Due to discrimination and the Choctaw's determination to maintain their community, they had limited contact with the white population in the area.

[4] Until the 1930s, the small Jena Choctaw group received no assistance from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

As part of President Franklin Roosevelt's "Indian New Deal," federal officials sought to aid non-federally recognized tribes in the Southeast that had maintained significant indigenous ancestry and community cohesion.

During that time, Jena Choctaws generally avoided the growing Indian activism in Louisiana and other Southeastern states.

Also, in 1968, the younger Jena Choctaws began advocating for economic change and acknowledgment of their rights as indigenous Americans.

With a federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant, the Band built a tribal center.

In 1995, the federal government acknowledged the Jena Band as a federally-recognized tribe through the Bureau of Indian Affairs' process.

[7] After 15 years of planning and hard work, construction began on the Jena Choctaw Pines Casino, located in the newly incorporated Town of Creola, Louisiana.

[9] Smith was elected as the Jena Band of Choctaw Indian’s first woman chief in 1998 and served in that capacity until 2002 and was re-elected in 2010.

[11] The Jena Band of Choctaw Reservation (31°26′16″N 92°29′56″W / 31.43778°N 92.49889°W / 31.43778; -92.49889) is located in two separate parts in Grant Parish, in and near the village of Creola.

More information relevant to Jena Choctaw history is available on Elizabeth Ellis' webpage,[15] the FamilySearch wiki site,[16] and other websites.