At Neshoba, Barbour says Choctaws should vote
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is doing what is contrary to its own history of gaming, Gov. Haley R. Barbour said on Thursday at The Neshoba County Fair.
Barbour led his 11 a.m. Pavilion remarks refuting Attorney General Jim Hood’s comments a day earlier implying the governor was “starting a war with the Choctaws” by opposing their proposed $18 million Jones County casino.
Barbour addressed Fairgoers under the historic Pavilion for the eighth straight year, the seventh as governor, on what he jokingly called a Fall day in Neshoba County as an unrelenting sun beat down.
He told Fairgoers that his great-great-great uncle Greenwood Leflore, the chief of the Choctaw Indians 175 years ago, would find Hood’s remarks funny, as would the late Chief Phillip Martin, with whom he said he had a good working relationship.
“If somebody believes in self determination for the Choctaws and their self control, I think they ought to have a Tribal vote on this slot parlor down in Jones County,” Barbour told Fairgoers to applause.
Neshoba Democrat
8/4/10
Magnolia Tribune
