Chickasaw

Native Americans of the Muskogean language family and of the Southeast culture area. The Chickasaw formerly had villages in what are now northern Mississippi and the adjacent parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama. The name Chickasaw is thought to be derived from a Muskogean word meaning “to leave.”

The Chickasaw constructed their dwellings of pole frames with a variety of thatch, bark, hide, or mud coverings, a method known as wattle-and-daub. The summer dwellings were open-sided. They placed their homes alongside streams and rivers, ideally on high ground safe from flooding and near a stand of hardwood trees that provided building materials for homes and dugout canoes. They obtained food by hunting, fishing, and farming. Crops included corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, and melons. Their society was organized into clans, groups of families related by a common ancestor. Descent was matrilineal (traced through the female line). Important ceremonies included the Green Corn Ceremony, a renewal ritual held in late summer when the last corn ripened, and the Pashofa Dance to heal the sick (pashofa, a cracked corn and meat mixture, was eaten during the ceremony).

Originally the Chickasaw were a warlike people, controlling a large territory and raiding nearby tribes such as the Choctaw, Creek, and Cherokee. Conquered people of other tribes, as well as some African American slaves, were absorbed among them.

The Spanish had early contacts with the Chickasaw. In 1541, when conquistadors under Hernando de Soto attempted to force them to provide bearers to carry supplies, the Chickasaw launched a series of attacks before fleeing into the wilderness. Throughout the colonial period the Chickasaw supported the English against the French and their Choctaw allies. In the mid-1700s the French sent armies to try to subdue the Chickasaw, but all were unsuccessful. During the American Revolution (1775-1783), the Chickasaw gave some support to the British army. Afterward the Chickasaw established friendly relations with the new nation.

In the early 19th century the Chickasaw ceded most of their territory to the United States in various treaties. With the influx of settlers onto their lands, some families migrated west of the Mississippi River. In the 1830s about 4,900 tribal members were forcibly relocated to the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). There they set up a system of self-government modeled on that of the United States. Because of their adoption of Euro-American ways of life, they became known as one of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes, along with the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. When Oklahoma was made a state in 1907, new settlers flooded Chickasaw lands, and the Chickasaw had to take political measures along with other Oklahoma tribes to protect their remaining lands and preserve their culture.

In the 2000 U.S. census about 21,000 people identified themselves as Chickasaw only; an additional 17,000 people reported being part Chickasaw. The majority are organized as the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, with headquarters in Ada, Oklahoma. Tribal enterprises include a radio station, retail stores, travel plazas, and gaming centers.

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