Editing Choctaw (section)

=== Traditional religion ===
{{Main|Choctaw mythology}}
The traditional Choctaw belief system evolved out of the North American Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. The Choctaw believed in a good spirit and an evil spirit. They may have been sun, or ''Hvshtahli'', worshippers. The anthropologist John Swanton wrote,
{{blockquote|[T]he Choctaws anciently regarded the sun as a deity ... the sun was ascribed the power of life and death. He was represented as looking down upon the earth, and as long as he kept his flaming eye fixed on any one, the person was safe ... fire, as the most striking representation of the sun, was considered as possessing intelligence, and as acting in concert with the sun ... [having] constant intercourse with the sun ...<ref name=john_reed />}}

The word ''nanpisa'' (the one who sees) expressed the reverence the Choctaw had for the sun.<ref name=john_reed_religion>{{Cite book| last = Swanton | first = John R.| title = Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians| publisher = The University of Alabama Press| pages = 194–196| isbn = 0-8173-1109-2| year = 2001| orig-year = 1931}}</ref>

{{blockquote| Anthropologists theorize that the Mississippian ancestors of the Choctaw placed the sun at the center of their cosmological system. Mid-eighteenth-century Choctaws did view the sun as a being endowed with life. Choctaw diplomats, for example, spoke only on sunny days. If the day of a conference were cloudy or rainy, Choctaws delayed the meeting until the sun returned, usually on the pretext that they needed more time to discuss particulars. They believed the sun made sure that all talks were honest. The sun as a symbol of great power and reverence is a major component of southeastern Indian cultures.|Greg O'Brien, ''Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750–1830''<ref name=greg_obrien>{{Cite book |last=O'Brien |first=Greg |title =Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750–1830 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press| chapter=Choctaw and Power |year=2005 |orig-year=2002 |pages= 60–61}}</ref>}}

Choctaw prophets were known to have addressed the sun. John Swanton wrote, "an old Choctaw informed Wright that before the arrival of the [[missionaries]], they had no conception of prayer. He added, "I have indeed heard it asserted by some, that anciently their hopaii, or prophets, on some occasions were accustomed to address the sun ..."<ref name=john_reed />