FIVE Native American siblings - all under the age of nine - perish in Mississippi car accident !

A Native American mother and father were suffering the worst heartbreak Saturday after their five children - all younger than nine - drowned in an eastern Mississippi accident that plunged their vehicle into a rain-swollen creek. 

In all, six people died - including the five young siblings and a family friend - when the Dodge Durango in which they were riding swerved off County Road 107 in southwestern Neshoba County just after midnight

  

The vehicle plummeted down an embankment and into a typically shallow creek that was swollen from recent rain storms. 

Authorities identified the five children - all siblings - as well as the lone adult who perished, as part of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, one of three federally-recognized Choctaw tribes. The tribe resides in the Pearl River community east of the Mississippi city of Philadelphia, where it operates a large casino complex.

Dewayne John, the children's father as well as the Durango's driver, remains hospitalized with hypothermia and water inhalation, while the condition of the children's mother, Deanna Jim, was unknown.

Reportedly among the dead were siblings Dasyanna John, 9; Duane John, 8; Bobby John, 7; Quinton John, 4; Kekaimeas John, 18 months old. Family friend Diane Chickaway, 37, also died, while Chickaway's husband, Dale Chickaway, survived

In all, the Durango counted nine occupants, although authorities reportedly said it appears that none were wearing seat belts or child restraints at the time of the accident.

'It's always sad to hear of the death of a tribal member,' Tribal Chief Phyliss J. Anderson wrote in a statement. 'But today our tribe experienced ...the loss of six beautiful Choctaw souls. I cannot begin to imagine what the friends, relatives and loved ones are feeling.'

Tribal spokeswoman Misty Dreifuss added funeral arrangements would likely be made Sunday. She said the children are expected to be buried together.

Dreifuss said word of the deaths spread quickly through the 10,000-member tribe and that members 'definitely have been hit pretty hard.'

The Neshoba County Sheriff Tommy Waddell said, "When officers and rescue personnel arrived on the scene, the vehicle was totally submerged."

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