The Story of the Choctaw Indians: From the Past to the Present (The Story of the American Indian)

This book tells the story of the shared history of the three federally recognized Choctaw tribes from before the first European contact in the 1530s and then provides the history and contemporary status of each of the three tribes separately.

Rather than focusing on a single Choctaw group, this book offers for the first time a combined story of "the Choctaw" as the tribe comprises the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and the Jean Band of Choctaw Indians.

The first portion of the book provides the archaeological history of the native groups that ultimately became the Choctaw, chronicling the development of the people in the southeastern portions of what is now the United States into the people who encountered the first Europeans to set foot on the continent.

Though the tribe's contact with European colonists varied depending on the country from where the colonists originated, that contact was forever changed after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830 led to the fractionalization of the tribe: some Choctaws moved to what is now Oklahoma, some chose to remain in Mississippi, and others chose to stay in Louisiana. The remainder of the book studies the continued histories of each of the tribes in parallel, offering students and general readers a practicable resource for understanding the Choctaw within the broad context of American history.

• Provides archaeological background of what is now the southeastern United States up until the time of European contact, enabling readers to recognize the depth of indigenous culture in the area

• Presents a concise history of the Choctaw from European contact up to 1830, informing recognition of the interrelated histories of the Choctaw with those of the British and Americans

• Analyzes the events that led up to Removal of the tribe to Indian Territory, and the far-reaching impact that the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830 had on the tribe to provide historical background on the relationship between the federal government and American Indian tribes

• Offers detailed historical insight into the interactions of each of the three separate Choctaw tribes with the federal government

• Collects the histories of the three federally recognized Choctaw tribes in one place so that readers can compare and contrast the pathways the different tribes took and how those paths led them to their contemporary places in American history