First in two-part series about the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians in Alabama.

The recent establishment of an electronic bingo hall and subsequent seizure of equipment on the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians Reservation near Mt. Vernon, Alabama, has garnered local, regional and national press headlines.

As an individual opposed to gaming due to the negative results I have seen as an Indian educator and counselor, this article is difficult in some respects for me to write. I am in no way involved with the tribe's decision making process and have had no contact with those who are involved.

Issues surrounding federal recognition, Indian law and tribal identity have become contentious subjects in the depiction of events. A brief history of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians is due to correct misleading information.

The question of federal recognition is one of the most debated subjects in Indian Country and one which has been applied without equity for generations. Countless academics, historians, and Indian leaders have published works in literary journals, tribal magazines and newspapers and book publications for years on the corrupt nature of the process and those who implement it. Today, there exist 567 federally-recognized tribes and 62 state recognized tribes, as well as other tribal communities who have no political recognition via federal or state designation.

The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians reside on one of only nine state-recognized Indian reservations in the United States. Of the nine oldest Indian reservations in the country, eight are occupied by historic “non-federally” recognized tribes. The concept that only federally-recognized tribes reside on Indian reservations (though many do not) is not only a misnomer, but is also one that portrays a fictitious historical account.

The Indian boarding school system, which for many generations began in the later part of the 1800s and continued until the 1980s, was run by both the federal Indian service, now known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and closely related missions. Thirteen historic “non-federal” tribes in the East and South attended these schools alongside their federally-recognized counterparts. Of these, only one “non-federal” tribe, the Euchee (Yuchi) of Oklahoma had more attendees than the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians.

Indian boarding school attendance began in the 1920s for MOWA Choctaw tribal members, who over the years have been sent to Bacone (Muskogee, Oklahoma), Haskell (Lawrence, Kansas), Choctaw Central (Mississippi Choctaw Reservation, Mississippi) and three other similar institutions across the country as they were denied admittance to local white and Black educational institutions prior to desegregation.

Local Indian schools run by the MOWA Choctaw were deemed unaccredited and therefore attendance at the Indian boarding schools was their sole tool in order to receive an accredited education. Tribal members as young as 13 were sent hundreds of miles from home in order to receive this form of tutelage. During the time of their attendance, these institutions required a minimum Indian blood degree of one-fourth for admittance.

The last completely fluent speaker of the Choctaw language within the community did not pass on until 1984. Indian language instruction in the community began in the local Indian schools in the 1960s and continues to this day. The linguistic reality of this is a powerful testimony to the cultural retention of the tribe.

Over the years over 20 federally-recognized tribes have intermarried with the MOWA Choctaw and they and their descendants reside on both reservation and privately held Choctaw lands in the communities of and surrounding Mt. Vernon, Citronelle, and McIntosh, Alabama. These tribes include the Navajo, Cherokee Nation, Kiowa, White Mountain Apache, and many others. Numerous MOWA Choctaw tribal members also reside in the state of Oklahoma due to their intermarriage with tribes located there.

The tribe currently holds resolutions/letters of support for their federal recognition from the National Congress of American Indians (the largest Indian organization in the United States), the NAACP National Council, federal tribes including the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, numerous individual federal Indian tribal council members, state politicians, historians, anthropologists, academics and other Indian organizational and tribal leaders.

This goes along with thousands of pages of documents attesting to the Indian heritage of the community to include Census, military, church, and educational records. The Weaver School (the predecessor of today’s Calcedeaver Elementary School) appears in the Library of Congress as an “Indian school, built by Indian labor." The school was established with federal funds by the federal government for the MOWA Choctaw community in 1835, five years after the removal of the majority of the Choctaw to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

The same surnames of attendees are present today within the contemporary MOWA Choctaw community.

Cedric Sunray (MOWA Choctaw) can be reached at helphaskell@hotmail.com.