CHOCTAW, Miss.—The smell of fresh popcorn, grilled burgers, concession stand hotdogs and roasted corn filled the air along with the sounds of tribal drums announcing the arrival of Choctaw Central High School’s varsity football team to Warrior Stadium in Choctaw, Mississippi.

It was Sept. 5, and fans of Mississippi’s only Indigenous high school cheered as the Mighty Warriors kicked off the annual match with their rival, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Braves from Cherokee, North Carolina.

Fans of both the Choctaw and Cherokee teams wore similar maroon-colored shirts; the Choctaw Central school’s fans wore shirts that included black and white to match the school’s theme, while the Cherokee school’s fans donned shirts that included gold.

The teams were meeting for the 27th time in 35 years at Warrior Stadium in the Pearl River Community of the Mississippi Choctaw reservation for the Battle of Nations.

Many fans of both teams spoke with the Mississippi Free Press about the historic matchup between the two Indigenous schools.

“I’m more of a basketball guy,” Chris Garcia of Choctaw, who is considered a Choctaw Central “superfan” by other fans, told the Mississippi Free Press on Sept. 4. “But this game is still fun to see other tribal members come (from North Carolina) to visit us and share cultures with each other every year.”

Crowds filled the overflow parking across the street at the Tribal Administration complex as the game began. On the field, a young Choctaw teen sang the National Anthem in the Choctaw language while a local pastor led the crowd in prayer, also in Choctaw.

Mississippi Choctaw Tribal Chief Cyrus Ben, along with a few members of the Choctaw Tribal Council, and Director of Schools Delnita Jones, formed the Choctaw delegation to formally greet the Cherokee delegation at midfield before the game. Cherokee team leaders carried the flag of their tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, to the field for the coin toss, and then the game was on.

Bigger than a Game

Events like the Battle of Nations “can build community,” said Dr. Tammy Greer, a psychology professor at the University of Mississippi who is a member of the United Houma Nation and the director of the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for American Indian Research and Studies.

“We need that,” she said, explaining that while modern games build sportsmanship and athleticism, there’s more to it than that for the two tribes. “We share cultures. That is huge. Both back in the day and now, (it helps) improve survivability.”

Many Cherokee fans traveled with the team to Mississippi or watched from the livestream provided by Choctaw Central High School. Rhonda Phelps, Cherokee from Foley, Alabama, also said the friendly rivalry between the two tribal schools is important to the indigenous culture.

“I love the merging of two cultures together, seeing the similarities and differences and respecting them both,” she told the Mississippi Free Press on Sept. 8.

Former Cherokee Principal Chief Ed Taylor and former Mississippi Choctaw Tribal Chief Philip Martin organized the first Battle of the Nations game for the 1991 season, according to Cherokee’s newspaper The One Feather. A 1991 article in The Clarion-Ledger about the first-ever Battle of the Nations also credits Choctaw Central Coach Walter Wilson and Cherokee Central Coach Willis Tullos. Each had space in their schedules for an extra game and realized the benefit of both tribal schools meeting for a friendly game of football, with the intent of starting an annual tradition.

University of Southern Mississippi Professor Dr. Tammy Greer, who leads USM’s Center for American Indian Research and Studies, says events like the Battle of Nations can “improve survivability” for the tribes. Photo courtesy USM

“In a long lost time, the visitors might have come by foot, not by cars, vans and buses,” wrote Mike Christensen for the Clarion-Ledger, about the 2nd edition of the Battle of Nations in September 1992. “A couple hundred years ago, the game–if they had played one–might have been ‘ishtaboli,’ or stickball, the so-called “little brother of war”. … (But this) game will be football, a modern-day brother of war they’ll play for pride and fun and the thrill of competition.”

Since the first game, the Battle of Nations has been trading playing sites between Warrior Stadium on the Mississippi Choctaw reservation and the Ray Kinsland Stadium on the Qualla Boundary in Cherokee, North Carolina.

“I’d like to see it become an annual thing. The only drawback is the distance. I know they’re ready to come down here and we’re ready to go there,” Coach Walter Wilson told the Clarion-Ledger in 1991. His vision for an annual series between the two Indigenous schools came to fruition as the Choctaws and Cherokees have been meeting for a majority of 35 years. Coach Wilson retired as Choctaw Central’s Athletic Director in 2020.

A clip from the Sept. 24, 1991, edition of Jackson’s Clarion-Ledger describes the first matchup of Choctaw Central and Cherokee Central high schools that became the first annual meeting of the two Indigenous tribes from Mississippi and North Carolina. Article by Todd Kelly for the Clarion-Ledger. Clip from Newspapers.com

The modern version of this matchup has been ongoing since 2000. The game program lists no record of games between 1995 and 2000. The teams did not play during the 2005 season when the game was set to be in Mississippi, but was interrupted by the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, which impacted the Choctaw reservation. Most recently, the series was paused in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected Indigenous communities harder than other reported ethnic groups.

In the latest meeting, the Mighty Warriors of Choctaw Central dominated the game, coming out with a 47-7 win over the Cherokee Braves.

Tradition and Bragging Rights

Colorful fireworks lit the sky behind the scoreboard at Warrior Stadium as the time ran out and both teams lined up midfield for the sportsmanship handshake. Tribal Chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Cyrus Ben carried the series’ Golden Ball trophy onto the gridiron and awarded the Warriors as Choctaw fans cheered on. The Cherokees, however, still have some bragging rights: they lead this historic series 15-12.

MBCI Tribal Chief Cyrus Ben raises the Golden Ball trophy midfield at Warrior Stadium at the conclusion of the annual Battle of the Nations game held at Choctaw Central High School, in which the Mighty Warriors were victorious 47-7 over the visiting Cherokee Braves of North Carolina. A brief fireworks display closed out the evening. Photo MBCI/CCHS

Mericia Sanders, Cherokee of Mobile, Alabama, said that she would like to see more interaction between Indigenous schools like the matchup between Cherokee and Choctaw.

“This is necessary to ensure that the Indigenous culture continues and a better understanding of the different tribes.”

The 2026 edition of the Battle of the Nations will see the Choctaw Mighty Warriors and their fans traveling to the Qualla Boundary in the Appalachian Mountains to meet the Cherokee Braves at Ray Kinsland Stadium in Cherokee, North Carolina. When the Battle of Nations returns to Mississippi in 2027, it will be at the new Choctaw Central campus, currently under construction on Highway 16 West in western Neshoba County.

Read original article by clicking here.

Battle of Nations Brings Mississippi Choctaw, Eastern Cherokee Together for Football Match

Bigger than a Game

Tradition and Bragging Rights

Local Dining Stream

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