Warriors were The Yazoo Warriors from the newspaper clipping seen above.

To confirm this information, we spoke with band members’ families. At one of Chucalissa’s annual festivals, Grady John’s relatives confirmed that he was “always in a band.” Familiar with The Yazoo Warriors, relatives said they were unfamiliar with the later Choctaw Warriors iteration but dropped another bombshell. Before they were known as The Yazoo Warriors, the band had been known as The Shamrocks. Newspaper clippings indicate that the band – most commonly seen as The Yazoo Warriors – had been performing together since at least 1959 across multiple states including Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, though no clippings have yet been found concerning The Shamrocks.

Clarion Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi), June 24, 1960.

Daily News (Bogalusa, Louisiana), May 12, 1960.

The Record

Like many small Memphis bands between 1960 and 1970 unable to find a home under existing labels, The Choctaw/Yazoo Warriors and Chucalissa may have created their own temporary label in order to release the record. Though not likely to have been widely released, it may have been sold in the gift shop, meaning that the museum administration felt there could have been a market in Memphis for a Native musical group that marketed itself in a more widely-recognizable manner. Memphis has always been a city with diverse musical tastes, so while a record like this may have been novel, it would not have been outlandish. The presence of an internet video containing the record also confirms that it may have been either sold or distributed. One of Charles Nash’s primary goals was to create a tourist-friendly archaeological park through numerous events, lectures, open excavations, and the sale of handmade goods from the Choctaw families employed at the museum. It is not improbable that A Chucalissa Release was an extension of this tourist-attracting frenzy given that at least one member of the band, John, was already an employee of the museum well-known for his other handmade artworks. The record would have been considered just as much a handmade Choctaw souvenir as the beadwork and pottery that were also for sale.

The band’s choice to wear non-Choctaw regalia also speaks to the marketability of the record. Commercialization plus recognition equals profit. The band and C. H. Nash were likely less concerned with strict musical authenticity – the “authenticity” factor was addressed by having actual Choctaw musicians – so musical decisions, including ambiguous references to Native American drumming and falsetto ululations, could be flexible and less traditional. Appearing in somewhat nebulous regalia is also indicative of this attempt to commercialize Native music. None of the regalia pictured above is typically worn by Choctaw men but is instead associated with Plains groups. Thanks to the western film craze of the 1950s and 1960s, this depiction of Native Americans was undoubtedly more widely recognizable than Choctaw dress, meaning that upon seeing stereotypical regalia, non-Native Memphis audiences would have an easier time equating the group with the Native culture represented at Chucalissa.

Marketability may also have influenced the band’s name change for their Memphis performances. It is likely that the name was changed from The Yazoo Warriors to The Choctaw Warriors in an attempt to increase name recognition among non-Native Memphians. The Choctaw and their historical significance within Memphis were already heavily associated with the area, but the term ‘Yazoo’ was more familiar in central Mississippi – the Choctaw homelands – rather than in Tennessee. In summary, Nash and The Choctaw Warriors may have been counting on non-Native audiences not knowing the differences between various Native cultures. As this record was likely sold in the museum’s gift shop, it needed to appeal to the masses. It needed to be “cool.” The Memphis populace of the 1960s was not interested in a Frances Densmore-like recording, so rules were bent and The Choctaw Warriors of Chucalissa continued their rock and roll escapades.

Despite no clear indication as to exactly when or where the record was cut, it does reflect the amateur nature that many Memphis groups and record companies, including Stax, frequently exhibited. The recording quality is relatively low, particularly for “Quail Dance,” which utilizes Choctaw vocables, or neutral syllables, in place of lyrics. On this track, it sounds as though the band is simply performing in front of a recording device rather than recording in a studio setting; the electric guitar seems to have been recorded through an amp rather than proper recording equipment. The vocalist sounds as though he is positioned directly in front of the recording device, completely obscuring the electric guitar, which, apart from the introduction, can only be heard faintly in the background between the vocables. “Choctaw Stomp Dance” appears to have been recorded in the same manner, though because there are no vocables, the instruments are more balanced and do not have to cater to the limited voice-capturing capabilities of lower quality recording equipment.

All of the facets above lend to uniquely Memphis-based questions. Does A Chucalissa Release demonstrate more of a Carl Perkins influence or a Scotty Moore influence? Is there a detectable trace of Booker T. & the M.G.’s? To be able to say that we’ve found a record in our collection that sounds like a cross between Sun’s rockabilly heyday and Stax’s unpolished perfection is a rare privilege. I have been swayed multiple times by proponents of each camp, and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that all are correct. A Chucalissa Release could be a collage of some of Memphis’ most notable musicians, all rolled neatly into one little record in the Chucalissa archives.

What Now?

Much of the educational material we digitized has been uploaded to our Digital Commons website available through the University of Memphis Library. These recordings are freely available for study and download, and we encourage everyone to take a listen. They connect our small museum with Native communities across the country and highlight the collaborative efforts of past museum administrations and the Choctaw families that lived and worked at Chucalissa. Per our mission statement, we aim to serve both “past and present Native American…cultures.” In analyzing these newly digitized recordings, we can adequately recognize yet another means through which the Native communities of Memphis continue to make our city unique.

However, not everything that was digitized was uploaded, including the Choctaw Warriors’ A Chucalissa Release. Material directly involving the Choctaw families of Chucalissa has not been made available, as these recordings are personal family histories not meant to be freely broadcast without input from family members. That doesn’t mean that The Choctaw Warriors are gone for good, though: the digitized record can be heard at the museum if requested. Not that anyone needed an extra reason to visit Chucalissa, but The Choctaw Warriors are waiting.