Chickasaw Nation
The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized Indigenous nation with headquarters in Ada, Oklahoma, in the United States. The Chickasaw Nation descends from an Indigenous population historically located in the southeastern United States, including present-day northern Mississippi, northwestern Alabama, southwestern Kentucky, and western Tennessee. Today, the Chickasaw Nation is the 12th largest Indigenous nation in the United States, with a population exceeding 80,000 citizens, most of whom reside in Oklahoma.
The Chickasaw Nation’s reservation spans approximately 7,648 square miles in south-central Oklahoma. It is divided into four districts: Pontotoc, Pickens, Tishomingo, and Panola, which include counties such as Bryan, Carter, Coal, Garvin, Grady, Jefferson, Johnston, Love, McClain, Marshall, Murray, Pontotoc, and Stephens counties.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, several Indigenous nations, including the Chickasaw Nation, were noted for adopting centralized governments, written constitutions, and participating in agricultural economies. These nations, historically referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes, also engaged in cross-cultural exchanges, such as intermarriage and the integration of educational and religious practices, as part of their adaptive strategies to navigate changing political and social conditions.
The Chickasaw language is part of the Muskogean language family. It is primarily an oral language, and much of the Chickasaw cultural heritage is preserved through intergenerational storytelling. The linguistic similarities between Chickasaw and Choctaw have led to various theories about their shared origins, though definitive conclusions remain uncertain.
The Chickasaw Nation’s societal structure is based on matrilineal clans, with two traditional moieties: the Imosak Chá'a' and the Inchokka' Lhipa'. Clan leaders hold significant roles in maintaining the cultural and organizational integrity of the nation.
Clans within the Chickasaw Nation are separated into two moieties: the Imosak Chá'a' and the Inchokka' Lhipa', with each clan having their own leaders. Their tradition of matrilineal descent provides the basic societal structure of the nation, with children becoming members of and under the care of their mother’s clan.
History
Origins
s developed around 800 CE along the Mississippi River and across the Eastern Woodlands with some regional variations. This was a period of increasing sociopolitical complexity, with the intensification of agriculture, settlements in larger towns or chiefdoms, and the formation of strategic alliances to facilitate communication. Organization of labor is evidenced by mounds, and the skill and craftmanship of artisans is reflected in the elaborate and intricate remains of burials. Furthermore, as chiefdoms arose within the Chickasaw Nation—and across the Southeast in general—the increased social complexity and population growth were sustained by effective and widespread farming practices.While the origins of the Chickasaw continue to remain uncertain, anthropologists and historians have proposed several theories. One theory is that the Chickasaw were at one time a part of the Choctaw and later branched off, given their close connections linguistically and geographically. Another is that they were descendants of the pre-historic Mississippian tribes, having migrated from the West given their oral histories. According to some of their oral stories, the Chickasaw first settled in the Chickasaw Old Fields, what is currently northern Alabama today, and later re-established themselves near the Tombigbee River.
European contact, 16th–17th century
is credited as being the first European to contact the Chickasaw during his travels of 1540, and along with his army, were some of the first, and last, European explorers to come into contact with the Mississippian cultures and nations of the Southeast. He learned they were an agrarian nation with the political organization of a chiefdom governmental system, with the head chief residing in the largest and main temple mound in the chiefdom, with the remaining family lineage and commoners spreading out across the villages. Months after an uneasy truce permitting the Spanish stay in their camps for the winter and survive on the tribe's food supply, the Chickasaws planned a surprise night attack on Desoto and his men as they prepared to leave. By this, they successfully sent a defiant message to their European enemies not to return to their land. As a result, 150 years passed before the Chickasaw received another European expedition.The next encounter the Chickasaw Nation had with European settlers was with French explorers René-Robert de La Salle and Henri de Tonti. Not long after, by the end of the 17th century, the Chickasaw Nation had established successful trade relationships with European settlers in the American Southwest. In exchange for hides and slaves, the Chickasaw obtained metal tools, guns, and other supplies from the settlers. With a population of around 3,500–4,000, the Chickasaw were smaller than their surrounding neighbors such as the Choctaw, with a population of about 20,000. However, there became increased efforts by the English and the French to establish and maintain strong alliances with the Chickasaw Nation and surrounding sovereign tribes due to power struggles in the region; effective trade routes later became the focal point of the wars fought between Great Britain and France. During the colonial period, some Chickasaw towns traded with French colonists from La Louisiane, including their settlements at Biloxi and Mobile.
18th–19th century
After the American Revolutionary War, the new state of Georgia was trying to strengthen its claim to western lands, which it said went to the Mississippi River under its colonial charter. It also wanted to satisfy a great demand by planters for land to develop, and the state government, including the governor, made deals to favor political insiders. Various development companies formed to speculate in land sales. After a scandal in the late 1780s, another developed in the 1790s. In what was referred to as the Yazoo land scandal of January 1795, the state of Georgia sold 22 million acres of its western lands to four land companies, although this territory was occupied by the Chickasaw and other tribes, and there were other European nations with some sovereignty in the area. This was the second Yazoo land sale, which generated outrage when the details were publicized. Reformers passed a state law forcing the annulment of this sale in February 1796. But the Georgia-Mississippi Company had already sold part of its holdings to the New England Mississippi Company, and it had sold portions to settlers. Conflicts arose as settlers tried to claim and develop these lands. Georgia finally ceded its claim to the U.S. in 1810, but the issues took nearly another decade to resolve.Abraham Bishop of New Haven, Connecticut, wrote a 1797 pamphlet to address the land speculation initiated by the Georgia-Mississippi Company. Within this discussion, he wrote about the Chickasaw and their territory in what became Mississippi:
James Adair, who in 1744 resided among the Chickasaw, named their principal towns as being Shatara, Chookheereso, Hykehah, Tuskawillao, and Phalacheho. The Chickasaw sold a section of their lands with the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, resulting in the loss of what became known as the Jackson Purchase, in 1818. This area included western Kentucky and western Tennessee, both areas not heavily populated by members of the tribe. They remained in their primary homeland of northern Mississippi and northwest Alabama until the 1830s. After decades of increasing pressure by federal and state governments to cede their land, as European Americans were eager to move into their territory and had already begun to do so as squatters or under fraudulent land sales, the Chickasaw finally agreed to cede their remaining Mississippi homeland to the U.S. under the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek and relocate west of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory.
The Chickasaw removal is one of the most traumatic episodes in the history of the nation. As a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Chickasaw Nation was forced to move to Indian territory, suffering a significant decline in population. However, due to the negotiating skills of the Chickasaw leaders, they were led to favorable sales of their land in Mississippi. Of the Five Civilized Tribes, the Chickasaw were one of the last ones to move. In 1837, the Chickasaw and Choctaw signed the Treaty of Doaksville, by which the Chickasaw purchased the western lands of the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory. This western area was called the Chickasaw District, and consisted of what are now Panola, Wichita, Caddo, and Perry counties.
Although originally the western boundary of the Choctaw Nation extended to the 100th meridian, virtually no Chickasaw lived west of the Cross Timbers, due to continual raiding by the Plains Indians of the southern region. The United States eventually leased the area between the 100th and 98th meridians for the use of the Plains tribes. The area was referred to as the "Leased District".
The division of the Choctaw Nation was ratified by the Choctaw–Chickasaw Treaty of 1854. The Chickasaw constitution, establishing the nation as separate from the Choctaw, was signed August 30, 1856, in their new capital of Tishomingo. The first Chickasaw governor was Cyrus Harris. The nation consisted of four divisions: Tishomingo County, Pontotoc County, Pickens County, and Panola County. Law enforcement in the nation was provided by the Chickasaw Lighthorsemen. Non-Indians fell under the jurisdiction of the federal court at Fort Smith.
Following the Civil War, the United States forced the Chickasaw Nation into a new peace treaty due to their support for the Confederacy. Under the new treaty, the Chickasaw ceded the "Leased District" to the United States.