NEW on the NMAI blog: An interview with Framon Weaver, chief of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians. Excerpt: The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians is the second-longest-petitioning, historic non-federally recognized tribe in the nation—since 1907. Only the Lumbee have petitioned longer for federal recognition. We were the first tribe to be recognized by the State of Alabama, and we are the only tribe in the state to have maintained our tribal language into the later part of the 1900s. We have attended federal and mission Indian boarding schools generationally and have a large number of federal tribes married into our community, as well as numerous other clearly identifiable characteristics of Indian communities. We are also one of only nine historic non-federal tribes in the nation to reside on a state-recognized Indian reservation (most of which happen to be the oldest reservations in the nation). . . . We are deserving of equity, fairness. We have lived the reality of history. As the late Indian icon and author Vine Deloria, Jr., stated in relation to our recognition efforts, Give the MOWA Choctaws a hand, and let’s get this recognition problem solved once and for all.” Photo: Chief Framon Weaver. Courtesy of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians.
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 19:32:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015