Choctaw Resurgence in Mississippi: Race, Class, and Nation Building in the Jim Crow South, 1830-1977

Description

When the Choctaws were removed from their Mississippi homeland to Indian Territory in 1830| several thousand remained behind| planning to take advantage of Article 14 in the removal treaty| which promised that any Choctaws who wished to remain in Mississippi could apply for allotments of land. When the remaining Choctaws applied for their allotments| however| the government reneged| and the Choctaws were left dispossessed and impoverished. Thus begins the history of the Mississippi Choctaws as a distinct people.

Despite overwhelming poverty and significant racial prejudice in the rural South| the Mississippi Choctaws managed| over the course of a century and a half| to maintain their ethnic identity| persuade the Office of Indian Affairs to provide them with services and lands| create a functioning tribal government| and establish a prosperous and stable reservation economy. The Choctaws’ struggle against segregation in the 1950s and 1960s is an overlooked story of the civil rights movement| and this study of white supremacist support for Choctaw tribalism considerably complicates our understanding of southern history. “Choctaw Resurgence in Mississippi” traces the Choctaw’s remarkable tribal rebirth| attributing it to their sustained political and social activism.