<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Related ethnic groups </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek), and later Seminole </Td> </Tr> <P> The Choctaw (In the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally occupying what is now the Southeastern United States (modern - day Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana). Their Choctaw language belongs to the Muskogean language family group . Hopewell and Mississippian cultures, who lived throughout the east of the Mississippi River valley and its tributaries . About 1,700 years ago, the Hopewell people built Nanih Waiya, a great earthwork mound located in what is central present - day Mississippi . It is still considered sacred by the Choctaw . The early Spanish explorers of the mid-16th century in the Southeast encountered Mississippian - culture villages and chiefs . The anthropologist John R. Swanton suggested that the Choctaw derived their name from an early leader . Henry Halbert, a historian, suggests that their name is derived from the Choctaw phrase Hacha hatak (river people). </P> <P> The Choctaw coalesced as a people in the 17th century, and developed three distinct political and geographical divisions: eastern, western and southern . These different groups sometimes created distinct, independent alliances with nearby European powers . These included the French, based on the Gulf Coast and in Louisiana; the English of the Southeast, and the Spanish of Florida and Louisiana during the colonial era . During the American Revolution, most Choctaw supported the Thirteen Colonies' bid for independence from the British Crown . They never went to war against the United States but they were forcibly relocated in 1831 - 1833, as part of the Indian Removal, in order for the US to take over their land for development by European Americans . </P>

What part of the country did the choctaw live in