A tribe of the
Creek confederacy that formerly inhabited the country along the
Mississippi from the borders of the
Choctaw domain to the
Ohio River, and eastward beyond the
Tennessee to the lands of the Cherokees
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Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. |
and Shawnees.
They were warlike, and were the early friends of the
English and the inveterate foes of the
French, who twice (1736 and 1740) invaded their country under
Bienville and
De Noailles.
The
Chickasaws said they came from west of the
Mississippi, under the guardianship of a great dog, with a pole for a guide.
At night they stuck the pole in the ground, and went the way it leaned every morning.
Their dog was drowned in crossing the
Mississippi, and after a while their pole, in the interior of
Alabama, remained upright, and there they settled.
De Soto passed a winter among them (1540-41), when they numbered 10,000 warriors.
These were reduced to 450 when the
French seated themselves in
Louisiana.
Wars with the new-comers and surrounding tribes occurred until the middle of the eighteenth century.
They favored the
English in the Revolution, when they had about 1,000 warriors.
They joined the white people against the
Creeks in
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1795, and always remained the friends of the pale faces; and, in 1818, they had ceded all their lands north of the
State of Mississippi.
Some of the tribe had already emigrated to
Arkansas.
In 1834 they ceded all their lands to the
United States, amounting to over 6,400,000 acres, for which they received $3,646,000. Then they joined the Choctaws, who spoke the same language, and became a part of that nation.
During their emigration the small-pox destroyed a large number of their tribe.
They did not advance in civilization as rapidly as the Choctaws, and had no schools until 1851.
They were politically separated from the Choctaws in 1855, and have since been recognized as a distinct tribe.
Led by their agents, who were Southern men, they joined the
Confederates, and lost nearly one-fourth of their population, much stock, and all their slaves.
They gave up 7,000,000 acres of land for 4 1/2 cents an acre, and the money was to go to the freedmen, unless within two years they allowed the negroes to become a part of the tribe.
The latter alternative was adopted, Jan. 10, 1873.
In 1899 there were 8,730 still bearing their old name at the
Union agency,
Indian Territory.
See
Choctaw Indians. 
