CHICKASAWS  , a tribe of

North American Indians of Muskhogean stock, now settled in the western part of Oklahoma . Their former range was northern Mississippi and portions of Tennessee . According to their own tradition and the evidence of philology, they are closely connected with the Creeks and Choctaws; and they believe that they emigrated with these tribes from the west, crossed the Mississippi, and settled in the district that now forms the north-east part of the state of that name . Here they were visited by De Soto in 1540 . From the first they were hostile to the French colonists . With the English, on the other hand, their relations were more satisfactory . In 1786 they made a treaty with the United States; and in 1793 they assisted the whites in their operations against the Creeks . In the early years of the 19th century part of their territory was ceded for certain annuities, and a portion of the tribe migrated to Arkansas; and in 1832-1834, the remainder, amounting to about 3600, surrendered to the United States the 6,442,400 acres of which they were still possessed, and entered into a treaty with the Choctaws for incorporation with that tribe: In 1855, however, they effected a separation of this union, with which they had soon grown dissatisfied, and by payment to the Choctaws of $150,000 obtained a complete right to their present territory . In the Civil War they joined the Confederates and suffered in consequence; but their rights were restored by the treaty of 1865 . In 1866 they surrendered 7,000,000 acres; and in 1873 they adopted their former slaves . They had an independent government consisting of a governor, a senate, and a house of representatives; but tribal government virtually ceased in 1906 . The Chickasaws of pure or mixed blood numbered 4826 in ',goo, and with the fully admitted " citizens," i.e. the freed slaves and adopted whites, the whole nation amounted to some 1o,000 .

See Handbook of American Indians (

Washington, 1907) .