Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People

CHOCTAW NATION
OF OKLAHOMA
The Choctaw are native to the Southeastern
United States and members of the Muskogean
linguistic family, which traces its roots to
a mound-building, maize-based society
that flourished in the Mississippi River
Valley for more than 1,000 years before
European contact.
Although their first encounter with
Europeans ended in a bloody battle with
Hernando de Soto’s fortune-hunting expedition
in 1540, the Choctaw would come to
embrace European traders who arrived in
their homeland nearly two centuries later. The
Choctaw became known as one of America’s
Five Civilized Tribes, which also includes the
Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole and Creek.
The Choctaw signed nine treaties with the
United States before the Civil War, beginning
with the Treaty of Hopewell in 1786, which
set boundaries and established universal
peace between the two nations. Subsequent
treaties, however, reshaped those borders and
forced the Choctaw to cede millions of acres
of land. In 1830 the United States seized the
last of the Choctaw’s ancestral territory and
relocated the Tribe to Indian Territory west
of the Mississippi. The Choctaw were the
first to walk the Trail of Tears. Nearly 2,500
members perished along the way. Despite
the many lives lost, the Choctaw remained a
hopeful and generous people. The first order
of business upon arriving in their new
homeland was to start a school and a church.
They drafted a new constitution.
Today, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is
the third largest Tribe in the world with over
200,000 members. Its service area is comprised
of ten and a half counties in southeastern
Oklahoma, divided into twelve districts, and
leaders are continuously working to make sure
there is hope for our future. As federal services
for our children are reduced, the Choctaw
Nation is securing funding and developing
specific programs to ensure the next generations
have hope and pride to carry on.
Many of the services and programs of
the Tribe, such as the Head Starts, education
scholarships, career development, health
clinics and job placement opportunities, go a
long way toward helping Tribal members meet
this vision. Such programs include academic
recognition, higher education assistance,
career development, emergency assistance, loan
programs for housing, and veteran’ advocacy.
The Tribe has been extremely blessed to
be successful in businesses such as gaming,
travel plazas and manufacturing. These
business profits pay for services that can be
offered to Tribal people all over the world.
Federal dollars assist in many programs,
but without the business revenues, there
would be many individuals left without help.
Left: Chief Gary Batton.
Right: Assistant Chief Jack Austin, Jr.
O K L A H O M A P A R T N E R S
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