Dr. Justin Turner, chief medical officer of the Mississippi State Department of Health, talks about his wife’s pregnancy issues and how other Mississippians have similar experiences.
Mississippi health news you can’t get anywhere else.
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A sure sign that the college football season is upon us: The USA Today Coaches Poll is out. The question for today: How accurate will it be? Well, last year it wasn’t accurate at all. Seventeen teams that were in the 2022 preseason poll were not in the post-season poll. Many of the preseason picks went on to have losing seasons.
Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal as a member of the 4×100-meter relay team that set a world record of 39.8 seconds. The success of Owens and other Black athletes defeated Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s plans to showcase “Aryan superiority.”
The son of Alabama sharecroppers, he and his family moved to Ohio as part of the Great Migration. In 1935, he burst onto the track scene when he broke world records for the 220-yard dash, the 220-yard hurdles and running broad jump.
Despite criticism from the Nazis, Owens became the star of the Berlin Olympics by breaking world records in the broad jump and the 200-meter race as well as tying the record in the 100-meter race. After winning the gold medal in the broad jump, German athlete Luz Long was the first to congratulate Owens.
“It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler,” Owens recalled. “You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn’t be a plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment. Hitler must have gone crazy watching us embrace. The sad part of the story is I never saw Long again. He was killed in World War II.”
Although credited with “single-handedly crushing Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy,” Owens returned to the U.S. to find it no different than when he left.
“When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn’t ride in the front of the bus,” Owens said. “I had to go to the back door. I couldn’t live where I wanted. I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either.”
He did receive a ticker-tape parade in New York City, but when he went to attend a reception in his honor at the Waldorf-Astoria, he had to ride a freight elevator.
In 1950, he was voted the greatest track and field star of the first half of the century, and in 1976, President Ford gave him the Medal of Freedom. Four years later, he died, and not long after, the city of Berlin named a street in his honor. He posthumously received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
“Perhaps no athlete,” President Jimmy Carter declared, “better symbolized the human struggle against tyranny, poverty and racial bigotry.”
CORINTH – Crystal and Tim Dotson were spooked after watching “The Devil We Know,” a documentary about how the scarily named “forever chemicals” contaminated public soils and streams for decades.
Curious to know if the chemicals, also called PFAS, were affecting them, the Dotson decided to have their water tested. As they discovered, their water contained PFAs at levels much higher than what public health experts consider safe.
“It was staggering,” Crystal Dotson told Mississippi Today.
The revelation came from a study of Mississippi’s tap water — conducted by Consumer Reports in partnership with Mississippi Spotlight, a collaboration between Mississippi Today and other news partners — that tested samples from 149 connections around the state, including all 82 counties.
For years, PFAS were a staple of manufacturing consumer products because of their resilience to natural factors. In some cases, the chemicals are thought to never break down in the environment. Because of PFAS’ fortitude and widespread use, government studies have estimated that nearly every American has at least some trace of the chemicals in their bloodstream.
The Consumer Reports study echoed that concern: almost all of the samples tested – 98% – revealed some level of PFAS from the volunteers’ tap water. But, much like with other contaminants, there are varying opinions on what amount of PFAS people should be allowed to consume.
The Consumer Reports study also tested for heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead. Those results were mostly in line with standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency, which determines the legal level of contaminants allowed in public drinking water. The one exception was a sample in Carroll County, which exceeded the EPA’s action level for lead by 22 percent.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more research is needed to know what amount of PFAS is dangerous for humans to consume, studies show high concentrations can lead to reproductive issues, developmental effects, different types of cancer, and a weakened immune system.
The EPA has yet to regulate PFAS’ presence in drinking water, which means there’s no legal limit that local governments have to adhere to. In recent years the agency has put out a wide-range of recommended levels for PFAS consumption. Finally, earlier this year, the EPA began its process of creating a legal standard for the chemicals, proposing a limit of 4 ppt, or parts per trillion, for PFOS and PFOA, two of the more common types of PFAS.
Advocacy groups like the Environmental Working Group are far more wary, arguing that any amount of PFAS can be harmful for people to consume, as the chemicals can accumulate in a person’s body over time.
“We have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of studies that show the linked health effects, and we know that no level of PFAS in your drinking water (is safe) because it affects the human body at such low levels,” said Tasha Stoiber, a senior scientist at EWG.
Regardless of the standards, most would agree the level of PFAS in the Dotsons’ tap water in Corinth is unsafe. Their sample returned a “total PFAS” level – the sum of over 40 different types of the chemical – of 92 ppt. For reference, the International Bottled Water Association uses a limit of 10 ppt. Their levels for PFOS and PFOA were 11 ppt and 8 ppt, respectively, which are both at least twice the level of what the EPA is looking to enforce.
Tim and Crystal Dotson have a moment in their kitchen in Corinth, Miss., Friday, July 21, 2023. After tests were conducted on several homes in the town, the Dotson’s home proved to have the most evidence of Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
While it’s nearly impossible to trace specific health symptoms to water contamination, the Dotsons say they’ve encountered a myriad of concerns since moving to their Corinth home five years ago. Tim has suffered recent bouts with kidney disease, cancer, and high blood pressure, the latter two of which have been linked to PFAS.
The Dotsons and their four kids, who have lived in Corinth for 10 years, drink the tap water through a Brita filter, but standard filters like those can’t fully eliminate PFAS. Crystal and Tim, who both live off government disability payments, said they can’t afford more advanced filtration systems (For reference, both EWG and Consumer Reports have compiled lists of filters aimed at PFAS.).
(Consumer Reports has identified four water filters, including two pitchers and two under-sink models, that can help consumers filter out forever chemicals. EWG also has compiled a list of filters aimed at PFAS.)
“It’s the only water that we have,” Crystal said. “This is our home.”
John Rhodes, the general manager for Corinth’s water department, said he wasn’t aware of high PFAS levels within the city, largely because Mississippi has no testing requirements.
“Unless it’s something that’s regulated, I’m not going to be totally aware of it,” Rhodes said.
The Mississippi State Health Department, which regulates public water quality at the state level, confirmed that it doesn’t test for PFAS. Liz Sharlot, spokesperson for MSDH, said the state doesn’t test for PFAS “based on past random test results not indicating its presence,” adding that more testing will likely happen in the coming years as federal funding becomes available.
About a decade ago, the EPA tested for PFAS in 80 Mississippi locations. While those results revealed no levels above “minimum reporting requirements,” the minimums were at least five times higher than what the EPA is currently proposing. In other words, those results have no bearing on whether they would’ve met the agency’s new standards.
After scientists invented PFAS in the 1930s, manufacturers realized how valuable an ingredient it could be. The chemicals became widely used in tools like firefighting foam in the military, and in an array of consumer products like furniture stain repellents and non-stick cookware.
But those manufacturers and the Department of Defense eventually learned of the dangers of PFAS to those who go near the chemicals. In 2018, ProPublica reported that both the government and manufacturers were slow to reveal the threat of PFAS to the public.
There’s limited knowledge of how widespread PFAS in Mississippi are. Just about a dozen states, Mississippi not included, are either regulating or proposing limits on PFAS in drinking water.
An EWG map of DOD data shows nine sites in the state where the military used firefighting foam containing PFAS. While the military is phasing out use of PFAS, the data from groundwater samples at those sites shows PFAS levels that, in some cases, were thousands of times higher than the limits the EPA is proposing.
Below are the full results from the Consumer Reports study:
This interactive data visualization was created by Enlighten Designs with support from the Microsoft Journalism Initiative and leveraging Microsoft Power BI and Excel.
As shown above, the samples with the highest levels of PFAS came from Corinth, Vaiden, Hattiesburg, Gulfport, Lexington, and Tchula.
Homeowners with some of the higher levels of PFAS offered a wide range of reactions, from concerned, to confused, to indifferent.
Shawn Harris, a banker in Hattiesburg who also runs the Piney Woods Conservation Group, wrote to the EPA urging it to enforce standards limiting PFAS. But even Harris, whose test results showed a total PFAS level of 9.6 ppt, said it’s puzzling trying to figure out what those numbers mean.
“It’s really hard to follow,” Harris said. “When I first got the results I was like, ‘Oh, dang, I’m good, but not that good.’”
Even though he drinks bottled water, he said he’s looking to get an under-the-sink filter for the tap water he gives his pets.
Other volunteers, though, were less concerned. Alan Wilson sent in a sample from his remote weekend home in Lexington, showing 43.4 ppt of total PFAS, one of the highest results in the study.
“When you think about 43 parts per trillion, that’s not much,” he said, adding that he didn’t know why there would be PFAS contamination given that there aren’t any businesses near the property. “So, no, I guess I don’t get too excited about it. It doesn’t scare me.”
It’s unclear how well or how soon local water utilities will be able to filter out PFAS. Once an EPA rule is finalized, utilities will have three years to come into compliance. Even then, many local systems are worried about the associated costs and having to pass on large rate hikes to customers.
The Dotson family believes that some of their medical conditions are a result of the Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, drinking water contamination at their home in Corinth, Miss., Friday, July 21, 2023. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Since learning what was in their tap water, the Dotsons have started drinking from store-bought bottles, costing them about $15 a week. Crystal said they started seeing improvements in Tim’s health within a week of the change. As for what happens next, she said she hopes for more accountability over the release of PFAS into public water sources.
“Somebody should go to jail over it,” Doston said. “They need to dissolve those companies and disperse that money to the people that were hurt.”
This investigation was conducted by Consumer Reports in partnership with Mississippi Spotlight, a collaboration between Mississippi Today, the Clarion Ledger and Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
Incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann defeated state Sen. Chris McDaniel and another Republican challenger in Tuesday’s GOP primary.
Now facing only a little-known political newcomer in November’s general election, Hosemann in his victory speech late Tuesday night recounted numerous accomplishments and was looking forward to four more years running the state Senate.
“We want to build a state where our children and grandchildren want to stay and live,” Hosemann said. “… We are in in the best financial shape we’ve ever been in the state’s history. We are going to tackle so many of our state’s issues and we are going to solve so many of our state’s problems.”
Hosemann said he was trying to “temper” remarks about his opponent McDaniel and what became a nasty race in the homestretch. He also vowed to push for serious campaign finance reform, after he filed several claims McDaniel and related PACs violated state laws.
“When you have this much dark money pumped into a race — almost $1 million in the last week — it screams for reform,” Hosemann said. He also chided social media trolls who leveled attacks against him and supporters in recent weeks.
“Some of these people on social media, they spew venom at people they don’t even know,” Hosemann said. “When you wake up and look at yourself in the mirror, what have you done positive for Mississippi? I think the answer is nothing.”
Hosemann, 76, earned about 52% of the Republican primary vote on Tuesday, avoiding a runoff with McDaniel and assuring his spot on the November general election ballot. McDaniel received about 43% of the vote, and lesser-known candidate Tiffany Longino garnered about 5%.
Hosemann in November will face Democrat Ryan Grover, a political newcomer who ran unopposed in his party primary on Tuesday.
McDaniel, who in 2014 refused to concede after losing to former U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran in the Republican primary, conceded late Tuesday night at an election night party in Biloxi.
“While the road to get here has been tough, I am forever grateful for the hard work of my grassroots supports who built this campaign from the ground up,” McDaniel said. “Tonight, it’s clear Delbert Hosemann heard you, and I know grassroots patriots will continue to encourage him to fight for Mississippi values and our conservatives principles.”
The four-term state senator also acknowledged to Mississippi Today that a lack of campaign dollars likely played a significant role in his Tuesday night loss, given Hosemann spent significantly more money on the race.
“Unfortunately, the money remains a difficult impediment,” McDaniel said. “We all know the rules. Whoever raises the most money has the best chance of winning.”
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann speaks to his supporters during his primary election party at River Hills Club in Jackson on Tuesday, August 8, 2023. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Hosemann, as a well-known Republican incumbent who had served two terms as secretary of state, by most accounts wasn’t expecting such a hard contest for reelection. But McDaniel, who has developed a loyal base of largely the malcontented far-right, started his campaign against “Delbert the Democrat” more than a year ago and appeared to be gaining ground. McDaniel has used this tactic in his previous unsuccessful runs for higher office — claiming he’s a real conservative and the Republicans he’s attempting to oust are not.
As with his past bids for higher office, McDaniel supporters launched mud slinging and trolling social media attacks against Hosemann and his supporters, including a faked endorsement of Hosemann by Black Lives Matter aimed at turning off white voters in north Mississippi. McDaniel, as he has done in the past, denied complicity in such attacks.
It didn’t help that Hosemann didn’t receive support from his fellow Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, with whom he’s often clashed over policy. Reeves at one point in the primary campaign season appeared to give a tacit endorsement of McDaniel. Should Reeves be reelected governor, this portends more clashes down the road as he tries to get a Hosemann-led Senate to help enact his policy proposals.
Hosemann countered by pointing to McDaniel’s ineffectual record over his four terms as a state senator. McDaniel, although a firebrand when giving a political stump speech, has long been known by fellow senators for his frequent absences from Senate proceedings and lack of work when it comes to legislating. He’s also usually clashed with Senate leadership and his fellow Republicans, and since 2014 has authored only three bills that passed into law: one recognizing a football team, another congratulating a pageant winner and another declaring a West Nile prevention week.
McDaniel’s previous unsuccessful statewide campaigns have been marred by his supporters’ dirty tricks — which at times required law enforcement to get involved and resulted in felony convictions and a jail sentence for one.
McDaniel for this campaign struggled to raise campaign money from people and businesses inside Mississippi, but he managed to get substantial help primarily from D.C. Beltway, secretly sourced dark money funneled through PACs. All told, about $1.4 million in out-of-state dark money was pumped into McDaniel’s campaign, a PAC he created and another than ran ads attacking Hosemann — a notable record for a down-ticket Mississippi state office race.
From the start, Hosemann accused McDaniel of major campaign finance law violations and filed complaints with Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office. Fitch for months appeared to ignore these complaints, but just days before Tuesday’s primary, she announced her office was investigating a state PAC created by McDaniel’s campaign treasurer and some of the complaints Hosemann raised.
The race highlighted Mississippi’s weak campaign finance laws and nearly nonexistent enforcement and brought calls for reform, including from Hosemann and Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves handily defeated two GOP primary challengers Tuesday, officially setting up what is expected to be a bitter and expensive November general election campaign against Democratic utility regulator Brandon Presley.
Reeves earned the right to advance to the November general election with a comfortable victory in Tuesday’s Republican primary against two lesser known candidates, John Witcher of Flowood and David Grady Hardigree of Jackson, who lacked funding and name identification.
Reeves hardly mentioned his GOP primary challengers in recent weeks, instead opting to focus his attention on Presley, the 46-year-old, four-term Northern District Public Service commissioner.
Presley was the only Democratic candidate on the ballot on Tuesday, ensuring that he would automatically secure his party’s nomination.
The Associated Press, which collects and publishes election results, called the race for Reeves about an hour and a half after polls closed.
“I am truly honored that Mississippi Republicans have once again put their trust in me to lead our party in this year’s Governor’s race,” Reeves said in a statement soon after being declared the winner. “Mississippi has momentum, and now is the time to unite as a state to keep that going into this year’s general election.”
While Reeves’ margin of victory was comfortable, he still faced a tougher primary election for a second term than did the past two Republican governors, Phil Bryant and Haley Barbour. Both sailed through their primaries with more than 90% of the vote before winning by a comfortable margin in their general election efforts.
Still, Tuesday’s results were much less stressful for Reeves than the party primary in 2019 in his first gubernatorial election. In a surprise outcome in the 2019 Republican primary, Reeves was forced to a runoff after he could not capture a majority of the votes against former Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr.
Reeves, 49, is running his sixth statewide campaign. He has vied for five previous statewide posts — two for treasurer, two for lieutenant governor and one for governor — and has never lost an election.
Reeves has portrayed himself so far as a conservative leader who has championed cutting the income tax while associating Presley with other Democratic candidates across the country like California Gov. Gavin Newsom and and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
“My friends, this is a different governor’s campaign than we have ever seen before in our state because we are not up against a local-yokel Mississippi Democrat, we are up against a national liberal machine,” Reeves said at a May campaign event.
Presley, on the other hand, has criticized the governor for not doing enough to keep health care infrastructure in the state from deteriorating and attempted to portray the governor as a leader who shrugs off the difficulties that low income families face on a daily basis.
“He’s fiddling while our hospitals are burning to the ground, and he doesn’t care,” Presley has said repeatedly of Reeves on the campaign trail.
Reeves has the power of incumbency, but a national poll has consistently shown that he’s one of the country’s most unpopular governors.
Still, Presley has an uphill climb to convince voters in a deeply conservative state to abandoned their support for a Republican governor while igniting a Democratic base to return to the polls in November.
The incumbent governor also has vastly more campaign funds to spend on the race than his Democratic opponent. Reeves has around $7.4 million in cash for his main campaign account, and Presley has around $1.5 million in cash.
The two candidates will compete against independent Gwendolyn Gray on November 7 in the general election.
Other statewide races with contested primaries
Three candidates were vying in the Democratic primary for the right to challenge Republican incumbent Agriculture and Commerce Commissioner Andy Gipson. Early Tuesday night, Robert “Brad” Bradford led challengers Bethany Hill and Terry Rogers.
Republican Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, seeking his fifth term, defeated Mitch Young in the GOP primary.
And in the only other statewide primary on Tuesday, incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann was leading state Sen. Chris McDaniel, though third candidate Tiffany Longino was pulling a modest percentage. To win a primary, a candidate will have to capture a 50% majority. If no candidate reaches 50%, the top two vote-getters will square off in an Aug. 27 runoff election.
All eight statewide officeholders — all Republicans — will face Democratic challengers in November.
Tuesday’s primaries also included elections for districtwide offices, such as Public Service commissioners, legislators, and district attorneys and for numerous county posts.
Incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves faces two challengers, John Witcher and David Hardigree, in Tuesday’s Republican primary election. The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat Brandon Presley, who is unopposed in the primary, on November 7.
Lieutenant Governor
Incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann faces two challengers, Chris McDaniel and Tiffany Longino, in the August 8 GOP primary election. The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat D. Ryan Grover, who is unopposed today, on November 7.
The state’s top political news — in your inbox.
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House and Senate races
Hundreds of both Republican and Democratic candidates are running for House and Senate races in the August 8 primaries elections. Republicans enjoy a supermajority control of both the House and Senate, and that is not expected to change in the November general election. Use the drop-down menus below to toggle between individual House and Senate races for primary election results.
Commissioner of Agriculture & Commerce
Incumbent Republican Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson is running unopposed in the August 8 Republican primary election. But he will face the winner of today’s three-way Democratic primary between Terry Rogers, Robert Bradford and Bethany Hill in the November 7 general election.
Insurance Commissioner
Incumbent Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney faces challenger Mitch Young in the August 8 Republican primary election. The winner of that race will face Democrat Bruce Barton, who is unopposed in today’s primary, in the November 7 general election.
Public Service Commission
There are two contested primaries for the three-member Public Service Commission. For the northern district seat, Tanner Newman and Chris Brown face off in the Republican primary. The winner of that race will run unopposed in the November 7 general election.
For the southern district seat, incumbent Dane Maxwell and Nelson Carr will face off in the Republican primary. The winner of that race will run unopposed in the November 7 general election.
For the central district seat, incumbent Republican Brent Bailey is running unopposed in today’s primary and will face Democrat De’Keither Stamps, also running unopposed in today’s primary, in the November 7 general election.
Editor’s note: Election results are gathered by The Associated Press.
Earlier this year, Amanda Bell and her family planned a visit to Nanih Waiya.
Located in southern Winston County between the Crystal Ridge and Bogue Chitto Choctaw communities, the Nanih Waiya mound is “the heartbeat of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians,” said Bell, who is manager and Choctaw archivist of the Chahta Immi Cultural Center in Philadelphia.
The trip to the mound was meant to be a moment for reflection and family, but it quickly devolved into a horrific and saddening day instead.
As they arrived at the site in February, Bell and her family found destruction: donut tire tracks on and around the mount, litter and bottles of alcohol strewn around the sacred site.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Department of Public Safety posted photos of the vandalism, along with a request for information on Facebook after Bell and her family discovered what happened.
“Nanih Waiya Mound is a sacred and important landmark of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians,” the post reads. “It is an area that should be respected by all people who visit. We are saddened to hear that our sacred Mound grounds was vandalized recently.”
Months later, the search for the vandals continues.
Photo of Nanih Waiya vandalism taken by MBCI Department of Public Safety.
‘The Mother Mound‘
Nanih Waiya, which means “leaning hill,” is 25 feet high, 618 feet long and 140 feet wide, roughly matching the earliest recorded descriptions of the site.
Originally, the mound also included a ramp, which has now been destroyed. While Nanih Waiya itself has received only minimal damage across the centuries, the entire site has not been as fortunate. Several small burial mounds, which have now been nearly leveled by plowing, are several yards from Nanih Waiya, while a raised embankment and a moat once circled the site.
Nanih Waiya is prominently featured in the two Choctaw creation stories.
In one, each of the Southeastern Indigenous nations emerged from Nanih Waiya. After spending some time near the mound, they eventually went in their various directions, becoming the Creek, Cherokee and Chickasaw Nations. The Choctaw were the last to emerge from the mound. Once they did so, unlike the other nations, they saw that the “Mother mound,” had birthed them in a good place. They decided not to leave.
In the other legend, Choctaw ancestors came from the West, looking for a place to resettle. Each night of their travels, a Miko, or chief, placed a pole in the ground. The group would continue on in the direction in which the pole leaned the next day. When they reached Nanih Waiya, the pole remained upright, thus it was determined by the Choctaw ancestors that this is where they would remain.
Nanih Waiya represents not only the MBCI’s history but its resiliency. Despite its status as a sacred site — one Choctaw people fought to protect and retain even as early European settlers took more and more of their land — the U.S. took Nanih Waiya, along with about 11 million acres of what is now Mississippi, from the Choctaw people in 1830 with the signing of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.
After eight previous treaties between the Choctaw and the United States, the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was the last. It was also the first removal treaty, carried into effect under the Indian Removal Act, sparking the Trail of Tears. In exchange for their home, the Choctaw received about 15 million acres in what is now Oklahoma. About 15,000 Choctaws left Mississippi for Oklahoma.
But not all Choctaws participated in the Trail of Tears.
Several thousand stayed in Mississippi and, in doing so, experienced decades of retaliation and intimidation. In 1945, those who stayed behind formed the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the only federally recognized American Indian tribe in Mississippi. In 2007, with one nay vote in the House, the Mississippi Legislature passed SB 2732, returning Nanih Waiya to the MBCI after nearly 200 years.
Miko Beasley Denson and 17 Tribal Council members signed a proclamation in 2008, saying that the mound was never to be taken from the Choctaw people again, Bell said. In celebration of this, the MBCI celebrates Nanih Waiya Day the second Friday in August.
Photo of Nanih Waiya vandalism taken by MBCI Department of Public Safety.
‘I hope they learn their lesson’
Once they arrived at the site, Bell said they noticed tire tracks in the shape of a donut on the left side of the mound. In one area, it seemed as if someone had attempted to drive up the side of the mound. Trash, including a cardboard box, liquor bottles, beer cans and cigarettes, were scattered about the sacred site. The “Mother Mound” seemed to have been used not for ceremony or contemplation, but for debauchery.
Months later, Bell is still seeped in sadness when recalling the vandalism.
“How could they disrespect this sacred site? To this day, they haven’t found the person or persons that committed that,” she said.
But Bell is hopeful that the story doesn’t end there.
She hopes that bringing attention to the harm the vandals caused will prevent similar instances in the future, and that it will encourage all Mississippians to learn about the state’s first inhabitants.
“It was sad and a bit of a heartbreak,” she said. “The person that did this, well, they’ve gotten away with it. I hope that they learn their lesson that this is a sacred site … I hope it will open eyes to others that it needs to be respected. It’s not just a hill, it’s a mound. It’s the Mother mound and a sacred space where the early Choctaws settled.”
Note: If you have any information about the vandalism, contact the Choctaw Police Department at 601-656-5711 or the Attorney General’s Office at 601-656-4507. You can anonymously share information by calling or texting 844-601-1308.
