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Land, Property, and the Chickasaws: The Indian Territory Experience

At a very early date, it must have been apparent to the Chickasaws that their only hope of survival in the face of a steadily encroaching white man's world would be to imitate and emulate the latter's society, his Constitution, and his laws. Long before Andrew Jackson signed the Removal Act destined to uproot large numbers of peoples and result in some of the greatest mass migrations in the history of the United States, the Chickasaws, largely by a process of trial and error, attempted to sow the seeds for their plan of survival in keeping with their realization of this all-important fact. After arriving in the new land soon to be known as Indian Territory, they continued this process in the hope that their identity as a tribe and a Nation might never be lost. The Chickasaw experience in Indian Territory became indicative of a culture confronted with possible extermination by a larger and more powerful culture. Their story illustrates an intense struggle on the part of the Chickasaws to utilize and regulate the land on a tribal basis of ownership in the face of a fast encircling world which favored the concept of individual private property. One of the major problems that concerned the Chickasaws during this crucial period was how to absorb some of the white man's institutions and way of life, and still cling to tradition and remain basically Chickasaw.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc663163
Date08 1900
CreatorsGraffham, Beverly Jean Wood
ContributorsStephens, A. Ray, Holmes, William M.
PublisherNorth Texas State University
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formativ, 114 leaves, Text
RightsPublic, Graffham, Beverly Jean Wood, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights

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