Choctaw Removal: the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, September 27, 1830

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 had barely been passed before the Jackson Administration's plan to resettle all Natives east of the Mississippi was in full swing.  Though he was willing to try force, Jackson was also willing to try the time-tested methods used in previous administrations.  Talk to the right leaders within the tribe, offer money, land or whatever incentives might seem to work, and accomplish removal with as little public outcry or input as possible. 

Like many of the Southeastern tribes, the Choctaw were split between those who favored assimilation and cooperation with the US government, and those who preferred to maintain a more traditional way of life.  They had already ceded land before, in the Treaty of the Choctaw Trading House of 1816 and the Treaty Ground in 1820, ceding large swaths of their traditional land.  Some Choctaw felt that this was more than enough.  Jackson invited Greenwood LeFlore, whom we've run across in a previous post, and other Choctaw leaders to meet with him in Franklin, Tennessee.  LeFlore sent back word that most of the other leaders were angry and opposed to meeting with Jackson let alone going to Oklahoma.  Jackson dispatched Secretary of War John Eaton and a personal friend and veteran of the Creek War, Col. John Coffee, to Louisiana to meet with the Choctaw.  The place chosen was in what is now Noxubee County, at a place the Choctaw called Dancing Rabbit Creek. 

The treaty parley took the atmosphere of a grand spectacle, with seating arrangements for the US representatives, the principal leaders including Leflore, Indian Agents and interpreters, and spectators.  The mural below captures the surreal nature of the scene.  The Treaty called, as all Indian treaties did, for perpetual peace between the US and the Choctaw, cession of all Choctaw land in Louisiana in return for land of their choosing in Oklahoma, full autonomy of the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma, annuities and land grants to the Choctaw leaders who signed the Treaty, to warriors who had served with Jackson during the Creek War, and others named in the Treaty, Choctaw who wished to remain in Mississippi to receive title to their personal and United States citizenship, services such as schools and a post office to be provided to the Nation in Oklahoma, food and logistic support to be provided during the removal, and a Choctaw observer on the floor of the US House of Representatives.  To say that most of this never happened was an understatement.

 The treaty itself bears over 200 signatures, but the main signatures were those of John Eaton and John Coffee, representing the United States and Greenwood Leflore, Mishalotubbee and Nittacuchee signing on behalf of the Choctaw.  This cession was one of the largest land transfers to date in United States history, as well as the first treaty under the new Indian Removal Act.  The Choctaw moved west in three waves, 1831, 1832 and 1833.  Over 15,000 Choctaw left Louisiana and Mississippi for Oklahoma, whose name in Choctaw means "Red People".  However, about 6,000 or more Choctaw chose to stay.  Those who did faced increasing animosity from White neighbors, including their homes, farms and ranches burned, livestock stolen and fields ruined, putting pressure on as many of them as possible to leave.  Most of them never saw the land grants or annuities they had been promised.  Although Greenwood Leflore later served a term in the Mississippi state legislature, no Choctaw ever sat in the House of Representatives though Mishalotubbee ran for election and was defeated. 

Despite the hardships of the march and the first years in Oklahoma after removal, the Choctaw people were determined to thrive in their new environment.  But the government wasn't through with them by a long shot.  Like other tribes in Oklahoma, their autonomous government was dismantled to make way for Oklahoma statehood and communal land divided into allotments, with surplus being sold to White settlers.  Like every other tribe, the Choctaw had to go through the arduous process of gaining federal recognition as the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.  The Choctaw still remaining in Mississippi also received recognition as the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians in 1945.