Land area
Land of the Choctaw in Alabama and Mississippi, ceded 1830 (area 156)
- 1830
Ceded to the United States
In the record
Ceded by the Choctaw in the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, giving up all their land east of the Mississippi, in Alabama and Mississippi. The area covers about 11 million acres in what is now Alabama and Mississippi.
The 1899 record names Choctaw as the people of this land.
How it was taken: a removal treaty. The OSU treaty preamble cites Mississippi's extension of state law over the Choctaw, and the Encyclopedia of Alabama describes rejected terms, secret meetings and removal.
Today, Choctaw Nation, Jena Band of Choctaw Indians and Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians carry the history of the people named here.
Written from the records linked here; open any of them for its sources.
Shapes come from C. C. Royce’s 1899 maps as georeferenced by the US Forest Service. They are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land. Royce recorded land the United States treated as ceded; the shape does not show a nation’s territory.
Who is doing the work
This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:
Native legal and land defense, nationally
- Native American Rights Fund (NARF) Native-led Litigation and legal advocacy for tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, land and resources Give on their site Website
- NDN Collective (LANDBACK Campaign) Native-led LANDBACK campaign (launched 2020; Mount Rushmore closure and return of Black Hills public lands), Indigenous… Give on their site Website
- Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) Native-led Land recovery and control by tribes and individual Indian landowners Website
- Decolonizing Wealth Project (Indigenous Earth Fund; California Tribal Land Return) Native-led Reparative philanthropy Give on their site Website
Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.
Connections
Links marked “suggested” were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.
Nations named for this land 3, matched by the Forest Service, under review
- Choctawsuggested
- Jena Band of Choctaw Indianssuggested
- Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indianssuggested
Located in 2
Agreements recorded for this land 1
Sources
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1830-09-27primary record
- Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, text for 1830-09-27primary record
- Royce’s map sheet: Alabama (Library of Congress)primary record
- Royce’s map sheet: Mississippi (Library of Congress)primary record
- USDA Forest Service, Tribal Lands Ceded to the United States (digitized Royce maps)reference work
The record’s fields
- Area number in the 1899 record
- 156
- Dates in the 1899 record
- 1830-09-27
- Kind of instrument
- Treaty or agreement
- Peoples as named in the 1899 record
- Choctaw
- States
- AL; MS
- Counties
- Attala; Bolivar; Calhoun; Carroll; Choctaw; Clarke; Clay; Coahoma; Grenada; Holmes; Jasper; Kemper; Lauderdale; Leake; Leflore; Lowndes; Madison; Montgomery; Neshoba; Newton; Noxubee; Oktibbeha; Ouachita; Panola; Pickens; Scott; Smith; Sumter; Sunflower; Tallahatchie; Tunica; Webster; Winston; Yalobusha
- Map sheets in the 1899 record
- Alabama; Mississippi
- Geometry
- Approximate shape from Royce’s 1899 maps
Research notes
geometry_role is 'cession' for every USFS feature: no field in the source distinguishes cessions from reservations.
- Kind
- Land area
- Confidence
- Medium