"Shortly thereafter, in 1801, the Treaty of Fort Adams was signed in which the Choctaws ceded to the United States 2,641,920 acres of land from the Yazoo River to the thirty-first parallel. That was the first in a series of treaties between the Choctaws and the United States. More and more Choctaw land was ceded to the federal government with each successive treaty — between 1801 and 1830, the Choctaw ceded more than 23 million acres to the United States. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830 marked the final cession of lands and outlined the terms of Choctaw removal to the west. Indeed, the Choctaw Nation was the first American Indian tribe to be removed by the federal government from its ancestral home to land set aside for them in what is now Oklahoma.

"When the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed, there were over 19,000 Choctaws in Mississippi. From 1831 to 1833, approximately 13,000 Choctaws were removed to the west. More followed over the years. Those who chose to stay in Mississippi are the ancestors of today's Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

"The ancestor’s decision to remain in Mississippi came at a high cost. The Choctaws who stayed did so because of the promise of land as outlined in Article 14 of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. To remain, Choctaw families or individuals were required to register with the Indian agent within six months after signing of the treaty or be forever barred from registering under Article 14. Each adult who registered was entitled to 640 acres of land; each child over ten who was living with a family was entitled to receive 320 acres, and each child under ten living with a family, 160 acres. Although the Choctaw families who managed to register and be allotted land by the illusive and antagonistic Indian agent, William Ward, many had to sell their property to survive. Consequently, most of the remaining Choctaws were removed to Indian Territory. Others fell prey to unscrupulous business practices and were cheated out of their property."

        Around 1878, when my great-grandmother was just an infant, her parents joined a group of Indians who left the reservation in Oklahoma, Indian Territory and returned to the Choctaw Nation in Mississippi. Most probably my relatives were not part of the original Trail of Tears removal from Mississippi to Oklahoma; but, had, instead, remained behind in Mississippi and were removed to the Indian Territory in one of the later movements when things became intolerable for Indians there (see my footnote above).  For whatever reason, however, life in Mississippi no matter how bad was preferred over life on the reservation in Oklahoma.  

        Further proof, I think, that my grandmother's relatives were removed to the Indian territory in Oklahoma is that, during her life, she never had any interaction with the Choctaw on the Mississippi reservation.  The Choctaw in Oklahoma and the Choctaw in Mississippi consider themselves 2 different nations.  Therefore, a lack of interaction says she either considered herself to be white or she wished no interaction because she didn't considered herself a part of the Mississippi Choctaw culture, holding instead to the Oklahoma heritage.

        After a long and arduous journey on foot from Oklahoma, my great-great-grandparents were only a short distance from their ancestral home on the banks of the Nanawaya River in Winston County not far from Nanih Waiya, the 'Mother Mound' (Inholitopa iski), when they were brutally attacked and massacred.  Nobody knows who the killers were but everybody speculated it was either white men who didn't want Indians returning from the Indian Territory to reclaim their land or soldiers who had pursued the party from Oklahoma.  

        Most probably, local whites committed the atrocity as its doubtful the Army would pursue a small band of renegade Indians so far.  Plus, Choctaws who had remained behind in Mississippi if they swore allegiance to the United States were attacked daily by whites who wanted the land they were given under the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.  Thus, this particular massacre wasn't anything out of the ordinary during Mississippi's era of White planter capitalism (called the "flush times" in Mississippi's early history).

        Today, who committed the atrocity is irrelevant.  What's relevant is that everyone in the party was murdered save my great-grandmother who was hidden in her pouch under her mother's body.  More importantly, within a short time after the massacre, some white people -  a family named Williams -  came along and heard the baby crying.  They rescued her, named her Kate, and took here home to Attala County where they raised her as their own.  

        In 1896, when Kate was around 17 or 18 years old, she married John Ray the son of Leonard (aka 'Lenard') Lafayette Ray of the Doty Springs area of Attala County.  Her marriage certificate, the only proof she ever lived other than her daughter and her grave, is registered in Kosciusko, Attala County, Mississippi  That interracial marriage did not sit well with the Rays' - pious, churchgoing people who had been instrumental in the establishment of Doty Springs Baptist Church where members of the family have served as deacon, elder, and minister since 1851.  So, John and his new wife along with his father and family moved to Sturgis where my grandmother - Daisy Pearl Ray - was born in 1897.  

        Seven years after her daughter's birth, in 1903, my great-grandmother, Kate - the Indian, died shortly after the birth of her son, Samuel, who also perished with her.  It was a hard time to give birth.  Medicine was not as advanced as we know it today, the area around Sturgis was more rural and isolated now, and there was a yellow fever epidemic sweeping the area. Most probably, her weakened state after the delivery allowed the epidemic to take her and her newborn son's lives as my grandmother often spoke of the epidemic that claimed their lives. Kate and her son are both buried in the Presbyterian cemetery in Sturgis.

        We don't know where her parents or any of the other Indian members in the group who were massacred are buried. We're not really certain of the exact location of the massacre, just that it happened.  

        After her mother's death, my grandmother grew up in the Sturgis area, raised by an aunt and uncle, the brother of her father, who remained sympathetic with my great-grandparents.  Eventually, in 1913, she married my grandfather - Joe Greer White - who was part Indian on his mother Malissa Jane Hammill's side and Scottish on his father John Baxter White's side.