The Mississippi Band of Choctaw was granted federal recognition in
1945 following decades of abuse and fraud by the United States government.
At the turn
of the 18th century, the Choctaw Tribe had over 25,000 members who
were prolific farmers and hunters who had inhabited this land for thousands of
years. The Choctaw homeland consisted of over 23 million acres of land in the
fertile Mississippi basin.
The Choctaw were
labeled by European Americans as one of the five “civilized tribes,” or the
five Native American nations (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek and
Seminole) that Anglo-European settlers considered “civilized" because they
adopted attributes of the colonists' culture.
In 1798 the
US government formed the Mississippi Territory. In 1803, Thomas Jefferson initiated
a plan for removal of Indians east of the Mississippi to the newly acquired
Louisiana Purchase land west of the Mississippi River. In his military strategy
he issued that the federal government acquire all the lands bordering the east
side of the Mississippi river for the purpose of defense. However, many believe
that US government had a hunger for the Choctaw land to accommodate their plans
for growth through European immigration and that Indian removal was his
ultimate goal.
Jefferson’s
main strategy was to install government trading posts among the Indians, to
allow them to fall into debt, and then to force them to cede their land as a
way of ridding themselves of the debt. His strategy succeeded – in 1805 with
the Treaty of Mount Dexter, the Choctaws ceded more than 4 million acres of
fertile Mississippi area land in exchange for cancellation of $48,000 trading
debt.
The
attraction of vast amounts of high quality, inexpensive cotton land brought hordes
of settlers and from 1798 through 1820, the Mississippi Territory population of
white settlers grew from 9,000 to 220,000. This movement of white settlers and
the US government strategy to remove the Choctaw and other tribes from the southeast
continued through 1830, and the Choctaw ceded more than 23 million acres. In
1829, Andrew Jackson urged Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act. Once
approved, Jackson immediately pushed forward.
In September
1830 U.S. Treaty Commissioners met with a large number of Choctaws near Dancing
Rabbit Creek in eastern Mississippi. The Choctaw delegation was led by their
new Principal Chief Greenwood Le Flore, a Mississippi plantation owner, son of
a French-Canadian trader and Choctaw woman. Le Flore had maneuvered himself
into the position as the Choctaw Principal Chief and had advocated a treaty of
removal for the Choctaws (although he planned to keep his Mississippi
plantation with the blessing of white government authorities). The Choctaw Council
agreed to exchange the remaining 10 million acres of Choctaw land in Mississippi
for 15 million acres in the new Indian Territory after offers of cash and threats
of military intervention. The Choctaw then became the first to be taken from
their ancestral homeland via what would be known as the Trail of Tears.
Most of the
Choctaw were removed in three-year forced migrations beginning in October 1831,
making the long journey from Mississippi through what is now the state of
Arkansas and on to Indian Territory. They were herded and taken by steamboat or
wagon, but mostly on foot. The federal government was ill-prepared and the
treks were devastating. Of the nearly 15,000 Choctaw who were subjected to the
treks nearly 2,500 died during the journey or soon thereafter.
Sale of the
lands ceded in Mississippi brought the federal government $8 million. Treaty
orchestrator Greenwood Le Flore prospered on his Mississippi plantation that
eventually grew to 15,000 acres and worked by 400 slaves. Le Flore went on to
represent his county in the state legislature.
As many as
6,000 Choctaw declined to leave their homeland and remained in Mississippi under
state authority. Article 14 of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek stipulated
that they would receive 640 acres upon registering with the Indian agent,
William Ward. However, Ward was corrupt and incompetent in his duties and few
Choctaws succeeded in registering for grants. The vast majority who stayed
behind were left landless and endured living conditions later described as worse
than those of most black slaves.
For the next
two decades the Mississippi Choctaw were objects of legal conflict, harassment
and intimidation. The Choctaw described their situation in 1849: “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.” [Walters, William (1979), Three Efforts at Development Among the
Choctaws of Mississippi.]
Conditions
declined even further for the Choctaw after the Civil War and Reconstruction. Under
segregation and Jim Crow laws, all people of color were categorized as “other”
or black. Segregation further required them to use segregated facilities,
blacks, Indians and others all included. This lasted until the middle of the
twentieth century and passage of the Civil Rights laws.
During and
following the years of the Great Depression the Roosevelt Administration
officials initiated programs to help alleviate some of the poor social and
economic conditions in the southern states. The 1933 Special Narrative Report described the dismal state of the welfare
of the Mississippi Choctaw whose population had declined to 1,665. The US
Commissioner for Indian Affairs (now the Bureau of Indian Affairs) used this
significant report in a proposal to re-organize the “Civilized Mississippi
Choctaw” as the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. This enabled them to
establish their own tribal government.
In 1934
President Roosevelt signed the Indian Reorganization Act into law. It proved to
be critical for the survival of the Mississippi Choctaw and other tribal
peoples. Under this new act the Mississippi Choctaw reorganized, adopted a new
constitution and on April 20, 1945 they were recognized by the United States
government as the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. This new status of federal recognition gave
them independence from the state government, although the state continued its
system of racial segregation.
19 years
later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 produced significant social change for the
Choctaw in Mississippi, who built the foundation of business ventures with the
view and policy of self-determination. The US Congress passed the landmark
Self-Determination Act of 1975 which included means by which federally
recognized tribes could negotiate contracts with the Bureau of Indian Affairs
to manage more of their own education and social service programs. Beginning in
1979 the Mississippi Choctaw Tribal Council worked on a number of economic
development initiatives targeting attracting industry to the Choctaw
reservation.
In 1987 the
Supreme Court of the United States ruled that federally recognized tribes could
operate gaming facilities on their sovereign land free from state regulation
and in 1988 the United States Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
which set terms for Native American tribes to operate casinos. The Mississippi
Choctaw targeted this as a new economic opportunity and in 1994 they opened
their first of three casinos, the Silver Star which was followed by the Pearl
River Resort and Bok Homa. Further
expansion includes the magnificent new Cultural Center near their tribal
headquarters.
Their website
welcome from Chief Phyliss J. Anderson, the first female Tribal Chief
reads: “We are the only Federally-Recognized American Indian Tribe living in
the State of Mississippi. We are 10,000
members strong. Our Choctaw lands cover over 35,000 acres in ten different
counties in Mississippi. Providing permanent, full-time jobs for over 5,000
Tribal-member and non-Indian employees, the Tribe is a major contributor to the
state’s economy.”
Sources: The Mississippi Band of Choctaw website;
Time-Life Books, the American Indians, Tribes of the Southern Woodlands; Charles Hudson, The Southeastern Indians;
Native Americans of the Southeast, Christina M Girod; and William Walters,
1979, Three Efforts at Development Among the Choctaw of Mississippi.
