Editor’s note: The following individual(s) have been named to the Southern Economic Development Hall of Fame based on SB&D owner Michael C. Randle’s travels throughout the American South since the late 1980s to today. The Hall of Fame will now be updated each year on SouthernBusiness.com.
The sidebar stories of individuals who earned their way into the SEDHOF are written by Randle, the Hall of Famer’s current employer, or penned by the Hall of Famer. The humorous stories of Randle’s are true, but some could be embellished a bit.
The Story of Tribal Chief Phillip Martin of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
By Michael C. Randle
In about 1991, maybe 1992, I met Chief Phillip Martin of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians at the request of Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott’s office. U.S. Sen. Lott made sure with a personal call that I would go meet Chief Martin.
So, I drove over to Philadelphia, Miss., to the Choctaw Nation and did meet with Chief Phillip Martin. He showed me all kinds of activity ongoing there, including new businesses the Choctaws had invested in to move into their industrial parks. Then he said, “Oh, I forgot Mike, we are also opening a casino.” And they did in 1994; The Pearl River Casino, which has expanded two dozen times.
The Choctaws had their own police department. So, as Chief Martin and I were driving around the reservation, he pointed out the make and model of the police department’s cars.
They were all Lincoln Town Cars with the standard blue lights on the roof. I asked Chief Martin what’s the deal with that? He said, “Michael, only the best for our nation and the protection of it.”
When Phillip Martin was elected Chief, the Mississippi Choctaw Nation’s unemployment rate was 30 percent or more. Today, it is 4 percent.
Other contributions by Chief Martin:
• Martin was the Tribal Chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians from 1979 to 2007, a visionary leader who took his tribe from poverty to prosperity by establishing numerous businesses, including casinos.
• He established 23 tribally-owned enterprises, including the Pearl River Resort (with casinos, golf courses and waterpark), making the tribe a major employer in Mississippi.
• Chief Martin created the Choctaw Tribal Scholarships Program, ensuring all students could pursue higher education, and significantly improved the tribe’s education levels.
• Championed the doctrine of Choctaw Self-Determination, empowering the tribe to control its own destiny.
• Martin was often called “Moses” for leading his people out of poverty.
