The Choctaw Nation |
According to illustrations drawn in 1777, the Choctaws tattooed their bodies and faces. They abandoned this practice as they were one of the earliest tribes to assimilate to the European culture (LOC). |
Mississippi River in exchange for land in Indian Territory and annuities (payment for improvements made on their original lands). This mass-migration of an entire people and culture did not happen overnight. In this 1833 map of the state of Mississippi, the Choctaws were still present in Mississippi, but their territory had been greatly reduced. In addition, they shared what was left of their territory with the Chickasaws, who by 1837 were considered as part of the Choctaw tribe (LOC). |
A map of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations in Indian Territory in 1866 lists a number of places that no longer exist, including Ultima Thule, the little town on the survey line between Arkansas and Indian Territory where the Choctaws first arrived to their new homelands. The term Ultima Thule means "beyond the borders of the known world." Click on the map to see it a bit larger (LOC). |
George Catlin depicted Choctaws playing a game that the French dubbed Lacrosse, which is now played all over the world and has become an Olympic sport. This game is a lasting legacy of traditional Choctaw culture (LOC). |
The Choctaws enlisted in American wars in record numbers, including this unknown man who enlisted as one of Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Spanish American War of 1898. Photographs like these were sold as war souveniers (LOC). |
Although most attention in U.S. history textbooks is paid to Navajo Code Talkers, the Choctaw language constituted one of the earliest uses of this ingenious form of coded communication, as the Choctaws enslisted in large numbers during the Great War. This unknown Choctaw soldier's photograph was taken at Fort Sill in 1918 (LOC). |