Choctaw Chronology

Part I | Part II | Part IIII | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII

Part IV 1831-1918
Through swamps, canebrakes, forests and across swollen rivers, the Choctaws set out for their new land. Cholera, exposure and malnutrition claimed many lives. The Choctaws grieved the loss of the homeland - the resting place of their beloved dead. But they turned their hearts and hands to the building of a nation which thrived until the turn of the century. A remnant stayed behind in Mississippi and Louisiana. Notes pertaining to the Mississippi Choctaw in this section will be prefixed: MISS. The balance of the notes concern the new Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma.

1831 Pre-removal census in Mississippi: 19,200 Choctaws. By the end of 1831, 360 people belonged to the churches at Elliot, Mayhew, Bethel, Goshen, and Emmaus. 244 children had been baptized.

1832 Office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs created.

1833 Elbert Herring, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, stated that the Choctaws are "as they were in 1801 and in 1820, almost unanimously opposed to the introduction and sale of ardent spirits in their country."

1834 The Choctaws drafted a new Constitution.

1835 Death of Chief Moshulatubbee. He had been leader of the anti-Christian faction.

1836 It was made lawful to marry within the Iksa. Previous to this act, the Choctaws were divided into two great clans. Choctaws could only marry someone from the opposite Iksa. The word Iksa is now used to denote church denominations, i.e.: Kiahlic Iksa, Catholic Church.

1837 Thirty-thousand and five hundred religious tracts were printed in Choctaw.

1838 The first meeting was held in the new log Council House named Nanih Waiya for the sacred old hill.

1839 The death penalty was prescribed for any Chief who should cede Choctaw lands.

1843 Byington's Choctaw Almanac gave the Choctaw population as 12,690.

1845 Chief Nitakechi, nephew of Pushmataha died, while on a trip to Mississippi to urge the remnant to move to Indian Territory.

1846 One-thousand more Mississippi Choctaws removed to Indian Territory.

1847 A collection was taken in Skullyville (Choctaw Nation) where a total of $710 was raised to aid victims of the potato famine in Ireland.

1848 A newspaper, the "Choctaw Telegraph", was founded by David Folsom (Choctaw).

1849 The Office of Indian Affairs was transferred to the Interior Department.

1853 Three-hundred and eighty-eight more Mississippi Choctaws moved to the Nation.

1854 Three-hundred more Mississippi Choctaw moved to the Nation.

1859 The American Board of Commissioners withdrew its support from the Choctaw missions due to anti-slavery issues.

1860 A new Constitution was drafted at Skullyville. The Choctaws reported 900 children in their schools.

1861 The Choctaws indicated they would join the South in the war.

1865 The Choctaws laid down their arms. (June 19)

1866 The Choctaws negotiated a new treaty with the United States.

1867 The Choctaw schools re-opened.

1871 The United States abandoned the treaty process.

1872 The Union Pacific put a railroad through the Nation. Others followed.

1876 MISS: The last Achahpih (Chungkee) game: "Some ten years ago there lived in Neshoba County an aged Choctaw named Mehubbee, who had often seen the Achahpih game played in his youth, and who still had an Achahpih stone (tali chanaha) in his possession. One day in the summer of 1876 this aged Indian prepared an Achahpih yard, in an old field of Talasha Creek and instructed some young Choctaws how to play this almost forgotten game of their forefathers. This was undoubtedly the last time this ancient Indian game was ever played in the State of Mississippi." (See Halbert of Swanton for an account of the game.)

1879 Carlisle Indian school was founded.

1882 MISS: Henry S. Halbert studied the Mississippi Choctaw and published his findings. He continued his observations until 1901.

1883 The Choctaws granted limited citizenship to freed Negroes. (The Mississippi Choctaw often call Negroes "yukat issa".)

1884 The Catholic Church was established at Tucker, about seven miles southeast of Philadelphia, Mississippi.

1885 The last buffalo herd in the U.S. was exterminated. The Choctaws had conducted annual expeditions in the West Texas plains expressly for hunting buffalo.

1886 The Commissioner of Indian Affairs declared that treaties should be disregarded if necessary.

1887 Output of coal mines in the Choctaw Nation estimated at over 500,000 tons.

1890 During this decade another effort was made to bring the remaining Mississippi Choctaws to the Nation.

1892 Total Choctaw students in their schools: 4,349.

1893 The Dawes Severalty Act was introduced to the Five Civilized Tribes. The President was authorized to negotiate with the Choctaws for the purpose of terminating their nation.

1894 The Choctaws resisted early efforts to change their government or land, saying "We cannot bring ourselves to believe that such a great, grand and Christian Nation, as the U.S. Government would so stultify itself in the eyes of the civilized world, by disregarding treaties heretofore solemnly entered into, with a weak and dependent people, regardless of justice and equity,--Simply, because she is numerically able to do so."

1896 Indians of the Territory countered the proposals of the Dawes Commission by requesting that the Indian Territory be made a State with no union with Oklahoma. But the Dawes Commission, reflecting current sentiment, went ahead with plans to "acculturate" the Indians, and with severalty efforts.

1897 A party of Choctaws visited Mexico with an eye to removal thereto.

1899 The United States assumed responsibility for the well-developed Choctaw school system - changing their curricula from cultural to vocational.

1903 MISS: Three-hundred Mississippi Choctaws were persuaded to remove to the Nation.

1906 March 4: End of the tribal government as county and district officials ceased to function.

1907 End of Choctaw judicial system.

1908 From December 1908 to April 1909, David I. Bushnell, Jr., visited a Choctaw remnant living on the North shore of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. A report of his findings is in Bulletin 48, Bureau of American Ethnology, 1909. He recorded many myths, folkways, and pursued some archaeological investigations. Horn spoons (Wak lapish isht impa) were still in use, as were mortars and pestles, scrapers, drums, ball clubs, blowguns, darts and canoes. Baskets were being woven of palmetto (tala) but were crude.

1910 MISS: One-thousand, two-hundred, and fifty-three Choctaws still lived in Mississippi.

1916 MISS: An outside investigation of Mississippi Choctaws initiated by the United States Government revealed a deplorable state.

1918 Choctaw was used as a code in World War I (Byington's Dictionary).
MISS: The Bureau of Indian Affairs established an agency in Philadelphia, Mississippi, to establish schools and assist the Choctaws who had stayed.

Continued