Anthropological Sources
Ethnohistorical and Historical Sources
In the past forty years, scholars have produced new wave of books and journal articles concerning Chahta (Choctaw) history after their earliest contact with Europeans in the late seventeenth century and before their removal from the Southeast by the United States in the 1830s. Prior to the 1980s, the works of early twentieth century ethnographers, particularly John R. Swanton, dominated the historiography of the Chahta. Starting in the 1980s, however, historians began to reevaluate their perspective by placing a greater emphasis on the historical agency of the Chahta and other southeastern Native Americans and centering the actions and perspectives of Native Nations in historical narratives. To compensate for the lack of written sources from the Chahta perspective, these ethnohistorians have incorporated archaeological data, linguistic analysis, and oral histories, into their research. Common themes and issues among this new historiography include, but are not limited to, the Chahta’s participation in the emerging market economy, their external relationships with neighboring Nations and European colonizers/governments, and the changes/continuity of Chahta society and culture in the time of colonization, war, and removal. The selected works represent an initial sample for understanding this turn in ethnohistorical and historical research.
Ethnographic Sources
The ethnographic Items selected offer a sampling of various types of literature that discuss Chahta (Choctaw) history and culture. Some are older publications which suffer the common maladies of traditional anthropology, in terms of being works written by elite white settlers often prioritizing their or other white settlers’ and colonizers’ observations over the voices and experiences of Chahta (Choctaw) people. However, the richness and uniqueness of the information therein often makes such sources indispensable nonetheless. In the cases of major and widely-cited works of this type, by Cyrus Byington and John R. Swanton, effort was made to also include publications that biographically contextualize these authors and their work. The intent is not only to enable better critical evaluation of these resources in their use, but also to be better able to critically evaluate those that cite or heavily draw upon them.
Other publications selected here represent more recent scholarship. For instance, Steven Crum’s work on the Chahta (Choctaw) legacy of prioritizing education; Brian Klopotek’s investigation of the complexities of federal recognition in Louisiana, and Jackie Matte’s work of the same ilk in Alabama. Also included, two articles by Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma member Jennifer Byram concerning what anthropologists might typically refer to as experimental archaeology, but which she reframes as “reawakening” traditional knowledge of textile production in a manner that subverts traditional anthropological divisions between archaeology, ethnography, and cultural praxis. The sample of works selected allows a start on this growing body of academic literature.
