Ralph Isaac walked around the arena of the new Choctaw Central middle and high school campus as he used an eagle feather to waft sage smoke out of a metal bucket on July 14. He was blessing the school, starting in the east portion of the gym where the sun rises, then the west, north and south, while the Southern Pine Drum Group and Blue Nation powwow group sat in a circle and played a large, traditional Choctaw drum, the alhípa chito.
While saging is not specifically a Choctaw tradition, many indigenous cultures use the practice to purify areas and expel negative energy. Isaac also saged the drummers and the Choctaw elected officials who were on the floor of the arena.
That day, a couple hundred people filled the maroon chair back bleachers in the brand-new gym, decorated in maroon, gray and white, as Choctaw and national leaders celebrated the opening of the new campus with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
During the campus’ grand opening ceremony, the Choctaw Central dance group performed a traditional social dance, the schools’ cheerleading squads chanted and cheered, the Choctaw color guard posted the colors of the flags and Choctaw Central middle school students sang “The Star Spangled Banner” in Choctaw.
“And though most of us have memories at the old campus, I look forward to the new memories that the new campus will have for all of us in store,” Choctaw Central High School Principal Alaric Keams said at the grand opening ceremony on July 14. “As I tell my students each day, especially for today, it is a great day to be a Warrior.”
‘All of Indian Country Is Watching’
The Choctaw Central middle and high school cheerleaders, wearing maroon-colored school T-shirts, cheered and shook their silver and maroon pompoms as each person walked into the arena for the grand opening ceremony.
The Choctaw community had many reasons to celebrate the new campus. One of the biggest challenges in indigenous communities across the country is the lack of modern tribal government buildings, including schools, Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Lewis said during the ceremony.
Gila River is indigenous community located in the Gila River Indian Reservation south of Phoenix, Arizona. Tribal citizens of Gila River elect a governor, lieutenant governor and 16 Tribal Council members to lead the tribe, while the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians elects a tribal chief, vice chief and 14 Tribal Council members.
“All of Indian country is watching. All of Indian country is celebrating probably the most significant schools and educational achievements in Indian country,” Gila River Gov. Stephen Lewis said. “As we know, one of Indian country’s greatest challenges is the lack of modern government buildings to allow us to serve our people, to bring them the critical services in an effective manner.”
The 24 traditional classrooms in the middle and high school academic buildings resembled classrooms on college campuses with tables and chairs set up with regular and electronic whiteboards on the walls. The campus has two lab and speciality classrooms and four exceptional education classrooms.
Located on 35 acres of tribal land on the corner of South Oswald Road off of Highway 16 West in Choctaw, Mississippi, the campus features modern designs with touches of maroon, white and gray displayed throughout the buildings.
The school, which serves Choctaw students in grades 7 through 12 throughout the state, also has career and technical education facilities, a football stadium, a track, a middle school gymnasium, a high school arena with almost 1,800 seats, a band hall, a choir hall, a library, a cafeteria and student housing. Technical education opportunities at Choctaw Central include engineering, carpentry, agriculture, health sciences and culinary arts. The fenced campus has door card readers, cameras and a guard shack to provide extra security to the school.
Students can choose between the Choctaw language or Spanish to fulfill the school’s foreign language requirements.
Donning a traditional Choctaw shirt colored in maroon and white and a matching beaded necklace, Tribal Chief Cyrus Ben noted that the Choctaw Central campus was the largest tribally controlled consolidated school district in the country. He reported that as of July 14, the tribe had 11,214 members, with more than 3,200 of those people being younger than 18. Nearly 800 students attend Choctaw Central, but the new campus can hold up to 1,200 students.
“With our motto here with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, self-determination has got us here and self-determination will continue to take us to higher levels for our community,” Ben said during the ceremony.
‘Invest in Our Greatest Resource’
Tears welled in the eyes of Tribal Council Education Committee Chair Demando Mingo and his voice wavered, full of emotion, as he spoke in admiration of the new campus. He is a graduate of Choctaw Central High School, and he said he was so proud to see the completion of the new school.
“This is more than the opening of a new school campus—it’s the beginning of a new chapter for generations of our tribal students,” Demando Mingo said. “It is a promise that we will continue to invest in our greatest resource, our students. For many years, we have recognized the need for a new campus, and today that vision became reality.”
The current Mississippi Choctaw people descended from ancestors who refused the U.S. government’s forced removal and relocation of Native Americans to Oklahoma in the 1830s. Until the 1920s and 1930s when the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs built Choctaw elementary schools, the Choctaw people, mostly isolated and impoverished, had little to no access to education because segregation prohibited Choctaw students from attending Black or white schools.
Back then, the only high school options for Choctaw students were at federal boarding schools in Oklahoma, Kansas or North Carolina, so few Choctaw people in Mississippi sought secondary education. Most of the Choctaw people were seasonally employed as sharecroppers or agricultural workers.
Officials from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service managed most of the tribe’s business until the mid-1960s when the tribe created the positions of tribal chief and the Tribal Council with two representatives from each of the seven Mississippi Choctaw communities to establish its independence from both the U.S. government and state government. The chief and council created the tribe’s own government that includes healthcare, education, social services, law enforcement, courts, housing and economic development.
Congress passed the Indian Self-Determination Act and the Tribally Controlled Schools Act in the 1980s, which allowed the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians to take control of its education system. The district now includes six elementary schools in Newton, Neshoba and Leake counties along with Choctaw Central middle and high schools on the Choctaw Indian Reservation in Choctaw, Mississippi.
The Mississippi Department of Education accredits the district and the schools must fully comply with all federal requirements for the Every Student Succeeds Act, special education, and other federal programs. The tribal education system reports to the South and Eastern States Education Office of the Bureau of Indian Education in Nashville, Tennessee, and to the office of the Bureau of Indian Education director in Washington, D.C.
All students in the tribal school system must have a Bureau of Indian Affairs Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood of at least 25% so the schools can maintain funding from the Bureau of Indian Education.
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs moderates Section 105(l) of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, which allows tribal organizations to enter into a lease agreement with the Department of Interior to rent or own tribal facilities. William “Billy” Kirkland, the assistant secretary of Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of Interior, said the new Choctaw Central campus is the largest project in the 105(I) program to date.
The construction and implementation of the new campus cost nearly $150 million, and the tribe will pay off the lease within three years, Tribal Chief Cyrus Ben said on July 14.
Kirkland said having an educated community helps the Choctaw tribe maintain its independence from state and federal governments.
“Hold yourselves up high because you’re a beacon in Indian country today,” Kirkland said at the July 14 ceremony. “Everyone is looking here today to see what was done and how they can duplicate that across their communities.”
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