Advocate of Civilization
While LeFlore was not said to be popular among the full-blood tribal men, he became powerful and influential within the tribe at an early age, largely because of his mother's clan and maternal uncle's position and his own skills. With other leaders, he struggled to resist European-American encroachment while adapting to some of the new ways and the increasing pressure from the United States government in support of removal.
When Leflore was 22, he became a chief of the western division of the Choctaw Nation, when it was still in Mississippi. He is credited with abolishing the Choctaw "blood for blood" law, which dictated rounds of revenge for murders. LeFlore supported the "civilization" program, which U.S. President George Washington and Henry Knox developed during the Washington administration. Particularly after Andrew Jackson's election as president in 1828, he encouraged the Choctaw to make permanent residences, cultivate the land in agriculture, convert to Christianity, and send their children to United States schools for education.
| “ | "wee are anxious to become sivillize Nation if our father lets us rest few years but wee have been pastered for land so much wee dont know what to do hartly, but I hope wee will rest now awhile." | ” |
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—-Greenwood LeFlore, 1827 |
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