CHOCTAW, a prominent tribe in southern Mississippi, of Muskogi stock (q.v.). They farmed intensively and flattened their heads. They were allies of the French, enemies of the British and of most of their Muskogian kinsmen. In the later 18th century they began drifting west of the Mississippi river, and about 1832 the majority moved to what is now eastern Oklahoma, where they remained self-governing and semi-civilized until their absorption into American citizenship in 1906. They number about 18,000 exclusive of negro freedmen included in the "nation," but include many of mixed blood; the original population seems to have been about the same in size.