VALDOSTA STATE MAGAZINE 91 VALDOSTA STATE MAGAZINE 91 record in 1902, when the government deployed the Dawes Commission to see if there were Native Americans who had not received land that they were entitled to as Choctaws. But the tribe was not on the Choctaw rolls, which is what the government was using, so they were told to go home empty-handed. Yet that record of interaction is valuable proof because the Dawes Commission recognized the tribe as Indian — just not the right kind. Other evidence proving the tribe’s existence since 1710 comes from their segregated Native American school; several “holiness churches,” which were plantedthroughoutsoutheastMississippi since 1938 as members moved to find work; and large family reunions that have occurred since the 1950s. “Our identity has been buried and re- buried continually throughout time,” Polk said. “I’m angry because my family has been embarrassed. For me, it’s about the truth being told. That’s why recognition is important to me.” There is still intense bitterness, Haggard said, throughout the nation’s Native American communities over their history as well as their present. “There’s bitterness because they don’t understand,” he said. “There’s bitterness for what’s been taken. There’s bitterness for the way they’re still treated.