Chickasaw Nation
The Chickasaw Nation (Chickasaw: Chikashsha I̠yaakni) is a federally recognized Native American tribe with headquarters in Ada, Oklahoma, in the United States. They are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, originally from northern Mississippi, northwestern Alabama, southwestern Kentucky, and western Tennessee. Today, the Chickasaw Nation is the 13th largest tribe in the United States.
The Chickasaw Nation
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Flag Seal | |
Location (red) in the U.S. state of Oklahoma | |
| Constitution | August 30, 1856 |
| Capital | Tishomingo, Oklahoma (Historically); now Ada, Oklahoma (1907-present) |
| Government | |
| • Governor | Bill Anoatubby |
| Area | |
| • Total | 7,648 sq mi (19,810 km2) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 38,000 |
| Demonym | Chickasaw |
| Time zone | UTC−06:00 (CST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−05:00 (CDT) |
| Area code(s) | 580, 405 and 572 |
| Website | chickasaw |
The nation's jurisdictional territory and reservation includes about 7,648 square miles of south-central Oklahoma, including Bryan, Carter, Coal, Garvin, Grady, Jefferson, Johnston, Love, McClain, Marshall, Murray, Pontotoc, and Stephens counties.
These counties are separated into four districts, the Pontotoc, Pickens, Tishomingo, and Panola, with relatively equal populations. Their population today is estimated to be over 70,000, with the majority residing in the state of Oklahoma.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, European Americans considered the Chickasaw one of the historic Five Civilized Tribes, along with the Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Seminole nations, due to their agrarian culture and later adoption of centralized governments with written constitutions, intermarriages with white settlers, literacy, Christianity, market participation, and slave holding.
The Chickasaw language, Chikashshanompa’, belongs to the Muskogean language family. This is primarily an oral language, with no historic written component. A significant part of their culture is passed on to each generation through their oral history, consisting of intergenerational stories that speak to the tribe’s legacy and close relationship with the Choctaw. The similarities in the language of the Chickasaw and the Choctaw have prompted anthropologists to propose a number of theories regarding the origins of the Chickasaw Nation, as it continues to remain uncertain.
Clans within the Chickasaw Nation are separated into two moieties: the Imosak chá'a' and the Inchokka' Lhipa', with each clan having their own leaders. Their tradition of matrilineal descent provides the basic societal structure of the nation, with children becoming members of and under the care of their mother’s clan.