Talk:Choctaw
From Academic Kids
Just wondering if "occupied by the southeastern United States" is NPOV. Danny
- Well, it's quite literally true in the sense of occupying space. Whether that's the intended or likely interpretation, and whether other interpretations are to be considered NPOV, is another question. --Brion VIBBER
Funny how everybody who claims descent from any Native American tribe is descended from a "chief" or "leader". Isn't anybody descended from the common run-of-the mill foot soldier? It would be nice to put a name to Meredith's supposed "leader" ancestor. -- Zoe
According to this source, not at all NPOV, the Rogue's Gallery (http://www.onepeoplesproject.com/meredith.htm) of an integrationist civil rights group, Meredith's "Choctaw" claim came after Meredith endorsed white racist David Duke for Congress and was trying to change his own background in some sad way. In the same speech he said African Americans should be taught English as a Second Language. Source also states that the Mississippi Band of Choctaws is both unassimilated and intact.
Many black people have Indian ancestry, of course, and Meredith says he does too, but this comes from his genealogical research and he says Oprah Winfrey and O.J. Simpson are also Choctaws. Lots of people down South, and elsewhere, claim Indian ancestry.
The web page of the Mississippi Band of Choctaws (http://www.choctaw.org/) does not mention any of these notables.
I hope it was not presumptuous of me to strike the last paragraph; it seems that to cite one member is superfluous. Mr. Meredith perhaps belongs on the List of Native Americans page if anyone wishes to restore him.KJ Sam 08:34 26 May 2003 (UTC)
Wondering if this should mention one of the more interesting characteristics of the choctaw language, the presence of different words to indicate "verifiably true" and "second hand/hearsay"
(I've never done this before, I hope this is how it goes)
Why does it call them one of "the five civilized tribes"? Are they implying that all of the other American Indian nations are uncivilized, or is it a name that has a story behind it? Did this person mean the Choctaw are one of a main five tribes who were influenced by and/or accepted relations with the invading peoples?
I didn't want to remove it and seem too easily offended, but it sounds wrong to me. Besides, who's deciding what's "civilized" anyway? More than likely a nation who's so "civilized" that they take over (and obliterate) other "heathen" nations?
I, I am not an it, used the "Five Civilzed Tribes" name because history names the tribes so. I didn't come up with the term. Many tribes intergrated European technology, and many did sucessfully, especially the Cherokee. If it weren't for the State of Georgia's greedy appetite for Cherokee country in the 1800s, there may have well been many advanced Indian Nations on par with Japan, Mexico, Russia, and the U.S.
