Before the United States expanded beyond the Mississippi River, the land that would become Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee was known as the Southwest. This map shows the Old Natchez Trace passing through Choctaw and Chickasaw lands.
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Choctaw
Culture
The Choctaw people's ancestral homeland spanned from most of central and southern Mississippi into parts of eastern Louisiana and western Alabama. The Choctaw were fierce warriors, excellent farmers, and skilled traders.
Agriculture was important to the Choctaw people. The Choctaw often grew great surpluses of corn and other crops to trade with other American Indian tribes and later, Europeans and Americans.
Sports have always played an important role in Choctaw culture. Stickball is a tradtional team sport still played today. Historically, stickball was often used to settle rivalries and disputes between different tribes and families. Stickball also created friendly competition amongst different clans and tribes.
Fierce warriors, during the early 1700s the Choctaw peopl allied with European forces, often aiding in battles against other American Indian groups. Alliances with Europeans provided a measure of security to the tribes during a rapidly changing cultural landscape. The French were one of the first European groups to ally with the Choctaw, and in the early 1700s their combined forces decimated the Natchez Indians, killing most of them and forcing the rest to flee their homelands and join other tribes.
Removal
With the influx of American colonizers settling in the Southern United States, American Indian peoples were soon displaced from their homelands, sometimes by treaties and political manipulation, and other times by force. In 1816, Choctaw chiefs were persuaded to trade some of their homelands east of the Tombigbee River. By 1820, they were asked to give up even more of their lands.
The changes did not stop there. In May of 1829, a southern congressman introduced the Indian Removal Act into Congress. It included tribes in the southeastern United States including the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole and Choctaw Indian tribes. Hundreds of petitions flooded Washington D.C. claiming this act was immoral, destructive, and wrong. After heated debate, President Andrew Jackson and the US Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, forcing the Choctaw and other tribes, to relinquish their homelands completely, and move westward. The act passed the House in May 1830, by only five votes.
The Choctaw walked this long journey from Mississippi to Oklahoma, a harsh trek that killed many along the way. The first American Indian tribe to remove to Oklahoma, the Choctaw suffered greatly. Roughly 70,000 people were forced out of the region and at least 3,000 lost their lives on the march. This forced walk is now commemorated as the Trail of Tears.
Some Choctaw Indians remained in Mississippi, and some returned years later. Today, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is located in Choctaw, Mississippi approximately 25 miles east of the Parkway at milepost 160.
People have walked the Natchez Trace for thousands of years. Learn more about the history of the Natchez Trace here.
Last updated: November 4, 2022
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Contact Info
Mailing Address:
2680 Natchez Trace Parkway
Tupelo,
MS
38804
Phone:
800 305-7417
The Parkway Visitor Center near Tupelo, MS, is open 9am-4:30pm seven days a week. The visitor center is closed Thanksgiving, December 25th and January 1st.
