About HALITO TOMATO

HALITO! That’s how you say “hello” in the Native American Choctaw language!

I started HALITO TOMATO to share my knowledge about Choctaw culture, history, and language with the rest of the world. I’m especially interested in comparing the Choctaw language with the languages of our world, both modern and ancient, for reasons explained further below.

Along the way, we’ll look at ancient Choctaw stories, myths, prophecies, monsters, and more. We’ll look at what North American life was like before European contact, and how things changed afterward. And, because games are such an important part of Choctaw culture, we’ll look at some of the old games Choctaws used to play – maybe we’ll even be able to revive some. Similarly, I hope to translate some of my favorite songs and retro video games into Choctaw, as a way to improve my skills with the language.

Who Am I?

My name is Clyde Mandelin. For the past 25+ years I’ve gone by the online name of “Tomato” or just “Mato”. I’ve been a professional Japanese-to-English translator for 20+ years and have written many books and articles about translation. I also enjoy making and playing video games. For more information, please see here and/or watch this movie.

I’m part Choctaw, and I learned about Choctaw stories, history, and customs from my family when I was growing up. But because I grew up far from the tribes in Oklahoma and Mississippi, I never learned the language when I was young. I decided to finally learn the language in 2024.

While studying Choctaw words and grammar, I started noticing similarities with the Japanese language. As I progressed, I started to notice that the Choctaw language seems to connect with many other languages too: English, Chinese, Arabic, Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Greek, Ainu, Māori, theoretical Stone Age languages from Africa, Mayan, and countless more.

What is this? What’s going on? How is the Choctaw language able to look ancient AND modern at the same time? How is the Choctaw language so similar to languages from other continents? It’s mysterious and exciting, but there’s so much background information to cover that I don’t know where to start to explain. So let’s just take a look at the basics for now.

Your Invitation

If you’re reading this, then you’ve temporarily stumbled onto my path in life. If you’ve followed my path before, halito to you again! And if you’re new, or if you’re normally 0% interested in this sort of stuff, I still invite you to follow this path for a short while – it’s going to be an unforgettable journey, and you’ll probably grow as a person.

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Quick Choctaw History

In the old times, the Choctaw tribe was centered in the Mississippi and Alabama regions of North America. However, The United States forcibly removed the tribe to Oklahoma in the 1800s via the gruesome Trail of Tears. As a result, the Choctaw tribe was split apart – some went to Oklahoma, some hid in the forests and swamps of Mississippi, and some fled to other regions.

Today, there are only 9000 native Choctaw speakers in the world, and most are elderly. As a result, the Choctaw language is officially listed as “endangered”. Naturally, the idea of “we can’t lose our language!” is at the heart of modern Choctaw culture.

Some other important facts about the Choctaw people include:

• The ancient Choctaws were a mound-building tribe
• The ancient Choctaws were excellent farmers, and they often had lots of extra food to trade or share with other tribes
• The ancient Choctaws’ clan/kinship system made it difficult to needlessly declare war on other tribes – instead, games were the preferred outlet for aggression
• The ancient Choctaws hunted woolly mammoths at some point, according to old stories
• DNA analysis seems to suggest that Choctaws are connected to East Asia, Siberia, and the Bering Strait
• In 1997, it was discovered that some Choctaws have a rare blood type never seen before
• Deer are extremely important in Choctaw culture
• Bones are extremely important in Choctaw culture
• Ancient Choctaws didn’t worship a god or gods, but they did revere the sun and believed that it had powers of cleansing and perception
• Ancient Choctaws also believed that fire is alive, that fire is an extension of the sun, and that fire and the sun can communicate with each other
• Today, 500 years after European contact, Choctaw culture is a blend of the old ways and the newer religion of Christianity
• Choctaws practiced “head-flattening” until sometime in the 1800s
• The Choctaw tribe and the nearby Chickasaw tribe are considered “brothers”, and their languages are very similar. There are only about 75 native Chickasaw speakers alive today, and most are elderly, making the Chickasaw language “severely endangered”

There’s much more to list, of course – we’ll look at these topics and more in future articles.

Nanih Waiya Burial Mound, Mississippi

The Choctaw tribe is historically known for its many burial mounds. The most important mound in Choctaw culture is called “Nanih Waiya” (roughly pronounced: Nahnee Wha-yah). Nanih Waiya is located in modern-day Mississippi:

Ancient Choctaw stories speak of a great migration from the west or northwest. For 43 winters, the Choctaws’ ancestors carried the bones of their people on their backs. Eventually, they reached their destination and built the Nanih Waiya mound in modern-day Mississippi. Supposedly, the mound dates back to the year 400 or 500.

When I was little, my grandparents took me on a trip to Mississippi to visit other Choctaw family members. We visited Nanih Waiya twice during this trip – once when arriving in Mississippi, and once when leaving.

On a side note, there’s a long history of mound-building in southeastern North America. The LSU Campus Mounds in Louisiana, for example, are approximately 11,000 years old and might be the oldest human structures on the continent.

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Japanese “Kofun” Burial Mounds

When I was a teenager, I began studying the Japanese language. I even lived in Japan for a year during university. After I graduated, I began a long career as a professional Japanese-to-English translator.

When I first began to study Japanese, I was surprised to learn about the ancient Kofun Period of Japanese history. During the Kofun Period, burial mounds (known as kofun in Japanese) were built all throughout Japan. The Kofun Period seems to have lasted from the 300s to the 600s.

Some kofun mounds are small:

Other mounds are massive, keyhole-shaped, and are often connected with rulers and emperors:

Naniwa, Japan

While studying in Japan, I learned that there was once an ancient Japanese capital and port city named “Naniwa / Naniwa-kyō“, dating back to the Kofun Period and probably even earlier. Naniwa is so old that its origin predates the Japanese writing system. In the 1400s or so, Naniwa was officially renamed Osaka.

Today, the “Naniwa” name can still be seen in and around the Osaka area:

What’s more, Japan’s largest and most famous kofun burial mounds are clustered near the Naniwa district of Osaka:

Naturally, I was surprised by the similarity with the Choctaws’ Nanih Waiya: two burial mound cultures, from the exact same time period, and with quite similar names. But I figured it could also just be a coincidence – after all, the Choctaws lived on the other side of the world. So I made a mental note of this similarity and moved on with my life.

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My “Between Years”

After I graduated university, I began a career in Japanese-to-English translation. I was honored to work on many of Japan’s most well known entertainment series. Sometimes, these series would feature Native American-themed characters. It was always a delight to encounter such characters during my work. Some examples include:

I love to translate, whether it’s as a job or as a hobby. Naturally, I encountered Native American characters during my hobby work too:

During these 20+ years, I just lived my life, moved around, got married, worked, and did many projects with people online. I was so busy, though, that I only kept up with the biggest Choctaw news stories, such as:

• A famous U.S. political lobbyist scammed the Choctaws out of millions of dollars, served 43 months in prison
• Nanih Waiya was finally returned to the Mississippi Choctaws in 2008
• Relations between the Choctaws and the Irish began to blossom further

I still hadn’t learned the Choctaw language yet, though – it was still firmly an “I’ll do it later” thing. Finally, in 2024, I decided that “later is now”.

Studying the Choctaw Language

(I’m still writing this page, but you can read more about my study setup here for now!)