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The Choctaw revolution: Lessons for Federal Indian policy

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When there are daily news stories of the poverty, despair, and social problems of Native Americans, both on and off reservations, one success story (unrelated to casino wealth) is profoundingly heartening. The Mississippi Choctaw had every difficulty faced by every other Nation but they have accomplished tribal development, culturally relevant education for their children, culturally based health care, and full employment, not with federal and state hand-outs but with hard work, honor, and typical "Choctaw humor" as they used the "system". In a region of the U.S. where everyone was either black or white, where was the place for a People that was neither? But they have made a place--economically, socially, and culturally and today they are about the fifth largest employer in the state. How they arrived at that status is what the Choctaw Revolution is about. The book spells out the route to success but I found Chapter 7 the most informative in another way. When I worked in tribal development and Indian Child welfare years ago in Oklahoma, I wondered why the BIA was so obstructive to tribal development when it was the one agency of the federal bureaucracy charged with bringing that about. Chapter 7 tells me why. Each Nation faces some challenges that are different but many that are the same. What worked for the Mississippi Choctaw will work for other Nations as well--without their having to sacrifice their cultural identity in the process.

This is an excellent book. I had the good fortune of working for Chief Martin on a recreation project for the reservation. Without question, he is an extraordinary individual with insights, understandings, convictions and unbending determination to improve and enrich the lives of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. And, he did it in a non-traditional manner. Chief Martin believes in the human spirit and self determination for his people. He's a realist. He's a doer. He's has vision. He happens to believe that the BIA is not the answer. His accomplishments while the elected chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians speak for themselves. Anyone interested in American Indian policy should read this book and learn from the lessons it contains. Phillip Martin is an unusually gifted man and a great leader. He now lives in retirement on the reservation he did so much to improve for all his people.

From Business Week Online (12/16/05):

Peter Ferrara, a senior policy adviser at the conservative Institute for Policy Innovation, says he took money from (Jack) Abramoff (a lobbyist hired by the Choctaw tribe) to write op-ed pieces boosting the lobbyist's clients. "I do that all the time," Ferrara says. "I've done that in the past, and I'll do it in the future."

Ferrara wouldn't say which publications have published pieces for which Abramoff paid him. But a review of his work shows that he wrote articles for The Washington Times that were favorable to the Choctaw Indians

He also wrote a 1998 book called The Choctaw Revolution: Lessons for Federal Indian Policy. Ferrara says the tribe paid him directly for his work on the book, which was published by the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation.

Folks, it has been revealed that Peter J. Ferrera was paid by Jack Abramoff to write about his clients, who engendered the "Choctaw Revolution."