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This map details the
lands where Choctaws have lived throughout history, including
the homes of contemporary communities. Map courtesy of Historic
Preservation.
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Over the next year and a half, Iti Fabvssa will be running a new
series on Choctaw history that will cover each decade from 1830-2000.
Since the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, many Choctaws have
lived in what is now known as Oklahoma, the overlapping homelands
of Caddo and other Indigenous nations. Choctaws were removed here
to establish a new home where we would govern ourselves alone and
eventually consolidated as the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Although
our current territory is not where we came from or where hundreds
of generations of our ancestors have been laid to rest, we have
transformed it into our new home filled with important histories,
ideas, and relations. Over the past 190 years, Choctaws have accomplished
much by creating a new society. In Indian Territory/Oklahoma, we
have experimented and innovated with new forms of government and
laws in ways that align with the values and traditions of our ancestors.
It is a rich history that we wish to explore in-depth with our readers
here.
Over the course of this series, we hope to clear up some common
misconceptions about Choctaw history and provide better context.
For instance, some think that when Choctaws arrived in Indian Territory,
we were poor and had nothing when we arrived. While the immediate
time after removal was difficult, Choctaws drew on collective knowledge
to create a new society in a new homeland. Throughout the 1700s
and 1800s, Choctaws shared knowledge with Europeans to adapt to
social changes. Choctaw leaders used missionaries to teach their
children English and sent them to boarding schools so they could
learn how to deal with Euro-American society. With a Euro-American
education, people like Peter Pitchlynn and Allen Wright became scholars,
diplomats, and lawyers who helped Choctaws navigate a tumultuous
period of rapid change. After removal, Choctaws quickly established
a new government, constitution, set of laws and the largest school
system west of the Mississippi River. As Choctaw became a written
language, local newspapers increasingly published in multiple languages.
Choctaw elders have referred to the 1830-1906 period of Choctaw
history as a golden era because of all the innovations
and dynamic history. Nevertheless, many people do not know this
history.
Indigenous history is integral to Oklahoma and U.S. history, so
we want to take the opportunity to share our unique Choctaw history
in greater detail. This will not be the entire history because that
could fill numerous books. Instead, the series will focus on key
historical events, laws, and social movements all explained
through a Choctaw worldview grounded in the values of our ancestors.
In telling our history, this is not only an opportunity to reflect
on our ancestors legacy but also to show how Choctaws have
been important actors in shaping contemporary Oklahoma, United States,
and world history. Choctaws came up with ideas that other governments
have since copied or learned from. In this series, we will cover
the various changes to Choctaw government, how Choctaws developed
a new economy (particularly around coal mining), interactions with
the U.S. government and American settlers encroaching on Choctaw
lands and sovereignty, allotment, Oklahoma statehood, and how Choctaws
have lived up through the year 2000. We will provide snapshots of
each decade so we can better understand what life was like for our
Choctaw ancestors.
Our status as a sovereign nation is especially important to remember
because some federal Indian laws did not apply to Choctaws living
in Indian Territory. While we share a lot of history and experiences
with other American Indians (and the Five Tribes especially), Choctaws
have a distinct history and relationship with the U.S. government.
For instance, Choctaws were not included in the 1887 Dawes Act that
allotted Choctaw lands. Choctaw allotment did not begin until after
1898 with the Curtis Act and this had important legal implications.
Choctaws who took allotments were also granted U.S. citizenship
in 1901 before Oklahoma statehood and long before the 1924
Indian Citizenship Act , which gave the majority of American Indians
citizenship. Because of removal, the Five Tribes have comparatively
stronger treaties than the nations that made treaties with the US
government after them. This is important because it has helped us
protect our sovereignty today. We have a different worldview than
other Indian nations, which inform our leaders decisions.
To really understand our history, we have to pay close attention
to our cultural, political and legal uniqueness as Choctaw people.
Perhaps most importantly, we will share this history from a Choctaw
perspective, as Choctaws have lived and experienced it. Although
there are numerous books and articles on Oklahoma Choctaw history,
many are largely written by non-Choctaws, and the people that wrote
them often do not consider Choctaw-authored accounts of what happened
in the past. Instead, they mostly relied on U.S. government records,
which are filled with their own biases that undermined Choctaw nationhood,
culture, and our unique perspective. Furthermore, because many Choctaws
were educated in the western tradition, there is an enormous collection
of documents written and produced by a wide range of Choctaw people
that has yet to be fully examined. Such a large archival collection
is rare among American Indian communities. There are still so many
untold stories and perspectives hidden in archives that have yet
to be interpreted and written about. Many of those stories give
us new and important insights that challenge some of the ideas that
we believe today. There are also many documents in Choctaw language
that have yet to be translated. By writing a history sourced from
these underexamined primary sources, we are doing something new
both in these articles and in the ongoing work of Cultural Services/Historic
Preservation, the Choctaw Language Department, and Choctaw Nation
museums with archives and museum collections.
The story of Oklahoma Choctaws is one of renewal and resurgence,
adapting and overcoming challenges created by colonialism to establish
new relations and paths toward the future. Telling this history
requires Choctaws to be our own historians which we have
always been. We know that individuals do not have to have a degree
to be a historian. Our grandparents, aunts, uncles and parents are
historians. As community members and scholars have long pointed
out, telling history is not a neutral project. History has high
stakes. Choctaw people have often been excluded from telling our
side of history because it would contradict grand narratives about
how the United States came into being. We also know there is so
much more to American history that has not been fully examined.
While this series will cover some of the major events, this is
by no means a comprehensive Oklahoma Choctaw history. Our history
in Indian Territory is rich and we want to give it the attention
it deserves. Our next Iti Fabvssa article will focus on the years
1830-1840, which covers the first part of removal and the early
experiences in the new homeland secured to us by U.S. treaties.
We will see how Choctaw Nation was created, how it innovated with
its form of government, how it developed a new economy in a different
land and interacted with increasing settler encroachment in our
new homelands and jurisdiction. Additional reading resources are
available on the Choctaw Nation Cultural Service webpage (https://choctawnationculture.com/choctaw-culture/additional-resources.aspx).
Follow along with this Iti Fabvssa series in print and online at
https://www.choctawnation.com/history-culture/history/iti-fabvssa.
If you have questions or would like more information on the sources,
please contact Megan Baker at meganb@choctawnation.com.
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