Choctaw Resurgence in Mississippi: Race, Class, and Nation Building in the Jim Crow South, 1830-1977

7. Termination, Segregation, and Choctaw NationBuilding, 1951–1964

chapter seven Termination, Segregation, and Choctaw Nation Building, 1951–1964 Paradoxically, the Mississippi Choctaws constructed a tribal government just as federal Indian policy had shifted toward a program called termination. World War II had drained funds from the Indian Service , and Cold War ideology condemned Indian reservations as enclaves of socialism. In 1953 Congress passed House Concurrent Resolution 108, calling for the termination of the Indian Service and the dissolution of the trust relationship between the federal government and Indian tribes. Policy makers hoped to turn Bureau of Indian Affairs (bia) health, education, and welfare services over to state and local governments.1 In Mississippi, racism and poverty hindered these goals, and the bia pursued a contradictory course that both contested and upheld the Choctaws’ recent political rebirth. The bia’s termination strategies emphasized both relocation to urban areas (the subject of the next chapter) and assimilation into local economies and institutions. Government administrators recognized that Mississippi’s segregation statutes would be problematic. Although the Indian Service had done nothing to counter discrimination in the early twentieth century, attitudes had shifted by the 1950s. Officials of the Muskogee Area Office now refused to allow state officials to place Indians in segregated health care facilities and sought to integrate Choctaws into the white labor force. These men and women believed they could make Choctaws acceptable to whites through selective assimilation .2 They encouraged Choctaws to modify their ethnicity for the 160 Termination, Segregation, and Choctaw Nation Building, 1951–1964 labor market and celebrate it for the tourist industry, and they focused much of this effort on women. Choctaws’ reaction to termination was mixed. Like most other Indians in the postwar period, they were critical of federal paternalism and wanted an autonomous reservation economy. Therefore, the tribal council embraced elements of the termination program that promoted economic independence. Choctaws marketed their ethnicity for tourists , but they did not treat it as an anachronism. Rather, Choctaw crafts and public performances of their ethnicity reinforced their political status as Indians who were not subject to segregation statues. They resisted the loss of bia services for fear of segregation in public accommodations . This chapter highlights the lived experience of termination policies in the unique context of the segregated South. Termination: Economic Opportunity and Choctaw Identity Termination of the Choctaws officially began in 1951 with the “Management Improvement Schedule for the Five Civilized Tribes,” a document that caused consternation on the council. Commissioner of Indian affairs Dillon Myer met with them in 1952 and explained that termination and relocation presented opportunities for nonagricultural employment and self-sufficiency. Council members responded that racism would impede their ability to find work or obtain health and education services outside the bia.3 Plans to close the Choctaws’ hospital in 1953 drove this point home.4 In a council meeting in 1954, Cleddie Bell read a letter from the Pearl River community protesting the closure and introduced a resolution to stop it. Both documents stressed the hospital’s importance in reducing mortality rates. The resolution explained that segregation and “the natural timidity of the Indian people” prevented them from obtaining health care in other venues.5 It passed unanimously and went out to Choctaw political allies. The prospect of closing the hospital concerned the Choctaws’ supporters , who recognized the crucial need for such a facility. Senators James O. Eastland and John Stennis and Representative Arthur Win- 161 Termination, Segregation, and Choctaw Nation Building, 1951–1964 stead wrote to commissioner of Indian affairs Glenn L. Emmons, asking that it be kept open. Emmons replied that no definite decision had yet been made.6 Meanwhile, keeping with their determination that the Choctaws would receive medical care “without segregation or discrimination ,” federal officials sought integrated health care in medical facilities near Choctaw communities.7 These administrators had underestimated the power of segregation. County health care administrators made it clear that hospitals would place Choctaws in wards reserved for African Americans. Against recommendations from Washington to demand integration, agent Paul Vance persuaded county medical personnel to segregate Indians from both white and black patients and worked out a schedule of fees for Indian patients.8 The next year, however, Congress transferred bia health services to the U.S. Public Health Service (phs), which saved the Choctaw hospital but altered its operation.9 The hospital became more restrictive under the phs. Veterans were shunted to the va hospital and free care was limited...