Last week I was invited to speak to the Daughters of the American Revolution in Starkville about the 100th anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. That law granted U.S. citizenship to members of all federally recognized Native American nations.

Members of some nations had previously been granted citizenship but not all. Choctaws in Oklahoma had received citizenship in 1901.

Mississippi has a different story.

Native Americans were granted citizenship in Mississippi long before most other states or the U.S. granted it. Mushulatubbee, the chief of the Northeast District of the Choctaw Nation, ran for Congress in Mississippi in 1830. The news of his campaign spread across the country, and I have found almost 100 newspapers in which it appeared.

Typical was the account in the National Gazette and Literary Register of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its article dated July 3, 1830, stated:

“An Indian candidate for Congress – According to the laws of Mississippi, the Indians residing within the limits of that state are entitled to the full rights of citizenship. In consequence, Mushulatubba, an Indian Chief of the Choctaw nation, has been induced to offer himself as a candidate for Congress …”

Mushulatubbee lost the election but then others running for Congress in Mississippi that year included names very familiar to historians: Hinds, Claiborne and Sharkey.

The election of 1830 was held in the shadow of the Choctaw Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and the preparations for the removal of the Choctaw people from Mississippi. The next year would see the start of removal and the beginning of the first Trail of Tears. The northern branch of the Choctaw Trail of Tears began at the Hebron Mission, about nine miles north of present-day Starkville. The route which shows up on the original U.S. Survey maps from 1832 as the Indian Immigration Road passed through what is now the northwest corner of Starkville.

In 1832, Mushulatubbee, the faithful friend of the white settlers, left his homeland in the Indian removal after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. He traveled the Choctaw Trail of Tears across the Mississippi to a new home far from his beloved prairie village. He settled near the Choctaw Agency on the Arkansas River where he died of smallpox on Aug. 30, 1838.

Mushulatubbee’s obituary appeared in many national newspapers and always included language such as found in the National Intelligencer of Oct. 9, 1838. “He was an orator and warrior. His voice was often heard in council on behalf of the whites, and he led several parties of Choctaws against the enemies of the United States in the campaigns of Gen. Jackson.”

The Choctaws and Chickasaws who were forced from their homes had long been friends and allies of the American people. Choctaw chiefs Pushmataha and Mushulatubbee had led more than 800 Choctaw warriors in joining with Chickasaw warriors and Andrew Jackson to fight the Creek Indians during the Creek War. In 1815, Choctaw warriors again joined Jackson fighting the British at the Battle of New Orleans.

Who were the Choctaws in 1830? They were a civilized people and those living in what is now the Columbus-Starkville area (north of Tibbee Creek was the Chickasaw Nation) and were living lifestyles little different from that of the early Euro-American settlers. At that time, the Choctaws lived in log or frame houses, raised horses, cattle and hogs, farmed with extensive corn fields, and many of their children attended the school at the Mayhew Mission (on Tibbee Creek southwest of present day West Point). A few Choctaw children even attended Franklin Academy, the Columbus public school.

In addition, Choctaws (and Chickasaws) sold agricultural products and deer skins to merchants in Columbus and shopped in Columbus.

Artifacts found on several 1820s Choctaw house sites in our area include fragments of English dinnerware. Artifacts found on those Choctaw house sites are much the same as found on an 1820s house site in downtown Columbus. Many of the English china patterns found on Choctaw house sites are identical to the china patterns found on white house sites.

In 1822, Mr. Hooper, a missionary from the Mayhew Mission, was invited by Mushulatubbee to dine with him at his house, which was a two-story frame house. Mushulatubbee had two residences. One was at present Mushulaville and the other about five miles northeast of present-day Brooksville.

Hooper described the visit and meal.

“The king’s (chief’s) house has three apartments. In front is a piazza about 10 feet by 25. The piazza is floored with plank. On entering the room I was not a little surprised to see a table set in so much order. A neat linen was spread over the table, and on it was some of the fatted ox, well cooked. Also, sweet potatoes, corn bread, imported tea, and wild honey. The only thing that was Choctaw was a large native bowl of tomfullah (a corn mush), with two spoons made of the horns of a buffalo.”

At the time of removal the Choctaws were living basically like the American settlers in and around Columbus and there was friendly interaction between them the Choctaws and Americans. Many Choctaws did not want to leave and there was a provision in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek that could allow Choctaws who had farmsteads to remain but be under the laws of Mississippi. They would be granted reserves of land where they resided and had farms.

So much changed with removal and the Trail of Tears. Many people and most merchants in Columbus were opposed to Indian removal as they considered the Choctaws and Chickasaws to be both friends and good customers. However, the ever-increasing desire of American settlers and land speculators for more land created pressures that could not be stopped. The result was the Trail of Tears with its resulting suffering and death beyond description and the removal of a people who had contributed so much to America including being faithful allies in times of war and danger.

Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].