Chickasaw
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Chickasaw
Holmes Colbert, a developer of the Chickasaw constitution in Oklahoma, 1850s Chickasaw youth, c. 1868.
Total population
38,000 [1]
Regions with significant populations
United States (Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana)
Language(s)
English, Chickasaw
Religion(s)
Protestantism, other
Related ethnic groups
Native American, Five Civilized Tribes, Choctaw

The Chickasaw are Native American people of the United States, who originally resided along the Tennessee River west of Huntsville, Alabama covering Mississippi and Tennessee. Sometime prior to the first European contact, the Chickasaw moved east and settled east of the Mississippi River. All historical records indicate the Chickasaw lived in northeast Mississippi from the first European contact until they were forced to remove to Oklahoma, where most now live. They are related to the Choctaws, who speak a language very similar to the Chickasaw language, both forming the Western Group of the Muskogean languages. "Chickasaw" is the English spelling of Chikasha (IPA: [tʃikaʃːa]), that means "rebel" or "comes from Chicsa". The Chickasaw are divided in two groups: the "Impsaktea" and the "Intcutwalipa". The Chickasaws were one of the "Five Civilized Tribes" who sold their country (now the U.S. states of Mississippi, Tennessee, and Illinois) and moved to Indian Territory during the era of Indian Removal. The Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma is the thirteenth largest federally-recognized tribe in the United States.

History

Nearly 12,000 years ago, Native Americans or Paleo-indians appeared in the what today is referred to as the South.^[2] Paleoindians in the Southeast were fairly generalized hunter-gatherers who pursued a wide range of animals including the megafauna that soon became extinct following the end of the Pleistocene age.

The origin of the Chickasaws is uncertain. Noted historian Horatio Cushman indicates that the Chickasaw, along with the Choctaw, may have had Mexican origins.^[3] When Europeans first encountered them, the Chickasaws were living in villages in what is now Mississippi, with a smaller number in the area of Savannah Town, South Carolina. The Chickasaws may have been immigrants to the area and perhaps were not descendants of Indians of the pre-historic Mississippian culture.^{citation needed} Their oral history supports this, indicating they moved along with the Choctaws from west of the Mississippi in pre-history.

The first European contact with the Chickasaws was in 1540, when Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto encountered them and stayed in one of their towns, most likely near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi.^{citation needed} After various disagreements, the Chickasaws attacked the De Soto expedition in a nighttime raid, nearly destroying the expedition, soon after which the Spanish moved on.^{citation needed}

The Chickasaws began to trade with the British after the colony of Carolina was founded in 1670.^{citation needed} With British-supplied guns, the Chickasaws raided their enemies the Choctaws, capturing Choctaws and selling them into slavery, a practice that stopped once the Choctaws acquired guns from the French. The Chickasaws were often at war with the French and the Choctaws in the eighteenth century, such as in the Battle of Ackia on May 26, 1736, until France gave up her claims to the region after the Seven Years' War.

In 1793-94 Chickasaw fought as allies of the United States under General Anthony Wayne against the Indians of the old Northwest Territory, who were defeated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794.^{citation needed}

Removal

Fred Tecumseh Waite was a hired cowboy and Chickasaw Nation statesman.

Unlike other tribes who exchanged land grants, the Chickasaw received financial compensation from the United States for their lands east of the Mississippi River.^[4] In 1836 the Chickasaws had reached an agreement that purchased land from the previously removed Choctaws after a bitter five year debate. They paid the Choctaws $530,000 for the western most part Choctaw land. The first group of Chickasaws moved in 1837.

The Chickasaws gathered at Memphis Tennessee on July 4, 1837 with all of their assets--belongings, livestock, and slaves. Three thousand and one Chickasaw crossed the Mississippi River, and then they followed routes previously established by Choctaws and Creeks.^[4] Once in Indian Territory the Chickasaws merged with the Choctaw nation. After several decades of mistrust, they regained nationhood and established a Chickasaw nation.

The majority of the tribe was deported to Indian Territory (now headquartered in Ada, Oklahoma) in the 1830s. Remnants of the South Carolina Chickasaws, known as the Chaloklowa Chickasaws have reorganized tribal government, and gained official recognition from the state in the summer of 2005, having their tribal headquarters at Indiantown, South Carolina.

During the American Civil War, the Chickasaw Nation allied with the South (Joseph McClure) and it was the last Confederate community to surrender in the U.S.^{citation needed}

Government

Main article: Chickasaw Nation

Most government services are administrated from Ada.^{citation needed}

Treaties

Culture

Pashofa, cracked white hominy boiled with pork, is a main dish which is still eaten. Hogs are not native to the Americas but escaped and became feral from De Soto's expedition.

Obion is a Chickasaw Indian name meaning "river of many forks".

The suffix "-mingo" (Chickasaw: minko' ) is used to identify a chieftain. For example, "Tishomingo" was the name of a famous Chickasaw chief. The town of Tishomingo, Mississippi and Tishomingo County, Mississippi were named after him, as was the town of Tishomingo, Oklahoma. South Carolina's Black Mingo Creek was named after the colonial Chickasaw chief, who controlled the lands around it as a sort of hunting preserve. Sometimes it is spelled "minko", but this most generally occurs in older literary references.

Notable Chickasaws

• Bill Anoatubby, Governor of the Chickasaw Nation since 1987
• Amanda Cobb, author and professor of American studies^[6]
• Levi Colbert, Chickasaw language translator
• Tom Cole, Republican U.S. Congressman from Oklahoma
• Molly Culver, actress
• Hiawatha Estes, architect
• Bee Ho Gray, actor
• John Herrington, Astronaut; first Native American in space
• Hulk Hogan, Wrestler^{citation needed}
• Miko Hughes, child actor
• Rodd Redwing, actor
• Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, composer and pianist
• Fred Waite, cowboy

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Category:Chickasaw

• Chickasaw Nation
• Chickasaw language
• African Americans with Native Heritage
• Native American tribe
• Native Americans in the United States

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ Prentice, Guy (2003). Pushmataha, Choctaw Indian Chief (HTML). Southeast Chronicles. Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
3. ^ Cushman, Horatio [1899]. "Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez", History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians. University of Oklahoma Press, 18-19. ISBN 0806131276. 
4. ^ ^{a b c} Jesse Burt & Bob Ferguson [1973]. "The Removal", Indians of the Southeast: Then and Now. Abingdon Press, Nashiville and New York, 170-173. ISBN 0687187931. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Kappler, Charles (1904). INDIAN AFFAIRS: LAWS AND TREATIES Vol. II, Treaties (HTML). Government Printing Office. Retrieved on 2008-05-02.
6. ^ Public Affairs Department, University of New Mexico. "UNM ASSISTANT PROFESSOR WINS AMERICAN BOOK AWARD", September 7, 2001. Accessed June 27, 2007.

• Calloway, Colin G. The American Revolution in Indian Country. Cambridge University Press, 1995.see google.com

External links

• The Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma (official site)
• Chickasaw Nation Industires (government contracting arm of the Chickasaw Nation)
• "Chickasaws: The Unconquerable People", a brief history by Greg O’Brien, Ph.D.
• Encyclopedia of North American Indians
• "Chickasaw History" by Lee Sultzman
• John Bennett Herrington is First Native American Astronaut (on chickasaw.net)
• Tishomingo
• Pashofa recipe
• Some Chickasaw information in discussion of DeSoto Trail