"Chata" -Choctaw

Chief Gregory E. Pyle

Inter-Tribal Pow Wow 2006

Male Dancers at Pow Wow

"Halito"-Hello

As most of you know, Jonathan's family is Native American, from the Mississippi Choctaw and the Oklahoma Choctaw tribes. Jonathan's Great Grandfather, Great Grandmother, and their 4 children, which would include Jonathan's grandfather, signed the "roll" in 1902.

(To be enrolled in one of the Five Civilized Tribes, you had to sign the rolls, which were used as a type of census and the only way to receive "benefits" from the government. To this day if you can't prove with a paper trail, usually back to the rolls, that you have certain percentages of indian blood then you cannot receive benefits and are not recognized as a part of a tribe. At the time many indians refused or for some other reason did not sign the rolls and their descendants cannot legally prove their indian ancestory. This is a big problem for those trying to claim their ancestory. We've ran into many families that are in this situation, including my own parents, whom on both sides have Cherokee blood.)

Jonathan and the boys are listed as Choctaw/Mississippi Choctaw on their U.S. Dept. of The Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs, CDIB (Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood) cards. Originally their family was from the Mississippi Choctaw and later settled in Oklahoma, where many of the Choctaw ended up after The Trail of Tears. Now the tribe is associated with the Mississippi, Oklahoma, and another clan of the Okla Chahta in California. As stated before, the Choctaw are apart of The Five Civilized Tribes, and are known for being peaceful but ready to fight, and an agricultural community.

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Capital Grounds, is located in Tushka Homma, Oklahoma, which is in the mountains in Southeastern Oklahoma. "Tushka Homma" means "red warrior" in Choctaw. Every year they hold a HUGE Labor Day Festival and Pow Wow. We've gone every year since I was pregnant with Jon Michael. The boys love to go every year to watch the dancing, stickball (a game similar to lacrosse, but more dangerous), and to see family and friends. I love to go to see the same but also the crafts and awesome demonstrations that take place, not to mention the AWESOME indian tacos and corn! The boys think its so fun to go and see all their family that is "indian", they know that they're indian but they still are confused b/c they are so white!!!! It's funny.

Like I said, most of you knew about some of this but this was just to give you a little more info into that side of our families life.

Yummy corn!!!

You work up an appetite watching all that dancing!