Native America

I have the absolute highest level of respect for the Mississippi band of Choctaw Indians for staying in the area around our homeland. Through a long process of colonization, Choctaw people were eventually forced to give up our lands to the United States, and that wasn't by choice. You know, the last treaty negotiation at Dancing Rabbit Creek was practically at gunpoint. The Choctaws have been allies of the United States through a series of wars over the previous decades. Choctaw people had bled and died to protect the United States, and in return, the United States demanded our land, threatening to invade the Choctaw nation militarily, threatening conscripted labor. Many awful things to do to one's ally. It became difficult for many Choctaw people to stay here. Through a previous treaty provision, the Treaty of Doak's Stand, several million acres of land had been deeded to the Choctaw people by the United States in Indian Territory, present-day southeastern Oklahoma. Of course, these lands were the homeland of other tribes-- the Caddo, the Osage, the Kiowa. And so when Choctaw people moved into that area, it created some difficulties. The Choctaw people who did eventually move into Indian Territory went on a really horrific journey, and it was a long process. The first waves started even before the final session of Choctaw lands for the Treaty of Doak's Stand. They started through hunting parties that traveled that way and stayed, maybe back as early as the 1780s. But the main waves of the Trail of Tears began in 1831, and government agents organized the process. They had Choctaw people leave in the wintertime, believing that there would be less diseases at that time. But they encountered diseases on the trail, they encountered a great deal of hardship through difficult roads and flooded areas. The government agents, to cut costs and increase profits for the United States government, gave Choctaw people very poor supplies. Sometimes Choctaw people were forced to stay in open camps in the middle of winter with no tents, no shoes, almost no food. In some of those camps, they were fed rations that had been declared spoiled by the United States military, that were still fed to them. Lots of people died. There are accounts of a number of children murders and things like that that occurred on this trail. One of the Choctaw chiefs termed the trail "Hina Nishin Okchi Laua," and that means "The Trail of Lots of Tears," "The Trail of Lots of Crying." And so that's where the term "Trail of Tears" came from. Today, it may be more strongly associated with some other tribes, but initially, the Choctaws were the ones that gave it that name. As I said before, the Trail of Tears was really a process. The first wave happened in the 1830s, and about 12,000 Choctaws traveled to Indian Territory. Through the difficulties of that journey and through outright murder, as I said earlier, an estimated 1,500 to 4,000 people died. So that's a very high fatality rate when you think about 12,000 people that ultimately made the trip. There were other waves of the Trail of Tears in the 1850s. The very last one was 1902 and 1903, and even on that one, because of speculation by private individuals, a number of Choctaw people died through mistreatment and harsh conditions, even though they traveled by train to Oklahoma. However, the people that stayed behind in Mississippi faced something that was equally difficult, maybe even more so. Accounts from the time period talk about Euro-American people moving in to individual family farmsteads, you know, land that these people had lived on for at least 200 years and just taking it away from them. Running their horses through their fields, setting fire to their houses. Shooting at them. There are accounts of Choctaw men being put in chains and beat to death. Just horrific, horrific stuff. The people who stayed in this area many times were forced to move into the most marginal land and watch others from another society reap the benefits of what their ancestors have done. But they stuck it out, the Mississippi band did, you know, because of their connection with this place as its indigenous people. I could not have more respect for them for what they've done.