MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians

The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians are a state recognized Indian tribe in southern Alabama. The MOWA Choctaw Reservation is located on 300 acres (1.2 km²) in between the small southwestern Alabama communities of McIntosh, Mt. Vernon and Citronelle. Aside from the reservation, tribal citizens numbering around 3,600, live in 10 small settlements near the reservation community. They are led by elected Chief Wilford Taylor and claim descent from Choctaw people who refused removal at the time of the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. Their annual cultural festival, which includes Choctaw social dancing, stickball games, Choctaw princess contest and an inter-tribal pow wow occurs on the third weekend of June each year on their reservation lands.

During the Jim Crow era, this mixed-race population was known as "the Cajuns." [Horace Mann Bond. 1931. "Two Racial Islands in Alabama." American Journal of Sociology, volume 36, page 552.] In the late 20th century, they organized as the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians. "MOWA" is a contraction of Mobile and Washington, the two counties that this group inhabits.

The MOWAs petitioned for federal acknowledgment as an Indian tribe. The Bureau of Indian Affairs denied the MOWA petition in 1994 because the petitioners failed to prove Indian ancestry according to the standards of the BIA. According to the BIA spokesperson: "What we found was that the Indians that the MOWA claimed as their ancestors were not their ancestors." [Bunty Anquoe, "MOWA band denied federal recognition," Indian Country Today (Lakota Times), 12-29-1994] The MOWAs filed a lawsuit against the BIA, requesting that the court overturn the BIA's decision. The suit was rejected by a federal judge in 2008 on a technicality stating the tribe waited too late to file the lawsuit and that it passed the six year statute of limitations. [“Judge dismisses tribe’s bid for federal recognition.” News From Indian Country. Thursday, 17 July 2008.]

Genetic Studies

In 1977, Dr. William S. Pollitzer published an analysis of gene frequencies found among the MOWAs. He concluded that the MOWAs have 70% white ancestry, 30% black ancestry, and very little discernible Indian ancestry. ["The Cajuns of Southern Alabama: Morphology and serology," William S. Pollitzer 1, Kadambari K. Namboodiri 2, William H. Coleman 3, Wayne H. Finley 4, Webster C. Leyshon 5, Gary C. Jennings 6, William H. Brown 7, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Volume 47, Issue 1 , Pages 1 - 6, 1977.] In 2007, Wilford Taylor, the Chief of the MOWA Choctaw Indians, agreed to participate in a controlled DNA test to be part of National Geographic's The Genographic Project. "The chief's Haplogroup share ancestry with the typical Native American lineages in Central Asia around 40,000 years ago." But, "His people left Africa and migrated to Asia before heading west to Europe." [http://wkrg.com/news/article/mapping_mankind1/6849/ ] [Mapping Mankind Part 2 By Tiffany Craig WKRG CBS Affiliate Mobile, AL ] However, R1b is the most common Haplogroup among Cherokee Indians due to a male white ancestor somewhere in the bloodline and does not automatically invalidate a claim to a Native American heritage. [http://www.genpage.com/Native_American_Heritage.html] [" [http://www.genpage.com/Native_American_Heritage.html| Proving Your Native American Heritage] " by Roberta Estes; [http://the-lost-colony.blogspot.com/| Searching for the Lost Colony DNA Blog] ]

ee also

* Native American recognition in the United States
* Choctaw
* Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal
* Native American tribe
* Native Americans in the United States
* [http://www.cs.org/publications/Csq/csq-article.cfm?id=1968# The Language of Success By Mark Cherrington]
* Native American recognition in the United States

References

* Horace Mann Bond. 1931. "Two Racial Islands in Alabama." American Journal of Sociology, volume 36, page 552.
* William S. Pollitzer et al. 1977. "The Cajuns of Southern Alabama: Morphology and serology." American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Volume 47, Issue 1 , Pages 1 - 6.

Tiffany Craig, Mapping Mankind Part 2, "http://wkrg.com/news/article/mapping_mankind1/6849/"

External links

* [http://www.aiac.state.al.us/MOWA%20tribal%20history.htm MOWA Choctaw Indians Official Website]

* Sunray confronts Mississippi Choctaw Chief Phillip Martin over related Abramoff Scandal http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4040761202639355269&q=mississippi+choctaw&total=12&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

* "CDIB: Corruption, Deceit, Identity and Bureaucracy in Indian Country" http://www.cdibthebook.com/cdib.pdf

Five Civilized Tribes