Choctaw men tanned deer hides and women made baskets for sale. The Choctaws also grew gardens for their own subsistence. A dependent and paternalistic relationship developed between the Bowie and Whatley families and the Choctaw group as witnessed by the fact band members were known locally as the 'Bowie Indians' or the 'Whatley Indians.' Many Choctaws were forced to buy goods on credit at the Whatley family store on their plantation. Most worked as sharecroppers, domestics, or day laborers. Ten core families that included the surnames Lewis, Allen, Gibson, and Jackson, came to reside on plantations owned by the Bowie and Whatley families near Jena, Louisiana. Between 18 ancestors of the Jena Band left Mississippi and settled in central Louisiana. Both bands descend from Choctaws that remained behind in Mississippi when the Choctaw Nation was removed to Indian Territory in the 1830s after signing the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. The Jena Band of Choctaw Indians are related to the federally recognized Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

Their headquarters are at Jena, Louisiana. The Jena Band received federal recognition in 1995 and has a reservation in Grant Parish. They are based in La Salle, Catahoula, and Grant parishes in the U.S. The Jena Band of Choctaw Indians ( Choctaw: Jena Chahta) are one of three federally recognized Choctaw tribes in the United States. Location of the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians in Louisiana Other Choctaw tribes, Muscogee (Creek), Chickasaw, Seminole, Cherokee

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