“WE ARE CLAY PEOPLE”: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST CHOCTAW COMMUNAL DISSOLUTION, 1801-1861 By Gary Coleman Cheek Jr. A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Mississippi State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Department of History Mississippi State, Mississippi May 2010 Copyright by Gary Coleman Cheek Jr. 2010 “WE ARE CLAY PEOPLE”: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST CHOCTAW COMMUNAL DISSOLUTION, 1801-1861 By Gary Coleman Cheek Jr. Approved: _________________________________ _________________________________ Anne Marshall Alan I. Marcus Assistant Professor of History Chair and Professor of History (Director of Dissertation) (Committee Member) _________________________________ _________________________________ Evan Peacock Jason K. Phillips Associate Professor of Anthropology Associate Professor of History (Committee Member) (Committee Member) _________________________________ _________________________________ Peter C. Messer Gary L. Myers Associate Professor of History Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History (Committee Member) Name: Gary Coleman Cheek Jr. Date of Degree: May 1, 2010 Institution: Mississippi State University Major Field: History (Native America) Major Professor: Dr. Anne Marshall Title of Study: “WE ARE CLAY PEOPLE”: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST CHOCTAW COMMUNAL DISSOLUTION, 1801-1861 Pages in Study: 359 Candidate for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Acculturation has become an integral part of scholarship about Native Americans in the Southeast. Recent studies have focused on trade the eighteenth century and Choctaw entry into the American market economy during the beginning of the nineteenth century. This study analyzes acculturation from 1801 to 1861, carrying the story about cultural change and persistence through the Removal era and to the American Civil War. It argues that while Choctaws acculturated to survive, prosper, and protect autonomy in a changing world, they continuously battled communal dissolution, which threatened to destroy their nation. Some individuals attempted to promote new methods of subsistence, worshiping, and dealing with the United States, and others feared that a loss of traditions would disrupt the bonds that bound together Choctaws as a people. Most Choctaws attempted to change certain elements of culture while maintaining others. New ideologies about behavior, political and social organization, and economic transformation highlighted the divisions between individuals and among social orders and classes. The threat of factionalism then determined how Choctaws, both elites and commoners, reacted to major nineteenth-century crises, which included the destruction of game, entrance into the American market economy, establishment and continuation of missionary education, Removal, the evolution of a national constitution, and decisions about Choctaw entry into the Civil War. By understanding the relationships between communal dissolution and acculturation in this way, this study portrays how Choctaws fought to balance cultural change and persistence while creating new bonds that held their society in tact through multiple tribulations throughout the nineteenth century. DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this research to my family, Amanda Cheek, Gary and Tina Cheek, Scott and Kay Gibson, and Chris and Kim Myer for their continued love and support; to Anne Marshall for her words of wisdom that provided guidance and inspiration through the writing process; and to Ken York for teaching me what Choctaw history is really about. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Feelings of intimidation, humility and fear are constant friends of the individual who writes a dissertation. Luckily, I have had many friends, professors, and family members who made the process less stressful. Without their patience, time and selflessness, the following project never would have materialized. Several individuals have aided me in my journey to complete this project and deserve my undying gratitude for their help. Before the writing process began, I was fortunate to work under the excellent group of scholars on my dissertation committee. I express my sincerest gratitude to Dr. Anne Marshall and Dr. Greg O’Brien. Dr. Marshall challenged me to think in new, decisive ways about culture and its relationship to history, spent much time and effort guiding me through the process of writing and continues to inspire me to produce intricate, emotionally-charged historical analyses. I would also like to thank Dr. O’Brien for offering his time and expertise in Native America and Choctaw history to this project, and serving as the second reader for the dissertation. Special thanks are due other members of my committee consisting of Evan Peacock, Peter Messer, Alan Marcus and Jason Phillips for their invaluable aid and input. Without much assistance from the faculty and staff of various research organizations, the project would have never come to fruition. I first would like to the staff iii of the Mississippi State University Special Collections and Government Documents departments in particular Mattie Sink for pointing me to numerous, salient manuscripts and collections within the university’s archives; Brenda Valentine for spending countless hours ordering literally hundreds of books and articles via the interlibrary loan program; and to Christine Fletcher for suggestions about various government and missionary collections as well as weeding through piles of microfilm to find requested materials. To the staff of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, I appreciate the time spent aiding me in finding, copying, and suggesting resources. To the staff of the Western History Collection at the University of Oklahoma, I owe my gratitude for the thousands of copies made and sent, which served as a crucial part of my dissertation’s story. I lack the room to thank the legion of friends, professors and mentors that have contributed to this work. To not mention a few of them would be a dishonor to their discussions with me, analyses, willingness to read portions of or entire chapters and moral support. I would like to thank my Spartanburg Methodist College family, particularly Kathy Cann for her support and Marvin Cann for commenting on the manuscript. Stephen King once wrote in his On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000), “To write is human, to edit is divine.” Marvin, you edited this work divinely. I would also like to thank Jim Haller for purchasing a number of important materials that made finishing the dissertation possible. To Janet Rafferty, who although not on my committee, never turned me away when I asked questions or wanted to discuss anthropological theories relating to the project. To David Sicko, who at first was a professor and later became a great friend and who was provided guidance on numerous occassions. Next, to my friends and colleagues, iv Andi Knecht, Jeff Howell, Kirk Strawbridge, and Micah Rueber for your continued support through this difficult process. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for believing in me and my research and pushing me to strive for excellence. Finally, to my wife Amanda, who has served as my cheerleader and been my soul mate for the many years taken to reach this point, I give all my love and heartfelt thanks. Any errors are, of course, my own. v TABLE OF CONTENTS .Page DEDICATION. .................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. ............................................................................................... iii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 II. “CHAHTA SIYAH HOKI!”: THE CHOCTAW IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES . ........................................... 13 III. THE EMERGENCE OF FACTIONALISM IN A MARKET-ORIENTED WORLD, 1800-1818 . ............................................................................................ 64 IV. PROTECTING AUTONOMY BY BECOMING AMERICAN: PRESBYTERIANS AND ACCULTURATION . ................................................................ 118 V. THE FRACTURING OF A PEOPLE: THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON AND THE ROAD TO DANCING RABBIT CREEK .......................................... 182 VI. REBUILDING AND REUNIFICATION AFTER REMOVAL: DANCING RABBIT CREEK AND THE ROAD WEST...................................................... 245 VII. CONSTITUTIONS, EDUCATION, SLAVERY AND THE COMING OF THE CIVIL WAR IN CHOCTAW COUNTRY. ......................................... 289 vi VIII. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................... 335 BIBLIOGRAPHY. .......................................................................................................... 341 vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION During his travels in Mississippi and Oklahoma at the beginning of the twenty- first century, Tim Tingle recorded a poem by elder Estelline Tubby in which she recounted that Choctaws “nourished by their roots,” preserved by tradition, “grew” and adapted and survived when faced with multiple crises. When Tubby stated “We are clay people,” she claimed that Choctaw culture was malleable like clay. They reshaped their lifestyles to cope with changes around them. Yet, as clay remains part of the earth, Choctaws remained one people bound by the same goals.1 Although Choctaws boasted a long history of cultural adaptation, they did