Green McCurtain
Chief of the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory
Died when: 62 years 39 days (745 months)Star Sign: Scorpio
Greenwood "Green" McCurtain (November 28, 1848 – December 27, 1910) was a tribal administrator and Principal Chief of the Choctaw Republic (1896–1900 and 1902–1906), serving a total of four elected two-year terms.
He was the third of his brothers to be elected as chief. (His older brothers Jackson Frazier McCurtain and Edmund McCurtain had previously been elected as chief, serving a total of three terms.) He was a Republican in the late 19th century, leaning toward allotment and assimilation when the nation was under pressure by the United States government, as he believed the Choctaw needed to negotiate to secure their best outcome prior to annexation.
After 1906 and dissolution of tribal governments under the Dawes Act prior to Oklahoma achieving statehood, and the annexation of the Choctaw Republic by the United States, McCurtain was appointed as chief by the United States government.
He served in that capacity until 1910 and his death in office.He was the last freely-elected Chief of the Choctaws until 1971.
Green McCurtain represented his tribe as a delegate at the Sequoyah Constitutional Convention.This was an effort by American Indian nations in Indian Territory to create an Indian-controlled state in what is now Oklahoma.
They were not successful in getting Congressional support for this proposal.European Americans, who had established considerable presence in the Oklahoma Territory, had lobbied strongly for the entire area to be admitted as a regular state.