''Oka Na Hollo ' White People of the Water ''

 ----------I live in Ponchatoula  La. where many Choctaw legends still are told .. The Language spoken
 hundreds  of years ago was purely Choctaw , and we only  have recorded History going back to 1705 about the  Choctaw .. But we know Native Americans lived here  well over 3500 years ago , simply because of the  artifacts and scientific dating ..

------- We had 5  tribes or spin-offs living here , all were part of the Choctaw Mother Tribe. They included the Acolapissas,   the Colapissas, the Quinipissas , the Mugalasha,  and the Tangipahoas .. Where my home is located today  was the sight where about 500 Quinipissas lived,  about 200 years ago.. In all about 2,000,000 Choctaws  of different mini-tribes lived here,  in the  Southeast Mississippi, and Louisiana Florida Parish  area ..About   80 % of those died from Small Pox, Influenza , Measles , and all sorts of European  diseases  

--------Our largest burial mound in the  area was brutally used by the White men for their own  burial ground , especially during the Civil War Era .. Literally they buried their dead among Choctaw bones ...

----Today it is called Sand Hill Cemetery ,it is about 5 miles east out of Ponchatoula , on Highway 22  back up into the woods.  It stands about 4-6 feet  above the rest of the land and is about 200 ft circular ... Despite pleas to stop the carnage, people had no respect for the site, and every time a  white person's body was buried, it un-earthed more  Choctaw artifacts

----------Choctaws down here buried  things with their dead , depending on the status with  the tribe .. Many people believe the spirits have not  been able to ascend to paradise properly, due to the  status of the burial ground ...

-------------So for  almost a hundred  years a phenomenon occurred ... A  shallow flow well was dug for irrigation by private  owners next to the Cemetery,, it unleashed  swamp gas, or phosphorus gas , a mixture of sulfur and other  gases literally glow in the dark ... The gas oozed out  around the pipe, appearing occasionally,, it was  thought  to be a ghost or some sort of being .. But  natural cracks in the earth occurred for many years  also, long before the irrigation well was dug ..

 ------------Close by was the Tangipahoa River , and it  contained deep pools .. Where the so called 'Oka  Na Hollo' lived .. These 'white people of the water' live in deep pools in rivers and bayous.. For many  many years the  Oka Na Hollo stole Choctaw ,,unknowing  Choctaw would go swimming in the pools ,,  they seized  them and took them down and they become Oka Na Hollo .  There is  no escape and after 3 days they are  transformed, their skin becomes like fish skin ,, they  learn to eat, swim and live like fish .

----------The  only escape is through the Choctaw burial Mound ,, And  it happens every so often .. They must swim  underground through the vast earth streams and make  their way to the burial mound where their spirit can  be released to paradise .. I have seen this with my  own eyes , it is quite an experience ,, It is there  where I felt my first pull by my ancestors .... I have  many relatives buried there. Among a  mixture of white  and Indian ..

------------I was an avid jogger for  years, and the cemetery grew , I jogged for years  around the cemetery and felt something strange while  jogging around the cemetery .. I felt light as a  feather, as if my spirit left my body ,,  and hardly  ever grew tired ...  I  can not  explain it .. but for  sure something spiritual is going on there ...

 ------For many years people denied it was a Choctaw  Burial Mound, due to they are protected by law ....  But the law never existed when the cemetery was  started .. It was simply too big to be a burial  mound  ..... No one even today admits it was, only scholars  and historians, and people who know what to look for  ... The people who own the cemetery say it  is a  geological phenomenon .... But I know different .. Still today the legend of 'Oka Na Hollo' lives and  people disappear ..