Green McCurtain

Greenwood "Green" McCurtain (November 28, 1848 – December 27, 1910) was a Choctaw statesman and law enforcement officer, and the last elected Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation (1896–1900 and 1902–1906), serving a total of four elected two-year terms. After 1906 and dissolution of tribal governments under the Dawes Act prior to Oklahoma's annexation and achieving statehood, McCurtain was appointed as chief by Theodore Roosevelt. He served in that capacity until his death in 1910, and was the last freely-elected Chief of the Choctaws until 1971.

Green McCurtain also achieved notice for represented his tribe as a delegate at the Sequoyah Constitutional Convention. This was an effort by American Indian nations in Indian Territory to create an Indian-controlled state in what is now Oklahoma. They were not successful in getting Congressional support for this proposal, as Euro-Americans who had established considerable presence in the Oklahoma Territory with Federal backing, lobbied strongly for the two territories to be admitted as a single state.

Greenwood "Green" McCurtain was born on November 28, 1848, in Skullyville, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, the third son of Cornelius McCurtain, born in Mississippi, and Mayhiya "Amy" Blevins, both Choctaw. He was named after leader Greenwood LeFlore. Blevins's grandmother was Sho-Ma-Ka, a captive from a neighboring tribe who was adopted and assimilated into the Choctaw. McCurtain's paternal ancestry was of Irish origin. His Irish immigrant ancestor was Cornelius McCurtain, nephew of Cornelius Curtain, from County Cork, who settled in Spanish Florida in the 18th century with a land grant from the Spanish crown. He became a trader and married into the Choctaw tribe.

In 1833, McCurtain's parents and older brother Jackson had moved with numerous other Choctaw to Indian Territory as part of Indian Removal and the Choctaw Trail of Tears. His family became prominent as leaders of the tribe. His older brothers were Jackson McCurtain, born in Mississippi (1830-1885); Edmund Aaron McCurtain, (1842-1890); and David Cornelius McCurtain (1846-1874). They also had a younger brother Robert McCurtain (1853-1874), who was fatally shot at age 20 by a cousin.

Green's older brother Jackson McCurtain became a leader and served as president of the Choctaw senate before succeeding Isaac Garvin as president. Jackson served 1880–1884; he was succeeded by his brother Edmund, who served 1884–1886, a total of three two-year terms by the two of them.

McCurtain was a Baptist, at a time when numerous Choctaw had become Protestants, influenced by missionaries.

He married Martha Ainsworth, a European-American woman, and together they had a son, D.C. McCurtain. He later lived in Spiro, Oklahoma. The senior McCurtain later married his second wife, Kate 'Kittie' Spring. They had a son and four daughters together: Alice, Lena, Bertha and Cora.

McCurtain was an imposing man among his people, described as six foot two. He had a variety of positions locally and in the tribe before becoming principal chief after his brothers. In 1872 he served as sheriff of Skullyville County.