MFP Voices
Opinion | A Native Perspective on the April 8 Solar Eclipse
Roger Amos writes about his Indigenous ancestors’ solar eclipse tales as the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse event approaches.
April 4, 2024
MFP Contributor
Roger Amos writes about his Indigenous ancestors’ solar eclipse tales as the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse event approaches.
Before Europeans claimed Choctaw land for their own in the early 19th century, the tribe owned a large swath that cut across the present-day state.
“Mississippi Burning” is a historical crime thriller film loosely based on the 1964 murder investigation of three Congress of Racial Equality civil rights workers—James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner—who were killed in Philadelphia, Miss., by the Ku Klux Klan. Contributing author Roger Amos, a Neshoba County native, discovered parts of his own Choctaw history during the Civil Rights Movement and this historical investigation after reading about it in history class.
Our fair, in Neshoba County, means different things to each of us, but collectively, it is a time to get together as a tribe and showcase our rich culture and openly invite the public to visit us and learn about us in our homeland that my ancestors refused to leave during the removal period of the 1820s and 1830s.
Today’s Choctaw Indian Fair looks much different than its very simple, humble beginnings. Tribal members exhibited their garden produce at the time, just as our ancestors did during harvest season when the gathering in the old days was known as the New Corn Ceremony or the Green Corn Festival. A princess pageant wasn’t part of the Fair until 1955, and country-music concerts added a decade later.
For Choctaws, not attending funeral services may be the hardest part of the COVID-19 public-health guidance to follow. It’s hard to be told not to attend services or to be able to provide physical comfort for the family in mourning.
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