Related Research Articles
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are enrolled in four federally recognized tribes: the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Jena Band of Choctaw Indians in Louisiana, and the Yowani Choctaws enrolled under the confederacy of the Caddo Nation. Choctaw descendants are also members of state-recognized tribes.
Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States government for the relocation of Native Americans who held original Indian title to their land as an independent nation-state. The concept of an Indian territory was an outcome of the U.S. federal government's 18th- and 19th-century policy of Indian removal. After the American Civil War (1861–1865), the policy of the U.S. government was one of assimilation.
The Chickasaw are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as a member of the Muskogean language family. In the present day, they are organized as the federally recognized Chickasaw Nation.
The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by the United States government in the early federal period of the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminoles. White Americans classified them as "civilized" because they had adopted attributes of the Anglo-American culture.
The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was a treaty which was signed on September 27, 1830, and proclaimed on February 24, 1831, between the Choctaw American Indian tribe and the United States Government. This treaty was the first removal treaty which was carried into effect under the Indian Removal Act. The treaty ceded about 11 million acres (45,000 km2) of the Choctaw Nation in what is now Mississippi in exchange for about 15 million acres (61,000 km2) in the Indian territory, now the state of Oklahoma. The principal Choctaw negotiators were Chief Greenwood LeFlore, Mosholatubbee, and Nittucachee; the U.S. negotiators were Colonel John Coffee and Secretary of War John Eaton.
Douglas Hancock Cooper was an American politician, soldier, Indian Agent in what is now Oklahoma, and Confederate general during the American Civil War.
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is a Native American reservation occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. At roughly 6,952,960 acres, it is the second-largest reservation in area after the Navajo, exceeding that of the seven smallest U.S. states. The seat of government is located in Durant, Oklahoma.
Pushmataha was one of the three regional chiefs of the major divisions of the Choctaw in the 19th century. Many historians considered him the "greatest of all Choctaw chiefs". Pushmataha was highly regarded among Native Americans, Europeans, and white Americans, for his skill and cunning in both war and diplomacy.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is one of three federally recognized tribes of Choctaw 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.
The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized Indigenous nation with headquarters in Ada, Oklahoma, in the United States. The Chickasaw Nation descends from an Indigenous population historically located in the southeastern United States, including present-day northern Mississippi, northwestern Alabama, southwestern Kentucky, and western Tennessee. Today, the Chickasaw Nation is the 12th largest Indigenous nation in the United States, with a population exceeding 80,000 citizens, most of whom reside in Oklahoma.
Allen Wright was Principal Chief of the Choctaw Republic from late 1866 to 1870. He had been ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1852 after graduating from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He was very active in the Choctaw government, holding several elected positions. He has been credited with the name Oklahoma for the land that would become the state.
Peter Pitchlynn was a Choctaw military and political leader. A long-time diplomat between his tribe and the federal government, he served as principal chief of the Choctaw Republic from 1864 to 1866 and surrendered to the Union on behalf of the nation at the end of the Civil War.
The Choctaw Trail of Tears was the attempted ethnic cleansing and relocation by the United States government of the Choctaw Nation from their country, referred to now as the Deep South, to lands west of the Mississippi River in Indian Territory in the 1830s by the United States government. A Choctaw Miko (chief) was quoted by the Arkansas Gazette as saying that the removal was a "trail of tears and death." Since removal, the Choctaw have developed since the 20th century as three federally recognized tribes: the largest, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians in Louisiana.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to United States federal Indian law and policy:
On the eve of the American Civil War in 1861, a significant number of Indigenous peoples of the Americas had been relocated from the Southeastern United States to Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi. The inhabitants of the eastern part of the Indian Territory, the Five Civilized Tribes, were suzerain nations with established tribal governments, well established cultures, and legal systems that allowed for slavery. Before European Contact these tribes were generally matriarchial societies, with agriculture being the primary economic pursuit. The bulk of the tribes lived in towns with planned streets, residential and public areas. The people were ruled by complex hereditary chiefdoms of varying size and complexity with high levels of military organization.
James Lawrence McDonald (c. 1801 — September 1831), was a member of the American Indian tribe called the Choctaw and the first Native leader of his generation to be trained in the American legal system. Thus, he is known as the first Native American lawyer. He was also the first Native activist to make the case for Indian rights directly to American political leaders and to negotiate for those rights in a formal agreement. McDonald did not believe in the use of force in resisting American westward expansion. Instead, he believed that political negotiations between Native American leaders and the United States would be more effective in the fight against the displacement of Natives and would allow for the long-term survival of Native American communities. McDonald urged the U.S. Congress to protect the rights of Native Americans and delayed the removal of his tribe from ancestral lands. As an advisor to Choctaw chiefs and eventual lawyer of the tribe, McDonald successfully negotiated peace treaties with the United States federal government. These negotiations allowed fair compensation for previously ceded land that was undervalued in earlier agreements. He also promoted programs of Indian education and wrote on behalf of the elected tribal governments. McDonald’s work as a lawyer and political activist paved a new path in which future Native American leaders were able to defend the rights of their territory using the American legal system. His career marked the birth of a new approach to federal power, and by extension, the beginning of political activism that was to inspire tribal leaders across the continent.
Cyrus Kingsbury was a Christian missionary active among the American Indians in the nineteenth century. He first worked with the Cherokee and founded Brainerd Mission near Chickamauga, Tennessee, later he served the Choctaw of Mississippi. He was known as "the Father of the Missions" in Indian Territory.
John Tecumseh “Tauy” Jones was a leading businessman and Baptist minister. He served as an interpreter and leader for the Pottawatomie tribe in Kansas. He also served as a leader for the Ottawa tribe and as their minister. He was a friend of abolitionist John Brown, and a co-founder of Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas.
The History of the Choctaws, or Chahtas, are a Native American people originally from the Southeast of what is currently known as the United States. They are known for their rapid post-colonial adoption of a written language, transitioning to yeoman farming methods, having European-American lifestyles enforced in their society, and acquiring some customs from Africans they enslaved.
References
- ↑ September 26, 1833 – Treaty of Chicago, Forest County Potawatamie Wisconsin, 2024
- ↑ Tim Talbott, "Choctaw Indian Academy," ExploreKYHistory, accessed February 28, 2021, https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/594.
- ↑ "Not Just a Hunting Ground: Native Americans in Kentucky - Choctaw Academy." Lex History, Lexington History Museum, lexhistory.org/edu/not-just-hunting-ground-native-americans-kentucky-choctaw-academy. Exhibit Panel http://lexhistory.org/sites/default/files/Choctaw%20academy.pdf
- ↑ Katherine Flynn, "Kentucky Ophthalmologist Fundraises to Save Choctaw Academy", Preservation Magazine, https://savingplaces.org/stories/kentucky-opthalmologist-fundraises-choctaw-academy#.Yg0ehurMJPY