Editing Chickasaw (section)

== Trade ==
Despite being smaller than many surrounding tribes, the Chickasaw established themselves as a trade power within the region.<ref name="St. Jean 2003 758–780">{{Cite journal |last=St. Jean |first=Wendy |date=2003 |title=Trading Paths: Mapping Chickasaw History in the Eighteenth Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4138971 |journal=American Indian Quarterly |volume=27 |issue=3/4 |pages=758–780 |doi=10.1353/aiq.2004.0085 |jstor=4138971 |issn=0095-182X}}</ref> Aided by their strategic location on the Mississippi, the tribe was able to exchange goods with neighboring parties. The tactical importance of the Chickasaw was not lost on the British; in 1755, the Imperial Indian Superintendent Edmund Atkin recognized the tribe’s position: "It is not possible to cast an Eye ever so lightly over a Map, without being struck with the Importance of the [Chickasaws'] situation."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hudson |first1=Charles |last2=Jacobs |first2=Wilbur R. |date=1971 |title=The Appalachian Indian Frontier: The Edmond Atkin Report and Plan of 1755 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/481620 |journal=Ethnohistory |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=96 |doi=10.2307/481620 |jstor=481620 |issn=0014-1801}}</ref>

The Chickasaw made their first formal contact with the British shortly after the founding of Charles Town in 1670; this occurred when Dr. Woordward of Carolina attempted to establish trade ties while on course to Alabama.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Underwood |first=John |date=1998-01-01 |title=Chickasaw Material Culture and the Deerskin Trade: An Analysis of Two Eighteenth Century Chickasaw Sites in Northeast Mississippi |url=https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539624387 |journal=Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects |doi=10.21220/s2-ytp3-dh86}}</ref> Although the British outpost of Charles Town was located over 850&nbsp;km from Chickasaw territory, the two groups managed to engage initially in an exchange of deerskin.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Jay K. |last2=O'Hear |first2=John W. |last3=Ethridge |first3=Robbie |last4=Lieb |first4=Brad R. |last5=Scott |first5=Susan L. |last6=Jackson |first6=H. Edwin |date=2008 |title=Measuring Chickasaw Adaptation on the Western Frontier of the Colonial South: A Correlation of Documentary and Archaeological Data |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25746174 |journal=Southeastern Archaeology |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=1–30 |jstor=25746174 |issn=0734-578X}}</ref> Shortly after making contact with the British, the Chickasaw began to trade with the French as the Europeans established themselves within Louisiana.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Jay K. |date=1997 |title=Stone Tools, Politics, and the Eighteenth-Century Chickasaw in Northeast Mississippi |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/282507 |journal=American Antiquity |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=215–230 |doi=10.2307/282507 |jstor=282507 |issn=0002-7316}}</ref>

Within Chickasaw society, trade was categorized under either white (peace) or red (war) routes. To maintain this duality, a War Chief and Peace chief oversaw the respective red and white divisions. Over time, the French union would be dictated by the leaders of the white division, while the English relationship was defined by the red. Ultimately, despite French proximity to Chickasaw land, the tribe elected to prioritize their trade routes with the British. The alliance between the British and the Chickasaw was a strategic defense against the French and their native allies. Supported by the slave trade, the Chickasaw sought weapons in exchange for captured members of rival tribes. As they were smaller than the Choctaw and other abutting indigenous groups, the weapons were critical to the defense of their native land.<ref name="St. Jean 2003 758–780"/>