When my mother told me about the Chickasaw "Trail of Tears" she said: "The Chickasaws had leaders who could understand the treaties, so the government couldn't cheat us. Also the Chickasaws were wealthy. We moved ourselves." I still think that's a pretty good summary of the Chickasaw Removal.
Like the other Five Civilized Tribes, the Chickasaws adapted to the ways of the white man. At the time of the Removal the Chickasaws had written laws; most had given up hunting to become farmers; many were educated and spoke English, and like the other tribes, the Chickasaws had mixed blood citizens who had become prosperous and influential.
In spite of these changes, the Chickasaws, like the other Five Civilized Tribes, were labeled as "savages" by the state and federal governments. Their rights and previous treaties with the U S government were disregarded, and they were pushed out of their ancient homeland, without planning or consideration for their safety or well being.
Although the Indian tribes had been pushed aside by white settlers since the 'discovery' of America by the Europeans, the official policy of removal actually started in 1802, when the federal government made an agreement with Georgia to extinguish the Indian title to lands within the state. Of course, no one consulted the Indians about the "Georgia Compact," as it was called.
It was during the administration of President James Monroe that Georgia ramped up it's demand for the federal government to deliver on its promise. Monroe had decided, again without asking the Indians, that they would be better off living far away from white settlers. He felt that removal would not only "shield them from impending ruin, but promote their welfare and happiness," because they had not progressed enough to deal with civilization. Monroe thought that forceful removal would be "revolting to humanity, and utterly unjustifiable." Instead, he proposed a more gentle strategy.
President Monroe's advisors suggested that he approach the Chickasaws first. They had signed away land in 1806, 1816, and 1818, and their chiefs appeared to be susceptible to bribes, but in 1824, when Secretary of War, John Calhoun, approached Levi Colbert, the Chickasaw Principal Chief, about ceding the rest of the Chickasaw land to the U S and moving west, he was given a flat refusal. What the government 'experts' didn't understand was that the land previously ceded by the Chickasaws was hunting land which was depleted of game and therefore useless. What remained was their homeland, and they had no intention of parting with it.
Two years later, in 1826, President Monroe sent commissioners to the Chickasaw Council to argue, or rather threaten that if the Chickasaws remained where they were the laws of the United States would be extended to them. Again, speaking for the Council, Chief Levi Colbert repeated his refusal:
We have no lands to exchange for any other. We wish our father to extend his protection to us here as he proposes to do west of the Mississippi as we apprehend we would in a few years experience the same difficulties in any other part of the country that might be suitable to us west of the Mississippi. Our father the president wishes that we should come under the laws of the United States. We are a people that are not enlightened and we cannot consent to be under your government. If we should consent we should be likened unto young corn growing and met with a drought that would kill it.
What Colbert said was prophetic. It was only a few years before the Chickasaws would face the same problems in the west.
Meanwhile the Chickasaws had been dealing with the same problems as the other tribes. White intruders stole the Chickasaws' timber and their livestock. They planted crops on Indian land, and they sold whiskey. As early as 1810 federal troops were sent to evict white squatters after the Chickasaws had threatened to drive them out themselves. In 1828 a Chickasaw man was beaten by white thieves attempting to steal his livestock, and federal troops were sent again.
The Chickasaws could see the handwriting on the wall. In 1828 they sent an exploring party west to look at the land the government was offering them. While in Indian Territory, they met the Choctaw delegation, there on a similar mission, and the two parties went on a hunt together. Unlike the Choctaws, the Chickasaws weren't impressed. They told the commissioners they hadn't seen any land in the west to compare with their homeland.
Andrew Jackson had been elected President in 1828. In 1829 Mississippi extended its laws to the Indians, and outlawed their tribal government. The Chickasaws, like the Choctaws and Cherokees, appealed to President Jackson. He responded in his usual patronizing manner:
To these laws, where you are, you must submit; - there is no preventive, no other alternative. Your great father cannot, nor can congress, prevent it. … Do you believe that you can live under these laws? That you can surrender all your ancient habits, and the forms by which you have been so long controlled: … Where you are, it is not possible you can live contented and happy.
In 1830 the Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress, and in August of the same year Jackson invited the Chickasaws and Choctaws to Franklin, Tennessee, to discuss removal. This was the meeting the Choctaws missed because of the conflict between their chiefs Leflore and Mushulatubby. (see post of 11/3/10) The Chickasaws negotiated with the President and signed a treaty. The Mississippians were ecstatic. They threw a party for Jackson in Natchez and toasted his success:
He found one half of our territory occupied by a few wandering Indians. He will leave it in the cultivation of thousands of grateful freemen.
But the Mississippians were premature in their celebration. The Chickasaws were careful by nature. It probably came from being a small tribe which had always been surrounded by enemies. They again sent a party west to explore. This time they extended their search into Mexico, in the present state of Texas. When the exploring party returned, Chief Colbert wrote a letter requesting that the President attempt to purchase land for the tribe in Mexico along the Sabine River, adding that "we see no other country which we think would suit us so well." Jackson ignored the request. The treaty had been contingent on the Chickasaws finding "a country suitable to their wants," so the Franklin Treaty was nullified.
Many incidents occurred that proved to the Chickasaws that the federal government would no longer protect their sovereignty. Probably the most insulting was when the highest ranking of the Chickasaw chiefs, Tishomingo, was arrested and thrown in a Mississippi jail for confiscating the goods of two traders who illegally opened a store in the Chickasaw domain. Tishomingo was fined $500.
Finally, the Monroe County circuit court, which claimed jurisdiction over the Chickasaws, ruled that the congressional acts governing trade and intercourse with Indian tribes became obsolete when Mississippi extended their laws over the Chickasaw tribe. The Cherokees had already failed in their two appeals to the Supreme Court when the Chickasaws decided to negotiate again.
In October, 1832, the Chickasaw Council met with U S commissioners at Pontotoc Creek, in Mississippi, and negotiated their final treaty. This treaty was carefully crafted by the Chickasaws, and several amendments were made later. The agreement was different from that of any of the other tribes. It was a monument to the Chickasaws' careful planning and forethought.
The Treaty of Pontotoc Creek, much like the other removal treaties, provided for the survey and sale of the Chickasaw lands in Mississippi, but unlike the other treaties, the Chickasaws insisted that the money from the sale of the lands be put into a tribal fund. This fund was to be used to purchase land for a new home in Indian Territory, and to pay the expenses of the Removal. The remainder was to be placed into a trust fund, with the interest to be used to provide an annuity for tribal members. The Chickasaws also insisted that the temporary allotments made to Chickasaw citizens pending removal be made in "fee simple." In other words, each individual held title to their property. Finally, in order to protect uneducated tribal members from being swindled out of their property, the Chickasaws set up a tribal commission to oversee the disposal of individual property and improvements belonging to uneducated tribal members, or "incompetents," thus preventing the impoverishment of full bloods that occurred in every other tribe.
Next, the Chickasaws had to deal with their brothers the Choctaws. There were several problems. First, the Choctaws didn't want to sell any of their land. Second, they wanted the Chickasaws to join them instead of remaining a separate tribe. This was unacceptable to the Chickasaws. They didn't intend to escape the oppression of the state of Georgia only to become an insignificant minority in the much larger Choctaw tribe. Also the Chickasaws were afraid that the much poorer Choctaws would try to take control of the Chickasaw funds.
The two tribes met in 1835 and again in 1836. They reached a compromise in the Treaty of Doaksville signed January, 1837. The Choctaws agreed to sell about 1/3 of their land to the Chickasaws for $530,000. The Chickasaws would become full citizens of the Choctaw tribe but they would retain control of their own funds.
With this agreement the Chickasaws completed their negotiations to move west. Their citizens were now in a better situation those of any other tribe. This they had achieved without the internal conflict that had torn the other tribes apart. They had also dealt successfully with the U S government. There would be no military roundup, no stockades, no Chickasaws marching barefoot in freezing weather through the Arkansas swamps, and the Chickasaws would emerge from their removal the richest of the Five Civilized Tribes.
Why?
Firstly the Chickasaws were unified. Unlike the Cherokee, Choctaw and Creek tribes, the Chickasaws had no mavericks who signed treaties on their own. The Chickasaw mixed blood leaders worked through the traditional Chickasaw council. The opinions of the full bloods were respected, and they concurred with the decisions.
Secondly the Chickasaws were realistic. When their options were exhausted they proceeded to removal. There was no passive or active resistance like there was among the Seminole, Cherokee, and Creek tribes, so the Chickasaws avoided the violence and humiliation suffered by those tribes.
I think that the Chickasaw Removal is one of the most remarkable episodes in Chickasaw history, another example of the Chickasaws' ability to work together to overcome adversity.
The Chickasaws' struggle wasn't over after the treaties were signed however. They still had to make the long journey west, and they would suffer much as the other tribes did on their own "Trail of Tears." There's a lot more to tell.
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