Land area
Land of the Choctaw in Alabama and Mississippi, ceded 1802 (area 46)
- 1802
Ceded to the United States
By Choctaw at Fort Confederation on the Tombigbee in Choctaw Country (1802)
In the record
Ceded by the Choctaw in 1802, their claim to land between the Chickasawhay and Tombigbee rivers, in Alabama and Mississippi. The area covers about 968 thousand acres in what is now Alabama and Mississippi.
The 1899 record names Choctaw as the people of this land.
How it was taken: a treaty or agreement. The OSU text states the convention was made 'freely, voluntarily, and without constraint', though the payment was one dollar and no independent account of the council is cited.
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
- Choctawas named in the 1899 recordsuggested
- Jena Band of Choctaw Indiansmatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
- Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indiansmatched by the Forest Service, under reviewsuggested
Located in 2
Agreements recorded for this land 1
Sources
- Royce, Indian Land Cessions (1899), Schedule entry dated 1802-10-17primary record
- Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, text for 1802-10-17primary 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
- 46
- Dates in the 1899 record
- 1802-10-17
- Kind of instrument
- Treaty or agreement
- Peoples as named in the 1899 record
- Choctaw
- States
- AL; MS
- Counties
- Clarke; Greene; Mobile; Washington; Wayne
- 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