[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]
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Part II
Department of the Interior
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Bureau of Indian Affairs
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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.
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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]
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