Chickasaw

An important Muskogean tribe, the Chickasaw migrated eastward to what is now Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, and Tennessee before the first Europeans arrived in the area. Their lifestyle was largely agrarian, but they were also fierce fighters. Because of the latter trait, they were known as the “Spartans of the Lower Mississippi Valley.” They supported the British in the French and Indian War, an alliance that some historians believe proved significant in the British victory. Their ability to adapt to European culture made them one of the Five Civilized Tribes, a quality that did not spare them from forced relocation in the 19th century. Only their tenacity maintained their separate tribal identity in the Indian Territory. In 2012, the Chickasaw Nation is the 13th-largest federally recognized tribe in the United States. According to the 2010 U.S. census, there are 52,278 people who self-identify as wholly or partially Chickasaw. Among these is a distinguished array of citizens.

The Chickasaw chiefdom that Hernando de Soto found in 1540 was a complex social system with clearly defined social strata and a highly developed set of laws, religious practices, and military structure. He also found that the law of hospitality was part of Chickasaw culture, but when he attempted to force tribal chiefs into providing him 200 supply bearers and had his men execute two Chickasaw for stealing pigs, he discovered the chiefdom's warlike nature as well. The Chickasaw retaliated with an attack from three directions, inflicting considerable damage before disappearing into the wilderness.

Later in the colonial period, the Chickasaw were among the few tribes of the lower Mississippi to ally themselves with the British rather than with the French. Some scholars attribute their choice to their animosity toward the Choctaw, who were French allies. The Choctaw and Chickasaw were closely tied by language and custom but they shared a mutual antipathy. Others think traders from the Carolinas tipped the balance in favor of the British. The Chickasaw attacked French travelers on the Mississippi and ignored French demands that they expel British traders and Natchez refugees whom the Chickasaw had urged to resist French encroachments on their territory. They defeated the French at Amalahta in 1736, at the Long House and other points. Nor was their ferocity limited to the French. The Choctaw were just first in a long list of neighboring tribes with whom they fought, including their former allies the Cherokee, whom they soundly defeated in 1769 at Chickasaw Old Fields.

As non-Indian settlement increased during the 1820s, some Chickasaw chose to migrate west of the Mississippi, but most remained on their tribal lands in the southeast. In 1829, Andrew Jackson, who from 1814 to 1824 had been a key figure in negotiating nine treaties that pushed the southern tribes off their ancestral lands and onto lands in the west farther removed from white settlements, was inaugurated president of the United States. Most of Alabama and parts of Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, and North Carolina were under government control.

One year after taking office, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act giving him power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi. Although some tribes tried to resist, their efforts were futile. The Chickasaw signed a treaty in 1832 that obligated the United States to provide them with suitable land in the west. It was one more promise on which the federal government failed to deliver. The Chickasaw migrated to Indian Territory, what is now Oklahoma, in the winter of 1837–38. Although their “Trail of Tears” journey was less devastating than the journeys of the other “civilized tribes,” many died of cholera and food poisoning after they reached their new home. The Chickasaw signed the Treaty of Doaksville in 1837, in which they agreed to a lease of land from the Choctaw for $530,000 and representation on the Choctaw Council.

...