LeFlore was of mixed Choctaw and French ancestry, but he was brought up among his mother's people as a Choctaw. In their matrilineal kinship system, children were considered born to the mother's people and took their social status from her family. LeFlore attended the mission school at Brainard, Mississippi. For several years he attended the Johnson Indian School in
Kentucky. After the Choctaw were forced out of Mississippi by the United States under the
Indian Removal Act, LeFlore moved with his people to
Indian Territory in 1831. He soon held a high place in the councils of his people. In 1859, LeFlore was elected to the position of Governor following the completed term of Alfred Wade which was finished by Tandy Walker. LeFlore was involved with the Constitutional Convention of January 1860, and abdicated power to the newly elected Principal Chief, George Hudson. LeFlore was a member of the
Methodist Church and was well educated. He was said to adopt the European-American life. The Choctaw are one of the
Five Civilized Tribes of the American Southeast, and had adopted certain United States customs that they thought were useful. ==References==