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Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
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The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is a Native American tribe whose members are of [Choctaw]] ancestry. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 allowed them to become re-organized on April 20, 1945. In that year Mississippi land in Neshoba county and surrounding counties was set aside as a federal Indian Reservation. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians are known for their economic success and for setting an unparalleled precedent in Indian Country.
Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was ratified by the U.S.
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The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is a Native American tribe whose members are of [Choctaw]] ancestry. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 allowed them to become re-organized on April 20, 1945. In that year Mississippi land in Neshoba county and surrounding counties was set aside as a federal Indian Reservation. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians are known for their economic success and for setting an unparalleled precedent in Indian Country.
Removal era
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. 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, the Choctaws persisted and continue to live on their ancient homeland. Nearly 5000 Choctaws remained in Mississippi to become citizens of the states.
For the next ten years they were objects of increasing legal conflict, harassment, and intimidation. The Choctaws describe 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 Choctaws 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."
Reorganization
In 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Indian Reorganization Act. This law would prove to be important for the Mississippi Choctaw. Baxter York, Emmett York, and Joe Chitto worked on gaining recognition for the Choctaw. They realized that the only way to gain recognition was to adopt a constitution. A rival organization, the Mississippi Choctaw Indian Federation, opposed tribal recognition because of the federal agency's dominance, but they eventually disbanded after opposing leaders were moved to another jurisdiction. The first Tribal Council members were Baxter and Emmett York with Joe Chitto as the first chairperson.
The Secretary of the Interior declared in 1944 that 18,000 acres will be held in trust for the Choctaw of Mississippi. Eventually lands in Neshoba County, Mississippi and the surrounding counties were set aside as a federal Indian reservation. Eight communities were to become reservation land: Bogue Chitto, Bogue Homa, Conehatta, Crystal Ridge, Pearl River, Red Water, Tucker, and Standing Pine. The Indian Reorganization Act allowed the Mississippi Choctaws to become re-organized on April 20, 1945 as the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
In the 1950s Phillip Martin, who had served in the U. S. Army in Europe during World War II, intended only to visit Neshoba county; but after seeing the dire straits of his people, he was compelled by conscience to stay. Will Campbell witnessed the plight of the Choctaw. He would later write , "the thing I remember the most ... was the depressing sight of the Choctaws, their shanties along the country roads, grown men lounging on the dirt streets of their villages in demeaning idleness, sometimes drinking from a common bottle, sharing a roll-your-own cigarette, their half-clad children a picture of hurting that would never end.
Civil rights era
The Choctaws witnessed the social forces that brought Freedom Summer to their ancient homeland. The Civil Rights Era produced significant social change for the Choctaws in Mississippi. Prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, most jobs were given to whites, then blacks. The Choctaws, who for 150 years had been neither white nor black, were left where they had always been. The end of racial segregation permitted the Choctaws to participation in institutions that were reserved exclusively for white patrons.
On June 21, 1964 three civil rights workers disappeared; their remains were later found in a newly constructed dam. A crucial turning point in the FBI investigation came when the charred remains of the murdered Mississippi civil rights worker's station wagon was found on one of the Mississippi reservations. Two Choctaw women, who were in the back seat of a deputy's patrol car, said they witnessed the meeting
of two conspirators who expressed their desire to "beat-up" the boys.
Jack Abramoff scandal
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians operate a casino and resort called the Pearl River Resort, which has an average annual revenue of US$240 million. In the 1990s they enlisted the services of the lobbyist Jack Abramoff to aid in this interest. Abramoff's lobbyists illegally used the influence of corrupt officials to benefit the tribe.
"'Jack Abramoff and partner Michael Scanlon Abramoff-Reed Indian Gambling Scandal inflated expenses and divided the profits from $15 million in payments from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, according to testimony and e- mails released at a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing.'" (Bloomberg Website)
"'Choctaw Chief Phillip Martin did not testify, but released a prepared statement to the committee. 'After we learned what happened, we were astounded that a senior director at a major law firm would or could engage in misconduct of this sort -- whether as regards [to] billing fabrication or as regards [to] the more egregious 'gimme five' scheme -- and that he was able to get away with it for so long." (Washington Post Website)
In an e-mail sent Jan. 29, 2002, Abramoff tells Scanlon "I have to meet with the monkeys from the Choctaw tribal council."
U.S. Senator John McCain stated during a June 22, 2005 hearing that some of the money contributed by the tribe was unknowingly "funneled" to various people and organizations, like an Israeli sniper school instructor.
In April 2008, Department of Justice official Robert E. Coughlin pleaded guilty for steering a $16.3 million grant from the Justice Department to build a jail for the tribe in exchange for gifts of meals and tickets from Team Abramoff lobbyist Kevin A. Ring.
Recent events
In July 2007, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians elected a new Miko for the first time, democratically, in three decades, Chief Beasley Denson. In the past three decades, the tribal governemt has been under the leadership of Phillip Martin. Denson became only the third democratically elected tribal chief since the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.
Locations
Old Choctaw country included dozens of towns like Lukfata, Koweh Chito, Oka Hullo, Pante, Osapa Chito, Oka Cooply, and Yanni Achukma located in and around Neshoba and Kemper counties.
The oldest Choctaw settlement is located in Neshoba county. The bones of great warriors are buried there.
Choctaws regularly traveled hundreds of miles from their homes for long periods of time. They set out early in the fall and returned to their reserved lands at the opening of spring to plant their gardens. At that time they visited the Europeans at Columbus, Miss., Macon, Brooksville, and Crawford, and the region where Yazoo City now is.
Presently, the Mississippi Choctaw Indian Reservation has 8 communities: Bogue Chitto, Bogue Homa, Conehatta, Crystal Ridge, Pearl River, Red Water, Tucker, and Standing Pine. These communities are located in parts of nine counties throughout the state, although the largest concentration of land is in Neshoba County, which comprises more than two-thirds of the reservation's land area and over 62 percent of its population as of the 2000 census. The total land area is 84.282 kmē (32.541 sq mi), and its official total resident population was 5,190 persons. The Choctaws still living in Mississippi make up the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, led by Chief Beasley Denson.
See also
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