User:Brik85/sandbox

The Choctaw (alternatively spelled Chahta, Chactas, Tchakta, Chocktaw, and Chactaw) are Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States (modern-day Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana). The Choctaw language belongs to the Muskogean linguistic group. The Choctaw are descendants of the peoples of the Hopewell and Mississippian cultures, who lived throughout the east of the Mississippi River valley and its tributaries. About 1,700 years ago, the Hopewell people built Nanih Waiya, a great earthwork mound, which is still considered sacred by the Choctaw. The early Spanish explorers of the mid-16th century encountered Mississippian-culture villages and chiefs.[2] The anthropologist John Swanton suggested that the Choctaw derived their name from an early leader.[3] Henry Halbert, a historian, suggests that their name is derived from the Choctaw phrase Hacha hatak (river people).[4]

The Choctaw coalesced as a people in the 17th century, and developed three distinct political and geographical divisions: eastern, western and southern, which sometimes created differing alliances with nearby European powers. These included the French, based on the Gulf Coast and in Louisiana, the English of the Southeast, and the Spanish of Florida and Louisiana during the colonial era. During the American Revolution, most Choctaw supported the Thirteen Colonies' bid for independence from the British Crown. They never went to war against the United States prior to Indian Removal. MY FUCKIN NAME JEFF BITCH   YO MOMS A HOE 21

In the 19th century, the Choctaw became known as one of the "Five Civilized Tribes" because they adopted numerous practices of their United States neighbors. The Choctaw and the United States (US) agreed to nine treaties and, by the last three, the US gained vast land cessions and deracinated most Choctaw west of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory. They were the first Native Americans forced under the Indian Removal Act. The Choctaw were exiled because the U.S. wanted to expand territory available for settlement by European Americans,[5] to save the tribe from extinction,[6] and to acquire their natural resources.[7] The Choctaw negotiated the largest area and most desirable lands in Indian Territory. Their early government had three districts, each with its own chief, who together with the town chiefs sat on the National Council. They appointed a Choctaw Delegate to represent them with the US government in Washington, DC.

By the 1831 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, those Choctaw who chose to stay in the newly formed state of Mississippi were one of the first major non-European ethnic groups to become U.S. citizens.[8][9][10] (Article 8 in the 1817 treaty with the Cherokee stated Cherokees may wish to become citizen of the United States.) During the American Civil War, the Choctaw in both Oklahoma and Mississippi mostly sided with the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy suggested it would support a state under Indian control if it won the war. In a new treaty after the war, the US required them to emancipate their slaves and offer them full citizenship; they have become known as Choctaw Freedmen. After the Civil War, the Mississippi Choctaw fell into obscurity for some time.

The Choctaw in Oklahoma struggled to build a nation, transferring the Choctaw Academy there and opening one for girls in the 1840s. In the aftermath of the Dawes Act, the US dissolved tribal governments and appointed chiefs. During World War I, Choctaw soldiers served in the U.S. military as the first Native American codetalkers, using the Choctaw language. After the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, the Choctaw reconstituted their government, and the Choctaw Nation had kept their culture alive despite years of pressure for assimilation. The third largest federally recognized tribe, since the mid-twentieth century, they have created new institutions, such as a tribal college, housing authority, and justice system. Today the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians are the two federally recognized Choctaw tribes; Mississippi recognizes another band, and smaller Choctaw groups are located in Alabama (MOWA), Louisiana (Jena), and Texas.

Contents [hide] 1 History 1.1 Paleo-Indian period 1.2 Woodland culture 1.3 Mississippian culture 1.4 17th century emergence of Choctaw 1.5 Contact era 1.5.1 French colonization (1682) 1.6 United States relations 1.6.1 Hopewell council and treaty (1786) 1.6.2 War of 1812 1.6.3 Doak's Stand (1820) 1.6.4 Negotiations with the US government (1820s) 1.7 1830 election and treaty 1.8 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek (1830) 1.9 Removal era 1.9.1 Pre-Civil War (1840) 1.9.2 American Civil War (1861) 1.10 Choctaw Under Reconstruction (1865) 1.10.1 Mississippi Choctaw 1.10.2 Choctaw Nation 1.10.3 Territory transition to Oklahoma statehood (1889) 1.11 World War I (1918) 1.12 Reorganization (1934) 1.13 World War II (1941) 1.14 Post-Reorganization (1946) 1.14.1 Mississippi Choctaw Self-Determination Era 2 Choctaws today 2.1 Jack Abramoff and Indian casino lobbying 2.2 MOWA Choctaw 2.3 Choctaw in the 2010 Census 3 Culture 3.1 Clans 3.2 Games 3.3 Language 3.4 Religion 3.5 Traditional clothing 3.6 Communal economy 4 Treaties 5 Reservations 6 Influential leaders 7 See also 8 References 8.1 Further reading 9 External links 9.1 Official websites of Choctaw Governments 9.2 History and culture History[edit] Paleo-Indian period[edit] Many thousands of years ago groups classified by anthropologists as Paleo-Indians lived in what today is referred to as the American South.[11] These groups were hunter-gatherers who hunted a wide range of animals, including a variety of megafauna, which became extinct following the end of the Pleistocene age.[11] The 19th-century historian Horatio Cushman noted that Choctaw oral history accounts suggested their ancestors had known of mammoths in the Tombigbee River area; this suggests that the Choctaw ancestors had been in the Mississippi area for at least 4,000–8,000 years.[12] Cushman wrote: "the ancient Choctaw through their tradition (said) 'they saw the mighty beasts of the forests, whose tread shook the earth."[12] Scholars believe that Paleo-Indians were specialized, highly mobile foragers who hunted late Pleistocene fauna such as bison, mastodons, caribou, and mammoths. Direct evidence in the Southeast is meager, but archaeological discoveries in related areas support this hypothesis.[11]

Woodland culture[edit] Later cultures became more complex. Moundbuilding cultures included the Woodland period people who first built Nanih Waiya. Scholars believe the mound was contemporary with such earthworks as Igomar Mound in Mississippi and Pinson Mounds in Tennessee.[13] Based on dating of surface artifacts, the Nanih Waiya mound was likely constructed and first occupied by indigenous peoples about 0-300 CE, in the Middle Woodland period.

The original site was bounded on three sides by an earthwork circular enclosure, about ten feet high and encompassing a square mile. Occupation of Nanih Waiya and several smaller nearby mounds likely continued through 700 CE, the Late Woodland Period. The smaller mounds may also have been built by later cultures. As they have been lost to cultivation since the late 19th century and the area has not been excavated, theories have been speculation.[14]

Mississippian culture[edit]

A Mississippian-era priest holding a ceremonial flint mace. The Mississippian culture was a Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from 800 to 1500 CE. The Mississippian culture developed in the lower Mississippi river valley and its tributaries, including the Ohio River. In present-day Mississippi, Moundville, Plaquemine,

When the Spanish made their first forays inland in the 16th century from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, they encountered some chiefdoms of the Mississippians, but others were already in decline, or had disappeared.[15] The Mississippian culture are the peoples encountered by other early Spanish explorers, beginning on April 2, 1513, with Juan Ponce de León's Florida landing and the 1526 Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón expedition in South Carolina and Georgia region.[16][17] A Spanish expedition in the later 16th century, in what is now western North Carolina, encountered people of the Mississippian culture at Joara and settlements further west. The Spanish built a fort at Joara and left a garrison there, as well as five other forts. The following year all the Spanish garrisons were killed and the forts destroyed by the Native Americans, who ended Spanish colonization attempts in the interior.

17th century emergence of Choctaw[edit] The contemporary historian Patricia Galloway argues from fragmentary archaeological and cartographic evidence that the Choctaw did not exist as a unified people before the 17th century. Only then did various southeastern peoples, remnants of Moundville, Plaquemine, and other Mississippian cultures, coalesce to form a self-consciously Choctaw people.[18] The historical homeland of the Choctaw, or of the peoples from whom the Choctaw nation arose, included the area of Nanih Waiya, an earthwork mound in present-day Winston County, Mississippi, which they considered sacred ground. Their homeland was bounded by the Tombigbee River to the east, the Pearl River on the north and west, and "the Leaf-Pascagoula system" to the South. This area was mostly uninhabited during the Mississippian -culture period.[18]

While Nanih Waiya mound continued to be a ceremonial center and object of veneration, scholars believe Native Americans traveled to it during the Mississippian culture period. From the 17th century on, the Choctaw occupied this area and revered this site as the center of their origin stories. These included stories of migration to this site from west of the great river (believed to refer to the Mississippi River.)[13]

In Histoire de La Louisiane (Paris, 1758), French explorer Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz recounted that "...when I asked them from whence the Chat-kas [sic] came, to express the suddenness of their appearance they replied that they had come out from under the earth." American scholars took this as intended to explain the Choctaws' immediate appearance, and not a literal creation account. It was perhaps the first European writing that included part of the Choctaw origin story.[19]

A people who by many peculiar customs, are very different from the other red men on the continent ... they are the Chactaws [sic], more commonly known by the name of the Flatheads. These people are the only nation from whom I [sic] could learn any idea of a traditional account of a first origin; and that is their coming out of a hole in the ground, which they shew between their nation and the Chicsaws [sic]; they tell us also that their neighbours were surprised at seeing a people rise at once out of the earth."

—Bernard Romans- Natural History of East and West Florida[20] Early 19th century and contemporary Choctaw storytellers describe that the Choctaw people emerged from either Nanih Waiya mound or cave. A companion story describes their migration journey from the west, beyond the Mississippi River, when they were directed by their leader's use of a sacred red pole.

The Choctaws, a great many winters ago, commenced moving from the country where they then lived, which was a great distance to the west of the great river and the mountains of snow, and they were a great many years on their way. A great medicine man led them the whole way, by going before with a red pole, which he stuck in the ground every night where they encamped. This pole was every morning found leaning to the east, and he told them that they must continue to travel to the east until the pole would stand upright in their encampment, and that there the Great Spirit had directed that they should live.

—George Catlin- Smithsonian Report[21] Contact era[edit] After the castaway Cabeza de Vaca of the ill-fated Narváez expedition returned to Spain, he described to the Court that the New World was the "richest country in the world." It commissioned the Spaniard Hernando de Soto to lead the first expedition into the interior of the North American continent. De Soto, convinced of the "riches", wanted Cabeza de Vaca to accompany him on the expedition. Cabeza de Vaca declined because of a payment dispute.[22] From 1540–1543, Hernando de Soto traveled through present-day Florida and Georgia, and then into the Alabama and Mississippi areas that would later be inhabited by the Choctaw.[23]

De Soto had the best-equipped militia at the time. As the brutalities of the de Soto expedition through the Southeast became known, ancestors to the Choctaw rose in defense. The Battle of Mabila, an ambush arranged by Chief Tuskaloosa, was a turning point for the de Soto venture. The battle "broke the back" of the campaign, and they never fully recovered.[citation needed]

Hernando de Soto, leading his well-equipped Spanish fortune hunters, made contact with the Choctaws in the year 1540. He had been one of a triumvirate which wrecked and plundered the Inca empire and, as a result, was one of the wealthiest men of his time. His invading army lacked nothing in equipage. In true conquistador style, he took as hostage a chief named Chief Tuskaloosa, demanding of him carriers and women. The carriers he got at once. The women, Tuscaloosa said, would be waiting in Mabila (Mobile). The chief neglected to mention that he had also summoned his warriors to be waiting in Mabila. On October 18, 1540, de Soto entered the town and received a gracious welcome. The Choctaws feasted with him, danced for him, then attacked him."

— Bob Ferguson- Choctaw Chronology [citation needed] The archaeological record for the period between 1567 and 1699 is not complete or well-studied. It appears that some Mississippian settlements were abandoned well before the 17th century. Similarities in pottery coloring and burials suggest the following scenario for the emergence of the distinctive Choctaw society.[18]

According to Patricia Galloway, the Choctaw region of Mississippi, generally located between the Yazoo basin to the north and the Natchez bluffs to the south, was slowly occupied by Burial Urn people from the Bottle Creek Indian Mounds area in the Mobile, Alabama delta, along with remnants of people from the Moundville chiefdom (near present-day Tuscaloosa, Alabama), which had collapsed some years before. Facing severe depopulation, they fled westward, where they combined with the Plaquemines and a group of “prairie people” living near the area. When this occurred is not clear. In the space of several generations, they created a new society which became known as Choctaw (albeit with a strong Mississippian background).[18]

Other scholars note the Choctaw oral history recounting their long migration from west of the Mississippi River.

French colonization (1682)[edit]

Watercolor painting of Choctaw men, painted for war and holding scalps, and children by Alexandre de Batz, mid–18th century In 1682 La Salle was the first French explorer to venture into the southeast along the Mississippi River.[24] His expedition did not meet with the Choctaw; it established a post along the Arkansas River.[24] The post signaled to the English that the French were serious at colonization in the South.[24] The Choctaw allied with French colonists as a defense against the English, who had been taking Choctaws as captives for the Indian slave trade.[24]

The first direct recorded contact between the Choctaw and the French was with Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville in 1699; indirect contact had likely occurred between the Choctaw and British settlers through other tribes, including the Creek and Chickasaw. The Choctaw, along with other tribes, had formed a relationship with New France, French Louisiana.[25] Illegal fur trading may have led to further unofficial contact.[citation needed]

As the historian Greg O'Brien has noted, the Choctaw developed three distinct political and geographic regions, which during the colonial period sometimes had differing alliances with trading partners among the French, Spanish and English. They also expressed differences during and after the American Revolutionary War. Their divisions were roughly eastern, western (near present-day Vicksburg, Mississippi) and southern (Six Towns). Each division was headed by a principal chief, and subordinate chiefs led each of the towns within the area. All the chiefs would meet on a National Council, but the society was highly decentralized for some time.[26]

The French were the main trading partners of the Choctaw before the Seven Years' War, and the British had established some trading. After Great Britain defeated France, it ceded its territory east of the Mississippi River. From 1763 to 1781, Britain was the Choctaw main trading partner. With Spanish forces based in New Orleans in 1766, when they took over French territory west of the Mississippi, the Choctaw sometimes traded with them to the west. Spain declared war against Great Britain during the American Revolution in 1779.[26]

United States relations[edit]

Choctaw Village near the Chefuncte, by Francois Bernard, 1869, Peabody Museum - Harvard University. The women are preparing dye to color cane strips for making baskets. During the American Revolution, the Choctaw divided over whether to support Britain or Spain. Some Choctaw warriors from the western and eastern divisions supported the British in the defense of Mobile and Pensacola.[26] Chief Franchimastabé led a Choctaw war party with British forces against American rebels in Natchez. The Americans had left by the time Franchimastabé arrived, but the Choctaw occupied Natchez for weeks and convinced residents to remain loyal to Britain.[27]

Other Choctaw companies joined Washington's army during the war, and served the entire duration.[12] Bob Ferguson, a Southeastern Indian historian, noted, "[In] 1775 the American Revolution began a period of new alignments for the Choctaws and other southern Indians. Choctaw scouts served under Washington, Morgan, Wayne and Sullivan."[28]

Over a thousand Choctaw fought for Britain, largely against Spain's campaigns along the Gulf Coast. At the same time, a significant number of Choctaw aided Spain.[27]

Ferguson wrote that with the end of the Revolution, "'Franchimastabe', Choctaw head chief, went to Savannah, Georgia to secure American trade." In the next few years, some Choctaw scouts served in Ohio with U.S. General Anthony Wayne in the Northwest Indian War.[citation needed]

George Washington (first U.S. President) and Henry Knox (first U.S. Secretary of War) proposed the cultural transformation of Native Americans.[29] Washington believed that Native Americans were equals but that their society was inferior to that of the European Americans. He formulated a policy to encourage the "civilizing" process, and Thomas Jefferson continued it.[30] The historian Robert Remini wrote, "[T]hey presumed that once the Indians adopted the practice of private property, built homes, farmed, educated their children, and embraced Christianity, these Native Americans would win acceptance from white Americans."[31]

Washington's six-point plan included impartial justice toward Indians; regulated buying of Indian lands; promotion of commerce; promotion of experiments to civilize or improve Indian society; presidential authority to give presents; and punishing those who violated Indian rights.[32] The government appointed agents, such as Benjamin Hawkins, to live among the Indians and to teach them through example and instruction, how to live like whites.[29] While living among the Choctaw for nearly 30 years, Hawkins married Lavinia Downs, a Choctaw woman. As the people had a matrilineal system of property and hereditary leadership, their children were born into the mother's clan and gained their status from her people. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, a number of Scots-Irish traders lived among the Choctaw and married high-status women. Choctaw chiefs saw these as strategic alliances to build stronger relationships with the Americans in a changing environment that influenced ideas of capital and property. The children of such marriages were Choctaw, first and foremost. Some of the sons were educated in Anglo-American schools and became important interpreters and negotiators for Choctaw-US relations.

Whereas it hath at this time become peculiarly necessary to warn the citizens of the United States against a violation of the treaties made at Hopewell, on the Keowee, on the 28th day of November, 1785, and on the 3d and 10th days of January, 1786, between the United States and the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw nations of Indians ... I do by these presents require, all officers of the United States, as well civil as military, and all other citizens and inhabitants thereof, to govern themselves according to the treaties and act aforesaid, as they will answer the contrary at their peril.

—George Washington, Proclamation Regarding Treaties, Regarding Treaties with the Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw 1790.[33] Hopewell council and treaty (1786)[edit] Starting in October 1785, Taboca, a Choctaw prophet/chief, led over 125 Choctaws to the Keowee, near Seneca Old Town, now known as Hopewell, South Carolina.[34] After two months of travel, they met with U.S. representatives Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, and Joseph Martin. In high Choctaw ceremonial symbolism, they named, adopted, smoked, and performed dances, revealing the complex and serious nature of Choctaw diplomacy.[35] One such dance was the eagle tail dance. The Choctaw explained that the bald eagle, who has direct contact with the upper world of the sun, is a symbol of peace.[36] Choctaw women painted in white would adopt and name commissioners as kin.[37] Smoking sealed agreements between peoples and the shared pipes sanctified peace between the two nations.[38]

After the rituals, the Choctaw asked John Woods to live with them to improve communication with the U.S. In exchange they allowed Taboca to visit the United States Congress.[35] On January 3, 1786, the Treaty of Hopewell was signed.[39] Article 11 stated, "[T]he hatchet shall be forever buried, and the peace given by the United States of America, and friendship re-established between the said states on the one part, and all the Choctaw nation on the other part, shall be universal; and the contracting parties shall use their utmost endeavors to maintain the peace given as aforesaid, and friendship re-established."[39]

The treaty required Choctaws to return escaped slaves to colonists, to turn over any Choctaw convicted of crimes by the U.S., establish borderlines between the U.S. and Choctaw Nation, and the return any property captured from colonists during the Revolutionary War.[40]

We have long heard of your nation as a numerous, peaceable, and friendly people; but this is the first visit we have had from its great men at the seat of our government. I welcome you here; am glad to take you by the hand, and to assure you, for your nation, that we are their friends. Born in the same land, we ought to live as brothers, doing to each other all the good we can, and not listening to wicked men, who may endeavor to make us enemies ... It is at the request which you sent me in September, signed by Puckshanublee and other chiefs, and which you now repeat, that I listen to your proposition to sell us lands. You say you owe a great debt to your merchants, that you have nothing to pay it with but lands, and you pray us to take lands, and pay your debt. The sum you have occasion for, brothers, is a very great one. We have never yet paid as much to any of our red brethren for the purchase of lands ...

—President Thomas Jefferson, Brothers of the Choctaw Nation, December 17, 1803[41] After the Revolutionary War, the Choctaw were reluctant to ally themselves with countries hostile to the United States. John R. Swanton wrote, "the Choctaw were never at war with the Americans. A few were induced by Tecumseh (a Shawnee leader who sought support from various Native American tribes) to ally themselves with the hostile Creeks [in the early 19th century], but the Nation as a whole was kept out of anti-American alliances by the influence of Apushmataha, greatest of all Choctaw chiefs."[42]

War of 1812[edit] PushmatahaVsTecumseh.jpg Portraits of Pushmataha (left) and Tecumseh. "These white Americans ... give us fair exchange, their cloth, their guns, their tools, implements, and other things which the Choctaws need but do not make ... They doctored our sick; they clothed our suffering; they fed our hungry ... So in marked contrast with the experience of the Shawnees, it will be seen that the whites and Indians in this section are living on friendly and mutually beneficial terms." Pushmataha, 1811 - Sharing Choctaw History.[43] - "Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mochican, the Pocanet, and other powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man, as snow before the summer sun ... Sleep not longer, O Choctaws and Chickasaws ... Will not the bones of our dead be plowed up, and their graves turned into plowed fields?" Tecumseh, 1811 - The Portable North American Indian Reader.[44] Early in 1811, the Shawnee leader Tecumseh gathered Indian tribes in an alliance to try to expel U.S. settlers from the Northwest area south of the Great Lakes. Tecumseh met the Choctaws to persuade them to join the alliance. Pushmataha, considered by historians to be the greatest Choctaw leader, countered Tecumseh's influence. As chief for the Six Towns (southern) district, Pushmataha strongly resisted such a plan, arguing that the Choctaw and their neighbors the Chickasaw had always lived in peace with European Americans, had learned valuable skills and technologies, and had received honest treatment and fair trade.[43] The joint Choctaw-Chickasaw council voted against alliance with Tecumseh. On Tecumseh's departure, Pushmataha accused him of tyranny over his own Shawnee and other tribes. Pushmataha warned Tecumeseh that he would fight against those who fought the United States.[45]

On the eve of the War of 1812, Governor William C. C. Claiborne of Louisiana sent interpreter Simon Favre to give a talk to the Choctaws, urging them to stay out of this "white man's war."[46] Ultimately, however, the Choctaw did become involved, and with the outbreak of the war, Pushmataha led the Choctaws in alliance with the U.S., arguing in favor of opposing the Creek Red Sticks' alliance with Britain after the massacre at Fort Mims.[47] Pushmataha arrived at St. Stephens, Alabama in mid-1813 with an offer of alliance and recruitment. He was escorted to Mobile to speak with General Flournoy, then commanding the district. Flournoy initially declined Pushmataha's offer and offended the chief. However, Flournoy's staff quickly convinced him to reverse his decision. A courier with a message accepting the offer of alliance caught up with Pushmataha at St. Stephens.[48]

Returning to Choctaw territory, Pushmataha raised a company of 125 Choctaw warriors with a rousing speech and was commissioned (as either a lieutenant colonel or a brigadier general) in the United States Army at St. Stephens.[49] After observing that the officers and their wives would promenade along the Alabama River, Pushmataha summoned his own wife to St. Stephens to accompany him.

He joined the U.S. Army under General Ferdinand Claiborne in mid-November, and some 125 Choctaw warriors took part in an attack on Creek forces at Kantachi (near present day Econochaca, Alabama) on 23 December 1813.[48][50] With this victory, Choctaw began to volunteer in greater numbers from the other two districts of the tribe. By February 1814, a larger band of Choctaws under Pushmataha had joined General Andrew Jackson's force for the sweeping of the Creek territories near Pensacola, Florida. Many Choctaw departed from Jackson's main force after the final defeat of the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. By the Battle of New Orleans, only a few Choctaw remained with the army; they were the only Native American tribe represented in the battle.[citation needed]

Doak's Stand (1820)[edit] In October 1820, Andrew Jackson and Thomas Hinds were sent as commissioners representing the United States, to conduct a treaty that would require the Choctaw to surrender to the United States a portion of their country located in present day Mississippi. They met with chiefs, mingos (leaders), and headsmen such as Colonel Silas Dinsmore and Chief Pushmataha at Doak's Stand on the Natchez Trace.[51]

Finally Jackson resorted to threats and a temper tantrum to gain their consent. He warned them of the loss of American friendship; he promised to wage war against them and destroy the Nation; finally he shouted his determination to remove them whether they liked it or not.

—Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson[52] The convention began on October 10 with a talk by "Sharp Knife", the nickname of Jackson, to more than 500 Choctaws. Pushmataha accused Jackson of deceiving them about the quality of land west of the Mississippi. Pushmataha responded to Jackson's retort with "I know the country well ... The grass is everywhere very short ... There are but few beavers, and the honey and fruit are rare things." Jackson resorted to threats, which pressured the Choctaws to sign the Doak's Stand treaty. Pushmataha would continue to argue with Jackson about the conditions of the treaty. Pushmataha assertively stated "that no alteration shall be made in the boundaries of the portion of our territory that will remain, until the Choctaw people are sufficiently progressed in the arts of civilization to become citizens of the States, owning land and homes of their own, on an equal footing with the white people."[53] Jackson responded with "That ... is a magnificent rangement and we consent to it, [American Citizenship], readily."[53] Historian Anna Lewis stated that Apuckshunubbee, a Choctaw district chief, was blackmailed by Jackson to sign the treaty.[54] On October 18, the Treaty of Doak's Stand was signed.[52]

Article 4 of the Treaty of Doak's Stand prepared Choctaws to become U.S. citizens when he or she became "civilized." This article would later influence Article 14 in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.[citation needed]

ARTICLE 4. The boundaries hereby established between the Choctaw Indians and the United States, on this side of the Mississippi river, shall remain without alteration until the period at which said nation shall become so civilized and enlightened as to be made citizens of the United States ...

—Treaty with the Choctaw, 1820 Negotiations with the US government (1820s)[edit]

In 1830 Mosholatubbee sought to be elected to the Congress of the United States. 1834, Smithsonian American Art Museum Apuckshunubbee, Pushmataha, and Mosholatubbee, the principal chiefs of the three divisions of Choctaw, led a delegation to Washington City (the 19th century name for Washington, D.C.) to discuss the problems of European Americans' squatting on Choctaw lands. They sought either expulsion of the settlers or financial compensation for the loss of their lands.[12] The group also included Talking Warrior, Red Fort, Nittahkachee, who was later Principal Chief; Col. Robert Cole and David Folsom, both Choctaw of mixed-race ancestry; Captain Daniel McCurtain, and Major John Pitchlynn, the U.S. interpreter, who had been raised by the Choctaw after having been orphaned when young and married a Choctaw woman.[55] Apuckshunubbee died in Maysville, Kentucky of an accident during the trip before the party reached Washington.[56]

Pushmataha met with President James Monroe and gave a speech to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, reminding him of the longstanding alliances between the United States and the Choctaws. He said, "[I] can say and tell the truth that no Choctaw ever drew his bow against the United States ... My nation has given of their country until it is very small. We are in trouble."[57] On January 20, 1825, Pushmataha and other chiefs signed the Treaty of Washington City, by which the Choctaw ceded more territory to the United States.[citation needed]

Pushmataha died in Washington of a respiratory disease described as croup, before the delegation returned to the Choctaw Nation. He was given full U.S. military burial honors at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

The deaths of these two strong division leaders was a major loss to the Choctaw Nation, but younger leaders were arising who were educated in European-American schools and led adaptation of the culture. Threatened with European-American encroachment, the Choctaw continued to adapt and take on some technology, housing styles, and accepted missionaries to the Choctaw Nation, in the hopes of being accepted by the Mississippi and national government. In 1825 the National Council approved the founding of the Choctaw Academy for education of its young men, urged by Peter Pitchlynn, a young leader and future chief. The school was established in Blue Spring, Scott County, Kentucky; it was operated there until 1842, when the staff and students were transferred to the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. There they founded the Spencer Academy in 1844.

With the election of Andrew Jackson as president in 1828, many of the Choctaw realized that removal was inevitable. They continued to adopt useful European practices but faced Jackson's and settlers' unrelenting pressure.

1830 election and treaty[edit] In March 1830 the division chiefs resigned, and the National Council elected Greenwood LeFlore, chief of the western division, as Principal Chief of the nation to negotiate with the US government on their behalf, the first time such a position had been authorized. Believing removal was inevitable and hoping to preserve rights for Choctaw in Indian Territory and Mississippi, LeFlore drafted a treaty and sent it to Washington, DC. There was considerable turmoil in the Choctaw Nation among people who thought he would and could resist removal, but the chiefs had agreed they could not undertake armed resistance.[58]

Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek (1830)[edit] Main article: Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek At Andrew Jackson's request, the United States Congress opened what became a fierce debate on an Indian Removal Bill.[59] In the end, the bill passed, but the vote was very close. The Senate passed the measure 28 to 19, while in the House it narrowly passed, 102 to 97. Jackson signed the legislation into law June 30, 1830,[59] and turned his focus onto the Choctaw in Mississippi Territory.

"To the voters of Mississippi. Fellow Citizens:-I have fought for you, I have been by your own act, made a citizen of your state; ... According to your laws I am an American citizen, ... I have always battled on the side of this republic ... I have been told by my white brethren, that the pen of history is impartial, and that in after years, our forlorn kindred will have justice and "mercy too" ... I wish you would elect me a member to the next Congress of the [United] States."

—Mushulatubba, Christian Mirror and N.H. Observer, July 1830.[60]

Kutteeotubbee was a noted warrior. 1834, Smithsonian American Art Museum On August 25, 1830, the Choctaw were supposed to meet with Andrew Jackson in Franklin, Tennessee, but Greenwood Leflore, a district Choctaw chief, informed Secretary of War John H. Eaton that his warriors were fiercely opposed to attending.[61] President Jackson was angered. Journalist Len Green writes "although angered by the Choctaw refusal to meet him in Tennessee, Jackson felt from LeFlore's words that he might have a foot in the door and dispatched Secretary of War Eaton and John Coffee to meet with the Choctaws in their nation."[62] Jackson appointed Eaton and General John Coffee as commissioners to represent him to meet the Choctaws at the Dancing Rabbit Creek near present-day Noxubee County, Mississippi.[citation needed]

Say to them as friends and brothers to listen [to] the voice of their father, & friend. Where [they] now are, they and my white children are too near each other to live in harmony & peace ... It is their white brothers and my wishes for them to remove beyond the Mississippi, it [contains] the [best] advice to both the Choctaws and Chickasaws, whose happiness ... will certainly be promoted by removing ... There ... their children can live upon [it as] long as grass grows or water runs ... It shall be theirs forever ... and all who wish to remain as citizens [shall have] reservations laid out to cover [their improv]ements; and the justice due [from a] father to his red children will [be awarded to] them. [Again I] beg you, tell them to listen. [The plan proposed] is the only one by which [they can be] perpetuated as a nation ... I am very respectfully your friend, & the friend of my Choctaw and Chickasaw brethren. Andrew Jackson.

—Andrew Jackson to the Choctaw & Chickasaw Nations, 1829.[63] The commissioners met with the chiefs and headmen on September 15, 1830, at Dancing Rabbit Creek.[64] In a carnival-like atmosphere, they tried to explain the policy of removal to an audience of 6,000 men, women, and children.[64] The Choctaws faced migration or submitting to U.S. law as citizens.[64] The treaty required them to cede their remaining traditional homeland to the United States; however, a provision in the treaty made removal more acceptable.[citation needed]

ART. XIV. Each Choctaw head of a family being desirous to remain and become a citizen of the States, shall be permitted to do so, by signifying his intention to the Agent within six months from the ratification of this Treaty, and he or she shall thereupon be entitled to a reservation of one section of six hundred and forty acres of land ...

—Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, 1830 On September 27, 1830, the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed. It represented one of the largest transfers of land that was signed between the U.S. Government and Native Americans without being instigated by warfare. By the treaty, the Choctaw signed away their remaining traditional homelands, opening them up for European-American settlement. Article 14 allowed for some Choctaw to stay in Mississippi, and nearly 1,300 Choctaws chose to do so. They were one of the first major non-European ethnic group to become U.S. citizens.[8][9][10][65] Article 22 sought to put a Choctaw representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.[8] The Choctaw at this crucial time split into two distinct groups: the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. The nation retained its autonomy, but the tribe in Mississippi submitted to state and federal laws.[66]

Removal era[edit] Main article: Choctaw Trail of Tears

Choctaw Eagle Dance, 1835-37, by George Catlin; Smithsonian American Art Museum After ceding nearly 11,000,000 acres (45,000 km2), the Choctaw emigrated in three stages: the first in the fall of 1831, the second in 1832 and the last in 1833.[67] Nearly 15,000 Choctaws made the move to what would be called Indian Territory and then later Oklahoma.[68] About 2,500 died along the Trail of Tears. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was ratified by the U.S. Senate on February 25, 1831, and the President was anxious to make it a model of removal.[67] Principal Chief George W. Harkins wrote a farewell letter to the American people before the removals began. It was widely published

It is with considerable diffidence that I attempt to address the American people, knowing and feeling sensibly my incompetency; and believing that your highly and well improved minds would not be well entertained by the address of a Choctaw ... We as Choctaws rather chose to suffer and be free ...

—George W. Harkins, George W. Harkins to the American People[69]

In 1831 a young 22-year-old George W. Harkins wrote the Farewell Letter to the American People. This portrait was taken in the 1860s. Alexis de Tocqueville, noted French political thinker and historian, witnessed the Choctaw removals while in Memphis, Tennessee in 1831: