- There is a centuries long fight against the US government that you probably don't know about.

Hollywood portrayals and long-held stereotypes might have taught you that this is how Indigenous peoples live, or even that their form of government has something to do with an Indian princess.

The truth is, Native American Tribes have strong, effective, and unique Tribal governments that contend with modern problems.

One of the toughest modern problems some Tribes face today is the fight for federal recognition.

The federal government has been sued, marches have been organized, and petitions have been signed over 100,000 times.

Why?

Because many Tribes are being denied this recognition.

Federal recognition is a political status where the US government recognizes a Native Tribe as a sovereign nation, essentially a separate legal entity similar to a state or country.

This government to government relationship is rooted in a long history of treaties, legislation, executive orders and the US Constitution.

"Recognition refers to how other governments view a nation, "not how a nation views itself or how it acts.

"Neither federal nor state governments grant sovereignty "to Indigenous peoples."

Why does federal recognition matter, and why is it so difficult to attain?

(dramatic intriguing music) - [Triston] My name is Triston Harper, and I'm from Macintosh, Alabama.

- [Harini] The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians received national attention in 2024 when tribal member Triston Harper became the fifth runner up on American Idol.

- [Triston] I reckon I might play it for y'all, if y'all say, "Hope" one time.

Can I hear, "Hope"?

- [Audience] Hope!

- [Triston] I'm gonna say that again.

Can I hear, "Hope"?

- [Audience] Hope!

- [Triston] I reckon I'll play it for y'all.

- [Harini] Harper may have won the hearts of thousands across America, but the MOWA Choctaw are one of the many non-federally recognized Tribes.

So far, they've fought for recognition using all three formal routes, petition, litigation, and congressional bill, and have been unsuccessful each time - [Chief Byrd] We've been here a long time, and now it's time for people to realize that we are here.

Just give us the recognition that we deserve.

We want the recognition as an Indian Tribe.

We're Choctaw Indians, and our name is MOWA Choctaw.

- [Harini] There are hundreds of non-federally recognized Tribes in the US today.

Tribal governments have the right to self govern, which means they're responsible for the health, safety, and welfare of their members, like a state or country, and they have the freedom to determine how to do that.

This can look different for each Tribe.

Recognition provides more opportunities for Tribal governments to exercise their sovereign rights and access funding for healthcare, childcare, and elder care.

It also allows access to grants for education, housing, broadband access, economic development, and more, access that would have a huge impact on tribal communities.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA, created a formal recognition process in 1978.

Before then, Tribes gained federal recognition through treaties, acts of Congress, presidential executive orders, or other federal administrative actions.

Since then, less than 50 applications for federal recognition have been approved.

If that sounds like a small number, that's because it is.

And some non-federally recognized Tribes have been seeking recognition for decades.

- [Peter] Recognition, or BIA funding, would open up a whole new avenue for us.

It would be so beneficial for my people to be able to have, instead of a small clinic over there that can do for a few people, is to have a full staff here that can, when someone is having a heart attack, they have a place to go.

But federal recognition would also open the doors to self-sufficiency.

Us to be able to compete in other areas that other Tribes have access to that we don't, that we are denied.

You're not federally recognized, you can't apply for this grant.

- [Harini] But the reality of pursuing that recognition is grueling.

Thousands of volunteer hours, years, or even decades of research, thousands of pages of documentation proving your Indigenous ancestry, and more money than most Tribes have to spare.

After 10 years of writing, petitioning, and researching with the help of university professors, the MOWA Choctaw sent a letter of intent to the BIA in 1983, and were denied in 1997.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs cited this section of the criteria as the problem, "Must descend from a historical Indian Tribe."

The BIA required documentation to prove the Tribe's existence from as early as possible, which would sometimes date back to 1789, or the first time of sustained contact.

After reviewing the documents, oral histories, and research the MOWA Choctaw provided, the BIA researchers determined the oral histories could not be supported by primary documentation.

The BIA concluded that the two core families the Tribe claimed to descend from had not been documented as American Indian, and that only 1% of the MOWA Choctaw members have documented American Indian ancestry, with this ancestry coming through lines other than the two core families.

Former MOWA Choctaw chief, Wilford Longhair Taylor, responded.

- [Narrator] That criterion alone is particularly unfair when it's based solely on the records of white men.

Applying the single criterion that puts an undue burden of proof on a people whose most important genealogical source is oral history.

Our history is not written on paper, it's written in stone, the gravestones of our cemeteries from 1814 to 1996, memorializing our history.

- [Peter] We just knew who our people were.

You know, we buried 'em.

I could take you to the cemetery where my great-grandfather was.

My great-great-grandfather was born in 1815, and I can take you where they lived.

I can take you where they were buried.

I can tell you who they married.

I can tell you every one of their children, I can tell you their children's children, their children, all the way down to me, so we know who we are.

- [Harini] Non-recognized Tribes are all unique with their own oral histories and genealogy, which makes meeting most of the seven points of criteria for the federal acknowledgement process extremely challenging.

Not only is it difficult to meet the criteria, some completed petitions may take up to 15 years to be processed due to a lack of resources.

Critics of the recognition process say it's a complicated one size fits none approach that boils down the diversity of Indigenous peoples across the US to legal fictions and cultural stereotypes about Native Americans.

Subjectivity is at the bedrock of the process, and even the government accountability office reported that the basis for BIA's Tribal recognition decisions is not always clear.

- [Olivia] The issue is trying to prove one's Native identity, or your legitimacy, that brings up a lot of really deep seated racist beliefs about Native Americans as well whether that's based on our appearance, or how we should act, or how we should express our culture, et cetera.

So I think that a lot of those beliefs just then end up fueling the public attitudes towards unrecognized Tribes.

- [Harini] One reason the MOWA Choctaw have struggled to prove their Choctaw ancestry is because in 1830, the Tribe defied the Indian Removal Act, and stayed on their ancestral land.

- [Chief Byrd] We're still in Alabama, and so we're the stayers.

We didn't get removed like other Choctaws got removed, and sent west of the Mississippi to Oklahoma.

We haven't left.

We are still here.

We still honor our same traditions as those who were removed to Oklahoma during the Indian Removal Act.

- [Harini] The 1830 Indian Removal Act forcibly displaced around 60,000 Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and other Southeast Tribes, resulting in what would later be known as the Trail of Tears.

Thousands of adults and children died of disease, malnutrition, or exposure during the 1,200 mile journey on foot.

- [Peter] When the treaty was signed, the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, some of our leaders signed that treaty.

But one thing that it did, it said, Article 14 of that treaty said that we could stay here, not be removed.

You know, everybody thinks that, oh, the Trail of Tears, they got every Indian up and took them to Oklahoma.

Well, we know that's not true.

- [Harini] The MOWA Choctaw's ancestors hid in the swamps and pine bearing of South Alabama, avoiding detection and documentation for decades, until their home was discovered by a timber company looking to take advantage of Alabama's pine forests.

- [Peter] We were a functioning little community here amongst ourselves until exposure came for our people.

But we have always maintained our own identity.

A lot of people didn't bother to ask, or we didn't tell 'em, because we didn't trust them.

- [Harini] A second reason is that during the first half of the 1900s, Jim Crow segregation dominated racial relations in the South, and not being Black or white, Southeastern Native Americans, like the MOWA Choctaw, were left in a racial no man's land.

Too afraid of forced removal to self-identify as Indian, but too afraid of Jim Crow laws to identify as Black, many who could pass as white did.

And census records of MOWA Choctaw descendants during this time don't seem to know how to classify them, either, listing them as everything from Indian and Black to Cajun or white.

This discrepancy would later cause issues for the MOWA Choctaw during their petition for recognition.

But the federal government isn't the only opposition non-federally recognized Tribes contend with.

Some Tribes have contested the recognition of new Tribes, questioning the validity of these groups, or expressing concerns that it could reduce federal funding for recognized Tribes, and increase competition in the gaming industry.

In 1979, the MOWA Choctaw were the first to be state recognized by the Alabama legislature, which means the state of Alabama has affirmed their identity.

They are the MOWA band of Choctaw Indians.

The MOWA and MOWA Choctaw differentiates the Tribe geographically from the other Choctaw bands.

Their reservation lies south of Washington County and north of Mobile County.

State recognition impacts their lives by allowing them to maintain their tribal identity and cultural practices, which allow them to organize and represent themselves as a distinct community, a requirement for the BIA petition process - [Chief Byrd] To us, sovereignty puts in a position so that we can do things here on our tribal reservation.

We can do things on the land that we own right now.

We can build houses for our tribal members, and we can do things just like a local township, a municipality.

- [Harini] State recognition gives the Tribe access to state level grants, cultural preservation programs, and some federal funding through the state, but it's significantly less extensive compared to broader federal programs such as healthcare, education, and economic development opportunities that come with federal recognition status.

- [Peter] There are Tribes out there that are not federally recognized, that have their own distinct cohesive community, and they function, and they've been functioning well since first European contact.

So we've been dealing with outsiders for a long time, and I just think it's time.

- [Harini] In 2022, Alabama Senator Richard Shelby reintroduced a Congressional bill to extend federal recognition to the Tribe, but it failed to move past committee review.

Still, there may be hope for the future.

Since 2015, the BIA only requires documentation of Indian ancestry back to 1900 instead of first contact.

The BIA has also proposed a conditional time-limited opportunity for denied Tribes, like the MOWA Choctaw, to repetition for federal recognition with the updated documentation rules.

The fight for federal recognition is a little-known or talked about story, but it's impacting thousands of Indigenous peoples in America.

80% of the MOWA Choctaw community live below the poverty line today.

Access to federal grants and the ability to make decisions based on the community's needs would radically change the way their tribal members live.

But Native peoples aren't waiting around to be acknowledged.

They assert their inherent sovereignty and right to self-governance every day by establishing governments, enforcing tribal laws, preserving their land and cultural practices, taking legal actions to protect their rights, and advocating for their interests.

- [Chief Byrd] Our tribal members are getting educated.

They're willing to go beyond what people think that they can do.

And with Triston's recognition on American Idol proves that when you put your mind to do something, people will recognize who you are from what you do and how you do it.

It's not something that someone can say, well, you just did it because someone gave it to you.

No, we work for what we have, and we want the people to understand that we're not asking for handouts.

All we need to do is get that recognition.

- [Harini] When a Tribe decides to petition for federal recognition, they know they're signing up for a generation spanning challenge that could end with their Tribe becoming a sovereign power in the eyes of the United States.

But for many, it's not all about an outside government recognizing their sovereignty.

It's about acknowledging a people's identity.

The Indigenous experience today is not an antiquated stereotype.

For many, the experience has been steeped in this arduous fight for acknowledgement.

All that Tribes of the MOWA Choctaw ask is that their culture, heritage, and self-governance be appropriately evaluated when the US is reviewing their petition.

- [Peter] I'm a Choctaw Indian.

I am a member of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians, but we're not going anywhere, and we gonna be here.

We gonna fight until the last breath is in my body, my son, my cousins.

We are not going anywhere.

We know who we are.

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