The MOWA Band descends from a racially-diverse group of progenitors who settled in the counties of Washington and Mobile in the early 19th century, documented as whites, freed slaves, and free people of color. Their oral history traces their tribal origins to Indigenous people who stayed in Alabama after others were coerced or forced to leave for areas west of the
Mississippi River in the 1830s, including descendants of Choctaw groups.
19th century The first documentation of the progenitors of the MOWA Band was in the early 19th century. Fifteen individuals in the Band descend from the signatory Alexander Brashears, who received land under Article 14, and whose descendants married into the community in the late 19th century, after the
Civil War. The oral histories of the Band state Choctaw were joined over time by additional fugitives, both lacking citizenship, and formed their progenitors in the swamplands and forests of southwest Alabama. They initially raised livestock, typically on small, unimproved tracts, then moved into the lumber industry, some selling firewood themselves. Choctaw communities were attested in south Alabama by William Armstrong in 1847. Although the group repudiated the term, and described it as pejorative, it likely stuck because it was an easy way to distinguish the community from the area's white and Black populations. The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians officially retired the exonym "Cajan" after formation.
Apache internment at Mt. Vernon The community was known for bootlegging during this time; one of their oral traditions stated an Apache man assisted a family in production. Band ancestor Luke Rivers stated they used to perform with fiddles for the Apaches at
their internment camp. The Apache purchased violins in
Mobile, which Hudson implies was due to enjoying the fiddle performance. In the 19th century, Apache children were taken from their parents and sent to
American Indian boarding schools, which included
Carlisle Indian School and the
Haskell Institute in Kansas. After school segregation in Alabama, ancestors of the MOWA Band sent their children to these schools due to their missionary schools not servicing a high school curriculum.
20th century In 1910, many ancestors of the Band were listed in the Washington County census as "mixed" Indian for the first time. Local opinions in anthropological reports varied, with a report in 1937 stating locals considered the ancestors of the Band to be of white, African-American and Native American heritage, whereas a later report in 1975 noted local whites and Black people did not widely refer to them as Native American, or even rejected it as an identification.
Litigation The community was especially impacted by
Jim Crow laws, which reified a binary system for racial categorization. This impacted the ancestors of the MOWA Band educationally, economically, and legally. Both successfully appealed their convictions. During an appeal, the prosecution was unable to prove Percy was Black, because the appellate court ruled that the determination of his race had been based upon hearsay and appearance, while a defense witness and even his trial judge deemed him to be of "Indian and Spanish origin".
Segregation From 1921, missionaries from the
Southern Baptist Church and
Methodist Episcopal Church visited the area, bringing formal education and religion to the community. This led to the creation of Indian churches, such as Reeds Chapel, which became a center for community life. These newly established Indian missions doubled as school buildings. While they had convinced the Washington and Mobile County districts to offer a third school system especially for themselves, it remained inadequate for their needs. By this time, the community was more educationally deprived than Black people; until desegregation, they were typically barred from white schools and refused to attend Black schools, accept Black teachers, or allow church membership to those who married Black people. Descendants of those who married Black people were ostracized from the community. A few were able to pass and attend white schools, but their low literacy hindered economic advancement. After tribal formation, two chiefs have testified saying the predecessors of the Band were banned from Black schools. The community was denied a high school education until the 1960s. Instead, many adults attended Bacone College, an Indian school run by the Southern Baptist Convention in Muskogee, Oklahoma. A few also attended a BLA-supported high school on the Mississippi Choctaw Reservation, which was relatively close.
Civil rights movement and tribal formation During the era of segregation, many local businesses in Mobile would not hire Native Americans, including the ancestors of the MOWA Band, supposedly because they would have to create a third set of bathrooms for them. By 1969, most of them went to desegregated schools, with only Reed Chapel school remaining. According to Historian Mark Edwin Miller, the community's Indian churches continue to play an important role in its members' sense of identity and pride. In 1984, the group played a central role in the formation of the
Alabama Indian Affairs Commission. Since 2000, the Census Bureau has referred to members of the band under the category "American Indian and Alaska Native", subcategory "Choctaw", as using the assigned code C12, for the label "Mowa Band of Choctaw". ==Historical analysis and oral traditions==