[3] The Choctaw had long occupied much of this territory prior to European exploration and United States acquisition.

The name Oktibbeha is a Native American[clarification needed] word meaning either "bloody water" (because of a battle fought on the banks) or possibly "icy creek".

[1] Indian artifacts more than 2,000 years old have been found near ancient earthwork mounds located just east of Starkville, showing the area has been inhabited at least this long.

The Choctaw people, one of the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast, occupied extensive territory in this area for centuries prior to European encounter.

Artifacts in the form of clay pot fragments and artwork dating from that period have been found at the Herman Mound and Village site, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[4] The modern early European-American settlement of the area was started formally in the 1830s during the period of Indian Removal initiated by President Andrew Jackson.

The Choctaw of Oktibbeha County ceded their claims to land in the area to the United States in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830.

They were removed to other lands west of the Mississippi River, in Indian Territory, part of what became the state of Oklahoma.

Like the indigenous peoples before them, European Americans were drawn to the Starkville area because of two large natural springs.

What was originally a trading post was located on Old Robinson Road, about 1.5 mi (2.4 km) east of the Noxubee River.

[6] A lumber mill was established southwest of town; it produced clapboards, from which the settlement took its original name of Boardtown.

Its name was changed to Starkville in honor of Revolutionary War hero General John Stark.

[7] After the Civil War, three groups of the Ku Klux Klan arose in the county: in Starkville, at Choctaw Agency (Sturgis), and in Double Springs.

Freedmen had largely joined the Republican Party, headed by President Abraham Lincoln, who had gained their emancipation and supported constitutional amendments to grant them citizenship and the franchise.

In 1876, for example, a group of 18 white men known as White-Liners, led by Dorsey Outlaw, surrounded the Republican Club in Chapel Hill near Choctaw Agency.

[12] This was one of six lynchings of African Americans committed by whites in the county in the post-Reconstruction period and extending into the early 20th century.

The case was widely anticipated as the first test of the state's sit-in law, but was settled when the defendants unexpectedly pleaded guilty and paid small fines at the county court in Starkville the next day.

[14][15] Since the late 20th century, Oktibbeha, along with Clay and Lowndes counties, has been designated as the Golden Triangle in Mississippi.

As in most of Mississippi, conservative white voters began moving away from their Solid South roots in the 1950s, when they started splitting their tickets at the national level and voting Republican.

The county maintained a segregated public school system until 1970, although the US Supreme Court had ruled in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that such arrangements were unconstitutional.

[37] In terms of higher education, Oktibbeha County is within the service area of the East Mississippi Community College system.