CHOCTAW BANDS circa 1836/RIVERS

This Musing 11 presents the locations of the Mississippi Choctaw Bands located in Musings 1, 2, 3 and 8. Figure 1 provides the band's locations circa 1836, noted as blue dots. Note the counties in which the bands were located are shown with contemporary boundaries and names. On the other hand, counties without bands are not shown or labeled.

Remember during most of the 18th century the Choctaw lived in villages in the "home" counties: Neshoba, Kemper, Newton, Jasper, Lauderdale and Clarke. H. B. Cushman in his History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians recorded that cattle were introduced to the Choctaw by three men or groups of men: Louis and Michael Leflore, Louis Durant and Hardy Perry about 1770. Likely, the cattle were needed for the table to supplement declining wild animal populations. The cattle industry grew slowly. Cattle required land for grazing and feed supplements like corn during winter and early spring. Moving to favorable land outside the villages was the result. Bands formed as the Choctaw gravitated to the most desirable grazing lands.

I would like to make a few comments about the band's locations compared to the FIGURES section of this website, specifically Figures 2, 3 and 4. Let's acknowledge that the Eastern and Western parts Choctaw villages location in the French Period (circa 1730) are similar to the bands circa 1836. That is, the 1836 Choctaw bands still occupied some of their former French Period village locations. These are particularly noticeable in the eastern parts of Neshoba and western parts of Kemper Counties. However in the case of Neshoba and Kemper Counties there were more circa 1730 villages than circa 1836 bands (and the village populations were much greater compared to the bands.)

For the Sixtown Villages let's look at Figures 3 of the FIGURES that represent the French Period circa 1730 locations. The focus of the 1730 Sixtown villages was northern Jasper County extending east to northwestern Clarke County and west to southwestern Newton County. By the British period all of the northern Jasper County French Period Sixtown villages had moved north to southern Newton County as shown on Figure 4 . The move probably began after the Choctaw Civil War or 1750s (when French correspondences indicated more villages, see Mississippi Provincial Archives French Dominion Vol. 5) and remained through the British period where they were mapped by cartographers Bernard Romans and Joseph Purcell. In 1836 we find one band in northern Jasper County near the French period village location mentioned above. There are bands in eastern Newton County and east of Figure 4. What happened to these post 1750 Sixtown peoples? They moved south and southwest as noted by Henry Halbert, A.J. Brown and John R. Swanton, see Sources>Prominent Sources this website.

Outside of the historic "home" counties of the French Period villages, we found a number of circa 1836 Choctaw bands in Leake, Copiah and Simpson Counties along the Pearl River and its tributaries. We also noted a band in Rankin County directly across the Pearl River from Jackson and another in Madison County adjacent to the Pearl River. Further south we found bands in Lawrence County near the Pearl River, and in Jefferson Davis County where there were three bands located on tributaries of the Pearl River. On the Big Black River and its tributaries we noted bands in eastern Holmes, Attala, eastern Carroll, Choctaw and Montgomery Counties.

The Yazoo River and its tributaries were represented by bands in western Holmes, western Carroll, Leflore, Tallahatchie, and Yalobusha Counties. Apparently the cattle industry favored the major rivers.

The Choctaw bands located in Jackson, Hancock and Harrison Counties on the gulf coast are intriguing in that they are remote from the main body of bands to the north. These counties were all south of the 32 degrees 28 minutes parallel which the Choctaws ceded to the British in 1763. In other words, this land was long ceded by the Choctaw, and it was surprising to find bands so far south.

Two bands in Harrison County were north and west of the Biloxi Back Bay and another west southwest of Saucier on the headwaters of the Biloxi River. The three bands in Jackson County were located in Ocean Springs, west of the Pascagoula River and on the Escatawpa River adjacent to Alabama.

Do these coastal bands represent Choctaw who intermarried with descendants of the Biloxi, Pascagoula and Capinan peoples? Could these bands locate the early 18th century Biloxi, Pascagoula and Capinan villages?

Finally the blank map areas of Figure 1 deserve mention. The areas represent counties without Choctaw bands but may represent the locations of a few circa 1836 Choctaw peoples but no obvious bands. For instance, the northern part of Mississippi was Chickasaw territory. Despite this there were circa 1836 Choctaw living in Monroe, Clay and Calhoun Counties, while the remaining Chickasaw territory counties were not populated by circa 1836 Choctaw.

The southwestern corner of Mississippi represents several of the earliest counties of the Mississippi Territory beginning with Adams 1799, Jefferson 1799, Claiborne 1802, Wilkinson 1802, Amite 1809, Franklin 1809 and Warren 1809. These counties were mostly formed from the Choctaw/United States Treaty of Fort Adams 1801. Relatively easy access to these lands was afforded by the Mississippi River and its tributaries; access was also achieved by written permit required to cross the Creek people's territory until after the Creek War. Nevertheless, population exploded in these southwest counties by 1810. Both Warren and Claiborne Counties had a handful of Choctaw properties circa 1836 while the other southwest counties had one or none. With the population growth and subsequent sale and resale of lands the Choctaw who may have lived there . . . likely moved.

Likewise, the counties contiguous to the Mississippi River north of Warren County had a few Choctaw people circa 1836 though no groups or bands.

The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians has another, later dated database of Mississippi Choctaw bands which was compiled by the United States government about 1900. That information has been plotted on a map by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Generally, when compared to the Choctaw Bands circa 1836 shown on Figure 1, the Choctaw locations in 1900 appeared contracted towards the "home" counties, i.e. several bands were missing.

To conclude one has to consider that there were three emigrations from Mississippi to Oklahoma in 1831, 1832 and 1833. Figure 1 indicates those Choctaw bands or groups that stayed five years on their homestead per the terms of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. There were bands pointed out by Swanton, Halbert and Cushman that are not represented by Figure 1. Winston, Noxubee and Perry Counties come to mind, likely these bands moved to Oklahoma.

In my opinion the Methodist Episcopal records in the J. B. Cain collection at Millsaps College Archives, particularly the correspondences of circuit riders that witnessed the Gospel to the Choctaw, will shed more light on the pre-emigration Choctaw individual and band locations 1800-1830. At the very least what may be gleaned are individual Choctaw and band names, the names of their creeks and locations of paths that are not represented in the United States Original survey plats and notes.