Federal Acknowledgement and Recognition by All Three Branches of the United States Federal Government
The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians have been acknowledged as follows:
Contents
- Federal Acknowledgement and Recognition by All Three Branches of the United States Federal Government
- The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians Exclusive Jurisdiction
- History
- Organization
- Ethnic identity
- References
International Recognition:
1. England in the Proclamation of 1763 2. The Continental Congress in the Treaty of Hopewell of 1785 (7 Stat. 18) and 1786 (7 Stat. 24) 3. The United States Colonies in the Treaty of Paris in 1782 and 1783 4. France in the Louisiana Purchase in the Treaty of Paris in 1803 5. Spain in the Florida Purchase as Indian Title as Spanish Land Grants in the Treaty of Madrid in 1819 and the Transatlantic Treaty of 1821United States Federal Recognition:
1. The Treaty of Hopewell in 1785 (7 Stat. 18) and 1786 (7 Stat. 24) 2. The Treaty of Doak's Stand in 1820 (7 Stat. 210) 3. The Treaty of Washington in 1825 (7 Stat. 234) 4. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830 (7 Stat. 333) 5. The Non-Intercourse Act of 1834 (25 U.S.C 177) 6. The Treaty of Washington in 1866 (14 Stat. 799) 7. The United States 14th Amendment 8. The Reaffirmation of all United States Indian Treaties in 1871 (25 U.S.C. 71) 9. The United States Federal Court of Claims Decision in Choctaw Nation v. United States in 1883 10. The United States Supreme Court Decision in Choctaw Nation v. United States 119 U.S. 1 (1886) 11. The Signed Letter by the Assistant Secretary of Interior Reporting that the Choctaws of Alabama were denied registration in Compliance with the Dawes Commission Final Rolls in 1907 12. The Choctaw Council of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana Choctaw led by the Mobile and Washington County Chief Wesley Johnson in 1914 before Congress at Washington, D.C. 13. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 14. The Housing Act of 1937 15. The Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 16. The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 17. The American Indian Policy Review Commission Final Report on May 17, 1977 18. The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 19. The Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act of 1996 20. The Signed Letter from the Office of the Secretary of Interior issuing the MOWA Choctaw Indian Police its own Federal Bureau of Investigations ORI Number 21. The United States 25 U.S.C. 19 reaffirming the applicability of the Non-Intercourse Act of 1834 (25 U.S.C 177) 22. The 11th Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Taylor v. Alabama Inter-Tribal Council Decision that Inherent Tribal Immunity protects Chief Framon Weaver 23. The United States Congress Federal Acknowledgement by Federal Stature of the Entire Choctaw Nation under 25 U.S.C. 1779 in 2002 24. The Supreme Court of the United States held that tribal sovereign immunity provided for lack of jurisdiction by the Supreme Court over the Alabama Inter-Tribal Council while acting as an "arm of the Tribe" in the Taylor decision in the Supreme Court of 2002 25. The United States Federal Department of Labor reaffirmed the decisions of both Federal Courts further acknowledging the Tribal Sovereign Immunity of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians. The State of Alabama: FCC Callsign WQHY538 (MOWA CHACTAW INDIAN POLICE)- State of Alabama / Code of Alabama 1. The Act of 1832 in which the State of Alabama extended its own jurisdiction over the Creek and Cherokee Nations of Indians but specifically not the Choctaw Nation of Indians. 2. The Alabama Supreme Court in 8 Ala. 48 in 1844 and 11 Ala. 826, 839-840 in 1847, whereby the Supreme Court of the State of Alabama affirmed that the Choctaw Indians are by law permitted to live under their own laws, customs, and usages so long as they maintain their own distinct communities within the State of Alabama. 3. The Governor of Alabama recognized the Sovereignty of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians on January 4, 1994 at the MOWA Choctaw Indian Reservation as recorded in the Mobile Press-Register Newspaper of Mobile, Alabama. 4. The State of Alabama has repeatedly passed laws formally recognizing the heritage of the Alabama Choctaws, the tribe itself, the sovereignty of the tribe, the reservation that is held in trust by the tribe, the tribal police's jurisdiction and authority, etc.The Choctaw Nation of Indians which were originally discovered and labeled on the maps in Louisiana Territory of France in 1732 (the Cresnay Map of 1732) was physically located in Mobile County at or about what is called 27 Mile Bluff or Chastang's Bluff in Mobile County and immediately below Ward's Bluff or what was known as Florida, the Natchez, the Town of Mobile, Fort Stoddard/Stoddart/Stoddert and now Mount Vernon, Alabama. The St. Stephens Road which was named St. Stephens Road or Highway 96 and now Coy Smith Highway is where the Weaver School of 1835 is reported by the Smithsonian Institution.
The Choctaw Indians of Mobile and Washington County have been recognized by the United States by Treaties with England, France, and Spain, as well as various Treaties between the years of 1786 to 1866 in which the Choctaw Nation is consistently located in what is now the State of Alabama along the Tombigby/Tombigbee River and in the Eastern Natchez District. Various state sponsored historical societies sought to "stretch the map" and move the Chickasaw and Choctaw further West to the present day Mississippi River and as far North as the Tennessee River despite the fact that references to the old Natchez can be found in the old version of the Mississippi Territorial Acts and the Mississippi Territorial Congress had to wrangle with how to move Tennessee further north beyond the 35th degree north latitude while leaving Memphis outside of the State of Tennessee in the bargain. The old Memphis in Alabama is now a ghost town and the old Clarkesville is now a memory as well.
The United States Congress recognized the entire Choctaw Nation as named in the Treaties of 1786–1866 in §25 U.S.C. 1779 in 2002, formally recognizing the Alabama Choctaw, who are specifically named as such in the Choctaw Treaty of 1866, under Article 13, and more closely to the Mobile and Washington County Band of Choctaw Indians in the Choctaw Treaty of Washington in 1825 when Washington was located in what is today Washington County Alabama where the Tombigby/Tombigbee is also specifically named. The federal stature §25 U.S.C 19 is the application of the Non-Intercourse Act of 1834 §25 U.S.C. 177 (updated in 2006) which allowed for the Choctaw Nation to assert its Treaty Rights over a land dispute involving the border of Oklahoma and Arkansas along the Red River.
The Choctaw Indians of Mobile and Washington County were acknowledged under the §25 U.S.C. 450 et al. or Public Law 93-638 which is known as the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 in which the American Indian Policy Review Commission was created and on May 17, 1977 completed its final report to the Congress of the United States Committee of Indian Affairs and listed the Choctaw Indians in Volume I on page 468 as a "nonfederal recognized tribe" which was one of the more than 100 tribes which the Commission recommended to be "federally acknowledged" as soon as possible or as soon as a government to government relationship could be re-established with each of these tribes.
It was in 1993, that the Supreme Court of South Dakota would hold that the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians are a "Federally Recognized Tribe for the purposes of the Indian Child Welfare Act" of 1978, which many erroneously believe is limited only to those tribes eligible for services under the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It is the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians whose case stands as the precedent for the basis that every Indian Child who is even remotely considered an Indian must now be given full consideration else the child and the Indian tribe might be foreclosed of its Civil Rights as Indians, whom are a protected class under the law. The fact is that the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 does not mention what is termed as "federal recognition" at all, instead the first mandate of the act is that the Congress has the plenary power over Indians, their children, and Indian Affairs. The next sections define Indian, Indian Tribe, and reservation which the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians met all terms, definitions, and conditions under federal law. Oddly it must be remembered that there is but one United States Federal Government, and only one.
The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 - MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians Exclusive Jurisdiction
The policy of ICWA was based on the following congressional findings: Recognizing the special relationship between the United States and the Indian tribes and their members and the Federal responsibility to Indian people, the Congress finds —
that Clause 3, section 8, article I of the United States Constitution provides that "The Congress shall have Power . . . To regulate Commerce . . . with Indian tribes" and, through this and other constitutional authority, Congress has plenary power over Indian affairs;
that Congress, through statutes, treaties, and the general course of dealing with Indian tribes, has assumed the responsibility for the protection and preservation of Indian tribes and their resources;
that there is no resource that is more vital to the continued existence and integrity of Indian tribes than their children and that the United States has a direct interest, as trustee, in protecting Indian children who are members of or are eligible for membership in an Indian tribe;
that an alarmingly high percentage of Indian families are broken up by the removal, often unwarranted, of their children from them by non-tribal public and private agencies and that an alarmingly high percentage of such children are placed in non- Indian foster and adoptive homes and institutions; and
that the States, exercising their recognized jurisdiction over Indian child custody proceedings through administrative and judicial bodies, have often failed to recognize the essential tribal relations of Indian people and the cultural and social standards prevailing in Indian communities and families. 25 U.S.C. 1901 (1988).
Barbara Ann Atwood, Fighting Over Indian Children: The Uses and Abuses of Jurisdictional Ambiguity, 36 UCLA L. REV. 1051, 1058 (1989); citing to 1902. Section 1902 states: The Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of this Nation to protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families by the establishment of minimum Federal standards for the removal of Indian children from their families and the placement of such children in foster or adoptive homes which will reflect the unique values of Indian culture, and by providing for assistance to Indian tribes in the operation of child and family service programs.
H.R. REP. NO. 1386, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. 9, reprinted in 1978 U.S. CONG. & ADMIN. NEWS 7530, 7531.
25 U.S.C. 1911 (a) provides: An Indian tribe shall have jurisdiction exclusive as to any State over any child custody proceeding involving an Indian child who resides or is domiciled within the reservation of such tribe, except where such jurisdiction is otherwise vested in the State by existing Federal law. Where an Indian child is a ward of a tribal court, the Indian tribe shall retain exclusive jurisdiction, notwithstanding the residence or domicile of the child. Section 1911(b) provides: In any State court proceeding for the foster care placement of, or termination of parental rights to, an Indian child not domiciled or residing within the reservation of the Indian child’s tribe, the court, in the absence of good cause to the contrary, shall transfer such proceeding to the jurisdiction of the tribe, absent objection by either parent, upon the petition of either parent of the Indian custodian or the Indian child’s tribe: Provided, That such transfer shall be subject to declination by the tribal court of such tribe.
Section 1903(8) states: "Indian tribe" means any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community of Indians recognized as eligible for the services provided to Indians by the Secretary because of their status as Indians, including any Alaska Native village as defined in section 1602(c) of Title 43.
It was in 2002, that the Supreme Court of the United States itself would hold that the "threshold" case which has been used by other tribes and even the Department of Justice itself for the determination of jurisdiction in State and Federal Courts was built on the actions of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians' own Chief Framon Weaver whose act of discrimination against a minority black female while he was the director of the Alabama Inter-Tribal Council is now the precedent for the determination of a given tribe's Inherent Tribal Sovereign Immunity over its own members, children, domestic relations, territory, intramural affairs, and self-governance is a testament to the Federal Recognition applied to the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians, itself.
The same Federal Courts decisions were challenged and re-affirmed by the United States Federal Department of Labor Office of Inspector General in 2004 from the Office of Auditor, the Alabama Inter-Tribal Council acting as an arm of the tribes, which include the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians are "federally acknowledged, recognized, and confirmed" to possess inherent tribal sovereign immunity and are immune from suit in cases involving members, domestic relations, territory, intramural matters, and domestic relations.
The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians who have a "Federally Recognized and Federally Funded" Indian Housing Authority and Tribal Designated Housing Entity on their federally protected trust which is called the MOWA Choctaw Indian Reservation which exists in both Mobile and Washington Counties along the border of the Counties is held by the United States Federal Government to be subject to protection against alienation so long as the tribe maintains its own tribal government under federal law.
In 1994, the State of Alabama enacted two laws to the Code of Alabama of 1975 to fully recognize that the Choctaws of Mobile and Washington Counties are the historic Choctaws of those treaties mentioned in 25 U.S.C. 1779 under Alabama §1994-123 and further under §1994-44 which states that "All Federal and State Acts and Judicial Decisions Pertaining to All Choctaw within the Entire State of Alabama are Re-Affirmed and FURTHER that All State Counties and Agencies are Bound by these Federal and State Acts and Judicial Decisions within the Entire State of Alabama".
The Choctaw Indians of Mobile and Washington County Alabama are held be protected by Tribal Sovereign Immunity by the United States Supreme Court and reside on a reservation held in trust by the United States Government.
The Tribe is eligible for special programs and services made available by the Secretary of Interior to Indians because they are Indians as noticed by the public signage provided for by the National Park Service under the Department of Interior.
The tribe's reservation trust lands are held by the United States Government to be subject to protection against alienation as long as the tribe maintains a tribal government. Lands taken into trust under the Indian Reorganization Act are Indian Country. The Probate Office of the Mobile County Revenue Commissioner's Office.
The tribe has not waived its sovereign rights over its members and children as per 25 U.S.C. 231 and the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978.
The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians as a member of the Alabama Intertribal Council were deemed Sovereign over their members, intramural matters, and self-governance when the MOWA Choctaw Chief who was acting as the Director of the Alabama Intertribal Council committed an act of employment discrimination by hiring an Indian male who was less qualified and experienced in favor of black minority female for a role at the Alabama Intertribal Council, which is composed only of Indian Chiefs who are not administratively acknowledged by the Bureau of Indian Affairs but however are fully acknowledged and recognized as possessing Inherent Tribal Sovereignty as Indians because they are Indians.
The Taylor v. Alabama Intertribal Case is a major precedent for all Tribes who enter into Court on the basis of defining and defending Tribal Sovereign Immunity. It has been used successfully to defend the neighboring Alabama Poarch Creek Inc. Gaming Commission and that tribes interests in at least one other case. Other tribes have seen fit to use Taylor v. Alabama Intertribal Council Title IV J. T. P. A., 535 U.S. 1066 (2002)in instances where a lack of jurisdiction due the Doctrine of Sovereign Immunity is to be applied to various cases in which a clear precedent of tribal sovereign immunity can be utilized to realize tribal sovereignty.
Strangely the United States Southern Federal District Court in Alabama failed to agree with the 11th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in the Alabama v. Choctaw Entertainment Center suit in which the same Chief Framon Weaver, the poster-child of Sovereign Immunity was found to not possess Sovereign Immunity by the Federal District Court, despite the higher level rulings from the 11th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court, and the United States Federal Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Audit, who also reviewed the case involving the employment discrimination brought against Chief Framon Weaver.
This may be the first time in history, that a lower Federal Court has reversed the decision of a Federal Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
The Federal District Court also determined that the MOWA Choctaw Indian Reservation which is held as a United States Government Trust and duly noted on the deed and in the Code of Alabama 36-21-120 et seq and in 27-7-1 et seq. both from the Code of Alabama (1975), as amended; is not a federal trust at all but actually within the State of Alabama's Jurisdiction instead.
The Office of the Secretary of Interior has issued the MOWA Choctaw Indian Police a Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs ORI number from its own office in compliance with NCIS to the Indians of the Indian Tribe on the Indian Reservation which is held in a United States Government Trust for the MOWA Choctaw Housing Authority which is an Indian Housing Authority and a Tribal Designated Housing Entity which serves the Choctaw Indians because they are Indians.
The Congress of the United States of America under the Committee of Indian Affairs created the American Indian Policy Review Commission and on May 19, 1977, this commission issued its definitive references for nonfederal recognized tribes which were due to be federally acknowledged and recognized at the earliest possible time in order that the U.S. Congress and Government might establish a government to government relationship with each of these tribes deemed sovereign in their various communities throughout the United States.
The Choctaw Indians of Mobile and Washington County are listed as the second tribe on the list on page 468 of Volume I of II of that Final Report by the American Indian Policy Review Commission Final Report on May 19, 1977. Congress using its plenary and exclusive powers over the entire field of Indian Affairs which are derived under the Constitution of the United States under Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 and the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 (25 U.S.C. 450 et seq. and Public Law 93-638) as a special program and service of the Secretary of Interior paid for this report with public funding.
The entire Choctaw Nation was finally acknowledged by Congress under 25 U.S.C. 1779 in 2002 to be "Federally Recognized" due to the historical Treaties entered into between the years of 1786 and 1866, which several of the Treaties specifically mention the Eastern Natchez District (Natchez was renamed to the Town of Mobile in a Mississippi Territorial Act in 1814 prior to the establishment of the Mississippi Territory near the Mobile and Tombigbee Rivers). The Treaties specifically mention the Eastern Natchez District, the Tombigby(ee)Choctaw Communities in the Treaty of 1825, and the Alabama Choctaw in the 1866 Treaty under Article 13.
The present day roll of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma was created in the early 1900s, however, the Creek Indian Agent in Southwest Alabama and Northeast Florida reported to the Assistant Secretary of Interior that he was threatened with to be imprisoned along with any Indians of the Choctaw, Cherokee or Creek Nations that he might register in a U.S. Prison by a Mr. Hudson.
The Alabama Choctaw led the Choctaw Council of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana under Chief Wesley Johnson from the Choctaw Indians of Mobile and Washington Counties in 1912–1913 before the Congress of the United States to contest the findings of the Dawes Commission which would later be determined to have been fraudulent of the worst variety. See Choctaw Citizenship Litigation.
The Choctaws of Mobile and Washington County are for some inexplicable reason still being attacked to this day as seen by the decisions of the Federal Magistrate and Federal Judge's remarks in the Alabama v. Choctaw Entertainment Center et al. attempt to remove to federal jurisdiction. The magistrates and judge curved the issue of Sovereign Immunity by not addressing it and reporting that the U.S. Government Trust that the certified Class II electronic bingo machines were taken from those same lands held in a federal trust on the MOWA Choctaw Indian Reservation were not, despite the fact that each entrance to the MOWA Choctaw Indian Reservation was duly noticed by the Federal Highway Administration at the time of the seizure.
The Choctaws Indians of Mobile and Washington County are but a mere State Line distance from the Mississippi Choctaw Indians from United States v. John 434 U.S. 637 (1979) when the Supreme Court held that remnants of the Choctaw Nation are still within the Federal Power to deal with them.
It was on January 11, 1994 that the Governor of the State of Alabama declared that the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians to be sovereign and was recorded by what is today the Mobile Press Register and it was in 1981, that the Attorney General of Alabama opined that the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians were eligible for federal programs and services and later opinions would produce opinions that the tribe was not subject to ad valorem taxes due to being Indians with lands held by the United States Government to be subject to protection against alienation so long as the tribe maintained its own government.
The Mobile and Washington Band of Choctaw Indians are one of the first tribes believed to have been encountered by the Spaniards as early as 1540, then referred to as the Chicasa (Chickasaw), Chactaw (Choctaw), and Abeneki (Lost Tribe) Tribes – the names would change repeatedly and multiple times over the course of about 500 years of history as repeated and continuous attempts to defraud "The Nation" of their life, liberty, and property and inalienable RIGHT OF POSSESSION, USE, AND OCCUPANCY to their historic country.
William Charles Cole Claiborne was the Governor of the Mississippi Territory in the City of Washington (present day Alabama) and sent his letters to President Thomas Jefferson, of the United States, who resided in the Mississippi Territory in Washington City, in or about the vicinity of Mobile and Washington County, Alabama, he was Governor of the Mississippi Territory and the President Thomas Jefferson was the President of the United States of America and the Choctaw Nation was precisely where the Choctaw Indians of Mobile and Washington County, Alabama reside today in Mobile and Washington Counties in Alabama. See pages 445–447.
In 1814, Natchez was renamed to Mobile as enacted by law in the Mississippi Territory, and now that this fact of history, law, and culture is revealed, its revelation is the foundation which destroys the basis of the history of the United States. The entire United States History was based on the premise of certain cornerstones, all of which deprived MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians of their Native American Heritage, their culture, history, ethnicity, and even their own family members have been found to have been appropriated to other locations and states.
Citations are forthcoming. The rich and colorful history of the Choctaw Indians of Mobile and Washington Counties known as the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians is long overdue. History demands to know the truth of how and why their culture, traditions, and even family were ripped apart from their neighborhoods to become the stuff folktales, legends, and lore were made of and re-appropriated to other States of the Union.
The Mobile and Washington Band of Choctaw Indians are mentioned by Bienville when he founded the towns of Mobile, Louisiana, Biloxi, and Natchez at or about location of the present day Alabama Power Plant and DuPont Chemical Plants on Highway 43 in Mobile County, Alabama.
Over a period of a few years in some cases to several decades in others the names of the towns, rivers, and lakes would change with the towns and cities themselves.
The American State Papers were undertaken by a firm called Gayles and Seaton. The Niles Register by Hezekiah Niles, and the multitude of newspapers seemingly established over night only to disappear as quickly as they were published all have something in common, that is an author. A clerk of clerks, the very own quill that proved the pen was indeed mightier than the sword, and so it was.
This was quite an author and this author changed history and along with it the fate of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians, whose own history is as rich and is as ancient as the land they still main their Sovereign Rights of Possession, Use, and Occupancy to this very day.
The Mobile and Washington County Choctaw Indians are direct descendants of the tribes shown on the Plan Figure Des Villages Chikachas (Chickasaw) Attaque Par Les Francois Le Vingt Six May in 1736 (Map of the Villages of the Chickasaw attacked by the French on May 26, 1736).
The MOWA Choctaw Task Force, Choctaw Citizens of the Choctaw Nation as guaranteed under Article 14 of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of September 27, 1830, ratified February 24, 1831 (7 Stat. 333)), found this map while researching the origins of the Choctaw and with its discovery that now serves as tangible evidence that Mobile was in the vicinity or actually was the original Natchez District during the attack on Ft. Rosalie which has been held before now to have occurred on the Mississippi River and where Natchez was moved to after the Louisiana Purchase in what is believed to have been some sort of subterfuge to help legalize the Louisiana Purchase in the Treaty of Paris in 1803 by the United States and France. However, this ultimately led to the West Florida Controversy and then history started to change to that which is known today.
This left the Choctaw Indians in Alabama without a history and it seems that each and every historian has had a part in the matter of trying to move the history of the Mobile/Louisiana on the present day Mobile River to the Mississippi River. This has been done successfully until now.
As of September 30, 2016, the history of the Choctaw Nation which includes that of the other Indian Tribes and Nations shall be revealed. This history includes many pieces which will help historians better understand why certain events took place in the time frame given – versus the accepted version whereby historical figures somehow traverse hundreds of miles through swamps and desolate country without the benefit of a road, a motor boat, or most any other means available today. These same historical figures are somehow also accepted to have made provisions for huge armies of hundreds or even thousands of cavalry, horses, and munitions and yet rarely if ever make consideration for the baggage trains allowed for by the Roman Legions of antiquity.
The true history of the Creek War and its nature will also be unveiled here. That is the parts that may or may not be true. This includes the Secretary of War's report of General Andrew Jackson's account of the Creek War and his activities which do not quite measure up to those reported in the various works called "The Life of Jackson" by various authors.
The American State Papers – will be used to describe most of the events and some of the characters from the Creek War in 1813–1815, however, the fact that most of these events appear to have transpired as early as the 1790s will also be revealed as well. The fact that some or all of the writers who wrote about the Creek War during the immediate times of the Creek War or afterwards will be addressed as well.
However, this does not bode well for neighboring tribes in South Alabama in particular, since it would seem that some tribes may be adversely affected by these revelations of documented history, that is documented by no less than the American State Papers and other official documents that are irrefutable.
The fact is that even the supposed history of William Weatherford, called the Red Eagle by Eggleston and A. B. Meeks, will be addressed and his own marriage, his wife (not wives), his pension from the United States for his services in what was called the Mexican Campaign, and no tale of William Weatherford would be complete without the mention of the historic Weatherford vs. Weatherford in 1848.
There are more issues at stake. The primary premises behind these findings will be the various Treaties entered into by the United States of America with various nations and Indian Tribes, the American State Papers as opposed to local authors, as definitive sources where possible, and various State and Federal Court Cases that are applicable to the present day MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians, who were called "Lost In Their Own Land".
The fact is lost is not the correct word but there are other words that Congressional Committees on Indian Affairs and the Supreme Court chose to use that are more befitting and they shall be presented piece by piece, word for word, phrase for phrase, and fraud per fraud committed upon the Choctaw Citizens then and now.
It turns out the Alabama Choctaw are historically recognized and have been federally recognized by the United States, France, Spain, the Continental Congress, States and Territories since Europeans first visited this continent. Each opportunity for historical and official recognition of the Alabama Choctaw and Chickasaw will be presented in its entirety.
Federal Recognition is not a pre-requisite to accord a tribe sovereign immunity according to. In Bottomly the United States Supreme Court held the availability of sovereign immunity is not conditioned on formal federal recognition of a particular tribe. Therefore, a tribe, its chief, or its tribal officials need not prove that it has been federally recognized nor to assert its immunity from suit for acts done in its official capacity.
The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians are an Indian Tribe which is federally funded and fully recognized by the Congress of the United States, each Executive Department of the United States, and the Supreme Court of the United States and finally the State of Alabama by Legislative Act, the Alabama Supreme Court, and the Executive Branch of the Alabama State Government. The Choctaw Indians of Mobile and Washington Counties, Alabama are formally recognized by the Congress of the United States via the House of Representatives Committee on Indian Affairs Native American tribe located in southern Alabama, primarily in Washington and Mobile counties. The MOWA Choctaw Reservation is located along the banks of the Mobile and Tombigbee Rivers, on 300 acres (1.2 km²) near the small southwestern Alabama communities of McIntosh, Mount Vernon, Calvert and Citronelle, and north of Mobile. In addition to those members who reside on the MOWA Choctaw Indian Reservation, which is said to be held by the United States to be subject to protection against alienation, about 10,600 tribal citizens live in 10 small settlements near the reservation community. They are led by an elected Tribal Council and an elected Chief. They descend from the Choctaw Nation and other Native Americans of Mississippi and Alabama, who avoided Indian Removal to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma at the time of the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.
The Choctaw Indians of Alabama (Mobile and Washington Counties) have been recognized Federally and Internationally as follows:
History
This area of frontier Alabama had been inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous cultures. The Mississippian culture is believed to have been ancestral to the historical tribes of the Muskogean-speaking Choctaw and later the Creek, when the entire State of Alabama was dominated by the Choctaw Indians in historic times.
The first European settlers in Mobile and southern Alabama in the 18th century were Roman Catholic French and later Spanish. The area was governed by nationals of these two countries before the British took it over. English and Scots traders arrived before the American Revolutionary War and were followed by settlers arriving in the early 19th century. During the American Revolution, the Galvez conquered Mobile in 1780 and Pensacola in 1781 took control of Mobile/Pensacola from the capital of Louisiana at Orleans only a few miles down river from the present day site of the Alabama Power Plant and the DuPont Power Plant are located on State of Alabama Highway 43 today. Galvez was surrendered the city of Mobile and welcomed by various prominent citizens and Zenon Orso was amongst them. Zenon Orso is a progenitor of many of today's Choctaw Indians of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians. Although Zeno(n) Orso is recorded to be from New Orleans it is often forgotten that the capital of the Louisiana Territory under the French was at present-day Axis or Bucks Alabama where the Alabama Power Plant is located today. This is even more notable that this same property was deeded from the Jazun(called Juhan) in the deed to the DuPont family who own a nearby Chemical Plant within a mile of the Alabama Power Plant. The Natchez Indians referred to the area as the Juzlin's Nigra or Walnut Hills. The Juzan family still owns property nearby as well, one of the ancient Nova Scotia Acadian Families who settled here and became known as Cajuns - Louisiana Cajuns. In fact, many of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians are also descendants of the Nova Scotia Acadians who were relocated to this very same Natchez Country as it was known by then, including prominent families like that of John Andry(Andre/Andrews) who still has a road in the area, the Lofton's (called Lofton/Loftin/Loftus's Heights in Mississippi along that river), however, ancient land deeds of Mobile will reveal that Lofton's Road is almost directly across from the Alabama Power Plant and about 4 miles up the road and across the Mobile River one will find an Island which also once belonged to the Lofton/Loftis families, the Krepes, and the Mims (as in the Fort Mims Massacre of August 30, 1813), etc.
The frauds committed against the Choctaw Indians of Mobile and Washington Counties of Alabama, the Mississippi Choctaw, and the Choctaw of Louisiana are both incredible and famous, but there is a reference for any who need to know more about this atrocity of how one larger tribe or at least two tribes would spare little expense to deprive the Choctaw Nation of the East from their own Native American Birthright. The Choctaw Commission of the Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana would eventually be recognized Federally in 1945 largely by the efforts of an Alabama Choctaw named Wesley Johnson who was the first Chief of the Choctaw Nation East of the Mississippi River since the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830, however, the Mississippi Choctaw would quietly remove the Alabama and the Louisiana Choctaw from their own rolls in order to obtain a larger settlement of land and cash from the Indian Claims Commission. The same Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians who were denied by the Choctaw Nation of the West (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma as of 1975) and fought by the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations of Oklahoma rather that be required to pay any claims due the Choctaw Nation of the East in accordance with the 1881 United States Court of Claims Decision and the United States Supreme Court decisions in Choctaw Nation vs. United States now sought to actively deny the other remnants of the Choctaw Nation of the East of the Mississippi River.
The Choctaw Indians of Alabama some of whom, but not all are known at the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians is composed of Choctaw who refused removal to the Indian Territory in 1830. By their treaty, they were allowed to stay as state (and US) residents and retain their Sovereignty as Choctaw Citizens but if they should ever remove to take a 640-acre reservation in Oklahoma, then they would never be allowed to take part of the financial incentive. The Treaty of (D)Oaks Stand in 1820 traded the lands East of the Tombigbee River in the OLD Choctaw lands called the "OLD FIELDS" for the State of Oklahoma and was later attempted to be corrected in the Treaty of 1825 when 5 million acres were taken from the Choctaw Nation from the lands ceded by the United States to the Choctaw Nation. The Treaty of 1820 was Treaty which conveyed or ceded the lands West of the Mississippi to the Choctaw Nation from the United States and this act was done in 1820, not 1830 as is commonly misunderstood to the case. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, in fact, guaranteed the Sovereignty of those who would remove to those lands in the West such as Oklahoma to the Choctaw Nation forever but did not convey title, covenant or any other term that was intended to diminish from the Right of Possession, Usage, and Occupancy of the Choctaw Nation of Indians in Alabama near their own sacred mound at Indian Graves Creek and Indian Springs at what is today known as Cedar Creek behind the old Jackson's Barracks which is called the Mount Vernon Arsenal or Barracks and was last known as the Searcy Hospital for the Insane. It was also once known for the Battle of the Horseshoe - which an aerial view will reveal the true nature of the heavily stockaded fort which was said to be encountered by Jackson during the Creek War of 1814–1815. The Horseshoe was surrounded by cannons which were used to attack the fortification which is situated on a higher elevation and was virtually impregnable. In 1835 the state government built the Weaver Indian school at Mount Vernon, Alabama, with labor supplied by the Choctaw. Before the American Civil War, the Choctaw were at risk in periodic "Indian roundups" by the federal government.. During these decades they sometimes but rarely intermarried with European Americans. John Johnston Jr. testified in 1842 to being threatened for his property rights before the Congress of the United States, he is a progenitor of some of the Choctaw Indians of Alabama (known as the MOWA - Choctaws Indians of Mobile and Washington County) today and a road named after him is one of the main roads in McIntosh as a legacy to his leadership of the Choctaw Indians of the East
Organization
Numerous references in historical records note the presence of Choctaw Indians in this part of Alabama. Historically, there were recognized Indian schools in both Mobile and Washington counties, the last of these two were Reed's Chapel in McIntosh, Alabama and Calcedeaver Elementary School in Mount Vernon, Alabama.
The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians are recognized by the State of Alabama and the House of Representatives Committee of Indian Affairs in 1954 and again in 1977.
The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians are politically organized and have adopted a Constitution. The Constitution of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians recognizes an elected Chief, an elected Tribal Council with 1 member representing each of the districts of the tribe, and an appointed Tribal Judge. Various committees as formed from time to time to assist with various projects to address the needs of the community. The tribal council and the chief roles of the tribe are elected every 4 years per the Constitution.
The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians have been acknowledged by the Supreme Court of the United States of America as a member of the Alabama Inter-tribal Council of which Chief Framon Weaver was one of those chiefs who made up that council of chieftains who were deemed to possess inherent sovereignty which is recognized by the Federal Government of the United States to be present in all Indian Tribes, whether or not recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Federal Acknowledgement. The case where this decision was decided is Taylor v ITC United States Court of Appeals 11th Circuit No. 0012280 on December 9, 2001. The case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court in 500 U.S. 1066 (2002) but the decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals was deemed consistent with the Supreme Courts position regarding the Inherent Sovereignty of all Native American Indian Tribes and in this case their councils of organizations of which they are a member of. That is, all Indian Tribes are deemed Sovereign, not because of status either obtained or nor not obtained by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the United States Executive Department, which lacks the authority, but because Indians are Indians per Federal Statute of the United States of America which are created by the power vested in the Congress of the United States of America to have the plenary power over the entire field of Indian Affairs. The Doctrine of Tribal Sovereign Immunity was applied and deemed applicable to Taylor v Alabama Inter-Tribal Council, which is composed entirely of non-federally recognized tribes which underscores the fact that Indians and their organizations possess inherent tribal sovereignty.
It is worth noting that the Executive Branch of Government in the form of the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General was also consulted on this very same case about the sovereignty of non-Federally recognized State Recognized Tribes and in 2004 agreed with the findings of the United States Federal Courts in favor of the Inherent Sovereignty of Indian Tribes.
The fact is that since the organization of the Alabama Intertribal Council is composed of only State Recognized Tribes and it has been found by Federal Court and the Department of Labor to be possess Inherently Sovereign since it is composed of Native American Indians who happen to be Chiefs, that the Tribes of each of the Chiefs are also possessed of Inherent Sovereignty which has also been affirmed by the Supreme Court on other cases not mentioned in this article.
With increasing Native American activism across the country, the Choctaw insisted on their right to self-identification and recognition. In 1979, the Choctaw in this area of Alabama organized as the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians. "MOWA" is a contraction of Mobile and Washington, the two counties which this group inhabits. Its tribal office is located in McIntosh. The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians achieved the honor of becoming the first State Recognized Tribe by the State of Alabama in 1979.
State Recognized Tribal members purchased their first 160 acres (0.65 km2) of land in south Washington County in 1983. The State of Alabama has recognized their land as a reservation. They descend from several Indian tribes: Choctaw and Chickasaw, the Cherokee lines in which the descendants of Dave Weaver were finally enrolled with the Eastern Band of Cherokees in 1909 under the names of Alfred Weaver, Jerome Chestang, and the other children of Dave Weaver and Cecile Weatherford, the daughter of William Weatherford of the neighboring Creek Tribe not more than 20 miles away on present day maps, which attests to the Creek blood as well as that of Hardy Reed, whose wife was listed in at least 2 newspapers during the so-called Creek War when Chinubbee the Natchez Chief who signed treaties for the Chickasaw, Creeks, and Cherokees was under attack by the Florida Indians, and the Choctaw Indians provided relief under the command of General Jackson's Generals as noted by the land patents mentioned in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830 and the Treaty of Doak's Stand in 1820. Their annual cultural festival, which includes Choctaw social dancing, stickball games, a Choctaw princess contest, and an intertribal Pow Wow, is held on the third weekend of June on their reservation lands.
The MOWA petitioned the federal government for federal acknowledgement as an Indian tribe. In 1999 the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) denied the MOWA petition. The Choctaw were denied on the sole basis of the work performed by the genealogist who prepared the work for the BIA. The BIA Office of Federal Acknowledgement reported a letter of obvious deficiencies to the MOWA Band of Choctaw's Historian Jacqueline Matte who was assisted by her cousin Doris Brown who served as the genealogist. The submitted work was riddled with inconsistencies which were noted in the findings by the OFA's staff but instead of being corrected, were instead minimized and 30 core ancestors originally submitted were reduced to 4 core ancestors and insufficient evidence was submitted to provide the proof required to satisfy the 25 CFR 83.1 et seq. requirements. Therefore, the petition of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians was denied. The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians were given more time to contest the findings however the tribe was believed in its research team of outside experts and the team failed the tribe in its submissions. The strange part is that the research team actually had full knowledge of the relationship between William Weatherford (Creek) and Nancy Fisher (whose family are Choctaw Chiefs in Oklahoma – note Silas D. Fisher and Lachlan Durant (her brother's son was also a Chief of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma). Coleman Cole was another family relation of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians. Numerous members of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians are descendants of Eli-Tubbee/Tom Gibson who was the subject of the Court of Claims Decision by which both the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians have profited from along with John Johnston Jr., etc. The research team also submitted no positive information for the descendants of Dav(e) Weaver who was found to be a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians his descendants named Weaver and Chestang were added to those rolls in 1909, but have since been incorporated into the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians. While William McIntosh was said to be Creek Chief, he led the likes of John Ross and the Sequoyah (who is referred to and both Cherokee and Chickasaw)'s father who was said to be named John McIntosh. John Ross's mother was from the Bird(Byrd) Clan of the Cherokee and a dutiful search of the Bird Clan of Cherokee - the missing Bird Clan will be found was composed mostly of Byrds and Weavers, which strangely enough are the same primary surnames of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians. However, the fact that Nancy Fisher was herself considered a Natchez Indian but her immediate family were both names "Friendly Creeks" in the 1815 petition following the so-called Creek War of 1813–1814 per the American State Papers and Silas D. Fisher would become a Chief of the Choctaw Nation and Lachlan or Laughlin Durant's son would also become a Chief of the Choctaw Nation. Despite the dutiful and exhaustive research conducted by the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians' researchers these facts would go unnoticed. Furthermore, the Tribe itself would be repeatedly told they were denied on several factors and the genealogy was complete. In fact, the genealogy was not complete and the relatively helpless MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians whose elders seldom were educated beyond the 6th grade of school were deceived by those who were paid with Federal Grants to work on their behalf.
The relatively uneducated and under-privileged Choctaws of South of Alabama who made claim to be the descendants of Eli Tubbee (Tom Gibson) who signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek as a Captain of the Choctaw Nation and was a subject of the Choctaw Nation v United States (119 U.S. 1 (1886) which started when Hoshihouma (Captain Red Bird or Humming Bird as he was known) was denied his registration by the Indian Agent, Mr. Ward. This was later proven and the Choctaw Indians who were led by their Captains: Charles Cole, Pierre Juzan, John Johnston and John Johnston Jr. Charles Frazier, Alexander and Turner Brashears, and Chief Coleman Coles' own family Mark Cole and his son Peter Cole and Nathaniel Smith of the Cherokee Nation who all inter-married with the children of the Cherokee Nation from the Guion Miller Rolls who were descended from Dave Weaver (Nana Wiya or else Nana Weaya|Wiya) from the Henderson Roll of 1835 and of whom never removed to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. It was the children of the Dave Weaver from the Cherokee Henderson Roll of 1835 who would marry the children of Dan and Rose Reed in 3 marriages, Frances Elizabeth Weaver would marry Mr. Eddings from Georgia and at least one sibling would marry one of the Byrds. Edy Weaver would marry Joel T. Rivers Jr, who was the son of the Joel T. Rivers of wealth and fame from Monroe County and James Weaver would marry Peggy.
Despite the fact that Alexander Brashears, the Laurendines, and the other Choctaw families are well-known to have been present during the historical period, the Bureau of Indian Affairs actually reported that they were present until the late 1880s and 1900s or so.
Despite the fact that the Weavers and Reeds who were the children and grandchildren of the Nancy Fisher and Dave Weaver, Cecile Weatherford (Daughter of William Weatherford, the Creek Warrior who served the United States) and Dan and Rose Reed and were listed on the Guion Miller Rolls of 1909, however it is worth repeating that it was the Bureau of Indian Affairs who compiled the list, issued the roll numbers, and were advised by the United States Supreme Court and its decision.
The primary issue that presented the root cause of the problem with the Choctaws of Mobile and Washington Counties and the BIA's findings stems from the fact that Dave Weaver who enrolled with the Cherokee Nation full-blooded Cherokee Indian did not remove West with John Ross and the rest of the Cherokee Nation called the "Old Settlers" and instead stayed East with the Choctaws of Southwest Alabama at was known as the Mount Vernon Reservation per the old maps in the Weaver, Byrd, Sullivan, and Reed settlements and became known as the Eastern Cherokee.
However these Eastern Cherokee married into the Choctaw Settlements and local references refer to the settlements as simply Indian or else Choctaw Settlements.
One such example which ties more than 70–75% of the tribal members ancestry to the so-called Cecil Weatherford since her name was to be Cecil Weathers in the Catholic Baptismal Records in 1814. However, her name was Cecil Weather however, and she was the daughter of one William Weathers from the U.S. Census of 1810 in Baldwin County Alabama. Cecil Weathers was also the daughter of Nancy Fisher of the Creek "Fish Clan" (several other Fishers would later be removed to Oklahoma after the 1830s removal period. However, Cecil's Children of Dave Weaver, became Weavers and Chestangs and then married into the Reed families (Hardy Reed and Rose or Rosa Reed) both of Alabama Indian descent (Creek/Choctaw).
The issue presented here is that Nancy Fisher is recognized as Creek, Hardy Reed is recognized as Creek, and even Cecil Weathers (not Weatherford is recognized as Creek – all Alabama Indians – Creek/Muskogee/Cherokee/Choctaw/etc. being names given by Europeans). Cecil is the daughter of William Weathers (later the family surname would be changed to Weathersford and then to Weatherford finally and he was later given the moniker "Red Eagle" and made a "Chief" as well - but he lived in a Planter's Home and was given quite an estate by General Andrew Jackson for his clever role in the Fort Mims Massacre).
So the result is that the BIA was not submitted the evidence which Matte was privileged with that would tie the Weathers family surname to the Weatherford family name and thus, no Federal Recognition was granted to the MOWA Choctaw Band of Choctaw Indians. Hardy Reed and his descendents were also summarily discounted by review since the attention was aimed at Rose Reed and her upbringing by her father's slave and not the Native American Indian husband to which she had several children with. Dave Weaver and Byrd families are historical Cherokee but these families are also discounted from the review by the BIA as not enough evidence was submitted or not in time.
Ethnic identity
The historian Jacqueline Anderson Matte notes that the Choctaw have preserved their identity by cultural practices:
"The strongest evidence of the MOWA Choctaws' Indian ancestry is not, however, found in written documents; it is found in their lives. Their ancestors passed to them their Choctaw identity and traditions, persevering and preserving their heritage despite a long history of persecution and discrimination. Interviews with elders reveal stories of survival by hunting, fishing, trapping, and sharing the kill; rituals related to marriage, birth, and death; customs associated with gardening, medicinal plants, logging, dipping turpentine, and restricted communication with outsiders; and ancestral relationships told generation to generation. Despite hardships, the Choctaw Indian community north of Mobile persisted as a system of social relationships solidified within ceremonial gathering areas, churches, schools, cemeteries, and kin-based villages. Reduced in numbers, and increasingly a dominated minority in their own homeland, the ancestors of the MOWA Choctaws made new alliances."
Leon Taylor, a revered elder, said in testimony to the United States Congress in 1985: "Today, I am Choctaw. My mother was Choctaw. My grandfather was Choctaw. Tomorrow, I will still be Choctaw.