Choctaw spirit celebrated at the Choctaw Indian Fair

“The Choctaw Spirit Lives On,” the theme of the 2024 Choctaw Indian Fair, was a sentiment sincerely expressed across the fairgrounds from July 10 to 13. Families and friends from both inside and outside the Choctaw communities played carnival games, enjoyed handmade crafts, ate fry bread, participated in stickball demonstrations, and learned traditional skills such as hunting with a blowgun. Life and laughter filled those hot summer days. In the 74 years of the Choctaw Indian Fair, the Multicultural Ministries of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board (MBCB) managed a booth for the first time, distributing tracts to the public.

From noon to night, the fair bustled with eager fans of the World Series Stickball tournaments, kids and couples laughing aboard the many carnival rides, and concertgoers singing along to the music at each sunset. On the first night, the Choctaw Indian Princess Pageant crowned Leilani Elyse Allen as this year’s princess for her beautiful spirit and warmhearted nature. Her presence graced the ongoing historical dances which occurred throughout the fair.

Groups of adults, teens, and children gathered to perform social, war, and animal dances. Involving all generations, the social dances emphasized the importance of relationships. While some dances honor friendships, others—such as the “Steal a Partner” dance—display the chaos of courtship as dancers frequently pull partners away from one another. Both men and women also participate in the war dances, which represent how early Choctaws inspired one another to protect their people. The charming animal dances mimic the mannerisms of their namesakes. For instance, the “Raccoon Dance” presents a moving line from which a dancer at one end must chase a dancer at the other end, around the continually dancing line, until he or she is caught, like two raccoons at play. Age was no matter; everyone was invited to join.

Not all dances, however, commemorated the past. One performance honored a young man who had recently passed away. Many tears were shed as the dancers pulled his mother into their embrace and surrounded her. Shared grief was followed by personal hugs from each of the dancers to the mother, a moving picture of the joys, victories, heartaches, and defeats which spread within every living community and are experienced together.

In the Exhibit Hall, each community assembled a display proudly highlighting their people’s accomplishments. Strewn with athletic awards, diplomas, graduation pictures, military portraits, and black-and-white photos of former generations, the decorated displays celebrated the communities’ recreational pursuits and cultural arts with snapshots of stickball teams and beautiful beadwork, baskets, and handmade dresses. Nearly every display also boasted a Bible, photographs of churches in the community, or a miniature handcrafted chapel.

Nine Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) churches exist within the scattered Choctaw communities, but in order to extend to unreached individuals and grow as congregations, church planting and theological education continue to be a substantial need. Ray Duplessie, MBCB Choctaw Ministry contract consultant, and church leaders operated the Multicultural Ministries booth at the Chahta Immi Cultural Center to distribute various tracts, including a handout with a QR code to testimonies from Native Americans across the country who have come to know Christ as their personal savior. Another tract, “Why Jesus?” featured Native American ministers explaining our need for Jesus. Perhaps the most influential of the tracts, however, was a pleather booklet, less likely to be thrown away in a matter of days, containing the words and teachings of Jesus from the four Gospels. Duplessie hopes recipients hold onto the book, come across it time after time, and desire to learn more about the truth inside of it.

In conjunction with Multicultural Ministries, the Choctaw Bible Translation Committee (CBTC) managed a booth to carry out their mission as “God’s Word Sharers” to strengthen and revive the Choctaw language by providing spiritual resources to the Choctaw community. A nonprofit organization, the CBTC has produced Scripture portions from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke; the epistles of 1, 2, and 3 John; and the books of Ecclesiastes, Amos, and Jonah. Their ambition is to have the New Testament finished in a few years and then focus on the Old Testament, as the only complete Choctaw Bible was translated in the 1880s.

As Mississippi Baptists, it is vital that we celebrate and pray for our Choctaw brothers and sisters in Christ, and lift up the communities in prayer, asking God for heritage and history to be preserved and for the Holy Spirit to reach the outcasts, the forgotten, the hopeless, and the weary, that people may come to know Jesus. Pray that the Choctaw spirit lives on but pray most of all that the Spirit burns bright through His Church in the communities. Pray for Princess Leilani as she sets an example as a proud Choctaw; pray for her needs and peace to be met in Christ. Pray for the family and friends of the young man who passed away; pray for God’s light to comfort them in this dark time, for His hope to surround them.

Pray for the communities to grow in unity, not only in culture, but in Christ. Pray for the people to continue to celebrate each other’s accomplishments and artistic expressions. Pray for the passersby who picked up tracts at the Multicultural Ministries booth to truly dig for answers and seek Him. Pray for church planting within the Choctaw communities and for God to raise new leaders who are rooted in a strong understanding of His Word. Pray for the efforts of organizations like the CBTC who desire to preserve the rich Choctaw language and culture in a way that draws people closer to God, the Creator of all peoples.

For more information on the Choctaw Indian Fair, visit Choctaw Indian Fair. For more information on the Choctaw Bible Translation Committee, visit Choctaw Bible.