Little Dixie is a name given to southeast Oklahoma, which in the past was strongly influenced by Southern (" Dixie") culture, as its white settlers were chiefly Southerners seeking a start in new lands following the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. In addition, it incorporated lands of some of the Five Civilized Tribes, which had been removed from the Southeast. A number were slaveholders, and they generally allied with the Confederacy during the Civil War. The Oklahoma tourism department also refers to this area as "Choctaw Country," formerly " Kiamichi Country," but the Little Dixie region is not clearly defined: Its exact boundaries vary by source. It falls mostly within the

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (Choctaw language, Choctaw: ''Chahta Okla'') is a Indian reservation, Native American reservation occupying portions of southeastern Oklahoma in the United States. At roughly , it is the second-largest reservation ...

's tribal area, as well as some

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is ...

and Muscogee Creek lands. During the tenure of U.S. Representative Carl Albert (Speaker of the House for most of the 1970s), it was still the 3rd Congressional district of Oklahoma. Redistricting has since changed the district's geographical boundaries. Several towns and cities in southeast Oklahoma use the ''Little Dixie'' name, and that helps to define the boundaries. A radio station in McAlester is owned by "Little Dixie Radio, Inc." The band at the public high school in Tishomingo, former capital of the Chickasaw Nation, is called ''The Pride of Little Dixie''. When President

Harry Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...

visited Marietta in Love County in 1948, he gave a speech saying it was a pleasure to be in the Little Dixie region of Oklahoma.Truman Library - Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S. Truman
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References

{{Coord, 34.5, N, 95.0, W, format=dec, display=title, scale:4000000_region:US-OK Regions of Oklahoma Regions of the Southern United States

See also

References