Ryan Spring

They come from about 12 to 1500 Choctaw people that were still there in the 1900s.

And they're a tribe of 12,000 people today.

Yeah.

So during the Indian Reorganization Act in the 1930s, they were able to reestablish their own government and they were able to reestablish their own lands.

So the Mississippi Band has several reservations in Mississippi and, you know, they are, they're Choctaws just as we are.

And, you know, we still interact with them today because we're all one people.

Right.

So in 1902 and 1903, there were another wave of removals that were done by train.

So over 2,000 Choctaw people were taken from Mississippi and Louisiana, brought by train, and taken to Indian territory to get ready for allotment.

So since the 1990s.

the Choctaw Nation has done an annual memorial Trail of Tears walk.

And this is a way that we just, we're not just remembering those that didn't make the journey, but we're remembering those that did survive.

And then that helped build the legacy that the Choctaw Nation now has today.

You know, we have over 235,000 tribal members today.

And we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for these leaders and all of these Choctaw people that persevered through this dark time.

And so from that, we've had families and communities that have done their own celebrations and their own honorings of the Trail of Tears.

With COVID, we had another impact in our community.

And so we started doing a virtual Trail of Tears walk.

And so, you know, the majority of our people don't live within our reservation.

And that's because additional removals done by the US government during the Indian Urban Relocation Program removed the majority of Choctaw families in the 1960s and 70s out of our reservation.