Transcript: Joshua J. Breedlove
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw are a proud people
- [Breedlove:]
- The Mississippi Choctaw all have, well, we are all very proud people, and we have very rich history and culture. We’ve been here in Mississippi long before many others and despite all of the travesties that have happened to the Native American culture throughout this country, the Mississippi Choctaws survived all of it, and now our people are one of the great examples throughout Indian country for what we can accomplish. We have built ourselves up from the majority of our tribal members being sharecroppers, not owning any property of their own, and only a few thousand of them left alive, to now we are over ten thousand members strong and we are one of the largest economic engines in the state of Mississippi, and a lot of it is, is just self preservation of our own culture, our own beliefs, and the willingness to survive.