Summer was one of my favorite times of the year as a kid, not just because of the summer vacation from school, but for me it meant the Choctaw Reservation was coming to the fair. Our Neshoba County fair means different things to each of us, but together it is a time to come together as a tribe and showcase our rich culture and openly invite the public to visit and learn more about us our homeland that my ancestors rejected leave during the removal period of the 1820s and 1830s.
today Choctaw Indian Fair looks very different from its very simple, humble beginnings. Tribesmen then exhibited their garden products, just like our ancestors did during harvest time, when the gathering was known in ancient times as the New Corn Ceremony or Green Corn Festival. A Princess pageant was not part of the fair until 1955, and country music concerts began a decade later.
The newly elected tribal leader, Cyrus Ben, was sworn in the same week that Princess Elisah Jimmie was crowned in 2019 to begin her historic two-year reign. This billboard popped up near the Pearl River Resort on Highway 16 later that summer. Photo by Roger Amos
Since my parents had day jobs in the Pearl River Community, I could mostly enjoy the fair in the evenings when the country music concerts were in full swing. In fact, our mass was immortalized in a song recorded by a country music professional who later became our tribal historian Bob Ferguson. He was a popular figure on the reservation for writing “Choctaw Saturday Night” – heard during mass every year.
Likewise, Marty Stuart (from nearby Philadelphia) wrote a country song describing his meeting with his future wife Connie Smith in the song “Met My Baby at the Choctaw Fair”. Stuart brought tribal dancers to perform on his nationally syndicated television broadcast as well as headlining the Choctaw Indian Fair.
While I’m not a personal fan of country music, listening to these sounds of big acts at the show always brings back certain fond memories that growing up Choctaw, I was still a South American and also a Mississippi and a lot of people were country Love music in these parts. It’s one of the biggest draws for the Choctaw Indian Fair and one of the things that makes it so successful. Our show was named one of the Top 10 Mississippi Summer Events, along with our neighboring Neshoba County Fair, which is held nearby a few weeks later.
Part of that success is country music, which we Choctaw children have associated with the modern version of the New Corn Ceremony of our culture.
Before Europeans claimed Choctaw land for themselves in the early 19th century, the tribe owned a large swath that crossed what is now the state, pictured here. Photo courtesy of wikicommons
Country music strangely reminds me of my paternal grandmother: I wouldn’t say she was a fan of the genre either, but it was always background music whenever I spent time at her house in the Bogue Chitto community while she was me babysat and my cousins as our parents were working in the only jobs available in the Pearl River community in the early 1990s. Her aging television was usually off, but the radio was always tuned to Meridian’s country music station 97 OKK.
As I in a. mentioned previous column in the Mississippi Free Press, my grandmother didn’t speak very much English, so I doubt she could relate to the lyrics sung by Billy Ray Cyrus, let alone the words he sang.
These days, my cousins and I reminisce about our beloved grandma and country music while peeling peas or hand-snapping green beans, though she was a strict discipline who definitely made sure we were all well behaved . She was an elder who was known and respected in the entire church, and we miss her very much.
Roots for the ‘Million Man’ stickball team
Once we had spread a blanket on the hill above the amphitheater and had dinner while we enjoyed the concert. Usually we would then check out the craft vendors, the community culture stalls, and the 4-H award-winning fruits and vegetables. Then, around 10:00 p.m., the concerts were over and the crowd usually moved up the hill to Choctaw Central High School’s Warrior Stadium across the street while the sound of the drum beats got the next two teams to play in the World Series Stickball tournament.
Outsiders have watched the game of stickball for centuries. This 19th century painting by George Catlin shows what a Choctaw stickball game would have looked like at the time.
I loved the fact that I could stay up well after my bedtime during mass. The game lasted about an hour or so, and the middle ground didn’t close until 1 or 2 in the morning. As a kid, I negotiated another ride as we walked about half a mile from the stadium, just past halfway and to the waiting shuttles to take us back to our cars. Nowadays the back end of the Golden Moon Casino is used for fair parking; in the 1990s it was the old Choctaw Industrial Park.
I really appreciate the community pride that arises during the trade fair season. Some people connect with more than one community, but I totally connect with the Bogue Chitto “Big Creek” community because my parents are both from there. I have cousins that I would visit occasionally in Pearl River and Conehatta (in Newton County), but when it came to stickball games during the fair, I was a fan of the Bok Cito team from the start.
This banner was awarded to the winner of the Stickball World Series during the Thanksgiving Festival 2019, which took place in the convention center of the Silver Star Casino. The 2020 festival looked very different and was held as a drive-through in the parking lot of the water park. Photo by Roger Amos
I especially loved seeing Grandma Amos on the hill by the stadium in her deck chair and white team shirt while she supported our Million Man team (called because of the large number of players on the roster) and watched them do it how she cheered them on and called out at any time a rating was made. Even if she sat far from the field, she would know that someone scored not only by the noise of the stadium crowd, but by hearing the drumbeat.
The choctaw drum strikes during play and takes on a different rhythm when a player scores a point – by striking an upright bar with a leather-woven ball. This is a centuries-old tradition that we still practice today. The old games had hundreds of players and the field was miles long so anyone who listened to the drums would know if there was going to be a winning goal. Nowadays, you can watch our games from miles away from the fair’s YouTube channel.
A welcome reunion after pandemic losses
My community has a lot to love and pride in our culture to do. The development club was often successful in winning first prize at joint booth exhibitions and was often able to compete with the largest community in Pearl River. Bogue Chitto also won the stickball championship, as it did in 2019, before COVID hit this region and shut everything down, causing last year’s fair to be canceled.
This last week has been really exciting on the reserve as the crowds continued to come and enjoy the casinos, water park and resort amenities like the July 4th fireworks and now, from July 8th 2021, the World Series of Stickball is now underway while things carefully return to normal.
Mass is usually reunion time for many Choctaw families. Willie Dean (Thompson) Denson, Roger Amos’ great-aunt from Metro Chicago, Illinois, discovered a photo of himself on display in tribal archives. Willie Dean (Thompson) Denson entered the first-ever princess contest in 1955. Photo courtesy Peggy Thompson
Even the Midway Rides arrived early before the “official” trade show dates from July 14th to 17th and can be used by the families who gather for the early rounds of the Games. Small reminders remain that COVID was only here a year ago as some exhibition stands that are now in operation have signs reminding customers to be 6 feet apart. This year the fair added a health booth with a vaccination station on the exhibition grounds.
As an adult, I now enjoy the fair differently. I enjoy it mostly for the family reunion, as I have relatives out of state in the Chicago metro, St. Louis, Memphis, and family friends in Alabama and South Dakota. We all come together and experience the fair. It will be all the more fulfilling this year as we haven’t seen most of our family and friends due to the virus and cancellation last year. I can not wait.
Additionally, there is reason to be optimistic: the latest statistics from our tribal health officials show no recent positive COVID cases since last week. That promises to be one of the most memorable shows this year, though everyone will have to take precautions due to the spread of the Delta variant in Mississippi.
A year ago, many drummers set out to beat the drum in solidarity from the security of their houses and front gardens at a certain point in time, during which the social media declared it to be a “virtual” trade fair week 2020. This year we can march with them in person, honoring the many lives we lost to the virus, and continuing our traditions as we have done since the founding of Mississippi – and before our tribal government was restored here in 1945.
If you ever visit our show you don’t know who to meet: I personally took a selfie with local actress Elaine Miles, best known for her role in Northern Exposure, but most locals know her from others indigenous themed films such as “smoke signals”. To my surprise, she’s a fan of Bok Cito!
As they say in Mississippi, “Everyone is welcome!”
In the video above: The Choctaw Indian Fair grew dramatically, capturing the appeal of national country music acts over the long tenure of the longtime Mississippi band of Choctaw Indian tribal chief Phillip Martin (pictured above), who died in 2010. The late tribal historian Bob Ferguson was a former country musician who recorded “Choctaw Saturday Night,” which can be heard in this video.
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