[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 209 (Monday, October 31, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-26835]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: October 31, 1994]


_______________________________________________________________________

Part II





Department of the Interior





_______________________________________________________________________



Bureau of Indian Affairs



_______________________________________________________________________



Indian Tribes, Acknowledgement of Existence Determinations, etc.: Jena 
Band of Choctaw Indians; Notice
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs

 

Proposed Finding for Federal Acknowledgment of the Jena Band of 
Choctaw Indians

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of proposed finding.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: Pursuant to 25 CFR 83.10(h), notice is hereby given that the 
Assistant Secretary proposes to acknowledge that the Jena Band of 
Choctaw Indians, c/o Jerry D. Jackson, P.O. Box 14, Jena, Louisiana, 
71342, exists as an Indian tribe within the meaning of Federal law. 
This notice is based on a determination that the tribe meets the seven 
mandatory criteria set forth in 25 CFR 83.7. Therefore, the Jena Band 
of Choctaw Indians meets the requirements necessary for a government-
to-government relationship with the United States.

DATES: As provided by 25 CFR 83.10(i), any individual or organization 
wishing to challenge the proposed finding may submit factual or legal 
arguments and evidence to rebut the evidence relied upon. This material 
must be submitted within 180 calendar days from the date of publication 
of this notice. As stated in the new regulations, 25 CFR 83.10(i), 
interested and informed parties who submit arguments and evidence to 
the Assistant Secretary must also provide copies of their submissions 
to the petitioner.

ADDRESSES: Comments on the proposed finding and/or requests for a copy 
of the report of evidence should be addressed to the Office of the 
Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1849 C 
Street NW., Washington, DC 20240, Attention: Branch of Acknowledgment 
and Research, Mail Stop 2611-MIB.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Holly Reckord, (202) 208-3592.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Jena Band of Choctaw Indians directly 
descends from a community of Choctaws who resided in western Catahoula 
Parish, now LaSalle Parish, in the vicinity of Jena, Louisiana, since 
first identified by the census of 1880. The linguist Albert Gatschet 
reported finding three Choctaw families on Trout Creek, Catahoula 
Parish in 1886. The Trout Creek settlement lived in log huts on land 
owned by Thomas Whatley. They were known locally as the Eden Indians, 
the Choctaw Indians on Trout Creek, and the Whatley Indians in 
reference to their residences or to the landowners with whom they were 
associated. After World War II, most of the tribe moved into the nearby 
town of Jena, Louisiana. They formally incorporated in 1974, as the 
Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, but usually refer to themselves as the 
Jena Choctaws.
    Aboriginal Choctaw territory lay east of the Mississippi River, but 
the Choctaws also hunted west of the river. Although wandering Choctaws 
had been observed in Louisiana before 1800, there is no evidence to 
connect any of the Jena Choctaws with the earliest Choctaw inhabitants 
of Louisiana. There is some evidence that they had attempted to go 
north to the Choctaw Nation, but returned to Louisiana from there. 
Gatschet's interviews, the Federal censuses, and the testimony of 
ancestors before the 1902 U.S. Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, 
known as the Dawes Commission, all substantiate that the Jena Choctaws 
came from Scott and Newton counties in Mississippi and probably arrived 
in the vicinity of Jena, Louisiana during the 1870's.
    Several of the Choctaws from the Jena vicinity removed to Oklahoma 
between 1903 and 1920, but the remnants of four families remained, thus 
maintaining the community. Between 1914 and 1917, a large family of 
Choctaws, who lived less than 20 miles east of Jena at Manifest or 
Aimwell, Louisiana, moved to Trout Creek and began marrying into the 
remaining families. Their arrival saved the community at Trout Creek 
near Jena, which had suffered significant losses due to the removals.
    The ancestors of the Jena Choctaws have been identified both as 
Choctaws and as an Indian entity by scholars, local officials, and 
state and Federal sources on a substantially continuous basis since 
1900. No one has denied the Indian identity of the Jena Choctaws. The 
1903 Dawes Commission identified the ancestors of the petitioner as 
full-blood Mississippi Choctaws who were eligible to receive land 
allotments in the Choctaw Nation, or what is now Oklahoma. Local 
residents, local store records, and occasional state newspaper articles 
all referred to them as Indians. Federal and state school officials 
from 1929 to 1940 all considered the Jena Choctaws to be Indians, and 
some referred to them as a small tribe. Indian children were not 
allowed to attend the white public schools of the parish, while the 
Indians refused to attend the black schools. Local authorities and 
private individuals made efforts to create a school specifically for 
the Indian children. During the 1930's, the Penick Indian School 
operated with some funding from the Federal Office of Indian Affairs.
    The Office of Indian Affairs proposed moving those Choctaws who 
were willing to move to Federal trust lands in Mississippi so that 
their children could be educated with other Indian children at Pearl 
River, Mississippi. Although the proposal was not carried out, it is 
clear that the Federal officials considered the Jena Choctaws to be 
eligible members of the recognized Mississippi Choctaw tribe.
    When the Office of Indian Affairs provided Federal aid for tuition 
for the Choctaw students at the Penick Indian School, it did not deal 
directly with the Indians but provided funds to state and local 
governments. In short, although briefly providing some Federal services 
to individuals, the Federal Government had not recognized the Jena 
Choctaws as a separate tribal entity. Because the Choctaws from rural 
Jena, Louisiana, were not removed to Oklahoma in 1903 or to Mississippi 
in 1938, they retained their identity as a separate and distinct Indian 
group.
    The Jena Band of Choctaw Indians maintained their community through 
a high degree of in-group marriages. Before 1950, 85 percent of the 
marriages of members were to other members, and 50 percent of the 
existing marriages in 1959 were to other members of the tribe. Perhaps 
supported by the in-group marriages and close family ties, the 
community continued to speak the Choctaw language almost exclusively 
until the late 1930's and in many households until the late 1950's.
    Although the Choctaw did not live in an exclusively Indian 
neighborhood, they did live in close proximity of one another in the 
Trout Creek or Eden neighborhood from before 1880 until after World War 
II. They shopped in the local Whatley stores where they paid for goods 
by skinning and tanning hides as well as by day labor and household 
help. They were identified by the shopkeepers by their first name and 
the title ``Indian,'' rather than by a first and last name. They 
traveled into town as a group on a Saturday night, where they were 
often met with harassment from the general population and in particular 
from the town marshall.
    Maintenance of the White Rock Indian cemetery has been a central 
activity of Jena Choctaw throughout the history of the group. Not only 
have they continually buried their dead in the cemetery, but the 
frequent clean-up days also became a time for social contact between 
the various families. They brought food for a cook out, visited, 
discussed community concerns, and even camped over night at the 
cemetery. Until the late 1930's, the tribe exercised traditional burial 
practices, which involved a mourning period, cutting hair, and 
participating in a ``cry'' or funeral some six months after the burial. 
The cemetery, which was located on land owned by the Whatley family, 
was deeded to the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians in 1982.
    Aside from informal social interaction and continued maintenance of 
the White Rock Indian Cemetery, members of the tribe shared economic 
resources and provided each other with services in the 1950's and 
1960's. After incorporation, the tribal council assumed a major role in 
providing for the members' needs. It has provided tutoring, school 
supplies, clothing, and free haircuts for school children. To teach and 
maintain a sense of Indian identity, the tribe conducts Choctaw 
language and history classes at the tribal center after school hours 
and during the summer.
    A traditional leader or chief led the group in burial practices, 
conducted marriages, and conducted the affairs of the Indian community 
until the late 1930's. After World War II, when most of the membership 
started attending Christian churches, the role of the traditional 
leader became less active than in previous generations; however, he 
continued to organize community support of members in need and to 
arrange for maintenance of the Indian cemetery. During the 1950's and 
1960's informal leaders also helped to meet the needs of the membership 
by furnishing goods and services such as mid-wifing. After the death of 
the last traditional leader in 1968, there was a transition period 
between the old-style of leadership and the formally organized entity. 
Since 1974, the Jena Choctaws have elected their leaders and members 
have participated in the governance of the tribe.
    The first formal governing document for the tribe was the 1974 
Articles of Incorporation. It was followed in 1990, by a constitution 
which reflected how they governed themselves and defined their 
membership. Membership consists of Choctaws possessing \1/4\ or more 
blood quantum who descend from the Choctaws who settled in LaSalle 
Parish and who were listed as Indian on the 1880, 1900, and 1910 
censuses. The constitution also allows that at specified future dates, 
descendants with less than \1/4\ Choctaw blood quantum will be allowed 
to enroll as members. The members are not members of any other 
recognized tribe, nor has Congress terminated or denied a government-
to-government relationship with the tribe.
    There are 153 names on the 1993 membership roll. One hundred 
percent of the membership descends from at least one ancestor who was 
identified as a Choctaw Indian on the 1900 and 1910 Federal censuses or 
as Indian on the 1870, 1880, or 1920 Federal censuses. Over 88 percent 
of the membership also descends from someone who was identified as a 
full-blood Mississippi Choctaw on the 1903 preliminary roll of the 
Dawes Commission.
    Under the new regulations, the high degree (over 50 percent) of in-
group marriages through 1959 is considered to be a high level of 
evidence for the existence of an Indian community to that date. The new 
regulations also provide that the petitioner is assumed to have 
exhibited tribal political authority over its members prior to 1959 
because of the high level of evidence that it maintained a community 
during those years. Interaction between Jena Choctaws has been 
maintained since 1959 with informal ``visiting'' and since 1974 with 
activities sponsored by the tribal council.
    Based on this preliminary factual determination, we conclude that 
the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians meet all seven mandatory criteria and 
should be granted Federal acknowledgment under 25 CFR part 83.
    As provided by 25 CFR 83.10(h) of the new regulations, a report 
summarizing the evidence, reasoning, and analyses that are the basis 
for the proposed decision will be provided to the petitioner and other 
interested parties, and is available to other parties upon written 
request.
    After consideration of the written arguments and evidence rebutting 
the proposed finding and within 60 days after the expiration of the 
180-day response period described above, the Assistant Secretary--
Indian Affairs will publish the final determination of the petitioner's 
status in the Federal Register as provided in 25 CFR 83.10(l).
Ada E. Deer,
Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 94-26835 Filed 10-28-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-02-M