Mississippi Choctaw
 |
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| ca. 10,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States ( Mississippi) |
|
| Languages | |
| Chahta, English | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism, traditional beliefs | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Choctaw tribes, Muscogee Creek, Chickasaw |
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is one of three federally recognized tribes of Choctaw Native Americans. On April 20, 1945, this band organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Also in 1945 the Choctaw Indian Reservation was created in Neshoba, Leake, Newton, Scott, Jones, Attala, Kemper, and Winston counties in Mississippi. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is the only federally recognized Native American tribe in the state.
By a deed dated August 18, 2008, the state returned Nanih Waiya to the Choctaw. This ancient earthwork mound and site, built ca. 1-300 AD, has been venerated since the 17th century as a place of origin of the Choctaw ancestors. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw have made August 18 a tribal holiday to celebrate.
The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was ratified by the U.S. Senate on February 25, 1831, and U.S. President Andrew Jackson was anxious to make it a model of Indian removal to territory west of the Mississippi River. After ceding close to 11 million acres (45,000 km2), 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. They continued to live on their ancient homeland. The nearly 5000 Choctaw in Mississippi became citizens of the state and United States.
For the next ten years, they were objects of increasing 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." Racism was rampant. Joseph B. Cobb, who moved to Mississippi from Georgia, described the Choctaw as having "no nobility or virtue at all, and in some respect he found blacks, especially native Africans, more interesting and admirable, the red man's superior in every way. The Choctaw and Chickasaw, the tribes he knew best, were beneath contempt, that is, even worse than black slaves."
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