Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (commonly referred to as the Choctaw Nation) is a federally recognized Native American tribe with a tribal jurisdictional area comprising twelve tribal districts. The Choctaw Nation maintains a special relationship with both the United States and Oklahoma governments. As of 2011, the tribe has 223,279 enrolled members, of which 84,670 live within the state of Oklahoma. The tribal jurisdictional area is 10,864 square miles (28,140 km2), a total of 233,126 people live within these boundaries, the majority of whom are not Choctaw.

The chief of the Choctaw Nation is Gregory Eli Pyle. The Choctaw Nation Headquarters is located in Durant, Oklahoma, though the Choctaw Capitol Building is in Tuskahoma, Oklahoma; it is now the Choctaw Museum and home to the Judicial Department Court System.

The Choctaw Nation is one of three Choctaw tribes; the others are the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians and Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Those are descendants of Choctaw who resisted the forced relocation to Indian Territory. The Mississippi Choctaw preserved much of their culture in small communities and reorganized as a tribal government under new laws after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

Those Choctaw who removed to the Indian Territory, a process that went on into the early 20th century, are federally recognized as the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. The removals became known as the "Trail of Tears."

Read more about Choctaw Nation Of Oklahoma:  Geography, Government, Chiefs, Economy, Health System, 2008 Freedom Award, Notable Tribal Members

Famous quotes containing the words nation and/or oklahoma:

    Nations do not think, they only feel. They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains. A nation can be brought—by force of circumstances, not argument—to reconcile itself to any kind of government or religion that can be devised; in time it will fit itself to the required conditions; later it will prefer them and will fiercely fight for them.
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    I know only one person who ever crossed the ocean without feeling it, either spiritually or physically.... he went from Oklahoma to France and back again ... without ever getting off dry land. He remembers several places I remember too, and several French words, but he says firmly, “We must of went different ways. I don’t rightly recollect no water, ever.”
    M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)