Little Dixie (Oklahoma)

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.

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 Ninih 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 but 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 Jackfort, 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. The US House District that includes most of the region kept Democrat Carl Albert elected for thirty 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.

Up until the latter part of the 20th Century, only one Republican managed to carry the region—that in 1906. In 1991, Wes Watkins, who replaced Albert, ran for Governor of Oklahoma. The Democratic tactics during the primary forced Watkins from the party. He re-registered as a Republican and, in 1996, easily won back his seat. Watkins’s victory led to several Republican victories in the region although it still remains solidly Democratic.