MS FOLK CULTURES

CHOCTAW

Choctaw Culture• Work hard to preserve their culture.• Most speak the Choctaw language • Traditional concepts of relationships, nature,

arts, dance, & music • Choctaw Indian Fair – 1st week in July

– At reservation in Neshoba County near Philadelphia

– Recreates the Festival of the Green Corn• Special dances, play stickball, & display

crafts• Influence on Southern cuisine (food customs)

especially corn (hominy, grits, corn meal, etc.)

AFRICAN - AMERICANS

African-American Culture• Favor improvisation and innovation always

searching for new ideas within familiar ways passed down from earlier generations

• First came to MS as slaves and free blacks– Slaves: mostly on plantations and farms– Free blacks: Natchez and along Gulf Coast

• Rich African heritage with borrowed European and Native American traits

Influence on Southern Culture

• Language – words like boogie, gumbo, jazz, & okra

• Folklore – tales of trickster animals & spirits

• Music & Performance – blues, dramatic speechmaking, lively preaching & banjo

• Food – yams, okra, spicy ingredients, deep-fried chicken & fish, peas & greens boiled with pork, barbeque, and gumbo

• Crafts - baskets & colorful quilts

• Afterworld Beliefs - placing personal items on graves to ward off evil spirits & assure the peaceful rest of deceased

EUROPEAN - AMERICANS

Contributions to Southern Culture

• Country Music

• Basket making

• Boat building

• Quilting

• Storytelling

European-American Cultures• Largest group from British Isles

– Celtic tradition: square & clog dancing– Building styles, music, & cuisine

• French & Spanish arrived on the Gulf Coast.– Brought Mardi Gras– Designed the Biloxi schooner and catboat

ideally suited for the shallow waters of MS.

• Other groups:

–Italians (Shaw, Greenville, Gulf Coast) brought language, food, & recreation.

–Greeks (Jackson & Gulf Coast)

–Lebanese (Vicksburg)

–Jews (Natchez)

–Slavonians (Biloxi)

ASIAN - AMERICANS

Asian-American Cultures

• Strong identity with ancestors & ancient customs of loyalty & religious practices

• Largest group from China– Settled the Delta in the late 1800s

• Vietnamese arrived in the 1980s.– Settled on the Gulf Coast– Worked in the seafood industry

Contributions to Southern Culture

• Cuisine

• Holidays– Chinese New Year – private family

celebrations –parade in Clarksdale– Vietnamese Tet – Celebrates the New Year,

national independence, and religious holiday for Buddhists (temple in Biloxi for food and prayers)

• Arts, literature, & music