Pushmataha was chief of the Mississippi Band of the Choctaw Nation, one of three regional chiefs of the major divisions of the Choctaw. Pushmataha turned down the offer of alliance by Tecumseh—the Shawnee chief who formed a confederation of Indian nations allied with the British—and led the Choctaw to fight on the side of the United States in the War of 1812. In 1824, he traveled to Washington to petition the government to cease further demands of Choctaw land.