Choctaw Agency and Chisa Foka

The Choctaw homeland once covered lands now in Mississippi and Alabama, ceded piece by piece to the U.S. Government, with the last cession in 1830 after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.

This is one of the more direct places on the Parkway to read that history where it happened.

• Silas Dinsmoor served as Choctaw Agent from 1807 until 1820, based here until just after the Treaty of Doak's Stand.
• His job pulled in two directions at once: representing Choctaw interests while carrying out U.S. policy.
• Duties included checking passports, collecting debts, ensuring payment for ceded lands, and teaching farming methods.
• The agency moved four times to stay inside steadily shrinking Choctaw boundaries.

The trail here is a paved shared path running nearly 10 miles, from milepost 95.8 to 105.6. The name honors a Choctaw town that stood where Jackson is today; Chisha Foka (chee-sha-foe-ka) means "among the post oaks."

• Hardwoods and pines line much of the route, with seasonal foliage, blossoms, and wildflowers.
• Watch for birds and small mammals, though nothing is guaranteed.
• At milepost 104.5 you can walk a stretch of the original Old Natchez Trace, sunken from centuries of use.
• Grades are gentle and much of the path is shaded, so it works well as a leg stretch between drives.

• There is no reconstructed agency building. What you get is an interpretive sign and, as some visitors note, a few scattered remnants. Arrive expecting a marker, not a site tour.
• Parking is small.
• The trail passes close to roads and private property in places, so it needs attention rather than headphones-on autopilot.
• If you only have a couple of minutes, the reading is short; the walking is what fills out the stop.