List of Choctaw chiefs

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Phillip Martin (1926–2010), Principal Chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians

List of Choctaw chiefs is a record of the political leaders who served the Choctaws in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma.

Original three divisions[]

Pushmataha

The eastern Choctaw Nation, in what is now Mississippi and Alabama, was divided into three regions: Okla Hannali, Okla Falaya, and Okla Tannip.

Okla Hannali (Six Towns)[]

  • Oklahoma or Tapenahomma (Nephew of Pushmataha)
  • General Hummingbird
  • Nitakechi
  • Sam Garland

Okla Falaya[]

  • Apukshunnubbee
  • Robert Cole
  • Greenwood Leflore

Okla Tannip[]

District Chiefs in the New Indian Territory[]

After removal, the Choctaws set up their government also divided up in three regions: Apukshunnubbee, Mushulatubbee, and Pushmataha. The regions were named after the three influential Choctaw leaders of the "old country."

Moshulatubbee District[]

Moshulatubbee (1770–ca. 1836)
  • Mushulatubbee, 1834–1836
  • Joseph Kincaid, 1836–1838
  • John McKinney, 1838–1842
  • Nathaniel Folsom, 1842–1846
  • Peter Folsom, 1846–1850
  • Cornelius McCurtain, 1850–1854
  • David McCoy, 1854–1857
  • Leon Blythe Cantrell, 1907-1963

Apukshunnubbee District[]

  • Thomas LeFlore, 1834-1838
  • James Fletcher, 1838-1842
  • Thomas LeFlore, 1842-1850
  • George W. Harkins, 1850–1857

Pushmataha District[]

  • Nitakechi, 1834-1838
  • Pierre Juzan, 1838-1841
  • Isaac Folsom, 1841-1846
  • Nitakechi, Died
  • Salas Fisher, 1846-1854
  • George Folsom, 1850-1854
  • Nicholas Cochnauer, 1854-1857

Unified leadership as governor[]

  • Alfred Wade, 1857-1858
  • Tandy Walker, 1858-1859
  • Brazil LeFlore, 1859-present

Principal Chiefs[]

Green McCurtain (1848–1910)
  • George Hudson, 1860-1862
  • Samuel Garland, 1862-1864
  • Peter Pitchlynn, 1864-1866
  • Allen Wright, 1866-1870
  • William Bryant, 1870-1874
  • Coleman Cole, 1874-1878
  • Isaac Garvin, 1878-1880
  • Jack McCurtain, 1880-1884
  • Edmund McCurtain, 1884-1886
  • Thompson McKinney, 1886-1888
  • Benjamin Franklin Smallwood, 1888-1890
  • Wilson Jones, 1890-1894
  • Jefferson Gardner, 1894-1896
  • Green McCurtain, 1896-1900
  • Gilbert Dukes, 1900-1902

The Choctaw Nation was temporarily discontinued in 1906 with the advent of Oklahoma statehood.

Choctaw Nation "token" government[]

Chiefs were appointed by the U.S. President after dissolution of the Choctaw nation.

  • Green McCurtain, 1902-1910, appointed by President
  • Victor Locke, Jr., 1910-1918, appointed by President Howard Taft
  • William F. Semple, 1918-1922, appointed by President Woodrow Wilson [1]
  • William H. Harrison, 1922-1929, appointed by President Warren G. Harding
  • Ben Dwight, 1930-1936, appointed by President Herbert Hoover
  • William Durant, 1937-1948, appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
  • Harry J. W. Belvin, 1959-1970, appointed by President (Choctaw were allowed to elect their delegate in 1948 and 1954 which the president confirmed.)

Current tribes[]

Indian termination policy was a policy that the United States Congress legislated in 1953 to assimilate the Native American communities with mainstream America. In 1959, the Choctaw Termination Act was passed.[2] Unless repealed by the federal government, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma would effectively be terminated as a sovereign nation as of August 25, 1970.[2]

After a long struggle for recognition, the Mississippi Choctaw received recognition in 1918. The Mississippi Choctaw soon received lands, educational benefits, and a long overdue health care system.

In 1945, lands in Neshoba County, Mississippi and the surrounding counties were set aside as a federal Indian reservation. There are eight communities of reservation land: Bogue Chitto, Bogue Homa, Conehatta, Crystal Ridge, Pearl River, Red Water, Tucker, and Standing Pine. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 allowed the Mississippi Choctaws to become re-organized on April 20, 1945 as the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

Oklahoma Choctaws[]

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma[]

Mississippi Choctaws[]

Pre-reorganization Era (Before 1945)[]

  • Wesley Johnson (Wesley Wakatubee), 1913-c. 1914 (Chief)
  • Ed Willis
  • Pat Chitto
  • Joe Chitto

Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (1945-Present)[]

Louisiana Choctaws[]

Jena Band of Choctaw Indians[]

  • Christina M. Norris, present[4]

Notes[]

  1. ^ "Chiefs | Choctaw Nation".
  2. ^ a b "U.S. House of Representatives Resolution 108, 83rd Congress, 1953. (U.S. Statutes at Large, 67: B132.)". Digital History. Archived from the original on 2007-06-08. Retrieved 2008-05-02.
  3. ^ Meyers, Debbie Burt. "Anderson unseats Denson." The Neshoba Democrat. 7 Sept 2011 (retrieved 24 Sept 2011)
  4. ^ "Tribal Governments by Area: Southeast." Archived 2010-09-26 at the Wayback Machine National Congress of American Indians. (retrieved 7 Sept 2010)

External links[]

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