VIDEO: Celebrating Choctaw Native American Culture

CHOCTAW, Miss.(WCBI)—The Choctaw Indian Fair wrapped up its four day run Saturday.

The Band of Choctaw Indians hosted it’s 68th annual Indian Fair.

“We always invite everyone to come out and see us at the Choctaw Indian Fair. Visitors will see Choctaw Culture at it’s finest,”said Fair Planning Committee Member Fred Willis.

The 4 day fair requires a good bit of planning, just ask fair planning committee member Fred Willis.

“Usually around fall we start looking into entertainment, who we want to bring to the concert series during the fair. We start in January really buckling down on a lot of the information, a lot of what we want to see here. We start looking at food vendors, arts and crafts vendors who want a space at the arts and crafts fair so it’s a months long process,”said  Willis.

The tribe sets aside a special budget just for the fair. Each year they work to expand funding through multiple sponsorship.

” The Choctaw Indian Fair brings guests from all over the world. One vendor who’s participated in this even for over two decades tells me, there are a lot of rides to ride but there’s also a lot of history to be learned as well,”said Wcbi Reporter Victoria Bailey.

“What’s neat about the festival is, people can come and learn about the Choctaw Indians. Everybody out here, they do their own bead work. If you have the time to really sit and talk to some of them, you can actually learn the reason why they makes these things and what’s important about the Choctaw Indians,”said event vendor Teresa Potts.

The arts and crafts and carnival rides definitely make for a good time but Willis says it’s the tribal members who give it meaning.

“There the ones who bring the culture alive during fair week with the dances, with the stick ball, with the arts and crafts, the basket weaving. All of the things that you see around the fair grounds that are culturally based, there very much a product of our tribal members,”said Willis.

History shows, The Choctaw Indian Tribe migrated form Western America and settled in the Mississippi River, where they lived for more than 1,000 years.