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The Choctaw always had about 15,000 people
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121
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The figures for the Choctaw appear to tell a simple story. Setting aside two or three early estimates, which are evidently too small or too large, there is practical unanimity. It would seem from the figures given us by travelers and officials that during the eighteenth century the tribe had a population of about 15,000. Only a few small tribes were added to it during the historic period. Toward the end of that century and during the first three decades of the nineteenth the population appears to have increased gradually, for the census of 1831, taken just before the removal, shows 19,554.1 Allowing for the 1,000 or 2,000 Choctaw who remained in Mississippi and are not always enumerated in the later returns, we seem to have a surprising constancy in Choctaw population. Thus in 1904, when a careful census was made in which the Indians, intermarried whites, freedmen, and Mississippi Choctaw were carefully distinguished, we find 15,550 Indians belonging to the old emigration to Oklahoma to whom the 2,255 "Mississippi Choctaws" must be added.2 These last were not, however, the Choctaw then living in Mississippi, but those who had emigrated recently from that State to share in the Choctaw allotment. As in 1910 there were 1,366 in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and other States,5 we must also add at least that number, making a total of 18,539. This shows a decrease of only about. 1,000 since 1831, but to the earlier figures something like 1,200 must be added for those Choctaw who had left the nation previous to the census of 1831 and settled in Louisiana and Texas. An actual decline of about 2,200 is thus indicated. It must, however, be remembered that the amount of Indian blood represented by the 18,539 Choctaw listed in 1904 was much smaller in quantity, relatively as well as absolutely, than that in the 19,554 of 1831, the quantity of white and Negro blood having been continually on the increase. From 1903 to 1914 the figures of the Indian Office show an apparent increase, so that, including the older emigrants to Oklahoma, the later emigrants, and the Indians in other States, there is a total of 20,451. But when one considers the premium placed upon Indian blood during the period of allotment and the constant lowering of the bars it will at once be suspected that all of this is not a legitimate Indian growth, and that these 20,451 are for the most part not ethnic-Indians but legal Indians. The true state of affairs is probably approached much closer in the census returns of 1910, in which we find 14,551 given in Oklahoma, 1,162 in Mississippi, 115 in Louisiana, 57 in Alabama, and 32 in other States—a total of 15,917.8 There had thus been an actual decrease in the numbers of the tribe since 1831, and a still greater decrease in its blood, though this latter must be corrected in turn by the addition of a certain amount which has passed out among the whites and Negroes and is no longer recognized as Choctaw, or even as Indian, and by allowing for certain individuals who have left the Indian country and now live the lives of ordinary white citizens. The following table contains the figures upon which this discussion is based : Population op the Choctaw at Various Periods Prior to 1834 l Authority. Iberville De la Vente Moll map Bienville Regis du Roullet Pere Baudoin Colonial Records of Georgia Colonial Records of Georgia Anonymous French MS Adair De Kerlerec Bouquet nutchins Letter of John Stuart Potter Romans Ramsey Smith Schermerhorn Hodgson Morse Armstrong (a census) Year. 1702 1704 1715 25-26 1730 1732 1738 1739 750(?) 750(?) 1758 1764 1764 1764 1768 1771 1780 1785 1814 1820 1822 1831 Warriors. 3,800-4,000 700 8,000 +3,000 1,466 16,000 5,000 +3, 610 64,500 3. 500-1, 000 4.500 5,000 800-900 2,600 4,141 4,500 4,000 Total population, 2 [13, 300-14,000] 3 7, 000-8, 000 [2, 450] [28, 000] [+10,500] [5, 131] [56,000] 4 [17, 500] s +12, 635 [15, 750] 7 [12, 250-14, 000] [15, 750] 21,500 [17, 500] [ 2, 800-3, 150] 9,100 13, 423 [15, 750] 15,000 15, 000-20, 000 25,000 19,554 'Authorities: IbervilleinMargry,Dec.,iv, pp. 601-602; Corapte Rendu, Int. Cong. Am., XVsess.,I,p.35; Mollmap; Oa.Col. Rec., v, p. 56; Ibid., p. 191; Mem. Am. Anth. Ass'n, v, No. 2, pp. 71-72; Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p. 282; De Kerlerec in Compte Rendu, Int. Cong. Am., XV sess., I, p. 76; Bouquet in Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, m, p. 559; Hutchins, ibid., p. 555; Am. Hist. Mag., vol. xx, 4, p. 825; Potter in Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., 1st ser.,x, p.121; Romans, Concise Nat. Hist. of E.and W.Fla.,p.74; Ramsey in Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., 1st ser., Iv, p. 99; Smith in Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, m, p. 555; Schermerhorn in Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., 2d ser., II, p. 17; Hodgson, Journ. N. Amer., pp. 274-275; Morse, Rept. to Sec. of War, p. 364; Reports U.S. Ind. Office; Ind. Pop. in U. S., U. S. Census of 1910, p. 15. ' Figures in brackets are derived by multiplying the number of warriors by 3* ; the rest are as given in the originals. _ a More than 700-800 cabins. 1 46 towns. ' 45 towns. ' Not above this figure. T 52 towns. » Correspondence on the subject of the Emigration of Indians, Ac., Senate Document No. 512, 1833, Wash ington, 1835, m, p. 14P swanton] EARLY HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 453 Choctaw Population Subsequent to 1834 1835. United States Indian Office, 18,500. 1838-1843. United States Indian Office, 18,500. 1844. United States Indian Office, 19,410. * 1845. United States Indian Office, 19,392. 1847. United States Indian Office, 16,000. 1850. United States Indian Office, 12,760. 1853. Schoolcraft (from census rolls), 15,767. 1854. United States Indian Office, 15,767. 1855. United States Indian Office, 16,000. 1856. United States Indian Office, 22,707. 1857. United States Indian Office, 19,707. 1861. United States Indian Office, 18,000. 1865-1870. United States Indian Office, 12,500. 1871. United States Indian Office. 15,000. 1872-1878. United States Indian Office, 16,000. 1879. United States Indian Office, 16,500. 1880. United States Indian Office, 15,800. 1881. United States Indian Office, 15,890. 1882. United States Indian Office, 16,000. 1883-1885. United States Indian Office, 18,000. 1886. United States Indian Office, 16,000. 1887. United States Indian Office, 18,000. 1888. United States Indian Office, 18,200. 1889-1892. United States Indian Office, 18,000. 1893-94. United States Indian Office, 20,000. 1895-1897. United States Indian Office, 17,819. 1898. United States Indian Office, 18,456, including freedmen but excluding inter married whites. 1898. United States Indian Office, 19,406, including freedmen and intermarried whites. 1900. United States Indian Office, 20,250. 1901. United States Indian Office, 16,000, not counting 4,250 freedmen. 1902. United States Indian Office, 20,250, including freedmen. , 1903. United States Indian Office, 14.918, besides 205 intermarried whites and 2.983 freedmen. 1904. United States Indian Office, 15,550, besides 954 intermarried whites, 4,722 freedmen, and 2,255 Mississippi Choctaws.1 1905. United States Indian Office, 17,160, besides 1,467 intermarried whites, 5,254 freedmen, and 1,235 Mississippi Choctaws. 1906. United States Indian Office, 17,529, besides 1,550 intermarried whites, 5,378 freedmen, and 1.356 Mississippi Choctaws. 1907. United States Indian Office. 19,036, besides 1,585 intermarried whites and 5,994 freedmen. 1908. United States Indian Office, 19.036, including 10,717 mixed bloods, but not including 1,585 intermarried whites and 5,994 freedmen. 1909. United States Indian Office, 19,106, including 10,769 mixed bloods, but not including 1,671 intermarried whites and 5,994 freedmen. 1910. Census returns (including 1,162 in Mississippi, 14,551 in Oklahoma, 115 in Louisiana, 57 in Alabama, and 32 in other States), 15,911. 1 By Mississippi Choctaws are meant Indians in the Choctaw Nation who had recently arrived from Mississippi; those remaining in the latter State are spoken of as Choctaws in Mississippi. 454 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 73 1910. United States Indian Office, 17,489, besides 1,651 intermarried whites, 5,985 freedmen, and 1,637 Mississippi Choctaws. 1911-12. United States Indian Office, 17,479, besides 1,651 intermarried whites, 5,985 freedmen and 1,672 Mississippi Choctaws. 1913. United States Indian Office, 17,328, besides 1,651 intermarried whites, 5,994 freedmen, and 1,639 Mississippi Choctaws. 1914. United States Indian Office, 17,446, besides 1,651 intermarried whites, 5.994 freedmen, and 1,639 Mississippi Choctaws. 1915. United States Indian Office, 20,799 (8,444 full bloods, 2,473 half bloods or more, 10,822 less than half blood, including 1,651 by intermarriage'); freedmen 6,029; in Mississippi 1,253; in Louisiana, a few. 1916-1919. United States Indian Office, 17,488 by blood, 1,651 intermarried, 6,029 freedmen, 1,660 "Mississippi Choctaw," and 1,253 in the State of Mississippi. To the last figures must be added about 200 for the Choctaw in Louisiana, Alabama, and elsewhere. (Swanton)
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