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Title
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‘So Many Little Republics’: British Negotiations with the Choctaw Confederacy, 1765
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Date
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1994
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Bibliographic Citation
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Galloway, Patricia. 1994. ‘So Many Little Republics’: British Negotiations with the Choctaw Confederacy, 1765. Ethnohistory 41(4): 513-537.
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annotates
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Galloway’s article explores Choctaw identity and diversity through the lens of diplomacy. She argues that the Choctaw were a multiethnic confederacy with strong divisional autonomy that endured through the eighteenth century. The first part of the article traces the origins of this confederacy back to at least 1675, describing the gradual inclusions of more towns and divisions into a “heterarchical, multiethnic confederacy of autonomous towns” (Galloway 1994:514). Here, Galloway describes the Eastern division as originating from the Tombigbee region in Alabama, who fled west to escape European-introduced disease. They joined the older Western division to form the first part of the Choctaw confederacy in the 17th century. The second part covers the proceedings of a congress between the Choctaw and the British government in Mobile in 1765. Using notes of the proceedings written by two colonial officials, Galloway shows that the Choctaw representatives from different divisions held different views on the British, and they refused to approve land grants affecting towns not represented in the meeting. Galloway therefore demonstrates the Choctaw resisted efforts by a colonial power to impart a singular hierarchical leadership, which in turn gave the Choctaw greater diplomatic leverage and autonomy. Galloway further provides a detailed look into the formal diplomatic ceremonies and practices of the Choctaw and its factional nature. This article fits into a broad trend of Choctaw ethnohistory that emphasizes the persistence of certain Choctaw social and political structures in the face of colonialism.