Petition by Choctaw community members in Boswell regarding coal and asphalt payments sent to the Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Coal in Choctaw Nation, Part III
Iti FabvssaPublished March 1, 2025By Megan Baker
This month’s Iti Fabvssa concludes the three-part series, “Coal in Choctaw Nation.” This month will consider how Choctaw Nation’s coal mining operations in the 19th century contributed to the Nation’s continued political existence in the 20th century.
The end of the 19th century was filled with conflict with the US government, which sought to incorporate Choctaw Nation and its lands into the United States.
As mentioned in Part II, jurisdictional issues regarding Choctaw Nation’s inability to prosecute US citizens within the Choctaw legal system contributed to crime in Indian Territory. US citizens who committed crimes often were able to evade prosecution in Indian Territory, giving rise to the perception that Indian Territory was a “lawless” place.
The US government, in turn, used this “lawless” reputation as a pretext for incorporating Indian Territory into the US. This political incorporation was a violation of numerous treaties signed with the Five Tribes that had agreed to removal largely on the condition that they would be left alone and never made part of the US.
Nevertheless, American settlers and the US government continued to pursue the Five Tribes’ lands. Major shifts in federal Indian law increasingly enabled and sanctioned the violation of these treaties.
Although Choctaws and the other Five Tribes were exempted from the 1887 Dawes Act, the US continued to pressure them to allot their lands. Ultimately, conditions in Indian Territory forced Choctaw leaders to make difficult decisions. In 1898, Choctaw leaders ratified the Atoka Agreement which established a plan to allot Choctaw lands.
Advocates for allotment argued that the US government would eventually force them to allot their lands so it would be better if the Choctaws managed it on their own terms. While most of Choctaw lands were surveyed and allotted to individual landowners, the coal and asphalt lands were reserved from allotment. Choctaw leaders decided that these lands would be sold and the revenue from the sale would be distributed to Choctaw citizens as per capita payments.
To incorporate Choctaw Nation and the other tribal nations of Indian Territory into the new State of Oklahoma, US Congress passed numerous laws that began to dismantle the Choctaw government. The 1898 Curtis Act, which made the Atoka Agreement federal law, also included provisions regarding the dismantling of tribal courts. The process of doing this proved difficult and legally confusing. In 1906, the US Congress passed the Five Tribes Act, which ensured that the Five Tribes’ governments would continue to exist well beyond Oklahoma statehood.
Other laws transferred tribal/federal jurisdiction regarding some aspects of land allotments to the State of Oklahoma. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and State would treat the Five Tribes as though their governments had been abolished.
This was not the actual case according to both the body of Indian law as well as the specific statutory laws that applied in Oklahoma though. The federal government’s early efforts to dismantle the Choctaw government were quickly complicated because of the Choctaw Nation’s coal and asphalt lands. The US could not officially terminate the Choctaw Nation until these lands had been sold.
From 1906-1934, the Bureau of Indian Affairs made numerous attempts to organize the sale of the lands to private buyers but were unsuccessful. Multiple factors contributed to the initial failures to sell the Choctaw coal lands. The Great Depression began in 1929 and lasted until 1939; this severely limited the number of possible buyers for over 6 million acres of valuable coal land that had to be bought as a whole.
As industries shifted from coal to oil for their energy needs, demand for coal lessened. The decline in demand also caused the coal lands’ valuation to drop, which worried tribal leaders who wanted to receive the full original valuation of the coal and asphalt lands. To speed up the sale of the coal lands so Choctaw people affected by the Great Depression could receive necessary dividends from the sale, Choctaw people pushed leaders to do more.
In June 1934, Choctaw people convened for a Delegate Convention to decide how to resolve outstanding Choctaw affairs, particularly the sale of the coal lands. This group of delegates from each Choctaw Nation counties and one at-large became known as the Choctaw Advisory Council. The council met once a year to hear and discuss legislation that would affect tribal members and coordinate with their district congressman, Carl Albert, to decide the best course for all Choctaw people.
Although Choctaw Nation did not have a formal legislative system from 1907 to 1983 due to the US laws passed around Oklahoma statehood, the Advisory Council played a critical role and functioned as an informal representative government that served the needs of the Choctaw people.
Ultimately, the federal government agreed to purchase the coal lands from the Choctaws. In 1948, Congress passed federal legislation authorizing the purchase of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nation’s coal lands for $8.5 million. The per capita payment came out to $350 per individual, which would be worth approximately $4,621 today. The process of distributing this money to the original Choctaw enrollees listed on the Dawes Rolls began in 1949, but the task proved to be difficult. A great number of original enrollees had passed away in the 43 years it took to sell the coal lands.
The BIA would have also had to handle the challenge of distributing payments to the heirs of original enrollees – which they would not have been able to complete without the help of Choctaw officials who served as intermediaries between the BIA and Choctaw community.
Again, the management of coal per capita payments ensured that the Choctaw government remained a part of Choctaw people’s lives. While Congress would later pass termination legislation for the Choctaw government after the sale of the coal lands in 1959, the efforts of leaders and tribal members to coordinate the coal land sales contributed to the growing grassroots organizing that would later fight that same Termination legislation that led President Nixon to repeal the Choctaw Termination Act in 1969. Iti Fabvssa has covered this termination history in more depth; to learn more, see July 2022’s A New Chahta Homeland: A History by the Decade, 1960-1970 article.
Coal was not only a resource that Choctaw Nation used to generate revenue for the benefit of Choctaw education, but it also ensured that the (limited) Choctaw government would remain operational at a time when federal and state official sought to dismantle tribal governments.
As tribal property, coal and asphalt ensured that Choctaw government maintained its authority and stayed organized to make decisions that would affect all Choctaw citizens.
Given all these factors, coal has clearly played a powerful role in Oklahoma Choctaw history.