Choctaw Resurgence in Mississippi

Race, Class, and Nation Building in the Jim Crow South, 1830-1977

Katherine M. B. Osburn

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780803240445
• eBook ISBN: 9780803273894
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Social Sciences

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Series Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. From the First Removal to the Second, 1830–1898
• 2. From the Second Removal to Recognition, 1898–1918
• 3. Establishment of the Agency, 1918–1930
• 4. The Choctaw Agency and the Patronage Economy, 1918–1930
• 5. The Depression and the Indian New Deal, 1929–1945
• 6. The Choctaw Tribal Council, 1945–1965
• 7. Termination, Segregation, and Choctaw Nation Building, 1951–1964
• 8. Relocation, Resistance, and Civil Rights, 1951–1964
• Epilogue and Conclusions
• List of Abbreviations
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author
• Series List