Elementary children await their turn on the dance floor at the spring festival.
At the spring festival at Tucker, young girls share a laugh before the dance.
78 Mississippi Miracle
| Choctaw Nation Part II
old people don’t wear them any more. I don’t know when that changed or why that changed, but it makes me sad. It makes me really sad.” Nickey’s mother and older sister taught her how to make a dress when she was just 15. “I made a plain dress the first time, and then put some lines and a diamond and a half-diamond on it,” said Nickey, adjusting the orange-and-black beaded barrette in her hair. “I started by sewing all the time and making lots and lots of quilts.” Choctaw dresses are usually trimmed with one of three motifs: full diamond, half-diamond or a series of circles and crosses. The diamond design represents the Eastern diamondback rattlesnake, while the circles (o’s) and crosses (x’s) signify stickball sticks and ball. Although she learned young, Nickey has yet to pass down her knowledge to anyone else. “If they want to learn, I can teach them,” she said, speaking Choctaw as Trudy Jimmie, a bead-maker, translates. “But no one wants to learn.” During her life, Nickey has watched the Choctaw dress evolve from every day attire to an outfit primarily worn at the annual fair, spring festivals and American Indian Day. It is not that Dora Nickey resents those who do not wear Choctaw dresses each and every day. But in a place where women used to adorn themselves in handcrafted dresses on a day-to-day basis, Nickey cannot understand why they no longer do. “It hurts my feelings that Choctaws aren’t wearing their dresses,” she said, still speaking Choctaw. “Since we are Choctaw we are all supposed to wear Choctaw dresses. The girls used to wear them all the time, but now they don’t even wear them to church.” Surrounded by a modern world, many of the young girls have pushed their Choctaw-made clothing to the back of their closets, and, as Nickey sees it, have pushed a part of their culture to the back of their minds. Her fears about a significant slice of Choctaw culture starting to slip away are shared by other older Choctaw, who feel closer to the old ways than their children and grandchildren. It is a natural fear, and a very real dilemma for almost any ancient culture. Each generation grows up in a world vastly different from the world of their parents – and especially their grandparents. Holding onto that culture becomes more difficult – and more urgent — with the passing of time. That is just one reason the Choctaws, like a number of other tribes, have a cultural center that promotes preservation of tribal crafts and traditions. And they are succeeding. Choctaw girls, in particular, are proud to wear traditional dresses at the annual fair, spring festivals, and other special occasions. Parents pack gymnasiums to see their children perform traditional dances in Choctaw regalia. More so than in most tribes, the Mississippi Choctaw are very conscious of the need to hold onto what has been passed down by those who came before them. Nickey knows this, of course. She just pines for the way it used to be, and wishes it could be that way again, a time when the distinctive Choctaw dresses were worn every day. “I just want the young girls to learn how to make dresses, and I just wish that they would wear them every day, even when there aren’t any activities going on,” she said.