The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians () is one of three federally recognized tribes of Choctaw, an Indigenous Indian people, and the only one in the state of Mississippi. On April 20, 1945, this tribe was organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Their reservation included lands in Neshoba, Leake, Newton, Scott, Jones, Attala, Kemper, and Winston counties. The Mississippi Choctaw regained stewardship of their mother mound, Nanih Waiya mounds and cave in 2008. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw have declared August 18 as a tribal holiday to celebrate their regaining control of the sacred site. The other two Choctaw groups are the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the third largest tribe in the United States, and the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, located in Louisiana.
History 19th century Indian Removal
The historic Choctaw had emerged as a tribe and occupied substantial territory in what is now the State of Mississippi. In the early 19th century, they faced increasing pressure from European Americans who sought to acquire their land for agricultural development. President Andrew Jackson gained congressional passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830 to achieve this goal and eliminate Native American land claims in the Southeast.
The chiefs signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek with the United States, which the U.S. Senate ratified on February 25, 1831. President Jackson was determined to use the Choctaw removal as a model for removing other tribes from the Southeast to territory far west of the Mississippi River. After ceding close to , the Choctaw were to emigrate in three stages: the first in the fall of 1831, the second in 1832, and the last in 1833. Although the removals continued into the early 20th century, some Choctaw remained in Mississippi and continued to live in their ancient homeland. According to the terms of removal, the nearly 5000 Choctaw who remained in Mississippi became citizens of both the state and the United States.
For the next ten years, they were subject to increasing legal conflict, harassment, and intimidation by white settlers. Racism against them was rampant. A Choctaw described their situation in 1849 as follows: "We have had our habitations torn down and burned, our fences destroyed, cattle turned into our fields and we ourselves have been scourged, manacled, fettered and otherwise personally abused, until by such treatment some of our best men have died."
American Civil War and Reconstruction
The Mississippi Choctaw participated in the American Civil War. The First Battalion of Choctaw Indians was formed by the Confederate army in 1862. while the battalion was training in Tangipahoa, Louisiana, Union forces captured it's soldiers. Some escaped and returned to Newton County, Mississippi, while the fate of the others remained unknown. Following this, Mississippi Choctaws joined the Battalion of Mounted Scouts, led by Major S.G. Spann.
Choctaw soldiers were praised for their participation in the Battle of Vicksburg. During the battle, heavy rains caused a train carrying Confederate soldiers to be swept into the water. Choctaw soldiers led by Jack Amos and Elder Williams conducted a rescue operation, saving 22 men and burying the bodies of 96 who had died.
Conditions declined for the Choctaw after the Civil War and during Reconstruction. As conservative white Democrats worked to restore white supremacy and eliminate Black suffrage, they passed a new constitution in 1890 that effectively disenfranchised Black people by creating barriers to voter registration. In addition, under racial segregation and Jim Crow laws, the whites included all people of color in the category of "other" or Negro (Black), and required them to use segregated facilities. Late 19th century Prior to the civil war, white and African American residents of Mississippi worshipped in the same churches, which were segregated by race, with African Americans required to sit in the back row. Choctaws refused to attend these churches because they would have been expected to sit with African Americans. With the establishment of Jim Crow, separate church services were introduced for Choctaws. These services were generally conducted in Choctaw, with Christian hymns and Choctaw songs about daily life being sung.
Because Mississippi Choctaws were barred from white schools and refused to send their children to schools for African Americans, the state established schools for the tribe in 1882. Eight schools were opened for Choctaw communities across the state, but attendance was sporadic as children were often required to work or lacked adequate clothing for school. Adults also attended the schools, which served as community centers. The community of Conehatta also formed a debating society alongside its school. The exception was the village of Bogue Chitto, where a school had existed before the Trail of Tears. As a result, elders refused to accept a new school, fearing that doing so would lead to a second removal of the tribe.
20th century Delegation to Washington, D.C.
By 1907, the Mississippi Choctaw were in decline. The Dawes Commission had sent a large number of the Mississippi Choctaws to Indian Territory, and only 1,253 members remained. Meetings were held in 1913 to try to find a solution. Wesley Johnson was elected chief of the newly formed Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana Choctaw Council at a 1913 meeting. After deliberation, the council selected delegates to send to Washington, D.C., to bring attention to the Choctaw's plight. Historian Robert Bruce Ferguson wrote in his 2015 article that:
In late January 1914, Chief Wesley Johnson and his delegates (Culbertson Davis and Emil John) traveled to Washington, D.C. ... While they were in Washington, Johnson, Davis, and John met with numerous senators & representatives and persuaded the federals to bring the Choctaw case before Congress. On February 5th, their mission culminated with the meeting of President Woodrow Wilson. Culbertson Davis presented a beaded Choctaw belt as a token of goodwill to the President.
Nearly two years after the trip to Washington, the Indian Appropriations Act of 1916 was passed. A stipulation allocated $1,000 to investigate the Mississippi Choctaws' condition. John R.T. Reeves was tasked with investigating the condition of Indians living in Mississippi and reporting his findings to Congress. Reeves submitted his report on November 6, 1916.
Hearing at Union, Mississippi
In March 1917, federal representatives held hearings attended by approximately 100 Choctaws to examine the needs of the Mississippi Choctaw. Some congressmen who presided over the hearings were Charles D. Carter of Oklahoma, William W. Hastings of Oklahoma, Carl T. Hayden of Arizona, John N. Tillman of Arkansas, and William W. Venable of Mississippi. These hearings resulted in improved access to health care, housing, and schools.
At the onset of World War I, military conscription was a contested issue among the Choctaw. Some opposed conscription, with the primary concern among Mississippi Choctaws being their lack of US citizenship. Members of the tribe appealed to Monsignor Ketcham, director of the Bureau of Indian Catholic Missions, and A.J Ahern, a priest at the Tucker Indian Mission, explaining their concerns. Ketcham and Ahern attempted to obtain exemptions for Mississippi Choctaw men, arguing that state citizenship was not equivalent to US citizenship, but their efforts were unsuccessful. One complaint was put to the War Cabinet for draft evasion, but no prosecution followed. In total, 59 Mississippi Choctaws served in World War I.
The Spanish Influenza also struck the community during the war, killing up to 25% of Mississippi Choctaws.
1920s and land disputes In 1922, The Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) sent an inspector to assess the Choctaw schools. The inspector was appalled by the poor conditions and teaching standards at the schools and recommended that the OIA cease all involvement with them. As a result, between 1921 and 1930, the OIA established seven government-funded day schools for Mississippi Choctaws. The schools were intended to suppress Indigenous identity, they instead strengthened Choctaw identity by separating Choctaw children from African American schools. Adults also attended evening classes, while the schools served as community spaces where women held sewing circles and cooking clubs and discussed community matters.
School attendance was often low because white landlords required Choctaw children to work. As Mississippi Choctaws largely lived on land owned by white men and were state citizens, they were subject to state laws governing sharecropping. Many landlords opposed educating Choctaws because they feared that education would make them less vulnerable to being deceived into accepting lower wages than promised. Following World War I, an agricultural depression caused the cotton market to collapse. Landlords seized corn that Choctaws had saved for food, leaving Choctaws at risk of starvation.
Following failed attempts by Choctaw agents to combat the landlords, federal officials concluded the only way to end peonage among Mississippi Choctaws was to help them acquire their own farms. The agency had a fund for reimbursable loans for this purpose, but obtaining deeds and land titles became a major obstacle, with transactions taking years to complete. Agent Robert J. Enochs and Choctaw Agency clerk Harry M. Carter discovered unissued Choctaw land patents covering a total of 23,000–25,000 acres. During a Senate subcommittee hearing in Philadelphia, Enochs and Carter stated they had located the heirs to these patents and asked them to claim the land. They noted, however, that those attempting to redeem the patents would likely be shot. The subcommittee also agreed that displacing white farmers from the lands would be a disaster.
Eleven Choctaws testified before the Subcommittee, with the primary issue being the unredeemed land patents. When asked whether they would be content with other lands, the witness, Pat Chitto stated they would be more satisfied if they could obtain their ancestors’ allotments. The Indian Service continued purchasing farms for the tribe, and the proportion of Mississippi Choctaws working as sharecroppers fell from 90% to 75% by 1927 and 50% by 1950. However, the agency's purchases fell short of the government’s aspirations. To prevent the collapse of Choctaw communities through the foreclosure of farms belonging to families that had defaulted on their loans, the federal government decided in 1939 to take the lands into trust. By 1946, 80% of farm loans had been defaulted and the associated lands taken into trust.
During the 1920s, Mississippi Choctaw largely avoided targeting by the Ku Klux Klan by accommodating themselves to segregation and emphasizing their “full-blood” identity. This meant the Klan did not classify the tribe as “colored,” but Mississippi Choctaws were nevertheless excluded from facilities reserved for whites. For example, when Choctaws travelled to the Choctaw Agency for business, white hotels refused them accommodation. They also refused to stay in housing designated for African Americans and instead slept outdoors. As a result, Choctaws sometimes stayed in stables, the agent eventually rented a building for them, although it was described as being “hardly more than a shed.”
1930s and reorganization During the Great Depression and the Roosevelt administration, officials implemented numerous initiatives to alleviate some of the social and economic conditions in the South. The 1933 Special Narrative Report described the dismal welfare conditions of the Mississippi Choctaw, whose population had declined to 1,665 people by 1930.