Ryan Spring

And so he did this in secret.

The U.S.

government looked at this treaty.

They knew that it was not signed by all the chiefs.

That didn't matter to them.

It was the fact that the Choctaw people got too much out of this treaty, so they denied it.

But it was the fact that a Choctaw chief had sent this

treaty in that told them, okay, let's remove this tribe because they're ready.

They're ready to sign removal.

That's what caused this push for the negotiators to come in and start negotiating the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830.

During the treaty negotiations, it was awful.

One of the negotiators left the treaty grounds because the other negotiator was spreading such egregious lies.

It was an awful experience for people to have to go through.

And at the end of the day, they threatened the Choctaw people with, well, we'll just end our relationship with you.

We'll end our alliance.

And the United States will militarily crush you, put your people into slavery.

You will all become wards of the state of Mississippi and your tribe will cease to exist.

So the chiefs were forced to sign this treaty.

They didn't want to, but there's a balance between do we stay free as a people, as God intended us to be, or do we stay in our lands, which we're supposed to care for and which our ancestors are buried in, and that our community has always been here.

So Article 14 of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek basically stated that if any Choctaw people wanted to stay and become citizens of Mississippi, they could.