| dc.description.abstract | In 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner introduced his frontier thesis that has since been both widely acclaimed and severly criticized. It is not the intent of this paper either to attempt to validate, or dispute, any portion of Turner's essay. It is, instead, merely an attempt to evaluate the Choctaw Indians using the same unit of measurement as that applied to the white pioneers. For this exercise I chose to use only those arguments presented in the original thesis rather than merge them with the extensions and clarifications presented in Turner's subsequent essays. There are various documents and materials that are edited to exclude information not relevent to the Choctaws. Those changes relate only to the Chickasaw Indians, which were included in the laws and constitutions of the Choctaw Nation after 1838. An example of such a modification would lie in references to the Chickasaw District. The constitutions stipulate that the chiefs of the four districts act as the executive branch of government. However, in this paper the fourth chief, or other Chickasaw officers, are mentioned only to insure accuracy, such as the veto and override powers of the departments. In those instances that do not require the Chickasaw presence, I will exclude them and refer only to the Choctaws. Therefore, at times the reader may note differences in the number of offices, or officers, within the government. Those references that in any way might affect the intent of the document remain intact. | |
