Little Dixie (Oklahoma)

File:Map of Little Dixie Oklahoma.png

Little Dixie

See also: Kiamichi country

Little Dixie is the name given to the region in southeastern Oklahoma heavily settled by Southerners displaced by Reconstruction following the American Civil War.

The region consists, more-or-less, of the following counties in Oklahoma: Atoka, Bryan, Choctaw, Coal, Haskell, Hughes, Johnston, Latimer, Le Flore, Marshall, McCurtain, Pittsburg, Pontotoc, Pushmataha and Seminole.

History

The area was acquired by the United States through the Louisiana Purchase and became part of the new Arkansas Territory. On April 1, 1820, Arkansas created Miller County which included most of the land that would become Little Dixie. A post office at Miller Courthouse was established on September 7, 1824. Per a treaty signed on January 20, 1825, the land west of a line "one hundred paces east of Fort Smith, and running thence, due south, to Red river" was ceded to the Choctaw Indians. The residents west of the line made a futile attempt to be exempted from the treaty but failed. They burned the courthouse and most of the records before they left.

Some Choctaws had been moving into the region from Mississippi since the Treaty of Doak Stand in 1820, but following the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830, the government began their forced removal. By 1834, nearly 8,000 Choctaws had arrived in their new land over the "trail of tears and death". At Nanih Waiya, near the present Tuskahoma Council House, they established a capitol and adopted the first constitution ever written in what is now Oklahoma. The Choctaws actively supported the Confederacy during the Civil War and were allowed to keep most of their land in eastern Indian Territory. In 1898, after pressure from Washington, they agreed to an allotment plan administered by the Dawes Commission. Their excess lands and those of the allied Chickasaw were opened to settlement by non-Indians.

Reconstruction following the Civil War left the South financially ruined and many of its citizens dispossessed. When the Indian lands were opened, these dispossessed Southerners flocked to the Indian Nations for a new start, especially to the old Choctaw reserve. So many homesteaded in the area that they markedly influenced the politics and culture of the region. In the decades that followed, it became known as Little Dixie. Many of the residents still refer to themselves as Southerners.

Geography

The region amounts to some 13,544 square miles (35.079 km²). It is generally quite hilly and wooded. Southern pine and hardwood forests cover most of the area. The Ouachita Mountains cover the eastern two thirds and include the Jackfork, Kiamichi, Winding Stair, and Sans Bois mountain ranges. Several clear mountain streams flow through the area.

The weather is more humid than the rest of the state. The winters are not as cool, and the weather is not as subject to the wind and great temperature extremes as is common to the central and western portions of the state.

Demographics

Per the 2000 census, the region has 305,395 people. Whites equal about 76% of the total, American Indians total a little over 17%, and Blacks, almost 4%. Many of the blacks are descendants of the Choctaw freedmen (slaves freed by the Choctaw after the Civil War). The median per capita income is $13,948, almost $10,000 less than the state average of $23,517.

Politics

The region is overwhelmingly Democratic—around 80%. Many of the citizens proudly refer to themselves as yellow-dog Democrats. From statehood until 2001, most of the region was in its own Congressional district, the 3rd District (numbered the 4th District from 1907 until 1915). Its best-known congressman was Carl Albert, who represented the district for 30 years, the last six as Speaker of the House. Albert became synonymous with the region. At 5 feet 4 inches tall, he was known affectionately as the Little Giant from Little Dixie.

Albert retired in 1977 and was succeeded by Wes Watkins, who held the seat for 14 years. He decided to run for governor in 1990. However, the Democratic campaign tactics during the primary forced Watkins from the race (and eventually from the Democratic Party). Watkins later re-registered as a Republican and, in 1996, easily won back his seat on the strength of his personal connection with the region's voters. Watkins’s victory led to several other Republican victories at the local level in the region. After the 2000 U.S. Census, Oklahoma lost 1 seat in Congress, and so most of the region was combined with northeastern Oklahoma to become Congressional District 2 (one of the largest Congressional districts in the U.S., geographically speaking). The region remains strongly Democratic, politically.