The Chickasaw Nation, originally located in the fertile Mississippi Delta region, has an intense history with the United States government. After establishing a thriving agricultural, trading, and warring society in Mississippi and the southeastern United States region, there was a slow unraveling of the culture after the loss of numerous legal battles with the United States government.
The Chickasaw Nation Seal
The man shown in the seal is Tishomingo. Not only was this man a important Chickasaw figure, but he also represents the Chickasaw people as a whole. Clutched in his hands, this man holds two arrows. These arrows are representing two different time periods for the tribe. One of the arrows is for the time that the Chickasaw considered their people to be forest dwellers; the other arrow represents the time they considered themselves town dwellers. Tishomingo, or the Chickasaw man, wears four feathers on his head. Each arrow represents a different cardinal direction of the compass. The bow, the quiver, and the deerskin all are representative of their hunting ability, as well as their willingness to readily defend their people. The river in the background represents the Mississippi River, and the trees and grass reflect their homeland. The name “Mississippi” means “without source” in Chickasaw. The Chickasaw still consider their homeland to be next to the Mississippi territory, even though they are now located in Oklahoma in the land that was designated Indian Territory. The tribe resides there to this day.
The man pictured below is Tishomingo.
The Trial of Tishomingo, held in 1832, is an event that captures the injustices endured by the Chickasaw people. He faced an trial consisting of only white men and was convicted. Tishomingo was a leader of the Chickasaw Nation, and is the same man that appears on the seal.
The Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears was the result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The “Five Civilized Tribes”, which were determined by the United States government, and were all located east of the Mississippi. The Five Civilized Tribes consisted of the Cherokee, Seminole, Muscogee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw. These tribes were moved west across the Mississippi River to the United States’ designated Indian Territory. Some were given the chance to assimilate into American culture or were forced to leave.
Andrew Jackson Regarding Indian Removal Act, 1830
“It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community.”
It is not known exactly how many Native Americans died during this migration, but it is. One of the Five Civilized Tribes, the Cherokee Nation, estimated the number of deaths from the Trail of Tears to be somewhere around four thousand out of about fifteen thousand Native Americans that were members of the tribe. This estimate covers the deaths of just one of the tribes that was part of the migration, and does not even include the other four of the five civilized tribes that were part of this movement. There were many deadly communicable diseases and a lot of violence that the Native Americans were subjected to along the journey.
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