The Interview: Chief Wilford "Longhair" Taylor

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - The Mobile-Washington band of Choctaws are the descendants of Native Americans who avoided being sent west on the Trail of Tears in the 1830's.

Since then, it seems, they've had folks calling them everything but Native American.

Chief Wilford "Longhair" Taylor was elected to four consecutive terms, or 16 years, as chief of the 6,000 member tribe.

Taylor was one of 11 children, and says they were always taught by their parents to remember their heritage.

"My mother and father always told us, 'Say you're Indian, I don't care what anyone tells you, we're Indians and we have always been Indians and we always will be Indians.' They taught us to be proud of our heritage," said Taylor.

He served 16 consecutive years as the elected Chief of the Mobile-Washington Band of Choctaws, also known as the MOWAs.

Chief Taylor said one of his major accomplishments was saving the reservation's Housing Authority from federal takeover by Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Taylor said an old college friend who was working at HUD at the time was very helpful. 

Taylor is still involved in several projects to better living conditions for the MOWA Tribe like plans to build a sewer system because so much of the reservation in located in wetlands.  

Taylor lost a close election to new Chief Fraymond Weaver back in November,  but he said he makes sure he always available for Chief Weaver and his MOWA people who he loves dearly.

Despite losing the election, Taylor continues to work for the MOWA federal recognition and embrace the tribal history.

"We survived because we [weren't] really known to be here. The stories the elders had passed on to me said that we lived in a remote area in the piney woods and the sand hills," Taylor said. 

He said the MOWA worked for businessmen in the area as "cheap labor."

"There were a few people that knew about us, like the white men that owned these turpentine mills, and timber business," he said. "They didn't want us to be revealed, because they were making money off us, so they kept us hid for awhile."

Whites and African-Americans began to intermarry with the MOWA's, creating a melting pot in the area at the Mobile-Washington county line.

Chief Taylor said that made some people, including a visiting Louisiana Congressman, feel that they were no longer Native Americans.

"Then people try and name us Cajuns, Creoles, we are a mixture of different nationalities," Taylor said. "We don't deny our cousins, I don't care how he looks if he's my cousin he's my cousin. But our basic core is Native American, because you can look at our tribal members and see."

He said when the Civil Rights Movement picked up nationally, the freedoms that people fought for also inspired them to bring awareness to themselves.

He said it gave them the "freedom" to finally be themselves.

"We always kept our identity and heritage, we practiced our rituals, but we kept them hid. The Choctaw traditionally had a Spring festival and a Fall festival, we celebrated that when the crops were harvested," Taylor said.

He said an act in 1832 recognized the tribe as Choctaw Indians, but their struggle has been to get the federal government to echo that sentiment.

State recognition of the MOWA as a Native American tribe was reaffirmed by Alabama in 1979 under Governor George Wallace but they've struggled for more than than 30 years to get Federal recognition.

Taylor believes that though the MOWA's have two-thirds of the Congressional support needed, Senator Jeff Sessions may be the missing piece.

"He believes you should go through the system, I believe you should go through the system, but what if the system is broken?" he said. "The system is broken Senator Sessions, you need to fix it so we people, not only MOWA Choctaw, but everyone, gets a fair break.

"I have never sought to get gaming because we, our people have a strong missionary background, a strong religious background and conviction."

Gaming on several reservations nationwide, even in nearby Atmore, is one reason Taylor says the MOWA's have not yet gotten Federal recognition. Some feel the MOWA may go the same route if they do get recognition.
He said despite some folks fears, that gaming is not want the MOWA's want.

"What I want Federal recognition for is to promote better education, get better jobs, more sanitary living conditions, it would mean more housing, it would mean more grants to develop a good industrial complex, we could have our own clinics, our own social system," he states.

Taylor, who even submitted to DNA tests two years ago to prove his heritage, continues the fight for federal recognition today and to pass the MOWA heritage on to the future generation. 

Taylor said he wants the future generations to "be proud of their heritage."

"Your grandpa is Indian, your grandmother is Indian, so you can't be nothing else but Indian," Taylor said to the younger generation.

"The DNA test I volunteered to take two years ago, I think nine of my markers were Native