MOWA Choctaw: "Extinction by Reclassification" (Washington and Mobile counties, Alabama, 1830–1999)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet provenDisputed: argued, often by a hostile witness
Year: 1830 · Places: Louisiana, Gulf Coast, Mexico, Africa
SUMMARYMOWA Choctaw: "Extinction by Reclassification" (Washington and Mobile counties, Alabama, 1830–1999) [Connections: Gulf, Louisiana, Texas & Mexico, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDHistorian Jacqueline Anderson Matte (Alabama Review 59:2, 2006, pp. 163–204) reports that agents gave the Choctaw chiefs Chish-a-homa and Eli-Tub-bee the surnames of landowners, and recorded them as "Free person of color," "Mulatto," "Mixed-blood," or "Colored." Renée Ann Cramer is quoted: "'Mulatto' was used for Indians, even those with no African ancestry." In the 1910 census, enumerator J. B. Cater first wrote "In[dian]," then changed it to "mixed," noting: "The prevailing habits are Indian." The 1830 Dancing Rabbit Creek treaty's Article 14 let only sixty-nine Choctaw family heads register to stay. Alabama recognized the band in 1979
DISPUTEDThe BIA denied federal recognition in 1997 and reaffirmed in 1999, saying "there was no evidence that established Choctaw or other Indian ancestry of 99 percent of the MOWA membership."
PATTERNCensus takers wrote Choctaw people as free colored or mulatto, then the federal government used that same paper trail to deny they were Choctaw
LENS (WW9)Renamed on the census, then told the rename proves they never were
OPENPull the 1910 Washington County sheet with Cater's note; check the BIA's handling of the "mulatto" entries
SOURCEMatte, "Extinction by Reclassification" (Access Genealogy); Indigenous Alabama bibliography; MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians (Wikipedia).