Tribe: The Chickasaw, one of the first five Native American tribes to assimilate into white culture. Very legal and democratic form of government. The Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma is one of the largest federally-recognized tribes in the United States. The Chaloklowa Chickasaw Indian People is a state-recognized tribe in South Carolina.
Meaning of Name: According to their grandfather-stories, the name Chickasaw seems to have come from their ancestor, Chicksah, who with his brother Chatah, migrated to the Mississippi area, with Chicksah establishing the Chickasaw Nation and Chatah establishing the Choctaw Nation. Otherwise, it comes from "Chicksa," which means "rebel."
Location: Originally from some place in the west, they immigrated before 1530 AD to the agrarian flatlands of Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina. In 1837, they were forced out of their homeland as part of the "Trail of Tears" so that whites could use their land as cotton fields, relocated to "Indian Territory," and most now live in SW Oklahoma.
Original Language: Muscogean.
Tribal Affiliations: Choctaw (were originally part of the same tribe), English, the French and the Americans, except during the Civil War when they allied themselves with the Confederacy.
Traditional Enemies: Also, Choctaw. And the Spanish, and later, the Union Army.
Traditional Style of Housing: Permanent rectangular wooden summer homes and round clay winter houses, (like the Creek, which I forgot to mention), plus storage buildings for surplus food, and pyramidic council buildings, like the Cherokee. Chickasaw villages also probably include storehouses, sweat-lodges, menstrual-lodges and a town hall.
Traditional Attire: Before the Spanish explorer de Soto discovered them in Mississippi, the Chickasaw wore scraps of buckskin, hide and fur, but after that, they took on the couture of the Europeans, most notably the French and Spanish. The women especially liked silk ribbons, finger-woven belts, fancy German silver (a combination of nickel, zinc and copper, with no silver in it at all) combs with long-flowing ribbons, sashes, turbans, long dresses with ruffles and ribbons, tattoos, face paint and jewelry. The men eventually traded their turbans for straw hats adorned with feathers.
Traditional Foods: The men hunted or trapped deer, bear, beaver, elk, bison, raccoons, rabbits, possum, turtles, turkey, geese, quail, ducks and other wild birds. They fished for or caught trout, bass, crayfish, catfish, paddlefish (prized for its caviar-like eggs), sturgeon (probably also prized for its eggs), eel, shad, pickerel, carp, suckers, buffalo fish, redhorse fish, crappie, walleye, drum fish and whitefish. The women gathered or grew corn, squash, beans, pumpkins, root vegetables, blueberries, cattail roots, chestnuts, walnuts, pecans, acorns, Indian potatoes, sunflowers, blackberries, strawberries, elderberries, hickory nuts, pawpaws, persimmons, crabapples, plums, wild grains, grapes, wild onions, and melons. Their specialty meals are grape dumplings (dumplings cooked in thick sweet grape juice), pork, fry bread, hominy, cornbread, pork-and-hominy and molasses bread.
Position of Women: Low. Very male-dominant in decision-making, hunting and making war. However, they were matrilineal when it came to descent. Blood was traced through the mother and her family, not the father and his family. The women probably owned their own homes, did the cooking, housework, childcare, clothing-making, and farm-work.
Chickasaw Courtship: If a young Chickasaw man took a fancy to a young Chickasaw woman, he sent his mother or sister to present the young woman's parents with a gift of calico or some other fabric. If the gift was acceptable to the parents, they kept the gift and the match was made. The mother or sister took the news back to the groom, who dressed up, painted his face in vermillion (an orange-red), and went to his intended's house, where he had dinner with his new father-in-law. After dinner, he went to his new wife's room, to her bed, and the marriage was consummated. She didn't seem to have much choice in the matter.
Interesting Tidbits: They were the founders of forested pathways, the mound-builders (along with their "brothers," the Choctaw), and the establishers of large agricultural fields that fed whole communities. Very proud, community-oriented, family-oriented, agrarian people who fought hard for their right to retain their own identity, apart from the Plains Indians.
Traditional Religion: Traditional tribal religion, hero myths, animal and nature, Baptist and Methodist. The Chickasaw believe that animals and humans are equal.
Slavery and the Chickasaw: Owned slaves and would not allow their slaves to be adopted as part of the Chickasaw Nation or grant citizenship in the Chickasaw Nation after the Civil War. As a consequence, the U.S. Government took back half of their designated land in Oklahoma, and this was after the Trail of Tears. (Before the Trail of Tears, the United States Government had not paid them in full for their lands in Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama or Kentucky, which was part of the reason that the Chickasaw fought on the side of the Confederacy.)
Current Population: There are more than 49,000 registered Chickasaw.
Current Sources of Tribal Revenue: tourism.
Famous Chickasaw: No one that I have heard of.
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