About Choctaw

Basic Facts

According to the World Atlas of Language Structures Online, Choctaw is part of the Muskogean language family in North America.  Other languages in this family include Chickasaw, Koasati, Creek, Seminole, Alabama, and Mikasuki.  Chickasaw is often mistaken for a dialect of Choctaw because the languages are so closely related.  However, they are not mutually intelligible, and Choctaw has no other dialects listed in the Ethnologue. According to the Endangered Languages Project, Choctaw is spoken in Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

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      A map of Oklahoma showing where various Native American languages, including Choctaw, are spoken.  By Neddy1234 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

      
      A map of the United States that shows the states in which Choctaw is most spoken in the home, according to the 2000 Census. CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

      
      

Choctaw is classified as [cho] under ISO 639-3, and uses the glottocode choc1276.  Its endonyms include Chahta, Chahta Anumpa, and the alternate spelling Chocta used by some community members in Oklahoma. 

History

According to the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the Choctaw lived in the southeastern United States during the 16th century, mainly in present-day Mississippi.  By the early 18th century, when more European settlers were beginning to find their way onto Choctaw lands, they had built a strong agricultural economy.  The Choctaw often traded crops and livestock with local tribes and with Europeans.  Their lands eventually covered a large portion of central Mississippi. 

Although the Choctaw were prosperous during this time, the British forced some of them to move west after they had helped the French in the French and Indian War.  This incident marked the beginning of forced relocation for the Choctaw.  Once the United States government was established and the country began expanding, the Choctaw were again pressured to give up some of their land.  The U.S. government was increasingly interested in acquiring Native American territory in order to support a growing nation.  In a series of treaties with the federal government between 1801 and 1830, the Choctaw ceded over 23 million acres. 

The issue was not just one of land, however.  The Choctaw had also been coerced into giving up their culture.  Early European settlers encouraged Native Americans to embrace white customs such as Christianity, individual property ownership, and English literacy. In the 19th century, boarding schools served as part of this continuing assimilation campaign.  Children from Native American tribes, including the Choctaw, would be sent to these schools to be "civilized".  They were forbidden from speaking their own languages, and were often given European-style names and haircuts.  The Choctaw believed that education was the best way to survive the changes brought about by white settlers. However, the boarding schools likely did more harm than good in the long run from a language preservation standpoint.  By forcing the younger generation to give up their language and culture, Europeans ensured that many of them would leave their former identities behind, thereby reducing the Choctaw speaker population. 

Settlers in the southeastern United States still wanted land regardless of how 'civilized' the Choctaw were, and the state governments did little to stop them from taking it by force, even passing laws that limited Native American rights and sovreignty.  The Supreme Court ruled that the states had no right to do this, but racism and genocide continued anyway.  In 1830, Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which allowed the federal government to exchange Native American land east of the Mississippi River for land in "Indian territory" in present-day Oklahoma.  While the law did not allow Native Americans to be forcibly removed from their lands, this part was generally ignored.  The U.S. Army threatened to invade Choctaw lands in the winter of 1831 if the Choctaw did not leave immediately.  They had to march to Indian territory on foot without food, supplies, or help from the government, resulting in thousands of deaths.  This journey became known as the Trail of Tears. 

Today, the Choctaw are the third-largest federally-recognized Native American tribe.  There are three main groups, with a few smaller ones scattered throughout the southeastern U.S.:  the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (Oklahoma), the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (Mississippi), and the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians (Louisiana).  Oklahoma, Texas, and California were the states with the largest population of people who identified as Choctaw in the 2010 Census.