Editing Choctaw (section)

=== Population history ===
[[File:Jeffrey Gibson at Hirshhorn 2024 2.jpg|thumb|[[Jeffrey Gibson]] ([[Mississippi Choctaw]]/[[Cherokee]]), the first [[Native American art]]ist to have a solo exhibition in the U.S. Pavillion at the [[Venice Biennale]]<ref>{{cite news |last1=Barry |first1=Colleen |title=Choctaw artist Jeffrey Gibson confronts history at US pavilion as its first solo Indigenous artist |url=https://apnews.com/article/venice-biennale-us-pavilion-native-american-indigenous-aa13ab97f5c0449171a46ddaf9713547 |access-date=29 April 2025 |agency=AP |date=19 April 2024}}</ref>]]
[[File:Judge Ada Brown.png|thumb|[[Ada Brown (judge)|Ada Brown]] ([[Choctaw Nation]]), the first Choctaw woman to serve as a federal judge<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/president-donald-j-trump-announces-judicial-nominees-2/|title=President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees – The White House|website=trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov}}</ref>]]
The highest of early estimates was made by [[Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz|Le Page du Pratz]] who estimated the Choctaw at 25,000 warriors (and therefore around 125,000 people) in year 1718.<ref name="Krzywicki">{{Cite book |last=Krzywicki |first=Ludwik |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4381154&view=1up&seq=346&skin=2021 |title=Primitive society and its vital statistics |publisher=Macmillan |year=1934 |series=Publications of the Polish Sociological Institute |location=London |pages=505–507}}</ref> Other estimates from that time period were usually lower, but it is possible that they represented only a part of the tribe. Similar figures were given by [[Louis Juchereau de St. Denis|St. Denis]] who estimated the Choctaw at 18,000 warriors (or 90,000 people) in 1714 and by W. Bull who estimated them at 16,000 warriors (or 80,000 people) in 1738. According to B. R. Carroll the Choctaw were reckoned by the French to be the most numerous nation of Indians in America and consisted of many thousand men.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carroll |first=B. R. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000010466308&seq=248 |title=Historical collections of South Carolina; embracing many rare and valuable pamphlets, and other documents, relating to the history of that state, from its discovery to its independence, in the year 1776. |publisher=Harper & brothers |year=1836 |volume=II |location=New York |page=244}}</ref> [[John R. Swanton]] enumerated a total of 102 Choctaw villages and towns in his book.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Swanton |first=John R. |url=https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/15440 |title=The Indian tribes of North America |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology |year=1952 |pages=180–185|hdl=10088/15440 }}</ref> [[Robert Rogers (British Army officer)|Robert Rogers]] estimated the Choctaw at 10,000 warriors in 1775 (indicating a total population of 50,000). According to [[Gilbert Imlay]] they mustered 6,000 warriors around the year 1800 (implying a total population of 30,000). [[Jedidiah Morse]] estimated the Choctaw at 25,000 people in about year 1820.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morse |first=Jedidiah |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.reporttosecretar00mors_0/?sp=1&st=slideshow |title=A report to the Secretary of War of the United States, on Indian Affairs, comprising a narrative of a tour, performed in the Summer of 1820... |publisher=S. Converse |year=1822 |location=New Haven |page=364}}</ref> A census taken in 1830, shortly before the [[Trail of Tears|removal]], reported a total population of 19,554.<ref name="Foreman1972">{{Cite book |last=Foreman |first=Grant |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L8ZOg03I0s0C&pg=PA47 |title=Indian Removal: The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-8061-1172-8 |page=47, note 10 (1830 census)}}</ref> A report by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs dated 25 November 1841 indicates that by then 15,177 Choctaws had already moved to Oklahoma ([[Indian Territory]]).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs", Office of Indian Affairs, November 25, 1841. |url=https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/A2PBGWKCDCUSUE8A/full/AIHAF7ELMGXYOF84}}</ref> A few thousand more emigrated to the west in subsequent years. The Indian Office in 1856 reported the number of the Choctaws as 22,707. [[Emmanuel Domenech]] estimated the Choctaw at up to 25,000 people in about 1860.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Domenech |first=Emmanuel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nWkFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA11 |title=Seven Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of North America |publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts |year=1860 |volume=2 |location=London |pages=10–11}}</ref> Enumeration published in 1886 counted 18,000 Choctaws in Oklahoma as of year 1884.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mMFRAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA2-PA861 |title=Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, showing the operations, expenditures, and condition of the Institution to July, 1885. Part II. |publisher=Government Printing Office |year=1886 |location=Washington |page=861}}</ref> The census of 1910 counted 15,917 Choctaws. Around years 1916–1919 there were in Oklahoma 17,488 Choctaws by blood, 1,651 by intermarriage and 6,029 Freedmen, and in addition to that there were also at that time 3,099 [[Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians|Mississippi Choctaws]] and around 200 Choctaws living elsewhere.

In the 20th and 21st centuries Choctaw population has rebounded, in 2020 they numbered 254,154 (including 90,973 in Oklahoma).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Distribution of American Indian tribes: Choctaw People in the US |url=https://www.statimetric.com/us-ethnicity/American_Indian_tribes_Choctaw}}</ref>