Chickasaw Nation

Our newest WAISer, Randy Black, said he was a member of the Chickasaw Nation. I said I was puzzled because the encyclopedia I consulted said "Oklahoma statehood was approved in 1906, whereby the Chickasaw Nation ceased to exist, The Chickasaw numbered 5516 in 1970", This was based on Arreil M. Gibson, The Chickasaws (1971) Not so, says Randy: " I, too, am puzzled about your comment that the Chickasaws ceased to exist in 1906. It would be equally puzzling to the tens of thousands of Chickasaws living around the USA and especially in Oklahoma. For the record, the Nation owns gambling facilities, a bank, theaters, schools, a radio station, smoke shops, hotels, a couple of restaurants, a hospital (Carl Albert Memorial), health clinics, land, investments and so forth. The Chickasaws have jurisdictional authority in 13 Oklahoma counties encompassing about 7,500 square miles; they operate various schools across the state, from early childhood training to technical, etc. Our most recent Constitution was ratified in 1983. The form of government is a democratic Republic, modeled after the US. If you'd like to see my tribal ID card or my documents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, I'd be happy to email a PDF file of either.
Here's a link to their website: http://www.chickasaw.net/

An encyclopedia I consulted said "Oklahoma statehood was approved in 1906, whereby the Chickasaw Nation ceased to exist, The Chickasaw numbered 5516 in 1970", This was based on Arreil M. Gibson, The Chickasaws (1971) ". Chickasaw Randy Black says: "I may live in Texas, but my ancestors settled in Southeastern Oklahoma and Northeast Texas in the early 1800s. I travel to Chickasaw HQ annually for the usual picnics and meetings that are held in Tishomingo and nearby. The person, Gibson, who wrote the book you mentioned, is simply in error, or perhaps, misinformed, relative to what I've seen in recent years. I mean my cousins don't fund a hospital, schools, social support programs, gambling operations, hotels, light industrial operations, restaurants, theaters, a bank... in their imagination.

The Five Civilized Tribes (Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole, Creek and Choktaw) have a strong, legal and visible presence in Oklahoma politics. Native Americans include U.S. Navy Commander John Herrington, a registered Chickasaw, who flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor in November 2002 and became the first Native American to walk in space. You might ask him if the Chickasaws "ceased to exist" in 1906.
http://www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/NativeAmerican.html
Yes, my census form in 2000 asked me to list my tribal affiliation, as I recall. Finally, we are a recognized Indian Nation, per the Bureau of Indian Affairs/Department of the Interior, and our Constitution is recognized and accepted by the United States. To view the Constitution, go to: http://thorpe.ou.edu/constitution/CHICKASA.html ".

RH: Oklahoma is one of the few states I have never visited. Since Gibson is a serious writer, I suspect that the Chickasaw Nation ceased to exist in 1906, but was later revived. As usual, I may be wrong.

Randy Black comments on Arreil M. Gibson, The Chickasaws (1971): "It would appear that you were operating on assumptions developed from reading Gibson's very fine (and somewhat depressing) history of the Chickasaws. This excellent book appears to be a bit dated, however. I have a copy of Gibson's book (purchased from the Chickasaw bookstore in Tishimingo), and it certainly leaves readers with the thought that the Chickasaws ceased to exist with Oklahoma statehood. But there is more to the story. In a sense it was true that the Chickasaw Nation may have legally "ceased to exist" in 1906, based on the US government's longstanding goal of assimilating Indians and abolishing their rights. Certainly, title to tribal lands was a roadblock to statehood in the Oklahoma Indian Territory. Once the government declared such titles null and void, Oklahoma became a state. However, for the next 60 years or thereabouts, the Chickasaws continued to fight their elimination, if that's the right term. During that period, the President of the United States appointed Chickasaw governors whose duties included conducting business on behalf of the Chicksaws who continued to live in the areas that they had lived in since their forced move to the Territory in the 1800s. Eventually, in 1970, Congress enacted legislation allowing the Five Civilized Tribes to elect their principle officers and in 1983, a new Chickasaw constitution was adopted.

I found this on our website today: "Harvard's Kennedy School of Government Honoring Nations program awarded $10,000 to the Chickasaw Nation's Chuka Chukmasi (beautiful home) loan program as one of the eight most effective and significant tribal government programs in the country." I don't want to portray the Chicksaws as some HUGE money-making operation. According to the 2003 financial statement, the Nation has 'only' about $149 million in assets, not including the Bureau of Indian Affairs Trust Fund holdings on the Chickasaw's behalf.

Finally, there is a general misconception about what it takes to "be an Indian/Native American." I suppose that each Tribe or Nation may have different rules for citizenship, but in the case of the Chickasaws, the rules are more or less as follows: A person must show (to the the Bureau of Indian Affairs) via legal documentation and/or sworn affidavits that they have a blood relationship to a Chickasaw who was registered during the time of the Dawes Commission, 1898-1906. AKA, the Dawes Rolls. (Dawes was a politician from Massachusetts.)

To make the long story short, you assemble your paperwork and submit it to the BIA. If they accept your submission, this action may or may not result in a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood from the BIA. Once you have that document, you then apply to the Chickasaw Nation for citizenship. There is no "minimum" degree of blood to become a Chickasaw that I am aware of, but the rules of the Chickasaws state that you cannot be a member of more than one Tribe or Nation, thus if you're mixed blood, say Cherokee and Chickasaw, as I am, you can still carry only one citizenship card. Since Chicksaws kept slaves, some of those slaves were granted Chickasaw citizenship during the times of the Dawes Commission. Thus, there are black Chickasaws among the citizenry today".

RH: I assume that Dawes was not Vice President Charles G. Dawes (1865-1951). The Five Civilized Nations were presumably so named to differentiate them from the "wild Indians", like the Apaches who, under Jeronimo, were still a problem at the end of the nineteenth century.

Les Robinson, who comes from Oklahoma, says: "It has been my understanding that the Chickasaws (like the Cherokees and other Indian tribes in Oklahoma) call themselves a "nation", without that implying that they are completely autonomous. They are autonomous only in the sense that a city is, which makes its own laws but is still subject to the laws and restrictions imposed by the state and by the U.S. government. I don't believe they ever ceased to call themselves a "nation," though I could be wrong. Incidentally, the capital of the Cherokee nation is Tahlequah (in eastern Oklahoma), which was settled in 1839 when the Cherokees, Chickasaws and three other "civilized tribes" were moved into "Indian Territory" from the U.S. southeast. Three Cherokee chiefs were supposed to show up at the time of the move, but only two appeared, so they named their capital "Tahlequah," which means "Two are enough."

Today, Oklahoma has the second largest Indian population of all the states, even though they comprise only some 6% of the state's inhabitants. The Encylopaedia Britannica states that Oklahoma has integrated its Indians into its modern economic and social life probably with greater success than any other state. The name "Oklahoma" derives from Choctaw words meaning "people" (okla) and "red" (humma)". RH: We discussed the origin of the expression "Red Indian",

Ronald Hilton - 01.25.04

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