The Choctaw intermarried the Scots-Irish. It may be within a Choctaw record that Ulster origins are found. The largest tribes are the Choctaw Nation: www.choctawnation.com and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians: www.choctaw.org
Tribal lands were the lower two-thirds of Mississippi and western Alabama. They were the first tribe to be selected by the US Government for removal. Their rights were defined in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek (1830), which also allowed many to stay.
Several books can be used for background, including Angie Debo, The Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic (1961); Arthur H. DeRosier, The Removal of the Choctaw Indians (1970); Clara Sue Kidwell and Charles Roberts, The Choctaws: A Critical Bibliography. (1980); Greg O’Brien’s Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750-1830 (2005) and his Pre-Removal Choctaw History (2008). For genealogy, Samuel J. Wells’ thesis “Choctaw Mixed-Bloods and the Advent of Removal” (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Southern Mississippi, August 1987) is a must.
Records are at the National Archives: www.archives.gov ; Oklahoma Historical Society: www.okhistory.org; and the Mississippi Department of Archives & History: http://mdah.state.ms.us Large collections from these archives are on microfilm at the Family History Library: www.familysearch.org
Three rolls (censuses) form the foundation of research: the Armstrong Roll (1830) made prior to removal; Choctaw Emigrants to the West (1831, 1832) made after removal; and the Cooper Roll (1855) for those who stayed.
Land cannot be separated from the Choctaw. The breaking up of the nation is detailed in Mary Elizabeth Young’s classic Redskins, Ruffleshirts and Rednecks: Indian Allotments in Alabama and Mississippi, 1830-1860 (1961). The American State Papers, Public Lands (Vol.7, 1834-1835) provide a list of those in the tribe and whites owning farms in the Choctaw Nation in 1830. Another source for land issues are the Choctaw Nation Records (1830-1890).
Today the Choctaw are the third largest tribe in the nation.
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