Mothers were not allowed to discipline their sons. This was the duty of the maternal uncle who acted as the boy’s teacher. All the boys were schooled morning and afternoon in tribal legends, hunting with bows and arrows, and other manly tasks. In 1540 the Spanish explorer, DeSoto, began trading with them. The Choctaw were intrigued by Spanish goods, especially metal. They also established trade with the French and by the 1700’s had adopted many French ideas, life styles, cultural attitudes and incorporated French words into their language. Unlike their Indian neighbors, the men continued to wear their hair in full length styles. The Choctaws served as guides for the European expeditions across Louisiana which resulted in many Choctaw words being used as name locations throughout our state. As colonization increased pressures to choose alliances with either the French to keep the English and their powerful allies, the Chickasaw and Creek Nations, from closing trade routes to the north and Canada. From 1754-1763 the Choctaws were in almost constant warfare. In 1763 the French and Indian wars ended with France ceding all her lands east of the Mississippi River to the English. This resulted in half the Choctaw towns being allied to the French and the other half with the English. War pressures eroded inter-tribal tranquility in the Choctaw Nation, leading to civil war. When the French retreated to New Orleans they in effect deserted their Choctaw allies. On January 3, 1786, the Treaty of Hopewell was negotiated with the United States Government recognizing the Choctaw Nation as a nation and defining the eastern boundary of the Choctaw Lands. Hostilities with their former Indian allies during the wars, coupled with increasing pressures from settlers desiring their lands, led the tribe to migrate west of the Mississippi River in search of farm land and tranquility. Between 1801 and 1830 they were methodically negotiated off their tribal homelands in Alabama and Mississippi. In 1830, they signed the treaty of Dancing Creek, agreeing to leave their homelands and not return. The following year the greater part of the nation moved to lands along the Red River in Oklahoma granted by the treaty. There they established a small republic modeled after that of the United States government. However, this republic came to an end when the State of Oklahoma was organized. A considerable number of Choctaw remained in Mississippi while smaller bands migrated to northern and central Louisiana. Prior to 1778 Choctaw communities moved from north Central Louisiana to LaSalle, Rapides, Jackson, and Grant Parishes in the vicinity of two saw mill towns, Jena and Eden. Other Choctaw communities were scattered throughout the Florida parishes north of Lake Pontchartrain. _Jena Band_—