Halito!

Welcome to Choctaw Nation of Okalahoma's (CNO) Indigenous Alabama! This site provides resources for conducting more informed compliance (Section 106) archaeology in the ancestral Alabama homeland of the Choctaw people. Today, the CNO defines their ancestral homelands to include 19 counties in Alabama, within which all archaeological sites, artifacts, and human remains are potentially associated with their ancestors. The Choctaw Nation ceded much of the land within these counties to the United States through various treaties. Their cultural heritage stretches from the earliest known human occupations of the Southeast (Paleoindian), well past removal efforts of the early nineteenth century and to the present.

Archaeology in the Choctaw homelands of Alabama may come as a surprise to some, as Alabama tends to be associated primarily with other Indigenous Nations. A primary goal of this work is bringing awareness to the extent of the Choctaw homelands in Alabama and the potential for significant, yet sometimes archaeologically challenging to identify, Choctaw sites. We also wish to inform researchers of the complexity of the relationship between the Choctaw people, past and present, and their Alabama homeland, which has endured European intrusions, forced removal by the United States, and continuing obstacles to sovereignty. Choctaw archaeology is under-researched, and there is a lack of culturally accurate source material at present. There is also an underappreciation of the complexity of associated archaeology. While this website cannot rectify all of these problems, it is provided as a step forward.

Using the Site

Within the constraints of compliance-based archaeology, it can be daunting to navigate the plethora of sources and find the time and resources for quality research. This website serves as a digital shortcut, providing Choctaw research and CNO guidance at your fingertips, making the investigation of Choctaw heritage in the Alabama homeland more accessible.

Consider this website a (work in progress) Choctaw research library: archaeological gray literature, ethnographic works, ethnohistories, histories, and historical maps that provide information about the Choctaw in one place. We provide summaries and annotations as a guide to thinking critically about the information. One might wonder why all of John Swanton's works are not included, and the short answer would be we turned away from more obvious sources, particularly those biased or skewed in their presentation and interpretations. While one may derive useful data from such publications, we must apply a critical eye to do so, and such nuanced treatments require additional work. The perspectives and contexts are generated by the working group, which includes CNO historic preservation staff.

Sources are called Items in Omeka (web platform), which are browseable, searchable, or viewable as Item Sets. Items are tagged with subject keywords, author, temporal range, and other metadata. Selecting an Item opens the metadata for the source, including summaries and annotations, links to related sources, and links to the source online (when available). Items highlighted with "**" indicate it includes human remains, funerary objects, or other sensitive information within the source. In keeping with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma's policies and protocols, this site does not promulgate the display and dissemination of materials that are culturally sacred, including human remains, associated funerary or sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. For more insight into this topic, please see articles by Matherly (2022) and Byrd and Thompson (2024). Items with the annotation "IA" are by Indigenous Authors.

At the bottom of this page is a link to submit sources, leave us a comment, or request access to sensitive archaeological data.