Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands

Choctaw

Choctaw

The Choctaw (in the <a href="/en/Choctaw_language" title="Choctaw language" class="wl">Choctaw language</a>, Chahta) are a <a href="/en/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States" title="Native Americans in the United States" class="wl">Native American people</a> originally based in the <a href="/en/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Southeastern_Woodlands" title="Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands" class="wl">Southeastern Woodlands</a>, in what is now <a href="/en/Alabama" title="Alabama" class="wl">Alabama</a> and <a href="/en/Mississippi" title="Mississippi" class="wl">Mississippi</a>. Their <a href="/en/Choctaw_language" title="Choctaw language" class="wl">Choctaw language</a> is a <a href="/en/Western_Muskogean_language" title="Western Muskogean language" class="mw-redirect wl">Western Muskogean language</a>. Today, Choctaw people are enrolled in three <a href="/en/Federally_recognized_tribes" title="Federally recognized tribes" class="mw-redirect wl">federally recognized tribes</a>: the <a href="/en/Choctaw_Nation_of_Oklahoma" title="Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma" class="wl">Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma</a>, <a href="/en/Mississippi_Band_of_Choctaw_Indians" title="Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians" class="wl">Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians</a>, and <a href="/en/Jena_Band_of_Choctaw_Indians" title="Jena Band of Choctaw Indians" class="wl">Jena Band of Choctaw Indians</a> in Louisiana.<a href="#cite_note-5" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 5;">[5]</a>

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands</div>
<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1033289096" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles mw:Transclusion">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}</style>
<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1066479718" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles mw:Transclusion">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-header,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-subheader,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-above,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-title,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-image,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-below{text-align:center}</style><div class='mobile-collapse'><header class="mobile-collapse-header mobile-collapse-btn">Quick facts: Chahta, Total population, Regions with signif... ▼</header> <table class="infobox vcard mobile-collapse-element"><caption class="infobox-title fn org">Choctaw</caption><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above nickname" style="font-size:115%; font-weight:normal;"><div>Chahta</div></th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><a href="/en/File:Louisiana_Indians_Walking_Along_a_Bayou.jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Louisiana_Indians_Walking_Along_a_Bayou.jpg"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Louisiana_Indians_Walking_Along_a_Bayou.jpg/220px-Louisiana_Indians_Walking_Along_a_Bayou.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="1048" data-file-height="625" data-file-type="bitmap" height="131" width="220" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Louisiana_Indians_Walking_Along_a_Bayou.jpg/330px-Louisiana_Indians_Walking_Along_a_Bayou.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Louisiana_Indians_Walking_Along_a_Bayou.jpg/440px-Louisiana_Indians_Walking_Along_a_Bayou.jpg 2x" alt="Louisiana_Indians_Walking_Along_a_Bayou.jpg"></a><div class="infobox-caption">Louisiana Indians Walking Along a Bayou <a href="/en/Alfred_Boisseau" title="Alfred Boisseau" class="wl">Alfred Boisseau</a> – 1847</div></td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header notheme" style="background-color:#b0c4de;">Total population</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data">Approximately 214,884 total
200,000 (Nation of Oklahoma 2020)<a href="#cite_note-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;">[1]</a>

284 (Jena Band 2011)<a href="#cite_note-2" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 2;">[2]</a>

3,600 (MOWA Band 2007)<a href="#cite_note-3" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;">[3]</a>

11,000 (Mississippi Band 2020)<a href="#cite_note-4" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 4;">[4]</a></td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header notheme" style="background-color:#b0c4de;">Regions with significant populations</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><a href="/en/United_States" title="United States" class="wl">United States</a> (<a href="/en/Oklahoma" title="Oklahoma" class="wl">Oklahoma</a>, <a href="/en/Mississippi" title="Mississippi" class="wl">Mississippi</a>, <a href="/en/Louisiana" title="Louisiana" class="wl">Louisiana</a>)</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header notheme" style="background-color:#b0c4de;">Languages</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><a href="/en/American_English" title="American English" class="wl">American English</a>, <a href="/en/Choctaw_language" title="Choctaw language" class="wl">Choctaw</a></td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header notheme" style="background-color:#b0c4de;">Religion</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><a href="/en/Protestant" title="Protestant" class="mw-redirect wl">Protestant</a>, <a href="/en/Roman_Catholic" title="Roman Catholic" class="mw-redirect wl">Roman Catholic</a>, traditional beliefs</td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header notheme" style="background-color:#b0c4de;">Related ethnic groups</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><a href="/en/Chickasaw" title="Chickasaw" class="wl">Chickasaw</a>, <a href="/en/Muscogee" title="Muscogee" class="wl">Muscogee</a>, <a href="/en/Natchez_people" title="Natchez people" class="wl">Natichez</a>, <a href="/en/Alabama_people" title="Alabama people" class="wl">Alabama</a>, <a href="/en/Koasati" title="Koasati" class="mw-redirect wl">Koasati</a>, and <a href="/en/Seminole" title="Seminole" class="wl">Seminole</a> </td></tr></tbody></table> <footer class='mobile-collapse-footer mobile-collapse-btn'>Close ▲</footer></div>

The Choctaw were first noted by Europeans in French written records of 1675.<a href="#cite_note-6" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 6;">[6]</a> Their mother mound is <a href="/en/Nanih_Waiya" title="Nanih Waiya" class="wl">Nanih Waiya</a>, a great <a href="/en/Earthworks_(engineering)" title="Earthworks (engineering)" class="wl">earthwork</a> platform mound located in central-east Mississippi. Early <a href="/en/Spanish_colonization_of_the_Americas" title="Spanish colonization of the Americas" class="wl">Spanish explorers</a> of the mid-16th century in the Southeast encountered ancestral <a href="/en/Mississippian_culture" title="Mississippian culture" class="wl">Mississippian culture</a> villages and chiefs.<a href="#cite_note-walter_williams_antecedents-7" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 7;">[7]</a>

The Choctaw coalesced as a people in the 17th century and developed at least three distinct political and geographical divisions: eastern, western, and southern. These different groups sometimes created distinct, independent alliances with nearby European powers. These included the <a href="/en/French_colonization_of_the_Americas" title="French colonization of the Americas" class="wl">French</a>, based on the Gulf Coast and in Louisiana; the <a href="/en/English_colonization_of_the_Americas" title="English colonization of the Americas" class="mw-redirect wl">English</a> of the Southeast, and the Spanish of Florida and Louisiana during the colonial era.

Most Choctaw allied with the Americans during <a href="/en/American_Revolution" title="American Revolution" class="wl">American Revolution</a>, <a href="/en/War_of_1812" title="War of 1812" class="wl">War of 1812</a>, and the <a href="/en/Red_Stick_War" title="Red Stick War" class="mw-redirect wl">Red Stick War</a>, most notably at the <a href="/en/Battle_of_New_Orleans" title="Battle of New Orleans" class="wl">Battle of New Orleans</a>. European Americans considered the Choctaw to be one of the "<a href="/en/Five_Civilized_Tribes" title="Five Civilized Tribes" class="wl">Five Civilized Tribes</a>" of the Southeast. The Choctaw and the United States agreed to a total of nine treaties. By the last three, the US gained vast land cessions in the Southeast. As part of <a href="/en/Indian_Removal" title="Indian Removal" class="mw-redirect wl">Indian Removal</a>, despite not having waged war against the United States, the majority of Choctaw were forcibly relocated to <a href="/en/Indian_Territory" title="Indian Territory" class="wl">Indian Territory</a> from 1831 to 1833.<a href="#cite_note-Howard_Zinn-8" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 8;">[8]</a><a href="#cite_note-Jackson_PBS-9" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 9;">[9]</a> The Choctaw government in Indian Territory had three districts, each with its own chief, who together with the town chiefs sat on their National Council.

Those Choctaw who chose to stay in the state of Mississippi were considered state and U.S. citizens; they were one of the first major non-European ethnic groups to be granted citizenship.<a href="#cite_note-us_citizenship-10" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 10;">[10]</a><a href="#cite_note-david_baird-11" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 11;">[11]</a><a href="#cite_note-nrc_programs-12" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 12;">[12]</a> Article 14 in the 1830 treaty with the Choctaw stated Choctaws may wish to become citizens of the United States under the 14th Article of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on all of the combined lands which were consolidated under Article I from all previous treaties between the United States and the Choctaw.<a href="#cite_note-13" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 13;">[13]</a>

During the <a href="/en/American_Civil_War" title="American Civil War" class="wl">American Civil War</a>, the Choctaw in both <a href="/en/Indian_Territory" title="Indian Territory" class="wl">Indian Territory</a> and Mississippi mostly sided with the <a href="/en/Confederate_States_of_America" title="Confederate States of America" class="wl">Confederate States of America</a>. Under the late 19th-century <a href="/en/Dawes_Act" title="Dawes Act" class="wl">Dawes Act</a> and <a href="/en/Curtis_Act" title="Curtis Act" class="mw-redirect wl">Curtis Acts</a>, the US federal government broke up tribal land holdings and dissolved tribal governments in <a href="/en/Indian_Territory" title="Indian Territory" class="wl">Indian Territory</a> in order to extinguish Indian land claims before admission of Oklahoma as a state in 1907. From that period, for several decades the US <a href="/en/Bureau_of_Indian_Affairs" title="Bureau of Indian Affairs" class="wl">Bureau of Indian Affairs</a> appointed chiefs of the Choctaw and other tribes in the former Indian Territory.

During <a href="/en/World_War_I" title="World War I" class="wl">World War I</a>, Choctaw soldiers served in the US military as some of the first Native American <a href="/en/Codetalkers" title="Codetalkers" class="mw-redirect wl">codetalkers</a>, using the <a href="/en/Choctaw_language" title="Choctaw language" class="wl">Choctaw language</a>. Since the <a href="/en/Indian_Reorganization_Act" title="Indian Reorganization Act" class="wl">Indian Reorganization Act</a> of 1934, the Choctaw people in three areas have reconstituted their governments and gained federal recognition. The largest are the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma.

Since the 20th century, the <a href="/en/Mississippi_Band_of_Choctaw_Indians" title="Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians" class="wl">Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians</a> were federally recognized in 1945,<a href="#cite_note-14" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 14;">[14]</a> the <a href="/en/Choctaw_Nation_of_Oklahoma" title="Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma" class="wl">Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma</a> in 1971,<a href="#cite_note-choctaw_ok_statehood-2-15" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 15;">[15]</a> and the <a href="/en/Jena_Band_of_Choctaw_Indians" title="Jena Band of Choctaw Indians" class="wl">Jena Band of Choctaw Indians</a> in 1995.<a href="#cite_note-16" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 16;">[16]</a>

The Choctaw are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes: the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and Jena Band of Choctaw Indians in Louisiana. The Choctaw were first noted by Europeans in French written records of 1675. The Choctaw coalesced as a people in the 17th century and developed at least three distinct political and geographical divisions: eastern, western, and southern. These different groups sometimes created distinct, independent 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. 