'Hunter Gray' hunterbadbear@hunterbear.org [marxist]
2014-07-10 15:37:50 UTC
A good friend, Native, came across some stuff on the Mississippi Choctaws written by an ethnohistorian at ASU. (Thomas' father was a Mississippi Choctaw.) The academic does not appear to have any Native or Deep South roots. She does paint, in my opinion, something of a roseate picture re the historical and contemporary relationships between Mississippi Choctaws and local whites. My response -- and I also have a postscript for our lists at the conclusion of my answer:
"I think Ms Osburn is being quite naive. Lots of white racism and cultural ethnocentrism in the Mississippi Choctaw situation. Those who were able to remain in Mississippi during and after the Removal period have been centered in Neshoba County with a spill over into adjoining Leake County. True, Federal Indian monies, such as they are, have always been welcome in the non-Indian towns, e.g. Philadelphia. And there was some tolerance of the Choctaws re "local color" -- especially during the politically well known Neshoba County Fair. But, in the eyes of the whites, the Choctaws were at best "second class citizens", often facing exclusion from white owned restaurants (unless the Choctaws were servants therein) and other patterns of discrimination, including sheriff and police problems. During the Civil Rights Movement, the Mississippi Choctaws withdrew even more unto themselves -- lest the Klan types move against them. In these times, things are certainly outwardly egalitarian in most of Dixie but, with the older whites especially, it's surface stuff.
In her book, Witness in Philadelphia, Florence Mars, a very decent white lady from a well known family in Neshoba County, who bravely challenged the Klan which had just killed the three civil rights workers, gives an account where, in 1966 or so, a white businessman shot and killed a Choctaw man in broad daylight in Philadelphia's little business district. Confronted by Ms Mars, he defended his action by saying "The man was drunk."
P.S. (for discussion lists):
In our Northeastern North Carolina Black-Belt Project, we encountered several groups of "backwoods" Indians whose "community name" reflected their locale. There were also Tuscarora remnants in the Bertie County swamp country. No problem at all in drawing these folks into our Movement. On the other hand, the one formally defined tribe in the region -- the Haliwa Indians (with some state recognition) -- was being pressured hard by Julian Alsbrook, a Halifax County politician and a rank segregationist, to stay away from our efforts. I then went to the main small town in the Haliwa area, Hollister, and spoke to a large meeting for three hours. My personal background helped much. Lots of Haliwas then came into our Movement. (H)
H
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
See my piece ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (Mississippi et al.):
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
See our very full COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
page -- with a great deal of practical material:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
See my new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new 10,000 word
introduction by me. This page lists many reviews.
And this book is also an activist's how-to manual:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm:
(Photos)
"I think Ms Osburn is being quite naive. Lots of white racism and cultural ethnocentrism in the Mississippi Choctaw situation. Those who were able to remain in Mississippi during and after the Removal period have been centered in Neshoba County with a spill over into adjoining Leake County. True, Federal Indian monies, such as they are, have always been welcome in the non-Indian towns, e.g. Philadelphia. And there was some tolerance of the Choctaws re "local color" -- especially during the politically well known Neshoba County Fair. But, in the eyes of the whites, the Choctaws were at best "second class citizens", often facing exclusion from white owned restaurants (unless the Choctaws were servants therein) and other patterns of discrimination, including sheriff and police problems. During the Civil Rights Movement, the Mississippi Choctaws withdrew even more unto themselves -- lest the Klan types move against them. In these times, things are certainly outwardly egalitarian in most of Dixie but, with the older whites especially, it's surface stuff.
In her book, Witness in Philadelphia, Florence Mars, a very decent white lady from a well known family in Neshoba County, who bravely challenged the Klan which had just killed the three civil rights workers, gives an account where, in 1966 or so, a white businessman shot and killed a Choctaw man in broad daylight in Philadelphia's little business district. Confronted by Ms Mars, he defended his action by saying "The man was drunk."
P.S. (for discussion lists):
In our Northeastern North Carolina Black-Belt Project, we encountered several groups of "backwoods" Indians whose "community name" reflected their locale. There were also Tuscarora remnants in the Bertie County swamp country. No problem at all in drawing these folks into our Movement. On the other hand, the one formally defined tribe in the region -- the Haliwa Indians (with some state recognition) -- was being pressured hard by Julian Alsbrook, a Halifax County politician and a rank segregationist, to stay away from our efforts. I then went to the main small town in the Haliwa area, Hollister, and spoke to a large meeting for three hours. My personal background helped much. Lots of Haliwas then came into our Movement. (H)
H
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
See my piece ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (Mississippi et al.):
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm
See our very full COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
page -- with a great deal of practical material:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
See my new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book,"
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new 10,000 word
introduction by me. This page lists many reviews.
And this book is also an activist's how-to manual:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm:
(Photos)