Case file · Folklore / legend
Bohpoli, the Choctaw thrower
The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb, Louisiana, told the ethnologist David Bushnell of Bohpoli, a small spirit of the forest who throws sticks and stones and makes knocking sounds at night.
1909 CE · 30.31, -89.93 · status: legend
The account
Bushnell's 1909 Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin 'The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb' records that Bohpoli was mischievous rather than evil and was said to help doctors learn their craft.
The sceptical view
Bushnell recorded a small community at one moment; Choctaw belief varied by place and has its own living keepers.