Chickasaw

One of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes, the Chickasaw were a Muskogean-speaking people living in northern Mississippi and western Tennessee by the time of the American Revolution. They were renowned locally for their prowess in battle and tactful diplomacy in peace. The Chickasaw had weathered contact with various European powers as early as 1540 and fought either with or against the Spanish, the French, and the English. After 1783 they readily acquiesced to the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785 to deal with the newly emergent United States. Contact with Americans increased following the Treaty of San Lorenzo in 1795, whereby Spain renounced all claims to land west of the Mississippi River. This resulted in an influx of settlers and missionaries along the Natchez Trace, a route that cut directly through Chickasaw land. The U. S. government made unofficial attempts to “civilize” the tribesmen through farming and other domestic skills, which the Indians were determined to resist.

When Mississippi was admitted to the Union in 1817, the new state began to press for new Native American land cessions, and the pressure increased throughout the 1820s. Cognizant of their weakness, the Chickasaw sent a deputation to meet with President Andrew Jackson in Franklin, Tennessee. In the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek, signed on October 20, 1832, they formally surrendered all land ownership in Mississippi. In 1836 the Chickasaw relocated to new homes in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and temporarily occupied land owned by the Choctaw until they formally acquired territory for their own new settlements. A total of 5,000 Indians and roughly 1,100 African-American slaves made the journey in comparative safety and comfort.

The Chickasaw finally conferred with their Choctaw neighbors in January 1837 in Doaksville, whereby they acquired the western portion of their tribal lands. This agreement was approved by the U. S. Senate the following month. Once established, the Chickasaw readily adapted to their new environment and grew relatively wealthy through cattle raising, health spas, and other economic activities. In 1856 they adopted their own constitution and established a new capital at Tishomingo, where it remains today.

Further reading: James R. Atkinson, Splendid Land, Splendid People: The Chickasaw Indians to Removal (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004); Duane Champagne, Social Order and Political Change: Constitutional Governments Among the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and the Creek (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1992); Fulsom C. Scrivner, The Early Chicka-saws: Profile of Courage (New York: Vantage Press, 2006).

—John C. Fredriksen