Life in Mississippi
for the Choctaws
It was in this condition of indolence and ease
that the white man found the Choctaw in his home to the east of the Mississippi
river. Doubtless it was represented to him in the year 1830 that
in exchanging his home in Mississippi for his home in the West he was finding
another wild country. Probably reports of such a country sent back
from the West to those left behind in Mississippi helped to keep up the
migration westward for several years.
But in spite of earnest efforts made to remove
all Choctaws from the State of Mississippi, many remained. These came to
be called Mississippi Choctaws to distinguish them from those who had moved
to the West. They sought to secure homes and become citizens of the
States as was provided in the 14th article of the Treaty of Dancing
Rabbit Creek.
Had the provisions of this treaty been carried
out by the United States Government through its Indian agent, thousands
of acres of land throughout southern and central Mississippi in addition
to what was actually received by the Mississippi Choctaws would have belonged
to them by right of patent from the United States Government. It
is highly probable that many of them would have sold their lands to white
people, but at best the public domain of the State would have been greatly
diminished. But patents to these lands were not issued to the Mississippi
Choctaws, save only in few instances; and as there were but these few reservations
on file in the United States land office to the credit of the Mississippi
Choctaws, the public domain has since been preempted and is owned by white
people.
The Mississippi Choctaws, having lost their
homes in Mississippi, made application at different times to regain their
rights; but in these efforts they were the easy prey of unscrupulous land
speculators, who wrought such bold and dastard frauds that the people defeated
their claims in the interest of the public good.
Deprived of their homes, the Mississippi Choctaws
in most instances lived in indolence and poverty, usually as squatters
or trespassers on Government land. They sometimes gathered themselves
together into small colonies of a few hundred each, lived in tents or huts,
cultivated small patches of ground, hunted, fished and made and peddled
cane baskets. These baskets they made in convenient sizes and shapes,
and bartered to white ladies for household use, getting in return a basketfull
of some article of food, as meal, meat, or potatoes.
In their little homes they had but scanty property;
a few pots, some rugs, quilts and sometimes a bed constituted about all
their household goods. As to live stock they had several dogs and one or
more “Indian ponies.” These ponies are small, and usually fitted
for no work save that of their master, to whom they are a great convenience
and a nominal expense, as they make their own living by grazing when not
in use. Such a colony of a few hundred Mississippi Choctaws was known
to the writer in the northeastern part of Scott county, Mississippi, where
they kept up many of their old customs. They had churches and a school,
their teacher being paid by the State without expense to them.
Five Civilized
Tribes
It was thought that the Choctaw land claims
had been settled about the year 1845, and the subject received but little,
if any, further consideration for about fifty years thereafter. The revival
of these old claims came about in this way:
The Indian reservations in the West had
come in late years to contain many white people, so whatever may have been
the original intention of Congress as to the permanency of the Indian reservations
as such, the inhabitants of the territory occupied by what is now known
as the Five Civilized Tribes, to wit, Cherokee, Seminole, Creek, Choctaw,
and Chickasaw
petitioned Congress for the passage of laws looking toward the winding
up of tribal affairs in the aforesaid tribes, preparatory for an organized
territory to develop finally into a state. As a result of this overture
to Congress an Indian Commission was created, known as the Commission to
the Five Civilized Tribes.
Atoka Agreement
This Commission on the 23rd day of April, 1897,
made an agreement with commissions representing the Choctaw and Chickasaw
tribes, known as the Atoka Agreement. This agreement amended and
enacted into law as amended by Congress was embodied in what is known as
the Curtis Bill, and approved by the President, June 28, 1898. This bill
was submitted to the Choctaws and Chickasaws, and by proper manipulation
their ratification of it was secured by ballot, August 24, 1898, and immediately
thereafter it became law. It provides for the winding up of the tribal
governments as follows:
“It is further agreed, in view of the modification of legislative
authority and judicial jurisdiction herein provided, and the necessity
of the continuance of the tribal governments so modified in order to carry
out the requirements of this agreement, that the same shall continue for
the period of eight years from the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred
and ninety-eight. This stipulation is made in the belief that the tribal
governments so modified will prove so satisfactory that there will be no
need or desire for further change till the lands now occupied by the Five
Civilized Tribes shall, in the opinion of Congress, be prepared for admission
as a State to the Union. * * *
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Ellen
Pack
