IkkemotubbesInT

The Ikkemotubbe|Issetibbeha family is evoked twice in the novel, in Chapters 19 and 20. In the first, Charles Mallison refers to "the old days of Issetibbeha, the Chickasaw chief, and his sister's son Ikkemotubbe whom they called Doom" (321). In the second, as Gavin Stevens looks down at Yoknapatawpha from the "ridge" beyond Seminary Hill and back through the twilight to the history of the county, the first human presences he conjures up are "old Issetibbeha, the wild Chickasaw king, with his Negro slaves and his sister's son called Doom who murdered his way to the throne" (331). This is the familiar genealogy, though we should note that the sister has been dispossed of the name Faulkner gave her in his previous novel.