Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is one of three federally recognized tribes of Choctaw people, and the only one in the state of Mississippi. On April 20, 1945, this tribe organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Their reservation included lands in Neshoba, Leake, Newton, Scott, Jones, Attala, Kemper, and Winston counties. The Mississippi Choctaw regained stewardship of their mother mound, Nanih Waiya mounds and cave in 2008. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw have declared August 18 as a tribal holiday to celebrate their regaining control of the sacred site. The other two Choctaw groups are the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the third largest tribe in the United States, and the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, located in Louisiana.
From left to right, Chief Wesley Johnson, Thomas B. Sullivan, Culberson Davis, James E. Arnold, and Emil John.
Group of Mississippi Choctaw males in the late 50s or early 60s. Photograph by Bob Ferguson.
Phillip Martin and family in the late 1950s or early 1960s
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes: the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and Jena Band of Choctaw Indians in Louisiana.
Louisiana Indians Walking Along a Bayou Alfred Boisseau – 1847
Tullockchishko (Drinks the Juice of the Stones) was the greatest of Choctaw stickball players, 1834.
A Mississippian era engraved shell discovered at Eddyville, Kentucky
