Origins & Early Life

Cyrus Byington (March 11, 1793 – December 31, 1868) was an American Christian missionary from Massachusetts who began working with the Choctaw in Mississippi in 1821. Although he had been trained as a lawyer, he abandoned law as a career and became a minister affiliated with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. During this period he learned the Choctaw language, which was then entirely unwritten. He also began to develop a Choctaw orthography.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

After the U.S. government began enforcing its Indian Removal policy to relocate Native Americans from their lands in the Southeastern states to Indian Territory, later called Oklahoma, during the 19th century, in 1835, Byington and his family returned to the new Choctaw homeland and founded a mission near Eagletown. He sought to construct a lexicon and develop other linguistic tools for the Choctaw language to translate Christian prayers, hymns, and bible passages. Byington's work is considered one of the most complete lexicons for a Native American language. He worked nearly 50 years translating Choctaw as a written language.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

Cyrus met Sophia Nye (1800–1880), the daughter of a prosperous family living in Marietta...

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