Population of the Choctaw Indians - Essay Example

At present, a population of the Choctaw Indians resides in Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Mississippi. The Choctaws however, were one of the original settlers of Mississippi and along history’s course; they have either been forced or came to a decision to migrate to other places. In totality, the Choctaw Indian populace has grown to 160,000 in the year 2004-2005 (American Indian). Only two Choctaw tribes are federally recognized. They are the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians occupies 35,000 acres of land in Mississippi’s east central part and some parts of the gulf coast and Tennessee. Their territory in the Mississippi is comprised of ten communities such as Pearl River, Red Water, Bogue Chitto, Standing Pine, Tucker, Conehatta, Crystal Ridge, and Bogue Homa while the other two located off the Mississippi are on Ripley, Tennessee and the Attala Property. On the other hand, the Choctaws in Oklahoma occupy ten and o­ne-half counties in the southeastern part of Oklahoma. Their territories are bounded on the north by the South Canadian, Canadian and Arkansas Rivers; the east of their territory is the State of Arkansas, while o­n the south they are bounded by the Red River. To date, both tribes have a government structures similar to a democratic nation. They both have an Executive, Legislative and Judicial government branches. The Tribal Chief holds the Executive office with judicial authority. The Tribal Council has the Legislative powers of the government. Originating from Mississippi, the Choctaw Indians belong to the Muskhogean family along with the Chickasaws, the Alabama-Koasatis, the Apalachees, the Creeks, the Seminoles, and the Hitchiti-Mikasukis. They were all descendants of the Paleo-Indians. The Paleo-Indians were believed to be the first occupants of North America. These ancestors hunt and farm for their subsistence much similar to how the Choctaws subsist. Another view on the origin of the Choctaws is accounted on their oral history. Two stories have been passed on through generations of Choctaws. The first one tells of how the Choctaws were created along with the other tribes while the second one spotlights how the Choctaws were lead to live in Mississippi. Both stories involve the Nanih Waiya which symbolizes the divine elements mentioned in the stories. Relatively, as shown on the Choctaws’ belief in their stories of origin, reflects their religious nature. Their belief in supernatural beings can be seen in their literary works. Choctaws before the Europeans came, believed in a god named Aba. Along with this god are the good and bad spiritual beings. Literary works mentioning the Choctaws’ belief in spiritual beings are also rich in tales on creation such as The Choctaw Creation Legend and the story on The Creation of the Choctaw; historical accounts such as Crossing the Line and Grand Father’s Land; tales of prophesies like the Changing World and Changing Landscapes and Intermarriage; tales about animals like the story on How the Bear Lost Its Tail and The Hummingbird; and even tales with humor such as The Horse’s Egg, and The Dog Who Spoke Choctaw. The Choctaws’ literary works are results from their keen observance of their everyday activities. In a Choctaw family, men are responsible to hunt down food, protect the tribe from invaders or the warriors, or attend to tribal council duties and help in farming. Women on the other hand, do household chores, tending the farm and taking care of their children. Men and women were also contributors to the tribe’s arts, music, dances, medical chores and storytelling. Children of the Choctaws help in household chores, in hunting and have leisure activities. There were no clear accounts as to schools for children but children were educated in their homes with oral history, skills of hunting and other skills that would equip them for their sustenance and survival. Children who had grown up to be married, courting usually takes place first in community dances. If a woman reciprocates a man’s advances, the man would then bestow the labors of his hunting to the woman’s mother which would signify that the man intends to marry their daughter. After this the man’s father would ask about the woman’s background and if he agrees the man’s mother would be conversing with the woman’s mother if the woman’s parents would agree on the marriage. The dialogue between the two mothers would be usually on an inquiry if the man is a skilled hunter and if the woman’s mother gives an affirmative response then this is an initial agreement on the forthcoming marriage. An exchange of gifts between the woman’s family and the man’s family would ensue. Then a feast would take place afterwards the tribal chief will mainly address the couple reminding them of their duties as husband and wife. Then the chief would also address the young people on the proper process of marriage and on principles on marrying within the bloodline. Bloodline or lineage among Choctaw Indians is of the matrilineal kind of kinship. This means that their genealogy is traced through the mother unlike the usual path of tracing ancestry through the father. An important family inheritance practice throughout the Choctaw ancestry is on the chieftainship. The chieftainship is determined by the lineage of the mother thus women also hold this significant role in the community. A Choctaw family is sheltered in houses made of wood and mud. Since no windows are present, a hole on top of the structure serves as a chimney. Their bedrooms consist of beds raised from the dirt ground with blankets made from animal skins. Their kitchen has earthen cookware and baskets for the storage of their staple food which is corn. The staple nourishment of Choctaws consists of come from the produces of their farm, and products of their hunting. Vegetables, hunted produce and fish are the common food items in a Choctaw table. Two popular traditional dishes are the hominy and the banaha. Hominy and banaha has corn as their basic ingredient. Hominy is cooked by first removing dried corn kernels from its cob and separated from the hulls. The dish is seasoned with meat and continuous stirring prevents the mixture to be unevenly cooked. Banaha on the other hand, is a mixture of cornmeal and peas. The ingredients are kneaded and shaped into rectangles then wrapped in corn husks. These are then cooked in boiling water. This dish, like the hominy, is also flavored by meat. These sumptuous meals for the feasts are coupled with dances. The stick-ballgame dance is the mostly cited dance of the Choctaws. Other dances are war dances and animal dances mimicking the movements of animals such as the bison, alligator, turkey and bear. Choctaw dances are equally depictive of their rich culture as their crafts. Their artistic crafts are best seen in their cane baskets. Cane baskets undergo are colored with dyes such as yellow, red, black, purple and brown that come from different plant sources. Clothes before the arrival of the Europeans were made from fabrics accessible in their terrain. Animal hides tanned with deer brains were made into blouses and skirts women. For Choctaw men, breechcloths and moccasins were their usual garb. Winter clothes were also made from animal hide and furs. Traveling clothes for men were shirts, pants and moccasins. These moccasins were very useful to the Choctaws since the means of their transport were on foot. Traveling was not much back then since they only leave their home when they would go hunting. As stated earlier, the Choctaws’ economy are based on agriculture, fishing, and hunting. Their government structure is comprised of a tribal head chief, an assistant chief or a Tichou-mingo, and two war chiefs or Tascamingoutchy. The assistant chief performs the tasks of organizing ceremonies, public announcements and other assemblies. Choctaw men were classified into four, the first are the head chiefs, the village chiefs, and war chief; while the second classification are the beloved men; the third class were composed of tasca or warriors; while the last one are the atac emittla. The death of a Choctaw entails a distinctive practice composed of a series of rituals. Women have yet another significant role on the burial rites of the Choctaws. A dying tribe member who is beyond recuperation will be declared as such by the community doctor. At this point women would be washing the person’s body, paint then put the person’s best clothes on. The dead would then be placed on the grounds of the person’s home near the door. As the loved ones cry at the dead person’s stomach, some of the mourners would talk out loud to the dead person asking for reasons on the person’s wish to die. Other questions would include queries if the dead person did not feel love from relatives, or if the dead person was not given due respect or if he or she lacked something that the person decided to die instead. Mourners would wail louder indicating that the dead person’s inability to make response was just because of not being able to hear their cries. These mourners, however, are hired to perform the traditional burial ritual. The usual burial belief proceeds as the fully dressed dead person is placed in a house in a shape of a coffin along with a blanket for covering, food, drinks, a pair of shoes, and some of his belongings. Similar to most beliefs, Choctaws see death as embarking in a journey to another place so they would furnish the dead person with all his provisions for a trip. After five to six months and a stench makes way out of the dead person’s house, relatives would gather for a ceremony of assemble ceremoniously along with the honored woman of the village who performs an extraordinary function of stripping and scraping the flesh of the dead person. The flesh will be disposed on to some field enclosed in a hamper lined with cloth. The honored woman then, serves food without washing her hands. The ceremony is repeated with the tribal chiefs and the bones are finally laid to rest in a chest. The Choctaws were set to have major changes in their way of life. This change started on the year 1540 when Hernando Desoto, the first European to set foot on the Choctaw territory, captured a tribal chief named Tuscaloosa and demanded to be given people who would haul their possessions from the ship. This was granted by the tribal chief but the second demand was a great deal for the chief to bear. Desoto demanded for women. The Choctaw’s regard for their women when it comes to their lineage, role in the family and in community ceremonies were unknown to the newcomers who were forgiven for demanding haulers but demanding for women caused the tribal chief to also send his warriors to ward off the invaders. Cleverly trapping the invaders into a merry feast to catch them off-guard before assaulting them, the Choctaws defeated Desoto, successfully warding off the invaders. After the Spaniards, other Europeans such as the British and the French set foot in Choctaw lands. Besides the chaos brought on by the British to divide and conquer the Choctaws and the other tribes, Catholic missions were established to convert the Choctaws. Along with the missions were educational missions establishing schools and with these, the Choctaw people were forced into slavery. After burning the Choctaws homes, they were held as captives were made as slaves or used by the French to fight against their fellow Indians. Slaves were treated literally like animals; making them act as if they were canines. This way, Europeans acquired the Indian tribe lands by deceiving the tribes causing them to wager wars against each other. The British invaders brought the onset of the American Revolution. While some of the Choctaws made alliances with the British, some also made alliances with Washington, Morgan, Wayne and Sullivan to overthrow the threats of being under the British colony. The end of the American Revolution paved way for the formation of the United States of America. After the American Revolution, the Choctaws were yet to face another threat on losing their homeland. The threat was not of another war or of invaders. The new threat had caused the Choctaws, this time, to leave their homelands by choice and not by force. They were threatened by Cholera. One of the results of the migration of the Choctaws was to change their religious beliefs. A number of Choctaws were baptized by churches situated in the places the Choctaws settled into. The migration of some of the Choctaws due to cholera was again followed by another migration when the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed; the Choctaws were the first to be affected by the Removals. The Removal was the effort of the white settlers to relocate the Indian tribes into one Indian common territory. Some of the Choctaws however, remained unrelenting to these removals. They remained in their homelands in the Mississippi regions which explain the presence of the Mississippi Band of Choctaws. Throughout the years of the disturbance of the peaceful lives of the Choctaws, they have found ways of subsistence. Choctaws started to trade with the white settlers and still continue to produce from their farms, livestock and hunting. Several of the treatises made involve trading one of which is the Mount Dexter Treaty. Political structures later on were changed until the Choctaws adopted the democratic form of government and eventually gained federal recognition. These major changes in the Choctaw people did not alter their love for their homelands. Land was the most valuable asset Native Americans held in collective stewardship. Choctaw land was systematically obtained through treaties, legislation, and threats of warfare. Although there were many treaties with Great Britain, France, and Spain; nine treaties were signed between the Choctaws and the United States. Some treaties, like the Treaty of San Lorenzo, indirectly affected the Choctaws. Between 1965 and 1982 Native Americans realized the value of their ancient heritage; the trend toward abandonment of Indian culture and tradition was dramatically reversed. In the 1970s, the Choctaws repudiated the Indian activism. The Oklahoma Choctaw sought a local grassroots solution to reclaim their cultural identity and sovereignty as a nation. 1975 also marked the year that the United States Congress passed the landmark Indian Self-determination and Education Act. In 1987 the Supreme Court of the United States recognized that federally recognized tribes could operate gaming facilities free from state regulation. U.S. Congress soon enacted the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), which sets the terms for how Native American tribes are permitted to operate casinos. In 1992 Governor Kirk Fordice finally gave permission, after a long wait under the Ray Mabus administration, for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw to develop a Class III gaming casino and resort. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (MBCI) has one of the largest casinos located in Choctaw, Mississippi. The Silver Star Casino opened its doors in 1994. The Golden Moon Casino opened in 2002. The casinos are collectively known as the Pearl River Resort. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma also operates the Choctaw Casino Resort and Choctaw Casino Bingo, popular gaming destinations in Durant (near the Oklahoma-Texas border) for residents of Southern Oklahoma and North Texas, most notably the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon inflated and divided profits from $15 million in payment from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Congressional hearings were held and charges were brought against Abramoff and Scanlon. In an e-mail sent January 29, 2002, Abramoff tells Scanlon "I have to meet with the monkeys from the Choctaw tribal council." After nearly two hundred years, Nanih Waiya was returned. Nanih Waiya was a state park of Mississippi until the Mississippi Legislature State Bill 2803 officially returned control to Choctaws in 2006. CITED WORKS "American Indian, Alaska Native Tables from the Statistical Abstract of the United States". Statistical Abstract of the United State: 2004-2005 (124th ed.). US Census Bureau. 4 November 2008. . Galloway, Patricia. Choctaw Genesis, 1500-1700. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. Place of Publication, 1995. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. 3 November 2008. . Perdue, Theda, and Michael Green. The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. Swanton, John. Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1931. White, Richard. The Roots of Dependency: Subsistence, Environment, and Social Change among the Choctaws, Pawnees, and Navajos. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. Place of Publication, 1983. Read More