Those Who Stayed Behind

                           "The  white people have no right

                        to take away the land from the Indians

                          Because they had it first it is theirs."

                                          Tecumseh ,1810

                           in council with Governor Harrison

Many people believe that the last removal of the Indians were in the late 1800's. This is not the case. The last Indians to be removed from their homelands were the Choctaw Indians of Mississippi. They were first removed in the winter of 1831, and the fall of 1832. The second removal occurred in 1903 when the state of Mississippi, under pressure from lawyers and real estate agents moved the majority of the remaining Choctaw to Indian territory (Present day Oklahoma).

The first removal of the Choctaw was very different from that of the Creeks and

Cherokees, because it was not a forced removal. The Choctaw Indians signed a treaty with the federal government to trade their land in Mississippi for land in Indian Territory The treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek signed in 1830, relinquished the last of the Choctaw lands in the East. The treaty did however give Choctaw families the right to stay in the East if they did not want to be removed

These families had to register with the Choctaw agency within six months in order to be eligible for land ownership. By 1833, only 69 heads of household  had been allowed to register for land. In the same year the federal government established that there was nearly 6000 Choctaws still living in Mississippi.

The majority of the Indians had become squatters on their own ancestral homelands. Even though these Choctaw were allowed to stay and register for land by the federal government, they were unable to obtain titles to these lands because the state did not recognize them as citizens.

In the early 1840's, Chief Nikaketchi hearing about the despair of his fellow Choctaws, returned to Mississippi to encourage them to Indian territory. After hearing the Chiefs address 5,720 of the remaining Choctaw migrated to  the west

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