Hargett, J. L.

In the early 19th century, Choctaw Indians occupied most of the area that is now Mississippi and western Alabama. In a series of treaties with the United States beginning in 1796, Choctaw leaders ceded various parcels of land. In 1820 in the Treaty of Doak's Stand, the Choctaw ceded five million acres of their land in Mississippi to the United States in exchange for 13 million acres in Indian Territory. When the Choctaw attempted to enter their new lands, however, they found white pioneers had already settled portions of them. In 1825, the Choctaw signed a treaty which returned to the United States all land lying to the east of the current Oklahoma-Arkansas line, in exchange for $6,000 a year for sixteen years and a permanent annuity of $6,320.

By the mid-1820s the Choctaw Indians were severely divided about how to deal with American expansion. In 1826 mixed-blood leaders David Folsom and Greenwood LeFlore cooperated in the creation of a new government, organized under the nation's first written constitution. In September 1830, a small group of Choctaw leaders signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, which provided that Choctaw Indians who agreed to remove from Mississippi would receive land in southeastern Indian Territory, would be paid for their cattle and other property left behind, and would be provided with transportation to their new homes. The treaty stipulated that Choctaw who chose to remain in Mississippi and agreed to become U.S. citizens would receive an allotment of land. Between 1831 and 1833 many Choctaw removed to their new territory, but those who remained behind found that their allotments were not honored. Many of these people were later forced to emigrate to Indian Territory between 1845 and 1847.

The Choctaw who moved to the Indian Territory wrote a new constitution in 1834 and re-established the tribal government. They pursued claims against the United States Government for cattle and land left behind in Mississippi, for money the United States received from the sale of Choctaw property in Mississippi, for the full number of acres in the Indian Territory guaranteed them by the Treaty, and for an end to the annuity system in favor of a lump sum disbursement by the federal government. In the years before the Civil War the Choctaw sent several delegations to Washington to pursue these goals. Principal delegates included Forbis LeFlore, Thomson McKenney, and Peter Pitchlynn. In 1853, LeFlore and McKenney obtained a $600,000 payment for claimants who had chosen to stay in Mississippi but had never received the allotments promised by the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. Later that year Peter Pitchlynn headed a delegation to recover from the United States Government the net proceeds from the sale of Mississippi lands the Choctaw had relinquished in moving to Oklahoma. A settlement was awarded in 1859, but payment was delayed when the Choctaw joined the Confederacy. Litigation on this matter continued for over thirty years.

The factionalism that had marked Choctaw politics since the 1820s persisted through the 1850s. In 1860, however, a new constitution that combined a central authority desired by "progressives" with decentralized features preferred by "traditionalists" reduced internal political tensions.