In 1995 Jerry Thompson and Bill Thompson in Marlow, Oklahoma formed the Thompson-Choctaw Indian Descendants Association, Inc. (then known as the Thompson-McCoy Chickasaw & Choctaw Descendants Association). It was developed as a tool to keep the descendants of the sons of Henry and Margaret McCoy-Thompson in contact with each other. It further provided genealogical support for family members, encouraged Choctaw culture and history, provided enrollment assistance for those eligible to become members of the Choctaw or Chickasaw Nations in Oklahoma, and support for the annual Thompson reunion which was started in 1946 by Bradford Thompson and his brother Templeton.

The association also provided support for Choctaws that were involved in an internal conflict within the Texas Cherokees and Associated Bands. In 1975 the TCAB was functioning in both Oklahoma and Texas. With the adoption of the constitution of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the TCAB became a non-entity there. In Texas the leadership of the group went from W.W. Keeler, who remained as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, to Judge Foster T. Bean of Kilgore. Judge Bean, along with Mack Starr and to a limited extent George Morrison Bell, continued the organization for Mount Tabor Community descendants.

Although the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands could trace its origins in Texas to 1819, William Penn Adair (photo left) and Clement Neely Vann, both of who had resided at the Mount Tabor Indian Community (a name given the community located between Kilgore and Overton by John Bell Jr. in 1845) before the Civil War, formed the actual political organization in 1871. Adair and Vann started a long series of lawsuits that extended well into the 20^th century. Going to the United States Supreme Court in 1920 and the Indian Claims Commission in 1948.

Thus many left the area, causing the remaining Choctaws to become the dominant group. Additionally, the Choctaws maintained a community group and governmental organization that although a part of the TCAB held its own meetings and had its own leaders, thus leading to such things as the Reunion Committee.

The long cherished cooperation between the two groups came to an end in 1990 as the push for Federal Acknowledgment got under way. With Jerry Thompson (right in photo with Nick Blackbear) becoming Chairman in 1988, the strengthening of the band started in earnest. Talks got under way with Cherokee Principal Chief Ross Swimmer (below left with Wilma Mankiller, photo by David Cornsilk) to see about the possibility of adoption into the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. The problem was the Choctaws who could not be adopted as Cherokees. While long mis identified as Cherokees, the genealogy and history was clear that the Choctaws of the Mount Tabor Indian Community were the majority of the band by far. In 1990, Thompson and Saunders Gregg put together a proposal that would rectify the matter. This included incorporation into the State of Texas as the Texas Band of Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. This was completed in April of 1990 by a vote of three to two, but that was only the start of problems. Some members of the Executive Committee vehemently opposed the inclusion of the Choctaw name into the title or that the Choctaws should belong at all to the band. This opposition put the entire project on hold for the last ten years. The biggest problem was the criteria set forth by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Other than adoption into the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the band had to go through the Department of the Interior or through Congress and the courts. The criteria for the BIA was specific and the Cherokees by the fact that they had become too assimilated would not qualify. The Choctaws on the other hand still maintained a community setting near the original site and had a much higher percentage of inter-marriage and therefore higher Indian blood quantum's than the Cherokees. Yet the Choctaws had been associated with the TCAB since the founding of the community with ties even stretching back to the Treaty of 1836. In other words the two groups needed each other for recognition.

The attempts to reconcile these differences continued throughout the 1990's to no avail. Finally in 1996 the first push to separate the Choctaws from the Cherokees took place, but this too ended without action. The band saw changes in leadership four times in 1998-1999 from Thompson to Wendell Potts a descendant of Richard Fields who served as Chairman for two months, being replaced by Terry Easterly, the first woman to serve in that capacity. Easterly was also the first person that was Choctaw only with no Cherokee blood to serve in that capacity. The writing was on the wall. A poll was taken to see just how really lopsided the numbers were. From this it was estimated that the band consisted of 272 Choctaws and 37 Cherokees. Granted there were many people who claimed Cherokee blood in the area, but these could not prove actual Cherokee ancestry or ties to the historical group. There were also a good number of Cherokees involved with the group whose ancestors were part of the community, but these were generally already members of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and therefore not eligible for dual enrollment if the group was to gain recognition.

To further add to the confusion a group formed in Troup, Texas in 1993 claiming to be the re-established Texas Cherokee Nation. This group had no ties to Mount Tabor as an organization, nor was it a continuously existing organization from historical times to present, so it could not gain federal acknowledgment. However, having such an organization claiming to be a Cherokee tribe within the southern territory of the TCAB would only lead to problems that the Choctaws didn't want to deal with. While neither the Choctaws or Cherokees of the TCAB questioned whether this other group was really Indian or not and none feel qualified to do so, their existence posed more political problems than the Choctaws could deal with. At the annual meeting in 1999, the families there decided to partially separate, if at least in name from the TCAB and seek federal acknowledgment as a distinct group. However, the vote was decided upon to let the Association seek the avenues for acknowledgment and not incorporate the band separate from the TCAB, but maintain the 1990 incorporation at this time.

Thus the Texas Band of Choctaw Indians of the Mount Tabor Community became distinct, but wasn't allowed to act until more information on acknowledgment and the Choctaws historical ties to the Cherokees became clarified. While the Association, which considers itself non-political, has attempted to get the band to push forward, it has become obvious that the wishes of the majority must be followed. One of the reasons for this reluctance was that the Thompson-McCoy Chickasaw & Choctaw Descendants Association, was for Thompson's who were in both Texas and Oklahoma. Secondly, our representation did not initially cover any Choctaw or Chickasaw families except the descendants of Henry, Archibald and William Thompson, the sons of Margaret McCoy-Thompson. Therefore, we have had to modify our position at least temporarily. In late 2000, the name was changed to the current Thompson-Choctaw Indian Descendants Association, or the short form Thompson-Choctaws. The reason for this has to do with our current mission of representing the needs and interests of the Choctaw Indians of Rusk and Smith counties. This includes all families, although dominated numerically by the Thompson's. Nearly all band families have at least one line back to Margaret McCoy-Thompson, even if descended from another Choctaw, Chickasaw or Cherokee family. Secondly, all Chickasaw descendants are also Choctaw by blood, whereas not all Choctaws are of Chickasaw lines. Only a few Cherokees do not have Choctaw blood, but even these are tied together through inter-marriage of white Thompson family members to Cherokees in historical times.

 

Today, anyone with an interest may join the association. However, only those that have lineal descendancy from a historical member of the Mount Tabor Indian Community, as listed on the ancestral list, and are still regarded as a part of the Choctaw community (by residence or other means) and not a member of another federally recognized tribe may be a part of the actual band.

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One of the primary projects of the association was the completion of a genealogical project showing the relationship of all the families of the Mount Tabor Indian Community. This project is currently 90% complete and can be viewed on rootsweb.

The association is actively looking at developing funding sources for the purposes of cemetery preservation in Rusk and Smith counties. One of the first projects that have been accomplished is the identification of all primary (Native American only) and secondary (Native American majority and non-Indian) tribal cemeteries. This has been accomplished and that data can be viewed at "tribal cemetery links". The association also hopes to become more involved in the support for preservation of the Battle of the Neches grounds at Redlands.

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Another project of the association is to keep the Choctaw Times up and running. The former TCAB newsletter published as Native Times from 1975-1998, will continue as a quarterly publication, rather than monthly as it was until 2000. Back issues of the Choctaw Times, when available will be on-line. Anyone who has older copies that we could scan we would appreciate hearing from you. Due to computer crashes in the past, all copies prior to 1999 are currently unavailable.

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Texas Band of Choctaw Indians of the Mount Tabor Community Home Page Index

The Thompson Choctaw Indian Photo Gallery

Tribal Cemetery Link

Thompson-Choctaws Membership Information

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